Sermons

FILTER BY:

← back to list

Sep 08, 2024

Love: A Foil & The Hero

Love: A Foil & The Hero

Passage: 1 John 3:11-24

Speaker: Andrew Kerhoulas

Series: Practicing the Way of Jesus

Keywords: truth, love, spirit, believe, assurance, confidence, abide, love one another, god is greater, his name, reassure, deed and truth

I

n the second half of chapter 3, John returns to a familiar theme of loving one another but this time we hear a new counter melody featuring Cain from the tragic story in Genesis 4. Cain had a love problem. And it turns out we are more like Cain than we care to admit because God sees into our hearts. But like in a symphony the tension we feel is released by Jesus: when our hearts condemn us God is greater than our hearts. The glorious, all-knowing One laid his life down so we can practice doing the same for one another.

 

Readings & Scripture

 

CENTRAL TEXT: 1 John 3:11-24

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.

19 By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; 20 for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. 21 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; 22 and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. 23 And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. 24 Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.

 

PRAYER/SCRIPTURE READING/CONFESSION OF FAITH: Genesis 4:3-7

LEADER: As we continue in worship, hear now the Old Testament reading from Genesis 4. 
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.”

LEADER: The Word of the Lord. 

ALL: Thanks be to God

 

BENEDICTION: Numbers 6:24-27 

LEADER: May the LORD bless you and keep you;
the LORD make his face to shine upon you
and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up his 
countenance upon you and give you his peace.

 

RELATED SCRIPTURES:

  • Genesis 4:1-16 
  • Exodus 20:17
  • Matthew 5:21-26
  • John 10:11,15
  • Titus 3:3-7
  • Hebrews 11:4

 

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: 

  1. In literature, a foil character is a character who contrasts with the protagonist, or hero, of a story to highlight the traits of the hero. If Cain is a sort of foil, what were his traits? Since Abel is missing from 1 John, who is the hero? What are his traits according to this passage?
  2. Read Genesis 4:1-7. Why did God not accept Cain’s offering? Discuss God’s reaction after Cain’s anger and disappointment. How do we know that God cared more for Cain’s heart than his offering? 
  3. In Genesis 4:7, God tells Cain that sin is “crouching at the door,” language often used for a leopard that tries to conceal itself and make itself smaller before it strikes. How does that compare to sin in your experience? 
  4. Read 1 John 3:17 and Titus 3:3-7. What is the good news for haters? What is renewal and who does the renewing work? 
  5. John tells us that “whenever our hearts condemn us God is greater than our hearts…(v. 20)” By “greater” he means that in the ways we stray, namely in our propensity toward hatred, he is greater–he is compassionate, gracious, and abounding in steadfast love (Ps 103:8). He also says “[God] knows everything.” Like his interactions with Cain reveal, God knows and sees everything including our hearts, not just our religious actions. How can God’s greatness and omniscience reassure us of his love when we feel condemned due to our lack of love?
  6. Again in literature, the term "foil" comes from the practice of placing a gemstone on foil, where the foil makes the gemstone shine more brightly. How can we work to make Jesus and his love shine more brightly this week? What does it have to do with hatred and love? How does the Spirit factor in (see 1 John 3:24)?

 

ILLUSTRATIONS:   

 

QUOTES:  

  • The murder of a human being is not the way it’s supposed to be. This act is out of order. It is a senseless act because it saws against the grains of the universe, because…it doesn’t fit the design of shalom.
    - Cornelius Pantinga Jr. 
  • Jesus rejected hatred because he saw that hatred meant death to the mind, death to the spirit, death to communion with his Father. He affirmed life; and hatred was the great denial.
    - Howard Thurman
  • Study your disappointments and it will show your heart.
    - Dave Burden
  • O God that you would give us a baptism of honesty. That we would be seized by reality.
    - Duncan Cambell  
  • Be killing sin, or sin will be killing you.
    - John Owen
  • We might expect John to say if our hearts condemn us they are accurate because we are all sinners. But what does he say instead? What’s he communicating? When we understand the demand of love we may find our hearts condemn us. But here’s the gospel: he is greater and he knows all things. We wouldn’t have that conviction without him and pushing us back to his grace.
    - N.T. Wright. 
  • If you find what is sacred to a person then you will find rampant irrationality.
    - Jonathan Haidt 

 

 

 

 

BOOKS / DOCS: