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.
But we may also realize that the source of our existence... is the only source that can really tell us who we are. The truth is that we live with an inherent sense that we are more than chemical compounds... that we are persons. We live with an inherent sense that we and others have a value that is more than merely functional...more than merely a process of organic survival. We sense that we are personal beings...and that would suggest that we come from a personal source. When we consider the really big picture, we can appreciate what is at hand at Christmas.
Only the ultimate source of our existence can reveal what our longings tell us is true. Only the ultimate source of our existence can reconnect us to why we exist... and who we really are. Christmas is about a connection to the source from which we came.
There are foundations to this connection. Creation itself reveals something about the nature of God... about the nature of God’s power....and beauty.
And the Scriptures tells of how God has been revealing Himself to a people he began to call out... revealing his nature....to be personal...but also to be all powerful... everlasting... and spirit. God exists outside of the time and space of our temporal existence.
We are utterly of another nature.
And we exist in the darkness of our separation...with no way to understand who we really are. The Bible explains how long ago we claimed to be like God ... to choose to exist outside of his will ...and we have lived in the darkness of that condition ever since.
But God speaks into this realm...and begins to reveal Himself... to call human lives to know that there is one God ... who is the creator of all.... the sustainer of all... and who bears the power of a new connection.
And then one day... a prophet declares from God...
Isaiah 9: 2, 6-7
The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.
6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end.
A child. God would connect with us by entering into the common nature of space and time and flesh amidst the condition of a world operating independent of his will.
One would arise amidst human life... who would bear that which transcends this current state of human life.
This child would ultimately be called... and known to be ...
Wonderful Counselor... the source of eternal understanding
Everlasting Father...the source of eternal life...
And Prince of Peace.... the source of bringing heaven’s peace to rule over all creation... whose reign of peace was eternal and everlasting.
So lets open that up a little bit more. Let’s consider how God comes to us... and is able to connect with our lives in the birth and life of Christ...and gives us a way to now be a part of that as we join as those sent into the world.
The first thing we can see, is that....
Love is able to connect because...
1. Love inhabits our COMMON SPACE and COMMON LIFE
As was already noted, the nature of God is very different from our own. God is spirit... unbound by time or space. We currently exist within time and space and we relate as material sensory beings. God is the very source of love...and goodness. We are unfit to exist in direct relationship to His glory. Our sphere is no longer united with God... no longer in a natural relationship... no longer in a right relationship. Any means of connection between God and human life would have to be indirect...and limited.
This was made clear by the establishment of a temple. The temple was considered the only point at which there could be a point of connection...and it was an indirect connection... no one could ever truly encounter God directly ...only the manifestation of His presence.
Only in the Temple....could one come...and hope that with a sacrifice... some form of mercy might extend acceptance. The temple... was ultimately a way of understanding how different we were.
And that is what is so transforming in those words we read and hear so often at Christmas... “to us a child was born.” These words tell us something that had been unimaginable. God coming into our common space...and our common life.
And it shouldn’t surprise us that Jesus would ultimately explain that he was now the temple. He was now the new meeting place between God and man. And he is the sacrifice that is able to atone and provide for relationship.
This changes the whole nature of connecting with God. When we think of our connection with God...we often tend to think there is some special places we might encounter him. We associate His presence with certain places...and may dismiss some places. We may still associate God’s presence with special places. And while it is natural to have certain places inspire us...and certain places help quiet us to connect with His presence...we need to stop and realize that God is present in Christ... and through the spirit of Christ... that God is with us. As Jesus said, he would always be with us. [1]
When we consider our connection with God...we need to recognize that the events of Christmas changed everything. We may not associate God’s presence with barn filled with the sounds and smells of animals. But that is where Jesus was born. God chose to enter the world in the most obscure... chaotic... unnoticed corner of human life. He entered the womb of a peasant ... who ultimately slipped into a faraway town called Bethlehem unnoticed among crowds who had come to pay taxes.
