WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.620 Okay, today we're going to go back and we're going to look at the passage that I read earlier, 00:00:06.620 --> 00:00:14.019 John's, the first John, letter, first John, page 103, and Corrie last week looked at the 00:00:14.019 --> 00:00:19.660 first six verses, and I'm going to look at the, from verse 7 onwards today. 00:00:19.660 --> 00:00:24.940 And as we do so, I'm going to start just by taking a little breather and thinking about 00:00:24.940 --> 00:00:30.760 the author for just a few minutes, just to think about John, the beloved disciple, because 00:00:30.760 --> 00:00:36.679 he's the author of this letter that went out probably to the church in Ephesus, primarily. 00:00:36.679 --> 00:00:42.659 And we've been studying this letter for a good number of weeks now, and I hope being 00:00:42.659 --> 00:00:47.020 encouraged and built up and enthused by what he was saying, challenged as well by what 00:00:47.020 --> 00:00:49.020 he's saying. 00:00:49.020 --> 00:00:54.620 But this section, I like the rest of it, I guess, but this section does reveal a lot 00:00:54.620 --> 00:01:00.060 about John himself as a person, and I think that's important, not just here, but as we 00:01:00.060 --> 00:01:04.620 think about the letter as a whole, because God inspires his word through the characters 00:01:04.620 --> 00:01:11.260 that he speaks through, and through their own characters and their individuality. 00:01:11.260 --> 00:01:15.540 And what's interesting, maybe you haven't noticed, I'm sure you have noticed this, and 00:01:15.540 --> 00:01:26.060 I get it at this stage by way of covering myself, that he can't stop repeating himself. 00:01:26.060 --> 00:01:31.180 This is a short letter, but he really can't stop repeating the important message that 00:01:31.180 --> 00:01:35.740 he wants to bring again and again and again to this people. 00:01:35.740 --> 00:01:39.180 It's not that he's forgetting, I repeat myself because I'm forgetful. 00:01:39.180 --> 00:01:40.180 He's not forgetful. 00:01:40.180 --> 00:01:45.740 It's not that he's just getting nothing that he's forgetting what he could say, and it's 00:01:45.740 --> 00:01:46.980 not because he's annoying. 00:01:46.980 --> 00:01:53.060 Some people can just be repetitive, and then being repetitive, they're simply being annoying. 00:01:53.060 --> 00:01:58.580 But he's being repetitive throughout this letter because what he is saying is so important 00:01:58.580 --> 00:02:05.660 to him as it's been laid on his heart by God, and as he has lived his life, he's an old 00:02:05.659 --> 00:02:11.859 man by now, and he's seen what's really important in the church. 00:02:11.859 --> 00:02:17.819 Every verse is jam-packed full of very significant and important and astonishing truth about who 00:02:17.819 --> 00:02:25.979 Jesus is, who the Christ is, and what God has done for you and for me as believers. 00:02:25.979 --> 00:02:33.539 And I think his repetitiveness is just part of his way of trying to say that it's just 00:02:33.539 --> 00:02:38.819 greater than anything that we can ever have grasped or imagined. 00:02:38.819 --> 00:02:45.219 And it's like he takes every verse, it's like a diamond, and like every verse, it's 00:02:45.219 --> 00:02:50.299 just a slight movement of the diamond, and you see it in a different color, and the different 00:02:50.299 --> 00:02:54.780 angles in a diamond reveal different aspects of its beauty. 00:02:54.780 --> 00:02:57.699 And he's doing that, it's as if he's doing that with every verse. 00:02:57.699 --> 00:03:03.019 It's the same truth really, but he's just slightly tilting the angle of divine truth 00:03:03.020 --> 00:03:06.740 so that we can see it differently and understand it more. 00:03:06.740 --> 00:03:12.460 If you do have time, a good exercise would be just to read the whole letter again and 00:03:12.460 --> 00:03:17.500 write down the number of times he repeats himself and see what he's repeating and why 00:03:17.500 --> 00:03:20.140 it's important. 00:03:20.140 --> 00:03:25.500 And I think if we could see, I certainly long personally to see like John sees, because 00:03:25.500 --> 00:03:31.500 I think if we could see like John sees, if we'd see similarly to John, then I think 00:03:31.500 --> 00:03:34.060 I certainly know my preaching would be different. 00:03:34.060 --> 00:03:40.979 I think our praise, our prayer life, the unbridled joy that we have in Jesus Christ, whatever 00:03:40.979 --> 00:03:48.379 our circumstances would be, I think would blow the roof off this building. 