Epistles of John Pt. 11 (1 John 4: 13-21)
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16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.
17 This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus.
18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
19 We love because he first loved us.
So many of you already know but my favorite Bible verse in all of the Bible is in 1 John. 1 John 4:19
19 We love because he first loved us.
It’s so short but it is packed with so so much truth. God loved me first, God sent His son first, God came after me first, God started a work in my life and if I am capable of anything good it’s because of Him. If I am capable of love, it’s because of Him. I can do nothing of value outside of Christ.
Have you ever heard anyone say: I found Jesus. Or I went out looking for God? I’ve heard that before and I think it is absolutely crazy to think we went out one day and sought out God. Like one day we were dead in our sin and we woke up and said: “you know what? I think I need to go out and find me some Jesus”
We talk about Jesus like HE was lost and we found Him. Wait, doesn’t Luke 15 tell us that the prodigal son was the one that was lost? Doesn’t the hymn amazing grace say, I was lost and He found me?
One of my best friends quoted a famous theologian and said:
“A dead man can do nothing for himself.”
Friends, if you and I were dead in our sins like Ephesians chapter 2 says, then we can do nothing for ourselves outside of Jesus. Without Jesus we are without hope, and I don’t want anyone to leave here today believing that you’re good works, or your desire for Jesus is what saved you. It was Jesus who saved me and saved you and He had to love us first in order for us to love Him back.
But, I’ve already gone on and on about my favorite Bible verse. Have you ever thought about your favorite Bible verse? Do you have one? I’d love to hear it after service today. I love reading Scripture, I’ve said this before but the Bible is the single most important document you will ever hold in your hands or read.
Think of your high school diploma or your college diploma, The bible is more important than that. Think about your shiniest award, or your biggest trophy. The Bible is more important than that. One of the coolest documents I own is my Marriage Licence. As a matter of fact I brought it with me.
I love it so much because it has some important aspects to it. It represents the commitment I’ve made to my best friend: my wife. It also has my dad’s signature, I asked my dad to sign it as a witness and that means the world to me. It also has the signature of my mentor David Powell who gave me my first ministry job and I still talk to on occasion. There are a lot of important things on this document and I pray I never loose it. But no matter how important this document is, It is not as important as the Word of God.
The Bible carries so much weight and value because in it is the foundation of morality, in it we find a lot of good values we can put into practice, but most importantly: in it, we find out the most important message of all: The message of the Gospel that teaches us that we were dead in our sins and Jesus, the Son of Man came to earth to free us from the bondage of sin and give a home in heaven to be with Him for all eternity.
I love the Bible, don’t you?
You know what else the Bible teaches? It teaches us this in 1 John 3: 18
18 Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.
I bring this up because it is our memory verse for the month. Our kids have been working really hard to memorize this verse. Not only that but we have been preaching through 1 John together and today we get a chance to finish chapter 4 today with all of you. But as we turn our attention 1 John 3:18
18 Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.
I also want us to think about this for thought a second:
Our actions are determined by our identity.
In other words, we do things because of who or what we think we are. I lie because I’m a liar. I bully because I’m a bully. I tell the truth because I’m a truther and I love truth or I give gifts because I am a gift. lol.
Our actions are determined by our Identity. What is your identity? See, John wants you and I to love with our actions. He wants us to be loving, but before we love, He wants us to know who we are. We are loved by God and if you abide, remain or live in Christ your identity will be shaped by Him and by His love.
Your identity can be shaped by God and by God’s love. Isn’t that neat? I mean in a world that is struggling with Identity disorder, we need someone that can ground our identity for us. We struggle so so much trying to figure out who we are and God already knows. He knows who you are, and He also has the means to shape you into the person He wants you to be.
Last week we read through 1 John 4: 14
14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.
And since we have seen God’s love”
11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
We should love one another. But let’s be honest, it is so hard to love each other. Maybe those of you that haven’t heard my sermons before haven’t heard me say this but for the last 4 weeks John has been telling us over and over again to love. To love God, and to love each other.
