Please turn with me to 1 John 2 - starting at verse 3.

We’ve been looking together at fellowship.  Seeing that fellowship is much more than just having a relationship with someone.  Relationship is knowing God and come together in His name.  Fellowship is much deeper.  Fellowship is when we’re possessed by God and experience life in Christ together.

That depth of fellowship touches every part of our lives - physical - mental - spiritual.  Its a depth of knowing of each other that only God can create in us.

And yet - in too many churches there are underlying currents - battle lines - ongoing divisions - problems and situations that are not spoken about.  But, everyone knows what’s going on.  People are hurt - wounded - turned off - discouraged and disgusted.  God’s people treating God’s people poorly.

We need to be honest with each other.  Would you agree with this?  There are times - despite our best intentions and efforts - there are times when we struggle together with these things.

We learn to “play church” and exist in relationships with other Christians.  People leave churches.  Many want nothing to do with Jesus and His church. 

John’s teaching is so important for us.  In 1 John 2 - starting at verse 3 - John writes about obedience.  When we obey God - God not only keeps us from falling into this abuse of fellowship - but - when we obey God - God actually deepens our fellowship.

There are two major truths in these verses - the first begins in verse 3.  This truth:  OBEDIENCE DEMONSTRATES FELLOWSHIP.

Say with me.  “Obedience demonstrates fellowship.”

1 John 2:3:  By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments.

Martin Luther - the original Martin Luther - the monk.  As an Augustinian monk - Martin Luther made a sincere effort to discover and know God by living in obedience to God - beating himself - spending days in fasting - laying for long agonizing hours on the cold floor of his cell.  Trying through obedience to have fellowship with God.

People today sing hymns - recite prayers - attend church services - go through all kinds of rituals and traditions - abstain from certain foods and behaviors - all trying to have fellowship with God.  Many Christians have the idea that somehow by obeying God we can come to have fellowship with Him.  They get the cart in front of the horse.

When Martin Luther came to understand the words of Paul in Romans, “the righteous man shall live by faith” (Romans 1:17) he came to understand that faith comes first.  We can never come to fellowship with God by trying to keep His commandments.  Fellowship with God comes first by faith in Jesus Christ.  That’s putting the horse in front of the cart.

We receive Jesus by faith - by believing and accepting Him as our Savior.  When we do that - He comes into our lives and begins to change us and work in our lives.   The evidence of this fellowship with Jesus  - that Jesus is in us and working in us - is our desire to obey Him.

That’s what John is getting at.  We live - striving to obey God.  Despite whatever problems we may have - whatever areas of weakness - or struggles with sin - if we have fellowship with Jesus - our desire is to obey God. 

John emphasizes this truth in verse 4.  The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” - I have fellowship with God - and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

Charles Spurgeon once said, “An unchanged life is the sign of an uncleansed heart.”  If our heart is not right before God it shows in how we live.

Is this true?  Can a person can stop stealing apart from being a Christian.?    Of course.  Can a liar can stop lying?  Sure.  Can an alcoholic can stop being an alcoholic?  Yep.  An adulterer can stop his adultery?  Of course.  They can do this and more without being a Christian.

What John is emphasizing is that claiming to have fellowship with God - without stopping these behaviors - only shows that we don’t have fellowship with God.  There has to be a basic change in our lives.  Christians obey God.

I’d like to teach you a song this morning.  Way back in the Middle Ages when I worked with Mount Hermon we used to sing this with Junior Highers.

Bottom line:  Obedience demonstrates that we have fellowship with God.

John’s second truth is that OBEDIENCE DEEPENS FELLOWSHIP.

Try that with me, “Obedience deepens fellowship.”

Verse 5:  but whoever keeps His word - whoever is living in obedience to God - in him the love of God has truly been perfected.  God’s love - lived out in fellowship with God and each other - God’s love is perfected in those who obey Him.  That’s deepening fellowship.

Going on in verse 5:  By this - by demonstrated obedience - By this we know that we are in Him - that we have fellowship with Him - the one who says he abides in Him - the one who says he has this love - this deepening fellowship with God and others - ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.

Underline that phrase - “to walk in the same manner as He walked.”  We need to understand what John means by that if we’re going to understand how obedience deepens fellowship.

Hear this:  Having fellowship with God means that we “ought” to be living life together in the same way that Jesus lived life.

Now, living life like Jesus lived doesn’t mean that we’re somehow suppose to do the things that Jesus did.  Most of us aren’t called to forgive sins.  Some people seem to be called to point out sin in others.  Which is a different issue.  Forgiving sins is a Jesus God thing.  Not a people thing.

What John is focused on is “the manner” the “how” of Jesus’ life.  How we “ought” to live.

When the crowds were following Jesus around, one question they were constantly asking was, “How?”  How does He do that?  Where does His power come from?  How did Jesus do the kinds of things that He did?

In John 14, Jesus told His disciples, “Its not Me.  Its the Father dwelling in Me.  He’s doing it.  The works I do - the things I say - its the Father working through Me - speaking through Me.” (John 14:10,11)

Jesus lived in total - consistent - obedient - unbroken fellowship and dependence on the activity of the Father working in Him and through Him.

That’s what “ought” to be true in our lives as it was in Jesus’ life.  That’s “how” obedience produces the deepening fellowship that John is talking about. 

Verse 7:  Beloved I am not writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word which you have heard.

On one hand this is nothing new.  We’ve heard this command from Genesis to Revelation.  Jesus summed it up when He said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart - soul - mind - strength.  Love your neighbor as yourself.”  (Mark 12:30,31)  Our lives given over totally to God - obedience - and demonstrating that surrender in how we treat others.

