Sermon Text:
1 John 4:19-21
Jesus commands that his people love one another as God has loved them. We follow the example of Jesus, showing self-sacrificial love to those around us in the church as a compelling, visible witness to the watching world of what God’s love is like.
Sermon Transcript:
(transcribed with AI)
Well, good morning. It's good to be here with you all. For those of you who might not know me, my name is Jonathan, I have the privilege of being the pastor here. As we get started, I want to ask you a question that might be slightly uncomfortable. How many friends do you have? How many people who really truly know you on a deep level and could actually call you out, do you have?
There's been a number of studies that have come out lately showing that actually for adults nowadays, the number of friends that we have is declining. We have less and less friendships, especially ones that are of any sort of deep substance to them. Despite the fact that we live at a time in history where we could connect with people at any moment. At any moment of any day, we have the opportunity to talk to people, to be connected with people. We're hardly ever actually isolated from anyone. Despite all of that, we actually feel lonelier more.
Studies have shown actually, 1 in 3 people experience at least some significant loneliness every week. 1 in 10 every day. We're more connected than we've ever been, and yet we are also lonelier than we've ever been. In fact, they even did one study, they found that people who tried to use social media to connect with others, used it for that purpose, they found they were statistically more lonely than those who didn't. We are connected and yet we somehow are farther away.
It'd be too simplistic to just say, well, social media is the problem, that's far too simplistic. It's just one part of it. In fact, if COVID showed us nothing else, it certainly showed us actually being with other people, physically gathering actually makes a difference in our lives. We are social beings, and despite the fact you might be the most introverted person imaginable, hear me, I am far more introverted than most of you are aware. That doesn't mean you still don't need to be with people. We still actually need connection with one another and actually as Christians that really shouldn't surprise us.
The very first chapter of the Bible, when God creates everything, creates man, the first time we hear about anything being not good is when Adam is alone. God created us as social beings, created us so that we actually do need to be with one another. The challenge is, in our modern world, how do we actually do that? More and more people work from home. You work on a computer, you work in an isolated environment, you don't actually talk to people throughout your day. Even if you do, a lot of you are commuting, so you're driving a city or two away just to go to work and so the people you're meeting with, you don't run into ever outside of work, or you work shift work and so the people that you are talking to is this just rotating group of people that you have surface level conversations.
You can be with people and still feel lonely. All this small talk becomes like drinking salt water to a person dying of thirst, it's only making it worse. We're made, we are created to be with people, to have deep meaningful connections. And yet we're so often very isolated.
See, we started this series a few weeks ago on the church, and I said I have two questions I want us to look at. Number 1 is, well, what is a church? How should we think about the church, but the second is, why should I care? Why should I care about the church? Let me suggest that we should care about the church because God did not create us to be alone, but created us to be with others. And actually the church is part of God's good plan of how he created us to function.
Actually, what we're gonna see here this morning is, is as the church, we are brought together as family into deep, meaningful, lasting, transforming, committed relationships with others for our good and for God's glory. God designed us that we actually need to be with others, and the church is part of God's design for us.
So if you have a Bible with you, let me invite you to open to the book of 1 John. We're gonna be in 1 John chapter 4 here this morning, looking at what the Bible says, how we are to interact with one another. And primarily John has in mind that our faith is shown in our love, our love towards one another here in the church. So, if you have a Bible with you, let me invite you to stand. It's our tradition here, we stand as we read God's word, you can follow along with me. John chapter 4 starting in verse 19, this is God's word.
We love because he first loved us. 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.
As far as the reading of God's word, you may be seated.
Our passage this morning in one sense is a very, very simple one. I can summarize it very, very simply. We are to love one another in the church as God has loved us. Love others because God loved us first. Really, it's quite that simple, and yet, like many things that are stated that way, it's quite simple to say and far more deep to actually put into practice. Love is the basis of the family of God. First, it starts with God's love for us and then our love for one another.
And so this morning as we look at this, I want us to see the love of God. The love of God that creates us as a family, that sustains us as a family, and that invites others into that family. The church is to be the lived out expression of God's love for us in such a way that is visible to others, and they are compelled by his beauty.
