Monday, February 20, 2023

What the World Needs Now Is Love

We are continuing the sermon series “Celebrating the Life that Christ Makes Possible” The next four weeks we will be looking at the new life that is possible through Christ.

1 John 3:1 NIV See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
One of our most basic needs is to be loved. Probably no word in our vocabulary is as misunderstood as love. We apply it to food and clothing tastes, to romantic relationships, and to religious experiences. You spell love L.O.V.E. but the spelling of love in our lives is much more complex. In Jesus Christ the true meaning is available, and the world desperately needs this love now. God has met this need in Christ. Because of Jesus, a new kind of love is possible and is at work in our world. Respond sincerely and steadfastly by faith in God’s love as it is revealed in Jesus Christ.

Scripture Reading:


1 John 3:1‭, ‬11‭-‬18 NIV See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. For this is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous. Do not be surprised, my brothers and sisters, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other. Anyone who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him. This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.


1 John 4:7‭-‬12 NIV Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 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. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.


Introduction 


Text


1 John 3:1 NIV See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.


One of our most basic needs of humans is to be loved. 


We’ve all heard and probably sang the lyrics of the classic song, "What the World Needs now is Love",  the lyrics reflect this worldwide longing for love


What the world needs now is love, sweet love

It's the only thing that there's just too little of

What the world needs now is love, sweet love

No not just for some, but for everyone


Lord, we don't need another mountain

There are mountains and hillsides enough to climb

There are oceans and rivers enough to cross

Enough to last 'til the end of time

What the world needs now is love, sweet love

It's the only thing that there's just too little of

What the world needs now is love, sweet love

No, not just for some, but for everyone


Lord, we don't need another meadow

There are cornfields and wheatfields enough to grow

There are sunbeams and moonbeams enough to shine

Oh listen, Lord, if you want to know

What the world needs now is love, sweet love

It's the only thing that there's just too little of

What the world needs now is love, sweet love

No, not just for some, oh, but just for every, every, everyone


God has met this need for love in Christ. Because of Jesus, a new kind of love is possible and is at work in our world. 


  1. First and most importantly God loves us


Look at our text again


1 John 3:1 NIV See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.


When Martin Luther’s translation of the Bible was being printed, a piece of type fell to the floor. The printer’s daughter later found the section, which said, “For God so loved the world that he gave.” Excitedly, she showed it to her mother. Her mother said it didn’t make any sense. “Gave what?” 


The girl responded, “Oh, Mama, it doesn’t matter. If God loves me enough to give me anything, I don’t have to be afraid of him.” Many people think of God as harsh, judgmental, or indifferent toward the world. But the truth is, he loves us. 


1 John 4:8 NIV says ….God is love.  


It doesn’t say God loves and yes He does it doesn’t say He has love and yes He certainly does, but it goes further than that, and says that God is love.  That what God is, He is love.


B. How do we know God loves us?


1 John 4:9‭-‬10 NIV 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. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.


The cross is God’s bold demonstration of love. Because he loved us, he sent his Son to suffer the shame and agony of crucifixion. Because he loved us, he made a bridge across the gulf of sin that separated us from him. 


There is the story of an eight-year-old girl who was in a Pennsylvania orphanage. She was painfully shy, unattractive, and shunned by the other children. The orphanage directors even considered her to be a problem child. One of the rules of the orphanage was that the directors had to approve any written communication before it was mailed. One afternoon the girl was seen hiding a letter in the branches of a tree that hung over the wall.  Meaning that the letter was outside the orphanage property.  The letter was seized  by the directors of the orphanage who opened and read it.  Here’s what it said: “To anybody who finds this: I love you.” 


Just like this letter Jesus hung on a cross outside the city of Jerusalem,  at Golgotha, and was a message from God to the world—I love you! 


II. Just like the love of Christ who is our example our love is to be 


A. Inclusive and active.


1 John 3:16‭-‬18 NIV This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.


We are to live out the perfect pattern of Christ’s love.  The way to respond to others is to walk in his steps. His love included all people, no matter who they were, and His love was active in their lives. 


Jesus interacted with many “untouchables” in his day. No one wanted to touch the lepers. When they went out in public, they cried out “unclean” so that people could avoid them. But Jesus went out of his way to touch the lepers; they needed his love. 


Luke 5:12‭-‬13 NIV While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came along who was covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged him, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” And immediately the leprosy left him.


