WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.759 So, today we're going to look back, continue looking at this letter that John wrote under 00:00:07.759 --> 00:00:13.900 the inspiration of God that remains God's word for us and to us, living and powerful 00:00:13.900 --> 00:00:17.960 and active in our lives. 00:00:17.960 --> 00:00:23.320 The Free Church of Scotland has a vision statement for the whole denomination, and the vision 00:00:23.320 --> 00:00:28.600 statement is a healthy gospel church for every community in Scotland. 00:00:28.600 --> 00:00:31.160 And that's a broader vision than just for the Free Church. 00:00:31.160 --> 00:00:36.679 It recognizes there's lots of healthy churches and there's a need for lots of different kind 00:00:36.679 --> 00:00:41.840 of healthy churches throughout Scotland, but we want to play our part in that. 00:00:41.840 --> 00:00:47.480 And I've taken that statement and made that the title for the sermon this morning based 00:00:47.480 --> 00:00:50.799 on the scripture we're reading. 00:00:50.799 --> 00:01:00.759 I wonder what you would include as a significant and important characteristic of a healthy church. 00:01:00.759 --> 00:01:04.959 Maybe a good minister who preaches the gospel. 00:01:04.959 --> 00:01:08.519 Maybe a passion for evangelism. 00:01:08.519 --> 00:01:10.959 Great praise. 00:01:10.959 --> 00:01:17.879 Lots of amazing friends, good community. 00:01:17.879 --> 00:01:22.759 Living in this epistle, remember John's an old man, an old man, probably the last of 00:01:22.759 --> 00:01:26.000 the living apostles who's seen it all. 00:01:26.000 --> 00:01:29.599 He mentions nothing about these things in this letter. 00:01:29.599 --> 00:01:33.319 I'm not saying they're not important. 00:01:33.319 --> 00:01:40.399 He mentions nothing about the nine marks or the three marks of a Reformed church, words, 00:01:40.399 --> 00:01:42.399 circumambulance, discipline. 00:01:42.399 --> 00:01:47.039 Doesn't really mention anything specifically in that way. 00:01:47.040 --> 00:01:50.720 And so I want to be provocative because I think in some ways John was being provocative 00:01:50.720 --> 00:01:51.719 as well. 00:01:51.719 --> 00:01:58.080 And I'm going to speak about the one mark of the church that I probably would guarantee 00:01:58.080 --> 00:02:06.240 that none of us would have consciously prioritized as a mark of a true church, the mark of a 00:02:06.240 --> 00:02:14.240 New Testament Bible-believing, spirit-filled church. 00:02:14.240 --> 00:02:21.280 A church where members are willing to lay down their lives for each other. 00:02:21.280 --> 00:02:25.400 That's the great mark of the church that John is speaking of here. 00:02:25.400 --> 00:02:34.000 Chapter verse 16 is what I'm going to focus on mainly today as the summary of not just 00:02:34.000 --> 00:02:37.520 this section but indeed of the whole letter. 00:02:37.520 --> 00:02:44.680 By this we know love that He laid down His life for us and we ought to lay down our lives 00:02:44.680 --> 00:02:49.040 for our brothers. 00:02:49.040 --> 00:02:54.640 Verse 16 of chapter 3 is almost bang in the middle of this letter. 00:02:54.640 --> 00:03:01.600 If I had the time, I would have counted all the letters that are in the whole book and 00:03:01.599 --> 00:03:09.319 seen exactly how near to the middle of this letter that this statement comes. 00:03:09.319 --> 00:03:15.840 It's almost like a hub of a wheel where everything else that He says comes from this verse in 00:03:15.840 --> 00:03:18.280 this letter that He's speaking about. 00:03:18.280 --> 00:03:23.120 And I wonder whether that should be the vision statement of St. Columbus. 00:03:23.120 --> 00:03:29.359 Wouldn't that be quite a provocative and interesting and challenging vision statement, not just 00:03:29.360 --> 00:03:34.240 for people outside, but probably much more for ourselves as believers that as a church 00:03:34.240 --> 00:03:37.120 we are willing to lay down our lives for one another. 00:03:37.120 --> 00:03:41.120 Lay down our lives for one another. 00:03:41.120 --> 00:03:46.960 And it stems from what we've experienced of the love of God in our own hearts and lives. 00:03:46.960 --> 00:03:53.800 Now in 1987, and that's before at least three-quarters of this congregation was born probably. 00:03:53.800 --> 00:03:57.520 Yeah, I'm sure that's the case. 00:03:57.520 --> 00:04:02.840 There was a song that came out in the charts by a group that was taking a parody of, or 00:04:02.840 --> 00:04:07.200 making a parody of Star Trek, which even some of the younger ones will have heard about, 00:04:07.200 --> 00:04:08.200 I'm sure. 00:04:08.200 --> 00:04:12.400 But before it was a series of films, it was a series on the TV. 00:04:12.400 --> 00:04:14.600 And I think the group were called Star Trekking. 