You Can Be Sure

1 John 4:11-21
Shay Fields Life Group
March 23, 2014

Introduction

A. Begin with this story:

A young man and young woman were very much in love and were planning their
wedding. When they met with the pastor the young woman admitted that she
was very nervous about the big occasion. After the meeting the pastor decided
to include a special verse of Scripture in the ceremony that he thought would be
a great encouragement to the young women. He selected 1 John 4:18 which says
“There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear.

Thinking that the verse would be especially meaningful if one of their friends
read it, the pastor asked the Best Man to be prepared to share the verse in the
ceremony. However, the pastor was not aware that the Best Man did not attend
church regularly and was not aware of the difference between the Gospel of John
and the epistle of 1 John.

So, at the prescribed time in the wedding ceremony the Best Man faced the bride
and groom to read the Scripture. But, instead of reading 1 John 4:18 he read
from the Gospel of John, chapter 4, verse 18 which says:

The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your
husband. John 4:18

B. Not terribly encouraging! But John wants us to be encouraged, and even

confident, and to put aside a certain kind of fear we may have toward God.

C. First: Is fear good, or bad?

D. What are some kinds of fear that can be good, or bad?

1. Good: fear of being stopped for a traffic ticket (note the WFAA8 news
story about people paying traffic tickets because they feared an arrest
warrant would be issued, but warrants were not being issued lately, thus
people were not in a hurry to pay their traffic tickets; fear when someone
might attack you.
2. Bad: fear of failure; irrational fears, like fear of rocks or cotton candy!

E. We need to understand that even in the Bible, there can be good fear and bad
fear. The fear in our passage today is bad fear, fear that could cripple us if we
don’t know how to disarm it.
You Can Be Sure
1 John 4:11-21
Shay Fields Life Group
March 23, 2014

Body

A. We end up in this passage at a recurring theme in 1 John: professed love for God
and love for brothers go hand in hand (4:19-21). This theme is repeated in 1
John because
1. A group of rogue “Christians” had left the local church (1 John 2:19).
2. They were spreading false doctrine that Jesus did not fully come in the
flesh (1 John 4:1-3).
3. They evidently claimed to “know” God, but were not practicing love
toward the brothers and sisters (thus John’s emphasis on this theme in
this passage and throughout 1 John)
4. These false teachers were still trying to harass the local church and upset
its members, thus the reason for John writing the book.
5. One can’t love God (whom he has not seen) and hate his brother (whom
he has seen). This is the conclusion that takes us back to the beginning of
the passage:

B. Our love for other Christians makes God’s love visible (4:11-12)
1. God loved us by giving His Son for our sins (4:10), and that’s our model of
love for one another: sacrificial.
2. No one has ever seen God (John 1:18), but they will see Him if we love
one another.
a. What does it mean that “no one has ever seen God”? Didn’t Jesus
come in the flesh to show us what God is like?
b. All manifestations of God (OT Angel of the Lord, the glory of the
Lord in the OT tent of meeting, even Jesus in the flesh) are veiled,
subdued manifestations of God. His full glory has never been seen
(John 1:18; 1 Timothy 6:16), but the future promise is that we will
“see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2)
3. God’s plan is that His love will become visible to the world through His
children who love one another.

C. Here’s how we know for sure we are connected to God (4:13-16)

1. We have been given His Spirit (cf. Romans 8:14-16) – v. 13.
2. We have seen God’s Son (John and the disciples) – v.14.
a. “I am second” testimony of Scott Hamilton, former Olympic gold
medal skater. When he first went to church, pastor told him, “You
need to understand that Christianity is rooted in history.”
3. So to broaden, now “whoever” (emphasis at head of phrase) confesses
Jesus as Son of God abides in God, and vice versa. – v. 15.
You Can Be Sure
1 John 4:11-21
Shay Fields Life Group
March 23, 2014

4. The one who abides in God (and God in him) loves as God loves (the
brothers and sisters, in context).

D. Because we know we are connected to God, we can have confidence before Him
(4:17-18)
1. Confidence in the “day of judgment” (v. 17). Which judgment? (Great
White Throne Judgment, Rev. 20:11ff)
2. “Perfect love casts out fear” Which kind of fear?
a. What about 2 Cor. 5:11: “Knowing therefore the fear of the Lord,
we persuade men” – see the previous verse about the judgment
seat of Christ. What’s the difference here?
b. That judgment seat is about rewards, not eternal destiny.
c. This passage talks about the judgment of Revelation 20:11, the
Great White Throne judgment. Believers – those who confess Jesus
as the Son of God – have no need to fear that judgment.
3. “Confidence” is an important theme in 1 John, because “those who left us
because they were not of us” were attempting to shake the confidence of
the believers John was addressing:
a. 1 John 2:28: And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he
appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in
shame at his coming.
b. 1 John 3:21: Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have
confidence before God;
c. 1 John 4:17: By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have
confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we
in this world.
d. 1 John 5:14-15: And this is the confidence that we have toward
him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And
if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we
have the requests that we have asked of him.

