For 30 years plus, I have been trying to understand the relationship between the God-centeredness of God and his love for sinners like me. Now that phrase, the God-centeredness of God, I know is not a common one and yet I have found it all over the Bible. And so it might be helpful just to pause here before I try to unpack the relationship between God’s God-centeredness and his love for us. My goal this morning is to figure out what it means to be loved by God. That’s my goal. And I don’t think many people understand what it means to be loved by God. And so let me back up and explain the phrase, the God-centeredness of God. Another way to say it would be God’s passion for his glory.

God’s Passion for His Glory

Let’s take six Bible verses to put them in front of us. We’ll go from predestination, to creation, to incarnation, to propitiation, to sanctification, and then to consummation. They’re all words that end in ation.

Predestination

You don’t need to look these up. I’ll go too fast. Ephesians 1:5–6 says:

He predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace . . .

Just boil it down. He predestined us to praise his grace. Why were you predestined to be like Jesus? Answer: that you might praise him. So in God’s mind you must think like this, “I hereby predestine them to praise me.”

Okay, so there you have God’s passion for his own glory.

Creation

Now let’s go to creation. Isaiah 43:6–7 says:

Bring my sons from afar
     and my daughters from the end of the earth,
everyone who is called by my name,
​​     whom I created for my glory,
     whom I formed and made.

Get inside God’s mind. At the moment of creation, he says, “I hereby create you for me and my glory.”

Incarnation

Romans 15:8–9 says:

For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised (that simply means he was born a Jew) to show God’s truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy.

Now let’s just boil it down. Here is God, saying, “I decree and now I send my Son to be a lowly, Jewish carpenter and then teacher, crucified Messiah, and risen king. Why did I do all of that? So that the nation’s will glorify me for my mercy.” So he has this passion that people glorify him.

Propitiation

Now let’s go to propitiation. That’s a big theological word for the removal of the wrath of God against our sin. God undertook, by the death of Jesus, to substitute another so that his wrath would land on him, not me. And therefore his wrath is propitiated and taken away. Why did he do that? Romans 3:25–26 says:

God put [Christ] forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.

So at least one of the central things we must say about why Christ died to avert the wrath of God on me is that his righteousness in doing that might be magnified. So God, in his mind, says, “My righteousness looks like it’s been called into question because I’ve passed over so many sins without appropriate judgment. Therefore, I will now pour that judgment on my Son and vindicate my righteousness.”

Sanctification

Philippians 1:9 says:

It is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that . . . [you may be] filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.

Now, don’t miss the fact that this is a prayer. This is not just a theological statement about what is in Paul’s head about the glory of God. This is a prayer that God Almighty would make you holy unto the praise of his glory. So sanctification, becoming like Jesus, is all designed to magnify God’s glory. And if he does it in answer to prayer, it’s his design. So God is passionate for his glory in sanctification.

Consummation

The final step is consummation. Why is he coming back? Why is Jesus Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords, going to come back? Second Thessalonians 1:9 says:

They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction (those who have rejected the gospel), away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed . . .

He says it twice there. If you say, “Jesus, why are you coming back?” his answer is, “To be marveled at,” or, “To be glorified in my saints.” He is saying, “I am coming back to be made much of. I am arriving so you see me and make much of me.” So we’ve considered predestination, creation, incarnation, propitiation, sanctification, and consummation for one purpose, mainly, to make much of God. And they’re all God’s idea. Therefore, God has this passion for his glory, and I use the phrase God’s God-centeredness.

The Gospel of Self-Esteem

Now back to my question that’s been troubling me for 30 years. How does God’s God-centeredness relate to his love for me as a sinner? The reason this is an urgent question is because in America at least, and I don’t think it’s just America, we don’t think we are loved by someone who makes much of themself. And we don’t because the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 13:5, “Love seeks not its own.” So we know that when somebody walks into a room and starts talking about themselves, continually attracting attention to themselves, trying to angle everything to get you to make much of them, you are not loved at that moment.

