Gospel Community: 1 John 4:7-21

Well we come now to uh sermon scripture reading.

Uh 1 John 4 7 through 21.

You can find that uh page nine 961 in your uh uh seat Bible.

And uh this is about love, God's love and community, and so let us uh hear now God's holy word to us.

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.

Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

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.

And 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.

Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

No one has ever seen God.

If we love one another, God abides in us, and his love is perfected in us.

By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his spirit.

And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.

Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.

So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us.

God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is, so also are we in this world.

There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.

For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.

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.

Let's pray.

Lord, that you impress them upon us and that you would illumine them to us in such a way that we would know more deeply your love.

We ask and pray these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.

So uh this is the the last sermon, uh, the number four of four, uh, in a in a series called Growing in Grace.

And um, if you've been in with us over the past few weeks, we began with uh steeping ourselves in the word of God, being feeding on the word of what.

We can't grow if we are not feeding on the word of God.

And so uh Pastor Tom uh brought that word to us that we must be feeding on the word if we're to be growing in grace.

And then we looked at meditation and and its role in the Christian life and in regard to taking the food of God and and really enabling it to distill, percolate, marinate, uh be digested, turned over in our hearts and minds so that our hearts are filled with uh the love and truth of God.

And therefore, we then turn our meditations into prayers, uh, which was what we focused on last week.

We commune with God in His grace and love and prayer.

And so we continue this morning.

Since we're not uh merely a spiritual people, but also a communal people, we must, love must come to expression in community.

And that's our focus this morning.

Gospel community.

Uh we lose some of the thrust of how pervasive this idea is in our Bibles due to it being somewhat hidden or clogged a little bit in the in the Greek in our uh in the Greek grammar.

And as you know, in the English we have um we use the same word you for the singular and the plural.

Um and so it's hard to distinguish what's being used there.

But in the Greek it's actually more clearly distinguished, and and so many times over in the Greek, the thrust of you is not in the singular, but in the plural, as in you all, uh meaning us collectively.

And and so the the idea that comes through time and time again is of persons in community with each other, not isolated individuals.

And I think the way that um I like to think of it is is whereas there's there's kind of two uh perhaps uh illustrations we can give.

We can give the illustration of a runner in a race, and we can give the illustration of a body.

The body is the image that the scriptures give us.

But individualism uh it's kind of like runners in a in a race.

Um they they feel like there's uh a need to go to the finish line to be all headed in the same direction, but they're very content with being around each other and other people.

But the idea is that we want everyone to stick in their same lane.

And so far as everyone does that, that's good.

We're okay with that.

But that's not what the Bible teaches true community is like.

True community is like a body that is very much integrated and together.

The hid is intricately connected with the body, and that and the members of the body are all intricately connected.

And so we are we see that that use of uh the illustration in the Bible to help us understand that we are to be together in community with one another.

And um I think uh before uh we continue to unpack gospel community a little bit, I just want to give some brief insight into what we just read and these verses uh before us.

Uh because if you try to read the verses that we read um like you would the Apostle Paul's letters, I think you're gonna be a little confused because they're very different in this style.

And this is a good example, I think, of how the gospel is communicated through different voices.

It's the same gospel, but it's through uh the voice and personality of the person communicating it.

And uh we might liken it to the different voices that are sometimes up here.

It's the same gospel, and yet the different voices, the different styles all come through because of the personality and the person through which it's communicated.

And when we read scripture, we have the same thing.

When we begin, we begin with the original author and their intent, and in doing that, uh we can note a few things about their style and communication.

Um we see that there's a difference between Paul's writings and John's writings.

Uh now, where as they believe the same thing, uh, Paul is more uh linear in his thought, uh, which is really good if you're kind of of the engineering type mind.

You you want to know where you're going, you know, sequentially how things work.

That is Paul.

But John is a little more conceptual.

John is a little more of an artist in that sense, or a poet.

And um, and so Paul makes it very clear that the imperatives, the to-dos, flow from the addictives.

That is what Christ has done.

But John wants to make clear that the Christian life is just that.

It's a life.

It's not just something that you know intellectually in terms of propositions, but it's something that you possess and give expression to.

And so that's the difference between the two there.

So what John is concerned to oppress upon us is our need for this life.

He wants to ensure that we have this life and that having received that life, we are found to be expressing it.

We could liken it to um the concept that we know what oxygen is.

Uh, we can know it so as to be able to distinguish it from, say, carbon dioxide.

But when when really the push comes to show, what is most essential is that we have it, that we have that oxygen.

