Advent 2021 Love – Week 2
The Birth of Love!
Luke 2:1-20 (NAS95)
Jesus should have been born to an important family in an important location. There should have been no scandal around his parentage or birth location, and the first witnesses should have at least been a class of people who could testify in court.
Jesus’ birth was witnessed by animals, angels, and shepherds as recorded in our Luke 2 reading this morning.
The miracle of Jesus’ birth is not only found in the incarnation and virgin birth, but also in its scandal to the power structures of those God came to save and redeem. The fact that it happened in a way that no powerful person would want the story of his or her birth to be told is evidence of the authenticity of the greatest story ever told!
We’ve talked about this before; Christmas is a scandal of epic proportions to the powers and principalities of this world! Christmas was very different on purpose because it was on Christmas that love was born!
That’s because Christmas was not a power play, like Caesar’s census. Caesar wanted to show the world how powerful he was by counting how many people were under his authority. Instead, Christmas is the birth of love where God entered His creation, compelled by love, to become one of His people to save and redeem His people back to Himself.
Paul explains this in Galatians 4:4-7,
But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.
Christmas is the birth of love and the spreading of that love to all nations. The Father sent His Son into the world so that we can share with Jesus in having God as our “Abba! Father!”.
Love compelled God that first Christmas! John declares in 1 John 3:1-3,
See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
God’s love compels us to live according to the promise of Christmas, the promise of Immanuel, God with us—the love of God has been birthed into us, full of grace and truth! Listen to John 1:12-14,
But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Now we compelled by the Holy Spirit to pass on the love that was birthed in us; we are the evidence of God’s love manifesting in the world! This is commanded to us by the Beloved of Jesus in 1 John 4:7-21:
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time; if we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. We love, because He first loved us. If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.
This is the command of God for each of us this Christmas season: Give to others what God first birthed into your heart, mind, body, and soul! You are the evidence of God’s love! You are blessed to be a blessing!
To fulfill this call, let us pray in agreement with Mary in Luke 1:46-55:
My soul exalts the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. For He has had regard for the humble state of His bondslave; for behold, from this time on all generations will count me blessed. For the Mighty One has done great things for me; and holy is His name. And His mercy is upon generation after generation Toward those who fear Him. He has done mighty deeds with His arm; He has scattered those who were proud in the thoughts of their heart. He has brought down rulers from their thrones, and has exalted those who were humble. He has filled the hungry with good things; and sent away the rich empty-handed. He has given help to Israel His servant, in remembrance of His mercy, as He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and his descendants forever.
In Jesus’ name. Amen.