By Jared Warner
Willow Creek Friends Church
April 21,2024
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1 John 3:16–24 (ESV)
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.
There is something remarkable about the Apostle John, or in this case John the Elder. I love John. And although the author if this letter to the churches does not tell us that it is the John that wrote the Gospel, we can make that leap based on how he speaks. There is something interesting about speech and writing styles. Although we may not be able to know for certain that this was the Apostle John, we do know that this letter emerged out of a community that was greatly influenced by John. The writing style is so similar to that of the disciple that Jesus loved that very few people can substantiate a denial. And I like John. I like him because I understand the way he thinks.
He opens his Gospel in a manner that is very different from the other Gospel writers. Matthew and Luke begin with the birth of Jesus, Mark jumps right into the ministry of Jesus. John, well he is different. John starts with, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
I love the way John begins his gospel because John begins with hope. He begins by telling us that we are part of something that is much larger than ourselves. Something that has been going on from the very beginning of time, and we right here and now have the opportunity to participate in a cosmic epic.
When I was first entertaining the idea of entering ministry, the first Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings movies came out. And I still remember, introduction to that first movie. “The world is changed. I feel it in the water. I feel it in the earth. I smell it in the air. Much that once was is lost, for none now live who remember it.” Those introductory words sent chills down my spine; they drew me in. That is the same feeling I get when I begin reading John.
He is calling us into an epic quest. He is reaching out to us, whispering, urging us to look around. Something is not quite right. Something is off. We were created for something different but somewhere along the way darkness crept in, confusion, manipulated language that has caused us to lose sight. But deep within us, like a primordial yearning we know. We know there is a way back, we need to find our way back.
I like John. I love John. When I get to heaven, right after I see Jesus and eat at that banquet that is prepared for us on the other side of that veil, I want to hear the story from John.
This beloved disciple, this son of thunder, this potentially youngest of disciples noticed things that the others just did not see. He wove the story together in a manner I wish I could do. He knew Jesus in a way that I wish to know.
I wish to know. I wish we could see the world as John saw it. This man, if tradition is correct, face trials that I do not even want to imagine, and yet he survived. He saw a vision that confuses us. Even today we still ponder the meaning of what he saw, we often live in fear of his words. We dread them because we see them as marking the end, which according to the internet the recent solar eclipse started that countdown, again. But I think we often miss the point of what John was saying.
John saw something. John was one of the few people that were given the privilege of seeing. He saw the full reality. He saw the beast within the powers and principalities we so often chase after to give us hope. He saw the vanity of our human endeavors. He saw the emptiness of our striving. And he saw hope. Cycling through all the darkness that seems to surround us, a light remains. He saw time from the beginning to the end and he proclaimed, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
He saw the darkness. He saw the true extent of the darkness. And he boldly proclaims, the light shines!
I love John. I want to know the story that John tells. I want to see the hope that John saw.
Today though we are not reading his gospel. We are reading one of his letters, which is something almost better. Imagine you lived in Ephesus, the city that many believe John lived later in life. Imagine you had sat listening to the stories that John told. Sitting before you is this man that was scarred by life. A man that had seen the worst of human depravity, yet this man’s smile would light up a room the moment he began to speak. Initially you were scared to even look at him but the hope that radiated from him drew you closer. For years you had listened to his stories, but now you are grown. John has been taken away. This person that was once your hope stone was no longer there with you. Darkness starts to creep back into your life, and then someone runs into your meeting for worship one Sunday morning. Runs and says John has sent us a letter.
The word goes out, everyone is gathered, pressing in to hear what this beloved disciple had to write.
“For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. 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 were righteous. Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you. We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.
“By this we know love, that he laid down his lif for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers…”
At this time your mind has been transported, like so many times when John spoke. You once again begin to see the world, like a child. You want to again ask the million questions that come to your mind. Why, how, if? You once again hear your teacher laugh as he tells his story. In the Beginning…
I know that this week’s passage begins with the sixteenth verse of this chapter, but we need to start before that. We need to begin where John began. And we need to begin there because the story of Cain and Abel is the story that each of us find ourselves in.
This story begins shortly after the fall of our first parents. I would suggest approximately nineteen months after the fall. Adam and Eve left Eden, after they had eaten of the fruit from the tree of knowledge of Good and Evil and not they must face the world with a different perspective. They must now labor. They must work to know what is good, they must endure the hardships of making a wrong choice. And to top it all off. “Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain.”
I just want us to stop for a moment and really think about Adam and Eve. The world around them was foreign, there were dangers they never knew before, they had to find food, animals were no longer pets. The world was once bright and now it was scary. They were clueless and now they are clueless with a baby. Not just one but soon after Cain was born Eve bore his brother Abel.
I want the parents among us to remember back to when your first child was born. Remember the fear you had when that baby cried. Remember the confusion and complete worthlessness you felt when you did not know what to do. Remember the phone calls to your mother. Eve did not have that. She did not have someone to talk to except Adam. And Cain was crying and Adam got her pregnant again. What help he was.
