The Light of God Is His Love — Zac Poonen

Jesus as the Believer’s Hero

I want to begin with one of my favourite verses for young people in the book of Lamentations, just after Jeremiah, Lamentations and chapter three. Lamentations chapter three, to turn to verse twenty-seven.

Lamentations 3 .27 says, It's good for a man that he should bear the yoke in his youth. If you can understand when you're young, what it means to bear the yoke of Jesus. That means to have that yoke kept on two bullocks.

I have one end of it, I walk with him exactly like he walked on this earth. You have to first of all be gripped by the fact that the most wonderful life that anyone ever lived on earth was the life of Jesus.

Now if you think somebody else's life is great, you know someone who has become great in the world, then you won't be taken up with the eagerness to have the yoke of Jesus. But if you're convinced of one thing, as I am, that the best life anybody can ever live is the life Jesus lived.

And you know like young people have heroes, they put pictures of their heroes on their walls because they admire them. Some have cricketers, some have musicians. They are their heroes. And you don't realize what a hero does to you.

You see these people who make rock stars, they're heroes. And they want to become famous and make money like them. You know what it does to them? Some of them become so mad, they even die at these rock festivals.

Imagine the intensity of their admiration for a hero. Imagine my brothers and sisters, if from a young age, Jesus really became your hero. Like these people worship rock stars and cricketers and all types of sports players and athletes, if Jesus is your hero, that means you've, you know, like these young people are so gripped with someone.

You're thinking of Jesus all the time, you know, like those say, I wish I could, if I could play cricket like that person, or if I could play music like that person, be so famous. Boy, if I could play the guitar like that person or the keyboard like that person or sing like that person.

And you say, if I could live like Jesus, with the same intensity, you know, the hours of practice young people do to play cricket, to try and become some great cricketer or play some musical instrument to become some great musician, hours!

Nobody ever becomes great cricketer or great athlete or great musician by just having a casual entrance for one hour once a week. You will never be able to follow Jesus if you have an interest in Him for two hours a week on Sunday morning.

I'm not saying that we have to think about Him all the time. We've got to do work, you've got school, college, work. These people who have heroes in sports world or music world, also work. They earn their money, but they have a lot of spare time and in their spare time their mind goes back to their hero.

And if their hero is playing a game, that's the game they want to watch on television. If their hero is singing some music item in a concert, they'll go so far, spend so much money to watch that concert and stand in a queue.

Can you think of some of these people who stand in queue here to get into the cricket stadium? Previous day they come and sleep. Can you imagine someone trying to be like that to get into a meeting to hear about Jesus?

Sleep there the previous night to be able to get a chance to get in and listen to Jesus. Boy! Can you imagine what God will do with such a person who's got such an intensity? There are people who do that all types of things.

I mean in Bombay they used to sleep at least 24 hours earlier to get a ticket in the train, particularly in the holiday season. Oh Lord, give me that intensity that if I can see your face and be gripped by you, I'm willing to sleep overnight to get in the queue because if only very few people are going to get an opportunity, I want to be one of them.

God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. I want to tell you that. Remember that, my young people, dear young people, all your life. There is no partiality with God. What He did for others, He will do for you.

And the most wonderful truth we have heard in the church, what He did for Jesus, He will do for you. But there was an intensity in Jesus' life, an intensity of interest in the Father. The Father was His hero as a man and Jesus must be our hero.

I don't know how to convey that, but it changed my life when I was a young man. I had a lot of other interests before I was converted, worldly interests, not necessarily sinful. I didn't have a passion to go and commit sin so much as getting on in the world.

I mean, I had all the lusts that everybody else had, but my desire was to get on in the world and I would work hard for it. And then one day I met Jesus. It changed my life completely, my ambitions, my desires, my interest in the world and money and everything because I got a hero now.

A lot of young people are without a hero and the devil fills that vacuum with someone in the world. Now if you make Jesus the hero of your life, you'll want to know. For example, let's learn something from these worldly people.

If they make a hero, they watch and watch how that cricketer bats or how that player plays basketball or how that musician plays the keyboard or a guitar and they watch and try to imitate that person.

I mean, there are people who comb their hair like their favorite heroes and dress like them. Can you think of the intensity of it? You become gradually like this hero you worship. And I tell you, there are very few Christians in the world who have Jesus as their hero to the same intensity as a lot of young people in the world worship music stars and sports persons.

