December 2, 2007 First Sunday of Advent
Sermon Title: “From God, With Love”
Series: Love Came Down At Christmas
Text: 1 John 4:7-21
Dr. Steve Jackson
Delivered on December 2, 2007
“We have come to know and to believe in the
love God has for us.”
1 John 4:16 RSV
From God, With Love
In case you haven’t noticed, it’s that time of year again. Christmas… What’s your favorite part of the season? Is it the decorations? The sense of expectation you see in children’s eyes? Is it the family get-togethers? The food? Is it the presents? I’ll tell you what one of my favorite things about this season is – I like to wrap packages. Kind of weird for a guy, I admit, but I really love wrapping gifts. In fact, I wrapped this one right here. I like to select just the right paper, and then cut it so as to waste as little as possible, and then I fold and trim and tape it. And of course the final step is to attach the gift tag saying who the gift is from and who it’s too. This one says, “From God, With Love”
Wow, talk about great gifts…how would you like to make the “Big Guy’s” Christmas gift list? Well, know what? You did make God’s Christmas list. And today we’re beginning a new series of sermons all about the greatest gift he gave us all at Christmas; the gift of his love. Over the next few weeks we’re going to “unwrap” this beautiful gift in a series I’ve titled, “Love Came Down At Christmas.” We’re going to learn all about God’s love and the importance of loving God and one another, which also happens to be the first component of our new mission statement [point to wall], “Love God….”
Last fall we simplified our mission as a church to just these three things: “Love God, Grow to be like Jesus, and Share with the World.” We said, “You know what? If we just focus as a church on building kingdom relationships, engaging in spiritual formation, and keeping an outward, missional focus, we’ll be doing exactly what God is calling us to do as a church.” If we were really pressed to reduce our eleven word mission down even further, we could get it down to just two words, “Love God.” That’s basically what Jesus did – remember? The religious leaders of His day had developed a religious system with 613 laws. They chose the number 613 because that was how many letters were in the Ten Commandments. Take the 613 laws add in the Ten Commandments themselves and you’ve got 623 laws to keep up with. One day Jesus was asked to sum up all 623 laws and he reduced them to just two: 1) Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and 2) Love your neighbor as yourself (Matt. 22:37, 39; Mk. 12:30, 31). If you just do that, Jesus said, everything else will fall into place.
The guy who wrote the beautiful passage of Scripture we read this morning believed Jesus when he said this. First John was written by the Apostle John, the same guy who wrote the gospel of John. There’s an interesting story told by the ancient church Father, Jerome, who records that, “When the blessed evangelist John, the apostle, had lived in Ephesus into his extreme old age and could hardly be carried to the meetings of the church by the disciples, and when in speaking he could no longer put together many words, he would not say anything else in the meetings but this: “Little children, love one another!” When at last the disciples and brothers present got tired of hearing the same thing again and again, they said, “Master, why do you keep saying the same thing?” John replied with a saying worthy of him: “Because it is the Lord’s command, and it is enough if it is really done” (Jerome, Commentary on Galatians 6:10 AD 387-388).
And so this morning as we start on our journey towards the cradle of Christ and begin to carefully unwrap this beautiful gift of God called his love, I’d like to share with you five things to know about God’s love. All five are found in these verses from First John.
One - God is the SOURCE and ESSENCE of love
The first is this: God is the SOURCE and ESSENCE of love. As for God being the source of love, verse 7 says it plainly:“…love is from God.” Love originates in the mind and heart of God. Love isn’t our idea, it’s God’s idea! We didn’t think it up, God did. You can never get in front of God, he’s always ahead of us. And especially when it comes to love. The gift of love comes from God, there’s no doubt where it comes from.
Something I learned once I got married was how different families handle the ritual of opening gifts at Christmas. Some open them on Christmas Eve, others wait until Christmas morning. In some homes Santa’s gifts are wrapped and in some they aren’t. But perhaps the biggest difference I noticed was whether or not there is any order to the opening of the packages. In my house what we’d always done is have one of the kids play “Santa” and hand out gifts to people by reading the tags. Then, when you got a gift, you just started opening it. Nobody watched you open it – heck, everyone was too busy opening their own gifts. But in Donna’s home what happened was someone got all the gifts out from under the tree and stacked them in a pile in front of you. Then you went in order, usually from the youngest to the oldest, and each person opened a gift while the others watched, snapped photos, and made comments.
