The center of our worship is the Word of the Lord, the Scriptures, and I invite you to turn to 1 John chapter 4 for our Scripture lesson for this morning. We shall read from verses 7 through 21 from the first epistle of John, not the Gospel of John now, that's the fourth book in the New Testament, But the first epistle of John, one of the latter books of the New Testament, the fourth chapter, beginning with the seventh verse, where we read God's word with reverence as follows. Dear friends, in the original that the dear friends is really one word, and it literally means loved ones. Well, dear friends is rather good, but it doesn't quite have the richness and depth of John's use of the term loved ones. The old preachers used to say beloved. I still like that term. Beloved of the Lord. Objects of God's love and grace. 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. 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. This is love. Not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God, but if we love each other, God lives in us. And His love is made complete in us. We know that we live in Him and He in us because He has given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent His Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in Him and He in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God and God in him. Love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment. Because in this world, we are like him. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear. Because fear has to do with punishment. The man who fears is not made perfect in love. We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, I love God, yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command. Whoever loves God must also love his brother. May the indispensable blessing of the Holy Spirit accompany the reading of this Word and our attempts to open up this Scripture and illuminate its glories for all of us this morning. My text this morning is one of the shortest verses in this whole passage, and it's verse 19. We love because He first loved us. Dear friends in Christ, love is a very popular subject, isn't it? All sorts of songs about love. I remember from my youth, one of the popular songs went like this. What is this thing called love? This crazy thing called love? And it went on to try to answer it, but it didn't succeed. With some sentimental drivel, but somehow it seems to have been something of an improvement on modern rap music, which seems to glorify violence rather than love. There are journal articles about love. I was reading a journal article written by a psychiatrist, and this is his definition of love. Really, love is a reverse spiral motion of the impulses of the occipital lobe of the brain. Now, isn't that interesting? That tingle you felt running up and down your spine when you first found someone to love. Well, all it was was a physiological response. There are books written about love, and some of them are pretty good. In my college days, a must-reading was Eric Fromm. His book called The Art of Loving. And it's really rather good. I've used it on several occasions to try to understand the nature of love. And Eric Fromm suggests that there are really three kinds of love. One is sort of erotic, that's sexual attraction. And another is a love and a compassion for the helpless and the poor and the weak. He calls it motherly love. It doesn't mean only mothers love in that fashion. But any sense of compassion for someone totally dependent, as a baby is totally dependent. Today is the due date for our first great-grandchild. And we don't know if it's happening, but that child will be born completely helpless. And of course, when you assist someone in complete dependence upon you, that's a sort of a motherly love. And then finally, Eric Rohn says there is brotherly love. And that's what we need to have a well-organized society. And he goes on to explain exactly what is necessary. You have to know somebody else, respect someone else, understand that their worth, they have a certain worth about them so that you can be concerned and finally have a sense of caring for the other. And Eric Rohn rightly says that brotherly love is an outgoing concern for another. It's unselfish. The problem with Eric Rohn, who even quotes the Scripture, love your neighbor as yourself, is that he suggests that we all can do it. It's a simple human possibility. You all have the capacity, the potential, so just work at it. Try hard. It's an art, you know, the art of loving, like learning to play the piano or tennis or to learn a trade. So, Eric Frome apparently has never read the Heidelberg Catechism. Which in Lord's Day 2, question and answer 5 says, that we are prone by nature, the natural tendency is not to love, but to hate. Catechism's words are strong, as strong as John's. Our normal, unregenerate attitude is to hate God and our neighbor. And therefore, he can't be much help to us. Our tendency is to try to benefit ourselves at the expense of our neighbor. And so I'd like to suggest another