Very few. There are a few, I believe. Think of these missionaries who are willing to sacrifice money, health, everything to go out to some place only because they love Jesus. What did they get out of it?

In fact, some famous missionaries like Hudson Taylor and C .D. Studd and all we hear about, biographies written about them. But do you know, you may find in heaven some people in God's eyes who are greater than Hudson Taylor and C .D. Studd, about whom nobody wrote a biography.

But the Holy Spirit recorded it. I don't even know their names. I believe there'll be some people, maybe there's some Indian people who've gone up to North India and who've sacrificed and lived for God in sincerity.

Why did they do it? Nobody wrote their biography. They never got any money. They were not part of some western mission organization. They loved Jesus. Jesus was their hero and we're going to meet some of them in eternity and we're going to compare notes about our life.

You and I are going to compare notes with those people and they'll tell us what they lived for. And every sentence they say will make us ashamed. I mean, if we were non-Christians, knew nothing about Jesus, we won't be ashamed to say, well, I never knew all this on earth.

We're going to be ashamed because we knew. We knew so much, we knew the same Jesus they knew. But our devotion to Christ was so weak and so many other interests on earth crowded it out. You know, you can have a secular job and have a tremendous passion for Jesus.

Most of these people who go to rock music concerts, they are not full time musicians. Ninety nine percent of them are in a secular job. But along with their secular job, they have a tremendous passion for rock music.

Can it be done? Sure. Most of these people who flock into cricket stadiums, crowd out there and spend so much money to get into a stadium, they're not full time cricketers. No, ninety nine percent of them are in a secular job.

But cricket is a passion for them. They know the score, they know the records, they know who's breaking a record. They know the world record for this and world record for that. What about Christians? How well do they know the Bible?

We wonder why don't we see the days of the apostles? I'll tell you, when we have Christians with that type of intensity, like these rock music fanatics have for their musicians. We will see once again apostolic days and I pray that we shall see that in our country for years and years and years.

It's been the burden of my heart and of many of us here, at least some of us here, that India will see a revival that has to come through you young people. Don't despise yourself, my dear brothers and sisters, don't say, well, I have failed so much.

God Uses Failures and Sinners

You know, God picks up failures. There's a little booklet that's written in the second century. It's not part of the Bible. I don't even know who wrote it, but it's called the Epistle of Barnabas. We don't know whether Barnabas wrote it or somebody else wrote it or somebody else called Barnabas, not the Barnabas in the Bible.

I don't know, but it's got some good things in it. One of the things it says there is, in order that God may show that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, he chose some of the worst sinners to be his greatest apostles.

In order to show that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, God chose some of the worst sinners in the world to be his greatest apostles. I believe that. I don't know what all sins Paul committed in his younger days, but he was not foolish enough to go and confess it all publicly, but he did say he was the chief of sinners.

David was a man after God's own heart. He says in Psalm 25, O Lord, don't remember the sins of my youth, remember not the sins of my youth. It's not mentioned in scripture. We thought David was a very pure young boy, but he was very conscious of a lot of sins in his youth.

That's the boy God picked up, to be a man after his own heart. God has never called any of you Satan. No. How would you feel if Jesus turned around at you and called you Satan? But he called Peter Satan, and that man became the greatest apostle on the day of Pentecost.

He did something so terrible that Jesus said, that Satan is speaking through you. Peter? Okay. Another time he went and denied the Lord. I don't know Jesus. No, no, no, no. I don't know Jesus. Three times.

It's like if you went and said that you worshipped some other God and you don't know Jesus. Oh, no, no, no. I don't know Jesus. Three times you did that. Imagine God picking you up and making you a great apostle.

That's the message of the Gospels. So when we make Jesus our hero, we find that he came for sinners. You know, he would turn around to people who thought they were very holy, and there are a lot of Christians today who think they're very holy, and he turns around to them and says, I didn't come for you, you fellas.

I came for those who recognize they're sinners. I remember once speaking to a nominal Christian couple after a meeting. I said, you know, you need to be saved, but you'll never be saved until you come to Jesus as sinner.