00:03:48.379 --> 00:03:53.180 I think it would make us different if we could see the way John sees. 00:03:53.180 --> 00:03:55.819 And it's as if he's got a holy obsession. 00:03:55.819 --> 00:04:03.859 Now, obsessions can be negative, of course, but I think they can also be positive. 00:04:03.859 --> 00:04:10.659 The Oxford English Dictionary definition of obsession is an idea or thought that continually 00:04:10.659 --> 00:04:15.259 preoccupies or intrudes in a person's mind. 00:04:15.259 --> 00:04:17.699 It's something that governs our whole life. 00:04:17.699 --> 00:04:22.500 And that was clearly the case with John, is a positive obsession with the love of Jesus 00:04:22.500 --> 00:04:29.420 Christ, changing everything in him and in the churches that he worked with. 00:04:29.420 --> 00:04:33.779 For him, it was a positive obsession. 00:04:33.779 --> 00:04:37.060 It's something very big, very significant. 00:04:37.060 --> 00:04:39.339 It's not an appendix to his life. 00:04:39.339 --> 00:04:44.420 His faith was not just added extra, something that he dipped into now and again. 00:04:44.420 --> 00:04:48.660 It was something that was significantly important and real. 00:04:48.660 --> 00:04:52.339 And it may be good for us this morning if we do nothing else this morning, but just 00:04:52.339 --> 00:04:58.579 look in the mirror into our own hearts and into our own lives and ask what our obsession 00:04:58.579 --> 00:04:59.579 is. 00:04:59.579 --> 00:05:02.259 What obsesses us? 00:05:02.259 --> 00:05:08.419 What takes up our time and energy and our focus and our desire and our whole lives, really? 00:05:08.419 --> 00:05:12.739 Because maybe probably in one degree or another we're all obsessed with something. 00:05:12.739 --> 00:05:18.859 Maybe for most of us, the challenge or the temptation is to be just obsessed with ourselves. 00:05:18.860 --> 00:05:23.420 But here we find John's obsession and his repetitiveness. 00:05:23.420 --> 00:05:31.580 But also we see him in this letter being as sharp as a tack as well because he recognizes 00:05:31.580 --> 00:05:35.420 the issue that is in that church and it's a church that's been divided. 00:05:35.420 --> 00:05:42.580 It's a church that's been separated because there's false teachers have come in who don't 00:05:42.580 --> 00:05:48.780 recognize the gospel message and who are causing division and separation and disunity and 00:05:48.779 --> 00:05:53.819 a lack of love between the people and all kinds of turmoil. 00:05:53.819 --> 00:05:57.179 And he's as sharp as a tack and he recognizes that. 00:05:57.179 --> 00:06:02.899 And what he's focusing on with those he's writing to is by your fruits you'll know them. 00:06:02.899 --> 00:06:05.779 You'll know those who are followers of Christ by their fruits. 00:06:05.779 --> 00:06:09.619 And the love of God is at the very core of this fruit. 00:06:09.620 --> 00:06:21.660 And he recognizes and he's intent on dealing with this just damage and division and the 00:06:21.660 --> 00:06:25.259 wolves that are coming in, in sheep's clothing as it were. 00:06:25.259 --> 00:06:33.259 And he's saying their hearts are revealing the falsity of what they believe and what 00:06:33.259 --> 00:06:36.660 they are teaching. 00:06:36.660 --> 00:06:46.020 And he's encouraging the people of that local church to be careful about how they live and 00:06:46.020 --> 00:06:49.660 to be careful about their walk and their witness. 00:06:49.660 --> 00:06:56.580 And he's asking them to judge that by how they treat one another. 00:06:56.580 --> 00:07:00.140 And he says, because you can't hide what's in your heart. 00:07:00.140 --> 00:07:04.740 And as we love one another with the love of Christ, which is what he's speaking about, 00:07:04.740 --> 00:07:06.740 he's saying that is the evidence. 00:07:06.740 --> 00:07:09.379 That is beware you stand lest you fall. 00:07:09.379 --> 00:07:14.780 Look at your own heart and see, look around you and see how you speak about others and 00:07:14.780 --> 00:07:18.500 how you respond to others in this local church community. 00:07:18.500 --> 00:07:23.860 And he's as sharp as a tack recognizing that that is the key. 00:07:23.860 --> 00:07:32.060 So I want to emphasize two things in this passage that he speaks of. 00:07:32.060 --> 00:07:35.180 There's much more, but we just have time for two. 00:07:35.180 --> 00:07:40.139 The first is a very significant thing, which is what he says in verse eight, which is a 00:07:40.139 --> 00:07:42.180 very famous statement. 