By This We Know

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Good morning, I'm Denise Yon. I'm part of the San Francisco Community Group and the Women Reading Women Group.

Today's scripture reading is from John's first epistle, chapter 4, verses 7 to 21, as printed in the liturgy.

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.

In this is love, not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

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 testified 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.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thank you for that scripture reading, Denise.

Good morning, everyone.

My name is Andrew.

I'm one of the pastors here.

If this is your first time at Christ Church, we welcome you.

We're so glad you're here.

We'd love to get to know you in our coffee hour afterwards.

Please stick around and learn more about our church.

We're a church that exists to lead people into deeper relationships with Christ

and his church through community and for the city.

And we'd love for you to know more about that, maybe even be a part of that.

This morning we are continuing our series in the letter of 1 John,

but will you join me in prayer before we get started?

Lord God, we come before you wanting to hear your voice in a very particular, specific way

relevant to each of our individual lives

and in a way that makes a difference in this world.

God, we know that we're supposed to love.

But it's one thing to be familiar with what you say about love,

and it's another thing to be formed by what you say about love.

It's one thing to be saturated with what you've said about love,

and it's another thing to be stirred by what you've said about love.

And we pray for the latter.

We want to be formed.

Lord, we want to be stirred, and we know that apart from the Holy Spirit working here in this moment,

that cannot happen.

So we ask for that, Lord.

Would you grace us with your presence?

Make us the people of love you've called us to be.

Make us the people of love who know how much we are loved by you in Christ.

Convince us of that truth and make a difference, Lord.

We pray in the name of Jesus.

Amen.

So as I just prayed, you know, coming in today's sermon,

I was beginning to wonder if you'd all be tired of me preaching the same thing again and again and again

throughout this letter, 1 John.

Love, love, love, love, love one another.

Right?

I have no doubt in my mind that all of you know this.

Even those of you who are not Christians,

even those of you who might not be familiar with the Scriptures,

we at least know the teaching of Jesus that we are to love one another.

And not only do I know that you all know about this,

but I know that for the most part, you all agree with this teaching of Jesus.

Even if you don't necessarily agree with us about who Jesus is,

you pretty much agree, right, that we're all supposed to love.

Deep down, we all recognize that there's something ultimate about love.

There's something right and good, even sublime and divine, about love.

And this is why so many people, right, so many people gathered around and believed in Dr. King's dream.

So many people rallied around his message and his method, his commitment to radical love, right,

unwavering love, his deep faith in love and the power of love to repair what is broken in this world,

whether war or economic displacement or racial injustice.

According to King, you name it, and love could fix it.

But my question for us today is if it's so simple, if it's so commonsensical,

if we all know we're supposed to love, and if we all believe with Dr. King that love will change the world,

why is there still such a shortage of love in this world?

Why is this world left still so unchanged?

If we really believe in love, if we really believe in Dr. King's dream,

if 60 years ago, in the 60s, when the Western world, you know, swung back and forth

and nodded their heads in approval and their hearts were inspired by the song,

what the world needs now is love, sweet love.

Why did 20 years ago the Black Eyed Peas sing,

people killing, people dying, children hurt, you hear them crying,

where is the love?

Where is the love?

And I was reading Dr. King this week in preparation for this sermon.

He has a collection of sermons called Strength to Love,

and one of those sermons is titled The Antidote to Fear.

And he was saying, you know, he was talking about how back in the 60s,

he was saying Russia fears America, America fears Russia.

He was talking about the Israelis and the Arabs,

and he was really trying to say that the antidote to all of this is love.

But now 60 years later, what has really changed?

Like what happened?

Or what didn't happen?

Now some of us might say that we've just believed in love in vain.

Some would argue that Dr. King's dream was nothing but a dream.

That to love is to be vulnerable, and to be vulnerable is to be weak,

and that the weak will always be swallowed up by the strong every single time in this world.

Some would say that it's survival of the fittest,

and while being social and communal may have its temporary advantages,

ultimately it's about looking out for number one.

And so these folks would argue against Dr. King that love isn't the antidote,

and they'd point to the record of history, because who are we kidding?

Love?

Ending all war?

Ending all economic insecurity?

Ending all racial injustice?

Ending all justice?

