All You Need is Love, without apology to the Beatles

 Read 1 Corinthians 13

In the next service we will do the love chapter. I thought I would do a round robin on the topic of love for this service, as most of you are here for both services.

Let’s go!

1 Corinthians 16:14

Let all that you do be done in love.

Every, all, all yall, with no exclusions is the essence here. Thats when you are in worship or at home making your fourth peanut butter and jelly sandwich for the kid who is eating like he was rescued from the Sahara.

It’s when you are in line at Walmart or stuck in traffic on I-40. It’s for early morning or late at night.

Everything is to be done in love, even the stuff that we don’t’ like to do. We don’t forgive out of guilt. We should do it out of love for the person whom we are forgiving, for ourselves, and for God who has commanded that we forgive.

Colossians 3:14

And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

Put on love. Thanks some unique verbiage. Think old self-new self, old clothes—new clothes, and human nature—God’s nature.

We are to put on God’s nature.

1 Corinthians 13:13

So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

You will get this one again later, but it’s just too hard to pass up now. C’mon, I grew up with this one.  Faith, hope, love, abide these three but the greatest of these is love.

John 15:13

Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

That’s some serious love right there. That is true agape love—unselfish and unconditional.

John 3:16

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

You might have heard that one once or twice. Our salvation is rooted in love. Our salvation comes from God who is in his very essence—love.

1 John 4:7-8

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

There’s the cool part of this verse.  God is love. That’s some cool beans. Then there is the admonishing part. If you don’t love then you don’t know God.

Consider this from the Parable of the 10 Virgins parable.  In that one, the host of the banquet says, “I don’t know you.”  Ouch!

Imagine God telling us, "I don’t know you," because we did not live lives of love. I’m really banking on a “Well-done, good, and faithful servant, not an "I don’t know you."

1 Peter 4:8

Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.

Jesus took away our sins on the cross, yet we still sin. How do we lessen the pain for all involved? Love is the remedy.

Ephesians 5:25

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,

How much love is that? Christ died for us—for his church. In those marital words of “I do” we—the men—are saying that we would die for our wives.  I would die for you.

You think our wives might cut us a little slack for saying we would die for them. What do we get instead?

That’s what you say but you never do it.

Ephesians 4:2

With all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love,

These all are plucked out of a greater context, but even as stand-alone, there is counsel for us. This whole business of working with others gets sticky without love.

So be patient, humble, gentle, and live a life of love.

John 14:15

If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

OK, that’s not touchy-feelie love. That’s action love. That’s put my words into practice, love. That’s forgive them as I forgave you, love. That’s sometimes some tough stuff.

We are told that it is love that fulfills the law.  We can’t follow all of the rules. Only Jesus did that but we can fulfill the law if we live with love as our new nature.

How do we know that love is our new nature?  Here’s a litmus test.

Substitute your name for love in this paragraph.

I am patient, I am kind. I do not envy, I do not boast, I am not proud. I do not dishonor others, I am not self-seeking, I am not easily angered, I keep no record of wrongs. I do not delight in evil but rejoice with the truth. I always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Did you get hung up on one or two of these, or am I in the company of the perfect people?

If you are here for the next service, you will get this again, but I will close with 1 Corinthians 13.

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 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. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.  For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love

Amen.

 

Life and Death

Read John 3

After Jesus came to John at the Jordan, John did not stop baptizing.  You might think that his job was done.  It was not, but it was lessening.

You might wonder why John didn’t follow Jesus.  John had his assignment and he would not become a distraction for the very One for whom he prepared the way.

People still needed to repent of their sins.  Not all of the people who needed to do this would make their way to see John.  John kept doing what he was called to do, but he had perspective.

In the course of a discussion that began with ceremonial washing, the context turned to the fact that people were following Jesus more than John.  Even some of John’s own disciples had left to follow him.

John explained that he was not the Christ.  He had explained this before but did it again.

The Christ is from heaven. He is the only one who has seen and known heaven.  He is on a mission from his Father.  That’s why he is with us.

John was of the earth.  He had surely been given gifts by the Father, but he originated of a father’s desire.  He had a heavenly mission but was a man with a God-given mission.

That mission was to prepare the way for the Christ.  That was a big deal at first but had lessened somewhat since the arrival of Jesus at the Jordan.  There would come a point—in this case imprisonment—when John’s work at the Jordan and other places would come to an end.

John was not upset about this.  In fact, this is what he thought being the forerunner called him to do.  He prepared the way for the One who was coming after him.  Now that One had surpassed him in his earthly ministry.

