A love that insists on forever

The King's Community of Healing Light

(1 John 2:9-11, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, March 27, 2016)

[9] Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness. [10] Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. [11] But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

There are two very significant problems with pursuing relationships with family and friends in this broken world. First, many end up being something less than what we would like them to be. Second, even if our loves are perfect, they die. Jesus has solved both of these problems with His resurrection. First, the world that He began as the first resurrection man will be far better, in terms of relationships, than anything that we could ever ask for or imagine. This is very good news for parents who would like things to be better with their children and for children who would like things to be better with their parents—and it also is true for all other kinds of relationships that we have at present, like marriages, siblings, friends. Second, all those perfected relationships will never end, since there will be no more death.

Resurrection is the ultimate healing and the ultimate plan of love. It is also the destiny of all who are united to Jesus Christ by faith. In our sermon text today, the Apostle John insists that “love” relationships are the new normal for those who are in the family of God. But the world that we are a part of now is not all about love. There is something else which is very much present all over the earth, and John plainly calls it “hate.” To desire the demise of someone and to take actions to bring about their destruction is the ultimate hate. Christians are people who are guided by the light of Christ's resurrection. We are people of love, even love for enemies.

Christ's resurrection required His prior death. To experience a resurrection that would carry us into His new world, He had to take our sins upon Himself and carry them far away. Bringing us the ultimate healing required His ultimate love. He invites us into the life of that costly love.

Whoever says ...

This world is under a just sentence of death because of sin. It has become a place of darkness. It is not as dark as it could be. For instance, the world that we know here under the sun is the site of a very engaging drama. The King of heaven came into this world to do what only He could do to overturn death with resurrection. He is building His church through the proclamation of a resurrection message. This good news of the mercy of God through a righteous substitute, Jesus, is a Word of healing light that is bearing fruit all over this dying world.

But not everyone receives that good message with a receptive heart. When Jesus came to establish this new life, He was hated by many—hated without a cause. He also warned His disciples that we would also be hated. The word “hate” in the Gospels is frequently connected with persecution against Jesus and the church (Matthew 10:22, 24:9-10, Luke 19:14, 21:7, John 7:7, 15:18-19). It is called hate because the enemies of Jesus and His church wanted to see both removed.

John says in our text that a person may say that he in the light, but if he detests the church and wants to see it gone—if he hates his “brother”—then he is still in darkness. The Jesus who is committed to your life forever in a renewed resurrection world is already bringing life and light to His church. He has been doing that for twenty centuries. Saying that you have the light of Jesus has never been a definitive proof that you have that life. If you despise the household of faith, if you want to see the church destroyed because you find them to be lacking in some particular so that you find the entire entity offensive, John says you are still in darkness.

Whoever loves ...

Thankfully there are people that actually love the brothers and sisters in the faith. They want to see them thrive forever in the world of resurrection. Such people are truly living in the light of Jesus. Having a relationship with a true person of love will be good for your walk in the Lord. Being with him or her will not make you stumble.

What “brother” is John writing of here? Brothers in Christ. Loving the brothers and sisters in Christ's church is the true sign of genuine Christianity. This is affirmed by Jesus in Matthew 25 and by Paul in 1 Corinthians 13. We should not be overly impressed by what people say about their own faith. It is by the fruit of true love for the brethren that real disciples are known.

Blinding darkness

John is plainly teaching here that there could be those who claim to be in the light, but that this claim is proven false because they actually hate the church, seeking its demise. This may seem strange. No one likes to think of himself as a person of hate. Yet this is one of the dangers of an infection of darkness in the soul of a human being: Darkness blinds people. They may imagine that they only have indifference toward brothers, or that they actually love the church in some way. Yet they actually would like to see the church gone, and that is what hate is all about. See Old Testament history, the life of Jesus and His disciples, and the history of the church.

Healing light

Jesus was not a man of hate toward His beloved church. He did not plan out the destruction of the temple of the Holy Spirit. He did everything that was necessary for the church's resurrection.

What was necessary? First, He had to be faithful in life and death. Second, He had to pick up His own life from the grave and ascend above to make the way for us to live in the realm of light. Third, He had to pour out His Holy Spirit upon the church, changing the hearts of billions over many centuries, and giving gifts among His disciples so that the message of His resurrection would go everywhere. Finally, He must come again at just the right time in order to give us in our bodies what we already have tasted in our souls—resurrection life.

