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If you are a follower of Jesus now, what will keep you going as a follower of Jesus throughout all life’s twists and turns? As you think about following Jesus this year, next year, the next ten years – are you filled with excitement? Apprehension? Dread? Weariness? Or if you wouldn’t call yourself a Christian (if you’re here just looking in and finding out more about what Christians believe and working out if you could believe too), what do you think life following Jesus would be like if you were to believe in him today? Would you be scared or reassured? Would you feel liberated or restricted?

Let me share some examples that are on my mind when I think about what following Jesus has meant for some people, and what it might mean for you and for me. I met a man at a Christianity Explored course who had to flee his home country because he had become a Christian. I think of men and women, though mostly women, who have stayed single and celibate rather than pursue marriage with someone who would hinder them following Jesus – and that’s been costly and painful. I think of Christians who are gay and only attracted to people of their own sex – and they also have remained single and celibate because they honor God’s design and gift of marriage. I think of Christians who have poured themselves out in some area of service, giving time, giving money, giving their strength, passing up holidays, passing up advancement at work and at times looking around and wondering was it worth it? Have I wasted my life on this? I think back to my time at school, before I was a Christian, and remember what it celebrated; academic or extra-curricular achievement, being popular, being funny, getting into a good university, and I wonder if I’d been a Christian back then, whether I would have felt I could be happy with Jesus if it meant losing one or more of those success icons.

What comes to your mind when you ask yourself the question is standing with Jesus worth it? What do you worry about losing? How is it possible to be happy standing in Jesus, even if it means losing what we love most? Romans 5.5-8 show us how. Imagine of a set of scales and on the one hand we have the hope of the glory of God (which is yours if you have put your trust in Jesus and have been justified by faith), and on the other hand we have anything we might gain in this life. Last week Matt walked us through Romans 5.3-4 where we saw that God puts our suffering to work for us. It produces something for us. It produces perseverance, and perseverance produces a tested character and faith. And that tested character and faith has an even stronger hope! And think back to set the scales, the hope of the glory of God is so good that anything that makes us more certain of receiving it makes us happy, even suffering. The more certain you are of being involved in the Glory of God the happier your life will be. Even if that is brought about by suffering (even by the loss of the thing you love most), if it makes us more certain that we will participate in the Glory of God we come out happier.

Chris has the job of preaching Romans 5.9-11 to you, so it’s up to him to convince you that being part of the glory of God really will make you happier than anything else possibly could. But, today Romans 5.5-8 show us how we experience the happiness that that hope brings. Imagine two children who both stand to receive a huge inheritance, tax free, no strings attached. And imagine this inheritance is held in a trust fund until their 21st birthday. Imagine one child has no idea about this trust fund and the other child was told all about it. Both have the same objective, happy reality to look forward to. But only one of them has the subjective feeling of happiness and anticipation and security and so on that the gift comes with. That’s what Romans 5.5-8 tell us about; how we enjoy and experience the happy condition we are in because we have been justified through faith in Christ. Let’s read Romans 5.5:

…hope does not put us to shame…

That sense of being put to shame – it’s being let down. It’s putting all your eggs in one basket and the basket being dropped and you being left with nothing. Being put to shame is to be like the man Jesus spoke about in one of his stories (Luke 12.13-21). He gets a good harvest. He tears down his barns, builds bigger ones, stores up his harvest and then says to himself “Well done!” Only to die that very night. And what does Jesus say is the verdict on his life? “You Fool”. His hope put him to shame. His barns and his crops didn’t make him happy. They couldn’t save him. So here’s the question: How do we know we are not fools when we stand with Jesus and suffer? How can we be sure that our hope will not put us to shame? Romans 5.5:

…because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

Romans 5.5 says there are two things that are always true for you if you are a follower of Jesus. 1. God has given you his Holy Spirit. 2. With the Holy Spirit, God has poured out his love into your heart. It’s been said that sin makes us wonder can God love me, and suffering makes us wonder Does God love me. Romans 5.5 tells us that if you’re a follower of Jesus – yes and at all times God does love you. That is the objective reality of your life as a follower of Jesus. And crucially, the Holy Spirit enables us to know it, feel it and believe it.

