First John 4:14-16 Redeeming Love Part 2

All right, so we're in 1 John 4, 14 through 16. Your handout, I corrected this, and that's why we had a little bit of digital issues here at the church, but I have under summary of 1 John 4, 11 through 13, I have said redeeming love part two. One of those things, you know. Anyway, it's corrected on this slide, but on your handout it says two, so just correct that when you pull up your handout. So let's read 1 John 4, 12 through 16. And it's labeled in the text that I have open here, this is the Blue Letter Bible, seeing God through love. So verse 12, no one has seen God at any time.

If we love one another, God bides in us and his love has been perfected in us. By this, we know that we abide in him and he in us because he has given us of his spirit. Verse 14, And we have seen and testified that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world, and whosoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.

All right, to begin today's lesson, summary of 1 John 4, 11 through 13. And I think Andrew and Roger and I have been doing this routinely, kind of summarizing the last week, which I found helpful from the other teachers, too, and have implemented that into my lesson each week. So the first point, let me get on the right screen. So I have three points.

God's love for us is perfected, meaning made complete when it's reproduced in us. So the absence of God's love in us makes this seem inadequate. I mean, how are you doing at loving one another? We're not doing very well, are we? So that's one take-home point from last week. Second, this love of God in us is needed by His Spirit. And we're going to come back to that today in terms of what confession really means. Wait on that one. And the third, this is from Roger, I think I'm quoting him, the love of God displayed in his people, meaning us, is the strongest apologetic that God has in the world.

And actually that was from my quote of Constable's quote. Anyway, it's your handout, I'm quoting you. So take it for what it's worth. Constable gets the credit. Roger, I under estimated your estimates or your capabilities. Anyway, all that aside, I think it's a good, if that's possible. It's a wonderful quote. Yeah, it's a wonderful quote.

And you know, it reminds me of how we used to say we may be the only Bible people ever read. And that really relates to our walk. Wayne, our condition, right? Our position we're certain of, but our condition is what people see, not our position. All right, let's proceed.

1 John 4.14, and we have seen and testified that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world.

So the question to the class, I want some feedback here. What strikes you most about this verse and why? Don't all respond at once now. Well, the personal part, they beheld and they bear witness. I mean, it's a very personal part. You could say, you know we look back and said well the father sent the son to be the savior of the world and we said well I can't I know I can only see it after that they got to see the savior I mean the apostle John did so there's a personal part to this okay and we were going to come back to this we pertains to whom uh well it's certainly John and yeah the apostles right I mean so that that's we those who had seen and experienced the live God-man, Jesus Christ, okay?

What other thoughts about what impresses them most about this verse? My question is about the fact that as a part of the eternal covenant between the Father and the Son, how is it that if you turn around now and say the Father is sending him, when in fact the Son, the Holy Spirit, took up? Okay, all right, so there's the ultimately accomplishments of what had been planned from eternity past, okay. Other thoughts?

It looks like it is a restatement of what John said in John 1 Three. So, Andrew, you know, this is not meant to be a criticism for sure. How can I criticize the Word of God? But John has a lot of redundancy. Yeah. And we're going to come back to that. Are you speaking for yourself? OK. No, but I thought she was talking about me. Andrew had a point. Oh, yeah. It's nice that he restates it because it's important that he they testify and they seen that they saw it physically. It's it's good that he repeats that. I got one other thought in my brain to see what I'm thinking. But there's one else. This first really stands out. We're going to dissect this, but How about being savior of the world?

I mean, so we could, you know, take this verse apart and say what really we think is best, but the whole verse is relevant, is it not? Let's go ahead and look at it in more detail. we have seen is, in Theomai, is in the perfect tense and indicative. That means that something had happened in the past which has continuing action in the present. And if you look at the really tough definition of this and really drill down, it means to view attentively and to contemplate. This isn't just that we have seen visually, but we have seen and experienced the person, the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's a whole different level of seeing. through your eyes and having your brain interpret what you've seen visually. I think this strongly points again, I've just said this is something that happened previously with an abiding fact.

