Love of Believers
Notes
Transcript
Opening Illustration
Opening Illustration
“As I was putting this message together...
I was reminded of a quote I heard from the Star Wars movie series.
It was a quote from the character Yoda about hate...
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So, I searched on Youtube for the famous clip from 1999’s Episode I - The Phantom Menace.
To give you a little background for those who haven't seen the film...
And a reminder for those who may not have seen the film in a while...
Qui-Gon, a Jedi Knight senses a strong presence of the Force within Anakin Skywalker...
He is convinced that he is the prophesied "Chosen One" that is destined to restore balance to the Force.
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Qui-Gon then asks for permission to train Anakin as a Jedi, but the Jedi Council refuses his request.
They are rightly concerned that Anakin is vulnerable to the dark side of the Force.
As most people who are familiar with the series know...
Anakin Skywalker ultimately becomes the villain Darth Vader.
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Undaunted by the Jedi Councils refusal, Qui-Gon vows to take up Anakin as his new apprentice anyways.
But it was during the interview between Anakin and the Jedi Council that contained that quote I remembered.
Here is a transcript of the scene.
Yoda asks Anakin: ‘How feel you?’
Anakin replies: ‘Cold, sir’
Yoda asks: ‘Afraid are you?’
Anakin says: ‘No, sir.’
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Yoda replied back: ‘See through you, we can.’
Mace Windu, a fellow council member then speaks up and says: ‘Be mindful of your feelings.’
Ki-Adi-Mundi, yet anther council member says: ‘Your thoughts dwell on your mother’
Anakin replies: ‘I miss her’
Yoda then says : ‘Hmm. Afraid to lose her, I think. Hmm.’
Anakin sharply replies back: ‘What does that got to do with anything?’
Yoda says: ‘Everything.”
And then Yoda says one of his most famous and profound quotes from the Star Wars series...
Yoda says, ‘Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.’
Then the scene ends with Yoda saying: ‘I sense much fear in you.’
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This was actually a major foreshadowing of what would happen to Anakin through the prequel Star Wars Trilogy and the original Trilogy.
As many Star Wars fans have noticed, when Yoda said, “Fear leads to anger” it perfectly fit well with how in Episode 1, Anakin was a scared little boy...
And that fear morphed into anger in Episode 2 as Anakin was a teenager with anger issues.
When Yoda said, “Anger leads to hate” it fit with how Anakin became a hateful man in Episode 3.
Finally when Yoda said, “Hate leads to suffering” we can see how much Anakin who is now Darth Vader is suffering during the original Star Wars trilogy.
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Although Star Wars is a fictional story with fictional characters, the depiction of how hate destroys a person is very real.
Without the fear of the Lord...
People have many other unhealthy fears...
Without God people are angry and practice hatred...
And that hatred will leave a path of destruction.
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But with God...
When you are in Christ...
You are no longer a slave to fear...
You are no longer a slave to anger...
And you are no longer a slave to hate.
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And that means a genuine born again believer will love instead of hate...
And they will display that love openly to the world by how they love their brothers and sisters in Christ.
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And that truth is going to be the focal point of our study for today.
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So, please turn your Bibles to the 1 John.
We will be conducting our study in Chapter 2 and focus on verses 7 through 11.
Our message this morning called “Love of Believers”
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Opening Prayer
Opening Prayer
Before we consider our text, please join me in prayer...
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Let’s turn to our text for today:
Reading of the Text
Reading of the Text
7 Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard.
8 At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.
9 Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness.
10 Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling.
11 But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.
So, let’s look at our first point...
1) An Old Command
1) An Old Command
Verse 7: Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word that you have heard.
John is telling his audience that what he is about to describe is no new command but an old one.
He actually states the command clearly in 2 John 5-6:
5 And now I ask you, dear lady—not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but the one we have had from the beginning—that we love one another.
6 And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it.
So the old command is that we love one another...
Especially, our brothers and sisters in Christ.
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So what does that look like?
Well Church, John described that too.
He said love is walking according to God’s command...
And this command is what we have had from the beginning...
A command we have had in the Old Testament.
Just take a look at Leviticus 19:18:
18 You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.
And take a look at Deuteronomy 6:5:
5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
But at the same time John says this command is a new one...
Let’s take a look a our next point.
2) Also A New Command
2) Also A New Command
Verse 8: At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.
So, at the same time...
This command is new because love was perfectly modeled by Christ.
It wasn’t until Calvary that we as a people saw the full power of unconditional and Godly love.
Just look at what the New Testament says in John 3:16:
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
The love of the Father...
For His own sheep...
That willed to sacrifice His only Son that He loved perfectly...
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The love of the Son...
For His own sheep...
Who would loved and obey His Father perfectly...
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The love of the Holy Spirit...
That testifies to all these truths....
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This is perfect unconditional and Godly love.
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Also, look at what Christ Himself said about love in John 13:34:
34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.
So, with that perfect unconditional and Godly love that Christ bestowed on us...
We are to likewise love our brothers and sisters in Christ.
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This is pretty radical.
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It is so common to hear about school mates fighting...
And coworkers mistreating each other...
And teammates being jealous of one another...
And friends ending relationships...