book that is much more helpful, written by C.S. Lewis. It's called The Four Loves. And he uses four Greek words, three of which are in the Bible, to describe the character of love. and observes that there is love that is eros, erotic, a physical attraction. There's a love that's friendship. There's a love that is a compassion for the weak, what Eric Rome calls this motherly tendency. And there is a love of which John speaks in John 4 verse 19 when it says, We love because He first loved us. And C.S. Lewis has it right. The first three are human possibilities. Physical attraction, friendship, compassion for the weak. Even the mafia have a certain affection for each other. They're common friendship in crime. But C.S. Lewis reminds us that the kind of love John speaks of is not a simple human possibility. Because the source of the love of which John is speaking has its source only in God. It's reflected in the lives only of those who have been redeemed by the power of the Holy Spirit, transformed out of their natural tendency to love God and neighbor. And we can work hard at that too, but not in our own strength, only in the strength of the Spirit of God Himself. So let's look at this verse, we love because He first loved us, under the theme, the priority of God's love. Priority means God first and us second. That God is the initiator of whatever love we have for another. I'd like you to notice, well really that's all the sermon I want to bring to you. That God's love precedes whatever expression of that love we may find in our own experience. But I want to elaborate a bit on that nonetheless. I want you to notice, first of all, it's human expression. Yes, God's love can find its expression in human beings. Because after all, John says, we love. But then, of course, he adds, only because God loves us first. Well, that'll be our first point. And the second point this morning's message is, it's apostolic demonstration. You see, John is an apostle. And the priority of God's love is convincingly demonstrated in the pages of the scripture in the person of John, the apostle, who admonishes us to love because God first loved us. First of all then, the priority of God's love, it's human expression. The Apostle John wrote this epistle to believers in general. You know, many of the books in the New Testament were written to specific congregations. Paul wrote to the Galatians, Ephesians, the church in Rome, and the like. But there are some epistles in the New Testament which we call general epistles. The epistles of Peter, for instance, and James, and Jude, and John. Written to Christians in general, Christians in their day, of course, which were distributed, dispersed all over the Roman Empire. And so to Christians in general, not the specific congregations, but to believers everywhere, John says, we love because he first loved us. Now, that's sort of remarkable. At least it should strike us as being rather remarkable. When John says to these scattered believers around the Roman Empire that we love, well, it strikes us as unlikely. Because earlier in this book, he identifies some very serious moral imperfections in the lives of the Christians to whom he's writing. For instance, in the very passage we read for this message, chapter 4, verse 7, John says, let us love one another. Now, whenever you say, let's do this or do that, let's go on a picnic, it suggests that we haven't done it yet and aren't doing it yet. So John says, let us love one another, suggests, well, he's encouraging them in the direction of loving others. But they haven't arrived at that point yet. And yet, here in the 19th verse, he says, we love. So there seems to be a sort of a conflict. In chapter 3, verse 14, he says, look, if you don't love your brother, you're spiritually dead. He says, if you hate your fellow believer, that's really what the word brother here means, brethren. If you have a hateful attitude toward your fellow believer, John says, that's the equivalent of murder. And of course, he got that from Jesus, didn't he? Who said the essence of hate is murder. You want destruction for another, and complete destruction is to get rid of him completely. Which is the essence of murder. In chapter 1, verse 8, he says, If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. So there must have been some deception going on. People acting like they were sinless when really they were just covering up. And in chapter 4, verse 20, we read from our scripture reading, John says, If we say we love God, but hate our fellow believer, we're simply liars. And yet, in spite of all these imperfections that he identifies among the people to whom he's writing, John yet says, we love. Now, that's hopeful, isn't it? It's hopeful because then we can be assured that in spite of our imperfections, We can love because it's a consequence, a result of God's love working within us. God's love coming to expression within our lives. Imperfectly yet, keep working at it, but it's real. It's real love. It's really deep, heartfelt sensitivity and concern for the