Because, and when we do it, it permeates and gives expression in various ways throughout our body through the bloodstream.

The main idea here is that gospel community aids our growth and grace because it's in community that we receive and express this life.

And the substance of that life is love.

And in doing so, we're perfected.

And so we observe two distinctives of gospel community.

Gospel community is a new life that we're born into, it's a life that we're born into.

And secondly, it's the glue of the gospel, the glue of gospel community is love.

So, first, gospel community is a life we're born into.

Before we live in community, we're born into community.

Just as we came into this world by natural birth, we are born into this community by a spiritual birth.

And you see, what's in what's true of the new birth is that through this supernatural act of God, we're given new desires.

The scriptures tell us that we become partakers of the divine nature.

That's part of this supernatural act.

That is, through this powerful act of the Spirit, God's life comes to dwell in us.

And the substance of this new life, as I mentioned, is love.

Now we tend to think of our own love toward God oftentimes, but but what's most important is that we understand God's love toward us.

Because what matters in the ultimate sense is not that I know or love God as essential and as necessary as that is.

But what is even more profoundly important is that God knows and loves me.

You notice the term beloved here.

Uh, the term implies more than human affection.

It suggests uh an esteem for others as children of God.

More than friends, we have been saved by the precious blood of Christ.

And so we're brothers and sisters in Christ.

And therefore we're highly valued.

We're his beloved, and so we share in that love together.

Uh, we love, John says, because he first loved us.

That's the gospel.

How so?

Well, because the Bible tells us that man's most fundamental problem is not how we might draw near to God.

Our most fundamental problem is how God might draw near to us.

The problem being that because of God's justice, he is angry with the unrighteous every day.

But the gospel tells us of a love that was set on us, and and and and and though we had no righteousness of our own, though we were hopeless and helpless, and that we were unable to make ourselves acceptable, because of the deep and gracious love of God, he came into this world, took on flesh, and standing in our place on the cross, the wrath of God was averted, taking it upon himself.

And not only that, but in exchanging his life for ours, we were clothed with his perfect righteousness.

And the reason why that's so important is because now a provision has been made for God to draw near to you and to me, no longer in wrath and judgment, but in love as a father does to a son.

We are now in Christ.

And so when we come to receive Christ, everything changes.

The Spirit comes to dwell within us and brings the love of the Father and the Son into us.

We are new creations who share in the nature and disposition of our Father.

We're born into a new family.

Now, when it comes to our own experience, um that change might be quite different.

Some of us, we were part of a church, we we read our Bibles, we had parents and teachers who who who shared the gospel and who prayed, that we would be given these desires to share in Christ.

We belonged before we believed.

But for others, we we didn't want anything to do with the people of God.

We had no interest in being with the people of God.

But now we find ourselves wanting to be with them and having the same interest and growing in Christ together.

We believed before we belonged.

But you see, regardless of our experience, what matters most essentially is that we have this life and that we share in this life together.

And one of the evidences that you have this new life is that when you're together with other true believers, you feel yourself pulling all in the same direction in a way that you don't with those who don't believe or have a regard for the gospel.

The difference is that now the most central and important person in your life, the person who gives you the greatest fulfillment, the deepest fulfillment, being Jesus Christ, has become the person that you now share in and have in common.

As was just shared earlier, we witnessed another celebration this morning of Bertrand being baptized, and and and it's a beautiful picture of just this reality that God is as Bertrand shared, and as DDA shared, uh, and plants these new desires within.

And in doing so, he came to confess Jesus Christ.

And so we're told here in 1 John 4 15, whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.

This is a sign confirming that God is still doing this supernatural work.

And we praise him for it.

And so we don't make community, we are born into community.

If you have a desire to be with the people of God, gathered around the Word of God with a love for Jesus, then this is evidence that you possess this oxygen of the Spirit, this new life.

You're his beloved.

So that's the first thing.

Gospel community is a life we're born into.

Second, the glue of the gospel of gospel community is love.

You might say to yourself, I've come to confess Jesus as my Lord and Savior, and I've been baptized and born into community, but what's next?

And the simple yet profound answer to that is love.

Uh we read, it permeates this entire passage.

I think 29 times Paul, uh John references love.

This passage is saturated with love.

And so the simple yet profound answer is love.

What is next today and every day is to give ourselves as to Jesus and to one another in love.

And that may seem very simple, and it ought to be, because even a child can love.

But love is something that, though simple, is also deep and profound and high, so that, although simple, it's always essential.

