MELVIN M. NEWLAND, MINISTER
CENTRAL CHRISTIAN, BROWNSVILLE, TX
In his letter to the Galatians, chapter 5, vs. 22, the apostle Paul writes these words, "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness & self-control."
And this morning we’re going to focus on the first "fruit of the Spirit - love." The one thing that ought to be evident to everybody when they see us as Christians is Christlike love in our lives.
PROP. So let’s discuss first the need for love. Next, we’ll look at a perfect example of love in the Bible, & then consider some applications.
I. THE NEED FOR LOVE
We live in a world that desperately needs love. Even though society glorifies the subject of love, there is so little evidence of love around us today. Why?
A. Well, first of all, I think we’re misguided.
1. Society seems to equate sex with love. But many engage in sex without the slightest thought of love.
2. Others think that indulgence is love. We have children & we buy them all kinds of things, expensive clothing, $200 athletic shoes. We get them new red convertibles when they turn 16, & think that is love.
ILL. As you know, just a few weeks ago there was a tragedy in Olmito as 3 people were killed when their car tried to outrun the train at a railroad crossing. Now the parents of the 15-year-old driver are grief-stricken over the loss of the son they loved.
In fact, they loved their son so much that they bought him his own Trans-Am before he was legally old enough to drive. And they let him drive the car illegally while he was still underage & didn’t have a driver’s license. Then he races a train & loses, & now the family is suing for millions over his loss. Indulgence is not love.
3. Tolerance is not love, either. It’s the popular credo of our time to be very tolerant of one another. No matter what your lifestyle might be, we’re supposed to be tolerant of it.
But as I understand the Bible, if someone is living a life that is leading them to hell, then if I love that person I must do everything I can to help them change the way they’re living, & the direction they’re going.
SUM. So we’re misguided if we think that sex is love, or indulgence is love, or tolerance is love. Love is much more than that.
B. Secondly, I think love is misunderstood. One of the problems is our language. Most other languages have several words to express different kinds of love. But our language has just this one word, & we use it in many ways.
ILL. We see two people locked in an embrace underneath a palm tree on a beautiful night, & we hear him say to her, "I love you."
ILL. Again, we see a couple eating in a Mexican restaurant, & one of them says, "I love fajitas." It’s the same word, but surely a different emotion.
ILL. And of course, as we drive around we see all those bumper stickers proclaiming, "I love the Cowboys."
ILL. Ralph Sockman said, "Love is an overworked word for an underemployed emotion." He’s right. We use it all the time, but we really don’t employ the emotion. No wonder society misunderstands what love really is!
C. Thirdly, love is missing.
ILL. Recently, the tragedy of Oklahoma City was revisited in our minds as Timothy McVeigh was convicted of that horrible crime to the cheers of outraged citizens & grieving family members.
ILL. Then last week the sickening depravity of sexual perversion reached a climax in the murderous actions & ultimate suicide of Andrew Cunanan.
I don’t need to go on. Every day there are news items proclaiming the absence of love in our society. But there are some bright spots.
ILL. A couple I know were driving on the highway when they saw a woman walking along, carrying a baby. You know how it is, when you’re driving at highway speed, it takes a few seconds to react.
They saw her, then they saw her car with a flat tire. Quickly the wife said, "Oh, stop!" So he started slowing down to stop & then back up to where the woman was. But before he could, he saw 4 other cars behind him stopping to help, too. There are moments when we’re stirred to be loving & kind.
But I’m talking about everyday life. What about when an aging relative needs help 24 hours a day, & you’re becoming weary of the responsibility?
What about the single parent who is lonely & tired of being both mom & dad to the kids, & struggling to keep their heads above water financially?
What about the teenagers who cry out for attention, for someone to listen to them? "Look at me! Listen to me! There is something inside of me that you need to hear, to know about me." And love hears, & love understands.
APPL. The world is starving for love, but too often love is missing. Jesus said, "A new commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. All men will know that you are my disciples if you love one another" [John 13:34-35].
Kids are joining gangs because of dysfunctional families. People are joining cults & the New Age movement because they’re starved for love.
