Sermon Tone Analysis

— 12 No one has seen God at any time.

If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us.

13 By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.

14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world.

15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.

16 And we have known and believed the love that God has for us.

God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.

Here, John continues to write about that chain reaction, of God’s love for us, our love for God, which results in our love for one another.

What characterizes the deepest essence of God is love—that is, willing the good.

His very creation of the world is an expression of willing the good.

It’s expected, therefore, that his world would be found by him to be “very good” (Genesis 1:31).

His love and goodwill toward humans is not an add-on to a nature that is fundamentally careless or even hostile.

Love expresses what God always is in every respect.

God intrudes in our world gently and in many ways, but especially in the person of Jesus Christ.

It is he who stands for love, as no one else has ever done.

His crucifixion is the all-time high-water mark of love on earth.

“While we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly” (Romans 5:6).

No other source, whether inside or outside of religions, even comes close to the love that God shows in Christ.

This is the first “move” of love in the process of redemption: “He first loved us” (1 John 4:19).

When we receive the revelation of God’s love in Christ, that amazing love makes it possible for us to love in turn.

His love awakens our love for him.

Therefore, the first Great Commandment—to love God with all our being—can be fulfilled because of the beauty of God given in Christ.

At the same time, we begin to love others who love God.

And when “we love one another, God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us” (1 John 4:12).

The first Great Commandment makes it possible to fulfill the second Great Commandment: love of neighbor as oneself.

The kingdom fellowship of Christ’s apprentices is a community of love (see John 13:34–35).

This is how love is made perfect or complete.

And “perfect love casts out fear” (1 John 4:18).

What I want to do, is go back and start at the beginning with Jesus himself

Let’s start at the beginning with Jesus himself before we get to the church He founded.

Jesus modeled something for us.

From all his hundreds of followers, He chose seventy-two for a special ministry ().

You can’t know seventy people closely.

So He also chose twelve for a closer partnership in life and ministry.

, “He appointed twelve (whom He also named apostles) so that they might be with Him …”

before we get to the church He founded.

Jesus modeled something for us.

From all his hundreds of followers, He chose seventy-two for a special ministry ().

You can’t know seventy people closely.

So He also chose twelve for a closer partnership in life and ministry.

, “He appointed twelve (whom He also named apostles) so that they might be with Him …”

But even twelve are too many for some kinds of camaraderie.

And so Jesus had a closer bond with Peter, James, and John.

He took only these three

into the house where He raised the Centurion’s daughter (), and

onto the mount of transfiguration () and

out into the Garden of Gethsemane to pray ().

And even three are more than some kinds of friendship will allow, and

Jesus seemed to have a unique bonding with John.

Five times in his gospel John refers to himself as “the disciple whom Jesus loved.”

He was the one who was closest to Jesus at the last supper ().

It’s expected, therefore, that his world would be found by him to be “very good” ().

So Jesus had

His great crowds,

His seventy-two,

His twelve,

His three, and

His one.

And as He put His mission and His church in motion He not only modeled all these levels of relationships,

He sent His ambassadors out in teams.

“The Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of Him, two by two, into every town” ().

Life and ministry with Jesus was life and ministry together.

The apostle Paul followed the same pattern because the Holy Spirit Himself designed His first mission this way.

, “While they were worshipping the Lord and fasting [in Antioch], the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.’

”

Not just Saul.

And not just Barnabas.

But both together.

And they went out together.

Christian ministry, it appears, is ministry together.

I don’t think it is any accident that in every church Paul planted he appointed

not one elder/pastor, but more than one ( “when they had appointed elders for them in every church …”).

His love and goodwill toward humans is not an add-on to a nature that is fundamentally careless or even hostile.

And when Paul and Barnabas had a falling out over how to treat John Mark who abandoned the first mission,

these two giants did not head off in isolation,

but formed new teams and got the blessing of the church.

“Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus, but Paul chose Silas and departed, having been commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord” ().

And what a camaraderie Paul and Silas had in this great work.

Love expresses what God always is in every respect.

Picture them in prison together in Philippi, having been beaten.

It is midnight and they are signing!

Singing … together.

, “About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.”

It was a duet.

A deadly serious duet.

O the sweetness of friendships on the brink of eternity!

To show how urgent Paul felt about his partnerships, when he was run out of town in Berea and sent to Athens by himself leaving Silas and Timothy behind, says, “Those who conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens, and after receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they departed.”

He may have to be alone in ministry for a time, but he will not let it be for long.

Bring me my friends because we have a great work to do!

God intrudes in our world gently and in many ways, but especially in the person of Jesus Christ.

When he met Timothy (), he asked him to travel with him as a partner.

Over the next years, six of the thirteen letters that Paul wrote he addressed to the churches as coming from both himself and Timothy.

Even though Paul wrote the letters, he wanted to send them from the team.

Now we turn to a simple overview of the prominence of the connectedness language in the New Testament.

Listen to how many ways the writers describe what life together as Christians should look like.

One Another

Jesus started it with these words:

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.

By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” ().

It is he who stands for love, as no one else has ever done.

Then Paul picks up the theme and puts over a dozen ways.