Maybe this describes you this morning.

You've tried the way of love only to get burned, right?

Only to get taken advantage of, and nothing to show for it, right?

And now you're like, no, nuh-uh, no more of that.

I'm just going to do me.

I'm just going to get mine.

But still there are others of you who are holding on,

and you would insist that the problem is not that we've loved in vain,

but that we haven't loved enough collectively.

Love is the antidote.

It's just that we need a larger dose.

Not enough people have believed in the dream.

Not enough people have caught the vision.

Not enough people have taken and spread this medicine of love throughout the world,

and what goes around has just not come around yet.

For these dreamers, it's just a matter of time, right?

But meanwhile, we must stay the course, continue loving to the end.

Maybe this describes you this morning.

You're trying.

You're trying so hard to live a life of love and service and care for this world,

but you're tired, and you wonder when.

Maybe you wonder if love really is the antidote.

And perhaps many of you expect me, a Christian minister,

to side with the latter group this morning, right?

The dreamers, the hopeful lovers.

But what the Scriptures teach about who is actually right between the love cynics

and the love optimists is that it really depends on what kind of love we're talking about.

What kind of love are we talking about?

See, I think a lot of us take the meaning and purpose of love for granted.

We just assume we all know what love is, and we're all on the same page about love, right?

We see those lawn signs in our neighborhoods.

Love is just love, right?

And I'm not saying that love is easy to define because it isn't.

But if our conception of love is just this vague notion of sentimental feelings,

warm affections, warm desires and delights and positive vibes,

that's not the kind of love that's going to take us very far.

Ultimately, to simply believe in a vague, generic, sentimentalist,

feelings-first kind of love is to believe in vain

because the problems of the world are too big to be solved by ambiguous, positive vibes.

That may work for a season in places of privilege and plenty,

but such general, generic human warmth has yet to prove itself self-sustaining

and enough to alter the chilling cold of this cold, cold world.

I mean, tell me, how many acts of kindness can raise all those unjustly murdered from the dead

from Nazi concentration camps?

How many reparations could ever make up for the disenfranchisement of the transatlantic slave trade

and the collective trauma caused by white and Western supremacy?

How many positive vibes will it take, in the words of Samwise Kamji,

to make everything sad untrue?

How many positive vibes will it take to bend every historical injustice back to justice

and even bring it into shalom?

Now, I'm not saying that acts of kindness and reparations and positive vibes are pointless.

And I won't deny that the world has had many moments inspiring hope and celebration,

but I will say that we cannot put all our hope in such positive vibes,

such limited acts of love and justice.

Because apart from a supernatural power that can forever break the curse of sin and death upon nature as we know it,

apart from a divine and transcendent intervention,

the record of world history does not indicate, beyond a shadow of a doubt,

that the universe is moving toward it, is moving toward justice as opposed to injustice.

You know, the only reason why Dr. King could make such a claim that though the moral arc of the universe is long,

it bends toward justice,

is because he believed in the God of the Scriptures.

He believed in the God revealed to us in Jesus Christ.

There's a reason why the Black Eyed Peas,

the Black Eyed Peas, they sang what?

Father, Father, Father, help us.

Send some guidance from above.

So we can't do it on our own.

As much as we secular, Western, modern people want to believe we can fix it,

we can solve our own problems,

we can't.

We can't.

It's because when so much of the secular West renegotiated its largely Christian roots

and decided to retain,

love your neighbor but discard,

thus saith the Lord.

When we elevated the second commandment of Jesus to love our neighbors

but made his first great commandment negotiable

to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength,

we unwittingly unmoored ourselves from the very source and origin of love.

And I know I haven't even gotten into the text yet this morning,

but see, this is why this text is so important.

It isn't just another religious rule telling people to love,

which they already know.

It is giving us the very basis,

the very definition of love,

without which we will never love as we ought.

And without which the world will continue to be starved,

starved for love,

unchanged,

and without hope for the abundant life that we all long for.

See, we must not settle for love is love.

What the world needs now is God's sweet love.

Look at verse 7.

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.

And what this is saying is that the grounds of our love for one another,

the very source of our love,

is and it has to be the God who is love himself.

Love is not this, you know, ambiguous, ultimate, impersonal substance, energy, force,

or vibe that God, like, taps into and conforms himself unto.

