Sunday
Morning Bible Study
December
9, 2012
Introduction
Do people see Jesus? Is the gospel
preached? Does it speak to the broken hearted? Does it build up the church? Milk
– Meat – Manna Preach for a decision Is the church loved?
This is a book
about Real Issues
What’s real?
What’s the truth?
We’ve been addressing issues like:
Who is God?
What is He really like?
What is a Christian?
What is a Christian really like?
5:1-3 To Love and
Obey
:1 Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone
who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him.
:1 believes – pisteuo
– to think to be true, to be persuaded of, to credit, place confidence in
Present active participle
:1 the Christ – Christos
– “anointed”
:1 is born – gennao –
to be born
Perfect passive indicative
:1 who loves – agapao
– to love, to feel and exhibit esteem and goodwill to a person, to prize
and delight in a thing.
Choosing to assign great value to another person.
Present active participle
:1 who begot – gennao
– to be born
Aorist active participle
:1 also loves – agapao
– to love, to feel and exhibit esteem and goodwill to a person, to prize
and delight in a thing.
Choosing to assign great value to another person.
Present active indicative
:1 who is begotten – gennao
– to be born
Perfect passive participle
:1 is born of God
Lesson
Born again
This falls under the category of “what is real”. What is a “real”
Christian?
A real Christian is one who has been “born again”, who has had a spiritual
birth from God Himself. Jesus said,
(Jn 3:3 NKJV) “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see
the kingdom of God.”
So who is “born again”? Part
of that answer is about what you believe about Jesus.
But it’s not the entire answer.
I hope you’ve seen as we’ve made our way through 1John that you have to be
sure you are looking at the entire letter to keep things in balance, and not
just take one verse alone.
John has given us several parts to the answer. A person who is “born of God” is a person
who …
Practices the
right things
(1 Jn 2:29 NKJV) If you
know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness
is born of Him.
Doesn’t
practice the wrong things
(1 Jn 3:9 NKJV) Whoever
has been born of God does not sin, for His seed remains in him; and he cannot
sin, because he has been born of God.
Loves others
(1 Jn 4:7 NKJV) Beloved, let us love one another,
for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
Believes Jesus
is the Christ
(1 Jn 5:1 NKJV) Whoever believes that Jesus is the
Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who
is begotten of Him.
Overcomes the
world
(1 Jn 5:4 NKJV) For whatever is born of God
overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world— our
faith.
In our current
verse (1John 5:1), the issue is about what you believe about Jesus?
Was He just an ordinary guy? Was He just a good teacher? Or was He the Savior of
the world, the “Christ”? John the
Baptist got it right…
(Jn 1:29 NKJV) The next
day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who
takes away the sin of the world!
Jesus came to the earth to be a sacrifice for our sins, to
pay for our sins, and save us from the penalty for our sins.
Aren’t
you glad Jesus came for “messy kids”?
How does a person become “born again”?
You have to
take the step of opening up your heart to Him.
Jesus said,
(Re 3:20 NKJV) Behold, I
stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I
will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.
You need to “receive” Jesus into your heart.
(Jn 1:12 NKJV) But as
many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to
those who believe in His name:
When you open your heart to Jesus, He will come into your life and begin to
help you to change. He will help you do
the things you know you need to do, the things that are right.
Let today be that day. At the end of
the message I’m going to give you an opportunity to do that very thing.
:1 everyone who
loves Him …also loves
God the Father is the one who “begets”, who gives a spiritual birth.
Those of us who believe in Jesus are the ones who have been “begotten” by
God.
Lesson
Loving the Family
If you love God as your Father, then you ought to learn to love the rest of
the family as well, those who also have God as their Father.
It’s kind of a hard concept to get because some of us have families who are a bit messed up. We
don’t always love those in our family, those who have the same ancestors that
we do.
One of the reasons the holidays can be a bit difficult is because we may
have traditions that the family gets together for Thanksgiving or Christmas,
and frankly we may not always like all the people in our families.
Play
“The
Thanksgiving Song” video clip
The sad thing
is that some people opt out of their families because they don’t want to bother
learning how to love their family.
The church is also
a family.
Just like your family, the
church family is complete with crazy aunts and grumpy grandpas.
The challenge is to love each other like family.
:2 By this we
know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His
commandments.
:2 we know – ginosko –
to learn to know, come to know, get a knowledge of perceive, knowledge by
experience
Present active indicative
:2 we love – agapao –
to love, to feel and exhibit esteem and goodwill to a person, to prize and
delight in a thing.
Choosing to assign great value to another person.
Present active indicative (both times)
:2 commandments – entole
– an order, command, charge, precept, injunction; a commandment
:2 keep – tereo –
to attend to carefully, take care of; to observe
Present active subjunctive
:2 By this we know
that we love
Lesson
Loving others
This is another
of John’s “reality checks”.
