Authentic Christianity #13: He First Loved Us

Why do we love? And where does our ability to love actually come from? In this message from 1 John 4:19–21, we discover that all love begins with God. His love is not merely an example for us to follow, it is the very foundation of reality and the source of every act of goodness. Because God first loved us, we are able to love Him and love others. This sermon explores how God’s preceding love shapes our purpose, transforms our hearts, and turns obedience from a burden into a delight. Learn why genuine love for God always expresses itself in love for people, and how living in the light of God’s love changes everything about the way we see the world and our place in it. 

Transcript

As I was researching, the text this week, I realized that, when I was looking at, something about God's relationship with us, I could see something about his relationship to the whole of all of creation. And, so today, I'm going to make you this promise that, you're going to have, an insight into a central mystery of the universe that scientists have been struggling to discover over the last, in recent decades. Those who are, functioning in the area of theoretical science are, and have been trying to discover for some time, the one ultimate prize of theoretical physics, which is to discover the one thing that unifies all things. What is the one thing that all of the diversity of all of the universe has in common? And, mathematicians have been struggling to discover this physicist, astronomers, they've all been in search of everything that tie the one thing that ties everything together, the one unifying principle that that creates a university out of all of the diversity of all of creation, that one thing that out of which all things proceeds, from and all things go to, now, these things that scientists have been struggling to discover, it turns out theologians have known all along. And, if you don't already know what I'm referring to, you will know by the end of this message. What does everything exist? What does everything that exists have in common with one another? What is, reality's, prototype? Now, why should I care about that? Why should that make any difference to me? If I understand that one thing that all things have in common. Well, scientists know that if they're able to discover the unifying principle of reality, they would have a better understanding of reality. And therefore a better understanding of themselves and their place. In reality, they would be able to answer the fundamental questions of theology and philosophy, which are, you know, where did we come from? Why are we here? What is the right thing to do, and where are we going? All these fundamental questions become, simple. If we know the universal principle of the universe, they're obscure. If we don't, if we know the antecedent to all things, if we know what has caused and animates and unifies everything, we gain clarity and understanding, of all things, including a clarity regarding ourselves today as we continue in our series entitled Authentic Christianity Reflecting Christ's Love A Study of First John. We're going to, look at ourselves through what is true about all things. We're going to look at God's preceding love and how it relates to all that is in creation and and in conjunction with how it relates to us. When we think about creation, we realize that all things are, a result of the acts of God, the beneficial and the moral and the good acts of God, which is the very definition of agape, morality in action, love and action, goodness in process. How does the preceding love of God give us and understanding of ourselves and our purpose and our destiny? That's the question we're going to be asking today. How is God's love a prototype for all things, including ourselves? What is it that he intended for us? What did he intend for us to be, and what did he intend for us to do? And how can we discern that, in relationship to his love for us? The title of this morning's message is this, he first loved us. And we'll be reading John chapter first, John chapter four, verses 19 through 21. Pray with me if you would. Heavenly father, Lord, we just come before you this morning, and we pray, father, that we would, continue to gain insight into ourselves as we understand you better. Father, we ask God that we would see the relationship between your, continuous action for the good and both our existence and our ability ourselves to be good. We ask God that you would bless the reading of your word this morning, that it might, not just be words on a page, but transforming thoughts in our hearts and in our minds. In Christ name we pray. Amen. First John chapter four, beginning at verse 19. Verse 19 says, we love because he first loved us. If anyone says, I love God, yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command. Whoever loves God must also love his brother. The theme of the message this morning is this. The theme is the preceding love of God is is reality's foundation. Let's take a look at verse 19. We love, because he first loved us. Some of your translations, may say we love him because he first loved us. But the Greek text, has has it this way, the way it's translated in the, old NIV. I say old because, I mean, the one back. Anyway. The idea here is that we are able we're able to do something because he has done something, before us. His preceding love enables us to love. We love. That is, we act in a beneficial way towards one another because he first acted in a beneficial way towards us. The relationship between our capacity to love and God's preceding capacity, and God's preceding love for us is the same if we think about it to his relationship with all things. Everything that exists has its origin and proceeds out of the antecedent of what God has done and what God does. In a beneficial way for, all of creation. It is God who acts and whose actions are always directed towards the good, and that that's the definition of agape. It's moral good in action. Activity that, benefits. We are able to love because he has loved us first. We are able to do good because God has done good to us. The word for, first here is the word produce. And, this is when I started studying this word. I started thinking about this principle, in a broader sense than just, how it is. The antecedent to our love. The