How do we respond to Easter?
(THIS WAS A TALK FOR A FAMILY SERVICE. IT HAS SOME POWERPOINT SLIDES TO GO WITH IT. IF YOU’D LIKE THEM, PLEASE EMAIL ME AT SIMON.BARTLETT@VIRTUALITY.CO)
Two weeks ago was Easter Sunday and some of us were on holiday. But Easter Sunday wasn’t the END of Easter. It was actually the beginning! This year, Easter continues until early June. Today, we’re going to go on thinking about Easter. On Good Friday we remembered Jesus’ death on the cross for our sake. But how should we respond to that? That’s the question I’m going to look at today.
To answer that question, we’re going to look at something that someone called John wrote. John, on the left, was one of Jesus’ disciples. 1 John is a letter he wrote.
Today, Caz read part of John’s letter. What is it about?
Just look at how often the word ‘love’ comes. It comes 12 times in this short passage! And ‘beloved’ comes twice. The passage is definitely about love!
OK… but what kind of love? The kind of love you have for your boyfriend of girlfriend? The kind of love some people have for chocolate cake?! Or is John thinking of some other kind of love?
This part of the Bible was written in Greek. Greek had several different words for love. So that helps us to know what kind of love John was thinking of. All through this passage, John uses the word ‘agape’.
If we go to the experts (I went to Britannica), they tell us that in the Bible, ‘agape-love’ is the kind of love God has for us and that we should have for God.
Here’s an example, in just the first two words. John wrote in Greek, ‘Agapetoi, agapomen’. You can see the ‘agape’ in the words. The Bible translates this as ‘Beloved, let us love.’
But it’s a shame that we can’t say what kind of love John means. So perhaps we could say, ‘We-who-are loved-with-agape-love, we should love with agape love.’
So, the passage is all about love, and to be exact, ‘agape-love’, not any other kind of love. What is John asking us to do? To love GOD with agape-love? Look! That isn’t what John is asking us to do. He’s asking us to love ONE ANOTHER with agape love!
OK, we may say to ourselves. That sounds like hard work! Why should we love people around us with agape-love? Good question! You can see that John writes ‘for’. He’s going to tell us why.
Do the two women in the picture look alike? How are they similar? They’ve both got frizzy hair. Their eyes are noses are similar. They’re both wearing black blouses and silvery dangly earrings. Do you suppose they are related? How? You’re right! They are mother and daughter. The mother’s name is Gina Burkhart and her daughter’s name is Camry. They live in Connecticut in the United States. They get lots of comments along the lines of ‘I gotta tell you, you are both so cute, you look exactly alike.’ That’s what we expect, isn’t it? Children look like their parents. And Camry is very happy to look like her mum.
That’s the point John is making. ‘Love is from God.’ Remember, we’re talking about agape-love here, not romantic love or cake-love or any other kind of love. ‘Love is from God.’ That means that it isn’t from anywhere else. So, if a person loves, loves with agape-love, they are doing something that only comes from God. Their agape-love shows that THEY ARE BORN OF GOD. But if agape-love isn’t there, then it means that they don’t know God. ‘God is love’, John writes. If a person isn’t showing love, one of God’s greatest characteristics, then it means that they don’t know God.
On the cross, Jesus gave us agape-love. But here John isn’t asking us to show JESUS agape-love in return. We should, of course! Here, he’s saying that WE SHOULD SHOW EACH OTHER that agape-love.
OK, so we should show each other agape-love. But what is agape-love like? John is just about to answer that question.
He writes, ‘the love of God was made manifest’. That’s a complicated way of saying, ‘This is how we saw God’s love.’ How?
First thing: ‘God sent’. Agape-love DOES THINGS. IT TAKES ACTION. If all you do is put the kettle on, put your feet up and watch the football, then that isn’t a lot of agape-love. This verse calls us to mission! If we’re going to love like God then WE also SEND, WE GO.
Second, we see that God sent HIS ONLY SON. Along the way, God sent various prophets into the world. But he finally sent his son. He gave the greatest gift possible. We saw that agape-love is active. Now we see that agape-love is willing to do all that it’s possible to do.
Third: ‘So that we might live through him.’ Agape-love thinks of the benefit to the other person.
Fourth, John writes that God sent Jesus to be ‘the propitiation for our sins’. ‘Propitiation’ is a long word! John usually uses simple words so it’s quite surprising that he uses such a long word. What does it mean?
Let me give an example. Let’s suppose that one day you’re playing in the garden with your friend. You aim for goal but you slip and the ball sails through your mum and dad’s bedroom window. There’s a great crash.
Your mum and dad are out but when they get home, they won’t be happy. What can you do?
There are two different issues. One is that the window is broken. The other is that your mum and dad will be angry.
Propitiation is about fixing the fact that they will be angry.
How could you propitiate your mum and dad? You get to work… When your mum and dad come home you say, ‘I am REALLY sorry. I broke your bedroom window. But I’ve cleared up all the glass. I’ll give you all the money in my money box for the repair. And I’ve made some cupcakes.’
How would your mum and dad react to that? They might say, ‘You slipped. You’ve said sorry. It’s forgotten.’
That’s what Jesus did for us. He was ‘the propitiation for our sins.’ His death took away God’s anger at our sins. That is agape-love.
In verse 11, John is repeating what he said in verse 7. This is the main thing he’s saying. There are lots of things we think about at Easter – but the cross is right at the centre. When we remember God’s love for us, John doesn’t say here that we should love GOD in return. He says we should love ONE ANOTHER. Actually, when we love one another, we love God.
So, we come to the last verse. But John doesn’t end with a little fizzle. He says something amazing – well, two things – and they both really motivate us to love.
First, John writes, ‘If we love one another, God abides in us.’ ‘Abides in us’ means ‘lives in us.’ That’s amazing, isn’t it? Would you like to have Jesus as your guest? What about having Jesus move in with you permanently? It would be great, wouldn’t it? If we love, love with agape-love, that’s going to happen. It’s what John says here. But he’s only repeating what Jesus said. Jesus said, 'If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, AND WE WILL COME TO HIM AND MAKE OUR HOME WITH HIM’ [John 14:23]. That’s amazing!
Some Christian families say a prayer before they eat, ‘Come Lord Jesus be our guest, and let these gifts to us be blessed’. They invite Jesus to be their guest. Jesus is very willing to! John tells us that if we love one another, then Jesus will abide with us – live with us, in other words.
We have reached the end. The question I started with was ‘How do we respond to Easter?’ John answers that question. He calls us to love one another with the agape-love that God has shown us. If we do that, we are true children of God.
We understand what agape-love is when we consider what God did for us by sending us his son to be a propitiation for our sins.
If we show that love to one another, there are some great results. Jesus will abide in us; he will live in us! And, amazingly, when we love one another, God’s love is perfected in us!
So, there are lots of reasons to respond to the cross; to love one another with agape-love.
We know what to do. Now it’s up to us to do it.
Talk given at Rosebery Park Baptist Church, Bournemouth, UK, 8th May, 2022
