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The Marvelous Works of Jesus, Part 3: The King Builds His Kingdom (Luke 4:31-5:11)

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What is the message of Christianity all about? How would you summarize it in a few words? It’s a good thing to think about.

Here’s what Jesus says, “I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent.” Jesus’ summary? The good news of the kingdom of God.

I don’t think that’s generally the first thing that comes to the mind of evangelical Christians when they think of Christianity. So, why doesn’t it come to our mind when it came so readily to Jesus’ lips? What does it mean? Why would Jesus summarize His message as the good news of the kingdom of God?

That’s what our passages teaches us. We will see this in three points. The teaching of the kingdom of God. The demonstration of the kingdom of God. The extension of the kingdom of God.

The Teaching of the Kingdom of God
Jesus said that He had a message to proclaim. It was good news. It was good news about the kingdom of God. While this message might not be clear to us, it was understandable to Jesus’ hearers. They weren’t necessarily looking for someone to die on a cross and rise again, and that was part of their problem. However, they were looking for a king who would bring in a new kingdom.

They understood that things were not as they should be. Instead of enjoying prosperity in their own kingdom, they were under the dominion and often oppression of the Roman government. In addition, many of the people had compromised the ancient faith with the newcomers. Many would have agreed that a call to repentance was needed. They wanted a leader who would come and liberate them and lead them back to God and His ways. So, when Jesus talked about a kingdom, this would have made sense. They would not be surprised that the Messiah would come talking about the coming of the kingdom. They would have understood the idea that people should repent because the kingdom of God was at hand. They needed to get ready. They were looking with expectation, as Luke notes in Luke 3.

And so, Jesus’ message was an answer to their expectation. The kingdom is here.

Jesus spent much of His time teaching about this kingdom and correcting their misconceptions about it. You can see in our passage how much time Jesus spent teaching and proclaiming. First, Jesus taught in the synagogues. Now, people often avoid church because it has hurt them. Jesus had just been rejected in His hometown and nearly killed. And what does He do? “Then he went down to Capernaum, a town in Galilee, and on the Sabbath he taught the people” (Luke 4:31). Jesus went into the synagogues, the places where people gathered for worship. He went where the people were, even though He had faced rejection.

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The Marvelous Works of Jesus 2: The Champion (Luke 4:1-30)

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When you start to think about the evil that exists in this world, it is easy to despair. The problems are just so big, who can solve them? Think of all the corruption and oppression that occurs around the world. It’s a tangled mess where the most vulnerable are prey. It’s astonishing to see how the strong will prey on the weakest and seek to squeeze all they can out of them.

Our church has dealt with the issue of scams. It’s amazing how creative people can be trying to steal. I have helped people deal with this. However, last week, I was almost victim of one. I actually could have lost some money, but the app didn’t work. The evil in this world is relentless.

The problem is not just out there. The battle against evil is waged in our own hearts. And when we look closely at the situation, we see our own weakness. We know we have been often deceived. We find ourselves in a fog and not able to act correctly. We have fallen into sin again and again and been only a few missteps away from disaster. In the face of the relentless challenge of evil in the world, we need a champion.

And that’s what this text teaches us. We have a champion.

The Battle
In the first three accounts of Jesus’ life, we find that immediately after the baptism of Jesus, the Spirit led Him into the wilderness to be tested. It was the guidance and leadership of the Spirit the brought Jesus to battle. In our own lives, we should recognize that after our baptism, the Spirit will lead us into testing as well. We should not be surprised if the Christian life is a battle. We follow in the steps of Jesus.

The similarity between Jesus and the Christian is not the main point of the text. The main point is the difference between us. Beyond that, it is the difference between Adam and Jesus. Adam was placed in a Garden with an easy test: don’t eat from one tree. Jesus was placed in hard conditions with 40 days of fasting in a very challenging test. The contrast could not be greater.

Just like with Adam, the devil came to tempt Jesus. Remember that beyond the evil of men in this world, there is the devil. We need to see that the evil in this world is not just the cause of humans. It is the work of a malevolent and powerful being that God created but who revolted against God and now seeks to wreck what God has done.

The Father had spoken to Jesus and confirmed that Jesus was the Messiah and the Son of God. He said, “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” The question in all these temptations was, would Jesus trust the Father and the destiny that the Father had for Him, or would He try to take a shortcut? That was the same issue in the Garden. God had promised Adam a glorious future. All he had to do was trust God and obey Him in a very easy test.

