He is True

Anthony W. Franklin

Easter: He is/We are • Sermon • Submitted 23 days ago • Presented a month ago

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Scripture: 1 John 3:16-24

1 John 3:16–24 NIV

16 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. 17 If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? 18 Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth. 19 This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence: 20 If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. 21 Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God 22 and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him. 23 And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. 24 The one who keeps God’s commands lives in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.

4/21/2024

Order of Service:

Announcements

Opening Worship

Prayer Requests

Prayer Song

Pastoral Prayer

Kid’s Time

Special Music

Offering (Doxology and Offering Prayer)

Scripture Reading

Sermon

Closing Song

Benediction

Special Notes:

Week 3: Special Music

Mike and Kayla

Opening Prayer:

Heavenly Father, we are here today because You are faithful and true to Your Word and all Your promises. We want You to shape us today as we worship You, so that we can be faithful to You. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

He is True

What is Truth?

Pontius Pilate asked Jesus this question right before Jesus was crucified. He faced the Son of a God He did not know but had to do something about. Truth has been politicized for a long time. We used to say, “That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.” Now we say, “That’s my truth, and I’m sticking to it.” Sometimes, the way we throw the word truth around flippantly is frustrating, but the meaning behind those phrases and how we act when we use them has been the same for thousands of years. That is the truth that is hard for us to accept. The words we use have changed, but how we act as human beings - how we treat God and each other - has not changed much since the book of Genesis.

If I were to ask which way is north, many of you would point your finger and be accurate. You might have a compass or a phone app that could direct us north. We could discuss what true north versus magnetic north was, but where we stand right now might only make a slight difference. Right here, so far away from the North Pole, we can make sweeping distinctions and still get going in the right direction. But the closer you get to the point of true north, the more intricate and specific the directions become. When you stand on the North Pole, your compass would spin, and the only direction to find north from there would be pointing down at your feet. One more step in any direction at that point would be going south. That is because true north is not a direction at all. It is a place, a point on the map, that we reference when figuring out where to go.

Our discussions about truth often mirror our discussions about traveling north. However, John's perspective on truth is unique. He presents truth not as a concept or a direction but as a person: Jesus.

We talk a lot, share many perspectives and stories, and form opinions and speculations based on what we know and witness in the world around us. Then, we have our actions, which sometimes back up our words and sometimes do not. That muddies the truth we proclaim. But Jesus was not like that. Jesus keeps His Word, proving His love with His deeds, and He calls us to do the same.

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Love in Action

John says that actions, not words, measure love. That is a challenge for those of us who often measure trustworthy sources of truth with our ears instead of our eyes. We listen to hear if something “sounds” true, has a “ring of truth” to it, or we judge by the tone of voice and choice of words to see if it sounds like someone is hiding something or trying to string us along.

Our understanding of truth is often shaped by what we hear and see. We rely on our ears to discern the truth in accounts we hear on the news or from friends. We trust in the confidence of others when they share with us. Similarly, we use our eyes to read the news online, in the newspaper, or through phone texts. But these are all secondhand experiences. They are not the same as witnessing something firsthand, in action.

There are millions of things we could hear about that will amount to nearly nothing by the end of the day. John is not proposing some lie-detector test for us as Christians. Instead, he focuses on the core truth, which is far more critical than anything we know: love. God loves us, and He made us to love each other. How do we know this is true? Because Jesus proved it through His actions, not just His words. Jesus did not just see us in trouble and tell us how to get better. He acted to show us —no, to make us better.

How does Jesus prove that God loves us? Paul explains this excellently in Romans 5:8. Let’s look at this in his terms.

• Many people die every day for many different reasons.

• Some people even die because of what they believe - whether that belief is true or not. They can be fully devoted and very wrong and die for that lie.

• Of those people, a few die so that someone else receives a benefit, giving their lives for someone who deserves it.

• You may even know someone who died so that you could receive a benefit yourself.

• But no one, not even an insane person, would give up their life for someone who had sinned against them, who had hurt them, who was their enemy.

Yet dying for us, His enemies, was precisely what Jesus did, according to Paul, John, and the rest of the New Testament writers. The truth is stranger than fiction. It is crazier than a delusion. The truth is that Jesus died for you and for me to show us he forgave us for abandoning Him, mocking Him, abusing Him, and killing Him. There is no greater love than the love God has for you and me. That is the truth.

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Love in Truth

That truth stands forever as a north pole, a point in time and space, an anchor to hold us fast as we navigate the truth of everything else. We must respond because God demonstrated His love for us on the cross and proved His love is stronger than the grave. He invites us to love Him in return. Just as Jesus gave up His life for us, He calls us to give up our lives for Him.

