Good evening. To get started off tonight, What do you feel is the single greatest mark of an authentic Christian? (Loving Others)
Well last week we looked at the first thing in chapter three that John wanted to teach us, and that was the fact that we need to live a holy life. And tonight in the last half of chapter 3 John addresses the idea of loving others.
We are actually going to spend tonight and next week looking at this last section of chapter 3. It is such an important part of being an authentic Christian, that I would like to take our time, and not rush through this section.
John wrote this letter so that the believers could spot the fakes or the counterfeit Christians among them. He wanted the believers to know the difference, but more importantly John wanted them to be the difference.
One November day in 2002, Jim Sulkers, a 53-year-old retired municipal worker from Winnipeg, Canada climbed into bed, pulled the covers up, and died.
Nearly two years later, on August 25, 2004, police who had been called by concerned relatives entered Jim Sulkers’ apartment and found his body in a mummified state. Everything else in his tidy one-bedroom apartment was intact, although the food in his fridge was spoiled and his wall calendar was two years out of date.
Mr. Sulkers’ death went undiscovered for several reasons: he was reclusive, estranged from family members, and had a medical condition that prevented his body from decomposing and emitting odors. In addition, automatic banking deposited his disability pension and withdrew utilities and other expenses as they came due, and so people thought that he was alive when in fact he was dead.
Terence Moran, who co-founded the Media Ecology program at New York University, said, “For many practical purposes, this man was virtually alive throughout that time. This man’s life was extended for two years by the technology he used. Neil Postman would say that what you have here is a lack of community.”
The fact is that you and I have been created by God to live in a community. It is an obvious tragedy when someone dies and no one notices for two years! We live in a world in which people are lonely and disconnected. Even more, so many people value the wrong things.
Some years ago a survey reported that in fifteen years of asking high school students in America whether they would save their dog or a stranger first in an emergency situation, most students answered that they would save their dog and not the stranger.
“I love my dog; I don’t love the stranger,” they always say. People do what makes them feel good, not what is right. But the good news of the Gospel is that we were formed for God’s family.
When God transformed us by his grace he made us part of his family. One of the ways we know we are part of God’s family is the love we have for one another.
Our text for today is found in I John 3:11-24. Let’s go ahead and read that section at this time. Here in I John 3:11-24 it says, “1”
John MacArthur suggests that there are four possible levels of relationship in our text from tonight. I would like to look at each one of these in the next couple of lessons. These four levels of relationship are:
1. Murder (3:11-12) 2. Hatred (3:13-15) 3. Indifference (3:16-17) and finally,
4. Love (3:18-24)
Tonight we are only going to look at he first three. It will cover verses 11-17. Next week we will spend time looking at the level of Love in verses 18-24.
It starts off by saying that familiar verse. “This is the message you heard from the beginning.” Hearing is one of the most difficult tasks we have today, because we are bombarded by such noise. In the Bible hearing does not mean “going in one ear and out the other.” It means getting the message from your ears and into your mind and into your heart, and eventually into your life.
In James 1:22 it says, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.”
We do not have a learning problem in the church today. We simply have a love problem. Don’t complicate it or confuse it. It’s real simple: love God… love one another.
Then we come to the first level, which was the idea of Murder. Murder is the lowest level on which one may live in a relationship to someone else. Murder is the most extreme opposite of love. In verse 12 john brings into our thinking a character form the Old Testament, Cain.
The apostle John uses Cain as an example of murder. He says in verse 12 “1”
In the 20th century names like Stalin, and Hitler became synonymous with murderous actions. In ancient Jewish literature, Cain played a similar role.
Cain and Abel brought sacrifices to God in Genesis 4:1-16. God accepted Abel’s sacrifice but not Cain’s. Cain became so angry that he murdered his brother—and became the first murderer in history.
It is important to note that Cain is not presented as an atheist or non-religious person. He is in fact very religious. He is worshiping God. But he is worshiping God with a wrong heart. His heart is not right with God.
He is more concerned about himself than he is about God or others.
Abel was a keeper of the sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. When time came to present their offerings to the Lord, Abel brought the firstborn of his flock, but Cain brought a portion of his crop. The Bible says that God respected Abel and his offering but not Cain.
This story really upsets and confuses people, because they think God wasn’t being fair. After all, it looks good and seems right. So what’s wrong with it? What is wrong with it is that it wasn’t what God requires.
Hebrews 9:22 says “Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness.”
You see in this story something had to die. That was God’s way even when He sent His Son. A lot of people are content to offer God what they want, settling for what looks good and seems right.
You know the rest of the story. Cain was so angry and jealous that he killed his own brother in the field. Other translation use the word “Slew.” The word that is used there is very graphic in the original text. It is a word that means to slay by violent means. It means to cut the throat, it means a slaughter, or to be butchered. So when Cain killed his brother Abel it was a brutal, violent murder. John goes on to tell us why he murdered him: “because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous.”
You see it’s a whole lot easier to tear others down, rather than clean yourself up. It’s so much simpler to find the faults in others, rather than work on the faults in your own life.
John Maxwell says that, “Hurting people hurt people.”
The level of relationship for Cain toward his brother was murderous. Since he could not get his way with God, he resorted to hurting and even murdering his brother.
The next level that MacArthur points to is the level of Hatred. What do you think of when you hear the word hatred, or think about the idea of hatred?
Could I get someone to read verses 13-15 for me please?
