Love One Another ~ 1 John 3 11; 4:7-11 July 7, 2013 ~ New City Church Calgary ~ Pastor John Ferguson

Intro: In his Shake Hands with the Devil, Lt. General Dallaire tells about the horrific Rwandan genocide in which 800,000 peoplemen, women, children, babieswere brutally murdered. Dallaire tried to sound the alarm, but found that the govts of the world were indifferent to the plight. He captured this indifference by quoting a group of bureaucrats who arrived in Kigali to assess the situation in the early days of the genocide: We will recommend to our government not to intervene as the risks are high and all that is here are humans. That statement is as shocking as it is jarring. How is it possible to close our hearts to one another?

In an April 26, 2010 article, the CBC reported that more than two dozen pedestrians refused to help a Good Samaritan who was bleeding to death after saving a woman from a knife-wielding man in Queens NY. Hugo Alfredo Tale-Yax, 31, was stabbed about 7:20 am on April 18. Over the next hour and 20 minutes, more than 25 people walked by and did nothing. One man stopped & turned him over, but after seeing the blood walked away. Another snapped a picture with his smart phone. Some just stared, but most noticed him and just ignored him. How is this possible? Most of us shake our heads and wonder about humanitys inhumanity. By why is it that humans can be soinhuman to one another?

We often say that hatred is the opposite of love, and it is. But what we dont recognize so easily is that apathy is a form of hatred Apathy: a state of indifference / lack of interest or concern. Attitude: Meh. I could not care less. Its default mode is ME!

For those who are interested in who Jesus was, you know that Jesus taught us a radically different way of being human, one in which we love God with everything weve got, and we actually love our neighbor as our selves; one in which our default mode should be we instead of me. Today, we are going to investigate this as we continue in our new series, Life Together: An Exploration in a Different Way of Being Human Together. Last week: Be Devoted to One Another

Text: 1 John 3 4, Love One Another. 3:11 For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. From the beginning probably refers to the beginning of their Christian life when they became followers of Jesus Christ.

Jesus taught a radically different way of being human, one marked by love. o Mt. 5:43-44, 46, You have heard that it was said, Love you neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, Love you enemy, and pray for those who persecute you. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have?

4:7 4:8

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. Here, the reason is given to Christians why they should love one another: God is love, love comes from God, and those who have been spiritually born love each other. The Apostle John draws a direct line between the presence of love in the life of an individual and that individuals claim to know God. How we treat other peopleand especially other Christiansis evidence for or against our claim to know God. Thats why hate groups that picket funerals are so vicious: they misrepresent God. 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. John 3:16, For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him might not perish but have eternal life.

4:9

4:10 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. Propitiation (NIV: atoning sacrifice) is a sacrifice that bears the judicial wrath of God. Romans 5:7-8, For one will scarcely die for a righteous personthough perhaps for a good person one would dare even to diebut God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

4:11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. John 13:34, A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. o Mt. 22:36-39, And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law? And he said to him, You shall love the Lord God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets. o Whats new about this commandment is the definition of love: just like Jesus 2

Main Idea: Real love is costly. We love one another this way because he first loved us this way. Application: 1. Stir your longing for things to be different? 1. NCC, are we missing out on what God has truly intended for us? Have we become so used to such low levels of love that we dont know any different experientially? Is it possible that we have settled for simply being nice instead of loving?

2. Why do you think God has raised up New City Church at this time and in this place? Why has God brought you to NCC? Is it possible that one of the reasons is so that we can explore a different way of being human together, one that is not marked by polite distance, but by deep, genuine love and care for one another? There is only one clear direction we can move as a community of faith formed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 1 Thessalonians 4:9-10, Now concerning brotherly love, you have no need of anyone to write you for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another. But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more.

2. Courageously diagnose the problem. 1. We suffer from disordered loves. Sin = narcissism. 2. 1 Peter 1:22, Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart. Earnestly in Greek is a word that was used to describe a horse straining earnestly to win the race. It is also used of Christ when we prayed earnestly in the Garden of Gethsemane sweating drops of blood (hematidrosis).

3. We all naturally love ourselves earnestly. So if we are going to love others earnestly, were going to need a radical re-wiring of our hearts loves, and were going to need supernatural power.

3. Plug in to the Power Source. 1. If you take up the call to become a follow of Christ and set out to love others as Christ has loved you, you will find out very quickly that you dont have it in you. 2. Augustine, God gives you commands that you cannot keep so that you may know what you ought to ask of him. 4. Participate in the Dress Rehearsal. 1. Dress rehearsal are the run through of a play or performance before the live event. 2. This life is prep for heaven, and heaven is a world of love. Jonathan Edwards, Heaven: A World of Love: in the paradise of love, where everything is filled with love, and everything conspires to promote and kindle it, and keep up its flame, and nothing ever interrupts it. What if we lived the life of the future now? Is it possible to make our fellowship with one another a little foretaste of heaven?

5. Leave your mark on the worldthis week. 1. What is one thing you can do this week to be a doer of the word & not just a hearer? What is one thing you can do to creatively express Christ-like love to one another? 2. 1 John 3:16, By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. What if we at NCC were known for this kind of love? What if you risked loving like Jesus in this wayrisked a different way of being human in which you love one another in such a way that it actually costs you something?

3. John 13:35, By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.