welfare of others. A concern that is as great as our concern for our own welfare. That's what it means when the scripture says, love your neighbor as yourself, which we read from the Old Testament. And of course, it's repeated by Jesus in the New Testament. This kind of love is an unselfish love, an other-directed desire for the best for someone else. I hope I don't embarrass them, but I think we had a demonstration of that kind of love among us in recent weeks. The kind of love that was demonstrated by 12 people from this congregation, who at their own expense, $1,000 a couple, went to Costa Rica for two weeks. and worked hard and slept on the floor. And I had the little privilege of driving the van to go pick them up. Two vans. Abe Marcus drove the other. And they were tired, but smiling. Some small expression. Why do you suppose they went there? For their own advantage? I think it wore them out. And it cost them aplenty. And they were a blessing to others. Asking nothing in return. And our youth leaders are off with the young people right now, aren't they? To a conference. Using their own time and their own talents. And I'm sure it cost them because of love. And that's what drives people to want to go to Kenya to minister in a compassionate medical way. As you heard, Pastor Steve encouraged Dr. Tan. And our prayers are going to carry her along the way. You see, love looks for opportunities to be a blessing. And there are many others among us who have this motivation and demonstrate it. You see, this kind of love is a deliberate desire for the welfare of another, the spiritual, the physical, the moral welfare of another in Jesus' name. This kind of love is determined. And if it isn't reciprocated, that is, if it isn't loved back, it still keeps loving. Because its love is unselfish. this other directed concern in the name of Christ for others. It's a kind of love that God had for an unworthy, sinful world that motivated Him to send His Son that whosoever believeth should not perish but have everlasting life. We love because He first loved us. In Romans 12, verse 14 and following, the Apostle says, Bless those who curse you. If your enemy hungers, says Jesus, feed him. If he's thirsty, give him something to drink. Do not be overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good. I think we've recently had the contrast between the kind of love, the kind of responses that we would expect from Christians compared to the responses that we've seen too much of in the Muslim countries because of an insult they feel as though they received. Not long ago, a couple of years ago, an image of Jesus Christ was presented as a piece of art in a bottle of urine. And I hope it grieves you, as it grieves so many Christians, to see Jesus, our divine Savior, treated insultingly in that fashion. But you know, nobody I know, no Christians, called for the death of the artist. No Christian mob, oh that doesn't sound right, no mob that called itself Christian tried to burn down the artist's house. But that's what happened when Mohammed was portrayed by a cartoonist in a Danish newspaper. Portrayed with bombs coming out of his head. Threatening people with terrorism attacks. And you saw what the response from the Muslim world was. Riots. A call for death. No, well, one Muslim cleric was kinder. He said, no, don't kill the cartoonist. Just cut off his hands so he can't draw any more cartoons. And embassies, Danish embassies, are being burned down as though the government approved of this cartoonist response. Well, that's quite a contrast. And I like to think it's because there's evidence of love in the one tradition and the other tradition doesn't portray it. So much for our first point, the priority of Christ's love and its human expression. But we must move on. Furthermore, the priority of God's love is demonstrated rather convincingly and rather clearly in the life of the writer of these words. I think it's amazing. Of course, everything in the scripture is amazing. But it's especially amazing that the Holy Spirit chose John. Of all the writers in the Bible, He chose John to tell us of the priority of God's love. That if it weren't for God's love, there would be no love expressed in his life or in any other believer's life. Because John was probably the most unloving disciple of the twelve. John, before Jesus transformed his heart and life, was not an apostle of love. I know you've called him that, and the church has called him the apostle of love. I think it was 19 times the word love appears in these 21 verses here. I know that for 19 centuries the church has called John the apostle of love, but it was not always so in his life. He was literally an apostle of hate. He was unloving, he was unkind, he was selfish, he was intolerant, And he loved to call denunciations down on the heads of those who disagreed with him. Now you think I'm exaggerating, don't you? Yeah, you props, you exaggerate for emphasis. Like my friend Dr. Godfrey does. But I don't mind being compared with him. Because it's an honor. We love each