Love appears more than 200 times in the New Testament; more than 100 times the word is the highest form of love, agape. Love is the driving force of the heart of God and His work in and through our lives. It is to be the driving force in our hearts and work as well.
Questions
Where do we find the first use of the word? What is the setting? Who used the word? To whom was it spoken?
And along with the Spirit, a voice: “This is my Son, chosen and marked by my love, delight of my life.” (Matthew 3:17 MSG)
Answers
The beginning of Matthew, at the baptism of Jesus, God Himself, to His Son. The answer combines language from Psalm 2:7 and Isaiah 42:1. Each of these is a key to understanding love from God’s viewpoint.
As fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ are called sons of God (Galatians 3:26), we can easily understand that God would speak to us as He did His own Son.
You are my child, chosen and marked by love, delight of my life.
Being so loved, we respond with loving adoration and praise and service. Love initiated the ministry of Jesus and love is to be the driving force of ours as well. Biblical ministry begins here.
What characterizes Biblical love?
Biblical love is the purest form of love that was proved by God’s love for us; it is selfless and boundless. It also promotes the idea of the highest form of giving, canceling out the idea of reciprocity. God’s love is unconditional, a pure act of giving that expects nothing in return.
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (NIV)
This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. (Message)
God’s love given to us leads us to a true love of mankind. No one is inferior to another. All are created in God’s image. Therefore, all are equally valuable. Just as God actively loves all, we should actively love all as well.
A vision was conceived in the mind of God and mission was assigned through the instruction and empowerment of God’s Son!
The vision and mission are simply to unite with Jesus to find and restore the lost. (Matthew 28:16-20)
Primary Purpose of the Church – Why are we here?
Fellowship is an absolute essential in the church. Teaching is equally essential and so is praise. But none of them and not all of them in combination are the mission of the church or the purpose of the church or the goal of the church or the objective of the church. None of them is why we are here. None of them.
What is the mission of the church?
It starts with motive. The primary greatest single unified motive of the church is the glory of God. In Ephesians chapter 1 verse 6, “All of this is to the praise of the glory of His grace.” In verse 12, “That we should be to the praise of His glory.” In verse 14, “Unto the praise of His glory.” And over in chapter 3, “By Him is to be glory in the church.”
What is the mission that flows out of that motive?
To win men and women to the Savior.
The person who desires to glorify God, who wants to honor God’s will and God’s purpose and God’s desire, must then love the lost world the way God loves the lost world and give his life for the sake of winning that lost world. That is the pattern.
God loved a lost world and sought to win it to Himself for His own glory.
Christ came into the world, loved a lost world and sought to win it to Himself for the Father’s glory.
We are sent into the world to love the lost world, to seek to win the lost world for the glory of God the Father. Our mission is the same mission Christ had, it’s the same mission God the Father had…no different…identical.
What are we going to do about it? (Introduction to Extreme Missions)
Welcome to the mission!
Welcome to the power of God’s love!
Welcome to the community of people who, by the power of Jesus Christ, is going to make a difference in this world.
First Christian Church of Siloam Springs 