A New Old Problem

the word that you have heard. At the same time, it is a new commandment that I'm writing to you,

which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light

is already shining. Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness.

Whoever loves his brother and abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling.

But whoever hates his brother and is in the darkness and walks in the darkness,

but does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

I'm writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for his name's sake.

I'm writing to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning.

I'm writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one.

I write to you, children, because you know the Father. I write to you, fathers, because you know

him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong and the word

of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one. Let's pray.

Lord, we are thankful this morning for your word, for the reading only is enough to convince us

that you are glorious and that we need Jesus and that he is glorious. Lord, we pray also that you

might tune our hearts and minds to your word, to the words that you speak to us. We pray this in

Jesus' name. Amen. You might not know the names MacArthur Wheeler or Clifton Earl Johnson,

and even if you had never heard those names before, you definitely don't know about their

meteoric rise to fame or infamy. They're famous for being really, really stupid.

See, in 1995, Wheeler and Johnson robbed two Pittsburgh area banks, but they didn't have

a clever plan or really good disguises. They thought they did, or really fast getaway car

or anything like that. They are just really, really stupid. And that's what the Pittsburgh

Post-Gazette said about them. That's what the evening news said about them, because you see,

they thought they could get away with it all, not because they had a good plan, not because they

had good disguises or fast getaway car or even really big guns or anything like that.

You see, Johnson convinced Wheeler that if he squirted lemon juice on his face, that he would be unseen to

any CCTV camera, that no one would be able to see him, and they would get away with it, and they'd be

rich forevermore. Mind you, they only stole $5,000, but they even tested this plan out. They squirted

lemon juice on their faces, and then they took a Polaroid of each other. Now, police think that they

pointed the Polaroid camera at the wrong place, or they had bad film. But they were supremely confident

that they would get away with it. And armed with supreme confidence and nothing else, they were

subsequently caught within hours. Well, one was caught within hours, the other in a couple days. But they were

extremely confident. In fact, when Wheeler was caught, he kept mumbling, but I wore the juice, but I wore the

juice. Now, psychologists famously use this example to show how you can be so stupid that you don't know

that you're stupid, right? And we chuckle and laugh about this, but the reality is that we're not unlike

Wheeler and Johnson, that we are supremely confident in ourselves or something else, and we

don't realize we have no reason to be confident that we are so stupid that we don't realize we're

stupid. See, confidence is a tricky thing. We all, even in our modern day, think that we should have it.

In this scenario, the bank robbers were confident. They were blinded. We are blinded. Our confidence is

often misplaced in things that it shouldn't be placed in. And we're wrong. We're not unlike them

at all. As humans, we fail to see ourselves rightly. I'm not talking about the emotional,

intelligence, social aspect of it, but something far greater, something cosmic.

That left to our own devices, we squirt lemon juice on our faces and think ourselves invisible,

if not invincible.

John is not a writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette,

but he's writing to a group of people that have the same problem.

The same problem as some of us here in this room, all of us here in this room.

He's addressing a people that are tempted to be supremely confident, whether it's in themselves,

in others, in their works, their actions, or the things they've done or things they haven't done.

But that's not where our confidence should be at all. The message of the gospel confronts that

each time we hear it. And John is writing to Christians, to them and to us, to warn them

that our confidence is off. That our call to love one another is based out of this fellowship with God.

And that should be our confidence, that fellowship with God.

And he does it two ways. One is really harsh. One is a warning.

And one is a little bit more gentle, a reminder of who they are.

So it's a warning and a reminder. Let's first look at that warning.

It might not seem like the words he's using are that harsh.

I mean, he starts out beloved. But in fact, he's repeating something that he's already said.

He kind of softens it a little bit up front in this warning.

But this theme that we see here in these first verses is not something that's new to us.

If you remember, when we looked at 1 Sean before, he, like any good pastor, repeats things over and over again.

And this is one of those. He's warning us that the way to follow Jesus is to walk in his commands.

