Right Things - Right Living

Title Slide: Ending 1 John Next week  - Then 2 John and then 3 John and then Easter, small break – 1st of May Joshua; September Romans

Bingo Pic

I hope you have enjoyed this study, it’s made sense

A book about “Abiding in Christ”: Fellowship not relationship

Not tests of whether you are a “true” believer, but wisdom and truth about what it means to be abiding in Jesus

An exposition of John 13-17

There have been 3 primary theme’s in this book that he has dealt with rotationally:

Themes:

Right Living – Right Loving – Right Thinking

And by rotational I don’t mean that He dealt with Right living in Chapter 1 & 2 and then moved on to Right Thinking in chapter 3 and then on to Right living in chapter 4& 5

He has dealt with them though out the book multiple times

Dolphin Video

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago almost like a school of dolphins swimming by a boat – in case you don’t know what that looks like, I have video to illustrate!

Moves from one to another to another and then back to the first, because they are all inter-related. If you are failing at one you are probably will end up failing in them all.  They are interdependent issues.

Here in chapter 5 he wraps up and finishing the last section of Right loving 1-5 – Love one another

Then he moved on to Right thinking 5-13 – the life is in the Son

Then as Trevor started last week in 14 he moves back to Right Living – praying for our brothers who are in sin

Now in verse 18 he moves back to Right thinking with 3 emphatic statements “We know” – Truth we hold

I. “We Know” We Have Been Made New

A. Is John saying that Christians do not sin?

1. For those who hold to 1 John being about tests of true salvation they would answer yes, but typically with a caveat

a. Sin is continuing or habitual sinning

[can I get 1 John 5:18 as the title slide and the 3 verses underneath it on slide all on 1 click

b. We know that anyone born of God does not “continue” to sin (NIV)

c. We know that God’s children do not “make a practice” of sinning (NLT)

d. We know that everyone who has been born of God does not “keep on” sinning (ESV)

2. 2 problems:

a. “Continue, practice, keep on” is not in the Greek text – There is no word there Continue, practice – some argument that the Greek tense could allow for it, but very nuanced use if that is the case

b. It is an interpretive translation

c. Hence, why I am really stuck on the NASB 95 or the NKJV – they don’t do that near as much

d. 1 John 5:18 We know that whoever is born of God does not sin (NKJV)

e. The translation is just more accurate to the original text – little choppier to read, but more accurate.

3. The 2nd problem is more practical, what is habitual sin? What does it mean to continue on, practice?

a. Do I get 1 sin an hour? A day? A week? A year before it becomes continual and proves I am not a Christian?

b. What a miserable way to live

c. The real problem with that thinking is not only is it wrong, it focuses us on ourselves and our sin and not on Jesus

B. John has been emphatic that Christians can and do sin

1. Context is King – Bingo!!!

2. 5:16 see’s his brother sinning – plural, not his once a year, non-habitual sin

3. 1:6-2:2 READ

4. Another issue that thinking that Christians can’t sin is that we begin to rationalize away sin, we sin, but won’t admit it

C. We know that no one abiding in Jesus sins

1. This has been the focus of 1 John – 1 John 3:4-10

2. God is righteous and there is no unrighteousness in Him

3. 1 John 1:6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.

4. We can’t be in Him, He in us and sin

5. When we sin it is clear that we are not abiding in Him in that moment

6. He would never lead us to sin, He is altogether righteous

7. 1 John 3:9 No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.

D. We know that Jesus has us

1. 18 Some translations here have “Keeps himself”

a. The idea being because we have been made a new creature – we keep ourself

b. Regenerate soul wars with the unregenerate flesh – Romans 7

c. Sin might turn our body, but not our soul

d. And this is a possible translation

2. I think a better idea is that Jesus who was also “born of God” keeps us

3. 5:1 Jesus is born of God

4. John 17:11 I am no longer in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me, that they may be one even as We are. While I was with them, I was keeping them in Your name which You have given Me; and I guarded them and not one of them perished...

5. John 17:15 I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one.

E. The enemy can’t affect who we are on the inside – we are born of God

1. He can tempt

2. He can lie

3. He can get us entangled

4. But he can’t change who we are

5. He cannot steal God’s DNA stamped inside us from our new birth

6. We are the children of God

7. We have His seed in us – 1 John 3:9

8. That’s why when we sin we need to confess and repent and move forward

9. Don’t listen to the lies of the enemy that you can never be loved, or saved

10.He’s getting your eyes on you and off of Jesus

11.Stand in your identity in Christ, confess, repent and follow Jesus!

F. “We Know” We Have Been Made New

II. “We Know” We Belong to Him

A. John uses one last big contrast: God and the evil one

1. Light/dark

2. Love/hate

3. Now: belong to God or belong to Satan

B. The world is under the power/sway of Satan

1. Resident strangers here

2. Man was given dominion, he handed it to Satan in the Garden

a. Ephesians 2:2 Prince of the power of the Air

b. Ephesians 6:12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

c. 2 Corinthians 4:4 in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

3. But though we live in this world, we are of God

C. We belong to Him – we are “of Him”

1. He is our source – His seed is in us

2. We are new creatures, stamped with His spiritual DNA

3. John 17:9 I ask on their behalf; I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom You have given Me; for they are Yours;

4. Every human falls into one of 2 camps. They either:

a. Belong to God

b. Under the power of the evil one

III. “We Know” We Abide in Him

A. We know we can intimately and intensely know the God

1. Because we know Jesus we have eternal life

2. Eternal life is a relationship with God – John 17:3

3. What this book has all been about is that we can abide in Christ

4. Because we have been born of God we have been invited into this incredible relationship with Him

5. He is the Vine and we are the branches

6. His life living through us

B. Because we know Jesus we are “in” Him

1. Great expression used by Jesus and John

a. Paul uses “in Him” to speak about relationship

b. John uses it to speak of fellowship

2. The very word “in” denotes intimacy and closeness

3. John 15:4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.

4. John 17:21 that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.

5. John 17:23 I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.

C. The greatest privilege of a child of God is to know Him intimately and intensely

1. It’s best part of the whole deal

2. To know that I am loved, accepted

3. To know that I am in the beloved

4. To know He is with me every moment of every day

5. To know that He will never leave, never forsake

6. To know He lives inside of me to work and to do His good pleasure Philippians 2:13

7. Abide in Jesus – it is the greatest life!