The trouble with you is, I said, you're coming to Jesus as Christians. Jesus didn't die for Christians. Do you know that? Do you know that Jesus did not die for Christians? He died for sinners. And you come to Jesus as a Christian, he'll never accept you.

No. He didn't die for Christians or Hindus or Muslims or Buddhists. He died for sinners. And everyone who came to him as a sinner, even if it is the last minute before he died like a thief on the cross, even if he had murdered lots of people and stolen from lots of people and no opportunity to set it right, if he came as a sinner, he'd be forgiven and he'd go to paradise.

But I don't want to be saved at the last minute. I'll tell you why. Because I'll have such regret in heaven. Imagine that thief on the cross. What regret he'll have in heaven? Oh, Lord, I'm here in heaven, but boy, I wish I had at least a few years to show my gratitude to you.

That's what you and I have. You and I have the opportunity after we are saved to show our gratitude by a life of intense commitment, devotion, passion, fire, zeal for Jesus. And then when we look at Jesus' life, say, what was it that made Jesus' life so passionate?

He said, I always do the things that please the Father. Always. He never pleased himself. He always wanted to please the Father. Now I want to tell you the secret of Jesus' life. He was a sure of one thing, and that was that the Father loved him.

The Father’s Love as the Secret of Jesus’ Life

You know, that was the great secret of his life. And you and I need to know that one truth more than any other truth. The greatest truth in the whole Bible is this. Jesus loves me. This I know. God loves me as He loved Jesus.

I want to say to you, my dear young people, you know, it's no use my telling you to be zealous and intense and all that. It'll last for a little while. It'll be like a pep talk, you know, like football coaches and basketball coaches give people a pep talk just before they go for a game.

Stir them up to put them in passion for that 90 minutes that they are playing. It's not like that. For a lot of people, Christian meetings are like that. They go through 90 minutes of worship and listen to a message and go out all on fire, but it fizzles out.

It's all over. The only thing that'll keep you constant, constant, constantly devoted is when you know the intensity of God's love for you and for me. I think of this verse I want to show you in Psalm 86.

Psalm 86 and verse 5. Thou, O Lord, art good, ready to forgive, abundant in lovingkindness to all who call upon Thee. Just think if you can believe this. Ready to forgive. Good, ready to forgive and abundant in lovingkindness.

Or the message translation says, big hearted, large hearted to all who ask for help. You know, supposing you're in some financial need and you've seen from past experience that there are some large hearted brothers who won't ask you to repay your last loan but will help you another time.

And you'd rather go to them than to someone who asks you 25 questions. Why do you want it? When are you going to repay it? Can you do this? Can you write it down and tell me how much? You'd be hesitant to go to them.

But someone who's large hearted and ready to help. That's how God is. Always ready to help those who ask for help. And if you can see God like this, but you say, if we preach like that, don't you think people will take advantage of God?

A lot of preachers think those thoughts and that's why they become legalistic preachers. How do I know? I was one of them myself. I didn't go by scripture. I went by my reason. And my reason said, if you keep on preaching that God is a big hearted God, people will take advantage of Him.

Don't let that happen in your congregation. So I leaned upon my reason and preached what my reason told me instead of what scripture told me. It brought me into bondage. It brought other people into bondage.

And I know that's happening in many of our churches today. If we preach God is so large and ready to forgive, people will take advantage. I'll tell you something. I've learned not to lean on my own reason now.

It took a long time, but I've learned what scripture says. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Don't lean upon your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him. He will direct your paths. God says, now I've understood.

God says, I know some people will take advantage of me. But the Lord says, even if you preach me as a strict God, people will still take advantage of me. So what difference does it make? You think in all the churches where people are preaching God as a very strict God, people are not taking advantage?

Of course they are. The only difference is nobody gets into liberty there. But if you preach God as He's found in the Bible, ready to forgive, large hearted to help, not picking on people for, oh that's not the way to dress when you come to church, or that's not the type of shirt or cloth you should wear.

God is not like that. I mean you may have met some people who call themselves God's children or like that. I want to tell you God is not like that. And it took me a long time to discover that. I hope it doesn't take you as long.

He's large hearted. He doesn't make people feel uncomfortable when they come to Him. I mean do you do that? Do you make people uncomfortable when they come to your home? If somebody comes to your home, I never forget, I saw one of these films on Jesus.