00:04:14.600 --> 00:04:17.199 That may have been the name of the song, I'm not sure. 00:04:17.199 --> 00:04:21.680 But one of the lines in the song was, it's live Jim, but not as we know it. 00:04:21.680 --> 00:04:25.840 And if you know that song, you'll remember that was quite a significant part of the song. 00:04:25.839 --> 00:04:32.359 Well, what I'm arguing today is that a healthy gospel church has love at the very core, love 00:04:32.359 --> 00:04:37.879 at the center, but it's love not as we know it. 00:04:37.879 --> 00:04:41.479 It's love Jim, not as we know it. 00:04:41.479 --> 00:04:42.879 It's a different kind of love. 00:04:42.879 --> 00:04:47.919 And I want to look at that for a little bit this morning and look at the motive behind 00:04:47.919 --> 00:04:54.079 verse 16, the different love that's spoken of in this passage throughout this letter, 00:04:54.079 --> 00:04:56.519 which we're going to say a lot more about. 00:04:56.519 --> 00:05:00.879 Because what he's not speaking about, and I think this is very important, because we 00:05:00.879 --> 00:05:05.079 all feel in many ways, I guess, that we're all experts in love. 00:05:05.079 --> 00:05:06.639 We all know a lot about love. 00:05:06.639 --> 00:05:11.039 But what he's not speaking about is generally he's not speaking about the kind of loves 00:05:11.039 --> 00:05:16.000 that we enjoy in this life, which are still a gift from God, but they're not the kind 00:05:16.000 --> 00:05:17.599 of love that's been spoken of here. 00:05:17.599 --> 00:05:19.599 In other words, not family love. 00:05:19.599 --> 00:05:23.879 Many of you are really close to your families, your mums and dads, your brothers and sisters. 00:05:23.879 --> 00:05:29.800 And where there's that sense that it's a really powerful thing and very real to us. 00:05:29.800 --> 00:05:31.639 But it's not that kind of love he's speaking of. 00:05:31.639 --> 00:05:36.399 Nor is it romantic love or sexual love, which is equally powerful where there's this great 00:05:36.399 --> 00:05:42.240 intimacy and belonging and purpose and friendship that keeps us going. 00:05:42.240 --> 00:05:44.319 But it's not that love he's speaking about. 00:05:44.319 --> 00:05:49.480 Nor is it indeed friendship love, the kind of love that binds us together with people 00:05:49.480 --> 00:05:56.360 that we maybe have a common interest with or who reciprocate our love, who are worth 00:05:56.360 --> 00:06:02.920 it, who have character traits that we enjoy, maybe a sense of humor or whatever it might 00:06:02.920 --> 00:06:03.920 be. 00:06:03.920 --> 00:06:04.920 Now, all of these are good. 00:06:04.920 --> 00:06:05.920 All of these are important. 00:06:05.920 --> 00:06:09.000 All of these are really significant for us in life. 00:06:09.000 --> 00:06:16.319 They're mainly characterized by that sense of give and take, mainly a love that's worth 00:06:16.319 --> 00:06:23.040 it, a love that's earned or a love that is blood related in many ways. 00:06:23.040 --> 00:06:28.319 But what the New Testament has done, and what God has done for us in the New Testament, 00:06:28.319 --> 00:06:35.680 is reimagined a word that existed in the Greek language already, a word that didn't mean 00:06:35.680 --> 00:06:38.079 any of these other loves. 00:06:38.079 --> 00:06:43.120 And it's reimagined, a kind of neutral word, and it's been taken up by the New Testament 00:06:43.120 --> 00:06:49.639 writers, and it's been used to describe the unique expression of love that goes against 00:06:49.639 --> 00:06:54.000 all our natural loves and against all our natural instincts in many ways. 00:06:54.000 --> 00:07:00.759 But that is the defining mark of the believer that sets the believer apart with this spectacular 00:07:00.759 --> 00:07:07.680 and different gifted love that we're given when we come to Jesus Christ. 00:07:07.680 --> 00:07:11.120 It's a defining mark in the believer. 00:07:11.120 --> 00:07:17.280 The believer who's come from death to life spiritually, from darkness to light, who's 00:07:17.280 --> 00:07:22.439 been reborn, and we'll say a little bit about that as well, by the Spirit. 00:07:22.439 --> 00:07:28.319 And it's taken that word, and you know it's a kori word. 00:07:28.319 --> 00:07:33.280 That's why we took them back, because it's the great word agape. 00:07:33.280 --> 00:07:40.000 Now, I can tell how new this congregation has become by how many people aren't smiling 00:07:40.000 --> 00:07:44.839 at that, because they have no idea what I'm talking about. 00:07:44.839 --> 00:07:51.439 But when Kori was here first time, he became famed for using that word in every single 00:07:51.439 --> 00:07:54.079 sermon. 