The Loving Church 1 John 4:7-4:21
When was the last time that you heard someone telling someone else just how great church was last week.
• When they were totally blown away with the joy,
• The excitement, the reality of people in relationship with Jesus Christ.
The truth is more often than not
• If the subject of church comes up
• That people are complaining about the service
• People often tend to have a negative view have of church.
• The real world when it comes down to it have no idea
• About who we are and why we are who we are.
An older sister was sitting next to her younger brother in Church one Sunday morning unsuccessfully trying to keep him still and quiet. Finally she said, “I wish you would calm down.” “I can’t”, he said, “it’s just so boring.” And his sister turned and said, “It’s supposed to be boring.”
Another little boy was in church with his mother, and He was a good little boy, quiet & well behaved. He didn’t cause any problems. But every once in a while he would stand up in the chair, turn around, look at the people behind him & smile at them. His smile was infectious, & soon everybody behind him was starting to smile back at him, too. It was all going fine until the mother realized what the little boy was doing. When she did, she grabbed him by his ear & twisted it a bit, told him to sit down & remember that he was in church. Then he started sniffling & crying, & she turned to him & said, "That’s better."
It’s sad, isn’t it, that many people have the impression
• That when we come to church that there isn’t anything here to really bring joy into our lives?
So lets talk about The perfect church
• But to do this we have to start out with the question What is church?
• If I were to ask you that question what would your answer be
• And it has to be a short anwswer, what words come to mind?
• Boring, irrelevant, out of date, hypocritical
• Or would you say that it is a place of joy, hope, love, companionship, caring?
The truth is, there is no perfect churches.
• No matter where you go,
• You’re going to find things that you like
• And you’re going find things you don’t like.
You could go to one of the new megachurch’s,
• And you could hear the contemporary music, see the flashing lights,
• The live band complete with the guitars and the drums,
• You could see and be a part of the lights and the choirs
• And all the technological wizardry that goes along with it
• Maybe this is what you like
• Maybe it leaves you saying -Yeah! --Praise the God – this is Church!"
• Then again, you could go and say, "They call this noise ’music?’– this isn’t a church!"
So What is church?
• Today in Britain there are a lot of churches that are more extreme than the one I just described
• These churches come in a variety of different atmispheres
• They come in different types and styles and flavours and expressions
• However all of these churches call themselves a church
• There are Churches in a pub, Café church, Goth church, internet church
• There are quiet churches, loud churches, traditional churches, contemporary churches, cultural churches.
So what exactly is church?
• How do we define church?
• Is it something we come to on a Sunday that has a definite order of service,
• One that has a distinctive style of worship or type of preaching.
• I guess it could be but church is more than that.
• Is it somewhere where we come to catch up on all the latest news and gossip
• That’s happened in the past week – a a kind of social club.
• Maybe, but at the same time church is more than that.
Perhaps church is just a place for the great Ceremonial occasions,
• The ritual, the performance.
• Hatch em, match em, and dispatch em.
• Baptisms, weddings, and funerals.
• The great ritual moments of life.
• But church is so much more than that.
Is your definition of church a place that is filled with history and tradition,
• That no matter what must never be altered, or tampered with,
• It shouldn’t be changed in any way
• Because if we changed it the mystery of the faith be lost –
Now there is no better example of a church
• That’s so rich in history and tradition is Westminster Abbey.
• One day a tour group was being shown the Abbey.
• They were shown all the symbols of Britain’s history.
• They saw the place where the monarchs are crowned.
• They visited the tombs and the memorials.
• It was a wonderful trip backwards in time.
• But at one point during the tour
• A member of the tour group asked the guide a interesting question.
• She said, “Sir, this is all very fine, but has anybody been saved here lately?”
Thats a good question for anybody’s church.
• “Has anybody been saved here lately?” (ELAB)
• We are so much more than ceremonial,
• We are so much more than history,
• So much more than narrow vision.
• We are so much more than hatch, match, and dispatch.
So the question remains what is church?
• And the answer – in a nutshell – is given in 1 John 4:11,
1Jn 4:10 This is real love. It is not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.
No one has ever seen God;
• But if we love one another,
• We can be sure that God lives in us
• And since God lives inside of us that His love is made complete in us.’
• In other words,
• A Church is a place where the love of God is known,
• Where the love of God is experienced
• And where the love of God is expressed amongst the fellowship.
It’s not about formats or programes, or music or styles – it’s about love.
But What’s love got to do with it?
• Tina Turner did her best to describe it
• When she sang that love was just a second hand emotion’.
• But according to 1 John 4 loves got everything to do with it
• It’s all about the love
• It sets the foundation for all we have and all that we are as a church.
