Text I Corinthians 3:1-9 Real Love! 2-13-11 Pastor Braun Tomorrow is Valentine s Day when we give our loved ones candy, flowers, chocolates and other gifts. Have you ever received a valentine gift that you ve never forgotten? Do you realize that 85% of men purchase a gift do it within 24 hours of Valentine s Day? So if you ve already done it you are way above the curve. I love history and I did a little research into the history of Valentine s Day. It started as a Roman festival, in some caves outside the city of Rome on the 14 th day of February - the day before ancient Roman festival of Lupercalia, a fertility celebration that started on the 15 th. First they would celebrate the feast of Juno she was the queen of all the gods and goddesses. Single women would come with the desire to meet a man while barren women who were married would come hoping to get pregnant. The concept was that they would develop or find love. What the maidens would do is put their names inside a jar. Men from the area would come and draw those names and pin them to themselves. If you ve ever heard the phrase wearing your heart on your sleeve this is where it comes from. That person would wait the entire week of Lupercalia. At the end, the hope of these young maidens was that they would fall in love and marry. The feast was a little grotesque. The next day they would slaughter two goats and a dog. The women would try to get in the way as men who were basically nude would grab them and slap them with the blood in hopes that they would bear children. (Aren t you glad we don t do this anymore?) In 496 AD, Pope Gelasius decided to take the weird/perverted concept of love at Lupercalia and turn it into a Christian celebration so he purposely set its observance a day earlier, on the 14 th. He chose a man named Saint Valentine because of what God had done in his life. Valentine was a pastor or bishop in Rome at the end of the 2 nd century when Claudius II was emperor or king. Claudius had a plan to expand his kingdom but the golden era of the Roman empire had come to an end. He had a problem: the empire had grown too large to defend and there was internal strive. The men in his army were getting married but didn t want to leave home and go fight battles. He felt that married men were too emotionally attached to their families. He believed that marriage made the men weak so he issued an edict forbidding marriage in order to assure quality soldiers. Pastor Valentine knew this didn t come from God so he refused to follow orders. If a couple wanted to get married, he would find a quiet place and whisper the vows so he wouldn t get caught. One night, at the end of January or beginning of February, a young couple got married and left but Pastor Valentine was captured and brought before Claudius where he was beaten and sentenced to death. The sentencing was to take place on February 14 th. While he was in jail, something amazing began to happen. All of a sudden outside his jail window, flowers and notes were placed for him from all the marriages he performed. He also got to meet the jailor and the story goes that the jailor s daughter was very sick and St. Valentine prayed over her, she was healed and he spent the last few days of his life ministering to her. Just before his execution, Valentine asked for a pen and paper from his jailor and signed a farewell message to the jailor s daughter. At the end of the note he wrote, From your Valentine. That day he got beaten almost to death and while he was still gasping for his life, they cut his head off. (That would look good on a card, huh?) Valentine represented what Christ s love was all about, he demonstrated it like no one else during his time. As I read about how Valentine s Day originated and compared it to what we do today, it s backwards now. This year in the U.S. even in the midst of a recession we will spend 15 million dollars on Valentine s Day. One billion cards will go out second only to Christmas. 20% of women will send roses to themselves, 3% will send Valentines to their pets. But what is surprising is how the culture today has gone back to what it used to be before the church redefined it. In fact, 1. RAMPANT IN OUR CULTURE IS THE CONCEPT OF MEISM. How many Valentine gifts will be given and received from the perspective of Christ s love? Not many. One of the things I have learned from studying the Bible that the apostle Paul was very similar to Valentine he too was willing to risk his life for the sake of the gospel. The book of I Corinthians is the perfect book to deal with this issue of MEISM because Paul nails the Christians in Corinth with their self-centered lifestyle in order to help them understand who Jesus was. If we go back to chapter one, we see him say that he preaches Christ and Him crucified. And it wasn t just a theological discussion, he was talking about a life. We can tend to romanticize Valentine but watching a person being beat and persecuted for faith is grotesque. When he got his head cut off, this was a path set for him by our Savior Jesus Christ. Today we wear crosses but during
