“Jesus Loves Me”

1 John 4:7-21

February 22, 2009 – ©Rev. Dr. Linnea E. Carnes

Introduction

“Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” [Anna B. Warner, 1860]. (Sing “Jesus Loves Me”)

God is love

Maybe you believe that Jesus loves you, but do you believe that God loves you? In 1 John 4, verse 9 says that we know God loves us because of Jesus.

In John’s Gospel, chapter 1, verse 18, it says, “No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.”

So if you know that Jesus loves you, then you also know that God loves you. John wrote in verse 7, “Dear friends, … love comes from God.” And in verse 8 and again in verse 16 it says, “God is love.”

John first knew God’s love through the Old Testament stories. The lesson from Deuteronomy 10:12-21 gives us a picture of God. Everything in the world belongs to God, for God created it. “Yet the Lord set his affection on your ancestors and loved them, and he chose you, their descendants, above all the nations—as it is today.” [Dt.10:15].

The God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, the mighty and awesome God, the God who loves all people equally, who defends orphans and widow, and loves the stranger – this God loves them.

Yet these people, God’s chosen people, still doubted God’s love for them. Each time a crisis hit, they asked the same questions:

· Where is God when we need him?

· If God really loves us, why is this happening?

They didn’t understand that God is love. God cannot do evil. God continued to love them even when they turned away from God. When they doubted God, God still rescued and provided for them.

Jeremiah had witnessed Jerusalem’s destruction and the exile of his people. He grieved over all these things. Yet in the middle of his lament he wrote, “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” [Lam. 3:22-23]. No matter what happened he believed God still loved them.

Psalm 136 says “His steadfast love endures forever” 36 times. David made the point that God is love!

God is the essence of love. God isn’t just loving; God’s whole being is love. Love comes from God because love is what God is.

The truth that God is love is revealed through God’s care for humans. If God is anything, God is love.

The God of the Old Testament that John knew, “is love,” and God’s “steadfast love endures forever.” So John wrote in 1 John 4:8 and 16. “God is love.”

Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.

Jesus is the evidence of God’s love

God’s love was seen in Jesus, God’s Son. Jesus is the evidence of God’s love. Everything Jesus said and did reflect God’s love.

John wrote in verse 9: “This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.”

Jesus came to give us life. Death had a grip on the world. Jesus came to break death’s grip. Jesus told his followers that he was “the way and the truth and the life.” [Jn.14:6].

Jesus told Martha, when his friend Lazarus had died, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live.” [Jn.11:25].

After Jesus’ resurrection, the angel told the women who came to the tomb that Jesus had risen. [Mk. 16:6]. On that same day, Jesus himself appeared to his disciples. [Jn.20:19-20]. Jesus had broken death’s grip.

God loved us so much that he wanted us to live with him forever. “For God so loved the world that he sent his only Son, so that everyone who believed in him would not perish, but have eternal life.” [Jn 3:16].

Then in 1 John 5:10 we read, “this is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”

Romans 5:8 says, “God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.”

Jesus died for humans while we were still God’s enemies – sinners.

God loved us before we believed in Jesus. God still loves us when we say we believe but do things that are wrong, sinful, that don’t reflect Jesus in us. God loves us when we are unlovable, when no one else want to have anything to do with us.

Think back to a time in your life when you were at the bottom of the pit. You felt worthless, ashamed of what you had done, afraid that someone would find out your sin, how bad you were.

Jesus has reached out to you in love, saying, “I’ve already forgiven you. All your sins are erased – gone forever.” God sent Jesus to show us how much he loves us, and Jesus stretched out his arms on the cross and died for you. Our sins are forgiven and now we can truly live.

Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.

At a meeting in Britain of religious experts from around the world, they were debating what, if any, belief was unique to the Christian faith. First they eliminated possibilities. Incarnation? Other religions had different versions of gods appearing in human form. Resurrection? Again, other religions had accounts of return from death. The debate went on for some time. Then C.S. Lewis walked into the room. He asked what the problem was. They said they were discussing Christianity’s unique contribution among world religions. Lewis said, “Oh, that’s easy. It’s grace.” After some discussion, they agreed. The notion of God’s love coming to us free of charge, no strings attached, seems to go against every instinct of humanity. The Buddhist eight-fold path, the Hindu doctrine of karma, the Jewish covenant, the Muslim code of law—each of these offers a way to earn approval. Only Christianity dares to make God’s love unconditional. [Philip Yancy, What’s So Amazing About Grace (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1997) 45].