This is the true Christian hope. It is very good news that can give a humble boldness to those who will believe and obey. It can heal old wounds. It can improve all kinds of relationships. It can bring a new sense of purpose and meaning to daily lives everywhere. It can build up a worldwide community of resurrection in a world that is decaying and will one day be no more.

The Lord is a God of healing love. He invites us to join Him in the light of His cross and in the power of His resurrection. Every other pathway is some version of blinding darkness. Why should we hate the people who love the Lord of love? Why should we be arrayed against those who, though weak, sincerely wish to worship the King? Jesus is risen! He is risen indeed!

Old Testament Reading—Ezra 6:13-18 – The joyful dedication of the house of God

Gospel Reading—Luke 6:1-5 – The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. He loves His disciples and gives them food on His great day. We have a new Sabbath day because of the resurrection.

Old and New

Already Shining

(1 John 2:7-8, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, March 20, 2016)

[7] Beloved, I am 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. [8] At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.

Beloved

The Scriptures tell us that Jesus is the beloved of the Father and of the church. (See Spurgeon's Morning and Evening for today, March 20.) But have we embraced the truth that we who are in Christ are the beloved of the Father? Have we thought that way about ourselves and about each other? In this morning's prayer email we marked with rejoicing the coming of a new beloved grandson for one family in the church. We also mourned with our sister the death of one of the beloved elderly men of the church. At times of birth and death we catch a better glimpse of the value of life, and we give thanks to God.

An old commandment

If we consider the words “old” and “new” as they relate to the experiences of our lives, perhaps we think of birth and death. Someone new is being born. Someone else known to us and appreciated for many years is suddenly gone. In the Bible, the words “old” and “new” are used in the same sentences several times. We read of an old and new way of life or of an old and new commandment as in the passage before us this morning. This is combined with this human experience of birth and death, since something is “passing away,” and something else is “already shining” with the light of a new day.

With God, who knows all things, the new is anticipated perfectly in the old, and the old is wondrously fulfilled in the new. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law and the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” (Matthew 5:17) There is great value in old wine and even in an old piece of cloth if you want to mend an old garment. (Matthew 9:16-17) And everyone who loves the Word of God and the Kingdom of Heaven learns how to make good use of both what is old and what is new. (Matthew 13:52)

The commandment to love God and to follow in His ways by loving others is as old as the Garden of Eden and the Books of Moses. Yet there was more for the people of God to know and experience regarding this love than could have been understood from the words of Leviticus and Deuteronomy.

A new commandment

We have to be born from above in order to walk in love as Jesus walked. We are told in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.” Something has happened, not just in our own lives but in one life and in one gift for billions of people, to make this new life of love possible. The one life is the resurrection life of Jesus. The one gift is the precious blessing of the Holy Spirit poured out upon the church.

The darkness is passing away

The resurrection of Jesus and the fuller work of the Holy Spirit throughout the world are the two turning points that mark the change from Old Covenant to New Covenant. Many people assume that New Covenant life begins with Matthew 1 since Matthew is the first book of the New Testament, but this is not exactly correct. In the gospels, Jesus is doing what many prophets did before Him. He is announcing the coming of a New Covenant life, but now that new life is imminent in His own presence. But when He fulfills Old Testament prophecy (Zechariah 9:9) by riding into Jerusalem as the Messiah King, he is traveling a very costly road that will soon yield to resurrection life, and after His ascension, to the best of all donations that could be given to His beloved church. In His pathway to resurrection, He shows us what love is all about. By the Holy Spirit, He dwells within us and empowers us to walk in love.

Many people today long for fame. For Jesus, celebrity would mean death. It was not easy to be a quiet and modest Messiah, but our Lord did this as long as He could. When the time came to die for us, He deliberately became more famous. In John's gospel we read of seven signs that culminate in Jesus' own resurrection. Immediately before that, Jesus calls Lazarus from the grave, and seals His own cross love through such a public and obvious miracle. His enemies know that something must be done to stop Him. Shortly after that the sister of Lazarus anoints Jesus' body for burial. “The next day,” we learn in John 12:12, “the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem.” The familiar story of Palm Sunday immediately follows. On that day and on the cross that would certainly follow in just a few days, Jesus publicly showed us how costly the old commandment of love really was. In doing so He gave us a new commandment. Only now could we begin to see (once the Spirit would give us eyes to see) what love was really about. We would walk as Jesus walked.