No, no, God.

God is love.

He, the Father, loving the Son,

and the Son, loving the Father from all eternity,

with a passionate, committed, self-giving, mutual affection,

the triune God,

is love.

And not just one part of him is love,

but all that he is is love.

Like, all that he does is loving.

Even those things that don't seem loving,

like his judgment and his wrath,

they are not the opposite of love.

They are in alignment with who he is,

and they come out of his love.

Do you remember Jesus' anger in the temple?

Right?

His anger in the temple when they made his Father's house of prayer

a commercialized thief,

a den of thieves.

He fumed, right?

He fumed with wrath.

Why?

Because he loved his Father.

Because he loved his Father's glory.

And because he loved those who are being taken advantage of in the temple.

See, God is love means that all God's ways are love

and that he is the very standard of love.

He defines love more than love defines him.

He's not trying to measure up to our varied

and often convenient understandings of love.

No, any vague sense of love that we have

is because we were made in the image of God,

who is love.

So you see, love isn't just what we make of it.

It isn't just any expression we choose.

It's so much more than the free expression of ourselves

and our desires

and the consenting reception of those expressions.

It isn't just wide tolerance

or a relativistic acceptance and affirmation of all things,

just so long as it doesn't harm anyone.

No, love is a specific act of self-giving and concern for others.

That is, get this, modeled.

Modeled after the God who is love himself

and the God who has shown love to us in Christ.

Verse 9.

See, love is the giving of real life.

It's what God showed people who chose death.

It's what he showed us by sending his son,

the light of the world, into our darkness.

Verse 10 says,

And see, love is not primarily about what we owe to God.

Love is primarily defined by what God has shown voluntarily,

even surprisingly, toward us.

When we brought sin and therefore the wages of sin,

death into this world,

he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation.

I know that's a big word.

We talked about it earlier in the series,

but let me go over it again.

And propitiation is this satisfying atonement for our sins.

He sent his righteous, innocent son

to pay the wages of our sin with his own death.

Not our death, his own death.

To satisfy the demands of justice

against all wickedness and unrighteousness.

And see this, this is the gospel, real, real love.

The measure of all that we would call love.

It's the sacrificial, self-giving activity of God

to bring us life by the atoning death of his son, Jesus Christ.

So can you see?

Can you see how much better,

how much purer, how much stronger,

how much more inspiring and powerful,

how much more transformative

the love of God in Christ is toward his people?

Love isn't some fluffy, permissive openness

to anything and everything.

Love is actually the upholding

upholding of the highest standards of God

and yet at God's own expense rather than ours.

And this is the gospel, right?

This is the hope of the world,

the only true love that can really transform the world,

the only true love really worth believing in.

Listen, the world will not be transformed

one act of kindness at a time

by people like you and me.

Is anyone here willing to bet their life

and the well-being of the whole world

on our positive vibes outweighing our negative ones?

No way.

No way, right?

The transformation of the world

demands a greater kindness,

a greater, purer, stronger love,

a love that can deal with the root problem,

which is sin.

The sin that runs through each

and every one of our hearts.

The transformation of the world

demands nothing less than God's love

made manifest amongst us in Jesus Christ,

who put sin to death on a cross

and rose again in glorious life.

And see, thank God for that.

Thank God because that means

if we are followers of Jesus,

our job is not to save the world

by our limited acts

and often flawed acts of love,

but it's to bear witness to God's love,

which can and truly will save the world.

Our job as children of God

is to image and reflect

the Father's love to the world,

to love out of the deep, deep reservoir of love

that the Father has deposited

into each of our lives.

Look at verse 11.

Beloved, if God so loved us,

we also ought to love one another.

See, those who've been loved by God,

we have no reason, no excuse,

no rational explanation

for why we should not love others.

But it's not just an obligation.

It's not just an obligation to love others.

It's an amazing privilege.

And it's an amazing invitation.

Verse 12 here, it says,

no one has ever seen God.

And that reminded me of my daughter.

You know, my daughter, Cammie,

she's three, she's my older one,

and she's in this phase right now

where we'll be talking about God,

and she says,

but I can't see God.

How come I don't see him, Dad?

