July 8, 2007

Lesson: 1 Corinthians 12:31-13:13

Sermon Title: Love Is the Greatest

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Singing Fish (1)

Jimmy: 'Hey, Mike! How's your new pet fish doing? You told me he was really something special.'

Mike: 'To tell the truth, I'm really disappointed in him. The guy who sold him to me said I could teach him to sing like a bird.'

Jimmy: 'What? Let me get this straight... You bought a fish because you thought you could teach him to sing like a bird?'

Mike: 'Well, yeah. After all, you know, he's a parrot fish.'

Jimmy: 'Now listen, Mike, while you might be able to teach a parrot to sing, you're never going to get anywhere with a parrot fish.'

Mike: 'That's what you think! It just so happens this fish CAN sing. The thing is, he's terribly off-key and it's driving me crazy. Do you know how hard it is to tuna fish?'

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INTRODUCTION:

  1. How do you tuna fish.

    1. Well, you cannot tuna fish.

      1. A misunderstanding created by a lack of knowledge.

      2. A misunderstanding created by previously held opinions.

    2. How do you understand love?

      1. Love is a swampy word.

      2. We misuse the word love to apply to too many situations where it does not apply.

        1. I love ice cream.

        2. I just love that hat.

        3. I love the sun when it shines.

        4. I love this dress.

      3. We use love as the superlative of like.

    3. This creates all kinds of confusion.

    4. Do we have the same situation with faith and hope?

And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love, (1 Corinthians 13:13, NRSVA).

  1. This morning let us explore the topic that love is the greatest.

    1. We do this first by examining faith.

    2. We do this first by examining hope.

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MAIN BODY:

  1. What does the Bible have to say about faith?

    1. Without faith it is impossible to please God.

      1. Whoever would approach him must believe that he exists.

      2. Whoever would approach him must believe that he rewards those who seek him.

    2. We are justified by faith (Romans 5.1).

      1. William Barclay was a preacher, writer, and theologian.

      2. He defines justification this way:

To say that God justifies the ungodly means quite simply that God in his amazing love treats the sinner as if he was a good man. Again, to put it very simply, God loves us, not for anything that we are, but for what he is.

    1. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

    2. 7for we walk by faith, not by sight, (2 Corinthians 5:7, NRSVA).

      1. Faith is not blind.

        1. Faith is not a leap in the dark.

        2. Faith is trusting as a boy did in the presence of his father at the bottom of the dark cellar stairs.

        3. His dad said jump, and he did right into his father's arms.

      2. The boy was not blind, he had faith.

    3. Faith is not simply belief.

      1. Believing is not enough.

      2. Devils believe and tremble.

      3. Faith is an active belief.

    4. Faith comes from what is heard, what is heard comes through the word of Christ.

      1. One of the most amazing statements on faith was to be found on the wall in the cellar in Cologne, Germany after World War II

      2. I BELIEVE

I believe in the sun,
Even when it is not shining
I believe in love,
Even when I feel it not
I believe in God,
Even when he is silent.

    1. If the following definition of faith is accurate, and I believe that it is:

"Faith is a word we use to describe a relationship with God as with a person well-known. The better we know him the better the relationship may be. Faith implies an attitude of trust in God that allows us to believe what God says, accept what God offers and do what God asks without reservation. This is why faith is the only requirement for heaven." (2)

    1. Then faith will not come to an end, it will be transformed.

      1. The relationship will not be hidden.

      2. We will see and live with Jesus face to face.

    2. So, if there is no love there is no faith!

      1. We have no word to share.

      2. We have no voice to hear.

      3. We have no one in whom to believe.

      4. We have no walk.

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  1. What does the Bible have to say about hope?

    1. Hope does not disappoint us.

      1. We boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God.

      2. God's love has been poured into our heart through the Holy Spirit.

1Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. 3And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us, (Romans 5:1-5, NRSVA).

    1. In hope we are saved.

      1. Hope that is seen is not hope.

      2. We hope for what we do not see.

18I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. 19For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; 20for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; 23and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. 24For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? 25But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience, (Romans 8:18-25, NRSVA).

 17I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, 18so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, 19and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power. 20God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, (Ephesians 1:17-20, NRSVA).

  1. Listen to what the Apostle Paul has to say in part of 1 Corinthians 15:

12Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead?

13If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; 14and

if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain.

15We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified of God that he raised Christ-whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised.

16For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised.

17If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.