00:07:54.079 --> 00:07:59.120 Not quite, but he used it a lot, and that's why we take them back, because it's such a 00:07:59.120 --> 00:08:00.839 significant word. 00:08:00.839 --> 00:08:09.319 It's the great word of God's divine love that is given to the unlovely, to the unworthy, 00:08:09.319 --> 00:08:13.560 that can't be earned and is selfless. 00:08:13.560 --> 00:08:20.519 And it's a critical truth here that John wants to get across, and the Holy Spirit wants to 00:08:20.519 --> 00:08:25.480 get across to us as well, the significance of receiving this love, of living out this 00:08:25.480 --> 00:08:28.519 love, not just for God, but for one another. 00:08:28.519 --> 00:08:30.159 So I'm going to do something I don't often do. 00:08:30.159 --> 00:08:35.159 I'm going to do a kind of word study in a few words in this passage, because it's so 00:08:35.159 --> 00:08:36.159 important. 00:08:36.159 --> 00:08:43.240 So you see the first one is this word, agape, this word love that is used here in verse 16. 00:08:43.240 --> 00:08:47.679 By this we know love that he laid down his life for us, so we ought to lay down our lives 00:08:47.679 --> 00:08:49.120 for our brothers. 00:08:49.120 --> 00:08:53.839 It's used 27 times in this very short letter, this word. 00:08:53.839 --> 00:08:58.919 Now that's way above any other letter in the New Testament that usage. 00:08:58.919 --> 00:09:05.439 And it's used in John's gospel, John the same writer of the gospel, uses it 39 times, and 00:09:05.440 --> 00:09:10.120 that's more than double the usage in any of the other gospels. 00:09:10.120 --> 00:09:16.160 It's something that is used all the time by John. 00:09:16.160 --> 00:09:23.160 It's more than 174 verses in this short letter, because it's so significant and so important 00:09:23.160 --> 00:09:29.200 to him, the self-sacrificial serving of others, putting the worship of God and the needs of 00:09:29.200 --> 00:09:35.720 others before ourselves is what he's saying, is that we lay down our lives for one another. 00:09:35.720 --> 00:09:38.560 It's utterly counterintuitive. 00:09:38.560 --> 00:09:42.000 You maybe would do it for someone who's your flesh and blood. 00:09:42.000 --> 00:09:44.800 You maybe would do it for your best friend. 00:09:44.800 --> 00:09:48.280 You maybe do it for your wife or husband, your lover. 00:09:48.280 --> 00:09:55.480 But we've been asked to do this to our brothers and sisters in Christ, for our brothers and 00:09:55.480 --> 00:09:56.480 sisters in Christ. 00:09:56.480 --> 00:10:04.279 It's not a suggestion, it's not a feeling, it's a command that we are commanded to do. 00:10:04.279 --> 00:10:10.720 And we're to lay down our lives for our fellow Christians because we are to respond to them 00:10:10.720 --> 00:10:12.800 in the way Christ responded to us. 00:10:12.800 --> 00:10:19.080 Christ became death in his perfection so that we could put to death the sins that he died 00:10:19.080 --> 00:10:20.600 for. 00:10:20.600 --> 00:10:26.120 The disorder loves the selfishness, the division, the natural loves. 00:10:26.120 --> 00:10:33.840 He says, in Christ we have a different love, and it's a love that is reflective of Christ 00:10:33.840 --> 00:10:39.440 and it is a love that is reflective of the new birth in us. 00:10:39.440 --> 00:10:48.919 And we do that, and we're to love this way because of the example of Jesus Christ. 00:10:48.919 --> 00:10:53.120 By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us. 00:10:53.120 --> 00:10:58.399 It's because of what God has done that we are motivated as believers to live this way 00:10:58.399 --> 00:11:00.000 towards one another. 00:11:00.000 --> 00:11:04.679 God isn't a distant autocrat for us as Christians, he might be for others, but he's not for 00:11:04.679 --> 00:11:05.919 us. 00:11:05.919 --> 00:11:13.919 God is this, he's not the God who flings ten commandments at us and throws at us rules, 00:11:13.919 --> 00:11:18.320 words and speech that just, he asks us to believe. 00:11:18.320 --> 00:11:26.320 He saw that humanity was lost and sinful and spiritually dead and recognized the only answer, 00:11:26.320 --> 00:11:32.879 the only answer to his justice that demanded that the price be paid for rebellion and sin 00:11:32.879 --> 00:11:35.160 and his great love for us. 00:11:35.160 --> 00:11:40.120 And you know this, the only answer that fused his justice and love was for him to become 00:11:40.120 --> 00:11:42.800 flesh and blood. 00:11:42.799 --> 00:11:52.719 To live in humiliation, God hidden, to die as God abandoned and cursed in your place 00:11:52.719 --> 00:12:00.359 in mine, to rise again as God my Savior, to offer me new life. 00:12:00.359 --> 00:12:08.519 It's an inconceivable love that is spoken of, it's inconceivably costly for the Son of 00:12:08.519 --> 00:12:12.559 God to do this on our behalf. 