Love Connects Series

Love Connects

Series: When Love Comes

December 13, 2020 – Brad Bailey

Note: This is the second message in this series.

Intro

Good morning to each of you...and welcome to those engaging at a later time.

Last week... I invited us to begin focusing on the wonder that we call Christmas.

I know that this 2020 year is really different. So much of what we enjoy about the Christmas season is just not going to be the same. I know that I am going to miss a lot of the events that are a part of this season.

But... when I look at the actual events that are at the root of this season... I see that it all took place in the midst of time in which God’s people were oppressed by the Roman Empire... they were always under the threat of death... always struggling to make ends meet....as Rome demanded more taxes from those they ruled over. And God’s people were divided by their different views about their relationship to this governing authority. It was into such a time... that heaven brought the source of peace to earth... that light entered the darkness. It was into a world of chaos and conflict that God came in a way that the prophets foretold...but no one could imagine.

The Gospel of John... describes this grand event with these few words.

John 1:14

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.

John spoke of Jesus as the Word of God... becoming the living word... God incarnate...which means God bearing flesh. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. The omnipotent, in one instant, made himself breakable. He who had been spirit became pierceable.

During this month and this series...we are taking time to take this in. Through this month of December...we are going to focus on the profound and astonishing reality... of love coming to reach us...but also how the nature of such love... fills our life with purpose.

We recalled that at the end of his earthly ministry... Jesus was raised from the dead... and there in this dynamic moment with his disciples... who see him... now reflecting eternal life amidst our temporal world... and they don’t know how to take it in... and John describes,

John 20:21-22

Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you."

He tells them... that peace is now with them... the peace that exists in the eternal realm... the peace of God... is with them. Heaven has now come to earth...to them. And this connection that is at hand... in his presence... is just getting started. “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.”

The one sent...is now sending.

The love of God that sent Christ to them ... is now sending them. The one sent to us...now sends us.

Christmas is a matter of being met...and of filling us with the purpose of bearing that potential others being met by God. It’s a time of being enlightened...but also enlisted.

And as I noted last week... what we see in Jesus...is that when he refers to being “sent”... it isn’t like a kid who just got sent to do some begrudging chore. It is the thrill of his living partnership with the Father. It was always a dynamic sense of working with the Father in heaven. It was living in a connection. It was a connection he cherished...and protected. It was his true identity ... he was the son whom the Father loved... who was sent... and that is an identity that the enemy of God wanted to steal from Him. It was an identity that the religious tendencies of this world would find difficult to understand... because they thought God had simply already chosen one group over another... and he didn’t simply join their group.

So let’s not miss the fact that what we need to understand is that the call to be SENT into this world is not a call to go out as a salesman for God... but to join with God in connecting with people... with children who are lost... and who have not come home yet. It is a source of identity... of being with God.... a source of intimacy... of working with God. It is about being connected... and extending that connection to others.

And how does he send us? Jesus said it... he sends us “As the Father sent him.” How Christ came into this world...and engaged the people of this world... is the way we are to go forth into the world and engage others.

Today... let’s consider how LOVE CONNECTS. When we think about connecting with God... we have to recognize that the very nature of God is so distant and distinct from ourselves. I mean... if we really consider the possibility of how we as finite created beings, could connect to an infinite creator who exists outside time and space... it’s perplexing to say the least.