Sermon Brief
Date Written: January 28, 2009
Date Preached: February 4, 2009
Where Preached: Oak Park (Wed Evening)
Sermon Details:
Sermon Series: A Series from 1 John
Sermon Title: How We Know that We Know!
Sermon Text: 1 John 2:3-6
3 Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. 4 He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5 But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. 6 He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.
Introduction:
Here John’s teaching and advice to the churches he is communicating with becomes very pointed and succinct. It is where the spiritual ‘rubber meets the road’ so to speak.
So often we see those who claim salvation and a relationship with Christ… We ourselves claim salvation and relationship with Christ. In Matt 7 Jesus instructs us that we cannot judge the eternal fate of anyone… this is because that judgment is reserved for God alone. But so many people use the Matt 7 verses to say that we cannot judge ANYONE for ANYTHING…
Jesus taught that you would know a tree by its fruit… that good trees would produce good fruit and bad trees would produce bad fruit or NO fruit at all. Jesus taught in John 15 that we are called to be fruit bearing believers… it is our commission from God! And Jesus taught that if we abide in Him we would bear fruit… and this teaching by John here is an extension of that teaching.
Let’s look at what John says to begin these verses… read v.3
How Can We Bear Witness that We know Christ? V.3
3 Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments.
What is John speaking about here when he says, ‘by this we know that we KNOW Him…’ What does John mean by the word ‘know’?
First let me share what John is NOT speaking about and that is a head knowledge or an intellectual assent in the knowledge ABOUT Jesus. This is NOT a question to the believers on whether or not they have ever ‘heard of’ or read about this Jesus.
But what John is alluding to in this verse refers to a personal relationship… an intimate knowledge of someone… an intimate knowledge of God…an intimate knowledge of Jesus Christ! Meaning that one has placed his or her faith and trust in Him as Savior! Meaning that this person has become a follower…a disciple of Jesus Christ!
In this verse there are 2 ‘knows’ listed and they are actually 2 different Greek words, but they tie into the same root word Gin-ose-ko which is broadly defined as knowledge.
Now the 1st ‘know’ is the Greek word [ginn-ose-komen] which is a basic word for knowledge or perception of a thing or idea or person… it means that you have a firm grip on the knowledge of that thing…
The 2nd Greek word used here in this verse is the Greek word egnwkamen egg-no-kah-men and this form of this Greek word is a bit more detailed and pointed in its definition of ‘knowing’ something or someone.
This is more pointed toward an intimate relationship, as one between a husband and wife, the Bible often refers to a husband ‘knowing’ his wife in reference to sexual intercourse, but it is even deeper than that… this refers to a basic connection on a spiritual and emotional level that goes far beyond a simple head knowledge!
It is like, I know about George Bush, I have read books, articles and seen video. I know of his accomplishments and failures, I can say that I ‘know’ him… but when I compare how I know the former President to how I know my wife Michelle… there is NO comparison… the term ‘know’ that applies to me knowing President Bush and me ‘knowing’ my wife is not the same! I have a much deeper and intimate relationship with Michelle…
This what John is saying in verse 3… we have KNOW that we KNOW Him… in other words, we can come to the knowledge of how much we truly KNOW and have a relationship with Christ! This is a head knowledge of how much we actually do know Christ…how deep that relationship is…
But how can we know? John spells it out by telling us, “…if we keep His commandments…” sounds simply huh? But the plain fact of the matter is that there are so many people in our world today who CLAIM a relationship with Christ, but their lives do not reflect that relationship because they simply do NOT keep the commandments of Christ!
This is why Jesus said in John 14:21 [NKJV], “…He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him…”
Jesus was saying that those who keep His commandments were the ones who were ‘in the family’… the ones who loved Him and were loved by the Father. Not God’s universal love that brought Jesus to earth to die, but a deeper and more intimate love… the love of a personal and intense relationship!
So we can KNOW that we KNOW Him by our willingness to submit to the commandments of Christ, and we find John taking this teaching one step further here and he describes the corollary relationship as well… if we can know who is IN Christ, then we can also know who is NOT in Christ…
How Can We Bear Witness of those who DON’T know Christ? V.4
4 He who says, “I know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
If we can know who is… John says we can also know who is NOT part of this family! It is simply put by John here, they are those who do NOT keep His commandments…
John goes onto say that it really doesn’t matter what they SAY about their relationship with God, but that the proof is in the pudding… it is all about showing our relationship is real by tangible evidence as proved by obedience to Christ!