The true light is already shining

This should make a big difference to us in the way that we seek to obey God's Law. What was the old way of preparation? We would hear the commandment of love, applaud it with our minds, teach it to our children, and find ourselves defeated by our own sinful flesh.

What is the new way? It is not that the commandment is less. If anything it is more, since now we see what the costliness of love always was. Once we did not know it. Now we see and hear. “Hosanna!” Then another shout: “Crucify Him!” Jesus was made lower so that His beloved church would be raised up to His glorious home. Once we could not have the victory of love. Now His Spirit dwells within us and makes us more and more like Him.

There really is a turning point between the Old and the New, and it begins today. Historically, and for billions, it begins on this day we have come to call Palm Sunday. It continues through Good Friday, Easter, and then the gift of the Spirit at Pentecost. The church is born. But for some today, this day, it begins for you. The true light is brighter. You see the love of God for you more than you ever have before, and have the power of God in you to walk as He walked.

The love that the Lord has for us is cross love. It is to be received and embraced. It is to be valued and followed. This love brings a new humility that is willing to see our guilt as it is and to believe that we are the beloved of the Father. The way of healing for the church has come to us through the humility of the gospel of Christ's love.

The first covenant is now obsolete and has vanished away with the destruction of the old temple (Hebrews 8:13) But a new temple has been born in us. We are thankful for the heritage of the Old Covenant that prepared God's people for the coming of the Light, but we are even more grateful that we live in the time of resurrection light for the whole world. God has given us a new way to obey because of Jesus and the Spirit that He has given us.

Old Testament Reading—2 Chronicles 7:11-22 – If my people humble themselves...

Gospel Reading—Luke 5:33-39 – Old and new

Believe and Receive - The humble gospel gift of true patience

The Fruit of Knowing Jesus

(1 John 2:3-6, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, March 13, 2016)

[3] And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. [4] Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, [5] but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: [6] whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.

Knowing Jesus

What does it mean for a person to “know” Jesus? This is a very common expression in John's writings that borrows from Old Testament passages that describe sincere obedience that flows from true faith in the Lord God Almighty. John plainly teaches in His gospel that not everyone knows the Son of God. Concerning the first coming of Jesus, he writes in John 1:10, “He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him.” Jesus tells His disciples that they can expect to be persecuted by those who do not “know him.” (John 15:21)

Two Old Testament passages confirm our understanding that this knowledge of God is more than an intellectual assent. It is shown forth in our lives. The Lord spoke through Jeremiah to the wicked son of good king Josiah, “He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well. Is not this to know me? declares the Lord.” (Jeremiah 22:16)

In Jeremiah's writings about the coming new covenant, the prophet strikes the very same note:

“For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” (Jeremiah 31:33-34)

The fruit of knowing Jesus: We should keep His commandments

John had confidence that the people he was writing to knew Jesus, as other passages in this chapter clearly show. It was his conviction that true knowledge of the Almighty would yield commandment keeping among His followers, just as God had promised through Jeremiah.

It helps for us to see real live examples of genuine Christian living. Our go-to source on Christian living is Jesus Himself. Passages like Philippians 2 encourage all of us to have the mind of Christ in us. But it is also good to see other members who are part of the body of Christ who can help us to have new insights on commandment-keeping. One man who set such an example has recently gone to be with the Lord that he knew here below: Jerry Bridges. A tribute to this great Christian man and author appeared recently on the Gospel Coalition website. His simple way of communicating the most important Christian truths was matched by his straightforward life of personal holiness.

The fruit of knowing Jesus: The love of God in us should be growing toward perfection

Bridges came to understand that the message of God's grace would be our most powerful aid in fighting sin. Quoting from the above tribute:

One of the great legacies of Jerry Bridges is that he combined—to borrow some titles from his books—the pursuit of holiness and godliness with an emphasis on transforming grace. He believed that trusting God not only involved believing what he had done for us in the past, but that the gospel empowers daily faith and is transformative for all of life.

