The Supremacy of Love

“And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.” (1 Corinthians 15:17–22, ESV)

†CALL TO WORSHIP based on Hebrews 4:14-16 // Pastor Austin Prince

Minister: We have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens: Jesus, the Son of God.

Congregation: We will hold fast our confession.

Minister: For he is not unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, he, in every respect, has been tempted as we are. Yet he lived without sin.

Congregation: Let us then, with confidence, draw near to the throne of grace! Here we will receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

†PRAYER OF ADORATION AND INVOCATION

O God, our resurrection and life, the promise of new life in Christ is like cool, sweet water in a dry and thirsty land. We have gathered as believers and as those seeking your truth, which is truth. Guide our worship this hour; speak to us, touching not just our intellects but also our affections–the yearnings of the soul. We bring our daily concerns and our eternal questions. Send your Holy Spirit to us that we may be welcomed into your presence. By His work in us today may you shed light upon our walk and unite us forever with you.

†OPENING HYMN OF PRAISE #360

“Christ the Lord is Risen Today”

†CORPORATE CONFESSION OF SIN

“Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully. He will receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation.” (Psalm 24:3–5, ESV)

Minister: O King and Father, your son died and was raised up in power. Now enable us to die to our sin in repentance so we may rise to new life in him. We confess to you:

Congregation: Lord, though you should guide us, we inform ourselves;

Though you should rule us, we control ourselves;

Though you should fulfill us, we console ourselves.

We think your truth too high, your will too hard,

Your power too remote, your love too free.

But they are not, and without them, we are of all people most miserable.

Heal our confused minds with your word, heal our divided wills with your law.

Heal our troubled consciences with your love and our anxious hearts with your presence.

All for the sake of your son, who loved us and gave himself for us. Amen.

“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” (Romans 5:1–2, ESV)

CONTINUAL READING OF SCRIPTURE Exodus 12:29-42

Steven Hoffer, Elder

THE OFFERING OF TITHES AND OUR GIFTS

CONGREGATIONAL PRAYERS

THE LORD’S PRAYER

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

†HYMN OF PREPARATION #216

“Praise to the Lord, the Almighty”

SERMON 1 Corinthians 13:8-13 Easter - Love Never Ends. Pastor Austin Prince

PRAYER OF ILLUMINATION

Almighty, eternal and merciful God, whose Word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path — open and illuminate our minds, that we may purely and perfectly understand your Word and that our lives may be conformed to what we have rightly understood, that in nothing we may be displeasing to your Majesty, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

TEXT: 1 COR. 13:8-13

1 Corinthians 13:8–13 ESV

8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. 13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

AFTER SCRIPTURE

Teach me your way, O Lord and I will walk in your truth. Give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.

Intro

The Supremacy of Love

Thesis:

“Love never ends” ( 1 Cor. 13:8)

Love has an endurance. It is not defined by feelings which fluctuate but by decisive action. Love, demanding sacrifice, gives itself willingly and repeatedly. Love covers a multitude of sins, and annoyances, and preferences, and challenges.

And love is the culmination of God’s ambition for us. We are to love God with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength, and we are to love our neighbor as ourselves, being built up into maturity in Him - loving as He loves. We are being conformed, as Romans says, into the image of Christ. “For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.” (Romans 8:29, ESV).

Or, as First Corinthians fifteen says, “Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.” (1 Corinthians 15:49, ESV)

And what is that image? What is heavenly man like? First John four says,

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” (1 John 4:7–8, ESV)

What it means to be redeemed isn’t just that we are pardoned from our sins but that we are born again into the family of God. Christ’s perfect love - His death and resurrection - bring us into a family defined by love. Communion. Fellowship. God loving us with endurance and us learning to do the same.

As we learn this love, one aspect is its endurance. As Paul encourages those who might think that God’s love is fragile,

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?” (Romans 8:35, ESV)

“For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38–39, ESV)

Nothing will cause Him to stop loving us. No changes in circumstance. No frailty that we possess. He will not grow tired of us or irritated. Now, this endurance of His is not a license to sin, turning God’s endurance into merely tolerance. There are consequences for those who are loved and yet love their sin. But on the Lover’s behalf, there is fortitude and tenacity - His love endures.

