1st John 4:7-16
“Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every
one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He
that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God
toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son
into the world, that we might live through him. Herein
is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and
sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought
also to love one another. No
man hath seen God at any time. If
we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is
perfected in us. Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and
he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit. And
we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is
the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. And
we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love: and he that dwelleth in love
dwelleth in God, and God in him.”
“It’s
good to see everybody today. If
you’re new here I’d just like to extend a welcome
to you, if your visiting this week. Pleasure to have you with us. If you’d like we have little cards
in the back of some of the seats where you can fill out information
and just let us know a little bit about yourself, you’re
welcome to do that. We are in 1st John, we’re
going to be picking up this week where we left off last week,
1st John chapter 4. This
week we’ll pick up with verse 7. Right
now we’re getting ready to do some painting in the
sanctuary, so prayerfully not too long in the future this
place will be painted and be more excellent, and then we
can get toward installing the carpet and things like that. If
you have any time, you’re welcome to be part of that. Speak to Mike Jacob, he’s back here
in the left corner of the sanctuary. And
if you have free time during the day, you’re welcome,
if you’ve got nothing going on, bring your paint brush,
come on by, or don’t need to supply anything, we’ll
give you what you need, so that you can be part of, as we
just gradually work our way through. So
in the next coming weeks you should see parts of the walls
being painted and eventually the whole sanctuary. And
I’m not exactly sure how we’re going to do the
ceiling at this point. But
we’ll get to that too. Also
I’d like to ask you too, it’s a critical time
to pray for the radio ministry. A
lot of you folks tune into WFGL, that’s why you’re
here, you learned about the church through WFGL, and some
of you have told me that it’s really been a life-source
for you. And if that is the case, I’d ask
as you tune in days this week and the weeks ahead, that you’d
just keep it in your mind to be praying for the radio ministry,
it’s at a critical time. [they’re now on radio in Gardner,
Wellfleet (on the end of the Cape near Ptown), and in Scituate
(antenna in Plymouth MA), three new radio stations. The
Cape stations are 90.5 and 90.1 FM on your dial.] Either
in the weeks ahead or months ahead we’re gonna see
less Christian radio, that includes ours in the area, or
we’re going to see a lot more, truly it’s one
or the other right now. The
things are very much in flux, it’s an exciting time,
and God hears your prayers. And
I think of, I believe it was Ezekiel where God said he looked
for someone who would stand in the gap, look for somebody
who would intercede, and he said he found none. But I pray that God looks into this city
and sees in this church and other churches people interceding
for the community. You know, this community so desperately
needs to hear the Word of God. And
one of the ways the community is exposed to the Word of God
is through Christian radio. So may the Lord bless all the more. So folks in the north county and even
potentially beyond, there’s even that potential now
even far beyond this area we could be broadcasting into further
corners of Massachusetts. It’s an interesting situation, and
I’ll just leave it at that. Ask
that you’d keep it in prayer.
Well
let’s pray together. We
will begin with verse 7 of 1st John chapter 4. ‘Lord
we thank you that we can be together once again this morning
and study your Word. We
need you, Lord, so much in this day that we live in. As
we were reminded last week as John exhorted us in truth,
the difference between the spirit of truth and the spirit
of error, and certainly there’s a lot of spirit of
error, things that are contrary to truth all around us, Lord. But we so much need truth, but not only
to understand truth, we need your love in our hearts. So
I thank you, these things you promised for us. Greater is he that is in us than he that
is in the world. But
even also as we are going to be reminded this morning, the
Word tells us that God is love. That’s an incredible truth, Lord. I thank you for that, Lord. And I ask very simply now as we go through
your Word, Holy Spirit, that you’d be upon all of us,
and upon myself now as we go through your Word. In
Jesus name, Amen.’ In
reading the newspapers around our area over these last months
gives you the sense that hatred and violence are on the increase. There’s
a pastor’s prayer meeting on Wednesday mornings, and
this Wednesday morning we were speaking about that. And
one of the pastors who’s been in this community for
decades made mention that he said, “You know, I think
that it’s worse than it’s ever been.” I’m not sure if that’s true,
but his perspective anyway. Well,
we prayed about the situation and all the crimes going on,
even homicides and things. So
we left our prayer meeting, and as I was walking out of Burbank
Hospital, we meet in the chapel there in Burbank, and as
I was walking out, there on the front page of the Sentinel
and Enterprise was another story about some other violent
act that was going on the day before in this North County. But
then you know, of course, looking to the national scene isn’t
so encouraging either. You
think, well it’s Fitchburg, or it’s the North
County, and then you tune onto your station, TV station,
and you listen to what’s happening on the national
scene [or online with http://www.cnn.com or http://www.foxnews.com always nasty news showing
up on them, national and worldwide]. It’s
clear, hatred, prejudice and violence are rampant throughout
this country. You
might think of the words of the song that was sung in our
country, still sung a lot today, popular tune, I guess it
was written 30 or some years ago, I don’t remember
exactly when. But that song that has the words “What
the world needs now is love, sweet love.” And
of course, I’d sing it for you, but I won’t. But you know the song. Right? What
the world needs now is love sweet love, and it goes on from
there. You know,
America has been singing that song now for a few decades,
two, three or four decades and it doesn’t appear to
be helping too much. Spousal
abuse and teenage violence, and rapes, murders, all that
still exists and continues to be at such high levels. You
know, you might start to think, is there any hope for this
country? Is there
any hope for people respecting each other and caring for
each other and loving one another? I would say, if the nation continues on
the course that it is, I would say there is no hope. But
yet, at the same time, I say there is hope if the nation
turns its course, changes its direction. Instead
of seeking to legislate out God, manipulate God out of our
culture and our society, if we instead would return to placing
him at the center of our national life. We
have a motto “In God We Trust”, if we would go
back to “Yes, as a nation In God We Trust”, I
say things would be different. I
think the Bible says also we wouldn’t see such an increase
in violence and hatred and prejudice in the country. Of
course I speak specifically of the God of the Bible. I
know there’s a lot of different so-called gods. But I believe there’s One, and he
manifests himself in three persons, God the Father, God the
Son, God the Holy Spirit, we have the Trinity. [see http://www.unityinchrist.com/TheHolySpirit.htm ] I
think a better song to sing right now is a song with the
words “What the world needs now is God, sweet God.” For as we will be reminded again by the
apostle John, this apostle of love, when you have God you
have love. He’ll say that very clearly. He’ll tell us that true love is
of God. That is, it originates in him. But it is also personified in him, as
he’ll actually say these words, he’ll say that “God
is love.” So what the world needs now is God, sweet
God. Because
when you’ve got God you’ve got love. That’s
what John is going to tell us.