00:12:12.559 --> 00:12:17.279 Especially because there's nothing in me like all the natural loves we speak about that 00:12:17.279 --> 00:12:20.159 attract us to one another. 00:12:20.159 --> 00:12:28.159 But especially because there's nothing in me but spiritual emptiness and need, impotence, 00:12:28.159 --> 00:12:36.519 powerlessness, ugliness and wrongdoing before the living God in my heart. 00:12:36.519 --> 00:12:43.840 God the Son on the cross, and I say this with all reverence, you simply couldn't make it 00:12:43.840 --> 00:12:44.840 up. 00:12:44.840 --> 00:12:47.279 Why would you? 00:12:47.279 --> 00:12:55.319 If it's not true, we recognize this unimaginable love and it's the motive for us. 00:12:55.319 --> 00:12:59.279 And John knows that, he's called the apostle of love. 00:12:59.279 --> 00:13:06.279 And in these 27 references to this agape love that he makes, he is reminding us not only 00:13:06.279 --> 00:13:11.000 of what God has done for us, but therefore in Christ when we believe and when we trust 00:13:11.000 --> 00:13:15.639 in Him, this transforms how we look at the world and how we look primarily, and this 00:13:15.639 --> 00:13:19.879 is focused this morning, on our fellow Christians. 00:13:19.879 --> 00:13:21.919 It does transform even our natural loves. 00:13:21.919 --> 00:13:22.919 It should do. 00:13:22.919 --> 00:13:28.519 Our love for husband and wife, our love for siblings, our love for our friends. 00:13:28.519 --> 00:13:33.039 It transforms all of that. 00:13:33.039 --> 00:13:38.519 And it also births a different kind of love in us. 00:13:38.519 --> 00:13:42.839 So that when we think of the church and we think of a healthy gospel church, what we 00:13:42.839 --> 00:13:49.799 don't think about, when we don't think about a family of Christians, we don't look for 00:13:49.799 --> 00:13:59.279 well-adjusted, attractive, similar, decent people. 00:13:59.279 --> 00:14:07.120 The Christian is the deepest revolutionary that's living, because we don't look at community 00:14:07.120 --> 00:14:09.519 and gospel community that way. 00:14:09.519 --> 00:14:17.679 We are people who are moved by others who are in need, by others who fail, by others 00:14:17.679 --> 00:14:25.279 who struggle, by others who naturally we would maybe not be friends with and not be in communion 00:14:25.279 --> 00:14:26.679 with. 00:14:26.679 --> 00:14:33.439 We serve them, and we put to death ourselves in order to put them first, because we've 00:14:33.439 --> 00:14:36.199 put God first in our hearts. 00:14:36.199 --> 00:14:38.279 And that is... 00:14:38.279 --> 00:14:44.519 If you don't see that as an utterly and completely radical revolutionary way of thinking, then 00:14:44.519 --> 00:14:49.159 you're a better person than I, for sure, absolutely. 00:14:49.159 --> 00:14:55.359 And when we think about this, let's not just keep it theoretical, because John doesn't 00:14:55.360 --> 00:15:01.800 allow us to do that, because he immediately, as a follow-on from verse 16, he goes on practically 00:15:01.800 --> 00:15:07.200 to explain exactly what he means by this laying down your life for others. 00:15:07.200 --> 00:15:13.840 And he's not probably madly talking about martyrdom, he's talking about laying down 00:15:13.840 --> 00:15:21.279 that selfishness and a self-focused life that doesn't care about other people. 00:15:21.279 --> 00:15:26.120 And he says, but if anyone in the world's goods and sees his brother in need yet closes 00:15:26.120 --> 00:15:30.079 his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? 00:15:30.079 --> 00:15:36.000 Little children, let us not love in word or talk, but indeed and in truth. 00:15:36.000 --> 00:15:38.919 What a great couple of sentences there. 00:15:38.919 --> 00:15:46.759 He's saying that to lay down our lives is to be generous towards others, before being 00:15:46.759 --> 00:15:52.519 generous towards ourselves, is putting them first, and that might mean for us materially 00:15:52.519 --> 00:15:55.600 giving generously to those who are in need. 00:15:55.600 --> 00:15:59.600 That may become something that's more significant in the days and weeks that lie ahead, because 00:15:59.600 --> 00:16:03.080 of the situation economically we find ourselves in. 00:16:03.080 --> 00:16:10.439 But it may be also the giving of ourselves generously in our time, or in our patience, 00:16:10.439 --> 00:16:15.039 or in our forgiveness, or in our knowledge, you know, the discipleship that we've been 00:16:15.039 --> 00:16:18.839 speaking about, the grace groups, that we may be spending time with people new in the 00:16:18.839 --> 00:16:23.120 faith who don't know very much, and we give them our time and we teach them and we help 00:16:23.120 --> 00:16:27.480 them and we learn from others at the same time. 00:16:27.480 --> 00:16:31.959 And that gives us a presupposition within a verse like this for the church, for you and 00:16:31.959 --> 00:16:43.519 for me, is that we take the time and the energy to actually know one another. 