Turn in your Bibles to 1st John chapter 4.
I would encourage you to turn there because we have 15 verses
that we will be reading this morning as part of our text.
And, and I know sometimes it's a little weird when we're standing
together and we're reading and you're just looking and stuff.
So I would encourage you to turn there.
Page 1023 If you're using one of our own Bibles there the first
John chapter 4 we spent a couple weeks in Acts One and two
talking about the Holy Spirit coming to and dwell followers of
Christ and the radical difference that this makes in
our lives as we're now empowered by the Holy Spirit's and we are
equipped for the tasks and life that God has in store for us
when we live life filled with the spirit, the old ways will
will fall away and we find a list of new character traits in
Galatians chapter 5 and these character traits are called the
fruits of the spirits. If we walk by the spirit, then
our lives will produce these character traits.
These fruits Lovejoy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
So we're looking at the fruit of the Spirit because it seems like
it would be a good place for us to go after we spent some time,
I spent a couple weeks examining Pentecost and and the beginnings
of the early church. So as we begin this series, it's
important that we understand the nature and source of our fruits.
You see, it could be easy for us to look at this list as as a
scale to measure ourselves and see where do I measure up?
Am I good with this? Am I good with this?
Oh, I'm really lacking in this area.
That's not really how the fruit is designed for us to use it as
a scale, but rather this is called fruit of the Spirit.
It's not fruit of our own efforts.
We can't will them into being. We can't just produce them by
our own willpower. The fruit comes only as we
submit our lives to the Holy Spirit and we allow Him to
control us. The more time we spend with Him
in prayer, in the Word, with His people, then the more the more
our hearts turn into the rich soil and and we're able to
produce the fruits of the spirits.
A life not submitted to the Holy Spirit won't exhibit these
virtues, though. When we walk with God, He
transforms us and turns us from the works of the flesh.
So here we are at the beginning of the series with the first
virtue in that list, and the first one is love.
Love has been denuded of its meaning.
We use it in all sorts of ways. I love cars, I love CrossFit, I
love Chipotle, I love Mexican food.
I also love my wife and my kids. These are all the same thing,
right? No, they're not.
Of course not. We use context to help us
understand what is meant when we use the word love.
Now the Greeks, they had several different words for love.
So they can they can pick the word that they wanted to use to
fit the right context. There's storgay.
Storgay is a familial love that can withstand hardships and
trials. Phileo is a love that exists
between close friends and sometimes family.
Scripture often translates the word phileo as a friend.
We will refer to Philadelphia as the city of brotherly Love.
That is, unless you're a Chiefs fan.
If you're a Chiefs fan, there is no love to be found in
Philadelphia. There's also Eros.
Eros is romantic and sexual love and we get our word erotic from
this word. But then there's agape.
Agape is sacrificial, selfless, unconditional love.
It's the highest form of love that we find.
Last month I taught you the Hebrew word hesed, and agape is
the is the Greek counterparts to God's hesed.
The best description of love that we find in the New
Testament is of course found in First Corinthians 13, the love
chapter. You hear it at like every
wedding, stuff like that. So in this chapter, love is
presented as the greatest and most essential of all virtues.
It says you can be the most talented, the most spiritually
gifted person, but if you don't have love, it's meaningless.
It means nothing to have all these gifts but not love.
So love is set apart as greater than any of the spiritual gifts
that we can have. So love, though, it isn't simply
a state of being or an emotion. Back to the 90's, the the great
poet TobyMac informed us that love is a verb.
I know somebody was tracking with me.
Come on, somebody. Right.
OK, thank you, Emily. Yes, love is a verb.
Love is active. It sees the needs of others and
it responds with a helping hand. Not everybody's going to go home
this afternoon and start listening to that.
I know, right. All, all you who grew up on that
in the 90s, if you're able, would you stand as we read from
first John chapter 4? First John 4 will begin at verse
7, reading through 21. Beloved, let us love one
another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born
of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does
not know God because God is love.
In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent
His only Son into the world so that we might live through Him.
In this is love, not that we have 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 also ought to love one another.
No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God
abides in US and His love is perfected in us.
By this we know that we abide in Him and He and us, because,
because He has given us of His spirits, and we have seen and
testified that the Father has sent his Son to be saved.
Professes that Jesus is the Son of God.
God abides in him and He and God.
So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has
for us. God is loving.
Whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have
confidence. For because as He is, so also
are we in this world. There is No Fear in love, but
perfect love casts out fear, for fear has to do with punishment.
And whoever fears has not been perfected in love.
We love because He first loved us.
