LBC Sermon-Easter (first service)4.16.06-The message of the cross-God’s love for us brought Christ to give EVERYTHING for us, our response should be to love God and give EVERYTHING for Him
Holy week or Passion week
Think about all that happened in the life of X that week, especially the last 24 hours before his crucifixion. This morning talk about that-the message of the cross what does it say about God & X and I hope that by the time we are done you will see that...
KI-God’s love for us brought Christ to give EVERYTHING for us, our response should be to love God and give EVERYTHING for Him
Pray.
Turn to I Jn. 4
Passion week-the word passion
In this context 2 primary meanings-
1) The passion (from the Latin patio, “to suffer or endure”) of Christ consists of the events of what is familiarly known as Holy Week
2) intense, driving, or overmastering feeling or conviction
Passion, fervor, ardor, enthusiasm, zeal mean intense emotion compelling action. passion applies to an emotion that is deeply stirring
So, the Passion of the Christ or passion week traditionally refer to the suffering that X endured for us, but this morning I want to look at the passion of the Christ, not just in terms of His suffering, but why He endured that suffering, because of the passion that He had for us, X went to the cross because He loved us.
KI-God’s love for us brought Christ to give EVERYTHING for us, our response should be to love God and give EVERYTHING for Him
Read I Jn. 4:7-19
GOD IS LOVE (4:8)
-That is His character, He is love
Not a quality that He posses, it is the essence of who He is.
God is love-that’s His heart, that is His essential being.
Whole different quality of love than we’ve known as humans.
Early church used a different word than the usual Greek word for love when talking about God’s love-eros vs. agape
For us it is normal to love those who are lovely, those we feel deserve to be loved, those who are worthy, those who we know can return our love.
But God’s love, agape love, is unconditional. He loves the unlovely, the unworthy.
Look @ Rom. 5:6-8“When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. Now, no one is likely to die for a good person, though someone might be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed His great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.” (NLT)
While we were still sinners, incapable of returning His love, X died for us
& THAT LOVE IS PERFECT
He loves us perfectly.
Nothing I can do to make God love me more, nothing I can do to make God love me less.
He Loves us and created us to have a relationship w/ us, broken because of sin, but God still loves us, passionate about us, He was passionate about restoring that relationship,
II. Christs sacrifice defines love (4:9,10, 14)
I Jn. 4:9-10-God’s love for us brought Christ to give EVERYTHING for us,
Now that sacrifice is the very definition of love
-I Jn. 3:16-“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.” (NIV)
This is how we know what love is.-Melea’s story
Christ shows us that love is Not just a feeling-the passionate love we’re talking about is love in action-a love that is so strong it had to be acted on-love is something we do.
Passion-intense emotion compelling action
God’s love, His passion for us goes even beyond emotion-as we’ve seen He is love-it’s His very nature
Vs. 10-This is real love-God loved us and sent His son-His love was proven in action (vs. 14)
III. Our response– Love and our love is a result of what Christ did on the cross. (4:11,19)
Vs. 11-since God loved us, we ought to love each other & by implication we need to love others they way He loved us, giving all that we are
Vs. 12-His love is shown through us as we love others
Vs. 19-sums it all up-we love because He loved us first-Love God and love others because He has loved us.
That is the central message of the Scriptures the Message God’s love for us-I Cor. 13-What is it? (love chapter)
5 vs. define love
8 vs. emphasize the importance of love
I Tim. 1:5-The goal of our instruction is love
Heb. 10:23-26-stimulate/spur the body onto love & good deeds
I Pet. 4:8-Be fervent in love
Gal. 5:6-Faith working through love
Ps. 136-His Love endures forever
Mk. 12:29-31-Greatest Commandement-Love God & Love Others
Read Eph. 3:14-19
-experience the love of X, though it is so great you will never fully understand it
That’s an important point because for the Jews in the ancient world they had a different way of trying to grasp who God was as compared to the Greeks.
If you had asked the Greeks what they thought about God, they would have talked about God’s essence. They would have talked about His omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence-all powerful, all knowing, everywhere present, trying to describe what He is like.
The Jews however didn’t even try to get at the essence of God. They knew that it was past finding out. Instead of talking about what God is, the Jews always talked about what God did. If you asked them about God, they would have said
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“Our God is the one who delivered us from the hands of the Egyptians and brought us into the promised land. Our God is the one who defended us against our enemies, has guided us, and has made us His chosen people.”
The Jews would have talked about what God has done and is doing and would have contended that all we can know about God is what we can deduce from His actions. They knew that God would go on loving them, no matter what, because of what He had done.
This morning think about God’s love for you, what Has God done for you, how have you experienced His love-The Passion of the Christ
Salvation, marriage, children, career, friends, provision, protection,
KI-God’s love for us brought Christ to give EVERYTHING for us, our response should be to love God and give EVERYTHING for Him
What is it that you haven’t given to God, what’s keeping you from living passionately for Him?
-life, baptism, sin, $, time, service
Not an easy decision-But as we wrestle w/ the decision to give everything, X knows what we are going through.
Think about what God has given for you Everything-How you have experienced His love-& then what is it that you are keeping from Him, what is keeping you from living passionately for Him?
