The Heart of Christ

Sunday School Teaching on a section from "The Heart of Christ" by Thomas Goodwin - Josh Lyon

1. Intro

a. Good morning church, it is a joy and honor to be with you this Lord’s Day. For those of you whom I’ve not met, my name is Josh Lyon, and it is my privilege to serve as one of the ministerial interns here at Second. Before we dive into our study this morning, let’s approach the Lord in prayer. Praise, thanks for Christ/intercession, help this morning to see our Savior’s heart, to see who He is that we might be steadfast, and that steadfastness would have its full effect, that we may be perfect and complete as your people, learning to trust and delight in you. Help me to speak faithfully according to your Word, that we would all see Christ and be assured of His love for us. Amen.

b. Whether you’ve been here each week this summer or are just joining us this morning, we’re in the middle of our series working through the book, The Heart of Christ by Thomas Goodwin. Today we’re combining two lessons into one, and by God’s grace will be working through pages 35-58. A few weeks ago, Chase gave us a helpful summary of the main point of the book, and defined it as follows: “The affection, compassion, and graciousness of Christ’s heart in heaven toward those who come to Him is no less so than His heart was toward people when He was on earth.”

i. One of the biggest problems we often run into as we think about God, as we consider our Savior’s heart towards us, is that we think He is like us. We think Christ deals with us in ways similar to how we live our lives. For example, my family and I just moved here from Michigan in January. As time goes on, as much as we’d like to, it’s difficult for us to keep up with people we love up north. We’re limited in our ability to maintain relationships, limited in the time we have.

ii. And in our weaknesses and limitations it’s all too easy to project our experience onto Christ. To think now that He’s “moved on” to glory, as it were, that He doesn’t have the time for us anymore. That He can’t care about us the way He cared for those around Him while He was on earth. Yet this book helps us see that Christ is not like us, for His heart towards His people on earth is as full of affection, compassion, and grace now that He's in heaven as it ever was when He walked the earth.

c. And to prove that main point, the past few weeks we heard how Goodwin first laid out the external, or the outward, demonstrations that Christ’s heart in heaven is indeed no less so inclined towards His own now that He’s in heaven. We heard how Christ washed His disciples’ feet in light of His coming glorification. How He fulfilled His promise to send His people the Holy Spirit. How He spoke peace to His disciples after the resurrection despite their unbelief. How He yearns for His people and we call out to Him to return for His bride.

i. And what a comfort this is to us, to know that we are Christ’s. To know that His final words to us assure us He’s coming soon, that His mind and heart are ever inclined towards His people.

2. Internal Demonstrations of Christ’s Heart

a. Where Chase and Vitor walked us through the external demonstrations of Christ’s heart, and how His actions on earth and in heaven reassure us of His great love towards sinners, we’re going to turn to those internal demonstrations of Christ’s heart.

b. As a disclaimer I did get full approval to use this example – Last fall we were leaving a church event and headed to the car. It was one of those nights – it was late, kids are melting down, it’s dark outside, we’re all ready for bed. I’m in the trunk of our SUV changing a diaper when all of a sudden I hear a thump and immediately Katherine cry out in pain. I jumped and looked over to see my wife on the asphalt holding our 1 month old in her arms.

i. Katherine was bleeding all over but amazingly, our son was unscathed. Now, looking at the incident from afar we might think she’s just exceptionally coordinated. But Katherine will be the first to tell you she’s no athlete. Not to mention she’d just had a c-section, so her body wasn’t exactly gymnastics-ready either.

ii. So based on her actions, on the outward demonstration we might conclude she really loves her child, because she was willing to sacrifice her own body for his sake.

iii. But why would she do that? Why would she put her own wellbeing on the line to save her son? Because she’s a mother. It’s who she is, it’s her nature. And in a similar way, this morning we’re going to look at Christ’s nature. Who is He that His heart would be so inclined towards sinners? What is He like that would cause Him to love His people forever?

iv. Maybe you’ve had the thought, if only I could see Jesus, if only I could be near Him, if only He were still here to heal my infirmity. To counsel me in my marriage. To weep with me in the death of my loved one. To help my unbelief as my prayers continue unanswered. To strengthen my weak faith as my wife might miscarry. If only I could experience the mercy and compassion He had for people that I read in the Gospels.

c. That line of thinking brings us to Hebrews 4:15, the main text in this section. It reads, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.”

i. It’s a great desire to want to be near to Christ. To yearn after His love, to seek His heart in our afflictions. How do we do that now that He’s gone? How do we draw near to Him? In His Word. He’s told us who He is, what He’s like. And though He’s no longer with us bodily, we can still draw near to our merciful Savior in Holy Scripture.

