Because He First Loved Us

follow along in the Bolton in 1 John 4, 7 through 21. You might have discerned by now that the theme of this morning's service is on the body of Christ and what it means to be that body. God through Christ called the church to exist and have a power that the gates of hell could not conquer and this morning we're going to look specifically at what it means to be that body in relationship to our love for one another. First John 4, 7 through 21. 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. 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. In this is love, not that we have loved God but he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in him and he in us because he has given us of his spirit and we have seen and testified that the Father has sent his son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love and whoever abides in love abides in God and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar. For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God, whom he has not seen and this commandment we have from him, whoever loves God must also love his brother. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Please be seated. Father, we come before you in prayer asking that the Holy Spirit would convince us of the truth persuading and enable us to embrace that which here is true. I ask Lord Jesus that you would guard my words, that there would be no error. I pray God that the attention would be upon the cross and that all of us here today would see our deep need for you. God, the things that we speak about maybe things we have heard so many times before but may the truth transform us, may we expect to be transformed, that in specific ways you may call us to change, to bring you greater glory and our lives greater good and joy. Oh God, we pray in the name of Christ that you would do such for we are your needy people. Bless us now, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. As you go through elementary school, you are bound to have certain setbacks. Mine came in 5th grade. I'm sure there were many before but these are the ones that I remember. Up until 5th grade, the sports that I participated in were all little league, paid for by your parents so everybody got to play. But once 5th grade hit, it turned into school sports. My school overholster elementary only had two, basketball and track. So in the late fall, early winter of my 5th grade year, I like every other boy in our class, put my name on a list with our physical ed instructor that I wanted to play basketball. We had two days of tryouts. There were too many of us. Not everybody would make the team. I was confident though because I am a great athlete. But all great athletes aren't great at all sports. When it came time to play basketball, the reality of my skill was made very clear. I had none. And so when the teacher or the coach came out to explain who was on the team, he did so with the list. Simply those who were on the team, had their name on the list. And those who were not on the team, their name was not on any list. My name was not to be read. I simply looked at the list. I watched boys ahead of me do this, cheer, high five. And I looked and I saw not my common name of Mark Davis. So like all the other boys who didn't make the team, we went out on the playground and quickly began to make fun of those who did in the sport which they were playing. And we looked forward to summer baseball. I wasn't too discouraged though. I desired to join another team and did so around January of that year, or at least made my intentions known. It was a desire to join the church. Now it wasn't the church basketball league. It was the church. I wanted to become a member of the church which my family often on and attended for some time. But when I began to express my desire, I saw a certain hesitation upon the Sunday school leader of that class. And for some reason I did kind of delight in that. But I persisted in going and expressing my desire to be a member. I didn't know everything there was to know about Christ, but I knew that I wanted to belong to the church. It was something that I needed to do. But after a few sessions with this class, much like our communications class, I was told, no, that at this point I could not become a member of the church. Now it wasn't because I didn't profess faith in Christ. I wasn't even asked that question. It had everything to do with my behavior. I wasn't good enough. I wasn't good enough to play basketball. And I wasn't good enough to be a member of the church. But I thought that was the point. I thought that was what the stories were about. The first prodigal son wasn't good enough to return, but he was embraced by his father. I was told, no. Now it probably had something to do with my Calvinistic views, not John Calvin, but Calvin and Hobbes. I was the kind of child that really wanted to live that kind of life. And during the years of being a part of that church, I did happen to witness very closely a broken plane of glass at the front door. I did certainly have some fingerprint evidence of a fire alarm that was pulled during a service, but certainly God's grace is sufficient to overcome such things as that. But not according to the children's pastor of this church, and those he led, I was told, no. I bring this up because it made it a significant impact on my life. It was a mark. It also made a significant impact on my family's life. My parents soon after left the church, and sadly to say to this day, haven't returned. Their view of what the church is about was stained by that pattern of