Throughout your body are millions of blood vessels - veins that carry blood to the heart, and arteries that carry blood from the heart. If you took all of them from an adult and laid them end-to-end, with capillaries it would be around 100,000 miles long - enough to circle the earth 4X.
Blood is moving through those vessels as long as your heart is pumping it. And you can even check to see if your heart is pumping by feeling one of those arteries. Go ahead. Feel your neck, just to the side of your voice box, or check your wrist, on the side near your thumb. You should feel a little pulsation as blood flows through. That’s called your pulse. It’s one of the fastest and most basic ways to check if someone is alive. If a person isn’t awake, you check for a pulse. No pulse, no heartbeat. No heartbeat, no life.
If you checked just now and couldn’t find a pulse, you might want to have that looked into!
From time to time, I’m asked questions about if someone is going to Heaven or not. In other words, is someone spiritually alive, or spiritually dead. You’re either one or the other. We were looking at that just last week in my Sunday School class. Jesus described it as “crossing over from death to life.” As you drive down the interstate into St. Louis, MO, you cross the state line. There’s a definite point, on the bridge where you cross over from one to the other over the Mississippi River. There is no in-between. You cross over from IL to MO. That’s true of someone being spiritually alive or spiritually dead, which, by the way, is the difference between eternity in Heaven with God or eternity in Hell separated from God. It’s one or the other. Period.
Wouldn’t it be helpful if there was a way to check that - a pulse where you could feel and say, “Yep, this one’s spiritually alive!” or, “Nope, this one isn’t!”
There is such a test, a spiritual pulse check. It’s in…
I John 3:14 We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death.
Take a good look at this. It’s the way to know if someone is spiritually alive, or if he or she “abides in death”: Do you love the brothers? If you don’t, there’s no spiritual pulse. Just as surely as you can check your wrist and say, “Yep, it’s still beating!” you can apply one question today that indicates if you’re spiritually alive or spiritually dead. Do you love your brother in Jesus?
That’s where this 3:16 sermon takes us today - the verses surrounding 1 John 3:16. Remember, we’re going to be visiting some of the outstanding 3:16’s of the Bible - for the next 3 weeks, in fact. 1 John 3:16 is a wonderful counterpart to John 3:16.
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 the brothers.
John really likes the subject of love. He uses the word “love” 33X in this short letter we call I John. And God really dwells on this command to love one another. In fact, those very words happen 15X in the NT, 6 of them here in I John (if you include 3:16). It’s almost like it’s really, really important!
1 John 3:11
For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.
If this was just some sound advice we could look at it differently. If this was just about a wise way to have a better life or to make a better world, we could put it in a category like that. But the Bible isn’t just a book of good advice about how to make life better. This book first is about God fixing our broken relationship with the Almighty Creator. So, when John talks about this command to love one another, he pulls no punches. This is a life or death issue.
1 John 3:11-13 For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous. Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you.
One side of this whole subject is hate.
“Don’t be surprised, brothers, if the world hates you.” Why would the world hate us? I thought we were likeable people. I kind of like us…especially me!
Jesus said it would be this way.
He was speaking to His disciples a few hours before His arrest and crucifixion, preparing them for what was coming down the road. It wasn’t just to get them through His death and the few days afterwards until He arose. He was looking farther ahead when He said,
John 15:18-20a If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: “A servant is not greater than his master.” If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.
That’s the world side of things. Right away it ought to say something to anyone who claims to be a follower of Jesus Christ. If the way you’re living is so indistinguishable from the way non-Christians live; if there’s just no difference between you and anyone who doesn’t claim to be a Christ-follower, you need to do some honest self-study and ask why not.
The starkest way to show what that looks like is found in the 3rd human who ever lived: Cain. That’s how long it took to end up with a human to show us what hate looks like.