Just like with our first father Adam, the devil tried to sow doubt. He does not say, “turn these stones to bread.” Rather, he says, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread” (emphasis mine, Luke 4:3). This was a subtle way of sowing doubt in what the Father had said. It was particularly challenging because Jesus was hungry. Did God really say . . . ? Satan might have said here. Jesus knew exactly how Satan was trying to emphasize the “if” that would bring doubt in God’s Word. He rejected what Satan said and went back to the Word of God in the book of Deuteronomy, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’” The rest of the verse says that it is on every Word that comes from the mouth of God. Jesus would not need to prove that He was the Son of God. He would rely on the word that came from the mouth of God.

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The Marvelous Works of Jesus, Part 1: Time to Change (Luke 3:1-22)

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In a way, the whole world recognizes the need for repentance. There is no other time of the year at which this message is better recognized than now. That’s what New Year’s resolutions are all about. We need to change. We have been going one way, and now we need to go another.

One interesting thing about the New Year is that it is not on our timetable. The New Year calls for new patterns of life and new goals. It comes whether we like it or not. It is forced upon us, and we have to consider it. What am I going to do with this new year? Am I going to continue in the same old ways? Or, am I going to make something different of it? What will it look like?

That’s what happened to the people of Jesus’ times. They did not choose the time of the coming of John the Baptist or of Jesus. That was God’s timeline. When this time came, it demanded a change. It demanded repentance. That’s what we’ll consider in this passage. In order to understand the call to repentance, we need to look at the messenger, the message, and the Messiah.

The Messenger
The messenger was John the Baptist. The first thing we note about John is that John came from a miraculous birth. We are not going to look at every detail of the book of Luke, but it’s important to recognize that at this point in Luke’s telling of Jesus’ story, John was already set apart for the work of God. Before an angel announced the birth of Jesus, he announced the birth of John to the priest Zechariah. Here’s what he said:

He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born. He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord (Luke 1:14–17).

Zechariah and Elizabeth were past the age of bearing children. However, they were not outside the possibilities of God’s power. God gave them a son in a miraculous way to show the extraordinary nature of this child.

John was going to be God’s special messenger to call people back to the Lord. He was preparing the way for the Lord, as we shall see.

John came through God’s command. Even though John was marked out from birth, he did not go out until God told him to. We know the exact time when John came. It was in the 15th year of the reign of Tiberias Caesar. This was in A.D. 26. Luke emphasizes that this is not just imagination or a story. It is real history. It is verifiable. At that time, “the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the wilderness” (Luke 3:2). When God gave the command, he knew it was his time. He went and preached a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins (Luke 3:3).

John came with great boldness. Because he knew his commission was from God, he spoke with great boldness. “John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, ‘You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?'” (Luke 3:7). John saw that the wrath of God was coming on his generation, and he knew it was urgent to warn them. So, he spoke boldly.

In one instance, John rebuked even the ruler Herod because of his adulterous ways. That’s what ultimately landed John in prison. “When John rebuked Herod the tetrarch because of his marriage to Herodias, his brother’s wife, and all the other evil things he had done, Herod added this to them all: He locked John up in prison” (Luke 3:19–20). John did not let the threat of harm keep him from calling anyone, even the most powerful, to repentance. John came with great boldness because he feared God more than man.

John came to prepare for Jesus. John was not there for himself. The people of that time were looking for the Messiah. The Messiah means “the anointed one.” The idea is that it is someone sent and anointed by God to bring salvation. John was an anointed one. He was not the anointed one.

Here’s what happened when the people asked if John was the Messiah. “I baptize you with water. But one who is more powerful than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire” (Luke 3:16–17). John was powerful, but he was just the messenger sent to prepare the way for Jesus. Consequently, he knew that the day would come when he would step out of the way in order to let the Messiah come to the forefront.

Now, before we consider what that day in which the Messiah showed up was like, let’s look at John’s message because that is what is highlighted here and because it is very instructive for us.

The Message
The message of John is a message of repentance. What does this mean?

Repentance demands a mindset change. The word repentance in the original language really does not mean saying you are sorry. This is a fruit of repentance, but it is not what repentance is all about. The word repentance could be literally translated “a change of mind” or “a mindset change.”

