The Love of the World

Well, we are in week four of / / Advent and so far we’ve looked at the topics of Hope, Peace and Joy, and this week the topic we are looking at is love.

And I would say there is no topic greater than this because it all starts with love and ends with love. The whole thing is about love.

I said something last week that I want to pick up on and we’ll get right into talking about love this morning.

In talking about the Joy that Jesus had that enabled him, or empowered him to endure the cross, which is both his obedience to the Father, on this side of the Cross, but also the viewpoint of looking past the cross and seeing what would happen because of the cross. We read from Hebrews 12:1-2 which says, / / Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross. Or as some translations say, / / For the joy set before him, he endured the cross.

I believe whole heartedly there are two aspects to that joy that was set before Jesus. First, the Joy of being at the right hand of the Father. On the other side of death was resurrection and ascension to heaven. That’s a good deal. Have you ever been to the doctor and they said, “This is going to hurt, but it will feel better once it’s done.” Or have you had to say that to a child. They have a splinter, and getting the splinter out is going to hurt, but after it’s out it will be much better. Jesus in a sense had that to the most extreme. “This is going to hurt, a LOT, but look at the joy on the other side of it.”

But then the second reason I believe Jesus was able to endure the cross because of this joy, was that not only did he see the Father, but he saw me and you and all of humanity on the other side of the cross ALSO with the Father. WE were the joy that empowered and encouraged Jesus to endure the cross.

And so in looking at that I said this, and I want to repeat it, I believe it is absolutely vital to understand. / / The cross was not the Father sacrificing the Son to satisfy a need of the Father. It is the Son, and the Father, and the Holy Spirit, loving humanity so much that the life of the Son was worth the lives of all humanity restored to their original potential… eternity without corruption.

Again, not getting into all of it again. But if you remember last week I mentioned that in the garden of Eden we had perfection. Before Adam & Eve ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil they were living in paradise and complete harmony with God. They were naked and felt no shame. They walked with God in the cool of the day. They had unhindered and complete access and communion with God.

But, when they ate the fruit from the tree they were not supposed to, corruption entered the earth, or at least humanity. Humanity was no longer perfect. The problem with the garden of Eden, or maybe not a problem, a huge benefit if they would’ve done it right, was that the other tree that was mentioned was the Tree of Life, which would have given them eternal life.

I don’t know the logistics of it all, and I don’t know why Adam didn’t just chop down the bad tree and stuff his face with the tree of life. But apparently they had NOT yet eaten any fruit from the tree of life because listen to what Genesis 3:22-24 says. This is after all the snake and fruit and bad tree and all the stuff that God says is going to change now that they’ve eaten that fruit. It says this. / / Then the Lord God said, “Look, the human beings have become like us, knowing both good and evil. What if they reach out, take fruit from the tree of life, and eat it? Then they will live forever!” So the Lord God banished them from the Garden of Eden, and he sent Adam out to cultivate the ground from which he had been made. After sending them out, the Lord God stationed mighty cherubim to the east of the Garden of Eden. And he placed a flaming sword that flashed back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.

So, I’m pretty sure this is how I was taught growing up, or at least this is how I understood it.

Adam & Eve sinned, they did a bad thing, God punished them for it.

But that couldn’t be further from the truth.

God, up front gave them full warning that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil would cause death in them if they ate it. They chose to eat it anyway. Can you call that punishment?

Take my mac ‘n’ cheese analogy with Kaylee. I’m making her a pot of mac ’n’ cheese, and I warn her that it’s hot, so do not touch. She touches it. She gets burned. Did I punish her for not listening? No, I don’t think anyone in the world would say that. She’s old enough to know, it wasn’t negligence on my part. She fully understood the assignment, but didn’t follow the instructions, and that had unfortunate consequences. I’m not without compassion toward her. I’m not going to punish her on top of that for not listening. The pain of her choices has already been sad enough.

And some might say, “Ya, but look at that list of thing God says now they’ll have to do because they won’t be in the garden...”

Sure, but when you tell someone not to touch a hot pot on the stove, do you explain every little detail of what will happen if they do? First it will burn, then it will blister, and that blister might pop and then it’s going to take days to heal, and if you don’t treat it properly it’s going to scab, and if the burn is deep enough it could actually do nerve damage and you won’t be able to feel on that particular spot.......

no, of course not, You say, “Don’t touch that pot, It’s hot, It will burn you.”

