The Glory of Love ~ Selected Scriptures26 June 2015 ~ New City Church of Calgary ~ Pastor John Ferguson

Intro: A picture is worth a thousand words. Especially Owen & Karas wedding picture.

We are beginning a new series today that will take us through the summer: Love, Marriage, & Sexuality. We are going to look at what Christianity has to say about this topic, and many of us will be surprised.

No matter what your background or your beliefs, the topic of Love, Marriage, & Sexuality is of immense interest to all of us because it hits us where we live. Its not only the stuff of headline news, but relationships are the stuff of life.

But to even talk about this issue is to raise a whole host of questions that reveal hidden assumptions:

What is love? What are relationships for? How should we understand our sexuality? What are people for?

Why do we exist? Why is there something rather than nothing? What does this tell us about God?

Have you ever wondered about these things? What if I told you that the ancient wisdom contained for us in the Scripturesand more specifically the Gospel of Jesus of Nazarethgives us satisfying answers to these big questions of life?

And what if I told you that the beginning point has to do with the answer to two questions, What was God doing before the creation of the world? and Why did God create the world?

Where Angels Fear to Tr. The Glory of Love ~ Selected Scriptures

Genesis 1:1, In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

When we think of God, we tend to think of God as the Creator of the universe, and indeed he is. But we must not think of this as his primary identity because that would mean that God needs the creation in order to be who he is. IOW, in some strange way, he would need ushis creation. But he doesnt.

1. What does Jesus tell us about what God was doing before creation?

(1) The Declaration of Jesus, Father, you have loved me before the creation of the world (John 17:24).

1) Jesus refers to God as Father.

2) There was a time when there was not a creation.

3) Before creation, the Father was loving the Son.

4) Inter-personal love requires another person to be the object and recipient.

5) Core to the identity of God Fatherhood because of his fatherly love of his Son.

6) God is love.

7) The Father is the eternal Father of the eternal Son. If there was a time the Son did not exist, then

there was a time when the Father did not exist.

Important Point: God could not be love if there was nobody to love. Love is inherently directed to another. The Fathers love is constantly and eternally flowing to the Son, and the Son is constantly and eternally responding in love to the Father.

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(2) The Baptism of Jesus, And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, The is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased (Matthew 3:16-17).

The Father loves the Son by giving him the Spirit through whom the Father loves, blesses, and empowers His Son.

Romans 5:5, Gods love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

Conclusion: So what was God doing before the foundation of the world? God eternally existed in a loving community of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Each delighting in and loving the other in a bond of unimaginable delight ecstasy.

2. So why did God create the world? Jesus tells us it has to do with his Fathers love.

John 17:24-26, Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love that you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.

John 17:22-23, The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one. I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and loved them even as you loved me.

2 Cor. 5:17 an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.

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Father

Son Holy Spirit

You The Believer is united to Christ (in Christ) and is drawn into the fellowship of the Trinity.

Reeves, Delighting in the Trinity, The Father so delights in his eternal love for the Son that he desires to share it with all who will believe. Ultimately, the Father sent the Son because the Father so loved the Sonand wanted to share that love and fellowship. His love for the world is the overflow of his almighty love for his Son.

Love is by nature self-giving, and this is ultimately demonstrated by the self-giving of God in the person of Jesus

Main Idea: We love because he first loved us, 1 John 4:19.

Application:

1. Connect the idea of love, marriage & sexuality to God.

The reason there is love is because God is love. If God did not exist, IOW, if all were are biochemical reactions, then there is no such thing as love.

God is love, but love is not God.

Every deep conversation among friends, every intimate kiss between lovers is meant to be a sign pointing us to the love of God in Christ Jesus.

In fact, as well see in this series, the intimate union of husband & wife is meant to be a picture of the spiritual union between Christ & His Church. In fact, this series is designed to show how the Gospel shapes our relationships.

The picture of love, marriage, & sexuality is worth a thousand words that speaks volumes of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

2. Join us for the rest of this series.

Jun 28 - "The Glory of Love" July 05 - "The Covenant of Marriage" July 12 - "Strangers to Ourselves: The Fall (Part 1)" July 19 - "The Plague of Selfishness: The Fall (Part 2)" July 26 - "Redeemed Sexuality" Aug 02 - "Sexual Holiness" Aug 09 - "The Gift of Singleness" Aug 16 - "The Dance of Marriage" Aug 30 - "The Question of Divorce" Sep 13 - "Raising Children" Sep 20 - "The Marriage Supper of the Lamb"

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