The point is that real change begins with how we think about things. It begins with the stories that we tell ourselves. What we need is a change in our stories and thinking. Real and lasting change begins with the way we think. That’s the meaning of the word repentance. That’s what John preached.

One of the stories that they were telling themselves was that they were children of Abraham, and so they were fine. John said, no. A real child of Abraham is one who lives like him, not just one who is descended from him. Abraham’s significance is first and foremost in his faith working through love and not his biology. It’s easy to put our confidence in past religious experiences or privileges, but what God wants is real righteousness and justice.

Repentance demands adjustments. A mindset shift demands adjustments on our part. We may have been thinking one way before, but when God shows up, things will have to be adjusted. That’s why Luke reminded us of the fact that God had already told them through the prophet Isaiah that a new messenger would come. Isaiah told them that the coming of the Messiah would demand adjustments. Listen to these words:

A voice of one calling in the wilderness,
“Prepare the way for the Lord,
make straight paths for him.
Every valley shall be filled in,
every mountain and hill made low.
The crooked roads shall become straight,
the rough ways smooth.
And all people will see God’s salvation” (Luke 3:4–6).

This citation from Isaiah 40 used the image of making a road in the desert. Valleys would have to be raised. Mountains would have to be leveled. Crooked roads would have to be adjusted.

God uses this image to tell us about the adjustments that we have to make when He comes. We may have had some things on our agenda, but we may have to add others or take away others. Things will have to change. Are we ready for the types of adjustments the Lord’s coming demands? That was the message of John.

Repentance demands fruit. The change in our hearts and minds demands a change in our actions. “Produce fruit in keeping with repentance” (Luke 3:8). This means that our actions will have to change. God tells us in this passage that various groups came to him and asked how they should change.

“What should we do then?” the crowd asked.

11 John answered, “Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same.”

12 Even tax collectors came to be baptized. “Teacher,” they asked, “what should we do?”

13 “Don’t collect any more than you are required to,” he told them.

14 Then some soldiers asked him, “And what should we do?”

He replied, “Don’t extort money and don’t accuse people falsely—be content with your pay” (Luke 3:10–14).

What is interesting is that the change centers in their relationships with people. Our love for God is demonstrated in just relationships with other people. Our tendency in our society is to basically focus on our own things and let others go their way. Repentance demands a concern for our neighbors, our communities, and the people around us. We should be content with what we have and be ready to share our time, talents, and efforts for the community. That’s what John is saying. That’s how we begin to live in conformity with the community that the Messiah will bring.

Now, there is an important part of this message that we need to see here. If we do not repent, then it is not okay. The wrath of God is coming, and the kingdom of God is coming. Adjustments are going to have to be made, and whoa to us, if we refuse to make those adjustments. If we refuse to break with our old ways, then the coming of the kingdom will break us.

On the flip side, if we repent, we should be encouraged. John washed people with water when they agreed to his message. This showed that their sins were forgiven. Confessing their sins, they were washed to show that God forgave them and that they were welcome in the coming kingdom of the Messiah.

And then one day, something rather astonishing happened.

The Messiah
John had been talking for a long time about the coming Messiah, and one day, he showed up. Now, what do you think that he would do? Do you think he would now take over and start leading the people? Do you think that he would stand up and speak?

No. He did something rather remarkable. He told John to baptize him. He received the baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. This is remarkable because he did not have any sin. As John said, Jesus is the spotless lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He did not need to repent because He was the King bringing the new order of the kingdom into the world. It was His reign and rule. So, it’s exceedingly strange that he would come and be baptized. It’s a really shocking thing.

But it’s a marvelous thing. How do we know when we repent that our efforts will bear any fruit? Because God says, “I am with you.” That’s what happening here. Jesus comes to his repenting people, and says, I am totally with you. I enter the waters of baptism with you. I am intimately united to you. I will bring you to a new place and empower you to make the adjustments. I don’t condemn you, Jesus would say. I am here to help you. Jesus’ baptism is a marvelous confirmation of God’s acceptance of all who repent and believe.

And there’s more. As Jesus entered the water, He was praying. He was speaking to His Father in heaven. Then, the Spirit came down in bodily form. The Father spoke in audible form: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased” (Luke 3:22). Here was the presence of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It is the clear revelation that baptism is in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It is God revealed as Triune, as the great Three in One. It is God as Triune revealed in solidarity with us. God is with us.

How will we make the change? How will we make the adjustments? How will we bear the fruit of repentance? God is with us.