Valentine s day wearing a cross meant you would be mocked similar if you wore an electric chair around your neck today. When Jesus laid out for people what it meant to follow Him, it showed the kind of love He was going to call them too a love so different from the world, a love not focused on me but focused on those in the world who don t know Jesus a love so extreme that I can take risks because I know I am loved by my Father and by Jesus. I can put everything on the line completely. And in I Corinthians when Paul says I preach Christ and Him crucified what he means is that they saw Paul not only talk the Gospel but he lived it. Paul begins chapter three by telling the Corinthians that they were not demonstrating mature love. In verse one we read: Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly mere infants in Christ. Three times in the first three verses he uses the word worldly. In other words they were unspiritual, acting like babies. I love babies! Is there anything more delightful than interacting with a 6 month old? As I look back on raising David and Karrin there were many high points their birth, the first time they called me Daddy, the first time they crawled, then took first steps. Just as physical babies are suppose to grow, so are spiritual infants. There s nothing worse than being around an adult that acts like a baby! The Word of God serves as a mirror and in the mirror we see how the Holy Spirit causes growth. But in the Corinthian church as in many churches, spiritual growth wasn t happening they were still acting like babies! What are the marks of a baby? In verse 2 he explains: I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed you are still not ready. Milk is for infants because of their delicate and undeveloped body. Solid food is for a mature person. The Corinthians hadn t even gotten past the milk stage. He goes on in verse 3 to explain how disappointed he is: You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere men? Spiritually immature people harbor jealousy and envy. A jealous person puts others down with harmful words and actions and rejoices when others hurt. They quarrel and fight because their focus in on themselves. They were so self-centered that Paul wants to change their point of reference. We all have points of reference that influence who we are, what we dream about, were we go. A reference point can be anything that demands our attention it may be our marriage, a vacation, a baby soon to be born, a new home or car, retirement, a memory, an aging parent, an ongoing sickness. When we look at life through this reference point it becomes all consuming. Paul writes in a such a way that he wants our reference point to be Jesus Christ. If our point of reference is anything but Jesus, we won t grow! What was the Corinthians point of reference? It was individuals because in verse 4 Paul continues: For when one says, I follow Paul, and another, I follow Apollos, are you not mere men? The truth that Paul is trying to drive home is: 2. IF WE RE GOING TO GROW IN FAITH AND LOVE, WE MUST DIE! We must die to ourselves. That s the point of the New Testament. In John chapter one we see this played out where we see John s disciples leaving him and going over to Jesus and John says: He must become greater, I must become less. The book of I Corinthians is the story of the power of Jesus love. There s a great example of how we need to die to ourselves in I Cor. 6:9 Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived neither the sexually immoral (MEISM), nor idolaters (MEISM), adulterers (MEISM), nor those who practice homosexuality (MEISM) nor thieves (MEISM) nor the greedy (MEISM), drunkards (MEISM), nor revilers (MEISM), nor swindlers (MEISM) will inherit the kingdom of God?! And I love the next words: And such were some of you! Do you remember when you first came to know Christ or when you grew to the point where His love overwhelmed you? When you had extreme joy to want to know more about Jesus and to live for Him? But have you also noticed how the church tends to tame people? Paul reminds us: But you were washed (the idea is you were dirty and now made clean) you were sanctified (set apart for use by God) you were justified (vindicated) in the Name of Jesus Christ we are different from the world! It hit me this week about my wife. I am married to a daughter of God! Do you realize what a privilege that is? She s Daddy s girl! Her name is written in the Lamb s book of life. I am to love her as Christ loved the church. In Luke 14 and Matthew 25 Jesus makes it clear that when you and I follow Him as disciples, He will not be in the co-pilot seat. In Luke Jesus says: If you re going follow Me you will hate your mother and father and sister, even your own life. Pick up your cross and follow Me. How often do you pick up the cross for Jesus?