But let's start off here just with this love that creates family. Feel it back with me in your text here verse 19. Say we love because he first loved us. Again, a short little verse with no end of meaning underneath it. If you're familiar with how John writes in his letters, and even in the Gospel of John, you know, he will often use very simplistic language to convey something that has just infinite depth underneath it. This is a great example of exactly that.
We are called to love one another because God loved us. God's love is not only the reason, it's also our definition of love. See, here's the truth, we use that word love in so many different ways. We use love when we're talking about food, when we're looking at a picture online and we click love. All it means is I had some sort of positive reaction or feeling towards something. But we know that's not enough. We know it carries much deeper meaning and so often when we say, well, what is real love, when we start looking at, well, romantic love, we start looking at that and say, well that's what real love looks like.
We almost get these pictures of these fairy tale, story, happy endings and all this sort of stuff, romantic love, these grand gestures that go into it. And while again, that's maybe closer to the definition than clicking like on a picture. When the Bible says we are to love one another, it doesn't mean we're supposed to show up with flowers and chocolate. No, clearly there's something more underneath that that all of these are trying to really get to and so John earlier in this very chapter, he writes this.
He says in this, the love of God was made manifest among us. That God sent His only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
But here is the greatest definition of what love looks like. It's not about what we do, it's about what God has done for us. You wanna know what true love is. You look at the sacrifice of Jesus on our behalf. John says, look at what God did. Look at what he did in sending Jesus into this world. He didn't have to. There was no law that said, you know, God must do this. Why did Jesus come? Why did God send His Son into this world? Because he loved us. It was his own desire to save and put his glory on display. It was love that sent Jesus to this earth, but not even just to be here, to live, to be even perfect, but rather as John says, a propitiation for our sins.
Big fancy word. A propitiation is a sacrifice that bears away wrath. If you know, if you know your Old Testament, you know, this is often what was being talked about in sort of the temple sacrifices. God said, all right, here's how you are to operate in the temple and particularly on the day of atonement, if you're very familiar, you'll know they would come, there would be a sacrifice, they put their hands on the sacrifice and they'd actually confess all the sins of the people. And then that sacrifice would go away and bear their sins. God was getting them ready to understand what Jesus was going to do, that animal had no more power to do it than anything else, but God was trying to give them this picture, this understanding of what it would take for their sins to be borne away.
We don't exactly have an exact parallel in our culture, but we certainly understand that hey, if I mess up something has to happen. I mess up at work. I'm probably gonna have to stay late because I need to fix it. I'm sort of, as it were, offering up my time to solve this problem. You go into a store, you break something, we have a little phrase you break it, you buy it. You have to offer something up in order to rectify what has gone wrong.
So what do we offer up when we have sinned against God? What could we possibly offer up to make amends between us and the eternal God who created all things? What could we give him that he did not already have? The short answer is we don't have anything. Not even in the temple, that wasn't enough, it was just the symbol of what was to come.
And so this is what Jesus comes to do. He comes to be this sacrifice for our sins. He is the one who bears the weight of all the wrong that we have committed. Jesus takes that on himself. He is the one who dies in our place, so that anyone who would trust in him would be saved. God Himself provides the payment for what we have done against him.
Imagine, imagine you were driving along, you weren't paying attention, you smash into a billionaire's Lamborghini. You realize you've just totaled this guy's car. It is gone, and there is nothing. You're gonna spend the rest of your life paying back that car. And instead, the guy looks at you and says, don't worry about it. I'll fix the car, and in fact, I'm gonna fix yours as well. In one very small way, we get a picture of what God is doing. We've sinned against God, and yet God himself is the one coming and saying, I'm the one who will clean up the mess that you have made.
You wanna know what love looks like. Look at Jesus. Look at his example, his sacrifice on our behalf. We were not the one who was loving God first. No, God loved us and sent Jesus to die on the cross to bear away our sins. That is what love looks like. It's not just positive feelings towards someone else. It's not a romantic expression. It is the willingness to sacrifice yourself for the very best of another. God loved us so much, he sent his Son as a sacrifice so that whoever would believe in him would be saved.