That’s a problem, isn’t it? This is a problem because we have a God who, in everything he does, makes much of himself, and in everything he does, he’s trying to get you to make much of him, and we just don’t feel like that’s love. So I’ve just been working on this for 30 years, trying to figure this out. Because I don’t doubt that the Scripture teaches that we are loved. And I don’t doubt any of those six texts that I just gave you, that God is God-centered and massively and primarily exalting his glory in all that he does.

Here’s the problem. It’s in us. It’s not in the Bible, it’s in us. The problem is that in America — and I think this is really Adamic, not just American — we feel loved when we are made much of. If you start saying nice things about me and complimenting me, I say, “Thank you, thank you. I feel so good now. I feel good. I feel really good when you say nice things about me.” And so, pervasive in American culture is the idea that to be loved is to be made much of. I could use language on it that would offend a lot of you because you’re into it, so I will.

The gospel of self-esteem is the American gospel. There’s a Christianized version and there’s a secular version, and it solves all of our problems. It solves kids on the street, it solves academic dysfunction, and it solves family problems. It is the standard gospel in all sessions where you’re trying to fix people. It’s purpose is to help them to like themselves because if they like themselves then they’ll be more functional in society and in family and in school. And so, we make much of them. And it works because we feel so good when we’re made much of.

The though is, “If we just stand in front of the mirror and like what we see, problems will go away.” And it is a very powerful gospel in our day. And it is a false gospel and it is a destructive gospel precisely because it works so well. That makes it impossible for us to understand the love of God in America. If to be loved is to be made much of, then when a being arrives on the scene whose whole passion is to make much of himself, you cannot perceive that as love. You cannot emotionally compute that as love. That’s our fundamental problem because the love of God for you is not primarily to make much of you. It is, at great cost to himself, to enable you to enjoy making much of him forever.

Enabled to Make Much of God

Here’s my test question: do you feel more loved when God makes much of you or when he, almighty in power and mercy, enables you to enjoy making much of him forever? That is a deadly question. It’s a frightening question to ask in congregations across America where we have been schooled and have absorbed from the air we breathe that the essence of love is that, if you make much of me, you love me. Therefore, if God makes much of me, he loves me. That’s what people think the definition of love is.

When you find a God who is given to making much of himself in all that he does, this does not feel loving. And now I’m telling you it’s the very essence of his love. And I’m going to go to the Bible and try to show you it is. So let me say what I’m saying again. To be loved by God is not to be made much of by God, but to be freed from the bondage to the mirror, to enjoy making much of God forever.

And I used the word enjoy really carefully and pointedly. Let’s say it again like this. Nobody goes to the Grand Canyon to increase his self-esteem, but they go. Nobody goes to the Alps to feel big, but they go. Why do they go? Why do they go stand before these massive mountains or this incredible, deep, scary canyon? People go and they get close to the edge, or they take trails up in those mountains. Why? Here’s my answer. It’s because self-esteem is not what our hearts long for, at the bottom. Our hearts are prepared by God in his image for something massive, something outside ourselves, something expansive and huge and glorious and magnificent that causes us to experience in this life, every now and then, the precious miracle for a moment of self-forgetfulness and joy in a thing outside ourselves.

You’ve all tasted it, even if only for a split second, you’ve known the thrill of self-forgetfulness in another reality that is absolutely magnificent. In those moments, we’ve experienced what were made for. You were not made to be saved in front of a mirror that you like. That is the smallest view of salvation that could be imagined, as if to say, “Clean the mirror. Make me like what I see. Oh good. I am now so happy.” That is so small. That is not healing. They have healed my people lightly. What you’re supposed to do for people if you love them is tilt the mirror upwards to the one for whom they were made, and they would forget about themselves.

Removing Our Mirrors

I remember the story of Paul Bran. I mentioned the story of Paul Bran last night. His mother was a missionary in the mountains until she was 90. He left and went back to England to became a surgeon. He went to visit his mom after being away from her for I think 10 or 15 years, I forget how long, she and was very old. She eventually died in the mountains of India, and she was loved by the people and she was buried there. He went back to see her one more time, and he hadn’t seen her for probably 15 or 20 years. And he looked at her and he got big tears in eyes. He said, “Mom, I’ve never seen so many wrinkles in a face.” And then they hugged, had a great time while he was there, and he left. And his mother took down all the mirrors in her house and never had a mirror for the next 10 years.

