Naylor Community Christian Church
Naylor, Georgia
I.
Introduction
-- turn in Bibles to 1 John 4:7-16
1 John 4:7 Dear
friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves
has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God,
because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his
one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is
love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an
atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also
ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one
another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
13 This is how we
know that we live in him and he in us: 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. 15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them
and they in God. 16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love.
Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.
-- I had a friend who went to hear a well-known
theologian speak at a United Methodist meeting -- this man was well-respected
as a student of God's word -- a renowned professor -- a retired bishop --
someone who knew theology and who knew God's word intimately
-- he had been asked to speak on what he felt was the
most important theological message for the 21st century world to understand --
what was it the church and this world needed to know, more than anything else,
from God's word?
--
as the great theologian approached the lectern, every eye was upon him and every
ear strained to hear his words -- placing both hands on the lectern and looking
out over the crowd of pastors and theologians and church leaders, he said, "After
a lifetime of walking with God and studying His word, I have concluded the most
important theological message and biblical doctrine is encompassed in this one profound
statement: 'Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.'"
-- that's what it's all about -- when you distill the
Bible and God's message to its barest essence -- this is what you come up with
-- God loves us -- the whole sweep of human history, from the creation of Adam
and Eve in the Garden of Eden to the fact that God created you and knit you
together in your mother's womb and brought you here this morning -- it all
points to one grand truth that reverberates throughout the universe and
eternity -- God is love and God loves
-- and not only are we humbled and awestruck by the fact
that the Lord God Almighty – the Maker of Heaven and Earth – the Alpha and
Omega – the Beginning and the End – is love and that He pours out His love into
His creation – but we are humbled and awestruck by the simple fact that we
learn from Scripture – God loves us -- He loves you -- He loves me
-- He loves us in the same way that He loved Jesus
-- in John 17, Jesus prayed to the Father in the Upper
Room before He left to go to the Garden of Gethsemane and the cross – He prayed
for His apostles – for those who were being left behind – and He prayed for us
– for those who would come to believe in Him through their message
-- as part of that prayer, we read in John 17:22-23 these
words from Jesus to the Father – “I have given them the glory that You gave Me,
that they may be one as we are one – I in them and you in Me – so that they may
be brought to complete unity – then the world will know that you sent Me and
have loved them even as you have loved Me”
-- hear what Jesus is saying in this prayer – He prays
that the world would know that the Father sent Him to earth and that He loved
us even as He loved Jesus – that He loved us as much as He loved Jesus – the
Father loves us in the same way that He loved the Son
-- and that is astounding – that is humbling – that is
awesome – to know that God loves us in the same way that He loved Jesus – that
He loves us – despite our sins and our stumblings and our failures – despite
our feeble attempts to love Him back – His love for us is never diminished –
His love for us is just as great as His love is for Jesus
-- He loves us regardless of who we are and what we do –
He loves us because He is love – and that is what He does
-- we see the love the Father has for Jesus in the story
of Jesus’ baptism – in Mark 1:9-11, we read that Jesus came to John at the
Jordan River and was baptized by John – and rising out of the water, the Holy
Spirit descended upon Him like a dove, and a voice came from heaven that said,
“You are My Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased”
-- think about that for a moment – at this point in His
life, Jesus has done nothing – His ministry is in the future – the miracles are
in the future – the preaching and the teaching are in the future – the cross
and the resurrection are in the future
-- Jesus has done nothing for the Father at this point
but be baptized – but see how the Father loves Him! – He calls Jesus His
“beloved” – He says that He loves Him and is pleased in Him
-- and I think it’s important for us to understand what
the Father is saying here to Jesus and to recognize that if He loves us as He
loves Jesus, then those words are for us, too
-- and this tells us that God loves us for who we are –
for who He made us – for who He is making us into
-- we don’t have to do things to make Him love us – we
don’t have to go out and do ministry or read the Bible or pray or do anything
else – we just have to be – and in our being, God loves us – as Jesus said, the
Father has loved us as He has loved Jesus – He loves us for ourselves – not for
what we do – not for any works that we might do – but simply because we are His
and we are one with each other and one with Christ – God loves us
-- I want you to hear that – I want you to know that – I
want you to feel that – and to know that that means that no matter what you do
– no matter what sins you have done – no matter what great works you might have
done – God loves you the same – simply because you are you
-- and because of this great love for you, He sent Jesus
to earth to show us how to live and follow Him in obedience and to be forgiven
of our sins through repentance as we trust in Jesus by grace through faith
-- God is love – and He loves you
-- but what is love? -- love is one of those words that
has lost its meaning through overuse -- we throw that word "love"
around like it doesn't mean much anymore -- the same day we tell our spouse
that we love them, we'll tell a coworker, "Man, I just loved that game
last night" -- we sing about love -- we talk about love -- we even use "love"
in advertisements -- "McDonald's: Just loving' it"
-- do we really think God loves us like we love
McDonald's? – that when the Bible talks about love and that God loves us just
as He loved Jesus, that this is what He’s talking about?
