For the last few weeks, we've been looking at God's Word to understand what it means to be a follower of Jesus in the 21st century.
To live for Jesus, 2018, here in Kenosha, southeastern Wisconsin.
And we began by looking at Luke 9, the words of Jesus himself.
He said, if anyone would come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.
And those two words, follow me, that came from the lips of Jesus himself almost 2,000 years ago.
When those two words are received by repentance and faith, it changes everything.
One goes from being sinfully self-centered to graciously God-centered in all that they do and think.
And so those two words, follow me, are game changers because they come from the lips of Jesus.
And so here's what this means for us.
To follow Jesus today is to live intentionally for Jesus in every area of our life.
So those two words were as true then as they are now.
Jesus is alive.
And he calls all of us to follow him.
Then we looked at 2 Timothy 3.
We looked at God's word, this book.
It is vital for us to live for Christ.
It is God's word.
So they are powerful.
It's profitable and purposeful.
And so we as followers of Jesus, we don't stand over the book.
We come under the book.
This book is life to us.
And then last week, we looked at how essential prayer is to following Jesus.
We pray big.
We pray bold.
And we pray believing because we've got an awesome God.
And so now we turn this morning to God's word once again to look to God's word and teach us about loving one another.
And what we're going to see is Jesus commands us to love one another.
It's not optional.
It is essential to following after him.
So in order to just kind of raise this a little bit, I thought we could take a straw poll by show of hands.
How many Christians in this room find it difficult to love another Christian?
Raise your hand.
Now I'm particularly interested in Christian husbands and wives.
And if there's this going on right now.
But now just for another step of honesty.
How many of you Christians in this room have come to the realization that you too can be difficult to love?
How many realize that?
Yes, me too.
So here's what that means for all of us.
We need help loving one another.
And we need that help from God.
We have hard times loving other Christians.
And other Christians have a hard time loving us.
We need help.
And thanks be to God.
He speaks right to it.
If you'd open up your Bibles to 1 John chapter 4.
1 John is towards the end of your Bible.
Back of your Bible if you don't know.
If you're new to the Bible, just find Revelation which is at the backside and do what I do.
You start moving left until you find 1 John.
So Revelation.
I just skipped over a few books.
And now I'm in 1 John.
Now hear God's word.
This is God speaking to us about loving one another.
1 John 4 chapter 4 verses 7 through 12.
Beloved.
Let us love one another.
For love is from God.
And whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.
And anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love.
In this, the love of God was made manifest among us.
That God sent his only son into the world so that we might live through him.
In this is love.
Not that we have loved God.
But that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins.
Verse 11.
Beloved.
If God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
And verse 12.
No one has ever seen God.
If we love one another, God abides in us.
And his love is perfected in us.
Let me just tell you up front what I believe God is telling us here.
His word is saying God's love for us compels us to love one another.
It's a simple cause and effect relationship.
God's love for us compels us to love one another.
How are we going to love one another?
It starts with understanding God's great love for us.
So there is a kind of a progression of thought that the apostle John has here.
1 John 4, 7 through 12.
And we're just going to follow through his progression of thought about loving one another.
It starts with the love requirement in verse 7.
And then we're going to move to the love assessment.
The love test in verses 7 and 8.
And then we're going to see love demonstrated in verses 9 and 10.
And then we're going to see the love cause and effect, verse 11.
And then we're going to land this plane as John lands this plane in verse 12.
The love result.
This is about loving one another.
God's love for us compels us to love one another.
So let's look at verse 7.
The first few words, we read the love requirement.
Beloved, this is the apostle John speaking with the authority of God, inspired by the Holy Spirit.
Let us love one another.
It is an exhortation.
He is calling us to love.
It's not optional.
It's essential.
Now, as I have been pastoring for years now, one of the things that I have noticed is an interesting mindset among some Christians.
Typically, these are Christians who have been burned by other Christians.
And so what happens is they have this kind of me and Jesus mentality.
All's I need is Jesus.
I don't need everybody.
I don't need all the other Christians.
I just need Jesus and I just need me and maybe some select few other Christians that I can trust who aren't going to be risky, who aren't going to hurt me.
