December 22 – 1 Chronicles 16:1-36

Main Focus: When we behold Jesus, we respond to his forever love with a Lived Amen.

We’re at the end of our four Advent studies; we did Hope, Peace, Joy, and now, Love. For this one we’ll turn to 1 Chronicles 16 to look at the steadfast love of the Lord before turning to 1 John 4 to see this love expressed and fulfilled in Jesus and, through Jesus, in us too.

Heads up: be sure to check the upcoming service times at your Vintage Church location over the next two weeks.

The sermon text was a shorter selection from 1 Chronicles 16, but we’ll read verses 1-36 to get the broader picture. This was a pivotal moment in the life of God’s people, when the ark of the covenant was brought into Jerusalem. Until recently, Israel had been ruled by Saul instead of David, Jerusalem had been occupied by the Jebusites, the ark had remained in Kiriath-jearim, and the capital of Israel was elsewhere (immediately before this in Hebron). You’ll find the worship of Yahweh in his holy city, Jerusalem, to be a massive emphasis throughout the Bible (culminating in the New Jerusalem in Rev 19), and here’s the very beginning of all that.

So, given the occasion, we find the people of Israel singing a hymn of praise to Yahweh (see Psalms 96 and 105 for similar hymns). It’s a particularly poignant song that recounts God’s loving relationship with Israel (emphasized at the end in v.34), a relationship marked by God’s work of salvation on their behalf. In discussion we’ll look at this by asking what the ways God’s love can be seen in this song, and the overarching theme is God’s steadfast faithfulness to his people, a faithfulness that delivers them from calamity, even when that calamity is self-inflicted (as it was often in the era of the judges, just prior to Saul and David’s kingships).

We’ll then turn to 1 John 4 to keep talking about ways God’s love can be seen, the most central way being the incarnation of his son. This is the first half of 1 John 4:9, “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world.” In Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection we see God’s steadfast love completed. This will then give us an opportunity to discuss those ways we still struggle to see or experience God’s love. This is certainly not to prescribe a trite answer to a complex problem, but the theme of our Advent series, “Behold,” provides a helpful next step for us when we struggle to feel or perceive God’s love; if his love for us is expressed in sending his son, a long, careful look at his son may help awaken our hearts.

We’ll conclude by noticing the second half of 1 John 4:9, “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.” John goes on to describe how God’s love lives in us, even saying it is “perfected” in us. We’ll kick that idea around and look for specific ways in which that can be the case, things like growth in our loving service to God and to our neighbors. This will help us see how the invitation to Behold Jesus and to respond to him is an invitation to participate in God’s love, to enjoy it and to have it work in and through us.

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