Paul is telling the Corinthians that this is the more excellent way. This is the heavenly way. This is God’s way.

It’s why when we take wedding vows, trying to live up to this reality, we say “in sickness or in health”, in days of aggravation, through decade stacked upon decade, in changes of your weight, when you embarrass me, when you don’t make enough money, when you’ve let me down, etc. Part of our being made into His image is to love, and to love with endurance.

Love bears all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.

“We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.” (1 John 4:19–21, ESV)

Love is not a nice addition to the Christian faith; it is its defining characteristic.

And here, in this section, Paul is pushing forward yet another aspect of love. Last week we look at some of the characteristics of love — it is patient and kind… But this section says one more thing about love. In contrast with almost all other things in life, love never ends.

Like a stone thrown into the water, love sends a ripple effect out beyond this life and into eternity.

Counterpoint:

And because love never ends, it is supreme.

As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.” (1 Corinthians 13:8, ESV)

The gifts that the Corinthians had were to aid them as they grew in love. But one day, there will be no need for these gifts (we will talk about which day that is that the gifts cease next week). But one day, we won’t need our gifts or our bibles or our preachers or our anything to assist us in knowing God because we will see Him face to face.

One day the training wheels will be taken off and we will ride perfectly.

One day the cast will be taken off and all of the bones will be healed.

So much of what we know now will be put away, but the one thing that will remain is love. Love will join us in eternity.

One day, it says of heaven that the fangs of snakes and the claws of lions are put away. And one day, even your fangs and your claws are put away.

Heaven, as Jonathan Edwards puts in in reflecting on this passage, is a World of Love. I commend that essay to you from Charity and Its Fruits.

Heaven will have no tears, no anxiety, no envy or loss. No loneliness or need. No imposing on others. No being left out or left behind. No being snubbed. No impulse to protect yourself. No bite of jealousy when others are blessed. No fear of abandonment, for perfect love casts out fear. We live our lives like some hunted animal, always flinching from fear. But, Paul says, one day we will know God’s love fully as we have been fully known. And we will be put to rest.

If heaven is this way, that means that hell is a loveless place. Hell and hellishness is impatient, rude, envious, arrogant, resentful, rejoices in lies, is cynical of all things.

And those realities are breaking into our lives now. We are either being made more fit for heaven or more fit for hell. We are bringing into our homes through love a taste of heaven - tenacious love that doesn’t give up. Or we bring to our homes the taste of hell–A self-focused land parched and dry from entitlement and lack of sacrifice.

Paul presses this point of loves endurance and the temporary nature of the gifts with three illustrations. He says,

Illustration:

“For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.” (1 Corinthians 13:9–12, ESV)

Like scaffolding, the gifts are to help build the structure. When we are children and immature, we need assistance and help. And that’s where we are at right now. Right now, there is scaffolding that has to hold this building up. Right now, we are children who have braces, maybe even so bad as to need headgear like I used to have. Our love is imperfect. We are impatient, irritable, rude, we keep record of wrongs, we keep a record of rights, insisting on our own way, volatile, resentful, and bitter. But one day, as we grow up in him, we won’t need that scaffolding anymore. And that’s where we are. We are not a dilapidated building, fallen short of the glory of God. We are the church, under construction, being built up in love.

The irony is that some of the Corinthians were more proud of their scaffolding than they were of what the scaffolding was helping them to build. The scaffolding was never meant to last; it is meant to give way to the structure - a people who are the great temple of the Holy Spirit — a people filled with and perfected in love.

One day all the scaffolding of this life will pass away, except for love. Our gifts will cease, and what great things we may have accomplished with the gifts will pass, and your career, and your pride, and the arguments you won, and all that will remain is our love.

Now we know in part; then we shall know fully, even as we have been fully known.