Conclusion
What would happen if Jesus came to your house today and said, I am going to be a part of your life this week and just do life with you? What sort of adjustments would you want to make? What things would you not want to do? How would your priorities change? What would be important to you?

That’s how we should think of the coming of the kingdom. Jesus is coming to be with us in the midst of our homes and lives. Repentance is demanded. Priorities will change. Adjustments will need to be made. Actions will have to occur that have not occurred in a long time.

It would be a very humbling experience but a healthy one. It would hurt, but it would heal. And, Jesus, seeing our heart to repent would say, “Don’t be afraid. Remember. I went down into the waters of the baptism of repentance just like you. I’m with you all the way.” Amen.

Benediction: This is a great time of year to think about repentance. What shifts need to occur in our mindset? What do we need to leave behind? What do we need to start doing and thinking? What needs to be adjusted? Jesus has come into the world. His kingdom demands a change on our part.

But remember also your own baptism. You are baptized into the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Jesus was baptized like you. This assures us that wherever we go and whatever God calls us to this week, He will be with us all the way. So, go out to serve the world in the assurance of the blessing of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

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Joyful Fellowship with God and Man, Part 10: The Blessing of Fellowship (1 John 5:13–21)

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Everything we do involves some administrative work. We have to make lists. We have to get things done. We have to organize. We have to prioritize.

Our society seems to be very, very busy. We always have things to do. People who are retired tell me that they have never been busier than when they are retired. They don’t know how they did everything before.

In the midst of all the busy-ness, we have to remember what life is all about. Christmas is a great time to remind us. First, it is about joyful fellowship with God. Second, it is about joyful fellowship with man, with other human beings. Christmas refocuses our attention on God. We set aside time from our hustle and bustle and enjoy our family and friends. It’s a chance to reset and focus on what is most important.

That’s what this letter from John is all about. The goal of this letter, which we call 1 John, is that we might enjoy that fellowship with one another and fellowship with God. These two are connected. We cannot ignore the one or the other if we want to experience joyful community.

In this passage, we have a sort of summary of what John has said in this letter with a few additional concluding thoughts. Let’s look at these through the lens of the blessing of fellowship.

Knowing the Fellowship
The key problem in our fellowship with God is, how do we know we can enjoy fellowship with Him? After all, how can an infinite God have fellowship with human beings? Even if he can, we know that we have not done what He has asked of us or become what we were supposed to be. How can such people have fellowship with Him? We all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God. So, how can we know that we can have fellowship with Him?

Well, that’s one reason John wrote this letter. “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:13). Eternal life here is fellowship with the Triune God. It is not just length of life, though that is also included. He writes to those who believe in the name of the Son of God that they might know that they have that eternal life, that fellowship with God.

How can they know it? They know it because of what Jesus has done. “This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4:9–10). Out of His great love, God has done what is necessary to restore our relationship with Himself.

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Joyful Fellowship with God and Man, Part 6: Truly Living Is Truly Loving (1 John 3:11–18)

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What is life all about? There is no question that it is about loving God and serving Him. This is our first and highest priority. God is the Creator and Lord of the universe. He made all things for His glory.

However, the second great purpose is loving our neighbor, loving the people around us. When people become Christians, we often tell them that they need to go to church, read their Bible, and pray. However, there is another key element, if we take the Bible’s priorities seriously: learning to love. We should say, read the Bible, pray, and love everyone, especially our brothers and sisters in Christ.

But what does it mean to love our brothers and sisters in Christ and the rest of humanity? How do we do it? This is the first lengthy section of instruction that God gives us in this letter on how to love. Why is this so important? That’s what we’ll see in our first point. Then, we will consider the opposite of love and the practice of love.

The Importance of Love
Why is love so important?

First, we see the importance of love in the priority of its teaching. John says that this is the message that they heard from the beginning. As soon as they heard about Jesus, they heard about His command to love each other.

John had said that this was not a new commandment but an old commandment. The command to love our neighbor as ourselves is found in Leviticus 19:18. It is actually imprinted on our hearts as well. We are made to love, and love is the natural state of humanity. Sin has marred it, but this makes a deformed humanity. However, the Bible and our hearts always call us back. That has been the teaching from the beginning.

Second, we see the importance of love in that it is the way of life. “We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death” (1 John 3:18). This is the way of life.

