The Proof of a Resurrected Life - 1 John 3:11-14

2:21Those are the proofs of Jesus' resurrection. Question I have to you today: how do you know that you have been resurrected? How do you know that you have been resurrected? Obviously, I'm not talking about your physical resurrection. That is a resurrection that waits for the future. That yes, we will put on a new body. Yes, that God will call us forth, that Christ Himself, appointed judge of all things, will call forth his people, all people, from the grave, and they will stand before him. That is a physical. Resurrection.

3:03I'm talking about your spiritual resurrection. How do you know that you have passed from the realm of death into the realm of life? How do you know you've been brought forth? In baptism, we celebrate this image, this picture, this spiritual birth. Baptism itself is a picture of death, the water, the judgment. Those who are submerged under God's judgment die. As Christ went to the cross, he died under God's wrath. It came upon him. Then he came out of that tomb. He carried our sins far away, and being he came out of the tomb, depicting in baptism coming out of the water. And those who have been joined to Christ have been joined to him in his death and have been joined to him in his burial and in his resurrection.

4:07How do you know if you've been resurrected from the dead? John tells us in our text this morning. 1 John chapter 3, verse 11. As we just continue our study, our walk through 1 John, we come to chapter 3, verse 11. For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we. Should love one another, not as Cain, who was of the evil one and slew his brother. And for what reason did he slay him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brothers were righteous. Do not be surprised, brethren, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death. Well, this morning, I want you to see the proof of a resurrected life so that you will know who is alive and who is dead. And the proof, I mean, in anybody, any group, there is a gathering of people. There are those who, perhaps, even in this room, are in two realms, two different realms. We've got one, the realm of the dead. We've got those who are in the realm of the living, and you're in either one or the other. John's been talking about the children of God and the children of the devil, and now he starts speaking in terms of the realm of the dead and the realm of those who are alive. And so it's in this context that John's going to put forth the proof of a resurrected life. And so, first of all, we need to understand the backdrop. John's been talking about righteousness and unrighteousness. He's talking about a gospel righteousness that comes forth as a result of the proclamation of the gospel and those who believe it. And a Worldly unrighteousness that results in a hostility to everything that is righteous. And it's against that background that in verse 14 we're able to understand the proof. So, what I want to do this morning is just walk through verses 11, 12, 13, and 14, and first set the backdrop for this righteousness and unrighteousness so that we will be ready to understand this proof, this proof of John's proof of a resurrected life, your resurrection or not.

6:38So, first, in verse 11, deal with gospel righteousness, gospel righteousness, verse 11. For this is the message which you heard from the beginning that we should love one another. John takes his readers back to that original message. He calls them back to be thinking about the message that had originally been proclaimed and to base their understanding of current events in light of the historic gospel. He says, Look at verse 11: For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning. What is the message? In fact, if you turn back to chapter 1, verse 5, he tells them, This is the message, same language. This is the message we have heard from him and announced to you that God is. Light, and in him there is no darkness at all. God is light. That is, he speaks truth. He is true, and he is light. He speaks of his character, truth, and character, truth, and righteousness. God is light. And the good news that was heard from the very beginning was that God loves you, that God loves me, and he sacrificially gave himself for us. That's the good news. That's the historic good news.

8:05That God loves. You can boil it all down. God loves you. We can boil it all down to that. And how often those words just pass right through us without giving any thought to really the profound depth and what they articulate about God and what they give us. This is the message. He gave himself sacrificially for us. Your Creator loves you that deeply. John chapter 3, verse 14, Jesus said it like this: As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believes will in him have eternal life.

8:52For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. And so, John says, this is the message that we've heard to you, that we have heard from him and announced to you. God is light. In him, there is no darkness at all. And in that truth, he goes on in verse 9 that he has dealt with our sins. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Then he goes on in chapter 2 to say he doesn't want you to sin, but if you do sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, who is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but for those of the whole world. That God, in his goodness, in his grace, has given us both an advocate and a perfect sin offering. The one advocating for our behalf is also the one who sacrificed on our behalf. And this is the good news. This is the historic good news. And we're always in every age to be going back to that fundamental truth. And John, even here at the end of the first century, he's calling them back to orient your thinking about current events and your own situation on the historic gospel, the gospel that the apostles proclaimed. Go back to the original message.