And this time, he's very direct. He's not very broad. He's very specific.

And that command is to love one another. That seems simple enough, right?

But then why do we have this huge body of work in the New Testament repeating this idea over and over?

We saw it in Matthew when we confessed earlier.

Even the Puritans thought it was so important that they put it in the catechism.

Love one another.

Look back with me at verse 7.

Beloved, I'm writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning.

The old commandment is the word that you have heard.

John's really concerned about showing them that this is nothing that's newfangled.

It's not a new idea. In fact, you've had it a long, long time.

He's pointing them back to the ministry of Jesus, saying,

Jesus said these things. This is an old commandment.

And if you knew the gospel either from Jesus or the apostles,

then this is not a new idea to you.

But why is he so concerned about that?

He's concerned because much like in our modern day,

we have people that come around and say,

this is the way to follow Christ.

Some new idea.

And he's saying, no, that's not it at all.

In fact, this is something that you were taught from the beginning.

You heard this from Jesus' lips.

You heard it from the apostles' lips.

I've told you this very thing.

Love one another.

Why is that so important?

Because he wants to confirm to them that this is an old thing.

This is nothing new.

We looked at this passage a couple weeks ago in Mark 12.

Jesus is challenged.

His opponents try to trick him, trap him.

And they ask him,

Teacher, which is the greatest commandment of the law?

And he says something like this.

The most important is,

Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God.

The Lord is one.

And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,

with all your soul, with all your mind,

and with all your strength.

And the second is this.

You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

There is no other commandment greater than these.

And the scribe said to him,

You're right, teacher.

This is not anything new.

They heard this before.

This is really old.

But if you listen closely to Jesus' answer,

we heard this other places.

We read it earlier in Scripture.

We hear it in the Shema,

which is Deuteronomy 6.

Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one.

Love the Lord your God and love others.

We heard it in Leviticus,

where there's this lengthy expansion

of what it looks like to love other people.

It's not just an idea that's made up.

It has teeth to it.

Love one another.

It's something old,

something very, very old,

that goes past when Jesus walked this earth.

But at the same time,

it's something that is new.

So why does John say it's new here?

Something that's repeated in the Gospels.

In John 13, Jesus says this,

A new commandment I give to you,

that you love one another.

Just as I have loved you,

you are to also love one another.

By this, all people will know

that you are my disciples,

if you have love for one another.

The newness that Jesus is speaking of

is the fact that they're indwelt with the Holy Spirit.

It's kind of a new spin on an old command,

that they are empowered and enabled

to actually love one another.

And they're to do so in the way that Jesus has done it,

sacrificially.

They're to love one another.

And that has an evangelistic quality to it,

that when people see that,

that's attractive.

You will know that you're a disciple of Christ

by how you love one another.

This idea that we see in 1 John,

there's a couple ideas that keep coming back up.

One is love for one another.

The other is light and darkness.

And Jesus kind of,

or John overlays those two ideas here.

He starts in verse eight at comparing those.

At the same time,

it's a new commandment that I'm writing to you,

which is true in him and in you,

because the darkness is passing away

and the true light is already shining.

John has a couple themes,

light and darkness and love for one another.

And here he mashes them up.

It's like when we talked about at Easter,

there's a sense in which Jesus has defeated death,

finally and fully, in some capacity.

But it's like that snake that's still around.

I think that's an example.

We talked about this in Sunday school earlier,

but the fangs have been removed of poison,

but death is still here.

The light has invaded the darkness,

but not finally and fully

in the sense that there'll be no more tears

and no more sadness as we walk this earth.

In the midst of that,

we are called to love one another.

That's how light is shining in the darkness.

Christians are called to love each other.

We are called to love one another.

And that light is shining in the darkness of this world.

But how do we know he's talking about love?

Because we haven't seen it yet.

Look at verses nine and 11 with me.

Whoever says he's in the light

and hates his brother is still in the darkness.

Whoever loves his brother abides in the light.

And in him there is no cause for stumbling.