I can see the merits of both methods, but I have to admit that in my house you often didn’t have a clue who had given you a gift. I can remember more than one Christmas at my house where, at the end, people would say, “I’m not sure who gave me all my gifts, but I love them” – and then we’d go around and give everyone a thank-you hug. It’s good to know that God is the source of love, and regardless of how we’ve frequently perverted that gift, and misused and abused it, we have him to thank for it. We thank you Father in heaven for this most precious gift, for you are, indeed, the source!
God is also the ESSENCE of love. 1 John 4:8 says, “God is love.” And notice please that what John says is not just that God “has love” or “does love,” but that God himself is love. Like we just said, love isn’t our idea; it isn’t something we came up with. It came from God. Where did God get the idea? According to John it has always pre-existed in God’s nature, in who God is; it defines his very essence. Why is it important that “God is love?” I can think of several reasons, but I’ll only mention a couple.
First of all, in a world where the name of God is sometimes associated with vengeance or even the obligation to propagate hatred and violence, the message that God’s nature is fundamentally self-giving love is both timely and significant. From a national or international, or sectarian religious perspective, what group can claim to represent the God of heaven that promotes any agenda besides the love he showed us on the cross?
Second, and
perhaps closer to home for us, since God “is
love” then there’s nothing you or I can ever do to can make God love us any
less or any more. When we realize God loves us in spite of all we’ve done, and
in spite of all that we’ve left undone, then it should reorient and redirect our
understanding of what love is and how it works. Here’s what I mean. O
The source and
essence of God is love. It has been for eternity. Let’s never forget that. Love
isn’t
Two - God’s love in us is PROOF we’re
believers
The second thing to know about God’s love is that God’s love in us is PROOF we’re believers. This is stated in our passage in both a negative and a positive way. The negative way is found in verse 7 where we read, “Whoever does not love does not know God...” I’ll be honest with you though, I really like it when John states it in the positive. You’ll find that in verse 16, which really provides a kind of a summary of the Christian life. In fact, it’s strongly affirms the biblical basis of the first movement of our mission statement, “Love God.” Look at verse 16, John says, “We have come to know and to believe in the love God has for us.” (RSV)
Do you want to know the definition of someone who is a believer at NewSong? That verse right there says it best, A believer at NewSong is someone who has “come to know and to believe in the love God has for us.”
We have come to know and believe in the love God has for us. With these words you and I can express the fundamental and most defining decision of our life. Being Christian is not about dogma, or about keeping a bunch of rules, or even being able to recite huge chunks of Scripture from memory. Instead it’s about an encounter with a person, Jesus Christ, who has given our life a new horizon and a decisive direction. In his gospel John describes this in terms of an event: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16). In staking our belief on this truth we acknowledge the centrality of love to our faith. Since God has first loved us, love is now no longer a mere “commandment;” instead it becomes a response to the gift of love with which God draws near to us.
If you’re a
believer, God’s love should be in you. I heard on the radio this past week that
the inventor of Gatorade died on Tuesday. The man’s name was Dr. J. Robert
Cale, a professor at the
Three – God’s love was REVEALED by Jesus
Christ
The third thing to know about love from this passage is that God’s love was REVEALED by Jesus Christ. That’s what it says in verse 9, “God’s love was revealed among us in this way; God sent his only Son into the world that we might live through him.”
This particular verse is what originally drew me to the passage as one appropriate for Christmas – the part where John says, “God sent his only Son into the world.” I realize the whole notion of whether Christmas or Easter is more important to us as believers is kind of a “chicken or egg” question. I mean, yes, Jesus had to die on the cross and be resurrected for the claims about him to be true and for our sins to be done away with. But how could he do that if he’d never come to earth as a tiny helpless baby at Christmas and then grew into the man who lived a sinless life and then was wrongly condemned and crucified?
There are some
specific ways in which his birth reflects God’s love for us. Don’t forget that he
came as a helpless, innocent baby. And he came to us as a child threatened by
violence, when Herod killed all the babies under two in and around
But yes, the wood of the cradle would eventually be traded for the wood of a carpenter’s bench, and in time, the wood of the cross. The main point here is that in all these, as a baby, as a man, and as Savior and Lord, Jesus is the clearest revelation of God’s love. And let’s face it, sometimes we just need that “human touch” to really grasp or understand things. It’s like the teenager, tired of reading bedtime stories to his little sister, who decided to record several of her favorite stories on tape. He came into her room the first night after making the tape and was setting up the tape player by her bed as he explained, “Now you can hear your stories anytime and as many times as you want. Isn't that great?” The little looked at the tape player for only a moment before she replied, “No. It hasn't got a lap.”
Jesus is the clearest revelation of God’s love. Do you want to know what God’s love looks like? Look to Jesus; climb up into his lap and feel his precious arms enfold you. Then go and share that love with the world.
Four – God’s love is EXPERIENCED in
community
The fourth thing to know about God’s love is that it is EXPERIENCED in community. That’s what John meant when he wrote, “...those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen.”1 John 4:18
This is why membership and participation in a local church is so important. It’s here that we learn about God’s love by giving it and receiving it in the context of a community of faith. This simple point is the “key” the entire book of 1st John is written in. You know, music is written in a certain key, A, B, F, G, whatever. When music is written in a certain key that means certain other chords work well with that piece of music. It also means that the only way for that song to end is for it to resolve itself by returning to that key. A song written in the key of “G” will eventually make its way back to the G chord or note, or it won’t seem complete. In similar fashion, the key of John’s letter here, and the key we’re trying to write our music in here at NewSong, is the key of love. Love, love, love, love, love. John says if you know God you will love your brothers. If you do not love your brothers you don’t know God.
Jesus had already alluded to this when he said whatever you have done to the least of these you have done unto him. He also said whatever you have not done to the least of these you have not done to or for Him. To withhold your love from any human being and especially from your Christian brothers and sisters is to withhold love from God. Love is the Great Commandment, and it motivates the Great Commission. Without Love we are not like Christ and therefore not Christian.
This was what was so wrong about the ancient monastics who went out far into the desert away from everyone to devote themselves wholly to God. Let’s face it, anyone can be loving “out there,” the real question is can you be loving, can you give love and receive it “in here.” That’s the real test.
It’s also our main task as the body of Christ for one another. That’s why whenever I talk about “Love God” I do so under the more general heading of “Kingdom Relationships.” How do I know God is loving? I experience his love in here with you, and as I express his love to you, you experience his love as well. You can’t know the love of God without relationships with others.
FIVE – God’s love INITIATES
Fifth and finally, and related to the last point is the truth that God’s love INITIATES. John says, “We love because he first loved us.” 1 John 4:19, Romans 5:8. I’ve already mentioned that God’s love is always going before us, always reaching out to us; all we can do is respond or ignore his love sent out way.
But when I talk about how God’s love initiates here what I want to convey is that we need to take a clue from God on this one and start initiating love among ourselves. Sometimes I talk to folks about their relationships in the church, or we talk about differences that have come up between us – either here in church or at home or work or school. And people will say, “Yes, but they did this or that to me…” Or they’ll say, “No one ever comes up to me and says anything…or invites me….”
Well here is where we need to take a clue from how God’s love works. I want to suggest that you take the initiative. You be the one to go to the other party, even if they’ve aggrieved you or ignored you.
If God’s love always goes before, always initiates, shouldn’t our love do the same?
This morning let me suggest to you that you take the initiative to love. Start right here in the church with one person you can learn to love like Christ has already loved you. Believe me, you won’t regret it.
Let me close by saying it is such a privilege to be a part of this church and to experience your love here. You know, many people will never know the love we feel in this place. Many know what it is to be unloved. Many go through life knowing only hate and despair. There are people you would never imagine who would never let it show that are living lives of quiet desperation feeling unloved. We all need acceptance, care, and love.
If you don’t hear anything else I said this morning please know that God’s love is always there, reaching out to us. God’s love is here. Love is in this place. And let’s remember what John said in his summary of what it means to be a believer. We are “those who have come to know and to believe in the love God has for us” (1 John 4:16). Do you believe that? What will your response be to that Word from God this morning? Let’s Pray.