Love starts with God
Let’s
look now at verse
7, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of
God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.” Now
here the apostle of love, the apostle John uses the word “love” four
times in this verse, at least a form of it. The
word “beloved”, then “love”, then “love” and “loves”. Four
times in one verse. Gives
you a sense of the emphasis of this text as we continue. And
that’s clear, the emphasis from this point on, as John
picks up the subject of love again. Now
he’s not being repetitive, but as we’ve stated
before, he goes back to certain subjects. He
lays out a framework so he can go deeper, and now he’s
going to go a little deeper with us on this subject of love. Last
week in the beginning of chapter 4 he focused on the subject
of truth, and now he goes back to this subject of love. There’s
three subjects that he just goes back and forth between,
obedience, truth, and love. And now we go back to love. But he’s laid out a foundation,
more of a foundation that he can build upon. And
so we focus now. As
he switches his subject to the subject of love he starts
to address his audience again with the word “Beloved,
beloved.” Now
this is the Greek form of the word agape’,
and he uses it now for the fourth time. That
is in the New King James, or the fifth time if you have the
American Standard version, but repeatedly he says “beloved”,
and he says it again to his audience, “beloved”. So
to those he dearly loves, to those of course that are dearly
loved by God he says “they ought to love one another”,
of course he’s speaking to you and I as Christians,
the Church. He says we ought to love one another. Now this is something so important he
continues to say it repeatedly. Right? You’ve heard this before, he reminds
us again and again. And
the Greek tense here as he says “love one another” is “let
us continue to love”. This isn’t just a now and then thing,
this isn’t just something we do when it feels right
and is convenient to us. No, John is speaking of something far
greater, and he says “Let us love, let’s continue
in love, continually love.” Now
what is his reason? What is his reason here for saying “let
us love one another”, his first reason? He
says “for love is of God.” His
first reason is that love has it’s origin in God. Love
is of God. The
NIV renders it
“For love comes from God.” John
is clearly stating here that “love
starts with God.” It
originates with him. If
the world didn’t have God, the world wouldn’t
have love, that is true love. The
source of love is God, it begins with him, and it flows from
him. Take away
its source and you take away its flow. He
says love originates with God, it’s of him. On
the other hand, hatred, envy, wrath, malice, other such things,
they find their source in something other than God, ultimately
the Devil. God
doesn’t approve of those things, he doesn’t commend
those, he despises those things, but here John says love
is of God, it originates in him, it starts with him. So,
again, a world without God, a nation without God, a North
County without God is a North County without love, for love
is of God. Now
when he says “love”, what does he mean exactly
by that word “love”? It’s the word agape’. The Greeks
had three words for love, and each word referred to a different
part of man, meaning the spirit, the body or the soul. You
had the three Greek words, the word eros, which
was the body love, was the sensual love, the erotic love. That word you won’t find anywhere
in the New Testament. The
word eros, it is the self-satisfying, self-centered emotion and desire,
and that is the love you typically see depicted by Hollywood. So you have eros, the physical body love. Then philio,
they have this word which was a brotherly love, family love,
it’s the soul-ish love. But generally it’s a love that is
reciprocated, meaning you love people that love you, you
love your mom, you love your dad, you love your sisters,
you love your friends, that friendship love. But
the word he uses here is the word agape’,
it is the spiritual love, it is a divine love that is totally
selfless, always giving even when it’s not reciprocated. It
is unconditional, it is always concerned for the welfare
of others. It is a supernatural love that God put
in a human heart, it is only found in God. No
man can love with this love unless he has God in his life. And that is the love that John is referring
to here. When
John writes “love is of God” he includes in the
Greek the definite article which implies in the Greek that
this love is real love, as only God can implant it in a human
heart. So when he says “God is love”,
he means he’s the only source for it in our life. This
is a divine love, this is agape’ love,
that beautiful love that is written about in 1st Corinthians
chapter 13 [verses 4-8]. So
he says “Let us love one another, for God is
love” and why should we love then? Because
it’s in him, it originates within him, he is the source
of love. ‘There is presently a mighty river
flowing from the presence of God, and it is a river of love.’ So then, the question to you and I as
we study this, have you and I been touched by the love of
God? Have I been touched by that river? I mean, he is love, it originates in him. Have
we been indwelt with his love? Are we overflowing with his love?
