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Well, here we are—ready to kick off another year of VBS. I don’t know how many children the Lord will bring us this year. I don’t know what their circumstances or backgrounds are going to be. I don’t know how conversations will go between the workers and the kids. But here’s one thing I do know. No matter how long they spend with us… each of those children is going to know that Jesus loves them. Now, how is that going to happen? Are we going to get in each one of their little faces and tell them that? I hope so, but probably not. Is it going to be evident in the decorations and stories and lessons and crafts and music and snacks and recreation? That’s what the intent is. But even so, that intent might be missed by some of them. So, if somehow, the kids miss out on the fact that Jesus loves them from all of those things, how are they going to know it? They’re going to know it the same way that anybody who walks through these doors knows it. They’re going to know it the same way that anyone we witness to knows it. The way that people will know that Jesus loves them is if they can see the way we love them and the way we love each other. But how is that possible? How is it possible for a group of people who are so different from each other to love each other? Because we have to admit that some people are pretty hard to love. I’m one of them. Some of the children who will be here this week might be hard to love. Some of their parents might be hard to love. But this whole passage commands us to love one another. So how is that possible? How is it possible for us to love each other when we are completely unlovable? That’s what this passage talks about. God has built each one of us with an inherent need to be loved. But at the same time, our sin nature makes it impossible for us to love in the way that He requires of us. Not only is it impossible for us to love in the way that He requires, it is impossible for us to love in the way that we need to be loved. So we’re in a mess. We talk about love all the time. If you turn on the radio, it won’t be long till you hear a song about love. Almost every TV show and movie deal with love. And all of them feed our appetite for something that, in and of ourselves, we can’t really give. And on top of all of that, Jesus commands us to love one another. So, what do we do? Unfortunately, most of the time, we come up with cheap substitutes to try to fill the void. Cheap substitutes like sex without commitment. Substitutes like “hooking up.” Substitutes like social clubs and becoming a workaholic. Substitutes like material things and money and prestige. Whatever you can think of, you can make it a substitute for truly loving one another. But there’s a better way. As a matter of fact, it’s the only way. The only way we can receive the love we long for is Jesus. And the only way we can give the love we’re required to is Jesus. That’s because Jesus is love’s requirement. Jesus is love’s reason. And Jesus is love’s result. First, Jesus is love’s requirement. Look back at verses 7-8.
1 JOHN 4:7-8
Jesus is love’s requirement. Who is God? That’s one of those questions that small children can ask that will absolutely stump you. The reason that it will stump you is that it’s extremely difficult to answer. That shouldn’t surprise us too much. Because it’s even difficult to answer that question of yourself. If I was to ask you, “Who are you?” What would you say? Most of us would rattle off a bunch of stuff that we do. I’m a coal miner. That was the answer my grandpa would have given at one time in his life. And then he got black lung and had to retire. Then who was he? He had trouble figuring it out then. Well, I’m a husband and a father. What happens if your wife dies and your kids move away? It can be harder than you think to answer the question, “Who am I?” So how much more difficult is it to answer the same question about God? That’s why the Bible is so important. Because God reveals Himself to us in it. And He does it by giving us His attributes. The dictionary says that an attribute is “a quality or characteristic inherent in or ascribed to someone or something.” In other words, we describe who God is by naming His characteristics and qualities. God has many attributes, doesn’t He? He is holy and righteous and pure. He is good and gracious and merciful. He is also love. Verse 8 says that God is love. But look what else it says in verse 7. It says that the only people who can truly love are born of God. And then it gives the flipside in verse 8. If you don’t love, you don’t know God. In other words, here’s the standard. God created each of us. And as our creator, He has the right to demand certain things from us. One of the things that He demands of us is that we love one another. God is love. And because He is love, He requires love from His creation. That makes sense. But God knows that we are fallen, sinful creatures. And fallen, sinful creatures are incapable of the kind of love that God requires. We can catch a glimpse of it. We can work real hard at it. We can read books about it and train ourselves to act like it. And we can truly desire it. But we cannot truly love like God. That’s why God has to love through us. The only way we can truly love the way that God requires us to love is if He does it through us. The only way we can truly be loved in the way that we desire to be loved is if God does it through us. But how can that happen? It can only happen if we are truly born of God. Do you remember what Jesus said to Nicodemus in John 3? Nicodemus came to Jesus at night with some intellectual questions. Jesus dug down right past his questions and got to the heart of the matter. He said, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” That really confused Nicodemus, because he didn’t understand the whole “re-birth” concept. So Jesus clarified. He said, “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” In other words, in order to live in this flesh, we are all born “of water.” We all are physically born from our mothers. But there is another birth. That is a spiritual birth. The Holy Spirit stirs our hearts and convicts us of sin and righteousness. He shows us where we fall short of what God requires of us. And as He convicts us, He enables us to believe the truths of Scripture. He enables us to believe that Jesus died on the cross as a punishment for our sins. He enables us to believe that Jesus rose again on the third day and lives today to give us new live in Him. And as the Spirit enables. And as we respond in faith to that enablement and confess Jesus Christ as our Lord and King and Master, we will be saved. We will be born again. We will be born of the Spirit. We will be born of God. And as we are born of God, we will love with His love. Galatians 2:20 says, “I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, and the live which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” We are commanded to love one another. But we can’t love one another with our love. We just don’t have it in us. That’s why God has to do it through us. Through His Son who loved us and gave Himself for us. Are you having trouble loving each other? Well pastor, you just don’t know what they did to me. You just don’t know how bad they hurt me. You just don’t know what they continually put me through. Do you know what we put Jesus through? Do you know what we continually put Jesus through? Yet He loves us. He gave His life for us. He is love. And because of Him, we are called to love. And because of Him we are able to love. Jesus is love’s requirement. He is also love’s reason. Look at verses 9-10:
1 JOHN 4:9-10
Jesus is love’s reason. The ultimate display of God’s love is Jesus. In the infinite counsels of the triune God… in eternity past, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit purposed to create a people who would put on display the glory of God. God knew that we would rebel against Him. He knew that that rebellion would be an infinite offense against Him. He knew that the only price that could be paid for an infinite offense against an infinite creator would be an infinite sacrifice. And God knew that He was the only one who could provide that infinite sacrifice. So simply by the act of creating us, God displayed His great mercy and grace. Because simply by creating us, it became necessary for God to destroy His Son in order to redeem us. Isaiah 53:10-11 says, “Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.” The word “satisfied” in Isaiah 53:11 means the same thing as the word “propitiation” in verse 10 of our passage. Jesus is the propitiation for our sins. He is the payment. When Adam and Eve committed the first sin in the Garden of Eden, Adam’s sin was passed down to each subsequent generation. The word for that is “imputation.” His sin has been imputed to every human being who has ever lived. That means that we are all born sinners. We are born with a guilty verdict over our heads. But if that was all that was against us, we could claim that that wasn’t fair. How can we be guilty for what Adam did? But we can’t say that, can we? Because we add to that guilty verdict every day. From the time we we’re old enough to know right from wrong, we started to choose wrong. In the context of our passage, we are commanded to love each other the way that God loves us. Do we do that every day? Maybe I ought to say, do we do that ever? Or do we tend to only love those who are loveable? Do we only tend to love those who love us back? Do we tend to only love those who are like us? Do we purposely seek out those to love who are doing the most to harm us? If we aren’t, then we are adding to our guilty verdict. Understanding that will begin to give you a picture of what love really is. Because when you begin to understand the magnitude of your offense to God, you will just begin to see how much He really loves you. It’s easy to love people who are kind and generous and lovely. It’s easy to love people who continually lift you up and praise you and selflessly give themselves to you. But it’s hard to love people who are two faced. It’s hard to love people who only want to use you for their benefit. Are we two faced toward God? Do we ever sing His praises as Master and Lord of all… and then turn around and worry about petty things like He doesn’t exist? Do we ever only seem to love God for what He can do for us? When He doesn’t do something exactly the way we want Him to, do we throw a fit or put on a big pout? Yes we do! I see it all around me. I see it in my own life. The fact is, we’re not very lovable toward God. That’s why verse 10 is so wonderful. This is the definition of love. We didn’t love God first. We don’t even love God the way we should now. But His love for us doesn’t depend on our love for Him. He loved us. Period. End of story. And because He loved us, He sent God the Son to die in our place. He crushed His only begotten Son. And He loved us so much that it pleased Him to do it. God loved you so much that He sent His Son to take the full wrath that you deserve. Just as Adam’s sin was imputed to you, your sin is imputed to Jesus. But that’s not all. Because God’s love doesn’t just remove your guilt. God’s love gives you Jesus’ righteousness. Your sin is imputed to Jesus and Jesus’ righteousness is imputed to you. You see, simply having your guilt taken away will do nothing to help you love other people. That’s why we need the righteousness of Christ. Dying with Christ removes the penalty for our sins. Being born again gives us new life in Him. And as verse 7 says, everyone that loves is born of God and knows Him. The only reason we can love each other is because God first loved us. And He showed us that love by sending Jesus to die for us. Jesus is love’s reason. He is also love’s result. Look at verses 11-14
1 JOHN 4:11-14
Jesus is love’s result. God is love. Love is one of His chief attributes. So as one of His chief attributes, it must be on display. Just as a tree is known by its fruit, God’s love is known by how it is displayed. So how can we see an invisible attribute from an invisible God? That’s what John is thinking when he makes the statement he does in verse 12. He says, “No one has ever seen God.” And then there is the unasked question. “Since God is love and nobody has ever seen God, how do we know what godly love is?” We know because, when Jesus saves us, we live in God. We live in God and His love is made complete in us. Why are we called to love each other? Because our love for each other is the tangible proof that God exists. It is how the invisible God will be seen by a watching world. Big buildings and large crowds of people can be built on sheer charisma and determination. Lots of money can be raised by manipulation and sales techniques. People can get excited over emotionalism and events. But real love can’t be faked. Jesus said that wheat and tares will grow up side by side in the church until He returns to make things right. Do you know what the only visible difference between wheat and tares are? Their fruit. Wheat has fruit and tares don’t. If you are saved, the God lives in you and completes His love in you. He gives you His Spirit to convict you of sin and righteousness. He has given you His Son to cleanse you from sin and give you His righteousness. And because of that, we will bear fruit. And the fruit that we will bear is that we should love each other with an impossible love. We should love each other with an impossible love that is supplied completely by Jesus. And when that happens, do you know what else will happen? People will see the invisible God in us. And when people see the invisible God in us, He will be glorified. And when He is glorified, people will be saved.
How is your love this morning? Think about it. Who have you not been able to love? Who are you only loving conditionally? Who are you only loving when they do the right things for you? You are loved. You are loved unconditionally. No matter your past. No matter your present. No matter how many times you’ve turned away from Christ. You are loved. The Lord longs to make His love complete in you. Is His Spirit convicting you this morning? His Son was sent to save you. The death He died paid the price to cleanse you from sin. The life He lives, He lives to give you new life in Him. All you have to do is trust Him. Cast yourself upon Him and call upon Him to save you. He’ll give you the love that you long for. And He’ll allow you to love the way He commands you to.
“Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.”
Will you be born of God today?
