Unexpected Love | December 24th, 2023
Call To Worship: Psalm 92
It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to the Most High. It is good to proclaim your unfailing love in the morning, your faithfulness in the evening, accompanied by a ten-stringed harp, and the melody of a lyre. You thrill me, Lord, with all you have done for me! I sing for joy because of what you have done. ____________________________
Advent 2023 The Return of the King
Unexpected Love
Psalm 145 & 1 John 4.10-12, 15-19
December 24, 2023 Christmas Eve Morning
Fourth Sunday in Advent: Love
Big Idea: We must show God's love if people are to know God's love
INTRO: My son Carey used to live in Brooklyn, NY. Like me, he loves a good pizza, but unlike me, he now knows he can’t eat it everyday. One of our favorite places for pizza in NY is a little place at the base of the Brooklyn bridge called Grimaldi’s Pizza. Grimaldi’s is one of those places that is so good and popular that they don’t have to be nice, and people will come anyway, lining up around the block for their coal-fired brick oven pizza. Grimaldi’s doesn’t take reservations, or credit cards, and there are signs as you enter saying, if you don’t have cash, don’t come in.
Two-weeks ago Anne and I were walking down from the Upper West Side of Manhattan through Chelsea in the Flatiron district of Midtown. I looked across the street and saw a beautiful Gothic style church from the 1800’s. It caught my eye because it looked like the buildings on my Seminary’s campus. Anne saw something else. A banner announcing that it was a Grimaldi’s Pizza Restaurant!
SHOW PIC OF GRIMALDI’S PIZZA/CHURCH
At first I thought, ”There is no line. We have to get a slice!” But we had just finished breakfast, so that wasn’t going to happen. Still, I was amazed! Two of my great loves in one place, Pizza and Church. I had to get this picture, and it took a while because the traffic was crazy.
As my surprise wore off, I began to feel a little sad as it hit me, The Church wasn’t a church. It was now a pizza parlor. As I looked closer, I could see that the church had been converted into shops, more restaurants, and even condos. Jesus died and rose again so we could be the Church. This Church died and became condos and a pizza restaurant.
As we walked away I thought, “How cool would it be if a new church took over and kept Grimaldis?” Can you imagine?
They could call their Coffee Fellowship, Saints and Slices.
They could make pizzas spelling out John 3:16 in sausage and peppers!
They could bake their own communion bread
or even better, make little mini bite-size pizzas for communion. The bread representing the body of Christ, and the sauce representing the blood shed for our sins.
Some of you are probably questioning my theological qualifications right now.
TRANSITION
I have mixed feelings about this Grimaldi's location. It’s two things I love, but one stands as a sad commentary on the other. I looked up the history of this church. It was built as an Episcopal church in 1840. In the early 70’s, the membership had dwindled and the church stopped being the church. It was briefly a drug rehab center, then an extremely decadent night club during the Disco era. Since then it has been a boutique mall, food court, and even an IHop pancake restaurant.
The question I have; that I hope you are considering as well, is How did this once thriving church transition from a House of God to a house of pancakes and pizza?
One possible clue to its demise is found in the book of Revelation. It’s not the Red Dragon Christmas story again. Starting in chapter 2, Jesus has strong words for each of the seven churches of Asia Minor. Two of the churches are praised, five are not. The first Church Jesus addresses is in Ephesus, the second largest city in the world at that time. It is a large church, but it is about to receive a bigger warning from Jesus about something they are losing…love.
Revelation 2.4-5
“But I have this complaint against you. You don’t love me or each other as you did at first! 5Look how far you have fallen! Turn back to me and do the works you did at first. If you don’t repent, I will come and remove your lampstand from its place among the churches.
That’s a poetic way of saying because the church members don’t really love Jesus like they should, Jesus will remove His blessing, and they will cease to be a church.
What is important for every church to remember is that Jesus’ love is a love that is both received and given. If a church fails to do either one, they risk losing their lampstand in Jesus’ Kingdom.
There are too many reasons to list this morning why a Church stops loving, but what I can say is that a church should be the one place where Jesus’ love is shown and grown.
I don’t know what happened to the Grimaldi’s church, but I can speculate that the great love that caused them to come together, build the church, and reach out into their community began to wane. Membership declined. They went into survival mode. In a little less time than CPCC has been around, they died. Jesus removed their lampstand.
Why do some churches struggle with maintaining their ability to love Jesus and love others?
It’s kind of humorous how our ability to understand and express love grows and matures as we grow and mature.
In elementary school we used simple ways of measuring love like the Daisy Method: “She loves me, she loves me not”…
Or learning to express love using the Letters Of Someone’s Name: A.N.N.E.--Affectionate, nice, neat, energetic.
In Junior high, love becomes more complicated and communal: Lisa tells Jackie, to tell Jenny to tell Paul, that she likes Matt.
Three-days later, breaking up was simply a matter of repeating the process.
After Junior High, love begins to mature into the patterns that carry us into adulthood.
You like someone,
You become tongue-tied,
Miraculously you manage to secure a date,
You date for awhile,
If it works out, you date some more,
If it doesn’t work out, you move on and hopefully find someone else.
