And The Greatest Of These Is Love: A Sermon For The Fourth Sunday Of Advent.

The Greatest of these is Love: A Sermon for the Fourth Sunday of Advent.

1 Corinthians 13:1-13

The verses we have just read from First Corinthians has been called “The Love Chapter.” It has been read at many weddings to set an example of how the bride and groom should love one another. /if this were a wedding sermon, I would bring this love out. But as this is the Season of Advent, I will be looking at love through this lens.

Advent is a four-week season which begins the Christian year. In the last three weeks we have covered the Advent themes of hope, peace, and joy. The theme for this week is love. During Advent, we reflect on these themes in the light of the Lord’s return. So what does love look like in the light of the return of Jesus?

We just mentioned about this love chapter being read at weddings. If we read Scripture, we will see that Advent is a wedding also, the wedding of the Lord with the bride, His church. We talk about the great wedding feast of the lamb. A wedding of this scale needs much preparation. On the part of Jesus, he has returned to heaven to prepare for us a place for us to abide with Him forever. (John 14:1-6) On our part, we prepare for the day the Lord returns for us. In a secular world, the bride prepares for the wedding by inviting guests, getting the right wedding dress, choosing bridesmaids, and such. these serve as a metaphor for our spiritual preparation. We are motivated by the expectation of the Lord’s return. We process through sanctification so that our lives and the life of the church might be pleasing to God,

In Israel of Jesus’ day, weddings were contracted some time prior to the actual ceremony. The bride and groom were legally married but did not cohabit until the wedding feast. the wedding feast happened when the groom had made everything ready. then he would journey with the best man and a trumpet to the bride’s village. the trumpet would sound, and the bride, bridesmaids and guests would drop everything and follow the groom back to his village. Everyone in the bride’s village needed to be ready, day or night. Jesus even spoke a parable about the five wise and five foolish bridesmaids. (Matthew 25: 3-5). These five foolish bridesmaids were denied entry to the feast. So the call to be prepared is serious. Advent should be taken seriously.

Paul talks about the glorious return of Christ in 1 Corinthians 15:53-58) in a well-known text preached at funerals. But he hints at it here in this chapter when he says “when that which is perfect shall come. (1 Corinthians 13:10) In that day, hope will be seen and fade away. Faith shall become sight. Hope helps us prepare, but will no longer be necessary. Faith will become faithfulness. Love shall remain in its perfection. This is why it is the greatest of these. Our joy of expectation will be pure joy. We shall no longer have to be joyful even in our tribulations, for our troubles will cease. We shall have uninterrupted peace. The swords will be beaten into plowshares and the spears into pruning hooks. We shall not learn war any more. (Isaiah 2:4). We believe that God will do this for us.

It is good to take stock of what sort of groom we are engaged to. In this world, it is sad that the one someone thinks he or she is marrying does not turn out to be the person they thought. There is much room for disappointment, But as we read in our Advent Candle Litany this morning in which our theme has come from Romans 5:1-8, our hope in Jesus will not disappoint us. (Romans 5:5) Jesus has already proved his love to us, so we do not wonder. We also read in the litany this morning in Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” This is Paul’s John 3:16. He proved His love for us by dying for us, even though we were at enmity against Him. This is why He left His glory above and became flesh and lived among us. (John 1:14) By His life among us, He wooed His bride and provided for her. He gave all.

Jesus did great things among us. He fulfilled perfectly Paul’s idea here that works must be done in love or they are nothing at all. He was no gong or clashing cymbal. In fact, hr called out the Pharisees for doing exactly that. They did everything to be seen of men that they rather than God might receive the glory. The works of a Christian must not be like that. It would be better to be that unknown Christian soldier, known but to God than to be acclaimed for wonderful works and teaching not done in the spirit of love we see demonstrated in Jesus Christ. If Jesus chose to glorify Himself, He would have every right as God the Son, the equal to the Father and Holy Spirit. Yet He made Himself of no reputation and became a servant (Philippians 2:5-11).