And sometimes when you see a film on Jesus, you see something so vividly which is written in the Bible, but you don't see it in the Bible. And I saw this film on Jesus where Matthew had invited him to his house for a meal, you know, after Jesus called him at the, where he was keeping the accounts and said follow me and Matthew left his job and Levi, his name was Levi or Matthew, he was from that priestly tribe, and he made a grand feast.

Now remember, he was a very rich man. He was an accountant for the Roman government, chartered accountant for the Roman government. You imagine how wealthy he was. But he was a very worldly man. He was one of those pharisee types.

And so he had a grand feast in his house. And in this film they show Matthew, before Jesus met him, asking Peter to pay up his taxes for all the extra fish he caught and all that. And Peter is pretty upset with this Matthew.

And then Jesus decides to go to Matthew's house and Peter calls Jesus and says, you are going to this fellow's house? This guy is forcing me to pay up taxes, half of which he swipes. And Jesus says, I go anywhere I am invited.

And then in the night they go along to this house and the disciples won't go in, you see, because they are standing outside, because they are holy. They won't go to this worldly person, Matthew's house.

And as they come near, all this dancing and all these dancing girls and all, not properly dressed and that's how they entertain those days. Matthew had that type of entertainment. And Jesus walks in and of course holy Peter and James and all stand outside.

And Jesus walks right into this worldly crowd of people and when Matthew sees him, oh, he says to everybody, okay, stop. The master has come and you may want to listen to him. And sitting next to Jesus is one of these worldly dancers who decides to come and sit next to him and listen to what this master has to say.

And the other side there is another one and Jesus sits there. I mean some of you holy people would be pretty horrified, right, to sit in such a, but Jesus was quite comfortable there. He was not polluted by all this.

And then he told a story while Peter and others are looking through the window to see what's happening inside. And he sits there in Matthew's house and says, I want to tell you a story. He says, there was a father who had two sons.

And he tells the whole story of the prodigal son. How the prodigal son went and wasted his money and riotous living with all types of women and drinking and all that. And everything was going on right there.

And then the elder brother came and he was standing outside the house, looking to see what's going on in here. It was so vivid, so true to what Jesus was. Did Jesus encourage all that? No, he came to save people from all that.

But before he could save them, he accepted them as they were. You know, that's something you and I have got to understand. Jesus accepts you as you are. Now some Christians may not accept you as you are.

That's because they're not like Jesus. They're like the Pharisees. You feel sorry for them. Don't worry about that. I remember once the brother told me, not from our church, one of the other churches, some other group.

He said, Brother Zag, I've been tremendously blessed by all that you write and your messages. But you know, I go to some of your churches and they are so stiff and they are so legalistic and they don't make you feel comfortable or at home there.

So, I don't want to be a part of this. So I said, see, we are a growing church and like in a growing family, there are babies. And don't judge the home by how the babies behave because babies are the same in every home.

And I used an example. I said, supposing I invite you to my house and one day you come to my house and I have a little two-year-old son or daughter who opens the door and says, Who are you? I don't know who you are.

Bang! And he goes around saying, I went to Zag's house and he shut the door on my face. I say, you're the fool then. I didn't shut the door on your face. A two-year-old child shut it. How much sense do you expect a two-year-old child to have?

Don't judge me by a two-year-old or a one-year-old. I say in our churches also, we have one-year-olds and two-year-olds. Don't judge the church by the two-year-olds who slam the door on your face or ask you stupid questions or...

We don't want to be a bunch of holy people who say, we don't want to have any more children. We only want adults here. No! We want children. We love children. We love spiritual children who are newly converted and who are babies who take time to grow up who are not spiritual in 24 hours, not like instant coffee.

Ah! Spiritual. No! Nobody becomes spiritual like that. It takes years. But you know, I have many times felt, I mean if you have a burden for India, my burden for India is, Lord, we have failed you as Christians in this country, that we have not presented Jesus as He really is.

And people have turned away not from Jesus Christ. They have turned away from Christianity. Around the world, people have turned away from Christianity. And many times I tell people, I also have turned away from that Christianity.

If a non-Christian man tells me, a Hindu man tells me, ah, these Christians, I say, I agree with you. You reject that? I say, I also reject it. And he is surprised. He says, I reject it. I say, yes, that's not, that's the Christianity I had for 19 years of my life.

