Love

Intro

In the last week of advent, God’s people reflect on the love of God extended to us in the manger.

The focus of this week is really to focus on the entire gospel. In Jesus, God extended and extends his love to a broken and sinful world.

In the text that the Brigham family read today they read this verse that is both so simple and so complex

I have found sometimes that to truly discover what something is, you have to see what it is not. And that i what John did in this text...

See sometimes knowing what your mission is not is just as helpful as knowing what it is.

Its easy to say…I stand for XYZ

But its a bit harder to clarify and say that means…I am not about ....

And that is what John does with this verse that will sort of become the most famous verse of all Christianity.

It’s like the first memorized verse when you become a Christian.

But its also a verse with incredible depth

So lets look at John 3:16-17

John 3:16-17

The New International Version Chapter 3

16 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. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

Now this verse did not happen in a vacuum. What we are reading is John’s summary of Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus.

And oh man…If we had time and enough whiteboard space that is a conversation that needs to be unpacked because at first blush it is confusing but when you understand it…Its amazing....So you’ll just have to trust me that one of these days I’ll take you down that rabbit hole.

So while John 3:1-15, deserves its own dedicated sermon…We just can’t get to it this morning...

But I think the reason why John 3:16 has become so popular as a summary is that Jesus’ conversation with the smartest guy in Israel at the time us so complex that I think John was thinking…Man everyone is going to need a summary of this conversation…that was deep!

So today…we are just going to look at this summary.

And the simplest summery that I can give you is this

The birth, the incarnation of Jesus in this world was for love and not condemnation

This is what John wants you to see

Jesus is a picture of God’s love in this world...

For God so loved: let’t look at this phrase first…The guy who wrote this, John was known as the “beloved” disciple. He got to Taylor the story of Jesus. So John uses the three Greek words for Love 116 times in all of his New Testament writings and 56 of those times, he uses “Love” in his Gospel

So John’s gospel is the story of Jesus, and one of the most frequently repeated words is the word Love...

What do you think the story of Jesus is about? Love!

What John wants you to know about the character of God is love

Fundamentally, Love giving of one’s self for the interest of others

Love is acting in the best interest, wishing for the best for other people

It is wanting good for them

So Christmas is a story of God so loving the world…He wanted the good for us

I mean John 3:16 had made it to bumper stickers, t-shirts…every children’s program

It is in popular culture…But if you wanted to just crawl through this scripture it would do you so well to just sit with this verse…”For God so Loved”

God so loved. Because in his character, his very essence is love!

Love is core to who God is.

You also have to understand how revolutionary this was at this time. When Jesus was alive there was thousands of gods that the egyptians, the romans, the babylonians all worshiped

And if you were going to write statements about their character it would have gone something like

For god is so angry

for god is so tricky

for god is so vindictive

for god is so selfish

But John wanted to show the world, Jesus, his friend…and he said....For God so Loved! it was a revolution!

Now on to the object of God’s love

The world: The world is the object of God’s love…And again when you walk through the book of John one of the things that you will see Jesus say over and over again is that the world hates him and it will hate you too if you follow him

John uses this phrase “The world” 75 times in the book of John…Its almost another character...

Jesus loves the world

does not condemn the world

gives life to the world

Jesus is the light of the world

Jesus is not of this world

The pharisees get concerned about Jesus because they say

“The whole world has gone after him”

But then at the end of John’s gospel

Jesus talks about the world hating him

the world has a different prince…which is satan

And then you get this picture that the world sort of comes together and crucifies Jesus

You get this idea all through the book of John that the world has turned its back on God and yet He relentlessly persues the world

For God so loved the world…this creation that turned its back on God...

That he gave his one and only son: See this phrase is supposed to make you think back to Abraham and Isaac…Now that story is a huge can of worms…but what you are supposed to come out thinking with that story is that Abraham passes the test…He listened to God even though it didn't make sense and God provided a substitute sacrifice...

One that would die on Isaac’s behalf

So you get the picture now

For God so loved all of us…The he sent his son to this world that hated them, to die on their behalf

Jesus is the very incarnation of Love.

Then John qualifies Jesus love and I wish that people would memorize John 3:17 right along with 3:16

Jesus isn't here to condemn you. That’s not what his love looks like.

this doesn't mean that Jesus wont Judge the world. He will still do that...

But that in his coming…He didn't come to shame us or to condemn us but to love us into a relationship with Him.

Our own human nature is condemning isn’t it?

We look for the things that we dislike rather than the things that we do like

In our world we build standards of condemnation.

We draw lines

build up fences

We say…if your not like me…if you don’t think like me, vote like me or post like me then I wont listen to you

In our world we are quicker to condemn than we are to love

Whereas John 3:17-17 tells the opposite story…Jesus is quicker to love than he ever is to condemn.

All through the Gospel of John....Jesus runs into these people who should be condemned by the religious standards of the day…but instead…Jesus forgives them, transforms them and moves on

See one of the dangers of being a person who loves and follows God is that you can fall into the danger of loving the rules more than the rule giver.