10:22That's the historic good news. And the current good news is that the historic good news does not ever change. History. Does not change, even if people interpret it differently. The reality, historic events do not change. God's historic promises do not change. And so it's based upon that. The historic gospel comes forth, the gospel ethic. We've looked at the gospel message. Now, what comes forth out of the gospel is a certain mandate, a certain ethic. Look back at verse 11: for this is the message which you have heard from the beginning: that we should love one another. So, the good news brings a kind of character, a disposition, a spirit, a fundamental code of ethics from which all other ethics flow. A fundamental code, that of loving one another. Think about all laws of humanity should be based upon this one underlying principle: that it's an expression of love for every single person involved, as oftenly as possible, even in a fallen world.

11:38That was the very hinge point of the Mosaic law, right? Loving God and loving each other. Upon those, the whole civil law is based. But this is the New Testament ethic. This is the biblical, those who have received the gospel, those who believe who Jesus is, and have believed. Believe the testimony are to embrace this pattern of life, this ethic. Jesus said it, John 13, 34, a new commandment I give to you, that you love one another even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. I think we all get it, that, okay, we need to love each other, but I think we miss these words, even as I have loved you.

12:26John 15, 12, this is my commandment, that you love one another just as I have loved you. That's a profound principle. That's a profound standard. The code is, was, and will always be to love one another like Jesus did and does. In fact, look down in chapter 3 and verse 16. John is going to go on. We're not going to have time to get there today, but he says this, we know love by this, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. So between John 3, 16 and 1 John 3, 16, if you just preach the 316s, if you just study the 316s, you get the gospel message and the ethic that God so loved the world that he gave his only son. That's how much he loves us. And 1 John 3, 16, he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But this is the kind of Love that John is talking about here. For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning: that we should love one another. This is the answer for the nations. This is God's answer. For Jew and Gentile relations, you remember the Jews of Jesus' day, what did they want? They wanted a Messiah who will come deal with this Gentile problem, specifically the Romans, right? They wanted God to deal with this Gentile problem, but they weren't ready for a Messiah that would come to reconcile both the Gentiles and the Jews to himself and then to one another. That was hard to accept. But this is exactly what Paul tells us in chapter 2 of verse 16 of Ephesians, he might reconcile them, both Jew and Gentile, into one body to God through the cross. That's God's answer for the nations. One nation, one body, reconciled through the cross. This is the problem of ethnos to ethnos, Gentile to Gentile relations. As God separated them in Babel, why did He separate them at Babel? Because they were wanting to exalt themselves, their collective energies, their collective resources. They were putting them together to exalt themselves. Above God. And he disperses the nations, but then he brings them back together again under one place at Pentecost, under the powerful preaching of the cross. It is at the cross that we can be reconciled not only to God, but to one another. And without the cross, there is no reconciliation, no true reconciliation among the nations.

15:29This is the power of the cross that we sing about. The power that calls us to be repenting of our sins. The cross calls you and it calls me to be repenting and to be reconciled to God. The cross calls us to forgive the sins of others, no matter how bad you have been sinned against. The power of the cross is calling you. The cross calls you to forgive the sins of others and to be reconciled to one another, no matter how bad the offense. That's the power of the cross.

16:12The cross calls us to repent, it calls us to forgive, and it calls us to even go a step further and to love one another sacrificially. That's the answer. That's God's answer. Answer for the nations. But first, you've got to understand the degree to which your Heavenly Father loves you. You must understand the degree to which Christ loved you and loves you. And the only response to being loved by Jesus is to love like Jesus. That's the ethic that comes out of the gospel message. And when you pervert the gospel message, you will pervert the gospel ethic.

17:03When you pervert or change the message of God's righteousness, his goodness, and how he dealt with sin, and the only way that sin was dealt with, and the only way to wreck, when you pervert that message all of a sudden, the gospel to love one another takes on a whole nother meaning. But the point of all this is that gospel righteousness leads to one place: gospel love. Gospel righteousness leads to a gospel love. Well, that's the gospel righteousness. Now, John's going to go on and talk to us about worldly unrighteousness, worldly unrighteousness. And it too has an effect. It too has an ethic that emerges.

18:00Back at verse 12, not as Cain, who is of the devil, or who is of the evil one, and slew his brother. And for what reason did he slay him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brothers were righteous. You know the account, Genesis chapter 4. You know, Cain and Abel, right? God told Adam and Eve, the day you eat of that, you will die. That gets passed on, right? And then now you have Cain and Abel. Cain, pillar of the ground, Abel, keeper of the flocks. They bring their offerings before the Lord. God has regard for Abel's offering, but not for Cain's. And when Cain saw it, Genesis tells us that his countenance fell.

