As He is in the Light
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· 19 viewsWalk in the light as He is in the light: family together, fellowship
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As He is in the Light
As He is in the Light
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life—the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us—that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. And these things we write to you that your joy may be full.
This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.
My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.
Preaching from
Naysayers, skeptics, unbelievers, and the like are all around. The ones that bother me the most are the ones that say, I have a church or I’m _______ fill in the blank, but really they are avoiding the conversation of salvation because they have made their own doctrine or no doctrine.
America is full of people who claim Christianity as their religion, who have neither forgiven nor been forgiven, love not their enemy but love themselves, serve no one unless there is a reward, and never speak to or hear from God.
This has been a problem for many many years. If we don’t like what the church offers, if you become offended by the word of God, write in your own language, your thoughts, your ideals, your laws, and use them, no one can tell you different.
We might do well to hand people a small book with many lines to be filled in and simply write on page 1 paragraph 1 I believe God… People can then fill in their theology based on nothing really at all. Oh they might remember a few broken scripture verses and write a few that aren’t really in the Bible, or have a few worldly thoughts they think Christ said or stood for, but most will get it wrong.
That’s because many see judgment as the primary characteristic of God. If we follow John’s words and do as he said, if we confess our sins outloud, certainly God will cause sickness to come upon us, harm, not good, bad things will happen. Oh how we get it wrong.
But take a breath, John faced the same trouble. I want you to take a minute and think about John here. John the apostle, walked with Jesus and the disciples. Heard Jesus preach, teach, saw Him heal, care for multitudes, live and die. Saw with his own eyes, the resurrected Christ. Youngest of the apostles, and the only one to live out his life to a natural death, he witnessed the martyrdom of James, he saw Jerusalem fall. The Apostles were scattered and the church suffered persecution. John, now 50 years later, not yet banished to Patmos, living in Ephesus, a father, maybe grandfather, certainly a father of the church is faced with a couple issues.
One: he wont live on earth forever to tell his story, the story of Jesus. Two, the Gnostics and the Jews are perverting the message and arguing against Christ constantly. They disrupt people’s faith and the life of the church.
So he writes. He writes a letter for all to read. He writes to the saints, to the saved, to the believers. Keep this in mind as we reread his letter.
1:1-4
As a simple text, we read it with understanding that John was testifying to his audience that he/we, the Apostles, heard, saw, looked upon, handled Christ. A simple testimony. Unless, you are in a battle with the Gnostics. The Gnostics had a different theology: Docetism. Docetism taught that a god cannot take human form. That God may have entered the body of the carpenter at some point but that He, God, clearly left Him prior to the execution on the cross. And by the way, all matter is evil and there is no eternal life. Jesus was a phantasm.
Now read 1:1-4 again.
The promises Christ made to us we share with you and you share with us in fellowship and we fellowship with Jesus and the Father, it is a full circle. There is no broken promise, no failure in His promise, His promise is true, and I/We the apostles testify to you because we walked with Him.
John is testifying to the body, the church, Christ was, is and will remain. John is testifying to the body, the Church, to hold fast to the promises we heard. They were declared to us and we declare them to you.
What did John hear Jesus say?
but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”
John
All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”
John
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
John heard, saw, looked upon, and handled the living God who walked among us and taught us.
The Gnostics have never stepped into the fellowship of Christ and cannot know the truth.
You know people like this. People who are skeptics, who have never walked in the truth. People who have made up their own laws, and commandment. People who dismiss Christianity for any number of reasons. No one can interpret the Bible correctly. It is an ancient Hebrew text written by weird people. No one knows where it came from. That’s a fairy tale.
But John says no!
1:5 This is the message we heard from Him and declare to you. God is light.
Light: no darkness at all
Do you like to camp
Do you like camp fires
So bright and you eyes are so fixed to the light, you cant see in the woods. You hear a bear out there ravaging in the leaves. In the morning you realize all that noise was a squirrel!
Giant aunts took over the campsite story...
When you walk in the fellowship of Christ, the light, the light brings out, illuminates, raises to the front, exposes our sin.
When we have sin in our lives, we have a choice: remain in the shadows and do not deal with it. Avoid all our friends, avoid the church and fall out of fellowship with God, or, when the light exposes our sin, we confess our sin and John writes what in verse 9?
He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness!
But you must walk in the light to stay in the fellowship verse 7 with one another. One another here is you and Christ, not you and me.
John knows this and write in his gospel :
“He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”
And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.”
John 3:
John saw and heard Jesus ask us to come unto him: what is our response to the call to light? It could be as Travis Cottrell wrote:
John is stating to the Gnostics; God’s promises are true and will not be broken
I come broken to be mended
I come wounded to be healed
I come desperate to be rescued
I come empty to be filled
I come guilty to be pardoned
By the blood of Christ the Lamb
And I'm welcomed with open arms
Praise God, just as I am
Genuine Fellowship with God
Illuminates truth
We are called to walk in not according to (Verse 7)
Walk in is a term of familial
Family, fellowship and together with God
According to is of the law: we will fail to be true witnesses for God when we obey the law and not according to light
Light prefers love
Light prefers fellowship
The godless are seductive, but their word is false
Darkness looks good and enticing
Makes us want to participate
Our carnal nature our true depravity is attracted to to darkness the opposite of God
If we walk in the darkness, we are walking in sin and we are not in fellowship with God
The Good News
if we confess our sins...
We have an advocate with the Father 2:1
He gave Himself, a propitiation, an appeasement for the wrath of God, to justify you and me before God
This makes His promises true
Kyle play
Just as I am
Stand Heads bowed, eyes closed
Jesus is light: in Him is no darkness at all: will you confess Jesus today?
Are you unsure where you walk today?
Would you like to walk with Christ?
Take a moment and confess Him as the Lord of your life
Ask Him to come and fill you with light and His Holy Spirit that you may have the strength to walk according to His ways
Light: no darkness at all
Sing chorus
Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.
but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”
This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.”
All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”
JOhn