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Sermon Introduction:

The first week in our Advent series this year is focused upon the theme of Hope. As I began to plan and to write for these messages, this week was sort of hard for me to think about which direction to go.

My usual desire this time of year is to spend at least the start of Advent in the Old Testament, helping us to connect us to those hundreds of years of longing, the sense of anticipation and waiting, to help us better experience the awe of the Incarnation, the First Advent or First Coming of Jesus Christ.

But rather than just encourage that rush in the church, for hundreds of years Christians have instead set aside special times for worship, reflection, church celebrations, and study of the Word of God in this season.

In addition to just the temptation to rush this time of year, there is also the temptation to idealize everything. What I mean by that is what I talked about last week a bit too.

What we are celebrating is the center point of God's plan of redemption that stretches back to the beginning, to the Garden of Eden itself.

You might remember that we spent about 2 months, a total of 8 messages, earlier this year in a series leading up to Easter that was titled "Hope."

We talked about how we are "People Who Hope", the issue of "Misunderstood Hope", the fact that Jesus brings "Hope for Sinners" that there is "Hope for the Humble" and "Hope for the Lost."

It's easy to have a false type of hope this time of year.

But this morning, I actually want to talk about Love from a different angle because we have a special opportunity for that this week. So instead of going to Psalms as I originally intended, we are going to go over to I John Chapter 4 if you have your Bibles this morning.

What I said last week is that the type of hopes we often settle for is not really hope at all. Often they are just wishes, desires, that most of the time won't be fulfilled.

Our sermon on Good Friday was titled "The Death of Hope" and on Easter Sunday we talked about how we "Experience Hope" because of the Resurrection. In the final sermon, before we started into the Book of Acts, we looked at and what we called "Transforming Hope" in the lives of believers following the Resurrection.

This short letter is written by the Apostle John, who was one of Jesus' closest followers and is the disciple who actually lived the longest according to church history. The exact date this was written is debated, but this letter comes at least 30 years after the birth, ministry, and death of Jesus.

When we started that series, I talked about how all of humanity in one way or another relies upon hope. We are either seeking hope or we have some hope that drives us.

So rather than examining a text and looking forward to the First Advent from it this morning, we are actually in a text that is looking back upon the First Advent and explaining how we are to live in light of it.

If we are "hoping" for the ideal Christmas season, with the best gifts, perfect family and friend interactions, the optimal balance of rest and social engagement…. We will be disappointed.

Those things will probably not be perfectly fulfilled. We are a broken people, with other broken people, in a broken world… but that isn't want real hope is anyway.

So if you are there in the text, let's hear from the Apostle John about how the events we celebrate in the Christmas season demonstrate God's Love in a powerful way:

At this time of year, we are perhaps more drawn to the idea of hope than any other season in the year.

Movies, decorations, Christmas cards, parties, and gifts… everything that makes the season what it is for us stems from the same basic desires. In part, we are all operating out of Hope. Hope that this year will be filled with perfect memories, that those gifts will be the most remember, most beloved,… hope that our family encounters this year will be perfect and not disrupted with fighting, jealously or other such things….

True Hope is confidence in God, confidence that can only come from and be placed in the One who controls all things, works in all things, and never fails to accomplish His plan. That is what God intends for us with regard to hope: not for us to express wishes or desires, but to have confidence in Him and His everlasting love.

Sermon Text:

7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

Throughout the Scripture, the theme of Hope runs from the very start. From the moment sin entered the world in the Garden because of Adam and Eve's disobedience, humanity was given the hope of day when God would provide a deliverer to overcome sin and Redeem humanity from sin.

This morning, I want us to go to think about our second theme of the Advent season: 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. 10 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.

My usual desire this time of year is to spend at least the start of Advent in the Old Testament, trying to connect us to those hundreds of years of longing, the sense of anticipation and waiting, to help us better understand the awe of the Incarnation, the First Advent or Coming of Jesus Christ as the center point of this plan of redemption that stretches back to the Garden of Eden.

This theme of Hope, real and true hope, is captured beautifully in the Psalms. This morning, I want us to turn to together.

But this morning, I actually want to talk about Love in a particular way because we have a special opportunity for that this week. So instead of going to Psalms as I originally intended, we are going to go over to I John Chapter 4 if you have your Bibles this morning.

We don't know the author or the date of the composition of this Psalm, but the content is just as relatable today to us as it was the original audience.

11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; [yet] if we love one another, God abides in us and His love is perfected in us.