00:07:42.180 --> 00:07:46.180 He says in verse seven and eight, beloved, let's love one another for love is from God. 00:07:46.180 --> 00:07:48.579 Whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 00:07:48.579 --> 00:07:53.180 Anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love. 00:07:53.180 --> 00:07:55.819 So this great statement that God is love. 00:07:55.819 --> 00:07:56.819 And we've seen it before, isn't it? 00:07:56.819 --> 00:07:59.899 We're not just talking about family love. 00:07:59.899 --> 00:08:02.019 We're not just talking about marital love. 00:08:02.019 --> 00:08:05.979 We're not just talking about friendship love, but it's this unique agape love, this love 00:08:05.979 --> 00:08:17.899 of God that is uniquely burst in the hearts of believers who come to Jesus Christ as His 00:08:17.899 --> 00:08:19.859 adoptive gift to us. 00:08:19.859 --> 00:08:21.779 And it's because God is love. 00:08:21.779 --> 00:08:24.859 He's the author and the genesis of love. 00:08:24.859 --> 00:08:30.099 And we see it in relation to the other God is statements that John makes. 00:08:30.100 --> 00:08:36.580 We saw it right at the beginning of the series in the first chapter of 1 John where he says, 00:08:36.580 --> 00:08:38.259 God is light. 00:08:38.259 --> 00:08:47.420 And then in the gospel of John, he also says that God is spirit. 00:08:47.420 --> 00:08:52.580 Remember in that interaction with the woman, Samaritan woman. 00:08:52.580 --> 00:09:00.300 And so we've got this trinity of statements about the character of God. 00:09:00.300 --> 00:09:04.980 Not that He just does love, not that He has light, not that He can be spirit, but that 00:09:04.980 --> 00:09:07.860 in His simplicity is all of these things. 00:09:07.860 --> 00:09:11.220 God is love in the glory of that. 00:09:11.220 --> 00:09:15.700 He is light and He's pure and truthful and just. 00:09:15.700 --> 00:09:20.060 And He is spirit making Him, as we've seen, and as we've talked with the children in the 00:09:20.059 --> 00:09:23.419 cataclysm, He's infinite, eternal and unchangeable. 00:09:23.419 --> 00:09:29.899 And this is the God who is revealed in this passage. 00:09:29.899 --> 00:09:36.459 And it reminds us that this God of love is a unique God. 00:09:36.459 --> 00:09:43.859 And the significance of the trinity, God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit is emphasized 00:09:43.859 --> 00:09:49.699 powerfully through that statement that God is love because He is a society, a divine 00:09:49.700 --> 00:09:53.180 society of love. 00:09:53.180 --> 00:09:56.980 The simplicity of that and the complexity of that come together in His love. 00:09:56.980 --> 00:09:58.580 You see, it's impossible. 00:09:58.580 --> 00:10:07.900 It would be impossible for a single, unitary, lonely God to claim eternally to be love. 00:10:07.900 --> 00:10:14.540 But it is this society of Father, Son and Holy Spirit that enables Him to be described 00:10:14.539 --> 00:10:22.579 and characterised in this way as where there was perfect love within that trinitarian persons 00:10:22.579 --> 00:10:27.019 for all eternity with one another. 00:10:27.019 --> 00:10:34.860 But we see that primarily in the cooperative rescue for us, that God who is love, Father, 00:10:34.860 --> 00:10:41.419 Son and Holy Spirit is involved in our salvation, a cooperative rescue. 00:10:41.419 --> 00:10:46.179 Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit is spoken of interchangeably in this passage. 00:10:46.179 --> 00:10:51.899 But we do see that this rescue of us today is God's initiative. 00:10:51.899 --> 00:10:57.339 It isn't, first of all, our idea is God's initiative in verse 10. 00:10:57.339 --> 00:11:00.959 We're told, and this is love. 00:11:00.959 --> 00:11:05.899 Not that we have loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propreciation 00:11:05.899 --> 00:11:06.899 for us. 00:11:06.899 --> 00:11:09.740 And then in verse 19, there's a lot of repetition here. 00:11:09.740 --> 00:11:12.700 We love because He first loved us. 00:11:12.700 --> 00:11:17.379 So today we come together and worship, and we come to worship the living God, and we 00:11:17.379 --> 00:11:24.379 do so because He first loved us because salvation is His initiative. 00:11:24.379 --> 00:11:29.899 As a Christian, your character and your salvation was wrought in the mind of God, the Father, 00:11:29.899 --> 00:11:34.899 the Son and the Holy Spirit before creation, before we were even considered and thought 00:11:34.899 --> 00:11:35.899 about. 00:11:35.899 --> 00:11:43.659 And after our birth, when we were still enemies of God, He still had us in His mind as those 00:11:43.659 --> 00:11:48.139 who would receive and respond to salvation. 