Have you ever watched a relay race?  Runners don’t just run their leg and stop and then pass the baton.  The runner of the first leg runs as fast as he can and passes the baton to the next runner at full speed.  That first runner keeps on running.  It would be unnatural to slam on the breaks.  Once the baton is passed, he gradually slows down.

The race is in the hands of the next runner, but the first runner still runs for a bit.

Jesus had the baton.  Jesus was the reason for John’s mission.  Jesus was the One that brought life and life eternal.  The Father had placed everything into the hands of Jesus.

John had preached repentance but now he preached life and death.

Whoever receives the Son has life but those who don’t remain dead.  The wrath of the Father is still upon them.

John proclaimed repentance and turning away from a sinful world.  He prepared the world that was under the wrath of God for the Christ.

Jesus proclaimed deliverance because his Father desired mercy and forgiveness over wrath, but belief in the one and only Son of God was essential.  It is essential.

In the middle of his explanation, John appeared to be a little exasperated.  He said the One who comes from above has testified to the truth but no one has believed him.  John was not concerned that his part has lessened.  He wondered why everyone was not responding to the One who came after him.

Surely, no one does not mean every single person on the planet for we have already noted some who did believe and follow Jesus.  John was wondering how so many had come to see him and partake of this earthly baptism, yet were not yet ready to believe in the One who came after him.

These people who had come to see John had only known repentance and forgiveness for a time.  Whatever they had done in accordance with God’s law, they would do again next year.  Maybe they grew closer to God for a time, then the relationship would atrophy.

I can’t imagine a Hebrew feeling any better than he could on or just after the Day of Atonement. But a few months later, the slavery of sin would rattle its chains more and more each day.

David had said that his sin was always before him.  All the blood of goats and bulls could not make him clean.  Only God could create in him a pure heart.

We are temporal beings made from the dust of the earth.  We don’t comprehend eternity, but God placed eternity in our hearts.  We can’t know it in the world, only in God.

Eternity had come in the man we know as Jesus.  He brought life and life eternal, but so many did not want to receive what he brought.  The darkness of the world was too appealing.

From the beginning of this gospel, the state of the world has been compared to darkness.  The light came but people did not recognize him.

The darkness cannot overcome him but somehow people chose darkness.  It’s comfortable.

Hello darkness my old friend.

 I’ve come to talk with you again.

 Paul Simon’s words sometimes hit close to home.

How could people not receive the testimony of the One who came from heaven?  People were comfortable with their condemned state. 

How can people today reject the truth that we know in Jesus Christ?  

Condemnation is comfortable.  You have heard me talk about the twin gods of Apathy and Ambivalence before.  Their companions are bitterness, vitriol, and acrimony.  They are alive and well in modern American and they have taken the life out of life for so many.

So many people are checking on their stimulus check every hour and don’t check in with God once a month.

So many people who watch part of this broadcast as a program and are not participating in worship, won’t be here when we start to gather again.  Not because of health concerns or geography but comfort.

So many people love their comfort and darkness so much that they won’t hear the testimony of the one true God that we know in Christ Jesus.

Most of the time when we gather together, I preach to disciples.  I challenge those who already have professed Jesus not just as Savior but as Lord.  Jesus is Lord.  He reigns.  My comfort zone is continually being changed by him.

Most of my messages are for those people, people who are following the Lord and growing in his grace.  Most are not about salvation for in your profession of faith you have been saved from sin and death and in your discipleship, you are stepping into abundant life.

In this new format, I know that we are reaching some who just want to check the God block on their to-do list just in case this pandemic thing gets really bad.

I know some are just running this broadcast in the background of something else that they are doing.

Some just post their like or heart emojis and then get back to binge-watching Netflix. 

Some are worshiping because the Spirit of God that lives inside of you compels you to worship.  If that’s you, pardon me for a moment while I speak to everyone else.

This message of life and death is for real.  It’s not theory or philosophy.  It’s not something to be considered only in your old age. 

This is here and now life and death. 

We see the pandemic deaths posted on the news every day.  You will grow comfortable with the numbers.  You’re still breathing.  Those are just numbers.  Death is not near you, is it?

That’s a cold thing to say.  How can you say that?

Talk with someone who is old enough to remember the Vietnam War but was not sent to Vietnam.  What do they remember?  The numbers and sometimes the names of those lost that day would be published on the evening news.  Yes, there was a time where half an hour of local news and half an hour of national news was enough.

People grew accustomed to the daily accounts of American casualties.

Men and women still die in battle all around the globe.  We seldom hear about them.  Many more die when they come home and take their own lives.  Little attention is given to them.

We have grown accustomed to and comfortable with death.  Death counts grow every day from war, disease, starvation, and even the contagion of the year.

What we are missing is that we are already dead.  We are already dead until we believe in Jesus.  Jesus brings life and life eternal.