00:16:43.519 --> 00:16:46.159 One has the world's good and sees his brother in need. 00:16:46.159 --> 00:16:51.679 There's just a presupposition there that we've bothered to take the time to find out people's 00:16:51.679 --> 00:16:56.639 brothers and sisters' circumstances, that we're not islands, that we're not just bubbles 00:16:56.639 --> 00:17:03.039 within a group, but we are a people, family together, bound by the love of God and by 00:17:03.039 --> 00:17:08.720 our understanding of what he has done for us. 00:17:08.720 --> 00:17:15.079 Just laying down our lives is being responsive, it's being put out, oh my word, it's being 00:17:15.079 --> 00:17:17.600 inconvenienced. 00:17:17.600 --> 00:17:23.240 It's being the servant of other people, because God was inconvenienced for us. 00:17:23.240 --> 00:17:30.920 God was put out for us, and God was responsive and served us in the most remarkable way. 00:17:30.920 --> 00:17:35.039 And as we do so, it's a great assurance in verses 18 and 19, we don't have time to look 00:17:35.039 --> 00:17:36.039 at this really. 00:17:36.039 --> 00:17:41.759 It's this truth that assures our heart that we belong, that we're able to love in this 00:17:41.759 --> 00:17:47.759 way, that we're able to not just love in the way that we're naturally able to love, but 00:17:47.759 --> 00:17:53.960 love in this remarkable, divinely inspired and motivated and a spirit-filled way that 00:17:53.960 --> 00:17:56.599 transforms who we are and what we do. 00:17:56.599 --> 00:17:59.680 So love, that's the one word I want to look at. 00:17:59.680 --> 00:18:02.879 And there's another couple of words I want to look at, more briefly. 00:18:02.880 --> 00:18:08.520 And two words, message and beginning. 00:18:08.520 --> 00:18:09.520 Okay? 00:18:09.520 --> 00:18:13.680 We're kind of looking at words that are used a lot by John or are significant within this 00:18:13.680 --> 00:18:14.680 letter. 00:18:14.680 --> 00:18:19.400 And the first verse we read today was, for this is the message you've heard from the 00:18:19.400 --> 00:18:21.480 beginning. 00:18:21.480 --> 00:18:26.680 Now he uses the word beginning a whole lot in this letter, seven times he uses it. 00:18:26.680 --> 00:18:31.120 He talks about, let's go back to a couple of them, one verse one, that which we've heard 00:18:31.119 --> 00:18:35.519 from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we've looked 00:18:35.519 --> 00:18:41.439 upon, which we have touched with our hands concerning the word of life, speaking of Jesus. 00:18:41.439 --> 00:18:46.079 And then in two, verse seven, we have, beloved, I'm writing to you, a new commandment, not 00:18:46.079 --> 00:18:51.199 an old commandment, but an old commandment rather, that you had from the beginning. 00:18:51.199 --> 00:18:55.039 And so he uses it in different ways throughout this letter. 00:18:55.039 --> 00:19:00.639 And it all goes back to the truth, the truth of Jesus Christ, the foundational message. 00:19:00.640 --> 00:19:07.280 Now Ephesians 2 speaks about that, that the truth of Christ is based, or the gospel is 00:19:07.280 --> 00:19:12.720 based on the foundation of the prophets and the apostles, and the truth of Jesus Christ 00:19:12.720 --> 00:19:18.320 Himself being the cornerstone, being the very center of it. 00:19:18.320 --> 00:19:26.120 He also refers in the beginning, in this letter, to the devil being a sinner from the beginning. 00:19:26.119 --> 00:19:31.599 And so he's going back to foundations, reminding us of this one truth that has always been, 00:19:31.599 --> 00:19:37.079 it hasn't changed, but from the beginning, there is this great truth that he wants people 00:19:37.079 --> 00:19:40.639 to bed their lives on and bed their hope on. 00:19:40.639 --> 00:19:42.279 It's an unchanging truth. 00:19:42.279 --> 00:19:46.119 And so that beginning that he speaks about is linked to the other word, which is the 00:19:46.119 --> 00:19:47.439 message. 00:19:47.439 --> 00:19:52.519 He speaks about it in one verse five and two, verse seven, and here in three, verse 11, this 00:19:52.519 --> 00:19:57.359 is the message you've heard from the beginning. 00:19:57.359 --> 00:20:02.359 This is what you've heard, God is light, he says in verse chapter one, this is the message. 00:20:02.359 --> 00:20:07.720 And he says, because we have come into the light, therefore, to verse seven, that we 00:20:07.720 --> 00:20:11.759 love one another as believers. 