And you know,

I love how the children's catechism

tries to answer that question.

It says, can you see God?

No, but he always sees me.

And I always try to instill that in her,

that God is still present,

even when we can't see him.

And I remind her,

I remind my daughters that,

you know, we can hear God in his word,

the Bible,

even if we can't see him.

But if I'm honest,

I still get nervous and anxious

every time my daughter asks this question.

Because my worst nightmare

is for my daughters

not to have a real

and abiding relationship

with God in Christ.

And so I'm always wondering

as a parent,

and as a preacher here,

what can I say to convince her?

What can I say to convince all of you

of the reality of God

and his love for us in Christ?

What words do I need to say?

What conversations do I need to have?

But you know, here in this text,

in this verse right here,

God reminded me

that maybe it's not just about

what I say to convince her.

Maybe it's not just about

what I say to convince any of you.

But what if it's also a matter

of how I love?

How I love?

Verse 12,

See, love one another

isn't just some predictable command

in the Bible.

It's an invitation to enjoy

and to expose the presence

of the invisible God.

Like, let that sink in for a second.

When we love one another,

God is there.

When we love one another,

there is God.

And not only that,

but his love is perfected in us.

What does that mean?

I like to think of it this way.

It's like God, who is love,

writing the greatest story ever told, right?

The greatest love story ever told.

And not only did he write himself

into the story

as the heroic lover

who would transform the world

and turn the tragedy

into something more beautiful

than we could ever have imagined,

but he also wrote sequels

to the story.

Chapter after chapter

of his love continuing

to be expressed

through his people

like waves upon waves

emanating from his ultimate

one act of love

in the crucified and risen Christ.

So my question is,

is that not a story

that we want to be a part of?

Like, don't you want a chapter

in this story

of this ever-perfecting love?

Don't you want to make

the invisible God visible,

more perceptible,

his presence more closely felt?

Because that's what happens

when we love one another.

The unseen God

is somehow made perceptible.

Ask Maria Francis about this.

She has seen it.

For those of you

who don't know Maria,

she's our assistant director

of ministry,

and I've had the pleasure

of working with her

for the last two years.

And if you don't know

anything about Maria,

you really need to know,

and she's given me permission

to share the story

of her and her husband,

Pastor Mike.

He sits back there.

Hey, Pastor Mike.

He lifts up his hands.

He gives us amens,

and we love him for that

here at Christ Church.

So as a staff,

we got to hear more snippets

of the story not too long ago,

the story of Pastor Mike's,

his heart attack,

his bike accident,

and his severe brain damage

that resulted.

And man,

I just got to say

that that he is back there

raising his hands,

worshiping with us,

walking, talking,

and just here encouraging us

is nothing short of a miracle.

So just two months ago,

it was around Memorial Day,

which is the anniversary

of Pastor Mike's accident.

We were sitting around our table

on a staff day.

We were eating our lunches

as we do on a Tuesday,

and we were listening to Maria

just share as she was reflecting.

It's Memorial Day,

remembering the nightmare

that came upon their family,

Memorial Day 2015.

And all the days and weeks

and the months that followed,

she just shared with us

what she just went through.

And with teary eyes,

she recalled the helicopter,

right,

airlifting Pastor Mike

to the hospital.

She recalled the long days

of sitting with her

unconscious husband,

not knowing when

or if he'd regain consciousness

and with little to no expectation

from their medical providers

that he would even walk

or talk again.

She also recalled

the jarringly altered husband

who eventually woke up

right next to her,

agitated,

uncomfortable,

unable to form words

or complete sentences.

But then she said something to me

that I will never forget.

After recalling awful detail

after awful detail,

Maria said with full conviction

and true gratitude,

but God is so good.

But God is so good.

And she recounted to us

the goodness of God,

the love of God,

the presence of God

that she experienced,

how?

Through the people of God

from day one

of her nightmare.

All the restaurant gift cards,

all the rental property

that was found for her

next to the hospital,

meals for months

when they returned home,

the way her church,

it was called

Emmanuel Presbyterian Church,

which means God with us, right?

The way their church

just held them.

They literally went into

the Francis home

and they took out a wall

and used some space

from the garage

and used the powder room

and they created

a handicap accessible shower

for this family,

a handicap accessible house

for this family.