See there are times that we like to do God’s job for him...

We will decide who is in and who is out.

Sometimes if you have been a christian for a while…you can grow this attitude of I know everything…I am righteous…they are sinners I am right...

See Jesus isn’t condemning…loving...

But sometimes we have no problem with being condemning.

And see when you make that little shift then we begin to have a problem.

Jonah

Let’s take for a second the case of Jonah.

You all know the story of Jonah right?

God calls the prophet Jonah to go to Nineveh and to preach to them

See Jonah was a prophet who came to love the rules of God more than the rule giver.

God calls Jonah to go to this sinful world…and because he loves the rules he just has such a hard time fathoming how this could even be, so much so that he runs away to Tarshish, the edge of the known world.

Now the book of Jonah is this really interesting inversion of the Noah’s ark story

See in Noah’s ark, you have Noah safe above the flood waters and the sinful world is below the waters

But In the book of Jonah…We find the religious guy, Jonah, under the waters and the sinful pagan world is safe above the flood waters...

And you are intentionally supposed to see this and think…Wow…God is flipping everything on its head...

So Jonah eventually gets to Nineveh and he preaches to them, this 5 word Hebrew sermon and to his great surprise...

They repent

and Jonah was hoping to see a Sodom and Gamoriah fire from heaven type of show.

But instead. Nothing happens. God has mercy on them!

So this makes Jonah mad! HE WANTED GOD TO BE A GOD THAT GIVES PEOPLE WHAT THEY DESERVE!

He didn’t want God’s love

He wanted to see God’s condemnation

So we find ourselves in chapter 4

Jonah 4:1-3 NIV

The New International Version Chapter 4

4 But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry. 2 He prayed to the LORD, “Isn’t this what I said, LORD, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. 3 Now, LORD, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.”

See up till this point the reader thinks in the story that Jonah didn’t go on his missions trip because Nineveh because it was such a violent and wicked place.

The reader would have understood that Nineveh was scary...

But here, Jonah’s true motives came out...

See Jonah didn't want to go because he knew God’s core character.

Jonah knows it so well that he is actually quoting Exodus 34:7

See Jonah is angry because he knows that God’s love for the Ninevites will trump all the justice that they should have received for their sins

Especially for the sin that had committed against Jonah’s people

The problem for Jonah is that he learned that God’s mercy triumphs over God’s judgment

That God’s love is greater than his condemnation.

So when I said earlier that this story inverts the Noah story…It does so because it should invert our expectations…Especially about Advent

Especially what it means for God to take on flesh and be with us.

That he doesn't treat us as our sins deserve

That he forgives our sin

That God’s love is his motive for coming…Not his condemnation...

If we’re honest

We are more like Jonah than we would like to Admit...

see for Jonah, condemning Nineveh made him feel powerful

but we have to remember what Jesus said about this

John 3:16-17

The New International Version Chapter 3

16 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. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

See in this little line of text it is so complex and so simple all at the same time.

Jesus coming to us at Christmas is not a Jonah message

its not a message of destruction

its not a message of getting what we deserve

but it is a message of love and grace...

so we should be this way too...

Jesus would be challenged to his core, over and over again about what kind of character he would have.

Just a few chapters later...

this would happen

John 8:1-11

The New International Version Chapter 8

8 53 Then they all went home, 1 but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.

2 At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. 3 The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group 4 and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” 6 They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. 7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

9 At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. 10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”

11 “No one, sir,” she said.

“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

See the thing is that Jesus knows that this woman is sinful

Why else would he say, “go leave your life of sin?

While the teachers of the law were trying to trap Jesus

They had the wrong motives

They didn't have another witness

But! They were right…This woman was sinful!

According to the law, this woman should have been condemned.

But what Jesus does so brilliantly is focuses the issue away from her sin to her accusers sins

And then, when the accusers drop their stones and leave and it forces them to confront the fact that they are all sinful people

See Condemnation makes us Jonah

Condemnation puts rocks in our hands

Condemnation puts targets on the backs of others

Condemnation makes us pharisees…We love the rules

But The reality of Advent is that God has inverted the whole world

Because of Jesus coming to us we get to experience his love and not his condemnation

Because of Jesus coming to us we get to experience forgiveness over blame

because of Jesus coming to us we get to experience Grace over Guilt

It is the time of Christmas where the world needs us to elevate love over condemnation

Its the time of year where we need to drop our stones of condemnation and focus on the love of Jesus!

Challenge

Maybe you’re here today and you feel like that woman…Everyone around you has stones…and they are ready to throw…But Jesus is here to say that he doesn't condemn you…to go leave your life of sin.

Maybe your here today and your like Jonah…For you following Jesus started with his love but became very legalistic very fast. You Loved Jesus but then started to condemn others.

Jesus wants to free all of you from the feeling of condemnation or the impetus to be condemning

So this morning would you bring it before the Lord?

How are some ways that earth can receive her king through you?