Series: 1 John
Week: 13
Passage: 1 John 3:11-15
Title: 5 Certainties in the Christian Life
Focus: Christian Living
LAST WEEK: Question: Which Father are you following? Heavenly Father (Choosing light) or Satan (Choosing darkness)? Your actions either point to God or Satan.
OPENING QUOTE:
• The SIX most important words: "I admit I made a mistake."
• The FIVE most important words: "You did a good job."
• The FOUR most important words: "What do you think?"
• The THREE most important words: "After you please."
• The TWO most important words: "Thank you."
• The ONE most important word: "We"
• The LEAST important word: "I"
Does God want us to love one another simply to just get along? The message of the Gospel seems to be more than simply “getting along”. The greatest test of our righteousness is having a love for our brothers and sisters in Christ.
SCRIPTURE: “For this is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. 12 Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous. 13 Do not be surprised, my brothers and sisters, if the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other. Anyone who does not love remains in death. 15 Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.” 1 John 3:11-15
TITLE: (John’s) 4 Certainties in the Christian Life (1 John 3:11-15)
Certainty #1: There is a Message (1 John 3:11)
• Explanation: We know there is a message from John and that message in the Bible always goes back to LOVE. John starts the selected passages by using the words “from the beginning” pointing to two specific areas that would attract his audience’s attention.
o Creation (OT): “the beginning” refers to the creation and God’s provision for the people through giving commandments and law (discussed two weeks ago). God has been demonstrating His love for His creation “from the beginning” (provision).
• Deut. 6:5 and Lev. 19:18 (The great commandment to the people on what to love): “You shall LOVE the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might… LOVE your neighbor as yourself.”
o Messiah (NT): This is the message of Jesus that was proclaimed to us “from the beginning” for the New Testament crowd. For John, this was the first time they heard about loving one another through a messianic voice.
• Matthew 22:35 and Mark 12:28: Questioning over what is the greatest law and Jesus response of the Old Testament
• Luke 10:25: “On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?” He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.”
• Illustration: The strongest argument for the Gospel of Christ is the personal testimony of someone whose life has been changed by it. That they love the Lord and love their fellow brother and sister in Christ.
• Application: This is the message but what does that mean for us?
o We need to remember here is that a love for others grows out of our love for God. Where is our love for God if we do not love our fellow Christian brothers and sisters?
• John 13:34-35: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
• People will know we are disciples of Christ if we love.
• 1 Corinthians 13: The love chapter
• The message from the Gospel is that we are to love one another because Christ loved us. Our love is to be the example for our people reflecting from Jesus and goes out to brotherly love (within the church).
• Questions:
o If we can’t love each other (as a church) how are we going to love the unsaved?
o Where are we as a church in our love for each other?
Certainty #2: The Message is Offensive (1 John 3:12)
• Explanation: John says we are either black or white, living in light or darkness, reflecting God or reflecting Satan. There is not a lot of middle ground. As John progresses, he gives an example of hatred through the OT story of Cain and Able.
• Illustration: Cain and Abel
o THE STORY: Genesis 4:1-14 (read if time) Cain and Abel both brought an offering but Abel got God’s blessing and Cain did not which made him angry and he killed his brother.
• NOTE: The Bible says; “The blood of the ground was crying out to God”. Cain butchered Abel brutally. This is the first murder from the 3rd human being created.
o RESULTS: Cain was called “evil one” meaning he followed the path of Satan living in outside of the laws of God. Everything Cain did was done is opposition to God. I.e. he rejected the love of God and hatred his brother.
• Application: Cain was jealous and resented his brother’s righteousness, which caused him to murder his brother (Gen. 4:2-7). This has disastrous implications for the church. John shows that hatred toward another Christian is often prompted by a feeling of guilt about one’s own life as compared with that of another person.
o The world (unsaved) are repulsed by the message of love because those DEEDS of evil are rejected by God while a Christians actions (offerings) are seen as acceptable/righteous. While deeds of the unsaved and saints may be similar, but they (unsaved) are not seen as acceptable in the eyes of God.
• NOTE: Who are we to judge deeds? We don’t, God does! Watch judging the motives and hearts of man and comparing yourselves to another person.
