Christopher: Contrary to the entire Western world, it seems, love is not mine to say about it what I would. You know, you can love is love is my thing, and I can tell you what it is for me and shape it for me. Love is God's. Love comes from him. Love is for him, and he defines it.
Caleb: The following message was recorded at King's Tree Church. May the spirit use it to help you see, savor, and sing the beauty of God in the crucified and risen Jesus Christ.
Christopher: We're in first John chapter three. And last week, if you recall, we talked about mainly the the image that stands out to me as as having preached it. This idea that the Christian, the one who's united to Christ, can't be like a raft just carried down the river of our sinful desires. We can't we can't continue in sin the way we always have. The Christian is one who has the motor, as it were, of Christ in them, compelling them, propelling them up against the river of sinful tendencies toward righteousness, toward Christ likeness.
It doesn't mean we're sinlessly perfect, but it means those in Christ are increasingly looking like Christ. Those in Christ are increasingly looking like Christ. We show by what we are actually doing with our hands and our feet and our mouths and our calendars and our checkbooks. We show by what we are actually doing to whom we belong, whether it's to Christ or to the world. This week, John's going to continue in that same stream of thought, the necessity of righteousness, of of right living for the one who belongs to Christ.
Not, hear me, not as the foundation of our salvation, but as the necessary fruit of that salvation, righteous living. He's gonna continue in that path. But now he's going to clarify what he means by righteousness because you can load that with a lot of things. What do you mean when you say righteousness? Because look back in verse seven of chapter three, John wrote, little children, let no one deceive you.
Whoever practices righteousness, whoever's actually doing righteousness, is righteous as he is righteous. So it matters for us to say, what is righteousness? What do you mean by righteousness, John? And he's going to explain that for us. He's gonna zero in on that.
And he starts to do that in verse 10. So verse 10 is something of a transition. Look at look at it with me. He says, by this it is evident, who are the children of God and who are the children of the devil. Here's how it's evident.
Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God. And then your translation might say, nor nor is the one who does not love his brother. Now I don't do this very often. I don't like to pull a Greek card because I don't want you to doubt your translation. But the word there translated nor, if you've got an ESV, in the n e t translation, that is translated as that is.
So he's saying whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God. That is the one who does not love his brother. You see how that changes it? The the Greek word underneath there is called chi, and it can mean or or and, but it can also mean namely or specifically. And that's what I believe the NET translation believes and commentators I was reading believe.
That's what John's going for here. So let me read it for you in that sense. John says, whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God. That is to say, the one who does not love his brother. He's not saying the one who doesn't practice his righteousness is not of God.
Oh, also the one who's not loving his brother is not of God either. What he's saying is the one who's not doing righteousness is not of God. And what I mean by that is the one who's not loving his brother. He's putting those two in parallel. For John, not doing righteousness is parallel with not loving your brother or your sister.
And let's just knock the knot off there, off this side and this side. We have a parallel. Righteousness is loving your brother or your sister. That's that's the tray that's the change John is working here. He's going from the generic idea of righteousness, which could mean I'm a moral person.
I'm a good person. I don't do this or that. And he's specifying what he means by saying by righteousness, I mean love. I mean loving your brothers and your sisters, loving the people around you. So he's narrowing this down, becoming more specific.
He's shifting from the idea of righteousness and sinning to the idea of love and hate. They mean the same things, but he's showing you when I say righteousness, I mean love. When I say sin, I mean hate. So that's where he is going this week. Then look at verse 11.
From here on out, he's not emphasizing the righteousness sin language. He's emphasizing the love hate language. Verse 11, for this is the message we have heard from the beginning that we should love one another. For this is the message that we have heard from the beginning. The reason I said the one not practicing righteousness, which is to say the one not loving is not of God, is this reason.
The message we've heard from the beginning is that we should be loving one another. And that's where he's going this week, to look at this idea of loving one another. Because for John, there are really two commandments. You think there's so many things the bible says, you know, this, this, and this. For John, there are only two commandments.
This is like, you know, when Jesus says there's only two commandments, love God with all, love neighbor as yourself. John's version of that is a vertical commandment, believe in Jesus Christ. We'll look at that in a few weeks. But then there's a horizontal commandment, love as he has loved you. The vertical toward God, believe in Christ.
