Making the "Unlovables" Lovable
by Rev. Kirby Williams
How Jesus transforms the "unlovables" to receive the holy love of God.
Text: John 1:1-3,14
Date: 12/09/2018, the Traditional service.
Series: "John: Encountering Love" Part 114
Occasion: Advent
Description:
As we continue our Advent series based on the first twelve chapters of John, we turn our attention in this message to "love". Our focus will be on the holy love of God and how it rages like a super-heated fire within the persons of the Trinity. We will discuss this love in relationship to humanity-- first in the Garden and then after the Fall. Our focus will be on the dilemma of God's zealous and jealous love, which like His holiness consumes whatever it touches-- rendering fallen and sinful humanity basically "unlovable". After exploring this dilemma, we will turn our attention to how Jesus solves it-- by transforming those who are unlovable into those whose hearts have been "fireproofed" to flourish in the white-hot love of God. As was the case with "hope", we will discover that John's first twelve chapters are a virtual study on how Jesus came to transform the "unlovables". Ultimately we will recognize that it is only through the Crosswork of Jesus that this otherwise insurmountable problem is overcome-- for He and He alone can make the "unlovables" lovable.
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I. Introduction
II. Exposition of the text, John 1:1-3, 14.
A. Context
B. The dilemma of God's "holy love".
1. Trying to comprehend the Love of God, vs. 1-2.
a. In the beginning, 1John 4:16.
b. The nature of Divine love, Deut. 4:24.
2. The Creation of man and woman, vs. 3.
a. Made in the likeness of God, Gen. 1:26-27.
b. A perfect love.
c. The devastation of the Fall.
3. The glory of the Incarnation, vs. 14.
a. Driven by a burning love for humanity, John 3:16.
b. A "lovable" human being, Gen. 2:7, John 3:35.
4. The Mission of Christ.
a. The untouchable mountain, Ex. 19:12, 18-19.
b. The mission to make the "unlovables" lovable.
C. John's study of the "unlovables".
1. Love that transforms the infirm and disabled, John 5:1-18, 9:1-41.
2. Love that transforms the immoral and outcast, John 4:4-42.
3. Love that transforms the arrogant and self-righteous, John 3:1-15.
4. Love that raises the dead, John 11:1-53.
III. Application, Rom. 5:5,6,8.
IV. Conclusion