ILL. I recently heard of a New Ager talking about her relationship with her crystal, & the love she receives from it, how she sleeps with the crystal, & when she wakes up in the morning she can feel love emanating from it. I thought, "How sad, to be so starved for love as to sleep with a rock, & to think that it is a source of love."
II. THE PERFECT EXAMPLE OF LOVE
A. Now let’s look to Jesus for the perfect example of love. The story is found in the Gospel of John, chapter 8, vs’s 1-11.
Let me begin by reading John 8:1-5, "Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. At dawn He appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around Him, & He sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law & the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group & said to Jesus, `Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?’"
And John adds this footnote in vs. 6. He says, "They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing Him."
Now here is the scene. Jerusalem is crowded. It is a festive time, with some obviously engaging in drinking & drunkenness & immorality - a time to get caught in the act of adultery. And that’s exactly what happened. So here comes a crowd, bringing this woman who has been caught in the act of adultery, & they make her stand before Jesus. She’s guilty, there’s no question about that. But notice what Jesus does.
It says in the last part of vs. 6, "Jesus bent down & started to write on the ground with his finger." I wonder what He wrote? It doesn’t say, so we just don’t know. But it doesn’t matter nearly as much what Jesus wrote as what He was doing. Jesus was giving them an opportunity to reconsider, to think about what they’re doing. He’s giving them an opportunity to drop the stones they are holding. But they don’t do it.
Then Vs’s 7-9 tell us, "When they kept on questioning Him, He straightened up & said to them. `If one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.’ Again He stooped down & wrote on the ground. At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there."
Now let me suggest that this is one of those precious moments in scripture when a sinner & the Savior stand face to face. He doesn’t condone her sin, but He doesn’t condemn her. He condemns her sin, but He doesn’t condemn her.
Here they are, just the two of them, & He asks, "`Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?’ `No one, sir,’ she said. `Then neither do I condemn you,’ Jesus declared. `Go now & leave your life of sin’" [Vs’s 10-11].
B. There are many lessons here, & the reason I think this story is important is because I’m convinced that we’re in this picture, too. Our list of sins may be different, but we’re in the same boat she’s in. We stand condemned before the Savior just as she was.
But it’s so easy for us to be just like the scribes & Pharisees, pointing their long bony fingers, stones in hand, ready to condemn. They were trying to trap Jesus. But He turned the tables on them, & the crowd slinked away.
The only one there who had a right to throw stones was Jesus Christ, & He doesn’t want to throw stones. That gives us hope, too, doesn’t it?
III. APPLICATIONS
Finally, look at these applications.
A. First: "Love meets the needs of others before it meets the wants of self." Don’t tell them that Jesus loves them until you’re ready to love them, too. I can preach a dozen sermons on the subject of love. But one act of love on your part will communicate better than all the sermons that I might preach.
ILL. Dennis Slaughter, minister of Valley View Christian Church, tells of an experience he had about a year ago. He was getting ready to drink his second cup of coffee when the doorbell rang. His wife had already left for work, & he was going to drink this last cup of coffee & go to work, too.
When Dennis opened the door, there stood a man who said, "I hate to bother you, but my car just broke down & I’m stranded. I wonder if I could use your telephone?" So Dennis invited the man in.
Now Dennis knew that you’re not supposed to do that today, but he did it anyway. Then he got to wondering, "What if he has a gun in his pocket? What if he is planning to rob me of all my valuables?" Then he smiled because he knew that he didn’t have enough valuables to make it worth while.
Anyway, the man came in & Dennis showed him where the phone was. The man tried to call a co-worker, but as often happens today, he got a machine. So he asked Dennis, "What’s your phone number?" Then he left a message on the machine, asking his friend to call him back there. He made 2 more calls, each time leaving a message & Dennis’ phone number. Then he asked, "Would it be all right if I sit here & wait until someone returns my call?" Dennis said, "Sure, we can wait."
While waiting, Dennis asked if he would like a cup of coffee, hoping the man would say "No, I don’t drink coffee," but he didn’t. He wanted coffee, so Dennis gave him that last cup of coffee. Then they began talking about a variety of things, including what they did for a living. Dennis told him about the Valley View church & invited him to the services.
