Untitled Sermon (43)

Scripture Introduction:

Okay I want us to think about a couple of scenarios. You are going to invest in a company.

Option A: You will most certainly get $200. Option B: There is a chance you’ll gain $600 and a 2/3 chance you’ll get nothing.

Which one do you pick? (Most people will pick A…we like the safe bet over the gamble).

Okay let’s try this again.

Option A: You will definitely lose $400. Option B: There is a 1/3 chance you will lose nothing and a 2/3 chance you will lose $600.

Which one do you pick? (Most people pick the second option…because the pain of losing $400 you feel more strongly than the pleasure of gaining $400. We are risk averse. Which means that fear…fear of loss…is a powerful powerful motivator).

Now I want you to imagine that there is a group of teachers in our area peddling a message of fear. It’s not incredibly obvious. It’s just stuff like, “if you don’t do A, then you are going to lose these things that you like.” A isn’t something awful like burn down your house or cheer for the Yankees. It’s maybe something like a spiritual practice.

If you don’t believe in this particular way then God is going to be really angry with you and you’ll lose favor. Or if you don’t do this Bible study, or this practice....in the early church the big one was certain things about following the law....eating certain foods, etc.

That’s going to have some appeal. Why risk Red Lobster if it will earn me the disfavor of the Almighty?

And so this fear-based teaching comes into town and John’s disciples are starting to get won over to it a little. How do we know that John’s gospel is right? Does it hurt us to embrace this one a little? And these guys are really passionate…and if you don’t agree with them…oh man, they are going to blow you up on social media. Are they right, though...

Listen to John.

1 John 4:13–21 ESV

By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.

Have you ever heard the phrase “don’t drink the Kool-Aid”? It’s means don’t buy into this deceptive lie that you’re being told. I’m guessing that some of you know where it comes from...

It comes from the way that 918 people died in 1978—members of the People’s Temple led by Jim Jones. He ordered his congregation to drink cyanide-laced grape Kool-Aid. It wasn’t like he slipped them something unknowingly. These people willingly drank this. Almost 1000 people.

How does that happen. His message was something like this;

"You must understand that the world outside is filled with dangers and enemies who seek to destroy us. They envy our unity and our commitment to equality, and they will stop at nothing to tear us apart. The government is corrupt, filled with people who want to see us fail. They spread lies about us, trying to turn public opinion against our mission of love and peace.

But here, within these walls, you are safe. Only by staying together and obeying the principles we hold dear can we protect ourselves from the hatred and violence that surrounds us. Remember, those who question or disobey our way are opening the door for the enemy to come in and destroy everything we have built together. Do not be swayed by those who sow doubt and discord. Stand firm in your faith, and we will prevail against all threats."

But why’d they drink the Kool-Aid?

Fear. Jones told them that they were under imminent threat from the government and other external forces. He told them that people were coming to kill them and take away their kids. And so—in order to help themselves—to protect their vulnerable from being tortured, almost 1000 people drank cyanide laced Kool-Aid.

One follower, who had escaped a few months prior said this:

"Jim [Jones] instilled fear in us — fear of the outside world, fear of our families, fear of one another. He controlled us by isolating us, by making us believe that the outside world was evil and that only in his church would we find salvation and safety. We were so afraid of his punishments and the horrors he described that we didn't question his authority, even as things became more extreme."

Another who on the day of the mass suicide managed to slip away into the jungle…he later told how many had drank the poison because they were too afraid to defy Jones and his armed guards.

Now why am I telling you all of this? Because I want us to realize how unbelievably powerful a motivator fear is. Especially religious fear. And it’s one of those things that once it gets embedded in there it’s so hard to get out. I agree with Richard Lovelace who said this about many believers:

“below the surface of their lives [they] are guilt-ridden and insecure…[and] draw the assurance of their acceptance with God from their sincerity, their past experience of conversion, their recent religious performance or the relative infrequency of their conscious, willful disobedience.”

There is for many of us a low-level fear (or maybe high-level) fear lurking underneath the surface that at any moment I’m going to do something and God is going to zap me. And if we would say something like, “Christian you don’t need to fear God’s punishment...” You’d side-eye me a little and get a bit nervous…well, if we take away this threat of punishment…oh goodness…what kind of sin will people engage in.

Had a conversation with a guy many years ago…we were talking about different theories of hell…and he said, “If there wasn’t a hell…I’d do whatever I wanted…I’d be doing drugs, sleeping with whatever women I could” but I know there is a hell and so I don’t do those things.

I think we hear that and think…oh, yeah, that’s Christianity. That’s what the Bible teaches us. I dunno. I don’t think it is. Don’t hear me wrong. Jesus said things like this:

Matthew 10:28 ESV

And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

There is consequence to rejecting Christ. But 1 John means something here. And what I found when I poured through commentaries and such on this verse is that people would kind of explain the verse a little and then almost immediately go into a place like Proverbs 9:10

Proverbs 9:10 ESV

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.

And we’d start talking about the importance of fearing God again. Again, don’t hear me wrong. Proverbs 9:10 means something. But hang with me for just a second.