Now, here is the question that people often have, what about people who don’t love us? Should we love them? Jesus, of course, says, “Love your enemies.” There is a reason for this. Love is the way of life. Hatred is the way of death. Just because others choose the way of death does not mean that we should. We should always follow the way of life, joyful fellowship with God and man.

This is similar to the other metaphor John used for love. He said that whoever hates walks in darkness. Whoever loves walks in the light. Just because others walk in the darkness does not mean that we should. We should always walk in the light, even if others choose to walk in the darkness. Truly living is truly loving, even if others choose not to love us back.

Third, we see the importance of love in the example of Jesus. John says that loving our neighbor is an old commandment. There is another sense, however, in which it is a new commandment. It is new in that we are now to love as Jesus loved. We love in the way of His example. “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers” (1 John 3:16).

Jesus loved like no one else before. He loved His own by serving them, even washing their feet, and eventually dying for them. He loved his enemies like no one before, bearing with them, and praying that God would forgive even the ones who nailed him to the cross. This is love. It is love that is light that shines in the darkest darkness. That’s the example of Jesus.

The teaching of love for our neighbor is hugely important. It is the message from the beginning. It is the way of life. It is the way of Jesus.

The Opposite of Love
John not only tells us that we should pursue love of our brethren. He warns us not to fall into the opposite. We should not hate. “Do not be like Cain who belonged to the evil one and murdered his own brother” (1 John 3:11). Now, we may have never literally murdered anyone like Cain, but the root of murder is in the hearts of all of us. It is a spirit of hatred. “Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life” (1 John 3:15).

Now, what is hate? In order to understand what hate is, we need to know what love is. Love is a desire for someone’s fellowship and well-being. This means, we want to connect with that person, and we want their best.

Hatred is the opposite. Hatred is when we do not desire someone’s fellowship and well-being. We don’t want to be around them or have no interest in them, and we don’t care about their well-being. In Cain’s case, we positively want to diminish it.

Why did Cain kill Abel? Because his deeds were evil, and Abel’s were good. What he tells them is that when they seek to live a godly life, people will feel the same way about them that Cain did about Abel. “Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you” (1 John 3:13). Christians should remember this.

On our part, we have passed from death to life. We know this by the fact that we love our brothers. However, we need to be on our guard! We must watch out that we do not have a cold heart towards people and an indifference to their needs. And this leads us to the final point. Love must be put into practice.

The Practice of Love
John says that love has to be put into practice. Jesus didn’t just say He loved people. He demonstrated in actions. The same should be true for us. “If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has not pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?” (1 John 3:17).

This conclusion is obvious if we understand what love is. Love is a desire for someone’s fellowship and well-being. If we truly desire people’s well-being, then we will want to see them prosper. If we can help them, we will.

Now, in our world, we know about needs all over the world. We can’t do everything for everybody. So, what should we do?

First, we have a responsibility toward our own. We should take care of our own things. As one author puts it, there is a principle of “his lamp still shines.” In other words, we maintain ourselves and have the things we need.

Second, we should trust God in giving love. God is going to take care of us, and He is going to lead us to give. I have found in my own life that God has made it clear when I should give, and I have followed what I believe is His leading. His demands have not been excessive. In addition, as I have given, He has always provided for me what I need to give. Read carefully through 2 Corinthians 9: “Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God” (10–11).

Third, err on the side of generosity. You won’t regret it. God will take care of you. Now, I’m going to use an example from my own life to illustrate a point, not to boast. There was a Mongolian here this summer who loved the guitar. He had always wanted an electric guitar. I told him he could use mine for the summer, since I did not use it that much. At the end of the summer, I had heard how much he enjoyed it. So, I decided I would just give it to him. Now, here’s why I bring that up. I have not missed that electric guitar at all, even though it was a somewhat difficult choice to give it to him. However, as I think about this guy playing it over in Mongolia, it gives me a lot of joy. I would not have had that joy, if I had kept it. I probably would have regretted not giving it to him. That teaches me to err on the side of generosity.

Now, one more point I want to make about our situation here in the United Sates. We have an abundance of food and clothing in this land. We don’t see much, if any, extreme poverty, as international organizations describe it. However, there are still a lot of needs. There is need for support, encouragement, friendship, and community. That’s where we can show our love. We may not need to give people a meal who might otherwise not have one that day. We may not need to give people clothes who otherwise might not have any. However, there is a need to experience human connection without which we can be as poor as anyone without food or clothes. That’s how we can show love.