And I'm just going to hold up and I'm going to follow Jesus, he and me, me and Jesus, all the days of the rest of my life.
Here's the deal.
Being in meaningful relationship with other Christians gets messy.
It's not easy.
Being in a show of hands in the room, how many of us in this room have been hurt by another Christian, I think all of our hands would go up.
And so when Jesus says, I'm going to read in a second, love one another.
He's not giving us a pass.
Let us love one another.
Even when things get tough.
Even when you get hurt.
Even when you're wrong.
Our Lord Jesus gives us no passes to say, okay, I can selectively love the easy people and I'll just kind of pass by the tough folks.
We are to love one another.
This here is a command to love.
And I just want to make sure you understand where this command is coming from.
So it's the apostle John here in 4-7.
Beloved, let us love one another.
And if you look down at verse 11, you read something similar.
Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
And then in verse 21, in this commandment we have from Jesus, whoever loves God must also love his brother.
And if you scroll back into 1 John, you come through 1 John 3 and 1 John 2 where John is also talking about the love of God.
And he makes a really interesting reference.
He says something like, just as you've heard from the beginning, love one another.
And so it starts raising the question, what was he talking about?
What beginning?
Now keep your finger in 1 John 4 and now flip back to John 13.
Now the man that wrote 1 John was also an eyewitness to Jesus' life, death, and resurrection.
He was with Jesus on the night that Jesus instituted the Lord's Supper at Passover.
And he was part of the whole deal of finding the empty tomb.
Well, he has an account in John 13, verses 34 and 35.
This is right after the Passover.
Jesus has just instituted the Lord's Supper.
He's been alluding to the fact that the Lord's Supper, this Passover now, is all about him.
And so they're on their way out to Gethsemane.
And Jesus pulls his disciples over and he says this.
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.
By this all people will know that you are my disciples if you love, if you have love for one another.
Now when Jesus said to his disciples, just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.
This is before he's crucified.
He's just hours out.
They don't fully realize the degree by which Jesus is about to show his love for them.
By laying down his life for them.
But it is right there.
When they would look back on these words, they would be like, oh, he loved us by laying his life down for us.
So the person that ultimately requires us to love one another is Jesus himself.
And as 21st century followers of Jesus, we see this as not an optional command, but an essential command.
This is a requirement.
And so what is love?
What kind of love are we talking about?
Well, essentially, Christians are to love one another in the sense of commitment.
Love is a commitment.
And it's a certain kind of commitment.
In light of John 13, it is a sacrificial commitment to one another.
It's a sacrificial commitment to one another for each other's greatest good.
So Christian love is a distinctly Christ-like love for one another.
And if there's any questions about who we are to love, we are to love one another, says John in 1 John 4, 7.
And of course, he's referring to other Christians, those who've been bought by the blood of Jesus.
So here's what this means for us.
In our church, we don't have the option to selectively love some and not other Christians.
Jesus calls us to all love one another.
And so, regardless of neighborhood, regardless of education, ethnicity, grammar, tax bracket,
Jesus calls one Christian to love another Christian.
And that is a sacrificial commitment for one another's good.
I hope you're feeling the weight.
This kind of love is a distinctly Christian love.
Christ-like love.
And what we're about to see is this is a supernatural love.
So we've looked at the love requirement.
Now let's look at the love assessment.
The love test.
1 John 7, we read, Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God.
And whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.
Anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love.
Now just a little bit background.
I know we've just kind of jumped into 1 John.
So let me just give you a sense of 1 John.
1 John was written by the Apostle John to a bunch of first century Christians.
And he wrote them in order to assure them that they belong to God, that they were children of God.
And the way that he does that is very interesting.
John lays out three tests that he weaves through the book of 1 John.
There's the truth test.
What do you believe about Jesus?
Do you believe he's God in the flesh who died in the place of sinners?
And then there's the obedience test.
Are you obeying the commands of this Jesus?
And then there's the love test.
Are you obeying the chief command to love one another?
And so all these commands, all these tests are woven throughout 1 John.
