Confidence for the Day of Judgment: Knowing and Showing the Love of God

1 John 4:13-21 Confidence for the Day of Judgment (Knowing and Showing the Love of God) Introduction: How many of you fear the day of Judgment? I once knew a man, (a christian), who would not read the book of revelation because the thought of the end of the world and Judgment day scared him so much. Do any of you feel like that.. You pass over certain portions of scripture because they scare you and fill you with fear? It’s funny because most people whether Christian or not, religious or not, or even Theist or not, believe in a Judgment Day. Whether they believe it is a “Divine act” or just a kind of “Cosmic Karma” varies. Hundreds of books have been written on the subject, myriads of movies have been made and are still being made, news and media talk about it. It’s everywhere. Good example: Remember Harold Camping? Initially he was mocked about his prediction of the end of the world (i.e. Judgment Day) but as the predicted date drew closer, many people were filled with fear, they began asking christian co-workers about it, calling christian radio stations, and going to churches to get more information concerning this event. Again proof that many people, in the back of their minds, believe and know that a day of Judgment is coming. Why is this so? I think it’s because in the back of all our minds we know that something is wrong with the world, each of us knows that there is true truth (meaning a higher standard by which we should live) and that we each have veered from it, and believe there must be a day of reckoning to set everything straight that is wrong with the world. But will we be acquitted? Or will we be judged? That is the question in most people’s minds. This morning our text deals with some very vital information concerning Judgment Day. John tells us two very important things. 1. John tells us how to have something everybody wants to have: Confidence for the day of Judgment. 2. John tells us how to get rid of something everybody wants to get rid of: The Fear of Judgment. 1. Assurance that God loves us a. 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. i. John has already spoken to us multiple times about the love that God has for us. This love is not just a declaration and an objective witness, but the subject experience of God’s people. 1. The Holy Spirit agrees with the apostolic testimony (the scriptures). It is the work of the Spirit, not to teach us new things but to affirm what has been once for all delivered to the saints, and to give us a deeper, fuller understanding of the things God has given us. ii. So in this case it is the Spirit who is making known to us the truth (subjective) concerning God’s love witnessed by the Apostles (objective). 1. 1 Corinthians 2:12 “Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.” 2. “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” - Romans 5:1-5 a. What John is saying is that it is by the Holy Spirit that we have come to know and believe the truth of God’s love for us (God sending his son to be the Savior of the world). b. It is through the illumination of the Holy Spirit that we come to the assurance of God’s love for us. c. A vital part of our confidence for the day of Judgment is that we know what God’s is toward us. 2. Assurance for the Day of Judgment a. “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.” i. John has already spoken earlier in this chapter about “perfect” or “perfected” love. When John uses the term “perfect” or “perfected” he is not speaking of flawless love or love without sin. John uses the greek word “teleioo”. In the New Testament the word generally means finished, completed, or accomplished. ii. So then, how is God’s love brought to completion in us? 1. God’s love is brought to completion when the love of God expresses itself in our love to each other. 2. It is God's love reaching its appointed goal in practical human love. When we do this, love is completed, accomplished, put into action—and is in that sense "perfected." a. “So in these verses perfected love is not flawless love. Perfected love is when you don't just talk about the need to share Christ, you do it. It's when you don't just talk about the hungry, you feed them. It's when you don't just talk about floundering new believers, you disciple them. And so on.”- John Piper b. It is loving, not in word only but, in deed and in truth. 3. John is saying that when we love in this completed way, when word becomes action, that this active love at work in our lives gives us assurance and confidence for the day of judgment. 4. Jesus clearly shows this in Matthew 25. a. “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’ “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” - Matthew 25:31-46 b. Why is loving in deed and in truth so important? Because this is exactly how Jesus lived and ministered. i. “Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people” Luke 24:19 ii. “(Y)ou yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed: 38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.” Acts 10:37-38 iii. John says, “because as he is so also are we in this world”. And “whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked”. “And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure”. 1. Here’s the assumption. “The assumption is that at the judgment day God won't condemn people who are like his Son. Living a life of active love shows that we have the Spirit of Jesus. It shows we belong to the family of God. And that gives us confidence before God. You can't live at odds with the character of Jesus and then expect to have any confidence when you stand before his Father at the final judgment. But if the current of your life is like his, you can have confidence before his Father.” - John Piper Conclusion: 1. How do we relieve ourselves of the fear of Judgment? a. If you are a Christian you know the answer to this question. The answer is faith in the work of Christ on our account. b. As the old hymn says, “When before the throne I stand in him complete, Jesus died my soul to save, my lips shall still repeat”. c. John is not concerned with the actual profession of faith in Christ he is concerned with the proof that this faith is genuine. i. Martin Luther once said, “We are saved by faith alone, but the faith that saves is never alone.” ii. True faith in Christ will produce a love for God carried out (or perfected) in loving others. d. So again, How do we relieve ourselves the fear of Judgment? By loving in word and in deed just as Jesus himself did. 2. How can we have confidence when we stand before God on the day of Judgment? a. If we have loved in word and in deed just as Jesus himself did.