8th June 2024

8th June 2024


Pray (ACts)


Read (1 John 3v11-18)


Message (Scott Woodburn)


At the birth of her first son Eve exclaimed “I have gotten[a] a man with the help of the Lord.” (Genesis 4v1). It seems like a strange thing to proclaim and probably not something you'd hear at the maternity ward of any local hospital. Even so, Eve's shout of joy was because she knew all too well about the fall and God's promise to send a child to crush the head of Satan. Was Cain the promised child? Tragically not.


Cain had no regard for the Lord and when his offering was not accepted (Genesis 4v4), he rose up and murdered his younger brother Abel. Why was Cain so bitter? He hated his brother who by faith was counted as righteous in the sight of God (Hebrews 11v4). John interpreted this story by reminding his hearers that we should not be like Cain (v12). There can be no room for the Christian to hate his/her brother. If we are truly with Christ then we will love our brothers and sisters (v14). By this we can know that we have moved from the kingdom of death to the kingdom of life (v14a). Yet if we hate our brother then we are a murderer in the line of Cain and there is no eternal life in us (v15). 


Furthermore, John warned that we should never be surprised when the world hates everything about us (v13). The early chapters of Genesis chart the path of those who were in the line of Cain and those who were in the line of faith. Although Cain and Abel were brothers they couldn't have been more different. They both went to worship but one offered a bitter faithless sacrifice while Abel bowed before the Lord in faith. This story remains the same in our churches, homes, workplaces and towns. We are with Christ and so we should not be surprised when those around us hate us like Cain hated Abel.


How should we respond? Not by meeting fire with fire but instead by loving our fellow Christians (v16). If Christ died for us then we should love our brothers and sisters in similar fashion. This love should not be in word only but also in deed and truth (v18). If our brother is in great need and we have the means to help, then we absolutely should (v17). In this manner the hateful world sees that God's love abides in us as we love each other unreservedly. 


There are two kingdoms around us. By faith in Christ we are members of the kingdom of God but by nature of our humanity we live, love and work in the kingdom of man. As children of God we are not to be seduced by the world where there are many "Cains" who rage against the church of Christ. Instead brothers and sisters, we are to love one another as we have been loved - this is the path mapped out by Christ and one we simply must follow. 


Jesus said "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." (John 13v34-35) May it be so for Christ's sake. Amen.


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC


Q60 How is the Sabbath to be sanctified? The Sabbath is to be sanctified by a holy resting all that day, even from such worldly employments and recreations as are lawful on other days; and spending the whole time in the public and private exercises of God’s worship, except so much as is to be taken up in the works of necessity and mercy.
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