Everyone who loves is born of God
Now
another good reason that John gives for us to love, is as
he says in the next statement, “Everyone who loves is born of God, and knows God” (verse
7b). So it proves that we are born-again. Good reasons to love, God is the originator
of it, he is the source of it, but also it proves that I
am really a Christian. It proves that I am born-again. Again, that’s a subject that John
has picked up in the last verses of chapter 2 and into chapter
3, he’s also had this theme of ‘What does it
mean to be born-again, what does it mean to be a child of
God?’, and now he shows us to be a child of God, to
be born-again is to be someone who has this love of God in
their heart, something we’ve already noted. Now
when he says “Everyone who loves….” the
Greek is in the tense ‘everyone
who continuously loves is born of God, and continues to know
God experientially, and to have fellowship with him.’ So
it’s that continuous loving and the continuous fellowship
with God. That’s the tense of that statement. That’s something John has been showing
us for a number of verses. I
think of the story of this man Festo Kivengary, I believe
that’s how you pronounce his name, he was known as
Uganda’s apostle of love, he was an archbishop in Africa,
at least for part of Uganda. He
tells us the story that when he was ten years old his father
died of Tuberculosis. His dad died from that. His mother remarried to a man that proved
to be cruel, so he had a step-dad after that who was very
harsh, even beating Festo’s mom. So
Festo eventually had to help his mom move away from this
man, he was so harsh, and help her live on her own. But
it wasn’t long after that, that they moved out, that
his mother died, and he ended up having to give care to his
siblings, his brothers and sisters and things. But with that, as a young man, he had
this great hatred in his heart for his step-dad, a real great
hatred. And maybe some of us are here, and we’ve
had things happen to us, maybe it’s a step-mom or step-dad
or a relative or a neighbor or friend somewhere in our past
life where somebody’s been real cruel with us, and
there is even now in our hearts this, this hatred. Well Festo had that in his heart. Well years later Festo came to the Lord
and was born-again, and he was praying one day and God said
to him ‘You need to go and forgive your step-dad.’ Well,
initially he protested, he said ‘Man, I haven’t
done anything wrong, this guy has been harsh. Why
do I need to forgive him?’ But
then God reminded him and spoke to his heart and said ‘All
broken relationships break my heart. So Festo go and do whatever you can to
mend this one.’ So
coming to his step-father he said one day carefully, he said ‘Step-father,
for years I have hated you. But
Jesus has taken the hatred away.’ Well
the old man initially didn’t believe him, kind of squinted
his eyes and struggled ‘Is he really meaning this?’ But
finally this step-dad of Festo said ‘Yes, well I always
knew you hated me.’ Festo replied ‘You knew only a little,
I came to tell you the whole story, and say that it is over,
please forgive me.’ Well the old man waved his step-son closer
and they sat down and began to talk, and about an hour later
his step-dad arose and just put his arms around him and said ‘Festo,
I forgive you.’ Well Festo was overcome. He never ever expected such a reaction. But he was changed. Why was he changed? It wasn’t that he went to some philosophy
class. It wasn’t
that the university told him ‘You need to go and forgive
that really harsh step-dad.’ It wasn’t that the culture or government,
but Jesus Christ had come into his life. When
Jesus Christ came into his life he was born-again, and the
love of God entered him. And
God said ‘You need to now go forgive this man. You
haven’t done anything wrong, but he has. You
need to forgive him. You
need to love him.’ That’s what John is saying here. So maybe you’re here today, things
are in your life, there’s things happened to you, and
you’re wrestling and struggling, and maybe there’s
even somebody you could say ‘You know, I hate that
person.’ But if you are a Christian, there’s
a problem here. Because
to be born-again is to have the love of God in your heart. And
when he says “love” he isn’t talking about
brotherly love, loving somebody that loves you, he’s
talking about divine love, and is God’s love that is
unreciprocated, it is undeserved, it’s unconditional,
it’s the love of God. So
he says ‘Why should we love? Well,
it starts with God, but also it’s proof that we’re
born-again.’ Festo
came to Jesus Christ and he was transformed, and that great
hatred in his heart was changed to a sincere love. And
that’s what John is saying here. Now,
John will say a little bit later, we’ll see it next
week, end of this chapter, he will say ‘If we say we
love, but hate another, hate a brother, hate a sister, then
we demonstrate that we really are liars, that we don’t
love God.’ And
that’s the thought, too, he picks up in verse
8, he says “He who does not love”---that
is divine love, he who does not exercise that kind of love---“does not know God: for God is love.” Does
not. He is making
his point real clear, as we have been seeing this, that a
person who claims to know God, somebody who says they know
him, is one with him and has Christ in their heart must be
personally effected by that relationship, because it isn’t
a philosophy, it isn’t a religion, it’s a relationship,
it’ll have an effect upon you. And
it will mean that you have been touched by that river that
flows from the Lord, that river of love. You’ve been touched by it, you’ve
been filled with it. You’ll
have in your heart this divine love. But
if you don’t, if you don’t have that kind of
love in your heart, John says that you have never entered
into a personal relationship [with Jesus Christ], you have
never experientially known God. You
may say that you know him, but you don’t really know
him. Because if you really know him, it’ll
effect you. It’s
impossible to know God and not love. That’s
what he’s saying, it’s impossible. It’s
impossible to know God and not love. For
as he says, “God is love, God is love.” If
I know him, then indeed I should love.
