REMAIN AND REMEMBER

Remember and Remain Rooted in the Truth

Early in our marriage and ministry, before either of our kids were born we were shown a home we might be interested in purchasing.

It was a nice home. It was small, located on a nice lot in a nice, neat neighborhood.

As we toured the home I remember distinctly noting that the floors appeared to be sloping to the corners of the home. If you had dropped a ball in the middle of the house, the ball would have rolled to one corner of the house. The agent assured us this was merely a cosmetic issue, easily repaired.

We didn’t but the home. On May 18, 1980 that home - and the entire neighborhood was buried under a massive mudflow caused by the eruption of Mt St Helens. That neighborhood now has been paved over and is the site of a shopping mall.

I’m not a builder, but I think the issues were a little deeper than cosmetic.

we have an often idyllic picture of the early church. Based on what we have read in Acts 2 and 4 we view gatherings of believers, sharing meals, caring for one another, and living happily ever after.

The truth is not quite so idyllic. Read on in Acts. In Acts 15 discussions were heated. Friendships and partnerships were broken. Relationships were put to the test.

Fast forward several decades. Christians and their ‘churches’ - really just gatherings in homes and public spaces - are multiplying. The Gospel is spreading primarily by the spoken word only. There are a couple of letters by a man named Paul, maybe a letter of Peter, and of course John. There are fragments of stories about Jesus circulating - that came together as what we now call the Gospels.

All the while other religious groups were travelling and teaching - just like Christians. These other groups were gathering followers. These other teachers were espousing what they claimed to be truth.

How does one know which truth is true?

7 times in this section John uses the word ‘REMAIN.’

Some translations use the word ‘abide’ - as in John 15 where Jesus describes that God remains/abides in Christ, believers abide in Christ and Christ in them. God abides in believers, and believers remain/abide in God.

John’s letters, written decades after Jesus spoke those words, expose a different picture of the church. He shows us that within the fellowship heresy was openly taught.

There were - and still are - a number of heretical views about Jesus that still threaten the foundation of faith.

Jesus and the Christ are two different beings

Jesus, a real human, experienced some sort of transformation at his baptism, where the spirit of Christ indwelt him until the moment of his death on the cross.

Jesus only ‘appeared’ to be human

Some taught that though Jesus looked like a human he was some sort of otherworldly creature.

Jesus’ teachings are only the beginning - all matter (physical stuff) is evil

These taught that all Jesus taught was merely the beginning. A deeper, secret knowledge was awarded to a select few.

The Holy Spirit is more significant than Jesus

These teachers suggested that Jesus’ human ministry was not necessarily important. They held that being under the sway of the Spirit was THE defining issue.

Some Jewish Christians renounced their faith and returned to Judaism

So, how do we determine - with any certainty what the truth is?

REMAIN

Those who hold to heresy usually won’t stay with a group who won’t bend to their misunderstandings.

As John wrote,

1 John 2:19 HCSB

They went out from us, but they did not belong to us; for if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. However, they went out so that it might be made clear that none of them belongs to us.

REMAIN IN THE TRUTH

Four times in vs 20-23 John uses the word ‘truth.’

First, he reminds his readers (including us) that we KNOW the truth.

To ‘KNOW’ the truth is not merely to hold an opinion. To ‘KNOW’ the truth is not simply to observe a fact, ore event without understanding.

To ‘KNOW’ the something as John uses the word points to a comprehension of that which is eternally true, that which is timeless, that which is real in every sense of the way.

The ‘TRUTH’ we ‘KNOW’ in this instance = that Jesus is the Christ.

Knowing that Jesus - the One who is described in the four gospels - the one of whom Paul wrote, the one who John describes in such detail - is the CHRIST is not just mentally asserting to a fact.

Rather, this ‘knowledge’ is the result of what John calls an ‘anointing.’

Anointing in the OT refers to the practice of setting a person or object aside by pouting pure oil on the individual or object.

Here John is not talking about an external anointing.