The same is true of Adam & Eve and really, all of humanity. When God gives us instructions to live by and says these instructions will lead you to life, and if you don’t follow them and do what is wrong, you’ll get hurt...and then we have these key moments like Deuteronomy 30:19-20, where God says, / / “Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessing and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live! You can make this choice by loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and committing yourself firmly to him. This is the key to your life. And if you love and obey the Lord, you will live long in the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”

Oh, that you would choose life!!!!! This is the heart of God!

So, when we read Genesis 3 and it looks like they are being punished because the NLT translates that as “banished”, and banished doesn’t really sound good. The NIV uses the same word. But you want to know what most of the other translations say? “sent him” God “sent him out of the garden”. And when you connect that with the previous statement, and put two and two together you get this: We’ll call this the RET, Rob’s Expanded Translation:

/ / When Adam & Eve had eaten the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and as a result were corrupted by sin, God, knowing that if they ate from the tree of life they would inherit eternal life but would live that eternity corrupted by this sin, he did the only thing he could do to protect them - he removed them from the garden where the tree of life was.

Now, I’ve asked this question, and many have asked it before me, and many will ask it after. You may have as well. Why did God wait so long before sending Jesus? And I’ll be really honest with you. I have no idea. I don’t know if that answer exists, I’ll let you know if I find it in my studies. But, what I do know is that Galatians 4:4-5 says, / / But when the right time came [fullness of time], God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children.

And Paul echos the same thought in Romans 5:6 and says, / / When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners.

Because we could no longer eat of the tree of life and live forever without being free of the corruption from the wrong tree, Jesus allowed his body to be raised up on another tree, the cross, so that we, through death, could live forever. This is why Jesus tells Martha in John 11:25, / / “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying.”

So you see, this was and is all about love - even if we didn’t understand it. Even if I was taught, or at least walked away from what I was taught thinking God had punished humanity. It wasn’t that. It was about love. God protecting the ones he loves until, as Galatians 4 and Romans 5 both say, at the right time Jesus came to make a way that would produce the same fruit that the tree of life would have, while also dealing with the corruption of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil once and for all.

Do you see how maybe the teaching of Jesus is so often about leading us away from that tree? What did satan use to tempt Adam & Eve? Did God really say? Don’t you want to be like God? God is lying to you...

And what did Jesus teach? Deny yourself, take up your cross, trust in ME and follow MY teaching, obey MY commands and I will lead you to life. Not by YOU figuring it out, but by you following ME.

The enemy will always try to convince you that it’s on you to figure it out.

God is constantly trying to invite us into what He’s already done and wants to do in our lives.

It always has been, and always will be about love. For the love of those he had created, God, through Jesus Christ made a way to be free from corruption, and live for all eternity with Him.

So, looking at love this morning we can’t help but read John 3:16, which is arguably the most well known scripture in the bible, at least for athletes and fast food restaurant cups. It says this, and I’m also adding vs 17 in here, / / For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.

/ / For God so loved the world...

As I read that this week and thought about it, isn’t it interesting that Jesus does not say that His father sent him in that first statement. In fact, he doesn’t use the word Father there at all. He uses the word Theos, which is the greek word translated in english as God. If this was written in Hebrew the word that would be used is Elohim, or Yahweh. Those translate as God or more appropriately The God, referring to the One and Only True God.

Now, I don’t want to get too complicated here, and I certainly am no Greek or Hebrew scholar, so I won’t try to teach more than I can or should. I would say this is more reflection on word usage. But, John, as a book, does not shy away from the word Father. In fact, of the four gospel accounts, John uses the term Father more than twice that of any other writer, and then 1 John, a book later written by John, is the second book in the New Testament that has the highest use per chapter of the term Father.

Take John 4:21, 23-24 for example, a well known scripture. Jesus is talking to the Samaritan women at the well and says to her, / / “Believe me, dear woman, the time is coming when it will no longer matter whether you worship the Father [pater] on this mountain or in Jerusalem. …the time is coming - indeed it’s here now - when true worshipers will worship the Father [pater] in spirit and in truth. The Father [pater] is looking for those who will worship him that way. For God [Theos] is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.

All through the gospel of John Jesus refers to God the Father as Father.

Even John himself, not just quoting what Jesus said, but as he opens his book, in what we call the prelude, the first 18 verses of John chapter 1. He says in vs 14 and 17-18, / / So the Word became human [that is Jesus] and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s [pater] one and only Son. For the law was given through Moses, but God’s unfailing love and faithfulness came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. But the unique One [Jesus], who is himself God, is near to the Father’s heart. He has revealed God to us.

