Love Came Down
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Of all the words of advent, love is the word that gets used the most in everyday context. Everyone talks about love. Whether it’s a Hallmark love story or how much you love eggnog, everyone throws around the word love pretty liberally. There are times when we get serious about the topic of love though.
When young folks want to get married, it is advisable for them to go to premarital counseling and dive into the love that they are about to commit to. Us veteran spouses can assure you that love is more than the feeling you have when you are first enamored by a certain person. We would all tell you young folks love is a commitment. A LONG term commitment.
A commitment to what? It’s A commitment to serve. A commitment to put your own wants and needs on the back burner while you give and help and do and sacrifice on behalf of another person. John 15:13. Why does it sometimes seem like that’s easier to do for a friend than it is for your own spouse? (laying down life) That’s why it’s so important that you establish your relationship as friends first, before you get entangled in a romantic relationship. Lay the foundation for love before you become blinded by the feelings of “love”. Remember, your love is to last beyond your feelings. Love is a long term commitment. And Love is an action.
There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
We parents feel that deeply. Children are a long term commitment that require you to sacrifice your wants and needs in order to take care of and raise them. Boy is it worth it though! Just as soon as that little baby arrives in the world, love floods your heart. Looking down into that innocent, wrinklely face you whisper, “I love you more than words can express”. We are speechless. We are in awe. Before this tiny little bundle can even hug us or impress us with his or her abilities, before they say or do anything worthy of our adoration, there is only one word to describe the connection in this parent/ child relationship- the word is Love.
And that’s what the scripture says as well! The Word is Love. John 1:14 Christmas is the best love story ever!! And it’s not just based on true events, it is 100% true. You got complicated romance – Joseph and Mary. You got power struggle – King Herod vs baby Jesus. You got international travel – the wise men. You got the hometown boys welcoming and introducing a newcomer from out of town, out of this world, really. The crazy plot twist is like the song King of Kings said, “how many gods have poured out their hearts to romance a world that is torn all apart?” When we celebrate Christmas and talk about Jesus being the greatest gift of all, we are talking about John 3:16 God gave us Love, wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. John 1:14 – the Word became human/flesh….He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness.
So the Word became human 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 one and only Son.
“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.
So the Word became human 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 one and only Son.
1. Love is a commitment
Jesus wasn’t a last minute gift. God made the commitment to us long ago. Isiah prophesied 700ish years before Jesus was born. Isiah 9:6-7 (repeat, the Passionate commitment of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies will make this happen!!) God is committed to acting on behalf of his creation in spite of the fact that we don’t deserve His love.
Hosea 11:1(don’t read yet) is another prophecy regarding Jesus which is quoted in Matt 2:15 (read Matt 2:13-15). Lets look a little deeper into this Hosea scripture as it refers to Israel as God’s son – Hosea 11:1-7. We see a picture of God loving his children. He led the Israelites out of Egypt, out of slavery, into freedom in the promised land. He taught them his ways, gave them his commandments so they could grow and prosper. He provided for them and protected them but they didn’t stay faithful to Him. They turned their backs on Him and worshiped other “little g” gods. Imagine the hurt and the anguish that our Holy and perfect God experienced from being treated this way. He has every right to execute His wrath upon people who disrespect, disregard, and dishonor Him- the all powerful, all knowing, righteous and sovereign creator of the universe. Who is man to treat God in such as way? David wrote (Psalm 8:1-4) Yet, wemere mortals, ushumans, not just the Israelites, but us, you and me, have treated God with disdain. We have sinned against him. Wehave been unfaithful to him. But God does not give up on us. Back to Hosea, 11:8 says …. God loves us. He made a commitment to provide a way of reconciliation and He followed through with action.
“When Israel was a child, I loved him,
and I called my son out of Egypt.
and they stayed there until Herod’s death. This fulfilled what the Lord had spoken through the prophet: “I called my Son out of Egypt.”
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.”
That night Joseph left for Egypt with the child and Mary, his mother, and they stayed there until Herod’s death. This fulfilled what the Lord had spoken through the prophet: “I called my Son out of Egypt.”
“When Israel was a child, I loved him,
and I called my son out of Egypt.
But the more I called to him,
the farther he moved from me,
offering sacrifices to the images of Baal
and burning incense to idols.
I myself taught Israel how to walk,
leading him along by the hand.
But he doesn’t know or even care
that it was I who took care of him.
I led Israel along
with my ropes of kindness and love.
I lifted the yoke from his neck,
and I myself stooped to feed him.
“But since my people refuse to return to me,
they will return to Egypt
and will be forced to serve Assyria.
War will swirl through their cities;
their enemies will crash through their gates.
They will destroy them,
trapping them in their own evil plans.
For my people are determined to desert me.
They call me the Most High,
but they don’t truly honor me.
O Lord, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth!
Your glory is higher than the heavens.
You have taught children and infants
to tell of your strength,
silencing your enemies
and all who oppose you.