Cain and Abel survived infant-hood, which is a miracle if you ask me. They grew. Cain began to work the ground and Abel became a keeper of sheep. I do not think we are amazed enough at this story. This family went from being able to just eat whatever they wanted to having to first find food that they could eat, and then domesticating that food.
Cain the older brother worked the ground. He took a stick and dug, he pulled thorny weeds. He gathered seeds, planted, them and tended the fields. I grew up on a farm, this makes my back hurt just thinking about it. But his brother, Abel. Abel ran around playing with animals.
I recently read in a book, that the first domesticated animal was the goat. Some of us know goats, others of us do not really know much about them. Goats basically begged to be domesticated. They do not require much work, they eat just about anything, and they are playful. Cain is trying to dig in the ground to grow food, Abel is playing with a goat. He is chasing them around watching them eat and take care of themselves, while Cain is sweating.
And then they bring an offering to God. Cain worked his fingers to the bone and Abel brings an animal that basically came to the alter of its own volition. And God liked Abel’s offering better.
The jealousy, the anger, the rage, that that might stir in us. You might not notice it in yourself, but you have it. You wanted a position that was given to someone else. You worked hard for it. You deserved it. Yet you were overlooked. What do you feel? Your friend just got a new car, you have been working and saving for one for several years and you just cannot seem to get a break. They have it and you do not. What do you feel? The CEO has a multi million dollar contract and you work for minimum wage. They get assistance and you have to pay taxes. They are getting married and you do not even have a significant other.
We know the story of Cain and Abel because we reenact it every single day of our lives. We are not noticed, people do not see what we have contributed, we are invisible and we just cannot take it anymore. But what does God say to Cain? “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? 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.”
What are we going to do? How will we respond? This is the darkness that John saw in his vision. He saw the face of what was crouching behind Cain, whispering into his ear. It was the same sort of being that confused Cain’s mother and father. “Did God really say you would die?”
We all know that Cain did not heed God’s warnings. He was driven by his jealousy, his envy, his greed. Abel had something that he wanted. He had an easier life, he was accepted, he was wealthy, he was everything that you, Cain, were not. And Cain lashed out with violence. Cain thought that if he could remove Abel he could have everything that Abel had, but that desire was contrary to Cain. He allowed the darkness to come in and the darkness just intensified his fears and his weaknesses. The darkness just continued to scream out to him saying, “you are not accepted, you do not have enough, you are not…”
Death
“By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.” I want us to consider this sixteenth verse in the light of the story of Cain and Abel.
I have spent a great deal of time thinking about these brothers. I think this is because i am the older brother and I have a younger brother that is capable of doing things that i wish i could. My brother can sing, and I am deaf. My brother can look at something and figure out how to fix it. And I watch YouTube videos over and over again and call my brother to tell me how to fix it. I feel like I get this stuff. And yes there are times something was crouching behind me too. My brother was loved socially, people liked him, they talked to him, they laughed at his jokes. And I…well I am me. I would rather pet the dog or cat than talk.
What began as sibling rivalries grew into tribes, and nations. It was Cain that built the first city. It was through Cain that civilization first emerged. Our heritage is influenced by Cain. Cain began the cycle of envy and violence. He embodied fear. And we all experience this. Will Israel and Iran go to war? Will Putin drop the bomb? Will our current election cycle become the last? Did the eclipse really start the timer on a forty day countdown?
We like those people centuries ago, are listening to this letter. A letter written by a man that was disfigured by the violence and fear. A man who experienced the most heinous injustice humanity could imagine. If anyone had a reason to become bitter, John would have been that man.
We want to do something. We want to fight. We want to force the people that oppose our view to change their ways. We demand our rights, while we restrict the rights of others. We want to retaliate, and get revenge. What does John have to say?
“By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 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? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.”
I want us to imagine John. John had watched his best friend hang on a cross. John had watch as one of his closest friends had betrayed his teacher in an attempt to force Jesus to rise up and take hold of the kingdom only to see the error of his thoughts and take his own life in his despair. John had watched or heard reports of each of his closest friends face terrible ends. Peter, as hung on a cross upside down. John’s own brother, James was executed by the king, the king who was supposed to be their Jewish king. We could spend all day talking about each of the Apostles and how they were mistreated. John knew them all and he knew more that faced similar treatment. He should hate. He should wish death to the tyrants. He should be demanding his rights. Yet this man tells us to love.
Love is a difficult word to wrap our heads around. You would think after centuries of human advancement we could understand this four letter word. But it is so easily twisted. The Greek language did not have it so difficult. What we use one word for they divide into four separate words. One means friendship, one means lustful passion, one is parental instinct, and the other is charity. Love here is this last form.