In 2009 he explained to interviewer Becky Grosenbach the need for this emphasis within the culture of the ministry he had given his life to:

When I came on staff almost all the leaders had come out of the military and we had pretty much a military culture. We were pretty hard core. We were duty driven. The WWII generation. We believed in hard work. We were motivated by saying “this is what you ought to do.” That’s okay, but it doesn’t serve you over the long haul. And so 30 years ago there was the beginning of a change to emphasize transforming grace, a grace-motivated discipleship.

A grace-based discipleship program is more than just telling people what we should do. It is preaching the plain message of the love of Christ for the ungodly and the honest facts of what the Lord loves and the Lord hates, trusting in the work of the Holy Spirit to do the heavy lifting of conviction among a group of worshipers who have come to delight in Jesus and in His Word.

Grace-based sanctification will only work on people that have the heart that is expressed in Psalm 119:34-35, “Give me understanding, that I may keep your law and observe it with my whole heart. Lead me in the path of your commandments, for I delight in it.” It is holy unsuitable for those who do not know the love of God. Even then, it is not automatic, but relational. It therefore requires much gospel patience.

The fruit of knowing Jesus: We should walk in the same way in which Jesus walked

John called on those who were followers of Jesus to follow Jesus. This should not be all that controversial. It is a basic truth that is only for those who are looking for help in living out the Christian faith. For those who want such help I invite you to consider Romans 13:11-14 as it relates to the sin of ungodly impatience:

Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone; the day is at hand. So then let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

True grace-based Christian growth requires patience since it is based on God giving the gift. It stands to reason that impatience will get in the way of that. Notice that Paul calls on the church not only to stop sinning. He also tells them to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ.” Be so full of Jesus and of His patience that you find that you have no room for your old habit of impatience.

Our commandment-keeping is far from perfect. Our love for God and people is surely lacking. Our walk of faith is not what we might like it to be. Yet the Lord is working in our lives. Progress in obedience, love, and devotion are signs of God's grace at work within us. Don't despise even the smallest evidence of God's gift, and then ask for more, expecting that as you patiently believe, you will indeed receive.

Old Testament Reading—1 Chronicles 10 – Saul's breach of faith

Gospel Reading—Luke 5:27-32 – Jesus calls sinners to repentance

What happens when God's love for sinners meets His love for righteousness?

The Propitiation

(1 John 2:2, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, March 6, 2016)

He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

He is...

Jesus is the perfect Savior and Leader for us. He is fully God and fully man, and He has no sin. Simply put, there is no other man that has either of these attributes. Only He could have accomplished our salvation through His death on the cross. Only He can be a present help to us as our “propitiation,” which help is most necessary for us if we are to make progress in our present fight against sin.

Over the last two weeks I read a book by a man who was in a British POW camp in World War II at the foot of Mount Kenya in Africa. The author describes a problem that I have come to believe is a root issue of many troubles in our world today, male boredom. Male boredom leads to all kinds of sin. His solution was to plan an escape from the camp, not to get to the nearest neutral country which was apparently impossible to reach, but to lead an expedition with two other escapees to climb the 17,000 foot Mount Kenya—only to return to the POW camp after successfully achieving their goal. He needed to have something of worth as a project that would give focus to his life. This life-challenging endeavor also provided rich memories that helped him in his remaining years as a POW and beyond.

We have a Captain of our Salvation in Jesus who is leading us on a most worthwhile pursuit. I know of no better antidote to dangerous boredom than to take up the journey that Jesus has prepared for men and women who will follow where he leads. The good news is that this expedition does not end in our return to a prison for sinners who have rebelled against God, but in the Lord's provision for us of what Ezekiel 34:29 calls “renowned plantations.” (By the way, heaven is not boring. It is not a painfully slow-moving worship service that will never end. It is a place of the greatest joys for people who have bodies as well as souls.) Jesus Christ the Righteous lives forever to lead us forward in the best and holiest pursuit.

