It could be said that all the things we are supposed to learn as being disciples of Jesus could be sifted down into our annual challenge, which is extracted from John 13:35 as taught by Jesus, and is our ongoing theme of the year, which is “Learning to love like Jesus”. “By this shall all men know that you are My disciples if ye have love one to another” Last week’s message prepares for today’s topic which we have called: “Beholding The Depths of God’s Love”
Old Testament Scripture Reading: Malachi 1:1 – 6 (KJV)
Mal 1:1 The burden of the word of the LORD to Israel by Malachi.
Mal 1:2 I have loved you, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob’s brother? saith the LORD: yet I loved Jacob,
Mal 1:3 And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness.
Mal 1:4 Whereas Edom saith, We are impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places; thus saith the LORD of hosts, They shall build, but I will throw down; and they shall call them, The border of wickedness, and, The people against whom the LORD hath indignation for ever.
Mal 1:5 And your eyes shall see, and ye shall say, The LORD will be magnified from the border of Israel.
Mal 1:6 A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master: if then I be a father, where is mine honour? and if I be a master, where is my fear? saith the LORD of hosts unto you, O priests, that despise my name. And ye say, Wherein have we despised thy name?
New Testament Scripture Reading: 1Corinthians 13:1 – 13 (KJV)
1Co 13:1 If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
1Co 13:2 If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.
1Co 13:3 And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.
1Co 13:4 Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant,
1Co 13:5 does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered,
1Co 13:6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;
1Co 13:7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
1Co 13:8 Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away.
1Co 13:9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part;
1Co 13:10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away.
1Co 13:11 When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things.
1Co 13:12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.
1Co 13:13 But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love.
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Transforming Power Statements:
1) The reality of how God sees our “religious actions” is displayed throughout the Older Testament, and perhaps even more obvious here in Malachi, where God reveals that His desired position for all believers is that of Father and son; this closeness rather than any other such as: “Creator, Master, Judge, etc.
2) The call to everyone is to be a “Disciple” who follows Jesus by learning to love one another as He has loved us; and is described in great detail by the Apostle Paul in his letter to the church at Corinth where “Agape”, the most highest form of love, is taught in the thirteenth chapter, which reveals the vast distance and difference of what love really is; and teaches us life-long lessons that we must set as a target in our pursuit of Christ-likeness.
3) The love of God is on display at all times and is most vividly manifested as we look at the cross where Jesus the only righteous one was crucified and God His Father was Glad and above all He was “Satisfied” so well, that everyone coming to Him by faith in Jesus can rest assured that the “Acceptance” of God and by this act alone!