If anyone says I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar.
For he who does not love his brother, whom he has seen,
cannot love God, whom he has not seen.
In this command we have from him.
Whoever loves God must also love his brother.
You may be seated as we begin looking into this passage this
morning, we start with the rationale for love.
Why should we love others? Does how I treat other people
really matter in the grand scheme of things?
John said. John said we love each other
because that's what God has given to us and it and it shows
our relationship to God who is himself love.
Verse eight said anyone who does not love does not know God
because God is love. God is love.
I mentioned this a few weeks ago, but our God Yahweh is he's
unlike all the other gods in that he has chosen to identify
himself specifically by love. Exodus 34, You'll remember I
read this Exodus 34, six through 7.
As God is introducing himself, He's saying this is who I am.
He's telling Moses this. He says the Lord Lord passed
before and proclaimed the Lord. The Lord, a God merciful and
gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and
faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving
iniquity in transgression and sin.
There are so-called gods and goddesses who would attempt to
be called the gods or goddesses of love, but really those are
actually gods or goddesses of lust and desire is really what
those are about our God. He's unique in that he has
identified himself with love and love.
Love is the basis for his relationship with his followers,
his love for them and their love for him.
So when John wrote this letter we're in, he didn't say God is
loving, though of course he could have said that.
Neither did John say one of God's activities is to love us.
Of course, he could have said that as well.
No, John said. God is love.
Love is his very nature. Love is the essence of his
being. So the fact that God is love has
an impact on us. You see, because God is love,
that in turn we love others. We we love others because God is
love. We're loved by God and then we
dole that love out to others around us.
To know the love of God is to manifest it in our life and in
our interactions. Of course, some people will
receive a greater depth of love depending on our relationship to
them, but the aim of our interactions should always be
love. In John 13 verses 34 through 35,
Jesus was talking to his disciples and he says, you'll
notice on the screen a new commandment I give you that you
love one another just as I have loved you.
You also are to love one another.
By this all people will know that you are my disciples if you
have love for one another. So this this is to say that love
is the mark of Jesus disciples. People will know that we're
Jesus disciples because of our love for each other.
That's the next points. The mark of Jesus disciples is
love. So none of us none of us is a
perfect representation of Jesus and and the world is watching
out for any mistake that that they can use as an excuse to not
follow Jesus. But what does bring conviction?
What does bring conviction to the world and it and it proves
who we are and proves who Jesus is.
It's our love for other people. When they see our love it, it
serves as a sign that we are God's children and that God
exists. So here we've seen God is the
basis and rationale for our love.
So now we look at God's love demonstrated.
God's love was demonstrated in verses 9 through 11, it read.
The love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent
his only Son into the world so that we might live through him.
And this is love, not that we have loved God, but that He
loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
So first of all, God's love was demonstrated in Jesus.
His love was demonstrated in Jesus.
Jesus was the revelation of God's love.
Now it may sound a little elementary.
We've heard this before. But it's always good to remind
ourselves of this, right? The Father sent his Son into the
world in order to bring salvation through the Son's
death on the cross. If you ask any earthly father,
they'll tell you they would rather take the place of their
child's suffering every time. They would rather take the place
of their child's suffering. Fathers, instinctively,
intuitively, we want to prevent our children from suffering.
Yet God the Father's love for us was so great that he allowed
Jesus to die to pay the penalty for our sin.
The Father knew what was on the other side of the cross, Jesus,
He knew what was on the other side of the cross, and it was
love for us that carried the Godhead through this horrible
moment in history. The Romans 5/8 informs us of the
depth of God's love. Romans 5/8 says, But God showed
his love for us and that while we were sinners, Christ died for
us. Our holy God demonstrated His
love for us sinners by sending Jesus to die for our sins.
This is truly God's Amazing Grace.
My sin, it costs something and then the penalty for my sin has
to be paid right now under the law.
Under the Old Testament law, blood was spilled to pay the
penalty for its sin. But here in the church age,
Jesus, Jesus spilled his blood to pay the penalty for our sin,
to pay the price that we couldn't pay.
A verse 10 read in this isn't love, not that we have loved
God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the
propitiation for our sins. Now I suspect you probably don't
go around using that word propitiation.
I would also venture to say that probably most of us don't know
what that word actually means, if we're being honest.
But to say that Jesus was the propitiation for our sins is to
say that he was the atoning sacrifice.
He was the appeasement for the punishment that we deserved.
Not because of his own sin, of course, because he didn't have
any sin of his own, but he was the propitiation.