We are called to respond to God's love. We are called to respond in belief and actually trusting Jesus, confessing our sins, saying God, I have done things wrong and only you are the one who is able to deal with it. Only what Jesus has done on the cross can deal with my sins. In fact, earlier in the same letter, John writes,
He says, and this is his commandment that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another just as he has commanded us.
It's the love of God that we place our trust in, not some fleeting, feeling, romantic gesture, but the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. That is what transforms our lives. He forgives our sins. He gives us a new heart to follow him. He fills us with the Holy Spirit, but even that isn't the end because then he adopts us into his family.
Romans chapter 8 tells us:
The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And if children then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ.
The love of God does not take us from being the enemies of God to being the casual acquaintances of God. No, it is from enemies all the way to his own children adopted into his family. Our relationship with God has been forever changed. We don't approach him as someone far off, someone angry at us all the time, but rather as our loving heavenly Father that we get to run to at any moment.
And many of you know, my wife and I, we adopted our two children. And the moment of going from, this is a strange child I've never met before to this is my son and daughter is a wild moment. Because the transformation happens so fast, it's hard for your own life, your heart to even catch up to it, and hear me, that is the same thing that happens for everyone who trusts in Jesus. We have gone from strangers to being his children and what Paul tells us here is we are heirs, we have eternal life because we are part of his family and heirs with Christ. We are made the siblings of Jesus Christ.
Listen to how Hebrews puts this. It says:
for he who sanctifies that he's talking about Jesus, and those who are sanctified us. All have one source that is God. That's why he is not ashamed to call them brothers. Saying, I will tell of your name to my brothers in the midst of the congregation, I will sing your praise.
Hear me, for everyone who trusts in Jesus. Jesus is not ashamed of you. Jesus does not look at you and go, yeah, yeah, that's the one I brought him into the family, but like I really wanna hold him at arm's length I don't really trust, no, Jesus is not ashamed to speak of your name before God the Father on high. I think so often we come to faith, we come before God and we have this sort of feeling as if God is just trying to hold us away and Jesus says, I'm not ashamed. Those are my brothers and my sisters. They are part of my family.
See, these are the kind of verses that make me realize I have only ever just scratched the surface of the depths of God's love for us. God has loved us more than we will ever know. God has even known our sin more than we ever ourselves are going to be aware and yet loves us still, and yet is not throwing us away, but is unashamed to call us his brothers and sisters. We are welcomed into the family of God.
God's love creates family. Family he is not ashamed of. Are you part of that family. Do you know Jesus? Do you trust in his death and his resurrection on your behalf? If you do, you are part of God's family. Hear the invitation. Place your trust in him. God is waiting to welcome you in.
God's love creates this family we call the church, and it is God's love that sustains us as family. Again, look back, verse 19, we still haven't gotten through this whole verse yet, says we love because he first loved us. God's love is the foundation. It's the definition of how we are to understand love and it's the reason for us to now go and love others. This is what God commands us to do, to show his love to others.
In fact, you remember when Jesus is asked, you know, what is the greatest commandment, they're trying to trap him, they're trying to figure out, hey, what's the most important one? What is the answer?
Jesus answered, "The most important is, Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength.' The second is this, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these."
Here's God's commandments for us. Here's what it looks like to follow after Christ love God and love others. And actually what John is gonna point out for us here is that those are not two separate commands. See, sometimes we wanna say, I can love God, that's no problem, loving others, I don't know about that. Well, what does John say, verse 20. He says,
If anyone says I love God, but 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.
John is pretty blunt in this. You wanna tell me that you love God, but you are hating your brother? He says, actually you're lying. What are you lying about? You're lying about your love for God. John is very clear. You can't rip these two commands apart and say, I'll love God over here, but I don't really have to do this second one. No, he's saying actually these two are tied together. Your love for God and love for others always are called to go together.
In fact, he pushes it even further, verse 21, he says,
This is the commandment we have from him. Whoever loves God must also love his brother.
Not an optional part of the Christian life, not kind of a nice add-on or, you know, for the really good Christians, then, OK, here's tier two. No, this is part of what every Christian is called to do. Love your brothers and sisters. And I'm gonna argue here, Paul, John, John has in mind the church. He's looking at the church. Brothers and sisters is the language of the family of God and consistently that's who he's been talking about in this letter. We're called to love our brothers and sisters in the church.
