God is Love
Notes
Transcript
Play What is Love Video (3:30)
Go ahead and grab your Bibles and turn with me to 1 John 4 if you would! That’s going to be our main text for our time together today.
Recap
Recap
Over the past few weeks we’ve really been digging into the Peace, Hope, and Joy of the Advent Season! So, Just to make sure everyone is on the same page, Let’s look back at some of the things that we’ve learned:
We said in week 1 that Hope is “When we believe that because of What the Lord has done in the past, and because we have made a commitment to follow Him in the present, then we know that our future is taken care of.”
We learned in week 2 that “Jesus will give us peace, not always by removing the storm, but more often by covering us during the storm.”
And this past week we learned that “Joy is not something that is based on Emotion, but founded in the truth of the Gospel! “
We’ve covered a lot of ground in these 3 weeks, and this morning we’re going to be “landing the Plane”.
Each week we’ve spent some time diving into and understanding the definitions for each of the words that we have covered.
Our topic this morning is Love.
Let me ask you this, is there a more ambiguous term in the english language?
What i mean by that is, Is that there are so many interpretations of this word, that on very few occasions will two people have the same answer if asked, What is Love?
In the video that we saw a second ago, A group of people surveyed 100 random people asking them this very question..
and Wow… this is not a church group by the way. This is a pop culture group who did this survey, with no desire to define love within the context of the Bible. So this shows us that Love is something that even those outside of the Church are trying to Figure out, right?
This is not a new journey to 2020. The same was true about the church at Ephesus when John wrote to them between 95 and 110 AD
The church had really started to fall victim to false teachings and confusion.
We See:
Doctrinal Issues
Doctrinal Issues
There were people who were suggesting that Jesus didn’t actually take on a Human body, but that he only “appeared to have flesh”
which is HUGE doctrinal issue! because without Jesus being completely man, and completely God, there can be no payment for our Sin.
People were making up there own theology, based on their feelings and understanding.
There were also:
Moral Issues
Moral Issues
People were living the “My truth” lifestyle. Which meant that they could define what was right and wrong themselves. and heaven forbid someone try to hold them accountable to the scriptures, or even to whatever form of morality was present, because to them, they were the ones who determined right from wrong.
of course John addresses these issues in this book.
He addresses the doctrines in:
1 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see if they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
and He address the morality in:
15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
The big picture of the situation was that people were starting to turn against one another all together.
The people of the church were living a dark and dangerous lifestyle.
Which is why John starts this sermon with one of the most famous passages in all of the Bible
5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light, and there is absolutely no darkness in him.
6 If we say, “We have fellowship with him,” and yet we walk in darkness, we are lying and are not practicing the truth.
Light Vs. Darkness
Light Vs. Darkness
John sees that the situation is dyer and must be addressed very directly, in a way that painted a clear picture that they would understand.
So he uses the example of Light and darkness and that vivid picture helps us form the major point of our time together! That is that:
Love exists only in the Light , not in the Dark
Love exists only in the Light , not in the Dark
This brings us to our text this morning. John has seen that not only are there doctrinal and moral issues, but there is a Lack of Love.
7 Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
8 The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
9 God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his one and only Son into the world so that we might live through him.
10 Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
11 Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another.
When we examine 1 john, We see that it’s actually written more like a sermon than a letter. So even though i don’t think John was thinking in terms of a 3 or 4 point sermon outline like we often do today. We can definitely see a flow that exists in this text.
God is Love
God is Love
We see this in Vs. 8, and it’s a simple statement. However, this verse is often twisted to mean whatever people want it to mean in the world today.
What do you mean Matt?
The scripture does not say “Love is God”, but says “God is Love” this is an important distinction!
But most people in 2020 will say “God is Love” but they actually mean that “Love is God.” What happens is We use our own Sin influenced experience and understanding of Life and Love, and we try to define God.
