Love

Intro:

The Beatles famously once said “All you Need is Love”. Well research shows that they were actually pretty accurate. Here are some info based on research based on the University of Texas Austin Health.

Increases Life Expectancy:

Research suggests that married people in particular, but also those involved in healthy social relationships, typically live longer. The benefits of these relationships can even lower your risk of having a heart attack, developing certain types of cancer, and becoming infected with pneumonia.

Reduces Depression

Falling in love, getting married, and maintaining healthy relationships and friendships have been shown to reduce the feelings of isolation and depression in both males and females while simultaneously increasing their sense of belonging and happiness.

Improves Your Sleep

Because loving relationships lead to less stress, you are more likely to sleep well and feel refreshed when you wake in the morning. Tensions are eased when you feel loved and supported, and evidence suggests that happily married couples are 10% more likely to have a more restful sleep.

Ann Machin an anthropologist notes:

“We know what the important things for a healthy life are: exercise, a balanced diet, not smoking and maintaining a healthy weight. That’s it. We have survival cracked. But a seminal study carried out by psychologist Julianne Hold-Lunstad and her colleagues in 2010 would beg to differ.…she concluded that being within a supportive social network reduced the risk of mortality by 50 percent.

Fifty percent. As Machin points out, that places supportive, loving relationships on par with quitting smoking as a factor for longevity. It means love is a more important factor when it comes to our physical health than maintaining a healthy weight.”

Humans have a basic need to receive and give love. This is not a big surprise to us as we all desire to be loved by others. We need people to care for us and when we experience love in both romantic and friendships we function better in every aspect of our lives.

It’s not surprising that a lot of music questions this as the lyrics of Bob Marley remind us “Could you be loved and be loved” and the Black Eyed Peas sing “Where is the Love?”

All that to say today we want to focus on Love and we will jump back into the story of the shepherds to see how they are shown love by God as he trusts them with the amazing news of a Savior being born in Bethlehem and how the reciprocate this love by telling others. Most importantly we will look at the source of the greatest love we can ever receive that came in the form of a baby boy born in a manger, as God sent the world a Savior it so desperately needs.

Read Scripture:

If you are willing and able please stand as we read Luke 2:15-21

Luke 2:15–21 ESV

When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them. And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

Love God & Love People

1. The Greatest Gift of Love is Jesus

As we get ready to celebrate the birth of Christ we are reminded that the reason we celebrate is that God gave mankind the greatest gift of all. He sent himself in the form of Jesus to earth to dwell among us & rescue us from our sins. It’s the best gift ever.

John the Baptist captured it best in gospel of John roughly 30 years down the road from the Nativity Narrative we’ve been studying:

John 1:29 ESV

The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

I don’t know what it’s like in your household but with four kids, especially two aged 6 & 4, the anticipation for what they are getting for Christmas is at a peak. I’ll never forget when I was younger the anticipation we had as kids for what we were hoping to get.

My two older brothers and I would wish for all kinds of things. For us perhaps some of the sweetest memories were growing up in Austria and grandparents visiting which meant an extra special Christmas for time spent together and also because you would get extra presents since they could pack an extra suitcase just with presents as opposed to shipping them.

We were really blessed and got some really cool toys. Perhaps one of the most memorable Christmases was when each one of us boys received a spaceship & character from Star Wars and then we all got the entire Ewok village set to share. Man what a Christmas!!! As a kid growing up in the 80’s it was peak living.

You know what though. As I get older I’ve come to realize that those gifts are fun to give and receive but any material thing at some point isn’t as exciting as when you first got it. Jesus arriving as light into darkness was an amazing gift that never disappoints. Our need for a savior is just as strong today as it was a couple of thousand years ago when baby Jesus arrived on the scene in Bethlehem.

We see how the ultimate example of love is always manifested in the person of Jesus.

God is love & Jesus is love manifested among us:

1 John 4:7–11 ESV

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. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 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. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

The key verse in this text is 1 John 4:9 “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.”

We see this truth about Jesus coming to save mankind foretold to Joseph by an Angel in his dream as well. Similar to 1 John 4:9 we see that the angel tells Joseph “he will save his people from their sins”.

Matthew 1:20–23 ESV

But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).

The reality is that this great act of love by God foretold long ago, that we see played out in the story of the birth of Christ, came at a great sacrifice. After the Shepherds walked the streets of Bethlehem proclaiming this good news of a Savior being born nothing much happened.

The wise men came and then Joseph was warned by an angel to flee to Egypt because Herod was angered by the visit of the wise men and the fact they didn’t come back to Herod, because they were warned by an angel not to return to the evil king….but then Jesus lives in relative obscurity growing up with his family…I mean the next time we see him he is a grown child and gets lost on the way home from the Temple. After that we see Jesus reach adult hood and live a life that in general was marked by suffering. We see this in the prophecy of Isaiah 53:3-5

Isaiah 53:3–5 ESV

He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.

I was reading a devotion by Paul Tripp from a different devotional than what we gave out this year that really brought this home for me.

“The manger of his birth is a clue to what he came to do and what every day of his life would be like. The way God chose to rescue sufferers was by becoming a sufferer himself. Every moment of his suffering was done with us in view. Every dark moment of physical, relational, societal, and judicial suffering had a high and holy purpose to it: our salvation. You see, Jesus came to suffer because he came to be our Savior.”

Paul Tripp

Jesus came to suffer on the cross for our behalf. He willingly died a brutal death being beaten, bruised, pierced, and broken all to take on our sins and reconcile us to God. Sometimes its hard for us, in our humanity, to reconcile the suffering servant from the baby born in the manger, but we must come to grips with the fact we celebrate Christmas because of what Jesus did for us on the cross that we celebrate at Easter.