These events tell us of a young mother named Mary... who felt alone... pregnant... without family... without a plan... and yet God was with her. Love had come to inhabit the COMMON SPACE of our lives. And what we realize is that God was just getting started. When that child, Jesus, began to fulfill his mission... he showed how God’s love connected ...because God was meeting people in everyday life... in the common spaces and places of life.
I want to encourage you right now...to realize God is able to connect with you wherever you are...in whatever space and place you may be in. I know we may struggle to feel his presence...but what we feel does not always tell us what is real. There is no doubt that Mary and Joseph may have wondered if God was really with them. After all, everyone knew that those blessed by God were wealthy and well taken care of. Here they were... they had every circumstance that must have suggested that they were on their own. But they weren’t. And when we struggle to sense our connection with God, we may need to create space in ourselves where we center ourselves in Christ’s presence...even as Christ was intentional about getting away from the agendas that tried to define him...and spend time focused upon his relationship with the Father in heaven. It begins by letting the events of Christmas remind us that God is now present with us in every space and place. Take a moment...and just affirm quietly to yourself: God is here. God is in that place.
I want to encourage us to know that God’s love inhabits the common activities of our lives as well. The first venture he led his disciples on was not to a religious conference... it was to a wedding party. And we see that wherever they traveled... God was at work as much on the journey as he was at any particular destination. We hear over and over in their accounts of how so much of what Jesus did... began with the words: "as he walked along." As he walked along... there were people and problems that Jesus engaged... because the Father was at work. Right there is the common spaces and activities of life.
It’s helpful to see that Jesus showed a great value for the special weekly gathering of God’s people in the local synagogue. The Bible says he went to the synagogue as a regular part of his life. He embraced the significance of gathering as local communities to listen to God’s word... to be united in God’s love. It was the place in which the love and unity of God was uniquely engaged...BUT God was never bound to that space. As Jesus described, his Father is always working...and so is he. He showed a great value for God’s people uniting to meet with God corporately each week at the synagogue... but he cherished joining the Father in every daily opportunity to be united in ministry. That is why it is so helpful to understand that God does meet his people in a special way when they unite in worship... but he is never bound to the place itself. And he is present wherever he is being honored.
That is so important during this year of social distancing. This is not a time to disconnect with the communal body of Christ. This is a time to discover the way of Jesus... who joined the weekly gathering of the local synagogue... but who also understood that God was not bound within that space. The love of Christ was unleashed into every common sphere and space... as we as the living body of Christ...we can be the church in all such places.
If God can come into the life of a peasant girl...into a barn no one noticed...into the lives of what would have looked like random fishermen.... he can connect anywhere and everywhere. His love is no longer bound by any particular space...and neither should our love for others.
And if God is now loose... able to meet us on the road... this leads to next truth about how love connects.
Love is able to connect because...
2. Love identifies through COMMON GROUND
When we read that a child was born... it tells us not only that God entered our common space... but also that God identifies with is through the common ground of our humanity.
He identifies through the COMMON GROUND of our physical nature and experience.
As the Biblical Book of Hebrews describes,
Hebrews 2:14; 4:15 (NLT)
Because God’s children are human beings—made of flesh and blood—the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had the power of death. .... This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin.
God become human in order to represent us in his death. The one who truly lived in unity with God...as we were meant to... was the one who came to offer his own self ... able to represent us ...as one worthy in his obedience with God.
And in identifying with us... he becomes the great high priest...because he can truly identify with our nature... with our position. At Christmas...we see how love comes to connect by identifying with the common ground of human experience.
He understands the weakness of the human condition... of a world that now experiences pain and suffering and separation. He is faced with all the same temptations to sell ourselves to whatever might try to make us feel more powerful...and more valuable.
No one accused him of not being free from the common challenges of this life. Every account they gave... knew he understood the same joys, hardships, and temptations.
And what does this mean for how he sends us into the world? It means that we too should value the significance of common ground. It means that despite whatever differences we may have... we should value the common ground of life experience that we share with others.
The Apostle Paul took hold of this. He explained in the Scriptures... in his first letter to those in Corinth...