other. Most of the time. No, we all the time, really. But I want you to notice that from the New Testament, the Apostle John is never, well, before Jesus transformed him, he is never presented as a loving person. Let me give you some examples. Jesus had 12 disciples, but three of them were the inner circle, you know, his closest associates, Peter, James, and John. And for some reason, Jesus gave his inner circle disciples, just came to me in preparation of this message this week, that it was only this inner circle whom Jesus identified with special names. You recall Simon, he named him Peter. Now, we call him Apostle Peter. That's not the name he was born with. It's not the name on his birth certificate. On his birth certificate, it says, Simon Bar-Jonah. And Bar means son, or son of. And Jonah is the word for John, so his name was Simon John's son. Simon Johnson. First Scandinavian in the Bible. Well, names develop that way, see? Because Jesus must have identified a certain granite-like character in this man, Peter, And so he named him Rocky. The other two members of this inner circle of Jesus were James and his brother John. And Jesus gave them a kind of a combination name. Boanerges. It's not even translated. Well, sometimes it says in the Bible Boanerges, which means son of thunder. Well, I looked up that word, Boanerges, in Thayer's Lexicon. You know, we preachers, we have all these books. And so we can research these books. And one of these is Thayer's Lexicon, which tells us what the original Greek words mean. And this isn't a Greek word, really, it's an Aramaic word, but it's very closely associated. And this is the definition from Thayer's Lexicon for Boanerges. A fiery personality likened unto a thunderstorm. Not a very complimentary term at all. It means something like hothead, quick-tempered, hair-triggered temper. In John's case, it was demonstrated on several occasions. And we have these portraits in the Bible, in the New Testament. And this tendency, this quick-tempered, hair-triggered-tempered attitude was teemed with selfish ambition. Listen to Matthew 20, verses 20 to 28. Well, I'll just tell you about it. That's the story of Mrs. Zebedee and her request of Jesus that her sons James and John occupy high-level positions in the kingdom that they all still expected Jesus to establish in Palestine. Jesus would set himself up as king in Jerusalem. And Mrs. Ebony says, Lord, when you come into your kingdom, permit my boys, Jimmy and Johnny, to occupy the two highest positions under your authority. And make John the Secretary of State. They make Jim Secretary of Defense. I guess those are about the two most prominent positions in our president's cabinet. She wanted to secure the future for her sons. And her sons strategized with her to make this request. And the reason we know that is because there's a parallel passage in Mark, chapter 10, And starting with verse 35, in which the same request is made to the Lord, not by Mother Zebedee, but by James and John. Mark doesn't even mention their mother. And says, James and John came with this request to the Lord. So you see, they wanted to secure the successful future of the most important people in their lives themselves. And that's why I say John's temper, his intolerance, was teemed with selfish ambition. He wanted to be a big shot when Jesus establishes an earthly kingdom. And if you think that's really not such a terrible portrait, let's turn to Mark chapter 9, verses 38 to 40. Some of you take notes and you'd like to write that down and you can look this up later today. Mark chapter 9 verses 38 to 40. There John, not his brother, but John is described as having been around with someone else going from village to village on behalf of the Lord. Occasionally you'll know the Lord sent people out two by two to preach the gospel of the kingdom. Well, we don't know the details except for one thing. In one of these villages, John met some stranger, a person who was not part of John's circle, not one of the disciples. He met some stranger preaching in Jesus' name. And apparently this stranger was rather successful because demons, the power of the demonic was being cast out from the lives of those who heard and respond. but John thought this man should be stopped not part of John's group not part of his circle therefore he ought to be stopped and the scripture says and John forbade this stranger to continue to preach in Jesus name and after he returns to where Jesus was he reports his experience to the Lord rather proudly I expect he says Lord we saw one casting out demons in your name and we forbade him because he followeth not with us. And I expect that John thought Jesus would pat him on the back. Say, good John for running down this competition and maintaining the exclusiveness of our little circle. No, but that isn't what Jesus says. Jesus, we read, rebuked him. He scolded him. He said, John, that man you met preaching in my name is one of us. He that is not against us is for us. A lesson in Christian tolerance for other sincere believers