Conclusion:

“So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 13:13, ESV)

All of the gifts are simply aides to building up faith, stirring our hope, and establishing us in love. As we use those gifts in this church and in our homes, we must not forget what the goal is - to build up in love. As marvelous as the gifts are, they don’t last. Only faith, hope, and love abide. But of those, the supremacy goes to love.

In a sense, one day our faith will give way to sight. “for we walk by faith, not by sight.” (2 Corinthians 5:7, ESV)

In a sense, one day our hope will be fulfilled “For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.” (Romans 8:24–25, ESV)

But Jesus, calling those who will follow Him says,

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”” (John 13:34–35, ESV)

Love is not a peripheral thing. Love is not an optional thing. Love is the thing. Love is supreme.

Showing the Spirit: A Theological Exposition of 1 Corinthians 12–14 The Determination of What Remains into Eternity in 13:13

The greatest evidence that heaven has invaded our sphere, that the Spirit has been poured out upon us, that we are citizens of a kingdom not yet consummated, is Christian love.

†HYMN OF RESPONSE #265

“In Christ Alone”

THE MINISTRY OF THE LORD’S SUPPER

Minister: Lift up your hearts!

Congregation: We lift them up to the Lord.

Minister: Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.

Congregation: It is right for us to give thanks and praise!

CONFESSION OF FAITH

From the Nicene Creed on pg. 852, let us confess what it is that we believe together.

The Nicene Creed p. 852

INVITATION TO THE LORD’S TABLE

This table is for those who belong to Christ through repentance, faith, baptism, and continuing union with his Church. You who do truly and earnestly repent of your sins, and are in love and charity with your neighbors, and intend to lead a new life, following the commandments of God and walking in his holy ways: draw near with faith, and take this holy sacrament to your comfort; and make your humble confession to almighty God.

Minister: Let’s pray together.

Congregation: We do not presume to come to this thy holy table, O merciful Lord, trusting in our own righteousness, but in thy great mercies. We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under thy table: but you are the Lord, who is always able to have mercy.

Grant us therefore, by thy grace, so to eat the flesh of thy dear son Jesus Christ, and to drink his blood, that our sinful bodies may be made clean by his most sacred Body, and our souls washed through his most precious blood, and that we may evermore dwell in him, and he in us. Amen.

You may be seated

DISTRIBUTION OF THE ELEMENTS

THE WORDS OF INSTITUTION 1 Corinthians 11:23-26

For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

Eat, drink, remember, and believe

SHARING OF THE LORD’S SUPPER

†OUR RESPONSE #234

Tune: The God of Abraham Praise

The whole triumphant host gives thanks to God on high;

“Hail, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost!” they ever cry.

Hail, Abraham’s God and mine! I join the heav’nly lays;

all might and majesty are thine, and endless praise.

†BENEDICTION: GOD’S BLESSING FOR HIS PEOPLE

Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts and establish them in every good work and word. 2 Thess. 2:16-17

Grace Notes Reflection

Faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love (1 Cor. 13:13).

Like scaffolding, the spiritual gifts are meant to help build us up into the image of God, an image of love. The gifts, however, are not meant to last; they are meant to come down once the structure has been completed. One day, even our Bibles and preachers won’t be necessary. “For now we know in part, but then we shall know fully (1 Cor. 13:2). Therefore, the gifts are not to be elevated or prioritized above the more excellent way, the way of love.

Love, above all things, endures. You can speak in the tongues of men and angels, but if you have not love, it comes off as shrill. You can give away all your possessions and go to the stake for your faith, but if you have not love, you gain nothing. You can make all the right meals, choose all the right schools, and read all the right books, but if you don’t have love, you have nothing. Love is supreme.

The best thing that you can do today is to be patient, in Christ’s name; to be kind, in Christ’s name; to not envy, in Christ’s name; to not insist on your own way or be irritable or resentful, in Christ’s name. Goal number one today is to love God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself.

As, C. T Studd recalls in this great poem:

“Only one life, the still small voice,

Gently pleads for a better choice

Bidding me selfish aims to leave,

And to God’s holy will to cleave;

Only one life, ’twill soon be past,

Only what’s done for Christ will last.”