And I thought, that’s beautiful. That’s beautiful because now she just says, “I don’t think I’ll look at that anymore. I’ll just look at all these people that I love. I’ll just pour my life out for the people. I won’t think about this.” That’s a freedom, that’s a magnificent freedom. The mirror of our lives is to be tilted first God-ward so that we’re so satisfied in him that we can walk away from self preoccupation and give our lives away to people.

Biblical Basis for God’s Love and Self-Exaltation

Now we need to put some Bible under this point, that to be loved by God is not to be made much of, but to be enabled to enjoy making much of him forever. That’s my main point. In fact, I’ll put it like this. We’ve got a mission statement at our church. It goes like this and it’s my life mission statement. It’s one of the great things about being at a church 22 years, your life mission statement and the church mission statement become one. I’m here because they believe in this mission statement.

We exist to spread a passion for God’s supremacy in all things for the joy of all peoples through Jesus Christ.

When I preached a sermon on that, somebody came up to me one time and said, “Well, that that’s really good as far as it goes, but where’s love for people in our mission statement? Shouldn’t we say something about love in our mission statement?” And I looked at them, and I said, “That’s the definition of love. We’ve defined ourselves as a loving church.”

My definition of loving people is spread to them a passion for God’s supremacy in all things for the joy of all peoples through Jesus Christ. That’s what I mean when I say love. If you want to be loved by me, all you’re going to get is my willingness to lay down my life that you come to have a passion for the supremacy of God. All I’m going to give you is my life that you’ll have that. If you don’t want that, you don’t want love, because I only will give you what you need and what’s good for you, not what you want.

You need God and you need a passion for God and you need to live for the joy of peoples and it all needs to be through Jesus. That’s the meaning of loving people. People who try to give people a cup of cold water, feed them, heal them, and never lead them to a passion for God are preparing them to be destroyed, feeling good all the way. It’s not love.

The Love and Glory of God

If you have a Bible, let’s go to John 11. That was introduction. Mark told me I could preach as long as I wanted, and my plane leaves at 4:10. This John 11, and then we’re going to look at a little bit of John 17. We really are more than half done.

I know I’m going backwards. You should read a text and do exposition, then draw conclusions. But I’ve been doing this for 30 years. So I went backwards this morning and drew my conclusion, and I’m going to back up and look for the foundation in the Bible now. And it really, in my experience, went the other way.

I’m looking for the foundation for this truth: being loved by God is not his making much of you. Rather, it’s freeing you and enabling you at great cost to himself to enjoy making much of him forever. That’s my point. And now we need to find out if it is so. John 11:1–2 says:

Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill.

Now stop right there. I just want to point out some things as we go. Why does he point that out about Mary there? He says, “It was Mary who anointed his feet.” That hasn’t even happened yet in the Gospel of John. It happens in Chapter 12. Isn’t that amazing? The reason is that he’s going to underline three times in this text that Jesus loves this family. This is a love affair going on here. And this woman was so affectionate toward him that she anointed the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair. It’s pointed out here because that moment must have been explosively deep and moving and emotionally charged. He loves this family, these two sisters and their brother. He’ll say that explicitly in just a moment.

This Illness Does Not Lead to Death

John 11:3 continues:

So the sisters sent to him, saying, “Lord, he whom you love (there it is) is ill.” But when Jesus heard it he said, “This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”

So now we have two things in this text that I’m really eager to see together: love for a family and the glory of God. And I want to know how they relate to each other. That’s why this text drew me in. Notice he says, “I love Lazarus. I love Lazarus and he’s sick. This sickness is all about my Father’s glory and my glory.” John 11:5 says:

Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.

Lest we missed the point, he says it a third time. Now the connection between John 11:5 and John 11:6 is cataclysmically important, and the NIV totally distorts it. So I’m sorry about that, because I’m told that most of you will have the NIV, and you will not be able to see the point if you have the NIV because the NIV begins with the word, “Yet.” These translators could not bring themselves to say what John wrote because it is so shocking. But he wrote, “Therefore,” not, “Yet”. I was told that that was preached on in this church a few weeks back on Labor Day and that was also pointed out, so I don’t feel like I’m doing anything out of line here. Let’s read it the way it stands. It’s an oun in Greek, in case you have any folks who know Greek in the crowd. It says:

Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.