behavior. And so was mine. It's probably why I became a pastor. Okay. This morning, I want to rewind for a minute and take you back a week ago to something that you experienced if you were in the 930 or the 11 o'clock service. And the reason I want to do this is because it's absolutely powerful, and it's incredible, and if you don't get it, anything else I say today will not matter. At the 930 service last week, I had to privilege of presiding over the table and serving of communion. What was special about that was there were 17 young men and women who became members of this church. They were already members of the body when they profess their faith in Christ. That's when you become a member of the body. But this was their commitment to this body, Park City's Presbyterian Church. This isn't the only body. There are many other bodies of people who profess faith in Christ. But last week, 17 of them sat on these first two rows. I was over behind this table handing out the elements. And it was a beautiful thing to step aside and just look down the road and watch these young men and women who had gone through weeks of Communicance training to understand the gospel and what it means to be part of the church. There was one video camera going. There are certainly other cameras taking pictures because it's a significant event. It was sweet watching these boys and girls take the tray. For all their life to this point, they have had it passed before them and have not taken bread or taken wine. And now it's their turn to actually take the bread and take the cup. And they were so nervous. They're not sure exactly how to pass the tray. Their deep fear is that they're going to drop it and that their parents are going to know they're going to drop it. It was them and they're scared and it's going very slow. But it was a beautiful picture as they slowly took it for the first time. The point I want to make this morning before we dive into this text is this. As we are members of the body of Christ, the church, do we really consider how serious that is? Do we really consider how powerful that is? Do we elevate it to the level it deserves? Where these young men and women give their life to Christ at some point and then become a body of a local church? Where is that? And the pages of scrapbooks of their life, they're going to be looked at over time. I wonder, I wonder where it will be in my own children's lives. Is it as significant as when they make a select sport team? Is it as significant as when they get their Eagle Scout? Is it as significant as when they make honor society? Is it as significant as when they get into a good college with a good scholarship or when they find the right job with the right firm? So many good things we will celebrate in our lives. They're going to be a gifted group of kids and young men and young women. But on the boards, they serve one day. Will that have greater value in their life than being a member of the body of Christ, the church? The answer is real clear. No. There is no greater thing than being a part of the church, the body of Christ. I'm not speaking specifically of Park City's Presbyterian Church, but of the church in which Christ is the head. There is no other relationship like it. It's the one relationship they will have for eternity. And I wonder if we just as part of the body witness that as if it's just kind of a cute passage of life. When in reality, it's one of the great celebrations of life where young men and women are saying, I belong to the body of Christ. And I'm committed to this local body. It's powerful. Jesus described the church this way. And I tell you, you are Peter. And on this rock, I will build my church. And the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. There is nothing else that these young men and women will be a part of that is set about. There is nothing else in which Christ is the head. The church is so significant. It is the measure. It is the way. It is the plan in which Christ seeks to redeem his people. He uses his body, you and I, to go spreading the light so that others might know and also become part of the body. I have to begin this way because I'm going to talk about the body. I'm going to talk about our body. I'm going to talk about the beauty of what it means to be in the body. But unless we see that the church is so significant, what I say for the next several minutes will have no power. It will not be significant in your life. So if right now you sit here and the church doesn't have that status in your mind, stop and pray. Just pray, God, persuade and enable me to see the church for what it is. You see the church isn't a building. It's not a worship service. It's not a preacher preaching. Those are parts of the activity of the church. The building is a place to worship. But the church is far greater, far bigger, far diverse. It's incredible. It will last for eternity. And those who know Christ will be a part of it forever. And that's what these 17 young men and women were expressing their commitment to. Wow. We clap. And we should. But it should go far beyond that. They should understand the value of the church in all of history that which is still to become history. So here's what we're going to do this morning. I want to look first at all of this text at the command to love one another as the body. Secondly, the intensity of this love for one another. Thirdly, the source of the love and lastly, the impact of this love on one another. Jesus prayed for the church in John 17. When Jesus prayed, he prayed for these things. Joy, holiness, truth, mission, unity. And