In reaching out to people to encourage them, we can heed the call of the Apostle John, “Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth” (1 John 3:18).

Conclusion
Brothers and sisters, I want you to know that I see you loving people. I see you caring about people. I see you meeting needs. You are not indifferent to the needs around you.

What I want to encourage you in is to do it more and more. Be more deliberate. Be more wise. Be more loving.

Here’s the key takeaway from the sermon. As you think about the Christian life, think, Word, prayer, and love. Don’t think about just those actions that relate to God but also loving those around you. Think of fellowship. Think of the needs of others. That’s the transformation in our thinking we need. Our goal in our Christian life should be to be experts in biblical knowledge and also experts in human relationships. That’s how God is calling us to think here.

That is the way that Jesus is working out His life in us. That is the way He taught us through His example. “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters” (1 John 3:16). Amen.

Benediction: every day, we have opportunities to live like Jesus. We have people all around us. We should welcome the opportunity. We should welcome each human being we meet as an opportunity to exercise love for our neighbor. That is our calling as Christians. That is what it means to live like Jesus.

Finally, brothers and sisters, rejoice! Strive for full restoration, encourage one another, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you. Amen.

________

Photo by juan pablo rodriguez on Unsplash

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Why Jesus Came (1 John 3:1–10)

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Where do all the problems of the world come from? Everyone has their theory. Times can be good, people say, if we have less or more government. Others believe it is lack of food, lack of security, lack of job opportunities, and so on. All of these things can be real problems, to be sure. However, the Bible teaches us that the root of our problems goes beyond these things. It says that our basic problem is the rupture in the relationship between God and human beings.

The word that the Bible generally uses for this problem is sin. Sin is the rupture in the relationship between God and man. It is life that is not the way it’s supposed to be, as theologian Cornelius Plantinga put it. Out of this rupture comes all of our internal struggles and all the injustices and inhumanity of man to man.

When you see this problem, you see why the Bible gives the solution that it does. The solution is that someone needs to bridge the gap, a mediator, a go between. That’s who Jesus is. He is the God-man who has come to bring restoration to a lost world. So, let’s consider the message of the Bible summarized in 1 John 3:1-10. We will see the need for Jesus’ coming, the purpose of Jesus’ coming, and the result of Jesus’ coming.

The Need for Jesus’ Coming
As noted, the reason for Jesus’ coming is because of sin. God is the Lord of the universe, and He has the right to command us. We owe Him all things. To obey Him is to live as we were meant to live in accordance with the way things were meant to be.

Sin is living contrary to the reality of God’s lordship over the world. It is living as if we were a law unto ourselves, as if God did not exist and we were the masters. “Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness” (1 John 3:4). What is the law? That we would love, serve, and worship God and that we would live in harmony with our neighbor in accordance with the order that God has established, living honest, productive, kind, and just lives.

Another word that is used to describe this disorder and disruption between God and man is unrighteousness. To live as a righteous person is to live in a way that seeks the interests of God and the interests of our neighbor. To live in a way that we are concerned about our community in general and the poor and those in need is to live righteously. When we focus on ourselves and what is best only for us and our most immediate concerns, it is unrighteousness.

This sort of living is rampant. It is not only that we do wrong to others, but it is a lack of concern for God and His glory and for the good of others. This is sin as well. It puts us and our own concerns at the center of the universe rather than God and His will.

That people live unrighteous lives is true and obvious all around us. As theologian Reinhold Niebuhr put it, sin is the only empirically verifiable doctrine of Scripture. That doesn’t mean that the others aren’t verifiable. It’s just that we can look around and see it is true.

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Joyful Fellowship with God & Man, Part 3: Obedience & Love (1 John 2:3-14)

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How do we live in joyful fellowship with God and man? That’s the question that John answers in this book. He wrote this letter so that its readers might have fellowship with the Apostles who have fellowship with the Father and the Son. He wants a community living in joyful fellowship with one another.

So, what does it mean to really live in fellowship with God on a daily basis? The passage before us gives us a significant part of the answer. It means to live in obedience to God’s commands and to love our neighbor. That’s the first two points that we will consider in this sermon. The third will be the encouragement that he gives them that they are living in fellowship with God in verses 12-14. So, let’s look at each of these things in turn as we consider what it means to live in joyful fellowship with God and man.

