Knowing and Obeying Jesus.

Happy Father's Day to the men in the room. And this is your reminder if you've yet to text your dad. You should do that.

Today we are going to continue our series through 1 John. If you have your Bibles, turn to 1 John 2:

My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins and not only for ours, but also for the sins of the whole world. We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. Whoever says I know him but does not do what he commands is a liar and the truth is not in them. This is how we know we are in him. Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did. Dear friends, I'm not writing you a new command but an old one which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard. Yet I am writing you a new command, and its truth is seen in him and in you because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining. Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother is still in the darkness. Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. Anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going because the darkness has blinded them.

1 John 2:1-11

Let's pray today. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for your word. God, we thank you that on this Father's Day that we can be reminded of you being our perfect Father, the one that continues to love us and pursue us. Through your Holy Spirit you are with us today. I pray that you would continue to speak, that for these next few moments, would you help us to release anything that we came in here carrying? Anything on our mind, anything we're anxious about or stressed about. God, would we be able to lay that at your feet? We just open up our hearts to hear from you, because we want to know you more, God. We want to know your heart and we want to live like your son Jesus did. In your precious name we pray, Amen.

To know Jesus is to obey Jesus

Today is Father's Day, but tomorrow is another significant holiday, Juneteenth. As I was thinking today about the significance of this, that both of these fall on the same Sunday, I think it shows us so much of the Father's heart. Today we're going to talk about that as we look through scripture and how you don't have to look far in scripture to understand the Father's heart.

A couple years ago, well, more than a couple years ago, six years ago, I was asked to guest speak at a church on Father's Day. I remember being terrified because I'm like, what am I supposed to say about Father's Day? I'm not a dad. I'm never going to be a dad. But that's the good news about scripture, right? No matter who we are, no matter what role we play, we can always look to scripture to see how we're supposed to live and instructions for that.

When it comes to this Father's Day and this idea of it being so close to Juneteenth, I think it's a beautiful picture and a reminder of the heart of the Father to continue to set all people free. We see that in the way that he sent his son Jesus to be a living sacrifice to set us free and to make us aware of our freedom. But today, as we think about this and Juneteenth, there is still the acknowledgement that so many people around the world are not free. This is why we as Christians continue to have a role and responsibility as we follow Jesus to continue to bring that same freedom that he brought.

Juneteenth is a new federal holiday, but it's not something that is new. It's been around. It's one of the long-standing African-American holidays. But I want to talk about it in case it is newer to you. Essentially January 1st in 1863 was the day that Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation declaring in the South that slaves were free. However, it took quite a bit of time for that news to spread and for people to hear of their freedom. For years after that, so many people were still living as slaves.

But on June 19th, in 1865, so that's almost two and a half years later, in Galveston, Texas, it was announced and that proclamation was declared that they were free.

Whenever we talk about these things, I think it's important for us to take a deep breath because for some people, as we think about Juneteenth and we talk about slavery, it can be uncomfortable because it's a reminder of the way that people that look like you were treated. For other people, it can be uncomfortable because it's a reminder of how people that look like you treated others. That's the reality that we face, recognizing that there are a lot of hard things that we don't always want to talk about. But it's important for us to address and it's important for us to understand the Father's heart in it all.

It's also important for us to note that throughout history, whether it was African American people or other people, many are still mistreated in the name of Jesus. That's important for us to acknowledge as we continue to read Scripture and look to live like Jesus and recognize that Jesus came to set people free. Anytime that we start to not see people made in the image of God, we're no longer looking like Jesus and we're no longer living like him.

In this passage that we just read, John is pointing to this idea over and over again. It's not just enough for us to proclaim with our mouth that we love Jesus. We have to live like him. So many people can say that they know Jesus. So many people can say that they want to love like Jesus. But not everyone will actually live like him and do what it takes to follow his example.

The real verses we're going to focus on today are verses 4, 5, and 6. Whoever says I know him but does not do what he commands is a liar and the truth is not in that person. But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him. Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.

So what is the big point of today's message? To know Jesus is to obey Jesus.

What it means to know

I want to talk about these two words because it's important for the whole passage. This idea of to know. In Greek, in the New Testament, when it's used, this idea to know is basically to know fully. So like completely know. It's not just like you know a little bit, but you know fully. So that's the goal. We want to fully know Jesus.

But when we look at the Hebrew, to know is the Hebrew word yada, which means to be made one with. So the goals are to fully know Jesus, to know all of who Jesus is, and then to be made one with Jesus, which will lead us to obeying Jesus.

Now, this word obey. They didn't have in the Old Testament when we read Scripture. When we read things like hear, O Israel, or listen, they did not have separate words like we do today when it comes to hearing and listening and obeying. There was no separate words for that. It was all one, this Hebrew word shema. Whenever you look at the Old Testament and you see those things of hear or listen, it also means obey. It's this call to action.