00:11:48.139 --> 00:11:55.980 This is, our salvation is driven by His commitment and His love for us. 00:11:55.980 --> 00:12:01.059 His love for a people who He created, who He knew would rebel, but we were always in 00:12:01.059 --> 00:12:11.099 His heart, and we recognize that that salvation comes from God first, His initiative. 00:12:11.099 --> 00:12:14.099 We love because He loved us. 00:12:14.099 --> 00:12:21.419 And when we are saved, when we trust in Jesus Christ, we're brought into this elevated company 00:12:21.419 --> 00:12:23.859 of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 00:12:23.859 --> 00:12:29.339 In verse 12, we're told, no one has ever seen God but will feel love one another. 00:12:29.340 --> 00:12:33.940 God abides in us, and His love is perfected in us. 00:12:33.940 --> 00:12:35.780 And then again, it's repeated in verse 16. 00:12:35.780 --> 00:12:39.340 I'm going to repeat a lot here because John does in verse 16. 00:12:39.340 --> 00:12:43.340 It says, so we have come to know and believe the love that God has for us. 00:12:43.340 --> 00:12:44.340 God is love. 00:12:44.340 --> 00:12:48.820 Whoever abides in love, abides in God and God abides in Him. 00:12:48.820 --> 00:12:57.139 So you have this teaching of being reborn and reborn into His character, into His person, 00:12:57.139 --> 00:13:05.139 into His relationship with Him, where we live in Him and He and us in a mutual indwelling, 00:13:05.139 --> 00:13:12.539 which has mystery in it, undoubtedly, but reflects what John would have heard from Jesus 00:13:12.539 --> 00:13:18.139 in the last discourse, particularly in John chapter 15. 00:13:18.139 --> 00:13:24.220 And so that as Christians today, as a believer today, you and I, in all our ordinariness, 00:13:24.220 --> 00:13:31.100 in all our lack of feeling of being different from anyone else, as believers by faith, we 00:13:31.100 --> 00:13:37.100 accept that we are engulfed in the Trinitarian life, that we have God, the Father, the Son, 00:13:37.100 --> 00:13:43.700 and the Holy Spirit in our lives with us, outworking the promises that were made before 00:13:43.700 --> 00:13:44.700 the creation of the world. 00:13:44.700 --> 00:13:49.180 You know what it would be like if you met someone really famous, and we all are moved 00:13:49.180 --> 00:13:51.740 by famous people one way or another. 00:13:51.740 --> 00:13:56.180 You met someone famous, and you're kind of overawed by that, by meeting someone famous. 00:13:56.180 --> 00:14:01.019 I'm not going to say anyone because my famous will probably not be your famous. 00:14:01.019 --> 00:14:04.779 For me, it would have been someone like George Best, but he's dead now, so that's not very 00:14:04.779 --> 00:14:05.779 good. 00:14:05.779 --> 00:14:11.379 But someone famous, someone important that you respect and admire, and instead of just 00:14:11.379 --> 00:14:14.980 having to kind of look from a distance or go for a nautograph, they actually turned 00:14:14.980 --> 00:14:20.580 round and, you know, called you by name and welcomed you, said, it's great to meet you. 00:14:20.580 --> 00:14:23.020 Why don't you come back to our house for dinner? 00:14:23.020 --> 00:14:25.900 In fact, why don't you stay with us for a while and get to know us a bit better? 00:14:25.900 --> 00:14:29.060 Can you imagine how great that would be? 00:14:29.060 --> 00:14:31.980 You know, someone you've been in awe of, and you've seen on the television, and you've 00:14:31.980 --> 00:14:35.580 seen on this, everyone in love, that you're invited into their home, that you're invited 00:14:35.580 --> 00:14:40.020 into their family, that you get to know their kids or whatever it might be and see what 00:14:40.020 --> 00:14:41.300 they're like in real life. 00:14:41.300 --> 00:14:43.460 Well, it's like, it would be like that. 00:14:43.460 --> 00:14:50.259 Well, it is, sorry, it is like that as a Christian, but times a million, times a billion. 00:14:50.259 --> 00:14:55.500 And I know it is different because it's spiritual, but I think sometimes we need to think about 00:14:55.500 --> 00:15:00.740 the privilege that is ours and the benefits that is our belonging to this King of Kings, 00:15:00.740 --> 00:15:05.059 to the Lord of Lords, that whatever happens in our lives, we've been embraced into His 00:15:05.059 --> 00:15:13.620 family, we've been taken into His home, that life and death can't take that from us and 00:15:13.620 --> 00:15:16.539 that we live in company with Him. 00:15:16.539 --> 00:15:20.659 I think it's good to think about that when we're struggling with the poor me's or with 00:15:20.659 --> 00:15:26.219 aging or with illness or with let down or when we feel alone or we're struggling financially. 