word produce is, that which exists prior to what it causes and is the is what causes what follows it. And it is the reason why what follows it exists. It itself is not dependent on what follows it, but it is, what follows it is dependent on it. So, it is the word we get the idea prototype from in English. It's the produce, the the, antecedent to what follows it. Now we have that riddle. That old riddle. That riddle that goes what, came first, the chicken or the egg? And the reason why that's a riddle is because it's hard to just to discern which is the antecedent of the other, which would be, independent of the other and cause the other when they're both interdependent on each other. And, of course, the answer to that riddle is that what comes first, the chicken or the egg, is that neither one of them came first. We see the produce. That which came first is the thought of the chicken or the egg. The thought of that good design in the mind of God. That's what came first. What came first is God thinking of those two things and deciding to create the two things. God's action came first and caused both of them, to be interdependent upon each other. Everything that is, if we think about it, has as its antecedent the love of God, the moral good and profitable actions of a God who's always working. The unifying principle between all things is is God's love, all motion, all matter, all design and matter in motion come from God acting in love and acting for the good. If God never acts in a beneficial way, nothing exists. If he doesn't act in a beneficial way towards us, we would never have the opportunity to act. In a beneficial way towards others or any other way for that matter. It is because God loves that we exist, and it is because God loved us, and that is the antecedent of our ability to love each other. Even in man's sinful state. He or she exists only because God has acted in his or her benefit by creating the conditions necessary for a person to exist to begin with. We are dependent upon all of us. God's, goodness in action. God's love. Whatever we do, we do as a result of the fact that God has benefited us and his love has preceded our actions. And that's especially true of any act that we do that is of a virtuous nature that has a positive or beneficial effect on somebody else. Our heroism has, can only be possible because he's been heroic towards us. Think of the relationship between the sun and the moon. The moon is dependent upon the sun for the light of the sun to reflect off of it. Before the moon could ever shine, the light of the sun has to hit the moon and reflect off of it. If the sun were to become dark, the moon would have no secondary ability to shine. It would, by definition, become dark too. Whereas if the moon stopped existing, the sun would still be shining. God is the preceding goodness that all other goodness is a reflection of. God's love is the antecedent to all that is good. Our goodness in action, our love and action is a reflection of his love and doesn't, and his love isn't dependent upon our love, but our love is dependent upon his goodness. Think about it this way. What's different about the dark side of the moon? To the light side of the moon? There's a whole half the moon that never shines. It's always not in a in a correct, orientation to the sun to radiate light. And what's the difference between the light side of the moon and the dark side of the moon? Well, there is really no difference, except for one thing. Its attitude towards the sun. It's orientation towards the sun. What's the difference between our acts of goodness and our acts of wickedness? What what what's the difference between when we reflect what is right, good and true, and when we reflect what is dark and destructive? Well, the difference is our orientation towards God's love is the love of God towards us, reflecting off of us, or are we turned away from him and just projecting darkness out into the darkness? Everything that is good, everything that ought to be, including our love, our virtue towards others, is a consequence of a secondary reflection of the primary shining of God's love and God's goodness in action. The unifying principle that divine, that binds all of the diversity of the universe together, the reason why the universe is predictable and why it can work, and why it reflects order and, and, predictability and, and interdependence is because God loved first. And that's true for ourselves as well. God's love is that which binds all things together and brings everything in common. That is good. Again, this morning's theme is the preceding love of God is reality is foundation. Point number one is this we can't love God and not love each other. It's impossible for us to love God and not love one another. It's impossible for us to be acting in a virtuous way towards God, and not be acting in a virtuous way towards each other. Verse 20 if anyone says, I love God, yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. Love is like a bright light bulb in, an overhead fixture. Over. Say, for example, our living room. When it's on, it lights up the whole room. You wouldn't be able to turn on the light and have it light up a section of the room and leave another section of the room dark. If it's on, everything is illuminated by it. If a person says, pastor, I love you, but is mistreating my children, I would call them a liar. How could you be acting in a virtuous, beneficial manner to me and being harmful to my kids? Love can't be dark in this one area and light in another area. It's all pervasive, like the light in our ceiling fixture. It can't be confined to one sector of the room. Our love cannot be confined to a sector. If we love God, we will by virtue of that, be morally beneficial to each other. How we act towards each other is how we act towards God. We can see, our imperfect brothers and sisters, and we can see them as an opportunity to love our perfect God. Love doesn't ask the question. Does a person deserve my moral benefit? Its moral benefit is just born out of a nature of of the person themselves. If we're virtuous, our virtue is going to spill out on whoever we're around. If we do what is beneficial, if we act in what is right and good, we can't, segregate it to this person or that person. It would have a general and universal effect. God, who has made us and given us the