This is a powerful text for a Christian to consider, and we will have to do it briefly this morning.

This short letter is written by John, who was one of Jesus' closest followers and is the disciple who actually lived the longest according to church history. The exact date is debated, but this letter comes at least 30 years after the birth, ministry, and death of Jesus.

Listen to the start of this Psalm:

In these 4 verses, the most dominate word and theme is clear: 13 times he says a form of the word "Love" and his address twice to the readers is the intimate term: "beloved" - meaning "those who are loved."

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So if you are there in the text, let's hear from the Apostle John about how the events we celebrate in the Christmas season demonstrate God's Love in a powerful way:

This time of year we celebrate love in a variety of ways. Gifts are a huge part of the season and in their best light, they given out of love to express love for others.

1 Out of the depths I cry to you, O YAHWEH!

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One good aspect of the season is that we understand that love is a broader thing than just romance, right? There is love for friends, love for family, even for neighbors and perhaps even strangers are we go throughout this season giving, socializing, etc.

2 O Lord, hear my voice!

7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

Let your ears be attentive

For the Christian, we are to be marked by acts of love not just at Christmas but all throughout the year in every area of our lives. In fact, Jesus told His followers that and John, this same John, recorded that in His Gospel letter:

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to the voice of my pleas for mercy!

35 "By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; [yet] if we love one another, God abides in us and His love is perfected in us.

The Psalm starts with a plea for mercy, a plea for the LORD, for YAHWEH, the God of Israel to hear.

So if Jesus says "people will know you are mine because of your love" then obviously this is a key theme for the Christian!

Perhaps, at the start of this December, you aren't in a place of desperation like this. Maybe that will come a little later, as the parties and the big celebrations get closer…

This is a powerful text for a Christian to consider, and we will have to do it briefly this morning.

But maybe you are. Perhaps, sitting here today you can relate to this sense of desperation.

So more than 30 years later, when John writes to Christian people he begins by calling them "beloved" and telling them …let us love one another for love is from God…

We have all felt it at various times if we are honest in our reflections. The cry to God, lifting our needs and our prayers to Him… asking Him to hear us as our only Hope…

There is a direct connection to being loved and acting in love.

Don't be misled by the commercials and the insistence of marketing companies this year:

This time of year we celebrate love in a variety of ways. Gifts are a huge part of the season and in their best light, they given out of love to express love for others.

The most important need we have, all of us in this place, no matter the season of life we are in… is to deal with our sin.

Love does not come from a Coke-a-cola, from a diamond bracelet, or from a hearty Christmas meal with friends and family.

Those are good things, but love is much greater than that and it comes from God Himself.

The Psalmist recognizes this as well:

This time of year we understand that love is a broader thing than just romance, right? There is love for friends, for family, even for neighbors and perhaps strangers are we go throughout this season giving, socializing, etc.

If we look at verses 9-10, John explains so beautifully what this means:

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3 If you, O YAHWEH, should mark iniquities,

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O Lord, who could stand?

35 "By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

This is the Christmas Story and our Salvation Story in two beautiful verses.

So if Jesus says "people will know you are mine because of your love" then obviously this is a key theme for the Christian! So more than 30 years later, when John writes to Christian people he begins by calling them "beloved" and telling them …let us love one another for love is from God…

That is a question we don't ask enough. It's something our society and our generations don't think about.

God acted in love, He revealed His love to us, in that God the Son came into this world as Jesus, the Christ. In His life and His death, this is True Love revealed to us because He is the propitiation for our sins.

Sin is a horrible and serious reality in this world. Our sins are something we often strive to minimize and ignore. We act, for the most part, as if our sins are minor issues, that as long as we are better than others we know, then we are okay. At the heart of it, we are good people and just make some mistakes along the way.

Don't be misled by the commercials and the insistence of marketing companies this year: Love does not come from a Coke-a-cola, from a diamond bracelet, or from a hearty Christmas meal with friends and family.

That’s a word we don't usually use in our daily conversations, but it's a word we should be deeply grateful for and become familiar with.

But the Bible reveals that God does not share that view with us. Sin is actually a deadly and overwhelming issue.

Those are good things, but love is much greater than that and it comes from God Himself.

If we look at verses 9-10, John explains so beautifully what this means:

If our sins are marked, or counted, against us by God… then none of us could stand before Him. His holiness, His perfect character, would demand that you and I receive judgement and punishment for our sins.

Propitiation is the means by which the punishment of our sins is removed and the grace of forgiveness is given to us.