00:20:11.759 --> 00:20:14.119 And he says that it's a new commandment. 00:20:14.119 --> 00:20:16.639 He also says it's an old commandment. 00:20:16.639 --> 00:20:20.279 It's one which is from the beginning, one which John heard from Jesus. 00:20:20.279 --> 00:20:26.599 We read about that previously in John's Gospel, where Jesus gives him this new commandment. 00:20:26.599 --> 00:20:29.799 What's new about the commandment to love one another? 00:20:29.799 --> 00:20:31.279 What makes it the 13th commandment? 00:20:31.279 --> 00:20:35.680 Sorry, the 11th commandment, second to 12 disciples, sorry. 00:20:35.680 --> 00:20:38.000 What makes it the 11th commandment? 00:20:38.000 --> 00:20:42.639 He says love one another as I've loved you. 00:20:42.640 --> 00:20:51.040 So it's new in the sense that it's in response to what Jesus has done for us. 00:20:51.040 --> 00:20:56.160 And that is the foundation we have, that is the word, that is the truth. 00:20:56.160 --> 00:21:00.000 And if you take time, if you took maybe 25 minutes, 30 minutes, I don't know how long 00:21:00.000 --> 00:21:05.160 it would take, just to read through the letter of John, you would just be struck by how repetitive 00:21:05.160 --> 00:21:06.960 it is. 00:21:06.960 --> 00:21:09.560 He keeps on repeating this. 00:21:09.559 --> 00:21:12.960 It's so important to him, so significant. 00:21:12.960 --> 00:21:19.079 And we have to, it's important because we remember the context of false teaching, new 00:21:19.079 --> 00:21:27.159 teaching that wasn't genuine and wasn't of Christ and was changing the gospel, but also 00:21:27.159 --> 00:21:32.240 false teaching that was causing division and hatred and separation and people leaving 00:21:32.240 --> 00:21:33.960 and going their own way. 00:21:33.960 --> 00:21:41.680 And it was critical and gossiping and careless and disinterested and unresponsive and proud. 00:21:41.680 --> 00:21:46.360 And he was saying, no, that keeps repeating, he keeps saying again and again. 00:21:46.360 --> 00:21:48.840 No, that is not what we are. 00:21:48.840 --> 00:21:50.799 That is not who we are as believers. 00:21:50.799 --> 00:21:52.240 We're different. 00:21:52.240 --> 00:21:58.640 From the beginning we have this message and this message transforms us and changes us. 00:21:58.640 --> 00:22:05.920 And we are encouraged to remember that, that this agape love is unique to the message that 00:22:05.920 --> 00:22:08.360 we have taken from the beginning and receive. 00:22:08.360 --> 00:22:15.200 It doesn't change because it's real as opposed to just a kind of theological treatise that 00:22:15.200 --> 00:22:18.160 we've made up as we've gone along. 00:22:18.160 --> 00:22:19.720 So message and beginning. 00:22:19.720 --> 00:22:25.640 And the last thing I want to speak about is brothers that he speaks here in verse 16 about 00:22:25.640 --> 00:22:29.800 it, by this, we know his love that he laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down 00:22:29.800 --> 00:22:31.800 our life for our brothers. 00:22:31.800 --> 00:22:39.280 Now is that word there, is that evidence of the patriarchal nature of the church? 00:22:39.280 --> 00:22:45.040 Is it a get out of jail free card for all the sisters among us that we're not bound 00:22:45.040 --> 00:22:47.400 by, they're not bound by that? 00:22:47.400 --> 00:22:49.759 Absolutely not. 00:22:49.759 --> 00:22:55.520 The word brothers here translated variously and it can be translated brothers and sisters 00:22:55.519 --> 00:22:58.480 because that is what is behind it. 00:22:58.480 --> 00:23:00.759 It covers all believers, okay? 00:23:00.759 --> 00:23:04.240 In the same way that the church is the bride of Christ. 00:23:04.240 --> 00:23:06.799 It covers all believers, male and female as well. 00:23:06.799 --> 00:23:12.440 And for what we need to remember that in its context, this word that was used brothers, 00:23:12.440 --> 00:23:19.519 well, it means this, it's not just in its context, but within the context that it becomes 00:23:19.519 --> 00:23:27.440 significant, the word literally means from the same womb, from the same womb. 00:23:27.440 --> 00:23:32.400 And that's one of the reasons why he uses this word because he connects it with being 00:23:32.400 --> 00:23:34.359 reborn. 00:23:34.359 --> 00:23:41.720 And indeed six times he uses the new birth concept in this small letter as well, because 00:23:41.720 --> 00:23:50.319 he's reminding us that it's a spiritual, impossible rebirth that comes from God. 00:23:50.319 --> 00:23:54.039 You must remember, we looked at it recently, with regard to the Holy Spirit, he must be 00:23:54.039 --> 00:23:55.039 born again. 