If you grew up hearing stories from the Bible, you heard the story of Cain from Genesis 4. Cain and Abel, his younger brother both brought offerings to the Lord. Cain farmed, and he brought as a sacrifice the things he had grown. Abel, raised animals, and he brought an offering of firstborn animals. We know from Hebrews 11 that the most important difference between their offerings was that Abel offered his with faith in God. Cain did not. When God had regard for Abel’s offering, but not Cain’s, Cain gave in to sin. What kind of a heart is so jealous, so put out, that it causes a man to murder his brother? That’s what Cain did. His deeds were evil, and his brother’s were righteous, and he chose to hate his brother. Not only did he give in to anger and hate his brother, he put action to it and followed through with hatred: he murdered him.
Suppose you live around people whose deeds are evil. Suppose that you live a noticeably distinct life in a world where other people are evil. Don’t be surprised if the world hates you. Remember the story of Cain. Cain hated his brother and murdered him because Cain’s deeds were evil, and Abel’s were righteous. Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you.
Do you see the potentially dangerous situation that creates for us? When we do live righteously, and the people around us hate us for it, what will we be tempted to do? Either we’ll be tempted to compromise so they’ll ease up, or we’ll be tempted to hate them back.
Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you.
But we have a right alternative when it comes to the world hating us. Paul said in…
Romans 12:21
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
We’re different this way, we followers of Jesus. We’re on the other side of this subject - the opposite of hate.
1 John 3:14-15 We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.
We can tell that we’ve passed out of death into life. Check your pulse. Do you love your brother, your sister in Jesus?
Sure I do…I think. What does that mean? I’m glad you asked that!
The obvious question of the day isn’t, “Do I want eternal life in Heaven or eternal punishment in Hell?” Seriously, that one’s pretty easy.
The obvious question, if we’re listening here, is “OK. How do I love? What does that look like?” That’s the other side of this whole subject. Love.
You might say, “I want to know what love is!”
Mick Jones wrote that song for Foreigner in 1984 and it became their #1 song ever. He says the song was, at 3 in the morning, “probably written entirely by a higher force.” Well, OK, Mick. Let’s hear from a higher force what love is… Here’s how that song ends:
And I'm feeling so much love, I want to feel what love is. No, you just can't hide, I know you can show me. I want to know what love is (let's talk about love), I know you can show me
I want to feel it too, I want to feel what love is, I want to feel it too, and I know and I know, I know you can show me
Show me love is real, yeah, I want to know what love is
For all of you people my age, if that was your favorite power ballad - sorry.
For me, it sets to words what happens when anyone tries to understand love without God in the picture. It can’t be done; not really. Even at our very best, we take something that’s wonderful, and make a mess of it.
So, here’s 1 John 3:16. This is a power verse. It’s easy to memorize. It’s in simple words. It’s full of valuable, applicable truth for life. It’s about a singularly powerful, all-important subject.
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 the brothers.
The NIV puts it this way: “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us.”
Both you and I can point to all kinds of things that show a great picture of love. I don’t want to discredit those. But I challenge you to find one that even begins to approach the picture of God, emptying Himself by taking on human flesh, keeping Himself perfect, and then literally laying down His life on a cross to save the very people who were hating and killing Him.
If you want to know what love is, if you want me to show you, and if you want to feel what love is, I’ll point you to Jesus Christ.
Every other description of love in the Scriptures is summed up in the cross of Jesus. Love causes you to lay down your life for your friend. It is patient, kind, not envious, not boastful, humble, seeks the good of others, slow to become angry, lets go of when it is wronged, it wants what’s good, it always protects, trusts, hopes, and perseveres.
If that sounds big and overwhelming to you, good. You’ve begun to actually consider what true love is.
Ephesians 3:17a-19 …I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
When we post in our foyer, in our bulletin, these simple words: Love God…Love people, what we’re saying we’re all about at CCC isn’t always so simple, is it?
Your friend has egg on his face. It might embarrass him to point it out. On the other hand, you don’t want your friend to spend the day with an eggy face. What do you do?
A total stranger is inebriated or something. He’s wandering around, standing on railroad tracks as a speeding train approaches. He might resist you trying to push him off. What do you do?
A man is standing on the street corner, holding a sign. He’s asking for money, but he doesn’t look too starved. He also doesn’t look very trustworthy. What do you do?