Paul identifying with common ground
1 Corinthians 9:20-22 (NLT2)
When I was with the Jews, I lived like a Jew to bring the Jews to Christ. When I was with those who follow the Jewish law, I too lived under that law. Even though I am not subject to the law, I did this so I could bring to Christ those who are under the law. 21 When I am with the Gentiles who do not follow the Jewish law, I too live apart from that law so I can bring them to Christ. But I do not ignore the law of God; I obey the law of Christ. 22 When I am with those who are weak, I share their weakness, for I want to bring the weak to Christ. Yes, I try to find common ground with everyone, doing everything I can to save some.
Paul explains that he tries to find common ground with everyone. Paul didn’t compromise his integrity... he chose to relate to how others experienced life.
When he says “When I was with the Jews, I lived like a Jew”... he was indeed Jewish... there were facets of Jewish tradition that he no longer clung to...but he was genuinely still Jewish. When he was with those who lived under the law... referring to the religious law...he didn’t refuse to relate to them... saying he wouldn’t have anything to do with their old religious forms... he could appreciate what those laws and ways had meant. Paul the great apostle and missionary... didn’t teach everyone to follow those same religious rules...but if he was with those who didn’t yet know the saving way of Christ... he could join them in those old rules. And he goes on to say that when he is with Gentiles... who didn’t practice such religious rules... he didn’t either. He goes on to say that whatever weakness they have...and he is speaking of limited ways of understanding.... whatever was their current understanding... he didn’t take the position of superiority... but of understanding their weakness.
As he sums it up... he tries to find common ground with everyone.
He tried to find common ground.
I believe that this is such a vital way of living and relating to people that those who have joined Jesus... can follow. I believe that the way in which Jesus joined us in the common ground of life... and the way in which Paul tried to identify with others based on the common ground he could share with them ...is something we do well to grow in.
This idea of finding common ground can cause us to feel a bit confused...or conflicted. Because the Bible speaks of how we should be different from the ways of this world...how we should not follow the ways of this world. We might find it unclear how it is that we are called to be distinct from the ways of this world... while also trying to find common ground.
When we look at how Jesus connected in the common ground of life...we realize he never compromised his own character. When he was accused of eating with drunkards... no one spoke of his own loss of control... only that he ate with hem. The meal was the common ground.
And when Paul describes how he tries to find common ground... he never spoke of violating the ways of Christ. He simply followed cultural patterns that were not inherently evil...but simply reflected limited understanding.
Another way to put it...is that Paul understood that what is a secondary issue is never to be made the primary issue.
Paul said, “I try to find common ground with everyone, doing everything I can to SAVE some.” Paul knew that these cultural patterns and perspectives were not in themselves the central issue or ultimate need.
You may recall that he was one of the rising stars among the religious culture... and Jesus confronted him...and his life was changed. All his pride in keeping religious rules ... was gone. All the separation and superiority he had as he judged others was gone. God confronted his religious pride and showed him that Jesus was the Messiah...the savior... the mercy of God that had come to save the WHOLE world from it’s sins. It didn’t matter if the sinner was a Jew or a Gentile... a respected religious leader or a rough shod fisherman. Paul was just another sinner that Christ came and was willing to connect with and save. So much of the New Testament reflects this change...for Paul had learned how to divide the world between the good people and the bad people... and now in Jesus... he has surrendered to the truth that God has come to save all people from the sin that brought separation. The primary issue is that we all need to be saved from the consequences of our sinful separation from God. Paul had come to realize that stood central over Jews and Gentiles... and none of their ways of relating to cultural rules was central.
And how does this lead us to connect with others? By looking at the way that God’s love came to us by identifying with the most common aspects of our humanity...we can join that way in connecting with others. We can look at how Christ identified with the common ground of human experience...and embrace that common ground that we share with others. Consider how much common ground you share... the common things you face and feel.
Take a moment and consider the differences you might feel between you and others you relate to... family, friends, co-workers, neighbors. What makes it hard to connect? Maybe you feel it’s hard to connect with the opposite gender. Maybe you find it hard to connect with a different generation. Maybe it’s hard to connect with another culture.
