Hoover Church of Christ Sermons

Brief summary (what’s the point of this text/sermon?):

This was the last sermon in a four-part series on biblical words/themes that help us understand the overall Story of Scripture. The first three were Glory, Holiness, and Covenant, and Sunday’s sermon was on Atonement.

“Atonement” is based on a Hebrew word group that has “cover” as one of its root meanings — you can see how this might be related to sin with the idea that God “covers” (atones for) our sin. It’s also reflected by the New Testament concept of “propitiation” (see 1 John 2:2 in our text), which is a big theological concept that has to do with how God addresses the sin problem in our lives.

The sermon emphasized the problem of sin and how God deals with it. We discussed how God’s work on our behalf in overcoming our rebellion is an important theme from Genesis to Revelation. We discussed how the cross fulfills the sacrifices of the Old Testament and how it beautifully portrays God’s love for us as Christ atoned for our sins (“covers” them) on the cross.

As you know, our theme for 2018 is Love God. Love People. Change the World. That’s easy enough to say, and it’s so obviously taught in Scripture that none of us would argue against its importance. But still, this question remains: we want to do it, but where do we find the motivation? We want to love God, but how do we? We want to love people, but sometimes that’s really hard, so how can we?

In other words, how do we do what we know is right, especially when it’s hard? How do we become people who instinctively love God and the people he created?

We’re planning to return to our theme monthly and emphasize a different aspect. This Sunday we’re going to look at John’s thoughts near the end of 1 John, the letter that’s all about love: love for God, love for people, love for our spiritual siblings. In this text he particularly emphasizes where our love for God and people comes from.

The summary statement is near the end: “We love because he first loved us” (v. 19).

Why do we love God? Because he first loved us.

Why do we love people? Because we’ve experienced his love for us.

God loves us unconditionally, and he loved us even when we were living in a state of rebellion against him. In fact, there’s nothing we can do to make him love us any more or any less. That’s incredible to realize.

Only when we realize that—and truly believe it from the depths of our hearts—will we be freed to love as we should. We’ll experience a deep and abiding love for him, and our hearts will be open to love people—all people, even (especially) the ones who are hard to love.

How do we love? Why do we love? Because he first loved us, and because he expresses that love so clearly and beautifully in the gift of his Son.

At the end of 2017, I preached two sermons on key concepts that help us see the Bible’s storyline more clearly. The first focused on holiness and the second on glory. In this sermon, we will study a third idea: covenant.

In one sense, a covenant is easy to understand—it’s similar to a contract that two parties make with each other, each agreeing to fulfill his side of the agreement. In biblical contexts, though, it’s different, and significantly more important.

God—the Creator of the world—has condescended and taken our hands and made covenants with us. It’s remarkable to consider.

In Genesis 15 we have an unusual story of God’s covenant ceremony with Abraham: it involves animals cut in half, God walking between the dead animals, etc. It sounds weird, but it has enormous implications for us.

God recognized the inability of Abraham, Israel, David, or anyone to keep the covenant, but he gave the covenants in anticipation of the One who would keep them perfectly. On the eve of his crucifixion, Jesus said, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood” (Luke 22:20).

Here’s the point: no one who ever made a covenant with God kept it, except Jesus Christ. He’s the better Noah, the better Abraham, the better Israel, the better David. He kept the covenant perfectly, and when he offered himself on the cross, his body was broken as a sign that God had established the final covenant that was based not on our faithfulness, but on his. He is the faithful covenant-keeping God who walks between the slain animals. He offers himself as the guarantor of a better, once-for-all covenant.

For that reason, today we live under the perfect covenant, sealed by the blood of the Perfect Lamb, and we trust absolutely that he will be faithful to the covenant. In return, he calls on us to honor the covenant in our obedience, even though we so often fall short.