THE ADVENT OF LOVE John 3:16

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1 THE ADVENT OF LOVE John 3:16 Dr JD Harless Tri-County Christian Church December 18, 2016 (Candle Light PM) Resources: Expositors & Commentaires I want to have you all take a Christmas song quiz this evening. I will read you a phrase from the song and you tell me what song it comes from We re snuggled up together like two birds of a feather would be. Answer: ( Sleigh Ride ) When we finally kiss goodnight, how I ll hate going out in the storm. But if you really hold me tight, all the way home I ll be warm. Answer: ( Let It Snow ) Mistletoe hung where you can see every couple tries to stop. Answer: ( Rockin Around the Christmas Tree ) In the meadow we can build a snowman and pretend that he is Parson Brown. He ll say are you married, we ll say no man. But you can do the job when you re in town. Answer: ( Winter Wonderland ) I have one more ready All I want for Christmas is you. Answer: ( All I want for Christmas is you. ) Tricky huh? The phrase is the same as the song title. Did that confuse you? What is the common theme in these songs anyone know? It is love right? Vicki and I have been watching a lot of Hallmark shows during this season. The irony of it is that in every one of those shows they end with a man and woman kissing every one of them! So why all the romance? Why so much of the love stuff? What does love have to do with Christmas? It has everything to do with Christmas! Listen to that very familiar verse that just about everyone knows in fact let s just quote it together JOHN 3:16 ADVENT OF LOVE 1

2 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. The biggest thing we need to remember is that our love especially during this season is mostly directed toward the one that has delivered love to us wrapped in swaddling clothes and laying in a manger! John Piper says it this way Love is from God the way heat is from fire, or the way light is from the sun. So what do we do with this love that God has so graciously given? 1 GOD S LOVE IS A GIFT OF GIVING For God so loved the world that he gave. The practice of gift giving is just a part of Christmas right? Most of us guys, I guess I probably should say most of our wives spend hours trying to find just the right gift for our kids or grandkids. They comb through the advertisement inserts that come through the mail or with the newspaper. Or they find their way to the internet and work their way through advertisements and as the last resort they head to the stores and fight all the people finding just the right thing. Gift giving is a huge thing when it comes to Christmas. We know that is true because Amazon.com has its biggest sales during the Christmas season. No surprise right? Giving is just a part of Christmas. Why? Why spend all that time and money? Because of love right? But no gift has ever been given that is greater than the one God gave on that first Christmas day the gift of his only son! And here is a really neat thing about this gift no one can take it away from us! Listen to this heartbreaking story from Metro.com Heartless thieves stole more than 100 toys, which had been donated by members of the public for children in the St Mary s Hospital s intensive care unit. They were due to be handed out to children who will spend Christmas in hospital at a special party. The gifts were being stored in a ward in the Paddington hospital, and were stolen at some point between Monday October 3 and Thursday November 17. ADVENT OF LOVE 2

3 Sad right? That cannot happen with the gift of love that God gave us through Christ. Listen to ROMANS 8:38-39 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 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. God s gift of love is truly a gift of giving. 2 GOD S LOVE IS A GIFT OF SACRIFICE God s love is not only a gift of giving but it is also a gift of sacrifice. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son. In his book, Dad, The Family Coach, Dave Simmons tells of an act of sacrificial love that occurred in a shopping mall. One day he took his eight year old Helen and five year old Brandon to the Cloverdale Mall. He needed to buy some tools in Sears. When they pulled into the mall parking lot, there was a big sign that said, "Petting Zoo." Immediately the kids jumped up and asked, "Can we go, Daddy? Can we go? Please." Seeing that it would be not trouble at all, and concluding that it might even make his trip quicker, Dave said, "Sure," and handed both his kids a quarter. They bolted away as he headed for Sears. A few minutes later he was making his way down the aisle when he spotted Helen slowly walking up behind him. She looked up at him and said, "Well, Daddy, it cost fifty cents. So, I gave Brandon my quarter." then she said the most beautiful thing of all. She repeated their family motto, "Love is action!" What do you think he did? Not what you might think. Dave finished his shopping and then took Helen back to the petting zoo. They stood by the fence watching Brandon go crazy petting and feeding the animals. Helen stood with her hands and her chin resting on the fence just watching. Dave felt fifty cents in his pocket, almost burning a hole, but he never offered it, and she never asked for it. To rob her of her sacrificial love would be a travesty! ADVENT OF LOVE 3

4 True love costs something and the stronger the love usually the bigger the sacrifice. God s gift of love was a gift of sacrifice He did not send an angel He sent his Son He did not send his son to live he sent his son to die That is the ultimate sacrifice! JOHN 15:12 says 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one s life for one s friends. And that is exactly what God did listen to PHILIPPIANS 2:6-8 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death even death on a cross! God s love is truly a gift of sacrifice not just any sacrifice but the ultimate sacrifice! God s gift of love is a gift of giving and a gift of sacrifice but it is also a 3 GOD S LOVE IS A GIFT WITH A PURPOSE I have a rock on my shelf in my office. It is not a big rock. There is nothing phenomenal about the way the rock looks. It has absolutely no purpose! It just sits there. But I love that rock! The reason that rock is special to me is because it was a gift from my son when he was little-bitty. He put is initial on the back of it. The gift has no purpose but it is special because of who gave it. That is not true with the gift that God gave us on that Christmas day. Yes we should cherish that love gift because of who gave it to us God Himself. BUT His gift has a purpose! 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. God gave so we could have salvation! It was not just a gift of sentiment it was a gift that costs him his very Son s life so that we could have life eternal! Let me show you how Martin Luther puts it ADVENT OF LOVE 4

5 Luther called John 3:16 the heart of the Bible the Gospel in miniature. It s so simple a child can understand it; yet it condenses the deep and marvelous truths of redemption into these few pungent words: God. The Greatest Lover So Loved The Greatest Degree The World The Greatest Number That He Gave The Greatest Act His Only Begotten Son The Greatest Gift That Whosoever The Greatest Invitation Believeth the Greatest Simplicity In Him The Greatest Person Should Not Perish The Greatest Deliverance But The Greatest Difference Have The Greatest Certainty Everlasting Life The Greatest Possession 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. Dionne Warwick made a song very popular whose lyrics are these 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. God delivered that love in the form of a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes. It was a sacrificial gift given with a purpose! I JOHN 4:9-11 says it this way 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. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. ADVENT OF LOVE 5

6 So what does Christmas have to do with love? Everything! No greater gift has anyone received than that gift of God s love shown in His Son. ADVENT OF LOVE 6

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