-- no, obviously not -- so, what is love? -- what is it
about God's love that would cause a renowned theologian to boldly state in a
key-note address that the fact Jesus loves him is the most important
theological message in all of history? -- what do we mean by love? -- do we even
know anymore?
--
I read about this study by a group of child psychologists -- they wanted to
know what kids thought about love -- what they understood about love before
their ideas began to be shaped by culture and societal norms -- so they got
together a group of kids between the ages of four and eight and asked them the
question, "What is love?" -- here are some of their answers:
--
"When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn't bend over and paint her
toenails anymore, so my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his
hands got arthritis too. That's love." Rebecca - age 8.
-- "When someone loves you, the
way they say your name is different. You know that your name is safe in their
mouth." Billy - age 4
-- "Love is when my mommy makes
coffee for my daddy and she takes a sip before giving it to him, to make sure
the taste is okay." Danny - age 7
-- "Love is when Mommy gives
Daddy the best piece of chicken." Elaine - age 5
-- "Love is when Mommy sees
Daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Brad Pitt."
Chris - age 7
-- "Love is what's in the room
with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen." Bobby -
age 7
-- and I really like what
eight-year-old Jessica had to say -- "You really shouldn't say 'I love
you' unless you mean it. But if you mean it, you should say it a lot. People
forget."
--
people forget -- maybe that's why God tells us so many times in His word that
He loves us -- it's impossible to read the Bible and not find that message shouting
out to us -- God loves us – God loves you -- but do we truly comprehend it? --
do we really get what He's trying to tell us? – do we hear what He is saying?
--
John did -- out of all the disciples, John understood love because he lived
with Love for three years -- he saw Love touch lepers and other people society
refused to touch -- he saw Love heal people who had been crippled and rejected
their whole lives -- he saw Love feed people just because they were hungry --
he saw Love take our place at the cross, just so we wouldn't have to -- he saw
Love in action
--
if John had been the one to write that children's Sunday school song, it would
have probably said, "Jesus loves me, this I know, for He told me and
showed me so"
-- through
his experience with Jesus, John came to know and understand true and perfect
love in his own life
-- the love
of God defined him -- in fact, in the gospel of John, John doesn't even name
himself -- he calls himself by the phrase, "the disciple Jesus loved"
-- for John, it was Jesus' love that gave him life and purpose and meaning –
the love of Christ made him who he was
-- at the
time this letter of 1 John was written, John is an old man -- scholars think he
could be in his 80s or 90s -- he's lived a long life serving God -- preaching
and teaching and sharing with countless others the good news of Jesus' death
and resurrection -- but now, at the end of his life, he gets back to the heart
of the matter – to what’s truly important – and he can't help but give away
what Jesus gave to him -- and that was perfect, unconditional love
-- it’s
practically all he can talk about -- all he can think about -- all he cares about
– for he has truly understood at this point that God is love and that God loves
him just as much as God loved Jesus -- so let's take a moment to see what the
disciple Jesus loved can tell us about God's love for us
II. Scripture Lesson (1 John 4:7-16)
-- if you
would, look back at verse 7-8
1 John 4:7 Dear
friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves
has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God,
because God is love.