ii. And that’s exactly why Goodwin argues he chooses this text, because it, more than any other, speaks to Christ’s heart towards sinners now that He’s in heaven. He says it’s as if this verse takes our hands and places them upon Christ’s chest, letting us “feel how his heart beats and his affections yearn toward us, even now” as He reigns in glory (35). In our grief, in our trials, in our uncertainty and doubts, this verse assures us we can look to our Savior now, we can still see and know His great love for us while we’re here on earth, and He’s in heaven.

iii. And so our goal this morning is this – that we, the people of God, would be encouraged, that we would be fortified against anything in life that might discourage us as we further consider Christ’s heart towards us now that He’s in heaven (36).

1. To accomplish this we’re going to work through our material today under two main headings: Christ’s Heart for you as High Priest, and Christ’s Heart for you as Shaped by the Trinity. Repeat.

3. First, Christ’s Heart for you as High Priest

a. Picture, for a moment, you just got a parking ticket – 15 minutes only, ended up being 27 minutes and so you got slapped with a nice $50 fine. What a great surprise to see that little piece of paper waving at you under the windshield wiper. But of course if only they’d understand the delay was completely out of your hands they’d let you off with a warning, right? So what do you do? you start the process to fight it.

i. Yet as you get ready to make your case, you find out the attorney general of the United States caught wind of your travesty and swooped in to make the appeal for you. Case closed, no fine. On the one hand you’d probably be incredibly grateful, but on the other you’d probably wonder what in the world is the attorney general doing wasting his time on a lowly parking ticket. He’s got bigger fish to fry, and frankly our nation would probably be in trouble if he was monitoring parking meters.

ii. While that story is a bit hyperbolic, as Christians we might be tempted to think similarly when it comes to our Savior. He’s the high priest in heaven, after all! The Lamb who was slain once for all time and now sits enthroned amidst armies of angels proclaiming His victory and holiness forever! He’s far too great for me, too highly exalted to trouble Himself with my affairs, with my sins and afflictions.

b. Or maybe we think well, I know Christ is omniscient God, so sure, He might notice us, He might remember me, but He’s resurrected and glorified now, so He can’t have compassion on or sympathize with me like He could when He was on earth. He was subject to and surrounded by the weaknesses of the flesh when He was here, but He’s surpassed earthly weakness now that He’s in heaven. He can’t relate to me down here in the dust anymore.

i. But Goodwin points out that this text in Hebrews makes it abundantly clear these thoughts about Christ’s heart are false. Notice the verse uses a double negative: “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses."

1. It doesn’t say, “our high priest is able to sympathize with our weaknesses.” All our English lovers in here would probably agree that might be a better way to put it in our language, but the author is intentionally emphasizing how untrue these two objections are.

a. To clarify, when we talk about Christ being tempted, we might be tempted ourselves to think because Jesus Christ, as the Second Person of the Trinity, was not able to sin, therefore He wasn’t truly tempted as we are. Christ never felt the full force of temptation. But as Leon Morris explains, “The man who yields to a particular temptation has not felt its full power. He has given in while the temptation has yet something in reserve. Only the man who does not yield to temptation, who, as regards that particular temptation, is sinless, knows the full extent of that temptation.”

b. In other words, only someone who faces a temptation and doesn’t give in to sin feels the true weight of that temptation. So when we sin, when we give in to temptation, we actually feel less temptation than Christ did. He understands the force of temptation more fully than we do.

2. So even though Christ is indeed glorified, He still sympathizes with you. He still retains His compassionate and loving heart towards you. He knows the full extent of your temptation. Think how enticing Satan must have been in Christ’s physical weakness the wilderness. How severe would have been the insults and taunts to save Himself while hanging upon the cross.

3. He is able to sympathize with us in our afflictions. He knows the pain that fills this earthly life. Maybe you’ve been betrayed by someone close to you- who knows the betrayal of a close friend better than our Savior? Maybe you’ve had someone fail to keep their word- who knows the disappointment of friends not keeping their word as well as Jesus? Maybe you’ve been accused of something despite your integrity- who knows the sting of false accusations better than He? Maybe your family has disowned you- who knows that sorrow like Christ when the Father forsook Him on the cross? He suffers with you. And Hebrews 4:15 assures us He understands and is just as tender and full of pity now as He ever was on earth.

4. So be encouraged in your afflictions, Christian, be reminded of your Savior’s love and compassion in your temptations and trials as you behold Christ in the Gospels, clothed in flesh, naked and shamed and wounded on the cross, for you can be sure that same heart, that heart willing to lay down His life to save His own, to save you, has not changed now that He's in heaven.