00:15:26.219 --> 00:15:32.059 Or one of the battles that we face, it's good to be reminded of the spiritual truths that 00:15:32.059 --> 00:15:35.099 we need to keep going back to. 00:15:35.099 --> 00:15:43.500 And we're called in this great Trinitarian salvation to know and rely on Him, verse 16. 00:15:43.500 --> 00:15:48.580 So we have come to know and to believe or to rely or to trust the love that God has for 00:15:48.580 --> 00:15:49.580 us. 00:15:49.580 --> 00:15:53.740 We're therefore, we're to, that's why we, it's one of the reasons we come at church. 00:15:53.740 --> 00:15:58.620 It's one of the reasons that we have fellowship together, that we are discipling one another 00:15:58.620 --> 00:16:03.740 because we want to know Him more and know Him experimentally and know Him intimately 00:16:03.740 --> 00:16:07.940 and trust in Him, rely on Him, lean on Him. 00:16:07.940 --> 00:16:15.980 It's one of the beauties of the spiritual disciplines we're trying to encourage and inspire and 00:16:15.980 --> 00:16:19.020 help each other with with the grace groups. 00:16:19.020 --> 00:16:23.180 It's just so good to be in His company and yet it's a battle and a struggle all the time 00:16:23.180 --> 00:16:25.180 for us, all of us. 00:16:25.180 --> 00:16:27.060 It's a battle of faith. 00:16:27.060 --> 00:16:31.980 And we're called just to remind ourselves to know Him and to grow in that knowledge 00:16:31.980 --> 00:16:38.139 of Him, to be like the tree and discipleship tree in Jeremiah 17 whose roots go deep down 00:16:38.139 --> 00:16:44.700 into this living water, not be self-reliant so that even when the drought comes that we 00:16:44.700 --> 00:16:46.500 can bear fruit for Him. 00:16:46.500 --> 00:16:48.820 That's our source of life. 00:16:48.820 --> 00:16:51.180 So God is love. 00:16:51.180 --> 00:16:57.340 That's the first thing I want to say about this, in this short section. 00:16:57.340 --> 00:17:02.420 The second thing I want to do is look at how that sometimes plays out in our lives and how 00:17:02.420 --> 00:17:06.340 it ought to play out in our church life. 00:17:06.340 --> 00:17:08.340 And there's two things here. 00:17:08.340 --> 00:17:11.059 There's two points, two things in here. 00:17:11.059 --> 00:17:16.940 The first thing is that it should provoke within us as a church family, it should provoke 00:17:16.940 --> 00:17:17.940 sibling provocation. 00:17:17.940 --> 00:17:20.819 What would that mean by that? 00:17:20.819 --> 00:17:27.819 So look at verse 7 and then another repetition in verse 11. 00:17:27.819 --> 00:17:30.740 Let us love one another for love is from God. 00:17:30.740 --> 00:17:33.579 And whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 00:17:33.579 --> 00:17:39.740 And then verse 11 starts the same way, beloved if God so loved as we ought also to love 00:17:39.740 --> 00:17:41.700 one another. 00:17:41.700 --> 00:17:47.139 And so speaking there about brothers and sisters, how we treat one another in the church. 00:17:47.140 --> 00:17:53.100 Now if you've got brothers and sisters, you understand and know sibling provocation. 00:17:53.100 --> 00:17:59.220 You know exactly what it's like to be provoked by your brother or sister, sometimes negative, 00:17:59.220 --> 00:18:00.380 okay? 00:18:00.380 --> 00:18:08.220 I dare you to put baking soda down the toilet or something like that. 00:18:08.220 --> 00:18:10.380 Have you ever tried that? 00:18:10.380 --> 00:18:15.740 You may have tried that at some point because when you flush the toilet, it goes everywhere. 00:18:15.740 --> 00:18:22.019 And your sibling might provoke you to do that, something negative, something provocative, 00:18:22.019 --> 00:18:25.420 something that will get you into trouble, especially a big brother, big sister, little 00:18:25.420 --> 00:18:26.420 brother, little sister. 00:18:26.420 --> 00:18:27.420 There's always that going on. 00:18:27.420 --> 00:18:31.539 But also maybe they will help provoke you to do something positive. 00:18:31.539 --> 00:18:37.620 You know, you should really go and help your mom or your dad do whatever they have to do 00:18:37.620 --> 00:18:42.420 and it may be negative, it may be positive. 00:18:42.420 --> 00:18:49.860 People we know that siblings have the unique ability to provoke one another negatively, 00:18:49.860 --> 00:18:52.500 to just wind each other up. 00:18:52.500 --> 00:18:56.140 Sometimes we're like that in the church as well. 00:18:56.140 --> 00:19:02.019 But we're called to be provocative to one another positively as brothers and sisters 00:19:02.019 --> 00:19:03.019 in Christ. 00:19:03.019 --> 00:19:04.259 See what I call, he says beloved. 