18:53It fell. Something soured. Something fell. Something soured in his spirit that showed up on his face and his whole countenance. What was it? And what happened? He then goes out and he murders Abel. He tells Abel about it and then he slaughters him. He slaughtered him. Why? Well, the nice thing is we have a New Testament commentary on. Uh, the old testament, Genesis 4, and that's what John tells us here. He gives us an exposition, he gives us his commentary on what, not as Cain, don't be like Cain, he's saying, I want you to love, we should be loving one another, but we are not to be like Cain, not like Cain, who was of the evil one, he was of the evil one, literally, he was out of the evil one, he was his spiritual paternity, his spiritual father was the devil. Cain, he was the image, if you will. He was the one who personified, who illustrated his father, the devil. And what did he do? He slew his brother, he slaughtered him.

20:25He murdered him. Why? Why? Why would Cain slaughter his brother? That's the question John's asking. And for what reason did he slay him? Because his deeds were evil. Because Cain's deeds were of the nature of evil, and his brothers were righteous. That's why Cain slaughtered Abel. Cain lived under the influence of the evil one. And as a child, Of the devil, programmed by the devil's DNA, he was victim, yes. Guilty, yes. He's not innocent, but programmed by having embraced the way of his spiritual father, he viciously opposed God. And Abel just happened to be a manifestation of the righteousness that God desires.

21:34And that's why Cain slaughtered his brother. Evil seeks to slaughter righteousness. Evil is not content to just live and let live. Cain was not, think about it. Why wouldn't Cain just say, go? Okay, you like him, fine. I'm going to leave him alone. Why couldn't Cain just live and let live? What so moved him to have to find him and to slay him? What was it? He was evil. John gives us an insight into the very nature of evil.

22:15Evil desires to slaughter every vestige of righteousness on planet Earth. And if people get in the way, they go down, especially they go down, because that's where righteousness is seen. That is what evil is. That's the very nature of evil. And Cain is an illustration of this spiritual hostility that's been raging ever since, ever since the beginning. But here's the thing: Cain's murderous intent did not simply spring from the fact that he coveted something that Abel had. It wasn't just that, yeah, there may have been some of that, but there is something far deeper going on here. It wasn't just that Abel had something that Cain wanted, so he went over there and he killed him. No, it was something far more diabolical. Cain's murder sprung up because Cain despised the righteousness that Abel embodied.

23:31That's what infuriated him. So Cain is merely a foreshadow, merely the prototype, merely the beginning of the manifestation of the world's hostility against believers. That's the reality. The world is hostile against believers. Listen, may we, just as we, before we go on here, just may we apprehend every thought of every sort that would ever bring harm to anyone anywhere at any time, and especially your brothers and sisters in Christ. But here's the reality: the world is hostile against believers. Look back at verse 13. Do not be surprised, brethren, if the world hates you. Do not be surprised. Don't let this rot your socks off, guys.

24:43Y'all, don't be marveling. That's the way I would transing you, if the world is despising you, if the world is hating you. Don't be expect it. Expect it. Cain embodied the hostility that the children of the devil have against the children of God. So don't be surprised if the same spirit shows up in our generation. In fact, you see this whole pattern in scripture. You remember the men of Sodom? You remember in Genesis 19:7, they had gathered around Lot's house to. Do some very wicked things. And what does Lot do? Lot comes out to them and he says, Please, my brothers, do not act wickedly.

25:39Boy, that kind of struck a nerve with them, too. Listen to what they say in 19:9. But they said, Stand aside. Furthermore, they said, This one came in as an alien, and already he is acting like a judge. In other words, who are you to come in here and judge us and say what we are doing is wicked? Who are you to do that? Now we will treat you worse than them. That ugly spirit. It shows up again in Exodus 2. Do you remember Exodus 2? Moses saw an Egyptian beating up a Hebrew, one of his brethren. And what does Moses do? He looks this way and that way.

26:30And he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. Then the very next day, verse 13 of Exodus 2, he went out the next day, and behold, two Hebrews were fighting with each other. Two Hebrews. So the Egyptian beating up the Hebrew. But now the problem's not just the Egyptians against the Hebrew, it's a Hebrew against the Hebrew. There's a problem in the heart, right? There's a problem in the heart of man. And he went out the next day, and behold, two Hebrews were fighting with each other. And he said to the offender, Why are you striking your companion?