He was the appeasement for our sin because of His great love
for us. So God's love was demonstrated
in Jesus. That's where it starts.
But then God's love is also to be demonstrated in us.
So God's love is demonstrated in US.
Verse 11 read If God so loved us, we also ought to love one
another. John's point is this is the
reasonable thing to do. If God loved us, God, the holy
Creator of the universe, the one who is outside of time and
space, the one who sits above the earth, it's he who loved us.
It's he who has phenomenal cosmic powers, but yet inserted
into this itty bitty living space of a human body, God, the
one who holds all power, clothed himself in humanity and came
into this world. He loves us.
It's a wonder of wonders for sure, but God's love mustn't
stop with us, right? The love must keep going on.
We must love each other. It only makes sense.
If God loved us, then we love others.
Now here in this text, we come to a somewhat difficult part to
understand. There's a good bit to sift
through here, so I'll do my best to try to illuminate what the
text is trying to say. I'll read it again here.
No one has ever seen God. Starting at verse 1212 through
18 says no one has ever seen God.
If we love one another, God abides in US and His love is
perfected in us by this. We know that we abide in Him and
He and us because He has given us of His Spirit and we have
seen and testified that the Father has sent His Son to be
the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is
the Son of God, God abides in him and He and God.
So we've come to no one to believe the love that God has
for us. God is love, and whoever abides
in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
By this is love perfected with us, so we may have confidence
for the day of judgment, because as He is, so also are we in the
world. There is No Fear in love, but
perfect love casts out fear, for fear has to do with punishment.
Whoever fears has not been perfected in love.
So we can sum up this portion of the text by saying making a
statement. God's abiding love in Jesus is
our confidence. God's abiding love in Jesus is
our confidence. Verse 12 said no one has seen
God. God is spirits.
We can't actually see God not in this earthly realm anyways.
But the invisible God abides in US.
He he resides inside of us and John loves this word abide.
He, he uses the word abide 6 times in just five verses here
in this passage. And then, and then in John 15,
there's this famous passage that the scholars love to talk about
in John 15 where he talks about abiding in him and, and him
abiding in US. And there's all sorts of
discussion about what it means. And when we talk about abiding,
I like to say that abiding is simply the place where we live.
You see, there are all sorts of places that we can make our
home. For example, I could make my
home in fear or lust or or desires, or I can make my home
in God. That is what abiding is.
John calls us to abide or live in God, and when we abide in
Him, then then love is the evidence.
Of our home in God when we abide in him.
Love is the evidence of our home in God.
Now we're shaped by the places we live like literally right.
We'll have certain cultural practices and and we'll adopt
the language in ways of the place where we live.
For example, should you hypothetically happen to meet
someone from the land Down Under, their accent is a clear
giveaway that their home was it was in another place or may
still be in another place. They start using words like boot
and bonnet and you think they're talking about clothes and
they're actually talking about cars.
The ways and language of of our dear Aussie friends are evidence
of their home having been in another place.
They've been shaped by their Australian surroundings.
Now if my home is in God, then I will be shaped by God being my
home, just as our Aussie friends are shaped by that culture.
When we are living in God, living in Christ, we will be
shaped by Him. It's as though I'll have a God
like accent and people will instantly be able to tell that
my home is in God. Now think about this for a
moment. One of those verses said that
God is invisible. When we love people, we are
making the invisible visible. Our love for each other is
evidence to a world, to the world of an invisible God.
When we love him, we're making him visible to those around us,
which leads to the next points, our confidence.
When God is our home, the Spirit produces mature love, which
removes any fear at the judgment seat of Christ.
Sounds like we went from nice fluffy stuff talking about love
right to judgment. But hold on, it's not as bad as
it may initially sound. You see, I've often heard people
talk, take part of this verse 18, perfect love casts out fear.
We love to throw this out there, perfect love casts out fear.
And what they're trying to say is God loves you, so don't be
afraid. Well, guess what?
That is a verse taken out of context.
No, you don't need to live in fear.
We don't need to be afraid, but we have God's presence for that.
Actually, when the text says perfect love casts out fear,
it's revealing a progression. See, it goes like this.
Making our home in God will will lead us to mature love.
I had these cool little arrows. Hopefully they show up.
So when we make our home in God, it'll lead to mature love and
then mature love will lead to the removal of fear at the
judgment seat of Christ. So we we make our home in God.
Oh here, let me go this way. Make our home in God.
That brings us to mature love, and the mature love is that
grows in us. That removes fear at the
judgment seat of Christ. This isn't the removal of fear
in everyday life. It's the removal of fear at the
judgment seat of Christ. You see, the judgment seat of
Christ is the moment after Jesus returns, when Christians from
all of time stand before God to be judged.