John 15:13 ESV

Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

Genuine love for others usually includes some kind of sacrifice. We think of the soldier, policemen, or firefighter putting themselves in danger for the sake of others or a mother getting up in the middle of the night to feed their baby.

As wonderful as those examples are they pale in comparison of what Jesus did for us on the cross. Jesus who lived a perfect life yet went to die a gruesome death to take on the sins of mankind. I love this quote by George Whitefield that reminds us of the great love of God that willingly sent his son to die for our sins.

“God could not, nor can, receive any additional good by our salvation. But it was love, mere love; it was free love that brought the Lord Jesus Christ into our world.”

-George Whitefield

So while we celebrate Christmas with all the shiny and bright things let’s pause to think about the sacrifice involved in this gift of love that is Christ the Messiah. While we want this to be a joyus time of celebration it should be mixed with reflection of what this love cost.

Like a child who appreciates their parents for what they’ve given up for them we should have that sense of appreciation for the sacrifice involved in how Jesus suffered and died for us. The love that is given through Jesus came at a great cost and we must not forget this as we celebrate the birth of our Savior.

2. Receiving this Gift leads Us to Love Others

Based on this great love that sacrificed for us we must respond by loving others. Our faith demands it. We cannot be apathetic to sharing this love with others if we are serious about following Jesus.

You’ve probably heard the old adage that is is better to give than receive. Parents usually pull this out this time of the year to remind their kids that it’s not just about receiving presents, but it’s also important to want to bless others.

One of the fun things this year in our family has been watching Ellie grow in this. At Bridge City Elementary School they do what the call “Santa Shop”. They sent us home with a form and you got to fill out who all you wanted Ellie to shop for and what her budget was. We gave her $5 per person in our immediate family and even though you could do an option for her to get something for herself we chose not to…mainly to keep the focus on giving rather than receiving…now don’t feel bad for her, she will get plenty of presents at Christmas.

What was interesting is that we learned she didn’t even care about not getting something for herself. The day she came home all she could talk about was what she got for everyone in our family. She had to send that person out of the room and show everyone else what she had got for them and then was ready to wrap them right away and get them under the tree. I think this glimpse into the mind of a 6 year old girl shows us that we are wired to want to both receive and give love, in this case in the form of presents.

In verse 17-18 we see the Shepherds head to Bethlehem and tell Mary and Joseph about their experience, but it also seems that they shared it with others along the way as the phrase “all who heard it” gives us this indication.

The Shepherd’s experience of receiving this great gift of love, the good news of a Savior being born, made them want to respond by sharing this good news with others. This is the ultimate form of love that we can share…to point others to the love of Christ. In the midst of this account we Mary’s response is recorded in this passage as well and we see that she “treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart”. We are to treasure Jesus just as Mary does & the Shepherds do, but we can’t just keep it to ourselves. I imagine Mary wanted to shout from the rooftops that her baby was the Messiah, but while she cares for baby Jesus the Shepherds go and seemingly share with anyone willing to hear.

Have you ever just been ready to burst with excitement sharing some kind of news with someone? I’ll never forget the joy of getting to share with our parents that we were expecting….and really there was something special and unique about each time. Lannie made both Jess’ parents and my parents grandparents, Abbie was going to be born overseas and give us two little girls that got to share life together….Ellie was an unexpected blessing from God when we didn’t think we would be able to have any more kids…and Emmitt was the playmate for Ellie we weren’t sure we would be able to have and a little boy to add to our crew and carry on our family name. Getting to share that good news each time was such a thrill.

We should have that same excitement when we share about Christ. This season is such a sweet time to celebrate the birth of Jesus and if we are serious about our relationship with Jesus we should be bursting at the seams to share with others about the Hope, Peace, Joy, & Love that is found in Jesus as we’ve talked about the last few weeks.

The Shepherds are a great example since they respond as one would expected. When you hear & receive amazing news you don’t keep it to yourself. That would have been selfish…now we don’t know the result of this impromptu gospel witness of the Shepherds. Did some go and look for the Messiah themselves? Did this start a rumor mill of the possibility of the Messiah arriving in Bethlehem? Did anyone come to know Jesus through hearing this and later following Jesus?

The reality is we just don’t know. That’s true often times when we share our faith as well…sometimes people will respond right there and then…but often they don’t. We perhaps plant a seed and hope that someone else will build off of the faith interaction we’ve had with them. Similar to the Shepherds we aren’t ultimately responsible for how people will respond. God in his great mercy and grace saw it fit to bless the Shepherds with this great news, but Jesus’ mission on earth didn’t depend on them somehow mobilizing the masses to come find this baby who was the Savior of the world. This is a great comfort to us. Be faithful, as the Shepherds to tell others about the Savior of the World, but trust that God will draw people to himself.

The big lesson to learn from Mary and the Shepherds response is to treasure this good news of a baby born who will save mankind in our hearts and then we should share it with others.

Closing:

What a beautiful love we get to celebrate this time of year. We have received the greatest love in the greatest gift one could ever receive— Jesus.

There are so many different things that vie for our attention this time of year, but two things we should make sure we don’t loose focus of.

God loved us so deeply that he sent his son to die a terrible death on a cross to reconcile us to Him. He came to earth to save us!

Because we have been loved so deeply there is but one response. We share this great love with others. The Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard sums it up perfectly:

To love another person is to help them love God.

Søren Aabye Kierkegaard (Danish Philosopher)

So this holiday season let’s not loose sight of these things. Just as the Shepherds received this good news and couldn’t help but tell others let’s do the same. Let’s receive Jesus’ love with our head by learning about him, let’s treasure it in our hearts as Mary did, and let’s go (our hands & in this case feet) and tell others unashamedly as the Shepherds did….Let’s Pray