God’s Love, the Heart of Christmas
1 John 4:7-11
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.
NIV 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.
ESV 4:9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.
Christmas has to do with giving – the Father gave his Son and the Son gave his life, both done out of love and because of love, for us that we might live through Him.
• Love is defined by the GIVING of the Father, the SACRIFICE of the Son and ultimately in the LIVES of the redeemed, the people who know Christ. Love marks our lives.
LOVE IS DEFINED BY THE GIVING OF THE FATHER
- God’s love was made manifest at Christmas.
His love was no longer a truth to be grasped but a Person to be known, not a concept or theory but a relationship.
• We can now see and experience God’s love because of Christmas; God sent His Son into our world, “being born in the likeness of men”. (Phil 2:7b)
• If we doubt that God loves us, then we are truly mistaken, because His love has already been made manifest at Christmas. God showed His love for us.
John wrote in John 3:16-17 16"For God so LOVED the world that HE GAVE his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”
• It’s has already been demonstrated and proven. So question His love can only mean two things, our ignorance or our unbelief.
Jesus was sent, not just into our world, but to the cross. That was the reason He came, to seek and to save the world.
• This is the heart of God. His love for us is at the heart of Christmas. Jesus was sent because the Father loves us.
Most tend to see the Father as the “angry God” because of His judgment against sin.
• Without doubt, He is a holy and righteous, who is perfectly just and will judge sin.
• But to view Him only as the God of wrath is a twisted view of God. He is also our loving Father, who initiated and provided the means to our salvation!
It was as if John wanted to make sure we got this view of God correctly, he repeated it at every verse. Listen to his emphasis in 1 John 4:7-11.
7Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
We were enemies of God, even if we did not know it. And God provided us a Saviour!
• His Son took the punishment that our sin deserved. His sacrifice appeased God and turned away the judgment that we would have received.
• Sin wasn’t overlooked. The judgement was laid upon Jesus and He took it.
Listen to what God said to prophet Isaiah - Isaiah 45:21 “Was it not I, the LORD? And there is no God apart from me, a righteous God and a Saviour; there is none but me.”
• Israel experienced both the judgment of God and the saving grace of God.
• He is both the righteous God and a Saviour.
• At Christmas, God declares, “I am the righteous God who judges sin, and I am the Saviour who provides the sacrifice for the forgiveness of your sin.”
That’s God. 1 John 4:10 “This is love…” – the love of the Father.
• He initiated the reconciliation and provided the means to make that happen, so that we might live.
• Paul says in Rom 5:8 “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Charles Spurgeon:
“If there was to be reconciliation between God and man, man ought to have sent to God; the offender ought to be the first to apply for forgiveness; the weaker should apply to the greater for help; the poor man should ask of him who distributes alms; but ‘Herein is love’ that God ‘sent.’ He was first to send an embassy of peace.”
We should be the ones going to Him, being the lesser, but the Greater One comes down to us and seeks our reconciliation. That’s the Father’s love for us.
• The love of the Father is no lesser than the love of Jesus. The Lord said, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.” (John 14:9)
• In Jesus, we see the fullness of God’s love. God loves you, there is no question about it.
LOVE IS ALSO DEFINED BY THE SACRIFICE OF JESUS
- God’s love was made manifest at Calvary.
His love was further proven at the cross. Let me quote from Phil 2:6-8.
Jesus Christ… “6Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death - even death on a cross!”
Jesus came to our world but for one reason, that He might go to the cross. He came with the cross in mind.
• 1 John 4:10 says out of His love for us God “sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” (NIV) ESV: “… sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
• That’s a word we need to understand, it’s in the Scripture. Propitiation is the action of appeasing God; to satisfy His justice by turning away His wrath.
• Jesus paid the price for our forgiveness, being the atoning sacrifice for our sin.
John said it: “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.” (1 John 3:16)
• He paid our sin-debt in full; we are pardoned and made righteous before God.
• The cross is the purpose of Christmas. For Christmas to be fully appreciated, it has to be seen from the cross. The cross defines Christmas.
• Jesus did not come to give us health, wealth and success. He did not come to give us a set of creeds and religion. He came to give us life with God.
Do you know Him? Not knowing about Him, but knowing Him.
• Without Him, we are presently separated from God, and will be eternally separated from Him after we die.
LOVE IS DEFINED BY THE LIFE OF THE REDEEMED
- God’s love was made manifest in us.
This is the application of John’s words. Knowing Christmas and Calvary leads to this, the transformed life of the redeemed, a life exemplified by His love.
• The redeemed of the Lord love like Him. See how John emphasizes it:
1 John 4:7-8, 11-12
7Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
11Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
1 John 4:19-21 As if he could not emphasize this enough, John kept going…
19 We love because he first loved us. 20If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. 21And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.