And you know we can be pretty good at forgetting and failing to prioritize that, aren't we?

This is a love that can't be worked up.

It's a love that is communicated to us through the Spirit, and so when it comes to the gospel community, love is essential.

Love is to be received and expressed, and and love is perfected.

And so I want to break that down a little bit.

Love is essential.

The reason John gives as to why we should love one another is because God is love.

And God being love means heaven is a place of love.

Because there's no judgment where love is.

And so we we must become who we now are in Christ.

Love is about who we're becoming from from the inside out.

That's who we are.

There's no time wasted, and there's no time misspent by dwelling on the love that we share in Christ.

Because when we do that, we're giving ourselves to what is most essential and enduring in life.

It's who we're becoming.

The words of the Apostle Paul come to mind.

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I'm a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.

And if I have prophetic powers and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

I may be able to articulate the most grand and lofty thoughts, but if they're without love, they're just loud and distracting thoughts.

I may speak with great insights and possess faith.

Faith that even may see uh great obstacles uh removed and overcome.

But if I have not love, I am nothing.

I go, I can go above and beyond and give all my resources and even give up my life, but if I don't have love, I gain nothing by it.

Some people trade service for love.

Uh they think that because they're doing something in service for God, they don't need to be as concerned about the way that they relate to others in the process.

But again, love is about whose we are and therefore who we're becoming.

And so a lack of love can't be can't be traded for anything in the world.

We can do many great things, we can we can be doing it with the greatest intentions, and we can be doing it with the most fervent zeal.

But if we are doing it without love, we gain nothing.

Because love endures, because love is about who we're becoming, in community with others, love is essential in all that we do.

The gospel community is about whose we are and who we're becoming together, but because love endures, love is essential.

Love is also received and expressed.

What's true about life is that we can't give what we don't have.

And so we need to receive love in order to be able to express love.

Uh a silo by ourselves.

We ought to express that love to one another.

Love must come to expression, it must be manifest in our life together.

And if we're to love one another, it's not enough just to also have a general sense that God loves us.

We need to know how God loves us.

And so I'm reminded of the beautiful qualities of love.

Love is patient and kind.

Love does not envy and boast, it is not arrogant or rude, it does not insist on its own way, it is not irritable or resentful, it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the Truth.

Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

And you know, if I'm honest, I and I look at these qualities, I confess that there's still a lot of love.

There's a lot that love needs to conquer in my own heart, in my own life.

And I think that's why we we give ourselves to one another, not just to be together for the sake of being together, but also to seek to be transformed together.

In Julie Gorman's book, Community That Is Christian, she writes this.

She says, Whenever the Spirit of God is involved, we can expect that the focus will be on Christ.

In community, on Christ being formed in us individually and together.

This requires dissatisfaction with anything less than a willingness to be remade in the likeness of the one who is the source and focus of our relationship.

This will bring us face to face with our inborn and culturated and distorted individualism.

My life, our life together, must go through the process of reformation when we meet Jesus in our midst.

Spiritual community requires reformation.

And the secret to all formation is a dying love.

Why do I add dying?

Well, because this kind of love is not something that we possess naturally.

We don't naturally want to die to ourselves.

Denying self is the first step toward this life.

This agape love, you see, is a divine love.

It's an unconditional love that binds itself to others to see them mature, to see them built up, to see them go from strength to strength.

It's willing to sacrifice for the sake of others and to serve their interests.

And the only way we grow in this love is by receiving it from Christ Himself through the Spirit.

And yet, if we're honest, it's not a day that goes by where we don't lose our first love, and that our love isn't prone to be cold and to waver.

And we're so prone to focus on ourselves and our own wants and not others.

And so in community, we need a safe place for the walls to be torn down, to be honest with one another, to be to be safe enough for each of us to be able to reveal our brokenness.

To be able to share vulnerably about our lives.

Um it requires a humble trust.

And trust, you know, takes time and commitment, but it does yield great fruit.

And I myself have been blessed to be able to be ministered to from many in this community in such a way.

And so I would ask you also do you have brothers or sisters who are praying with and for you?

Who who are who are the people who are fighting for your heart?

Who are the people that you're close enough to where you can you can be transparent and vulnerable about what's going on in your life and your need to grow in love?

Are you praying for trans a transformed hearts that love?

Because at the end of the day, what converts the heart is love.

What converts our hearts from selfishness and all the different qualities that are not loving is love.