The horizontal, love one another as he has loved you. That's what we're looking at today. So every horizontal command in scripture what I mean by horizontal is the commands that deal with me and you and how we relate in this world. Every one of the horizontal commands of scripture, John says, is ultimately a command to love. So when the bible says not to envy or lust or murder or steal or gossip or lie or commit adultery or don't don't give yourself over to unjust anger or don't advance yourself or be humble and and and serve one another.
Every all of these horizontal commands are ultimately the command love. Love. That's what John's saying. Paul would agree with him as well. You see in Romans 13.
So I've used this example so many times, but I'll use it again because it's helpful. Just like a beam of white light, when it hits a prism, it refracts into the whole spectrum because all those colors are in the white light. Hits the that hits the prism, all these colors come out. Same thing. All the right living, all of righteousness is in love.
It's the white light. And when it hits the prism of my daily experiences, it refracts into the whole spectrum of righteousness. You know, humility, service, not envying, you know, being kind to one another as Christ has been kind to us. All these different commands refract out of the one command to love To love. So ultimately, all the human being is commanded to do by God toward one another is to love.
Love. And really that command to believe in Christ is to is to love him as we'll see. So love is what's commanded of us. Now you might hear that and say, well, that's, you know, that's kind of fluffy. That's kind of wishy washy.
That's kind of soft around the edges. What do you what do you mean love? That can be very malleable. We can change that into a lot of things. But it's not that.
It's not that. And the reason it's not that is because because the love that John's talking about here is a defined love. This is the love that's been defined on the wood and iron of the cross and in the flesh and blood of our Lord and our God. That's where this love is defined. It's not a fluffy, soft, have it be whatever you want love.
It's a wood and iron shaped love, a love defined at the cross. And that's where we're going to go this morning looking at what John says about this love. But before we do that, let me read the whole section for you, and then I'll pray. Let's start in verse 11. This is right after he's made the transition from righteousness to love, and we're gonna go all the way down to verse 18.
So this is a longer section today. I'll read it and then pray for us. For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. We should not be like Cain who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him?
Because his own deeds were evil and his brother's righteous. Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. We know that we have passed out of death and into life because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.
By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother or sister in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or in talk, but in deed and in truth. Let me pray. Father, as we come to your word now, I pray that you would grant me faithfulness to unfold what is here according to your heart and your mind, that you would grant me, Lord, to be trusting in you now depending upon your sufficiency, upon your presence and working by the Holy Spirit.
And I pray that your people who hear, those who hear, would be given grace to hear with discerning ears, not only to discern what is true and what I'm saying, but also to discern what this application is for them. How does this land upon them? Lord, that we would all receive your word today as words spoken to us by you. And in all of this, father, I pray that the Holy Spirit would glorify Jesus Christ as the one who displays this unfathomable love to us from the cross. Lord, open our eyes afresh, open our hearts afresh, and fascinate us afresh with your glory in Jesus Christ.
We pray these things in his name. Amen. So in order for us to understand why John is putting love at the center, making it the command, the center of everything for the Christian life, we need to we need to get a clearer picture of, okay, where is love being defined? What is love? If we wanna understand, okay, this whole passage, we've gotta understand why is love so central to John.
And if we want to understand why love is so central to John, we need to look down at verse 16. So, John, why do you keep talking about love over and over and over again? And I don't have this in the notes, but the tradition about John is that he lived to his extreme old age and had to be carried in on a bed to teach. And when he was taught, all he would say is children love one another. And his disciples came to him and they said, master, why is that the only thing you ever say?
Love, it's all you ever say. And apparently John replied, because this is what the master commanded, and to do this is to do all. Whether or not that's a true story, that is what we see here. John continually is talking about love. And if we wanna say, John, why is it such a big deal to you?
Look at verse 16. Because by this we know love, that he laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us. So and remember, John was there.
John was at the foot of the cross. He saw that happening. Love is not something we can define for ourselves. Contrary to the entire Western world, it seems, love is not mine to say about it what I would. You know, you can love is love is my thing, and I can tell you what it is for me and shape it for me.
Love is God's. Love comes from him. Love is for him, and he defines it. He defines it. And here we see he defines it at the cross.
He defines it in the flesh and blood of the beloved son. That's where that's where love is defined. So I say this a lot, but it's crucial for us to get. The cross is revelatory. It shows us something.
