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Location:
6425 Jefferson Rd. For
directions, click here.
Jerry
Varnado,
pastor December
30, 2001 As
I was thinking about Christmas
this week, a song from our
Christmas cantata came to mind.
The major line is: "Love came
down at Christmas; love, all
love, divine. Love came down at
Christmas and I know that love is
mine." 9-The
God
Who
Fills
Heaven
and
Earth We
have to be careful to understand
what John means by love. He isn't
talking about the mushy
sentimentalism, the selfish
manipulation, or the sensuous
lust this world refers to as
love. Rather,
he speaks of the love of God that
Paul describes for us in 1
Corinthians 13:4-8. Love
does not delight in evil but
rejoices with the truth. It
always protects, always
trusts, always hopes, always
perseveres. Love
never fails. But where there
are prophecies, they will
cease; where there are
tongues, they will be stilled;
where there is knowledge, it
will pass away. Paul
wrote earlier in that chapter
that without this love we are
"nothing." Understanding
love is a problem for English
speaking people because we have
only one word for the affection
called love. We love our mothers
and fathers, our children, our
husbands and wives; but we also
love our dog, ice cream and fried
chicken. Obviously
we don't mean the same thing by
the word "love" in all of those
contexts. The Bible is written in
Greek, a language that avoids
some of this confusion by having
several words for love, to be
used according to the
context. The
Greek word translated "love" in 1
John 4:8 is agape. Indeed, this
is the word used most often in
the New Testament to describe the
love of God. The
ancient meaning of agape is "to
seek after, to prefer." The New
Testament writers deepen that
meaning, as Paul does so
eloquently in 1 Corinthians
13. The
New Testament describes this
agape as love that is unselfish,
that has the capacity to give and
keep on giving, that seeks the
highest and best for the beloved,
and seeks nothing in
return. It
is a love not deserved but freely
given. Its foundation isn't in a
feeling but in a choice, a
decision, an act of the will.
This is a love that is not a
passive emotion but an active
choosing. This describes God's
love for us and God's love in us:
vertical and
horizontal. If
we look at what Paul has written
in 1 Corinthians 13 out of
context we can get very confused
about the nature of God's love.
This chapter is situated, of
course between chapters 12 and
14, where Paul is talking about
the exercise of spiritual gifts
in church meetings -- especially
as relates to tongues,
interpretation of tongues, and
prophecy. It
should be obvious to us that Paul
would not necessarily cover every
aspect of agape in that context,
so if we use this chapter, as I
think some do, as the complete
revelation of God's love we will
miss the mark. Everything Paul
says here is true of God's love,
but there are other things not
mentioned here but are revealed
elsewhere in Scripture -- three
of which I'll address
today. Did
you ever notice that Jesus seemed
harsh with people at times? In
Matthew 23, He called Pharisees
and teachers of the law
"whitewashed tombs." In Luke 11
he pronounced "woes" on the
Pharisees and called them
"foolish." Why? Because He loved
them. He knew the sinful
attitudes lurking in their hearts
and he confronted them. He called
people to repentance and
holiness. This
shows us that God's love is holy
and redemptive. Misuse of 1
Corinthians 13 can lead to an
image of God that is something
like a condoning grandfather
that's lets us get away with
murder. That is not a correct
view of God or God's love for us.
God hates sin because God knows
it will hurt us, injure us, and
ultimately destroy us. Therefore
in Revelation. 2:19 we find these
words on the lips of the
resurrected Jesus: "Those whom I
love I rebuke and
discipline." Turn
to Hebrews 12:1-6. Consider
him who endured from sinners
such hostility against
himself, so that you may not
grow weary or fainthearted. In
your struggle against sin you
have not yet resisted to the
point of shedding your blood.
