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December 21, 2008
 

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February 1, 2009—Fourth Sunday After Epiphany

Lectionary Texts: Deuteronomy 18:15-20; Psalm 111; 1 Corinthians 8:1-13; Mark 1:21-28

Sermon Text: Matthew 22:34-40

Incarnational Love

Some of you are old enough to remember a popular song of the 1960s: “What the world needs now, is love, sweet love. Its just something that there’s far too little of . . . .” It’s really true, you know. What the world does need is love. That’s exactly why love is such an important part of what it means to be a Christian.

When asked by a Jewish lawyer what the greatest commandment of all was, Jesus responded, “‘Love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.” The second one is like the first, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” These two commandments sum up all of what was expected from the law. They are the essence of what it means to be holy and what it really means to be a Christian.

The Bible and Jesus make it clear that love is central to what it means to be holy. If we are at all interested in understanding what a holy person does, we will understand that love is at the core of our understanding of holiness. To be holy means that we love God with our whole being, and we love our neighbor as ourselves.

Love is more than just at the center of what it means to be holy; it is essential to holiness. To fail to love means to fail to be holy. Without love there can be no holiness. Love is not some ideal standard to be sought, but an essential component of the Christian life. Jesus makes it clear that if we fail to love, we are really not one of His disciples. Love is not optional; it is a requirement.

Love is transformational. God’s love for me is what changes me. My love for God means I cannot live and be what I once was. To love my neighbor means not only that I am transformed, but through my love, God transforms my neighbor. Love is something that each one of us must receive and bestow--transforming the giver and receiver.

Love is really something big! Love is central to my life as a Christian. Love is essential to my life as a Christian. Love is the most powerful means of transformation I can experience.

Today is the first of four sermons in the series, “Love Like Jesus.” I realize most of you have heard sermons on this subject. My prayer is, however, that through this series you will begin to not only think about love differently, but you will experience love in ways you have never experienced it.

Before I point us to the text for today’s sermon, let me declare what I believe is the most important principle and truth I want you to take from this series: Christian love is not an emotion, it is a behavior. Love is not something I feel, it is something I do.
When most of us hear the word “love,” we think of something we feel. We believe to love someone means that I have warm, fuzzy feelings for that person. We have grown accustomed to the idea that love is an emotional response that we have, welling up from within us. “I love you because I feel love for you.”

You may have already heard that there are many words for “love” in the language of the New Testament. For instance, Greek uses the word eros to refer to the passionate, lustful love of sexual attraction. Interestingly, this word for love is not used in the Bible. It does, however, use the word phileo which refers to the love of mutual friendship. If I say I phileo you, it means I love you as a friend whom I also know loves me. When the Bible commands us to love, it uses the word agape. When this word is used, it means love that is unconditional and intentional. It is the love that God has for us expressed by Him sending His one and only Son to die for us. It is the love we are commanded to have for God, not dependent on how we feel at any given moment, but expressed through every aspect of our being. It is the kind of love we are commanded to express to those around us.

Here’s the essence of what I want you to know: God never commands us to feel something, He commands us to do something. In most cases, I have no direct control over how I may feel toward someone. It should come as good news to know that God does not command me to feel a certain way, but He does command me to behave in a certain way. When He commands me to “love my neighbor,” He is not telling me to feel a certain way toward them; He is telling me that I am to behave in a loving way toward them.

Let me put it another way: God does not command me to like someone, but He does command me to love them. As amazing as it may seem to you, I believe it is God’s expectation that we can and will “love” people whom we may not like. I really can love someone through God’s grace. I can behave in a loving way toward them, even if I don’t like them or feel love for them.

Let’s look at our text for today. It is found in the Gospel of John 15:9. Before I begin to read, let me set for you the situation in which Jesus spoke these words. In chapters 14, 15, and 16, John records for us what might be called Jesus’ farewell address to His disciples. He spoke these words to them on the night He was arrested, just a few hours before He would be crucified. This was His last time to teach and prepare His disciples for His absence.

