A. W. Tozer - No Greater Love: Experiencing the Heart of Jesus through the Gospel of John

M any of us tend to think of love as a sentimental or emotional thing, not stopping to explore the true depths of it. Perhaps that is why this subject never gets its due coverage.

I dont think anybody would ever accuse A.W. Tozer of being sentimental. When he deals with a subject, he takes it right on, face-to-face. I think that is what people like about reading a Tozer book.

Tozer spent over fifty sermons preaching through the gospel of John, and this book presents his insights on Gods love for us, drawn from this gospel.

Listening to Tozer preach these sermons is quite an experience. When preaching, Tozer never followed a word-by-word script or even a detailed outline. He would fold a piece of paper in two, put notes on the left-hand side and on the right-hand side, and tuck it into his Bible.

Keep in mind, those notes were carefully and prayerfully prepared. To him, it was almost an act of worship. I have many of his sermon notes and the audio sermons that go with them. It is quite interesting to follow the notes as he is preaching.

Although I say that his notes were somewhat of an act of worship, he never worshiped the notes. The preparation might have been an act of worship, but the notes themselves were simply a tool to preach a sermon that God would bless.

One of the wonderful things to me about listening to Tozers sermons is the rabbit trails he often took. He would be going down one line of thought and, out of thin air, would seemingly change topics. More often than not, those rabbit trails are fascinating, and many are included in this book.

When preaching, Tozer was not glued to his notes. He was concerned about allowing the Holy Spirit to lead him in the delivery of that message. If it involved rabbit trails, that was good enough for him.

In this book, I have tried to keep the feel of a sermon. Not an essay in itself, but a sermon that would emphasize Tozers real commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ.

I believe the title No Greater Love solidifies what Tozer is saying. In fact, his treatment of John 3:16 is most interesting. These sermons were being preached toward the latter part of his life, and what he says about John 3:16 reveals Tozers character and nature.

He testifies that he had never before preached on this one verse in his entire ministry. He had quoted it when preaching and also in his prayers, but he had never focused a sermon on that one verse. It is clear that John 3:16 was so important to him, and Tozer carried with him a burden of Gods love in his life.

One phrase Tozer uses that is so powerful is I am the most important person in Gods eyes. What a powerful statement.

We like to say that God loves everybody. However, Tozer points out that God does not focus on groups of people, but rather on individuals. God sees the individual and treats them as though they were the only one in the world.

After listening to that sermon, I had to stop and think about that. It took me several days before I could get back to working on this manuscript. I do not think many people really appreciate the love that God has for us, and we take for granted what it really means.

In reading this book, you will see that Tozer came at this subject from a variety of ways. I believe the more you get into this book, the more you will be fascinated by the awesomeness of Gods love and how that love is channeled individually.

There are times when Tozer is rather harsh, especially toward religion. He says the problem with Christianity today is that the Pharisees are running it. Pharisees, especially in Jesus day, were more interested in law than they were in love. They would put law upon law upon law until the weight of the whole thing came crashing down on the hearts of the people.

Very strongly, Tozer puts these religious leaders in their place. He firmly believed that the laws of religion were really keeping people from experiencing the love of God.

He agreed that those Pharisees could explain and talk about it for days on end, defining it in the most intimate way. The problem, as Tozer saw it, was they believed in Gods love but had never experienced it themselves. That is the problem with religion today.

We can explain everything in the Bible, but we have yet to experience the truth in the Word of God. This was Tozers passion: It does no good to know the truth unless you also have experienced the truth.

Another interesting element of this book is Tozers discussion of the unpardonable sin in one chapter. Not too many people talk about this. Those who do talk about it often seem to misunderstand. Tozer gives a wonderful definition of the unpardonable sin and how we as Christians today can deal with it. If we do not know what it is and how it affects us, it will damage and compromise Christianity for us.

My greatest challenge in putting this book together was deciding what not to include. These sermons on the gospel of John are some of the best of Tozers. Because he was coming to the end of his ministry in Chicago, he poured into each sermon wisdom he received from God along with the illumination of the Holy Spirit.