Transfiguration Sunday

February 18, 2007

Scripture Readings: Exodus 3:1-10; Mark 9:2-10

Hymns: 19; 720; 742; 135

Grace to you and peace from God our Father, from our Savior Jesus Christ, and from the Holy Spirit. Amen. The word of God taken for our meditation this morning comes from 1 John 4:7-21:

7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, 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. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. 13 By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. 17 Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. 19 We love Him because He first loved us. 20 If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? 21 And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.

Theme: The Source of True Love

• Found in God’s Sacrifice for Us

• Received by Faith in Christ

• Shown by our Love for Others

In the name of our Great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, Dear Fellow Redeemed,

This past week a special day was set aside to focus on love. As Valentine’s Day draws near every year we begin to see all kinds of advertisements promising to help people find “True Love.” And yet as we look at the society we live in we find the opposite. So what’s the problem? The problem is that today, most people do not have a correct understanding of what true love really is!

Quite often we associate the word “love” with our feelings - how we feel about others. Even Webster in his definition of the word “love” brings out this idea: He defines love as a “strong affection,” an “attraction,” and “a warm attachment, enthusiasm or devotion.” Quite often we speak of our love for others on based our feelings and how they treat us. If they treat us well, and do nice things for us, then we “love” them, but if they don’t do nice things for us, then we don’t “love” them. As we begin talking about this concept of love, we need to realize that this is not a correct, biblical understanding of what real love is. Real love is not about feelings, it is about action!

Through our text this morning, may the Holy Spirit bring us a proper understanding of True Love, as we see that true love is found in God’s sacrifice for us; it is received by faith in Christ, and is shown by our love for others! Amen.

When we think of sections that describe love in the Bible most people think of 1 Corinthians 13. There the apostle Paul describes love saying, “Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8). Notice that Paul didn’t mention anything about feelings in that section, he spoke only of how love displays itself in actions. Love is how our unselfish, loyal and merciful concern for others are put into action.

The first epistle of John has even more to say about love. In fact it is often called the letter of love because “love” is a primary theme in John’s first epistle. Did you notice the one word the jumps out at us from the verses of our text? In these verses John uses the word “love” twenty five times. Dear friends, this morning we are reminded once again that God doesn’t just make promises about His love toward us, He puts His love into action!

As we look at John’s description of what true love is, we see that it is found in God’s sacrifice for us. In verse seven of our text John says, “for love is of God,” then goes on in verse eight to say,“for God is love.” Where does love come from? Love comes from God, and the Bible even says that “God is love!” Think back to those words of the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 13, and how God put that love into action. “Love suffers long and is kind.” - God suffered through countless years of unbelief and rebellion, keeping the promise He had made to Adam, Noah, Abraham and many others. “Love does not parade itself, is not puffed up.” - while God is perfect, God did not mock Adam because of his failure, but came to Adam offering a solution to the problem of his sin. “Love... does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth.” While God does not parade Himself before us and our sin, at the same time, God does not condone sin. Instead, God says, “The soul who sins shall die” (Ezekiel 18:20). God does not overlook our sins, but hates sin.

God’s love was not some feeling that He had for us because deep inside He knew there was good inside us. Paul tells us that there was nothing good in us, which would make us worthy recipients of God’s love. By nature we were the enemies of God. But God loved us in spite of our unworthiness, and He put that love into action by sending His Son to save us from our sin. “In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. 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.”

How often do we refuse to do something nice for someone, because they never do nice things for us? At first we may think of how often children have that attitude toward their friends or siblings. But we should also look at ourselves. This isn’t something that only children do - it continues in us also as adults. When someone has said something rude or cruel to us, in response, we refuse to do nice things for that person. That is the way we usually act. But God could not wait for us to love Him, because we weren’t capable of love. “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.”

God is love and has manifested His love to the world through the life and the death of His Son and our Savior Jesus. That is true love, and is demonstrated by God’s sacrifice for us.

The source of true love is found in what God has done for us and John goes on to describe God’s love even more fully as He reveals that the blessings of that love are received by us through faith - another blessing of God’s love through the working of the Holy Spirit! “No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.... Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.”

Not only did God demonstrate His love for sinful human beings like us by making the sacrifice for our sins through the death of Jesus, but pours His love into us through the work of the Holy Spirit. Paul writes: “the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (Romans 5:5). It is only through the work of the Holy Spirit that we know and believe the love that God has for us. It is only through the work of the Holy Spirit that we abide in God and God abides in us. It is through knowledge and faith in Christ that we find true love.

Finally, true love is shown by our love for others. We must remember that God’s love for us is the source of our love for others. John makes this very clear saying, “We love Him because He first loved us.” Our love for God follows as a result of His love for us, not the other way around. The same is also true with our love toward others around us. The more we are aware of God’s love toward us and the rest of the world, the more motivated we will be to show love toward others as well.

For the Christian, who has been brought to know and to understand true love as demonstrated by God’s love for us through the word of Jesus and the Holy Spirit, love is not a something which waits to be received, but which is given to others. Let’s back up once again to verse seven, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.” and again at the end of our text: “If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.” Let’s not be mistaken - when John says “everyone who loves is born of God and knows God” we must understand this in the context which we have already discussed. John is not saying that as a result of showing love toward others we come to know God, and become His children. Rather, John is putting the focus on our loving others, but as a result of being brought to know Him in faith. In the letter to the Hebrews we read: “But without faith it is impossible to please him” (Hebrews 11:6). Loving others is also a fruit of faith, which can only flow from faith, not the other way around. On the other hand, those who do not love others show themselves to be unbelievers.

John goes on, “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.” Think for a moment of the Dead Sea in Palestine. Do you know why it is called the Dead Sea? The Dead Sea is actually the lowest point in that area - over 1,300 feet lower than sea level. As a result water from the surrounding hills flows into the Dead Sea, but nothing flows out. The only way that water can leave is through the process of evaporation which leaves behind salts and other residue, making the Dead Sea just that - DEAD. Because water does not flow through the sea, it becomes dead, and unusable and unlivable for most plants and animals.

In a similar way, God does not intend for His love to stop when it comes to us - that love continues to move out of us and into the lives of those around us. Even more, our loving others completes God’s love in us. John says, “No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us.” While people cannot see God Himself, they can see the demonstration of His love through us as Christians. Through faith we know God’s love in Christ, and as a result God demonstrates that love to the world also through us and through our lives!

In our Old Testament reading today we read about God’s call of Moses to deliver His people from Egypt. In those verses we saw God’s love for His people. He heard their cry and in His love for them He wanted to save them. So he called Moses to testify to His own people and to the people of Egypt that He was the true God and He would deliver them. But Moses’s love, in contrast to God’s true love, was weak and selfish and he came up with excuses for why the LORD couldn’t use him.

At times, like Moses in those verses, our love for others is weak as well, and it is not what it should be. As we look at out lives we see the many times that we have failed to show true, unselfish love to others. May we continue to look to God to impart through the Holy Spirit a greater love within each of us, just as He did with Moses! May we who have seen gladly testify to others the true love the Father has shown us by sending Jesus as Savior of the world.

Thanks be to God that He did put His love into action by sending Jesus to be our Savior and thanks be to God that He has sent the Holy Spirit to pour out His love on us through faith. May we ever remember how much God has loved us, and even though we may suffer in this life, may we look ahead to the life in heaven which Christ has earned for us. May the Holy Spirit also live in us and increase our love toward others so that when people see the demonstration of God’s love in us and ask us why we show love as we do, we may point them to the source of our love - the cross of Christ where the love of God was revealed to the world! Amen.

And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:7 Amen.

Pastor Nathanael Mayhew