Manifesting Christmas
1 John 4:7-12
December 25, 2021
As you all know we have started studying through
The book of 1 John on Sunday mornings recently.
And last Sunday we studied what can be a difficult truth.
We are in chapter 1 and we talked about how “God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.”
This is of course the first leg of the message
Which John heard from Jesus and now has announced to us.
AND IT IS A VERY IMPORTANT POINT.
• It is important for non-believers to understand the holiness of God.
• It is important for non-believer to know they have no access to God on their
own.
• It is important for phony believers to realize that you cannot live in sin and
simultaneously claim to have fellowship with God.
Those are necessary truths.
The truth of God’s holiness is the first leg of the gospel message.
And as I told you Sunday
It is the most omitted part of Jesus’ message today as well.
Our world would rather focus on God being a “God of Love”
What they really mean is “God of Tolerance”
• They proclaim a God who isn’t bothered by sin
• They proclaim a God who has no need to punish sin
• They proclaim a God who would rather just live in harmony with sinners
Such a God does not exist for, as John said,
“God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.”
So, to proclaim this love of God without also proclaiming His holiness
IS A TERRIBLE ERROR.
HOWEVER, to proclaim His holiness
Without also proclaiming His love is just as grievous of an error.
Tomorrow when we gather back together on the Lord’s Day
• We will continue in 1 John
• And see the second leg of the message
• Which is of course that Jesus cleanses sinners from the sin that offends God.
But this morning in this special Christmas sermon
We can sort of look at the unseen motive behind all of that.
What is it that caused a holy God to send His Son to cleanse sinners?
And you know the answer, it is LOVE.
It is perhaps the most well-known verse in the world.
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”
We are talking about the motive of love.
As I told you Sunday, the world erroneously thinks
That holiness and love are somehow incompatible.
And therefore the world routinely sacrifices the holiness of God
That they might uphold the love of God.
That is a grievous mistake.
God’s holiness and God’s love in fact COMPLEMENT each other.
• God’s holiness demands atonement for sin.
• God’s love provides that atonement.
• Without God’s holiness there is no need for God’s love.
• Without God’s love there is no satisfaction for His holiness.
God’s holiness also INTENSIFIES God’s love.
It is only when we understand
The height of God’s holiness and His offense at sin
That we can truly grasp the depth of God’s love
To atone for those who offended Him.
THEY WORK TOGETHER.
And since we looked at holiness on Sunday, it is only fitting, especially here on Christmas morning to take a moment and look at God’s love.
Now, in our study of 1 John we will eventually get to chapter 4
And we will study this text perhaps a little more meticulously.
But this morning, I simply want to hit a couple of the main points.
What is clear when you read the text is that
THE CHIEF AIM of the text is to promote brotherly love in the church.
John states his purpose at the outset.
(7) “Beloved, let us love on another”
That’s the aim, that’s the goal.
You see it again in verse 11, “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”
So the chief purpose of the passage is clear.
By the time we are finished studying these verses, if we have understood them correctly, we should be loving one another.
That’s not hard to grasp.
But this morning we are also CELEBRATING CHRISTMAS and so there is an aspect here that we especially want to focus on this morning.
2 times in this text
We see reference to God sending His Son into the world.
(9) “By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.”
(10) “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
For what it’s worth if you look down to verse 14 in the chapter you’ll see it again. (14) “We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.”
But there is a clear reference to this miracle of the incarnation.
There is a clear mention by John that God sent His Son into the world.
That is the very essence of what we celebrate at Christmas.
From Christ’s perspective we focus on the humiliation of the incarnation.
• Namely that He would empty Himself of glory.
• That He would take on human form.
• That He would take the mantel of a servant.
• That He would submit Himself to the Law.
• That He would die on the cross.
• That He would rise from the dead.
And that will forever cause us to marvel.
And at times we look at Christmas from the FATHER’S PERSPECTIVE
• And we contemplate the sacrifice He made to actually send His Son from
Heaven to earth.
• And we contemplate the great love behind such a sacrifice.
What manner of love is it that causes a Father to send His Son
Into enemy territory and ultimately to sacrifice His Son
In order that He might save those enemies?