The best definition of love in the Bible is found in I Corinthians 13. You hear this chapter a lot at weddings but all too often it is taken out of context. Can you imagine reading about love when the pastor looks at the groom and says If you don t hate her and love Jesus more, you can t be a disciple of Jesus? How would that go over? That would kill the aura, wouldn t it? But that s what this chapter is all about. In verses 1-3 he explains that unless love is engrained in everything we do, it is not love. The idea is that not only does Timothy Braun have to die to himself but now I must live TO something. I must stop being deluged in MEISM but instead fall in love with Jesus Christ. If I am going to love radically like Jesus and Valentine and Paul, I have to understand that there is no way for me to pull it off on my own it is supernatural, outside of me. The biggest mistake we make when it comes to love is: we don t go looking for it, it comes to us only through Jesus Christ. Jesus love finds us, not the other way around. But the problem is that so many individuals are looking for love in all the wrong places! Let me talk for a moment to the guys: don t we miss this too often? The greatest gift you can give to your wife or girl friend or people around you is the absolute passion of Jesus Christ. In Revelation 2: Jesus is talking to the church in Ephesus: I know your deeds, your hard work, you re your perseverance You have persevered and have endured hardships for My Name, and have not grown weary Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. He is saying: You guys are a great church, you work hard and suffer but like a lazer shooting through everything but you don t really love Me! Can you imagine standing in front of Jesus and having Him look at you and say these words? You ve got a great job, niche house, good cars, your kids are playing 50 million sports like the rest of Americans way to go. But I have one thing to say: all that stuff is meaningless because you don t love Me! 3. THE GREATEST GIFT YOU CAN OFFER TO ANYONE IS A PASSIONATE LIFE CENTERED AROUND JESUS CHRIST! The greatest thing I can give my kids is a dad who is so enthralled with Jesus that I m not trying to give them the American dream but I m through my life am living for Jesus. This means that the things I have been given by God do not own me. In verses 4-7 Paul explains that as we walk with Jesus there will be a character that comes out of us: Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trust, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. Love that gets planted within us keeps on giving. As I walk in step with Jesus through the power of the Spirit the first fruit of the Spirit is what? It s love! It oozes out of my life. All too often we say we love Jesus but our actions say a different thing. Take a look at your day or week and see if your walk matches your talk. In other words, if I die to myself what does real love look like? BEING PATIENT means dying to the desire for an untroubled life. Don t we work over time trying to live the untroubled life? We want everything to be calm and perfect. If you have small children, your life will not be calm and perfect. BEING KIND means dying to the fear that others won t return the kindness. Demonstrating Christ s kindness may mean I will not get it back from you and that s okay. HAVING NO ENVY means dying to the desire for unshared affection. I ve walked m any individuals through this nasty concept of divorce talk about loving someone who doesn t want to love you in return! NOT BOASTING means dying to the desire of calling attention to our successes have you every listened or told a story that got bigger and bigger and you disliked being around this kind of a person? NOT BEING RUDE means dying to the desire to express our freedom offensively. That s just the way I am if this is your thought then you re not living in the power of Jesus. NOT BEING SELF SEEKING means to stop insisting on your own preferences as being the only way. NOT BEING EASILY ANGERED means dying to the need of being easily frustrated. NOT KEEPING A RECORD OF WRONGS means dying to the desire of seeing others get what they deserve. So what do we live to? Being patient means entering situations that are difficult because we believe in the power of the Spirit where Jesus can be honored. Being kind means bring Christ into painful situations I think for many couples the struggle is in the area of forgiveness. We love being forgiven by God and receiving grace but sharing it with someone you can t stand to be around is difficult. That s why verse 8 clarifies this when Paul writes: Love never ends! Everything else in this world will pass away and if you look at the end of verse 13 it says that faith and hope are temporary because one day faith and hope will be realized but love never ends.