If you are comfortable in your present existence but don’t know life, eternal life may not be appealing to you.  You may be comfortable in your present darkness and think that it’s good enough.

You may think that you don’t want to give up what you have for what you believe life as a disciple of Jesus Christ is.  What you need to understand is that all that you have, all your worldly belongings and pleasure and treasures of many kinds are just decorations on your casket because you are already dead.

Some of those who are here every Sunday are thinking, “What got into Tom?  He is always preaching about love and growing in God’s grace.  What’s the deal?”

You would be correct if I were talking to those who know the Lord and desire to follow him, but right now I am talking to those who are dead and don’t even know it.

If that’s you, stop listening to me and confess your sins to the Lord, profess your belief in him, and affirm that you believe that God raised Jesus from the dead and sent his Spirit—his own Holy Spirit to live within us.

Then I want you to do one more thing.  Call someone that you know who is a believer and begin learning about following Jesus.

Learn about being his disciple.

Learn about life abundant and life eternal.

Learn about growing in the grace of God.

Understand that professing Jesus as Lord is not something to be saved when you think death is near.  Death is here and you are under the wrath of God.  It’s a wrath that God does not want you to bear so he made a way for you to receive his love and forgiveness and grace.

Your profession of faith in Jesus Christ is not the finish line.  It’s the starting blocks for you can now live as God designed you to live.

For those who have professed their faith in this moment, know there is a celebration in heaven over you that’s just beginning.

For those who have been faithful disciples for some time, be ready to receive our new brothers and sisters as they reach out to you for help.

Let them know this God who is love by our love. 

Celebrate that their names are in the Lamb’s Book of Life and that God has entrusted them to you to help them grow in his grace.

Amen.

The Gospel in Miniature - John 3 - Part 2

Read John 3

The Confession of Faith for Cumberland Presbyterians notes in the very first part of the introduction that John 3:16 is the gospel in miniature.  It is likely the most memorized verse among Christians.

It was not first proclaimed from a mountain top but in an evening conversation between Jesus and a Pharisee named Nicodemus.  Nicodemus was having a hard time getting his head around this whole born again concept.  We shouldn’t be too critical looking back across the centuries to the other side of the cross.

It is that cross where we begin today.  Jesus told Nicodemus that the Son of Man must be lifted up and gave him a comparison to something that he would have been familiar with.  In the wilderness, God’s Chosen People had spoken against God and against Moses and God sent snakes.

They were not just cute garden snakes.  These snakes were biting people and the people were dying.  The people confessed their sins and asked Moses for relief.  Moses petitioned God.  God told him to make a snake and put it atop of a pole.

When the people who hand been bitten looked upon the snake on the top of the pole, they lived.

There is a circuitous rabbit trail to venture down some day about God telling Moses to make this rather odd image and use it for healing, but for now—at least for then—it was something that Nicodemus would be able to relate to, for he was surely experiencing some dissonance over this whole born again thing.

It’s important to understand that Jesus is making this connection with this point of the Son of Man being lifted up. We know that to be the crucifixion.  Jesus proceeded to statements of increasing significance, each connected to a previous statement.

John uses the word for which in Greek is gar (γάρ).  It is a conjunction as you might expect but it not only ties the current thought with one previous to it, but makes the full thought one of increasing succession.

So, let’s build upon this thought of the Son of Man being lifted up and expand that to how much God loves the world.  He loved it enough to give his one and only Son that those who would believe in him would have eternal life.

That’s the verse that we all like and say Hallelujah, Praise the Lord, Amen, and Cool Beans.

But the succession of this greater thought continues.  For—this is the word connected the two previous thoughts—For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world but to save the world through him.

The person who does not believe is already condemned.  That person is dead already.  Death is a pre-existing condition. Later on, Jesus would explain that when a person believed, he passed from death to life.  We think of death as the end.  Jesus explained it as a state of existence without God. 

Now we come to the third for, which is omitted from the NIV.  This third section is about evidence.  When we studied James, I called this Forensic Christianity.  There will be evidence of our faith.

For the one who has believed and received this gift of life, he will be compelled to live in the light.  He does not desire to hide his deeds because they are evil, but to display them for they are good and bring glory to God.

So, this whole business about Jesus being lifted up is because of God’s love which we received instead of condemnation which gives us life through which we can finally bring glory to God.

So, we give a word of thanks to Nicodemus who didn’t pick up this whole born again thing right away and led to a glimpse of what was to come.  

Jesus would go to the cross and be lifted up so that we might be healed from sin and saved from death, even though we deserved condemnation.

When all that is said and done, we can live in the light and do the good works that God planned for us from the beginning.

Amen!