00:19:04.259 --> 00:19:10.019 Man, it's a difficult letter he's writing, but he says to them, beloved, that just means 00:19:10.019 --> 00:19:12.619 is recognizing their loved by God. 00:19:12.619 --> 00:19:14.539 That's just what beloved means here. 00:19:14.539 --> 00:19:17.180 It means loved by God. 00:19:17.180 --> 00:19:21.940 And I think that is a really helpful way of thinking of one another as Christians. 00:19:21.940 --> 00:19:25.139 So often we're categorizing people. 00:19:25.139 --> 00:19:27.099 We're putting them in pockets. 00:19:27.099 --> 00:19:28.779 We're putting them in corners. 00:19:28.779 --> 00:19:31.019 We're putting them in different areas. 00:19:31.019 --> 00:19:36.900 And we can be judgmental, but it's great to remind each other that we're loved by each 00:19:36.900 --> 00:19:42.620 one of us as Christians, I love my God together, and grasp that because it changes the way we 00:19:42.620 --> 00:19:45.900 think of and consider one another. 00:19:45.900 --> 00:19:51.100 Because immediately when you call someone beloved, there's that bond, you know? 00:19:51.100 --> 00:19:56.940 It's like when you meet someone who's a relative that maybe you haven't met before. 00:19:56.940 --> 00:19:59.460 You don't know them for whatever reason. 00:19:59.460 --> 00:20:02.220 There are cousins that you've met, maybe they live in Australia or whatever, you haven't 00:20:02.220 --> 00:20:03.220 met them. 00:20:03.220 --> 00:20:07.380 Maybe before the days of phones and videos and everything. 00:20:07.380 --> 00:20:09.819 And you meet them for the first time and there's an immediate bond. 00:20:09.819 --> 00:20:13.779 You've never seen them, but they look like your dad or they look like, there's a common 00:20:13.779 --> 00:20:14.779 bond. 00:20:14.779 --> 00:20:15.779 They look like you. 00:20:15.779 --> 00:20:22.140 And there's an immediate common bond of blood in that context or even nationalities when 00:20:22.140 --> 00:20:27.860 you go abroad and you hear, when I go abroad and I hear a Scott, Scott's accent, I'm attracted 00:20:27.860 --> 00:20:31.220 to that because there's a bond there that lives in. 00:20:31.220 --> 00:20:37.339 And much more so with us in Christ, we've got this, we're again a million times more, 00:20:37.339 --> 00:20:40.420 we're beloved because we have come to Christ. 00:20:40.420 --> 00:20:44.500 So look around you this morning in church. 00:20:44.500 --> 00:20:50.059 What is your first thought about the other Christians here in St. Columbus? 00:20:50.059 --> 00:20:54.860 Would beloved be what we consider them to be? 00:20:54.859 --> 00:21:01.379 Because you owe a debt to one another, you and I owe a debt to each other. 00:21:01.379 --> 00:21:08.539 See that in verse 11, you know, beloved, if God so loves us, we also ought to love one 00:21:08.539 --> 00:21:11.379 another. 00:21:11.379 --> 00:21:17.379 Eleven times in this short section, John says love one another. 00:21:17.379 --> 00:21:23.019 Eleven times, I talked about repetition, eleven times he says it. 00:21:23.019 --> 00:21:25.859 And he speaks here in terms of debt or obligation. 00:21:25.859 --> 00:21:28.940 We looked at that a couple of weeks ago when I was looking at the Holy Spirit in Romans 00:21:28.940 --> 00:21:34.420 chapter 8, that we'd obliged to live, we'd indebted to live in the Spirit, not in the 00:21:34.420 --> 00:21:35.579 flesh. 00:21:35.579 --> 00:21:42.420 And so we've indebted as Christians to love one another because what Christ has done for 00:21:42.420 --> 00:21:47.700 us, it's a weight that is on us, a beautiful weight nonetheless. 00:21:47.700 --> 00:21:49.740 But we're to provoke one another. 00:21:49.740 --> 00:21:56.299 We're to spur one another to love and good deeds, as Hebrews 10 tells us. 00:21:56.299 --> 00:22:05.299 And that's a really important and probably underplayed characteristic of our Christian 00:22:05.299 --> 00:22:13.259 lives is that we have a responsibility not just to live and spur ourselves on as Christians, 00:22:13.259 --> 00:22:17.539 which is hard enough, but we're called not to be islands. 00:22:17.539 --> 00:22:22.579 We're called to spur one another on and be brave enough to tell one another because we 00:22:22.579 --> 00:22:29.339 love one another about the importance of sticking close to Jesus. 00:22:29.339 --> 00:22:35.819 Keeping each other on the main things with each other, maybe highlighting our lack of 00:22:35.819 --> 00:22:43.420 love, discourage being the person that stops gossip, dead when it comes to you, or deals 00:22:43.420 --> 00:22:49.980 and challenges, division and hierarchies and cliques within the church community because 00:22:49.980 --> 00:22:55.900 we love one another and share this debt of love to one another. 