Do you realize that if you start living for Christ and stop living for the temporary, it will be evident? Do you understand that when Jesus love has been poured into you, you stop living for temporary things? When you do this, as people look at you, they will see that you are not a hypocrite and you ll find a joy like you ve never had before. I don t know if you ve ever heard of a Puritan pastor from the 1600 s by the name of Christopher Love? His faith in Jesus became a conscious issue. He could no longer obey the king. Other pastors were just going to tell the king whatever he wanted to hear but Christopher Love couldn t do this. He say God is my ruler, you aren t. He was sentenced to death. The best part of his life that was saved are not the sermons (even though they were great) but he was a man who understood that his life centered around Jesus Christ. His love for Jesus was demonstrated in the letters he wrote to his wife at the end of his life. He and his wife lived exclusively for Jesus. At the end of his life when he was faced with getting his head cut off, letters they each wrote poured out between them. And getting a letter like I m going to read to you would be huge. She writes this the day before he died. Before I write a word further, I beg you not to think that it is your wife but a friend that writes this. I hope you have freely given up your wife and children to God who has told us through the prophet Jeremiah Leave your fatherless children, I will preserve them alive and let widow trust in Me. Your Maker will be my husband and a Father to our children. I desire to give you freely up into our Father s hand and not only look upon it as a crown of glory for you to die for Jesus, but in honor to me that I should have a husband to live for Christ! I dare not speak to you nor have I thought within my heart of my unspeakable loss but wholly keep my eye fixed upon your inexpressible and inconceivable gain. You leave but a sinful mortal life to be everlastingly married to the Lord of Glory. You leave but children, brothers and sisters to go to be with the Lord Jesus your eldest Brother. You leave friends on earth to go to enjoy saints and angels and spirits of men made perfect in glory. You leave earth for heaven and exchange prison for a palace. And if natural affection should arise I hope the spirit of grace within you will suppress them knowing that all things here below are but dung and dross in comparison to those things that are above. I know you will keep your eye fixed on the hope of glory that makes your feet trample on the loss of this earth. My dear, my dear sweetheart, I know that God has not only prepared you for it but I am persuaded that he will sweeten the way for you to come to the enjoyment of it. When you are putting on your clothes that morning in that prison cell, think I am putting on my wedding garments to be everlastingly married to my redeemer. When the messenger of death comes to you, let him not seem as dreadful to you but look on him as a messenger that brings to you tidings of eternal life. When you go up the scaffold, think as you said to me that it is but the fiery chariot to carry me off to my father s house. And when you lay down your precious head to receive your Father s stroke when that axe comes down, remember what you said to me: that your head be severed from your body, yet in a moment your soul shall be united with your Head, the Lord Jesus in heaven. And though it may seem something bitter that by the hands of men we may have parted a little sooner than otherwise we might have been, yet let us consider that it is the decree and will of our Father that it will not be long till we will see and enjoy one another again in heaven. Let us comfort one another with these things. Be comforted my dear, dear heart. It is but a little stroke and you will be there where weary shall be at rest and the wicked shall cease from troubling you. Remember that you may eat your dinner with bitter herbs here on earth yet you will have a sweet supper with Christ that very day. My dear, by what I write to you, I do not undertake to teach you, for these comforts I have received from you and the Lord. I will write no more or trouble you any further but commit you into the arms of God with before long, you and I shall be. Farewell my dearest. I shall never see your face more till we behold the face of our Lord Jesus on that great day. Signed, Mary Love. To receive a note like this from your wife on the day you are to be executed. He then sent this back to his wife before he was executed: My most gracious beloved, I am now going from a prison to a palace. I have finished my work. I am now to receive my wages. I am now going to heaven where two of my children are and leaving you on earth with three of my babies. Those two above need not my care but the three below need yours and it comforts me to think that two of my children are in the bosom of Abraham in heaven and three of them will be in the arms and care of such a tenderly, Godly mother. I know you are a woman of sorrowful spirit yet be comforted. Though your sorrow be great for your husband s going out of this world, your pain shall be less than bringing your children into the world. You will be a joyful mother though a sad widow. God has many
mercies in store for you. The prayers of a dying husband will not be lost to a shame as I speak it. I never have prayed for you so much for liberty as I have been in prison. Swallow up your will in the will of God. Center your life around Jesus. It is a bitter cup that we are to drink but in the cup our Father has put it into our hands. So when Paul was to suffer at Jerusalem, the Christians said, the will of the Lord be done. Oh, sweet Mary, say the same when I go to tower hill: the will of the Lord be done. Rejoice in my joy because the joy of the Lord is my strength. Let it be yours also. Dear wife, farewell. I will call you wife no more. I shall see your face no more yet I am much troubled for now I am going to meet the bridegroom, the Lord Jesus to Whom I shall be eternally married. Farewell dear Love, and again I say farewell. The Lord Jesus be with your spirit, the Maker of heaven and earth be a husband to you. And the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ be a Father to our children. Your dying, most affectionate friend till death. Christopher Love.