4h Sunday of Advent/Christmas Worship Service December 24, 2023

Call to Worship Jeremiah 31:3
Lighting of the Advent Candle ~ Prayer
Hymn JBC 162 Angels, from the realms of glory
The Lord’s Prayer
The Lord’s Supper
Christmas Skit “You are special”
Offering
Scripture 1 John 4:16~21
Prayer
Sermon “Live in God’s love”
Prayer
Hymn JBC # 157 O come all ye faithful
Doxology JBC # 671
Benediction


In today’s passage in 1 John 4:16, we can see that “God is love”.
When we are asked who is God or what is God, how should we answer as Christians?
In response to the question “what is God,” the Bible clearly states that “God is love”.
Then what is love? Do we understand love?
Don’t most people believe that they have some concept of what love is, regardless of if they are Christian or not? What is love? It is to think of others and show them kindness.

　It is prioritizing the benefit of others over your own. It is helping the weak and troubled. Do we not think of these types of things as love?
Putting aside whether we are able to put these actions into practice, the reality is that most of us think that we know what love is.
However, the Bible clearly states that “God is love”. This sentence does not mean that God is one love, or that God is one shape of love out of many.
The meaning of this sentence in the Bible is that God Himself is love, and the source of love. Everything we understand as love is flowing from the wellspring that is God”.
In other words, if you do not know God, you do not know what love is.

　In which case, there is one more fundamental question that may occur in our mind. That is “what is God?” Besides the Christian God, there are many other gods that people believe in.
Does the Bible teach that these “various gods” are the source of love? No, it does not. The Bible teaches that God is the one who showed Himself to us through Jesus Christ.
The message of the Bible is that the God of the Bible, who appeared to us as Jesus Christ is the one true God.
In other words, the God of the Bible, who showed Himself in Jesus Christ, is love.
Christmas is when we remember that God sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, to be born into this world. Through Christ we were able to see true love and who God is.

Therefore, 2023 years ago Jesus Christ being born into what is modern day Israel/Palestine is of utmost importance to us all humans.
Through the will and plan of our heavenly Father, Jesus Christ was born into this world for a clear purpose.
In the previous parts of today’s passage, in 1 John 4:9, the following is written:
　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.
“His one and only Son” refers to Jesus Christ. God sent His only Son, Jesus Christ to this world so that through Him we may be able to live.

In order for us to have life through Him, God sent Jesus Christ into this world.
In other words, to live is to receive the love of God shown through Jesus Christ and to live in God.
To live means to live following the words of the Bible, knowing God’s heart, worshipping God, and living a prayerfully spiritual life.
First, we need to listen to God’s word to know Him. Then through dwelling on His word and experiencing receiving power from His word, we can (choose to) trust in His words as truth.
Those who trust in God in this way dwell in God (in God’s love). It means to resolute to continue to live in God’s love.
Those who are shown God’s love and dwell in it will have God dwell in them too, as is written in verse 16 of today’s passage.
If God is dwelling in that person, they will have no fear. This is what is written in verses 17-18.
17 This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. 18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

In other words, if you trust in God’s love and dwell in it, then there will no longer be fear in you.
The day of judgment is when every believer will have to stand before God and be questioned about and judged for their every action and word.
The day of judgment that the Bible speaks of is something we believers will all eventually face. However, none of us are perfect because we are flawed and make mistakes.
Therefore, no matter how upstanding the individual, no one can escape judgment before a perfect God. No matter who they are, they are unfortunately guilty before God.
However, if you believe in Christ, and live in Christ’s (God’s) love, Christ takes our judgment upon Himself, so there is no reason to fear.
Christmas is when we remember our Savior, who was born to offer His life in our place for the forgiveness of our sins.
Through our Savior, our sins are forgiven and we are shown limitless love.
Shall we not live walking in joy and thanksgiving after receiving of God’s love abundantly and being freed of fear?

Let’s read verses 20-21 from today’s passage.

20 Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. 21 And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.

　It is wonderful to be loved by God. There is nothing as joyful than being loved by God.
God loving us means that He will take care of us and that we are precious to him.
In today’s worship, there will be a skit called “You are Special”. In this skit, Eli, the woodworker who creates the little people says the following:
“I created you, therefore you are valuable”. The Lord of Creation, our God, says the same to us, which is hard for us to comprehend.
We may know this in our head, but does the joy of that knowledge overflow in our hearts? Christians should think about this carefully.
The message of the Bible is that God loves us in our current state unconditionally because He created us. I hope that we can all accept and believe this (even if it takes time).
Today’s passage also states that those of us who have been loved so much have an obligation to love our brothers and sisters (friends and neighbors).

”For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. 21 And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister”

These are very strict words.
Today’s passage teaches us that if we believe in and dwell in the love of Jesus Christ, we have no need to fear God’s judgment.
However, today’s passage also states that in order to tell if we are dwelling in God’s love, we look to how we love our brothers and sisters in our family of faith, as well as how we love the people around us. We should all think about the gravity of these words.
　However, God does not command us to do things that we cannot do. God knows that we do not have love in us.
Therefore, God’ gave us His son Jesus Christ and His love. Not of our own, but through the love of Christ, we can surely love people other than ourselves.
Through belief in Jesus and receiving His love, we can treasure other people around us, so let us start with small steps.

This is slightly out of order in verses but let us look at verse 19 next.

19 We love because he first loved us.

God loved us first. Therefore, we are able to (or at least are supposed to be able to) love others. The Bible teaches us that we are able to take that step.
God loves us first and gives us everything. This is what Christmas is. God’s Son Jesus Christ was born for our sakes.
Through Christ our sins are forgiven, and we can stand before God (and man) without fear, and dwelling in God’s love let us walk willing to love our brothers and sisters in faith daily.
Let us give thanks with joy from the bottom of our hearts for the grace of Christmas.