Advent: Love (Week 4)
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Advent
Advent
I hope you have been blessed during our Advent series this year, and this morning I hope to tie together much of what the Lord has been speaking to us as a congregation on Sunday mornings as we reflect on the Advent again today.
To recap:
Week 1—Rick kicked off our season for Advent, and he mentioned that Advent simply means coming or appearing in Latin. The word in Greek is parousia.
Last week, Rick kicked off our season for Advent, and he mentioned that Advent simply means coming or appearing in Latin. The word in Greek is parousia.
SLIDE
He spoke about the HOPE that we have because of the Lord. Hope doesn’t have to materialize what they believe because they anticipate and expect what can’t be seen with tangible faith.
Week 2—I spoke about the PEACE that Christ came to bring us all, mainly reconciliation between us and God. This is the ultimate and eternal peace that Jesus desires for each of us, but His peace works its way into every area of our life.
Week 3—Last week, Christian did a tremendous job in speaking about JOY. He shared both personally and in reflection upon the life of Joseph of how joy is in the reflection upon the dots of God’s involvement in our lives.
Today, we will finish our series as we reflect and remember God’s LOVE for us. There is no force or power on the earth greater than God’s love. The Scripture tells us that nothing can separate you from His love. That death can’t keep you from it. There is no mountain high enough, valley low enough that could keep you from God’s love.
VIDEO: Advent Love
14 I will feed them with good pasture, and on the mountain heights of Israel shall be their grazing land. There they shall lie down in good grazing land, and on rich pasture they shall feed on the mountains of Israel.
15 I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord God.
16 I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them in justice.
The prophet gives a description of the coming One as the Great Shepherd. The arrival of this Shepherd will be in such contrast to everyone else that has attempted to lead Israel. In verse 14, Ezekiel says that the Lord will tend his sheep in good pasture. Look at what verses 15/16 say about the true Shepherd:
the Lord will provide for us
Ezekiel 34:
the Lord will care for us
the Lord will gives us rest
the Lord will search for and rescue us
the Lord will heal us
the Lord will give us strength
We hear from the Lord, recorded in letters of red, how He longed to become that Good Shepherd for His sheep.
36 When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
Matthew (;36
Last week, Christian talked about being empathetic, feeling what others feel. It is said of Jesus here that He not only was moved by empathy but compassion. His feeling what others felt led Him to do what other couldn’t or wouldn’t. He decided to change the direction of the narrative. Out of His great love, Christ continues to do for each one of us.
37 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!
Nearing the end of His days, Jesus looks at the lost sheep of Israel and recognizes how they have rejected Him in the same way they rejected the messengers of God throughout their history. It hasn’t changed His love for them. It hasn’t changed His desire to care for them, to lead them, to guide them.
Despite what you have done with God’s voice in your life, despite what you have done with His acts of love toward you and for you…It hasn’t changed His love for you. His desire is still to be the Good Shepherd in caring, leading, and guiding you through His perfect peace.
31 For the Lord will not cast off forever,
32 but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love;
33 for he does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of men.
The Lord’s love is patient and steadfast.
God’s love distinguishes Him. When Paul writes the famous chapter on love in , he debunks what it isn’t first. He says it isn’t giftedness or even the appearance of sacrifice. It isn’t found in tongues or prophecy or even giving to the poor ALONE. These things must all be fueled by one common, divine force—LOVE.
Then Paul begins to define love for us. He says:
4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant
5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;
6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.
7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.
I corinthians 13:4
It is the first defining term and the last descriptive word I want to highlight for us.
1 Corinthians 13
LOVE is PATIENT.
When we fall and when we fail (because we will), the Lord, in His perfect love, doesn’t give up on us. His love is patient. It is eternal. He is steadfast and resolved in His love. And even if there are consequences to our choices, He allows hardship or tests, His love is not that He brought about those things, but that He is with us even in those circumstances and situations of our lives. His love sees us through. His love carries us through. His love never ends, never fails.
I love what Charles Spurgeon says about the love of God:
Consider what you owe to His immutability. Though you have changed a thousand times, He has not changed once.
His love for us stays the same, never-ending, unchanging.
Franklin Graham says:
No matter what storm you face, you need to know that God loves you. He has not abandoned you.