Now this isn't a judgement for salvation.
This is actually a good judgement.
Essentially, it's a good judgement.
The judgement seat of Christ is only for Christ followers.
And it's actually more, more characteristic of an athlete who
is standing on a podium and they're awaiting to receive a
medal or, or to receive a trophy.
Or back in, back in biblical days, the Greeks, they would
receive a, a crown of branches. Basically is, is what it was.
This was, this was their reward. So the judgement seat of Christ
is a time of reward. We will receive or not receive
rewards depending on how we've lived our lives.
Did we choose to build our lives with wood, hay, and stubble?
Things that can easily be burned up in the fire of refining?
Or did we choose instead to build our lives with things that
won't decay with with precious stones and gold and silver?
You see, whatever we choose, we'll be examined at the
judgement seat of Christ and, and the hope for each of us is
that our works won't be burned up as we will have spent our
lives and resources in a way that reaps heavenly rewards.
And those rewards we just sang about it didn't even know we
were going to sing about. But those rewards are crowns, he
said. That's that hymn, Holy, holy,
holy, he said, casting down our golden crowns.
We'll receive those crowns, those rewards.
Then it'll be our joy to lay those back down at Jesus feet.
So if I had mature love, I will have spent my life in valuable
ways and I'll look forward to the judgment.
Or sometimes this is called the Bhima seat of Christ.
That perfect or mature love I've walked in will will cut, will be
caused to remove any fear for this occasion.
If, however, a Christian has chosen to build their life with
the worthless things of this world and hasn't attained to
mature love, then that person may perhaps look with
trepidation and fear on this occasion and not be as excited
to come before our Savior. So next, as we wrap up the
passage, we have the foundation and the command to love.
The foundation and command to love.
Looking at verses 19 through 21, it says we love because He first
loved us. If anyone says I love God and
hates his brother, he is a liar. For he who does not love his
brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.
And this commandment we have from him, whoever loves God must
also love his brother. So he loved us first.
He loved us first. This is the foundation of love,
right? God is love and 1st loved us.
We can't earn his love we we don't deserve it.
God simply chose to set his love on us.
In Matthew 22 as well as in Mark and Luke's gospels, the
Pharisees approach Jesus. See Jesus had just silenced the
Sadducees as as the Sadducees were asking him questions about
marriage. Well, who are we going to be
married to when, when we're in heaven?
And Jesus is basically the little saying, you fools, you're
not going to be married in heaven.
So the Pharisees, all right, OK, we got it.
We got the right question. These Sadducees, they, they,
they don't really quite have it all together, but we have the
perfect thing, Jesus. Which of the laws is most
important? Which one we have all these
laws, Which one is most important?
And Jesus says, you shall love the Lord your God with all your
hearts, and with all your soul and with all your mind.
This is the great and 1st commandments.
And a second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as
yourself. On these two and the prophets,
Jesus was 2 wise for their games.
He said all of the law, all of it boils down to two things.
We call this just essentially the great commandment.
The great commandment technically refers to just the
first part, but whenever we talk about it, we lump both of these
things together. The great commandment is to love
God and love people. Love God, love people.
That's it all done. We can go home.
It's that simple right? Now, of course, it takes a bit
of work to to grow in our love both for God and people.
You see the 1st 4 commandments are about our relationship with
God, maintaining our relationship with Him.
And then the next six of the commandments are about our
relationships with people guidelines, if you will, to how
to love others well, don't lie to them.
Don't don't covet your neighbor's wife, don't steal
from them. You know, these, these are just
good things to do as a human being, right?
So here in verse 20 John wrote, if anyone says I love God and
hates his brother, he is a liar. For he who does not love his
brother whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.
We can't love God and hate our brother or sister.
If we say we love God but don't love our brother, then we make
ourselves liars. Our lives are shown to be
inconsistent with the love for God.
We haven't even seen God, like actually seen God, right?
We haven't even seen God, but we say we love him.
So how is it that we can possibly say we love him when we
can't even love the people that we come into contact each day?
If we love God, then we will love others.
So all of this begs the question, what keeps us from
love? What is it?
What is it that actually keeps us from loving other people?
Banu, sorry, I forgot to tell you.
I'm skipping that slide, but guess not.
Hey, you put it up there. Let's go there.
Go ahead and show that. So have you ever seen this?
Everyone brings joy to this office.
Someone they enter, someone they leave.
I'm so glad you're laughing. Thank you.