And I hear you John, I know you want me to love other people, but people aren’t easy to love. Sometimes they are, but most of the time, they aren’t. In Matthew 5 Jesus teaches us to love and pray for our enemies and that by itself is already a hefty task. doing loving things for people that hate me is hard. But while loving our enemies is the probably one of the more difficult things to do, loving our brothers and sisters in Christ can be its own task.
I mean think back of a time in which it was hard to love your brother or sister. As a kid I would occasionally blame things I did on my siblings and I’m sure that in those moments it was quite difficult for them to love me.
I wake up every morning with stinky breath and I’m sure in those moments it may difficult for my wife to love me.
One time one our kids on campus called me a choice word because I asked him to put a seat belt on. If you would’ve heard the word he called me, it would have been pretty hard to love him in that moment.
Has anyone ever done anything and it was hard for you to love them? So my point stands, loving people even the people we already love, is quite difficult. Let’s be honest, in order to love people we need some supernatural help from above to be able to do that well.
I read this from a book recently and this is what it says:
“We need to remember who we are Christ. When we do, an amazing thing will happen. We will love others, we will make visible the invisible God this world so desperately needs to see and come to know.”
The way you love others is the vehicle God wants to use so that others will know He exist and come to have a relationship with Jesus. Isn’t that incredible? God wants to use me? Praise God for that. (Pray thanking God that He wants to use us.)
Well, why don’t we take a moment and read through 1 John together:
13 This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit.
14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.
15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God.
16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.
I love how John starts this verse right here:
This is how we know....
John says that over and over like 11 different times throughout 1 John. I have a list on my tablet of how many times he says and where He says it:
2:3, 2:5, 3:10, 3:14, 3:19, 3:24, 4:2, 4:6, 5:2, 5:13.
And then again in verse 13, this is how we know. John wants us to know that you can have assurance in different things. In this instance he wants you and I to have the assurance that we abide in God and God abides in us, how do you know? Because He has given you the spirit.
Well, Pastor Luis how do I know if I have the spirit?
14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.
15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God.
If you acknowledge Jesus as God’s son and tell others about what He has done in your life then you have the spirit. If you don’t do these things, then you don’t have the spirit. Now, I’m not one to go around telling people whether or not they are saved, that’s between you and God. So unless you tell me that you aren’t saved, I can’t tell you aren’t. But you know what I can see?
I can see evidence of salvation in your life. So, if you don’t show others the evidence in your life that Jesus has saved you, then don’t expect people to believe that you are saved. IF you claim to be a follower of Jesus, Where is your evidence? If you testify that Jesus is God and that He’s changed your life. AND if you love others.
But you see, the same evidence you must provide for your salvation is the same evidence that others must provide for theirs:
15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God.
But it doesn’t stop there:
16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.
There are 3 pieces of evidence that you and I are asked to give, if we are believers:
We acknowledge Jesus as the Son of God.
We share the Gospel with others.
We love.
I even put it all on a list for you to have all in one place. Evidence is demanded by today’s culture.
We acknowledge Jesus as the Son of God.
We share the Gospel with others.
We love.
Evidence provides us with a the fortitude we need to stand strong in the face of a world that does not believe in our God. Evidence is the driving force behind what our identity is built on. Evidence is the only thing we have to give to others to hold so that world can see God.
Why do you worship Jesus? Because of what He has done in my life. Why do you love others? Because my personal relationship with Jesus calls me to love others. Luis why do you share the Gospel with people? Because God is real, because God loves you and wants a relationship with you.
What He has done for me is the evidence that He is there and He loves me so I’m going to love you.
17 This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus.
18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
See, John now gives us a list of our benefits of loving others the way God has loved us.
Love brings confidence
John says something similar earlier in the book:
19 This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence:
20 If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.
21 Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God
See. our own hearts will bring shame to us before Jesus, if we don not love the world the way Jesus loves the world. If we don’t follow God’s instruction and Jesus’ example then when we see Him face to face we will be ashamed.