Certainty #3: The Message is Rejected (1 John 3:13)
• Explanation: Knowing the message is offensive, we ask how are we to respond to the world that is angry at our offerings to God? John tells us that we should not be surprised when the world HATES us.
o REMEMBER: When we do what is acceptable to God we get a reaction that we did not see coming. Through the story of Cain and Abel and last weeks message we see that our offerings (deeds) are either in line with Satan or in line with God.
• QUESTION: The question then is not, if we are in line with God will the world will hate us but how MUCH will the world will hate us.
• ANSWER: There will be people that hate you because of what you do for the Lord (Take a stand, give an answer, etc.)! This is a majority of people because your deeds are acceptable to God and theirs are not.
• Illustration: Harry Ironside told the story of the missionary in Africa. In a very backward village, he left a mirror hanging on a tree after shaving. The wife of the tribal chief came along and looked into it. She had never seen a mirror before. She asked "Who is that ugly woman?" When the missionary explained the mirror to her and told her that it was she. She got made, threw the mirror down and crushed it.
• Application: The world doesn’t want to be shown what it looks like. It makes them mad. They can’t take out their hatred on Christ, so they take it out on you. The Bible says that NO AMOUNT of good works is acceptable to God (Isaiah 64:6 – “our righteous acts are like filthy rags”). We “work” to know the heart of God and make an offering to him to become like Christ. The world cannot understand this because they cannot see God and do not have the gift of the Holy Spirit.
o NOTE: Your deeds are not accepted if they are done apart from Christ. Our outlook as Christians should be that of Luke 16:22 (“for the SAKE of the SON OF MAN”).
o REMEMBER: When we are in the will of God we are in the most dangerous place. Being in the center of God’s will often means we could be in the center of being the most hated (inside and outside the church).
• John 15:18-20 “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: A servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.”
• John 7:7 “The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil.”
Certainty #4: The Message is Rewarding (1 John 3:14-15)
• Explanation: John gives us the reason for writing his letter in 1 John 5:13. He says, “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life.” The message we received is rewarding if we use it properly. If we do not we are missing on the rewards of the Gospel. John wants us to know that we have ETERNAL LIFE in Christ. The greatest test in knowing we have eternal life is in the love for the fellow Christians.
o Colossians 1:13-14 “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”
• If you want to know if you have passed from death to life then it will be evident in our love for other Christians.
• Salvation cannot be claimed if we do not LOVE the BROTHERHOOD. The church is Christ’s bride and we are to LOVE it!
• Illustration: Max Lucado writes, "If God had a refrigerator, your picture would be on it. If He had a wallet, your photo would be in it. He sends you flowers every spring and a sunrise every morning.
• Whenever you want to talk, he’ll listen. He can live anywhere in the universe, and he chose your heart... Face it, He’s crazy about you."
• Application: This should be our attitude toward our brothers and sisters in Christ. To not love our brothers and sisters in Christ is to hate. Hate is on the same page as murder in the mind of God. God knows the heart and to hate another is to wish them dead whether you act upon that like Cain did or not. If we hate another then we say we never want to see them again, we wish they were gone. Hatred and murder are the hearts response and it is incompatible with the mind of God as we are all created in the image of God.
• Questions:
o How can we state that we hate another?
• This is in line with the activity of Satan.
• If we practice righteousness in a Christ like sacrificial way then we can use that as evidence as a changed heart.
CONCLUSION: John declaration is clear; either we are going to love or we are going to hate. There is no middle ground. We cannot love someone and not like him or her very much. We cannot hope that we don’t minister to and with people. We must love our brothers and sisters. If we fail at this then we hate in the eyes of the Lord.
PRACTICAL APPLICATION:
To those who are married: Some of us are married to this reality (unsaved and saved). That person which is unsaved hates that the saved actions as they are found righteous in the eyes of the Lord. Saint continue to follow Christ! Persevere!
To those with unsaved children: Don’t be surprised if your non-Christian children hate you. They hate that in which you represent. Love Christ first and do not be surprised when people hate you! God tells us when this happens we are to turn the other cheek and love.