And we like and we likely refers to the apostles. I just just mentioned that. Okay. All right. and testify. This is to be a witness, to bear witness, or to affirm that one has seen or heard or experienced something. So they've not only seen and experienced, but they're testifying to this. And kind of an interesting thing is of interest.

John uses testify 40 times in his gospel and epistle. So what do we think about when we testify about our own personal experience? What do others perceive as we testify our own personal experiences? Well, hopefully they see the Savior. Hopefully they see that really the Savior did have an impact on your life. You're testifying to what has happened to you. So what's a testimony? Hopefully it's not a bragamony. Well, it reminds me of my... Let's look that up in Oxford. Here's a humbling experience looking back.

When I got saved in July of 1978, we moved to Denver a year later in 79. We joined Southern Gables Evangelical Free Church. So, Sharon and I, my late wife and I, got baptized there. So Sharon, we had to give a brief testimony in terms of why we were saved and how we were saved and getting baptized. So what Sharon said was this. I mean, I'm going to summarize with one phrase. I'm a sinner saved by grace, basically. I mean, beautiful. That was her humble nature. And she reflected that in baptism. You know what I quoted?

I quoted Revelation 3.16, which I didn't want to be lukewarm like the church at Laodicea, but I wanted to be hot for the Lord.

And, you know, looking back, she said the right thing, and I said absolutely the wrong thing. Anyway, but, you know, testimony can be faulty and misleading. And I think when we share the Lord, I think Roger pointed out, it needs to be about the Lord Jesus Christ, not about us. Yeah, but it seems to me, and I mean, I didn't know Sharon, but I know you. I know, I mean, it's like, that goes with your personality. I mean, we'll talk after the class, okay? Talk to Margaret. Am I intense?

Anyway, but looking back, that was really a very haughty and flesh-filled testimony that I think did not bring glory to the Lord. So I think testimonies vary to some extent, but the testimony that John has here is based on having seen and experienced the Lord Jesus Christ and sharing that experience with them in terms of his personal knowledge of the Savior. Any other thoughts about that? And what was seen and testified?

Well, I think we kind of touched base with that a little bit. And how did John, and by the way, how do we know today that the Father has sent the Son and Savior of the world? The Spirit testifies to our hearts. Okay, the Spirit, all right. What else? God's Word testifies? That's a... Well, Roger looked at the handout and it's a written word.

I'm going to just provide just four verses that reflect a plethora of verses that testify about the Lord Jesus Christ and his earthly life. First John 1, and I'll skip the 4, that which is seen from the beginning which we have heard," notice John again, but the senses are being amplified by the experience that he said, which we've heard and which we've seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands have handled concerning the word of life, dot, dot, dot, dot, verse four. And these things we write to you that our joy may be full. So here's a testimony about a personal experience that we can't doubt because scripture recapitulates this time and time again.

John 1.14, And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

So again, his personal experience, and he testifies to that extent. John 4, 42, then they said to the woman, this is the Samaritan woman, now we believe not because of what you said, but we ourselves have heard him and we know that this is indeed the savior of the world. Interesting. This is gospel accounts. And Romans 8, 16, the spirit himself, Roger bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. So we, you know, I mean, this and I could go on and on. There must be 50 verses I could share in terms of this and beyond. But the written word is our confidence.

So, you know, as you try to use apologetics when you have a conversation with someone who maybe is really questioning your faith. How do you respond to that? What does the world system rely upon in terms of their truth? A lot of times their feelings. All right. Emotions, feelings, experiences. What else?

But what do you go to school for? Study history. and you're getting a different view of it today than maybe you once did, but you study local history, you study U.S. history, you study world history. So the idea of documentation through literature is in fact the basis by which we make decisions. I mean, I'm in science, and let me tell you, you try to answer questions that relate to scientific and medical principles, and ultimately you're correct sometimes and you're not correct, but ultimately the documentation and validation through repeated experiments makes what you your hypothesis was whether it was fulfilled or not fulfilled, you know, kind of dogma. So what here is different in terms of our testimony?

