Sermons
April 20th, 2025 by Pastor Solley042025AM The Heartbeat of God.
Sub. Jesus
Theme: The heartbeat of Jesus.
Text: John 13:23-25
“The Heartbeat of God” John 13:23-25
Introduction
I want to speak to you this morning about the heartbeat of God. In the upper room, at what we call the last supper, just hours before the cross, the apostle John lay his head on the bosom or the chest of the Lord Jesus Christ. – John 13:23-25 – When the beloved disciple did that he was able to hear the very heartbeat of God.
I. The Lord Jesus Christ is God in the flesh: We worship and serve a triune God this morning, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit and those three are one. So many Scriptures point that out. Deut 6:4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord:
1 Tim 2:5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; 1 John 5:7 For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. Who is the Word? – John 1:1-2, 10-11 – Jesus is the Word and when John lay his head on the bosom of Jesus John was able to hear the very heartbeat of God.
A. That is something that puts me in awe this morning: For one to be able to hear the very heartbeat of Almighty God.
1. For one to be that close to Jesus: Can you imagine being that close to Jesus?
2. For Jesus to want one to be that close to Him: Can you imagine Jesus wanting one to be that close to Him?
3. It is a thought that puts me in awe this morning:
B. But then to think that Jesus wants that very same closeness for each and everyone here this morning: God has not changed, Jesus has not changed, the Holy Spirit has not changed as the Bible tells is in Heb 13:8 Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever. What Jesus desired of John He desires the very same thing for us today, to be that close to Him.
II. What then of the heartbeat of God? What did John hear as he laid his head upon the bosom of Jesus? What of the heartbeat of God that night? The Bible does tell us several things about the heart of God, about the heartbeat of God, and I want to look as the Holy Spirit of God allows at just a few things we know about the heart and heartbeat of God.
PROP: What do you know about the heartbeat of God this morning? TS. Let us consider some of the things the Bible tells us.
Body
I. The heartbeat of God is a heartbeat of love: John 3:16 For God so loved the world and this is a love like none other and this is a love that continues today and a love that is ever present in this world today. We tend to love because we are loved. That is not the way that God loves the world.
A. We live in a world that hates God, a world that is getting ever darker, a world that is engulfed in spiritual wickedness: This world hates God and all that is of God. This world calls evil good and good evil. This world follows the prince and power of the air, Satan.
1. The world and all that is of the world is the enemy of God: James 4:4 Strong language but warranted because of the hatred the world has for God.
2. Look at the sins today that the world flaunts in the face of Almighty God:
3. Look at the way the world attacks all that is of God:
4. Look at what sin is doing and the ruler of darkness is doing to this world today:
5. And all of us where born on the side of the world: Born in sin, born into the world, and hearts that only imaging evil continually.
B. Yet with all of that being true, and it is, God loves us, the heartbeat of God is a heartbeat of love: John 3:16 God loves you today and the proof of that is the one to whom God spoke that day and the truth that those words travel down to all of us today. God was speaking at that moment to a man named Nicodemus. – John 3:1 – Nicodemus was a Pharisee. – John 3:1
1. The Pharisees hated Jesus: But Jesus loved the Pharisees.
2. The Pharisees denied the person of Jesus: But Jesus loved the Pharisees.
3. The Pharisees tried to kill Jesus more than once: But Jesus loved the Pharisees.
4. The Pharisees lied about Jesus: But Jesus loved the Pharisees.
5. The Pharisees eventually turned Jesus over to Rome to be crucified: But Jesus loved the Pharisees.
6. Jesus loved the Pharisees so much and that individual Pharisees so much he told him how to meet his greatest need and how to come to a place where he would be loved in a way that no one else could love him: John 3:3-17 – That is the heartbeat of God, love.
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C. And God loves each one of us just that much today: John 3:16 In case you doubt the love of God today the Greek word for world here means each and every individual every born into this world or every would be. The heartbeat of God for you is one of love. None of us are Pharisees today. No, we are worse than the Pharisees. But God still loves us.
1. No one loves you like Jesus loves you today: No one ever has and no one ever will love you like Jesus loves you today.
2. All people have within them a desire to be loved: Jesus fulfills that desire if you allow Him too.
D. The heartbeat of God is a heartbeat of love: John 3:16
II. The heartbeat of God is a heartbeat of compassion: Matt 9:36 Several times we are told in the New Testament that Jesus was moved with compassion, Matt 9:36 is the first. The word compassion means to be stirred from within, to be moved by strong feelings from deep within an individual.
A. Jesus was moved with compassion to help those most in need: Not an emotional moment, a compassion deep within the Lord Jesus Christ that moved Him to help those in need.
1. Jesus was moved with compassion to heal and provide for the sick and needy: Matt 14:14-21
2. Jesus was moved with compassion to take care of those who desired to be close to Him: Matt 15:32
3. Jesus was moved to compassion to give sight to the blind: Matt 20:34
4. Jesus was moved to compassion to cleanse the leper: Mark 1:40-42
5. Jesus was moved with compassion to cast out demons from one possessed: Mark 5:18-19
6. Jesus was moved with compassion time and time again and many more times than we have looked at this morning: The heartbeat of God is a heartbeat of compassion.
B. What of the compassion of Jesus today? What moves Jesus today and towards whom? – Mark 6:34 – Jesus is moved with compassion to help those in spiritual need. – Mark 6:34 – Sheep without a shepherd, sheep without the Good Shepherd.
1. That Good Shepherd is Jesus Christ and He wants to meet your spiritual need: Jesus said in John 10:11 I am the good shepherd:… That Good Shepherd, the Good Shepherd is there, is moved, to meet your spiritual need today.
