Perfected
1 John 4:14-21
• It is really one of the most uncomfortable positions a family can be in.
• I don’t desire to pull off any memory bandages before wounds heal, but the seriousness of this topic demands it.
• We have all visited a family in the hospital who was faced with a heartbreaking decision.
• It may even have been some of your families.
• The patient is hooked to every machine to keep them alive.
• There is a pulse, there is breathing, bodily organs are functioning due to medical intervention.
• But the person is gone. The brain is not alive, or at least not responsive to any stimulus.
• The decision, do we unplug the machines and leave the life in this body to fight alone?
• Many of us have predetermined how that fight will go for us when we are plugged up to machines.
• The issue clears up when we focus on quality of life. Like many of you, I have said, “Unplug me.”
• I am certainly looking forward to the highest quality of life after the flame of this life has flickered out.
• I raise this uncomfortable and unpleasant situation for a very important reason.
• I want you to consider the scopes and meters in the control room in heaven.
• For many Christians, the machines are reading that there is life in the body, the arms, legs and mouth works.
• There is even brain activity, but the heart has no longer been emitting supernatural love.
• Without that supernatural love, not matter how good a work or deed looks, it’s dead.
• No matter how many positions within a Church the Christian holds, no matter how many dinners the hands cook for the needy or grieving in the community, no matter how many bandaids the person places on little knees and elbows, the finger prints left on the lives around them are not God’s.
• God’s fingerprints only pass through us onto the lives of others through Agape love.
• I wonder if the Angels stand looking at that Agape Monitor in heaven and wonder when God is going to pull the plug.
• We have established that Agape love is supernatural. It cannot be attained by our humanity but is available to us through the presence of God in His children through the Holy Spirit.
• Now, we will see that it only demonstrates itself when it is perfected in us.
• And only that supernatural love leaves the fingerprints of God on other people’s lives.
Jn 4:14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.
• John had already said that they did not know or yet see Jesus in His Glory.
• But Jesus still revealed the Father. So what did they see and testify to that revealed the Father?
• The grace of God: They had seen Jesus demonstrate God’s grace by granting forgiveness and healing to the least deserving.
• In that, they had seen God, for Jesus revealed God’s heart.
• They had seen the love of God, demonstrated through Jesus Christ to all He encountered.
• They had seen love continue in the least loving, most painful, highly offensive moments.
• They recognized and testify of the steadfastness of God’s love.
• In actually, they had seen love perfected.
• And they saw it in Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, during a time when He was stripped of every define benefit.
• That is important to note, because when Christ humbled Himself to become man, He became as man.
• He forfeited everything that was outside of our reality. He became as us so that He could show us the way.
• And then with no more than we have (less the sin nature), He loved perfectly, obeyed perfectly, depended upon the Father perfectly, suffered perfectly.
• He became more than the spotless Lamb for our sacrifice.
• He became the perfect example and perfect demonstration of victory in a fallen world.
• There is much theology here that we are not ready to teach.
• I could go off in several directions here, but I want to stay focused on His perfect love.
• How specifically does the testimony of the Apostles apply to the hearers, and us the readers?
1Jn 4:15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.
• The same source of victory that Jesus depended upon is available to us.
• I believe this is the reality that John wants you to grasp.
• If you are saved, the same power that made Jesus the successful Savior of the world, as mentioned in verse 15, is living in full power within you.
• Jesus had given up ever advantage of deity to live with only that which would be available to us.
• That sets up a battle ground. How could Satan attack the very life of God in us?
• Let me give you a clue: It has to do with lies.
• What are lies? A misrepresentation of reality.
• What if Satan could surround you with another message that seems so convincing?
• What if everything in your life screamed that you were a product of your sin nature?
• What if Satan could convince you that there was another reality, one that made it totally appear impossible for you to live in victory?
• What if Satan could keep you so distracted from the fact that the powerful God of Heaven has made a home within your being?
• If he could, he would. And apparently he has because that is exactly what Satan has done.
• There is more preaching today that emphasizes that you are a sinner than that which proclaims that within you is the power that sustains all powers.
• There are more sermons on Romans 7 than there on Romans 6.
• Yet, if you go to Romans 7 without a thorough grasp of Romans 6, you will miss the message.
• Rom 6:1-7 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin.
• I challenge you to grasp the first six chapters of Romans before you ever crack Romans 7.
• John said, “We testify that when we say God’s plan work in Jesus Christ and if you confess Him, you have the same power.”
• Not only was he testifying that he saw it in Jesus Christ, he was claiming it as his reality. He lived it.
• And he was emphasizing in this letter, it is your reality too.
1Jn 4:16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
• See, he said, “We have come to know and are completely convinced of the love God has for us.
• John’s first response to this glorious thought is, again, one of wonder that God would love us so much to give us so much at such a cost.
• When you know Jesus Christ, you have a growing amazement and irrepressible praise for God because of His love.
• This knowledge and confidence (belief, faith, or assurance) changes us.
• It changes our lives. It changes our view of the lies of Satan.
• It reveals the truth and exposes all the lies. It sustains us.
• A little boy asked his mother, “How big is God?”
• Trying to find an answer that would express the immeasurable presence of God to a small mind.
• She finally said, “God is bigger than the sky?”
• The boy looked puzzled and said, “Wow, if He’s that big, how can He live in me without leaking out?”
• God is love and there is no separation from the fact that if you really have God living in you, you can’t stop Him from leaking out.
• Listen, I know we live in a wicked world.
• But “whoever abides in love abides in God and God abides in Him.”
1Jn 4:17 By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world.
• I am amazed that John even mentions that love can be perfected in us.
• But by the knowledge and confidence that God lives in us and we live in God (more of a reality than the lies of this world) love is perfected in us.
