Because He First Loved Us

Happy Sunday! As I was looking at my notes of sermons past, I noticed that last week was our one-year anniversary of online sermons. Thank you so much for watching, thank many of you for giving, and thank you for praying. I also want to thank Jeannie for all the wonderful work she does.

Next week I will start a series on the seven words Jesus spoke from the cross. After that series, it will be Palm Sunday and then Easter. I so look forward to the weeks ahead. Today, then, since tomorrow is Valentine's Day, I want to talk about love.

First John 4:19 tells us this about our relationship with God: "We love him because he first loved us." It is so much easier to love someone when we know that they already love us. Remember the old game in junior high? A messenger would come to you and say, "She might like you if you like her," or, "He might like you if you like him."

The out, of course, was that if you didn't like them, it was all a joke, and that person thought that you had cooties if you didn't like them. Remember cooties? Who knew that over 50 years ago, after I learned about cooties, I could use that knowledge for social distancing in these last few years? But I digress.

I said I was going to talk about love. God loves you, cooties and all. God loves you. He loved you first. If you're watching this with someone, turn to them and tell them that God loves you.

In his book What's So Amazing About Grace, Philip Yancey told a sad story. He wrote, "A prostitute came to me in wretched straits, homeless, sick, unable to find care for her two-year-old daughter. Through sobs and tears, she told me such horrible things. I could hardly bear hearing her sordid story. I had no idea what to say to this woman."

"At last I asked her if she had ever thought of going to church for help. I will never forget her, the pure, naive shock that crossed her face. 'Church?' she cried. 'Why would I ever go there? I was already feeling terrible about myself. They would just make me of me feel worse.'"

The truth is that people like that ran to Jesus when he walked the earth: tax collectors and sinners and prostitutes and all sorts. And now people like that run away from churches. What has happened, and why has this happened? I think it has something to do with many relief religious people forgetting that God loves everyone.

Remember the story from John chapter eight? Jesus was at the temple teaching a crowd, and suddenly, as he was pete speaking, a group of religious leaders busted in and put a woman in the front, right by Jesus. They told Jesus that the woman was caught in the act of adultery. They let the man go, but they brought the woman in, and they reminded Jesus that the law of Moses said that she should be stoned to death. And then, trying to trap Jesus, they ask, "What do you say?"

John tells us something interesting: that Jesus stooped to the ground and wrote something in the dust. The leaders kept demanding an answer, and finally Jesus stood up and said, "All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone." We're told that after that he stooped back and wrote more in the dust. One by one, the accusers dropped their stones, and they left.

The woman stood there, and Jesus asked her, "Where are your accusers? Didn't even one of them condemn you?" We're told she responded, "No, Lord." Jesus said to her in John 8:11, "Neither do I. Now go and sin no more."

Why did Jesus write in the dust? You ever wondered about that? I'm sure you have if you know the story. We are not told. Some say he was doodling and stalling for time; I doubt that.

Others say that he was writing a Bible verse, maybe. Some say that he was writing the names of the accusers and their sins. I like that; maybe that's it. But I don't want what we don't know to overshadow what we do know in this story.

What we do know is that Jesus did not condemn this woman. He showed her love when others wanted to show her judgment. They wanted her dead. The only one there who had never sinned chose not to throw the rock. Jesus never did.

This woman was now free to sin no more. She was forgiven by Jesus, and she now knew that she was loved. I'm sure that she had heard about Jesus. It's most likely that she'd heard of all the healings and miracles, and, well, that day she got both.

Before she would change, though, before she would be obedient, before she would love God, she had to know that she was loved by God. That day she learned. Remember the words of John 4:19: "We love him because he first loved us." Sadly, the men in the story, the religious leaders, had forgotten all about the love of God, if they ever knew about it. Whose sins were worse, the woman or the leaders?

In Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis wrote, "The sins of the flesh are bad, but they are the least bad of all sins. All of the worst pleasures are purely spiritual: the pleasure of putting other people in the wrong, of bossing and patronizing and spoiling sport, and backbiting, the pleasures of power, of hatred. For there are two things inside me competing with the human self which I must try to become. They are the animal self and the diabolical self. The diabolical self is the worst of the two. This is why a cold, self-righteous prig who goes to church regularly may be far nearer to hell than a prostitute." But of course, C.S. Lewis said, "It's better to be neither."

Commenting about this, John Ortberg said, "What is so insidious about the sins of the spirit is that the carriers don't have a clue. At least with the sins of the flesh, you find out you've messed up. With the sin of the spirit, you may not even know. You just walk through life with a stone in your hands." I like that line: you just walk through life with a stone in your hands.

In the story of the adulterous woman, it's important to know that Jesus was not condoning sin. He is condoning love. That is our job every day and in every way. So put the rocks down so you can open your arms and love.

Pray with me. God, you first loved us, and you still do, and that's astonishing, because you know us. You know our sins and our past and our failures, and you love us, and you ask us to love you in return. It's our prayer today that we show Christianity to this world, and we show love, and in return people run to you, not from you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

God bless. Thanks for watching.