Are we truly known by our love by everyone?

 Read Luke 6:27-28

God loves you. Love one another. How easily do the words roll off our lips now, but do we mean it? Do we really mean love one another? C’mon, there’s some bad people out there

It’s the Sunday following Resurrection Sunday. The faithful are here. Many that were here last week we might not see for a while.

We remembered Jesus the way he told us to remember him and then we had a big celebration. Now, it’s a week later and we are back to putting the words of Jesus into practice.

But to get back on course, we get a major course correction.

Love God. Got it. I’m in.

Lone one another. Yep. Good to go. Let’s do this.

Love your enemies. There’s always a catch, isn’t there.

So, if we can do the Bible math, we get our most straightforward answer of answers.  It’s love, love, and more love for the one who truly wants to set aside the gods of this world and seek the one true God.

Love God, and love each other, and that includes those who we don’t like or who don’t like us or who might be on the other side of the world saying bad things about us.

Love the person who if they could would be outside your front yard with an RPG ready to make your day. Chances are, those who might call you an enemy won’t ever show up on your doorstep, but they would still love to do you harm.

Love everyone made in the image of God.

Let’s put it this way. Many of the people who rejoiced at Saul’s conversion were the same people he had persecuted.

Some of those people were dead. Then realize they were on Saul’s welcoming committee in heaven. Now, that’s some words into practice right there. Now, that’s some known as his disciples by your love right there.

We are defined as a people by our love. God loves us and we love others so much so that people know that we belong to God by that love.

We are defined as a people by our love

In the days of Abraham, the sign of circumcision was given to indicate the men among God’s Chosen People. Today, we have a sign in the spirit.  God’s Spirit lives within us.

God not only told us to love him and each other—everyone—he lives within us to help us do just that.

The default setting for the Christian must be love. Yes, we are:

·       Wise

·       Discerning

·       Generous

·       Faithful in a few things

·       Ready to serve our Lord in many things

·       Good stewards of our time, talent, and treasures

·       People who speak the truth in love

·       People who desire to please our Lord

·       People who long to hear Well done good and faithful servant from our Master

·       People who know some scripture and have much of it written on their hearts.

But our nature above every nature that tries to dwell within us is love.  God is love. We are to be known as his disciples by our love. It must be love that governs if Jesus is really the Lord of our lives.

That includes those whom we don’t like. That includes those who don’t really know us. That includes people who would just as soon that we get hit by a meteor or by lightning than receive our daily bread.

But we are called to love them.

And we can’t do it, at least not on our own.  We must submit to the spirit of God that resides within us to be able to love those who seem unlovable to us.

So the question of the day is:  Do we love God enough to love those who don’t love us and we would like to go on hating?

This is trust God over our own understanding once again.

This is putting what God has given me to work to produce a good return in this case that return is love for others.

This is the pastor gets off easy day.  Preach love, love, and more love. It’s for everyone made in the image of God. It must be love.

Love everyone.

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!

God is Love

Read 1 John 4:7-21

GOD LOVES YOU.  LOVE ONE ANOTHER.

It’s something of a little mantra that I use just about everywhere.  It gets to the heart of so much when it comes to discipleship.

GOD LOVES YOU.  LOVE ONE ANOTHER.  It can get you through the day.  It’s just basic discipleship.  I often link it with three verses that you know well.  Three verses answer three questions.

The first question is how long will God love us and the answer comes from Jeremiah 31:3.  He loves us with an everlasting love.  The Message translation says, God told them, I’ve never quit loving you and never will.  Expect love, love, and more love!

The second question is how much does God love us.  This answer is very familiar to just about every Christian.

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.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

That’s John 3:16-17 if you haven’t caught on yet.

The third question is what are we going to do about it.  Do about what?  This wonderful love that God has bestowed upon us—grace if you will.  What are we going to do about it?

Jesus speaking to his closest friends said these words with hours of his trip to the cross.

A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.  By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.

That’s John 13:34-35.  Most probably knew that and the other scriptures as well.  You might also have picked up on the fact that when you really want to study love, you find yourself in John’s gospel and his letters quite often.

The main scripture for this message comes from John’s first letter.  This particular pericope wraps together the one God that we know in three forms in just a few verses.

John says:

·       Love comes from God whom we would call Father.

·       We know God’s love because he sent his Son into the world that we might live through him.

·       We know that God lives in us and we in him because we have received God’s own Spirit.  In fact, this Spirit that lives within us is greater than any spirit that is in the world.

We know God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  We also know him as Creator, Redeemer, Savior, King, Lord, Master, and even Friend.

We know that God is holy, righteous, merciful, eternal, loving, and full of grace.

We know that God is the only true God and that he is a jealous God.  He is not happy when we have a fling with other gods, be they Baal or money or drugs or selfishness or vitriol or ambivalence.

We know that God is faithful and just to forgive us when we confess.  It’s not guessing game.  It’s an assurance of God’s pardon.

God is truth and truthful.  There is no deceit in him.

God is light.

Let’s use some big words.  God is omniscient.  Don’t call God a Know It All but he knows it all.

He is omnipotent.  He can bring to pass everything that he says he will do.

He is omnipresent.  He is not confined by time or space.

He is immutable.  God and his character do not change.  He is now as he was before the creation of the universe.

He is sovereign.  He reigns.  He rules.  He doesn’t worry about reelection.
 

This is an impressive list of God’s attributes.  The Bible is full of his attributes.  It seems that any one of these attributes could encompass God’s fullness, but then we realize that God is even more than one, two, or twenty of these characteristics.  God seems incomprehensible to us; yet, somehow we comprehend his very essence.

We know that God’s thoughts and his ways are so far above ours that they are nearly incomprehensible; yet, we are not left without the mind of Christ and the indwelling of God’s Spirit.  We somehow know God even though we can’t comprehend God, at least all that he is.