This brings us to our Advent verse for today!
VERSE:
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
16 “This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life.
This is the most quoted verse, and for good reason. Though often heard, let’s not allow it to lose its value or power for our lives. The simple truth is that God deeply loves us. He created us out of His love for us, has purpose for our lives, and has never stopped loving us. The depth of His love is ON DISPLAY by his willingness to reconcile us to Himself. Or as we saw in week two, He made peace with us and Himself through the Advent or coming of Christ Jesus.
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.
“This is how much God loved the world...”
The Bible tells us that God is love.
8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.
But this isn’t void of action or a display of that love for us.
The heart of the gospel is not a philosophical observation about the character of God as love but a declaration of that redemptive love in action.
Bible scholar A. M. Hunter highlights the significance of agapē by noting that while eros is all take and philia is give-and-take, agapē is all give.
Love must of necessity give. It has no choice if it is to remain true to its essential character. A love that centers on self is not love at all but a fraudulent caricature of real love.
Mounce, R. H. (2007). John. In T. Longman III & D. E. Garland (Eds.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Luke–Acts (Revised Edition) (Vol. 10, p. 400). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
Bible scholar A. M. Hunter highlights the significance of agapē by noting that while eros is all take and philia is give-and-take, agapē is all give.
Love must of necessity give. It has no choice if it is to remain true to its essential character. A love that centers on self is not love at all but a fraudulent caricature of real love.
God gave his Son for the deliverance of all humanity (cf. 2 Co 5:19). This giving extends beyond the incarnation. God gave his Son in the sense of giving unto death as an offering for sin.
God gave his Son for the deliverance of all humanity (cf. ). This giving extends beyond the incarnation. God gave his Son in the sense of giving unto death as an offering for sin.
I try to understand a love this radical, but I don’t believe it is humanly possible. God gives us spiritual revelation and spiritual glimpses into the astounding love He has for us, but those glimpses have to come from Him.
STORY: For those newer to the church, I have 4 kids. I have a couple of them because of how much I love my wife. I have a couple of other kids because of how much God loves me. Let me explain.
My wife tells me that we both wanted 4 kids, and that we even discussed these matters before we got married. I do actually remember those conversations. I also remember the conversations after we had our first child. The conversation went something like this, “One child isn’t that bad. I mean she will get all of our attention and love. We won’t be divided or distracted by other kids.” Having kids was harder than I realized, and yet easier all at the same time. Those first kids you register and buy things that you actually don’t need. I remember we had a wipes warmer and a diaper genie so the entire house didn’t smell like dirty diapers. After having 6 babies 1 and under as Foster Parents over the past 3 years, we are just glad to have a clean wipe forget if it is room temperature or better yet been sitting in the car outside in the cold. We got to wipe some buns! ;)
And a diaper genie: our changing table has turned to a place on the floor beside the fireplace so that we can “neatly” stack diapers and wipes on the brick around the hearth. Half the time, I am grabbing diapers off the floor (not number 2 diapers) to just put them in the regular trash in the kitchen.
But one thing having kids has helped me reflect and understand better is how our Father God loves and protects and provides for us as His children. I love Ellie and Judah. They are flesh of my flesh, for better or for worse. And they may hear this one day, but there is just something different about the bond I have with Levi. I don’t have a savior mentality like we saved him from some awful life of being raised by drug-addicted parents. Honestly, this is why I say that it is God’s love that took our journey down the path of adoption. God’s love knew that my heart would lack accurately reflecting His without these experiences and the changes that these experiences would bring into my life.
He terrifies me at times that he is going to do something to hurt himself. He likes a little more rhythm and beats, needing a little more sensory input than some, but there is just something about his sweet, tender heart that has captured me. He has some of the funniest faces, the most loving hugs and kisses, and the greatest dance moves a 2 yr old white boy can bring.
TRANSITION
Someone needs to hear this:
I look at how God must relate to us. I know His feelings for Jesus are strong, some I will never fully understand. But I know that God also takes great delight in us. We are His creation. We are the apple of His eye. You are something special to Him. And just like with Levi, He really enjoys you. He enjoys your quirks and uniqueness. There are things that you have been warped to hate about yourself that God really enjoys about you. He loves you.
This seems so simple, but the truth of these thoughts can profoundly change our lives if we will let it.
