True Love

 

[The following is a manuscript of my message delivered on the 2nd Sunday in Advent, the 6th of December, 2020, at Pilgrim Reformed Church.  This was an abbreviated service due to constraints put in place from the COVID-19 pandemic.  Our YouTube streaming channel is:

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDIz4WuP8igQstkEOq1AMTg.  Look for the video of our recorded services on our Vimeo channel:  http://vimeo.com/pilgrimreformedchurch.]

This morning is the 2nd Sunday in Advent and we lit the candle of love, representing the love that God and Jesus have for us, the love we should have for one another.  During our Lord’s walk and ministry on earth, love was a very important and frequently recurring theme.  Jesus told us to love God with all our heart and soul and mind, and to love each other as we love ourselves.  And indeed, the only way we can truly love God is to love others, to love those walking among us.  But what really is love, what did our Christ mean when He talked about love?

Please listen and follow along to what Jesus shared with His disciples and with us, as recorded by the Apostle John in chapter 15 of his Gospel account, verses 9 through 19, and I’ll be reading this from the New Living Translation of our Holy Bible…

9 “I have loved you even as the Father has loved Me. Remain in My love. 10 When you obey My commandments, you remain in My love, just as I obey My Father’s commandments and remain in His love. 11 I have told you these things so that you will be filled with My joy. Yes, your joy will overflow! 12 This is My commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you. 13 There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are My friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are My friends, since I have told you everything the Father told Me. 16 You didn’t choose Me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using My name. 17 This is My command: Love each other.

18 “If the world hates you, remember that it hated Me first. 19 The world would love you as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of the world. I chose you to come out of the world, so it hates you."

--John 15:9-19 (NLT)

Let us pray…  Father God, thank You for loving us when we in no way deserve Your love.  There is nothing we could ever do to repay Your love or come close to equaling Your love.  Thank You for so great a love, so great a gift.  Please help us share this gift with all others.  Help us to not only personally realize Your love but also to love others as we love ourselves.  Help us love as Jesus loves.  And Father, please protect us from all the forces of evil at work in this world.  Please keep us strong in our faith, of one mind and purpose in our love and worship, and healthy and safe through these trying times.

Speak to us now, Father, that we might hear Your voice through Your Spirit and better understand the message You have for us for this day.  Let us feel Your love, and then go out and share that love with all we encounter.  This we pray under the blood and in the name of Your Son, Christ Jesus our Lord.   Amen.

During the 17th century, Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of England, sentenced a soldier to be executed for his crimes.  The order was to be carried out at the ringing of the evening curfew bell.  However, the bell did not sound.  The soldier's fiancé had climbed into the belfry and clung to the great clapper of the bell to prevent it from striking.  When she was summoned by Cromwell to account for her actions, she wept as she showed him her bruised and bleeding hands.  Cromwell's heart was touched and he said, "Your lover shall live because of your sacrifice.  Curfew shall not ring tonight!"

True love is sacrificial love, a love that is willing to give all, just as Jesus noted in our scripture reading.  Being of Irish heritage, I’m no big fan of Cromwell, but by all accounts, he was a very religious man.  Perhaps Jesus’ words came to his mind as he saw the young woman’s hands and tears.  He granted the soldier’s pardon because of her sacrifice, her true love.

Love.  We toss that word around rather freely and loosely.  We say, “I love a good home-cooked meal”, or “I love my new car”, or “I love just sitting in my easy chair watching an old movie on TV”.  Too often what we refer to as “loving” are merely things that have no real, eternal value.  We need to put our focus more on the things of heaven while loving our fellow man.  This is, after all, what Jesus commands us to do.

Do you remember the conversation Jesus had with Peter about love?  John recorded it in chapter 21 of his Gospel account.  Three times Jesus asks Peter, “Do you love Me?”.  Each time Peter replies, “Yes, Lord, You know I love You."  And Jesus responds, "Feed My lambs", "Tend My sheep", "Feed My Sheep".

