Sermon Outline:
3 TESTS OF AUTHENTICITY:
Test #1 – Obedience and Knowing God (vs3-5)
Test #2 – Obedience & the Example of Jesus (vs 6)
Test #3 – Obedience and Love (7-11)
Semon Content:
Ill:
There were two doctors with the same name who lived a few doors apart.
One doctor was a Christian and a lay preacher,
The other doctor made no profession of faith.
One night a rather sick person, who was also a Christian,
And wanting help from a fellow believer,
Knocked mistakenly at the door of the non-Christian doctor.
When the door opened the patient asked:
“Are you the doctor who preaches?”
“No”, the medic replied, “I am the doctor who practices”.
“Oh”, said the sick person, “I’ve always understood the two things were inseparable”.
Good doctrine should lead to good practice;
John wants to ask his readers; “Do your actions match your profession?”
In this section of John’s letter:
The apostle teaches truth through the form of three tests Christians should take.
Or three evidences, three proofs, three assurances that we do indeed belong to Christ.
One thing we have in Christ (or should have);
Is the assurance that ‘He is mine and I am his’.
Notice:
John starts this section of the letter with an affirmation:
A statement, a declaration:
Verse 3:
“We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands”
The Message renders the verse:
“Here’s how we can be sure that we know God in the right way: Keep his commandments.”
John is teaching here that knowing God;
Is directly linked to our inward desire to obey God.
In other words God is not an interruption in my daily plans;
He is the very centre of my daily living!
So John gives the Christian three tests, three proofs that bring assurance;
So let’s examine ourselves according to John’s tests of authenticity.
Test #1 – Obedience and Knowing God (vs 3-5):
Verse 4:
“Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar,
and the truth is not in that person”.
The apostle John makes the simple point;
That knowing God is more than something intellectual or emotional.
You can all the truth intellectually (i.e. in your head);
You can have emotionally experiences – but that is not enough!
The apostle clearly says:
That those who truly know God live lives that are pleasing to God.
In other words they submit their will and lives in obedience to God.
Ill:
“Obedience” is not a word we naturally like;
Everyone of us here ultimately want to be their own boss.
There’s a part of us that doesn’t want to obey anyone or anything.
Ill:
The story is told about a groom,
Whom during the wedding rehearsal, approached the minister with an unusual offer.
“Look, I’ll give you £1000 if you’ll change the wedding vows.
When you get to the part where I’m to promise to;
‘Love, honour and obey’ and ’forsaking all others, be faithful to her forever,’
I’d appreciate it if you’d just leave that part out.”
He pressed the money into the ministers hand;
And walked away satisfied.
Soon the wedding day arrived,
And they came to the part of the ceremony where the vows are exchanged.
When it came time for the groom’s vows,
The minister looked the young man in the eye and said,
“Will you promise to bow yourself before her,
Obey her every command & wish, serve her breakfast in bed every morning of your life,
And swear eternally to not even look at another woman, as long as you both shall live?”
The groom gulped and looked around, and said in a tiny voice, “I Do.”
But after the ceremony, the groom took the minister aside & said, “I thought we had a deal.”
The minister put the £1000 cheque into his hand and said,
“Sorry, she made me a much better offer.”
“Obedience” is not a word we naturally like;
Everyone of us here ultimately want to be their own boss.
There’s a part of us that doesn’t want to obey anyone or anything.
Now the point the apostle makes in this section is simple;
Those who truly know God live lives that are pleasing to God.
In other words they submit their will and lives in obedience to him.
Question: If you haven’t got assurance, reality of faith;
Is it because you are not obeying him?
Notice: How John concludes his reasoning in verses 4-5:
That people who say they know God,
But do not obey God’s commands are liars, and the truth is not in them.
John never ‘pulls his punches’, he always tells it like it is.
Refusal to obey means we are lying to ourselves, to others and most of all to God.
Don’t skip over verse 5:
As we walk in obedience to God;
Our love for God is made complete and His love is made complete in us.
Obedience brings assurance, obedience brings reality of faith!
Obedience brings us into a deeper realism of God’s love.
Test #2 – Obedience & the Example of Jesus (vs 6):
“Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did”.
The second test of authenticity has to do with living as Jesus lived.
In verse 6 the apostle John uses the earthly life of Jesus as a role model to be imitated.
There are a number of scholars;
Who think the reason this letter has no greeting, no salutation at the beginning;
And no personal name identifying the writer;
Is because it was sent out alongside John’s gospel as a pair,
Therefore everyone knew that they were both written by the apostle John.
Remember very few of the readers of this letter would have seen Jesus personally.
Like Christians do today;
These Christians needed the gospel(s) to know how Jesus lived.
Verse 6:
John says real believers copy the master;
Their goal, their aim, they aspire to be like Jesus.
Ill:
Steve DeVore is a name most of you have never heard of;
But in the USA and other countries he has built a multi-million dollar companies.
He has done it all on the principle of role modelling.
We might say copying, emulating others.
DeVore is the president of Syber Vision,
A company that markets instructional video and audio tapes;
On everything from golf to skiing to weight control.
He works on the teacher-apprentice relationship put to work in different settings.
He works on copying the professional and applying their insights to your game.