ability to love because he first loved us. He is the prototype and the prototype of his love. We see most profoundly in the cross. Wow. When you think about, the struggle of Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane. And, the question of whether we deserve his mercy. When you think about the cross and his discussion with the thief on the cross or his looking out at humanity all by himself as he is, volition taking on the sins of the world. We didn't deserve it yet. It's the way he is. It's his nature, to act for our moral benefit. And he has given us volition. And in our volition. We have sinned against him. But his goodness goes beyond our volition. And in his goodness he has made a way for us to come home through his mercy. And we see how profound that is, and we let that reflect into our lives. It can't help but affect the way we treat each other. Again, the theme this morning is this, the preceding love of God is reality's foundation. Point number one is we can't love God and not love each other. And point number two is God's love turns duty into delight. Let's take a look at, verse 21. And he gives us this command. Whoever loves God must also love his brother. Now, words like command and obedience oftentimes, rub us wrong. We consider them like we would consider a duty. Duty is doing something we should do, whether we want to do it or not. But, notice that, if we are acting out of love, then what we ought to do is what we want to do. If we're if we're acting out of moral virtue, if our hearts are full of love, then it translates duty into delight. It takes what we want to do, and it brings it in line with what we ought to do. God commands us to love our brothers, and that's a higher command than the command to do good to our brothers. To love our brothers is not only to do good to our brothers, but is to want to do good to our brothers, to have a desire to act in a morally virtuous way, to to be delighted to be in God's will is to love, to want to act for the benefit of others. Love turns what we ought to do into what we want to do, and takes what might be the burden of duty. And it translates it into the delight of of, doing what's right. Think about the law in terms of delight and duty. When you hear the words, don't steal, who are those words? A burden to? But those who want to steal those words aren't a burden to somebody who doesn't want to steal. When you hear the word honor God and don't, commit idolatry. Who are those words? A burden to? Well, they're a burden to those who want to commit idolatry, worship things other than God, but they're not a burden to those who want to. What you know, to love God alone. What about the words? Don't be a liar. Don't, commit false testimony. Who are who are those words? A burden to? Well, it's a burden to people who want to lie, but it's no burden if you don't desire to lie. If you want to tell the truth, then the law is not a burden. The law is only a burden to us if it describes something we don't want to do. But once we want to do it, the law becomes a delight to our heart. And it's the new heart that the gospel describes as the result of our salvation. To where was the spirit working in us? We end up wanting to do what we ought to do, and the law, becomes fulfilled, as a result of our even wanting to do it. Not that it's just a duty, but it's a delight. In Friday, I was, I was surfing at San and over, and I got out and I started talking to this guy's name was Billy. And Billy started talking to me about his family. And Billy said to me, he said, you know, I really want, my nine year old daughter told desire to learn how to surf so I can go surfing with her. And, then he said, but the problem is, as long as she thinks it's my idea, she won't want to do it. So he's trying to figure out a way of getting her to want to without it being his idea. You know, have you ever wondered what would happen if God commanded certain things of fallen humanity? What would have happened if God would have commanded us? What if there was a command out there? I want you to worship false idols, and I don't want you to worship me. The one and true God. How many people would defy him and worship say I hey, you said don't worship false idols. I mean, what you told me to worship false idols. So I'm not going to worship false idols. I'm going to worship you and you alone. You know, there's just something in us that doesn't like to be told what to do. And, you know, love is, moves in us, and it changes us to agree with what is right and to desire what is right. And it is the second part of our salvation, the first part of our salvation is accomplished at the cross. Our justification, the relief of the penalty of our sin. But the second part of salvation is accomplished through the indwelling work of the spirit in our heart, the risen Christ, the ascended Christ living in us, which is a changed heart from doing what we, to to cleanse us of our evil desires and to change us to want to do what is beautiful, good, and true. And what a beautiful thing it is to be free to do whatever we want, whenever we want, because what we want is what we ought. That's what agape love is delighting in what is good and being disgusted by what is evil and wanting to do what is right. Again, the theme this morning is the preceding love of God is reality's foundation. We can't love God and not each other is the is point number one. And point number two is God's love turns duty into delight. I'd like to conclude this morning by reading from John chapter three, verses 16 through 18, John chapter three, verses 16 through 18. 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. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he is not believed. The name of God's one and only son. We can, we can turn to and let our face be faced towards the shining love and mercy of God, and be saved through faith in Christ Jesus. Or we can turn away and live on the dark side of the moon. Heavenly father, Lord, we just come before you and we just thank you, father, that your light shines on us. And we pray, father, that this day and this week we will just turn to you for inspiration. We would turn to you to see how to overcome offense. We will turn to you to block, our, desire for, retaliation or or hostility. And we just pray that we would desire to be good for all men. In Christ name we pray. Amen.