And when it comes to the love test, there are three places in 1 John where the love test shows up.
Can I just point you there?
Look first at 1 John chapter 2 verses 9 and 10.
John's talking about love and he says,
Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness.
Whoever loves his brother, verse 10, abides in the light and in him there is no cause for stumbling.
And so here's the love test shown up in 1 John 2.
If you hate your brother, you're not in the light.
You're in the darkness.
You're not a believer.
But if you're loving your brother, you are in the light.
You have been brought into salvation by God's grace.
Now if you look at 1 John 3 verse 14, we read,
We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brothers.
Whoever does not love abides in death.
Again, here's another love test.
But instead of talking about light and darkness, he is talking about life and death.
And so whoever loves his brother, he's passed out of death into life.
He's been born of God.
He's been given eternal life.
God has made him alive in Jesus.
But if he doesn't love his brother, he still abides in death.
He's dead to God.
Dead in his sin.
And so you see how this love test is operating in 1 John?
And so we show up in our passage, 1 John chapter 4 verses 7 and 8.
And again we read,
For love is from God and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.
If you're loving, you've been made alive by God and you know him.
But then he says in verse 8,
Anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love.
And so what this test does, it reveals whether you've been born again or not.
It reveals whether you're a follower of Jesus or not.
Are you loving those who've been bought by the blood of Jesus?
If you are, you've been born of God.
If you're not, chances are you're not a follower of Jesus.
Maybe you're wondering, well, what does this kind of love look like?
How do I know if I'm loving another Christian or not?
Well, if you page over to 1 John 3, 16, we have a classic example.
By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us,
and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.
That sounds, in principle, really good.
Look how John applies it.
Verse 17,
But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need,
yet closes his heart against him, doesn't love him,
how does God's love abide in him?
Little children, let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and truth.
See how that shows up?
One of the ways Christians love one another is
if one Christian who has the world's good
sees another Christian who is struggling and they need help,
that one who's got the world's good
should love that other Christian by helping them out.
That's one way.
Other ways in which Christians love one another
is bearing with one another.
You've got a brother or a sister who's going through a hard time,
and it's going to be inconvenient and uncomfortable for you to go
because this person is crying a lot,
and they talk a lot,
and it's going to be a huge commitment of time.
You could just avoid it.
But love compels us to go
and to bear with that brother or sister experiencing hardship.
When a brother sins against me,
love compels me to forgive them.
When I sin against a brother,
love compels me to go to my brother and say,
I've sinned against you.
Will you forgive me?
It's love brings about peace and unity in the church.
In Ephesians chapter 4,
we see love exercised in speaking the truth in love to one another.
And that's just not a truth grenade
that you throw in and you duck from.
It's listening carefully
and then speaking words of encouragement
and comfort and correction if need be.
How are you holding up?
How do you stack up?
Let God's word have its intended effect.
How are you loving the brothers and sisters in Christ?
Are you loving them?
Or are you not?
If for some reason you don't think you are,
do you know what you need the most?
You need to experience
the love of God in Christ Jesus.
You need to become a Christian.
That's what that reveals.
This kind of love that we're talking about here,
it's a supernatural love.
We're born of God
to love one another.
So, for us here living in the 21st century,
to intentionally live for Jesus
means intentionally loving
those who also belong to Christ,
who God has placed in our midst.
God's love for us
compels us
to love one another
in a Christ-like fashion.
That's the love test.
Now, let's look at
the ultimate demonstration
of love
from God
that humans have ever seen.
We've seen the requirement.
We've had our hearts exposed.
Now, John, like a good pastor,
points us to
what God has done.
We read this in verses 9 and 10.
In this, the love of God
was made manifest among us
that God sent His only Son
into the world
so that we might live through Him.
And this is love,
not that we have loved God,
but that He has loved us
and sent His Son
to be the propitiation
for our sins.
John just said,
gave us the love test,
and he closes verse 8
with three words,
God is love.
And in verses 9 and 10,
he says,
this is how that love
has been made known,
how it's been revealed.
And I want to draw your attention
to the word this
in verse 9.
