The Sign of a Christian
Text: 1 Jn. 2:3-11
Introduction
1. Illustration: Despite the "Do Not Touch" signs, a museum was having no success in keeping patrons from touching--and soiling--priceless furniture and art. But the problem evaporated overnight when a clever museum employee replaced the signs with ones that read: "Caution: Wash Hands After Touching!"
2. We can learn many things from signs.
a. When to stop.
b. What road we are on.
c. When a curve is coming up.
d. When a hill is coming up.
3. What are the signs of being a Christian?
a. We keep His commandments.
b. We walk as Jesus walked.
c. We love our brothers and sisters.
4. Read 1 Jn. 2:3-11
Proposition: The sign that we are a Christian is that we obey His word.
Transition: Test # 1 is...
I. Test #1: Do We Keep His Commandments (3-4)?
A. If We Keep His Commandments
1. John begins this section by saying "Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments."
a. The word know "has the sense of have to do with, have dealings with, know personally" (New International Dict of NT Theology. Pradis CD-ROM).
b. It implies a sense of intimacy.
c. We can says that we know who George Bush is, but we do not know him personally.
d. Even in the OT, when the Bible says that a man "knew his wife," it meant that he had an intimate relationship with her.
2. John is stressing here that if we are to have an intimate relationship with God then we must obey His commandments.
a. Knowing God is evidenced by our heartfelt desire to obey him. (Burge, NIV Application Commentary, New Testament: The Letters of John, 97).
b. Some people say that they know God, but they deny it by the way that they live their lives.
c. John 14:15 "If you love Me, keep My commandments.
3. John says "He who says, "I know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him."
a. True believers wholeheartedly accept and submit to God’s will as he has revealed it in his Word.
b. If a person claims to belong to God, but doesn’t obey God’s commandments, he or she is a liar.
4. John says that such a person does not have the truth in them.
a. Truth in John’s mind is the principle of spiritual integrity that should accompany all worship that is empowered by God’s Spirit.
b. Therefore, John is here not simply saying that someone who fails to obey has missed the point; instead, such people are seriously disconnected from God (Burge, 98).
c. Since anyone can claim to know Christ, you can check his or her authenticity by seeing whether or not he or she obeys God’s word.
d. Jesus said you will know them by their fruit!
5. If we truly know Chris, and He is truly living in us, then the evidence of that will be seen is what we say and do.
a. You can’t say one thing and do another.
b. You can’t say that you believe in Jesus and disobey His word.
c. You can’t say I follow Jesus and follow the ways of the world.
B. Obedience
1. Illustration: If God be God over us, we must yield him universal obedience in all things. He must not be over us in one thing, and under us in another, but he must be over us in everything. [Universal Obedience, Citation: Peter Bulkeley, Leadership, Vol. 9, no. 1.]
2. 1 Sam. 15:22-23 "Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, As in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, And stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He also has rejected you from being king."
3. What determines whether or not we know God is how well we obey His word.
4. You can stand on a street corner from now until the cows come home and proclaim that you are a Christian, but if you do not love the Lord your God with all of your heart soul and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself it’s nothing but hot air.
5. God doesn’t care how much money you have or how big your building is, as much as He cares whether or not you are living by His word.
Transition: Test #2 is...
II. Test #2: Do We Walk As Jesus Walked (5-6)?
A. Walk As He Walked
1. In verse 5 John says "But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him."
a. Here John uses a word that in English is translated "keep," and it implies "duration and perseverance: to observe diligently, to guard carefully, to suddenly realize a truth — and to protect it."
b. In other words, "to keep God’s word" goes far beyond mere conformity to law. It expresses a zealous desire to adhere to God’s will. (Burge, 98).
c. Illustration: Back in Ohio, I have a friend named Debbie. I remember once being at a retreat and just outside our meeting room was a much smaller room, and as I walked by that room I heard someone crying. As I entered the room I saw that it was Debbie. I asked her what was wrong, and she said that she had sinned and her heart was broken because she had broken the heart of her Savior. Her heart was broken because she understood that she had broken the heart of Jesus.
2. John talks about the love of God being perfected in these people that keep His word.
a. We can understand this in one of three ways: our love for God, God’s love for us, or a love that is like God’s.
b. However, I believe the best way to understand this is our love for God.
c. "But those who obey God’s word really do love him" (NLT).
d. Obedience is linked not merely with knowing God but with loving him.
