Sermon 1 John 4:7-21 Abide in God

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard

First Presbyterian Church of Ocean City

Sermon 1 John 4:7-21 Abide in God

May 10, 2015

Since Easter I have been preaching from the book of First John. There was a church in the late 1^st and early 2^nd centuries that had experienced division over doctrinal matters. The people who left were devout Christians who believed in the Son of God and expected to receive eternal life as promised in the Gospel of John. But they were mistaken about the identity of this Son of God thinking it to be some kind of spiritual creature. The church's pastor insisted that this was incorrect. The Son of God was none other than Jesus, a flesh and blood human being.

The pastor then went on to explain that just as Jesus is the Son of God so too are we children of God. And as children we should imitate him in order to know him and grow to be like him.

Then the pastor said, that if we are imitating Jesus Christ we should be loving each other because that is what Jesus did. Leaving the church is not the way to show one's love for one another. With this the pastor urged the people who had left to return. But loving one another is very difficult especially when we disagree with each other. So today we will read how it is possible to love one another. We will get to this, but first let's pray.

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in your sight O Lord, our rock and redeemer.

1 John 4:7-21 7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 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. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

13 This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. 16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. 17 This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. 18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

19 We love because he first loved us. 20 Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. 21 And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.

There is a story in the book, The Dangerous Act of Loving Your Neighbor, by Mark Labberton. There was woman, a member of his church, in her eighties named Doris. One day as Doris was getting into her car a young man jumped in, pushed her over, and took off. As they went down the street Doris did what any kidnapped eighty year old would do, she asked him his name. He told her that his name was Jesse and that he was kidnapping her so she would give him money out of a bank ATM. Jesse said that he needed this money for drugs. So Doris told that it was terrible to be on drugs. That was an awful way to live your live. She told him he should get off drugs. When they arrived at the ATM Jesse forced her to withdraw the maximum amount. When they got back in the car Doris told Jesse that he really needed some help. He needed God's help. They visited two more ATMs when Doris hit her daily withdraw limit. Then Jesse drove her to a deserted street and said he was going to leave her there. Before he left, Doris told Jesse that she would pray for him, pray that he would be caught and find the help he needed. Jesse then helped Doris out of the car and opened the door for her to get in the driver's seat. He helped her with her seat belt. And kissed her on the cheek as he said goodbye. It is needless to say at this point, but Doris is a very loving person.

Think of someone you know who is a loving person. This is Mother's Day and many of you are thinking about your mothers. And if your mother was anything like my mother then you were really blessed. But even though we may say that our mother or pastor or teacher or friend was loving, would we ever say that our that person is love? I don't think so. Your mother may have been the most loving person your ever knew. She might have displayed mature self-giving love. You might call he loving, but you would never go all the way to say that she is love. But the author of 1 John says that someone is love. And who might that be? Well, according to scripture God is Love.

Sometimes we make the mistake of reversing this and saying Love is God. When we do this we start worshiping love and try to turn our experience of love into a god. But scripture is very clear on this. We do not worship love. We worship God who is love.

The reason we are able to love one another is because we were first loved by God. As Christians we experience God's love in many ways. For some of us, we experienced God's love in our parents who took us to Sunday School and Church when we were young. For some of us, we experienced God's love in a Born Again experience or an experience of Getting Saved. For some of us, we experienced God's love through Spiritual gifts or in the pages of scripture or in daily devotions. My prayer is that you will all experience God's love this morning in worship.

Once you experience God's love in your life you will know God. This is because according to scripture God is love. So you will come to know God by experiencing his love. And the evidence that you have experienced God's love is that you begin to love one another. So if we claim to have experienced God's love for ourselves it will be on display for others to see as love for one another.

God displayed his love for us by sending his own Son into the world. God loves us so much he had his Son teach us the way to eternal life. God loves us so much he had his Son die for us so that we may be free from sin and live lives of fullness and abundance. God's love for us is overwhelming and undeserved. If comes to us as free gift. Shouldn't we share this gift with others by loving one another? When we love one another something happens to us. We change in important ways. Loving one another is evidence that God's Spirit abides in us. God's love remains in us. And so you are able to love one another.

So how can we, as God's children, be sure that God abides into us? How can we be certain that God's love is in us. According to 1 John we can be assured that God abides in us if we believe that the resurrected Jesus is the Son of God.

So far we have seen that our experience of God's love and our love for one another is evidence that God abides in us. And we have also seen that our belief in Jesus Christ, the resurrected Son of God, gives us the assurance that God abides in us now. So, what is the benefit we receive from having God abide in us?

According for First John, the benefit of having God's love abide in you is that you will experience no fear on Judgment day. On the day Jesus returns and we, like him, are resurrected from the dead we will stand before him. He will be our judge. But if God is with us, if God's love is in us, then we will stand before Jesus filled with confidence in our salvation. We will appear before Jesus having been made like him loving one another. And since we have loved one another we know that on Judgment Day, God will love us because God is love and his love abides in us. And so there will be no fear, because love always casts out fear.

But of course if we fail to love one another then God's love must not be in us. And if God does not abide in us then when Jesus returns we will be judged for the sin that is in us. Then we should be afraid, very afraid.

As Pastor I can assure you that if you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and believe that he was resurrected from the dead then God will abide in you, and God's love will overflow from you, and you will love one another. I can can also assure you that if God abides in you, then you will have no fear on Judgment Day.

If you have just moved to the area and are looking for a church, what should you look for? Well, if the people in the church love one another then you can be sure that God abides in that church and you should stay there. But if a church is divided and fighting with each other. If there seems to be no love for each other in that church then God does not abide in that church and you should run from it as fast as you can. My prayer is that when people visit First Presbyterian they will see evidence that God abides with us. They will see that evidence only if we truly love one another.

We are love one another not because we hope that God will love for doing so. God's love is not effected by anything we do. God loves us because God is love. And the more we know God the more we are filled with his love. And his loves spills out of us as love for one another. Remember that all of us are children of God. And so when we love one another we are really loving all of God's children.

So we have learned today that God is love. He displayed his love for us in his Son Jesus Christ. As we get to know him through prayer, Bible study and worship we find ourselves filled with his love. God abides in us. We display God's love in us by loving one another. Let's pray.

Father in heaven, thank you for your abiding love in us. Help us to display your love to the world by loving one another. This we pray in the name of your Son whom you sent to us out of your great love for us. Amen.