Today, we are going to continue in our sermon series which takes a closer look at the season of Advent.
What is Advent? A season of 4 weeks leading up to the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. The passing of each week is marked by the lighting of a special Advent candle. These four candles represent the Christian themes of Hope, Love, Peace, and Joy that we have through Jesus Christ. Today, we will be discussing the Advent theme of Love. Specifically, we will be discussing how we can display biblical love during the season of Advent through practical ways, as well as through the sharing of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But first, allow me to pray for us.
How can we display Biblical Love during Advent?
1 Peter 3:15 “but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,”
It can be very easy to get carried away emotionally when we feel such strong conviction. We must remember that self-control is a fruit of the Spirit. Going back to 1 Peter 3:15, we must be ready to share the Gospel, but with gentleness and RESPECT.
James 2:10 tells us “10 For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.”
Romans 3:23 tells us “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”
John 3:16-17 “16 For God so loved the world, that He gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him.”
2 Peter 3:9 “...not wishing that anyone should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”
WE ARE CALLED TO LOVE GOD AND LOVE OTHERS
Matthew 22:37-39“37 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Let me be the first here today to say that loving your neighbor is not always easy. For example, I love my neighbor, but I don’t always “like” when they blast music at 3 AM. Or, like back when Bekkah and I were in one of the 500 duplexes we’ve lived in on Dequincy Street, there was this one duplex where you could hear people’s entire conversations on the other side of the double through the wall, and it didn’t matter if you had to work the next day. And yet, we are called to love them as ourselves, to love them as those who are made in the image of God.
What does Biblical Love look like besides sharing the Gospel?
-1 John 3:16: “16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.”
One of the best ways we can show love is through sacrificial love, through servitude, though symbolically laying our lives down and putting others' well-being before ourselves. The Kingdom of God is made manifest through us, the living stones of the Kingdom, when we love God and each other in this way.
What type of life did Jesus live?
If we want to know more about Biblical love, we can examine the life of Jesus Christ! Philippians 2:5-11 gives us a great idea.
Phillippians 2:5-11 “5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Jesus lived a life fully devoted in love and in service to God the Father and to others. And we are commanded to have this same mindset, according to verse 5, and that it is ours in Christ Jesus, that we likewise should live lives full of love and obedience to God. The love that God gives us, which He commands us to demonstrate to others, is unconditional and selfless.
John 15:12-13 “12 This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, than someone lay down his life for his friends.”
We tend to focus a lot on Jesus' death and resurrection, which is important. But it’s important to take a minute to consider how He lived His life.
How is it possible for humans to love like this?
