1 John 3:11-24
Notes
Transcript
(Candy)
The breakdown of the passage this week is pretty easy, there are 3 paragraphs, and 3 main points. Let’s take them as they come.
Mortify (Kill) your Cain-ness
Mortify (Kill) your Cain-ness
1 Jn 3:11-15.
We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous.
Rene I dont have any Cainness . . . really?
Why? Why was Cain angry at Abel? Why did he hate Abel? Why did he murder him?
John asks the question, and then gives this answer and just moves on, and we accept that . . . but it isnt an answer...
Abel deserves what he got, he did the right thing, he is praised, and he deserves it. He did better than Cain.
Why is that justification for his anger?
We all do this, you do it too. When you see someone who has been successful, particularly the ones who have been more successful than you, you silently look for reasons, negative normally - must be crooked, must have had more advantages, bet his parents paid for x, bet he isn’t doing it the right way, bet they’re in debt, well they’re just more materialistic than me, they just got lucky . . . why do we do that? Because we are so self-centered, so self-righteous, so self-worshipping, that the answer cannot be they’re just better than you.
There’s a good chance they’re just better than you. They worked harder. They are smarter. They are more talented. They are more trustworthy. They are better than you.
We joke about this too because its so deep that we assume it - the kid who is the star athlete, who also has a 4.0, who is also the best looking guy in the school, you wish was a Jerk, but he’s nice too. We joke and say why can’t he just be a jerk?
Why do we joke that way, what does that joke mean, because if he was a jerk I would have somewhere that I am better, where I don’t have to feel insecure.
You find out someone has been very successful, your knee jerk is “yeah but . . .”
ESPECIALLY dear Christian when it is like it is here, and someone is more righteous than you are, Cain wasn’t jealous of Abel’s stuff, it was his righteousness he was jealous of.
You’re a Christian, I’m a Christian, why do I do that? Why do I care? Why is it so hard for me to say someone is better than me, more deserving than me, and really mean it? Why is it so hard to look at someone else’s success and not have some sort of negative thoughts or feelings?
Because we all have Cain in us.
The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.”
When Cain’s offering was not pleasing to God, he is faced with two options, repentance and humility, do better and be pleasing, or jealously and anger and hatred.
Our culture is dominated by the Cains in us all - Jealousy and Comparison are perhaps the most impactful feelings...
Now I know none of you are ever jealous of someone else, none of you ever compare yourself to others or your house or your kids or your marriage or your stuff, but the ugly sin in me does do that - O how I need grace, wretched man that I am . . .
Comparison ends in 1 of 2 ways - you find yourself inferior and end up in despair, not trusting God and without gratitude, or you find yourself superior and end up in pride
Both are sin, poison and both are not true
He finishes by saying,
Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you.
And then he quotes Jesus
Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.
Well Rene I didn’t murder anyone . . . Not just murder, hatred, anger
Mortify your Cainness
Vivify (Enliven) your Christ-ness (Think ReVIVE)
Vivify (Enliven) your Christ-ness (Think ReVIVE)
1 John 3:16-18.
By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.
Do you see the contrast? Instead of being like Cain, be like Christ! What did Cain do? Cain took the life of another because of his jealousy, Christ gave his life for another because of his self-sacrificial love.
He chose himself to lift in his own mind, he chose jealousy which is just thinly veiled self-glorification, he chose anger which is about always selfish, he decided he was treated unfairly, and that just couldn’t stand. He lifted himself up.
What did Christ do? He laid himself down. Christ really was treated unfairly, and he drank the last drop of that cup.
Instead of being like Cain, comparing yourself to others in hopes of triumphing, looking for the ways you are better than others, assuming the worst of those who have more, with silent hidden celebrations when others fail and you don’t, ALL OF THOSE BEING LIFTING MYSELF UP! . . . lay yourself down.
One of the clearest teachings about Jesus and following Jesus
It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
Phil 2 - Walk through it
(No individual is more significant than Christ, but he counted them as if they were . . . and you can’t count old Joe Selfish or Joe Bad Boss or Joe Annoying as more significant than yourself??)
Humility instead of Comparison
The Christian is ok losing the comparison battle
I am chosen by God. God has made me as He saw best. What I have is what God considered it good to give me. What I don’t have... I know I am a sinner, and am aware of my tendency to make mistakes.
I seek humility not pride, so when someone is clearly better than me, I can say thank you for helping me kill my greatest enemy
The Christian is ok being treated unfairly, even can rejoice in it because thats the way the Master went.
“Fair” - for one the Christian knows I am in no position to make a call about what is fair, the Christian knows they deserve much worse than whatever unfairness this was.
Something I say a lot to myself, a modernized version of a quote from Epictetus, if someone speaks ill of you, do not be angry, for you’re much worse than they realize
Humility is much easier for the Christian because the Christian is acutely aware that they fall short, the non-Christian is still trying to convince the world and themselves that they don’t.
The Path into Christ and the Path following Christ is not the path of self-exaltation that the world urges you to follow and that the ugly thing inside of you wants to follow, the Path into and behind Christ is the path of lowering self for the sake of others.
Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
That guy, that Cain like guy must go to the cross every day!
I love this passage in John 3. . .
Now a discussion arose between some of John’s disciples and a Jew over purification. And they came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, he who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you bore witness—look, he is baptizing, and all are going to him.”
He’s doing your baptism thing! Your followers have left you and are now following him!
John 3:29–30 (ESV)
Therefore this joy of mine is now complete. He must increase, but I must decrease.”
Vivify the Christ in you, while you mortify the Cain in you.
John then makes it very practical what he means by lay down your life for your brother, few of us will have the sort of die for them opportunity that Christ had, but all of us have smaller opportunities.
But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.
What does it mean to lay down lives for each other, every day acts of compassion for the people around you, in your church, at your work, at your school, that you bump into unexpectedly
Echoes of James 2, which John likely had in mind - Love without action is dead
“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.
Listen to God, not your Heart
Listen to God, not your Heart
There are textual issues here that make this part of the passage mildly difficult, but studying the book like we have . . . the context of the book . . .
1 John 3:19
By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.
John wrote this letter with the expressed goal of helping us have assurance that we are saved.
O I love this. When our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our heart.
John assumes even mature believers at times will be troubled by their consciences and doubt their salvation. Remember dear Christian that you aren’t putting your hope in how good your faith is, your hope is in Christ.
God has promised to receive every repe tant and humble person who trusts in Jesus, you can rest on His promise even when your faith is small, because what saves you is not the quality of your faith, but the object of it.
Fall off a cliff and see a branch sticking out . . .
On the night the angel of death flew over Egypt . . .
If God has declared you righteous in Christ, then you are righteous. Thus Paul wrote, “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1). And no one can ever separate them from the saving love of God in Christ (8:31–39). God sees your greatest and most profound failures, God knows far more about your weaknesses than even you do, and yet, though he knows EVERYTHING THAT YOU ARE, He still forgives all those who are part of his family.
Listen, God knows everything, and he still has chosen you. - - Marriage
When your heart condemns you, remember that God promised to utterly save all those who bow in humility, those with great faith and those with the smallest of all faiths. Your salvation rests not on your tossing faith, but on the rock of the Almighty.
And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us.
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