In the verses just before our passage, Jesus teaches His disciples about the special relationship they need to have with Him. He was the vine; they were the branches. Their responsibility was to go and bear fruit. To bear fruit required that they maintain a relationship of trust and dependence on Him. The only way they could bear fruit was to remain in Him. Fruit-bearing was not optional. The failure to bear fruit would result in being cut off from the vine and thrown into the fire. The promise of Jesus, however, was that maintaining a close relationship with Him would result in bearing fruit, which would glorify His Father. Now, in the passage I will read, you will hear how Jesus defines what it means to bear fruit. To bear fruit means that we love, and love with a very special kind of love. It is a love that I am calling, incarnational love.

Read John 15:9-17.

I have told you that I believe Jesus is teaching us that love is incarnational. Let me explain as simply as I can what this means. “Incarnational” means, essentially, that God reveals himself in the form of flesh. In order for us to see God, He must make himself known to us, which He does incarnation. “Incarnation” literally means “enfleshment.”
God’s supreme form of incarnation is Jesus, His Son. God has made himself known to us most completely by sending His Son, Jesus. This is why Jesus says, “If you have known me, you have known the Father also.” If we want to know what God really is like, to know His character and person, we do so by getting to know Jesus. The one thing Jesus most makes known to us about God is that God is love. Jesus is the incarnational expression of God’s love for His fallen creation.

In this passage we learn that the Incarnation does not actually stop with Jesus. Notice the connection between Jesus’ words in verse 9 when He says, “Just as the Father has loved me, so have I loved you” and His words in verse 12 when He says, “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.” Can you see it? Jesus loves just like God loves. He is the incarnational presence of God’s love. We are to love as Jesus loves. We are to be the incarnational presence of Jesus’ love to each other.
Isn’t this amazing? What Jesus is actually saying is that the incarnation is to actually be continued through His disciples. When the disciples love each other, they are to love each other in the same way Jesus loves, which is the same way God loves. When we, Jesus’ disciples, love each other, we are actually continuing the love of God. My love, as a Christian, is to become for those see this love, a love that helps people see who God is.

Before I take this any farther, however, I really need to explain that the continuation of the Incarnation really has two qualities. God’s intention is that people will see who He is and know what He is like by seeing Jesus lived out corporately in the Church and individually in each of us. Both of these are important.

First, let us understand that the Incarnation is corporately experienced in the Church. When reading the New Testament, it becomes very clear that God’s plan was to establish and grow His Church. I’m not talking about a denomination, or even about a local congregation. What I’m talking about is that whenever a person became a believer in the Early Church, they became a part of the Church, the body of believers, the family of God. When people observed the Early Church they were impressed most by how the early Christians loved each other. “See how they love each other,” they said. They were amazed at how Christians loved one another.

As a Christian, it is absolutely essential to know that love begins in Christ’s Body, the Church. Notice that Jesus’ words to His disciples were “love each other.” That’s where we must begin. If we do not love our brother and sister in Christ, then we fail to love incarnationally. If any of us hopes to show the love of God to the world, Jesus makes it real clear. The world will see love in action most when it sees how Christians love each other.

Let me be real clear, nothing that makes the devil happier than seeing Christians not getting along with each other. The cause of Christ and His Church is damaged more by Christians arguing and hating each other than it is by the behavior of any “sinner” or unbeliever. If we are going to talk about loving like Jesus, it means we must first know what it means to love each other.

Now remember, the kind of love we are talking about is not “feeling” love, it is “acting” love. As much as we may hate to admit it, we will almost always find people, even in the Church, we do not like. But I don’t have to like you to love you. Our personalities may not always work well together. God does expect His children to love each other, even when they may not like each other.

Whether we realize it or not, there is a whole world out there watching us. Believe me, they notice when we Christians are not getting along. People do decide whether they want to be a part of the Church based on how they see Christians treating each other. I may not always agree with you, and we may have differences of opinion on things, but that does not excuse me from the responsibility to show love and respect for you, as God also expects you to show me.

But the Incarnation is not just a corporate thing that I experience in the Church. It is also something that must be individually expressed through people like you and me. While I may at times be disappointed in how well the Church lives the Incarnation, I also must know that I bear personal and individual responsibility to show the love of God through my life.