Now certainly we are called to love those outside the church. I'm not arguing against that. I'm saying actually this is the primary command. In fact, if you look back at verse 21 or 20, there's a reason for that. He gives a reason for this command, for this statement. He says it's because of the visible nature of this person. He says, if you can't love the person in front of you that you can see, how are you going to love God that you cannot see. Actually, the two are very much tied together.
And actually, John's argument here is, you are to love in a visible way. Love those that you can see around you. And not just in sort of an idea kind of way. Earlier in the book, John writes. He says,
Little children, let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth.
Not think nice thoughts about other people. That's not enough, that's not visible. The point is that the love is meant to be seen in the church. It should be a visible practical demonstration of God's love for us.
And so here's why the church is so important for us in this understanding. We are called to practically live out this love for one another in a visible way. The church is the visible people of God. This is ground zero for how we are to put on display God's love for one another because we can't do it here. How can we do it anywhere else? How can we do this? We are to make the extravagant love of God visible for others to see.
And here's where sometimes I think we need sometimes a bit of an adjustment on what we're thinking of. See, sometimes we'll think, well, OK, yes, you know, we wanna be loving towards others, so you know I'll nicely say hi. I will greet someone, I will be polite. I haven't hit anyone in church. I haven't insulted anyone. Look how loving I am. And my question is, is that a display of the extravagant love of God? Or is that Canadian politeness?
See, we're actually called to something above that. We're not called to just be polite to one another here in church and just kind of go on your way, but actually show what God's love is life in a self-sacrificial way. So, you hear of someone and say, well, you know, I'm catching a flight, 6 a.m. tomorrow out of Vancouver. The Canadian response would be, wow, that's gonna be early. I'm sorry about that, you should call an Uber. Actually, I think the loving thing would be to say, hey, I could drive you. I could actually I could do that. I could sacrifice some of my time, my sleep, my convenience, so that you are actually blessed in what I'm doing.
Or when someone's moving, you can say, hey, I can sacrifice some of my time, my energy to bless you, someone's doing yard work, housework, whatever, behind on their rent. There are plenty of practical ways, but the point is we're called to is not simply being polite and thinking nice thoughts but practical demonstrations of God's love.
And here's where the Bible has so much to say. They have so much to say for us. If you want a fun experiment later, go search, go search on Bible gateway, whatever, just search the phrase one another and look at how much God has to say of what we are called to do for one another. Let me give you just some examples.
1 Peter 4:
Show hospitality to one another without grumbling as each has received a gift, use it to serve one another.
Ephesians 4:
Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another as God and Christ forgave you.
Romans 12:
Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.
1Thessalonians:
Therefore encourage one another and build one another up just as you are doing.
Romans 15:
Therefore, welcome one another, as Christ has welcomed you for the glory of God.
James 5:
Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another.
Hebrews 3:
Exhort one another every day as long as it's called today, that's none may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
Colossians 3:
Do not lie to one another.
Ephesians 5:
Address one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs
...and there are so many more. God has a lot to say about how we are called to live together, to practically put on display God's love.
So here's my question. Who are you doing this with? Who are you showing God's love to? See, I think the temptation for us is to say, you know what, that's a really good point. I should be more loving to those around me. Yeah, the next time it comes up, I'll be sure to do that. But that's not what God said. God didn't say, hey, wait for an opportunity, and then if the mood strikes you, you should probably respond in a nice loving way. No, the command of God is to go outdo one another in showing honor, serve, building, encourage, pray for, forgive, exhort, love again and again. Yes, it will be inconvenient for you. Actually, that's the point. What did Jesus do for us? Hear me, it wasn't on his way. He went out of his way. He sacrificed of himself for our good. That is the love we are called to show to one another.
So let me give you some just really practical ways of doing that. Number one, join a small group. Get invested with other believers who can actually know what's going on in your life, and you can know them. Probably the best way to actually be invested and begin to put these things into practice is not showing up on Sunday morning, a few minutes late for service and taking off right that way afterwards. It's actually getting involved in one another's life, being known by other believers, get to know them, get to serve them, and actually be able to use your gifts to build them up, get involved in a small group.