It is not a measure of amount. We could never give back as much as God gives to us. But we can give it as a measure of comparison. Just like when we tithe, we offer 10% of what we receive, and my 10% may not equal the same amount as your 10%, and it does not matter, so God gives His 100% percent to us and asks for our 100% offered to Him in love.

But how do we do that? What does that even look like? Again, we return to our north pole, our anchor: Jesus. He commanded us to love each other just as He loves us—not the way the world teaches us to love each other, not how our families taught us to love each other, and not even how we may have learned in the churches you have attended. Remember, we have one point of truth, one north pole to stand on: Jesus. The incredible thing about that is that when you are standing with Him, receiving His love and loving like Him, your compass will spin, and you will see that there is a way for everyone, everywhere, to reach that same place, even if they are all coming from different directions.

At that place, you will see one source of truth, and everything else is broken fragments of our shattered world, held together by duct tape and good intentions. The storms will come, the rains will fall, and each one of those houses will fall. The only things that will remain are those built upon the rock, the truth, that is Jesus Himself.

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Trustworthy

Jesus is true and worthy of our faith. He is trustworthy and calls us, as His followers, to be trustworthy. When John says Jesus commands us to love like Him, he explains that it means loving in our actions, not merely words.

Prayer is a powerful thing. It is often the first, last, and best gift we have to give. We pray for those in need in our church family and community and beyond each week in worship, in our circle of healing on Monday evenings, and throughout the week in our small gatherings. But prayer is always more than words and feelings. We send cards for encouragement, make phone calls, and visit in person. We answer calls for help and give our time, our energy, and our possessions to those who need a little bit of help. We do this individually and together through the mission ministries of our church. When we can put our prayers into action, we do and prove our love to be true.

And we know that the more we show our love in action, not just our words, the more we see the need around us. Loving others should feel like exercising a muscle that grows stronger and easier over time. But the truth is just the opposite. The more we love, the more we see how great the need is and how little we have to offer ourselves. It is so easy to get discouraged and give up, especially when we subtly shift our anchor point of truth, of what love looks like, to our own abilities or experiences instead of the truth Jesus gives us. When we do that, we no longer stand with Jesus and have lost our anchor.

At this perilous point, trying to obey God in our own strength, we become vulnerable, and our perspective of the truth fades out of sight. When we think back to those very devoted Pharisees who loved the Bible and practiced it harder and more often than you, or I ever do, we have to wonder how they missed the Messiah when He was standing right in front of them. They were working within their own strength. You and I are within one sneeze of becoming Pharisees ourselves if we step away from the truth that is Jesus. Duct tape and good intentions will not hold... and we will take others down with us when we fall. If it is from our own strength, it is not love.

Jesus Himself did everything by the wisdom and power of the Holy Spirit. We are no better than our master. As we grow older, and it takes a slower, painful effort to get out of bed in the morning, we find ourselves praying these small, seemingly selfish prayers for the strength to get into and through the day. “Give us this day, our daily bread,” begins to take on a new meaning with less to do with food and more to do with simple survival. Lord, help me not leave a mess today. That is all I ask. That’s all I have the strength to do.

But when we look away from our strengths and weaknesses and look back to Jesus, our point of truth, we see He has more strength than we know what to do with. When we look to that truth and see what Jesus has done with His actions, not just in His words, we realize that He has given us His Holy Spirit, enabling us to live and love obediently in God’s strength, just as He did. When we love God and others truthfully, we do it in action, and we never do it alone. We allow God to love others through us in His way, with His power.

We often search for the truth but need to ask the right questions. It is easy to get stuck questioning whether something we have heard about is true. Jesus spent little time teaching His disciples how to tell if something was true. Instead, He taught His disciples to be sure they were true and trustworthy. How will others know that we are true and trustworthy? They will know we are true and trustworthy when they see and experience the love of Jesus coming through us.

Closing Prayer

Heavenly Father, Your love challenges us to live each day in a way that is more real than the poor paint jobs this world puts on. But we confess that we are not wise, skilled, or strong enough to do it. Too often, we cannot even see the truth well enough to acknowledge it. We confess we are blind, lame, poor, and needy, with little to offer this world apart from You. Fill us with Your Holy Spirit, we pray. Gives us eyes to see and ears to hear the truth. Speak to our hearts and give them the strength to love like You. Help us love one another in ways that never end, giving to the last measure, and in ways that challenge those we love to let Your image and Spirit shine through them as well. Lead us, Lord, and we will follow. In Jesus’ name, Amen.