The Gifts of Christmas: Love
Scott Bayles, adapted from Outreach
Blooming Grove Christian Church: 12/11/2016
What would Christmas be without the songs and carols?
Even if you wanted to, there is no possible way for you to escape hearing Christmas carols over the next few weeks. In church, while you’re shopping, while you’re on hold with the cable company, out of kids’ mouths, 24/7 on WBGL you’re going to be inundated with Christmas carols. I, for one, love Christmas music.
Bear with me, then, because today we are going to play a little game. It’s called “Name That Christmas Song.” I’ll read a phrase from a well-known song, and you try to think of the title. Ready? Here we go.
• We’re snuggled up together like two birds of a feather would be. (“Sleigh Ride”)
• When we finally kiss goodnight, how I’ll hate going out in the storm. But if you really hold me tight, all the way home I’ll be warm. (“Let It Snow”)
• Ho ho the mistletoe is hung where you can see. Somebody waits for you. Kiss her once for me. (“Holly Jolly Christmas”)
• Mistletoe hung where you can see, every couple tries to stop. (“Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree”)
• In the meadow we can build a snowman and pretend that he is Parson Brown. He’ll say are you married, we’ll say no man. But you can do the job when you’re in town. (“Winter Wonderland”)
Do you notice a theme here? Valentine’s Day may get all the glory for being the holiday of love, but it’s seems like Christmas has cornered the market as the season of love and romance. In fact, in the “2014 American Wedding Study” conducted by Brides magazine, researchers found that 19 percent of all engagements occur in December, making it the most popular month to get engaged. And can you guess what day is the most popular to pop the question? Statistics show that Christmas Eve is the most popular day for engagements. Facebook confirmed this last year, showing that Christmas Eve is the most popular day to get engaged, followed by Christmas Day, New Year’s Day, and then Valentine’s Day.
Whether or not you have someone to snuggle up together with or meet under the mistletoe, Christmas is the season of love—and not just because couples find it romantic.
If you were with us last week, you know that we began a journey through the true gifts of Christmas. We’re unwrapping the four most important gifts we could ever receive. Last Sunday, we unwrapped the gift of hope. We talked about experiencing past hope, present hope and patient hope during the Advent season. The word Advent means “coming” or “arrival,” and this season offers us the opportunity to share in the ancient longing for the coming of the Messiah, to celebrate His birth, and to be alert for His second coming.
The second gift of Christmas that we’ll unwrap this Advent season is love. Advent is a season for rediscovering the coming of our Savior—and for gaining even greater understanding of how wide and long and high and deep His love is for us. This is the gift we unwrap today.
There one verse in the Bible marked by love that encapsulates the Christmas story. I’m going to guess that if I just say the reference John 3:16, many of us in the room hear the familiar verse run through our heads automatically. Just in case, it goes like this: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
This single sentence sums up the story of Christmas and highlights God’s love in sending Jesus. The problem is, sometimes we are so familiar with this verse that we can recite it and look right past it, but here we discover one of the greatest Christmas gifts of all—the gift of love.
In fact, if we break it down we’ll see four aspects of God’s love contained in this beloved verse. First, we see the origin of love.
• ORIGIN OF LOVE
Jesus begins this sentence with the words, “God so loved…” (John 3:16). Love at Christmastime or anytime, begins with God. Love has been God’s story from the beginning. From the moment of creation, God’s love was part of the fabric of our world. God’s love was with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden both before and after sin entered the world. God showed His love by saving Noah and his family from the flood and giving them a new start. In the Old Testament God gave the commandments and law out of love for his children. And His love turned the world inside out when He sent His Son to live among us.
Love finds its origins in God himself because love is an intrinsic attribute of God’s eternal nature. In fact, the apostle John even writes, “God is love” (1 John 4:8).
Those three little words ought to fill our hearts with warmth and hope. If those words are true, it makes all the difference in the world! But we need to understand this rightly. “God is love” does not mean that “love is God.” In other words, love does not define God; rather, God defines love. Much of what we call “love” in our culture has no resemblance or relationship to real love.
Most of you are probably familiar with 1 Corinthians 13, which says, “Love is patient. Love is kind…” That passage not only describes what real love looks like; it describes what God looks like, because God is love.
There’s an old story about the great preacher Charles Spurgeon. One day Charles was walking through the English countryside with a friend. As they strolled along, the evangelist noticed a barn with a weather vane on its roof. At the top of the vane were the words God is Love. Spurgeon remarked to his companion that he thought this was a rather inappropriate place for such a message. “Weather vanes are always changing,” he said, “but God’s love is constant.”
“I disagree with you, Charles,” replied his friend. “I think you misunderstood the meaning. You see, that sign is indicating a truth: Regardless of which way the wind blows, God is love.”
The first truth we discover about this wonderful gift of love is that love comes from God, because it’s part of who God is. Further, this beloved verse points out the object of God’s love.
• OBJECT OF LOVE
As Jesus continues, he says, “God so loved the world…” (John 3:16). Perhaps the most perplexing part of God’s love is that we are the object of it. God loves the world—that means God loves you and God loves me.
And just as it is with any gift, the first thing we have to do is accept it.
For some of you here today, this step of accepting the gift of God’s love may be very difficult. It may be something you’ve struggled with for a long time, it may be a brand-new idea for you, or it may be a gift you’ve neglected for a while. Maybe you feel unlovable. Maybe you’ve been burned by human love too many times to trust that there’s something greater. Maybe you think, You don’t know what I’ve done. You don’t know the dark secrets and doubts and fears and pain inside.
