Love, An Invitation to Adore 1 John 4:7-21
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.
17 This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus.
18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
19 We love because he first loved us.
20 Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.
21 And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.
Despite popular rumour I love Christmas, and I’ve come to love it more and more over the years why wouldn’t you….what’s not to love…the Carols, the food, well for the past two years my brother and I have cooked Christmas Day and its fab cooking with someone who knows their way around the kitchen.
Then there’s the presents. I’m not one for present receiving per se but now the kids are older its quite nice to receive as much as give….
but here’s the thing about presents that fears me the most …its when you get a present from that person you just didn’t expect a gift from, and because you didn’t expect a gift from them you didn’t in fact, er buy them one……and I know its not about giving to those who give to you, but there’s always that bit of an awkward moment….where nothing you say really fixes the situation….”Ahh! If only I’d known” ”I thought we were just going to buy for the kids ( thats my excuse to Karen from last year)” why is that? why does this tense energy get created when this happens.
Well I have a theory…I don’t know if its any good but I’m going to share it with you anyway…and its got everything to do with Greek philosophy and Newtons laws of motion, particularly the third one.
No I know that might sound a bit crazy, like I’ve had too many pills….this could also be true. But I’m going to persist…
Lets start with Newton ….just also to say that I believe that we learn a lot about the spiritual by observing the physical its in the Bible. Romans 1:20
20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.
So what does Newtons 3rd Law of Motion actually say …….anyone?
For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
This statement means that in every interaction, there is a pair of forces acting on the two interacting objects. The size of the forces on the first object equals the size of the force on the second object.
So in the present giving scenario the goodness of the giver is met with the depth of my embarrassment and squirming, or when I remember to deal with it properly it is met with my grateful thanks and appreciation.
In every situation where something is initiated there is a result, an outcome, an impact, a change, a reaction that is supposed to be equal and somehow opposite to that which is initiated. It is proportionate to that which was received…..hold that thought!
Ok, thats Newton what about the Greeks – well the Greeks believed that all change is initiated. That is to say that at the source of any change their has to be something that inaugurates that change.
It was Aristotle that fully articulated that all change could be traced back to a being or force that is the source of every change but that itself was not the subject of change. There had to be what he called a “Prime Mover’ which itself must be spirit and could not be made of matter because all matter itself is subject to change.
He also said that the way the prime mover works is not by force but by invitation or attraction. If the prime mover pushed out change then the prime mover itself would be subject to change, and so instead the prime mover invites or attracts change and thereby remains unchanged as a result. The source of the attraction to change is the revelation of love or desire.
John wrote a great deal to Hellenised jews, Jews who had been educated in Greek philosophy. So the concept of the prime mover was very much part of their frame of reference so when John begins his gospel he writes…
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
For John everything begins and ends with God as the Prime Mover….
What has any of this to do with Advent and Christmas I hear you ask….well a great deal, I think, as I hope you will see.
The theme of todays sermon is Love; An Invitation to Adore the very title has an order and construction to it that is lifted from scripture and says so much about who God love, his intention for us and the opportunity we have to respond.
And I’m going to use those 3 headings really briefly to unpack the good news to you and me again.
The reading that we’ve just shared from 1 John is packed with so much good stuff but I want to keep the focus so I want to root our understanding in verse 19 which simply says this
9 We love because he first loved us. God’s Love
So we begin with love and we begin with love because this is who God is. In our short reading John says it twice, once in verse 8 then again in verse 16 where he says
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.
So much of our journey in this life as followers of Jesus will be simply be trying to comprehend and appropriate for ourselves the fullness of Gods love for us. This is the core, this is the central point not just of our faith but of our very existence.
The primary reason that we exist at all is love. Creation is an act of love.
There was no reason for God to create for before creation God was eternally happy in Gods self. Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Through creation God creates the space for another to participate in relationship with God. God creates the space for us to exist, to know God and to love God and exist with him.
But remember as Prime Mover cannot force his love and his life upon us, and so it is the revelation of his love and desire for us that drives the relationship between us. And of course for love to exist, freedom of choice to receive or reject love must also exist.
Despite our continued rejection of His love God continues to reveal his love for us ….this is the history of the scriptures, the relationship with Israel.
How frustrating it must be for God to feel so misunderstood, misrepresented and mistaken. I don’t know about you but there is nothing that upsets me more than being misunderstood or misrepresented. Nothing so disappointing than when someone believes something about you that us simply not true.
Rather than treating us as our sins deserve God continues to try to initiate change by the continued revelation of his love.
Here in our reading John is talking about the nature and the effect of Gods love in the revealed life of Jesus who loved us so much that he came to the earth, lived and taught and was sacrificed to pay the price for our sin, thus fully revealing the extent of the Fathers love for us.
The writer of Hebrews puts it like this
In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. 3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his
being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.
Gods intention through Christ is to communicate and enable us to receive the fullness of Gods love. It’s not an invitation to a deposit, or a partial sum. It is an invitation to receive everything.