This passage is great, as we see John move back and forth between Father & God… pater, and theos.

This is why I’m bringing this up. As I said, the book of John, more than any other book in the New Testament, has an emphasis on the Father. This is why I find it so interesting that John 3:16 does NOT say that the Father sent the Son. It says GOD sent the Son. Not pater, father, but Theos, God, the trinitarian expression of God. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.

So, as I said last week, Jesus did not endure the cross because he was being sacrificed by the Father, but that it was God, the Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit that sent Jesus Christ, who as Hebrews 1:3 says, / / The Son radiates God’s own glory and expressed the very character of God, or as the ESV says it, is the exact imprint of the nature of God.

It is not God who leads to death - It is sin that leads to death, Romans 6:23 says that, For the wages of sin is death. God had warned Adam & Eve of that very thing. This tree, the one I’m telling you NOT to eat, will cause death.

So then we are now corrupted by sin, and Romans 6:16 says / / we [are] slave of whatever you choose to obey… sin, which leads to death. … obey God, which leads to righteous living.

So we are slave to the thing we give our lives to either unto death, OR to life.

Think less about punishment and more about consequence. And that Jesus gave his life to conquer the corruption of sin from the tree in the garden by being raised up on another tree on the hill of Calvary.

Jesus said in John 15:13, / / There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

And this love, became a baby...

Vulnerable, unprotected, born in a manger. That’s where we left off last week. Jesus had just been born, the shepherds came and were overjoyed because what the angels in the field had told them actually happened!

So this morning we are going to finish reading through the story. Starting in Luke 2:21, right after the birth of Jesus. And we will actually jump back and forth a bit between Luke and Matthew. Because of the four gospels only Matthew and Luke talk about the birth of Jesus, and they share different things. They don’t give the same story, we are left to kind of piece together the story and without knowing exactly what happened most scholars admit we can’t put a definitive timeline on things. Questions about when the wise men came, about why Luke doesn’t talk about Egypt at all and things like that. So let’s get into it. Starting in Luke 2:21,

/ / Eight days later, when the baby was circumcised, he was named Jesus, the name given him by the angel even before he was conceived.

Ok, pause there for a second, that one sentence is one period of time. As we have already read. Joseph is a devout follow of the law. He was a righteous man. So they are going to do things by the book. Which means as per Leviticus 12, which describes the law and purification after giving birth, Mary would have been considered unclean for 7 days after giving birth. Then on the 8th day they would have the baby circumcised. This was most likely done in Bethlehem where they had the baby.

Here we get to a part where timing isn’t fully understood, and we jump over to the book of Matthew.

Matthew 2:1-12, / / Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the reign of King Herod. About that time some wise men from eastern lands arrived in Jerusalem, asking, “Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star as it rose, and we have come to worship him.”

King Herod was deeply disturbed when he heard this, as was everyone in Jerusalem. He called a meeting of the leading priests and teachers of religious law and asked, “Where is the Messiah supposed to be born?”

“In Bethlehem of Judea,” they said, “For this is what the prophet wrote:

‘And you, O Bethlehem in the land of Judah, are not least among the ruling cities of Judah, for a ruler will come from you who will be the shepherd for my people Israel.’ “

Then Herod called for a private meeting with the wise men, and he learned from them the time when the star first appeared. Then he told them, “Go to Bethlehem and search carefully for the child. And when you find him, come back and tell me so that I can go and worship him, too!”

After this interview the wise men went their way. And the star they had seen in the east guided them to Bethlehem. It went ahead of them and stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were filled with joy! They entered the house and saw the child with his mother, Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasure chests and gave him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

When it was time to leave, they returned to their own country by another route, for God had warned them in a dream not to return to Herod.

Ok, so we have nondescript words on the timing of things here. Matthew goes straight from / / “Jesus was born” to “About that time some wise men came...”

And the same thing happens in Luke. We started in Luke 2:21, / / Eight days later [after his birth] and then the next verse were we pick up the story after the wise men in Matthew, it says, starting in Luke 2:22,

/ / Then it was time for their purification offering, as required by the law of Moses after the birth of a child;

So, from a timeline perspective, if you read Leviticus 12, I mentioned that Mary would have been considered unclean for 7 days, then on the 8th day they had Jesus circumcised, but if you continue to read the law it says that Mary would be then considered additionally unclean for another 33 days. Why, I’m not sure and although there is speculation, it’s not made clear in Leviticus 12, it is just simply stated. So, when the scripture says, “Then it was time for their purification offering” it is not speaking of the day after Jesus was circumcised, even though it is just one sentence later, but it’s now been an additional 33 days and now they can take care of this offering. And, it is possible that it is in those 33 days where the wise men came to Bethlehem, while Mary and Joseph and Jesus were still in Bethlehem waiting through that time period. So, we have the shepherds most likely coming the night Jesus was born, then sometime in the next 40 days the wise men show up. We know they were warned not to go to Herod, so they leave, and then we pick the story back up in Luke 2:22

/ / so his parents took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord. The law of the Lord says, “If a woman’s first child is a boy, he must be dedicated to the Lord.” So they offered the sacrifice required in the law of the Lord - “either a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.”