00:22:55.900 --> 00:22:56.900 Why is that important? 00:22:56.900 --> 00:23:01.100 Well, verse 12 tells us, no one has ever seen God. 00:23:01.100 --> 00:23:04.380 That's one of our biggest problems, one of our biggest challenges. 00:23:04.380 --> 00:23:05.940 We can't touch Him. 00:23:05.940 --> 00:23:09.700 We don't seem to feel any different even as Christians. 00:23:09.700 --> 00:23:15.299 What He says, if we love one another, God abides in us and His love is perfected in us. 00:23:15.299 --> 00:23:19.700 And what John is saying there is, that's when we see God. 00:23:19.700 --> 00:23:26.460 It's the biggest struggle, isn't it? 00:23:26.460 --> 00:23:28.700 Faith. 00:23:28.700 --> 00:23:35.500 But when we are among God's people, if there's a draft of sin and disinterest and loneliness 00:23:35.500 --> 00:23:39.819 and isolation, God is shrouded. 00:23:39.819 --> 00:23:42.380 We're not seeing Him properly. 00:23:42.380 --> 00:23:50.339 The church, the gospel community, the family of God is the world's window to seeing God. 00:23:50.339 --> 00:23:53.259 We've seen that recently. 00:23:53.259 --> 00:24:01.140 You know, Jesus said, this, by this will all people know that you're my disciples, that 00:24:01.140 --> 00:24:05.019 we're Jesus' disciples if we love one another. 00:24:05.019 --> 00:24:12.619 This is the window to the world, is the window to God of the world. 00:24:12.619 --> 00:24:15.339 The world will see God when they see us loving one another. 00:24:15.339 --> 00:24:21.420 And so we, we will see God more when we're loving one another. 00:24:21.420 --> 00:24:29.379 So it has both a powerful, I think, internal, assuring influence on us when we live this 00:24:29.380 --> 00:24:38.940 way and deny our sinful nature and also as a powerful evangelistic message for us. 00:24:38.940 --> 00:24:42.980 And that's a great challenge this morning. 00:24:42.980 --> 00:24:51.300 So it plays out in sibling provocation and lastly and briefly, knowing this God of love 00:24:51.299 --> 00:25:02.139 and living, constantly going to Him for forgiveness and grace and just renewal and refreshment 00:25:02.139 --> 00:25:07.579 and relying on Him gives us the second thing is confidence on the day of judgment. 00:25:07.579 --> 00:25:15.019 By this is love perfected with us so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment. 00:25:15.019 --> 00:25:17.180 John just states that. 00:25:17.180 --> 00:25:21.740 He states with absolute confidence as one who was the beloved disciple who heard the 00:25:21.740 --> 00:25:27.220 teaching of Jesus, who knew that Jesus had died, who knew that He rose again, they ascended 00:25:27.220 --> 00:25:28.259 and that He would return. 00:25:28.259 --> 00:25:34.580 The basic truths of the gospel, He was utterly convinced that Jesus would return. 00:25:34.580 --> 00:25:39.620 It's part of the message, part of the truth, it's part of the tradition that was handed 00:25:39.620 --> 00:25:42.060 down to Him even at this point. 00:25:42.059 --> 00:25:48.819 His legacy is that His come once in salvation, He will return to bring His family home and 00:25:48.819 --> 00:25:53.819 in judgment as His legacy. 00:25:53.819 --> 00:26:00.179 And I wonder if as Christians we are certain that Jesus is coming back. 00:26:00.179 --> 00:26:04.179 Do we live as if we have that certainty of Jesus coming back? 00:26:04.180 --> 00:26:13.299 Because the amazing thing about it for the Christian is that this confidence of His return 00:26:13.299 --> 00:26:15.060 removes fear from our lives. 00:26:15.060 --> 00:26:20.060 Verse 18, the next verse, there is no fear in love but perfect love casts out fear for 00:26:20.060 --> 00:26:24.100 fear has to do with punishment. 00:26:24.100 --> 00:26:29.180 We've come to recognize and understand that the punishment due to us for our sins was 00:26:29.180 --> 00:26:33.019 taken by the divine Son. 00:26:33.019 --> 00:26:39.700 This great Trinitarian act of outstanding committed love for us, where He appeased the 00:26:39.700 --> 00:26:47.740 Father's wrath against sin and where God gave His only true response to pure love and pure 00:26:47.740 --> 00:26:55.819 justice, taking the cost Himself, enabling us to be in relationship with Him. 00:26:55.819 --> 00:26:59.940 And that work is complete, it's finished. 00:26:59.940 --> 00:27:04.259 There's an interesting connection here, I think. 