Here’s what’s going to happen; I’m going to read out these words in Romans 5.6-8 and it’s only the Holy Spirit who can open our eyes to make us realise for ourselves that they apply to us. Please read Verse 6-8 with me:

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

We can all walk through the logic together. Jesus died for people while they were still sinners. We know that people don’t easily give up their lives for other people, though maybe for a good person someone might sacrifice themselves. But what kind of love dies for its enemies? That’s extraordinary love! But only the Holy Spirit can apply that love to your heart so you can experience it and enjoy it. In the New Testament passage we heard read, there were dozens of people who saw Jesus being crucified. But who understood the significance? The soldiers didn’t see. Jesus was just another criminal to them. The crowds didn’t see. Jesus was just an upstart religious teacher who overreached himself. But do you see? Do you see that Jesus is dying at the right time, before you did anything to deserve his love, while you were still weak and a rebel to God? Do you see that Jesus saw you when you were at your worst, before you had any interest in loving him, and chose to die for you? Can you think of even a single person for whom you would willingly and deliberately die in their place? Anyone for whom you would say “no I can’t bear it – I’ll die instead, let them live”.

Do you see that Christ willingly and deliberately swapped places with you while you were his enemy – and endured the full wrath of God in your place so that you could be forgiven? That’s what the cross demonstrates day after day, God the Father loves you so much he sent his son to die for you while you were his enemy. Jesus, the Son of God, loves you so much that he died for you.

None of us were born when Christ died for us. That means none of the sins you have committed in your life had happened when he died. Yet every one has been paid for by his death. Think about it this way – your biggest, most serious, worst sin Christ knew about it before you did, and it didn’t stop him going to the Cross. I’m 33 years old. If I live a normal western life expectancy I could live my whole life again and then some. That means statistically my worst sin could still be ahead of me. I do not know how sinful I am but God does. He knew it on the cross when he was paying for each one of them. And only God the Holy Spirit can enable us to see that.

Hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

The Holy Spirit enables us to see the depths of God’s love for us when we look at the Cross and see that Christ died for us while we were his enemies. When you suffer loss for being a Christian look at the cross and let the Holy Spirit reassure you of God’s love for you and your utter security in Christ, because the great news is coming next week when Chris preaches to us the stunning implications of Romans 5.9-11. Since we have been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him. But for us this week, let us allow the Holy Spirit to see the demonstration of the Cross – where God says “I love you”. No matter what you’ve done, no matter how bad or how often you sin God says through the cross “I love you”. God loves you. You will not get to the end of your life and be exposed as a fool for trusting in Jesus. What difference does that make for us today?
Maybe you’re not a Christian - I’m so glad you’re here today, I’ve been praying that today will be the day that God enables you to see how much he loves you. I’ve been praying that today will be the day you abandon the sad and futile work of trying to justify yourself before God and instead accept his loving rescue through Jesus Christ. It is so liberating to be able to put our guard down and admit our sins and let God pay for them at the cross. If today is that day, please let nothing stop you from doing business with God through Jesus tonight. If I or another Christian can help, please ask.
For those of us who are following Jesus now, I think we fall into two groups; those who are suffering and those who will suffer. To the first group I just want to say God sets the bar really low for us when we suffer. Rejoicing in your suffering does not mean carrying on as normal. You might be going through a season of depression, or bereavement, or burn-out – God does not expect you to be the life and soul of the party. All God wants for you is to let this suffering go to work producing perseverance and so on – and you just fix your eyes on the cross and the hope of the Glory of God. God wants to comfort you. He does not need you to perform for him. If you’re a Christian and you’re going through suffering now, let Romans 5.3-4 reassure you that God wrestles good out of suffering for your benefit – and let Romans 5.5-8 point you to the Cross and allow God to demonstrate again his love and commitment to you.

And for those of us in that second category (Christians who are about to suffer), look at the cross with the help of the Holy Spirit to be reminded and reassured of God’s love for you. And let that give you courage to suffer the loss of other things for the sake of standing with Christ – that you will not be put to shame for doing so. And if God has not put something on your heart to do in response to this; please can I encourage you to come to the church’s prayer meeting on Wednesday as we begin to look ahead to the next stage in the life of JPC. There will be plenty of things that will require courage, hard work, grace and mercy in the coming months – so maybe one small suffering we can all do is keep Wednesday evening clear to meet together to pray at this important junction in our church life.

Well, I don’t know which group best describes you. Let’s take a few moments for time with God to clarify any action we need to do in response to his word this evening. And before the musicians lead us in our last song, let me pray:

Father, thank you that the hope you give us is so certain we will not be put to shame for living in the light of it. Thank you for the cross which demonstrates your love for us day after day. Please strengthen us by your Spirit to stand with Jesus, to suffer loss for his sake, and to live happy and steadfast lives, assured of your love, doing the work you have given us to do. Amen.