When Jesus dies on the cross, he dies as a sacrifice for our sins. And if we trust in him, we are forgiven. We are united in him. We're saved. Absolutely.
But the cross isn't just a transaction. It's a revelation. What what Jesus is doing there and how he's doing it is showing us something, declaring to the cosmos something. The the cross isn't just a sacrifice to be believed in. It's a truth to be contemplated for all eternity.
What is revealed at the cross is what we are made to know and understand and live for. And in verse 16, John says what's revealed at the cross is love. Love. By this we know love that he laid down his life for us. So love is not defined by Hallmark.
It's not defined by Hollywood. It's not defined by the human heart. It's defined by the maker of heaven and earth as he takes on flesh and pours himself out from the heights of Calvary's Cross. That's where love is being defined. And notice it's being defined not by words.
It's not that God comes down and gives a treatise on love. It's defined by words made flesh. It's defined in the flesh and the blood in the active acted out reality of what God does in Christ. Love is defined in a deed and as a deed as as Christ ascends the cross of our condemnation, and on that cross swallows our sin and our shame and our sorrow and our loss into himself. God swallowing this into himself.
And as he endures the decimation of our damnation in his own death and pours himself out without reserve, the vessel of God as it were, poured out without reserve to flood our grave with himself. As he's doing this, he's defining in this act what love is. He's defining what love is. And at the very center of it, we will be digging into this love for eternity, But at the very center of it is this simple concept, self giving. Self giving.
Look what he says. Verse 16. By this we know love that he laid down his life for us. That's the very heart. That's the blinding, blazing core of this love revealed at the cross.
He laid down his life for us. And I'm familiar with that phrase. You're probably familiar with that phrase as a Christian, but just consider what is what that means. I almost stopped and did the whole sermon on this because you could break it down. He laid down his life for us.
Every one of those requires so much. But just consider life. Like what is your life? All the good things, all the experiences, all the story that makes you who you are, all the things that people are fighting and struggling and striving to protect and defend and guard. That's our life.
It's our life. Our life is everything. Without our life, what is it? What are we? What do we have?
Everything is in our life. And he laid that down. God laid down his life. The very thing that this whole world runs on people trying to save, God, when he comes into this world, lays that down. He lays that down.
Not for someone incredibly deserving, but for us, for me, for you, for the ill deserving. He lays down his life. And in doing so, he defines love as this, as this right here, this act. This act. So love is defined at the cross.
But even still, we have to ask ourselves, okay. But John, why why is that everything? That's that's beautiful, and I see how it's defined there. But why does that mean that love is just is everything for you? And to see that, look at chapter four verse eight.
It says, anyone who does not love does not know God because God is love. And then in verse 10, in this is love, the love that God is. In this is love. Not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation or the wrath absorbing sacrifice for our sins. So why is love everything?
Because the love revealed in what Jesus does on the cross is who God is. That's why it's central. It's not just Jesus doesn't just reveal one of the important things or one of the things God has done before. The love revealed at the cross is who God is. It's like at the cross, every veil is torn back.
Just imagine them tearing and tearing and tearing back and back and back. All the veils that obscure us from the center of reality are incinerated away and pulling open to the very blazing center of reality. And it's this act of self outpouring love that God is enacting in the flesh and blood of his beloved son, Jesus Christ. The reason love is everything is because the love revealed at the cross is who God is. And as Romans eleven thirty six tells us, all things are from him, through him, and to him.
To him be glory forever. All things are from, through, and to the God revealed at the cross as this love, in this love. And we are part of that all things that are that are for him. When when Paul in Romans eleven thirty six says all things are from him, through him, and to him, that's you and me too. All our desires, all our longings, all our hopings, all our fears and uncertain, our whole being is from this God, for this God, and unto this God.
And this God is revealed in the work of love from the cross. Therefore, therefore, John is able to say, that kind of love is what you're made for. That's what you exist for. Because that kind of love is the is the stamp of who God is. It's the sound of his name.
It's the imprint, as it were, of his face upon this world. So if this God who is revealed at the cross is love, then this love is the true shape of our life. We exist to be folded into the life of God. That's what we exist for. The life of God is revealed at the cross to be this love.
Therefore, we exist to know and love in this way. We exist to know this love upon us and to show this love in our lives. So that that establishes for us, okay, why is it such a big deal for John? Because revealed at the cross, it's who God is and it's everything. And then for John, all of humanity splits around the cross.