27:11Why are you doing this? This is wrong. What are you doing? But he said to him, Who made you a prince and a judge over us? Are you going to kill me, too? Who made you the judge? Most often quoted scripture is judge not, right? Of course, they rip it out of context. Who are you to judge me? That's the spirit. And Cain's character and attitude is the model that pervades it all. But it's not just among the Gentile nations. It's not just an issue within the Hebrews. It's a problem among the churches. In fact, John chapter 3 is all, a major part of it is dealing with the issue of a certain individual named Diotrephes, who was accusing the apostles and John with wicked words. He would not receive the brethren, remember? And he would forbid those who wanted to receive the brethren. He wanted to cast them out, not only the brethren, but also those who would welcome the brethren, he would put out of the church.

28:31And John says in verse 11 of John of 3 John, Beloved, do not imitate what is evil. This is diotrophes, is the embodiment of the very spirit of Cain just in a church context to get rid of those who would speak righteousness or teach righteousness. But Jesus prepared his disciples for this. He gives us insight as to why this is. In John 15, verse 18, he says, If the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated you.

29:13If you were of the world, the world would love its own, but you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world because of this, the world hates you. And in John 17, 14, as he's praying before his heavenly Father, he says, I have given them your word. I have given them your spiritual DNA, and the world has hated them because they are not of this world, even as I am not of this world.

29:40So Jesus prepared us for this. As you know, we got vacation Bible school on the mind. I've been trying to work through some of the material as we work through Pilgrim's Progress as part of our Vacation Bible School and that epic. Testimony of or illustration of John Bunyan's epic journey of pilgrim or Christian to who flees the city of destruction and makes his way to the celestial city. Looking forward to flushing all of that out and the teaching, which is going to be driven by biblical theology.

30:23But if you'll remember, in that illustration, in that epic allegory, they come to a town called Vanity Fair. Both Christian and his friend Faithful, they come to Vanity Fair. And as they go into Vanity Fair, they aren't buying the merchandise. They're not excited about what the people are excited about. And because they aren't going around buying all their wares, the city gets mad. They're not content just to let them pass through their city. They must buy. They must purchase. They must get excited about the things that excite them, or otherwise they get all upset.

31:18And they did. And so they brought Christian and Faithful before the judge. And do you remember what the name of the judge was? Lord Hate. Good. Lord, hate good. And so the judgment was that these are good, we hate them. And they sentenced faithful to death. It's a story, it's an allegory, but he catches, he very, as Bunyan does, he captured the very essence of the spirit that was alive and killed Abel. The very spirit, hate good, hate good.

32:01What's interesting about these people, to say that they were just haters would be wrong. They loved many things, even today. To say that the world is characterized by hatred, I think would be wrong. In fact, I remember having a meal with an avowed atheist, very nice guy, who loved his family, loved many things that we had a lot of common interests in. But he did not, what was different is that it's what he hated, right? What he despised was the gospel truth, the righteousness.

32:49Yeah, so the, you know, the problem with the people of Vanity Fair, going back to Bunyan, was that they hated true Christians. They hated Christ's likeness because they hated Christ himself. Same is true today. A person reveals their true colors not by the fact that they hate, it's what they hate or who they hate. The world in its unrighteousness hates Christ's likeness. That's the nature of evil. And they're not content just to live and let live.

33:28There is something inside them that is pushing and enslaving them to despise and to be hostile against Christ's likeness, especially as it manifests itself in people. You see, the world is under the influence of the evil one, just as Cain was. And so it naturally despises those who love and practice God's righteousness. It leads to hostility. So it's against this backdrop: gospel righteousness, which leads to love for God's people, and worldly unrighteousness, which leads to hostility against God's people, that we're ready to understand now the proof that John gives for a resurrected life.

34:30Proof of a resurrected life comes in verse 14. Look at verse 14. We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death. So, John makes it very clear that the proof is love. Love. We get it. But John also says things so simply that sometimes we can just gloss over these monumental, profound truths because he says them so simply. But it is rich, it is profound, it is deep. And so I want to draw your attention to four details that will help us go deeper into this passage so that you can understand greater this proof of love and what it all it involves. But first thing, point out to you is that John is speaking about two contrasting realms, two contrasting realms. Previously, he's been talking about the children of God and the children of the devil. And now he, in the same vein, he speaks of the realm of death and the realm of life. And he's obviously speaking about spiritual death and spiritual life, two contrasting realms. The realm of the dead are understood, they are separated from God. They live as if there is no God.