For of all the things that we know about God, the one that hits home the most is that God is love.

God is love!

We considered what Paul had to say about love—what it is and is not.  We know there are different types of love—romantic, brotherly, parental, and the unselfish and unconditional love that Jesus demonstrated for us by going all the way to the cross. 

The love that comes from God is intense and intimate, a companion with the truth, and as you have heard me state before—the strongest force in the universe.  Nothing compares to love.

And the apostle John tells us that God is love.  God is love.

We could just affirm this and go on with our lives.  We could say, cool beans.  We could make this a daily Facebook post, but what would happen to us if we recognized how powerful this three-word sentence is.

God is love.

Think of the best day that you have ever known.  It was conceived in love.

Think of the worst experience that you have ever had.  God—who is love—let you experience whatever it was.

Think of the worst boss that you ever worked for—God—who is love—didn’t strike him by lightning.

Think of the political turmoil in this nation.  I don’t care who you think is good, bad, or ugly; too far left or right or just too long in office, or what labels have been attached to them.  God—who is love—permits this course of vitriolic discourse to continue.

We often remind ourselves that God is sovereign and in control, even when most of the world seems to be a total mess.  We have assurance that God is in control.

We like to say that God has a plan—that plan would fall under his sovereignty as well.  He has a plan.

We consider the things we see in our world from the perspective of God being righteous and just and the world a place that does not know him.  The judge of the world will do right.

We consider that as the end of the age grows near, people will be less and less interested in the truth.  They will seek out so called godly counselors to tell them exactly what they want to hear.

We can somewhat rationalize what is happening in the world and even perhaps hold on to Jesus is surely coming back soon to assuage our minds of all these things.  But all of these things are ways that we try to explain the imperfection, ungodliness, hatred, acrimony, selfishness, and outright mess that everything seems to be most of the time.  In the middle of all of this, God is love.

God is sovereign and holy and righteous.  God alone may judge his creation.  Actually, he has judged us and found us guilty and gave us a death sentence.  The sentence was executed, but not upon us.  Jesus stood in our place. 

God is just and has condemned sin, but more than that, he is love.  Love took our place on the cross.  Love brought us into right relationship with God.  Love rose from the grave.  Love reigns.

When our day makes sense or has reached the pinnacle of absurdity, either way know that God is love.

When our children make us proud or cause all of our hair to turn gray or fall out, either way know that God is love.

When the bills are all paid and you can still go out supersize that McMeal or when you have to decide between paying the gas or electric bill, either way know that God is love.

Love brought about creation.

Love brought about you.

Love desires all to receive the free gift of life and know life abundant and eternal.

Love reconciled creation to himself through his own blood.

Love lives within us in what we call the Holy Spirit.

Love is the strongest force in the universe.

Love is the source of all good things.

Our very purpose in life comes from love.

God the Father is the perfect image for most of us when we think of creation and eternity and holiness and justice.

Jesus the Son—God with us—helps us know that God thinks everyone of us is special to him.

God’s own Spirit—the Counselor, Comforter, Spirit of Truth—the Holy Spirit is our continual connection with God.  We are never without God.

We have grown to understand these three manifestations of a single God—the one true God.  Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.

Some people have a little trouble with the trinity.  It’s a difficult theological concept.  We have three Gods but we only have one.  Some people wonder how you can take three Gods and make one true God.

That’s not exactly what the trinity is.  There is one God.  We know the one true God as Father and as Son and as Holy Spirit.  Three persons of a single God are revealed to us. 

We don’t’ see a hierarchy, though Jesus always did the will of his Father.  It’s not like if God the Father and Jesus the Son take a three-day weekend, the Spirit is in charge.  There is not so much thought of being in charge.

I could actually visualize that, at least the picture when Father and Son returned.  “What do you mean you refiled everything according to your where the wind blows system?”

What governs three Gods in one is not hierarchy but harmony.  What governs is love. 

I have preached and prayed about being made in the likeness of Christ Jesus.  I have taught on God shaping us as the potter shapes clay.  It was a good metaphor for God’s Chosen People and a great illustration for each of us.

And we know what is being shaped is our heart.  We know that we are not there yet, but we desire to be complete in love.  We know that this process takes place in a world of disorder.

God is not a God of disorder but of peace, so we are like Christ Jesus in many ways as we navigate life in this world.  Our heart is not quite perfected in love, but we are getting there even as we live in a fallen world, a disorderly world.

Listen again to John’s words.

And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him.

 In this, love is perfected with us so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment, for we are as He is in this world.  There is no fear in love; instead, perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment. So the one who fears has not reached perfection in love.

God is love.  God loves us.  God lives in us.

I want to give you the Tom Spence perspective on God’s plan.  Now you need to know, that I can write a plan.  I can write a detailed plan with sections and tabs and appendices and indexes or is it indices, with tabs to the indices and so on.  And that’s just for Gene handing out candy to the children.

I can write a detailed plan, so I can imagine God’s plan for everything—that thing would take half the universe to store even in digital form. 

But the plan that I perceive is a little less cumbersome.  We know that God’s desire is for none to perish, but I don’t think that is the complete plan.  I think the plan is for us to become love as he is love.

Are there some details?  I’m sure that there are, but what I need to comprehend is that all of creation began by the words spoken by Love and my destination is to be love as he is love.

It is a process and sometimes a seemingly impossible process to be accomplished in this crazy world, but I take heart that the God who started everything has already envisioned and provisioned my destination.

When I consider that the Creator of all things is Love himself, I can stay the course even in this messy world because I know that my destination is to be love and be with Love for all eternity.

God is love.  Let’s be like God.

Amen.