In the New Testament, there are separate words, but there still is that call to action. If I say, listen to what I'm saying, you can listen to it. But if I say obey this, that means you're going to do what I say. You're not just going to hear it. You're going to do what I say.

Knowing and obeying cannot be separated. Some of us want to live that way because it's easier. We want to just know about Jesus. We want to know about his love, but it's harder for us to actually follow sometimes and live that out. But Jesus set an example for us in this. He obeyed the Father and he gave us the example. He's not asking us to do something he didn't already do.

To know Jesus is to obey Jesus. How do we obey Jesus? We live like him. We follow his example.

Jesus sets the example

I love that in Luke chapter 4, after Jesus' baptism, we see the Father says, with him I am well pleased. This is my son whom I love. Then we see that Jesus goes into the wilderness where he's tempted. Right after this, the beginning of his ministry, he makes this declaration.

In Luke chapter 4, he was teaching in their synagogues and everybody praised him. Jesus went to Nazareth where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue as was his custom. He stood up to read and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written.

Before I read this, I want to note something I'll talk about later. It was custom to go in and read Scripture. Jesus had that pattern. He would go and hear from the word of God, his Father. This is part of how we live like Jesus, continuing to show up and be in the word of God together in community and remember the words of who God is and what he's asked us to do.

Jesus is reading the scroll of Isaiah and he declares:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.

Luke 4:18

This is what Jesus came to do. This is what he is declaring to us. The invitation that we have is that to know Jesus means to obey Jesus, and to obey Jesus means to live like him and to continue to do what he came to do.

Obedience costs something

For Jesus, obedience looks like sacrifice. Obedience looks like him giving his life fully for us. It looks like sacrifice, which means following Jesus is going to cost us something. It's not a maybe. It will cost us something. Following Jesus will cost us something.

For Jesus, it cost him his life. Obedience cost him his life. Obedience is action. Obedience is an active thing. We have to do something about it.

Jesus did not just proclaim freedom. He enforced it. He made way for it by laying down his life. If we too want to say that we know Jesus, then we have not just an invitation but we have the responsibility to follow in his footsteps and to continue to lay down our lives to make way for people to know Jesus too.

This is what John is talking about. He's talking about this idea that there are going to be so many people. They're going to proclaim with their mouths like, I know Jesus. I love Jesus. But there are going to be very few that are actually going to live like him. Most people are going to say it and their hearts are going to be far from it.

We too have to be so careful in the way that we live our lives. Are we going to be people that just say we know Jesus, that we love Jesus? Or are we going to be people that really truly know him and obey him and submit to him and commit our lives to living like him?

True obedience will cost you something. But here's the good news. This is what obedience leads to. Greater love for God. Because the more that we become like Jesus, the more that we're going to fall in love with our heavenly Father and we're going to have that completeness and that wholeness.

This is what John is telling us. He's saying you will be made whole as you obey. You will be complete. Who wants to be empty? Not me. I want to be made whole. I want to be all who God created me to be. That is that oneness and that unity with God. That comes from obeying Jesus.

For Jesus, obedience led to freedom. It led to power and it led to greater love.

Living in the light

Verse 9 says, anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going because the darkness has blinded them.

John is trying to explain this to us. It's that same basic concept. He's saying again, you can't say that you love Jesus and then hate people. You can't say that you're following God and then mistreat people. That's not how it works. To know Jesus is to obey him and to live like him. If we want to be in the light, if we want to live like we were created to live, then we cannot hate the people around us. We cannot mistreat the people around us.

As I was thinking about this idea of living in the darkness and not being able to know where to go, I was reminded that there is a pumpkin patch nearby. A couple of different years we've taken groups there for a fall day away. There's this kind of maze. It's not a mirror maze, but similar concept. You go in and what do you do? You have to get out. This specific one is just like a curtain maze. It's pitch black. You cannot see anything. And it's black curtains everywhere. It's super fun because you walk in there and you're like, I don't know where I'm going and you're bumping into people and you're like, I don't even know who you are and it doesn't even matter and it's really fun for like five minutes.

But I'm thinking of that feeling and kind of like the thrill of like, oh this is fun trying to get out, and it's only fun because I know I'm going to get out, right? It's only fun because I know it's only going to last a little bit. But if that kept going, what happens? Chaos, fear, panic. I'm not going to be gently tapping into people. I'm going to be like throwing punches trying to get out of this curtain maze. It's not going to be good.

When we are stuck in darkness, it continues that cycle of darkness and chaos and destruction all around us.

