That Our Joy May Be Complete...

welcome

Hey everybody, I'm super excited to be back this week.

We will be starting our new series through first John. Go ahead and open up your bibles there. If you have a Bible with you today.

Tonight we're gonna look at the introduction of first John. It's gonna be a really cool study. I'm excited for it.

First, John is one of my favorite books of the entire Bible. It's just very clear and concise on its messaging And it gives me confidence in knowing who I am in Christ.

this book was written by John the Beloved who wrote the Gospel of John and is. written after his gospel.

and John wrote this book to deal with false teaching that was saying Christ did not come physically. and also teaching that would say that people could not be guaranteed of their salvation.

So John writes this gospel so that people can understand and know who Christ is and know if they're saved.

So as we go through this series, as we go through this book, I want us to understand who Jesus is. And understand who we are in Christ.

This study could take a few weeks or a few. months, depending on how long it takes for us to trek through it, but I'm excited. So let's go ahead and justice dive into the text

1 John 1:1–10 ESV

1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— 2 the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us— 3 that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. 4 And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete. 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. 6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 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. 8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

Lets pray prayer:

Amen…

The Book of First John was written as letter that followed up with what John had written in the Gospel of John.

and we see that John presupposes that the church that's reading this letter would have already read his gospel. and he is now dealing with more detailed and specific issues.

At this time, there were people that were saying that Jesus did not physically come as a man.

People were saying that he only appeared to be a man and appeared to die.

They were completely removing the power of the gospel and contradicting what Jesus did, and this was all around the church. So John addresses this.

John addresses this from the point of an apostle saying we were there. We have seen it and we. know. and we've touched. the son of man. The son of God, Jesus.

And we see that in verse one.

1 John 1:1–10 (ESV)

1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life—

2 the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us—

John is clarifying that he has seen. Jesus. And know Jesus and touched Jesus.

and he wants to testify about the reality that Jesus appeared, that he came physically. And was made manifest to us

The son of God took on flesh. . He lived, he died, and he rose again.

This introduction is very similar to John 1:1

John 1:1 ESV

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

John describes Jesus existing with God and then being made manifest to us in the same way that he does in John 11.

And John is not only concerned with people understanding this, he's concerned with people understanding this and having fellowship. With belief in this. .

John is writing this letter in proclaiming this truth in order that others may share in this truth.

3 that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.

4 And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.

John is writing from the perspective of a apostle saying. that we want you to see what we see and understand what we understand And share and have fellowship with Jesus with God.

John desires for this congregation to have a full and complete understanding of what Jesus did on the cross and what it means to follow him as a believer. And he wants them to know. That when you give your life to Christ, you don't have to worry. because you are secure in Christ.

And John goes on to say, and we are raiding these things that our joy may be complete.

John is saying that me and the apostles are in fellowship with Christ, and we want to share these things with you so that our joy that we have in fellowship with Christ may be complete by you having fellowship with Christ.

So tonight, the first question I want to ask us is do we care about one? another or people who don't know Jesus having fellowship with us and God?

Another way to put it would be, do we care about evangelism?

And if we do, how do we demonstrate that care?

Because I can look at you and say I love and care about you. But if my actions don't follow my words. then they are empty and void.

Now, if we do care about evangelism, do we seek out ways to reach out to our community?

And as individuals, how can we reach other people for Christ?

My goal for this young adult growth community is that we can grow in the understanding of God and then dive in to reaching the lost and bringing them into fellowship with God.

And by doing that, that should put a joy in our souls that is uncomparable to anything else. Seeing somebody go from Death to life is one of the most amazing and joyful things on this planet.

Today at all staff, Pastor Chuck shared a story about a young boy who told Chuck he was going to go share the gospel with his friend Susie.

And this young boy, about seven years old, went and had a play date with Susie and went to the backyard and said, Susie, I want you to know Jesus. I want you to know that he died for his sins and that he rose again so that you can be saved. And all you have to do is ask him to save you.

And Susie. accepted Christ and now her family will be attending church next week. It's an amazing story.

But what is so interesting to me is that this young boy got baptized and then decided. But it's time for him to start his journey in sharing the gospel with others.

This young boy wants his joy to be complete in bringing other people to Christ.

So I want to challenge us as young adults. Do we seek to complete our joy by sharing the truth of Christ with others? Or do we like to be comfortable and keep this fellowship to ourselves?

I want to encourage you. I don't want to leave us hanging out to dry. The first time I tried to show the gospel, it fell flat on my face. I didn't know what I was doing.

So over the next couple weeks and months, I plan to work with grant on finding a way for us to have a young adults reach conference or young adult reach meeting to where we can learn how to share the gospel, practice sharing the gospel, and then go out and share the gospel.

One thing that I do not want from my life and for the lives of those of us here is for us to be normal by societies standards.

I want us as young adults to be different.

I want people to see us and know us as people who have gone from death. To life and that we want other people to go from death to life.

OI want to encourage you, if you feel that calling, to go share the gospel, find a brother and sister and go do it. But I will do my best to provide opportunity and provide. resources. For all of us.

But let's continue with our text.

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.

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

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.

We see John describing the fact that God is morally pure and he is perfect. There is no darkness within him at all.

Darkness is the absence of light.

So when it comes to God, there can be no darkness within him, because darkness is the absence of him. That's why we see hell as described of a place of total darkness.

a place of separation from God. So we see that God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all.

But then John makes a qualifier saying, if we say we have fellowship with him, while we walk in darkness, we lined, do not practice the truth.

What do you think this means?

