The Arrival—Love

The Christmas season tends to be synonymous with family.  When people ask me about our Christmas plans, what they are asking is which family you will be spending the holidays with. Christmas and family tend to go together.  That’s why this can also be a tough time for many people.

Family relationships can cause a lot of anxiety. Whether it is because of loss, distance and separation, relationship tension, or something that caused a break. For many of us, family is a tough topic this time of year. 

I grew up in a pretty dysfunctional family situation. I don’t have a relationship with my dad today.  So, I understand the difficulty of family dynamics.

Because this is true for many of us, I want to talk about family from God’s perspective this morning. I want you to see how 

Something that caught my attention a number of years ago in scripture is how frequently God relates to us using the language of family.

Scripture describes God in familial terms when referring to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. (Matt 28:19)

When God created Adam, He said it was not good for Adam to be alone, so He created Eve.  They were the first family and the model for God’s design for the human family. (Gen 2:24)

When God saves Noah from the flood, He doesn’t just save Noah; He saves Noah and his entire family. (Gn 7:1)

When God makes a covenant with Abraham, He doesn’t just make it with Abraham but with Abraham’s entire family and his descendants.  (Gen 12:1)

God is our Father. (Rom 8:15)

We are His children and co-heirs with Christ. We are heirs because we are sons and daughters of God. (Rom 8:16-17)

Those of us who follow Jesus are referred to as the family of God, and we relate to each other as brothers and sisters in Christ. (Eph 2:19)

The relationship Jesus has with the church is referred to as a marriage.  Jesus is the bridegroom, and the church is His bride. Someday, when we all stand before the throne of our Father in Heaven, we do so, Rev 19 says, as the Family of God, and it also says there will be a great feast called the marriage supper of the Lamb.

That is just a taste of the places God uses family terms to describe our relationship with Him.

These family terms aren’t just a dumbed-down way for God to talk to us.  God uses family terms because that is how He relates to us. We are created in the image of God. He is our Father, and we are His sons and daughters.  

Family relationship is the language God speaks because family relationship is the way God operates.

This Advent season we have been talking about the Arrival of Jesus and how his arrival has given us peace, hope, joy, and love which are represented by the 4 candles on the Advent Wreath.

To understand the breadth of the Father’s Love for us and how the arrival of His Son demonstrated that love, we need to hear it in the language God is speaking, the language of family relationships.

1. The Father’s Love

Last week, we talked about The Parable of the Lost Sheep, but my favorite illustration of God’s love for us is The Parable of the Lost Son, also in Luke 15.  

You all know this one.  The youngest of two sons gets dissatisfied with his boring life on the farm, so he goes to his dad and demands his inheritance early.  His father gives him what he asked for, and the son takes the money, moves away, and then squanders everything on foolish living.  When he is destitute and desperate, humbled by his bad decisions, he decides to ask his father for a job because he knows his father treats his employees well.

I want you to think for a moment about the one thing in your life that brings you the most shame.  That thing that you did or said that makes you cringe when you think about it.  Now imagine yourself standing before the holy, all-powerful, all-knowing God of the Universe.

How do you picture God’s response to you as you confess this thing in your life that brings you so much shame?  What do you picture God saying to you at that moment?  Is He disappointed?  Is He angry?  Is He frustrated?

This is His response to you:

Lk 15:20-24 (CSB)—So he got up and went to his father. But while the son was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion. He ran, threw his arms around his neck, and kissed him. The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I’m no longer worthy to be called your son.’ “But the father told his servants, ‘Quick! Bring out the best robe and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Then bring the fattened calf and slaughter it, and let’s celebrate with a feast, because this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ So they began to celebrate. 

I can’t think of a more complete picture of our Heavenly Father’s compassionate love for us than this.

Last week, I talked about a picture of Jesus going after the one lost sheep that I have hanging in my office. Hanging next to that picture is a drawing of the lost son returning home.

It is a picture of a man, looking beat up and full of shame, walking up a path toward a father who is excitedly running towards him with open arms, waiting for the moment He can embrace His son.

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Family relationships are part of who we are and how we are created. We all long for the connection that comes from family. I don’t care if you are a teenager, a manly man who works for the railroad, a CEO, an Entrepreneur, single or married, a mom, a grandma, or a grandpa; we all long for the connection that comes from family.