2. It is that compassion that moved Jesus from heaven with a heartbeat of love into this world for a purpose: Luke 19:10 For no other reason did Jesus Christ come into this world other than to meet your spiritual need and mine.
3. That compassion that moved Jesus so strong that it is able to move lost sinners toward Him: John 12:32 I thank Jesus today for a compassion that moved Him but also for a compassion that drew me.
4. Do you need help today, do you need strength today, do you need assurance today, do you need a healing today, do you need direction today? There is one who is moved with compassion to meet your need. You only need come to Him, stop resisting His drawing power and come to the one who is moved with compassion toward you.
C. The heartbeat of God is a heartbeat of compassion: Matt 9:36
III. The heartbeat of God is a heartbeat of sacrifice: Rom 5:6-8 Love plus compassion is going to lead to sacrifice. – Rom 5:8 – A heartbeat of love carried Jesus into this world, a heartbeat of compassion moves Jesus to those in spiritual need. But there remains a problem, a problem so big that it keeps man separated from a compassionate and loving God.
A. That problem is sin: Sin separates man from God. That sin nature we are all born with separates us from God and the greatness of the love of God, the compassion the stirs within the heart of God does not take care of the sin problem. The sin problem can only be taken care of by sacrifice and a perfect sacrifice and a perfect sacrifice made by blood.
1. Jesus is that sacrifice: Rom 5:8 If you have never memorized a Bible verse, if you have memorized hundreds of Bible verses, you ought to memorize this one. – Rom 5:8 – Here is a verse I cannot get over.
a. In this verse I see the heartbeat of love. – Rom 5:8
b. In this verse I see the heartbeat of compassion. – Rom 5:8
2. And in this verse I see the only sacrifice that is able to take care of the sin problem: Rom 5:8 When Jesus went to that cross He was moved by a heartbeat of love, a heartbeat of compassion, and a heartbeat of sacrifice.
B. This day on the Christian calendar is about resurrection? But there would be no resurrection if there was no sacrifice.
1. Jesus shed His blood on the cross a sacrifice for your sin and mine: Why? – Heb 9:22 , 26-28 – Without Jesus Christ upon that cross, without the shedding of blood, without a heartbeat of sacrifice there would be no salvation.
2. The shedding of blood points to every drop of blood being poured out: Heb 9:22 Only Jesus Christ could do that.
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3. Only the blood of Jesus was pure blood: Jesus was born without a sin nature and never sinned.
4. Only the blood of a pure sacrifice would satisfy the holiness of God: Jesus is the only sacrifice that satisfies the holiness of God.
5. The cross was not an easy sacrifice to make: We do not put the thought into the cross that we should. The cross was a terrible place, the cross was a dark place, the cross was a place of bitter tears. The cross was not an easy sacrifice to make.
6. The Bible does give a picture of the cross and the sacrifice made there: Isa 52:14 As many were astonied at thee; his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men:
C. That heartbeat of sacrifice was made for those who did not and do not deserve it: Most of us can find a place with the mob of people who condemned Jesus to the cross and those who watched Him there.
1. People who were indifferent to Jesus: Many are indifferent to Jesus today.
2. People who mocked Jesus: Many mock the name of Jesus today.
3. People there who tempted Jesus to move: People temp Jesus today.
4. People there who wanted rid of Jesus: Many want rid of the name of Jesus today.
5. The heartbeat of sacrifice was made for those who did not and do not deserve it:
D. The heartbeat of God is a heartbeat of sacrifice: Rom 5:8
IV. The heartbeat of God is a heartbeat of life: Luke 24:1-7 The greatest messages ever preached were delivered by angels at the giving of the Son of God into this world and at the empty tomb. Let these words sink in. – Luke 24:6 – Some of the most beautiful words ever uttered in this world. – Luke 24:6
A. Jesus arose from that tomb securing victory over sin, death and the grave: 1 Cor 15:55-57 There is life in Jesus Christ.
1. The wages of sin is death: But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
2. When there is a heartbeat there is life and there is life in Jesus Christ: Jesus said in John 10:10 …I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
B. There is a heartbeat of life before you this morning: But do you want it or not? That is the question of the day.
1. The heartbeat of God is a heartbeat of love: That love brought Jesus Christ into this world.
2. The heartbeat of God is a heartbeat of compassion: That moves Jesus Christ to those in need.
3. The heartbeat of God us a heartbeat of sacrifice: That carried Jesus Christ to the cross.
4. And the heartbeat of God is a heartbeat of life: Evidence of that is the empty tomb.
5. And we can have that life: 1 John 5:11-13
C. The heartbeat of God is a heartbeat of life: Luke 24:1-7
Conclusion
What did John hear as he lay his head upon the bosom of Jesus? John heard the very heartbeat of God.
I. The heartbeat of God is a heartbeat of love: John 3:16 For God so loved the world and this is a love like none other and this is a love that continues today and a love that is ever present in this world today. We tend to love because we are loved. That is not the way that God loves the world.
II. The heartbeat of God is a heartbeat of compassion: Matt 9:36 Several times we are told in the New Testament that Jesus was moved with compassion, Matt 9:36 is the first. The word compassion means to be stirred from within, to be moved by strong feelings from deep within an individual.
III. The heartbeat of God is a heartbeat of sacrifice: Rom 5:6-8 Love plus compassion is going to lead to sacrifice. – Rom 5:8 – A heartbeat of love carried Jesus into this world, a heartbeat of compassion moves Jesus to those in spiritual need. But there remains a problem, a problem so big that it keeps man separated from a compassionate and loving God.
IV. The heartbeat of God is a heartbeat of life: Luke 24:1-7 The greatest messages ever preached were delivered by angels at the giving of the Son of God into this world and at the empty tomb. Let these words sink in. – Luke 24:6 – Some of the most beautiful words ever uttered in this world. – Luke 24:6