Untitled Sermon (12)

Main Point - 1 John 4:7–10 (CSB) - Love others because God Loves You.

7 Dear friends, let us love one another, because love is from God, and everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his one and only Son into the world so that we might live through him. 10 Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.

Explanation

When we read verse 7 our minds should immediately run back to Matthew 22. Jesus is surrounded by the chief priests and the scribes, the elite of the day, and in a world where they had stacks on stacks on stacks of rules and laws about how to properly be religious, Jesus cuts to the quick. Matthew 22:34–40 (CSB)34 When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they came together. 35 And one of them, an expert in the law, asked a question to test him: 36 “Teacher, which command in the law is the greatest?” 37 He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. 38 This is the greatest and most important command. 39 The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. 40 All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands.”Jesus himself says... you want to embody the law of God perfectly? Love God with everything you have... And the second greatest is just like it, love your neighbor as yourself. This is what it means to be God's people. This is what it means to be the church. It's not programs. It's not trips. It's not curriculum. All those things are helpful and they have their place, but to be God's people this is what Jesus is saying is at the center of pursuing being a people after God's heart. From there John essentially retells the gospel message, in vv.9-10. 9 God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his one and only Son into the world so that we might live through him. 10 Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.He does this for a very specific purpose because it's supposed to be a reminder to the reader the gravity that is behind God's love. This is how God loved you, that He died for you. There's something that happens to you when you are able to take in this truth in your heart... You're changed. That's what it means to be saved. You're changed... TOTALLY! COMPLETELY! Some of you have been raised in the church for a long time, and praise be to God. Others of you may have only recently jumped into this rhythm of gathering together. Maybe at one specific moment in your life you can point to and say that's when I know that I heard this gospel and Jesus saved me. But one thing remains the same for all of us... IF YOU ARE IN CHRIST, YOU ARE A NEW CREATION. THE OLD IS PASSED, BEHOLD, THE NEW HAS COME! Hearing of this love that God has for you it has never, is never, will never be something you can just pass idly by... oh well, I guess I'm saved. I go to church. I repost some things time to time. blah, blah, blah. No. What we have in the gospel is so much more than can just be casually passed by. We have this beautiful... scandalous... exchange.

Illustration

Do you know what I mean by that? Scandalous? You walk down the aisle at the grocery store and you see a number of magazines, and about 99% of them have some outlandish headline. The Queen of England pledges allegiance to the illuminati.Brad and Angelina call it quitsBill Gates plans to microchip people with COVID vaccineRegardless of the headline, and regardless of how blatantly false each of these news stories are... It queues in our minds, oh no! What a scandal? This isn't right... Someone should do something! The gospel is Scandalous! The one sinless man who ever walked this earth was hung on a sinner's cross that belonged to you and me. This is the great love displayed for you and me, that no matter how undeserving we feel. No matter how unlovely and unworthy we are, the Son of God said, "I'll do it... I'll die for them." Because of the weight of this truth... you are called to love others. Because the manner in which you are loved, you are to love others. And that is exactly what John launches into in the next 10 verses.

Main Point - 1 John 4:11–21 (CSB) - Love Others Because God Lives in You

11 Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God remains in us and his love is made complete in us. 13 This is how we know that we remain in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and we testify that the Father has sent his Son as the world’s Savior. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God—God remains in him and he in God. 16 And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him. 17 In this, love is made complete with us so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment, because as he is, so also are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; instead, perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment. So the one who fears is not complete in love. 19 We love because he first loved us. 20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and yet hates his brother or sister, he is a liar. For the person who does not love his brother or sister whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And we have this command from him: The one who loves God must also love his brother and sister.

Explanation

Not only are we to love others because God loves us... But we are to love others because God lives in you. John 15, Jesus gives us one of his famous "I AM" statements. He said things like I am the good shepherd. I am the bread of life. And in John 15 Jesus says, "I am the true vine." He says, "remain in me so that you may produce fruit." That is what a vine, a branch does. It is either producing life, or it's dead and is only good for being cutoff so that the rest of the tree can produce fruit without an appendage dragging the rest of the tree down. Paul says that love is a part of the fruit of the Spirit. Right? Fruit of the Spirit's not a coconut... (*knocks on head) Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Love is the stuff that Christians are made of. Not some ambiguous idea of love. Not like the 60s/70s hippie idea of love. Not a modern take on love. But God is love and how did God demonstrate his love? That he sent his son to die for his people. We are a cross-centered people. We are a sacrificial people. Because that who Jesus was. John in his gospel account says this John 15:13 (CSB) - 13No one has greater love than this: to lay down his life for his friends.This is what it means to be a part of God's family is that you would do as Christ did, that you would deny yourself, take up your cross, and live in the constant pursuit of being made more like him. Now there's a part of these 10 verses that don't just state, "here's something that you should be striving towards." There's a part of this text... the Bible... the living breathing word of God, that strikes a note of fear into these sinful hearts. 20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and yet hates his brother or sister, he is a liar. For the person who does not love his brother or sister whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. This should rightly strike fear into our hearts. We live in an age of outrage. Where opposing views are seen as enemies to be defeated as opposed to friends to be won. We live in a roasting culture where its a central goal to highlight your neighbor's flaws. You've heard it. I've heard it. I've heard it in this room. From some of your mouths. What I'm asking of you tonight is to take inventory of your heart. What seeds of bitterness have been planted there? What anger, what hate has put a blindfold around your sight of God? Being a part of church, THE Church, The Bride of Christ, it means so much more than finding your way into a location on a Sunday or a Wednesday, but it means that you are a part of God's love... God's love for you. God's love for your neighbor. How has the gospel transformed your heart? I pray that tonight we can definitely answer that question, to some degree or another. If not... we need to talk. I love you, we love you, far too much for you to just be wandering in darkness. Wandering in dangerous assumptions.