• As a matter of fact, I believe God’s love can only be seen in a perfected state.
• If we add to it, it dissolves and is no longer Agape. It is either perfect or absent.
• And the results of love being perfected in us is confidence on the day of judgment.
• It is one thing to have confidence and assurance in the world, but what about when it is all said and done.
• When you stand before the judge, will you confidence and assurance waiver?
• Recently, I was out and trying to spend a little money.
• When I got to the checkout line and slapped my pocket to push out my wallet, it wasn’t there.
• All my confidence left me. For a moment, there was literal electrical shock that stunned my body.
• It has happened before, when Ryan was small and disappeared in the grocery store, when something happened on the job that would have cost the company a bundle.
• You have had that moment of shock before when the thought of disaster hits you like a sledge hammer.
• I am certain there are some interesting stories here, but we must press on. Just think about that moment.
• Let me tell you one thing that, when that twinge of doubt comes at judgment, will come to mind and give you confidence in judgment.
• When you remember that you were able to love supernaturally, confidence and peace will resurge.
• It will come flooding into your life faster than when I realized my wallet was moved to my jacket pocket.
• The only way we can love supernaturally is to abide in God and God abide in us.
• That supernatural love, the ability to love and forgive the unlovable and unforgivable, is love perfected in us and gives unshakable confidence in the judgment.
• Remember, John is saying, “We saw Jesus do it. He taught us to do it and we experienced it.
• “Now we are testifying to you that, it is not only possible, it is natural and inseparable from God.
• “Because as He is, so also are we in this world.”
• So, how would supernatural love look like in this world? Three things:
1Jn 4:18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.
I. In a word, it is fearless. Bold, courageous, intrepid, valiant, daring, resolute.
• To live in supernatural love is to live without fear.
• “Fearless” is not one of the words I use to describe myself.
• “Fearless” is a description I covet, but I have believed the lies too much.
• Living fearlessly is not something, however, that I need to focus upon or aspire to.
• John is saying the fearless Christian life comes from living in supernatural love.
• “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.”
• When I let the presence of God leak out of me by demonstrating His love, fearlessness results.
• Remember that supernatural love is to love God first and love like God.
• Only He can do that in us.
• That is why the Psalmist David said, “Of David. The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? When evildoers assail me to eat up my flesh, my adversaries and foes, it is they who stumble and fall. Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war arise against me, yet I will be confident.” Psalms 27:1-3.
• In that moment in judgment when the shock of the lie shivers through my body, God’s perfect love will remind me, “For fear has to do with punishment.”
• Then my mind will recall Romans 8:1, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
• If I can be fearless in judgment because all the punishment is disarmed, how much more should I be able to live fearlessly in this world because of confidence in the Love of God alone.
• So much so, it is a characteristic of love itself, confidence and fearlessness.
1Jn 4:19 We love because he first loved us.
II. Gratitude. We love Him because He first loved us.
• Our love for Him comes out of gratitude.
• Remember, Agape love does not rise from gratitude, worth, payback, benefit, or any feedback.
• It is one way. So there is no way that in our humanness, Agape love towards God can happen.
• Our best love will always be a “because” love, and that overrules Agape and pollutes perfection.
• Therefore are fully dependent upon Him to perfect love in us.
• That is why Paul wrote such harsh extremes and quoted such negative passages,
• Romans 3:10-18 “as it is written: "None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one." "Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive." "The venom of asps is under their lips." "Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness." "Their feet are swift to shed blood; in their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known." "There is no fear of God before their eyes."
• Imperfect love cannot flow to God. It cannot reach Him.
• Only perfect love, and we are incapable of that.
• It only becomes possible because of His life in us.
• And that alone increases our gratitude and His glory.
• It seems like a riddle. We are to love God with impossible love.
• Yet His life in us makes it possible. Our realization of that makes it even more impossible.
• But His life in us makes it even more possible.
• Oh, where sin abounds, grace much more abounds.
1Jn 4:20-21 If anyone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.
III. Unity. Unity is not only possible, but in Him, hatred of a brother is not possible.
• Turtillian said, “Oh the love they have for each other.
• The reality is, in a Church there is some hatred, bitterness, lack of forgiveness, jealousy, selfish posturing and pride.
• How do we square that with this: “If anyone says, ‘ love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.”
• Let’s examine it under context.
• We are surrounded by the lies of Satan.
• Anyone who says, “I love God” and hates his fellow Christian has bought into the lie of Satan.
• He is “living out” the lie of Satan. He doesn’t love God near as much as he claims he does.
• His love for God is not supernatural, but carnal, selfish and very human.
• He can Phileo the entire world and not experience the Agape of God.
• Remember, Agape is not humanly possible, but available to us only through the supernatural presence of God within us.
• But it is not supernatural love in the presence of any darkness; hatred for a brother.
• John says that two things that cannot square is this; that you love God supernaturally and have any lack of love for your fellow Christians.
• That is not possible, supernaturally or naturally.
• A lack of love can be manifest in bitterness, lack of forgiveness, jealousy, selfish posturing or pride.
• How can I experience supernatural love.
• Gal 3:1-5 O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. 2 Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? 3 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? 4 Did you suffer so many things in vain--if indeed it was in vain? 5 Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith—
• In this, I see three things that are important to live in supernatural love.
• A. Realize the truth.
• This is gaining an understanding of that Agape love is above anything you can accomplish.
• B. Submission to the Savior.
• This is accepting the fruitlessness of efforts to love and surrendering to Christ living through you.
• It also involves ceasing from the effort and artificially trying to push out fruit.
• C. Walking by faith.
• This is trusting that God IS big enough to do the supernatural through you and IS actively working in you to shine Agape on other people.