We read,
in this,
this specific,
concrete event,
God,
the love of God
was made manifest among us.
What is it?
That God sent His only Son
into the world.
And this is the love of God.
God's costly,
sacrificial commitment
for our greatest good
was made manifest
in His sending
of His only Son,
His unique
and exclusive
Son
into the world.
The very people
who were rebelling
against Him,
God demonstrates
His love
by sending
His one and only
Son to them.
And this demonstration
is purposed.
in this,
the love of God
was made manifest
among us
that God sent
His only Son
into the world.
Why?
For what reason?
For what purpose?
So that we might
live through Him.
God lovingly sent
His Son
so that we
who were in darkness
and in death
could live
for God.
That we could be
born of God.
That we could know God.
That in the words
of John 10.10,
that Jesus came,
that we might
live abundantly.
And that is talking
about eternal life.
An eternal life
that doesn't start
when you die.
An eternal life
that starts
the moment
you believe
in Jesus.
At the moment
that God
awakens you
to who Jesus is
and what He's done
and you put your faith
in it.
He moves you
from a sinful,
self-centered way
of being
and He radically,
graciously
moves you
into a God-centered
way of living
and it changes
the way you love.
Now over here,
if you're self-centered,
you're loving
other people
usually selfishly.
But when God
moves you
by His grace
through what Jesus
has done
and He gives you life,
you are God-centered
in all that you do
and now I am loving
people not for myself
but I'm laying down
myself
to love them
to Jesus.
Does that make sense?
This,
this is the love
of God
that He sent
His Son
that we may live
a radical change.
there's another
this in verse 10.
And this
is love.
Not that we
have loved God
but that He
loved us
and sent
His Son.
John is helping
us to understand
what kind of love
this God loves with.
And he says,
don't make the mistake
of trying to define love
by looking at
your own love
for God.
That's not the
gold standard
of love.
the gold standard
of love
is God's love
for us.
And again,
it's in the sending
of His Son.
Did you notice that
in verse 10?
That He loved us
and sent His Son
and then we're,
then we're
confronted with
a very big
theological word.
Sent His Son
to be the propitiation
for our sins.
What does that mean?
Verse 9,
God's love is demonstrated
in the sending
of the Son
for the purpose
of giving us life.
Verse 10,
God's love is demonstrated
in the sending
of His Son
through the means
of Jesus' death
on the cross.
Let me help you
understand.
propitiation.
The word propitiation
is a big word
that's capturing
a very important idea,
a very important truth.
A propitiation
is a sacrifice
that satisfies
God's wrath
for sin.
And what John
is talking about
is what takes place,
took place
on that first
Good Friday.
Jesus on the cross
and God's wrath
being poured out
on Him
for the sin
of all of those
who would one day believe.
Jesus bore
our wrath
so that
we could
live
for God.
Christ's loving
cross work
removed
God's wrath
that was hanging
over our heads
for our sins
and it enables us
to live
for Him
now.
It's because
of Jesus'
wrath
satisfying death
that we
who are in Christ
are now able
to live
for God.
So,
here's Captain Obvious.
Do you notice
where John
points us
to show
us
the greatest
example
of God's
love
known to man?
Where does
He point us?
He points us
to God
sending His Son
to die
on the cross
for sinners
so that
we can live
for God.
You know,
there's another way
to describe that?
The gospel.
The good news
that God
sent His
one and only
Son
to die
for sinners
so that
we can sin.
and here's
the point.
John's just
not showing
us this
so that we
can have
a working
definition
of propitiation.
God,
John is
showing us
this demonstration
of love
to motivate
us.
To motivate
us.
Look at
verse 11.
Beloved,
if God
so loved
us
that He
would send
His Son
to die
in the place
of sinners
so that
they could
live,
if God
loves us
that much,
we also
ought to
love one
another.
This is
the love
cause and
effect.
You could
also call it
the gospel
cause and
effect.
It is a
chain reaction
of God's
love that
He initiates
in us
and that
we can't
help but
love one
another because
we've been
radically
changed.
Cause
and
effect.
Do we
have any
Fixer Upper
fans in the
house?
