HOW GREAT IS GOD’S LOVE?
1 John 3:1-23
HIS GREAT
LOVE
V:1. How great is the love the Father has lavished
on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The
reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Dear friends,
now we are children of God, and what we will have not yet been made known. But
we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he
is. 3 Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.
A. John reflects on the love of God.
1. He has been exiled to the isle of
Patmos away from friends and family.
He has been isolated from the
Church He loved.
2. He did not spend his time having a pity party.
3. He did not spend his time complaining to the Lord about the unfairness
of
His circumstance.
4. He did not allow his circumstances to control the joy he had for the
Lord.
5. He did not focus on himself, he focused on the needs of the church to
hear
A word from God.
6. He wrote the book of revelation on the Isle.
B. When He returned from exile, he wrote
the Gospel of John and 1 John and 2 John
And 3rd John from Ephesus. In a wealthy city that worshipped the
idol god Diana.
1. We should never allow our circumstances
to block the mission that God has
For our lives.
2. Our circumstances should never
control the love we have for God.
3. Our reflection on the goodness of the
Lord will show up in our conversation.
4. Our reflection on the goodness of the
Lord aids our growth in Him.
C. John explains the Love God has for
us.
1.He lavishes His love on us. He greatly multiplied His love for us.
2. He made us know Him.
2. He calls us children of God.
3. He calls us friends.
4. He gave us a purifying hope in Him.
5. He made us focus on the second coming of Christ.
6. He did not make himself known to others.
7. He loves us so much that He has more to make known to us about Himself.
GOD’S
LOVE IDENTIFIES SIN
V:4 Everyone
who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. 5 But you know that he
appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. 6 No one
who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen
him or known him.
A. He gave us His laws.
1. He came to take away our sins
2. He became the propitiation for our
sins
3. He is the perfect sacrifice
a. He was sinless
b. He became the substitute for our sins
4. His sacrifice was acceptable to the
Father
5. He became the fulfillment of the law
B. God defined sin as disobedient to the
law; lawlessness
1. Those who know Jesus, live in Him and
strive toward not sinning
2. Those who do not know Him, continue
to sin.
3. All have sinned and fall short of His
glory.
4. The sins of those He selected are
covered by His blood.
GOD’S
LOVE PROVIDES WISDOM FOR DAILY LIVING
7 Dear
children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is
righteous, just as he is righteous. 8 He who does what is sinful is of the
devil because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son
of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work. 9 No one who is born of God
will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on
sinning, because he has been born of God.
A. A good parent instructs his/her
children so they can make good decisions.
1. A good parent teaches children right
from wrong
2. The only right is following God’s commands.
B. There are always two voices in our
minds. The voice of the right, which is God, and the voice of wrong, which is
Satan.
1. The question is which voice will you listen to.
2. Sin does not always look like sin because Satan is a master of
deception.
3. You have to study the Word to know sin in all of it’s forms.
4. Those who practice deception are controlled by the devil.
5. It is the wisdom of the Lord to distinguish between those who
do right and those who do wrong.
5. It is wisdom and the strength we get
from the Lord to avoid those who do evil.
C. Jesus came down from heaven to
destroy the works of Satan,
1. God’s plan started with a select
group, who He gave His Word and the wisdom to apply it.
2. Through the power of the Holy Spirit,
the seed of God was placed in us.
3. Because of God’s seed that is in us, we have a desire
not to sin.
4. If we do sin it is the blood of the
seed that covers us.
5. We have been born of God in a new
life of His righteousness.
6. Since we are a new creation in Christ,
sin is not our practice.
7. It is the GREAT LOVE OF GOD, that tolerates
us in our present sinful condition.
GOD’S
LOVE IDENTIFIES THE DEVIL
V: 10 This
is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil
are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone
who does not love his brother.
A. God defines two sets of people in
this world.
1. Those who do what is right are children
of God.
2. Those who do what is wrong are children of the devil
B. Another defining point for children
of God is love.
1. God is love, therefore the children
of God love his brothers and sisters,
2. The children of the devil hates his
brothers and sisters.
C. The question is how do you define
love and hate.
1. Love does what is best for the
brother or sister.
2. Hate is selfish and does what is best
for self for the destruction of the brother or sister.
3. Love builds up.
4. Hate tears down.
5. Love builds bridges.
6. Hate destroys bridges.
GOD’S
GREAT LOVE EXTENDS FROM ME TO YOU
V:11 This is
the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. 12 Do not
be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why
did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother's were
righteous. 13 Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you. 14 We
know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers.
Anyone who does not love remains in death. 15 Anyone who hates his brother is a
murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.
A. John defines the effect of love on
our lives
1. The world hates us because we love
Christ.
2. We have passed from death to life
because we love our brothers
3. We have eternal life
B. John gives us a definition of a
murderer.
1. A murder is one who hates his brother
2. Spiritually if we hate our brother,
we want promote eternal life.
3. Cain hated Able and his hatred led to
murder.
4. If you hate someone, you murder your
own sense for their well being.
KNOWING
GOD’S LOVE
V: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. 17 If anyone has material possessions
and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be
in him? 18 Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions
and in truth. 19 This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how
we set our hearts at rest in his presence 20 whenever our hearts condemn us.
For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.
A. The example of God’s great love is
the sacrifice of His son on the cross
1. Our love for others is what we are
willing to sacrifice for others.
2. Only in an extreme case to save
another soul would we be expected to give our lives to
Demonstrate the love of God.
Romans 5:7-8
Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a
good man someone might possibly dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates his own
love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
3. We should love the truth about Jesus
that we would rather die than to deny Him.
4. Love is an action word.
5. We are expected to share what we have
with those in need.
6. Actions speak louder than empty words.
B. If we say we love and do not, our
hearts will condemn us.
1. Since we are born in the spirit, any hypocrisy in us will be exposed immediately.
2. We are not perfect, but growing in
the spirit.
3. It is the great love of God to expose
to us any untruths in us.
4. Living in the spirit requires
continued growth.
MADE
FRIENDS OF GOD IN LOVE
V: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 obey his commands and do what
pleases him.
A. To be called a friend of God moves us
to another level of spirit intimacy with God.
John 15:14-15
Ye are my friends, if ye do
whatsoever I command you.
Henceforth I call you not
servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I
have called you friends;
for all things that I have heard
of my Father I have made known unto you.
1. The indwelling of the spirit is proof
that we are friends of God.
2. Our desire to be obedient to God’s
commands is proof that we are friends of God.
B. We know when we are pleasing God,
when our hearts does not condemn our actions.
1. When know we are pleasing God, we
have confidence that He will give us what we
Ask in Jesus name.
2. It is the Holy Spirit that troubles
us when we are not pleasing God
THE
SUMMARY OF GOD’S GREAT LOVE
V: 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 Those who obey his commands live 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.
A. The summary of God’s GREAT LOVE for
us is our faith in Jesus Christ.
John 6:35
Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me
will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirst
1. We did not come by faith in Jesus on
our own.
John 6:44
"No one can come to me unless
the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day.
2. It is the lavish love Jesus has for us that
causes Him to make promises for our provisions.
B. God’s great love for us is His living
in Us
John 15:7-10
If ye abide in me, and my words
abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my
disciples.
As the Father hath loved me, so have
I loved you: continue ye in my love.
HOW GREAT IS GOD’S LOVE
NIV