But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness

and walks in the darkness

and does not know where he's going

because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

He makes the connection here that walking in the light,

which is fellowship with God,

has a quality about it.

And it's loving one another.

And then he repeats the same idea

by doing it in the converse.

He says,

if you say that you live like this,

but then hate your brother,

then you're actually not in the light at all.

Light is fellowship with God.

Darkness is not fellowship with God.

Loving one another is a quality of light.

So you can't be in the light and hate your brother.

Those are mutually exclusive.

John's addressing this

because light and darkness

is really big and really important.

And he's really pointed right here

because he's really concerned about fellowship with God.

He's concerned because there are people

that are swirling around

that are maybe influencing the church

that are saying,

it doesn't matter how you live.

It doesn't matter if you love one another.

You can still be a Christian and do this.

And John is saying,

no, no, no.

This is really important

because if you follow after Christ,

you will love one another.

You must love other Christians.

Jesus mentioned this already.

The disciples are gonna be known

for their love for one another.

And that was true in Jesus

because he sacrificially loved his disciples.

And that's true in you, John says,

in Christians now,

because as they have fellowship with God,

as they're united with him,

we will reflect that.

They will reflect that.

Oftentimes, I think we think of darkness

and we think,

ah, that's not like dark.

But John clarifies it here.

It's not just my inability to see a little bit.

It's complete and utter darkness.

You're stumbling around.

You're tripping over things.

I've moved around a lot in this country

and around the world.

And I'm sure most of you are like me right now

where if I go out at night,

there's always lights.

There might not be a street light,

but I can see on some level.

But there are places in this world,

third world countries,

or even the Colorado back country,

where you can go

and you can wave your hand

in front of your face

and you can't see it at all.

And that is really stinking scary.

Especially if you go to a tunnel.

There are some old mines here in Colorado

and you can go down in those mines

and if you cut out the light,

I did this with my kids

and I was a little freaked out.

And they were definitely really freaked out.

That they went in the darkness

and you can't tell

which way you came from.

Because if you move slightly,

your point of reference

is completely thrown off.

The only thing that you can even feel

is the rush of wind

that comes down the mine shaft

that you just went in.

That's the kind of darkness

that John is talking about.

That when you are in sin,

you are completely blinded.

It's not that you have

some frame of reference.

We're more familiar

with this idea from Paul

of death and life

when we talk about sin

and fellowship with God.

And that's all well and good,

but darkness, true darkness,

is often something

that we have familiarity with.

True darkness is stumbling,

walking around,

tripping and falling.

That's what John is talking about.

He's talking about

being blinded by sin

and not knowing

what is good,

what is right,

what is beautiful,

what is true.

Or even that you need a Savior.

You're blinded by sin.

That is darkness.

When we come on these texts,

I think it's often easy

for us to draw parallels

at Giant Mountain

or whatever,

or whatever church we go to.

And as Christians,

that's a good thing.

Right?

John's writing to people

that are Christians,

writing to people

that struggle with sin.

We struggle with sin.

We're Christians,

so that's natural.

We should do that.

And that's why we're drawn

to texts like this.

But we have to imbibe,

we have to soak in

what he is saying to us.

That if we walk in darkness,

we don't have a frame of reference.

We're stumbling around.

We need Christ.

John said this very directly before.

He said in the Gospels,

and he said it now,

that whoever claims

that he's in the light,

but hates his brother,

walks in darkness.

That person is lost.

If we say that we're Christians

and we don't have love

for one another,

especially in this room,

that we are in darkness.

We are lost.

We are blinded.

So what do we do then?

We have to search our own hearts

and ask,

do I truly love my brother?

Do I truly love my sister?

Practically, though,

what does that look like?

That means being concerned

with people that don't look like you,

not just tolerating them,

not just holding them a distance

and plugging my nose

because I think that they're stinky,

but actually being sacrificial towards them

in both time

and caring for them.

And caring for them,

caring about their soul

because we're not walking

in this Christian life alone.

