Author: Pastor Charles Schultz
Text: John 15:9-17
O Holy Spirit, open our ears, our eyes, our hearts so that we may, through the Word proclaimed this day, receive grace, mercy, and peace from our Father and His Son, Christ Jesus, Amen.
The rather unusual happened this week. The text for the message this morning from John’s Gospel has the very same theme as the text from last week’s text which was from John’s first letter. I guess I shouldn’t have been so surprised that both would have love as their common theme. As I was preparing this week it struck me that love is a lot like a diamond in that it has many different facets, each that gives off incredibly glimmering light. Last week’s text led me to focus on God’s love being manifest in His Son and also in you and me. This week’s focus, this week’s facet of love with its glimmering light is the trail of love that John describes in our text.
The trail begins with the opening words of our text – 9 As the Father has loved me… The trail begins with the Father’s love for Jesus. Our trail begins with a huge challenge, namely how do we define or even begin to understand the Father’s love and especially His love for Jesus! Recall that His love led Him to send His Son to take on human flesh and to suffer a torturous and extremely painful death. Dr. Quentin Wesselschmidt, former seminary professor and vacancy pastor here, wrote the following concerning God in the Concordia Journal, Spring 2009 – When we attempt to bring God into our finite world and make him completely comprehensible, we do both God and ourselves a great disservice by attempting to remake him into the image of a human being or something that fits neatly into the order of the finite world, thereby diminishing God and sacrificing our sense of awe and reverence… if we are to be intellectually honest, we must remember that God is a great, incomprehensible mystery, beyond all human reason. This applies not only to the doctrines of the Trinity, Incarnation, Predestination, and other divine activities and attributes – it also applies to God’s love.
As I mentioned last week, we can see in the pages of Scripture God’s love in action. The covering of Adam and Eve’s nakedness with animal skins, the saving of Noah and his family, the rescuing of the Children of Israel from Egypt, leading King David to repentance, and the sending of the many prophets. And most pre-eminently in the sending of His Son for our redemption. We can see, that is read of these things in Scripture but truly understanding God’s love in doing these things is beyond our human comprehension.
The trail of love continues, we read on in the opening verse of our text: 9 As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. The Father loved Jesus and now Jesus loved His disciples. Recall that our text is part of the long upper room discourse that John gives unlike the other Gospel writers. That discourse began in chapter thirteen, and it is there that we read these words: having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end… Jesus… rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. (V.1, 3-5)
Since Jesus was both God and man, His actions aren’t fully beyond our comprehension. Jesus, in washing His disciples’ feet, performs one of the most menial tasks in ancient history. Jesus serves them in a most shocking way, even a disciple wouldn’t wash the feet of his teacher as this task would have been left to the lowest of slaves or workers – we would say today that it was left to the lowest guy on the totem pole. Jesus loved His disciples by serving them in a most menial and meaningful way.
Jesus, in our text, comments about His love for His disciples. He says, 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. And so Jesus did! He gave up His life for His friends. He died on the cross for His friends, for the disciples and for you and me. And although we cannot truly understand this kind of act of love we know its purpose. It freed Jesus’ friends from the tyranny of sin and death. It tore them from the domain of the devil and placed them into the everlasting kingdom of God. This act of love brought about forgiveness of sins and reconciled God and man. Although the devil, sin, and death are still active in our lives, they don’t have dominion over us, they cannot control us, they cannot take away our eternal hope in the new creation. Jesus’ words from John 10 assure us: 27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.
The trail of love continues as we read in verse of twelve our text: “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. The Father loved Jesus, Jesus loved His disciples, and now Jesus commands that they love one another. Twice on the night Jesus was betrayed He said those words to the disciples. The Lord had insisted that His chosen people love their neighbor as themselves but now the standard is set even higher. (Leviticus 19:18)
We’ve already heard about Jesus’ love in washing the disciples’ feet and later in that chapter Jesus explains what that act of love means for them and us. He says, “Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.” (V.12-15) This act of love was performed to give them and us an example sacrificial love for each other.
