The Purpose of the Church - The Love of Christ
Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 2 viewsNotes
Transcript
On April 16th I preached a message entitled: The Purpose of the Church
We discussed the connection between Christ’s physical body and His spiritual body (the church). How that those things which He did while here physically, we are to continue them through His spiritual body...
We listed in that first message 7 attributes: Word, Image, Power, Life, Glory, Love, Light.
We have discussed 5 of them, and today we are going to discuss “The Love of Christ”
We are the body of Christ...
And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.
Christ is our head… Do we understand what that means?!? The head is the control center, so to speak, for the body. It is the place where every command and function is initiated.
For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.
This verse is talking about our physical body. In order for our physical bodies to function properly it requires every member of our body to operate in oneness. It cannot be disjointed, disconnected, disassociated, or dismembered.
This is why Paul appeals to all of us in our local bodies, not only does he appeal to us, but he begs us, he beseeches us…
Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.
Here is what that is saying, that we all think the same way, that we all come to same conclusions, and we all have the same determinations.
Does that sound crazy to you?!? It’s not...
I believe it can happen, do you know how? If we are all working out of same book, if we are all on the same page (so to speak), and we all have the same level of commitment, then we will live up to God’s intention for His body. That intention is, that although we be many, that we are all one in Christ.
The church can deal with a lot of things, divisions should never be one of them...
1 Corinthians 5 - Paul deals with the sin of fornication in the church.
1 Corinthians 6 - The members are suing one another.
1 Corinthians 7 - They are messed up on marriage and divorce.
1 Corinthians 8 - They are abusing their liberty in Christ
Chapter after chapter of them being messed up on their doctrine. They were messed up on the ordinances, the gifts, even the resurrection.
And yet, we begin the letter to the Corinthians with them being called sanctified, and holy because they are in Christ. He states in verse 10...
If I was writing this letter, I would probably have started with one of those issues but I am not the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit knows what He is doing in bringing “oneness”. I want to encourage us this morning in to be “one” and not let divisions come into this place.
Because Christ is the Love of God (John 13:34-35)
We must embrace an uncompromising priority on SACRIFICIAL LOVE.
God’s “LOVE” in the PHYSICAL body of Christ.
The Bible teaches us something powerful about God’s love.
Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.
This is how amazing our God is, “LOVE” is not just an attribute that God possesses, but God is love. Love is God’s very nature, His very essence, which means that you cannot separate love from God, and you cannot separate God from love because they are one in the same.
What is amazing, is that with sinful finite minds there would be no way for us to perceive that God is love. But the beautiful thing about God is that He manifested it to us.
Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.
Do we realize that had Christ not come, there would be no way for us to comprehend, or know the love of God because it was manifested to us through Christ.
But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
That is how love was manifested through the physical body of Christ. That is how it started through His physical body but what about how it is supposed to continue through His spiritual body? What about us church?
God’s “LOVE” in the SPIRITUAL body of Christ.
Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.
God’s intention is that we, as the body of Christ, the ones that God has in this world, we are the ones that manifest the love of God, that the world might see love and that they might see it through us...
How do we do that? What does it look like?
Of course we know how the devil operates.
But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
Paul had a fear, that he would take something incredibly simple and complicate it but Jesus made it simple for us.
A key passage: Mark 12:28-31
The scribes came to ask Jesus a question and attempt to get Him to step into a Biblical pot hole. They ask Him a illegitimate question. Why was it illegitimate? This scribe did not ask the question because He was truly interested in the answer so that he could model his life after it. He asked the question so that he could DE-legitimize Christ. Yet, knowing this Christ still gave a legitimate answer.
And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all? And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.
They didn’t understand that He was the very Word made flesh. Jesus answers this question laying out what God is looking for from all of us. And notice what Jesus did here… What He did was He gave him 2 answers because they go hand in hand. Love God, and love people!
Those two things became the marks of a local body that embodies the love of God.