God is love
Now
what does he mean when he says “God
is love”? As you remember back in verse 5 of chapter
1, he said “God is light.” Then
as we studied the gospel of John earlier, he said in chapter
4, as he recorded Jesus’ words, he said “God
is spirit.” Now
he says “God is love.” The
fact that he says God is spirit, that fact that he says God
is light, would mean that you can’t reverse these words,
love is God, because God is more than just love. So
it means more than that, it means you can’t reverse
it. In fact the
word for God here, the word Theos is
preceded by the definite article, and therefore very clearly
refers to God the Father. But
the word agape’, the word love does not have
the definite article in front of it, and that means in the
Greek you can’t reverse it. You
can’t make it say “the love is the God”,
you can’t reverse it. All
you have, the only choice is “God is love, God is love.” That is indicating it is a quality of
God, and you can’t go the other way around. In
our culture we almost try to say that love is God. But that’s not what’s being
said here. “God is love.” Now that’s a real good reason for
me for me to love. Right? God is love. God
is love. It’s
a reality. If he is love, certainly if I’m
joined with him, certainly if I am in him, certainly if he
is in me [via the Holy Spirit], if that is true, then if
he is in me and he is love, then I must love. Love has moved into me, that’s what
it means, true love, divine love. If
his Spirit is in me, then the fruit of the Spirit will be
seen. And there’s no other possibility. But if I really love God, if he’s
really in me, then there must be this fruit, this evidence. God is love personified. That’s also meant in that word. Of course he’s more than that. But if love is personified in him, then
of course if God is in me as a person, man, there’s
no other way. You’ll have to see, in time it’ll
be evident. This incredible, incredible love will
be seen in me. So,
God is love. But man, that’s a statement we could
just go on, we could do a study next week and the week after,
and the week after, God is love. You
could do a lot of great studies, there’s so much in
there, there’s so much healing in there, there’s
so much hope in that statement, God is love. God
is love. Man,
that’s wonderful to know that “God is love.” The
Bible doesn’t say that God is the God of the sword,
or hatred. Other religions would kind of indicate
that. The Bible
doesn’t say that. The Bible doesn’t say that God is
a God that is indifferent, a God without emotion, a God that
doesn’t care. The Bible says that God is love. God is love, one who loves incredibly,
that’s a tremendous word, that word love. His
very nature is that of love. Everything
he does expresses all that he is. So
everything he does expresses that he is a God of love. Even, the Bible says in the Old Testament,
when he judges, it’s in mercy and in love, and in grace. He’s righteous, but there’s
a sense of mercy even in his judgment. I
was reading the Sentinel & Enterprise recently, maybe
you saw this article in the July 12th issue, but
it was on the Faith page, written by a lady named Sally Santana
who was writing for Scripts Howard News Service. She in this article writes how she learned
from her friend she needs to be her own best friend. Her
friend said ‘you need to be your own best friend.’ And she said ‘Wow, that was really
eye-opening to me, that I need to treat myself like I would
treat my best friend.’ And
of course when I read that, that’s very common psychology
in our nation and our culture, but the Bible teaches otherwise. The
Bible says it’s even better not to even think about
yourself. That’s
a lot better of a life, not to worry so much about yourself. Acts chapter 20, verse 24, Paul said “nor
do I count my life dear to my self,” And
then his very next words, “so that I may finish my
race with joy.” He said, the great life is a life where
I don’t even think about myself. I
don’t even count myself even dear. Well,
she says that, but then she goes on in this writing. She said she struggled to find how womanhood
could be reflected in a masculine Deity that she had been
trained to believe in, you know, God, this stern masculine
God. She said, ‘How
could I see womanhood in that?’ Well, she says her eyes were opened one
day when she was reading a cartoon of a preacher who was
complaining to God about women in his church, and then in
this cartoon was this bolt of lightning and caption, the
words, God saying to this man ‘Just call me Big Mama.’ And she says in the Newspaper article,
man that just opened my eyes, changed the view of my Creator,
made God’s love accessible to me in a way that I never
would experience it before.’ Now, I would sense that this lady probably
had a really harsh dad growing up, and because of that struggle
with
‘How can God the Father, how can that be very loving?’ So
‘Big Mama, that’s what I need.’ Although,
I would say if she stays with that understanding she’ll
probably have some few surprises when she stands before God
and sees that he’s not a big Mama, that the Bible says
he’s God the Father. He
is God the Father, but you know, I don’t look down
on her, I know there’s people maybe here this morning
struggling, all because of ‘the dad I had, you know,
God the Father, love, I just can’t connect it to.’ But
the Bible is absolutely clear, God, he is love. God
is love. He’s
not stern, he’s not hard-hearted, he’s not unemotional,
not as our heavenly Father. Man there’s incredible love that
you can’t even fully see in any human. No
human, your mom, your dad, brother, sister that you have
ever experienced love through can’t even come close,
close to the extent of the love of God for you. So God is love. That’s incredible love. Good reason, too, then, as John is writing,
for you and I to love as Christians. It’s a love we
can be confident in too as he goes on.
How did God show us his love?---What’s
the proof of God’s love?
Verses 9-11, “In this
the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has
sent his only begotten Son into to the world that we might
live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God,
but he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation
for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought
to love one another.” Now
we’re told that not only does God love us, the Bible
doesn’t just declare that, the Bible says there’s
also a place where you can look. There’s
a place that you can consider. There’s
something that you can go and meditate upon, it isn’t
just a statement that I have to accept. There’s
a reality in history here that demonstrates to me, it proves,
it doesn’t just profess the love of God. It
then proves the love of God for me. And
that is at the cross. He
says “that in this the love of God was manifested, in this the love
of God was shown me, in that he sent his Son” in
the Greek there it says “his only unique Son, his only Son”,
set aside his glory, came down to this earth to show me
love in him, but also that he went to the cross, and he
died on the cross for my sins. It is interesting, the Bible never tries
to seek to prove the love of God for you and I in any other
way apart from the cross, it always says God loves you,
look at the cross. God loves you, look at the cross. God loves you, check it out. Meditate on that, look at the cross. That’s how the Bible says that God
loves me and wants to show that God loves me. There’s
nothing else that compares. In
Saint Paul’s Cathedral in London there’s a
life size marble statue of Christ writhing in anguish on
the cross. His
statue is subscribed “This is how God loved the world.” So this powerful statue, and the statement
“This is how God loved the world.” This
is how God loves you. The
Bible says God is love, and then he goes on to say it’s
not just a declaration, it’s proof, take a look, God
loves you. God
loves you so much. I
just meditate on the cross. I
allow God to open my eyes all the more to the wonder of what
is there. I will
find I do not need to question the love of God for me. The cross proves it. Paul tells the church in Rome, he says,
chapter 8, verse 32, “He who did not spare his own
Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with
him freely give us all things.” He says nothing else compares. He’s done that. Then he says a few verses later, “For
I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor
principalities, nor powers, nor things present nor things
to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing
shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is
in Christ Jesus our Lord” (verses 38-39). He
says, in this is the love of God. In
this was the love of God manifested toward us, Jesus came,
God the Son, he walked on this planet, he died on the cross. The Bible says you don’t have to
even wonder or question, take a look at that. God
loves you so much, that’s how far he went. Then
he says “that
we might live through him”. Ephesians
2:1 says that I was dead in the spirit, but Christ came that
I would be alive now, so that I would live through him. And
Paul says in Philippians “I can do all things through
Christ”, all things through Christ “who strengthens
me.” So
we live through him, and through him I can do anything. I
can love anybody, anytime, to any degree. Verse
10, he says “In this is love, not that we loved God,
but that he loved us.” You
know, it’s not that we deserved it in any way. It’s
not that we extended ourselves toward God, we were nice to
God, we said ‘Awh yah, I’m going to respond to
that.’ In
fact, the Bible says otherwise, the Bible says in fact, Paul
said in Titus, this is what he says. Titus
chapter 3, verses 3-7, “For we ourselves were also
foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and
pleasures, living in malice and envy….” He
says “we”, this is the Church [before they were
called and born of God, of course] “….hateful
and hating one another. But when the kindness and the love of
God our Saviour appeared toward man, not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us,
through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy
Spirit, whom he poured out on us abundantly through Jesus
Christ our Savior, that having been justified by his grace,
we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” He
says, “in this”,
John says “In
this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us.” He
loved us first, he’ll go on and say that explicitly
later. In Romans chapter 5, verse 8 Paul said “God
demonstrated his love toward us, in that while we were still
sinners….”, later he says, even enemies of God,
set against God, God loved us,
“God sent his Son to die on the cross for us”,
he proved his love for us. “In this is love, not that we loved
God….” You know, I can’t help but think
of the book of Hosea, what a beautiful book. If
you’ve never read it or studied it, do a Bible study
on the book of Hosea. If you question God’s love for you,
do a Bible study on Hosea. God
is showing in the book of Hosea his love for his people,
the nation of Israel. And in a tremendous way, he does. If you’ve never studied it, the
basic way that God does it, he tells the prophet Hosea to
go and marry this lady, Gomer, and God understands of course,
that this woman is not going to be a faithful wife. She’s
an adulteress, she’s a harlot….he says “I
love you, I love you.” And
in beautiful ways he describes trying to hedge in the nation
of Israel so that they couldn’t chase after lovers,
so that they’d realize that it’s better off with
my first “husband” [i.e. Yahweh, God], you know,
God. And then he even speaks of God being in
the wilderness in the sense of trying to woo his girl back,
call, draw---‘Look, look, I love you. Why
won’t you come with me?’ If
you question the love of God read the book of Hosea. Man,
God loves us. He
loves us. In the New Testament it says the same
thing towards the Church. It’s
not that we first loved him, no way. He
says “I love you so much, I’m going to send my
Son Jesus Christ who’s going to die on the cross, and
I want to know you, and I want to walk with you, I want to
have fellowship with you, I want to bless your life.” He says he first loved us and sent his
Son to be the propitiation for our sins, meaning he came
and he died, and he paid the penalty. God
loves us. At the same time, he’s perfectly
just. His love doesn’t for a moment make
his justice, righteousness stop. In
order to be perfect and righteous, and yet love us, he had
to deal with the issue of our sin, and our sin had to be
dealt with in the right way. And the wages of sin is death. So he said, alright, I’m going to
come and send my Son and he’ll die for your sin. I’ll
still be just, but I’ll still love you. My Son will pay the price for your sin,
if you’ll except that sacrifice. How
can God forgive sinners and still be holy? Well,
the answer again is the cross. Jesus
bore the punishment of our sin, and he meets the holy demands
of the law. That
word propitiation is that picture of the Mercy seat with the nation of
Israel there, you know, the Mercy seat where God would meet
with the nation of Israel, and the blood would be sprinkled
on it. But inside
that ark was the Word of God, and the blood would cover [on
the outside of the ark], meaning the people of Israel had
violated the Word of God, but the blood of the sacrifice
was what covered that, the temporary covering. And
Jesus Christ is my propitiation, meaning he died, he’s
paid the price. I’ve done the violation, I’ve
done wrong, but God says “I love you so much, I’m
going to pay the penalty for you, I’m going to be punished
for you.” God
first loved us, God so loved us. That’s
what he says in verse 11. “Beloved….”
that’s the 5th time he says that, or 6th time
if you have the American Standard. “Beloved,
beloved, beloved, beloved, beloved, beloved.” This
letter is encouraging. Gets
me squirming at times. But
it’s encouraging, “beloved, beloved, beloved”
If God so loved us`
“If
God so loved us, so loved us,
we also ought to love one another.” So,
again, another reason, he says, God so loved you, he so
loved you, he loved you that much, it’s only reasonable….If
God, the way that’s stated, there is no if’s,
it’s absolutely certain that God has loved you that
much, there’s no question. I
think of this illustration, love in 3D, John 3:16, love
in 3D, the breadth, the breadth, “God so loved the
world,” the length, “that he gave his only
begotten Son,” the depth, “that whosoever believes
in him shall not perish,” the height, “but
shall have everlasting life.” The
breadth, the length, the depth, the height. God
loves us, man. God
so loved the world. So, he says, “We ought also to love one another”, the Greek there
indicates that’s a lifetime ‘Yes, Jesus, I
love you, you’re in my heart, I’m going to
love people for the rest of my life, with all that I am,
I’m going to love people.’ So,
God so loves us. That’s a great reason. Charles Spurgeon put it this way, “The
master motive for benevolence is the love of God. It
is an argument which will never lose its force.” It just keeps you speechless. ‘Yeah! Wow! You
love me that much.’ ‘I got this issue with my sister
here, or my cousin, but you love me. All
right, I’ll love, I’ll love. I’ll
love others. Give the same kind of love you’ve
given me.’
No one has seen God at any time
And
the last verses we’ll look at this morning, verses 12 to 16, “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. 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 the Son
as Saviour of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son
of God, God abides in him, and he in God. And
we have known and believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love
abides in God, and God in him.” He
says, ‘No one has seen God at any time.’ You
read that and think, ‘Now wait a minute, Moses did. Right? Passed
by him, saw him, in a sense. And
Peter and John, you know, they’re seeing Jesus’ glory
[in the transfiguration], what do you mean, no one has seen
God at any time?’ Well, that is what the Bible says, in
fact the New Testament makes it clear that God dwells in
inapproachable light, light, he’s immortal, and we
would not do well in our imperfect bodies to look upon God
in inapproachable light. So,
no one has seen God at any time, but the Greek also has that
sense that in it, that’s in his totality. God
is an infinite God, certainly no finite man, it’s physically
impossible to see God, an infinite God in his totality. [It
also may mean no one has seen God the Father at any time,
who has always dwelt in infinite light, glory and power. The
full glory, Hebrew, kevod,
weight, of God is what the pastor’s getting at.] But furthermore, in the Greek there, there’s
this sense of admiration and awe, that the Greek word for “seen”,
the Greek word theaomai [Strongs
#2300], it means that nobody’s ever stood and admired
God in his totality, so he says “Nobody has seen God
at any time.” But,
if we love one another, God abides in us. And
his love has been perfected in us. [King
James, “is perfected in us”, which could mean, “is
in the process of being perfected in us, a continuing process,
which of course it is.] He says nobody’s ever seen God,
but then his reasoning, as he goes on, is ‘You’re
the Church, God is in you, now in the Church people of the
world see God in us, God, in the sense of seeing his love. That’s
what it says there. “No one has seen God”, but
they should see him in us, meaning love, his heart, his person,
they should see it in us as Christians, and say ‘Wow,
man, God loves me, look at those Christians. Man, look at how they love, look at the
love of God.’ So
John here gives us another reason to love. The
reason, he says, so the world can see God in us. So
the world can see Jesus in me. Because
that’s who Jesus is. If
I’m not living that way, then they’re not seeing
Jesus in me. I
might be arguing theology with people, and saying to the
world, ‘This is wrong, and this is wrong, and you’re
out of line here,’ but if they’re not seeing
love in me, they’re not seeing Jesus. That’s
where John is taking us here. Men
cannot see God, but they can see us. If
we abide in Christ we will love one another, and our love
for one another will reveal God’s love to a needy world. The life of a Christian who abides in
love is a potent witness for God in this world. So,
when people look at the Church, they should see the love
of God in that. They
can’t see God, but they should say ‘Man, God
is real, check that out.’ You
know, this Festo, man, this man from Africa. You know he had that incident with his
step-dad, finally forgave him. And
then years later, you know, referring back to that incident,
he wrote, he said “Love is a language anyone can understand.” It
just says a whole lot. When
we love, man, it says so much to the world, it says ‘Yes,
there’s a God, he’s real, and he loves them very
much.’ “No one has seen God at any time, but
if we love one another, he abides in us, and his love has
been perfected in us.” That means literally it’s reached
its goal in us. God’s
desire is, for sure, that’s the goal, that we would
then love, that there’s a statement of maturity there. And
then he says in verse 13, something he’s already
told us, “By
this I know that I abide in him, and him in me, because he
has given me of his Spirit” and the fruit of the
Spirit is love. I
have his Spirit bearing witness to my spirit [Romans 8:16],
I know the love of God, and therefore I know that I am a
Christian. We
saw that earlier. Then
in verse 14 he said, “We have seen and testify” of course the apostle John
saw Jesus, physically, “We
have seen and testify the Father has sent the Son as Saviour
of the world.” But there’s also the sense as
Christians, as we’re loving, we’re also testifying,
proclaiming indeed the gospel message, that God has sent
his Son, Jesus Christ, to come and save the lost. Now the Greek there indicates, declares “that
we have seen and testify”, that means that I’m
absolutely, positively sure of it, there’s something
that’s happened to me, so I testify, meaning, this
has been my experience. This
is something that has happened in my life, this isn’t
a fanciful imagination or something like that. I
testify to this, this has happened, so I can declare to the
world God sent his Son to be the Saviour of the world, he’s
my personal Lord and Saviour.