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
God’s role in redemption was the giving of his Son; the role of human beings is to believe. To believe in Christ is to accept and love him (Jn 1:12; 8:42). The Greek expression pisteuō eis (“to believe into”) carries the sense of placing one’s trust into or completely on someone.
10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
STORY: As many of you know, my parent’s started an inner city youth ministry 25 years ago. Full-time, I help with the daily operations of this organization. But I remember the earlier years, when we were still only in 2 neighborhoods on Saturdays. We were at this one particular neighborhood, Austin Homes, and the lesson was nearing the end. Demarcus had already been a handful that day. He was a typical boy with lots of energy, difficult to keep focused. But we had done our best that day. And as we started the ending prayer time, he turned and said, “God doesn’t love me. I’m bad. He only loves good kids.”
Who told you that? If you only knew how much God loved you, and how great of a plan He has for your life. We remind Demarcus that the Bible says:
8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
PIANO MAN
In the Christmas story, we see love in a few different ways. We see 1) Joseph’s love for Mary, 2) Mary’s love for Jesus, 3) God’s love for sinners, and 4) our love for one another. There would be no Christmas without love, and all four of these are important parts of the Christmas story.
We see Joseph’s love for Mary in these verse in Matthew’s Gospel.
We see
18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.
19 And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.
Joseph could have left when he found out his fiance was pregnant. He knew it wasn’t his, but his character and love for her are displayed by making a choice that would not bring her shame. Paul says in that love always protects.
I love what Luke records about Mary:
19 But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.
Luke
Moms you know what this sentiment is like. You capture moments in ways that only mothers do and can. You capture them, store them away, only to ponder them with fondness later on. This is what it means to treasure word or moments. It is moments and memories like these that only enhance the love a mother has for her child. Mary loved Jesus deeply.
Matthew reminds us why Jesus came:
21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
Matthew 1:21
Jesus is the Greek form for Joshua. Joshua coming from Yehosua, Yahweh is salvation, or in its short form, Yesua, Yahweh saves.
The angel gives Mary the name which her son will carry and the role and purpose He will serve for all humanity. He will save His people from their sins. Our ADVENT VERSE for today, , tells us that God loved us so much that He gave Jesus to us. He gave him to us. Remember: This giving extends beyond the incarnation. God gave his Son in the sense of giving unto death as an offering for sin.
LANDING
We have seen Joseph’s love for Mary, Mary’s love for Jesus, God’s love for the world, and now we come to the final point we should remember about love this Christmas—our love for one another.
Notice God’s love comes first. God’s love always comes first. God’s love in creating the world; God’s love in promising a Savior; God’s love in sending his Son into the world; God’s love in Jesus dying on the cross for your sins. “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” ()
God’s love always comes first. But then our love should follow.
11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
Our love for others should follow, not merely as an obligation, but as a natural outflow of God’s love for us. If God loved you so much that he sent his Son Jesus to die for you, how can you not love others in return? And if God loved others so much that he sent his Son Jesus to die for them, how can you not love them as well?
“Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” () Our love for others should follow, not merely as an obligation, but as a natural outflow of God’s love for us. If God loved you so much that he sent his Son Jesus to die for you, how can you not love others in return? And if God loved others so much that he sent his Son Jesus to die for them, how can you not love them as well?
And so Christmas is not only a reminder of how much God loves you, but also how much you should love other people. Is there someone you need to help this Christmas? Is there someone you need to reach out to this Christmas? Is there someone you need to forgive this Christmas?
WRAP
No doubt you've already heard the familiar words of "O Holy Night" this year. Don't miss the truth of the final verse: Truly He taught us to love one another; His law is love and His gospel is peace.
If you want to know how to love one another, look at the love that sent Jesus to earth to live a life of love and pay the price for all of our sins. It's all about love. This isn't a love of fancy words and impossible tasks. This is a love that says, "I am willing to love you no matter what."
We can love because He first loved us.
PRAY
http://www.rayfowler.org/sermons/five-candles-at-christmas/advent-candle-of-love/
https://emilycheath.com/2015/12/20/when-love-changes-everything-even-you-sermon-for-the-fourth-sunday-of-advent-2015/
https://www.fbclaf.org/sermon/activate-adventactivate-love/