This is how we show Jesus we love Him: by seeing to the needs of others.  And yes, feeding and tending are physical acts that fulfill the needs of the flesh.  But we also have spiritual needs that should be met.  Our spirit also needs to be “fed” and “tended” to.  We can only show Jesus our love by doing what He has commanded us to do, by seeing to both the physical and spiritual needs of others.

One night a Pharisee came to visit our Lord, admitting that Jesus must have been sent by God because no other man could do the things He did.  Jesus liked to make people think, so He replied that one must be born again to see the kingdom of God.  Of course this confused the Pharisee and a lesson from Jesus ensued.  The lesson also contains the most well-known verse in our Bible: John 3:16.

But Jesus left us with so much more in that conversation with the Pharisee Nicodemus, who soon became a faithful believer.  Listen to the words John recorded in chapter 3 of his Gospel account, verses 16 through 21…

16 "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

18 “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. 21 But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”

--John 3:16-21 (NKJV)

God loved us enough that He sent His own Son, His only begotten Child, with the promise that we can be saved if we only believe in Him.  Jesus didn’t come to condemn us, but to offer us salvation and redemption of our sins.

He brought us the light, the truth, but the world loves darkness and lies.  Those who reject Jesus are already condemned, by their own deeds and words.  They’ve turned down God’s greatest gift of love.

Love.  When Jesus used that word He meant true, sacrificial, unconditional love.  Love that sets no bounds or conditions, no “ifs” or “buts”.  Love that gives of itself, without regard for self.  This is the love that Jesus held for us.  This is the love He expects of us when He commands us to love others as we love ourselves.

I’m sure you’ve heard the expression, “You can’t take it with you when you die.”  “It” being, of course, any physical thing we might possess at that time.  But I firmly believe there is indeed one “thing” we can take with us, but it isn’t physical.  We can take love with us.

True love is eternal, because it comes from God, it is of God.  As believers, we will carry God’s love with us beyond the grave into the next life in paradise.  Jesus is God’s love in the flesh, and even though He died and was buried, He rose from the grave and walked among us again.  God’s love cannot be destroyed!

This is the love He gave us.  This is the love He wants us to share with the world, so that the world might still be saved.  So let us go and make disciples for our Lord, loving all others just as we love ourselves, as God loves us.  In the blessed name of Christ Jesus our Lord, our Savior, the one true Son of God, the perfect Love.  Amen.

Let us pray…  Father God, Your love for us is so amazing, so astounding, so undeserved.  You still love us even when we disobey You and turn our backs on You.  Thank You, Father, for loving us enough to give us chance after chance to get things right.  Help us, please Father, to love and serve You and Jesus with all our heart and all our soul and all our mind.  Help us to be better servants to Your people.  Help us be more loving, Father, more trusting, more merciful, and more kindhearted toward everyone we encounter in our daily walk.

Please hear us now, Father, as we pause for just a moment to speak to You straight from our hearts, promising to repent of our sinful ways, seeking Your forgiveness and Your help to do so…

Lord Jesus, You gave up Your heavenly throne to come to the earth as one of us, to suffer and die at our hands.  You came, just so we might have a chance of eternal life in paradise, but only if we accept You as Lord.  Please help us to truly be Your humble servants, obeying Your commands to love others and make disciples whenever we can.  Forgive us, Jesus, when we are too timid or too fearful of telling someone just what You mean to us, what You have done for us.  Help us to carry out the job You gave us.  Give us Your heart for loving others, just as You loved us all.  Strengthen us, Jesus, through these trying times.  And Lord, please heal those hurts that separate and divide us, even within Your church family.  Help us remain faithful and obedient no matter what we go through.  May our focus be more on the needs of others rather than on what this life might offer.  This we pray in Your blessed name, Christ Jesus our Lord and our Savior.  Amen.