And sometimes we get distracted by that.

Sometimes we get confused by that.

It doesn't matter whether we're age seven or 70.

I should be concerned about a seven-year-old,

a 70-year-old,

or even a 38-year-old.

We should all be concerned for each other

even if we don't look the same,

we don't work in the same spot,

we don't live in the same neighborhood

because we're concerned about each other's souls.

John's telling us that.

Now we've looked on this warning.

John is really forward,

very direct about this.

And he can do that

because of what's been done.

Oftentimes we talk about

what's been done for you as a Christian

and then what you're supposed to do.

And it normally follows that pattern.

But we've seen that John

doesn't like patterns at all

unless it's his own.

He circles around ideas over and over again.

But here he says,

love one another

because of who you are.

He reminds them who they are

or whose they are.

Look with me at verses 12 and following.

I'm writing to you little children.

I'm writing to you fathers.

I'm writing to you young men.

I write to you children.

I write to you fathers.

I write to you young men.

He's repeating this over and over.

John can speak with such emphasis.

He calls them,

first,

because your sins are forgiven.

That's the axis

on which all of this spins.

He can say,

love one another

because of what's been done for you.

But just remember

who you are in Christ.

Remember that your sins are forgiven.

That your ethics

or what you do

flows out of who you are.

Your identity.

Because your sins are forgiven.

It's not like this.

Oftentimes we think of this.

I have done this for you

so you will do this for me.

No.

Love one another

because you've been changed

because your sin is forgiven.

Your sin is not counted

against you at all.

That's who you are now.

But when we think it's

this for that,

we get it backwards.

John's calling them to action

based on who they are

as Christians

and he reminds them.

He's pointing them back

by using this phrase,

I write to you,

I write to you,

I wrote to you,

I write to you.

He's reminding them

this is not something that's old

but it's new and old

because it deals with

the new and old problem

of our own hearts

that we think that we can

walk in the light

but have no love for a brother.

Their living

is born out of their identity

as Christians.

As knowing that your sin

is no longer counted against you,

that should motivate us

and prompt us

to love one another.

Because we've been shown compassion,

then we are compassionate.

Their identity

is fundamentally important.

I've made my return

to the soccer field

after a very long time away

and I thought

that my

U5

pride

soccer

panda bears

would be really excited

that they have so many

that's a coach

of such great experience

and played all over the world

and such a high level

but they don't care.

It's been really fun

but I was confronted

a couple weeks ago

with a challenge

I've never faced before

and it was this.

I had a player

on my team

whose name was Emily

and

she refused

to let me

call her

by her name.

On the field.

And in fact,

she wanted to be called

Bowser.

And she got

incessantly

angry with me

and furious

stomping

because I didn't

call her Bowser.

Now,

does she share

the same qualities

as Bowser?

Does she have

spiky shell?

Does she look like

a dinosaur?

Does she,

I think he spits fireballs,

I'm not really

a video game guy

but spit fireballs

or smash Mario

or anything like that?

No,

absolutely not.

And so she got

so angry at me

that I refused

to call her

Bowser on the field.

But she was reminded

by her dad

that no,

you're not Bowser

or later

Princess Peach.

But you're in fact

Emily.

Your identity

is

Emily.

Emily,

a little girl

on the U5

Pride Soccer

Panda Bears

soccer team.

her dad

reminded her

of her identity

as Emily,

not as Bowser.

We are reminded

in the same way

by the words of John.

He can call us

to love

because he reminds us

of our identity

as Christians.

It wouldn't make sense

for him to call us

to love one another

and warn us

and shout at us

love one another

unless he reminded us

out of the well

which we draw

as Christians.

He reminds us

by first

starting with

the good news

that our sins

are forgiven.

That's the axis

on all

that all of this

turns.

And then he says

fathers

you know him

from the beginning.

Again,

it's not a new idea.

It's an old thing.

Young men

you have overcome

the evil one.

There is triumph

over sin now

because of what

Christ has done.

