(Text Only)
Title: John Lays an Onion
Today we are going to have some fun. I must first tell you that it took me about 3x longer than usual to prepare today’s message. There is reason that we don’t have a power point with the sermon today as well.
I am befuddled and bewildered by these three verses. On the surface, they seem as elementary and straight-forward as possible, but, like an onion, once you start un-peeling and unpacking this passage it just has layer after layer after layer or rich deep truth.
I am amazed at how John is able to be so simple, and yet so profound in his writing. After going through my normal preparation routine I was getting tons of information, and yet no real direction from the Holy Spirit, so I just started dialoging with God, and the result is the completely unorthodox collection of ideas and reflections that I can’t just put into a typical three point exegetical sermon.
So today, things are going to be a little bit different. Next week we will return to our regularly scheduled programming, but today, get ready to interact with me, and with the text, and Lord willing, the Sprit as we consider these three verses.
I don’t know how this lesson is going to come out in this sermon, but it looks crazy on the paper in front of me. Who’s ready to have some fun this morning?
1. The Use of John’s Language
“Light” = “life”
“darkness” = “death”
We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death.
-I John 3:14
2. The Meaning of the Word “Meno”
“Abideth” Greek: meno which means, “to remain” or “to wait”
“No cause for stumbling” means that person isn’t causing others to stumble b/c he’s abiding in the light and loving his brother (he’s not disrupting the fellowship)
3. Darkness Causes Stumbling:
Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if one walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.”
-John 11:9-10
Remember the story of me trying to walk to Vaeh’s room in the middle of the night?
4. There is a clear distinction between “us” and “them” (and John’s not afraid to say it.)
There is a distinction between “us” and “them” “Believers” vs. “The World”
We love each other, and, therefore, promote God’s holiness b/c we keep eachother in the light, able to see, and, therefore, able to avoid stumbling.
They hate each other, and, therefore promote their own fleshly desire, and keep each other in the darkness, unable to see, and therefore, they are constantly stumbling.
5. If We Love Each Other, We WON’T Cause Each Other to Stumble
“Is in darkness until now…” “Now” is reference to the “light” (the truth present in the Gospel message of Christ) After John make this statement, what he is in effect saying is, “You cannot both hate your brother, and walk in the light.”
Can you hate your brother’s sin? Yes.
Can you hate the sinful world? Yes.
But you cannot hate your brother.
6. Pop Quiz Time:
Who is a Brother?
Does this mean that we can hate a non-believer?
Who is the author of your salvation?
Who is the author of their salvation?
Were you written in the Lambs Book of Life before you were saved? (Yes.)
Evidence? (Jacob/Esau) (Eph. 3:1-5)
Did Jesus hate non-believers?
Examples? (Pilate…Christ was extremely patient with him.)
Did He hate you before you were saved?
Did He hate your sin?
Does He hate your sin?
Did he hate you before we were saved?
Then what right do we have to hate the non-brother?
Because, he’s the catch, the “non-brother” may very well be the “not-yet brother”
7. Jonathan Henry’s Reflection
10. (The true believer) sees the foundation and reason of Christian love; he discerns the weight and value of the Christian redemption; he sees how meet it is that we should love those whom Christ hath loved; and then the consequence will be that there is no occasion of stumbling in him (v. 10); he will be no scandal, no stumbling-block, to his brother; he will conscientiously beware that he neither induce his brother to sin nor turn him out of the way of religion, Christian love teaches us highly to value our brother’s soul, and to dread every thing that will be injurious to his innocence and peace.
8. Tell Me One Thing You Learned?
(How can you apply what we’ve talked about today in everyday thought and life?)