Notice that as Jesus spoke to His disciples as a group, He was also speaking to them as individuals. The only person I can control in love is me. Each one of us must accept the awesome responsibility to let the love of God be seen and experienced by others through us. When we love someone as a Christian, we are not just representing ourselves. We are not even just representing our church. We are representing Jesus. When we love, we do so in the name of our Lord.

Incarnational love actually means two very special things. Firstly, it means that we are to love in the same way that Jesus loves us. Jesus’ love becomes the model and example for our love. Look at some of the unique and wonderful things about Jesus’ love for us. These teach us to love.

Notice that Jesus’ love always goes first. He takes the initiative. “You did not choose me” He says, “but I chose you and appointed you.” Incarnational love never waits for the other person to make the first move. When we love like Jesus, we realize that, just like Him, we go first. We choose to act in love even when the person we love has not done anything for us.

In addition, note that Jesus’ love for us is completely unconditional. Jesus’ love for us is not dependent on our response to Him. Even when we don’t love Him, He still loves us. He does not give up on us. His love is completely without conditions. That is also to be true of our love. Our love of others is not dependent on whether they love us back. We do not choose whether or not we will show love to someone based on what they show to us. Once again, remember, this is not a love of feelings or emotions. It is love that acts in love. It is determined not how we feel toward someone, but how we behave toward them.

There’s something else about Jesus’ love. It is sacrificial. Jesus’ love for us required Him to suffer. His love for us cost Him His life. He died on the Cross for us because He loved us. Jesus’ love wasn’t easy or cheap; it passed through deep hurt. This will also be true of our love as Christians. When we love incarnationally, it will come at a cost. It will often pass through pain and suffering. Love costs us deeply. It will often hurt. When we love like this, we are often the one who gets hurt the most. Yet, this is how Jesus loved, and that is how we are to love.

Finally, note that Jesus’ kind of love totally transforms lives. My life has been changed because of God’s love for me in Jesus. Your life has been transformed by His love. God’s love changes people. Our world is transformed through Jesus’ love demonstrated on the Cross. That’s also how incarnational love works. Through our love, in Jesus’ name, people can be changed. Lives will be touched that would never be touched except that we love. Perhaps the most wonderful thing any of us will ever experience is to see how God uses our love to make a real difference in someone else’s life.

Incarnational love also means that we are to love in Jesus’ place. This seems to be one of Jesus’ primary reasons for all that He says in John chapters 14 through 16. Jesus knows that the time for Him to be physically present in the world is coming to an end. Once He is gone, everything will depend on what His disciples do. He promises to send the Holy Spirit to be with them, to enable them to do what He wants them to do. Once He is gone, however, the only thing the world will see of Him is what it sees His disciples.

To know that we are to love in Jesus’ place is an awesome responsibility. To realize that God is depending on me to show His love to others is an amazing thought. It is not something I can treat as trivial. Others’ eternal destinies actually depend on whether or not we are faithful representatives of Jesus’ love to them. Wow, what an awesome responsibility!

To love incarnationally is also a great privilege for me, as God’s child. That God actually has confidence and trust in me to do this is truly humbling. In our passage, Jesus said, “I have called you friend, for everything I learned from my Father I have made known to you” (John 15:15). Jesus calls me His friend. He is counting on me to continue His work of loving people. That is truly amazing.

Incarnational love holds another privilege for me. Jesus says, “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete” (v. 11). To love as Jesus calls me is a source of complete joy. To love is not a burden, but a cause for joy, satisfaction, and fulfillment. Do you know what? I’ve found out that this is really true. Those times in my life when I have experienced the greatest joy are also those times when I have loved other selflessly. Love and joy go together.

In closing, let me try to help us understand why incarnational love is such an important principle for us to, not only learn, but to practice. When you go out from this place today, God will cause many people to cross your path. Most of these are people who do not read their Bible. Even if they have a Bible, they are likely not spending any time at all reading it. Most of these people do not come to church. Even if you invite them, many of them will not come. It goes to reason, then, that most of these people will not listen to a sermon. Most of these people are not at all interested in hearing what a preacher has to say.

So, here’s the question I want you to ask yourself, as I also ask myself. It is a question with eternal consequences for someone in your life and in my life: “What if the only Jesus people see . . . is the Jesus people see in me?”

Closing Song: “People Need the Lord”