929 1 Jn.3.11-24 Abiding in Jesus Christ
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
Q. What is love? A feeling, an emotion - or perhaps, an act of the will?
Q. When the church is commanded to love one another, how can we be commanded to feel a particular way about a person, if love is primarily an emotion?
- If we are honest, we would admit that the church is made up of many different personalities that may or may not agree with our own
- We have rubbed each other up the wrong way. Said things we shouldn’t have said; Done things we shouldn’t have done
Q. If we are commanded to feel love toward someone we’ve had conflict with, how on earth can that happen?
---------------------
- Can I suggest to you that we have, in modern western culture, turned love on its head
- In this diagram, we see that the feeling of love is set over the actions of love.
- I want to suggest that we have this upside down
- But I don’t want to give you the impression that feelings are unimportant, but I do want to challenge the conventional way we have primarily conceived love as mostly, that loving feeling
- Here in this slide, I believe the biblical definition has this diagram the other way around where love as an act of the will is set over love as a feeling
- Love as an act of the will means that you can be commanded to love - you can act in love without having to insist that the feeling of love must accompany it
- That makes much sense when feelings come and go with love. It also releases you from the great burden of being unable to feel love for a fellow believer who happens to grate on your personality
----------------------
- But lest I am misunderstood, when it comes to marriage, it is not strictly, “I will marry anyone and with the act of my will, I will make it work”
- Yes, love as an act of your will is absolutely necessary in marriage, but there are many more factors that go into marriage & I don’t want to leave you with the impression that it is simply an act of your will & feelings and other factors don’t count
- There are other things to consider like: Is the person a genuine Christian; Is the person respectable and shows respect; Is the person of good character etc..
- This passage is speaking about love within the community of believers
------------------
- Love as an act of the will over love as merely a feeling is reinforced in 1st Corinthians
4 Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, 5 does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, 6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
1. Abiding in Life
1. Abiding in Life
- Here is that phrase again - “from the beginning”
11 For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another;
- The opening statement of Luke probably gives us the best insight into what “from the beginning” means
1 Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile an account of the things accomplished among us, 2 just as they were handed down to us by those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and servants of the word, 3 it seemed fitting for me as well, having investigated everything carefully from the beginning, to write it out for you in consecutive order, most excellent Theophilus; 4 so that you may know the exact truth about the things you have been taught.
- The beginning has to do with the ministry of Jesus & the particular requirement for an apostle was to be a witness of His life, death and resurrection
-------------------
- The apostles know that Jesus gave them a primary command: to love one another!
- Again, I wouldn’t want you to think of love primarily as “that lovin feeling”
- Love involves many aspects: Counsel (straight talk), rebuke, protection, comfort, care & service - to name but some
- But did you notice that love is not just about keeping peace - sometimes love requires doing right & what is best
- In Israel, love was firstly something that was best for the community & the individual came after that
- Which is why we see in 1st John, that John acts strongly against those who are causing danger to the church - we’ll see this in next week’s message as well
-----------------
- Acting in love is the goal of this message today & I’d like to highlight this verse for special mention
14 We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death.
- Now when it comes to church relationships, if we don’t hate someone, we think we are doing ok
- That person or persons, who happen to grate on you we think, that provided we don’t hate them then, we get a pass
- It’s not that simple as this verse makes clear - “the one who does not love abides in death”, John says
- You just can’t avoid those thorny people in the church & not act in love towards them - notice I didn’t say that you had to feel love for them, but to act in love towards them
- If you do act in love towards them, the strangest thing happens - the feelings get in line
- As I have said in the past: “Feelings are great servants, but terrible masters”
--------------------
- You don’t want to let yourself be led by your feelings - act in faith, act in obedience to the Lord’s command & see what happens with those unruly feelings - they start to get in line
- It won’t be easy if you have let feelings & emotions rule you one too many times, as they will kick up a stink whenever you call them to order
- But if you do, they will start to come into line bringing positive feelings, positive emotions
- This is what John is saying: we love one another in obedience to the command of Christ & if we are faithful to that, good or positive feelings should be a corollary
- I will love is the solution to the dilemma of the lack of feeling love
-------------------
- Furthermore, John seems to grant no middle ground (no neutrality) - to not act in love is to hate
- I draw that conclusion from the black & white nature of biblical contrasts, but also from here in this passage
- “He who does not love his brother abides in death…Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer”
- If you don’t love as in the actions of love towards a brother or sister in Christ, then that lack of love is akin to hate
-------------------
- Now you might strenuously object saying that that is ridiculous & I would agree based on the way the western world thinks - but this is biblical material & the teaching frames contrasts in black & white - not giving anyone the opportunity to wiggle out of the commandment
- It’s so easy for us to say that I don’t hate so & so, I just don’t act in love towards him or her
- So John, like Jesus, is not allowing us to find excuses for not obeying the Lord’s command
- The one who loves is the one who abides or remains in life
2. Jesus as Our Model for Love
2. Jesus as Our Model for Love
- I may be sounding harsh today because I’m particularly emphasising the contrasts that appear here in this passage
- I’m afraid that I must do it again since v.16-18 warrants it
- This contrast is between an emotional/sentimental posture with an I’m here to help my brother or sister in Christ in anyway I can type action
- You have a person in serious need - they are short of food/clothing or even a roof over their head
- The right response of love, if you have the means yourself, is to help them out where you can
- Now we should define need as the apostles would call it
-------------------
- They are not suggesting that if a person needs cigarettes, that you should supply them with smokes
- Or if they are in need of a 2 storey walk up that you upgrade their home for them
- Or if they are in need of a speed boat & the like, that you supply them with their felt needs
- Rather, this is speaking about essential needs for living
- If we are going to judge what needs are, then we should look at some counsel from the apostle Paul
10 For even when we were with you, we used to give you this order: if anyone is not willing to work, then he is not to eat, either. 11 For we hear that some among you are leading an undisciplined life, doing no work at all, but acting like busybodies. 12 Now such persons we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ to work in quiet fashion and eat their own bread.
- Here, Paul, is addressing the church regarding Christians who do not seek to fend for themselves - this person is not to be considered a “needy” person
- Again, addressing the families of widows who may be placed on the church’s support list, Paul counsels her family members
8 But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
- In other words, it is not the job of the church community to support widows when they have capable family members who should take care of them
- We live in a world of needs obsession where it is really not a need but dare I say it, greed
- It’s more to the advantage of advertisers and businesses for people to think they need something because, you know, you’re worth it!
=====================
- There is nothing here to say that you can’t help a fellow Christian who has a want - maybe lend them a hand shifting house or needing a lift in a car or a myriad of other things
- This is dealing with the attitude that Cain displayed when he said to God, “Am I my brothers keeper”, meaning that he didn’t have to have any responsibility for his brother
------------------
- Our love to a brother or sister in need is akin to the life and especially the death of Jesus
- His self-giving life fulfilled our most desperate need - to be put right with God; to be reconciled to God which was accomplished by His sacrifice for sin on the cross of Calvary
- Jesus gives us the example of what true love is all about - self-giving
12 “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. 13 “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.
3. Knowing We Are of the Truth
3. Knowing We Are of the Truth
Q. Have you ever felt guilt or shame?
- If you haven’t, then either you aren’t human or you’re the perfect person
- When we have done wrong or failed to do right, we get that burning feeling of shame in the gut
- Our stomach churns & we wish we could undo or have the time over again because we would have done it differently
- God has built into us a mechanism that brings affirmation & even celebration when we do right or good (more blessed to give than receive said Jesus)
-------------------
- But also it can bring shame & guilt to bear upon us when we do wrong or fail to do right
- Guilt & shame is a corrective to waywardness so it should be welcome even though its unpleasant
- Who said pain was pleasant? If you put your hand on a hot stove & felt no pain, what would happen?
- You would be thankful for pain because without it, you may not have that precious hand left to use
- Likewise, our relationship with God is precious & if we don’t have guilt & shame, then we may not have a relationship with God left
--------------------
- The heart in biblical terms is not the place of feelings
- Your heart, understood in biblical terms, is the place where your most intimate & deep seated thoughts take place
- As a nick name, I like to call it, the mission control centre of your life, like in Houston, Texas there is the mission control centre for the space flights
- It’s where those crucial decisions are made; it’s where grudges are held, along with all those deep seated hurts; it’s where faith resides & the positive actions from faith & obedience stem
- The heart is where the you, that only you & God know about, reside
- The heart contains what you really think & what you really care about
--------------------
- The heart becomes a mechanism to either confirm what we do as good or as neglectful
- Either affirmation or condemnation
20 in whatever our heart condemns us; for God is greater than our heart and knows all things.
- He knows our inner most thoughts & there is not a darn thing that we can hide from Him
- Let’s run with a few thoughts here...
We rest assured when our heart does not condemn us
19 This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence
- Too often, we give the devil credit for this sense of condemnation - where does the Bible says he does that?
Q. Why would he do that, since this mechanism is a call for us to bring correction into our lives?
- But I have heard this so many times that the devil is discouraging me with this guilt & feelings of shame when Jesus has dealt with that
- No, if sin is happening, then that sense of shame is from God - who is greater than our hearts
-------------------
- Sadly, this notion of the devil giving shame & feelings of failure to discourage us, has become a convenient way of excusing the fact that we may be in a wrong place with God
- Guilt & shame are God’s way of correcting us - the devil wants no part of what will correct you
- In fact, he prefers to bring guiltless attitudes where sin & selfishness can reside in peace
- His accusations you see in Scripture are not to the person, but in the presence of God about a person - like Job, for instance, where his accusation against Job was not to Job but to the Lord about Job
- To the Christian, he only brings lies, deceptions, temptations of pleasure & persecutions
-----------------
- If you feel guilt & shame, then I suggest you seriously consider that that is coming from God
- Be glad that it does - be very glad that it does - the worse case scenario is when you start to ignore that guilt & shame to the point that it eventually turns to numbness toward God & that is a very real & present danger for every Christian
- The great blessedness is that God nags you - if that stops, you’re in serious trouble
2. We Know that we belong to the truth
- If we are caring for one another then our heart confirms that we are mirroring the life of Jesus
- We are in the truth & of the truth because we reflect Him who is truth - Jesus
3. Whatever we ask we receive
- If we are imitating Christ n His self-giving life, we will be obeying His command to love one another, and God will be pleased & pleased to give us our needs - the things we ask for in prayer
29 “And He who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him.”
7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 “For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.
- When this attitude permeates the church, then look out, you’re going to see a lot of answered prayer
4. Abiding: Statement of Faith and Love
4. Abiding: Statement of Faith and Love
4 “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. 5 “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.
- This speaks of dependency & of the kind of nourishment that cannot be obtained from anywhere else
- By now, you should get a strong picture of what it means to abide
- Abiding, or a more contemporary name remaining, has great meaning to the situation the churches of Asia Minor are facing
- The splinter churches or should I say, cults, that have broken away from the church are no longer abiding or remaining in the apostle’s teaching that they received from the beginning
- These cults see next to no value in the material world & care little about anyone’s material needs
- Which flies directly in the face of Jesus’ command to love one another
----------------------
- People are constantly looking for the latest & greatest fad that will set them apart from others so they will be noticed - they get their lead from the world & it’s ways
- In our present environment, virtue-signalling is the term used to describe a person who is trying to convince everyone that they are a good person or a person that should be noticed & applauded
- It’s nothing other than what the Pharisee’s did when they would pray on the street corners to be noticed by men - Jesus called this out for what it was - it was virtue-signalling
- He said get off the street corners & go into your room in private where your sincere prayer will be noticed by God & that such prayer in private swill really show that there is no conflict of interest
-----------------------
- To follow the commandment of God is two-fold:
- 1. Believe in Jesus Christ & 2. Love one another as He commanded His disciples
- We have dealt extensively with love one another, but what is this in v.23 that we believe in His Son, Jesus Christ?
- Surely, believing in His Son Jesus Christ would be a given?
--------------------
- This is leading into next week’s sermon which deals with this in greater detail
- To believe in Jesus Christ means to believe that Jesus & the Christ are one and the same person
- These cults separated the two: Jesus the man of flesh & Christ the Spirit from heaven
- Only Jesus the man of flesh suffered, not the Christ of heaven, they taught
- So this is the church’s statement of faith, a creedal statement, not a call to have faith
----------------------
24 The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. We know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.
- This may be a little complicated, but simply put, you know the Spirit of God abides in you, by your true confession of Jesus Christ
- The Spirit of God does not profess false things about Jesus as these cults were doing
- The Spirit motivates a true confession of Jesus Christ, so if that is your confession, that is the Spirit of God residing in your life & aligning you with Jesus Christ which means that you are abiding in Him
True confession = true Spirit of God False confession = false spirit
- Next week, we’ll see that the church is commanded to test the spirits to see if they are from God
- We’ll see how this works & how it can help us to stay true to Jesus