Eventually you meet someone and fall in love,
You get married,
If you have kids, they grow up and start the process all over again.
Love is a process that grows stronger with time and attention.
But just like churches, junior high romance, and pet goldfish, ignore Love, and it dies.
Nurture and work at love, and it blooms and grows more deeply.
There is another kind of love besides romantic love that the Bible lifts above all others. It is a love that is greater than any love we can muster on our own. It is a love that doesn’t ebb and flow based on our mood, or how much chocolate you eat this week. It is a love that is eternal, sacrificial, lasting, and generous. The source of this love is our advent focus this morning: The love of the one who first loved us, Jesus.
As most of you know, the Bible has many different words for love, each conveying a nuance or aspect of love.
In the Old Testament, there are nine different Hebrew words for love that describe everything from romantic love, covenant love, physical love, brotherly love and more. But the word that gets used more than the others is Hesed (חֶסֶד) which is a beautiful word used to describe God’s steadfast love for us. It is a love encompassing God’s devotion, kindness, faithfulness, and fierce loyalty towards us.
King David wrote one of the great love songs to God that reflects God’s Hessed love for us in Psalm 145.
Using a variation of the Letters Of Someone’s Name technique, David starts each verse of the psalm alphabetically: A.B.G.D, Alaph, Bet, Gimmel, Dalit—there is no C in Hebrew.
While our English translations don’t pick upon this feature, David’s song of God’s Hessed love is still a masterpiece of worship and love.
Psalm 145.1-21
I will exalt you, my God and King, and praise your name forever and ever. I will praise you every day; yes, I will praise you forever. Great is the Lord! He is most worthy of praise! No one can measure his greatness. Let each generation tell its children of your mighty acts; let them proclaim your power. I will meditate on your majestic, glorious splendor and your wonderful miracles. Your awe-inspiring deeds will be on every tongue; I will proclaim your greatness. Everyone will share the story of your wonderful goodness; they will sing with joy about your righteousness. The Lord is merciful and compassionate, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. The Lord is good to everyone. He showers compassion on all his creation. All of your works will thank you, Lord, and your faithful followers will praise you. They will speak of the glory of your kingdom; they will give examples of your power. They will tell about your mighty deeds and about the majesty and glory of your reign. For your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom. You rule throughout all generations.
The Lord always keeps his promises; he is gracious in all he does. The Lord helps the fallen and lifts those bent beneath their loads. The eyes of all look to you in hope; you give them their food as they need it. When you open your hand, you satisfy the hunger and thirst of every living thing. The Lord is righteous in everything he does; he is filled with kindness. The Lord is close to all who call on him, yes, to all who call on him in truth. He grants the desires of those who fear him; he hears their cries for help and rescues them. The Lord protects all those who love him, but he destroys the wicked. I will praise the Lord, and may everyone on earth bless his holy name forever and ever. (NLT)
David sings God’s praises because God’s hessed love changed him, just as it changes us. We don’t deserve it, but God’s majestic, glorious, wonderful, miraculous love is worthy of praise. We respond to this amazing love of God in our praise and worship. The Christmas Carols we have sung this month praise God for His Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love that we celebrate today on Christmas Eve morning.
In the New Testament, one of the most well known words for love is the root word Agapao, [AGA-POW] which is how God shows His love for us.
Many of you know the variant of this word as a noun: Agape which describes the concept of God’s love. But here is something you might not now. Jesus and the New Testament writers use Agapao more frequently than Agape. Why does this matter?
The noun Agape tells us about God’s love
The verb Agapao shows us God’s love.
In the Gospels, Jesus urges His followers us to show God’s love more often than He talks about God’s love.
The implications of this should make us realize that Jesus wants you and me to be put love into action as much, if not more than we talk about love. Think about it, which is more effective? A lecture on God’s love or showing God’s love to someone?
The Apostle Paul makes one of the greatest statements about this in
1 Corinthians 13.1-3
If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. 3 If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.
He ends the chapter by saying: Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love. (1 Cor.13.13)
As Christians, we need to love as Jesus loved, as a verb and a noun.
Let me give you two examples of the nuance of God’s love as a verb and a noun.
The first is Jesus’ command from John 13.34-35
In this passage, every mention of Love is a verb-Agapao
John 13.34-35
So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. 35 Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”
The Apostle John gives us an example of both uses in 1 John 4.10-12, 15-19
To make it easy for you, I have colored the Verbs for love in Yellow, and the Nouns for love in Green.
[ME: Blue Verb / Noun Green]
This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. 11Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. 12No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.
15All who confess that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God. 16 We know how much God loves us, and we have put our trust in his love.
God is love, and all who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. 17 And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face him with confidence because we live like Jesus here in this world. 18 Such love has no fear, because perfect love expels all fear. If we are afraid, it is for fear of punishment, and this shows that we have not fully experienced his perfect love. 19 We love each other because he loved us first. (NLT)
Those who KNOW God’s love, GIVE God’s love to others.
Hesed and Agapao love is God’s love in action. We know God’s love and we show God’s love.
Listen to the Apostle Paul’s definition of this from Romans 5.6-8:
For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. 8 But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.