When we do that, it’s no different than when other cultures build false God’s out of wood/stone/ or whatever else they choose to worship! It’s crazy to see that John was dealing with the same types of issues that we deal with today!
Love is Sacrificial
Love is Sacrificial
10 Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
A great misunderstanding among many Christians is that when we are saved by faith in Jesus, that our sins just disappear. All of us who are Christians believe in Jesus’ Birth, Life, Death, and Resurrection. and we have to! But the Sin debt that we Owe still exists!
On a Saturday in September, 2013, one of the most deadly terrorist attacks in history took place in an upscale mall in Nairobi, Kenya. Four Gunman, part of the Al-Qaeda affiliate al Shabab, took the lives of 67 people, with over 200 injured. It was by all accounts a horrible disaster. But one story of the shooting ended up receiving media attention. It was the story of a young mother named Sneha Kothair-Mashru. Sneha was at the mall having coffee with a friend when the gunfire began.
Having dropped to the floor she heard a cell-phone going off near her. Not wanting the gunmen to come closer, she reached under the person next to her to silence the phone. It was at this point that she realized the man next to her was bleeding heavily.
“When I put my hand under him that’s when I realized that this guy had been shot because he was bleeding,” she told NBC News. “He was bleeding heavily. There was a lot of blood there.”
At this point, the woman made a difficult, life-changing decision. She decided to smear the blood of the man on her own body, in hopes that the terrorists would assume she was dead and they would “pass over” her body.
Her grisly camouflage probably saved this woman’s life.
“I’d love to know who he was, because I think his blood protected me, saved my life,” she said.
Stuart Strachan Jr. Source Material from NBC News
This woman’s life was saved by the suffering of an innocent bystander!! Someone who’s life had been involuntarily taken away from him! Someone who had no idea what was coming on this September Saturday...
The Love that Jesus shows us is Similar, but so much deeper!
Jesus Voluntarily stepped down from Glory. Knowing all well what His time here on earth would be like. Knowing that He would face hardship, Knowing that He would suffer, Knowing that He would DIE!! But also Knowing that YOU need to be covered by His blood to keep the enemy away. That’s What Love is!
And guess what. When You finally reach out and accept the gift of Salvation. When you finally give up that old Fake worldly version of Love for what Jesus has to offer you will see that:
Love is Unconditional
Love is Unconditional
13 This is how we know that we remain in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit.
14 And we have seen and we testify that the Father has sent his Son as the world’s Savior.
15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God—God remains in him and he in God.
The Lord will “Never Leave Nor Forsake” His children.
So i want to ask a question that may make you uncomfortable this morning.
Does Love mean anything to us in 2020?
Does Love mean anything to us in 2020?
Have you been living your life with the wrong understanding of Love?
Do we believe that the type of love that we’ve been talking about really exists?
if John were to come up to you this morning and say:
7 Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
Would you be able to look Him in the eye and say, “I Know God.” “I have been Saved by Jesus, and the Love reflected in my life is proof of that.”
Or do you feel doubt.
Doubt in whether your view of Love has been shaped by the world, or by Jesus.
Are you confident that you’ve been saved by surrendering your life to the Love of Jesus?
or have you surrendered your life to the lies of this world?
If you’ve haven’t surrendered your life to Jesus. You can come down and make things right this morning!
Invitation
Invitation
Christ Candle
Christ Candle
Lighting a candle is a simple yet profound act. It is a testimony to the power of light over darkness. Something we will experience later during the candle lighting. Four weeks ago we began our journey toward Christmas and lit the first candle of advent, the Hope or Prophecy candle.
[Read John 3:16-17 and light the rear purple candle]
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
Jesus Christ is the true reason for hope, peace, joy, and love in this season and forever.
As we light the Christ candle, celebrating the end of Advent and the arrival of Christ and Christmas, let us remember how our savior came once as a lowly baby, that the world through him might be saved, and how he will return one day in glory.
[Read John 1:9-14 and light the center white candle]
The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
[Read John 8:12]
When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”