• Those who are offensive…
• Those who are rebellious…
• Those who are not welcome to enter His presence…
And yet the Father sends His Son into the world to save them.
There is an element of love here that must be recognized.
So first, let me draw your attention to verse 10.
Let’s talk about this great love of the Father on our behalf.
(10) “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
John says, “In this is love”
That is to say, “If you want an accurate example of what love is, then look at this.”
Our world is full of fallen and corrupt examples of love.
Our world is full of distortions.
But if you really want to see a true and accurate picture of love,
Then look here.
“In this is love”
And then John makes sure you are aware of something.
It is something that goes deeper than the actual act itself.
John wants to make sure that
You are aware of the unworthiness of the object.
He says, “not that we loved God”
You just have to love the COMMON LINGO of our world sometimes.
We see relationships come to an end and inevitably one person will say to the other,
“I just don’t love you anymore”
What they are actually saying is: “I have no longer deemed you worthy of receiving my love”
Love is a sacrifice; love comes with a cost.
And in our world when the person you are in a relationship with fails to be worth the sacrifice or the cost then they are cast aside as no longer worthy of love.
Well John wants you to understand from the outset
That the love which God demonstrated was not for those who deserved it.
It’s easy to love people who love you.
• But God set His love on people who didn’t love Him.
• He didn’t love people who loved Him, He loved people who needed His love.
We are talking about the VOLITIONAL aspect of God’s love.
There was nothing external that compelled God to love those He loved.
There was no loveliness in the object.
God loved of His own free volitional will.
God loved because He chose to love.
In fact, John sort of makes these two profound theological statements early in the text.
(7) “for love is from God”
• Which is to say that love is unique to Him.
• He is the only source of it.
• It only comes from Him.
(8) “God is love”
• Which is also profound.
• Everything God does is love.
Our world is constantly trying to take their definitions of love
And cast them on God, but love doesn’t define God.
God defines love.
I’ve heard many a person argue against things like election or predestination by saying, “God wouldn’t choose because that’s not love”
Well if God does it, it is love because God is love.
It could be that your definition of love is wrong.
But the simple point here is that
God is loving people who do not deserve it simply because He chose to.
God is loving people who do not love Him because that is who He is.
In His holiness He has no fellowship at all with sinners
So in His love He works to cleanse them
And bring them back into fellowship.
If He were only holy
• He would merely read His Law to sinners,
• Pronounce them guilty,
• And then throw them in hell where He satisfied Himself in the death of His enemies.
But He is also loving
• So He uses His Law to warn sinners
• And sends His Son to save them from their sin.
It is a love that takes no pleasure in the death of His enemies.
So again we understand His holiness demands atonement
And His love provides it.
And it is all purely part of HIS VOLITIONAL WILL to do so.
He is not loving those who deserve it.
It is “not that we loved God”
AND HERE IS THE DEMONSTRATION OF HIS LOVE.
“that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
Merry Christmas!
This Holy God, who was offended by and separated from sinners,
In love sent those sinners a Savior.
And to begin to grasp the DEGREE of His love
You have to see the VALUE of the One He sent.
• God didn’t send Satan to die.
• God didn’t send an angel to die.
• God didn’t split humanity down the center and say, “I’ll kill half of humanity on behalf of the others”
God sent “His Son”
In verse 9 He is called “His only begotten Son”
He sent the most prized.
He sent the most valuable.
1 Peter 1:18-19 “knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.”
The love of God spared no expense.
Not only was God’s love volitional, it is also SACRIFICIAL.
THIS IS LOVE!
It pays the highest price for the most unworthy object.
• That is what God did when He sent His Son into the world.
• That is what God did at Christmas.
• God paid the highest price for the most unworthy object.
NO ONE FORCED HIM TO DO IT.
No one compelled Him to do it.
It wasn’t done out of some sense of loneliness or lack of fulfillment.
God didn’t need to do it.
I hate that lyric in that song, “You didn’t want heaven without us so Jesus You brought heaven down.”
That is blasphemous.
The theological term is called GOD’S ASEITY
• It means that God is totally self-sufficient.
• He doesn’t need us.
• He doesn’t need anything.