But Jesus doesn’t stop there! We’ve already heard that Jesus’ love led Him to lay down His life for His friends and now He is calling His disciples to be willing to do the same thing. Jesus is calling us to a self- sacrificial love. The Apostle Paul in his letter to the Ephesians gives us some of the details of what that love might look like.
Chapter 4 of this letter ends with these words: 31 Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. In a general sense Paul is suggesting that sacrificial love means to live in the world but not of the world. He suggests that we live differently than non-believers who are hateful, scream in anger, and slander others through gossip. He suggests that we be kind and gracious, to have compassion for others which leads to forgiving them when they have sinned against us.
In chapter 5 Paul continues with more general details of sacrificial love. He writes: …21 submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. Submitting means taking one’s proper role in God’s order and laying aside one’s selfish interests.[1] That not only means God’s order in creation but also His order in the church. The chapter continues with very specific details of sacrificial love.
22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. So many women, even some in the Church, understand this verse to be demeaning to wives. But when we understand it in terms of God’s created order, we see that it can be good but because of sin it is never perfect. Paul further writes in this chapter: 25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her… and 28 In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. It's interesting that I rarely hear men complaining that these verses are demeaning to husbands. Paul suggests that husbands make the ultimate sacrifice by giving up their very lives for their wives. Paul continues in chapter 6: Children, obey your parents in the Lord… Here Paul suggests that children listen to what their parents say and obey them. And the Greek word translated children has no specific reference to sex or age.
Paul gives us specific details in this letter concerning our roles in families and how that relates to sacrificial love. Elsewhere, he gives us specific details concerning roles in the Church. But really this new life in Christ, the life that Christ calls us to live as we emulate His love comes down to submission, to laying aside one’s selfish interests. Loving like Christ means to put aside selfish interests, making the interests of others, in our families and in the Church, more important than our own.
A trail of love – from Father to Son to Disciples to one another. The Father’s love, especially for his Son, is often beyond our comprehension. We see His love for us in His actions, but even then we can’t understand his love. The Son’s love, because He was also man, is somewhat comprehensible, sometimes not. Most notably is His love leading to His laying down His life for His friends. Our love for one another, it’s challenging to live this new life in Christ’s love. It’s difficult to submit to others, to put aside our interests and make the interests of others more important. This task is made easier when we remember the Father’s love for us, the Son’s sacrifice for us, and the Spirits’ guidance in our lives. May God open my eyes and heart and yours as well to this truth. Amen.
[1] Engelbrecht, E. A. (2009). The Lutheran Study Bible (p. 2024). Concordia Publishing House.
Author: Pastor Charles Schultz
Text: 1st John 4:1-11
O Holy Spirit, open our ears, our eyes, our hearts so that we may, through the Word proclaimed this day, receive grace, mercy, and peace from our Father and His Son, Christ Jesus, Amen.
This morning, I would like for us to focus on just a few verses from our text from 1st John chapter 4. Allow me to read verses 9 through 11 again: 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.
John states that the love of God was made manifest. God’s love was revealed or made known or displayed; the Greek word can mean any of these. Now certainly we can find other places in Scripture where God’s love was revealed. God’s love was revealed in the Garden of Eden when He used animal skins to cover the nakedness of Adam and Eve. It was revealed when He saved Noah and his family on the ark. It was revealed when He rescued the Children of Israel from slavery in Egypt. It was revealed when He sent Nathan to David to open David’s eyes to his sinful relationship with Bathsheba. God’s love was revealed in the sending of the many prophets to both Israel and Judah. There are so many other examples in the Old Testament of God’s love being revealed to His people.