In the Greek the word walk means to Live follow Be occupied with

so I believe John is drawing an idea that we also saw in James that if we say 1 thing but our actions say something completely different than he is more inclined to believe our actions Rather than our words

Again in James 2:18

James 2:18 ESV

18 But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.

I believe what we see John saying is that we can claim that we are Christians we can claim that we follow God but if our life and our actions are consistently a pattern of walking in darkness of walking and disobedience then we are lying and deceiving ourselves

What John is asking us to do is recognize that we have a problem With darkness

each And every one of us are born with a sin nature we are born with the proclivity for darkness

And if we want to be saved we need to walk in the light of Christ

And if you and I say yes I followed Jesus i'm a Christian but our life doesn't show a pattern of walking in the light but shows a pattern of walking in the darkness Then we are probably self deceived

now we could easily take this passage and go to sinless prefectionism saying That I need to be pure the way God is pure that we need to be perfect and we can be perfect but I don't believe John's saying that because what we see in the next verse

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

So John isn't saying that you and I have to be sinless but what he is saying is that Zach if you are claiming to be a follower of Christ

your actions your thoughts and the patterns of your life should follow a pattern of what Christ did

Does that mean that I will be perfect no but what that means is I will be able to say this is who Zach was he loved the darkness he loved sin he relished in it but now Zach loves the light and hates his sin though he may not be perfect

I believe we see this same type of tension within Roman 721 through 25

Romans 7:21–25 ESV

21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.

We see a pattern of desiring to do good but the internal struggle of sin that's still within our bodies that still within our flesh

you see the passage doesn't say that we are light

it says that God is light but we walk in that light

we are to walk within God's light within his word within fellowship with other believers

you and I are not required to be perfect but we are required to have a relationship with him who is perfect and walk within that relationship

So my question for us is are we walking in the light

have we repented and believed in Jesus as our savior

And are we knowingly choosing to walk in darkness

because if you and I can walk in darkness disobeying God's law with a clear conscience not being convicted at all then we may not have Christ as our savior

If I am able to willingly knowingly and consistently disobey God and say yeah I'm a Christian but I'm going to sleep with my boyfriend or girlfriend

yeah I'm a Christian but I'm going to watch an appropriate things on the Internet or I'm going to move in with my boyfriend or girlfriend Or I'm going to disregard what God's word says in regards to righteous living

then I would say that's a pattern of walking in darkness and the Lord really convicted me years ago about these things saying Zach are you walking in light or are you okay with walking in darkness And claiming that you're in the light

So tonight I want to ask you have you been living a life that is characterized by walking in darkness or walking in life albeit inperfectly?

And if we find ourselves to be walking in darkness, being disobedient to God and to night we want to be right with God there is a beautiful truth within verse 9

again John has said that if we say that we are without sin that we don’t have the truth but in verse 9 it says this

9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

If you and I bring our brokenness to God he is faithful And just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness

And that is the portion of Romans 7 where Paul says thanks be to God. if we find ourselves walking in darkness he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins And cleans us from all unrighteousness

and what that means is if you're in this room if we are in this room tonight and we know That we are walking in darkness and we know that we are being disobedient to God then we can bring that obedience to God

And he will take it and he will pay for it and he will give us his righteousness

2 Corinthians 5:21 ESV

21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

so I want you and I to realize tonight if we don't know Jesus if up into this point our life has been nothing but walking in darkness while pretending to be walking in light

I want us to go to God and ask him for forgiveness Ask him for his righteousness

romans 10 9 says that if you and I confess with our mouth that Jesus Lord and believe in a heart that God raised him from the dead we will be saved

And what this passage says is for us to confess our sins and what that is is me saying God I agree with you that my actions are wrong And that your word is right

and God I believe that you sent your son Jesus to live the life I couldn't live die the death that I deserve And rise again so that I can have new life

Gotta ask you to save I asked you to forgive me and give me life today

And that's the first step to walking in the light

Now if you're in this room and you are a believer you have lived a life of walking in the light not perfectly but you know you've given yourself to him

but you have sinned To day that's heavy on your heart I want to invite you to give it to God

because every single one of us have sinned against the Lord to day every single one of us have sinned against the Lord this week

And there's a pattern of forgiveness when we go to God and it's a building of relationship when we go to God

there's a reality that when I have repented and believed and came to know Christ for the first time I was forgiven

Once for all the just for the unjust is what Scripture says

but there's a reality of relationally just because I know I'm forgiving doesn't mean that new sins I shouldn't bring to God

Because when I daily repent and ask God for forgiveness it's not me being saved over again But it's me being reminded of the goodness of God and of my need for him

so to night if you're here and you have sin but according to our passage we all do I want you to go to God Tonight and Justice spend some time in repentance asking him to forgive you and bring you to a place of remembrance of what he has done for you and for me

there are people in my life that I know if I ask for forgiveness they will give it to me

But there have been times in my life where I don't do that And I feel in my own heart a distance begin to grow between me and that person because I know what I've done

even though I know they will forgive me And that they've basically already forgiven me it still causes me to feel guilt and distance

so tonight if you can think of anything to give to God please give it to him tonight

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

And if you and I tonight believe that we don't have sin Then we don't have Christ

so tonight I'd like us to break up into prayer groups and for the first 5 minutes i'd like us all just to go our separate ways and individually go to God and ask him for forgiveness

and then worship him for the forgiveness that he has given because he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins

and spend a few moments in adoration and thankfulness saying God thank you for who you are thank you for dying on the cross

and then after our time of individual prayer let's come together into groups of two or three and pray for each other