-- the NIV
does not do justice to John's words in the opening to these verses -- in the
King James Version, John opens this exhortation to his readers with the word,
"beloved" -- this one word tells us so much about who John has become
through the love of Christ and how he exemplifies what it is he's trying to get
us to understand in this epistle
-- beloved
-- those I love -- listen to the words I am saying -- I am telling you this,
not just because it is a theological principle -- not just because it's
something you should know -- I'm telling you this because I love you and I want
you to understand the love Jesus has for us and the love we should have for Him
--
"let us love one another" -- it's important to know here what Greek
word John has used in this passage -- as you know, the Greeks had more than one
word to describe love, whereas in our language we only have one -- there was phileo -- brotherly love -- there was eros -- erotic love -- passionate love
-- there was storgei -- familial love
-- love between families -- and then there was agape -- unconditional love -- love without boundaries -- this is
the type of love John is talking about here
--
beloved, let us agape one another --
let us love each other like God does -- let us love each other unconditionally
-- without boundaries -- extravagant and excessive love
--
John knew agape love -- he had seen
it in Jesus, probably for the first time in his life -- agape love is rare,
because it is unconditional and we like to make our love conditional
--
that's what John means in verse 8 when he says that whoever does not love does
not know God -- people who don't know God -- people who haven't experienced
God's love, can't love like God -- they just don't understand it
--
do you remember the movie from several years ago, "God's Not Dead?" –
it was one of those cheesy Christian movies, where the acting is not the
greatest and the message is just right in your face – there’s no subtlety there
– it’s very direct
–
but, for all its flaws, the movie portrayed a clear and obvious difference
between agape love and the other kinds of love that the Bible talks about --
there were very clear distinctions between those who knew God and those who didn't
-- not in their stated beliefs -- but in the difference of how they loved others
--
the characters in the movie who didn't know God expressed love in self-serving
ways -- when things went bad -- when the relationship got tough -- they quit,
because they were not getting out of it what they wanted
--
not to put a spoiler in here for those who haven't seen it, but in one scene,
two of the characters in a relationship go out to eat at a fancy restaurant --
they are there to celebrate the man closing a big deal at work -- at the table,
the woman tells him she has cancer -- the man just looks at her and says,
"Couldn't you have waited until tomorrow to tell me that?"
--
he didn't want anything to spoil his night -- his celebration -- his love for
her was self-serving and self-motivated -- it was not agape -- it could not be
agape, because they did not know God
--
on the other hand, the characters in the movie who knew God loved others
unconditionally -- their love was not self-serving, but other-serving --
other-motivated -- they sought to help others, even at their own expense
--
John is telling us here that this is the way it should be for us -- because we
have known God and His love, our lives should be characterized by that same unconditional,
extravagant, agape love that God had for Jesus and that God has for us
-- John closes verse 8 by telling us God is love -- not
that God loves -- but that God is love -- God's essential being is love -- His
nature is loving -- and love can never be absent from His being or any of His
actions1 -- God is the wellspring and source of all love -- and this
love flows from God to His creation and it should flow from us to others
-- verse 9-10
1 John 4:9 This is
how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world
that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but
that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
-- John
says, "You want to know what agape love looks like? -- it looks like
Jesus" -- God loved us so much He sent His son to be our atoning sacrifice
on the cross -- even before we loved Him, He loved us -- even before we knew
Him, He knew us and loved us
-- as Paul
writes, "while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" -- there was
no condition there -- we didn't have to get right with God before He would love us – we didn’t have to get right
with God before He died for us -- we didn't have to clean ourselves up and get
rid of all our sin before Jesus came -- He came in love and because of love and
showed us His agape love – loving us so much, He even went to the cross for us
to pay the price for our sins that we could not pay
-- do you
want to know what agape looks like? -- John points to the cross and says,
"This is agape -- this is love"
-- verse 11-15
1 John 4:11 Dear
friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one
has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is
made complete in us.
13 This is how we
know that we live in him and he in us: 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. 15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them
and they in God.
-- beloved -- those I love -- my dear friends -- since
God so loved us, we also ought to love one another -- that word "ought"
there in verse 11 -- that's the Greek word opheilo
-- it implies a moral obligation -- what John's telling us is that we are bound
to love others -- we have to love one another -- not because it's a law -- not
because it's something we are going to be judged for -- but because God so
loved us, we have to give back that love to others – that if we have
experienced the agape love of God, we can’t but help passing that love on to
others
-- John
knew what love was -- he had seen it expressed through Jesus -- he had
experienced it himself -- and so he's trying to get the point across to his
readers that if you want to know love, you have to experience it
-- to know love, you have to live
it -- you can't just read about it in a book -- it can't just be a theological
concept -- it can't just be something we sing about in church -- it has to be
something real in your life
-- when
John says "this is how God's love is made complete in us" he is
saying, "This is love with feet -- this is love with skin on -- this isn't
just loving with your head -- this is real love -- and to know this love you
must first have experienced God's agape love through Christ and you must give
it out to others"
-- in other
words, the love that we proclaim and are obsessed with in our culture only
reflects the love of Christ in as far as we have experienced that love in our
own hearts -- to truly love you must have been loved -- to truly love you must
know Jesus
-- verse 16
1 John 4:16 And so
we know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love.
Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.
-- know and rely -- that word "know" implies
intimate, absolute knowledge -- to know God's love is to know God -- to rely on
God's love means your faith is made complete by trusting in who He is --
because God is love, we can trust Him and rely on Him in all situations,
knowing that everything that He allows to happen in our lives will be an
expression and outpouring of His love for us
-- "live in agape," John tells us -- "live
in love" -- what a different world this would be if we lived in
unconditional, extravagant love -- if all our motives, our thoughts, our
actions, our being -- were completely and totally expressed through agape love
-- there are days when I feel invisible -- there are days
when I feel like no one notices me or cares about me, especially strangers – a
lot of the time when I go to town and go to the store, it feels like everyone
is just worried only about themselves – they’re wrapped up in their own little
world – and they don’t care about anyone else – only about themselves and their
desires and their wishes
--
they don’t care that they block aisles in the grocery store and no one can get
by them -- they don’t care that they cause traffic problems when they drive as
if they are the only people on the road -- they don’t care if their language is
offensive to others and might be heard by young, impressionable ears -- they don’t
care because they are being selfish -- they don’t care because they don’t love
or know love
--
I truly believe that most of the problems that we face in life would be solved
if people would stop thinking about themselves and start thinking about others
– if people would stop loving themselves and start loving others as God has
loved them
-- I wonder what it would be like to live in a world
where people did care like that -- where people did love like that -- the closest I've ever come to
that was at a Promise Keeper's event a few years ago -- you've all been to
sporting events or concerts or large gatherings and you know what it's like to
try to get in your car and out of the parking lot after the game -- it's like
the epitome of selfishness -- everyone is only worried about themselves and no
one else -- people won't let you in line and will gladly cut you off if they
can get out five seconds faster than you
-- but as I was leaving this Promise Keeper's event at
the University of Tennessee, it wasn't like that -- guys who were sitting on
their tailgates eating lunch would get up to help someone get out safely --
they would stop traffic and motion for others -- we almost had a traffic jam
because everyone was trying to let the next person out -- they were more
worried about others than themselves -- for that moment, they were living love
-- they were living agape
-- John says that is how we should live our lives -- not
out of a sense of duty -- but because of God's love through Jesus -- because
God loved us and because God is love, we should live in love
-- that is the message of the Bible -- as Jesus said in
the upper room on the night He was betrayed, "A new command I give you --
Love one another -- as I have loved you, love one another – for the Father has
loved you as much as He has loved Me”
III.
Closing
-- I want to close by sharing with you a story I once
heard from Tony Campolo -- He was working a Christian kid's camp, and there was
a kid with cerebral palsy there who couldn't speak or walk very well -- Tony
said the other kids made fun of him unmercifully
-- he said it broke his heart at how this kid was treated
by the others, especially at this Christian camp -- at how they would mimic the
way this boy walked and the way he talked -- this went on for a full week, and
nothing the counselors said could make a difference -- the taunting and mocking
continued
-- on the final day of the camp the kids were supposed to
give a short speech about their experience at camp and how it had affected
their relationship with God -- one by one the kids all got up to give their
speeches, but Tony said they were dead, lifeless, with no power
-- then the boy with cerebral palsy stood up -- and as he
walked to the podium you could hear the snickers from the other kids -- the boy
stood at the microphone and said only seven words, but they were full of power
because they were from the heart -- he said, "I love Jesus and Jesus loves
me." -- and Tony said that at that
moment the Spirit of God descended on that camp in a real and powerful way and
the hearts of the kids there broke and they all fell at the altar weeping
before God and asking Him to forgive them for the way they had treated the boy
with cerebral palsy
-- love changes things -- love changes hearts -- love
makes all the difference in the world -- this is love: not that we loved Him,
but that He loved us and sent His only Son to be our atoning sacrifice -- God
is love and because we know God, we must love
-- we're going to close now, but I want to leave you with
this final thought -- the most important in all the world: Jesus loves me, this
I know, for the Bible tells me so
-- hear that – know that – live that – and love like that
-- let us pray
-----------------------------
1 Shepherds Notes: 1,2,3 John; pg. 65
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