Splits between those who would see their Lord and God here, confess their Lord and God here, and be conformed to him in his love, which is life, and those who would deny their Lord and God here and say this isn't my Lord and God, and they would be distorted. They would not look like his love, which leads to death. So there's two paths that divide around the cross. And that's what I wanna look at for the rest of our time here. These two spheres, which we could call hatred and love.
John actually calls them hatred and love. Look at verse chapter three verses 12 through 15. This is the the sphere that we might call hatred. The sphere that denies who God is in Christ. Verses 12 through 15.
Let me read it for you. We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. So this is this this path that goes away from the cross. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother's righteous.
Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. Whoever hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. Now there's a lot going on there, and there's a lot of heavy words.
But I think we can boil it down to these three things. Hatred, which leads to murder, which leads to abiding in death. Now those are heavy words. Hatred, murder, death. That's what's on this side of the cross.
That's what's that's what comes from denial of the cross. Let's look at each one of those things in in in turn because they're not exactly the way we'd think they would be. Start with hatred. What does John mean by hatred here? When you hear that word, the word almost feels prickly.
It almost feels sharp to say. Hatred. And we think when we hear that word probably of animosity. I'm against you. I'm angry at you.
You think of this feeling of hatred. But that is not so much what John is picturing here. Because the image he he gives us an example of what he means by hatred in verse 17. Look at look at how it's expressed. So he in verse 16, he says, we should love.
But in verse 17, he gives the opposite of love, which according to his logic is hatred. So what's hatred look like? It looks like this. If anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, then how does God's love abide in him? That's the example that he's giving us of hatred.
And it forces us to change our definition a little bit when we're dealing with John's language. Because when John says hatred, he doesn't mean necessarily the presence of animosity. He means rather the absence of self giving love. You see the the the difference. Hatred here doesn't mean the presence of active animosity.
Rather, it means there's an absence. There's a passivity. There's a withholding of self giving love. To be able to supply the need, to see the need, be able to supply the need, and say, no. I'm not gonna do that.
That's what John is saying is hatred. So hatred is not this, I'm against you. Hatred is rather this inclination to keep for myself, to hoard for myself, to protect and preserve myself at the expense of others. It's not wrong to guard yourself, you know, have be safe and things like that. But at the expense of others, when I'm doing this and keeping them out there, John says that's hatred.
So in other words, what the world calls good business, looking out for number one, climbing the ladder. We gotta break a few eggs on your way to the top. Right? What the world calls savvy business, John calls hatred, generally speaking. And this hatred, and remember, he means this kind of guarding, I'm I'm holding back from you, leads to murder.
In verse 15, we see that. We should not be like Cain who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. Down in verse 15, everyone who hates his brother is a murderer. Now hold on. We just said hate is withholding good that I could give to others in their need.
That doesn't make me a murderer. Right? Well, that's because we're thinking of murder in, like, the physical active sense. But the way John's thinking of it here is that more along the lines of what Jesus says in the sermon on the mount, murder here is withholding a needed good from another in order to keep that good for myself. Withholding.
I see the need. I see you're in need. I I have what you need, but I'm gonna hold it back because I don't wanna get rid of it. Don't wanna spill out. I don't wanna give my life up.
So I'm keeping back, and you can just deal with that over there. Go on. Stay warm. Stay well fed. But I'm not giving you any food or clothes because I'm holding it over here.
And John says that is murder. When we close our heart when it should be opened, we are murdering according to John. According to John. Now obviously, there's a difference between that and the acted out thing. But John wants us to see, look, that inclination of soul that says, I'm keeping me and letting you go out there.
John says that's that's murdered. That's already walking in Cain's steps. So just think of the good Samaritan the story of the good Samaritan. Remember, there's a man who's beaten on the side of the road, and there's people who are walking by him, and they they see him, and they say, god. I don't wanna deal with that.
I'll just keep going. I've got a business to go to. Then there's a man who stops and cares for him. According to John's rubric here, those people who saw him and said, I I've gotta get to the temple. I'm sorry.
I'm gonna go by. They're murdering him. That's the idea. They're they're murdering him. To see a need, be able to meet the need, and walk by is hatred that leads to murder.
