“Loving in Deeds & Truth” (1 John 3:16-24) Easter 4B, April 2015

1.                   Please pray with me.  May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be pleasing in Your sight, O Lord our rock and our redeemer.  Amen.  Today we continue in our study of 1 John by looking at 1 John 3:16-24.  We’ve looked at the Apostle John’s writings the past few weeks on how we as Christians should live out our belief in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.  In our message from God’s Word today we’ll see that the Apostle John calls us as Christians to show love and compassion to others.  In this way, we show that God’s love abides in us.  The message is entitled, “Loving in Deeds & Truth,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.

2.                  Pastor Craig Barnes once had a man tell him that he’d been dating a woman for several years, and she was starting to wonder if they would ever marry. The man told Pastor Barnes that he didn't know if he could marry her because he didn’t think that she made him happy.  Pastor Barnes asked him why not.  The man went on explaining all the reasons why she didn't make him happy.  Finally Pastor Barnes interrupted and asked, "What kind of wife would make you happy?" The more he described what he was looking for in a wife, the more convinced Pastor Barnes became that what he really needed wasn’t a wife. He needed a goldfish, the pretty kind with the long tail that floats around, or maybe a Golden Retriever—but even a dog will make demands on you emotionally. A goldfish, though, just sits there and looks pretty and doesn't ask you to communicate. It doesn't ask you how your day was or expect you to listen to how its day was. The last thing he needed was a wife, because his whole understanding of why the world existed was to meet his needs.

3.                  This brings us to our Epistle Lesson from 1 John 3:16-18 which says, “¹⁶By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. ¹⁷But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? ¹⁸Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.”  In these verses the Apostle John tells us that the source of all love and the ultimate example for love is found in Jesus Christ our Lord.  His self-sacrifice on Calvary’s cross not only bought for us the forgiveness of sins we needed to be God’s children again.  It also inspires us to love and forgive people in our lives.  Jesus’ parable of the unmerciful debtor in Matthew 18:21-35 shows the comparative size of the debts of sin we owe to God and are owed to our neighbor.  The debt of sin we owe to God we could never pay in our lifetime, it’s insurmountable, which makes the debts we owe to our neighbor look like a speck of dust.  What a joy it is to honor Jesus by showing compassion to other people!  His sacrifice on the cross for our sins is the fire that drives all we do.

4.               The very opposite of Cain’s murderous hatred that led him to murder his brother Abel in Genesis 4 is a Christian’s willingness to sacrifice himself for a brother or sister.  It’s no coincidence that Christians have been leaders in developing ministries of mercy in many communities all over the world—hospitals, schools, orphanages, food pantries, and safe places for the handicapped and elderly.  Christians with resources who won’t help people in need better check for a spiritual pulse. 

5.                  But, verse 18 of 1 John 3 is a passionate plea for Christians to get rid of double-mindedness.  Talking the talk without walking the walk doesn’t fool too many people.  As the Apostle James points out in the second chapter of his epistle, if you have a spare blanket, and all you can do for a shivering brother or sister is say, “Keep warm,” your so-called faith must be dead.  In the sports world, it is common for agents to say to owners, “Show me the money.”  In other words, don’t praise my client and say how important he is for your team and then offer peanuts.  Your cash offer shows what you really think.  “Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue only, but with actions and in truth.”

6.                  The Apostle John continues in 1 John 3:19-24 by saying, “¹⁹By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; ²⁰for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. ²¹Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; ²²and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. ²³And 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. ²⁴Whoever keeps his commandments abides in him, and he in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.”

7.                  Here in verses 19-24 John isn’t trying to moralize or be legalistic.  The Apostle is trying to show his confidence in the Gospel.  He’s trying to tell us is that what God wants most of all from us can be summed up in two things.  First, to believe in his Son Jesus Christ as Jesus says in John 8:31, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.  Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.”  Second, a Christian is to love his or her neighbor.  Jesus says in John 13:35, “All men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” As we do these things, our sense of unity with Jesus grows stronger.  We live in him and he in us.  We actually are part of his body and he actually dwells within us.  Amazing!

8.                  Probably the best thing that the Apostle John tells us as Christians is in verse 24, “We know that we are saved by the Spirit God gave us.”  For the first time in the apostle’s letter, the Holy Spirit is named.  It’s the work of the Holy Spirit to take what Christ bought for the entire world through His death on the cross and connect it personally to people.  The Bible tells us that the Holy Spirit is given to those who are baptized in Acts 2:38 and that our baptism is a washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit in Titus 3:5-6.  The Spirit works in our lives through the Word of God as well.  The Holy Spirit is the driving force that produces the power for godly behavior in our lives.  He enables to show love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control as Galatians 5:22-23 tells us. 

9.                  It’s the power of the Holy Spirit that enables us to love one another in deeds and in truth.  In fact, one of the Spirit’s most precious gifts to us is faith.  That inward certainty that God’s Word is true, that we really are loved and forgiven in Jesus that that we are headed for a reunion with our loving Heavenly Father.  Paul tells us in Romans 8:16, “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.”  All Christians have the Holy Spirit and can hear his comforting voice.  John’s gentle words remind us that we’re not alone in our spiritual struggles—we have the power of God Himself working in us through His Holy Spirit.  May He continue to do that good work in you so we can show love to one another in deeds and in truth.  Amen.

“Toward the Light” (1 John 3:1-7) Easter 3B, April 2015

1.                   Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  While the world celebrates Easter on only one day, here in the Church today we continue our celebration with the triumphant cry, “Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!  Alleluia! One day isn’t enough to celebrate the joy of the life and salvation we have through our risen Savior.  In the message from God’s Word today we’ll continue to see what the resurrection of Jesus Christ means for us as Christians.  1 John 3:1-7 reminds us that Jesus has appeared and has risen from the dead, taking away our sins.  By baptism, we’re children of God right now, and our minds are opened and filled with His Holy Word looking toward His appearing again.  The message is entitled, “Toward the Light,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.