And have you forgotten the
exhortation which addresses
you as sons? Listen
parents. The failure to
discipline and punish our
children is inconsistent with the
love of God. If we fail to
correct our children through
godly discipline and punishment,
they likely will develop bad
habits and flawed character
traits that will be detrimental
to successful living as
adults. Does
that mean that God doesn't love
us until we get our life cleaned
up? Certainly not. Romans 5:8
says: "But God demonstrates his
own love for us in this: while we
were still sinners, Christ died
for us." God's
love is unconditional. Ezekiel
33:11 says God doesn't delight in
the destruction of the wicked. On
the contrary 2 Peter 3:9 tells us
God does not want "anyone to
perish, but everyone to come to
repentance." It
breaks God's heart that
destruction is necessary to bring
about the fulfillment of His
Kingdom. I believe God still
loves the devil. Surely, God
hates what he does, but it breaks
God's heart that Satan is going
to persist in his rebellion until
he reaps eternal
destruction. That's
the nature of God's love; it is
unconditional. Friend
if you're sitting there thinking
you've got to get your life
cleaned up before you let Jesus
into your heart, you're missing
the whole point of the Bible. You
can't clean your life up enough
to deserve God's favor. If we
could do that the cross wouldn't
be necessary. Jesus does not ask
us to clean our lives up but only
to come to Him, to receive Him as
Lord and Savior. Then,
when His love gets inside of us
and we have given Jesus the right
to be a part of our lives, He
will clean us up. That's the
primary reason we call the Spirit
of God the Holy Spirit. Part of
His job is to make us holy. But
God loves us just as we are and
beckons us to come to Him just as
we are. There
is one more characteristic of
God's love that I need to cover.
Paul says love "always hopes" and
"always perseveres." God's love
is unrelenting. Remember the
ancient meaning of agape: "to
seek after." If you are sitting
here today knowing that God is
calling you to be His own, you
might as well give up. The
"hound of heaven" is a good
analogy of God's pursuing love. A
good hound dog will run himself
to death as long as it has the
scent. Isn't that what God did?
His pursuit of us led to the
cross where he died for us,
showing us His love for
us. The
death of Jesus opened the way to
forgiveness and reconciliation so
that God can have what he loves
and wants -- us. God never gives
up and there is nowhere to hide.
We can hide in God but we cannot
hide from God. God
is unrelenting in His pursuit of
us before we are saved and also
in his efforts to make us holy
after we're saved. Jude says, "He
is able to keep us from falling
and to present us before his
glorious presence without fault
and with great joy." Paul writes,
"He who began a good work in us
will carry it on to completion
until the day of Christ
Jesus." God's
love is holy and redemptive. The
power of His love in us will
deliver us from unrighteousness
and make us holy. God's
love is unconditional. There is
nothing you have done or can do
to make God love you any less
than He did the day you were
conceived. And there's nothing
you can do to make God love you
any more than He already does.
God has loved us completely and
perfectly from the moment we were
conceived. Jesus calls us to come
to Him just as we are. God's
love is
unrelenting.
He
never gives up. He continually
pursues us with this holy,
redemptive, unconditional love
that seeks the best in us and the
best for us. "Love
came down at Christmas; love, all
love, divine. Love came down at
Christmas and I know, I know that
love is mine." It
is the gift of God given to all
who will receive it. Is God good
or what?
Gateway
Church gathers
for worship
Sundays
at 10:30 a.m.
(Hwy. 129) in Athens,
Georgia.
Ministry
of the
Word:
Recent
sermons
Our quarterly e-magazine
Gateway
Today
For the Gateway family
Pastor
Jerry's Weekly
E-Mail
A
GATEWAY SERMON
A
God of love
(Second
in the series, Knowing
God)
Gateway
Church,
Athens GA
Love is the ground and
foundation of the Kingdom of God.
It is so much the center of God's
very character and being that
John tells us, in 1 John 4:8,
that "God is love."
In
this
series
Love
is patient, love is kind. It
does not envy, it does not
boast, it is not proud. It is
not rude, it is not
self-seeking, it is not easily
angered, it keeps no record of
wrongs.
The
character of God's
love
A
holy loveTherefore,
since we are surrounded by so
great a cloud of witnesses,
let us also lay aside every
weight, and sin which clings
so closely, and let us run
with endurance the race that
is set before us, looking to
Jesus the founder and
perfecter of our faith, who
for the joy that was set
before him endured the cross,
despising the shame, and is
seated at the right hand of
the throne of God.
"My
son, do not regard lightly
the discipline of the Lord,
nor be weary when reproved
by him. For the Lord
disciplines him whom he
loves, and chastises every
son whom he
receives."
An
unconditional love
An
unrelenting love
Conclusion
An
audio tape of this sermon is
available
free of charge (U.S. requests
only).
Request
a tape by calling
or writing the Gateway Church
office.
Please specify tape number
011230a: A God of Love (Love
Came Down at Christmas).
©
2001 Gerald R.
Varnado