Let’s imagine that I go to Lowe’s and I get this really amazing drill. It stays charged forever. It’s got some serious power. Put a masonry bit in that thing and it’ll chew right through…and so I’m enjoying my drill. But then you come along and say, “your drill is junk man. it doesn’t have a bottle opener.”

And the guy pulls out his swiss army knife. His tool has tweezers, scissors, a key ring, a flathead screwdriver, a phillips screwdriver, a corkscrew, a portable toaster...

That’s awesome, man. But I’m really not trying to open a bottle. And it’s great that you’ve got a screwdriver on your knife there…but it’s probably not going to get through this concrete.

I think many of us treat the Bible a little like a Swiss Army Knife. Or verses like a Swiss Army Knife. And so we go to something like 1 John 4 and it says, “perfect love casts out fear...” and we treat it like this is all there is to say about love and fear. That’s a great verse you’ve got there…but can it Proverbs 9?

I think we do this because we rightly know and believe that the Bible doesn’t contradict itself. We know that 1 John 4 and Proverbs 9 can’t contradict and so we try to mash them together. And say, “here is what the Bible says about fear and love and fearing God...” That’s fine, but I think what you end up doing sometimes is using swiss army knife scissors when you’ve got a perfectly good set of shears right beside you.

Those are doing two different things. When I first started studying for this passage so many questions came rolling into my mind. Is this saying that we shouldn’t fear God? Surely not…we know from even places like what I read in Matthew 10 that in some sense we are to fear God…and Proverbs 9…and just a whole host of places. And so I start thinking about the different kind of fears and all of this and trying to get it all squared up.

But then I think about how frustrating it is sometimes as a writer when you write an article to make one point…not fifty points…to look at something from one angle and to say one thing…and people are like, “how come this doesn’t answer the question of fill in the blank.” And I realize…maybe we should just let John speak.

So what is he saying…table all the other questions for just a second. What is John saying?

The main point here is clearly to give encouragement to believers. It’s to show them the nature of true saving faith against whatever this false teaching is floating around. It’s to help them know that they’ve believed correctly. Don’t walk away from Jesus because of these goobers.

I want to try to make this as simple as possible...

Here is what is happening in this text. John is saying something like this. Picture this big circle. And in this circle is the word love…well it’s not the word love…it is love…the action of love. Everything we saw last week about what true love is…how it does whatever it takes for another to flourish...

And John is saying…you have the things that tell you that you are in this circle. The Spirit is testifying that you are in this circle. You believe in Christ. Christ has united Himself to you…you are connected with Jesus. That’s the language of abide…He’s in you…you’re in Him…in the circle stuff.

That’s verse 16. 1 John 4:16

1 John 4:16 ESV

So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

Now verse 17. Notice how it says “so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment” that’s our context here. One group is saying…if you want to have confidence on the day of judgment…if you want to not go to hell…then you’re going to do A, B, C, or D.

But John is saying something different. He says…here is how love is perfected…and here is how you’ll have confidence… “because as he is so also are we in this world.”

Now what does that mean?

“The world” here doesn’t mean world as in fallen human system or that evil thing to avoid. It simply means present world. The dirt you can put through your fingers.

The he is quite clearly Jesus. But what does John mean by “as he is”? I really like how John Stott answers this:

The Letters of John: An Introduction and Commentary 2. Perfect Love (4:17–21)

To be sure, we are not yet like him in our character or in our bodies (3:2), although to some extent we do resemble him in our conduct (2:6; 3:3), but in our standing before God, even while remaining in this world, we are already like him. We are sons in and through the Son, begotten or born of God as he was (5:18), the objects of God’s love and favour like him (cf. Eph. 1:6). Therefore if Jesus called and calls God ‘Father’, so may we. We can share the confidence before God which he enjoys.

We stand in relation to God the way that Jesus does. That’s what it means that we are united to Him.

Let’s think of it this way. Go back to the garden. Adam and Eve sin and suddenly fear washes over them. Guilt. Shame. The whole lot.

And what do they do…they go try to cover themselves with fig leaves and then for extra measure they hide behind a bush. Why is that?

They’ve moved outside the circle of love. And because of this there is fear, fear, fear. No matter what they pull down to cover themselves it’s never going to work. There is always going to be this nagging sense—and its a correct sense—that you aren’t covered enough, because you aren’t. The emperor has no clothes.

Making that practical…you sin against God. And you do all kinds of things to try to cover it. You start reading your Bible more, you make a sacrifice, you decide to atone for it by being really nice to a homeless guy or something, you atone by sharing the gospel, you go through all of the religious rituals…and it doesn’t work…you aren’t covered.

And now I want you to notice something else that happens in the garden. Look how quickly they turn on one another. And then look at what happens with their kids. Murder. Why is this? There is a very thin line between fear and hate. It’s very easy for our fear to turn into hate.

I’m afraid that this person is going to take something away from me…and I hate them for it. You see this with children, right? They protect a toy—fear that someone will take it—and the closer that other kid gets what happens. It morphs into anger and rage and hatred and a punch to the throat.