Now I need to I need to put in a parenthesis here because sometimes it's really easy to take verses from the bible, lean on the guilt lever, and and everyone feels like, woah. What do I do with that? And it's just overwhelming. So let me say this. The Internet makes this complicated.
Because when John was writing, you didn't have the whole world literally at your doorstep saying, I need help. Go around on the Internet now. There's orphans who need help. There's hungry people who need help. There's sick children who need and it's just everywhere.
And it can be overwhelming. You could use everything, all your money in one trip on the Internet by just giving to various needs. And I think here we need to put in place the principle that we see in the parable of the good Samaritan. The Samaritan didn't get a letter that said, hey. There's somebody who's beat up over here if you wanna come and help them.
He he came into contact with that person. In his daily life, he met the need. He saw the need. He touched the need. And those are the needs that John's emphasizing here.
It's not the need way out there. If you want if if we're compelled to care for the needs on the other side of the world, good. Good. That's not bad. But the needs that are in view here are the ones I'm meeting in my life.
My actual neighbor, the person I meet on the way to the grocery store, and most especially the people right here in this room. The immediate needs of my life. Sometimes, hope I don't go over, but this is important to say, sometimes we're so overwhelmed by those big needs out there the world's telling us about, we forget. My neighbor is lonely and has no one to mow their lawn. My friend is going through a really hard time, and they need somebody with them.
This person here needs a meal. Oh, I'm thinking about that stuff out there. Right? But this is the need right in front of our face. That's the main need that's being addressed here.
Those are the main needs when I say, no. No. No. No. No.
Get away from me. I'm I'm doing this murder thing John's talking about. Alright. Let's press on because we could talk a lot more about that. The hatred leads to murder, which ends up causing us to live in death.
Look at verses fourteen and fifteen again. Verse fourteen and fifteen. We know that we've passed out of death and into life because we love the brothers, implying if I'm not loving, I'm still in death. Whoever does not love his brother abides in death. So if I'm living in this self protecting, self guarding, self defending, you fend for yourself way, I'm living in death.
I'm living in death. That's what's going on here. And you see how this makes sense. If God is life, then separation from him is death. That's clear enough.
But if God is the one revealed in the self giving love of Christ, then to oppose that kind of love in my life to keep for myself and protect for myself and keep from others, well, cuts me off from him, which cuts me off from life. So the place where life is found is the place where God is is is what God is like. That's that self that self giving love that pours itself out. And there's a just irony here. Right?
Because when I'm withholding from others, I'm doing it because I wanna protect my life. I wanna have a better life. I wanna have a safer, happier, more comfortable life. So I don't wanna be bothered by your needs. I'm preserving it for myself.
But in doing that, I'm actually living in death. I'm actually going into real death. I may preserve my biological life, but I am in my soul dead. And to give you a picture of that, think about there's a man who has a river going through his field. And he thinks, boy, love this river.
I just want more of this river. I don't want this river to go into the other fields and feed those other fields. I want it for myself. So he dams up the river. And pretty soon, what happens?
It backs up. It floods his fields. And now he doesn't have a river at all. He has a swamp. So he wanted to keep it, and the very act that wanted to keep it from other people destroyed it and put him into a swamp.
In a similar way, when we want to keep our life, hoard our life, preserve it from other people because I love it so much, we lose it. We we turn our life, in fact, into a swamp. Because what we're the nature of life is self giving love. Just like the nature of the river is to flow out. So when you dam up the river, you get a swamp.
You're going against its nature. When you dam up love, when you guard your life and don't let it pour into others, you're gonna get a swamp. You're gonna get death, spiritual death inside of us. So that's what John is saying here. If I'm trying to save my life this is just what Jesus said.
Try to save your life, you'll lose it. Pour your life out, you find it. Same thing John is saying here. That's now that is if we see the cross and we go this way. We say we deny it.
We go into this world of self preservation and hatred, which leads to death. The other direction is to affirm the cross, to affirm what God declares of himself here, and to let it work itself out in our life. And we can go through this more briefly because we've already touched upon it. But if if the sphere over here is hatred leading to murder leading to death, the sphere over here is love leading to laying down my life, the opposite of murder, leading to life, the opposite of death. So there's these two balanced sides that John is laying out for us here.