5. He acts as your High Priest even now, for He is a priest forever. He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through Him, because He stands to make intercession for His people to the Father. He prays for you. And He ministers His word to you by the power and the work of the Holy Spirit.

4. Christ’s Heart for you as Shaped by the Trinity

a. And just as we’ve begun to see the Trinity in Christ’s High Priestly office, we see the heart of Christ shaped by the Trinity.

i. As Christians, we’re going to be Trinitarian. But why does having a right understanding of our Triune God matter? We could spend the rest of our lives fleshing out the answer to that question, but for today’s purposes, Goodwin makes the case that the way Christ loves His people, the way our God deals with sinners in redemption, is rooted in the Godhead. And so this morning I hope with Goodwin we shall clearly see Christ’s Heart as shaped by the Trinity.

b. The Father

i. Goodwin takes the first demonstration from God the Father, and divides it into two parts: The Father’s command to Christ to love sinners, and that therefore Christ’s heart continues in love forever.

ii. First, the Father’s command. John chapters 6 and 10 lay out exactly what the command given to Christ entailed: Jesus tells us it is His Father’s will, the Father’s desire and command that Christ would 1. lay down His life for His own; 2. receive all those who come to Him; and 3. raise them up on the last day.

1. And as we read the rest of John’s Gospel account we find out that Christ did indeed lay down His life for His sheep. He endured the agony of the cross in loving obedience to the Father’s will and willingly gave His life for His people. He completed the Messianic task set before Him, and was declared to be the Son of God in power by His resurrection from the dead. But then He ascended to the right hand of the Father…

2. Yet we can take comfort in this, for though He did lay down His life and take it up again, the other 2 components of the Father’s command remain in effect now that Christ is glorified in heaven. He is continually receiving sinners and upholding them, and the last day is coming soon.

iii. As Chase mentioned a few weeks ago, from John 8 we know Jesus always does what is pleasing to His Father. Like a good Son He desires to do what His Father desires. And the Father’s command is firmly fixed in the heavens. His will is unchanging. And surely Christ’s heart towards the Father is unwavering now that He’s in heaven. Surely He will continue to do forever that which is pleasing to His Father.

iv. Therefore take comfort knowing the Father’s heart is that Christ would continue to receive poor sinners, and that Christ would preserve His people and raise them up on the last day. When trials and discouragements rear their head, take heart knowing that because Christ will always fulfill His Father’s will, as surely as Christ died for you while here on earth, He will surely preserve you and raise you up in glory at the proper time.

c. The Son

i. But we know Christ’s heart towards sinners is not only demonstrated by His obedience to the Father’s will, for we look to the Second Person of the Trinity and see the Son of God in Himself is loving.

ii. In Matt. 11 Jesus invites weary sinners to come to Him, and in verse 28 assures them by saying, “I am gentle and lowly in heart.” What might be most amazing about that statement is that His gentle disposition towards sinners is not going to change. It’s who He is. Even though He is now highly exalted, He has not forgotten you, His beloved. He is lowly in heart. He is ever as mindful of you, ever as gentle and tenderhearted now as He was on earth, for He is immutable, very God of very God.

iii. Our doctrine of God ought to influence the way we live our lives. If we know that God is love, that God is a God gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, we know our Savior’s heart. We know who He is, and we know how He has, and He will continue to deal with His people. When we start to lose faith, when our hope wavers, it’s often because we’ve forgotten what we know about God. We’ve forgotten who He is. We’ve forgotten He has loved us with an everlasting love.

iv. As we further consider what this heart of love looks like, the apostle Paul’s example comes to mind. If you read his letters, it’s impossible to walk away without being convinced of his deep love for the saints. Here was a man who wished he could be accursed for his brothers if it might have meant their salvation!

1. Yet this desire is not natural to Paul. As we’ll hear a short while from now, this is a man who desired to murder God’s people until Christ met him on the road to Damascus.

2. So where on earth did Paul’s winsome and severe love for his brothers and sisters come from? In Philippians 1:8 he tells us it’s the affection of Christ. It’s the love of Christ in Him.

3. Modern medical technology might help us understand this idea more fully- a radical and relatively new cancer treatment involves transplanting stem cells contained in the bone marrow of a donor to the patient. If all goes well, the donor’s bone marrow integrates into the patient’s body and basically develops an entirely new immune system for the patient’s body to fight the cancer. The donor is unaffected, but the patient takes on the immune response of the source. In a sense, the patient becomes the donor.

