Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Meaning of Christmas

We have talked about The Real Meaning of Christmas not being about the giving of gifts or the commercial aspect of getting in the black.

Rather Christmas is about God.

Pastor Ron went through the Birth of the Savior Matthew 1:18-25, looking at the Angel informing Joseph about the child that his betrothed wife Mary would bear, by way of the Holy Spirit.

This Son born and Child given would ‘save his people from their sins’.

Joseph was obedient to this message and took Mary as his wife.

Pastor Barry went through the Worship of the Savior Luke 2:8-20, looking at the report given to the Shepherds concerning the birth of the Savior, Messiah and Lord.

The praise of the Angels, the investigating of the shepherd, their witness/testimony about the Savior and the storing up of these things within Mary.

We are talking about the Love of God today 1 John 4:7-12, as much as we think of gift giving, think of time off from work, think of a time to recharge, think of time with family, the real Meaning of Christmas is about Love , more expressly the love of the Father, referred to as God in the passage we are looking at today.

John’s Epistles

We are coming from John’s first epistle today.

There were three epistles that John wrote and the first one (first John) was written between AD 85 and 95 to the Churches of Ephesus, Smyrna, Laodicea, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis and Philadelphia.

Those Churches addressed in Revelation 2-3.

This epistle is more like a pastoral letter that was meant to be circulated among the churches.

So the audience that were dealing with some emerging heresies (proto gnosticism) would hear a word from God concerning the authentic and the handled Jesus (that which we have seen, heard and handled 1 John 1:1)

Purpose of the Letter

I like John because he provides the purpose for the letter that he has written.

He does the same thing with his Gospel as well.

We can find the purpose for the letter in Chapter 5 of this epistle.

John is writing to believers about their assurance of being in Christ, or as John puts their remaining or abiding in Christ and in the Father.

He writes a number of things concerning the proof that you are in right standing.

He covers things like being in the light, or lying and as we will look at today love.

John provides a proof of love for believers and their abiding in God.

We also get a glimpse into the love of God and how this first Advent is related to that love.

The Impact

Love

We are told by John that we are to love one another.

This is a subjunctive verb in the Greek, which implies there is another way to go and that a choice of sorts needs to be made.

So John is exhorting his audience to love one another.

Then he gives reasons for this love to be shown.

First let’s look at a biblical definition for love.

Love - Noun

ἀγάπη - (agápē) - the quality of warm regard for and interest in another, esteem, affection, regard, love (BDAG)

Love - Verb

ἀγαπάω - (agapaō) - to have a warm regard for and interest in another, cherish, have affection for, love

This love is not self-centered rather the consideration of someone else.

Esteeming them, centering on them, letting their needs be a prime consideration to you.

Identify in Love

For the one who does love there is an identity associated with it.

The first part of that identity is that you have been born of God.

That God is your father.

Much like the explanation between Jesus and Nicodemus, this is not a natural birth, rather a birth on a spiritual level that is done by God.

God has birthed them, God has caused them to be regenerated.

These are folks that are no longer spiritually dead.

The loving of one another identifies them as being born again.

Love accompanied by belief is a tell-tell sign of being adopted by God.

This person also knows God.

This is not just knowing of God, but that are in the process of learning about God and growing in that knowledge of Him.

We are not stagnate in our knowledge of God regardless of our age in Christ.

We are always learning and knowing God more and more.

deadThis is associated with those who believe.

We do not graduate from this.

John provides us with the negative of this to help solidify his point.

No love, you do not know God, Show love, you are born of God and Know God.

God’s Nature is Love

Then he makes this statement that God is love.

This accompanied with ‘love is from God’ in v7, show that love springs from God, God oozes love so to speak and that God at his nature is Love.

This is not the first time that John has used terms like this to articulate God’s nature.

John shows God’s nature as that of light, which speaks to His holiness and His righteousness.

John notes that God is Spirit, as Jesus told that woman at the well.

Speaking to God’s metaphysical nature.

So we also see that God is Love, his very nature is love.

What does that mean, thought.

Tim Keller introduced to me this term in his book The Reason for God.

Perichoresis

Peri = Around

Chroein = Make Room For, To Give Way

From this we get the sense of a dance, where each of the dance gives room to the other, allowing them to be the center of their orbit.

This is how we can view love in the Godhead, when we say God in his nature is love, we are saying that love is eternal and has always been demonstrated in the God head, prior to any creation.

When we say this we are saying there is a sort of dance that is happening in the Godhead, where each member orbits around the other, where there is no self serving within the Godhead, but each member of the God head glorifies the other.

The Father glorifies the Son and the Son glorifies the Father and the Spirit glorifies the Son and from the origin of love we all know love.

Where this dance is what is expected from love, where I am not the center expecting everything to orbit around me, rather I am willing to give selflessly to another as they are glorified by me.

This is not saying that the Love of God trumps all of His perfections, for Holiness and Immutability and Eternity and Infinity are also characteristics of God and describe His nature to some extent.

This does say that Love is sourced in God, who was before the beginning, who is eternal and we get to play in that eternal arena to a small extent.

The Manifesting

John goes on to tell more about the love of God.

Love is abstract it is the quality or act of esteeming someone.

What John is going to tell us about the love of God is that it results in action, and action that results in the invitation of fallen people participate in through His Son.

God’s Love Manifest

What does it mean to manifest.

This means to disclose, to who, to make known, to actualize.

φανερόω - (phaneroō) - disclose, show, make known

This love was shown to us in His action

Sent Only Son

God sent His one and only Son, The word sent is associated with an apostle.

This is the sense of the sending of one who has a special purpose to handle for the one who sent them.

So the Father Sent the Son for a specific purpose.

The who is the one and only Son.

This Son is unique as He is 1) a member of the Godhead, 2) the Son of God and 3) the only one who could accomplish the objective that was put before Him.

This Son is also unique on that He is the only Son of God.

There are not 10 sons to choose from for God, there was only one and that is who He sent.

This points to what God is willing to give in His love.

This Son was sent into the world.

The Son was in heaven, a place where He was worshipped, a place where He was intimately in the dance, a place where as Philippians says equality with God was not something to be grasped.

The Son is God in the realm of God with all that came with it as II Corinthians says He was rich.

He was sent into a world that had exchanged to the glory of God for images.

Coming to a place that He created but would not honor Him.

A place that would not receive Him well, a place that was not like heaven where he came from.

Life Through Him