You know the Father.

You know the Son.

Think of that.

Think of the intimacy

that that

is communicating.

You know the Father.

You are strong.

You are strong

not because

you have muscles

and you work out.

No, you're strong

because the Word of God

abides in you.

Because of your faith

in Christ

that's what makes you strong.

That's what

allows you to overcome

the evil one.

That's what he's communicating

in this second part.

John's reminding us

he's reminding them

of who they truly are.

And he uses

a couple different terms

to highlight

different stages of life.

Young men,

fathers,

children.

But all of these

apply to us

as Christians.

All of these

are good reminders

of who we are.

But why are

their sins forgiven?

Not because

they love.

I think that's

the danger

in this text

is coming to this

and saying

our sins are

forgiven

because we love

one another.

That confuses it.

What does he say

in verse 12?

He says this,

little children

because your sins

are forgiven

for his name's sake.

Not because you love.

Not because of

how great you are.

Not because of

how great of a

soccer coach you are.

No.

Your sins are forgiven

because Christ

is who he says he is.

For him alone.

For his mere

good pleasure.

And in order

to love one another

that has to be settled.

And if we're truly

to love

we must experience

that love

and know it

to our core.

Woven throughout this

is this reminder

and repeated again

and again

that this is something

they've known

from the beginning.

That's a good

reminder to us

that when we're

assaulted

with new ideas

with new challenges

and that will happen

that we apply

the same old faith

the same old past

to new challenges

to those new ideas

to those new situations

that our lives

might not look like

the people

that John wrote to

but they do

at their core

because we have

that same faith

and we're assaulted

with some of the

same challenges.

and as we apply

that faith

we must be reminded

old is not bad

especially when it comes

to this life changing

message.

We know the Father

we've known him

from the beginning

of our Christian walk.

He's talking about

Jesus often

in this phrase

when he says

you've known him

from the beginning.

He's pointing back

to Jesus

but he's also

pointing to the Father

because they're

three in one.

we've known this

from the beginning

of our Christian lives

and our strength

flows from that.

All of this is written

John writes all these people

to reassure them

of the faith

they have

to reassure them

as they face

these different challenges

these new ideas

that it doesn't matter

how you live

they're returned

to the old

old story

to the old faith

to the Christian message

and that they're

to have confidence

because of their

fellowship with God

as they love

one another.

John's reminding them

of who they are

and we're reminded

of who we are.

So when the voices

in this world

try to tell us

that we're silly

for thinking

that this is true

remember

that is not

a new challenge

that's something

that they faced

as well.

We'll face

new challenges

but we must

return again

to this old

old story

that Christ

has died

and has risen

and our sins

are forgiven

and that

is how we love

one another.

Out of that

is how we love

one another

because we can't

do it without that

and that should

grant us

confidence

in this life.

That should

grant us

an accurately

placed confidence

not misplaced

in ourselves

not misplaced

in anything else

but in this

old story.

So when the

tempter

accuses us

and says to us

surely can't

be serious

surely you can't

think that you're

a Christian

because you failed

to love one another.

Our desire

to love one another

is born out

of that faith.

We must have

confidence

in who we are

and that's what

John is reminding

of us

this day.

we love

one another

because we have

fellowship with

God through

Jesus.

We love

one another

we're warned

that we must

love one another

but we're

reminded

our loving

one another

does not

make us

lovely

that we are

made lovely

based on what

Christ has

done.

May we be

reminded of that

this morning.

Let's pray.

Lord we thank

you this day

for the

life changing

message of

the gospel

the fact that

you change

sinners

into things

that are

lovely

not because

of what

they have

done

not because

of who

they are

we pray

that you

might remind

us of that

and we

would have

confidence

confidence

with the

saints of

old

that we

don't face

new

challenges

that you

have not

faced

yourself

but father

that we

have the

same

old

old

faith

and we

pray that

you might

show us

more and

more how

to love

one another

out of that

old faith

in Jesus name

amen