This is why Jesus teaches that we would know a believer by his or her ‘good’ or ‘bad’ fruit… those who love Christ will obey Him and abide in Him and produce fruit for the Kingdom BUT those who refuse to be obedient and abide in Him are not going to produce that fruit… and when they SAY they are obedient but are NOT living obediently… John is saying that they are LIARS and the truth is not in them!
We can SAY all we want that we are believers and followers of Christ but if our actions betray our words… then our words become false and we are outside the truth!
The Greek word John uses for “know” here in this verse is Egnwka Egg-NO-kah so what John is saying is that when people SAY that they are acquainted with God…that they have a relationship with Him but their life is not lived in accordance with God’s commandments… it is really simply they are lying!
If you SAY you are a believer, your life must reflect that of a life of someone who believes and follows the leadership and guidance of Christ… you are in tune with the commandments and leadership of Jesus… if your life does not reflect that… then you are misleading others to believe a false claim and that makes you out to be a liar!
This is WHY we have assurance in our salvation! V.5-6
5 But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. 6 He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.
Now John finishes this thought by reiterating what he had written in v.3 and that is… whoever keeps God’s commandments… God is at work in Him and is perfecting him here in this world, and because of that he knows that he knows that he knows!
John revisits the fact that a believers life must be an open book for all to see… we are called to walk as Christ walked… to reveal to the world around us with whom our allegiance lies… with God or with the world.
When we say that we ‘abide’ in Christ… it is a metaphor… a word picture that reveals to the world around us that we seek what Christ seeks…that our lives are in tune and seeking to live as Christ lived… if someone tells you that they are a Christian, but follows NOT the commandments of Christ…they are deceivers and are trying to deceive you!
But those whose words are matched by their obedient actions, those people are those on whom the love of God is perfected and is made manifest… and it reveals to the world that they are His!
In v.5 what John is saying is that those who attend to..who observe the law of God, the ones who endure life living as God commands… THEY are the ones who are of God and are known by God and claimed by God! And any self-respecting person who calls himself or herself a believer has to live their live in such a way that it reflects the life of Christ to the world around them!
Conclusion:
After the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989, no person in all of East Germany was more despised than the former Communist dictator Erich Honniker. He had been stripped of all his offices. Even the Communist Party rejected him. Kicked out of his villa, the new government refused him and his wife new housing. The Honnikers were homeless and destitute.
Enter pastor Uwe Holmer, director of a Christian help center north of Berlin. Made aware of the Honnikers’ straits, Pastor Holmer felt it would be wrong to give them a room meant for even needier people. So the pastor and his family decided to take the former dictator into their own home!
Erich Honniker’s wife, Margot, had ruled the East German educational system for twenty-six years. Eight of Pastor Holmer’s ten children had been turned down for higher education due to Mrs. Honniker’s policies, which discriminated against Christians.
Now the Holmers were caring for their personal enemy—the most hated man in Germany. This was so unnatural, so unconventional, so Christlike. By the grace of God, the Holmers loved their enemies, did them good, blessed them, and prayed for them. They turned the other cheek. They gave their enemies their coat (their own home).
They did to the Honnikers what they would have wished the Honnikers would have done for them all those years before.(Reported by George Cowan to Campus Crusade at the U.S. Division Meeting Devotions, Thursday, March 22, 1990.)
Now it would be a great story if I told you that the Honnikers surrendered their life to Christ and were changed by the actions and witness of the Holmer family but there is no evidence that ever occurred…but that is not the emphasis of the story… the emphasis is the fact that the Holmer family lived what they believed!
It is true that words do mean things… and we all know that words are how we express our feelings and communicate with one another…but for the believer, words alone are NOT enough to reveal to the world the fact that you are OF God and part of His family.
In fact words alone reveal that you are NOT of God… but it is words that are backed up with actions and obedience that reveal the follower of Christ to the world around them. Can you imagine the grief that this pastor endured when he chose to take in this rejected and exiled family?
I can imagine the fear and loathing in the hearts of many in Germany towards them, and yet this pastor saw them thru the eyes of Christ… and lived out his faith thru his actions!
Which are you today? Are you a follower of Christ by your words? OR do your actions and obedient life to the commands of Christ reflect upon your words to prove and reveal your standing before God?