This is because outside of that circle of love. Outside of abiding in Christ....that is what you’ll get. You’ll keep striving. You’ll keep trying to cover. To improve yourself. To improve your standing on the day of judgment. Or maybe you’ll just give up the quest all together. You’re like…I can’t keep up to this standard.

And then…again still outside the sphere of love…you’ll turn to hatred against those who are (even still wrongly—themselves outside the circle of love) attempting to still play the game.

But John says...”perfect love casts out fear”. That’st he circle. When you realize that in Christ, because of Christ, only because of Christ, in union with Christ…that you have access and the same standing which Jesus does…that when you stand before God on judgment day…the beauty of the gospel… I’m with Him.

Well…you don’t have fear.

Going back to my friend in college...”If I didn’t think there was a hell I’d do drugs and all of these things...” What does that tell us? It tells us that he really wanted those things. He wasn’t doing them because he was afraid of punishment.

Last I checked in…well, he’s not following Christ these days. And he’s doing all those things that he’d have done if he wasn’t afraid of punishment anymore. I don’t know what changed for him…why’d he all of a sudden decide to jump in both feet…but it shows us that this fear of punishment isn’t big enough to really captivate us.

How much different might it have been if he’d say…you know, even if I found out for some reason there wasn’t a hell…well, I’d still be following Christ and living according to His Word, because I trust Him. Because this is where life is found.

John tells us, “whoever fears has not been perfected in love.” In other words, if this Kool-Aid is mixed with fear…don’t drink it. Any movement that causes you to be more fearful…more angry…more hatred of those “outside”....well that means that you aren’t in the circle.

Verse 19. We love because he first loved us. Love initiates. When you are in the circle of love you reach outward to draw people into it. That’s what love does. I want your flourishing. God does this for us. He loved us first. It originates with Him. He draws us in.

And now notice the movement of the text. You can’t say “I love God and hate your brother”. Why? Because that is out of the circle type stuff. Again, you want to know if a movement, a teaching, a meme on Facebook, whatever is legit…what’s it doing with the “other”.

Is it drawing them into love and flourishing or is it fear and hatred? Is it throwing rocks? If it’s throwing rocks, hiding behind fig leaves, running away, devouring one another, all of that stuff....well, it’s not from the circle.

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You don’t have to fear. You don’t have to do life outside of that circle. Jesus drank the full cup of God’s wrath. He satisfied everything that we ought to fear. He conquered it all. Oh, death where is your sting. There is not one drop of God’s wrath that is poured out in this circle…in this connected to Jesus…union with Christ circle. Not one single drop.

That means you don’t need to live in fear of punishment. Yes, as a good Father you might experience God’s discipline. But it’s never going to be punishment. You don’t have to fear that. You don’t have to fear that when you stand before God He is going to say....well, well, well, what do we have here…look at all of this mountain of sin, you’re an awful wretch of a man, go sit in the corner for a bit while I think about what to do with you.

Nope. That isn’t going to happen. Imaging that and living with that kind of fear isn’t going to produce the holiness you think it will. It’s only going to produce a hatred for your brother. But if you breathe in grace…if your’e in that circle and you know it…that frees you up to love your brothers and sisters in Christ. And it frees you to do as verse 19....love first.

Love those outside the circle.

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Can this just sink in for a moment.

Are you just filled with anxiety and fear and trying to spin all of these plates and sometimes not even know why? And it’s like a lion is chasing them. Running running running and not even knowing why. If maybe they can just get things to fit together…Just flat out exhausted.

God loves you, man. In Christ, you are accepted. Every last one of those plates could fall…and you’d still be loved and accepted. Let’s just let that sink in for a moment…I know when I say that you get all that fear rising up…but what about my plates…I can’t let these things fall…I’m bad if I do…sure sure, we can come back to those plates…they are important. They are things like kids and jobs and making sure you have enough money to eat a sandwich…I get it…but let’s get under them for a second. They can fall…you’ll remain in Christ. Drink that in.

There is another type of fear these days that has really implanted itself in our cultural psyche…it’s this fear of the other....of getting our stuff taken away. But this one doesn’t come across as fear…it comes out as anger.

And when you try to say things like…hey, put down the rock for just a second…you get a rock chucked at your own face. We HAVE to fight. If we don’t FIGHT then we’re going to lose everything. Can’t you see this numbskull?!?!? If you don’t vote this way…if you don’t fight this group…whatever side their on…you hear it from both. You’ve got to stop the right, you’ve got to stop the left. Death grip on those rocks, man.

That’s how we talk outside the circle, though. Are we fearing those who can take the body and our rights and privileges and all of these things but not fearing the one who is over our soul?

Love does what our rock throwing will never accomplish. Jesus loves you in the midst of all that rage. He’s going to take care of you. He’s going to do what it takes for you to make it…for you to have eternal everlasting joy. Get back in the circle. Don’t drink the Kool-Aid.

Fear is a powerful drug. It’s a powerful religion. But it’s a falling kingdom. It’ll eat you up and destroy you. But love drives out fear. And anger.

Don’t drink the Kool-Aid. Drink in gospel freedom.