So, what’s so important about John’s message this morning in our text? God has revealed his love so many times, so what’s so significant about God’s love made manifest in His only son? One commentary stated the significance in this way: The ultimate act of God’s self-revelation is found in his activity in Jesus Christ. [1]Another stated it this way: God’s love…has been pre-eminently made known in the gift of his Son. This is stated with emphasis twice in this paragraph. The sending of God’s Son was both the revelation of his love (V.9) and, indeed, the very essence of love itself (V.10).[2]
God’s ultimate revelation of His love is found in Christ Jesus. This act of love reversed the curse of death in the world and in the lives of men. Jesus’ life and death was the ultimate sacrifice for the sins of the world. His blood cleanses us from all our sins. His death destroyed the power of death. His resurrection assures the resurrection of all who believe in Him as their Savior. This is the same Good News that you’ve heard so many times but need to hear again – God’s love was made manifest in His only Son so that you can have your sins forgiven, all your sins, even the ones that your conscience can’t forget. His love was made manifest in His only Son so that you can have life through Him, eternal life in His everlasting kingdom of joy and peace.
This manifestation of God’s love changes you and me. It causes us to live differently in this world. God’s love is now made manifest in His sons and daughters, in you and in me. If God so loved us, then we are called to love one another. But what exactly does that love look like? It can manifest itself in many ways and before I share some of those ways, I want to make this point perfectly clear – our love for each other will never be the same as God’s love for us. His love is perfect and our love for each other is tainted by sin. Even our best efforts can be tainted by sin.
I could fill the next few hours with all the examples of God’s love made manifest among us in the past fourteen plus years. And even then, I would likely forget to mention some. Here a just a few examples that came to mind.
Along with those examples are the personal examples of love shown to me. Cards and gifts for Christmas, anniversaries, and birthdays. Notes of encouragement and the assurance of prayers. Support and care for my family. As I mentioned earlier, there are so many examples of our love for each other that I simply couldn’t name them all. But there is one more that I want to share with you. It’s an example that you likely never pondered. I admit that I hadn’t until it was shared in a conference that I attended on Zoom last weekend.
Often many think of the amount of their offerings put in the plate on any given Sunday is strictly between them and God. It’s true that your offerings should be a personal response to what God has done for you but there’s more to your offerings than just that. Your offerings aren’t given directly to God. He doesn’t collect all the offerings given on any particular Lord’s day from throughout the world and then divide them evenly among the number of congregations that received them. No, your offerings are brought to this altar, collected by those given the authority to do so, deposited in this congregation’s checking account, and lastly used by the treasurer to pay the expenses related to the ministry of this congregation. The majority of the offerings are used to provide a pastor who leads worship and preaches, teaches, visits the sick, injured, and homebound, and brings comfort to those who grieve. The pastor serves all the members of this congregation in a similar way. What I mean is that the pastor doesn’t give preference to those who give large offerings as opposed to those who give very little. In fact, this pastor knows very little about your individual offerings.
As a community, your offerings are used in part to provide a pastor who serves all the members of the congregation. Your offerings are a response to God for His goodness in your life but they are also an act of love for all the members of this congregation. We are actually more like the early Church than I once thought. Recall what those communities looked like as we are told in Acts 2 – 44 And all who believed were together and had all things in common. 45 And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. 46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God (V.44-47) and in Acts 4 – 32 Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. 34 There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold 35 and laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need. (V.32, 34-35)
Through these verses, we can see that the giving of these early Christians was a communal action. Giving was seen as necessary to provide for the needs of others. And so it is today! Our offerings are a communal action in that they provide for the spiritual needs of every member of this congregation. God’s love is made manifest in His son and daughters, in you and me through the generous offerings that we give on any given Lord’s Day.
God’s love made manifest in His only Son; a love that gives to us the forgiveness of all our sins, a love that gives us the certainty of eternal life. That love, made manifest in Christ Jesus, leads to God’s love made manifest in you and me. It is revealed in how we care for one another. The acts of mercy and kindness that we share. It is even revealed in the offerings that we bring to be put on this altar. Our generosity is an act of love for those whom we call brothers and sisters in Christ who meet in this place. May we go forth today and everyday revealing God’s love in our lives. Amen.
[1] Burge, G. M. (1996). Letters of John (p. 187). Zondervan Publishing House.
[2] Stott, J. R. W. (1988). The Letters of John: An Introduction and Commentary (Vol. 19, p. 162). InterVarsity Press.
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