And families hating each other...
But this is not to be the case for genuine born again believers.
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In fact, Jesus says that the ways we treat each other will show the world that they are His followers.
Just read with me the next verse after John 13:34...
Just read with me John 13:35:
35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
The “one another” is a reference to brother and sisters in Christ.
3) Still in Darkness
3) Still in Darkness
Verse 9: Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness.
In the original Greek, the word “hate” conveys the idea of someone who habitually hates and a person that would be marked by a lifestyle of continual hate.
So, hating anyone one...
Especially a genuine born again believer is a sign that one is still walking in darkness.
Born again believers do not hate followers of Christ...
Or for that matter even their enemies are to be loved as it says in Matthew 5:43-48:
43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’
44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?
47 And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?
48 You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
So, John is very clear that to practice hatred of anyone is not possible for those with a renewed mind...
And this lines up with all that we know and have already covered from Scripture.
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There is also another major truth we can pull fro this verse.
One does not go from darkness to light and then back to darkness and maybe back to light again.
We all start out in darkness.
If we are living in opposition to God’s commands then it is proof we are still in the darkness...
Not that we may have been in the light at some point and just took a back step into darkness for a time.
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Once a person is made brand new then they stay in the light.
Those currently in darkness never experienced light.
As Jesus made clear in the Gospels in John 10:28-30:
28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.
29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.
30 I and the Father are one.”
Jesus said “no one” will snatch a follower of His from Him...
So, you can’t lose your salvation....
And at the same time this is not “cheap grace” where one and act whatever way they want and claim to have a relationship with Jesus.
To act in this matter is just proof that one’s eye’s are still closed and their heart is still made out of stone.
Remember what we already covered that John said in his second epistle:
“And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments.”
To make a practice of disobeying His commandments is to reveal one’s true self.
To make a practice of disobeying His commandments is to reveal one’s darkness and total ignorance of the light.
4) Abiding in the Light
4) Abiding in the Light
Verse 10: Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling.
If you genuinely love your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ...
Then it is because you have been transformed and follow our Jesus, our Lord and Savior.
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That love you have for others is produced first from the love that God has for you and then by the love you have for God...
For if you genuinely love God then you will likewise love your neighbor...
And what group of people are closer neighbors that fellow believers.
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Beloved, I want to remind you of that conversation between Jesus and the lawyer from Matthew 22:34–40:
34 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together.
35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him.
36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”
37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
38 This is the great and first commandment.
39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
All the commands found in the Old and New Testament are built from these two commandments.
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Looking at the end of this verse we see it is an allusion to Psalm 119:165 which reads:
165 Great peace have those who love your law; nothing can make them stumble.
So, the copy that says “cause for stumbling.” in verse 10 refers to a person that trips up and causes others to sin.
When someone makes a practice of breaking God’s commandments their behavior often prompts others to do the same...
Remember the expression “monkey see monkey do.”
Causing others to stumble is encouraging a destructive cycle of sinful behavior.
However, this verse says those who walk in the light are not causes for stumbling.
5) Lost with No Direction
5) Lost with No Direction
Verse 11: But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.
John ends the passage with a bold rebuke.
Whoever hates a member of the Body of Christ is living in darkness.
They walk in the darkness.
They are lost with no proper direction for their life.
As Proverbs 4:19 says:
19 The way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know over what they stumble.
The darkness they are consumed in has made these individuals blind to the truth...
Blind to God’s truth found in the Word of God.
Church, note the truth found in 1 Corinthians 2:14 and how that relates to this text:
14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
Dead men and women can’t see the light.
They need God to give them eyes to see.
Then and only then can they accept God’s truth.
Closing Illustration
Closing Illustration
As this message comes to a close I want to share this.
“There is a story about a man who was walking down the street.
He passed a used-book store, and in the window he saw a book with the title How to Hug.
He was taken by the title and, being of a somewhat romantic nature, went in to buy the book.
To his dismay, he discovered that it was the seventh volume of an encyclopedia and covered the subjects “How” to the subjects “Hug.”
Likewise, everyone knows that the church is to be a place where love ought to be manifested.
Unfortunately, many people have come to church hoping to find a demonstration of love—only to discover an encyclopedia on morality and theology.”
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so, remember...
A knowledge of Scripture is part of the Christian walk...
But that is not what identifies us to others as true believers.
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It is the obedience of the Word of God...
It is the love we have for God...
It is the love for others that will mark us as believers.
As the famous Christian Hymn goes...
“We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord
We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord
And we pray that our unity will one day be restored
And they'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love
Yeah they'll know we are Christians by our love
We will work with each other, we will work side by side
We will work with each other, we will work side by side
And we'll guard each man's dignity and save each man's pride
And they'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love
Yeah, they'll know we are Christians by our love”
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Beloved, go out this week and let them all know you are a Christian by your love.
Go out and let them know you are one in the Holy Spirit...
And one in the Body of Christ...
And one in the Lord.
Go out and work with your brothers and sisters in Christ...
Working side by side.
Go out and obey God’s commands...
And they will know you are Christian by your love.
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To God be all the glory.
Amen.
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Please join us for one more song from the Praise Band.
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