Confessing Jesus
This
last Friday Doug McDonald and I, we went out for a couple
hours, we’ve talked about this for months and haven’t
gotten to it. We
decided somehow in our Friday mornings, now and then, we’re
going to go out and just do street evangelism in the city. You know, the radio gets out, and we all
get out into the community, but there’s a neat place
for street evangelism. So we went out Friday morning, just to
see if we could find some folks, just to share Jesus Christ
with. We prayed here for a little while, went
out and talked to different people. But
one man we met was a man named Michael, and he wanted to
talk awhile, it was a great conversation. We
had a couple neat conversations with people, just telling
them about Jesus Christ and giving out flyers and little
tracts and things. But
as we were talking, you know, I was talking to Michael, and
clearly he had the reasoning of so many in the world, you
know, that hey it’s good for you, and you know, I’ve
got my way, and that’s important that you believe what
you believe, but there isn’t just one way, and all
these things. And we were sharing Scriptures and just
trying to encourage him to consider things. And
then I asked him, I said, “Are you confident when you
die, you’re going to be with God in heaven?” And
he said “That’s good that you believe that” and
wasn’t really answering my question, he clearly wasn’t
truly confident, and tried to rationalize and share things
a different way, and I said to him “I know that when
I die I am going to go to be with God in heaven. I
just know it. I
believe that God’s done a work in my life, I’m
saved, I don’t say this because I’ve been persuaded,
because I’ve been in all these studies and people have
forced it into my mind and now I can think. It’s
just real, God loves me, man, he’s saved me, he’s
changed my life, and I know I’m going to heaven. I just trust in that love. And do you have that? You can have that right now. You can have that right where you are,
Michael.” [The
Bible teaches that those who die in the Lord await the resurrection
to immortality (1 Corinthians 15:49-54). It
also teaches that “the spirit in man” that God
gives to every human born into this world, when that person
dies, that human spirit within that persons goes to God in
heaven (Ecclesiastes). Some
Scriptures say that this “spirit in man”, our
human spirits, are unconscious upon death and going to God,
awaiting the resurrection to immortality when these spirits
are re-united with our just-resurrected glorified bodies. Other passages appear to indicate that
these human spirits remain conscious. This
is where this concept of going to heaven appears to gain
Biblical authenticity. But
since it is apparently a gray area in Scripture whether or
not our “human spirits” remain awake or are unconscious,
the whole subject of “going to heaven” is somewhat
a very gray area of belief itself, especially
since Jesus Christ comes back to earth, along with the saints
who have just been resurrected to immortality, and then finally
at the very end of God’s plan, in Revelation 21, God
the Father comes down from the third heaven to reside on
Earth in the New Jerusalem.] And
that’s what he’s saying here, we have seen and
testify, meaning that we know it’s true, it’s
happened to us, that Jesus came to this world to be the Saviour
of the world, that God the Father sent him. In verse
15 he says “Whoever confesses that Jesus is the
Son of God, God abides in him and he in God.” Whoever
confesses and declares that Jesus is the Son of God, God
the Son, God-man, he’s man, he’s God, he’s
God-man, God the Son, whoever confesses that, that is the
same word that Paul uses in Romans chapter 10, verse 9, “That
if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe
in your heart God has raised him from the dead, you’ll
be saved.” That’s
a profession of faith. “I
do believe Jesus that you are the Son of God, I believe it. I put my faith in you know, and ask you
to be my Saviour”, that’s what’s stated
there. “Whoever
confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him,
and he in God”---initial acceptance. But
that word “confess”, earlier in the chapter he
said, verse 2, “by this you know the Spirit of God,
every spirit that confesses Jesus Christ”….and
then in verse 3, “every spirit that does not confess
Jesus Christ”….that word “confession” is
that initial saving, but it’s also just confessing
Jesus for who he is. We studied last week, you know, God the
Son, his incarnation, his Deity, yet his humanness also,
all those things we talked about last week, and the importance
that as he’s saying here, of loving the world [not
loving the world as it is, but loving the people in the world]
and being a witness, confessing Christ to this world. You know, I was with my son, and as we
get near the end of our time, well my son and daughter Friday
night we were going through this book, the book is called “Hero
Tales” and it’s about Christians, mainly Christian
martyrs. And
I was reading to my kids the story of Dietrich Bonnhofer,
tremendous man of God, died for the Gospel, you know, as
a young man. But
as we were going through the story, my son was really intrigued,
you know, he’s six, this story is a bit beyond him,
I had to stop and explain. He even asked me, “Don’t read
too far, explain the big things so I can understand it.” He
was really intrigued with Dietrich Bonnhofer. Cana, on the other hand, she was, “Can
we go do something else?” You
know, she’s four, she wasn’t quite there yet,
you know. But
this story is in 1933 in Germany, Hitler was rising to prominence,
and what started to happen is the church joined the Nazi
bandwagon [I suspect the Lutheran Church and maybe also the
Catholic Church], just got right behind Hitler. But
there were some Christians, Dietrich Bonnhofer, this pastor,
there was a group of them that said “This isn’t
right. This guy’s
saying some things that aren’t right. And
we only follow Jesus Christ. I
mean, this man, what he wants, the loyalty he wants is beyond