How many look at the Bible as a historical book? I mean, so just apologetically, I mean, I always back up to this statement that the resurrection is everything. If you donít believe that Christ died and was risen from the dead, our faith is vain. Itís just worthless.

We have a document here thatís well documented now outside of scripture in terms of many aspects of the historical value of the New and Old Testament. And many of our Jewish friends don't believe that the Red Sea was ever parted. I mean, they believe in Israel, but they really have doubts about whether all these miracles of God really ever existed.

That's some, not all. Anyway, the point I'm saying here, the written word is our source. And without the written word, if this were all just verbal communication, we would put less credibility into scripture and how it impacts our lives. OK, good. Just think how much we put in what we experience, how much faith we put in what we experience each and every day. Give me some examples. We fly in the airplane. Yeah, to be safe. Okay, well, that's faith that the pilot and he or she these days is capable of flying you and getting you to your destination. What else? How about those yellow lights we run? Who else? Andrew, what else?

Yeah, I was going to say driving a car. Or just getting up in the morning at this age. It's all by fate. It's all by faith, Mike, you're right. So, you know, just getting up in the morning, I mean, I put faith in the alarm clock. Unfortunately, I had to send it on p.m., not a.m. We had a power outage. Whenever there's a power outage, you've got to reset the time. This clock is not working. I've had it for 50 years.

Well, faith has to do with truth. What, Mike? Faith has to do with truth. You can't have faith in something that's not true. Well, I think that really documents the importance of Scripture, doesn't it? Unless you're not a Christian. Go ahead. Oh, unless you're not a Christian.

Well, I think we all have faith that if we run a red light, we're having some risk connected to that. I mean, there's certain principles of day-to-day existence that ultimately react by faith. You know, when I fell off the roof, it was traveling. Let's not go there now, Margaret, please. No, he's out of film. I travel when she has accidents and I travel when there's a lot of snow. So I take that in advance. All right, let's continue.

And we now have the written word of God. So we don't have to live by blind faith anymore. We have a person who experienced the Lord Jesus Christ and many others that have written about this and they testified to that experience and it's written. So that's the source of our faith. Now what about Jesus Christ being the Savior? What are your thoughts about this? Well, Vincent has some thoughts about it.

He said, in classical writings, the term Savior, I am implying that here, is applied to many deities, especially in Zeus or Jupiter, also to Hermes, Mercury, Apollo, Hercules, and even to female deities as Fortune and Aphrodite, Venus. That's Greek versus Roman. And Wiest goes on to say, to recognize our Lord as the Savior of the world instead of the Emperor was a capital offense in those days. So in the culture in which this all happened in terms of John writing that God the Father had sent his Son to be Savior of the world, was contradicting the current belief in who the emperor was or who the savior of the world system was. And who is the savior of the world system now? Putin? Biden? I mean, the point is, I mean, who are we looking to save the world system? You know, is it the World Health Organization? Is it the United Nations?

I mean, anyway, we can close that. Let's close that door once and for all. All right, John 3, 17. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but the world through him might be saved. We were watching College Game Day yesterday, and they were in Columbus. I don't know if any of you follow college football, but Notre Dame played in Ohio State yesterday. So the sign, Jesus came not to condemn, but to save. The sign was absolutely huge, and in fact, it covered a third of the screen repeatedly on College Game Day yesterday.

This verse, God sent not his son to condemn the world, but to save the world. That's just a tremendous point, because many people, you know, see God as judging, put the hammer down on them, they're going to smash them to the ground, and it's just the opposite of that. It's just the opposite. You know, it's really a more detailed testimony. By the way, a testimony, right, to what this individual believes. other than Jesus saved.

Now I'm not saying people can't raise signs Jesus saved and have people come to the Lord, but this he came not to condemn but to save. So this verse then just exemplifies what John's written in his first epistle, verse 4. Whosoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him and he in God. Perhaps most important here is the true and deep-seated meaning of confess and why. Well, let's look at confess, how it's defined. Homologio, to profess or declare openly. Okay, so that's what a confession is. So, maybe I'll ask a second question, maybe get some response out there.