35:56They may not be as bad as they could be. But they live as if there is no God. What about you? How do you are characterized by hostility against God's righteousness? It's this idea: who are they? Who are these Christians? Who do they think? You know, a bunch of fundamental wackos or a bunch of where, there's a despise, there's a disdain, there's a distancing, there's a hostility that can take a whole spectrum of manifestations. But ultimately, from the realm of the dead, John is saying you can expect hatred for Christ's likeness. Expected. That's the very nature of the dead. They're dead to God and not just dead, they're hostile to God.

37:01Then he compares that, he contrasts that with the realm of the living. What characterizes the realm of living? Life. What is life? Union with God. The life eternal, that eternal life that has already begun and doesn't end. The dead speak of the life that's passing away. The light that is already shining, as John mentions earlier, is that he is seeing people in true union with God, and they are already enjoying. This eternal life. And what characterizes this life is love and affection and kindness for God's righteousness, and especially for his people.

37:47And that's what loving the righteousness of God does manifest itself in sacrificial expressions of love. So you can expect hatred from the realm of death. You can expect love for Christ's likeness from the realm of the living. Two very different realms, two very different desires, two very different outcomes. One is passing away, one is just now beginning to shine, and it will shine forever. Lots of detail number one. Second detail I want to bring your attention to is John's description of the new birth. Look back at verse 14. We know that, and here it is, we have passed out of death into life. John's been talking about the new birth, and it, and now he speaks in terms of resurrection. We have passed out of death into life.

38:48Very expressive. We have gone, perfect tense. We have passed over. We have passed out. It's the idea of crossing something. We have crossed. We have gone from the realm of death into the realm of life. That's how he describes what's happening. We have passed out of, we have left the realm of hostility to God and entered into the realm of life with God, with union with God. It's profound how John connects this, these thoughts. John was a good disciple, and much of what you see in the Gospel of John, he is reiterating here again in the letter, 1 John. But becoming a Christian is nothing short of undergoing spiritual resurrection. That is what becoming a Christian is: it is being raised from the dead spiritually. And Jesus himself is the one who taught John this. You remember in John chapter 5, Jesus said this: Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life. Same exact expression. Jesus taught him this. How does one pass from death to life? Jesus said, he who hears my word, there's God's truth, and believes.

40:31Him who sent me has, already has eternal life and does not come in judgment, does not come into judgment. Then he goes on in verse 25: Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and now is when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. Jesus is saying, right now, as I go out proclaiming, there are those who are hearing the voice of the Son of God saying, Come out.

41:00And they are being raised spiritually. That was happening in Jesus' day. That was happening in John's day. It's happening in ours, even as we proclaim these words. These words implied, implicit in these words, is an invitation for you to receive these words and so be born of God and so pass from the realm of the dead into the realm of the living. But Jesus isn't finished. He keeps going in chapter 5 and he says this in verse 26, for just as the Father has life in himself, even so he gave to the Son also to have life in himself, and he gave him authority to execute judgment because he is the Son of man. In other words, Jesus is saying, I am the judge. I am the judge of everything. It's very wise for you to get to know this judge, what he likes, what he doesn't like. We all stand before him. But then he goes on to say this: having talked about the spiritual resurrection, Jesus goes on in 5:28 and says, Do not marvel at this, that people are being raised spiritually. He says, Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs will hear his voice, and will come forth those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil to a resurrection of judgment. He said, Don't marvel at this. Everyone's coming out.

42:34Everyone. That's the second third detail I want you to notice. And that's the detail of John's proof of a resurrected life. We know that we have passed out of death into life, and here it is: because we love the brethren. That is John's proof of a resurrected life. Because we love the brethren, because we are loving the brethren present. We are cherishing. We are delighting in. We are no longer hostile to the people of God. All of a sudden, we have great affection for the people of God. Where does that come from? That comes from a spiritual resurrection. It doesn't come from anywhere else.

