Message Title: Love Came Down
Message Text: 1 John 4:7-10
I. Love Comes From God (vv.7-8)
First of all love comes from God. “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.” (1 John 4:7-8) Did you ever wonder where love comes from? When you see the love between a man and his wife, where does that come from? Or the love between a parent and a child? Or the love between family or good friends? At Christmas time there seems to be an extra measure of love around as people give to each other and especially to those in need.
II. Love Came Down to Earth (v.9)
Our second truth is this: love came down to earth. “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.” (1 John 4:9)
God created us because he loves us and wants to have a relationship with us. But after God created us, we rebelled against him. What’s wrong with the world? We broke it. And we are broken. The Bible says we have all sinned and thus broken our relationship with God. But that didn‘t stop God’s love. Love began in heaven among the persons of the Trinity, but love came down to earth at Christmas.
III. Love came down to the cross (10)
Love comes from God. That’s our first truth. Love came down to earth. That’s our second truth. And finally, love came down to the cross. “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” (1 John 4:10) God loves us so much that he not only sent Jesus to earth. He sent him to the cross at Calvary. This was God’s plan all along. It’s part of the Christmas story. When Mary became pregnant with Jesus, the angel told Joseph, “Do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:20-21)
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)
As Corrie Ten Boom said, “Who can add to Christmas? The perfect motive is that God so loved the world. The perfect gift is that He gave His only Son. The only requirement is to believe in Him. The reward of faith is that you shall have everlasting life.”
