So far this Advent season we have found out that we are the Hope, Peace and Joy to the world. We who know Christ have a very high place in this world. We are going to be held responsible for all that we have been given.
Many Christians do not understand their high calling. They think that God saved them so they can go to heaven when they die. Most do not realize God saved them for His purpose. He has acquired us for service. He has made us aware of the reality of His realm. He has called us to share our knowledge with those around us.
We do this because we have been given the ability to love. This ability is also the result of knowing the truth about God.
God sent His son into our world to reopen a channel for us to reach Him. As we come to Christ we are allowed to know more and more of the real world that surrounds us. We come to understand the mission of God. We acquire a love for the people of the world that is uncommon to us but very common to God.
John 1:14-18
14 So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.
15 John testified about him when he shouted to the crowds, “This is the one I was talking about when I said, ‘Someone is coming after me who is far greater than I am, for he existed long before me.’ ”
16 From his abundance we have all received one gracious blessing after another. 17 For the law was given through Moses, but God’s unfailing love and faithfulness came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God. But the unique One, who himself God, is near to the Father’s heart. He has revealed God to us.
Through Christ, God in the form of a human, God has revealed Himself to us. He has shown us His love for the people of this world.
The Gospels are a love story of a God that is pursuing the target of His affection. He is doing everything He can to make a way for us to love in return.
John 3:16-21
16 “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.
18 “There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son. 19 And the judgment is based on this fact: God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. 20 All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed. 21 But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants.”
Here’s where our dilemma comes in. We have been drawn to the light by God’s love. We have come to understand some of God’s love for us. Due to this we love those who are still lost in the darkness. Our hearts hurt for them. We desire that they come to know this love that the Lord offers.
John 13:34-35
34 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.”
Our special God given love for others is a proof that we belong to the Lord. God so loved the world that He acted by sending His Son to make a way for His created humans to come back into relationship with Him.
Now that we have this love, this love should create in us a desire to reach out to others as God did. This love now drives our will to act.
John 15:9-17
9 “I have loved you even as the Father has loved me. Remain in my love. 10 When you obey my commandments, you remain in my love, just as I obey my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. 11 I have told you these things so that you will be filled with my joy. Yes, your joy will overflow! 12 This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you. 13 There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you slaves, because a master doesn’t confide in his slaves. Now you are my friends, since I have told you everything the Father told me. 16 You didn’t choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name. 17 This is my command: Love each other.
This is pretty self explanatory when you put it in the context of God’s love for us. His love works in us to move us to reach others with His love.
As you can see that makes us the love that will reach the world for the Lord.
We have been appointed to this task by our adoption into the Lord’s family.
This adoption gives us a very high standing. We really are a chosen people, a special possession, a royal priesthood. We have been saved for a reason. We have been set apart from all the other human beings to do the good works that God has called us to do.
Ephesians 2:9-10
9 Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. 10 For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.
Ephesians 3:6-11
6 And this is God’s plan: Both Gentiles and Jews who believe the Good News share equally in the riches inherited by God’s children. Both are part of the same body, and both enjoy the promise of blessings because they belong to Christ Jesus. 7 By God’s grace and mighty power, I have been given the privilege of serving him by spreading this Good News.
8 Though I am the least deserving of all God’s people, he graciously gave me the privilege of telling the Gentiles about the endless treasures available to them in Christ. 9 I was chosen to explain to everyone this mysterious plan that God, the Creator of all things, had kept secret from the beginning.
10 God’s purpose in all this was to use the church to display his wisdom in its rich variety to all the unseen rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. 11 This was his eternal plan, which he carried out through Christ Jesus our Lord.
We have been given the mysterious message of salvation. We have the right to enter the throne room of God. We have been given the Holy Spirit which is a Spirit of Truth. He counsels, comforts, strengthens, encourages and empowers us while we do the work of spreading the mysterious message. We have been given God’s love which drives us to reach those around us with all that we now know.
John 14:15-31
15 “If you love me, obey my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. 17 He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you. 18 No, I will not abandon you as orphans—I will come to you. 19 Soon the world will no longer see me, but you will see me. Since I live, you also will live. 20 When I am raised to life again, you will know that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21 Those who accept my commandments and obey them are the ones who love me. And because they love me, my Father will love them. And I will love them and reveal myself to each of them.”
22 Judas (not Judas Iscariot, but the other disciple with that name) said to him, “Lord, why are you going to reveal yourself only to us and not to the world at large?”
23 Jesus replied, “All who love me will do what I say. My Father will love them, and we will come and make our home with each of them. 24 Anyone who doesn’t love me will not obey me. And remember, my words are not my own. What I am telling you is from the Father who sent me. 25 I am telling you these things now while I am still with you. 26 But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you.
27 “I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid. 28 Remember what I told you: I am going away, but I will come back to you again. If you really loved me, you would be happy that I am going to the Father, who is greater than I am. 29 I have told you these things before they happen so that when they do happen, you will believe.
30 “I don’t have much more time to talk to you, because the ruler of this world approaches. He has no power over me, 31 but I will do what the Father requires of me, so that the world will know that I love the Father. Come, let’s be going.
When you really read the Bible you find that it is a book that reveals to us a King and a Kingdom that is other worldly or not of this world.
When we come to the realization of this unimaginable and unbelievable realm, we will be transformed by this knowledge.
This knowledge will recreate you into a new being. You will no longer be seen in the same way. You are no longer the normal male or female. You are not just a Jew or a Gentile. You are no longer seen as free or slave. You are a new creation in Christ Jesus filled with God’s love for the purpose of serving the Lord in His mission.
The Lord’s mission is salvation of His created humans that a still held captive by the ruler of this world.
Our love for those who are held captive generates in us the desire to lead them to the truth that will set them free.
John 16:26-28
26 Then you will ask in my name. I’m not saying I will ask the Father on your behalf, 27 for the Father himself loves you dearly because you love me and believe that I came from God. 28 Yes, I came from the Father into the world, and now I will leave the world and return to the Father.”
Now that Christ is away from this world He works His mission of salvation through a body of believers called the church. This is a body of people bound together by their love for one another and their desire to reach the lost of human kind. We want them to be brought back into a right relationship with the King of kings and the Lord of lords.
I hope you are starting to see how important it is that our love extends out to those around us.
We are the World’s love, joy, peace and hope. We are the ones who carry within us the mysterious message of salvation.
Has your loved welled up in you to the point of good works?
Let us pray.