Jas 2:8 Yes indeed, it is good when you truly obey our Lord’s royal command found in the Scriptures: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
1Jn 3:11 This is the message we have heard from the beginning: We should love one another
Ro 13:8 Pay all your debts, except the debt of love for others. You can never finish paying that! If you love your neighbor, you will fulfill all the requirements of God’s law.
1Pe 1:22 Now you can have sincere love for each other as brothers and sisters because you were cleansed from your sins when you accepted the truth of the Good News. So see to it that you really do love each other intensely with all your hearts.
Now each one of these scriptures should instruct us about what to do
• But if you like your commands to come from a source with alittle more authority
Jesus said: Jn 15:9 “I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. Jn 15:10 When you obey me, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father and remain in his love. Jn 15:11 I have told you this so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow! Jn 15:12 I command you to love each other in the same way that I love you. (John 15:9-12)
Are you starting to see a pattern beginning to develop?
• The commandment of the kingdom, the royal law,
• The proclamation of the King of kings,
• Says that the only true definition of any true Church of Jesus Christ is this:
• Love one another as God has loved us.
Love Defines a church –
• It’s not the fact that we meet together on Sundays.
• It’s not the fact that we sing hymns and choruses.
• It’s not even the fact that from time to time we might get caught praying or reading the scriptures.
• The only thing that defines us as a church,
• As the body of Christ, is our love for God and our love for one another.
• And (1)John says in verse (4)20 that we can’t say we love God, if we don’t love one another.
1Jn 4:7 Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 1Jn 4:8 But anyone who does not love does not know God—for God is love. 1Jn 4:9 God showed how much he loved us by sending his only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him.
1Jn 4:10 This is real love. It is not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. (1Jn 4:7-10)
Notice the text doesn’t say that God loves but that God is love.
• It’s not an activity that He likes to do
• It’s what He is, it’s His nature, It’s in His DNA His make up and it’s all He does.
• One of the most important things that you’re ever gonna learn in this life
• Is that no matter what God will never stop loving you!
• Peter denied being one of the disciples and cursed,
• But God still loved him and turned his life around.
• John Mark turned back and quit in the middle of a missionary journey
• But Christ still loved Him
• And He caused him to be an asset to the church
• And to the the Apostle Paul (2 Timothy 4:11).
• David committed adultery and murder, but God still loved him.
"If God had a refrigerator, your picture would be on it.
• If He had a wallet, your photo would be in it.
• He sends you flowers every spring and a sunrise every morning.
• Whenever you want to talk, He listens.
• God can live anywhere in the universe, But he chose to live in our hearts...
• Lets Face it, God’s crazy about us." (Max Lucado)
Not only does love define a church
• But our love for one another is a witness to each other
• And if we can take the love that God has for us
• A love that was ultimately demonstrated by Jesus Christ
• When He came into the world
• And He offered Himself up as a sacrifice
• For the pur[pose that we might be given eternal life
• If we can take this kind of sacrificial love
• And demonstrate it to each other
• It becomes the greatest form of evangelism the church and the world will ever see.
We live in a terrible, fallen, sinful world.
• A world that is full of hatred and greed,
• A world that’s filled with fighting and war,
• Hopelessness and lovelessness.
• People are starving and dying, and suffering in all kinds of ways
• And all of this is happening while the rest of the world just watches.
We live in a society where a lot of people
• Don’t even know their next door neighbour,
• Let alone care about them.
1Jn 4:12 No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love has been brought to full expression through us.
Where can a lost world see the love of God?
• They can see God In us, in His body, and in His church.
• But if we aren’t showing love for one another
• We might as well pack up and go home.
We can Forget about evangelising,
• Forget about church programes,
• Forget about busyness,
• Forget about upholding truth.
• Because without love for one another and for God
• We have nothing and we are nothing!
Our love for God is demonstrated by our love for one another
• ‘Show me a church where there is love, and I will show you a church that is a power in the community.’ (D L Moody)
When the church of Jesus Christ today
• Demonstrates this kind of unconditional and sacrificial love for one another
• Then God is made known to a world that is filled with pain and sin.
If you want to know how closely you are following Jesus?
• Look at your love life!
• Look at how you are loving others.
If we want to know how closely we are following Jesus as a church,
• Look at our love life!
• Look at how we are loving others.
Conclusion - So, one last time – What is a church?
Is it a place for the religious and the ceremonial?
Is it a place for history and tradition,
Is it a place for socialising and cliques
Or is it a place where the love of God is known,
Where the love of God is experienced,
And where the love of God is expressed amongst the fellowship.