E. And so we come back to John’s theme: those who love God love the brothers also
(4:20-21)

Conclusion

A. The big point in this passage is that we can have confidence before God (both
now in prayer and in the future at His coming) if we show His love to others
now.
B. And sometimes that’s messy, and inconvenient. Which tempts us to pull back and
want comfort, rather than being a comfort to others:
You Can Be Sure
1 John 4:11-21
Shay Fields Life Group
March 23, 2014

I would like to buy $3.00 worth of God, please. Not enough to explode my soul or
disturb my sleep, but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk or a snooze in the
sunshine. I don't want enough of Him to make me love a black man or pick beets
with a migrant. I want ecstasy, not transformation; I want the warmth of the
womb, not a new birth. I want a pound of the Eternal in a paper sack. I would
like to buy $3.00 worth of God, please.

Tim Hansel, When I Relax I Feel Guilty, (Colorado Springs: David C.

Cook Publishing, 1985).

C. The kind of love that John talks about, that we show to others, is:
a. The Ms. Gerri kind of love. The kind that listens when she talks, and helps
clean up her surroundings when she can’t.
b. The Cornerstone Church kind of love. The kind that helps those who have
no where else to turn. And gives them soap, and a toothbrush, and
underwear, and a kind word…that they need as much as the soap and
toothbrush and underwear.
c. The Stevens-in-Serbia kinds of love. The kind that gives, and sends, and
even visits Christian “family” far away, to help them know they are not so
far that they are forgotten.
d.

D. Do you have that kind of love? John says don’t fear, God is working out His life
and love through you.

Optional Ending:

The Parable of Barefoot Christians

I arrived in the city of EVERYWHERE early one morning. It was cold, and there were
flurries of snow on the ground. As I stepped from the train to the platform, I noticed
that the baggage man and the redcap were warmly attired in heavy coats and gloves,
but oddly enough, they wore no shoes. Repressing my impulse to ask the reason for
this odd practice, I went to the station and inquired the way to the hotel. My
curiosity, however, was increased by my discovery that no one in the station wore
any shoes. 
You Can Be Sure
1 John 4:11-21
Shay Fields Life Group
March 23, 2014

Boarding the streetcar, I saw that my fellow travelers were likewise barefoot; and
upon arriving at the hotel I found that the bellhop, the desk clerk, and all the
residents were void of shoes! Unable to restrain myself any longer, I asked the
manager what this strange practice meant. 

"What practice?" said he. "Why," said I, pointing to his bare feet, "Why don’t you
wear shoes in this town?" 

"Ah, said he, "that is just it. Why don’t we?"

"But what is the matter? Don’t you believe in shoes?" 

"Believe in shoes, my friend! I should say we do! That is the first article of our creed
– shoes. They are indispensable to the well-being of humanity. Such frostbite, cuts,
sores, and suffering those shoes prevent! It is wonderful!"

"Well, then, why don’t you wear them?" I asked, totally bewildered. 

"Ah" he said thoughtfully, "That is just it. Why don’t we?"

Though considerably nonplussed I checked in, secured my room, and went directly
to the coffee shop. There I deliberately sat down by an amiable-looking but barefoot
gentleman. Friendly enough, he suggested that we look around the city after our
meal. 

The first thing we noticed upon emerging from the hotel was a huge brick structure
of impressive proportions. He pointed to this with pride. "You see that?" said he
"That is one of our outstanding shoe manufacturing establishments!" 

"A what?" I asked in amazement. "You mean you make shoes there?"

"Well, not exactly," said he, a bit abashed. "We talk about making shoes there, and
believe me, we have one of the most brilliant fellows you have ever heard. He talks
most thrillingly and convincingly every week on this great subject of shoes. Just
yesterday he moved the people profoundly with his exposition of the necessity of
shoe-wearing. Many broke down and wept. It was really wonderful!"

"But why don’t they wear them?" said I insistently. 

"Ah, that is just it. Why don’t we?" 

You Can Be Sure
1 John 4:11-21
Shay Fields Life Group
March 23, 2014

Just then, as we turned down a side-street, I saw through a cellar window a cobbler
actually making a pair of shoes. Excusing myself from my friend, I burst into the
little shop and asked the shoemaker how it happened that his shop was not over-
run with customers. 

"Nobody wants my shoes," he said. "They just talk about them."

"Give me what pairs you have ready," I said eagerly, and paid him twice the amount
he modestly asked. Hurriedly I returned to my friend and offered them to him,
saying, "Here, my friend, one of these pairs will surely fit you. Take them, put them
on. They will save untold suffering."

"Ah, thank you," he said, with embarrassment, "but you don’t understand. It just
isn’t being done."

And coming out of the city of Everywhere, over and over and over that question
rang in my ears; "Why don’t we? Why don’t we? Why don’t we?"

Notes

4:17

παρρησιαν = confidence, boldness, fearlessness, esp. in the presence of persons of

high rank (BAG, p. 630; L&S, p. 611; Abbott-Smith, p. 347;)

Other uses in 1 John

2:28 – Confidence, and not shame, when He appears (returns)
3:21 – Confidence before God because our heart does not condemn us, leading to
confidence in prayer to God (3:22).
5:14-15 -- also conveys confidence before God in prayer.

4:18
κολασιν = Punishment, but quite widely used of eternal punishment in extra-biblical
literature (BAG, p. 441)