Last week, Olivia, Stacey, and I watched this short film by an illustrator named Aaron Blaise.  He used to illustrate for Disney.  He did a short film called Snow Bear.

It’s really good. It’s about a polar bear who desperately wants to find a friend.  I won’t spoil the story for you, but I will tell you we were all crying by the end. I know I’m a cryer anyway, but I looked over at Olivia, and she was just sobbing. 

I thought about why that silly illustrated short film was so emotionally impactful, and I decided it was because it described the human condition so beautifully.

Every one of us can identify with this pretend polar bear that is looking for companionship.  He, like all of us, just wants a family and to love and be loved.

That desire for those kinds of relationships is built into us.

That is why, in the garden of Eden, when sin disrupted the family relationship between the Father and us, He had a plan to restore it, to forgive us for our sin, and to fill our desire to love and be loved.  This is where we begin to understand the Son’s love for us.

2. The Son’s Love

The Son arrived on earth to become one of us so that through His suffering, death, and resurrection, that relationship could be restored.

Jn 3:16-17 (CSB)—For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

Jesus’ arrival in our world and His sacrifice for us were the ultimate expressions of God’s love for His human family.

If you are a parent here today, what would you do to ensure your kids are safe and that they have everything they need?  If it were a matter of life or death, what would you sacrifice to give them life?  There’s probably nothing you would not do that was in your power to do.

That’s what God did for us, because of His love for us.

Paul says it this way:

Rom 5:8 (CSB)—But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

This is the true nature of God’s love for us.  His love is sacrificial.

God says this directly when he talks about how husbands should love their wives.

Eph 5:25 (CSB)—Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her

The arrival of Jesus gives us the opportunity to restore our relationship with our Father and experience the love that He has for His sons and daughters, but it also gives us an example to follow.

If you are fortunate, you have a parent whom you have said, I want to be like them someday. Maybe it is a particular character quality that you admire and aspire to.  Most of us who are parents have spent time thinking about the example that we set for our own children. 

The Apostle Paul says this about imitating our Father: 

Eph 5:1-2 (CSB)—Therefore, be imitators of God, as dearly loved children, and walk in love, as Christ also loved us and gave himself for us, a sacrificial and fragrant offering to God.

The arrival of Jesus has given us a model for love to imitate.  This is what love should look like. The children’s love should imitate the Father’s and the Son’s love.

3. The Children’s Love  

Did you all know that Pastor Adam is a champion duck caller?  I never even knew they had such a thing or that they held duck-calling contests all over the United States. Our own Pastor Adam has risen to the top as one of the best duck callers in the U.S.

You know what that means?  It means he’s a good imitator.  He’s really good at listening to what a duck sounds like and then imitating that sound.  I know that may be simplifying things a bit, but that’s what it boils down to.

Jesus said:

Jn 13:34-35 (CSB)—I give you a new command: Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.

Let’s understand how the Son has loved us and then imitate that.  When God’s children imitate the love of the Son, the rest of the world will see and begin to experience His love as well.

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“Sociologists have a theory of the looking-glass self: you become what the most important person in your life (wife, father, boss, etc.) thinks you are. How would my life change if I truly believed the Bible’s astounding words about God’s love for me, if I looked in the mirror and saw what God sees?”

—Philip Yancey

If we actually believe what the Bible says about the Father’s love for me, demonstrated by the arrival and the sacrifice of the Son, it would:

Change my identity.  Instead of thinking my identity is rooted in my performance, I would see it is rooted in my relationship with the Father who cherishes me because I am one of His children.

I would stop living like an orphan and start living like a son or a daughter.

Bring me comfort and confidence. I would find comfort in knowing that Jesus understands my humanity. I would know that I will never be alone because I’ve been adopted forever, and I can live with confidence instead of fear.

Empower me to follow his example. I would begin to follow His example of love, obedience, and sacrifice, not so that He will love me more, but because He loves me more.

Help me love others. I would commit to loving the family that God has placed me in.  I would choose grace, patience, and forgiveness towards my sisters and brothers in Christ. 

I would ask, who in my circle of influence needs to see the love of the Son in my life this Christmas?