that John had to learn. And a lesson that still needs learning in our day. Oh, he was a son of thunder, all right. And intolerant. And now the clincher, the clincher. In Luke chapter 9, verses 51 to 56, we have the story of Jesus traveling through Samaria to Judea, likely all the way from Galilee. You look on a map, Galilee is in the north in Samaria, and then Judea in the south, and it's a long way. It's as much as 60 miles. And they were walking, so they couldn't do it all in one day. But as night was falling, Jesus sends some disciples ahead to a Samaritan village to ask permission to stay overnight in their town. Ah, but years of hatred between Jews and Samaritans made the response quite predictable. Yes, the same territory of the world, Palestine, where hatred prevails in that very same area because Samaria is largely the Muslim-Palestinian section of Palestine. And Judea is largely the Israeli section of Palestine. So, I guess history repeats itself or continues itself. So, this antagonism, this hatred prevented Jesus and his disciples lodging in the Samaritan village. They were objects of discrimination in public accommodation. So Jesus knows what it's like to be discriminated against, doesn't he? Well, can you imagine what that inhospitability seemed to John, this quick-tempered disciple? He says, Lord, wilt thou that we call fire down from heaven and consume them? And you call him the apostle of love. But before Jesus transformed his heart, he was an apostle of hate. He was more like the terrorists who were burning down assemblies. in the Middle East today. The old John would have approved of that response. And yet it's that same person who says, we love because He first loved us. And again, Jesus, we read, had to rebuke him and scold him. He said, John, the Son of Man came not to destroy, but to save. And they went on to another village. You see why I say it's amazing that the Holy Spirit has John. Of all the writers of the New Testament, most of whom were disciples who became apostles, the Holy Spirit has John. This transformed son of thunder to say, we love because he first loved us. John of all people knew The impossibility of loving from our own resources and how necessary we have to have the love of God poured into our hearts in order that it can come to expression in our lives. We have no capacity in ourselves to love as God would have us love. It's not a simple possibility, but it is a divine possibility. We love because he first loved us. But we can't really leave it there, can we? Because the Bible records this remarkable change in John's life as well, from an apostle of hate to an apostle of love. Remember the fourth gospel? I presented you a portrait from each of the first three gospels, all of which portray John as something other than an apostle of love. But then there's the fourth gospel. Throughout the fourth gospel, there moves one unnamed disciple. Never mentioned by name, he is simply called another disciple, or one of the twelve, or, seems to be his favorite, the apostle whom Jesus loved. In his own gospel, the gospel which John himself wrote, he never mentions his own name. Why? This man who wanted to be in the forefront, who wanted to secure the successful future, the political future in Jesus' coming kingdom, now, in his own gospel, recedes into the background, unnamed. Well, you know the reason, don't you? Because after the love of God was poured into his heart, John wasn't that important to himself anymore. Now, Jesus must be in the forefront. And if the mention of the author's name would distract from the glory of his Jesus, then it's better to leave the name unmentioned. Jesus saw this remarkable change take place in John's life from a son of thunder to an apostle of love. And that's why from the cross, Jesus addressed one of the seven statements to this apostle and Jesus' own mother. He said, woman, look at your son next to you. And John, behold your mother. Jesus from the cross committed the care of his mother Mary to the tender hands of a transformed, hothead son of thunder. Now, we can only speculate when in John's life this dramatic change took place. But I like to think that that's where it happened. At the foot of the cross. Because when John at the foot of the cross saw the love of the Heavenly Father reflected in the face of a dying Savior, he was never the same again. And isn't it true that that's the only place it can happen for any of us to behold the face of Jesus and the love of God reflected thereon and then know that we can love because He first loved us. Let us pray. We thank You for the wonder of Your grace in Christ Jesus. And we admit, O Lord, to our own embarrassment that we have no capacity of love in ourselves, but we pray, Father, that we may be transformed by the power of Your Spirit that we too may love as a response of Your love to us so that to You be all the praise and all the glory. Transform us, Lord, to be ambassadors of Your love and grace which we have known through faith in Jesus, Your Son, in whose great name we pray. Amen.