Chip and
Joanna?
Gaines?
Magnolia?
Whatever?
They flip
houses.
And what
they do is
at the
beginning of
the show
there are
these before
pictures of
these dumps
and they
get involved
and they
turn a
dump
into this
glorious
piece of
real estate.
There's
this cause
Magnolia
real estate
properties,
Chip and
Joanna Gaines,
that comes
in and
completely
flips this
house.
And the
effect,
is a
whole new
building.
Here's the
cause and
effect of
the gospel.
God
comes in
with his
love,
demonstrated
in Christ,
that takes
away our
sin and
gives us
new life
and he
radically
reorients
us.
He radically
changes.
He loves
us so
much.
love.
It is a
gospel
causation
of love
and that
cause
impacts us
to such a
good degree
we must
love other
people.
We've been
radically
changed.
God's love
for us
compels us
to love
other
Christians
cause
God's love
effect.
we love
others.
Think about
it this
way.
God's love
is a
vertical
love that
impacts us
internally
and the
result,
the effect
is our
love goes
horizontal and
has an
external
effect.
here's what
John is
helping us
see.
He's
showing us
how to
love.
Okay,
so raise
your hand
if you
know a
Christian
that is
difficult to
love.
Oh,
we're all
there.
How do
you love
them?
John's
showing us
how.
You don't
turn to
yourself
first.
You don't
start doing
all sorts
of observations
and lists
of how
difficult
this person
is to
love.
The place
that you
start in
order to
love
somebody
is with
God's
love for
you.
When you
realize how
much God
has loved
you,
it compels
you to
love other
people,
even when
it gets
messy.
Let me
read you
something from
this book.
It's a
gospel primer
by Milton
Vincent.
He says
it this
way,
when my
mind is
fixed on
the gospel,
I have
ample
stimulation
to show
God's
love to
other
people.
For I
am always
willing to
show love
to others
when I
am freshly
mindful of
the love
that God
has shown
me.
You want
to know
how to
love other
people?
Dwell on
God's love
for you.
That love
demonstrated
most clearly
in Jesus
Christ.
So let
me press
this a
little
further.
When you
think about
God's love
for you
that initiated
towards you,
1 John 4
19 says
we love
because he
first loved
us.
The chain
reaction
started with
God loving
us.
God's
love for
us that
initiated
towards us
compels us
to initiate
with others.
I'm not
going to
wait for
them to
call me.
I'm not
going to
wait for
them to
flag me
down.
If I'm
seeing
something I'm
moving there.
Which brings
us to the
next.
God's love
for us
showed up
in the
sending of
his son.
God
crossed
all sorts
of boundaries
in order
to love
you.
Jesus came
from heaven
to earth.
He left
his glory
to come
here.
He was
dwelling
in his
spectacular
glory and
then he
took on
a seven
pound baby
frame.
Crossed
all sorts
of boundaries
and that
sending,
that crossing
of boundaries
compels us
as Christians
to love
over
boundaries
with other
Christians.
To love
over racial
boundaries.
To love
over
financial
boundaries,
neighborhood
boundaries,
cultural
boundaries,
any kind
of differences.
God's love
for me
compels me
to move
through the
barriers.
others.
God's love
initiates,
so I
initiate.
God's love
moves towards
others,
so I
move towards
others.
God's love
sought my
greatest good
to give me
life in
Christ,
so now I
am going to
love other
people for
their greatest
good that
they would
live in
Christ.
And of
course that
comes at
cost.
God's love
for us
to live
for Christ
came at
cost.
He laid
down his
own life
in order for
that to
happen.
So we
lay down
our lives
to love
other brothers
and sisters
for their
greatest
good.
could you
imagine what
happens in
a church
when a
church starts
loving one
another like
this?
What's going
on there?
God's love?
God's love
taking root?
God's love
making a
difference?
God's love
compelling us
to love one
another?
I hope you
see that there
is no room
here for
self-reliance.
There's no
room here for
trusting in
myself and
loving of
other people.
We look to
our God and
we experience
his love in
order to love
others.
And that brings
us to the
loving result.