Obedience
Anyone who lives in fellowship with God is going to obey His commands. There is no fellowship with God apart from obedience. “We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. Whoever says, ‘I know him,’ but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person” (1 John 2:3–4). The word used here for “to know God” means more than just knowledge. It means knowledge that changes us. We might say, “if we really get who God is . . .” It also means not just knowing about God but actually letting that love change our hearts. To really know God and have fellowship with Him is to keep His commands. Anyone who claims to know the Lord but does not keep His commands is not telling the truth.

When we think about it, this makes complete sense. God is our Creator. He made us. He is the Lord of the universe. It exists from Him, through Him, and for Him. We have nothing but what He gives us. It makes complete sense that if He tells us to do something we would do it.

Now, people today fear the idea of commands. We are almost ready to do the opposite if someone commands us to do something. That is in part because of our own anxiety. We fear that what someone tells us to do will destroy us. We fear that we will lose ourselves. However, when it comes to God, we don’t need to fear this. We know that what God commands us will bring us life. There is nothing that He tells us to do that will ultimately harm us, even though it may be hard in the moment. His commands are life. We will not lose ourselves. We will find ourselves in obedience to Him.

We should also note that obeying God’s commands is the fruit and not the root of our relationship with God. He does not say that we obey God’s commands in order to have a relationship with God. He says, we have a relationship with God, and this means that we will obey the commands of God. It is the fruit of our relationship with Christ and not the root of it. It is so sure that the relationship with God will be one where we obey His commands that we can tell that we have that relationship with God from the fact that we obey His commands just like we can know an apple tree from the fact that apples are growing on it. It’s easy to tell.

Does this mean that we obey God’s commands perfectly? No. Don’t forget what we just considered. John wrote this so that we would not sin. However, if anyone sins, then we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ places His sacrifice for our sins over against our sin. The result is that God is faithful and just to forgive us. If it is not perfection, then what does it mean to obey the commands of God? What this means is that the direction of our lives is in obedience to God’s commands, that we desire to keep them, and that we are grieved and repent when we do not. That’s what it means to keep God’s commands in this context.

Now, what does it mean to obey God’s commands?

1. What are God’s explicit commands? What are the things that God tells us to do? We have the Ten Commandments. We have Jesus’ exposition of it in the Sermon on the Mount. We have summaries of God’s commands in Romans 12. We should know these well.

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Our First Priority (Dt. 6:4–9, Part 1)

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When we think about the blessings that God has given us in this land, it is truly amazing. We are blessed in this land with freedom, prosperity, and resources unparalleled in the history of the world. So many of the problems that our ancestors faced we no longer face or to a much lesser degree.

But that doesn’t mean that there are no challenges. What do we do with all this prosperity? How do we maintain it? How do we handle this technology that has made our life so much easier? How do we live in peace with other nations that have their own ambitions and different perspectives from our own? How do we deal with broader threats to health and economy that we have not yet experienced? How do we deal with the polarization that seems to inhibit us from acting in a rational way, grates on our spirits, and splits families and friends?

On a more personal level, we face the question of how to live a meaningful life? How do we deal with the pressures of relationships? And what about our children and their future? What about our children who now seem to be going off the rails? How do we manage our own declining health and learn to live within new limits? What about our church and its future?

What is our priority in the midst of this? If we go back 3,000 years to the book of Deuteronomy, we find the people of Israel facing a big challenge. They were going to go in and take a land that was already inhabited. They were going to have to fight many difficult battles in order to take the land that God had given them. Moses, their leader, was going to die, and they would have a new leader. As they thought about their situation, what was their priority? What was the most important thing for them to do? Our text gives the answer. Love God. That was their first priority. Moses taught them that their blessing did not depend on their skill or wisdom or life but on their connection with God. That’s what we want to see in this lesson, from reason, from Jesus, and from Moses.

Our First Priority According to Reason
If we do not believe that there is a God, then, obviously, loving God is not the highest priority. However, most of the world does and has believed that there is a God who is almighty and infinite and rules the world. If this is the case, then what could be more important than knowing Him and aligning our lives with who He is? He is the one who has made the world and made us. Doesn’t it make sense that we’d want to know something about Him?

You can see this in people’s lives. They try to make power, money, pleasures, or people the center of their lives. It really doesn’t work. It’s a fruitless quest. We need something much more stable to base our lives on. This center of stability is a relationship with God.