Well, as they talked, Dennis said that the man consistently used some very rough language. Now as you may realize, most preachers have had the experience that when you mention that you’re a minister, people seem embarrassed, & make an obvious effort to clean up what they say. But not this guy. He didn’t change his vocabulary, & Dennis concluded that he didn’t even realize that it might be offensive, or wrong. It was just his normal style of conversation.
Well, finally the phone rang. It was one of his friends saying that he would soon be there to pick him up. The man thanked Dennis & said, "Man, this is great. You have been so nice to me, & that was really good coffee. And I’ve enjoyed talking with you."
Then he said "goodbye" & headed out to meet his co-worker. The next day he called Dennis & asked, "Is my car still out there?" Dennis said, "Yes, it’s still there." The man asked, "Will you kind of watch it for me until I can come & get it?" Dennis answered, "Yeah, I’ll be glad to."
The man said, "Boy, you’ve been so nice to me. You’re the nicest guy I think I’ve ever met. You invited me into your home. You gave me a cup of coffee. I just can’t get over how nice you’ve been."
Now what did Dennis do? He really didn’t do much at all. He opened his door. He gave him his last cup of coffee. He let him use his telephone, & he talked with him. That’s all he did. But in a world that’s starved for love, that’s unusual. And the man was impressed.
As a Christian community we need to learn to meet the needs of others. Our culture says, "You meet your wants first, then maybe you might try to meet the needs of others."
ILL. Barbara Rieberg wrote a poem entitled, "The Greatest Test." Please listen as I read it to you.
"Help me to walk so close to thee, that those who know me best will see
I live as godly as I pray, & Christ is real from day to day.
I see some once a day, or year. To them I blameless might appear.
It’s easy to be kind & sweet to people whom we seldom meet.
But in my home are those who see too many times the worst of me.
My hymns of praise were best unsung if He does not control my tongue.
May no one stumble over me because Thy love they fail to see.
Give me, Lord, a life that sings, & victory over little things.
Help me with those who know me best, for Jesus sake, to stand the test."
B. The second application is: "Love leads people to Christ." Love is infectious. And in a world that is starved for love, if the church will learn this principle & be a loving community, it will draw people to Christ.
ILL. The story is told of a preacher riding on a bus, & a drunk comes stumbling on, sitting down beside him. The preacher immediately took out his Bible & began reading scripture to the man. Then he announced to the drunk, "Do you know that you’re going to hell?" The drunk said, "Oh, no! I got on the wrong bus again!"
The world needs to know it’s going to hell, but the best way to lead the world away from hell is to show them how to get to heaven. We need to communicate a message of love, for love leads people to Christ.
C. The third application is this: "Love sees people for what they can become, rather than what they are."
The woman was a pitiful sight, tears streaming down her face, clothing askew, guilty as she could be of the sin she had committed. Yet, Jesus looks at her & sees her for what she can become rather than what she is.
In 1 Corinthians 6, the apostle Paul paints a picture of what the church really is. He talks about how the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of heaven. Then he gives a long list of those who will not get into heaven. They are the sexually immoral, the idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes, homosexual offenders, thieves, greedy, drunkards, slanderers, swindlers. None of those, he says, will inherit the kingdom of God.
Then he says, "This is what some of you were." You see, we are standing beside this woman who was caught in the act of adultery. We are sinners, too.
But then Paul says, "You were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ & by the Spirit of our God." That’s the church! We’re no different than the woman, except we have been washed, sanctified, & justified in the name of Jesus & by the Spirit of God.
CONCL. I want this church, more than anything else, to be a community of love. More than anything else, I want to be able to come here, & I want you to be able to come here, & feel totally & completely loved.
If we love each other as God has loved us, then we will become the society of love that will serve like a magnet, drawing a world that is starving for love into the presence of Jesus & the salvation that He offers.
If you’re here this morning & you’re not a Christian, we extend to you the opportunity to accept Jesus as your Lord & Savior. So we invite you to come forward & join us here in front as we stand as we sing.
