Jesus Laid Down His Life for Us
Truth Taught- The second mark of the Christian is that he will love like Jesus loved.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is reversing God’s curse one believer at a time.
The cursed, natural man is selfish and immoral. It’s important that we see this. When God does a work and converts us through faith in Jesus Christ, we are different and we are changed. Our thinking changes, our outlook changes and we are placed on the course being directed to glorification.
A quick survey of the Bible shows many who met Jesus and were forever changed.
Saul of Tarsus. He was an adamant persecutor of the Church. He hated Christians and went to great lengths to bring them bound to Jerusalem for trial and execution. Then, on the Road to Damascus on his way to round up more Christians, he met Jesus and was forever changed. The worst enemy of the Church became the greatest missionary for the Church.
Zacchaeus. He was a crooked and greedy tax collector. Tax collectors were known to me sinners. They were famous for being scammers, swindlers and thieves. When He met Jesus, he turned from being a crook to voluntarily giving money back. He said, If I have cheated anyone, I will repay four times. Jesus declared, today salvation has come to this house.
The Woman at the Well. She was not an upstanding citizen. She had multiple illicit affairs and now was living with another man. She came to the well at that hour because there were less people there who would talk about her. Then she met Jesus and went back into the town and all the people she sought to avoid; she told them about Jesus the Messiah.
The Philippian Jailer. Was cruel and knew how to torture prisoners. Paul and Silas, were in the stocks. This was a very painful torture. They begin singing about Jesus and the Jailer then there was an earthquake and the prison doors were open and yet the prisoners did not escape. The jailer ran in and fell down before them asking how he could be saved. Then, he took them to his own house washed and treated their wounds and many within his own house were saved.
These are a few accounts of people in the Bible who underwent the change that takes place when sinners meet Jesus. The same is true for all who come to Christ. John tells us there are basically two ways to tell if someone is a believer and following Christ…
The first one we saw last week. They will live a different life than what they used to live. They will exhibit Jesus’ righteousness and be changed from their old self to a new creation. Mark #1 is a Changed life/life of righteousness
Today, we will look at Mark #2- they will love one another. Someone who is born again will love their fellow Christians and seek to do good to them.
1 John 3:10 (ESV)
10 By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.
Here John states the matter in a negative way.
Those who are of the devil will not practice righteousness and will not love their brothers.
So, we see these two marks that John gives us of the true Christian… Changed live from practicing sin to practicing righteousness and from not loving others to loving one another.
This is an old message. This is the Gospel Paul preached to them. This is not a new teaching…
Heretics always come along and boast about new teaching. Anything that’s new is not true. That’s just sort of a basic axiom, if it’s new, it’s not true. You may find somebody who has a fresh insight into the truth, but anything that’s new is not true because the faith was once for all delivered to the saints and nothing shall be added to it or nothing taken away from it. And that’s how the Bible ends with that warning that anybody who does that is in grave danger from the judgment of God. Back in chapter 1 verse 5, he kind of began at that point. “This is the message we have heard from Him and announced to you.” I’m telling you the message, John says, that I received from Jesus Christ. And I don’t care what anybody has said to you since. It’s not true.—John MacArthur
1 John 3:11–18 (ESV)
11 For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. 12 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. 13 Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. 15 Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.
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. 17 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? 18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.
1. Doctrine Stated (3:11)
11 For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.
These opponents of truth, the Church, the Gospel, and of Jesus Christ John called anti-Christs were seeking to teach false doctrines within the Church. We saw last time that they denied the full deity and full humanity of Jesus Christ. They also believed that they had no sin to repent of. They also denied that the believer will have a changed life.
It’s such a mark of the world to deny the truths concerning Jesus and of course not show any real and lasting God wrought morality and then to turn around and deny even their own sin. There are some who deny truth, deny Jesus, deny moral behavior and deny their own sin these are the anti-Christs.
You speak to these folks and there is really no biblical knowledge at all, there is no conviction of sin, and their focus is not on Christ but on themselves and their works.
John tells us do not be deceived…
John writes God’s people, the Church in verse 11, that this is what they heard from the beginning. When those in John’s Church first heard the Gospel message, they also heard that the Gospel brings about love for one another. It crosses ethical backgrounds, it supersedes social status, it causes those who would normally be enemies to see the one thing they have in common which is Jesus Christ. This causes enemies to come together in love for one another.
John 13:34–35 (ESV)
34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Jesus tells His disciples that one thing the Gospel will do is cause them to love one another.
That’s the doctrine presented…the Mark of the Christian is that he or she will love one another.
2. The Examples of Cain and the World (3:12-15)
12 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. 13 Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. 15 Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.