Jesus’ love was active and inclusive and ours should be too.


Here's another example. 


The Samaritans were considered social untouchables, yet Jesus ministered to not just a Samaritan but to a Samaritan woman which was really forbidden.


John 4:7‭-‬10 NIV When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”


You know the rest of the story He even announced to this woman this Samaritan woman that He was the Messiah


John 4:25‭-‬26 NIV The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”


Jesus’ love was active and inclusive and ours should be too


Jesus even honored Samaritans, in general, in his parable of the good Samaritan. 


Jesus had fellowship with the religious untouchables, people who did not keep the letter of law, as interpreted by the religious leaders who considered them as ceremonially unclean. 


Here's an example 


Mark 2:15‭-‬17 NIV While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with him and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked his disciples: “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”


Jesus’ love was active and inclusive and ours should be too.


1 John 4:11 NIV Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.


Jesus saw each person as valuable and full of potential. That kind of love is the pattern for every Christian.


Here's the big question can Jesus love be seen in us? 


1 John 4:20 NIV 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.


We might ask, “Who is our brother and sister?” Here's the answer.  When, in love, we seek people in need, we discover our brother and sister. We at this church do that, and our homeless outreach ministry is one of the proofs of that love.  


We naturally tend to love those who love us or share our values. Too often we demand that they change before we show love. But agape love includes everyone and actively seeks to share Christ’s love with them no matter what.


What is this agape love that I just mentioned?  Let me take just a couple of minutes to give you a definition.   


There are three major kinds of love identified by three Greek words; eros, phileo, and agape.


We are most familiar with eros love, or romantic love.  


As its name indicates, eros is passionate or sexual love (eros is the source of the English word erotic). While eros is important within a marriage relationship and was created by God, it can also be abused. God created our sexuality which makes it a good thing, but that is not the kind of love that we are talking about today. 


The second major kind of love is phileo the Greek word for friendship love.


Phileo refers to brotherly love and is most often exhibited in a close friendship. Best friends will display this generous and affectionate love for each other as each seeks to make the other happy.


Phileo is love based on the worth of the one who is loved.  Since phileo love involves feelings of warmth and affection toward another person, we typically do not have phileo love toward our enemies. Phileo is not the kind of love I’m talking about today.


The third major kind of love is agape.  Agape is a self-denying love.  That’s the kind of love that I’m talking about and that John was talking about and that Jesus shows us. 


Agape is the most powerful, noblest type of love: it is sacrificial love. Agape love is more than a feeling—it is an act of the will. This is the kind of love that can be commanded and controlled or directed by  the mind and will of the person who chooses to love.


This is the love that God has for His people and that prompted the sacrifice of His only Son, Jesus, for our sins.


This is the kind of love that Jesus said that His disciples should have.  


John 13:34‭-‬35 NIV “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.”


B. Let me be very clear the love of Christ is not gullible or naive. 


If we love God, who is holy, we cannot love the things that are against Christ. Our love for Christ is to be exclusively for Him. 


1 John 2:15‭-‬16 NIV Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.


Our love is to be exclusively for him because Christ’s love is eternal. 


Romans 8:38‭-‬39 NIV For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.


Conclusion 


Probably no word in our vocabulary is as misunderstood as love. We apply it to food and clothing tastes, to romantic relationships, and to religious experiences. 


You spell love L.O.V.E. but the spelling of love in our lives is much more complex.  In Jesus Christ the true meaning of love is available and the world desperately needs this love now.  


God is love. God has loved each of us in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. God will continue to love us with an eternal love.


We are to respond to this love sincerely and steadfastly by faith in God’s love as it is revealed in Jesus Christ.


It seems obvious and sounds trite, but it is true: love is the answer to any question. In all things, err on the side of love. By doing so, you’ll brighten the lives of anyone you’re involved with, and as you practice living the way Jesus taught, you’ll see more of him in your friends, and they’ll see more of him in you.


Above All, Before All, And Through It All—Love One Another.



Let’s pray,


Dear Lord, Teach Me To Love Others The Way You First Loved Me. As I Build Relationships With Others, Let Them See You In The Extent Of My Generosity, The Authenticity Of My Kindness, And The Depths Of My Love. All Of Those Things Are Only Possible Through You, The God Who Abides With Me And Calls Me Friend. In Jesus name, Amen.







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