Let's look at each one of these over on this side. Love, laying down life, life. Very briefly, because we've already considered it, this sphere is marked by love, the love defined at the cross. And just to be clear, this love does not mean a good feeling about somebody. It doesn't mean I enjoy them so much.
It doesn't mean they're my best friend in the whole world. This love is not you get that with people, and it's great. But the love being John is not saying, think every other Christian is just the best person in the whole world. That's not what he's saying. What he's saying is this love we're called to is a modeling of Jesus Christ.
It's an act. It's an acted out reality. It's modeling, representing with my body and my soul and my time and my efforts. It's representing to another the cross of Christ. That's what love is.
My children, my wife, your spouse, your neighbors, your friends, your family, it is love is representing to them Christ in all these varied ways. Lord, have mercy on us and grant us to do that. It's easy to say, which we'll talk about at the end. Second, this love, if we're living in that, it leads to not self guarding hatred, but self giving love. If I'm living in the love of the cross, it leads to a life that lays itself down, that actually lays itself down for the sake of others.
And that's when the rubber meets the road. When a need comes before us and and the the pinch is there because it doesn't feel good to give up, to pour out, and this form of love lays itself down for the other, ultimately so that they can know Christ. Look again at verse three, chapter three verse 17. If anyone just hear this. May I may I hear this?
If anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother or his sister in need, yet closes his heart against them, how can God's love abide in that one? You know, see, John's saying, I don't care what you say. I don't care how much you know. If you see a need and you can do something about it and you close your heart, how can you tell me the love of God is in you? That's what John's saying.
And that cuts to every one of us. That's sobering for every one of us. Just as our God's heart is literally opened on the cross by that glance, his heart, his inmost self is opened, and he pours his his life out for us, so our hearts are to be opened, especially here to one another. They're to be opened to one another. If I worship and live for the God whose heart is open on Calvary, and yet my heart is closed like a stone, John says there's there's a disconnect there that can't work.
That doesn't work. That doesn't work. So if I see my brother or my sister in need and I can do something about it and I close my heart to them, then I am declaring with a far louder voice than all my spiritual language and all my doctrinal confessions, I'm declaring I don't know. I don't know the Lord. I don't know him, if that's my response.
And my and and I have written here, Lord have mercy, because that's what we need. That is a that is a word that you and I can't bear in our own strength. It's true. But the only way to live that word is by his continual grace. May it be so.
May it be so that we are not people who close our hearts when we see need, but that the Lord is graciously opening them more and more. Finally, those who love by laying down their lives, by opening up their hearts, they're actually abiding in life, not death. So, again, here's the counterintuitive wisdom that we've seen. Look at verse 14. We know that we've passed out of death into life because we love the brothers.
Because we love the brothers. Those who and the brothers or sisters. Those who lay down their lives are the ones who are actually living. Those who hoard their life are going to lose it. Those who pour out their life are the ones who are truly living.
Why? Why? Just because it's nice to love? No. The reason this is the case is because God declares from the cross that he will be found in the place of self giving love.
Look at the cross, and God is declaring, I will be found here. He's not saying, I'll be found in the glittering upper echelons of society. I'll be found in the place of power and influence and fame and smiles and ease. He can be found there, but he's not. He says, I am uniquely and especially to be found not in these glittering ephemeral heights, but in the depths, on the cross, in the trenches where life is poured out.
That's where you'll find me. That's where you'll find me. That's where you'll find me. And I I think I think of the there's just so much need around us. And and we I like to avoid it.
It's uncomfortable. It's uncomfortable. But the Lord calls us in measure, and he'll make that clear to each one of us. Don't hide from it. Go into it because that's where you'll find me.
Imagine here's an image for you. You've got two men running to meet the king, and they're running and they the palace is right there in front of them, and they think, okay. We're almost there. We're gonna we're gonna meet him. This is gonna be great.
This is everything I want. I want to meet the king. They're running to him. And as they're going and the palace is there, this old beggar stumbles out in front of him. He's not even aware of what's going on.
And they hit him, and they both fall over. And the one says, what do you think you're doing? I've gotta go see the king. Get out of here. And he runs up, goes after him, goes after the king.
The other man says, oh, I'm so I'm sorry. I'll help you up, dust you off. And by doing this, of course, he's giving up his chance. He's giving up his chance to see the king. But as he helps that man up, he looks.
