Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Well, good morning gentlemen it is a pleasure to be with you now preaching God’s word.

Typically when writing a sermon you are to keep your congregations needs in mind , but since you neither familiar with me or my congregation I wrote this to a general audience assuming both the elect and the unbelievers would be present.

With that being said, I’m going to pray and then officially begin.

Prayer

Good morning gentlemen, ready to study your bible again?

Great.

The Real Introduction

My name is Justin and I just recently moved to Kansas City last week with my wife Adriana and our three wonderfully savage little boys named Jase, Gray, and Kian and we are excited about being here- slightly homesick but encouraged the Lord has gifted us a new wonderful family to do life with.

If you have your bibles why don’t you turn with me to

We’re going to jump right in because there is quite a bit of heavy text to cover here.

So, I am going to do my best to articulate God’s Word as we study it together.

As you are turning, OR if your dope and know your Bible well you can just look at me do this awkwardly, the book of 1 John is the first of 3 books by named, you guessed it- John.

The narrtive of the trio focuses heavily on the centrality of Christ.

That is to say if Christ be anything in your life- He must be everything as the great Spurgeon would say.

And what is appealing, at least to me, about John’s writing style is he makes clear…very clear distinctions.

He is a man who continuously draws lines in the sand and calls you to a side for your conviction and/or your encouragement.

This also can make John’s work sometimes difficult to process or digest.

But as we journey together with this heavy text, would you posture your heart along with me to receive it well.

Prayer for the Lord to reveal Himself through the gift of His word.

Let’s read:

- is everyone reading from ESV?

I may ask you to fill in the blank as we read and I wanna make sure we all saying the same thing…if not its gonna be like and God/Jehova/Jesus/Lord/ said”

1 John

Compare and Contrast

Have you been in the middle of conversation.

Something you were discussing and you were just completely passionate and even careful in how you were having the conversation and mid-thought someone new enters the space and while you trying to explain the complexities of your thoughts, in a very serious and careful way - you now look crazy to the new person in the room?

If you read this text and are lost or confused, hold on.

There’s a lot of loaded terms and words here that

The Apostle John in this text is

That is kind of what we just did to the Apostle John.

We just heard words like anti-Christs and abide by enough times it seems for a life time and John looks kinda crazy.really

That is kind of what we just did to the Apostle John.

We just heard the word anti-Christs like 20 times and now it sounds like we’re gossiping about someone.

We’ve caught the apostle in the middle of what I like to describe as litmus tests which he began in Chapter 1.

There are two tests specifically.

We’ve caught the apostle in the middle of what I like to describe as litmus tests which he began in Chapter 1.

There are two tests specifically.

1.

The first was a moral test.

The moral tests

- To see if those who believed had lives marked by two things.

Love for Christ and neighbors and the second obedience to the scriptures.

He was echoing when Jesus says your fruit prove to me that you are my disciples.

2. The second test we stumble on here, is a doctrinal test.

- To also evaluate your view of sin and your view of Christ.

The goal for John in- really this entire book, not just this chapter, is to find out who among him were believers of the One True Risen God...

In essence he was doing a G-check.

You know what that means?

Checking to see who is a real one- to see if those who claim Christ- are actually for Christ.

To see who is really about this faith- this walk with the Lord and who wasn’t.

Now, this idea of drawing a line, of separating one side from another isn’t unfamiliar with John’s writing style at all.

He is a man after my own heart, he is a man of contrasts.

To John, and to really to the rest of Scripture- there is no gray area of faith.

There’s affirming Jesus as the Christ or there wasn’t.

He contrasts walking in the light and dark in chapter 1, love and hate in chapter 2, sonship and worldliness in verses 15-17, and here he contrasts truth and error regarding your view of Christ.

If you are wondering what John will do with those whom he has seen is of the fold, what he would do with you and I in this very room who claim Christ and have lives marked by Christ he will do the one thing we we need daily: Remind us of the anointing, calling, salvation and sanctification in our hearts.

He draws lines to encourage and convict.

My oldest son is going to be 4 this weekend, and our conversations are sometimes more deep than I think he knows.

As I call him to a life of love and obedience he confesses the problem with a life like that constantly.

He says “Daddy I don’t want to.”

Two nights ago, Jase, longing for my attention asked me to play with him.

When I asked Him what did he want to play he said puzzles.

So seeing it was almost dinner time we sat at our dinning room table and put together some puzzles.

When it was time to eat, I told him it was time to put the puzzles away.

With the saddest face on he ignored my command to clean up and instead got down and walked to the living room.

I called him over and I said, I asked you to clean up- it’s time for dinner.

Why would you disobey me?

His answer, because I don’t want to clean up I want to keep playing with you.

Aren’t our lives similar?

Knowing the time which we live (as John says “it is the last hour), knowing our commands to holiness before the Lord- our sin, dressed in cute pouts and our own sinful disposition, leave us forgetful of our true identity.

We do what we want when we don’t do what we must.

In the first two verse of this section, John mentions those who were with them and then fell away- but then goes on to say- they were not with us at all.

Drawing a line of true faith.

Them brothers were here and said they believed but they didn’t because they didn’t really have any fruit.

This is a call back to .

A test of your moral posture, obedience to scripture by the power of the Spirit.

BUT this is NOT our posture here this morning.

We all are here, imperfect, but here.

Flawed with sin, yet righteous before the Lord in His house and John says in verse 20:

[BUT] as in distinction between the ones in verse 19 and verse 20.

Let’s look closely at two words (anti-christs and abide) that seem to be the labels or postures of the two types of people which John is contrasting.

I want to talk first about anti-christ because it feels uncomfortable and gross.

The word feels messy.

The word anti-Christ in it’s Greek antichristos means one who is against or seeks to replace Christ.

Or more simply as any lexicon would tell you antichrists means a bad-person or false-witness.

So this context is not designated to a single person like we see in verse 18, but also like in verse 18 is describing a multitude of people.

Basically anti-Christs here are those who deny that Jesus is Lord and we know because of

That word spirit is another term for attitude.

Dr. John MacArthur defines the anti-Christ concept “as an attitude or way of thinking”.

I find this definition super helpful because it removes the mysticism of who and what antichrists are.

It is simply, those who reject Christ.

But if we are being completely honest, this hurts a bit.

I mean, it hurts me.

In my sin, in my wickedness, when I choose to seek my way over the Lord’s I am functioning anti-Christ.

But notice how there isn’t a single condemnation for all people in this text.

Only those who do not abide in Christ.

It is not all doom and gloom from in this book.

There is beauty in this message.

There is light to drive out darkness, Sonship for the cast out, redemption for the broken, sanctification for the wicked, healing for the dead, wisdom for the ignorant and freedom for the bonded.

Where do you fall in this text?