1. Every person is passionately in love with God. (How would we ever know that we are doing that?)
Our Bible teaches us-
8 characteristics that are visible when we love God… How can I know Biblicaly that I love God?
A. Obedience - Question: Am I obedient to the word of God, and do I want to be obedient?
For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.
If ye love me, keep my commandments.
He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.
It is amazing to me that at times we claim that we love God and yet we live our lives in clear and conscious disobedience.
Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me.
B. Faith - Do I believe God? Do I take Him at His word?
Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:
So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
People who love God, even though they have never seen Him, read His word, and by faith act upon it.
C. Separation - Do I not love the world?
Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
Could blood bought Christians love the world and the things of the world? Absolutely… Does that mean we will not go to heaven? No, we have been sealed until the day of redemption, but here is what it means… That we do not love God the way that we should and therefore we are not manifesting His love, the way that we need to for the world to see it.
D. Testimony - Do people know that I love God? (Is that your testimony? I am not talking about what you say with your mouth… Do people look at you and see you as someone that loves God?)
But if any man love God, the same is known of him.
We don’t have to tell people, because it is evident in our life...
E. Endurance- Do I endure temptation?
Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.
Who receives the crown of life? Those that love God and how is that manifested? Enduring temptation...
F. Rejoicing - Do I rejoice in what rejoices the heart of God?
Ye have heard how I said unto you, I go away, and come again unto you. If ye loved me, ye would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father: for my Father is greater than I.
Since this rejoices His heart, if we love Him, then it rejoices ours.
If we have embraced a very selfish brand of Christianity that rejoices only in God making my heart rejoice. Which really, how that shakes out is that we have invented a God, that rather than us existing for Him, He exist for us...
You know that you love God when the things that rejoice the heart of God, is the thing that rejoices you...
G. Mission - Am I involved in feeding others the word of God?
So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs. He saith to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep.
Do we edify the saints? Do we love the people of God enough to spend time with them. My favorite part of Sunday afternoon lunch time is that I get to invest time with people and prayerfully minister through our conversation.
Making disciples...
Building disciples… If we are not into this, then we are not into loving God.
H. Conforming - Does my life give evidence of God’s working all things together for the good of conforming me into the image of His Son?
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
I would encourage you to take time, before this is all a blur, and walk back through these verses.
Lord if this is really what you want out of me, would you show me the areas that are lacking love.
2. In a local body that embodies the Love of God...
Every person is passionately in love with people.
How can I know Biblically that I love people.
A. Sacrifice - Am I willing to lay down my life for the sake of my brothers and sisters in Christ?
We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.
Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
How did we perceive the love of God? It was manifested through His sacrificial love for us. How does the world see it in us?
B. Compassion - Does the compassion of my heart reach to my hip and/or my feet? (Your wallet, your actions?)
But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.
It is easy to say I love you, but how it is manifested is through our sacrifice to meet each others needs.
C. God’s Likeness - Have I become like God in that I love those who have made themselves my enemies?
Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.
We ought to love people the same way that God loved us. He wasn’t waiting for us to love Him first.
But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
Is there anyone that has made themselves your enemy, and yet, you still love them? That’s God-likeness!
D. Forgiveness - Is there anyone I hate in my heart because of what they did to me, said to me, or said about me?
If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.
It sounds all well and good, until you get stabbed in the back by a brother or sister who is just malicious towards you.
Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.
That easy to say, but you have no idea what they did to me… The fact is, we don’t know what we did to God, or how we hurt God, and so we are to with the same forgiveness we have recieved from Him, to offer that same forgiveness.
We have to get to the place where we passionately love God and we passionately love the people in the body.
6 things that keep us from loving God and people
The love of self
For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
2. The love of praise
Nevertheless among the chief rulers also many believed on him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue: For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.
3. The love of preeminence.
I wrote unto the church: but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not.
4. The love of money
For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
5. The love of pleasure
Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
6. The love of this world
For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica; Crescens to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia.