Love and Truth
Notes
Transcript
ME
ME
I want to thank Jason for speaking about the famous Luke 24 passage of Jesus encounter the two disciples to Emmaus last week. It was important to briefly look at another gospel’s unique account of the resurrected Jesus as part of our Jesus is Risen post-Easter series. As I said before, Easter is not a day, but a celebration of 40 days and we are now into the fourth sunday of Easter. So we are going back to the book we focus on, the gospel of John. But here’s the twist. We are going to jump ahead to after 50-60 years since the resurrection happens, and see how the believers continue to live with love in this truth.
WE
But to begin, I want to pose a question: how do you know you are a firm believer? So for those of you who are here for the first time and your friend invited you to hear this message, it applies to you differently and indirectly. But if you are a believer, you must have thought about this question at least once in your faith journey. Maybe even several times.
I mean let’s face it. I would have thought I would be a bit more confident and stable after being a Christian by believing Jesus is my Saviour and Lord, who died for my sins since 1998. That’s 23 years. But this pandemic really threw me into a loop of doubts, despair, and crazy thoughts. I would at times wonder if I’ve grown in faith at all. After all. If I did grow, why am I still feel so scared and full of dread? Why am I behaving as if God’s not there? How do I know I will make it through? These thoughts just creep up on me. Doubts about my faith. My ministry. My calling. Doubts about whether a year from now we would still be where we are with the pandemic. Doubts about how I am pastoring this congregation God has given me with seemingly so little spiritual and physical strength. Maybe you can relate.
You wonder if your job is on the chopping blocks. Or you wonder if there’s a job for you when you graduate.
You wonder if your kids are not experiencing anxiety and sadness on the inside.
You wonder if this is the last variant we have to deal with before everything finally opens.
You wonder if that delayed surgery or diagnosis might put you or your love one at risk from getting fully better.
Well the Jesus followers have put some distance between the resurrection event, not quite as far as us. It’s been 2,000 years for us. But there’s still enough to see a gap from the excitement of Jesus’ appearance and promise of eternal life. To the reality of every day life being a minority faith in Roman-ruled pagan world. Jesus says he will return, but he hasn’t yet.
GOD
Today, we come back to John, not the gospel, but the epistle or letters of John, aptly named 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John. There’s largely agreement among scholars that these letters and the gospel writer are one and the same. He’s an eyewitness to the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. He’s also carried many themes from the gospel of John, written before these letters. So if the gospel is written around 85-90 A.D., these letters would be written in the 90s A.D. The reason they were written are similar to the gospel. In three places, 1 John 1:4, 2:1, and 5:13, John spoke of three reasons this letter is written: joy, holiness, and assurance. In particular, the third reason parallels the gospel’s:
13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.
If compared to John 20:31, the purpose is even more apparent:
30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
The gospel is so you may believe (to convince), whereas the letter is written so that those who believe… know (to assure) you have eternal life.
In other words, the letter is written to assure a specific group John affectionately calls his beloved, his children to not fall into the lies of the false teachers. They are teaching contrary to the gospel and doubting the incarnation of Jesus. That he is fully human and came to earth. He’s not some demi-god. John testifies he’s seen him, heard him, touched him and related to him while he was on earth in 1 John 1:1-3.
With this background in mind, we are jumping into the middle of 1 John 3.
And here’s the main idea for this message:
Jesus assures us by the truth of his love through us and in us.
Jesus assures us by the truth of his love through us and in us.
Our first point:
I. By the Fruit of Tangible Sacrifice We will know we live in the Truth (16-18)
I. By the Fruit of Tangible Sacrifice We will know we live in the Truth (16-18)
16 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.
Right before this passage, John has been talking about two things. He compares Cain to hate and Jesus to love. Cain, the brother of Abel, out of hate in Genesis 4 killed him. As an illustration, John is saying his children should expect the world to hate them. Just as they hated Jesus. In some ways, in verse 16 we can substitute Jesus with the word love. By this we know Jesus, that he laid down his life for us. And unless you are new to our church, you know almost every week we share about how Jesus laid down his life for us.
First, as a human. And not just any human, but a servant. He demonstrates his definition of love by washing his disciples’ feet in John 13. Imagine your professor, or your boss, or you dad, stooping down and taking off your sandals with all the grime and dust and dirt. That’s what it’s like for Jesus to wash his disciples feet. And ultimately, he laid down his life out of love by taking up the cross and being nailed to it. Even though he did no wrong. He was punished for the sake of our sin. And died, the ultimate laying down of a life. So we can live. So we can be free. So we can reconcile with God and be forgiven of our sin. Sins that damage our relationship with others, and perpetuate evil in the world. It is out of this sacrfificial posture which we as his followers are to emulate.
Close to the end of first century A.D. case, it could very well mean giving up your life for others. risking everything, including your safety to share about Jesus is your Saviour and Lord, not Caesar. For fear of confiscating your house. For being driven out of your community and ostracized. For being unable to buy anything or charged way more than what’s fair. That’s how the world’s hate works. But if we know love, we will act in love. John provides a tangible way to know we are his followers; a question we are to ask ourselves.
17 But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?
Let’s paraphrase it, and not leave it in the abstract “anyone:”
“If you have the means to help a brother or sister, but you show no compassion (in your bowels), how can you say God’s love resides in you?”
The answer of course is, you can’t! It’s a contradiction for someone who has received God’s love of salvation and yet not show love to someone in need, ESPECIALLY if you have what it takes to help! There’s no wiggle room for argument here. And of course it’s for that brother or sister’s benefit to be provided for, but paradoxically your spontaneous response of generosity is proof to you that not only have you received God’s love, but God’s love through you is now blessing others.
The other day I was going to Kitchen Stuff Plus to pick up a bathroom caddy over at Kennedy Commons. As I was driving south on Kennedy pass the 401 overpass, I noticed a teenage girl standing on the safety island with a cup in her hand. A few thoughts came across my mind, and I am sure you have had those thoughts before:
“Looks like she is panhandling for money.”
Then the world creeps in:
“But she’s young, she can find a job and feed herself. Why should I help her?”
“She’s probably going to use the money to buy drugs.”
So I immediately scour my car to see if I have another Tim Hortons Gift Card I can give her. Oh man, I used up my last one. Do I give her cash?
“What if she’s part of a con organized team out to prey on little earning pastors like myself?”
So I try to look downwards and away, but my heart, my compassion, my bowels, immediately convict me.
“You have little earning, pastor. But still more earning than this young girl.”
And so I took out a $10 bill, put on my mask, open the car window and placed it into her cup. Then the light turned green and I drove away into the plaza.
As I was waiting to pick up my caddy, my bowel calls again.
“Can you do more?”
And this time it seems easier to say yes (probably because I said yes the first time).
So I went to my food app and ordered a meal at Jolibee next door.
Long story short, somehow the app didn’t update itself and I waited half an hour. FInally, I lined up and went in and found out the meal’s been ready for some time.
Now the perfect ending of this story would be I gave her the meal on my way back. She thank me. And I tell her about Jesus’ love and invite her to join or Sunday zoom church.
That’s not what happened. Probably because it started to rain, and also more than half an hour has passed since I was at the plaza she was already gone.
I pray and hope she used the $10 to help herself however she deems fit.
So what was that all about?
Maybe, just maybe, as much as this incident on a normal Friday was God’s way of demonstrating his love for that girl, it was a demonstration of his love for me. That he abides in me. That as my worldly thinking wants to give every excuse in the world why I didn’t need to help her, Jesus’ love says otherwise.
Now this is by no means a tanigble sacrifice, I mean, it’s only $10. But God is preparing my heart perhaps for the next time when I need to make a greater sacrifice. To lay down our livelihood for a brother or sister in need.
The cheesy yumburger and pineapple quencher isn’t half bad ether. :)
Second point:
II. By the Spirit’s Assurance We will know God’s Love abides in Us. (19-24)
II. By the Spirit’s Assurance We will know God’s Love abides in Us. (19-24)
19 By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him;
What is the “by this?” By loving one another. Specifically, it’s the deed and in truth (as oppose to word or talk, where one translation captures the meaning of it, “in theory”) We can theorize all we want on how to help a brother, form committees, have meetings, analyze the problem, discuss at nauseum and come up with a plan, and all that is important. But until we actually have “boots on the ground,” until someone actually goes out and buy that gift card or bag of groceries, and deliver it to the person in need. Until someone goes and make the phone call, or ring the doorbell and talk to them socially distanced on a front porch, we are not of the truth. We are just playing a game. So let’s aim for not analysis paralysis. Many good intention ministries start off wanting to change the world but end up getting caught in overadministration and underdelivery. Let’s do something once we know as best we can the course of action. It may not be what we hope for, but it’s better than have done nothing at all, and disguise it as concern for your fellow brother or sister.
We now come to this confusing verse 20-22
20 for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. 21 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; 22 and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.
Why would our heart condemn us when we do a good thing? Well, here are the three possibilites how this verse is related to what’s earlier:
a. It has no relation and John is on a digression talking about being convicted when we do wrong, as the late pastor John Stott suggests.
b. It has everything to do with what we just spoke about and he’s talking about specifically how the heart of not loving one another ultimately condemns us.
c. the middle road: this applies both to the context before but can also be broaden to general principles of conviction.
The idea here, in rather confusing words to me, but it means God knows our hearts, our motives, our reason for why we do something, anything. That includes why we provide for a brother in need. Some of those intentions are altruistic. We want someone to feel better. To provide for their family. That’s good. But we also can have mixed motives. We want to be known to be a do gooder. It strokes our ego. And you know what? God knows that. So when the heart condemns us, through the words of evil saying either why do anything good at all if you are doing it for selfish reasons? Or, don’t you have enough problems yourself and you want to go and save someone? What do you have? A savior complex? We can be assured because God knows everything, he already knows the struggles and temptations you face in the decision. God, who neither condemns us of our sin anymore, also won’t condemn us for our misguided attempt at following after Jesus’ example of sacrifice, helping and giving. Now there may not be condemnation, but there is conviction. Just as I wanted to look away from the young girl who was panhandling, the Spirit weeds out all the misguided reasoning and excuse for not helping. And so when I was at the plaza, the imprint of the Spirit brings me to ask if I can do more? Once our heart is weeded out, whatever is left which we ask for the person in need will be received, leading to wanting to do more.
Lastly,
23 And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. 24 Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.
We believe, that is we trust in the name. We trust in the name of Jesus by following his ways. By laying down our lives. If financially, we give the world’s goods. If emotionally, we give our time and a listening ear. If physically, we give our energy and strength whether it’s too help with some heavy lifting, deliver groceries We trust in the name of Jesus by loving one another. We trust in the name of Jesus by doing everything in his name, no matter how impure our motives might be. We trust God is greater than our impure hearts and he knows everything, including that sliver of purity to want to make a difference to glorify him. That’s all he needs to begin a work in you and through you. Lean into that, and let him take us where he may.
YOU
So today’s message is simple and is more application oriented, because next week we will start exploring about this word which appears once in verse 17 and twice in verse 24. It’s a word which John uses 115 times! What does it mean to abide?
But here’s the challenge: If your heart has grown cold and dispassionate, instead of compassionate, hey I get it. I’d rather just hang out at home binge watching on old episodes of The Simpsons or just eat tubs of ice cream int his lousy pandemic than pick up myself and be the hands and feet of Jesus. But what we avoid, what we feel we have no strength to carry on doing may just be what’s needed for us to remember we are part of a bigger kingdom with a God who’s love is so massive he wants us to do good in His name, trusting him with the results. Will you join us and commit to doing one thing you know the Spirit tells you to do but you have been putting it off? It could be a person, a task, a call. One thing.
WE
Our assurance in this pandemic may not be that it will be over soon, though I sure hope so. Our assurance is that we can still do good in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ until he returns. That he’s active in this world and has chosen to bring peace and goodness through us. Just as the first century believers know his return is imminent, and the hope of the resurrection is all wrongs will be made right, and all who are in need will be more than provided for in abundance. And the fact the Spirit abides in us and works through us is evident Jesus truly has not leave us as orphans. But until then, we have quite a bit of loving one another to be and to do.
Amen.