When we find ourselves impatient or irritable or boastful toward one another, it's it's love that causes us to seek the Lord's forgiveness and thank him for his patience and kindness toward us.

It's love that moves us to want to close that gap.

We see Jesus in the Gospels uh exemplify these beautiful qualities of love with his disciples.

There are many instances, but he's patient with them when they're when they're conversing about who's going to be the greatest in the kingdom.

And the other is a spark to envy and boasting and competition.

He's patient and he's kind and he's gentle when they face insecurities about his care toward them.

Christ's blood is always warm toward his beloved through the forgiveness of sins when we come to him.

And if we doubt that reality, we need only look to a fresh glimpse at the cross.

Because it's at the cross that all our doubts and fears and insecurities about his love toward us are cast aside.

Can you imagine yourself standing at the cross of Jesus, wondering, does God really love me?

I mean, what else could he have done for you than to give his life?

And so the scriptures tell us there's no greater love than that a man laid down his life for his friends.

It's at the cross that all of our doubts and fears and insecurities about his love toward us are cast aside.

And so we need to continue receiving that love.

We need to continue being reminded of that love, that love that enables us to love one another.

And in doing so, love is perfected with us.

Jesus' prayer the night before he left was to his father was that we may be one even as he and the father are one.

And as the family of God, love is perfected as we abide in love.

And uming that God loves you in a conceptual way is one thing.

Believing that God loves you is another, but abiding and staying and remaining in that love is another thing altogether.

Tim Keller tells a story, I think, that that helps with understanding the need for our love to be perfected.

He tells a story, he says, many years ago in my first posture, I met with a teenage girl in our congregation.

She was about 16 at the time, and she was discouraged and becoming depressed.

I tried to encourage her, but there was a revelatory moment when she said, Yes, I know Jesus loves me.

He saved me, he's going to take me to heaven.

But what good is it when no boy at school will even look at me?

She said she knew all the truths about being a Christian, but they were of no comfort to her.

The attention or lack of it of a cute boy at school was far more consoling, energizing, and foundational for her joy and self-worth than the love of Christ.

Of course, it was a perfectly normal response for a teenage girl.

Nevertheless, it was revealing of how our hearts work.

Jonathan Edwards would say that she had the opinion that Jesus loved her, but she didn't really know it.

Christ's love was an abstract concept, while the love of these others was real to her heart.

I wonder if you've ever known that to be true.

You may find something very compelling.

You may get the highlighter out, you may highlight it many times.

But in some respect, it's still just a concept.

And so it fails to have the kind of power that it ought to have upon your heart and your mind.

You know the love of Christ at some level, but the thing that you face feels more real to your heart.

It's an abstract concept.

It's one thing to have an abstract concept, it's another thing to believe it, it's another thing to abide in the love of Christ.

And that's the invitation for us.

By remaining in this love, we find that love matures with us.

One way of thinking of this maturing love, I think, is like the new love of a married couple.

The love of a newly married couple is real.

It's something real that they share.

But it's still a young love.

It's often interrupted by ego and insecurities and things like that.

But as it experiences this receiving and giving of love through different seasons, through different tests, through various obstacles, it begins to mature.

It becomes more settled and stable.

The difference being that although the same love was there from the beginning, now because of this receiving and giving through all of these things, now it's become more deeply ingrained.

It's the same love.

But now it's been worked into the bones, you might say.

It's been deeply rooted in the heart.

It's been maturing and deepening.

As you've been abiding in that love together.

And that's true of us, and that work of the love of Christ.

And as we abide in his love, it has that work of perfecting us in love.

As we extend love to one another, and as we receive love from one another, we grow in our appreciation and love for all that he is to us and all that he has given us in one another.

And so love is perfected.

You know, we're not a perfect people, but we are perfectly loved.

And by abiding in this perfect love of Christ, we shall see a perfecting that emerges as we continue to walk together with a love that bears all things, hopes all things, endures all things, and believes all things.

All for his glory.

Amen.

Let's pray.

And Lord, we do confess that uh so often we can fail in keeping this before us.

Lord, we find ourselves uh mixed with many insecurities and doubts and fears.

And yet, Lord, we praise you and thank you for your constant, steadfast love that continues to pursue us in all of our struggles and trials.

And Lord, we ask and we pray that you would continue to work in and through us as your people, your body, that we would continue to grow in a love for one another that is bent on receiving and giving of the love that you have poured into our hearts.

Lord, help us to rely upon you.

Help us to abide in your love and so love one another well.

We give you thanks in Jesus' name.

Amen.