18Then those also who have died in Christ have perished.

19If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied, (1 Corinthians 15:12-19, NRSVA)

If only for this life we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.

Henri Nouwen, in his work, With Open Hand (3) writes:

Hope means to keep living amid desperation and to keep humming in the darkness. Hoping is knowing that there is love; it is trust in tomorrow; it is falling asleep and waking again when the sun rises. In the midst of a gale at sea, it is to discover land. In the eyes of another, it is to see that he understands you. As long as there is still hope, there will also be prayer. And God will be holding you in his hands.

In his book, The Case for Christ, Lee Strobel (4), tells of his conversation with Dr. Gary Habermas, professor of theology and philosophy and author of numerous books and articles.

The question Strobel posed concerned the importance of the Resurrection for Christians. He assumed he would get a stock answer about its centrality to the faith. And he did. But he got something more. Habermas went into a reflective mood in which he referred to the death of his wife Debbie in 1995 of stomach cancer. This is how Strobel describes it:

"I sat on our porch," [Habermas] began, looking off to the side at nothing in particular .... My wife was upstairs dying. Except for a few weeks, she was home through it all. It was an awful time. This was the worst thing that could possibly happen."

He turned and looked straight at me. "But do you know what was amazing? My students would call me ... and say, 'At a time like this, aren't you glad about the Resurrection?' As sober as those circumstances were, I had to smile for two reasons. First, my students were trying to cheer me up with my own teaching. And second, it worked.

"As I would sit there, I'd picture Job, who went through all that terrible stuff and asked questions of God, but then God turned the tables and asked him a few questions.

"I knew if God were to come to me, I'd ask only one question: 'Lord, why is Debbie up there in bed?' And I think God would respond by asking gently, 'Gary, did I raise my Son from the dead?'

"I'd say, 'Come on, Lord, I've written seven books on that topic! Of course he was raised from the dead. But I want to know about Debbie!'

"I think he'd keep coming back to the same question - 'Did I raise my Son from the dead?' - until I got his point: The Resurrection says that if Jesus was raised 2,000 years ago, there's an answer to Debbie's death in 1995. And do you know what? ... If the Resurrection would get me through that, it can get me through anything. It was good for A.D. 30, and it's good for 1995; it's good for 1998, and it's good beyond that .... I believe that with all my heart. If there's a resurrection, there's a heaven. If Jesus was raised, Debbie was raised. And I will be someday, too. Then I'll see them both."

  1. Without love there is no Christ.

  2. Without love there is no resurrection.

  3. Without love there is no future.

  4. Why then is love the greatest?

  5. Love is foundational to all that we believe and hope for.

  6. This is why love is the greatest.

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CONCLUSION

  1. We have spent a lot of time exploring the understanding and application of love  

    1. Paul does not define love he describes love.

    2. Jesus does not define love he demonstrates love.

    3. In the words of Indian medical student (citation below):

If I have language ever so perfectly and speak like a pundit,
but have not the knack of love that grips the heart,
I am nothing.
If I have decorations and diplomas,
and am proficient in up-to-date methods,
but have not the touch of understanding love,
I am nothing.
If I am able to worst my opponents in arguments so as to make fools of them,
but have not the wooing note,
I am nothing.
If I have all faith and great ideals and magnificent plans and wonderful visions,
but have not the love that sweats and bleeds and weeps and prays and pleads,
I am nothing…….
……If I can heal all manner of sickness and disease,
but wound hearts and hurt feelings for want of love that is kind,
I am nothing.
If I can write books and publish articles that set the world agog,
but fail to transcribe the word of the Cross in the language of love,
I am nothing.

Indian medical student, cited by a variety of Internet sources. Elizabeth Elliot writes in her newsletter of September-October 1998 that this was written by a missionary student in Indian language school. She says her source is the The Prairie Overcomer, January 1955. She adds, "I was cut to the heart as I thought back over my own attitudes during my missionary work in Ecuador. God knows I needed the above reminder today and every day." Elliot was the wife of Jim Elliot, one of the five missionaries slain in Ecaudor in 1956 and whose story was adapted into a full-length, critically acclaimed movie, The End of the Spear.

Amen

1. Pastor Tim [posts@cybersaltlists.org]

2. A Graham Maxwell, Loma Linda University, Loma Linda, CA

3. Henri Nouwen, With Open Hand, 85

4. Lee Strobel, The Case for Christ (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan Publishing House, 1998), 241-242.

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