He is describing the result of a choice to follow this Jesus, who is the Christ. It is nothing less than the indwelling of the Holy Spirit - whom we have only through our receiving Christ as Savior and Lord.

Our ‘anointing’ is from God, through Jesus, and is the faculty by which we stay ‘in step with the Spirit.’

HOLD ON FOR REAL LIFE

HIS PROMISE: ETERNAL LIFE

For most evangelical believers, the promise of eternal life points to that which is yet to come, that quality of life we experience when we die, or when Jesus takes us home.

Yes, that is eternal life.

However, that is not what John writes of, nor is it the full content of Jesus’ promise.

Eternal life is that quality of life that links us with all that God has done, is doing, and will do.

Eternal life, as promised and secured by Jesus substitutionary death and subsequent resurrection, is life that fully embraces the presence and power of God moment by moment here and now.

We remain in this life as He remains in us.

It is a two sided relationship.

We don’t simply enter into ‘eternal life’ and then go about our days as though nothing changes.

When we are given ‘eternal life’ there are two specific consequences mentioned by John:

a. We have confidence in the future

I am not a thorough enough prophecy scholar to fully grasp the significance of recent events.

But I don’t need to be - and neither do you.

The eternal life we have received assures us that no matter what happens tomorrow in the Middle East, or in Africa, or in South America, or is some other far away place,

GOD’S PRESENCE REMAINS IN US

The second consequence of this holding on and being held on to:

b). discerning who has been born of the Father (vs 29).THE tool of discernment is not what we have made it into.

The mark of one born of the Father, one who has received the anointing, one who is holding on to and being held on to is this:

a life exhibiting the presence of Jesus in every aspect of life.

REFLECT AND RESPOND

The cracks in the world around us will not be papered over with prettier wallpaper.

The cracks in our culture are not curable by a return to some bygone era.

The cracks that splinter families, that cause dissension, and create huge divides among us are not simply to be ignored.

TRUTH OFTEN SEPARATES

When you turned in your spelling assignment or your math homework I hope you saw red ink in the places where you made errors. (Most of my math teachers wore out red ink pens/pencils on my homework).

Not every answer is correct. Just because someone puts thought and effort into doing a good job - pretty handwriting, neatly done homework- doesn’t mean it’s correct.

When truth is proclaimed, untruth runs!

TRUTH INDWELLS

Truth is not some system of facts we quote. Truth is not merely agreeing that certain facts are true.

Truth is not a relationship with a church or a system of belief.

Truth is a moment by moment, hour by hour, day by day life of relationship with the Eternal God, through His Son Jesus Christ, who indwells us via the Holy Spirit.

Like any relationship, this life must be nurtured, cared for, protected, and deliberate.

The reason many ‘believers’ seem to have slipt away from their original profession of faith: it’s hard work to be in a relationship!

Remain in Him…make certain that there is time in your busyness to be with God, to just listen to Him, to just sit in His presence.

TRUTH PERSISTS

The past decade or so points to one inescapable conclusion:

the world in which we live in today is not the world in which we lived in the past.

We often think that we are the first to experience massive, radical change.

Think about John for just a moment.

Raised in a poor but stable Jewish home and community. He and his family had a business - we don’t know how successful he was, but he had a way to provide for himself and his family.

One day this Rabbi walks by and says,

FOLLOW ME

and everything John thought was stable and unchanging was upended.

Three short years later, assuming that this way of life - being with Jesus and a dozen or so friends - is altered by an arrest, a trial and an execution.

Three excruciatingly long days later, yet again a massive change occurs as Jesus demonstrates the power of God over death!

And on an on it goes in John’s life - till near the end of his life he is ripped from his home, his family, his career and plopped on a prison island and left to fend for himself and die.

And this is the one who writes:

1 John 2:24–25 HCSB

What you have heard from the beginning must remain in you. If what you have heard from the beginning remains in you, then you will remain in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that He Himself made to us: eternal life.