JOHN: It says, you know, I planted the seed, and Apollos watered, but God caused the growth.
DONNA: Yes.
JOHN: We don’t cause the growth.
DONNA: Uh-huh
JOHN: So, that’s, that is what we saw. And we started to see God just do things that we could never do.
DONNA: Uh-huh.
JOHN: And those people, then, as they grew in the Lord, became our leaders. There are
DONNA: Yes.
JOHN: Many of them are on our staff today.
DONNA: Yes. Wow. Wow. What is your definition, before we go to break, what is your definition of Unshockable Love?
JOHN: Well, Donna, the book, Unshockable Love, comes from down the road realizing there were many Christians who were coming to be a part of this church reaching so many people.
DONNA: Sure.
JOHN: But I started to see that they didn’t, actually, act like Jesus to the people around them.
DONNA: Oh?
JOHN: And I studied the Gospels, all four Gospels, the chronology of what happened, and looked at the difference in Jesus attitudes and actions from that out of the religious Pharisees attitudes and actions.
DONNA: Mm
JOHN: And what I started to realize is Jesus was not shocked at all by the shocking things that we do, our horrendous sins, all of that.
DONNA: Yes. Yes.
JOHN: But He somehow entered right into where people lived and was able to restore and redeem what was broken.
DONNA: Yes. Yes.
JOHN: The religious Pharisees actually pushed people away. And, unfortunately, what I started to see is that the world looks at many Christians today and feels repelled by them
DONNA: Yes.
JOHN: Rather than what happened with Jesus, where those were the people who were spinning around Him, and then became His followers, and were the very people that He changed the world through.
DONNA: Yes. Yes. I’m going to stop right there. And we’re going to talk more about God’s Unshockable Love when we come back. Stay with us.
DONNA: Well, welcome back to Something More. I’m here with John Burke from Gateway Church in Austin, Texas. John, we are talking about God’s Unshockable Love. Why do you suppose that so many people when Jesus was on the earth, why did they run from the religious people but run to Jesus?
JOHN: Yeah. I think, after studying a harmony of the Gospels and looking at Jesus attitudes and actions versus the Pharisees attitudes and actions, there was something very different. And we can find, we can go between those two. And so we have to pay attention to that. It’s not all one or the other. Jesus, I believe, could see what God intended people to become.
DONNA: Mm. Oh. I like that.
JOHN: I like to use an analogy. My wife and I were – lived in Russia, in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and the Hermitage Museum houses Rembrandts famous, The Return of the Prodigal Son painting. It’s my favorite painting in the world.
DONNA: Yes. Yes.
JOHN: And, you know, that painting is, you know, the father, representing God, hugging this prodigal who comes running home, out of Luke 15, you know, where the Pharisees were complaining because some of these sinners were –
DONNA: Of course. One of my very favorites, too.
JOHN: Yeah. They were coming to listen to Jesus. And He was accepting them. Well, that painting today is worth millions and millions of dollars because it was done by the master. It’s an original.
DONNA: Uh-huh.
Tags: its supernatural, Sid Roth
Tags: its supernatural, Sid Roth