John’s point here is that we used to be like Cain who hated everyone who belonged to Jesus. We hated others just because their deeds were righteous while our deeds were evil. We were spiritually like Cain.
Cain hated his brother Abel because Abel brought an appropriate sacrifice and God accepted him but Cain brought a sacrifice not acceptable to God so God rejected Cain. It was really God that Cain hated but Abel was the closest thing he could get his hands on that reminded him of God so…Cain killed Abel.
Outward ritual, outward religiosity is no proof that a person is born of God. Cain was a very religious man. He didn’t bring the right sacrifice because he had a self-styled religion. There’s no question in my mind that he had been commanded to bring an animal sacrifice as his brother did, and that’s why God accepted Abel’s sacrifice and didn’t accept Cain’s because Cain didn’t bring what God asked. Rather than bring a sacrifice which God asked, he brought the fruit of the land which he himself had toiled to produce. And so for him he was going to make his relationship with God based upon what he accomplished, and that never gets you to God. But he was a religious man.—John MacArthur
And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous.
Genesis 4:3–7 (ESV)
3 In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, 4 and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, 5 but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell. 6 The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? 7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.”
Hebrews 11:4 (ESV)
4 By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks.
The difference between Abel and Cain…Abel had faith Cain did not.
The difference between their offerings…Abel offered his by faith Cain did not.
Abel brought an appropriate animal sacrifice and Cain did not.
Cain represents the world here in John’s analogy while Abel represents the true Church. Cain hated Abel because God accepted him…Abel belonged to God and Cain was of the world. So, Cain hated Abel. God’s love for Abel actually showed Cain’s sin even in a greater way. That’s really why Cain hated Abel, Abel’s faith and righteousness highlighted Cain’s sin and depravity.
The same is true for us beloved.
13 Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you.
Why does the world hate the Church? Because the Church and God’s people bring out and expose their sin.
John is explaining to his Church that the anti-Christs who have taught a different Gospel and have left their Church are really Cainites. They are of the world and not of God. He has already told us, if they were of God, they would have stayed.
We too must not be caught off guard when the world turns on us who belong to God.
In John’s account of the Last Supper, he writes that Jesus first spoke about the need for His disciples to love one another.
Our Lord in John 15 teaches the dynamic that is at work. You used to hate God like the world does. You used to be the world yourself. Then Jesus commands His disciples to love one another as He loves them. They are to abide in Christ and love one another. There is to be a bond of love that cements them together.
John 15:12–17 (ESV)
12 “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15 No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. 17 These things I command you, so that you will love one another.
John follows this same pattern that Jesus did at the Last Supper. Love one another as I have loved you so you should love one another. The reason Jesus gives and then now John gives is because there is no love out in the world.
13 Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you.
We must love one another because the world hates you. Cain represented the world.
How much does the world hate us?
Cain showed his spiritual connection to Satan by murdering his brother. The word here regarding Cain “slew his brother,” is the word sphazō in Greek and let me tell you what it means. It means to butcher by cutting the throat. He slit his brother’s throat. That’s an important thing to say and I’ll tell you why. Because there had only been up to this point one indication of a death prior to this murder and it was God killing an animal, remember, to take the skin to cover Adam and Eve. And very likely God had killed that animal by slitting its throat which became the standard practice in the sacrificial system.
He literally came up behind his brother and butchered him by cutting his throat. The term is used in classical Greek, sphazō, to refer to the slaughtering of victims for sacrifice by cutting their throat, cutting their jugular. It is used in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, Leviticus 1:5 to refer to the slaying of sacrificial animals. It was as if Cain said, “Oh, okay, God, You want – you want a sacrifice, do You? You want an animal sacrifice, here’s one – shuck.” That’s the vitriol that existed in Cain’s heart. And the writer here, John, uses a vivid strong word to describe the murder.—John MacArthur
John tells us that in Christ we have passed from the realm of the world, hate and death to the Church, love and Life.
14 We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. 15 Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.
3. The Nature of Biblical Love Shown By Christ (3:16-18)
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. 17 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? 18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.
How did Jesus love His people? He did not just tell them He loved them but acted in love on their behalf. He laid down His life for us. He did not just speak words of love but He acted for us to show us love.
Jesus saw our great need to have our sins forgiven and laid down His life for us.
How are we to love one another? John tells us…like this…17 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?
So, how do we love one another? We share our goods when others within our Church have needs. We give to one another. We share and love. We meet one another’s needs.
That’s the nature of true biblical love.
I pray, you have been brought from death to life. Do you love others here in this Church? Are you showing your love for one another?
I pray you are actively showing your love…
Resources Used:
1 John by Kruse
Words of Blessing
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