How do we know that we really do love the children of God?
By loving God and doing what He says.
We’ve already seen that you can’t say that you love God and not love other
people.
(1 Jn 4:20 NKJV) If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar;
for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom
he has not seen?
Now John turns it around and says the opposite – you can’t say you really
love others if you don’t love God and show it by doing what He says.
Sometimes loving others requires that we do difficult things for them out
of obedience to God.
Difficult
things like really forgiving others.
We can say that we “love” a difficult person at church, but in our heart we
refuse to take the actual step of forgiving them of something they’ve done.
If you really love God, then you will do what He says when it comes to
loving others.
Jesus said,
(Lk 6:46 NKJV) “But why
do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do the things which I say?
:3 For this is the
love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not
burdensome.
:3 the love – agape
– brotherly love, affection, good will, love, benevolence
Love that chooses to assign great value to another person.
:3 commandments – entole
– an order, command, charge, precept, injunction; a commandment
:3 we keep – tereo –
to attend to carefully, take care of; to observe
Present active subjunctive
:3 love … that we
keep His commandments
Lesson
Loving Obedience
For some of us, we often think
that obedience can only be achieved when the threat is strong enough.
Sometimes that seems the only way a parent can get their kid to do what
they want them to do.
Sadly, sometimes that’s the way it is in marriage as well.
Illustration
SECRET TO A LONG MARRIAGE
God’s desire is that our obedience is motivated out of love, not out of fear.
If we truly love God, then we are glad to do
what He asks us to do.
Jesus said,
(Jn
14:15 NKJV) “If you love Me, keep My commandments.
What does it take to get you to do the
right thing?
Do you have to be threatened? Or have you learn to be motivated by love?
:3 His commandments
are not burdensome
burdensome
– barus – heavy in weight; severe,
stern; violent, cruel, unsparing
This is a word that can have a pretty negative tone to it, like when Paul
tells the Ephesian elders about the difficult people that are coming their way:
(Ac 20:29 NKJV) For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not
sparing the flock.
Lesson
Joyful obedience
One of the
measures of the maturity of our walk is our attitude toward God’s Word because
this is where God gives us His “commands”, His will for our lives. (the
following is borrowed heavily from Warren Wiersbe)
The unbeliever
thinks it’s impossible to follow the Bible because he doesn’t get the spiritual
message behind it.
(1 Co 2:14 NKJV) But the
natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are
foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually
discerned.
The spiritually
immature believer thinks that the commands in the Bible are too hard.
It’s the little child that says, “Why do I have to do that?”
The spiritually
mature believer has tasted God’s amazing love and looks at God’s Word as a love
letter, at a chance to find out what God has for his life.
The longest
chapter in the Bible is Psalm 119, an entire song dedicated to the Word of God.
It talks about loving
God’s Word (Ps. 119:97), rejoicing
in the Law (119:14), and delighting
in the Law (Ps. 119:24).
To the Psalmist, God’s Word tastes like honey.
(Ps 119:103 NKJV) How sweet
are Your words to my taste, Sweeter
than honey to my mouth!
The Psalmist has even turned God’s Word into music:
(Ps 119:54 NKJV) Your statutes have been my songs in the house of my
pilgrimage.
Think of what that would look like to us. Maybe like a kid
writing a song about his love … of the traffic code? I have found such a clip and
I’ve been told that this young man is telling his girlfriend about his love for
all he’s learned about Driver’s Ed.
Play
“Bieber Baby” clip
David wrote in one of his songs…
(Ps 40:8 NKJV) I delight
to do Your will, O my God, And Your law is within my heart.”
The burden of
religion where man is trying to please God in his own strength is a pretty
heavy burden. Jesus said of the Pharisees:
(Mt 23:4 NKJV) For they bind heavy
burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves
will not move them with one of their fingers.
The
word Jesus used for “heavy” is translated “burdensome” in our passage.
In contrast,
the “burden” that Jesus puts on us is light in comparison.
He said,
(Mt 11:28–30 NKJV) —28
Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I
will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon
you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find
rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is
easy and My burden is light.”
Jesus’ burden is so different than the burdens of the
Pharisees that Matthew used a different Greek word (phortion) for “burden”.
Why is His burden “light”? Because of love. Because of His love for us demonstrated
when He died to pay for our sins.
And when we turn to love Him back, we find that it’s quite
easy to do what He asks.
Jacob had to work for seven years in order to win the
woman he loved:
(Ge 29:20 NKJV) So Jacob
served seven years for Rachel, and they seemed only a few days to him because of the love he
had for her.
When we grow in our love for God, we find that we grow in our “delight to do
His will”.
Are you ready to say “yes” to Jesus today?