• He didn’t need creation.
• He didn’t need humanity.
• He didn’t need us in heaven.
God wasn’t trying to fill some hole in His heart
By creating and saving humans.
He was and is totally self-sufficient and fulfilled in His own person.
God’s love is totally uncoerced.
• He loved the unworthy because He wanted to love.
• He didn’t need it, we did.
And when He loved He went all out.
• He paid the highest price for the most unworthy object.
Romans 5:7-8 “For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
Ephesians 2:4-5 “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),”
Titus 3:3-6 “For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior,”
This is certainly what we recognize and celebrate at Christmas.
• We worship God because He is love.
• We thank God for the love He showed.
• We come and rejoice and sing and worship because of the love which God has shown to us who do not deserve it.
He “sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
That means “appeasement” or “satisfaction” or “covering”
Christ was sent by the Father to satisfy our offense.
Christ was sent by the Father to cover our sin.
• He bore our sin and the judgment that accompanied it.
• He suffered death on our behalf that our sin might be atoned for and God’s
holiness might be satisfied.
That was the great gift of love we received at Christmas.
That God sent His Son to save the world by covering their sin.
THAT IS WHY WE ARE HERE THIS MORNING.
We come in celebration of the greatest gift we ever received.
But there is MORE I want you to see this morning.
I told you that the text is actually about our calling to love one another.
Christmas is more than theological it is meant to be transformational.
You certainly should marvel at the great love of God,
But you don’t stop there.
You are supposed to marvel and then manifest His love.
Ephesians 5:1-2 “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.”
That is what I want you to see this morning.
We titled this sermon “Manifesting Christmas”
Let me show you what I mean.
Look now at verse 9
“By this the love of God was manifested in us”
Stop there for a moment.
Pay special attention to the words “in us”
• John doesn’t say God’s love was manifested TO us, but “IN us”
“manifested” there is PHANEROO
It means “to make known what has been hidden”
In this case it is “the love of God”
The world doesn’t understand love
Because the world doesn’t understand God.
THE WORLD HAS NO CONCEPT OF LOVE.
So God is putting love on display.
Certainly He put it on display at Christmas and Calvary.
But God is still putting it on display.
God is still making love manifest to the world.
HOW?
By putting it in you!
“By this the love of God was manifest in us”
God is putting His love on display through you.
“By this the love of God was manifest in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.”
John is here giving you the INTENT of Christmas.
God sent His Son.
• God did it of His own volitional free will.
• God sacrificed greatly to do it.
• He sent Him “into the world”
And the purpose was clear.
“so that we might live through Him”
That is to say so that we might be partakers of the life of God.
Remember what we have said about fellowship for the last several weeks?
• It is a sharing in common life.
• The life of God in us.
Well if God is love and God’s life in us, then what has God put in us?
LOVE!
That is why John can say at the beginning of this text:
• (7b) “everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.”
• (8) “The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love”
When Christ saved you, He gave you life.
He gave you the love of God.
And part of that intent was so that you might show the world that love.
Look at verses 11-12
“Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us.”
The world doesn’t know God.
The world doesn’t see God.
Where are they going to see Him?
Where are they going to see His love?
IN YOU!
So, “Beloved, let us love one another”
The expectation is NOT that you would
Simply marvel at the great love of God on your behalf,
But that you would put it on display to the world.
That you would love volitionally, as God did.
• That means loving the unlovable
• That means loving those who don’t love you
• That means loving without compulsion
And that you would love sacrificially, as God did.
• That you and I would also pay the highest possible price for the least valuable object.
The world doesn’t do that.
The world doesn’t understand that.
The first time the world ever saw it was when Christ came to this world.
But now Christ has returned to the Father.
And the only chance this world has of seeing it today
Is when you and I put it on display for them.
This is what it means to Manifest Christmas.
And that is MY ENCOURAGEMENT to you this morning.
Certainly we MARVEL at the love of God shown at Christmas.
But we must also MANIFEST the love of God shown at Christmas.
And we do that when we volitionally and sacrificially love one another.
That’s the only way our world will ever see who God is.
So go put God’s love on display
By sacrificially loving someone who doesn’t deserve it.
