Love Came Down at Christmas

1 John 4:16–19 NIV

And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. We love because he first loved us.

Luke 1:26–38 NIV

In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.” “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. For no word from God will ever fail.” “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.

John 3:16–17 NIV

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

Introduction:

We've journeyed through Advent lighting candles of Hope, Peace, and Joy. Today we arrive at the final theme before Christmas: Love. Not the sentimental love of greeting cards, but the revolutionary, transformative, incarnational love of God.

In just days, we will celebrate the moment when Love took on flesh and entered our world. Today, we pause to ask: What kind of love would do that?

Scripture Readings

Primary Text: 1 John 4:7-12, 16-19 "Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God... God is love... We love because he first loved us."

Gospel Reading: Luke 1:26-38 (The Annunciation) Mary's "Yes" to God's love coming into the world

Supporting Text: John 3:16-17 "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son..."

I. LOVE MOVES FIRST (God's Initiating Love)

The story of Christmas begins not with our longing for God, but with God's longing for us.

Key Point: Before we ever thought to seek God, God was already seeking us. Before we knew we needed saving, Love was already planning rescue.

Illustration: Think of a parent hearing their child cry in the night. The parent doesn't wait for the child to solve their own problem or even to ask for help. Love moves immediately, instinctively, toward the need.

God's love is like this—but infinitely more so. While we were still sinners, still lost, still broken, Love was already on the move toward us.

What does the Bible say?

"We love because he first loved us." (1 John 4:19)

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son..." (John 3:16)

The Annunciation to Mary (Luke 1:26-38) shows God taking the initiative

This changes everything about how we understand our relationship with God. We are not primarily seekers who finally found God. We are the sought, the found, the beloved—captured by a Love that pursued us first.

II. LOVE COMES CLOSE (Incarnational Love)

The miracle of Christmas is not just that God loves us, but how God chose to love us.

God didn't love us from a safe distance. Love didn't shout instructions from heaven. Love became flesh. Love took on vulnerability. Love came close.

What does the Bible say?

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14)

Jesus, Emmanuel—God with us (Matthew 1:23)

He made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant (Philippians 2:7)

Imagine a king who, seeing his people suffering, doesn't send aid packages or issue royal decrees from his palace. Instead, he lays aside his crown, puts on peasant clothes, and moves into the poorest neighborhood to live among his people, to know their struggles firsthand, to share their pain.

This is what God did at Christmas. The Creator entered creation. The Infinite became an infant. The Word became flesh and moved into the neighborhood.

This is the Paradox of Christmas Love: The same hands that fashioned stars were held by a teenage mother. The voice that spoke worlds into existence first cried from a manger. Love stooped that low because Love wanted to be close.

If God's love came close to us, how should we love others? Not from comfortable distance, not with token gestures, but by entering into people's lives, listening to their stories, sharing their burdens. Christmas love doesn't send a check—it shows up in person.

III. LOVE TRANSFORMS US (Responsive Love)

The love of God is not meant to stop with us—it's meant to flow through us.

We cannot truly receive God's love and remain unchanged. Love received becomes love given. The baby in the manger would grow up to say, "By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

What does the Bible say?

"Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another." (1 John 4:11)

"By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." (John 13:35)

"God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans 5:8)

In a world marked by division, hatred, fear, and selfishness, God's people are called to be communities of extraordinary love. Not because we're naturally more loving, but because we've been loved by God.

Mary's Example: Mary responded to God's love with surrender: "Let it be to me according to your word" (Luke 1:38). She made herself available to be part of God's love story. She said "yes" to Love coming into the world through her. What is our "yes"?

Here is how love should look:

Love forgives when it would be easier to hold a grudge

Love serves when it would be more comfortable to be served

Love includes when it would be simpler to exclude

Love sacrifices when it would be safer to preserve

Love speaks truth when it would be easier to stay silent

Love shows mercy when justice would feel more satisfying

A candle loses nothing by lighting another candle. In fact, the light only multiplies. When we share the love we've received from God, we don't diminish it—we multiply it.

Will we receive God's love for us personally and deeply?

Will we allow that love to transform how we see ourselves and others?

Will we become conduits of that love in our homes, workplaces, and communities?

Conclusion: Love Has Come—Love Is Coming

The fourth candle of Advent reminds us that Love came down at Christmas. But it also reminds us that Love is coming again. We live between two advents—between Christmas past and Christ's return. And in this in-between time, we are called to be people of love.

This Christmas season:

Receive the love God offers you—not because you've earned it, but because Love moved first

Reflect on the love that would leave heaven's glory for a manger's humility

Respond with love that flows from gratitude, not obligation

Radiate love to a world that desperately needs to see what God's love looks like with skin on

The greatest gift we can give this Christmas is not wrapped in paper. It's wrapped in kindness, patience, forgiveness, generosity, and sacrifice. It's the love of Christ, lived out through us.

"Love came down at Christmas" This should be the highlight of our Christmas celebrating. We are blessed to have a Father who loved us in-spite of our failures, external, and internal. He came to show us just how much He really loves us. Christmas means so much to us, however the best thing that is gives to humanity is our loving Father who came to be with us in the personage of Jesus Christ.! In case you are struggling with how love looks, acts, feels, and provides:

This Love has a name: Jesus. This Love has a face: Christ. This Love has a mission: to save you and me.

May we be people who not only celebrate Love's arrival over two thousand years ago, but who live as ambassadors of that Love today.