Verse 8:  On the other hand, I am writing a new commandment to you, which is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true Light is already shinning.

On the other hand there is something new.  Something new in the way Jesus lived life that we “ought” to get a hold of.

Jesus - in the Upper Room on the night of the Last Supper.  Jesus says to His disciples, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you.” (John 13:34)  Loving, in the manner Jesus loved His disciples, is new.

Peter - was proud - boastful - unreliable.  James and John were known as the “Sons of Thunder” - the original WWF tag team - rough around the edges.  Thomas was stubborn - immovable.  Philip was introspective to a fault.  And the list goes on.  To love those men was not easy.  But Jesus did it.  Even Judas - who, during the very act of betrayal - Jesus called him, “friend.” (Matthew 26:50)

How did Jesus do it?  Jesus did it because it was the Father doing it in Him and through Him.

Paul writes of us in Romans 5, “the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” (Romans 5:5)  When we obey God - He produces - perfects - loving - fellowship in us.

Verses 9 to 11 emphasize John’s point.  The one who says he is in the Light and yet hates his brother - the one who instead of love is hostile to his brother - up front or behind the back - gossiping - spreading rumors - or just plain indifference and coldness - The one who says he is in the Light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness until now - he has no fellowship with God.

On the other hand - verse 10 - the one who loves his brother abides in the Light - has fellowship with God - and there is no cause for stumbling in him.  But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

The disobedient have no clue where they’re going.  They don’t love.  They’re led by hated - led by their own egos and selfish desires.  Their disobedience destroys fellowship.

Hear this:  Obedience - surrender to the indwelling work of God - is the only way that we can really have the depth of fellowship that John is writing about.

How many of you have seen the movie Miracle?  The movie is about what?  The 1980 U.S. Olympic Hockey team - their miracle win over the Soviet Union and then winning the gold medal against Finland.

Herb Brooks - the coach of the team - brought players together from all over the place - Boston University - the University of Minnesota - the University of Wisconsin - and other places.  A team of diverse individual players.  Proud of where they’ve come from.  Proud of their individual achievement.  Often fighting against each other.  Often more focused on themselves than playing together as a team.

Five months before the Olympics the team is playing the Norwegian National Team in Oslo, Norway.  They’re playing terrible.  And they don’t care.  They’re sitting on the bench talking about the girls in the stands and what they’re going to do after the game.

After the game Coach Brooks calls the team onto the ice - chews them out - begins to drill them.  Skating back in forth from one line on the ice to another and back.  Over and over again.  After a while its time to go home.  The ice rink manager turns off the lights.

But Coach Brooks keeps going.  The whistle blows.  They skate back an forth.  Individuals playing for themselves - trying to hand on.  Guys that are physically wiped out - getting sick - close to mutiny.  Why is Brooks doing this?  What’s the point of the madness?

Watch this... (film clip)

This is pivotal moment.  The moment when the individual players realize that they are no longer individuals.  They’re a team.  Obedience to the coach produces unity - focus - drive - that leads them to win the gold medal.

We’re God’s team.  Say this together, “We are God’s team.” 

Obedience produces the oneness in Jesus that we “ought” to have if we are to experience life together in Him.  We cannot play like individuals - each one focused on him or herself and expect to come any where close to the potential God opens up to us.

Have you seen Ben Hur?  Do you remember the scene when Charlton Heston - falsely imprisoned for the murder of a Roman official - Charlton Heston is assigned as a slave - a rower - on a Roman war ship.  Its a death sentence.

Imagine this ship - there’s a long room - with 45 rows of men chained to oars - chained to the ship.  If the ship goes down - they drown.  270 men forced to row in forced obedience to the captain.  At the front of the room is a man seated behind a large drum - beating the cadence - boom - boom - boom.  The men row to the cadence.

Next to the drummer is the commander of the fleet - Quintus Arius.  At a whim - he give the command: “Battle Speed.”  The cadence quickens - boom - boom - boom - boom.  The rowers strain at the oars.  Minutes go by.

Then the command:  “Attack Speed.”  The cadence is faster.  Men begin to collapse - whips are flayed on naked backs - the men row on struggling to keep up.

Then the command:  “Ramming Speed.”  The cadence is impossible.  Men collapse - others are chained in their place. Whips crack.  Its brutal - inhuman.  The cadence continues - forced obedience.

Finally “Water skiing speed.”

Finally - mercifully - the command, “Rest Oars.”  Then these words - , Quintus Arius to condemned slaves.  “You are all condemned men.  We keep you alive to serve this ship.  So row well and live.”

When we talk about obedience to God - that’s the image that comes to mind.  Obedience is a burden - an obligation - what must be done for the God who is judgmental towards sinful man.  Wrath will be poured out. 

But, imagine a very different ship.  The rowers row - not to stay alive - but because they are alive.  They were all condemned men - slaves - waiting to die.  But, the master of this ship bought each one of them.  He paid for their freedom by giving the life of his own son.

They love this captain because he’s set them free.  The motivation to obey is not the whips on their backs.  Its the love in their hearts.

As they row - the captain rows with them - alongside - teaching them to row together.  As they obey his instructions - they learn to row in a precise synchronized poetic motion.  Its absolutely beautiful to watch.  In fact there are others - who see this and want to row with them.

There’s no grumbling about who’s oar got in the way of whose.  No gossip below decks about who’s rowing better or harder.  No arguments about where the ship should be going.  The pride of the individual is surrendered in obedience.  The focus is on pleasing the captain - helping each other to follow him.

The choice of obedience - when we obey God - daily surrender to God - He perfects fellowship with Him and with each other. 

John says, “I’m writing this to you, so that you will live like Jesus lived through your obedient conduct - so that you will have fellowship with God and with each other.”   

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