And on his hand is the royal ring. And he realizes, wait a second. And the beggar looks at him with a twinkle in his eye knowingly, and he realizes this is the king. This is the king right here. And the king lifts him up and says, you will sit at my right hand.
The man who gave up the chance to go and stopped and poured out his life actually met the king of love and so lives, has what he was seeking. But the man that ignores this and drives after the thing he thinks is life, he misses the king of love and so arrives in an empty room, arrives in death. That's the case for us too. If we preserve our life, we miss the king. If we pour our life out, we find the king, and he is our life.
Now here's the end. And this is the main point. I saved the main thing to the very end. As I was outlining this sermon, you you you kinda see where the logic is going, and this verse is the main thing John is saying. Look at verse 18.
Little children, let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth. That's the main point. Because all I've done up here today is talk, and it's easy to talk. It's as I have written here, damnably easy to say loving things. Because we can say loving things a lot, especially as a preacher, and feel like we're very loving people.
But you're just talking. I'm just talking. What matters is not the words I'm saying, but are those words becoming flesh? Are those words acting? Are those words turning into deeds, to actions that are actually worked out through my hands, my feet, my voice, my calendar, my bank account, are the words of love, enfleshed in deeds of love.
That's what John presses us to see at the end. The main point is this. Don't just love and talk. Love indeed, in work. And this is especially true yes.
It's true of all people for us Christians, and it's especially true of other Christians, and it's specifically true of the people in this room. The Lord in his wisdom has put us together with one another, not just randomly. These aren't just random people you bump into once in a while. The Lord has picked this body to be together, and the needs in this body are the needs he means to fill with this body. We all have needs, and and he intends for the needs of this people to be filled by this people.
That's how he will fill them. Jesus will fill the needs of this people by this people working together. And so look around you. Look around you. What you are seeing, these people's specific needs are the needs we're called to meet in love.
And our specific needs are the needs in which the Lord is going to meet us in love. Because to meet the need of another is to be met by the God who meets needs. And we do this well, Kingstree. I I I have benefited from it. Others have benefited from it.
I'm not rebuking you. I'm just saying let's continue in it. Let's continue in it. Let's grow in this. Because just as the love of God is not merely word, but word made flesh, so too may it be for us that our words of love are made flesh.
When there's sickness, when there's need, when there's loss of home and loss of job, the people in this congregation don't say, I've gotta go to a government program. I've gotta go to insurance. May they be able to say, I've gotta go to my church family. That's where the Lord is going to care for me and provide for me. And as we do that, King's tree, we will fulfill all righteousness.
We will show ourselves to truly be his disciples, and we will display by grace that we're children born of God. And I need to say here now, none of that happens unless we're first loved by God. Okay? We don't do any of that to earn his love. All of that comes because we're just swimming in an ocean of love.
We love because he first loved us. The foundation under everything we just heard is you are loved beyond imagining by God because that cross is for you if you trust him and throw yourself before him. And that's what we're about to witness here. This table in front of us, this bread, this cup, this is a tangible witness that the love of God does not remain word but has become flesh, has acted for you, has happened for you. And when you receive this bread and this cup, you are receiving, by faith, a tangible, physical, edible witness of how you've been loved by the God of the universe, by the center of reality.
You're about to taste the love of God poured out from all eternity upon you through Jesus Christ. And in tasting this, may we be conformed to it. May the Lord grant that in receiving this now, we receive his presence and his grace to conform us to this same image. Let me pray, and then we will sing together, come up, and take the Lord's Supper. Father, what manner of love that you have poured out upon us?
The love of Jesus Christ, The love that pours down from the cross. Father, may we never take this for granted. May we never pass by this on our way to the interesting things of theology. But may we see, father, that everything is here. Everything is here.
Praise be to your name for such an awesome love in Jesus Christ, poured out unto death, raised up in invincible life. I pray, father, that as we take this supper together, that life, that presence, that love would uniquely enter afresh into your people, be confirmed afresh for your people, and that we would be conformed afresh to this image. We praise you, father, and we thank you. May we receive the love, and may we love in the same way that we've been loved. We pray in Jesus' name.
Amen. Thank
Caleb: you for listening to this message from King's Tree Church in Sabina, Ohio. To see more of the beauty of God in the crucified and risen Jesus Christ, come worship with us on Sundays at 10AM or visit our website at kingstreechurch.org.