This is say, Jesus takes our sins away and He gives us forgiveness and love.

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Our sin is more serious than we often think

This is a word we can never thank Him enough for. He is our salvation. He is the means, He is the cause of us having salvation from our sins!

Yet, the Psalm does not end by answering that question with just that reminder of the seriousness of sin, rather, we read:

And He is this, He is the Propitiation for our sins, because He loves His people.

This is the Christmas Story and our Salvation Story in two beautiful verses. God acted in love, He revealed His love to us, in that God the Son came into this world as Jesus, the Christ. In His life and His death, True Love is revealed to us because He is the propitiation for our sins.

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That’s a word we don't usually use in our daily conversations, but it's a word we should be deeply grateful for and become familiar with.

John says, and we must hear this more than any other definition we could come up with: this is love…

4 But with you there is forgiveness,

that you may be feared.

This is what love truly is, above and greater than anything else:

Propitiation is the means by which the punishment of our sins is removed and the grace of forgiveness is given to us.

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This is say, Jesus takes our sins away and He gives us forgiveness and righteousness.

Again the Psalm says what our society, our generations, don't really grasp well. With God sin is serious. It has eternal implications and impact upon us, but God is not only a God of justice in wrath and punishment of sin, He is a God of forgiveness and mercy.

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.

That reality is something we are far too comfortable with. We presume upon God's grace and forgiveness far too often. We expect that God will, of course, forgive our sins and remove our iniquities… but that God can and does do that for His people should never be take for granted or simply assumed.

This is a word we can never thank Him enough for. He is our salvation. He is the means, He is the cause of us having forgiveness of our sins!

And He is that, He is the Propitiation for our sins, because He loves His people.

In our lives and especially in the Christmas season, we can miss this far too easily. This is what True Love is - It's the fulfillment of God's promises to redeem, it's the coming of Jesus Christ, His life and death for His people - True Love is the Gospel Message.

We should never become comfortable with God's forgiveness

This then is the explanation, really the basis for what John commanded at the start of our passage echoing Christ's statement:

John says, and we must hear this more than any other definition we could come up with: this is love…

This is something many of us do, we get comfortable, we expect and we think little of how amazing it is that God grants us forgiveness.

This is what love truly is, above and greater than anything else:

I love this word used in the Psalm for how we should view God because it is so far from our view of God usually. It's challenging and convicting. When we consider God's power to forgive and redeem, we should have a sense of fear of this God.

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The word there means that we should be in awe, in reverence of this God. His power should give us pause, we should consider deeply and be moved by this reality of Him. We should revere Him and respect Him above all things.

7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

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.

This is important for us to hear, because love is often misunderstood as just feelings.

And if we do, if we reflect and rightly think upon God in these ways, then we respond in our desperation and difficulties differently. We don't despair and we don’t give up, instead, we go to this awe inspiring God and we echo the posture of the Psalmist:

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Biblically: True Love is action.

So John is telling us not to just feel something, but to live in a certain way.

5 I wait for YAHWEH, my soul waits,

This then is the explanation, really the basis for what John commands echoing Christ's statement:

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If we do not live lives marked by actions of love, then John is strikingly clear with us: Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

and in His word I hope;

6 my soul waits for the Lord

7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

This is important for us. How you and I live does reveal something crucial about our salvation.

Let me be clear as I always strive to be: We are not saved by our works, we not saved by doing certain things or acting a certain way… we can't earn or deserve our salvation.

more than watchmen for the morning,

This is important for us to hear, because love is often misunderstood as just feelings. Biblically though, True Love is action.

But if we claim to be saved and do not begin over time to reflect God and His love in our lives… then our claims are empty.

more than watchmen for the morning.

So John is telling us not to just feel something, but to live in a certain way. If we do not live lives marked by actions of love, then John is strikingly clear with us: Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

God is love, He saves us by His Love demonstrated in Jesus Christ coming, living, and dying in our place.

This is what real hope, the life transforming hope of the Gospel look. It leads us to cry out to God and to wait upon Him. To trust in His Word, to place our confidence and hope in what He has said and will do.

This is so important for us. How you and I live does reveal something crucial about our salvation.

True Love is a transforming love.

We are not saved by our works, we not saved by doing certain things or acting a certain way… but if we claim to be saved and do not begin over time to reflect God and His love… then our claims are empty.

We wait for Him and seek Him more than anything else. This is true Hope.