2.                  Do you remember when you were in grade school and you had to do a science experiment that involved growing a lima bean?  Did you ever notice that as the plant began to sprout it always wanted to grow toward the sun.  Somehow the life of the bean is drawn toward the light.  You could turn the plant around, lay it on its side and no matter what you did, the sprout would orient itself toward the sun.  That’s what John was saying about us when he wrote in 1 John 3:6, “⁶No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.”  The Apostle John doesn’t say that a Christian never sins.  What he’s saying is that believers won’t “keep on sinning.”  John says that the reason is that God’s life within us grows us in the direction of godliness.  Our lives are oriented toward purity.  If God’s life is in us, then there will be a definite tilt toward what’s right and away from sin.  It’s true that we will all sin at times and in all likelihood will.  But, you can still tell the DIRECTION in which a person is growing.  And so can everyone else.     

3.                  Let’s look at what the Apostle John is writing here in 1 John 3:1-7, “¹See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. ²Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. ³And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.  ⁴Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. ⁵You know that he appeared to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. ⁶No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. ⁷Little children let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous.”

4.                  By now we have all seen a pattern in the Apostle John’s writings.  John hates the concept of “cheap grace.”  The idea that we can just call on God for forgiveness, bask in it, and then live any way we please.  But the truth of the matter is, even though God’s grace is free in Jesus Christ our LORD, it’s extremely expensive.  It claimed Jesus’ life to give it, and it demands ours as we receive it.  After comforting us with the message that we’re God’s children forgiven of our sins through Christ’s sacrificial death on the cross for us, John now challenges us to act like God’s children.  There’s a connection between our justification (God’s “not guilty” verdict for us in forgiving us our sins to give us eternal life) and sanctification (the way in which we live our lives for God).  With regard to justification, we say, “we can’t.”  We can’t save ourselves from sin, only Jesus can do that for us.  With regard to sanctification, we say, “Yes, we can.”  Now that we are in Christ Jesus through the faith we received in our baptisms we can follow Him and lead holy and God pleasing lives through the power of the Holy Spirit.

5.                  God has transformed our identity from death-row criminals into His beloved children.  He’s given us the Holy Spirit in order to give us saving faith in Jesus and also in order to change our attitudes and lives.  This doesn’t mean that we’ll achieve moral perfection or total purity on this earth.  That’s why John says in 1 John 1:8, “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves.”  Obviously our obedience to God’s will is always less than perfect.  What John means is that Jesus came to destroy sin.  He came to destroy sin’s guilt hanging over our heads and sin’s power gripping our minds and hearts.  Jesus came to declare war on sin, which is lawlessness against the holy will of God.  That’s why we who are redeemed by Jesus through His death on the cross now hate sin too.  As John tells us, we refuse to get comfortable with it and declare war on it too.

6.                  What John is trying to say to us is that as we grow in our Christian faith, we grow also in our determination to let go of behaviors that insult and infuriate God.  An automatic outcome of “I love God” is “I hate sin.”  Proverbs 8:13 says, “To fear the Lord is to hate evil.”  The Apostle John is blunt, people who have stopped their struggle against sin are spiritually dead.  They neither see nor know the true God.  True believers may fall into sin, but they never surrender.  True believers may fall into sin, but they repent, welcome Christ’s forgiveness and state their desire to change.

7.                  The Apostle John doesn’t want anyone to deceive us.  Remember that he was writing this letter to the Early Church of his day, as I told you last week, because there were many people who were leading people astray from the Christian faith.  False teachers working for the devil were seducing Christians into abandoning their struggle against sin as pointless.  You must admit that there is a certain diabolical logic to that that view.  If we have forgiveness in Jesus, if our bodies are going to die anyway and our true destiny is to live in heaven, what does it matter if we indulge ourselves now?  Why struggle so hard for chastity, sobriety, and gentleness when adultery, heavy drinking and violence are so much fun?

8.                  These things only seem like fun.  But, actually they are part of Satan’s rebellion against the Lord of the universe.  Satan isn’t the jolly king of hell, as cartoons and bad jokes often portray. The Devil is the evil mind behind all sin and his fate is already announced.  He will soon be plunging head first into the lake of burning sulfur.  Whoever is driven by his evil will share his fate.  Who would want that?  Paul says in Romans 6:1-2, “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?”  We’ve been born of God says John and being His children we’ve been given a new life to live in such a way that we live according to His will given to us in His Word.

9.                  In order to live out what John is telling us, it will be necessary for us as Christians to learn how to take correction from others.  A prideful spirit listens to no one.  When we’re caught in a sin, God wants us to use other Christians to bring us back, but that can’t happen if we’re too full of ourselves to listen and repent.  Proverbs 15:32 says, “He who ignores discipline despises himself, but whoever heeds correction gains understanding.”  If someone you know is caught up in a habitual sin, will you speak up to restore that person?  And will you let other people give you that word of correction when you are sinning?

10.              Dear brothers and sisters in Christ.  Thanks be to God that we are now living in the light of Christ!  We are children of God and as children of God we want to direct our lives toward the light of Christ and the truth that’s found in Him through His Word and Sacraments.  Just as a plant directs itself toward the light in order to grow, become strong and live, may we also continue to live and grow in Christ Jesus our Lord.  May we continue in our struggle and fight against sin through the power of the Holy Spirit, as He directs us through His Word so that in everything we do we give glory to Jesus Christ our crucified and risen Savior.  To Him be the glory.  Amen.