honoring the king, man, this guy wants to be essentially
worshipped. There’s
something wrong here.” So
he started to speak out, and at this national convention
for his denomination of churches in Germany, he gave a very
strong sermon for those who were attending, he said “Church,
remain a Church.” He
pleaded, he said, “Confess, confess, confess.” And what did he mean by that? He meant that people should tell people
that only Jesus is Lord and as Christians we’re followers
of only Jesus Christ, not Hitler, not anybody else. He
said “Confess, confess, confess.” John
says “Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God”,
you know sadly in that time the counsel of his denomination
decided to elect a bishop who was very sympathetic towards
Hitler and the Nazi’s. Two
months later they had a another counsel, and many of the
pastors came dressed in Nazi uniforms and kind of did the
Heil Hitler thing as they came in. So
Dietrich Bonnhofer decided to stand for the truth, and it
was getting dangerous with the government, but he, and he
gathered six thousand other pastors in Germany, and together
they formed a confessing Church, a confessing Church, and
they adopted the Barman Confession of Faith, which said “We
reject the false teaching that there are areas of our life
in which we belong not to Jesus Christ, but to other lords”,
meaning to Hitler. Man,
there’s no other lord in our life, but one, Jesus Christ. “We
confess Jesus as the Son of God, that is it, and that’s
the only one we’re following as our Lord.” As
I said this to my son, and we went on and talked about how
Dietrich ended up being hanged for that, I said “He
was really into that. You know, we’re coming into a time,
you know, as a pastor,” I said, “I’ll tell
you right now, Noah, that no matter what, I’m going
to teach the truth.” We
need to do the same, we need to confess Jesus Christ, regardless
of laws. We’re to love, man. This Book is about love, we’re to
love the world, and show them love [not in the sense where
either Peter or John, can’t remember which, said “Love
not the world, nor the things of the world”—that’s
talking about this world’s societies and all the societies
and government’s of Satan’s world—but we’re
to love the poor lost people caught up in that world.] But
we are to confess the truth. And
I tell you right now, there’s things happening in the
Supreme Court that are really strange in our country and
our state, and our local Supreme Court. There
may be a time not even long from now that I’ll be breaking
the law at times, but I will confess the truth. I
will confess Jesus Christ. And
I know there’s tens of thousands of pastors in this
country too, and tens and hundreds of thousands of Christians
who will also say “Jesus is the Son of God, and this
is who he is, and this is his Word.” Man,
we love him, you need Jesus Christ in your life, you need
to be born-again. But
we are not going to compromise the truth, and there’s
things that the Bible says are wrong! And they are wrong! That’s what the Bible declares. So confess, man, we need to confess, that’s
what’s lacking in America. A
loving church also confesses the truth. Man,
where is the Church right now? You
know? We need
to confess the truth! Confess. You
know, I could go on. But
we have love man. Some
of the things rattle your cage, you hear ‘What are
they going to do? That’s
a flood-gate, you open that up, man, and it’s just
going to bring darkness into our culture.’ But
I can’t get angry at people, have to love them, and
say “Jesus loves you so much, man. It
doesn’t matter what lifestyle you’re in or what
you’re struggling with, Jesus loves you, man. He loves you and wants to save you and
give you eternal life.” But
God is righteous, and there’s truth, there’s
truth.” He
says “whoever
confesses that Jesus is the Son of God”, that’s
initial saving confession, but there’s a life of confession,
man. “God abides in him, and he abides in God. And we have known and believe that love
that God has for us. God
is love. And he who abides in love abides in God
and God in him” (verse 16). When
he says that “we
have known and believe,” that word in the Greek
is pisteo which
is to be persuaded. We are
persuaded. I
believe, and because I believe, I become persuaded about
Jesus and who he is, I’ve known and am just persuaded,
he’s in me, he’s love, God is love, and I know
that, and I walk with him. So,
more reasons to love. He says love has it’s origin in
God, it proves that we are born-again. Another
reason to love is God is love. Also
God so loves us, and he says we should love because the world
can see God in us as we love.….” [transcript
of a sermon given in New England]
How the early Christians loved
When
John first wrote this letter, it was received by all the
early Judeo-Christians in Asia Minor (some historians estimate
maybe even 3 million of them existed from the 100s to 300AD). These
early Judeo-Christians, who made up much of the early Christian
Church, had a very unique opportunity to apply what John
commanded here, and clearly demonstrate the love of God in
and through their actions, actions which risked their very
lives, and in many cases took their lives. As
a result of their actions of love, many more Gentiles entered
the Church than ever did through the evangelism of Paul. There
are genuine international Christian ministries that do similar
things nowadays, but these folks went a bit further than
reaching into their wallets to support such a ministry, the
way we can do now. This love is an essential part of Christianity. And
yes, while opportunities to love this way can occur for us
in individual ways, sometimes they can occur for the whole
Church, as it did for these early Judeo-Christians in Asia
Minor and the Gentile Christians in North Africa. The article
at the end of this link shows how we are to love our brethren,
neighbors, and yes, even our enemies. This
is their story, long buried in history. So
check it out at: http://www.unityinchrist.com/LegacyOfLove.htm.
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