At that time there was a man in Jerusalem named Simeon. He was righteous and devout and was eagerly waiting for the Messiah to come and rescue Israel. The Holy Spirit was upon him and had revealed to him that he would not die until he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. That day the Spirit led him to the temple. So when Mary and Joseph came to present the baby Jesus to the Lord as the law required, Simeon was there. He took the child in his arms and praised God, saying,

“Sovereign Lord, now let your servant die in peace, as you have promised.

I have seen your salvation, which you have prepared for all people.

He is a light to reveal God to the nations, and he is the glory of your people Israel!”

Jesus’ parents were amazed at what was being said about him. Then Simeon blessed them, and he said to Mary, the baby’s mother, “This child is destined to cause many in Israel to fall, and many others to rise. He has been sent as a sign from God, but many will oppose him. As a result, the deepest thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your very soul.”

Anna, a prophet, was also there in the Temple. She was the daughter of Phanuel from the tribe of Asher, and she was very old. Her husband died when they had been married only seven years. Then she lived as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the Temple but stayed there day and night, worshiping God with fasting and prayer. She came along just as Simeon was talking with Mary and Jospeh, and she began praising God. She talked about the child to everyone who had been waiting expectantly for God to rescue Jerusalem.

When Jesus’ parents had fulfilled all the requirements of the law of the Lord, they returned home to Nazareth in Galilee. There the child grew up healthy and strong. He was filled with wisdom, and God’s favor was on him.

Again, a bit of a timing thing happening here. Luke says they move back to Nazareth, but look at what Matthew says:

So, we know that the wise men were warned not to go back to Herod and if we continue reading Matthew’s account we see there’s more to it.

Matthew 2:13-23, / / After the wise men were gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up! Flee to Egypt with the child and his mother,” the angel said. “Stay there until I tell you to return, because Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”

Again, “After the wise men were gone...” for how long, we don’t know. When? We don’t know.

If I were to guess, the dream Joseph has is while they’re in Jerusalem for the purification ceremony. We know that happened. They went to Jerusalem, and Luke says after that they went to Nazareth. So I’m guessing Luke skips over Egypt just like he skipped over the wise men.

Matthew on the other hand includes this, but you’ll notice, there’s no mention of Bethlehem. The angel doesn’t say leave Bethlehem, just, go to Egypt. Maybe that’s because they already left Bethlehem. Ok, let’s continue...

That night Joseph left for Egypt with the child and Mary, his mother, and they stayed there until Herod’s death. This fuifilled what the Lord had spoken through the prophet: “I called my Son out of Egypt.”

Herod was furious when he realized that the wise men had outwitted him. He sent soldier’s to kill all the boys in and around Bethlehem who were two years old and under, based on the wise men’s report of the star’s first appearance. Herod’s brutal action fulfilled what God had spoken through the prophet Jeremiah:

“A cry was heard in Ramah - weeping and great mourning.

Rachel weeps for her children, refusing to be comforted, for they are dead.”

When Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt. “Get up!” the angel said. “Take the child and his mother back to the land of Israel, because those who were trying to kill the child are dead.”

So Joseph got up and returned to the land of Israel with Jesus and his mother. But when he learned that the new ruler of Judea was Herod’s son Archelaus, he was afraid to go there. Then, after being warned in a dream, he left for the region of Galilee. So the family went and live in a town called Nazareth. This fulfilled what the prophets had said: “He will be called a Nazarene.”

Alright, some more interesting timing things in here as well.

Luke goes right from purification, which is 40 days after Jesus is born to, When Jesus’ parents had fulfilled all the requirements of the law of the Lord, they returned home to Nazareth in Galilee.

I don’t think it likely that they returned to Nazareth and then fled to Egypt. That would be two completely different directions. Plus, Nazareth is about 90 miles north Bethlehem and Herod has only said to kill the boys in and around Bethlehem. If they were in Nazareth I think they’d be safe.