I remember as a kid when I lived in Mexico me and some friends skipped school because we didn’t want to go to school, I mean school was boring. But we skipped school because we wanted to go hunt lizards with our sling shots. Well I was worried that I would get in trouble with my mom but my friends said: “Don’t worry about it, the teacher won’t even notice you’re gone.”
So we go out and we hunt lizards all day long and we time it perfectly, I get back at home on time. My mom asked me how school was and I said it was great. I even made up some story about my homework assignments. And it was all good until my teacher came to check on me because he was worried about me. He knocked on the door and told my mom: “Luis wasn’t at school today, is he sick? Is he okay?”
I was so so ashamed. Because my mom had heard about my behavior. I also got in trouble. But for the next couple of day I did EVERYTHING right. I mean everything. all of my chores, all of my homework, I went to school on time I didn’t do anything wrong. So I was so quick to show my mom all of the good things I had done all week. I was so confident to show her what I had done, because I was doing what I was supposed to do.
You will be confident before God if you love others the way God has loved you. If you love others the way God loved you, you might even pray every night: God I loved this person that was so mean to me today. There was this lady that skipped me in line at walmart without asking and instead of yelling at her, I invited her to church. Aren’t you proud of me?
God, I saw someone on Facebook say something really mean about you and instead of being a keyboard warrior I hoped on that comment section and shared some scripture with that person aren’t you proud of me?
Lord:
35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in,
36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
Today I saw:
Someone hungry and I gave them something to eat, aren’t you proud of me? I saw someone thirsty and gave them something to drink, aren’t you proud of me? I saw a stranger and invited them in, aren’t you proud of me? I saw someone in need of clothes and gave them clothes, aren’t proud of me? I saw someone sick and someone in prison and I went to visit them aren’t you proud of me?
And God will say: “YES I am proud, because that is how I loved you. you were hungry and thirsty in your sins and I gave you life, you were without clothes and I covered you in my blood, you were sick and chained by your sins and with my death and resurrection I SET YOU FREE so when you do the things I do, it makes me proud!”
When we love the world the way Jesus has loved us, the invisible God is made visible to a world that desperately needs Him.
When we love others the way God has loved us, fear that God will punish us disappears.
18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
Fear goes away when love is around. Fear goes way when Jesus takes on the punishment we deserved. And Jesus takes on that punishment because He loves us. He loves you.
19 We love because he first loved us.
20 Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.
21 And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.
John ends with this:
I have given you every example in the book of what love looks like. I said this last week in my sermon:
“Love is not what YOU think it is, love is not what I THINK it is, Love is God loving us first by sacrificing what He loved the most for you and me.
Love, is sacrificial. Real love requires us to sacrifice the things we like, for the sake of others. Love is not a feeling. Love is not butterflies in my belly when I see a pretty girl or a good looking guy, love put Himself on the cross even when He did not want to so that you and I could live.”
So now that you know what love is: go and love your brother and sister. And if you love God, you will. God’s change in your life will spark this unavoidable act of obedience. If you truly love God, you will have no other choice but to love others.
35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
Are you Jesus Disciple? Do you follow Jesus? Show the world. Show the church. When God changes our hearts, it causes us to act.
But I also know that the Gospel was shared today. The Gospel is that you and I USED to be in a right and perfect relationship with God, but our sin has broken that relationship. The sins you have committed have broken your relationship with God and no matter how hard you try, you will never be able to fix that relationship. But, if you repent of your sins and believe that Jesus is God, and that He died for your sins and resurrected from the dead 3 days later, you will be saved.
If you aren’t a disciple of Jesus, if Jesus is not your Lord and Savior then it will be even harder for you to love the people around you. Jesus wants you to experience His love so that you can love others as well. If you haven’t experience God’s love yet, if you don’t know what it means to follow Jesus, please come talk to me or talk to your Pastor. We’d love to have that conversation with you.