I rejected it. I don't want it. And the thing is a lot of people who are born again still go to that pharisee version of Christianity and give a wrong picture of the love of God. Jesus was so secure in the fact that God loves him.

And it's not just Jesus. We look at Jesus and say, well, he is a person who never failed. But you know Paul, the Apostle Paul lived one of the most wonderful lives any human being could live. But unlike Jesus, he had failed so many times.

Even after he was a believer, he failed. And he was not ashamed to admit his failures. Do you know who wrote the book of Acts? Anybody know? Luke. And do you know that Luke was a, he was the only non-Jewish person who wrote scripture by the way.

He was a Greek. He wrote two books, Luke and the Acts of the Apostles. But the other thing about him, he was a, he was a doctor, but he was a very close associate of the Apostle Paul. I think it was part of God's goodness to Paul to give him someone who could keep him a bit fit medically and physically.

Tell him what to eat and what not to eat. God is good. But apart from that, he was a man with a very sharp mind who wrote and he was inspired to write the Gospels. He had never been with Jesus, but he made so many inquiries and he wrote so many things that other people never wrote about.

I mean think that you would have never heard about the story of the prodigal son if it was not for dear old brother Luke making all those careful investigations. Imagine Matthew wrote it and he left it out.

Mark wrote a Gospel, he left it out. Because John wrote much later. But Luke wrote it and he included it. There are some other things like that that Luke included which are not found in the other Gospels.

We don't read in the other Gospels about the shepherds coming to meet Jesus. No, it's not there. I mean Matthew wrote about the wise men, but he never wrote about the shepherds. So Luke was a person who investigated very carefully.

And then he wrote the Acts of the Apostles and he must have told Paul, listen Paul, I'm writing about your travels. How do you think Luke would have written Acts of the Apostles? He wouldn't have wanted to write that Paul made a mistake in circumcising Timothy or Paul made a mistake in shaving his head and making a vow and Paul got upset with the high priest towards the end of his life.

He didn't have victory over anger at that time. Do you think you would write that? Supposing you were writing that about some great man of God whom you admired, would you write all that or would you conveniently leave all those things out?

Paul was a very wise man. He knew that Luke won't write all these things. So he said, Luke, if you're going to write about my life, you have to put those things in. Otherwise I won't let you write. I've got the copyright on my life.

You have to tell the whole truth. You have to tell people for 2000 years they must know that I, the great apostle, made some stupid mistakes in my life and that towards the end of my life I lost control of myself and yelled at the high priest and called him a whitewashed wall.

Otherwise we'd never have known that Paul made those mistakes. But Paul was not discouraged by all that. He was so secure in the fact that God loved him. Are you secure in that? Are you absolutely convinced that God's nature is love?

We have this verse here which we're going to have as a theme for this conference, walking in the light and having no part dark. And do you know what that means, walking in the light? Very often we think of it only as walking in purity.

But think of light as love. If you read John's epistle, he says God is light and he says God is love. So that means light equals love. If two plus two is equal to four and I say two plus two is also equal to anything else?

Chaar. That's Hindi by the way. Four equals chaar. It equals chaar, it equals naal, it equals a lot of other things too in other languages. That means four equals chaar equals naal. So when it says God is light, God is love, it means light equals what?

But when you say God is love, when you read of light, what do you think of? Oh, holiness. Read that and say walk in the light. Have no part dark and you sort of get scared. I did anyway. Maybe all of you clever people didn't but I did.

But I gradually began to see that when God is light, it is God is love. Are you afraid of walking in love? I mean God's love? Are you afraid of hearing a message? There is no hatred in God. Are you scared of that?

When you hear there is no darkness in God, you say oh. But supposing you heard it like this, supposing you read that verse like this. Walk in the love of God. There is no hatred in him at all. Doesn't it change the whole context of that?

That's exactly what it means. Four equals chaar, light equals love. It will change your life if you understand that. Those of you who get an opportunity to preach God's word, it will change your preaching and it will change your church.

It will give you boldness as a young person. You know the devil is always trying to rob us of our boldness and our confidence. And he knows that he can't scare you with some other book from some other religion.

So he scares you from the Bible with verses. If Paul had lived like that, he'd never have done all that he did. I want to say to you my dear brothers and sisters, God is much better than what you thought he was.