We've seen the
cause and effect.
Now let's look
at the loving
result in
verse 12.
No one has
ever seen
God.
If we love
one another,
God abides in
us and his
love is perfected
in us.
No one has
ever seen
God.
He's talking
about God
the Father.
God the
Father dwells
in inapproachable
light.
Nobody has
ever seen
him.
But then he
says something
very interesting.
If we love
one another,
God abides
in us.
It evidences
God's presence
in us.
When God is
dwelling in a
people, he is
going to compel
his people to
love one another.
It's evidence
of the unseen
God dwelling in
his people.
love one another.
And then look
at the result.
And his love
is perfected
in us.
Don't miss
the language.
And his
love is
perfected
in
us.
When we love
each other with
a Christ-like
love, not only
does it evidence
that God is
present in
our midst,
his love is
being perfected
in us.
And that word
perfected, think
about it as
fulfilled or
complete.
It's the
completing of a
circuit.
Here's another
way to think
about it.
God's love
for us is
incomplete
until we
love others.
It's a
potent love.
It's intended
to come
vertically
and then go
horizontally.
you want to
know a really
cool thought?
God loves
us
through
one another.
His love
is perfected
in us.
So,
could you
imagine
this?
God
intends
in our
church
to use
the brothers
and sisters
in this
church
to
communicate
his love
for
each other.
God
intends to
use us
that way.
He wants
to use
me
and others
in your
life
to communicate
his love
for you
in Christ.
But it
also means
this.
He wants
to use
you.
He wants
to use
you
to
communicate
his love
to other
brothers and
sisters in
the church.
His love
is
perfected
in us.
and it's
a powerful
witness.
Back to
John 13
35.
Our love
for one
another,
it displays
Jesus in a
unique way.
It gets
around this,
hey, you
know what,
I'll take
Jesus, but
you can
just keep
all the
other
Christians.
No,
our love
for one
another is
a strong
apologetic
against that.
let's wrap
this thing
up.
We started
by asking
the question,
hey, do
you as a
Christian have
difficulty loving
other Christians?
You're like,
yes, we do.
And then I
asked, okay,
are there
Christians that
probably have
difficulty loving
you?
And you're like,
yes.
And then we're
like, do we all
need help?
Yes, we all
need help loving
one another.
Lord, and
here's the
good news.
God's love
for us in
Christ is
the help.
It's the
love with
which we
love one
another.
It's God's
love for
us, compelling
us to love
one another.
So maybe the
response is you
realize you
don't love God's
people and it
just shows that
you're not a
Christian.
You just need
to become a
Christian.
Put your faith
in Jesus.
Turn from your
sin.
Or maybe this
means confession.
You realize you
are a Christian
but you've been
avoiding other
Christians because
they're a mess and
you don't want to
deal with them.
It's not loving.
Maybe it means
seeking someone's
forgiveness.
Maybe it means
giving someone
forgiveness.
Maybe it means
visiting someone
who's going through
hard times and
dealing with the
inconvenience and
discomfort of that.
Maybe it means
simply loving
people with your
ears.
Listening to
people.
Hearing them
out.
Understanding one
another.
And that
positions you to
speak a timely
word from God
out of love for
your brother or
sister.
there's some of
you in here that
may be in the
category of you
know what there's
someone I know I'm
supposed to love but
I don't want to
love them.
Here's what I would
encourage you to do.
Go to your God.
Ask him to remind
you to show you of
his great love for
you.
And ask him to
tenderize your heart
towards your brother
or sister that you
don't want to have
anything to do with.
A 21st century of
Jesus Christ
lives
out every area of
their life for
Christ.
And that includes
loving other
Christians.
It's not optional.
It's part of
living for Jesus.
Let's pray.
God in heaven we do
thank you so much for
your word and we
recognize that your
word calls us to
things that we in
of ourselves sometimes
don't want to do or
don't feel like we can
do.
So God I do pray that
you would by your
spirit impress upon us
your great love for us
and that would move us
towards others.
so that we can love
them in a way that
honors you and for
their good.
In Jesus name we pray.
Amen.