The Calhoun Church of Christ Podcast

The depth and range of our universe staggers even the best minds. Scientists believe that our Milky Way Galaxy contains around 100 million stars, which are nuclear fusion reactors like our sun. Some stars are larger than ours, some are smaller.

To travel across the Milky Way would take about 150,000 years at the speed of light, which is 186,000 miles per second.

But the Milky Way isn't the only neighborhood of stars. Science estimates that there are about two trillion galaxies in the universe.

Since the Creator is big enough to conceive all this and speak it into existence, his love must be something staggering to behold.

Listen and learn about this supernatural, transcendent love available to all of us.

One reality of God's love is his supernatural kindness to sinful people.

"Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, forbearance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness is intended to lead you to repentance?" (Romans 2:4 NIV)

His kindness takes us somewhere. It takes us to a season of repentance, renewal, and revival. We see that same process of kindness in Jacob's life as the Lord shaped his life by repentance.

Follow Jacob's story in this episode and see what Jesus meant when he said, “Very truly I tell you, you will see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” (John 1:51 NIV)

Why should we "explore" God's love? Because our English word "love" doesn't cover the vast, unlimited expanse of Divine love. So, we explore.

In this session we begin by letting God himself describe his love to us (in Exodus chapters 33 and 34).

Then we see in Scripture how amazingly God's compassion reaches even the most wicked people.

And we see that when Jesus showed compassion to the broken people around him, he was actually reflecting his Father's love to human beings: "When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd." (Matthew 9:36 NIV)

Listen and learn more about God's amazing compassion.

Why explore God's love? Because our English word "love" doesn't have the scope and range to truly express what the Bible means by love.

The Greek word used in the New Testament for God's love is "agape" - a word that isn't used for romantic love or human affection. Agape means God's divine love.

God's supernatural agape love is poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5). and its main example for us is how the Christ, the Son of God, walked in that love during his ministry here on earth.

The call for us to explore that love comes in the Apostle Paul's prayer in Ephesians 3:16-19:

"I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God."

That's our quest in this series as we explore the love of God.

 

Why explore God's love? Because our word "love" is cheap, worn out and overused. Our common use of that word can't truly reveal all the power of God's love as revealed in Scripture.

Paul the Apostle prayed with intensity that the church in Ephesus would get an amazing revelation of the love of God:

"I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. (Ephesians 3:16-19 NIV)

There is power in prayer, power in the Spirit, and power in the Scriptures to strengthen us so we can grasp the spectacular love of God.

His love isn't a sentimental, greeting card kind of love. His love is fierce, tenacious, relentless, aggressive, protective, profound, eternal, jealous, persistent, and unwavering. It creates universes. It's a permanent part of God's character.

 Want to know more about this love that endures forever? 

What is the final result of the gospel? What is the finish line, the end of all that the gospel accomplishes?

To find out, we look at the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ as the pattern for every Christian's life and destiny.

In this episode we look at seven major Scriptures that unfold the story of our triumph with Christ as we enter the new life in Heaven with resurrected, glorified bodies just like his glorious body.

 ^"When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: 'Death has been swallowed up in victory'." (1st Corinthians 15:54 NIV)

Study the gospel and you'll soon come across fake or empty versions of it, even in Scripture. The apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthian church, "If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied." (1st Corinthians 15:19 NIV)

He wrote that because some Christians in the Corinthian Church had said they didn't believe in the resurrection of the dead, which sounded logical to them since they'd been raised surrounded with Greco-Roman classical philosophy.

Neither Plato nor Aristotle had believed in the bodily resurrection of the dead, and some of the philosophers in Athens sneered at Paul when he preached the gospel to them, which included the resurrection in Acts chapter seventeen.

So, the church at Corinth had a lot to learn about the place of bodily resurrection in the gospel. That's why Paul challenged them, saying that a gospel without the resurrection was a pity. The real, authentic gospel always includes the bodily resurrection. 

Listen and find out more.

The death of Christ was like no other death. Others had died horrible deaths on crosses, but none were like the Messiah's death.

Not only did he suffer the intense pain just like others had, but according to 2nd Corinthians 5:21...

God "made him who did not know sin to be sin for our sake, so that through him we might become the righteousness of God."

For Jesus, the horror of the cross was that he would have ALL the sin of ALL humanity descend on his innocent, spotless spirit, and he would BECOME sin on our behalf. 

Listen and hear about how even battle-hardened Roman soldiers were shaken and realized who Jesus really is - the Son of God.

It surprises some people that there's an entire chapter in the Old Testament that pictures the crucifixion of Christ 750 years before it happened.

In Isaiah chapter 53, the prophet outlines several features of the cross that would only appear when Christ was crucified and resurrected.

The prophecy even predicts Jesus paying the price to heal our diseases, dying for our sins, and being resurrected from the dead to pay for our resurrection.

Check out this podcast and see if you agree.

Why does the Bible say the gospel is 'eternal'? Does the gospel's power transcend time and space?

Yes. The Bible says God forgave sins under the Old Covenant based on what Christ would do - what he'd do in the gospel, which reached back into that Old Covenant (Romans 3:25-26).

Also, in the story of an Ethiopian nobleman seeking God by reading Isaiah chapter 53, he wanted to know 'who' that chapter was about. Phillip the evangelist "began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus" (Acts 8:34-35 NIV).

Jesus is the "who" of Isaiah 53. The gospel about Christ is so sharply depicted in Isaiah 53 (written 750 years before Christ's birth) that it became known as the "forbidden chapter" in Jewish synagogue readings after Christ's resurrection (see https://rlsolberg.com/isaiah-53/).

Listen and learn more about this eternal gospel.