But I’m here to tell you—it doesn’t matter. God loves you just the way you are. Max Lucado, in his book Just Like Jesus, describes God’s love like this: “God’s love never ceases. Never. Though we spurn him. Ignore him. Reject him. Disobey him. He will not change. Our evil cannot diminish his love. Our goodness cannot increase it. Our faith does not earn it any more than our stupidity jeopardizes it. God doesn’t love us less if we fail or more if we succeed. God’s love never ceases.”
Jesus once put it this way: “What is the price of five sparrows—two copper coins? Yet God does not forget a single one of them… So don’t be afraid; you are more valuable to God than a whole flock of sparrows” (Luke 12:6-7 NLT). In Jesus’ day a copper coin was one of the smallest coins in circulation—a penny. And one such penny could buy you two sparrows. But two pennies could buy you five sparrows. Sparrows were so worthless that you buy four at a penny-a-pair and get a fifth sparrow for free. They were less than a-dime-a-dozen! There may be days when you feel like a fifth sparrow. Worthless. Insignificant. Unimportant. Unloved. But you’re not! You are loved by God! Even the sparrows matter to him and you are so much more valuable to God than a whole flock of sparrows! You’re the apple of his eye. You’re the bubbles in his Pepsi. As Augustine put it, “He loves each one of us, as if there were only one of us.”
You are the object of God’s love. Furthermore, as we continue in this verse, we discover the offering of God’s love.
• OFFERING OF LOVE
Again, Jesus says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son…” (John 3:16). God’s gift of love came wrapped in swaddling clothes.
The story of Christmas isn’t just a story about feelings. Love is a verb. It requires action. Christmas is God’s story of love in action—how the God of the universe loves you so much that He gave his one and only Son to be born in a stable, die on the cross, and rise again from the grave!
Jesus is God’s gift of love to you!
I read a story this week about a school Christmas pageant. Of course, there was nothing there to make it religious—only snowmen, reindeer and the like. As part of the program, the kindergarten class sang a song titled Christmas Love. And 13 of the children had large letters that they were to hold up as they sang the song in order to spell out the words C-H-R-I-S-T-M-A-S L-O-V-E.
Everything was going well until the small quiet girl who had the letter "M" held up her sign. Pretty soon the kids began to giggle and laugh as the song kept going on. Of course, the little girl had no idea why everyone was laughing, so she just kept singing and holding up her sign. The song continued until the last letter was raised, and slowly all the laughter died down as the audience read the message spelled out by the letter. The reason everyone had giggled was the little girl with the “M” held her sign upside down, making a “W” instead. Yet at the end of the song, there was no laughter because the message of Christmas spoke loud and clear. Instead of saying “Christmas Love,” the message those kids held up said “Christ Was Love.”
He still is. Jesus is not only the reason for the season; he is the love of God—a gift to the entire world, just waiting to be unwrapped. Finally, as we come to the end of this verse, we discover the outcome of God’s love.
• OUTCOME OF LOVE
Jesus finishes the most famous verse in the world, saying, “whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
The intended outcome or the results of God giving his gift of love, is that we might believe in him, put our faith in him, and in so doing receive yet another gift—life everlasting!
God’s love is intended to draw us to Him.
God once described his relationship with people in these words: “I drew them with gentle cords, with bands of love” (Hosea 11:4 NKJV). When I read this I picture a mom—walking through the zoo or a crowded mall—connected to her rambunctious three-year-old by one of those harnesses with a leash attached. Have you seen those?
I once read about a certain kind of spider with a similar system for protecting its young. The spider builds its nest in the branch of a small tree or bush. Within this delicate enclosure the baby spiders are hatched. If the nest is disturbed in any way, the little spiders will rush out in fright, but each of the young ones has a thin silky strand attached to it, and all of these strands are joined to the body of the mother. When the babies are threatened by an enemy, they naturally scurry off, giving their lines a sharp tug. This is instantly felt by the mother spider, and within seconds, she pulls them back to the nest where they are protected from harm.
That’s what God’s love does for us. It draws to Him, inviting us to put our faith in Jesus and to live in the safety of his love for all eternity.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
Conclusion
That’s the message of Christmas—the origin of God’s love, the object of God’s love, the offering of God’s love and outcome of God’s love.
And, maybe this goes without saying, but if you’ve unwrapped and embraced the gift of God’s love this Christmas—maybe you can share it with someone else.
I remember a Peanuts cartoon where Lucy comes in and says to Charlie Brown, “Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown. `Tis the season of peace on earth and good will toward men. Therefore, I suggest we forget all our differences and love one another.” Charlie Brown, whose face lights up at this, replies, “That’s wonderful, Lucy. I’m so glad you said that. But tell me, do we have to love each other only at this season of the year? Why can’t we love each other all year long?” To which Lucy retorts, “What are you, a fanatic or something?”
I say if you’ve accepted God’s gift of love, let’s be fanatics! Let’s keep our focus on making this a season of love that reaches far deeper than the sappy carols or even the romantic statistics. Let’s revel in God’s love and be known to others by our love for one another all year round. May this be a season of accepting, experiencing, and sharing God’s gift of love in a new or deeper way.
Invitation
Prayer: God, thank You that in this season of Advent we can unwrap the gift of Your love. Help us to receive and respond to Your love this Christmas. Please continue to fill us with expectation as we live in Your love and wait for the complete fulfillment of that love when Christ comes again.