You see why they didn’t like the translation, right? That’s not a nice thing to do. This doesn’t look like love, and the whole text is about love. So the translators couldn’t bring themselves to say what is being said here, which is absolutely crucial to see. A worldview hangs on this word therefore. He loves him. He’s on the brink of death. In fact, he’s probably already dead. This sickness is all about glory. God’s glory. He is saying, “I love you, and I want God to get glory.” That’s what I’m after. I want to know how these relate. And he says, “He’s sick, on the brink of death. All right, I’m going to stay here two more days. I love him. I’m going to stay here two more days. I love him, therefore I’m staying. I love him, therefore I’m staying.”

What does that mean? It means the most loving thing he could do is show his glory. Now, that’s the end of my sermon. I could go home right here. Although knowing the way human minds work, you might say, “That’s a pretty fragile foundation in the Bible. You have to give us a little more than that, because maybe the NIV had something going.”

Father, Glorify Your Son

All right, let’s go to John 17. We’ll stay in the same Gospel with Christ. Many of you know this prayer in John 17 is called the high priestly prayer. It’s Jesus’s last long, great prayer for you. If you’re Christian this morning, this is one of the most wonderful thoughts in the world because John 17:20 says he’s praying for you. I love the thought of this prayer being prayed for 21st century Christians. Look at John 17:20. It says:

I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word . . .

That’s me. I believed on Jesus through the word of the apostles. He’s praying for me 2,000 years before I lived. So hear this text as a personal intercession on your behalf prayed by Jesus 2,000 years ago. No doubt, since the Bible says he’s interceding for us today, he’s praying these kinds of prayers still today. Own this prayer now for yourself because you are loved when you’re prayed for by Jesus. I hope I don’t have to argue for that. I’m going to just state that as an assumption. If Jesus prays for you, he’s loving you in praying for you. But that’s a big assumption. And what I have to say in this text hangs on it. So if you reject it, you probably won’t buy my point from this text. But I’m assuming when Jesus prays this prayer for his disciples and then through them, those who would believe on him, he’s loving them in the prayer. It is a loving thing to pray for us this way.

All right, now let’s read what love looks like in John 17:1–5:

When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh . . .”

Let’s stop there. You have to feel how offensive this is. You don’t pray this way and you shouldn’t. He is saying, “I love my disciples. I’m about to go die for them. So Father, here’s the first thing I want you to do. Glorify me. Make me look really good. Magnify me. Make me famous.” What a prayer. What a prayer of love. Oh, I hope you get this this morning. I hope God just turns you upside down if you’re not already upside down, so that you feel love when he prays that, so that you can compute emotionally, “He’s loving me when he prays like that.” That’s a loving thing for him to pray — “Father, get me glory.”

The Essence of Eternal Life

John 17:2 continues:

Since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.

And somebody says, “There he is! Now we’re talking love! Eternal life. Yes, John 3:16. I know that’s love. All right, we got something I can be familiar with here. Eternal life. That’s what he’s praying for and that’s what I want, and therefore it’s loving.” Read the next verse:

And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

Yes. You’re not wrong to say what you just said. Eternal life, he’s given it to me. That is what it means to love. That’s not a false statement. That’s true. But you need to get inside what life is. “Life is knowing me,” Jesus says, “and my Father. Do you want life? Here I am.” Eternal life is radically God-centered and Christ-centered. This is a precious word that we understand to be something we can feel loved by — eternal life — but I’m asking you to compute emotionally that when you find out that life is just knowing him, delighting in him, fellowshipping with him, you feel just as loved. In fact, if you don’t feel loved by that, you don’t feel loved by eternal life. Because life is knowing God. Life is knowing Christ.

There are so many people, I don’t know if they’re any in room, but perk your ears up to see if you’re one of them. There are many professing Christians and non-Christians who are afraid of hell, rightly so, and who long for escape and heaven. And frankly, it just doesn’t matter to them whether Jesus is going to be there or not. If they’re healthy, if they’re well-fed, well-clothed, have some good entertainments, reunion with loved ones, and a new heaven and a new earth where bears and little boys and girls can play together, that would be fine. Jesus? He can take a vacation. He can just evaporate.

