We generally celebrate Christmas with gift giving but often it is out of compulsion (e.g. they gave us something, family relations, etc.) rather than love. Too often our giving is marked but what we feel we must do, rather than genuine love for the receiver of our gift. This attitude is in contrast to God’s actions that first Christmas when he sent his Son. It was not out of obligation to the Law, nor any necessity, that God felt compelled God to send Jesus. The Father could have left us to die for our sins, and it would have been just and right to do so, but because of his great love for us, he sent his Son.
One of the most famous passages on this aspect of God’s love is in 1 John 4. The Apostle tells us that God is defined as love and that the manifestation of his love was God sending his son Jesus into the world to save us, which parallels an even more famous verse (John 3.16), which tells us that God’s motivation for sending Jesus was love rather than condemnation. In 1 John the Apostle says that the overflow of our love for God ought to result in loving one another in this same manner as Jesus, by us laying our lives down for one another. He also says that genuine love for God will result in our obedience of God, overcoming our circumstances, and in overcoming the world. That is victorious living! Not that God would take us out of the world, but that we would live Christlike lives in the midst of it. Take a look at this passage:
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 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. 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. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.
By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.
Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world— our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? (ESV)
As you read in this text, God is defined by love, of course he is also defined in the Bible (in other texts) as just, as merciful, as righteous, as victorious, as holy, and as the beginning and the end. There is no single adjective that can describe God, he is all of these things at one time, all the time. Which is impossible for us to get our heads around.
Nonetheless, in this text, the Apostle focuses in on love as God’s motive for sending Jesus; it is a powerful statement. Across the ideological scope of world religions, none has defined their god’s motivation for interacting with humanity as being because of love. In many circles, lust was a motivation, but not a sacrificial love. In fact, sacrifice in most world religions is on the burden of the worshipper, to bring a suitable offering that could appease the anger of the god(s). In the Christian faith, our call to sacrifice is not about costly gold, silver, or some kind of costly gift given to an idol or deity, but through imitation of Jesus, laying our lives down for others, an imitation of God’s love for us, but never as an act to appease God. Paying Jesus’ actions forward like showing mercy and kindness we then become love too.
The good news this advent week, is that in Christ, we have been given the Spirit of God when we confess Jesus as the Son of God, and thus the Holy Spirit empowers us to live a new kind of life. A life that is free and not motivated by fear, which has to do with punishment. Instead, real Christianity is motivated to share and to show the same kind of love with others. This is why the Apostle then points out a contradiction he sees in the lives of some who claim to walk with God. How can you love God and hate your brother? A common misunderstanding in this passage is that if you do not show love to others that God will not love you, but that is not what this says. Neither does this passage does teach that you show God love by loving your brother. Instead this passage is like the “warning light” on your dashboard. If the tank is empty you cannot keep driving. If there is no oil in the car it will stop running. If the brake light is on eventually you cannot stop. Likewise, if you do not love your brother, than you do not love God. Its not that God is preventing you, it’s a warning light, your lack of love for others is telling you that you do not really love God either, no matter how much you go to church, no matter how much money you give, no matter how faithful you are at coming to church events. If you do not love your brother your warning light on the dashboard of your life is saying, there is a problem with your faith, it is running on empty, and because you don’t love God.
It would be a mistake to read the Apostle as condemning the readers, rather understand that John is alerting them to their condition. The same is true in my message now, nothing concerns me more, nothing gets my attention quicker, than when the red light on my emotional dashboard goes off warning me that I have treated my wife, my children, or my brother or sister in Christ with less than love. I don’t mean I was simply cranky. I don’t mean that I had a bad day. I don’t mean that I joked around too rough. I mean, when I act intentionally without love toward other human beings, it tells me that I do not love God.