St Paul in Ephesians 3 says this
I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
How deep the Father’s love for us How vast beyond all measure That He should give His only Son
To make a wretch His treasure
Why should I gain from His reward? I cannot give an answer
But this I know with all my heart
His wounds have paid my ransom
God’s Invitation
The revelation of Gods love has purpose.
It is revealed so that we might receive as we have said, but it is in the receiving that the change occurs. That change very simply is that we might become more like Him.
Remember our journey from Eden ….
So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
We have been created in the image of God, we are fashioned after His likeness. Therefore if God is love, then we too ought image this love in the same way.
Remember Newtons law of motion we mentioned earlier.
For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.
I think this really applies to our life in God.
The extent to which we receive God I believe had a direct bearing on how we are reflect that love back to him through our obedience to Him and our love for others.
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.
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.
I know I’ve shared this story before, but I hope it helps to illustrate the point. A few years back on a retreat day the Lord showed me a picture of a loom on which this piece of cloth was being spun. The cloth was multi coloured, loads of different colours, bit no discernible pattern. There were some colours that were prominent and some that were no more than a little fleck.
I felt the Lord say to me each colour represents a person that I’m weaving into your life, some are with you years and they feature prominently, others are with you for just a moment.
Wow, thats amazing and beautiful I said. ‘Yes, it is said the Lord and so i want you to love every person you meet the same way I that I have loved you’… ”No!” I said “I can’t! its impossible”. “Yes” he said “ in your love and with your love alone it is. However, with my love in you all things are possible, remain in my love”.
God’s intention is that we would mirror his glory which includes his love as our act of worship or adoration to him.
“If you love me” Jesus said “You will obey my commands”
A new command I give “ Love one another as I have loved you” Romans 12
2 1-2 So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life —your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well- formed maturity in you.
3 I’m speaking to you out of deep gratitude for all that God has given me, and especially as I have responsibilities in relation to you. Living then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it’s important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him.
Our Response
So in closing I simply want to ask what will our response be to this invitation.
Once again through this season we are invited come and see the revelation of Gods love in the form of Jesus born into the beauty and suffering of this world. He came that we might clearly understand that we are loved, we are forgiven, that God has incredible purpose for our lives and through His love at work in us and through us Kingdom change can happen.
And I keep coming back to newtons law….because the principle is the more of God I receive the more I’m able to love and affect change around me.
And I don’t know about you but I would love to see more change around me and I know that means that I need more of God in my life.
How does this happen?
Well I think its quite simple
In James its says ‘You do not have because you you do not ask God’ James 4 remind us:
Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
Basically, seek God with all your heart. Lets make the main thing, the main thing, lets make the main man the main thing….
I know the times I’m furthest away from God is because I’m filling my life with other things and squeezing Him out or I’m believing things about God that simply aren’t true.
I lived for so many years believing that whatever I had would be enough and that I shouldn’t keep bothering God with trivial requests and I needed to be self reliant and responsible. It stopped me from believing in a generous Father who really cared and wanted to help me with the small stuff and it simply stopped me from thinking I could ask God.
We need to make space, clear out the rubbish, we need to be still and reflect on the immensity of His love for us to ask for power to be able to comprehend it.
We need the Spirit of God to create within us the capacity for first of all understanding and then receiving His love.
And then we need to remain in his love. practice the presence of God, remain submerged, baptised in His presence.
I remember someone saying to me “ I think I’m obsessed with God, is that allowed” and I said yes “I think I’m obsessed too” I think he might be obsessed with us too…..I know he gets jealous..
Love is an invitation to adore, to worship Him with all of your life. I think this season of not singing, whilst very hard for me, has also been amazing as I’ve had to learn other languages through which to worship God….if that doesn’t make sense by all means come and talk with me about it.
God has made the first move, his love toward you is monumental as you choose to receive my prayer if that it will not only transform and renew you, but it transform the world around you.
Group Questions
- To what extent do you agree with the idea that it is only through the revelation of his love and desire for us that God continues to draw us into relationship with Himself? What about the Israelite Exile to Babylon or the Flood could these be seen as an act of love?
- What impact does the rejection of Gods love have on us individually and collectively?
- To what extent do you think we are able to receive “All the fullness of God”, whatmight that look like in your life? What do you hope it would look like?
- If we are created in Gods image, in what ways do you think we are to reflect thelikeness of God?
- How do YOU think we receive more of Gods love in our lives?
- How mindful are you of the influence of Gods presence on your decisions andactions?
Time to Reflect
- Take time to reflect and ask God if there are any obstacles in your life to receiving more of His love.
- Invite the Holy Spirit to give your power to understand the dimensions of Gods love and its application in your life
Time to Act
9. Practice the presence of God. Practice being mindful of Gods presence this week. May be set a timer on your watch or phone to go off every hour or two ( maybe not while sleeping!) every time the alarm goes off centre your thoughts on the presence of Gods spirit, thank him for the hour that has passed and pray for the hour to come and invite Him to guide your thoughts. Don’t worry if your struggle to start, keep going, keep practicing, if you can, increase the frequency of the alarms. Keep going until you no longer need them….
10.Consider who you can encourage this week by telling them of the significance of Gods love in your life and His love also for them.