Hope is not just a wish. We can hope for the perfect holiday season this year, but, if we are honest this morning, that is just a wish. That most likely will not come to pass. We may have a desire for it, but we really shouldn't have any confidence that will actually happen.

True Christians are people of Love because God loved us first.

God is love, He saves us by His Love demonstrated in Jesus Christ coming, living, and dying in our place.

God saved us out of love so we can truly love others.

This Love is a transforming love. True Christians are people of True Love.

There will be hurt feelings in this month. There will be disappointment. There will be some moments of jealousy, greed, and anger. We will have unfulfilled desires this holiday season.

So John writes:

For some of us that may just be small, brief moments that pass quickly and overall this is a great year… but for some of us our hopes for the season may be crushed and completely unfulfilled…

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But the real Hope I want us to focus in on today is not that fragile, is not that temporal, and is not going to be lost.

True Hope is not a wish, it is confidence.

11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; [yet] if we love one another, God abides in us and His love is perfected in us.

The Psalmist ends this short Psalm by saying:

This is why we love one another. He has loved us and He demonstrates His love through us. We have a mission, a job to do, as I have stressed so much with you… and it is to show the Love of God to our neighbors, and to the world, through sharing with them the real meaning of Love. Pointing them to Jesus Christ and His salvation, His propitiation for sins.

This is why we love one another. God has loved us and He now demonstrates His love to others in this world through us.

Look at the following two verses:

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We have a mission, a job to do, as I have stressed so much with you… and it is to show the Love of God to our neighbors, and to the world, through sharing with them the real meaning of Love. Pointing them to Jesus Christ and the message of His salvation, how He alone is the propitiation for the sins of His people.

Look at verses 13-14 now:

7 O Israel, hope in [YAHWEH]!

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13 By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world.

For with [YAHWEH] there is steadfast love,

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and with Him is plentiful redemption.

13 By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world.

John is writing more than 30 years after Christ's death. He writes this letter likely from Ephesus, a foreign city outside of Israel, where the Gospel had spread and lives had been changed.

8 And He will redeem Israel

John is writing more than 30 years after Christ's death. He writes this letter likely from Ephesus, a foreign city outside of Israel, where the Gospel had spread and lives had been changed.

John was an eye witness to Christ's ministry. He knew, and told everyone he could, of this greatest act of transforming love: the Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world.

from all his iniquities.

Conclusion:

This text, like so many others in the Bible, speak to a powerful reality of the extent of God's work of love and His plan of salvation.

The Hope of the Psalmist, the Hope he encourages us to pursue and to have, is a Hope in God that is based upon His steadfast love… His never-ending love… His redemption from sins that is much greater than our need and is much more than we deserve.

I want us, this Advent season, to have the Hope of Christ, the Savior long promised, the Messiah come to deliver and redeem, the One who meets our deepest need and deals with our most devastating sins…. The One who is the True Hope and True Light of the World.

Our God is so great, so far beyond everything and everyone else, that He could never be properly worshiped by just one nation, just one family line from Abraham. And He never intended for that to be the case.

This text, like so many others in the Bible, speaks to a powerful reality of the extent of God's work of love and His plan of salvation.

God has created all the nations, all the people groups, and from the very start He has intended that all the nations would come before Him and worship Him and glorify Him.

Jesus is our true hope because in Him alone can we have real confidence. He accomplished what we never could, He will perfectly fulfill His promises, and He never, ever, fails.

So I love this morning that Pastor Pedro is here with us. He is a friend, a brother in the faith, and a fellow pastor in the Universal Church - that is, the church of Jesus Christ which exists beyond this local congregation, that is made up of people from every tribe, language, people group, and nation.

God has created all the nations, all the people groups, and from the very start He always has intended that all the nations would come before Him and worship Him and glorify Him.

Conclusion:

Pastor Pedro is such a blessing to us today because he is a tangible reminder of this intention of God to be praised by all nations and worshipped in all languages, because He is the Savior of the world.

So I love this morning that Pastor Pedro is here with us. He is a friend, a brother in the faith, and a fellow pastor.

I do love the Christmas season. One of the reasons is because the idealization of it always includes bringing people together. The popular movies and songs all have that element of being together, transcending differences, is actually a result of the Christian origins and influence upon this holiday.

There is one Gospel, one way of Salvation, one God to be worshiped, and Pastor Pedro is with us today because we are ultimately united together by that Gospel and a shared love for our great and wonderful, powerful, and loving God. The only True God.