Also, I don’t think they went back to Bethlehem, because they didn’t live in Bethlehem, the only reason they had gone there was for the census, and got stuck there because they had a baby, and then had to wait for purification rituals to be completed.

To me it makes sense that while in Jerusalem, Joseph has a dream saying flee to Egypt. And all the more important because Luke says that Anna the prophet starts going around telling everyone that the Messiah was just dedicated at the temple.

One thing I want to say to you this morning, and the reason I’m taking the time to point out these things and look at them is because I never want you to feel like someone can come to you and say, “See, this story has holes all over it. It’s not consistent. Luke says one thing. Matthew says another. Why even believe this? Might as well believe in Santa Clause...”

And there’s two reasons this won’t get at you. First, maybe you have enough faith to simply say, “I believe the word of God...” And that’s not a bad answer, but in my opinion, and this is my encouragement to you - the better answer is, “Let me show you why those things look like maybe they don’t line up, but there’s real reason why. Because I’ve studied this. I don’t just believe the bible because someone told me to. I’ve read it, I’ve studied it and it points to Jesus.”

If you know me you know I often talk about context when it comes to scripture. And one of the things we look at when it comes to context is who the author is and who the audience is. This changes the way the story is told.

If I were to tell the same story to two completely different people I would probably tell it from two different perspectives.

First, if I’m talking to my wife, she wants detail, so i should give her as much as possible, because that’s important to her.

If I’m talking to my brother, the main points matter most, so I can stick with those. He doesn’t need to know the gritty details.

Now, the same is true if you’ve got two different people telling the same story to one person. Kelley will give you all sorts of details, where as I probably won’t.

But there’s even a more complex scenario, and that’s what we’re seeing here in these two stories in scripture … We have two different people telling the same story to two different groups of people that care about different things. Let me explain.

Matthew is a Jewish writer, writing to Jews with the purpose of proving that Jesus is the Messiah. That’s why He wrote the book of Matthew.

Luke on the other hand is a Greek Christian, so he’s not Jewish, and he’s writing to present an accurate account of Christ and to present him to all people, not just Jews as the perfect human and Savior of the world, not the Jewish Messiah. He’s writing to the Gentiles.

So, if you look at these stories. Matthew shares the story of the birth of Jesus in 33 verses, from Matthew 1:18 - 2:23, and in that short little story says 5 times, / / ....this was to fulfill what God had spoken through the prophet...

Jewish people looking for the Jewish Messiah written about in Jewish prophecy need to see that....

Luke on the other hand writes 120 verses dedicated to the birth of Jesus. How many times does he say …this was to fulfill what God had spoken through the prophet... ...... any guesses?.... zero.

Zero. Gentiles don’t need to know Jesus is the Jewish Messiah, they need to know that he is their Savior. Is he the Jewish Messiah? yes. Are we grafted in to that branch, yes. But if you just prove he’s the Jewish Messiah I’m still left asking what that does for me.

That doesn’t mean there’s not prophecy in Luke’s story. There most certainly is, but look at how it’s different:

Mary, in what we call the Magnificat, her song of thanks and praise to God while she is pregnant and staying with Elizabeth, says in Luke 1:50, / / He shows mercy from generation to generation to ALL who fear him.

Zechariah, prophesying over John in Luke 1:78-79, / / Because of God’s tender mercy, the morning light from heaven is about to break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, and to guide us to the path of peace.

The angel to the shepherds, Luke 2:10, “I bring you good news that will bring great joy to ALL people.”

Simeon in the temple holding this 40 day old baby Jesus, Luke 2:30, “I have seen your salvation, which you have prepared for ALL people.”

Look at the differences in the use of prophecy between Matthew and Luke.

Matthew is using ancient prophecy to prove Jesus is the Jewish Messiah.

Luke is writing out current prophecy for the world he lives in to reveal salvation for all people moving forward.

So, context is important. And when you look at the stories together, you see how they gel together to give you the whole story, just from two different perspectives for two different audiences.

Also, when you look at timing of things. Just a couple thoughts.