The presence of hate. John is setting before us here the presence of hatred in the world. We’re living in a world of hate. There is hatred between nations. There is hatred in the business world, there is much competition, and much of that is hate-filled. That is the nature of the world. Jesus put it this way, He said, “They hate me, they will hate you.”
Well I found what one minister wrote about hatred. He said, “When we were living in State College some years ago I was awakened early one summer morning by an excited wife and children. “Look! Can you see it?” they said. “See what?” I mumbled, trying to wake up. “The bear! And her two cubs!”
There in our back yard was a black bear with her two cubs! They had spent the night in our yard. When it became clear that the mother bear and her two cubs were not going to leave our yard, one of our neighbors called the State Game Commission.
We saw that the mother was limping, and it was because she had been hit by a car.
A few hours later, the State Game Commission came to our yard and shot the mother bear with a tranquilizer. When she was asleep, they put her in a large cage. After some time, the cubs joined their mother in the cage.
Then the Game Commission Officers closed the cage and took the bears to a safer place.
While the mother bear was asleep in the cage, my son Jon went to the cage and petted the sleeping bear. Now, do you think that he would have petted the bear if she were not asleep? Of course not! Jon felt safe petting the bear because she was asleep and because she was behind bars. Awake and in the open, there is murder in the heart of a mother bear towards anyone who would want to approach her or her precious cubs. The bars and the tranquilizer, you see, made for an effective protection.
The only reason many people have never actually murdered anyone is because of the “bars” that have been put up, the fear of arrest, the accompanying shame of being caught, the penalties of the law, and the possibility of incarceration or death.
Many of us, if we knew that we could get away with it, would not think twice about murdering another person. However, since we know we are not likely to get away with murder, we resort to the next level of relationship, which is hatred.”
Well interestingly, Jesus has something to say about that. Could I get someone to read Matthew 5:21-22 for me please?
Here in this verse we see Jesus saying that hatred is the same as murder. And then later the apostle John says that same thing in verse 15: “Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in Him.”
The only difference between Murder and Hatred is that Murder is hatred put into action. Notice what else it says here. “No murderer has eternal life in Him.” What he is saying is that you are not saved when there is hate in your heart. You may say, “Oh wait a minute, I have been baptized.” I don’t care. “Oh but I belong…” That doesn’t matter. God says if you have got hate in your heart, you are a murderer and no murderer has eternal life in Him. Love cannot be where there is hate.
Even in the presence of hatred, we are called to love. “Our Daily Bread Page 16”
You see, even when there is hatred for someone, we need to rise above that and show them love.
So, the first level of a relationship is murder, and the second level of a relationship is hatred.
The third level of relationship is indifference. Could someone please read verses 16-17 again for me?
Jesus is the example of what true love is. The apostle John says in verse 16: “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.”
“He laid down His life.” In this brief statement, John tells us three very important things about the death of Jesus.
First, it was Voluntary. Nobody took His life away from Him, He laid His life down. Unless Jesus Christ had decided to die on the cross, He never would have died. Life was not taken from Him on the cross, but rather He chose the exact moment of His death. It was voluntary.
Second, it was Vicarious. That word simply means it was a death on behalf of others. It says that He laid down His life for us… The preposition there is quite important. it means, “in place of.” Jesus Christ died in place of us.
And finally it was Victorious. The tense of the verb “laid down” here in the Greek mens “He did it once for all.” When Jesus died on the cross He cried, “it is finished.” And once and for all, when He died He was victorious.
Because He did that we should lay down our lives to serve others. He laid down to save, we ought to laid down to show love. Some people just live for themselves, they are interested in what they can get for themselves.
William Booth was the founder of the Salvation Army. He did a marvelous work as the founder of that group of soldiers for the Lord. He was unable to attend one of their annual conferences and so they requested that he send a telegram message for them. When the telegram was opened and read, it was one word. Here is what that one word sent to them was. “Others” We need to think of others and love others.
A 10 year-old boy was failing math. His parents did everything, they hired tutors, did special testing, and finally the last option was to send him to a Catholic school. Right on the first day of school he began to spend every night pouring over his books. When the first report card came back, he had an A for math. So the parents were curious "what made the difference." they asked. "Was it the nuns, textbooks?" "Well, I never took math seriously but on the first day I walked into math class I saw this guy nailed to a plus sign. I knew then they meant business."
This is just it, Jesus meant business when he showed us what love is. He was nailed to cross because He was serious about His love for us. Christian love involves sacrifice and service. Jesus did not simply talk about love; he died to prove that he really did love his own. Could someone look up and read Romans 5:6-8 for me please?
Our supreme act of love is to lay down our lives for someone else. However, not many of us are asked by God to do that. Far more common, is the more normal task of helping someone in need.
The apostle John says in verse 17: “If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?”
Jewish religion of the first century went to great lengths to care for the poor. It is easy to talk about laying down our lives for another and yet not lift a finger to help a brother. Christian love is personal and it is active.
Love is the identifying mark of the children of God. Jesus said, “By this shall all men know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another.” One of the early church fathers said about the earthly believers, “Behold, how they love one another.” It is not a love that we naturally have, it is a love that is poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit.
A man came late one Sunday morning to the service. In fact he got there just as service was letting our. He came up to a man and said, “Oh, my gracious, is the sermon done?” And the worshiper said, “No, the sermon is to BE done.” Folks, I want to encourage you in the words of James 1:22, where it says, “2”
Let’s pray
Invitation |