00:27:04.259 --> 00:27:11.180 If you remember the great single word cry that Jesus made on the cross, it's the same 00:27:11.180 --> 00:27:19.460 word that's used here four times, three times, four times, I think, of His love. 00:27:19.460 --> 00:27:23.620 And it's the word complete or perfected. 00:27:23.620 --> 00:27:27.779 It uses it in verse 12. 00:27:27.779 --> 00:27:30.539 If we love one another, His love is made perfect in us. 00:27:30.539 --> 00:27:35.460 In verse 17, but this love is perfected in us so that we may have confidence on the day 00:27:35.460 --> 00:27:37.539 of judgment in that verse we're looking at. 00:27:37.539 --> 00:27:45.099 And verse 18, excuse twice, I think, perfect love casts out fear because fear has not been 00:27:45.099 --> 00:27:46.259 perfected in love. 00:27:46.259 --> 00:27:49.819 So it's used four times, this word complete or perfected. 00:27:49.819 --> 00:27:55.660 It's the same word that Jesus used on the cross, tittle estai. 00:27:55.660 --> 00:27:57.299 It is complete. 00:27:57.299 --> 00:27:59.419 It's finished. 00:27:59.419 --> 00:28:00.419 It's perfected. 00:28:00.419 --> 00:28:03.740 In other words, He's saying it can't be bettered. 00:28:03.740 --> 00:28:07.059 What Jesus did on the cross can't be added to you. 00:28:07.059 --> 00:28:08.059 It's complete. 00:28:08.059 --> 00:28:12.180 It's great, astonishing work of God is complete. 00:28:12.180 --> 00:28:15.859 And if we trust in Him, our sins are taken and dealt with. 00:28:15.859 --> 00:28:16.859 And it's complete. 00:28:16.859 --> 00:28:21.460 It can't, He's just, He can't, He's never going to punish sin twice. 00:28:21.460 --> 00:28:24.139 He's taken it and paid. 00:28:24.140 --> 00:28:28.180 The price has been paid on the Sunday, He will not pour out again. 00:28:28.180 --> 00:28:29.660 The debt has been paid. 00:28:29.660 --> 00:28:30.660 It's finished. 00:28:30.660 --> 00:28:31.820 It's written off. 00:28:31.820 --> 00:28:37.540 And that love and that freedom and that release and that forgiveness is available to every 00:28:37.540 --> 00:28:38.780 single one of us here. 00:28:38.780 --> 00:28:39.780 Can't be bettered. 00:28:39.780 --> 00:28:44.140 You can't come up with a different way of getting to God and dying and meeting Him on 00:28:44.140 --> 00:28:45.140 that last day. 00:28:45.140 --> 00:28:46.740 There is no other way. 00:28:46.740 --> 00:28:52.100 So we should be Christians who are not afraid because of that. 00:28:52.100 --> 00:28:53.540 We're not afraid of the day of judgment. 00:28:53.539 --> 00:29:03.019 Not in a kind of, you know, bullish, kamikaze way, but in a humble and thankful way, we're 00:29:03.019 --> 00:29:11.700 not afraid because we're in gulfed in the love of God and because we know that the 00:29:11.700 --> 00:29:15.700 price has been paid on the cross. 00:29:15.700 --> 00:29:19.220 And we are called today as believers to respond to that. 00:29:19.220 --> 00:29:23.860 I wonder how the false teachers responded to this particular letter. 00:29:23.860 --> 00:29:32.380 I think they must have felt stripped naked and exposed and empty by the sublime truth 00:29:32.380 --> 00:29:39.420 that John repeats again and again, not just for Ephesus, not just for the ancient Near East, 00:29:39.420 --> 00:29:46.500 not just for the New Testament times, but for all time, for every single human being. 00:29:46.500 --> 00:29:49.420 Nothing compares with what we have. 00:29:49.420 --> 00:29:55.259 His work is complete, and we will worship very shortly at the sacrament and meditate 00:29:55.259 --> 00:29:58.460 on what He has done and renew our vows. 00:29:58.460 --> 00:29:59.460 Amen. 00:29:59.460 --> 00:30:00.460 Let's pray briefly. 00:30:00.460 --> 00:30:06.299 Father God, we ask and pray that You teach us Your way. 00:30:06.299 --> 00:30:11.420 You'd help us to understand more clearly what we have. 00:30:11.420 --> 00:30:16.220 Forgive us for treating it like rubbish sometimes. 00:30:16.220 --> 00:30:25.819 For complaining and for being thankless and for being complacent or for... because we 00:30:25.819 --> 00:30:33.420 know it so well, just taking it for granted, but not really doing what we will symbolically 00:30:33.420 --> 00:30:40.500 do shortly, eat and drink it and be nourished by it and be refreshed and renewed. 00:30:40.500 --> 00:30:48.259 So just like we look at a meal sometimes, Lord, and just then throw it in the bin. 00:30:48.259 --> 00:30:53.819 It's of no value, no nourishment to us, no joy in it, no pleasure. 00:30:53.819 --> 00:30:57.980 It's just something we look at. 00:30:57.980 --> 00:31:03.019 So Lord, help us not to be like that, but grant us Your presence at the table, we ask. 00:31:03.019 --> 00:31:04.019 Jesus' name. 00:31:04.019 --> 00:31:11.019 Amen.