First, Jesus was not born in 1 AD, He was most likely born between 6 - 4 BC, and we assume that because the angel of the Lord tells Joseph to go back to Nazareth from Egypt after Herod the Great dies and we know historically that Herod died in 4BC. And we also know that Herod killed all the boys two years and under. We don’t know why. We don’t know if that means Jesus was two years old at that point. Some people speculate that. We don’t know how far the wise men traveled, which means we don’t know when they had to leave to arrive in Bethlehem at the right time to see Jesus. At this point, from what I’ve read, I don’t personally think Jesus was in Bethlehem for more than 40 days, which means that’s a pretty small window of time for a bunch of guys travelling from who knows how far away, possibly 2700 kilometers some thing, which would be months of traveling. The star would have appeared BEFORE Jesus was born, but Herod doesn’t know that. So what does he do? I think he was just covering his bases and being the cruel evil tyrant that he was just includes anyone 2 years and younger. But again, all of that is speculation, and so it’s commonly viewed that Jesus was born between 6 - 4 BC.

Also, those terms BC & AD were not fully used until about 525 AD, and not even fully adopted in some places until the 19th and 20th centuries.

So, Galatians 4:4 that says, But when the right time had come, God sent his Son.... That’s not saying, “When BC counted down to “0” God said, “oh, better send Jesus so we get this date thing right...”

Again, a lot of those things really don’t matter, do they? Remember last week I said we need to major on the majors.... what’s really important. And there’s no need to be thrown off by these things. And yes, there are those who would try to discredit scripture by saying things don’t line up. But I think they line up just fine.

We don’t put our faith in obscurity, like, if it doesn’t make sense we just choose to believe it anyway. We put our faith in Jesus and we know that Scripture points to Jesus Christ, who is the perfect representation of God, so it’s ok to look into these things and search them out, study them and walk away with a better understanding of scripture.

And the last thing I want to look at today is why I’ve gone through all of this in the first place. We went from sacrifice and cross, joy and love in the beginning, to a part of the Christmas story that doesn’t talk about love at all, it’s just sort of part of the story. Wise men and rituals and fleeing from mass murder. So, how does this all connect to love, which is our focus in this fourth week of Advent.

What I want you to see this morning and what I believe God has been showing us from the very beginning is the difference between his heart for us, and the deception and work of the enemy to cause division between God and humanity.

Peter wrote in 1 Peter 5:8-10, / / Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. Stand firm against him, and be strong in your faith. Remember that your family of believers all over the world is going through the same kind of suffering you are. In his kindness God called you to share in his eternal glory by means of Christ Jesus.

Whether it is in the Garden of Eden or the Christmas story, do you see the lengths the enemy will go to both destroy the one’s God loves, and to hinder the love between them? He’s always trying to introduce death.

And on the other side, do you see the lengths that God will go to in order to protect those He loves and to restore love and relationship with humanity?

In the garden, the enemy did everything he could to destroy that connection, and even in God’s grace, it may have been confused as punishment, but it was protection for the ones he loves. I have to remove you from the garden so you can’t eat the fruit of eternal life while you are steeped in corruption. Yes, it may be painful. Yes, sin has its consequences. Death even. But in time, at the right time, I will make this right for you and you will taste of the paradise you had in Eden again and this time it will be without corruption, and for all eternity.

In the first moments of Jesus life, Herod tries to kill him, but God sends an angel to the wise men, sends an angel to Joseph, warning, directing, giving a way to preserve life so that Jesus can fulfill the mission he had come for.

I have met so many, like my own personal story, that can say with 100% assurance, if God had not intervened in my life, I don’t think I’d be alive, or at the very least, my life would be in absolutely shambles.

Yet God invites us into this great story, first, from the beginning of creation, but really, this moment of what we call the incarnation, God made flesh, Jesus born into this world through Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit, is the story of redeeming love. There is no corruption too great. There is no problem too big, or sin or chasm too wide, or distance too far that God will not find us and redeem us.

Psalm 139 says, Is there any place I can go to avoid your Spirit? to be out of your sight? If I climb to the sky, you’re there! If I go underground, You’re there! If I flew on morning’s wings to the far western horizon, You’d find me in a minute - you’re already there waiting! Then I said to myself, “Oh, He even sees me in the dark! At night I’m immersed in the light!” It’s a fact: darkness isn’t dark to you; night and day, darkness and light, they’re all the same to you.

And so in closing I want to read this over you this morning:

/ / For God, the trinity, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, so loved the humanity that he had created, that had been deceived by satan and corrupted by sin and was enslaved to desires they followed, sent Jesus, the Messiah, God the Son, to restore that which was lost in the Garden of Eden. To redeem the fruit of the tree of life, so that all who would come to him and believe that He truly is the savior of the world, would have all the corruption of sin removed from their life, so they could be brought into Love’s embrace and enjoy eternity with him.

I want to pray for you this morning...