Friends, in this one sentence the Apostle Paul sums up why we celebrate the birth of Jesus and His life transforming love for us.
Even knowing that some would reject Him and mock Him, Jesus took on the sins of the world, while we were still sinners, and died on the cross, so that every person would have an opportunity to choose to receive life in God’s Kingdom as a new creation, free from the guilt and sin that separates us from God.
There is a powerful story in Luke’s Gospel of how Jesus’ love can overcome the pain and stigma of our worst sins and transform us into a new creation in Christ. This is the true story of a Pharisee and a Prostitute, and which of the two experienced the power of God’s transformative love.
ILLUS: In Luke 7.36-50, Simon the Pharisee invites Jesus to his house for dinner.
A prostitute comes into the house. She looks around. She does not belong there. She is nervous. The guests are appalled by her presence. Maybe some of the men are a little too nervous.
She finds Jesus and sits at His feet. The prostitute anoints Jesus’ feet with the expensive perfumed oil. She is crying uncontrollably. Her tears wetting the master’s feet.
She lets down her hair, something not done in public, and begins to dry Jesus’ feet. She kisses his feet, over and over.
She is showing an amazing act of love towards Jesus, yet the only thing the other dinner guests can see is a prostitute. They begin to think Jesus must be a phony, for surely if he is the Son of God he would know what kind of woman is washing his feet.
The host, Simon the Pharisee, keeper of the tradition, is outraged, How could Jesus allow a person such as this to anoint his feet? Doesn’t he know who she is? Doesn’t he know that she is not welcome, that she is a sinner, that she is not allowed to do this? Doesn’t he care?
… and we see that yes, Jesus does care … about all people who are searching.
Simon is angry that Jesus is allowing social customs to be broken. He is probably red with fury and shaking at this violation that is taking place in his house in front of his guests.
Then Jesus points out a few of Simon’s lapses of etiquette. Jesus says, Simon,
You did not provide water for me to wash my feet, yet she washed my feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. You did not greet me with a kiss, yet she has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not offer me oil, yet she has bathed my feet in expensive perfumed oil.
While Simon stands there fuming, Jesus makes a statement that rocks the house. To this broken and rejected woman, a woman who has sold herself to men for years, but has never known real love, Jesus says, “Your sins are forgiven, your faith has saved you, Go in peace.”
The Woman, who is only known as, “The woman who sinned”, is now the forgiven woman.
The Irony here is that Simon the Pharisee, defender of the Scriptures, is even more upset. A daughter of Israel has repented and returned, and all he cares about is the social protocol that was broken in his living room
John Ortberg in his book, Love Beyond Reason, points out that in this story, Simon could not receive much love because he clung stubbornly to the notion that he did not need much forgiveness. His very sense of moral and spiritual superiority had caused him to lose a sense of his own [brokenness]. And so his heart had become even more unloving and unlovely than the sinner he despised. Pages 19-20
Jesus demonstrated God’s love to the Prostitute, and she accepted it, experienced it, and was transformed and redeemed. Jesus first showed her God’s love, and because of this, she was able to understand and receive Jesus’ forgiveness. Her life would never be the same.
Simon the Pharisee, the Keeper of Torah, who knew every passage of God’s love, rejected God’s gift of love to the one who most needed it. He was stuck in His pride and remained unchanged and broken. He remained useless to God.
Friends, Jesus wants to make you whole with His love.
Even if you feel unworthy,
Even if you are broken
Even if you have been living 180 degrees in the wrong direction
Even if you have been away from his fellowship for a very long time
Even if you don’t know him yet, or are angry at God for something in your life
1 John 4.10 This is real love. It is not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.
You may not love God right now, but God loves you. Jesus loves you, just as you are, and invites you to become what God created you to be.
The amazing truth is Jesus thinks you are worth dying for!
Be transformed By Jesus’ Love
Something happens to you when you experience this powerful love of God. You become different. Like a pitcher of cool water on a hot day, you pour out blessings to others who are parched and need relief.
We love because We are loved.
1 John 4.11 Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other.
This is the gift we need most this Christmas:
To Know God’s Love
It is also the gift that we need to give this Christmas:
To Show God’s Love to others
Know God’s Love: Psalm 100.5 For the Lord is good. His unfailing love continues forever, and his faithfulness continues to each generation.
Show God’s Love: 1 John 4.7: Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
Our church may not be perfect, but if we continue to grow in Jesus’ love, and show Jesus’ love to others, I doubt that this sanctuary will become a pizza parlor anytime soon.
The Promise of Jesus’ Love that we celebrate this Christmas Eve Morning is the promise of knowing, growing and showing God’s perfect to our community.
Tonight, we will explore the wonderful story of God’s love coming down so we may be raised up with Him. Come join us at 5:30 pm as we celebrate God’s great love shown to us in the birth of Jesus Christ
Pray
BENEDICTION: Jude 24-25
Now all glory to God, who is able to keep you from falling away and will bring you with great joy into his glorious presence without a single fault. 25 All glory to him who alone is God, our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord. All glory, majesty, power, and authority are his before all time, and in the present, and beyond all time!
Amen.