00:23:55.039 --> 00:24:00.480 And he's saying that for the believer it's the same common experience. 00:24:00.480 --> 00:24:05.880 We all come from the same spiritual womb as it were. 00:24:05.880 --> 00:24:08.079 We are born anew of the spirit. 00:24:08.079 --> 00:24:13.240 And he's reminding us that being a Christian is not institutional. 00:24:13.240 --> 00:24:17.559 It's not simply being moral or ethical in any certain way. 00:24:17.559 --> 00:24:24.279 It's certainly not just going to church or being good as if we could be good in the eyes 00:24:24.279 --> 00:24:28.279 of God at least enough to be redeemed. 00:24:28.279 --> 00:24:35.799 It's being reborn and having our whole perspective, our whole life, our whole vision, everything 00:24:35.799 --> 00:24:41.799 that we are radically turned upside down and changed by becoming children of the Most 00:24:41.799 --> 00:24:43.399 High God. 00:24:43.399 --> 00:24:49.000 And we share that with every single believer across the globe, from whatever background, 00:24:49.000 --> 00:24:56.680 whatever tradition, if they have come to know Christ as Lord and Savior, we belong to that. 00:24:56.680 --> 00:25:04.839 And the church family, therefore, is not simply a social gathering of like-minded people at 00:25:04.839 --> 00:25:06.720 a human level. 00:25:06.720 --> 00:25:13.679 There is a like-mindedness because of the Spirit of God bringing us to living faith. 00:25:13.679 --> 00:25:19.559 But it must be that we take who we are and allow ourselves to be transformed by the grace 00:25:19.559 --> 00:25:26.359 and by the love of God, not just that we come from the same womb spiritually as brothers, 00:25:26.359 --> 00:25:29.839 but also therefore that we have the same Father. 00:25:29.839 --> 00:25:33.480 And that really takes us, in many ways, full circle, even though we're only halfway through 00:25:33.480 --> 00:25:39.880 the letter to chapter 1 and verse 2 and 3, which Corrie preached on a few weeks, going 00:25:39.880 --> 00:25:44.519 to reminded us again with the focus of the letter, that which we have seen and heard 00:25:44.519 --> 00:25:49.160 and proclaimed to you, so that you may too have fellowship with us. 00:25:49.160 --> 00:25:54.400 And indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. 00:25:54.400 --> 00:25:57.279 We are writing these things that our joy may be complete. 00:25:57.279 --> 00:26:02.559 So what He's wanting us to remember and be reminded of is that we share the same Father, 00:26:02.559 --> 00:26:08.559 the same elder brother, Jesus, and the same Spirit who is reborn, given His rebirth. 00:26:08.559 --> 00:26:14.879 So Christ has enabled us to have a new relationship with God, the Father. 00:26:14.879 --> 00:26:20.879 And as we fellowship with Him, the great mark of that is that we fellowship with one another. 00:26:20.879 --> 00:26:23.399 We don't turn our backs on one another. 00:26:23.399 --> 00:26:29.759 We don't think one another are insignificant or important, or that we are islands, that 00:26:29.759 --> 00:26:34.440 we are people who fellowship with one another because we fellowship with the Father that 00:26:34.440 --> 00:26:36.519 is common to us. 00:26:36.519 --> 00:26:45.519 And we work at becoming dead to our sinful selfishness and even to the disordered loves 00:26:45.519 --> 00:26:48.680 that will help us to pick and choose who we love in the church. 00:26:48.680 --> 00:26:49.680 Well, they're nice guys. 00:26:49.680 --> 00:26:50.680 They're good people. 00:26:50.680 --> 00:26:52.160 They've been decent to me. 00:26:52.160 --> 00:26:53.160 They've never done me wrong. 00:26:53.160 --> 00:26:54.160 They've never spoken against me. 00:26:54.160 --> 00:26:56.039 I've not been hurt by them. 00:26:56.039 --> 00:27:02.759 These are all natural ways of treating one another, but we're actually to be tremendously 00:27:02.759 --> 00:27:10.799 different to become dead to that way of thinking and to lay down our lives for our fellow Christians, 00:27:10.799 --> 00:27:20.119 to serve them sacrificially and in a way that may well be inconvenienced for us. 00:27:20.119 --> 00:27:25.659 The false teachers of John's Day, they divided, they walked away. 00:27:25.660 --> 00:27:26.660 They were envious. 00:27:26.660 --> 00:27:27.660 They were jealous. 00:27:27.660 --> 00:27:29.680 They wanted power and influence. 00:27:29.680 --> 00:27:32.960 They didn't know the Father. 00:27:32.960 --> 00:27:34.240 They didn't know His love. 00:27:34.240 --> 00:27:38.000 It was a different gospel. 00:27:38.000 --> 00:27:42.440 So we're called today and we're encouraged to, and I hope that we're inspired and maybe 00:27:42.440 --> 00:27:44.200 sometimes challenged. 