Humans throughout the world and throughout world history testify to this fact. Before they entered battle or took a voyage or began their reigns, they would sacrifice to the gods. Granted, they got badly wrong who God is, but they had enough sense to realize that their relationship to God was what mattered most.

If we believe the world is created by God and for God, then what could be a greater priority than knowing Him and loving Him? What Moses was teaching here in Deuteronomy 6 is what is in line with what is revealed to the hearts and minds of all people.

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An Ever Present Help (Mt. 28:20b)

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Christians today look at the world and are anxious about it. The world seems to be becoming more and more hostile to our faith. Our values seem to be under assault.

In addition, things are changing so fast. The past year has accelerated so many trends that were already underway. Power is shifting throughout the world.

What are we to do about it? Most people are afraid to even bring up these topics with their neighbors. We often look out on the world as if we just have to watch it with a sense of foreboding and doom. What are we to do?

Matthew West captured this sentiment well in a song that he wrote a few years ago.

Well, I just couldn’t bear the thought of
People living in poverty
Children sold into slavery
The thought disgusted me
So, I shook my fist at Heaven
Said, “God, why don’t You do something?”

He said, “I did, I created you”

That song was called, “Do Something.”

We are not called to sit passively back and let the world slide into destruction. God calls us in this text to get involved in changing the world. Particularly, He wants us to make disciples of all nations.

The Presence
Now, that seems daunting. Who are we to do something about the big problems in the world? You might say, “I’m scared even to talk to my neighbor about Jesus.” You might say, “I have a hard time even talking to people at all.” You might say, “I’m young and can’t do anything.”

I’ll never forget a conversation I had a few years ago with a man in our church. He felt like he should be a deacon, but he was scared. He didn’t think he could do it.

So, I asked him, “Do you know what God always says when He calls people to do something?”

“Get going?” He responded.

“No,” I replied. “He says, ‘I will be with you.'”

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Power on the Way (Mt. 28:18)

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Because of this past year, many people have gotten out of the discipline of gathering. Before the pandemic, we may have gathered on Sunday and in a small group, but now we have gotten out of the habit. Why is this? Because we are tired, overwhelmed, and busy. That’s what generally keeps people from doing so.

There are so many good things that require discipline. They require strength and power to complete. Where are we going to get the strength, even when things get difficult, to keep going and doing the right things?

But our situation is often worse than that. We not only fail to do the right things. We do the wrong things. We spend our time on that which is useless or positively harmful. Some of you are completely stuck in a pattern of doing the wrong thing. You’re stuck in bitterness or addicted to pleasure or fixated on some wrong in the world. You’re stuck in a toxic relationship and keep going back. You hit a wall, and you keep descending to a low and unhelpful place. You get tired, and you start blaming and attacking. You feel like you’ve got nothing left. I know. I’ve been there, too, especially in this past year.

What are we to do? Well, we don’t have to rely on ourselves. Jesus has what we need, and that is what we learn from what Jesus says in Mt. 28:18, “Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.'” He has the power, and He makes it available to you.

Let’s consider this more carefully by looking at Jesus’ authority and then how this power helps us.

Jesus’ Authority & Power
In this passage, Jesus met His eleven disciples on a mountain. Judas had betrayed him and was no more. The eleven remaining disciples met him in Galilee. They went up to the mountain to meet him. Some worshipped Him, and some doubted.

They knew that Jesus had risen from the dead, but what does that resurrection mean? What is its significance? What is going to happen next? Jesus told them. “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.” He has not only risen from the dead. He is exalted over all things.

Jesus was now exalted as the ruler of heaven and earth with all power and authority given to Him. That is one of the most important aspects of the resurrection. He rules over the entire world with all power and authority given to Him by His Father.

In Psalm 110:1–2, David prophesies concerning the Messiah, “The Lord says to my lord: ‘Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.’ The Lord will extend your mighty scepter from Zion, saying, ‘Rule in the midst of your enemies!'” What Jesus is saying in Matthew 28:18 is that this had now been fulfilled!

And this is the amazing thing. The Apostles got it. In spite of the fact that they were persecuted and opposed by the authorities of this world, in spite of the fact that they were a small group of believers, they walked around like they owned the place. They believed that whatever happened before their physical eyes, the true reality was that Jesus was reigning right now and was in the process of redeeming and restoring the world through His almighty power. They saw Jesus with the eyes of faith. They saw Him as reigning with all authority and power.

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