It all started when DeVore was in college,
He happened to watch a 10 pin bowling tournament on television.
As he paid close attention to the movements of the bowlers,
The thought struck him that if he could emulate their movements,
He could probably achieve the same results.
After watching the bowlers closely for thirty minutes,
He got in his car and drove to the local bowling alley.
He got an alley, picked out a ball,
And for the next thirty minutes he did just as the professional bowlers had done on TV.
He threw nine straight strikes and recorded a score of 278.
His highest score up to that point was 163.
By emulating a proficient role model, he improved his performance by 115 pins.
But the key was simple - He had to do it just as the professionals!
John says real believers copy the master – Jesus himself in their lifestyles:
Their goal is not life according to their terms,
Their goal is not even an ‘easy & comfortable lifestyle’.
Their goal is simple – to emulate the attitude and actions of their master.
John says real believers copy the master.
Now there is a problem in trying to copy Jesus:
Because Jesus live a perfect life of perfect obedience;
And as we have already seen in chapter one of this letter,
None of us are perfect!
Ill:
Billy Graham saying that he used to ask his congregation the question;
“Do you know anyone who is perfect?”
Always the answer was no!
And so Billy would go on to explain that is because all have sinned etc.
Billy Graham says one day he asked that question:
“Do you know anyone who is perfect?”
And to his surprise a rather nervous, skinny, wimpy looking man raised his hand;
He then said; “Mr Graham I know someone who was perfect!
Billy Graham asked him; “Who?”
He replied; “My wife’s first husband must have been perfect!”
Now there is a problem in trying to copy Jesus:
Because as we have seen Jesus live a perfect life of perfect obedience;
And none of us are perfect!
So who can live like Jesus did?
The apostle John is not asking for perfect obedience – that is impossible;
But he is asking that Christians follow the principle;
The example of Jesus who sought to live for ONE master alone.
Ill:
Jesus submitted himself to God the Father in every way.
While on planet earth he said only what the Father told him to say,
And He did only what the Father told Him to do.
And when Jesus’ desires were different from the Father’s,
He said, “Not my will, but yours be done.”
I think that is the target at which we should be aiming!
The attitude of putting Christ first – of making Jesus Lord!
And Lord in action and not just theory in our lives.
Test #3 – Obedience and Love (vs 7-11)
“Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard. 8 Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and in you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.
9 Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. 10 Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. 11 But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them.”
This third test builds on the first two.
(a). To say we know God, but disobey His commands is to lie.
(b). To say we are in God, but to not walk like Jesus is to live a delusion.
(c). And finally, to say we are in the light, and to not love our brother,
Is to be blind.
Notice:
The apostle John moves from talking about commands or commandments (vs 3-4);
And focus us in on one commandment (vs 7-8
John reminds his readers that this command to love is both old and new:
It is old because it is found in the Old Testament (Leviticus chapter 19 verse 18);
Which tells us to “Love your neighbour as yourself.”
But it is also new because:
Jesus took it a step further by saying (Matthew chapter 5 verse 44),
“Love your enemies”.
Then Jesus again took it further still and he gave it yet another dimension:
In John’s Gospel (chapter 13 verse 34) he says,
“A new command I give you: Love one another as I have loved you,
So you must love one another.”
Jesus introduced into that old command a brand new dimension;
‘Sacrificial love’
i.e. ‘As I have loved you’
So in verse 8 John writes that the truth of this new command:
Is seen in HIM (Jesus) i.e. that sacrificial love would take him to the cross.,
And is seen in YOU (Jesus’ followers – i.e. you and me).
Seen in our sacrificial living for him i.e. our service.
Ill:
Love/Service is always sacrificial.
It costs in time (no 1 reason most people don’t get involved in local Church activities – won’t pay the cost!)
It demands our energy (i.e. many of us our worn out trying to keep things ticking over)
It makes demands on our relationships (e.g. you can’t be in two places at once!)
Ill:
Like the preacher who was travelling to another country to tell folks about Jesus;
His little boy said to him; “Daddy you are going a long, long way!”
His dads replied;
“Yes I am, but Jesus came a long, long way for me!”
Notice:
Verse 9-11 focus on our relationships with other Christians;
If we have genuine love for Jesus that will show itself in how we treat others!
We will not just put up with them;
We will (with God’s help) learn to love them.
Notice is not optional it is essential:
• John offers a promise in the midst of this test;
• “If we love our brother, we live in the light, and there is nothing in us to make us stumble”.
• There is a little ambiguity (uncertainty) to this promise.
• The stumbling may refer to the Christian’s falling down,
• Or it may mean that there is nothing in the Christian that will cause others to fall down.
• The Greek grammar works perfectly either way, and I think both ways are true.
• So when we love our brothers and sisters,
• Then there is nothing in us to cause us to stumble.
• And when we love our brothers and sisters,
• Then there is nothing in us to cause them to stumble.
• Walking in love is always the best way to walk.
• It certainly benefits others, but it is also a benefit to oneself.
In summary:
• John says in this passage the true test of genuine Christianity is down to three proofs.
• Test #1 – Obedience and Knowing God (vs 3-5):
• Test #2 – Obedience in following the Example of Jesus (vs 6):
• Test #3 – Obedience and Love in action (vs 7-11)