Your renegade son tested positive for drugs, again. He doesn’t care to live by your rules, but he doesn’t have anywhere else to live. What do you do?
You’re a grandparent. Now you’re standing by, watching your kids be imperfect parents, just like you were. Now and then, you see where they make mistakes. They may or may not be open to suggestions. What do you do?
Now, these are just imaginary scenes. These kinds of things don’t really happen, do they? Only every day!
The point is, once we decide we want to live on the right side of this line between loving and hating, there’s still something to figure out.
We need to love the right way. John helps us with that here too.
I John 3:17-18 But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.
Love is going to look like laying down our lives
Jesus laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.
This is Veterans Day weekend. We honor our vets because they, as a group, are people who laid down their lives for the sake of others.
That’s what love looks like when war is involved - love for God, for family, and for the good things that we have because we are blessed as citizens. We’re thankful for their personal sacrifice, and the sacrifices made by their family members, so that you and I can live in peace and security today. That can help us understand what love is going to look like.
The Church has been showing us what it looks like ever since the beginning.
An early theologian name Tertullian lived in 2nd and 3rd century. Among the things he wrote is a description of the contrast between followers of Jesus and the people around them. He wrote, “Behold, how they love one another…they are ready to die for one another,” while those around them were ready to kill one another. While sick or unwanted children were abandoned on the streets, it was most often Christian people who took them in and cared for them.
Christians demonstrated what it means to lay down your life while the pagan world ran from it. One way they did this was by coming to the aid of others during plagues in the early centuries.
One plague, believed today to have been smallpox, raged in the Roman empire from 250-280 AD. At its height, the epidemic is estimated to have killed 5,000 people a day in the city of Rome alone.
Dionysius of Alexandria, in a first-hand account, describes how Christians laid down their lives, “Heedless of danger, they took charge of the sick, attending to their every need and ministering to them in Christ, and with them departed this life serenely happy; for they were infected by others with the disease, drawing on themselves the sickness of their neighbors and cheerfully accepting their pains.” (Eusebius, Church History, 7.22)
In communities where there was a strong Christian presence caring for the sick, the number of people who died was 2/3 lower than those without.
Throughout the centuries, it has been the Christian community that has established hospitals and orphanages to care for those that the world abandoned.
You and I live on this side of some great examples of what laying down your life may look like. It may look a lot simpler. Whether it’s simple or we’re called on to make the ultimate sacrifice, it’s not something just for super saints. It’s what followers of Jesus do.
(Conclusion)
Real quickly, when it comes to us showing it, let’s take what John says here at the end to send us in the right direction. (v18) …let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.
Love is going to involve
Action (hearts)
Talk is cheap. Apparently that has always been true. So we’re going to have to do more than just speak about showing love. If we have come to some better understanding of what love is, then we all need to make some specific plan of action to put it into practice.
You can’t look at your brother in need and close up your heart toward him if you’re able to help. Love will involve action.
What action are you going to take this week that will show you know what love is?
Truth (brains)
Love should also be well-informed.
Ill – I’ve spoken before about a mother in IN who loved her little baby boy, but he had stomach trouble for weeks and was losing weight. That’s hard on a baby that’s not 2 yrs old. The doctor told her to take the little guy off of all dairy products – no cheese, no milk. Maybe that was the problem. But her little boy continued to be sick. She took him back into the doctor. She told him, “You said to take him off of dairy stuff, so mostly I’ve just been feeding him yogurt.”
Now, that lady loved her baby boy, but she needed truth along with that love – in this case, the truth that yogurt is a dairy product! Once she got Jr. off the yogurt, he got better!
So many times the loving thing to do isn’t going to be a simple answer. We need God’s truth to direct our actions on this. I don’t trust my own judgment when I’m called to somehow lay down my life. I need One Who has all wisdom and Who has spelled it out for us to see.
But this I do know. Whenever I get confused, whenever I doubt, whenever I lose motivation - this is how I know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life…for me.
This is one of those verses where it’s a good place to personalize it.
(do that together)
This is how I know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for __________.
