"Love"

Intro: We come to the last Sunday of Advent, only a few more days until Christmas day. The last Sunday of Advent focuses on the theme of love. Love is often defined in our culture in a myriad of ways. Often focusing on one area of emotion, sex, companionship, etc. These things are part of a loving relationship, but not the defining features of what love truly is. Today, we are going to see that the Christmas season exemplifies love in greatest form, for it is in Christmas that we see God’s gift of love.

CTS: Know that God loves you with a costly yet gracious love.

I. Love Manifested (9)

Manifestation of love: This harkens us back to John 1, where we see that Jesus is the manifestation of God. John the apostle here now defines the same manifestation of Jesus as the manifestation of love for us. We can aptly say and do so with confidence that the promise of Christmas, with all of its hope, peace, and joy is a revelation of God’s love to us. When you see that manger, you see love exemplified. But before we stop there, and as I said before, the baby in the manger Jesus is inoffensive, but we will see that this love manifested and defined is a challenging one.

A. Manifested from eternity (John 17:3)

We first see clearly that this love was sent. And from the testimony of the rest of Scripture, particularly from John 1 and Philippians 2:7, that the Son is eternal and has always existed. John 17:3 says “And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” Christmas is the celebration of the moment he put on flesh for us, became human. But again, not just to look nice in a manger, but to be the revealing of God’s love to the world.

B. Manifested to reverse death (Eph 2:1)

What does that love entail? The second part of the manifestation is the revelation that we are dead. He has come so that we might live. That assumes that we are in need of life, aka, we are dead. Paul the apostle understood this and wrote in Ephesians 2:1-2 “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked...” Something we don’t want to admit but must recognize, and this is the part where Jesus becomes a bit more offensive. The love of God confront and reveals a great need of ours. All of humanity’s need for life, which means we must come to grips that we are all dead men and women walking. And we have brought it upon ourselves through sin.

Illustration: Sometimes love confronts us with truth. Sometimes the most loving thing we can do is to proclaim truth, even when the person we proclaim it to, or sometimes when others tell us the truth when we don’t want to hear it, is most needed.

Transition: So the love of God is manifested for us and reveals our great need for life. So how is this love made possible?

II. Love Defined (10)

A. Starts with God (Psalm 14:1-3)

Despite our state, our sin, our rebellion, God initiates and acts. And we must realize this, as the Bible makes clear. None of us seek God naturally. Psalm 14:1-3 says

1  The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”

They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds;

there is none who does good.

2  The LORD looks down from heaven on the children of man,

to see if there are any who understand,

who seek after God.

3  They have all turned aside; together they have become corrupt;

there is none who does good,

not even one.

This is also summarized in Romans 3:10-11, states that mankind does not seek God naturally. No one loves God first. Love is the initiating act of God, which puts all the focus on Him. We are dead in our trespasses and sins, and there must be something done to bring us out of death into life, since we cannot do it ourselves. It starts with God, and He does then what is necessary by sending His Son, the supreme act of love. What does this love entail?

B. Finished in Jesus (Romans 5:8, Eph 2:4-5)

Romans 5:8 says “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” This is one of my favorite verses in all of Scripture. It tells me that God loves me at my darkest. Eph 2:4-5 says “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved. This is then the act. Jesus was sent to be the propitiation for our sins. This is the act of love, the greatest gift of all. Propitiation is the act of appeasing the wrath of the one done wrong. Yes, God is angry over sin. It’s outright rebellion against His established law. Yet, even in our sin, even in our rebellion, and even though He is angry with us, He is still loving to us simultaneously by offering His own Son in our place. The baby in the manger has come to die, to take our place, to endure the wrath of God on our behalf. He did so willingly. The Father sent Him willingly. This is grace. This is what was necessary. This is what separates Christianity with other religions. It’s not what we do to appease or earn God’s favor, but rather, what God has done to give us favor. It’s been done. It’s been purchased. It is a gift.

III. Love Received (15-16)

The Christmas gift is more than just a cute baby born, but the God-man, the Son of God, taking your place, and shedding His blood for the forgiveness of your sins. This gift is made available to you right now. The hands to accept that gift is faith. Not works. Not doing this or that. Faith. Ephesians 2:8-10 says 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. This is love received. John later in this chapter tells us that this receiving of the gift is the confession that Jesus is who He says He is. He is God’s Son. He is the propitiation for our sins. He is the Savior. He is everything we have been proclaiming all Christmas season. He is everything that the Scriptures tells us. He’s nothing less. He’s The Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. He is the Word made flesh that dwells among us. He is the light of men. He is the means by which humanity can be called the sons of God. Verse 16 is this. We believe. This is the receiving of love. We believe who we are and our need for a Savior. We confess Jesus as Lord and Savior. Illustration: That’s accepting the free gift, the greatest gift of all, one that surpasses the Nintendo 64 me and my brother got one year, the wood-built X-Wings my Dad made for me, the smorgasborg of Power Ranger Toys. It’s the gift that lasts and never grows old. It’s eternal. It’s God’s unrelenting love. It never stops. It never fails.

IV. Love Shared (7-8, 11-12)

And what we do with this gift doesn’t stay with us. We receive it, but we also do it in light of the community of God’s people. We grow in this love. Loved fully, we explore the depths of the One who created us, sustains us, saves us, and will one day fully glorify us. We are then called, both on an individual level and a corporate level (the church), to proclaim this love. We love one another as brothers and sisters in Christ. To be born of God is to know Him. We know Him because of His love redeeming us. We love Him in return, and we therefore love others. If we do not love others, we do not know God. It’s pretty simple really. To not love is to know know God, for He loves. We love our brothers and sisters in Christ, but we also love our enemies as Jesus tells us in Matthew 5:44. We love the lost, and proclaim this very gospel, this very gift, this love that we have so graciously received and that anyone can receive too, regardless of who they are.

Conclusion: This costly and gracious love is for you today. It’s for the world. John 3:16 makes that clear. Earlier in 1 John, the same word used here, propitiation, is described of Jesus’ death. He i the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but the sins of the whole world. And that’s you today, under the hearing of my voice. It’s been manifested and defined in these two short verses. And it’s to be believed and shared. The facts, the response. And I call on you today to to respond. Have you in fact recieved this love? Come today and repent and believe. Church, are we sharing this love, the gracious and costly love that we have recieved from God? Hear the Word today, respond to it accordingly, and give God the glory for the great love with which He loved us!