When I look at the night sky and see the work of your fingers—
the moon and the stars you set in place—
what are mere mortals that you should think about them,
human beings that you should care for them?
“When Israel was a child, I loved him,
and I called my son out of Egypt.
2. Love is an Action
Matthew 20:28 – Jesus said “I did not come to be served but to serve and give my life as a ransom for many” (my paraphrase). Love in action looks like serving and laying your life down for others. Often 1 Corinthians 13 is read at weddings, which is fine, but in context, this verse is written for the body of Christ. It describes how we should be acting towards one another as brothers and sisters in God’s family. Jesus himself commands us to love each other John 13:34 -35. Jesus didn’t just love us in thought or feeling. Jesus loved us in action. He was patient and kind. He was never jealous of other people, nor did he boast, act prideful, be rude or demand his own way. Jesus kept no record of wrongs but died to erase them all. He did not rejoice in injustice but rejoiced to reveal The Way, The Truth, and the Life. 1 Cor 13 vs 7says “love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstances. Love came down on Christmas Phil 2:6-8. And get this, Love acted 1st. We hadn’t done anything worthy of love. We didn’t deserve His love. We couldn’t earn His love. Romans 5:6-8
For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.
Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless.
When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.
Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.
So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”
Though he was God,
he did not think of equality with God
as something to cling to.
Instead, he gave up his divine privileges;
he took the humble position of a slave
and was born as a human being.
When he appeared in human form,
he humbled himself in obedience to God
and died a criminal’s death on a cross.
When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.
3. Love is the Word
John 1:1-4 Love before time. Jesus already existed. Love was present in the carefully crafted and designed creation. Love was present when you were created, carefully and purposefully knit together in your mothers womb. Psalm 139:13-18. God loves you. I can’t say it enough. John 3:16 – Love came down at Christmas, a gift for you! John 1:10-13 says (read scripture) Jesus, the Son of God, came to give you the right to become a child of God too!! 1 John 3:1 (NIV read whole verse then repeat -What love the Father has lavished on us!) I can’t say it better than the apostle John, who calls himself the disciple whom Jesus loved. Listen to what he shares with us in 1 John 4:7-17. I pray that we will be able to call ourselves disciples whom Jesus loves like John did. I pray that we truly do live like Jesus here in this world. That we would love as Jesus loved us – a committed and action oriented love that sacrificially serves others.
In the beginning the Word already existed.
The Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
He existed in the beginning with God.
God created everything through him,
and nothing was created except through him.
The Word gave life to everything that was created,
and his life brought light to everyone.
You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body
and knit me together in my mother’s womb.
Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!
Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.
You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion,
as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.
You saw me before I was born.
Every day of my life was recorded in your book.
Every moment was laid out
before a single day had passed.
How precious are your thoughts about me, O God.
They cannot be numbered!
I can’t even count them;
they outnumber the grains of sand!
And when I wake up,
you are still with me!
“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.
He came into the very world he created, but the world didn’t recognize him. He came to his own people, and even they rejected him. But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth that comes from God.
See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are! But the people who belong to this world don’t recognize that we are God’s children because they don’t know him.
Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.
Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.
And God has given us his Spirit as proof that we live in him and he in us. Furthermore, we have seen with our own eyes and now testify that the Father sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. All who declare that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God. We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love.
God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world.
Conclusion
This is the Christmas Story – When Love Came Down a poem by Christina Rossetti (see text message for explanation of poem)
Love came down at Christmas
Love all lovely, love divine
Love was born at Christmas
Star and Angels gave the sign.
Worship we the Godhead
Love Incarnate, Love Divine
Worship we our Jesus
But wherewith for sacred sign?
Love shall be our token
Love be yours and love be mine,
Love to God and all men,
Love for plea and gift a sign.
Invitation -
Have you accepted the gift of Love God wrapped up in flesh and delivered on Christmas just for you? Are you a child of God? God made a commitment to you long ago and He hasn’t given up hope you will take him up on His offer for you to become His child. Eph 1:4-5. God made the first move. Love came down at Christmas and 30 years latter He poured out His life on the cross so that you could be forgiven and accepted into the family of God. If you are longing for love, it’s available to you. Today is the day of salvation. You can accept God’s love right now, right where you are. Pray with me: Heavenly Father, thank you for your love and compassion that causes you to continue to pursue me with unfailing love and faithfulness. Please forgive me for my rebellion. Forgive me for when I have turned away from you and run after love in wrong places. Forgive me for not giving you the honor and worship you deserve. I want to be your child. I want your love to live in me and I want to love others like you do. Thank you Jesus for coming into this world to live a perfect sinless life and die in my place so that I can receive the Father’s forgiveness, salvation, and love. I commit to a life of living and loving like Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen!
Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.
If you have accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, tell someone! Let us celebrate with you! You have become part of the family of God. There are so many ways to get involved in learning more about Him and His Word. We are here for you! God Bless and Merry Christmas!