A few years ago, I had a person in my life that was pushing my buttons, mistreating me, and speaking evil of me, and making “light of me” to others. I was particularly disturbed because it was an old friend who I trusted implicitly. I was crushed by this person’s actions. Over a course of a year, the repeated action began to wreck havoc on me, my family, and on my performance as a pastor. I started out hurt, but I became angry, and when that person was struggling ill, I eventually refused to pray for the person. Eventually I became so bitter that I felt joy when this person was unable to function because of affliction, and I suddenly realized that my idiot light was not just blinking, it was going off like a siren trying to call me back from the spiritual melt-down. In that moment I realized my prayer life had dried up, that my heart was cold, and that I was skeptical of every believer and every church. I was in danger, far from God, and in that moment, I asked God for forgiveness and prayed for my friend, and started my journey back to God who never stopped loving me. The Apostle tells us, “You cannot love God whom you cannot see if you do not love your brother whom you can see.” When hate gets in your heart it crowds out God. Its not that God stops loving you, it’s that there is no room in your heart to love God if you hate your brother.
Likewise, if we do not like God’s ways, but prefer the ways of the world, that is an indication that we do not love God either. This message was written 2,000 years ago to the churches in Asia Minor, but there is no more pertinent message to the modern church. Often we have propagated the faith like we are selling big screen TVs. Many have bought into the gospel only superficially so as to escape the flames of hell, but have no love for God, God’s people, or God’s ways. This superficial faith comes to loathe the very works of God as burdensome he warns his readers, and that is another warning light on our spiritual dashboard. If every time you read that an attitude, action, or behavior is out of bounds, you find yourself angry, irritated or frustrated with God, the church, and his people, that is a good indication that you do not love God. Again, it is not that God is rejecting you, or rejecting your love, it’s the idiot light on your personal dashboard telling you, something is wrong. It is time to evaluate your relationship with God. Why does God make you mad?
In contrast, when I am in love, or feel love for another, it is my great desire to do what pleases them, even if it makes me stand out. In fact, that is one of the early signs of being smitten. Its true not just of romantic love, but in familial relationships also. Pleasing my parents, pleasing my children, pleasing my closest friends. It is my love for them that motivates me to behave differently. Even to the point of standing out from those around me. As Christmas is upon us I can think of no greater example than all that we go through to communicate to our loved ones how much we love them than travel, expenses, and time spent demonstrating how we feel. So then it should be no surprise to us that how we feel about God’s way, his church, and his people, tells us if we love God like he loves us.
That first Christmas God gave us the gift of Jesus. He gave us the best he had to give, he gave us his Son, Jesus, so that we could be with him forever. If love was enough motivation for God to send his Son to die for us, how much more likely is it that God will send his Son to bring us all home? Advent is the season of preparing our hearts for Jesus’ return, his second and final coming. Advent is about renewing our confidence in Jesus’ return on the anniversary of his first coming by revisiting the messianic promises, God’s motivations, and God’s past actions, so that our hearts maybe renewed with confidence that Jesus will come again.
This past Sunday was the beginning of Advent. Advent is the time in the church calendar that covers the four Sundays before Christmas. Typically a church will light four purple candles, one each Sunday until all four are lit. Then on Christmas a fifth white candle is lit. The four purple candles remind us of Christ’s majesty, the white candle speaks of his purity and holiness. In some traditions the third candle is pink for joy. While joy is the theme of week three, not all churches use a pink candle. This is an old tradition that goes back to the practice of the Pope giving out flowers on the third week in a very solemn Advent feast.
The purpose of Advent is prepare the church both for Christmas, and to renew our hope in the second coming of Messiah. Just as Israel waited patiently for Messiah which culminated in Jesus’ birth, so now the church awaits Christ second coming. While Christmas is the celebration of Jesus’ birth, Advent is a reminder that God fulfilled his promise to send Messiah, and we can be assured that God keeps his word and that he will send his Son again, just as promised.
For this reason the Advent celebration begins with Hope. Proverbs 13.12 says, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.” The greatest difference between hope in pagan worldly sense, and hope in Biblical perspective is perspective. For most, hope has always meant a desire that stands almost in opposition to the prevailing expectation; it is a wish for something better in spite of circumstances. Whereas Biblical hope is the time of waiting for what was promised. It is not in spite of circumstances, but patient confidence in God who promised. Biblical hope is expectancy in the face of circumstances, worldly hope is longing for a different outcome because of circumstances.