… the propitiation …

If we are to serve Him well in this life, we need all the help that He supplies in our fight against sin. At various points in the climb up Mount Kenya, one or more of the men in the heroic group of three had a twisted ankle, a strange fever, or a perilous slip. In our appointed journey of faith, sin can be a daily trouble for us, as it was for those who were the original recipients of 1 John.

John reminded his readers in the previous verse that they had an Paraklete-Advocate with the Father in addition to having the Holy Spirit as a Paraklete-Helper in them. In today's verse He teaches them and us that this same Jesus is also a “Propitiation.” What does this word mean? This term has to do with a special sacrifice where God's love meets His own justice and turns away God's anger against sin.

First, let's look at the one other place where this precise Greek word is used in the New Testament. In 1 John 4:10 we read, “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.” Whatever propitiation is, it flows from the prior love of God. 1 John 4:10 does not say that God sent His Son to be a propitiation so that He might change His mind about us and then begin to love us. He loved first and sent His Son as an expression of both His love for us and His love for what is right.

Let's move on now to consider the use of this Greek word in the Greek translation of the Old Testament. It was used in Ezekiel 44:27 to refer to the sin offering offered up by the priest in the new temple that Ezekiel was describing. The propitiation—his sin offering—was associated with the priest going into the Holy Place in the temple to draw near to God. In Numbers 5:8 the same word is used as a restitution offering for wrong that should go to the Lord. In Leviticus 25:9 the Jewish Day of Atonement is called a “Day of Propitiation.” It is also used in Psalm 130:4 where it translates a Hebrew word meaning “forgiveness.” “But with you there is forgiveness, that you may be feared.” Drawing near to God, making things right again, atonement, forgiveness...

Now back to 1 John 2:2—This verse also teaches us that propitiation is something that is done in person, and not at a distance. God sent His Son. If God had not sent His Son, there could be no propitiation—no atonement, no forgiveness, no experience of drawing near to Almighty God. The entire Old Testament sacrificial system prepared Israel for the coming in person of One Man who would love us and would also love the Lord's holiness. Without Him as our Present Propitiation, every infraction against the Lord's Law would have presented a barrier to our happy fellowship with the Lord.

… for our sins …

I was recently reading the history of the northern tribes of Israel. It is not a very happy story. The leaders of Israel are not presented as men who could be safely imitated. People like Ahab and his evil wife Jezebel became famous for their rebellion. They loved false prophets, worshiped false gods, and lived false lives. Unfortunately, they are not the only ones. All kinds of sins have ugly manifestations for the church in every generation. It becomes easy to look at others, particularly gutless leaders like Ahab, and to comfort ourselves that we are not as bad as they are. But then we remember what Jesus came to do—to die for our sins. How can we have a present confidence before God? How can we deal with our continuing sin? Doesn't it help, as we repent, to know that there is now a Propitiation Person with the Father?

The church, with all its faults, which are very many in a time of societal distress, is still the kingdom of God on earth, and the recipient of the promise that the gates of hell will not be able to withstand it. Jesus is a propitiation for us, that is for our sins. (It is sin that necessitates propitiation rather than just people.) We have baggage. Like those mountain climbers ascending Mount Kenya with their stuffed packs filled with makeshift mountain-climbing equipment, we are carrying a heavy burden of sin. We need someone to take that pack off us every day so that we can continue to our destination. Jesus, the Propitiation for our sins, will do it.

… and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

Now we have a dangerous and fulfilling mission. We fight against sin in our own lives and bring a good word to the entire world. There is no reason for any of us to be bored. John insists that Jesus, our Present Propitiation, is for the whole world. No one anywhere should imagine that he or she is excluded from the propitiation because of the facts of his birth or the mess of his life. Everyone should look for a new birth and a new life. We need to tell this to our children, our neighbors, and to every stressed-out guilt-filled creature on this tired planet. We have a very present help in times of despair. Jesus is with the Father. Everyone can seek to be near the Almighty, even to abide in Him. In Jesus we have the only safe way to live with God. He is the appointed sacrifice to turn away the wrath of God for all who abide in Him. This is not an excuse to keep on sinning, see 2:6, but a great comfort and aid to all who truly want to battle sin.

Old Testament Reading—2 Kings 4:18-37 – Elisha Raises the Shunammite's Son

Gospel Reading—Luke 5:17-26 – Jesus heals a paralytic