CHRISTMAS 2023
(Knowing God Through Love - December 24, 2023)
Series Big Idea: "God is love and Jesus is His gift"
Sermon Big Idea: “God's love acted toward us, acts in us, and is shown through us“
Key Scripture (1 John 4:7-19)
The Bible gives us multiple descriptions of God’s attributes. God is all-powerful (Matthew 19:26), we can see His creation every day. He is all-knowing (Psalm 139:1-4), and self-existent (Acts 17:25), just to name a few. But possibly the attribute most people struggle with is His love. Why? Because many people look around and see contradictions. For them, the love of God seems to contrast with the suffering we experience as humans. Floods, hurricanes, and other natural disasters should be easily preventable by God, right? What about the atrocious crimes against children and people in general? It is true that a human being is responsible for their actions, but didn’t God allow it? So how do we know God loves the world? What proves this is love without contradiction or doubt?
1 John 4 is one of the most beautiful chapters in Scripture describing God's love. (1 John 4:7-8) “Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” He will repeat this in some of the verses that follow. So for the next few moments, I want to examine God's love from several angles.
First, God’s love has acted toward us. “God sent.” (1 John 4:9) “God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent His One and Only Son into the world so that we might live through Him.” His motivation for coming into the world is obvious. Within verse 10 we have Christmas and Easter explained, “Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” (Hebrews 9:5) translates a form of this word as "the mercy seat." Christ became our mercy seat like the one in the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle and temple, where the High Priest would splatter the blood of the sacrifice on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16:15). Christ did this when His blood spilled on behalf of sinners, and it satisfied the demands of God's holy justice and wrath against sin. Sin is the dividing factor between us and God.
If we don’t acknowledge the sin in our lives and that Jesus acted toward us in love to save His people from their sins, we can’t be redeemed. This is why Jesus came. His love was toward us even before we were reconciled. While we were still in our sin, Christ died for us. Even when we don’t love Him back, He acts toward us in love.
Secondly, God’s love acts in us. “In us” (1 John 4:12-16) No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God remains in us, and His love is perfected in us. This is how we know that we remain in Him and He in us: He has given assurance to us from His Spirit. And we have seen, and we testify that the Father has sent His Son as the world’s Savior. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God remains in him and he in God. And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him.” The proof that you are saved is that God is abiding in you. Through His Holy Spirit, He creates a love that we would never have had naturally.
Lastly, God’s love acts through us. (1 John 4:19) “We love because He first loved us.” When you get married, you not only get your mate, but you get their family too. I don’t know of anyone who says, “I want to marry you, but I don’t want your family. I don’t want your relatives. I just want you alone.” The same goes for the Church of Jesus Christ because like it or not, when you trust Christ and you become part of the family of God, you get all of us. You get the good things and the imperfections as well. God puts us together to love one another. It is easy to love someone who loves you back and is easy to love but it takes a special kind of love to love the seemingly “unlovable.” I once heard someone say “The world can out-entertain us, the world can out-give us and the world can outnumber us, but they will never out-love us because we have within us the love of God that has been spread in our hearts. The love of God is lived out in our hearts.
Conclusion:
But love is costly. God gave His One and Only Son for us. God chose to suffer so He could redeem us and show us love. It was costly for Him. The price of love for us is to love our enemies (Luke 6). We are being like God when we do this. Jesus said we must do good to them, pray for them, and bless them. I don’t know the answers to all the tragedies, disasters, catastrophes, and heartbreak we experience in this world. But I do know that Jesus loves the people who trust in Him (John 17:20-26). He took our place on the cross. He has a special love for us.
Come to the cross, you who are skeptical of God’s love for you. Come to the cross, you who have been told God doesn’t love you, or those who feel alienated from God because of your sin. The cross of Christ is where we are forgiven, we are welcomed, we become the children of God, and we are guaranteed a place in heaven forever.
Perfect love eliminates fear. Because God has accepted us through His Son Jesus, we have no fear of judgment. Oh, this is a true word of encouragement in a world that seemingly has no hope.
Pastor Beaver's thoughts and ideas are inspired by:
Holman Christian Standard Bible
English Standard Version Bible
King James Version Bible
Christian Standard Bible
MacArthur, John F., Jr. The MacArthur Study Bible: New American Standard Bible. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2006. Print.
Yarbrough, Robert W. “1 John.” CSB Study Bible: Notes. Ed. Edwin A. Blum and Trevin Wax. Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2017. 1995. Print.
Barton, Bruce et al. Life Application New Testament Commentary. Wheaton, IL: Tyndale, 2001. Print.
Walvoord, John F., and Roy B. Zuck, Dallas Theological Seminary. The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures. Vol. 2. Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985. Print.
Smith, Jerome H. The New Treasury of Scripture Knowledge: The Most Complete Listing of Cross References Available Anywhere- Every Verse, Every Theme, Every Important Word. Nashville TN: Thomas Nelson, 1992. Print.
Jobes, Karen H. 1, 2, & 3 John. Ed. Clinton E. Arnold. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2014. Print. Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament.
Walls, David, and Max Anders. I & II Peter, I, II & III John, Jude. Vol. 11. Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1999. Print. Holman New Testament Commentary.
Kruse, Colin G. The Letters of John. Grand Rapids, MI; Leicester, England: W.B. Eerdmans Pub.; Apollos, 2000. Print. The Pillar New Testament Commentary.
Manser, Martin H. Dictionary of Bible Themes: The Accessible and Comprehensive Tool for Topical Studies. London: Martin Manser, 2009. Print.
Osborne, Grant, Philip W. Comfort. Cornerstone Biblical Commentary, Vol 13: John and 1, 2, and 3 John. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2007. Print.
Burge, Gary M. Letters of John. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1996. Print. The NIV Application Commentary.
Osborne, Grant, Philip W. Comfort. Cornerstone Biblical Commentary, Vol 13: John and 1, 2, and 3 John. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2007. Print.
Robertson, A.T. Word Pictures in the New Testament. Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1933. Print.
Akin, Daniel L. 1, 2, 3 John. Vol. 38. Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2001. Print. The New American Commentary.
Vaughan, Curtis. 1, 2, 3 John. Cape Coral, FL: Founders Press, 2011. Print. Founders Study Guide Commentary.
Vincent, Marvin Richardson. Word Studies in the New Testament. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1887. Print.
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