In Isaiah 9.1-7 we read one of the most famous prophecies about the first coming of Messiah, which speaks of Messiah as not only a deliverer of Israel, but also as the light of hope to the nations, to those who are in darkness. That the Messiah will break the staff and yoke of every oppressor, bringing justice to those oppressed. It promises that he shall come as a child, but even from birth all authority will be his, and he will establish his kingdom, and his rule will be extended to every people, and the passion of God, the same zeal that would send Jesus to begin with would also establish his kingdom. It is that kingdom rule that we now benefit from, our salvation, and it is that kingdom in fullness that we await now, when every knee will bow, and every rule and ruler will be subdued by his righteous rule. That is our hope. Our hope is built on Jesus’ blood and righteousness, and the evidence that God keeps his word is Jesus Christ.
But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.
The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness,
on them has light shined.
You have multiplied the nation;
you have increased its joy;
they rejoice before you
as with joy at the harvest,
as they are glad when they divide the spoil.
For the yoke of his burden,
and the staff for his shoulder,
the rod of his oppressor,
you have broken as on the day of Midian.
For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult
and every garment rolled in blood
will be burned as fuel for the fire.
For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given;
and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of his government and of peace
there will be no end,
on the throne of David and over his kingdom,
to establish it and to uphold it
with justice and with righteousness
from this time forth and forevermore.
The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this. (ESV)
The concept of salvation has been lost to most of the church in our day, traded for mental assent and religious sentiment; it has lost its power. For those early hearers the idea of salvation was being plucked from circumstances, delivered form an enemy, and certain peril. When Israel first heard of salvation it was under the oppressive hand of Pharaoh, as they awaited a deliverer. It meant that they would be rescued from a life of slavery, it meant escaping with their lives. For those first listening to Isaiah, those words, “No gloom for those in anguish,” was not just about escaping a prison of the mind, but the Israelites need to escape eminent danger. In this passage in Isaiah, Israel is in decline, and Assyria is breathing down their neck with threats, ready to devour them. They need saving. They are in anguish. They are in their darkest hour. And to them Isaiah speaks of a time when there will be no more gloom, a time when from Galilee by the sea, that those who are in darkness would see a great light.
The imagery of light in the darkness is generally one of hope, but what is interesting is that Galilee is the gateway to the nations. The invasion of Assyria would have come down from the north and through Galilee. To us, this side Messiah’s first coming, the picture of Galilee of the nations, has other significance, because of Jesus’ ministry in that countryside. For us Galilee is the place where people of other ethnic backgrounds would see the light in the darkness.
The promise for those in anguish that in the coming of Messiah they would be freed from impending gloom was a ray of hope in the darkness of their hour. For us, it is a reminder that God delivers.
The second promise was that the government would be on his shoulders. For those Israelites it was a commentary on the injustice of their own government, it was a commentary on their rejection of God as their king, and the threat of (Gentile) Assyrian rule. A Wonderful Counselor, one who fights for justice. That he is not just a god like the gods of the nations but Mighty God, one who is actually able to deliver from the oppressor. To a people surrounded by gods, and with an enemy like Assyria who spoke of Yahweh being unwilling to deliver them, Mighty God was the promise of being an able and willing deliverer. Everlasting Father one who does not leave or disappoint, who is present. And Prince of Peace, not just the conqueror who brings peace but he is the champion and sustainer of peace. Then he ends with the romantic ideal of every Israelite, God will establish the righteous rule of David, but this time it will not fade with a spoiled heir. This righteous ruler will sit upon his throne forever, doing what is right and just. And how would he accomplish all of this, by the zeal of Yahweh of Hosts. God put his name on the line, his character was the guarantee that he would deliver as promised.
In as much as God sent his Son, we too can have confidence. Our hope is not wishful thinking but trust that God will bring the ultimate fulfillment of this passage to pass. Already God established Jesus’ rule, his reign over those whose hope is in him, how likely then is it that our hope will not disappoint us?
As we participate in Advent, this first week, our goal is to renew our hope. Remember the words of 2 Peter 3.9, “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” (ESV) I pray that as you meditate on the messianic promises of old that your hope in Christ return will be renewed this Advent season.