43:23But what John did not say will help clarify what he did say. So I want to take a couple of moments just to. Point out what John didn't say here. John did not describe the resurrection, the resurrected by what they hate. He didn't say, We know that we have passed out of death into life because we hate unrighteousness. We hate evil. That's how you know. No, that's not what he says. Oh, there's certainly implied, yes, hating evil, turning away from evil is certainly implied, but it's not the definitive proof.

44:00Love for the brethren is. Love is. The resurrected are carried. So, in other words, Christians are not defined, not proven ultimately by what they are against, but what they are for. They're for God's righteousness, embodied by Christ. That specific one. But notice what John also did not say. John did not say, We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love theology. We love good books. We love doctrine. Oh, certainly, certainly, those who have passed out of death into life value doctrine. It's implicit. Because in John, this whole book, he's going to be talking about you need to have your doctrine right about who Christ is and what he did. And those who preach another Christ have no life at all.

45:00And so, yes, doctrine is implicit, but that's not the definitive proof. The definitive proof is in the love for the brethren. But notice what he also didn't say. He didn't say, we know that we have passed out of death into life because we love humanity. We love humanity with a capital H. We love humanity. May not love humans, but we love humanity, right? We're really concerned what happens to the whole. Maybe not so much some of the individuals, right?

45:37John makes it clear that we are to love humanity in general. It's involved. John, even here, he makes it clear that not only his readers, but also he himself was once in a state of spiritual darkness. We have passed from death to life, and he is sympathetic. That's why he's proclaiming the truth. Sympathetic. And in Matthew 5:44, Jesus makes it very clear we are to love even our enemies, those who despise. And so John is certainly involved, but that's not the definitive proof. Love humanity. In fact, sometimes that can even be used as an excuse for compromise. We can tell ourselves, well, I love humanity. Humanity as a whole. And somehow that's what God is really after. No?

46:35No? The command is very clearly not the command, the proof. We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brethren. We love the people of God. And what's even interesting here, he doesn't say because we love the church with the capital C. Oh, that's certainly implied. We love individual members of the church. Sometimes it's easy to get to where we can tell ourselves we love the church, we're all for the church, but then we don't like some of the people that come to church, right?

47:15No, you know that you have passed from death to life because you have a specific love for the individual members of the family of Christ. And this is regardless of their ethnic background, of their gender, of their rank, of their abilities. There is a fundamental love, a love like Christ that wants to sacrificially devote self to their well-being. That's proof of a resurrected life. That's what Christ did. Fourth detail I want you to see in this is John's. Certainty about knowing one's resurrected status. John's certainty. Look at verse 14. We know. We know that we have passed from death to life. We know. That's in the place of emphasis. We know that we know. You want to know how the Apostle John assured himself of his resurrected status, that he himself had been resurrected by Christ with the newness of life? You want to know what that is? He loved the brethren.

48:37This was a transformation that the disciples went through. Do you remember there was a lot of competition to greatness for them? Remember all that? Then they fell flat on their face. They were all separated, dispersed. You remember what Jesus told Peter? Peter, do you love me? Take care of my sheep, tend my sheep, feed my lambs, give yourself to them. And John is saying, We know that we know that we have passed from the realm of the dead into the living, because once there was hostility against the church or the people of God, once there was a host, once there was even a desire to use the church, now there is nothing but gospel love. Where once there was a worldly hostility or a worldly ambition, now there is a gospel love, a gospel devotion to the well-being of the church and its individual people. That's how John says, We know, I know. This is how we know that we know is because of love.

49:52Kind of love that Christ had. Listen, are you been resurrected from the dead? Let me ask you this: Are you ashamed to be identified with the church? Are you ashamed? Well, listen, the resurrected are not ashamed of each other, even if they are some kind of may say some wrong things sometimes. I'm not ashamed. They hunger for Christian fellowship. That's what the resurrected do. They hunger for Christian fellowship. They live to worship together. What a privilege it is to be together again today, worshiping. Boy, this time last year was very different, wasn't it? We've learned to appreciate and love and those who longed to worship together. You can see, I witnessed it all year long. This intense desire to be together. That doesn't come from the world. That comes from. Above. They pray together. They share the burdens of life together. They love to talk about the spiritual matters. They love to talk about them on the way when they lie, when they sit down, when they rise up. As Deuteronomy 11, I'm fascinated by these words, which sound very ominous at the time. You shall therefore impress these words of mine on your heart and your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontels on your forehead. You shall teach them to your sons, talking of them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, and when you lie down, and when you rise up, you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. In other words, you are to take all these words and you are to just have a life centered all around them.