He is the most wonderful person to be with. Have you ever met somebody whom it's always fun to be with that person. First of all, he is not a busybody into your private matters and he is not always trying to find fault with something or the other in you.

And he accepts you just as you are and forgives you any stupid things. And you can take a joke, you can make fun of him and he is happy. Can you think of somebody like that? I mean apart from me. I am pretty arrogant, right?

But if you can think of somebody, maybe not me. I am sure there are people much better than me. But I want to be like that. There is no doubt about that. But if you can think of somebody like that who you know is real fun to be with.

Maybe somebody your age. Not someone who is 26 years old like me. Someone younger who is like your age. And then multiply that by about a million and you know what God is like. Multiply that by about a million and you know what God is like.

He is a good God. He likes fun. He likes humor. He is not this long faced God that the Pharisees portray. And if you have portrayed that type of God to other people, it is a wrong teaching. You are guilty of a false doctrine.

You didn't realize that. Well, now I am telling you. You have been preaching a false doctrine with your face. I remember hearing a story of a long faced Christian who was walking in the light, trying to have no part dark, who tried to tell another person, don't you want to be a Christian?

He said, no thank you. I have got enough problems already. I have got enough problems already. I don't want to be a Christian. If this is what Christianity means. I believe that is what many of us are doing.

Giving a wrong impression. I will tell you one of the things that really burdens my heart. I say Lord, why don't we have some prostitutes coming to our meetings? Why don't we have some drug addicts coming to our meetings?

I have really sought God. I believe we have failed. In Jesus meetings there were prostitutes. There were sinners. There is some part of Jesus Lord that is missing even in CFC. How is it so many Pharisees congregate in our meetings?

The Pharisees didn't congregate in such crowds to Jesus meetings. A few of them came, but they are mostly sinful people and he changed them. He didn't leave them in their sin. Think Mary Magdalene whom no Pharisee could ever convert.

Jesus converted. If you want to know the attitude of the Pharisees to sinful people, think of that story of that woman who came who was well known in the city as a sinner. Well known sinner, that means the most well known prostitute in Luke chapter 7 in the city from the red light area of that city came to Simon's house and began to wash Jesus' feet.

Simon said, I thought Jesus was a prophet, but now I know all these what my fellow Pharisees are saying is right. If this person was a prophet, he would have known what type of woman is washing his feet.

Jesus knew what Simon was thinking. He said, Simon, let me ask you something. There was a man who owed, who had two debtors, two people who owed him money. One man owed him 500 pounds or whatever you like and the other owed him 50.

He forgave both of them. Who will love him more? And Simon said, I suppose the one who was forgiven more. He said, that's the difference between you and this woman. You don't realize how much you've been forgiven.

This woman has been forgiven much, so she loves me much more than you. You didn't even give me water to wash my feet when my feet were dirty. You didn't give me water to wash my feet. You know how we take advantage of Jesus?

Many of us, we take Jesus so lightly. And there are other sinful people who come who are so thankful for what the Lord has done. They say, Lord, I want the rest of my life to be devoted to you. We're so stingy when it comes to giving money to God.

But those people who have been forgiven so much, they're so large hearted because they've been forgiven much. Those who have forgiven much, love much. That's one of the things that's burdened me. I said, why is it, Lord, in so many of the churches I go around, you don't find prostitutes sitting there?

Is it because you are not there and some aspect of Jesus is missing from that church? Where are the drug addicts? Is it because we're not interested in drawing them to the Lord? Oh, they're hopeless. There's no hope for them.

There's hope for some guy like me who didn't fall so deep. Did Jesus come only for sinners who have fallen to a certain level but not really deep? I have to say that we have failed. I have failed. I acknowledge that before God.

And I say, Lord, tell me how to set it right. I'm not an evangelist, but I wish I were. And if I were, I'd go after those. I've always felt, I remember reading the story of the Salvation Army and General Booth.

I mean, some people are disturbed by the fact that he called himself General, but I'd still join. If I were living in England 130 years ago, absolutely no doubt I would have joined the Salvation Army.

Without a doubt. They were the people out on the streets on fire for God to reach the people down in the dumps, the filthiest sinners and bring them to Christ. The type of man that William Booth was when he was 86 years old and weak and dying.