lastly, and most importantly, he prayed for the church to love one another. It's the command he gave his disciples as they went out. And Jesus, as he has throughout scripture, has the command that disciples love each other in the face of conflict in the book of Hebrews. They're told, do not give up meeting a summer in the habit of doing, but encourage one another. And all the more as you see the day approaching. And then in Hebrews 13, it says, continue brotherly love. That's what we're going to learn about this morning is how can we most effectively love? Well, why should we first of all? Because it's commanded. In verse seven of chapter four, where we started reading today, it says this, beloved, let us love one another for love us from God. And whoever loves has been bored of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love. He also concludes this section with the very specific command. And this commandment we have from him, whoever loves God must also love his brother. This is the fourth time John in this small book exhorts the people to love one another. It's because he's writing to a body that obviously is tempted to not love. Well, that's the same temptation for us. We're a body of people. The temptation is going to not love one another as we should. That's our nature. But he says if we don't love others, we cannot love God. He only says that he says those who don't love others don't know God. This is very serious exhortation from the writer of first John. John says that we are to love one another. Specifically in this passage, he's talking about brothers and sisters in Christ. And certainly we know where to love our neighbors or even to love our enemies. But in this context, within the church, he is speaking to us about loving one another as brothers and sisters in Christ. We cannot choose who we want to love. It's not that simple, but we do it all the time. We cannot. Who are you called to love? Over here, who are you called to love? This section, this section, this section. We are called to love one another, the people sitting right next to you. The ones to whom last week you passed the communion trade to are your brothers and sisters in Christ. And the call is to love them. We cannot choose to love people based on their heritage, their doctrinal views. That happens often in the church. People get together on specific doctrinal issues and they huddle, which is fine. But they cannot in that huddle begin to fertilize soil that will then produce hatred. It can't happen. We can't choose based on parenting philosophy or education or musical taste or zip code or race. We can't. If there's a brother and sister in Christ, we are called to love them. If we don't, we don't love God. It's that simple. But what kind of love is he speaking of? In the New Testament, there are several words used for love. Faleo describes the affection of friends, kindred spirits, like interest. Aros is about attraction and desire. Agape is a different kind of love. It's a God-like love. It's unselfish. It's not based on felt need. My need to feel something. It seeks to bless the other person. It's out of devotion and great sacrifice. And Agape love is the kind of love that John is calling his flock to. And therefore, you and I. This love can be described as a love of great intensity. We have the commands of love. And this love is to be intense. What is our model? Verse 16 of chapter 3, which isn't in your bulletin. So listen, this is how John earlier in this book describes this love. By this, we know love that he laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. Okay. That's the most intense love possible. And that is the love that Christ is calling his church to have for one another. He said to his disciples, greater love has no one than this that a man lay down his life for his friends. That is the ultimate sacrifice. To give up your very life for a brother or sister is the ultimate sacrifice. And that's the kind of love that we are called to as brothers and sisters in Christ. Now, do you know that already? But do you believe it? Do you believe that it's really a command? This is not an option. This is the description of love that we're to have for one another. Who's going to die for me? According to the word every one of you that know Christ should be eager to lift your hand? Really? Who is going to die? This is what it means to be the body of Christ. And see, what other organization do you belong to? Where they say to be a part of organization? You're willing to die for each other. Maybe the military? But what else? There's nothing like the church. The love that Christ calls us to is the ultimate of sacrifice. And he does it because it's his love. It's his way. He says in verse 9, in this the love of God was made manifest among us that God said is only son into the world so that we might live through him. He said is only son into the world that his son might die, the ultimate sacrifice so that you and I might live. And in living, we're called to love as he loved, which is the great sacrifice. But most of us will never be called upon to be a martyr. And most of those in this text probably weren't martyrs as well. So John goes on and speaks in more specific ways about love in verse 17 of chapter 3. But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Let children, little children, let us not love in word or talk but indeed and in truth. What happens is that Christians can get an almost a fantasy of what it would be like to be a martyr. And you can think about the ultimate sacrifice. And knowing that you're not in that circumstance now, you can say