3. Then John says "He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked."
a. This is one of John’s favorite words and it means to be "set and fixed and remaining there." —Practical Word Studies in the New Testament
b. Jn. 15:4-6 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.
c. If we are going to say that we are abiding in Him then we should walk as he walked.
4. Jesus portrayed in human terms absolute obedience to the Father.
a. Anyone who wonders how to obey God can look at Jesus.
b. Those who truly desire to live in God should live their lives as Christ did.
c. Anyone’s claim to live in Christ must be backed up by following his example of complete obedience to God and loving service to people.
B. WWJD
1. Illustration: The importance of really living the Christian life is illustrated in the life of the famous author Mark Twain. Church leaders were largely to blame for his becoming hostile to the Bible and the Christian faith. As he grew up, he knew elders and deacons who owned slaves and abused them. He heard men using foul language and saw them practice dishonesty during the week after speaking piously in church on Sunday. He listened to ministers use the Bible to justify slavery. Although he saw genuine love for the Lord Jesus in some people, including his mother and his wife, he was so disturbed by the bad teaching and poor example of church leaders, that he became bitter toward the things of God.
2. Once a person finds out that you are a Christian they watch you like a hawk, waiting to see if you make a mistake.
3. However, we can look at it another way. What they may actually be looking for is to see Jesus in you.
a. Maybe they are waiting for you to make a mistake because they have been disappointed so many times before by people who said one thing and did another.
b. Maybe this time they are waiting for you to prove to them that there really are people who walk the walk as well as talk the talk.
c. You may be the only Bible that person ever reads!
4. If we are truly followers of Jesus then we will show it by doing what He did.
a. By loving even the unlovely.
b. By serving rather than being served.
c. By looking at the needs of others rather than our own.
5. When people see us they should see Jesus!
Transition: Test #3 is...
III. Test #3: Do We Love Our Brother (7-11)?
A. No New Commandment
1. In verse 7, John says "Brethren, I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which you heard from the beginning."
a. It is not a new commandment, but one that was from the beginning.
b. Lev. 19:18 but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.
c. Thus, John knew that he was not writing a new commandment because it is an old one you have always had.
2. But then John says "Again, a new commandment I write to you, which thing is true in Him and in you..."
a. Even Jesus said "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another."
b. If it’s an old commandment, how can it be new?
c. The ancient command has taken on a new form since the coming of Christ.
d. Initially, Christ himself exemplified this love by demonstrating his self-giving love for us. He fulfilled the law of love in a way never before seen (Burge, 100).
3. In the Christian church, love is not only expressed by showing respect; it is also expressed through self-sacrifice and servanthood.
a. In fact, it can be defined as "selfless giving,’’ reaching beyond friends to enemies and persecutors.
b. Love should be the unifying force and the identifying mark of the Christian community. —Life Application Bible Notes
4. John takes it a step further when he says "He who says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness until now."
a. This verse teaches that a person who claims to be in the light should then, by extension, also be filled with love.
b. If that person makes this claim but hates a Christian brother or sister, then the claim to be in the light is false. That person is still in darkness.
c. Living in love is living in the light, since the gospel both illuminates people’s minds and warms their hearts to love.
d. Love is the key to walking in the light, because believers cannot grow spiritually while they hate others.
5. John brings it to a conclusion in verse 11 when he says "But he who hates his brother is in darkness and walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes."
a. "Believers" who hate are in darkness and not light, in sin and not in fellowship with God.
b. They are lost, having been blinded by the darkness.
c. To hate, then, is to choose the darkness and to shut oneself off from the light.
d. To hate is to separate oneself from the presence of God and from the fellowship of other believers.
B. Love Your Brother
1. Illustration: A three-year-old girl was listening intently to the children’s sermon one Sunday morning at her church. The minister explained that God wants everyone to get along and love each other. He said, “God wants us all to be one.” To which the little girl replied, “But I don’t want to be one. I want to be four!”
2. Jn. 14:35 By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."
3. They will not know we are His disciples by:
a. The bumper sticker on our car.
b. The ten pound cross hanging around our neck,
c. The "Jesus loves you" t-shirt we wear.
4. There is only one way that people will know that we belong to Jesus, and that’s by the way we love one another
5. Not an ooshy-gooshy kind of love, but a self-sacrificing, self-giving love that Jesus showed to us.
Conclusion
1. The signs that we are a follower of Jesus is:
a. If we obey His commands.
b. If we walk as He walked.
c. If we love our brothers and sisters.
2. 1 Cor. 13:13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
3. When people look at us will they see the way to Jesus, or will they get lost because they can’t read the signs?