And because of this,

though the sting

is surely still there

and it won't finally

be removed

until Jesus returns

to make all things new,

because of the love

of the people of God,

Maria Francis,

she will tell you

that she experienced

the very presence of God.

God with her.

God loving her.

And for that,

she can say with confidence

that God is good

and that all his ways

are love.

And this is just

one of the many chapters,

many untold chapters, right,

of the love of God

perfected amongst his people.

So again,

don't you want

a chapter like that

in the story

that God is writing?

Verse 13,

by this we know

that we abide in him

and he in us

because he has given us

of his spirit.

The spirit works

this kind of love in us

and we have seen

and testified

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.

As the God

who is love

is,

so also are his children.

And that's what I love

about Maria's testimony

of God's presence

and love toward her

in and through his people.

It's not like these people

from Emmanuel Presbyterian Church

were just trying hard

to meticulously adhere

to religious rules

from Jesus

or else punishment, right?

No, they were just

being who they were.

Beloved children of God.

Beloved children of God.

And this is where

I'll wrap up.

Verse 18 says,

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.

See, it is only

the love of God.

It is only the love of God

that can inspire

and motivate

and sustain

the love

that the world needs.

A perfect kind of love

that casts out

all fear.

It is only the love

of God,

the Father Almighty

that can do that.

A love that looks upon us

with His fatherly approval

and calls us

His beloved children.

It is only the love

of God, the Son,

who is the propitiation

for our sins,

our confidence

before God

that we have nothing

to fear

because God

has already satisfied

the demands

of His justice

through Jesus Christ

hanging on a cross

in our place.

It is only the love

of God,

the Spirit,

the very presence

of God willing

to abide

and reside within us,

reminding us

that God is greater

than our hearts

whispering into our ears

that we have

an Abba Father

in heaven

and thus empowering us

to love fearlessly

like He loves.

So if your takeaway

from my sermon

this morning is

love more,

love harder,

either I have failed

at preaching

or you have failed

at listening

because again,

the point is not primarily

that we love

but that God loves us.

That's the point.

He is the source.

He is the beginning.

And as it says here

in verse 19,

we only love

because He first loved us.

We only love

because He first loved us.

I love how this whole verse,

this whole passage

begins in verse 7.

In the Greek it says,

agape toi,

agapomen,

beloved love,

beloved love.

Christchurch,

do we believe

in our belovedness?

Do we believe

God's love for us?

It has to start there.

It has to start there

in our belovedness.

You know,

in seminary,

I was this cocky kid

like many of my classmates.

I wanted to be noticed

and recognized

and known

for my superior moral character

and my amazing Christian,

why are you laughing?

laughing.

And my amazing Christian piety

and my incredible gifts

as a preacher

and a leader

and a theologian,

right?

But a close friend of mine

told me that the thing

that most stuck out

to her about

who I was

was none of these things.

She told me that

what really stuck out

to her about me

was that she could tell

that I was really loved,

that I came from a place,

a community of faith,

a family and friends,

a group of people

who deeply,

deeply loved me.

And this left

a profound impression

upon me.

Like,

what if we were known

not by our gifts,

not by all the positive vibes

we put out into the world,

not even by how much

we obeyed Jesus

and loved others,

others?

But what if

we were known

as people deeply

and lavishly loved

into the sturdiest

kind of security

and peace

and calm

without a trace

of fear?

Like,

what if that was how

we were distinguished

from the world?

Oh my gosh,

those people are so loved.

Those people must be

so loved

to live like that.

I mean,

imagine a world

filled with people

so secure

in the love

of their Heavenly Father.

Imagine a world

where people

weren't toiling to love

but simply living out

of the abundant love

that God

had poured out

upon them.

Isn't that

a great kind of world?

Christ Church,

behold the love of God,

the only love

that can save the world,

shown to us

in Christ

and inviting us

to perfect it

in chapter

after chapter

until he comes again.

Let us therefore

as loved

and loving children

of God

go in the name

of Jesus

to love

and serve this world.

Thanks be to God,

we say, right?

Thanks be to God.

Will you pray with me?

Amen.

Wine together.

Money

to love

and Mohen

해ust

and WARSH

to love

God

to watch

and relevance

as loved