I would do it. And I'm willing to believe many of you would. But most of us will not be called to that type of life and that type of death. It would be inappropriate for Christians to think they had accomplished their Christian duty by being ready for an unlikely act of martyrdom. The need of the world is for food, clothing, jobs, and for those who have these things to share. The need is not for heroic acts of martyrdom, but heroic acts of material sacrifice. This is what the church is about. John goes on to say, if you see a need and we do, meet the need if you're able. If you see someone without food, clothing, shelter, relationships, love, meet the need, give of yourself. That's not as exotic as saying I'd lay down my life and it's not very easy. I've been very encouraged over the last month and a half of witnessing what God is doing in our church to fulfill this kind of love. It's amazing to pull up and look out my office and see a storage house full of furniture and other needs to meet people's needs. Incredible. That's what we should always be doing. We're the body of Christ. We shouldn't be depending upon other organizations. We should as his body be eager to figure out how we can meet other people's needs. We need to look and listen and go and give. We need to be looking for opportunities and listening for opportunities and when we hear of them, we need to go and give and this doesn't matter how old you are. It doesn't matter if you're in your young 20s or mid 30s or older. You can do what God has called us to do to look and listen to go and give. Opportunities are mentioned in almost every Sunday morning right now for trips down to the Gulf. What's keeping you from going? There could be very good reasons but if there aren't any and you know whether they're good or not, go. Go in the name of Christ and express that love. We know that we've been commanded to do it and we know that the love is intense. There's no other love like it but we must be careful that we don't leave now going, I'm going to go do good because you can't and this is my next point. We have to understand the source of our love. The source of this intense love is not found in our ability. We could pull up the kindest, sweetest person here and in their honest confession, they would tell you that their good deeds at least at times are stained with improper motives, jealousy, envy, pride, the praise of men, whatever. Our good deeds are never good outside of God's grace working in our lives. The source of our love is the divine initiative. Do you see that? We love because he first loved us. We cannot love outside of the source of this divine initiative. God calls us to himself but in order for us to come to himself someone had to pay the ultimate price and that was his son Christ who died, who is the propitiation for our sins. He took the wrath of God which had to be poured out on himself so that you and I could have a relationship with his body and with himself. If you think you love well I invite you to turn to a real simple part of the Bible, 1 Corinthians 13. Love is patient and love is kind. It does not envy. It does not boast. It is not rude. It is not self-seeking. It keeps no record of wrongs. Now invite you if you think you are good at loving, to simply write down the people you love the most, your wife, your husband, your children, a parent, a friend, you fiance. Then take each of those words and just ask yourself how well you're doing. How patient are you really? How kind? Do you have any record of wrongs? Are you ever jealous? There's no other passage I know of that makes me quickly say I am in deep need of God's grace because I stink at all of them. I'm not patient. I'm not that kind. I have a long list of record of wrongs. I can't get rid of it. That's the point. Only in God's grace can he wash us of those things and enable us to love the way he calls us to love. That's a perfect love which only he possessed and he knows he knows we're incapable of it and that's why he died. In order for us to love it begins not by focusing on what we need to go do out there but by focusing on what Christ has done here. Focusing on what he has done here but it doesn't stop there. That is them what propels us to go out into the world and say we love you. We focus on what he did for us. This is where as a church that preaches truth weekly we can get lost. We can become consumed with things that aren't as important as the pure nature of understanding what Christ has done for us. He died covering you that you might have a relationship with him and become a member of the body and then be used by him in this body to impact the world. Focus on the reality of the gospel and the cross. When I was a pastor in St. Louis almost three years ago before coming here I was driving home one afternoon and was listening to the radio and they just went through a news report. I didn't listen to it very often but for whatever reason I was listening to it this day. And the story came over the radio that was incredibly powerful. A young woman was living in East St. Louis. East St. Louis would be similar to West Dallas in many of the demographics. She had a little baby three month old and she lived in a rough area and so her house like most of the houses around there had bars on the door and bars on the window. She was in a two story kind of condominium. Well I'm not sure how it started but a fire started in the downstairs of the house and as the woman woke up to the smell of smoke the heat of fire she obviously panicked. She quickly went to her baby he was breathing she then went to the stairwell to