When we are forgiven by Christ and receives His life, we “participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.” (2 Pet 1:4).
• ESV we are partakers of the divine nature. We are renewed in our desires.
• We love because we are loved, and we love as Jesus loves.
• Jesus says, “By this, all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:35)
• Love becomes the hallmark of the redeemed people of God.
In giving this command, Jesus introduced something radical.
• We usually identify people groups by their ethnicity, language, skin colour, education or job, but here we have for the first time, a people group defined by LOVE.
• Followers of Christ are identified by their love for each other.
Our love for others does not say anything great about us; it is but the outflow of the love of God. If God so fills our heart with His love, it overflows.
A teacher of the Law once came to Jesus and asked, “Which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” (Matt 22:36-39)
37Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' 38This is the first and greatest commandment. 39And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbour as yourself.'" 40All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
• The scribe asked for the greatest commandment, but Jesus gave him two.
• It was as if the second one was part of the package, tagged together and cannot be separated. “The one who truly loves God will love his neighbour as himself.”
When Jesus said this, He wasn’t picking one or two commandments and pushing them above the rest, as if they were more important.
• Jesus was summing up the ESSENCE of the Law, highlighting the FULFILMENT of the Law. "All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." (Matt 22:40)
• To love God and hence to love people, is the essence of the Law. If we get “loving God” right, the rest will be right.
The focus is not on the keeping of the Law but in loving God.
• Remember the rich young ruler who came to Jesus and asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” and then claiming that he has kept the commandments from his youth?
• Jesus said, "One thing you lack. Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." (Mark 10:21)
• This man went away very sad. He had great wealth. He couldn’t let go.
• What an irony. He could not let go of earthly possessions for the treasure in heaven, which was what he really wanted, to inherit eternal life.
He has another love in his heart, another “god”.
• You see, you can be keeping the commandments while following another “god”. Religion cannot save him.
• He could not follow Jesus. He failed to love God with all his heart, which would lead him to love the poor, to love his neighbour as himself.
• He cannot love God because he has another love, his possessions.
Let us love God with all our hearts, which will lead us to love others as ourselves.
Let me close with this story – the Christmas Gift:
Tommy and Andrew were roommates in the first year of their study at the Bible College. After they returned from their winter break, they shared about how they spent their Christmas back home.
Tommy began to talk about the presents he had received for Christmas – the new running shoe, the books, the new clothes, and many other items given by family and friends. He was somewhat pleased with his “windfall” of gifts.
“So, Andrew, what did you get for Christmas?” he asked, expecting to hear his wonderful list of presents, Andrew replied quietly, holding up but one small item – an alarm clock that probably cost less than $10 at the thrift shop.
“That’s nice,” was all that Tommy could say. He wasn’t prepared for this and felt that it was rather small and insignificant.
During the course of their study, as roommates often do during late nights of studies, Tommy would tease Andrew by pretending to throw that clock into the air and then catch it right before it hit the ground, pretending to damage his precious clock.
Andrew never thought this game was funny. The clock meant a lot to him. It meant the parents’ love for him.
During their four-year in college, the two of them were moved from room to room and roommate to roommate, but Andrew would always have that same inexpensive alarm clock placed closely beside his bed.
You see, Andrew's family was far from wealthy and the only present his parents could afford to give him for Christmas was this simple, unimpressive clock. What seemed like garage sale material for some families was a family treasure for Andrew.
The two good friends graduated and met some 13 years later. They chatted about old times. Tommy could not recall many of the presents he received for Christmas that year, but he remembered Andrew’s gift – the alarm clock. While he had many more gifts and more expensive ones, Andrew had one single present from his parents that was definitely more precious. He treasured it and Tommy remembered it.
What is the ‘alarm clock’ for you?
• Of all the blessings of life, what is most precious? What do you value the most?
• With all the stuff that we have accumulated in life, what is most important and meaningful for you?
I hope this story can lead us to ponder Christ.
• At the end of the day, it won’t be things that satisfy us. It will be relationships.
• And the one relationship that we can never do without, is our relationship with Jesus, our Saviour and Lord.
• God’s love is seen in the giving of the Father, the sacrifice of the Son, and in our lives today.
This Christmas, let us pause and remember the great love of the Father for our lost world and the sacrifice of Jesus for our salvation.
• And for us as the redeemed people of God, let us manifest His love in our love for one another.
Dear friends, don’t miss that which is most important in life?
• Put your trust in Jesus Christ as your only Saviour and be reconciled with God.
• Cherish that which matters most. Receive Jesus into your life. Ask God to forgive you and give you a new life in Christ.
May we all learn to love one another as He loved.
• May we see a greater love for God and for one another.
• Glory be to God in the highest!