I would dare to say that this can speak the way we have become so disconnected based on our political differences. They have proven to become a source in which we lose our ability to connect with others... because we lose all sense of common ground. This past year became one in which many have express that the primary way they see and relate to the world of lives around them... is that the world is divided between Democrats and Republicans. As we come to the love of Christmas... a love that connects... I believe that it is an opportunity to stop and embrace that God loves a world whose central division is between sinners and a savior. It’s an opportunity to see that the savior’s love laid down differences and chose to join us on common ground.
If that sounds extreme, we do well to realize that when Paul spoke of finding common ground with both Jews and Gentiles... he was speaking of those who had the deepest of disgust and hate for one another. They were enemies who categorically disdained one another. And he considered that the differences he had with either were now secondary... that he would try to find common ground ... on which he could connect...because that is what love does...it joins others in the common ground of our humanity.
Despite how differently we may approach various issues... we share the same underlying desires for security and significance. Despite all our differences... we care about our loved ones... we want to have hope... we struggle with certain fears and things that may control our lives. And we are all going through a pandemic... the most shared experience in recent history.
And when we share in the common ground of life.... we can offer ourselves as a testimony that God has come to save all of us.
And that is the last point to be made.
3. Love meets another at the point of COMMON NEED
Jesus came to meet us in our common need. Our common need is that we lived in darkness... separated from the light of God. Now I know that many of us might not think of our lives as having lived in darkness...but apart from God...we have no ultimate grasp of who we are... and no ultimate hope. We can let others claim who we really are...but they really are in no position to do so. We can claim to name ourselves...but it proves to be just some version of what others say we should be. We need the light that is outside of us to tell us who we really are...to give us our ultimate identity. And that is what the Christ of Christmas has come to bear. As the disciple John described in his Gospel, he came so that through him we could be restored as children of God. Jesus reveals that we are children who have lost our birthright... we are bound in our self-ruling nature. And Jesus meets us in that condition. He comes to take the consequences to all who will accept him...and then to give us the joy of life with the Father that already exists in the heavens and will last forever.
That is the ultimate connection that events of Christmas brings. The love of our Creator... our God... has come ... through the eternal son... to give us the joy of life with the Father that already exists in the heavens and will last forever.
How does this effect how we connect with others? Well... if God connects to meet us in our common need as sinners who cannot save themselves... then we connect with others by sharing in that common need of being sinners who cannot save themselves.
The apostle Paul, who as I mentioned had been part of the traditional religious leaders, had become very self-righteous as most religious people become. He was focused on the sins of others. But now... having realized he needed God’s grace... through Christ... Paul referred to himself as having been the chief of sinners.
Paul was clear that through Christ, we are no longer left under the condemnation of our sin... and we are no longer bound by the power of sin...we have a new nature at work in us. But he says that if we say we don’t still sin...we are liars. In other words,... our testimony to this world is not that we are innocent or superior in ourselves. We have the potential to connect with anyone because we are only claiming to share the same common nature of imperfection in and of ourselves. Our testimony is not a claim of being inherently different people...but of the difference that lies in being freed from the power of sin to control and condemn us. [2]
That is the ultimate connection that Christmas brings. It’s a love that meets us in our greatest need.
PRAYER
Some may have never personally received this connection... received Christ as your own representative is facing the consequences of sin and separation.
John 3:16... promise... to receive.
For all
Fill us with the JOY of being sent...of joining you in the common spaces... activities... in connecting in the common ground of our humanity.
Notes:
SCRIPTURES AFFIRMING CHRIST'S PRESENCE
Matthew 1:23
"Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and he will be called Immanuel (meaning, God is with us)."
Matthew 28:20
Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age."
John 14:18-20
No, I will not abandon you as orphans-I will come to you. [19] In just a little while the world will not see me again, but you will. For I will live again, and you will, too. [20] When I am raised to life again, you will know that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.
John 14:26
But when the Father sends the Counselor as my representative-and by the Counselor I mean the Holy Spirit-he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I myself have told you.
The Scriptures appear to be referring to everyone, when they speak of those who sin.
1 John 1:8 (NLT2)
If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth.
1 John 1:10 (NLT2)
If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts.
Romans 3:23 (NLT2)
For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.
