Hebrews 13:1-3 † Love Actually
Notes
Transcript
1 Let brotherly love continue. 2 Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. 3 Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body.
SERMON IN A SENTENCE
SERMON IN A SENTENCE
Hebrews 13 makes a transition from the foundational theology of the text into more practical application of the gospel. In verses 1-3, the author encourages Christians to display biblical love for one another.
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
“Love Hurts, What’s Love Got to Do With It?, What Is Love?, All You Need is Love, Love Actually…”
Today, we’re going to see the author encourage us to “let brotherly love continue.”
INTRO PRAYER
INTRO PRAYER
Lord, we ask that you would remind us that you are our Good Father in Heaven. You are above us and beyond us and yet because of Jesus, we know that you are intimately with us. We pray today that true love would flow from your glory into our hearts and from our hearts into the way we care for one another. Bless us with your presence. Illuminate your word by your Spirit. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
LOVE DISPLAYED
LOVE DISPLAYED
What do you think of when you think of love? (Romantic, affections, unity, peace?)
“L” is for the way you look…at me.”
“We have absorbed a definition of love that makes us the center. That is, we feel loved when someone makes much of us…The main reason this feels like love is that it feels so good to be made much of. The problem is that this feels good on wholly natural grounds. There is nothing spiritual about it.” John Piper
If we take the world’s definition of love and apply it to the Bible, much of what the Bible tells us doesn’t make any sense. Rather, we must let the Bible’s definition and display of love guide how we love God and one another.
Christian love is displayed in acceptable worship.
Christian love is displayed in acceptable worship.
28 Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, 29 for our God is a consuming fire.
Notice how the author highlights “acceptable worship” and then transitions to “brotherly love.”
Who is the center of our love? What is the source of our love?
8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 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 have to get the true source of our love correct to display true love.
Christian love is displayed in a relational connection.
Christian love is displayed in a relational connection.
1 Let brotherly love continue.
The New Testament seems the church as a connected family and not an organization of acquaintances.
How does it change the way we care for one another when we think of one another as family members?
Christian love is displayed in continual care.
Christian love is displayed in continual care.
1 Let brotherly love continue.
Much of my love is inconsistent.
I think of a water faucet where the Bible displays a waterfall.
How does the level of consistency in our care for one another reflect who is at the center of our love?
Christian love is displayed in conscious care.
Christian love is displayed in conscious care.
2 Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.
How much of my lack of care and affection for others is simple negligence rather than intentionality?
This is one area where we see the difference between the world’s love (often focused on self-motivation) and the self-sacrificing love of the Bible: Christians are called to intentionally show hospitality and look for needs to meet.
Christian love is displayed in costly care.
Christian love is displayed in costly care.
3 Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body.
Think of the social, political, and physical danger of caring for someone in prison for being a Christian. (As a Christian.)
“Since you also are in the body.” Do we think of caring for one another as if their mistreatment were happening to us?
Often we read about the love that we are called to in the New Testament and the example of the early church and we think “this is wonderful, but it feels so distant.” How do we actually get to this kind of “brotherly affection?”
LOOKING TO THE LOVE OF JESUS
LOOKING TO THE LOVE OF JESUS
This is the point in the sermon where I tell you that all we’ve talked about up to this point is actually impossible in our own strength.
We won’t get the outcome of true Christian love without getting to the source of true Christian love. What is the source? You guessed it! Consider Jesus.
2 Corinthians 3:18 “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”
Consider the acceptable worship in the good news about Jesus.
Consider the acceptable worship in the good news about Jesus.
26 I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
Jesus makes a way for the source of our love to be God-centered.
Consider the relational love of God in the good news about Jesus.
Consider the relational love of God in the good news about Jesus.
11 For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers, 12 saying, “I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise.”
When we see Jesus as our brother we are empowered to see everyone connected with Jesus in the same way.
Consider the continual love of God in the good news about Jesus.
Consider the continual love of God in the good news about Jesus.
3 He will send from heaven and save me; he will put to shame him who tramples on me. Selah God will send out his steadfast love and his faithfulness!
14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
When you look to Jesus, you see that you get to share what he sends rather than create what you don’t have.
Consider the conscious love of God in the good news about Jesus.
Consider the conscious love of God in the good news about Jesus.
10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
When we consider the initiative of Jesus, we can find the strength to pursue pathways of love.
The beauty of Christ’s body: none of us can do what all of us can do. “Just one more.”
Consider the costly love of God in the good news about Jesus.
Consider the costly love of God in the good news about Jesus.
16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.
The gospel shows us the object and cost of true love. Jesus laid down his life so that you and I could connect with the love of God and share the love of God.
When we embrace the grace of the gospel, we find the power to love, actually.
PASTORAL PRAYER
PASTORAL PRAYER
Lord, we pray that we might be filled with your love so that we might be able to show brotherly love to one another. Help us not to be deceived by the selfish ways of the world and the flesh, but to embrace a God-centered love that brings you honor and glory in Christ Jesus.