I had cut it because I was like, oh, I don't want to be too edgy
here, but love is kind of like that.
Some people, when they enter our presence, it's easy to love them
when they leave, it's a little easier to love them when they
leave. Some people are just hard to get
along with. Rights, different personalities
and character traits. A number of things that that
come into play in our capacity to love others.
Well, in ministry, we have this little designation for for
people like this. We call them EG Rs.
Perhaps you know this, maybe you don't.
EGR extra grace required. Some situations are just
difficult, some people can be difficult, and loving people
through difficult situations can be really hard.
And in these times, we need an extra bit of grace to navigate
those moments. And in those moments when I
might be dealing with an EGR, then I pray especially hard for
the Holy Spirit to fill me up and for everything that comes
out of me to be the Holy Spirit, to be God's working and not
drew. So some personalities just don't
mesh. But beyond that, what is it that
keeps us from loving others? Well, first of all, there's the
works of the flesh. The works of the flesh.
Interestingly, in this same section of Scripture where we
find the fruit of the spirits, the verses preceding the fruit
of the spirit there in Galatians 5, the verses preceding it
actually list what you could call maybe fruits of the flesh,
the works of the flesh. And it lists all these things
that that don't really apply to our conversation really about
loving others. Well, it lists a number of
things such as sexual immorality, impurity,
sensuality, idolatry, sorcery. These are these are qualities
that are more related to 1's own self.
But then what follows those is a list of items that are
especially pertinent to our discussion on loving other
people, Paul says. He lists enmity, strife,
jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions,
divisions, envy, these things. These are the works of the flesh
that prevent us from loving others.
There was that word enmity. What does enmity mean?
Well, enmity is being opposed or hostile towards someone.
It's basically enmity is like having an enemy.
Strife is anger or bitterness, in a word, conflict.
Then there's jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions,
divisions, and envy. You, you understand basically
what those things are. All these things can and do work
against us. Satan loves to use these tools
to get people's, to get people off track and at odds with each
other. And also he loves to get us to
stop loving others. If the enemy can get us to stop
loving other people, then he is being successful in his job.
So the works of the flesh prevent us from loving others.
The last thing, if we could sum it all up, the thing that
prevents us from loving others is me.
I'm the problem. Well, not me actually, but self
rights. Jesus said we have to deny
ourselves, take up our cross and follow Him.
So self is the thing that we have to watch out for.
That's your last points a little bit.
A lot of loving others is about denying ourselves.
Denying my pride, denying my selfishness, my arrogance, the
belief that I'm owed something in every situation, my belief
that everything is about me. I have to die to my flesh daily.
I have to say Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit, fill me up, take
control of my life as I deny myself.
I may sometimes find that love means choosing to let an offence
go sometimes the first Peter 4/8 Peter wrote.
Above all, keep loving one another earnestly.
Since love covers a multitude or sins, when someone does
something that offends me, love may mean that my response is
just like Elsa's, and that is, I know somebody's with me, let it
go. Sometimes My response when
somebody offends me. Should we break out in song
right now? No, I guess it won't.
Sometimes when somebody offends me, my love for them will call
me. Just let it go.
Let love cover it. That's not always the case.
Some offenses are simply too big to be ignored, and we have to
address those. But sometimes love means letting
love cover over an offence. So where are you this morning?
Where do you need to extend love?
Is there an EGR in your life? Someone you need a little extra
grace to interact with them. You need the Holy Spirit to come
into you and and just fill you so that you can act in love.
Who do you need to show love to? Is there?
Is there someone who you may need to extend grace and let
love cover an offence or two, or 10?
Is your life characterized by mature love leading to joy at
the thoughts of meeting your Savior, at the judgement of
Christ? Let's all clothe ourselves in
love as we each continue to grow in the faith.
Let's bow our heads and close our eyes.
And as we do this, let's take a moment to just look in our
hearts to see what's. The Holy Spirit would say into
our hearts, pause for just a quiet moments of quiet.
Say, God, show me, is there an area where I need to demonstrate
your love where I have not been diligent about loving other
people? Let Him bring that to your
thoughts and then say God, would you grow that in me?
Moment of quiet as we just rest of the Lord.
Holy Spirit, we thank you that it is not our job, our duty to
grow the fruit of the Spirit, but that as we spend time in
you, as we, as we make you our home, we abide in you.
Then you will work your supernatural power in us to grow
these these fruits in us. So, Spirit, would you make us
loving? Help us see others through the
lens of love. Not just feelings or emotions,
but actions. We thank you for teaching us
from your word this morning. We pray.
Amen.