4. So where Paul needed a transplant to fight the cancer of his sin, as it were, this heart is natural to Christ. For if Paul’s love, mingled with his flesh was so great, how much greater must the affection of Christ be?

a. This is not an earthly love, but one drawn from the source of love itself, from God the Son who is in His very being love. Who loves with a perfect and everlasting love. And Jesus tells us He gives His water to all those who come to Him, and that that water becomes a spring within them welling up to eternal life. How we see this water of life, this heart of love in other believers! How we see the love of our Savior poured out on His people as we love Him by loving one another.

b. But again, where this heart is given to us, and to the apostle Paul, it’s entirely natural for the one who did become accursed for His brothers and who did secure their salvation. He is ever the perfect donor, and His love for sinners flows out of His unchanging, natural heart towards them.

d. The Holy Spirit

i. And lastly, we turn to the Holy Spirit. If the same Spirit who anointed Christ in His earthly ministry still rests upon and flows from Christ in heaven, we can be confident Christ’s heart towards us is unchanged.

ii. As evidence for this we look to Jesus’s first sermon on earth after His baptism, at which point He became full of the Spirit. In Luke 4, we see Christ at a synagogue, where He stands up and chooses to read from Isaiah 61,

1. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

iii. While we know from Isaiah the day of vengeance is surely coming as well, here we see Christ’s heart in the purpose of His receiving the Holy Spirit. In Jesus’s earthly ministry, He was anointed with the Spirit to proclaim good news to the poor. To free those enslaved to sin, to give sight to those stumbling in darkness. To liberate the oppressed. To proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.

1. This text demonstrates the main effects of Christ’s Spirit upon His heart, that compassionate heart which beat throughout His preaching the gospel to sinners on earth.

iv. Yet we can be sure Christ’s merciful disposition towards sinners is no less so today, for the same Spirit which was upon Christ on earth is even more abundantly upon Him now that He’s in heaven. For example, we see in Rev. 1 that the Spirit is sevenfold before the throne of Christ- seven, that biblical number of perfection, indicating the perfection of the Spirit with Christ now that He’s in heaven.

1. Additionally, Christ was baptized with the fullness of the Spirit, and now that He’s in heaven He baptizes His disciples with His own Spirit. The Spirit who shines light into dark hearts. Who guides those who turn to Christ into all truth. Who conforms them into Christ’s image. We can trust Christ’s gracious heart is ever for the good of His people, for the same Spirit is upon Him in glory.

2. Out of His great love for His people, out of the overflow of His own Spirit, He invites us into the unity of the Trinity by pouring out His own Spirit upon us, bringing us into the everlasting love of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

5. Conclusion

a. Our goal this morning was to be encouraged and fortified against any discouragement in this life. Remember Christ’s heart. Remember though He is a great high priest in heaven He sympathizes with you in trials and temptations. His heart is no less inclined toward you now than it was on the cross. He now intercedes on your behalf to the Father, He ministers His Word to you through the power of the Holy Spirit.

b. Remember too, that it is the Father’s heart, the Father’s will that Christ should love His own forever, and that Christ loves to do His Father’s will.

c. Remember that Christ is love. It’s His unchanging nature. His heart that you love in the Gospels, His tenderness and compassion for the crowds, His mercy towards poor sinners like you and me, that same heart is still beating for you now that He’s in heaven. It will not change. It will not weaken in intensity or efficacy. He will love you always, and in that love He will bring you home to glory.

d. Remember the purpose for which Christ was anointed with the Spirit, that loving disposition to proclaim the gospel and deliver sinners. And remember that same Spirit is upon Him still, sevenfold, now that He’s in heaven.

e. So when trials come, and as we all know in various ways they surely do, look to Christ. Look to your high priest who sympathizes with you. Cling to Him and the assurance you have in His lovingkindness. Even though He is glorified and seated at the right hand of the Father in heaven, nothing can separate you from that love, and nothing can change His heart towards you, His beloved. When discouragement or even despair begins to creep into your mind and heart, remember Hebrews 4:15, and place your hands upon Christ’s chest to remind yourself of His heart for you. Let’s pray.

f. Father we thank you for our time this morning and praise you for your gracious will to send us a Savior, to give your only begotten Son as a demonstration of your love. Thank you that we can see Jesus Christ in the Word. That the Holy Spirit guides us into all truth and applies Christ’s work to us. Help us to look to Jesus in our trials and temptations, and take comfort knowing that we have a high priest who sympathizes with us, who continues forever and is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to you through Him. Help us now as we prepare our hearts to worship you together as your people. May you receive all glory and honor and praise this Lord’s Day, for you are exalted as head above all. I ask all this in Christ’s name. Amen.