51:46But to the Christian, these words are a delight. They are not a task. Every word in scripture is a window into the soul, into the being of God, and reveals Him. And we delight in those things. In fact, we used to call theology the queen of the sciences because it was the so what of every other discipline. That's what we learned, whether it was engineering or whether it was being in medical practice or whatever your skill was, the real queen was knowing what to do with all that. And that was learned by understanding God. He's the queen of the sciences. Now it's fallen on hardened times, right?

52:28His words are the so what. Of everything we do, and so we center our whole life around them. You're not going to be up here very long without coming in contact with the words of scripture. So, how do you know if you've been resurrected? Well, look at your routine. What does your routine say about specifically your love for the people of the church? Do you assemble? Are you fine not to assemble? Your absence says something about it. What about your money trails? Where does your money go? That says a whole lot about whether you esteem the church or not. What about your desire to help other churches? As you look around and you see churches that are struggling, is your heart moved?

53:24What about does your heart experience grief when you hear about persecuted churches or churches that are laid low, that are caught in the middle of some of the conflict and bearing some of the brunt of some of the most intense hostilities around the world? Does your heart grieve? Are you moved to what moves you? All these are indications. One question I have: why are there not more manifestations of love under the greater umbrella of Christianity? I mean, if ever there was any group of people that should love one another, it's the church. If there's ever anybody in the world that I know of that should be loving one another, it should be the people in this room.

54:13We have so much in common, more than any other group on planet earth. But why, why, throughout history, do we see such divisions among so-called Christians, even gross atrocities on a macro level and on a micro level? I've seen some things that so-called Christians have done, some have done even within the confines of a local church. Why? Why? John answers that question. Look at the end of verse 14. He who does not love abides in death.

54:58We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brethren. And he who does not love abides in death. John takes it to a whole nother level. We know he states the converse. The one who doesn't love is abiding in death. Kind of think, well, there's neutral. There's those who love, and then there's those that do love, and then there's those we just can't really tell. John leaves no middle ground. No. He says the ones not loving, they're still in the realm of the dead. That's why. That's why you can expect throughout church history that many children of the devil are among congregations, and they have no problem thinking themselves Christians, calling themselves Christians. But the lack of love is the result of not abiding in Christ. And those who do not abide in Christ abide in death, and their death is expressed by hostility to biblical righteousness. And even entire denominations, splits within church, splits within splits within splits. Comes down to a spiritual war, where there's hostility between the children of the light and the children of the darkness.

56:32Well, do you love the brethren? Do you love them? This isn't intended to be a complicated test to leave you really with any kind of doubt. Do you love the church? Do you love the people of the church? Then be assured it's because you have already experienced the first resurrection and you will experience the second resurrection. Be comforted. Be assured. If you are seeing evidences of love for the church in your life, it's there because you have passed out of the realm of the dead into the realm of the living. And you can know that you know that you have passed out of death into life, even though you are not a perfect being yet.

57:23And John writes to assure, but at the same token, if you can look and you can say, I'm distracted about many things, love, this kind of sacrificial love for the church, really honestly is. I do not love the church like Christ, and I'm really not even really trying, honestly. Then know that you're still a child of the devil. To use John's terms, still abiding in the realm of the dead, incarcerated to do his will. So, what are you to do? If you are enslaved to death, what are you to do?

58:07Well, I want you to understand the priority. I don't want you to hear from this message that you need to go out and love people so that you will have a life. That's not what John says here. He says, I want you to have a life, and the proof of that life will be love. Do you see that? The priority: life does not follow love. But love follows life. And so, the command to those of you who are still in the realm of darkness is: John gives us in chapter 3 and verse 23: this is his commandment that we believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ. Believe in his name, believe in his name. And this very word, believe in him, is his voice calling you out of your death trap.

59:06What Jesus says to you today: believe and come forth. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, may we hear your voice today? Thank you, Father, for the clarity that simplifies so much, gives us insight into our surroundings, our times, and even what's going on in our own hearts. Help us to be a people who believe in you, who really believe, who really take in to the innermost parts of our being the realities of the cross and what this says, and what this says about us, and what this says about our relationship to you, and what it says about you. And then help us to let that so permeate our lives that it shows up. Up in everything we do, and especially in the way we relate to your people.

1:00:08Father, please be exalted here and even raise the dead this morning, we ask. In Jesus' name.