If that’s the way you feel about heaven, you’re not saved. You’re not a Christian. You don’t know what it is to be loved. You think being loved is endless vacation and Christ is on the other side of the universe somewhere. If he exists at all, it doesn’t really matter because he’s not what makes you happy. Health makes you happy, money makes you happy, and that’s just extended into eternity and called “heaven”. Golf makes you happy — endless golf courses. I was preaching at Gaylord, Michigan on Tuesday, and they have 21 golf courses within 30 minutes of that church. It’s one of the most golfy places in the world. And I’m sure there would be a lot of people there who, in their extrapolation of creation into heaven, would think of it as an endless golf course. There are many people that substitute earthly things like that. And Jesus, he’s just not central.

So I’m pointing you to John 17:3 there and saying that when he defines eternal life as knowing the Father and knowing the Son, he doesn’t mean knowing about; he means a personal, deep, sweet fellowship and relationship that is a soul-satisfying wonder.

An All-Satisfying Treasure

In John 17:4, he’s back to glory:

I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

So the first five verses of this loving prayer for me is all about praying for his own glory. And my goal this morning in this message is to help you see things like that in the Bible and feel loved by them. Why would that be a loving thing to pray at the beginning of this prayer? It would be loving if this is true — if you were designed to find your deepest, fullest, longest satisfaction in making much of God. If that’s what you were designed for, this is love. If you weren’t, this is not love. If that’s not true, then this is megalomania on a trip trying to get the applause of people that he cares nothing about.

But if love is being made to know him, to enjoy him, to be satisfied by him, to delight in him, to be thrilled by him, to treasure him and revel in his presence, then this is a prayer that that would be preserved for you. It’s like Jesus, saying, “Father, I know that you made them to know me and love me and enjoy me. I am the most infinite and glorious being.” There’s no point in Jesus trying to be self-effacing here. If Jesus were self-effacing, we would be destroyed because he is our treasure. If the treasure says, “I’m no treasure,” he’s a liar. And if he’s a liar, he’s not a treasure. In order for us to have the treasure that we were made for, the treasure has to preserve his infinite value. And he’s saying, “Father, I’m here on earth. Great risks are being taken and now I’m laying myself out for them. Make me successful in my redemptive work. Bring me from the tomb. Install me in my kingly role. Give me all the glory so that they will have an all-satisfying treasure in me.” That’s what love is.

Brought into The Glory of Christ

Here’s one more text at the end of the chapter, John 17:24. This is to show you that I’m not making this up. Here’s love. Here is the pinnacle of love. He says:

Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory . . .

Now you have it. The argument is almost complete. He’s closing the prayer. He began the prayer saying, “Father, glorify me. Preserve my glory. Exalt my glory. Make me look magnificent. Bring me through this horrible cross and shame and install me as King of kings and Lord of lords. Give me a name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow. And then Father, after you have restored my glory and exalted me and made me infinitely satisfying, let them see me. Let them see me forever.”

I’ll stick in a little speculative comment here. It’s more philosophically derived than biblically derived, but I believe it’s true. Since I’m finite and my eyes are finite and my capacities of joy are finite and my understanding is finite, I will never be able to take all of God in at once because he’s infinite. So if he’s going to display all of himself for my enjoyment, tell me now how long is it going to take? Yes, forever. Which means my nine-year-old fear of heaven wasn’t right. It wasn’t a fear that I wouldn’t get there, but that I’d get there and be bored. That’s not true for this reason. At about nine years old, I would lie down all night on the roof. We had a spiral stairs that go up to the top of our house. And I would lie on the roof at night as a little boy and just look.

I was just terrified. I wasn’t terrified mainly because I didn’t believe in Jesus. I did. I was terrified that it’s just going to go on and on. It’s going be so boring. Because my church wasn’t all that exciting when I was nine. And I had this conception that we’re going to know everything right away. I was told, “You’ll know even as you’re known” (1 Corinthians 13:12), so I thought there would be nothing to learn and it would be static. And now my conception of God has grown a bit and I have a little bit of a breathtaking sense for what it means to be infinite. God is infinite, which means I cannot contain at any time all of him . . .