This form of love goes deep. It speaks to the deepest and most important value we place on anything. In God’s economy, and yes economy is the proper theological term when we are speaking of value, humanity holds the greatest value. It does not matter if the human is someone from the deepest jungles of the Amazon, or the coldest city of Siberia. It does not matter if they are from America or the slums of Calcutta. Each human life has value in the eyes of God. As we learn from another writing of John with the reference 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” This is the same love, for the same people.
John tells us, “By this we know love.” We know love when we participate in it. Love is something that is shared. We cannot just receive love and not pass it along. Love must flow like a river. When we withhold love it is like placing a dam in a river. Everything slows down, builds up, and stagnates. But when we allow love to flow. When we become a blessing to others, when we use the resources we have available to us to encourage those around us, things begin to change.
Going back to Cain and Abel. Cain desired the blessing, he wanted what others had. He demanded it and was willing to take it. Abel was different. Abel gave the best. He did not withhold but freely gave. Cain worked, Abel played. Cain offered what he could, Abel did not hold back and offered the best he had. Cain looked at what was produced by the sweat of his brow and he decided that he could not possibly let go. It is his, he earned it. Abel gave cheerfully, knowing that there was not anything better remaining.
John tells us, “Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.” I know that this term little children is a term of endearment. But sometimes we act like children when it comes to life. If we do not get our way we pick up the ball and leave. If someone hits us we want to hit back. If they take our toy we break theirs. Yes we love children, I love children, but we need to grow up. We need to learn to share. We need to learn to value the things that God values. But this requires something of us. It requires us to take a step back. It requires us to empathize. To value things that God values requires that we may not get what we want, because to honor that of God in the other person, our brother or sister in Christ, that fellow image bearer might mean that I need to give a portion of what I worked for so that they can survive.
We like this in theory. We like the idea of giving, but how do we give? Let us look again at Cain and Abel. Abel brought the firstborn of the flock and of their fat portions. Abel gave before he knew what to expect. He gave first. Cain gave of the fruit of his field. We are not told exactly what Cain brought, and because of this people make assumptions about the offering. We assume God accepted Abel’s offering because of the blood. We assume Cain’s was rejected because it was fruit and vegetables, and these were not enough to cover the guilt of their Father. We make these assumptions because of the history of Israel and the sacrificial system. But what if it is more simple, what if the value of the sacrifice had nothing to do with blood, what if it had everything to do with how and when the sacrifice was given? Abel gave the first. He gave with the hope that God would provide later. Cain gave out of his abundance. Abel gave without question, where Cain calculated the cost. Abel gave his life, where Cain merely contributed.
This passage might come across as dark, judgemental, and maybe even as if I am begging for resources to be given to the church. That is not what I am saying. This is an attitude and lifestyle. Abel lived his life as short as it might have been to be a blessing to others, while Cain lived according to his own profit. What good is having everything that this world can offer if we never use it? What good is a billion dollars sitting in a bank somewhere, that is never put into use? What good is a storeroom filled with food if there is not a plan for distrobution? We can participate in life or we can contribute to death. We can open the gates of blessing or we can be the source of damnation.
Love, John tells us, “by this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we outht to lay down our lives for the brothers.” But how do we love? We take on Jesus’s life and lifestyle. We make it our custom to worship, to withdraw often to pray, and we minister to the needs around us. We become a people Loving God, Embracing the Holy Spirit, and living the love of Christ with others. But we are these. We are like the rich young ruler to comes to visit Jesus asking what must I do to inherit Eternal life? What must we do? Abide in him.Listen to the spirit’s leading. Open our eyes and see what God sees. Then follow the leading within us.
Darkness is all around us and we are beacons of light. We want to shine bright but often we see that there is more darkness than we are able to overcome. Shine where you are. That is all we can do. Encourage the person next to you, and trust that through your encouragement, they too will shine where they are, and encourage the ones next to them. Not all are asked to travel to the darknest recesses of a foriegn land, most of us are called to simply abide where we are. We are called to be the best grandparents we can possibly be. We are called to teach, be representatives of justice, to provide service. Give the best you have to the person next to you, and Love them as Christ loves you. When we change our perspective from what we can gain to how we can bless, we will see a vast ocean of light overtaking the sea of darkness. When we change our perspective and abide in life instead of death, we will begin to see His kingdom come, his will being done on earth as it is in Heaven. We do not need to fear, we need to love.
Previous Messages:
Broken Dreams Restored
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church April 05, 2026 Click here to join our Meeting for Worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili John 20:1–18 (ESV) 1 Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the…
The Mind of Christ
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church March 29, 2026 Click here to Join our Meeting for Worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili Query 3: Do you attend regularly the services of your church and participate in them actively? Do you prayerfully endeavor to minister, under the guidance of the Holy…
Walk as Children of Light
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church March 15, 2026 Click here to join our Meeting for Worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili Ephesians 5:8–14 (ESV) 8 for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light 9 (for the fruit…
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