New Covenant Presbyterian Church
Sermon 1 John 4:10-12 “Love”
December 23, 2018
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The countdown to Christmas continues. This is the fourth Sunday of Advent. The Season of Christmas starts Tuesday. So we complete our Advent waiting on Monday night at 6:00 pm when we welcome our savior into the world with our Candlelight Christmas Eve Service Pageant. Please join us.
So far this we have looked at hope, peace, and joy. Now we turn to the greatest of all virtues, love. We will get to this, but first, let’s pray.
“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy Heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)
Matthew 22:36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’[c] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’[d] 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Today we are talking about love. Love is very different from hope, peace, and joy. Hope, peace, and joy all are internal. They exist in our hearts. We have hope, peace, and joy within us. But love requires a relationship. I love another. Another loves me. Love is always two-ways.
Our culture defines “love” in several different ways. The first is that “love” is used to refer to intense sexual attraction. We say that we have “love at first sight”. This kind of love is necessary for us to have marriages, families, and children. But it doesn’t last very long. The feeling of love goes away and we move on. This is not biblical love.
Another way we use the word “love” is to signify an intense feeling of liking something. You go into a restaurant and you love the meal. You hear music on the radio and say you love that song. You would love to get a new Lexus for Christmas. Again, this is not biblical love.
A third way we use “love” is as a synonym for tolerance. Increasingly the culture and some churches say that love of neighbor requires us to be non-judgmental. So if we love someone we must not hold them to ancient biblical standards. This love requires us to tolerate what we used to call sin. Again, this is not biblical love.
Biblical love happens when we place the welfare of someone else about our own welfare. We will do anything for that other person. We will sacrifice our own lives for that person if we have to.
Biblical love forms the building blocks of families. A man and women fall in love. Each one places the welfare of the other above their own. Each one would sacrifice their life for the other. This kind of love is needed for raising children. A child needs biblical love. They need parents who will place the child’s welfare over their own. They need parents who would sacrifice their own lives for them. And so biblical love is what binds families together.
And this is why God prohibits adultery. When two people share biblical love they are committed to raising the welfare of the other above their own. But adultery breaks this commitment, destroys families, and is devastating to the one left behind. So adultery must be avoided for the sake of love and families.
Biblical love is not just for families. It can characterize friendships as well. In our Christian education classes this week we have been looking at the story of David and Jonathan. Jonathan was the Son of King Saul and was expected to be the heir. David had been anointed by the Prophet Samuel to be the next king. So these two were competing for the throne, but instead, they became best friends. They loved each other. Each lifted up the welfare of the other above his own. Each was ready to sacrifice his own life for the other. And when King Saul wanted to kill David, Jonathan, risking his own life, protected his friend.
Love causes us to speak out when someone else is hurting himself. If someone is leading a life of sin, love requires not toleration of the sin, but a call to repentance from the sin. So love compels us to proclaim salvation and forgiveness of sin to the world. Love requires us to bring people to Christ.
Biblical love is also the foundation of our triune God. We read in 1 John 4:8 “God is love”. For God to be love there must be a relationship within God. The Father loves the Son and the Son loves the Father. Both put the welfare of the other about their own. Both would sacrifice their lives for the other, as the Son did. Love comes from the Father through his Spirit. Love comes from the Son, through his Spirit. And so the Holy Spirit is the love that binds Father, Son, and Holy Spirit into our one triune God.
So biblical love is a characteristic of God and the building blocks of families and society. And this brings us to today’s scripture
1 John 4:10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
“We ought to love one another.” What kind of love is John telling us to have? Are we to have an intense sexual reaction to each other in the church? No. Are we to intensively like everyone in the church? No. Are we called to be tolerant of whatever behavior people in the church do? No. What kind of love is expected among members of the church? Biblical love. John is telling us to lift up the welfare of each person in the church above our own, even if this means living sacrificially. We are to model Jesus’ love in our relationships with one another.
How is this possible? How can we have biblical love for people we barely know? How can we lift the welfare of someone else without first being in a committed relationship? We can do this because we have already received God’s love. And if God’s love is in our hearts then certainly we can love each other unconditionally and sacrificially.
Here is how it works. God reveals himself to us in many ways. We read about God in scripture. We encounter God in prayer. We see God at work in the world. And as we get to know God more and more we begin to develop a relationship with him. And since God is love we begin to experience God’s unconditional and sacrificial love in our lives. We know that God loves us because God sent his own Son into the world for our benefit. And this Son loves us so much he sacrificed his own life for our sins. The evidence is there. God loves us unconditionally and sacrificially.
Jesus put it this way, John 13:34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another.”
When we love one another this way God’s love is complete. Love is a fruit of the Holy Spirit. As the Holy Spirit comes to us we are empowered to love as God loves us. God’s love comes to us and goes through those we love before returning back to God.
Let me tell you a true story about sacrificial love for a church and a nation. Beginning on Sunday, December 9 of this year over 100 members of Early Rain Covenant Church in Chengdu, China have been arrested. Pastor Wang Yi, Senior Pastor of Early Rain wrote a letter in October and asked that this letter be released 48 hours after his disappearance. Pastor Wang and his wife, Jiang Rong, have not been seen since last Sunday. And so this letter has been released to the world. Pastor Wang was arrested because he loved his church and the people of China unconditionally and sacrificially as Christ commanded. His only motivation was to bring people to saving faith in Jesus Christ. But his message has angered the authorities in China. And it is feared that he has disappeared forever. I have placed copies of his letter in the back of the sanctuary for you to read. Please keep Pastor Wang, his family and his church in your prayers.
God is love. The Holy Spirit brings the love of the Father to the Son and the love of the Son to the Father. And the Holy Spirit brings the love of God to us.
We are the beloved of God. Our mission is to deliver God’s love to a world that needs it. This task will not be easy. But it will be fruitful. We are to love people so much that we will bring them to Jesus Christ without regard to what might happen to us and possibly at the cost of our own lives. But the task is worth it because of the surpassing value of God’s love which we have already received.
Let’s pray. Lord in heaven we pray this day for Pastor Wang and the members of Early Rain Covenant Church. They are loved by you and in turn, they love you. They love one another and the people of China so much that they want everyone to come to the saving faith of Jesus Christ. But now they are being persecuted by the government of China. We ask Lord that protect these your servants and let them once again worship you freely and bring others to Christ.
We also pray for our church. Help us, Lord, to love one another just as you love us. Help us, Lord, to reach out into our community a love people be bringing them to Christ. Help us to love others as unconditionally and sacrificially as you love us. This we pray in the name of the love that came at Christmas. Amen.
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