Series: 1 John
Week: 17
Passage: 1 John 4:7-10
Title: Three Truths about God’s Love
Focus: Brotherly Love
INTRODUCTION: “Calvary shows how far men will go in sin, and how far God went for man's salvation.” -H. D. Trumbull
We hear it all the time, "God Loves You”. It’s a message that is easy to say. It’s written on barns, railroad cars, and bridges all across this country. “God loves you.” The message of God’s love is one that John would declare with passion, desire and boldness. He, along with all the other apostles, would shout it from the rooftops and jail cells whenever they could, “God loves you.” They experienced God’s love in ways that were unheard of to the people in their lives. Today we must take that message a step further and declare, just as John and the other disciples did, that God does indeed love you and the reason for this love is because God is love.
SCRIPTURE: “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.” 1 John 4:7-10
TITLE: THREE TRUTHS ABOUT GODS LOVE
POINT #1: God’s Love is Existent (1 John 4:7)
• Explanation: We can see the attributes of God throughout His work in His creation and in His written Word to us (the Bible). In our study of His footprints we see that we can come to appreciate God’s love and learn about how He is described through what we see and read. John states, “love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.” (4:7) We see four traits of God in His love.
1. God’s Holiness (set apart/sacred – The Creator):
i. "In Him there is no darkness." 1 John 1:5
1. There is no sin and no darkness in God.
2. God’s Agape Love: Agape = Christ’s death on the Cross – The Son.
i. God’s love of giving us Jesus is a demonstration of good will (salvation) and concern for the fallen creation.
1. “God demonstrated His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8
3. God’s Gift of the Spirit (third person in the Trinity – The Holy Spirit):
i. The Spirit…
1. Dwells (1 Corinthians 3:16)
2. Gives instruction and warning (John 3:34)
3. Gives energy and power (2 Timothy 1:7)
4. Gives various gifts (1 Corinthians 12)
5. Manifests God’s glory (1 Peter 4:14)
• Illustration: C.S. Lewis wrote, "Do not waste your time bothering whether you 'love' your neighbor act as if you did. As soon as we do this, we find one of the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone, you will presently come to love him. If you injure someone you dislike, you will find yourself disliking him more. If you do him a good turn, you will find yourself disliking him less."
• Application: God did more for us than simply stating He loved us, He demonstrates His love for us in various ways. Therefore, knowing what we know about God, we are called to do the same. In this love we can
o Experience God's love
o Gain a greater appreciation for Him
o Appreciate the gifts He has given.
o Understand how He sustains and redeems us in our sinful state.
POINT #2: God’s Love is Extended (1 John 4:8)
• Explanation: The end of verse seven and verse eight literally say “everyone who loves is born of God and knows God (aka His love). The one not loving does not know God because God is love.ยป The believer knows God’s love and extends it as God did through Christ. The nonbeliever has not recieved God’s love and therefore does not experience God fully. This understanding shows us two more traits about God in His love for us.
• God’s love is Permanent: God did not make your salvation dependant upon you perfection but more through grace. In God’s grace we know God better because of Christ. God gives Jesus to die (extends love) then Jesus gives us the gift of the Spirit (more extension of love), which we take as an understanding of our eternal state with God for eternity.
o Ephesians 4:30 “Don't give God's Holy Spirit any reason to be upset with you. He has put his seal on you for the day you will be set free
• Illustration: The story of Nicodemus (John 3). Jesus told him "You must be born again." You must, Nicodemus, accept God’s extension of love.
• Application: Therefore church God extends His love to you and we can see that God’s love is perfect and needs nothing else added or taken away to it to make it glorious. We can freely receive it as a gift.
• "But God showed his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8
• There is nothing that we need do to be loved by God. God loves you. Even while you are in the mist of monstrous sin, God loves you unconditionally.
POINT #3: God’s Love is Expressed (1 John 4:9-10)
• Explanation: John says, “By this is love, not that we have loved God, but that he loves us and gave us his son as propitiation for our sins.” (10) Jesus, being God in the flesh, lived not only a sinless life but also died on the cross and rose again to fulfill what was prophesied and cleanse the creation from sin once and for all. God’s offering of His Son is the ultimate expression of love for us.
o "He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not." Isaiah 53:3
• Illustration: Jesus 3:16 – 12 of the Greatest:
o God (the greatest lover)
o So loved (to the greatest degree)
o The world (the greatest number)
o That He gave (the greatest act)
o His only begotten son (the greatest gift)
o That whosoever (the greatest invitation)
o Believe (the greatest simplicity)
o In Him (the greatest Person)
o Should not perish (the greatest deliverance)
o But (the greatest difference)
o Have (the greatest certainty)
o Everlasting life (the greatest possession).”
• LOVE THIS!!!
• Application: John 15:13 states "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." No one loves you as much as Jesus loves you! The fact is that Jesus died on the cross in your place. He died as your substitute. Jesus is the perfect sinless Son of God. He died to pay the penalty for your sin because He loves you.
o “Here is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sin.” John 4:10
CONCLUSION: God's love is existent from everlasting to everlasting. It is a perfect love that is extended to all people in all time periods and cultures. God’s love is expressed in Christ, giving man the ability to be reconciled (stand in a right relationship with God) through Christ. Will you accept this gift today and extend God’s love to those in need?