We don’t have to earn it; we can’t buy it; we can only receive it. God’s love is a gift – grace.

Jesus love me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.

The Holy Spirit empowers us to love

John wrote in verse 13: “This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit.” Paul wrote in Romans 5:5, “God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.”

The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one God, and God is love! So, when we believed in Jesus Christ, we received the Holy Spirit. Through the Holy Spirit in us, we can continue to know God’s love.

Because we have been filled with God’s love, we love God with all of our being. We love God not just sometimes but all of the time, fully and freely.

When we know God is in us and his love is in us, we have no reason to fear standing before God.

· Our sins have been nailed to the cross.

· We are children of God, a part of God’s family.

· We are citizens of God’s kingdom.

If we are still afraid of God, God’s love is not in us. We haven’t accepted God’s gift of forgiveness and love. We haven’t let God grace us.

So stop doubting, believe. Don’t be afraid.

Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.

The other sign that we haven’t accepted God’s love for us is that we don’t love others as God does. God’s love in us is evident by our love for others. John said in 1 John 5:20, that if we say we love God but hate another believer, we are liars. John wrote this in 1 John 2:9 and in 1 John 3:15.

Jesus said in John 13:34-35: “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Love for others is the proof that God’s love is in us.

The problem is that we can’t love others unless we have let God love us. We have to let God into our lives so he can pour out his love into us.

We have to say, “God, I want to know your love, experience your love. I want your love to wash over me and through me so that I’m not just loved on the outside, but on the inside too.” We have to invite God to love us. We have to believe that Jesus died to show us God’s love and the Holy Spirit is God’s love living in us.

Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.

Those who know God’s love personally and powerfully, respond with love for others.

“Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.” “In this world we are like Jesus.” [1Jn.4:16b,17b].

If we have the love of God in us, we are like Jesus.

If we have Jesus’ love in us, we will reflect his love to the people around us.

What the world needs now is God’s love, God’s sacrificial, unconditional, steadfast love. In a world controlled by fear, by violence and hatred, by love that is self-seeking, we need to be people who live in God’s love and show it to the world.

One of the reasons that John’s readers needed this reminder to love as they were loved is that their world was becoming more diverse. The church was becoming diverse. Beginning with Pentecost, the Christian church broke down barriers of gender, race, and social class that had marked Jewish congregations.

Paul, who was a rabbi had given thanks daily that he was not born a woman, slave or Gentile, was amazed at the radical change: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

Philip Yancey was told by an Indian pastor, “Most of what happens in Christian churches, including even miracles, can be duplicated in Hindu and Muslim congregations. But in my area only Christians strive, however ineptly, to mix men and women of different castes, races, and social groups. That’s the real miracle.” Yancey adds that “diversity complicates rather than simplifies life.” That’s why we often like to be with people who are like us – it’s just easier. [PreachingToday.com, “The Miracle of Unity in the Midst of Diversity”].

This church is a miracle. No, we are not perfect in how we relate. We don’t always like giving up our way of doing something for the sake of another. We don’t always understand each other. We may find it hard to understand another’s tradition or culture.

You may be sitting near someone who comes from a country that you were taught to look down on or even hate. Yet here you are worshipping God together. That’s God’s love at work in us.

But the miracle is that YOU are here. God brought us all together. We are one in Christ Jesus even though we are not alike. And we are learning to love one another as we have been loved by Christ.

The key is love. The key to this church is that Jesus loves us, each one of us, and Jesus’ love is changing us, transforming us, into the true image of God.

Remember what C.S. Lewis said, that the one thing that makes Christianity different, unique among other religions is that our God offers unconditional love to anyone who will receive it. That’s a gift—grace.

That’s what Jesus is. And Jesus wants us to be just like him – he wants us to offer God’s grace to others, to love them unconditionally, so they too can join in the song.

Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.

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This sermon is copyright ©2009 by Rev. Dr. Linnea E. Carnes, Immanuel Evangelical Covenant Church, Chicago, Illinois.