What do you make of the tense and mood of this, aorist, active, subjunctive? Aorist, Roger, tell us what aorist is. Well, I like my colleagues, it's an event. An event has happened. Once in time. It could be future, typically past, but it could even be present. One in time event, active. The subject. performs the action. And subjunctive? You may or may not do that. This is not a first-class conditional where it should be translated since. Right. This is if and by the way.

So whosoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him and he in God. So back to confession. Tell me about confession. It relates maybe to our conversation about testimonies, thoughts. Well, from the tense right there, it has to be a point in time has to come for that happens. Okay. The verb tense is really great because it tells you something has to happen at a point in time. Something's got to happen. And you have to do something there. You have to say something. There's an active participation in the process of confession. And it's not guaranteed. Okay. You know, I'm going to just cite these verses in Romans, which we know pretty well, but I'm going to come to the constable and his comment on this. Romans 10, 8 through 10.

But what does it say? The word is near you in your mouth and in your heart. That is the word of faith, which we preach, that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus Christ and Christ is not there and believe in your heart, notice in your heart, that God has raised him from the dead, the importance of the resurrection, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. That's what confession is. What's the basis of a true confession? Well, to agree with what Bruce? Okay, and what's the source of the confession, if it's true? The heart. Here's what Constable said, I thought this was really profound.

Confessing that Jesus is God's Son is not the only condition for abiding in God. It's one evidence that one is abiding, and one not abiding may or may not make this confession. So the condition is, is the confession really heartfelt? And if it's not heartfelt, that abiding is in fact sterile.

I mean, I'm paraphrasing what Constable said. Bruce? Isn't this an area that MacArthur points to, that is guiding your heart? Well, I don't know what the purpose is. But I think, you know, the Romans text clearly says you believe in your heart. And that's not an intellectual belief.

I think one challenge to us in our day to day Christian existence is intellectualizing scripture to kind of put us under a law that we're needing to behave the way the platform of grace is expected. You know, when we believe in the heart, then the spirit leads and that life we have in Christ Jesus shows up. That's a challenge for us, Jim. It seems that we're getting at here that a confession is a verbal confession. Well, anyone can make a verbal confession but not believe it in his heart. That's right. The abiding is absent there. That's what Constable is paraphrasing.

Normally, if a person confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, he believes it in his heart, but not everybody does. Well, we all know people in our lives. I'm just not going to do anything more than say that people in our lives who are saved but there's some question about whether they're living that life not because we're there to judge them but in a sense they seem to be saved but yet we don't see anything but a departure from that life being called to. So they can confess that he's saved them but in fact if the heart is not experiencing that new life in Christ Jesus, then there's reason to believe that that may not be a person who's abiding.

Now, we can't judge one another's abiding, but we answer to the Lord directly for that. All right. Got a quiet group here today. Not entirely, but... Okay, 1 John 4, 16. And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love and he who abides in love abides in God and God in him. All right, let's look at verse 16. And we have known and believed the love that God has for us.

Okay, the verbs are perfect, active, indicative. Okay, perfect again, something in the past that continues indefinitely into the future. And it's a fact. We've known and believed that the love of God has for us. And it's, again, something that's well understood and intimate, Gnoska, this is not simply a head knowledge. This is not knowing a black Ford from a white Chevrolet, okay? This is something that's intimate and experiential, and it continues to be manifested in our life. So we've known and believed the love that God has for us. And God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God and God in him.

Why is John, I kind of alluded to this earlier, why is John Fessner being so repetitive and I'm not being critical, but perhaps redundant? Andrew, you've got to answer that question for me. Well, it goes back to what, the only thing I can think of is what, who said it, Macaulay, that he repeats himself a lot, but Every time he repeats himself, he advances a little more information.

And then, so the repetition comes with a little more nugget of truth. You know, like he said, it's like a breaker on the shore. The waves keep advancing or something. I call this a tsunami myself. Yeah, Jim, what are your thoughts? it's important to say things again and again and again, but in a different way.

