Messy Grace - Part August 2017 Love That Lasts BBC AM and PM

Transcription

1 Messy Grace - Part August 2017 Love That Lasts BBC AM and PM Proposition Statement: Christians are supernaturally loved by God, which enables them to supernaturally love each other. Intro: 1 Corinthians 13 is where we will be. You have probably heard this text a thousand times. It becomes almost mythical and indeed mystical, and in fact many people don t even know that it is from the Bible, just as many people don t know that Footprints isn t from the bible. So, because I don t want us to give in to the contempt that is bred from familiarity, I am going to ask us to stand for the public reading of this magnificent chapter. Passage: 13 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 1

2 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. 13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. 1 Thank you. Take your seats. Let s pray. Recognize the text? You have probably heard it recited at weddings, and it works well for that, because it speaks of a supernatural love, and couples need that in order to be able to keep their vows well. What is interesting though is that this isn t a love reserved for covenantal lovers (although it is certainly required for that), it is actually the kind of love that Paul says should be on display in a church community. In fact, Paul says that it is more important in a church community than the abundance of spiritual gifts. Now that is massive. Look again at what he says. 13 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Many of us have been very excited by this series and the possibility of the greater manifestation of some of the gifts that we love. To be fair, it hasn t excited all of you, as my inbox will testify to. Paul says in this text essentially that GIFTS OF THE SPIRIT IN FULL OPERATION WITHOUT THE FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT IN ABUNDANCE IS MEANINGLESS IN THE LIFE OF A CHURCH. 1 The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2016), 1 Co 13:

3 We can experience prophecies and healings and tongues and miracles and evidences of the ongoing power of God in ways they will speak of for generations, and I pray that we do. But, if we don t love each other, it doesn t matter for anything. Okay, what does that look like? 4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends. If you are paying attention, this should cause you some stress and at least some degree of reflection. I don t know about you, but I don t really love like this all the time, or even most the time. I struggle to love Sue and my kids like this, let alone the people in community with me who I am not covenantly committed to. This seems to be describing a kind of love that I am not capable of giving. Doesn t it? A true love, the likes of which I struggle to provide and definitely struggle to sustain. And maybe this gap between how we are prone to love and this call to love is important. So, let me make some brief observations about this kind of love. This true love. Main Points: 1. True Love is Divine a. Remember last week when I said that language is liberating and limiting at the same time? Well it is never more obvious than in our English word love. b. It means so many things simultaneously that sometimes we can wonder if it means anything at all. i. I love Sue and I also love biltong. ii. I love my kids and I also love reading. iii. Same word, but very different associated emotions and actions hopefully. 3

4 c. The writers of the New Testament use some different words for love as there were different Greek words available to them. i. Paul could have used Phileo - brotherly affection and duty. He could have used Eros - erotic attraction and emotional intensity. He could have used others. ii. But Paul chooses ἀγάπη (Agape) - The word that is used throughout 1 Cor 13 and in many other places in the New Testament. Typically used to describe how God loves us and how we are called to love others as a result of that love. d. Now, many preachers have butchered this and made this into something bigger than it is, as the NT writers will often use different words interchangeably, but what is interesting to me is that we have basically no use of the Greek word in any ancient writings before the New Testament. e. It is as if the love of God in Christ is so different from any of the love that we are used to that they actually need a totally different word! True love is something that human language couldn t describe, because this kind of love isn t part of our nature and so we need new ways to even speak of it. It is divine. f. John wrestles with this concept in his first epistle and it so helpful for us to do today, so please look at 1 John 4:7-8 with me. 7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 2 g. According to John (and let s remember he is the disciple that experiences the deepest intimacy of Jesus love as he rests on him, and is the only one who stays to watch his death, and takes his mom into his care), we have to be recipients of God s love in order to be distributors of God s love. 2 The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2016), 1 Jn 4:7 8. 4

5 h. We have to receive agape in order to extend agape. i. So, let s just read the text again, not beginning with how we should love, but beginning with the way that God loves us. 4 God s Love is patient and kind; God s love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 God s Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 God s Love never ends. Man, it s hard to imagine God loving us like that, isn t it? It can still feel abstract and too easy to push away. Well here is the second observation. 2. Divine Love is Made Manifest in Christ a. This love isn t just an abstract construct but is realized in the life and work of Jesus. b. Let s go back to that 1 John passage. Remember, God is love? Well how do know that love? 9 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. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 3 c. That is amazing, isn t it? We didn t even love God first. He loved us and sent His Son to show us that. We love in response. Our love is so significant as we will see in a second, but it is secondary. It is responsive. It is contingent. 3 The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2016), 1 Jn 4:

6 d. It requires the love of God revealed in Christ. Try that same exercise again with 1 Corinthians 13 and put Christ in there. i. Christ is patient and kind. ii. Christ doesn t envy or boast. iii. Christ isn t arrogant or rude. iv. Christ isn t irritable or resentful. e. See it? Gosh, what King. f. Okay, what then is our response? 3. Divine Love is The Standard for the Church a. The fact that the love described is actually supernatural doesn t let us off the hook of living it out. We must acknowledge simultaneously that we are called to display it and that we cannot display it in our own power. b. Spurgeon preached on this text on the 4 th of September, He called it Love s Labours. It is well worth a read. He spoke of the wonderful tension that we have discussed that says that all Christians ought to love like this, but no Christian is really capable of this unless they know they are loved like this. He said: This charity is the common, everyday livery of the people of God. It is not the prerogative of a few; it must be the possession of all. Do not, therefore, however lofty the model may be, look up to it as though you could not reach it: you must reach it. It is put before you not only as a thing greatly desirable, but as absolutely needful; for if you excelled in every spiritual gift, yet if you had not this all the rest would profit you nothing whatever. 4 c. He went on, though, to great lengths to explain that God is the source of this sort of love and that we need him to give it to us by His Spirit. He said: If charity be in any man and abound, God must have the glory of it; for assuredly it was never attained by mere natural effort, but must have been bestowed by that same hand which made the heavens. So then, brethren, I 4 C.H. Spurgeon, Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit: C.H. Spurgeon s Sermons, Vol 27. From the Sermon preached on 4 September, p497. 6

7 shall hope when I conclude to leave upon your minds the impression of your need of the grace of God for the attainment of love. I would not discourage you, but I would have you feel how great a labour lies before you, and how impossible it will be unless you are girt with a strength beyond your own. This shall be your solace that if it cannot be the outcome of your own effort, yet the fruit of the Spirit is love, and the Spirit is ready and willing to bear fruit in us also. 5 d. So, friends, let s examine it a bit closer with our fresh eyes. Certain that God loves us in these ways because we have seen it in the work of His Son, how can we move toward loving better? i. Patient 1. How patient are we with frustrating and disappointing and patience-testing people? 2. How patient has Christ been with you? ii. Kind 1. Are we prepared to inconvenience ourselves in order to show compassion, empathy and tenderness towards people who need kindness? 2. How kind has Christ been to us? iii. Not envious or boastful 1. How much time do we spend coveting other people s lives? Even people we love. In constant game of comparison, either having to show ourselves as better than others (boasting) or becoming bitter with others (envy). 2. I love how Christ doesn t give in to the temptation to prove himself, and doesn t chase after anyone else s life even in the midst of suffering. iv. Not arrogant or rude 5 Ibid. 7

8 1. You know how you will know if you love this way? How do you treat service providers and people who can do nothing for you? 2. Jesus never sought to dominate anyone or to push anyone else down. He treated people with dignity. Even people who hated him. v. Not seeking its own way 1. What do we celebrate as leadership in this world? Usually people who get what they want at any cost. 2. Christ says, Not my will but yours be done to His Father. vi. Not irritable or resentful 1. Irritability and resentfulness are cousins of the same root. They both stem from pride. In Exodus Groups many years ago, someone told me that it was very arrogant to be as irritable as I was. That irritated me. What they meant was that at the root of my irritability lay a belief that I held that I deserved to be treated better than I was being treated. Wow, how many marriages and friendships could have been saved if we had exposed why we were so irritated? 2. It amazes me to consider that God is not irritated at me and he doesn t resent me or the fact that he has extended grace towards me. vii. Not malicious 1. Not trying to break others down or see them come to harm. 2. Christ goes to great lengths to take on the harm himself. viii. Long-suffering and committed 1. Are we people who can persevere with others? 2. Love endures all things. Jesus endures all things to keep us. e. Okay, we clearly have work to do. We must believe in Christ s love towards us, and must ask for supernatural power to love others the same way. f. Let s wrap it up 8

9 As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. 13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love Divine Love Wins a. Gifts will go away but love will last forever. b. We won t have or need faith or hope in heaven. The object of our faith will be in front of us and all of our hopes will be fulfilled. But there will be endless love for us and from us. c. At the moment, we are limited people staring in a dim mirror trying to love with the little that we see. But God doesn t suffer that. With him we are fully known and fully loved. That is agape. d. "To be loved but not known is comforting but superficial. To be known and not loved is our greatest fear. But to be fully known and truly loved is, well, a lot like being loved by God. It is what we need more than anything. It liberates us from pretense, humbles us out of our self-righteousness, and fortifies us for any difficulty life can throw at us." - Tim Keller Conclusion: Friends, the world won t know us for our gifting or Christian success. It will know us for our love for each other. We must ask God to help us to believe in the love he has for us and to empower us to love each other in that same way. Then we must love the community in front of us. 6 The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2016), 1 Co 13:8b