As I reminded you just last week, the church of Jesus Christ exists beyond this local congregation, that is made up of people from every tribe, language, people group, and nation.

In the Church, we have a basis for unity and for togetherness that far exceeds anything a holiday or holiday season can provide. Our basis for unity is found in the Gospel. That Jesus is the fulfillment of the promise to redeem and provide forgiveness of sins.

The message of the Gospel is one which removes all barriers and boundaries. For those who trust in the Gospel and are saved by God's grace, we are remade and reformed into something new. We become a part of the People of God as our primary identity. We are part of something bigger than us, we are unified in who saves us and how He saves us… we are His and He is ours.

The God who Pastor Pedro proclaims in Guatemala is the same God I proclaim here.

Pastor Pedro is a blessing to us today because he is a tangible reminder of this intention of God to be praised by all nations and worshipped in all languages, because Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world.

The love of God in Christ atoning for our sins that has saved us here in America has saved Pastor Pedro, his family, and the members of his church in Guatemala.

There are two broad ways to talk about the church of Christ. There is the Universal Church, which is made up of every true believer, in every nation, tribe, and people group around the world and all throughout time.

But there is also the Local Church, which is a visible representation of God's people in a specific area, gathering in a specific place, to worship God and proclaim His message.

Pastor Pedro Soto - Greeting/Intro/Update:

The God who Pastor Pedro proclaims in Guatemala is the same God I proclaim here.

The love of God in Christ atoning for our sins that has saved us here in America has saved Pastor Pedro, his family, and the members of his church in Guatemala.

The way we formally identify who is part of the local church is by membership.

So what I want us to do in the bit of time we have left is to invite Pastor Pedro to come and share just a few moments with us. He is dearly loved by those of us who know him. We are partnering together with him in our work in Guatemala in ways I will be talking about in the future, so will you welcome him this morning to have him share about himself, his family, and what the Lord is doing in his church - Lion of Judah - there in San Marcos, Guatemala.

So what I want us to do in the bit of time we have left is to invite Pastor Pedro to come and let all of you get to know him just a bit.

--Closing Prayer--

Those who join the membership of a local church are committing to a particular group of people, to a particular gathering of God's people, in a spiritually significant way.

Joining the membership of the church is a commitment to follow the leadership and the spiritual oversight of the leaders of that body. To commit oneself to prayer, support, and involvement in the lives of the other members.

He is dearly loved by those of us who know him. We are partnering together with him in our work in Guatemala in ways I will be talking about in the future, so will you welcome him this morning.

Joining a Local Church should produce joy and be a spiritual benefit and help, to every member of the body.

As the pastor here, I am committing myself to obeying which tells me to shepherd well, to give oversight to the spiritual lives of the members of this church, to live as an example and a support each member as best I can.

I am called to care for member well because I will give an account to God one day for every member of this church.

This morning, we have 2 individuals who have recently completed the process of application for membership here in our church.

Our process here is that to join the membership, there is an application that you would fill out and turn into me as the pastor. From that, some conversation ensues, talking about faith, and the reason for joining, etc.

Then I take that application to the board with a recommendation. We review the application and as a board we take a vote.

If a person is accepted into the membership by the board, we come to this moment right here. Where as a whole church we get to celebrate together and to commit together, to being a unified as a part of the family of God.

I want to invite Joel & Mandy Swisher to come up this morning to the front of the sanctuary here.

These are believers in Christ, that's the main prerequisite for being a part of the local church, and these fellow Christians want to identify formally with us.

They are committing this morning to following the command of God to them:

tells all members of the church:

17 Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.

I am making a commitment as their pastor, they are making a commitment as members, and this morning I want to remind every other member as well of our shared commitment and responsibilities to them.

47 times in the New Testament we find commands given to how we are to interact with "one another."

We are charged with things like:

Be at peace with one another ()Don’t grumble among one another ()Be of the same mind with one another (, )Accept one another ()Don't envy one another ().Bear with and forgive one another ()Seek good for one another ()Don’t complain against one another (, )Confess sins to one another ()

And most often and repeatedly we are told:

Love one another (, , ; ; , ; ; , , ; )

So if you are a member of the church this morning and will commit to accepting, seeking good for, and loving both Joel and Mandy Swisher as members of the church alongside me, will you stand with us?

Let's pray over them this morning and I will invite the rest of the congregation to stand and join us in this prayer if you will as well.

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Pastor Pedro Soto - Greeting/Intro/Update:

--Closing Prayer--

--Prayer--