What is John saying leads to darkness? He's saying hate. How is it that some people all throughout history, when we're talking about slavery, how is it that some people could not see the evil that they were doing? How is it that some people were able to worship God on Sunday and go home and treat people the way they did? They were stuck in the cycle of darkness. They didn't really know Jesus. They were not living like him. They were not obeying him because Jesus said that he came to set the captives free. Jesus laid down his life for the sake of other people. That is how we're supposed to live if we know Jesus. We're to obey Jesus and we're to live like him. That's living in the light.

The second that we start to see anybody around us as less than someone that is made in the image of God, the darkness starts to creep in. So this is for all of us sitting here today to think about the people around us, to think about how we see the people around us and to continue to say, God, will you show me? Is there any place in my heart where I am not seeing people made in your image?

We don't always see the darkness creeping in until it's too late and we're stuck in it and we can't see and we can't get out and we don't even know it anymore because we're blind. But thankfully, John reminds us that Jesus came. He paid the price for our sins. There's forgiveness. There's freedom. We have an advocate, the Holy Spirit, to continue to come and show us.

If we want to live like Jesus and we want to continue to see his kingdom come and all people experience forgiveness and freedom in him, then we're going to have to know his word and we're going to have to continue to come back every single day and read and learn and experience his presence through that.

The reason for writing

John closes this section, and it's titled Reasons for Writing. He's giving the reasons for writing. Verse 12: I'm writing to you, dear children, because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name. He wants us to remember today that it's finished, that we have been forgiven.

Verse 13: I'm writing to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I'm writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. He's reminding us again of who God is, that his son Jesus overcame everything. So we can now walk in that victory.

I see Juneteenth as a reminder to us that you can be free sometimes and you don't know it. There are a lot of people who have been set free by Jesus and they spiritually just do not know it. John wants us to know it. He wants us to know the forgiveness. He wants us to know the freedom. He wants us to know the good news that we have everything that we need to be with Jesus, that we have everything that we need to live like him.

We have work to do

In Matthew and in all the gospels, we talk about Jesus gathering his disciples and he gives them what's called the Great Commission. We talk about this all the time. Go make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, teach them to obey all that I've commanded. Surely I will be with you always.

Here's what I want to know. Jesus didn't just say declare the good news. Yes, that's part of it. He said to make disciples. He didn't just say declare that there's freedom. He said go teach them to obey like I've taught you to obey and live like me. He wanted people to not just know about his freedom but experience the freedom that he gave.

The reason why Juneteenth was so special is because it was more than just a declaration of freedom. It was the beginning of saying, no, we are going to enforce this. We are going to make sure that people don't just know that they're free, but they experience freedom.

As followers of Christ, we have an obligation to do more than just declare freedom. We have to obey and do what Jesus is asking us to do until all people experience that freedom and are living fully as God created them to live, made in his image as his child, as an heir of the kingdom of heaven. That is what we are after. That every single person would know that and would feel that and experience that. Until that day comes, we have work to do.

1 John 2:4 again says, whoever says I know him but does not do what he commands is a liar and the truth is not in that person. But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him. Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.

If we claim to live in him, we must live as Jesus did. And Jesus said, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim the good news to the poor. He has sent me to reclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind to set the oppressed free. Obedience to God is living like Jesus and living like Jesus will cost you something.

So then how do we do this? What does this look like? Right now, I invite you to stand and take a moment. Just say, God, is there any place in my heart? Is there any ways that right now I'm not living like you? Is there anything that you've been asking me to lay down and I'm not? Is there any way that I've been treating people or thinking about people that that's not of you and not like you? Take a moment to come and repent again and lay that at the feet of Jesus to receive his forgiveness.

God, I thank you so much for the freedom that we get to experience because of Jesus. I thank you that it is finished. I thank you that he has overcome. I thank you Lord that we can walk in the light that we can see. Would you just open our eyes even more today, God? Would we leave this place just being so aware of the ways that you are asking us to change, the ways that you are asking us to live differently?

God, we realize that there are so many people that do not know about the freedom and the hope that is found in you, that there are so many people that they don't know that they can even be made whole. God, I pray that as you are continuing to show us these things, would you continue to just give us a greater desire in our hearts, open our eyes wider to see the things that you see, to recognize evil? God, to recognize the role that we play in continuing to see captives set free and the eyes of the blind opened wide.

God, would we not walk out of this place just going back into our daily routines? But would you help our hearts just beat and burn for what you do? And that is to see people know you, not just hear about you, but to experience your love. So Lord, we declare that's what we are committed to, that we want to see your kingdom come. Would you help us to continue to do our part and to feel the weight of that and the obligation of that? But also to see the beauty that we get to partner with you in your Holy Spirit and that we are not alone in any part of this journey. So Lord, we love you. We thank you for this and we ask all of this in your name, Amen.