Because our minds, you know, just don't operate very well here on Earth. And repetition is the key to memorization. I've learned that from a long time ago. But saying things in a different way, a good teacher will repeat himself in a different way from a different angle. Okay, that's a good thought. To get around the subject so you can see the subject a little bit better.

Why do we have so much of John, do you think? I mean, think of the New Testament church, it's Pauline based, that's the backbone. But why has God let John have so much space? John sees things from the spiritual side. Well, and keep in mind, how did Christ describe John? I'm sorry? Love. The one I love, right? And you know, that makes you kind of enter into kind of a human conditional mindset. You mean you didn't love everybody else?

No, but I think what that reflects is that the relationship between John and the Lord Jesus Christ is very, very special. and unique. I mean, we may not say it's better or different. I mean, Peter, I love his epistles, but that's a second Peter. That's not Peter that we saw in the gospel account. That's the Peter we saw after the resurrection and after Pentecost. That's a different Peter.

But anyway, God gives us so much of John and the repetition of John really is from that personal witness having hung out with him. And you could say, well, Paul, think about three years in the wilderness, presumably being taught by the Lord himself. But that's a different scenario in that the foundation of the church was based on Paul's writings. I mean, in John's writings, you're not going to get much detail about the church itself. But from Paul, we see it clearly outlined beautifully. Well, from John, you see this personal, intense relationship with him, the Savior. And it's just, it's incredible.

I mean, he gets closer, it seems, to God's heart. And he repeats it, you know, like I say, again, you come back from another perspective. But I like what Andrew said, there's a slight difference in each one of these cases. They sound very similar, but there's a slight difference, which amplifies it.

Perfect. Thanks, Roger. And I'm not going to go back and suggest we read 324 to 416, but you'll see this repetitive redundancy in that time and time again about, you know, the relationship we have, the abiding we have, and ultimately God giving his son as a gift for man's salvation. I mean, anyway, I just have to say that John makes the point. All right. Constable.

John's point in this section was that his readers had seen God in a sense similar to the same in which the Apostles had seen Him. The Apostles had seen God in that they had seen Him in His Son, Jesus Christ. God had revealed His love to the Apostles through Jesus Christ. The readers had seen God in that they had seen Him in His Spirit, indwelt and abiding in believers. Consequently, John's readers could bear witness to the truth as the apostles did, and they could enjoy the same intimate fellowship with God as the apostles did.

I mean, a lot of wisdom, I think, in that kind of paraphrase and summary of the verses we've been studying. All right. And, you know, my thoughts about this, how does that relate to our new life in the Lord Jesus Christ? I said, isn't this for identification?

It's not just reading the word, but having this new life that's lived out in us by the power of the Holy Spirit. And this is the life manifested by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 8, 9, but you are not in the flesh, but you're in the Spirit. If indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you, now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, He is not his. So the essential nature, and Roger pointed this out last week, the importance of the spirit in terms of leading us in interpretation of the truth.

So I'll close with 1 Corinthians 2.12. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that had been freely given to us by God. So that's the role of the Spirit. What did the Lord Jesus Christ prophesy in terms of the role of the Spirit? And summarize that in one thought, one phrase. What's the role of the Holy Spirit? It's going to teach us to reveal Christ. Yeah. Yeah.

His Spirit's role is to exemplify the new creation we are in Christ Jesus. I mean, that's summarizing a lot of things Christ said about the Comforter. But anyway, that's his major role. We have a new life in Christ Jesus. We're new creations in Christ Jesus. And there's the role of the Spirit in bringing that new life to reality. So I'm going to end with this. God's grace is truly lavished on us. And that's where identification begins. Positioned above so our condition can reflect our position.

Final thoughts, anyone? Andrew, you want to close us in prayer, please? Oh, sure. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for your divine love. that you sent your son to die for our sins and we now live as new creations in Christ. And we just pray that we'll abide that way through this weekend for the rest of our lives. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Thank you.