That's what we do in small groups. I, we've called them life groups in the past, name is just slightly changing, but it's the same purpose. To gather together, pray with one another, encourage one another, build one another up in the small group of believers. It's not the only way to possibly do this. There's lots of ways to get involved, serve in the church, invest in your time to build others up, but hear me, we are called to put the love of God on display, not with vague intentions, but with practical application.
Look, everybody has The same amount of time every week. It's not infinite, and everyone has different demands upon their life, what we can accomplish each week. And so if, if you're to say, well, I wanna be involved in a small group. It is gonna be a sacrifice. There's a sacrifice involved in that. And I think that's not necessarily a bad thing. To let the love of God be shown in his family, the church. This is God's command, this is God's example for us.
So the house rules for being part of the family of God act like your father. The love of God is what makes us a family, it sustains us as a family. Finally, it is God's love that compels new family.
Here is really the outworking of what we're talking about. John doesn't necessarily go this way in his letter at this moment, but Jesus certainly does. When Jesus is speaking to his disciples, he says this.
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this, all people will know you are my disciples. If you have love for one another.
Jesus says the exact same thing. You are to love one another. Just as I have loved you, you go and love one another. In fact, that is what is going to identify you as a disciple of Jesus. It is by our love. But notice there what Jesus is meaning. Your love is to be seen by those around you. Your love for one another is actually seen by all people. It's the reputation of the church, so is that ours? Is our reputation as a church that we are putting on display the love of God.
Hear me, I think there are lots of examples we could point to of exactly that happening here in this church. People coming alongside one another, building each other up, supporting through difficult times, gathering to celebrate various different things and, and even in practical ways, bringing over meals and and praying there's. So much. I'm hardly saying this doesn't exist. I'm saying, let this be how we are known to those around us. Let our love for one another be so extravagant, even self-sacrificial, that others could see it, notice it, and glorify God because of it.
Jesus says:
You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house in the same way, let your light shine before others so that when they see your good works and give glory to your father who is in heaven.
Our love for one another is meant to be conspicuous, not so that we gain some sort of fame or clout, no, rather it is so that the glory of God would be seen. We are to love one another in a way that always points to the glory of God.
And here is really where we started. So we started and said actually, you look around. And by and large, we are a lonelier generation than we've ever been. Let me suggest that perhaps one of the greatest apologetics of the church is to put the love of God on display in the church. This is what transforms the church from being just a an old institution to being a witness to the beauty of the gospel, of what Jesus can do in our lives and in our community to actually see the love of God made manifest among us is not only a thing of beauty, not only building one another up, glorifying to God, but compelling to see.
See more and more people are asking two questions of the Christian faith. Is it true? And oftentimes even more so, is it any good? Is there anything in Christianity that is actually good, that seems a compelling witness to what I've been longing for? And the answer is yes. The very thing that God created us to experience, the intimacy of knowing and being known is what God has designed the church to be. To be a true loving connection with others. God made the church to answer part of the longing of our own hearts. In the love of God shown to us and the love to one another that the strangers have been gathered into as family, don't hide the love of God from others. Seek to profoundly show what it looks like that God loves us.
May our reputation be a place of God's love being poured out here. God's love is what makes us family. It's through the sacrifice of Jesus on our behalf that we see what love truly looks like. He gave us this example to strive for, and even when we fail, and we will, we have the grace of God once again to see again and again, Jesus unashamed to call us his family through the gospel, welcomed with open arms. Let that love be seen in our church, visible, clear, intentional in our lives that the compelling vision of God's love results in an ever growing family for the glory of God.
Let's pray together.
Oh heavenly Father. Lord, we thank you so much. Lord, we thank you for the gift of what Jesus has done for us. This, this salvation that we could not work. That you have loved us so much, that you have saved us who did not love you, and yet brought us to be your family. Father, I pray, would you build in our lives an ability to show your love more and more. Father, as we come to know you more, that we would love those around us well in such a way, Lord, that your beauty is seen, that your gospel is heard, that your Transformation of our lives is visible to the world around us. Father, I pray, may we be good stewards of the love you have so lavishly poured out upon us. We ask these things in your name. Amen.