Untitled Sermon

Who wrote the book of 1 John?

John the Apostle, otherwise known as the "beloved disciple"

Brother (likely younger because he is often named second) of James; Jesus called them the Sons of Thunder

The significance of the book in light of John's Gospel

We know that John's Gospel was written with a strictly evangelistic angle: Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. So, the Letter can almost be seen as the sanctification text to John's salvation text

Lots of similarities in language and content: John 3:16 ~ 1 John 4:8-10

1 John 1:1

Focus here: the word of life

The word of life was:

"from the beginning" -- Jesus is the Son of God; the son of God is eternal because God is eternal; this literary choice mimics John 1:1 and Genesis 1:1

"... heard... seen with our eyes... looked upon and touched..." -- Jesus was the incarnate Son of God; meaning he was God and Man at the same time; 100% and 100%, otherwise known at the hypostatic union

Jesus exhibited the traits of a man: born a baby, growth, hunger, tiredness, etc.

Jesus exhibited the traits of God: omniscient, omnipotent, perfect, etc.

Historical data points to his physical existence, even outside the Bible

John is opening the letter with a strong case for the hypostatic union (and Trinity, essentially) which is foundational to biblical, orthodox Christianity

Let us also not forget that being called God’s “word” directly places Jesus in Genesis 1:1-27 in a strange but amazing way

1 John 1:2

“made manifest” — this gives the image of essentially revealing something; the “word of life” was revealed in fullness; this fullness is what is being described using sensory words in verse 1

The “word of life” is also being referred to as the “eternal life”

1 John 1:3

The proclamation of, essentially, the Gospel is to serve one purpose: “that you too may have fellowship with us”

The fellowship being referenced here is the same fellowship shared between Christians and God

1 John 1:4

John’s joy is being “completed” by sharing the fundamentals of the faith with his recipients. This is a pretty cool thought. How much joy do we have or do we share in discipleship? Many times, we see discipleship as some form of a burden. In all reality, it is a true blessing. And it should bring us great joy to share the things of the faith with others.

1 John 1:5 — This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

There’s a couple things of note here. For starters, this begins a Johannine dichotomy here of light and dark. He does this often. There are lots of dichotomies in this book. What’s interesting about them is that he uses things that cannot be 50/50. For example, take this idea of God being “light” and there being “no darkness in him.” Dark is merely the absence of light. If there is any light at all, there can be no dark. So, God’s not capable of being “dark” if he is light. And he is light. Which leads to the second thing of note here.

Where did John hear this message of God being light? For one, its’s a pretty common representation of God and his glory, even in the Old Testament. Secondly, more fittingly, Jesus referred to himself as light: John 8:12

John is also employing something often which is strongly describing something with emphatic negation and emphatic affirmation: God is totally, absolutely light and he totally, absolutely has no darkness in him. We will see John do this again and again in this letter.

1 John 1:6 - 6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.

If God is light, then John is implying here that the fellowship associated with God will be devoid of darkness as much as his nature is.

1 John 1:7 — 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

Walking in light = fellowship with one another (which we established above also gives us fellowship with God and is the type of fellowship implied to be shared by the Trinity)

John is speaking of sanctification here, a process he revisits in this book many times, and something that, among other things, takes time/happens over time.

1 John 1:8 — 8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

Directly connected to verse 7 (which is a given, seeing as this is an epistle)

IOW, if we claim we have no sin that walking in the light will help us overcome, we are liars

1 John 1:9 — But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Romans 3:26 calls God the Just and the justifier.

Confession is the beginning of overcoming sin. Confession is, in essence, just agreeing with God about your sin. It’s you looking at sin, which God defines, and saying, “Yep… totally agree…”

Confession leads to true repentance. But confession, as noted here, leads to true cleansing— praise God! And notice, too, that this sounds a lot like verse 7. So this walking in light thing is basically the same as confessing sin. How many of us regularly confess sin?

1 John 1:10 — If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

As in, if we attempt to declare we are not, by nature, a sinner.

Big takeaways from this text:

The truth of the Gospel is rooted in the historical Jesus (v. 1-4)

Salvation and sanctification cannot exist apart from each other (v. 5-10)