00:27:44.200 --> 00:27:49.880 I certainly am, to lay down my life for you. 00:27:49.880 --> 00:27:57.960 Not in theory, but literally, not literally in terms of martyrdom or though that may be 00:27:57.960 --> 00:28:06.480 the case, but ordinarily putting your needs before mine, serving you. 00:28:06.480 --> 00:28:12.600 What a challenge that is. 00:28:12.600 --> 00:28:18.520 And we think sometimes we can live our Christian lives without prayer and without dependence 00:28:18.520 --> 00:28:19.520 on the Spirit. 00:28:19.519 --> 00:28:21.160 How can we do so? 00:28:21.160 --> 00:28:22.839 How can we do so? 00:28:22.839 --> 00:28:31.039 It's unbelievably impossible to love this way unless we are allowing the Holy Spirit 00:28:31.039 --> 00:28:33.680 to transform our hearts. 00:28:33.680 --> 00:28:45.319 So a healthy church then at its core is not a church that has a checklist of healthy characteristics. 00:28:45.319 --> 00:28:53.639 It's not about what a body of people can offer you primarily. 00:28:53.639 --> 00:28:58.200 Fundamentally it's about you. 00:28:58.200 --> 00:29:02.799 A healthy church starts with you and it starts with me. 00:29:02.799 --> 00:29:07.319 It starts with our hearts being transformed and laying down self. 00:29:07.319 --> 00:29:12.240 Now I know there's lots of other things that we can think about. 00:29:12.240 --> 00:29:20.640 But when we have that vision of God transforming us and us serving other people as a summary, 00:29:20.640 --> 00:29:27.319 as a fulfillment of the whole law of God that we're given right from the beginning that 00:29:27.319 --> 00:29:37.559 we can't possibly do without Him, with that vision then our praise, our worship, the preaching, 00:29:37.559 --> 00:29:47.279 the evangelism, the sacraments, the discipline, it all begins to fall into place. 00:29:47.279 --> 00:29:53.000 So we have this great command. 00:29:53.000 --> 00:29:55.399 Verse 23, same section. 00:29:55.399 --> 00:29:59.599 This you have and I have as believers a command. 00:29:59.599 --> 00:30:07.919 This is His commandment that we believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. 00:30:07.919 --> 00:30:16.279 We believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another just as He commanded us. 00:30:16.279 --> 00:30:19.519 Command, love one another, command. 00:30:19.519 --> 00:30:23.480 A command sandwich and love is right there in the middle. 00:30:23.480 --> 00:30:25.079 And that is what we're called to do. 00:30:25.079 --> 00:30:31.720 And it's impossible unless we're dependent on the Holy Spirit and are born afresh, born 00:30:31.720 --> 00:30:34.039 in you, born from above. 00:30:34.039 --> 00:30:41.159 If you're not, and I would challenge you to consider that as the most significant reality 00:30:41.159 --> 00:30:45.039 that you need to face and come to terms with and deal with and come to know Jesus, who 00:30:45.039 --> 00:30:49.759 loves you more than anyone will ever be able to love you with His unique love, even though 00:30:49.759 --> 00:30:54.559 there's nothing worthy in you or there certainly wasn't anything worthy in me. 00:30:54.559 --> 00:30:58.000 That enables us to love one another in that way. 00:30:58.000 --> 00:30:59.000 Let's pray. 00:30:59.000 --> 00:31:03.720 Father, God help us to love you the way you want us to do. 00:31:03.720 --> 00:31:08.599 And keep us from frustration, Lord, and from despair thinking, well, I can never do that 00:31:08.599 --> 00:31:10.480 or make such a mess of that. 00:31:10.480 --> 00:31:13.119 I've been useless at that. 00:31:13.119 --> 00:31:17.759 And that's okay, Lord, because that is exactly what we feel. 00:31:17.759 --> 00:31:21.919 But may it drive us to prayer and drive us to dependence on you, to have our eyes open, 00:31:21.920 --> 00:31:27.080 to live in the light, to keep your commands, because of what you've done for us. 00:31:27.080 --> 00:31:32.080 Walk that way of blessing, that way of forgiveness and that way of learning. 00:31:32.080 --> 00:31:36.320 And help us to put to death the things that divide us, that cause us to be divided from 00:31:36.320 --> 00:31:43.680 one another, covetous or selfish or gossiping or anything that comes so easily to us. 00:31:43.680 --> 00:31:44.800 Help us to deal with them. 00:31:44.800 --> 00:31:45.800 We pray. 00:31:45.800 --> 00:31:49.240 And know that our walk with you is such an everyday thing. 00:31:49.240 --> 00:31:56.480 Didn't even look today, Lord, at loving our enemies or loving those who resist us and 00:31:56.480 --> 00:32:00.920 that great command to bless those who persecute us. 00:32:00.920 --> 00:32:05.400 It's all wrapped up, Lord, in this and help us, we pray, to see it and live it and do 00:32:05.400 --> 00:32:06.559 it for Jesus' sake. 00:32:06.559 --> 00:32:20.079 Amen.