go downstairs and knew that there was no way of escape for her and her child through the downstairs door but the problem was there was no way of escape through the upstairs either as much as she tried by breaking the glass she couldn't get the bars to budge so she had no other choice but to die that her child might live. What did she do? She took water filled up the bathtub four or five inches and then she laid her infant in the tub and laid on top of the infant keeping the child cool from the water and from the danger of the smoke. The firefighters arrived not much long after that and they discovered the baby alive and the mother dead. She gave the ultimate sacrifice that her child could live the summer when we were visiting in St. Louis. I got to see a follow-up of that story the child's about five years old now. He has no memory of his mother but could he ever forget her? He is alive because she made the ultimate sacrifice. What a powerful picture of God demonstrating his own love for us in this that while we were still sinners Christ died for us he covered you and I as his babes so that we could live and we live in order to tell the story of what he has done for us because there's no other story as great as that and that's the story that the world needs. The world needs food it needs clothing it needs shelter but it needs the body of Christ to be so captivated by what we have seen and heard that we can't stop speaking about it. These young men and women who took communion last week do they see that in us? That the gospel is so powerful that it transforms us that we literally don't want to speak of much else in comparison to what that value is. It's incredible. So the source of our love is not our good deeds it's what Christ did that gives us the power to love that way. Lastly the impact of this love in John 13 when Christ gave the command to love one another he said this all men will know you are my disciples if you love one another the impact of the body of Christ loving each other the way it's supposed to is incredible because there's nothing like it in the world there are so many people in this room and there are so many people in the last hour and the hour before and so many churches around and because we're human we're going to have conflict but the way in which we handle conflict the way in which we are to love one another gives us the grace to overcome people from the outside who don't know Christ can see that something is different if you've never been on a mission trip we're suddenly you're speaking to those who don't know your language and they don't understand yours they can sense that there's something different about this group than other groups that have come in the name of a school are some human organization there's a difference in the difference is the love of Christ for one another the unity that we're speaking of we are called to love this way and when we do the impact is not only on the world out there it's also on us it's powerful when a brother and a sister go to one another and say I've held a grudge too long I sinned against you or you sinned against me we need to reconcile this relationship we don't have an option this is what God calls us to this is what the body of Christ does is that hard yes it's hard it's deeply difficult but we have the love of Christ who gives us that grace to go and have grace-based relationships the impact that we have through Christ on one another in the world is incredible there is nothing like the church I want to encourage you this week to really stop and reflect upon the relationships you have with other members of the body not this not just this church are you struggling with someone may God give you the grace to really pursue that relationship your small group are you guys loving each other are you just discussing doctor are you confessing your sins to one another and praying for each other are you simply talking about church don't talk about it be it are you connected anywhere to the body if you're new today or if you've been here a long time but you feel lonely and isolated tell somebody ask how you can get involved because we need you you may think as you look at us that we're pretty and perfect but the reality is none of us are good enough to be a part of the body of Christ none of us we may look at but we're not we need him and we want you to know that's true we say in the back of our Bolton all the time we want to come alongside you and brotherly love and we do we really do but we need to know what your need is you need to tell us feel prayed for my father and my sister and my mother a few moments ago my dad was diagnosed with cancer last Monday you'll have a biopsy tomorrow a bone marrow biopsy and you'll know the results and how serious it is on Friday my little sister in the midst of that we know the hospital spent four hours in code blue they had to use a defibrillator to bring her back several times and she's 34 years old there's a rough week I received no more than 20 phone calls on Thursday evening through Friday from so many people in our body most of whom I don't even know how they found out I didn't tell them they wouldn't know we need you to tell us what your needs are that we might come alongside you and pray for you there is nothing as great as Christ who's the head of his church calling his body to love one another this way we don't have another option it's commanded the love he commands is to is intense but the source of it is the cross and what Christ did and the impact will change us all may God give us the grace to love one another today the way he loved us