Sermon Tone Analysis

Our Complete Joy

In starting a new book to preach through there inevitably needs to be some background info we must share for the sake of Context.

Context, by the way, is one of the most important things to understand if your goal is to know what scripture really says, as opposed to reading your own meaning into the scriptures.

In fact I’ve often said there are 3 rules to sound biblical exegesis context, context, and context.

Yet before I get to this background info I want to make sure we understand some other basics of what it means to hear real Gospel centered preaching and teaching.

There isa a big difference between Good Advice and Good News...

Good advice says, “this is what you must DO” whereas Good News says, “This is what has been DONE for you”

Good advice shapes you mind, but Good news shapes your HEART

Good advice requires you achieve something, but the Good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ invites you to receive something!

A lot of churches in America are all too willing to preach a message that is chock full of good advice with an application for temporary behavior modifications to bring about some sort of tangible results so you can feel good and happy.

I would desire that today as we hear from the Apostle John we would come to know the secret of real Christian joy!

Today I would ask that you listen in hopes of hearing the Good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and not just wait for good advice that can influence your temporary behaviors.

But before we can get there we must understand the context because we are going to be in the book of 1 John for another 8 weeks until we finish it this time next year.

Here is a brief overview - We know that this book was written by the Apostle John, most likely while he was at Ephesus in Asia Minor.

It is thought that this book was written just after he finished the Gospel of John putting its date around 90 A.D.

The culture of that day was one of false teachers arising that were proclaiming denials of the bodily resurrected Christ.

They would teach of morals and spiritual principles but deny that Jesus was fully God and fully man.

John will refer to these kind of false teachers as “antichrist’s”.

Gnostic’s - the prevalent teachers of the day were people called Gnostics.

Gnostics, like Plato, asserted what was dualism.

This is the idea that matter is inherently evil and spirit is inherently good.

And so false teacher would arise to affirm the deity of Christ in spirit, using his teachings for moral principles, yet would deny his humanity and so reject a resurrected Jesus.

Gnostics valued a knowledge that was higher than scripture as their mystical truth.

the reason why we need to know this is more than just to understand that culture but for 2 reasons that we still see as ideologies in this world to this day.

First - is the ideal that your flesh is evil and yes you sin, yet your sinful flesh has no real impact on your spirit, because you are basically good on a spiritual level and everyone sins, so go ahead and indulge a little, you are only human… Does that sound like familiar teaching????

Second - the issue is pushed that you can have special holy knowledge, by which you can empower your spiritual self to rule over your flesh which sins, and this will make you holy and good.

You do this by denying yourself of certain things, like taking vows of poverty and rejecting any kind of material things in an effort to force your flesh to go without, that way you appear more pious and spiritual than others.

This leads to works driven mentalities of earning a position with God.

That is what they were dealing with yet we see this kind of thought invade other world religions to this day.

Here is what I mean… let me show you some other religious world views to illustrate this… Keep in mind these are just generalities.

The problem with Islam is pride and the solution is submission.

So we have a problem with our flesh and the answer is in your flesh, which is what we call works driven.

The idea that a god would accept you if you work hard enough to overcome the bad by doing good.

It is good advice of things you must do, that should shape your mind, and require you to achieve something.

The problem with Buddhism is suffering and the solution is spiritual awakening.

So we have a problem in our flesh yet their answer to that is only found in a spiritual journey that rejects the flesh and becomes holy.

It is good advice of things you must do or reject, that should shape your mind, and require you to achieve something.

The problem with Judaism is exile and the solution is to return to the special land.

So we have a problem of position and obedience for blessings from God and we now have to answer that with working hard to get back to the place where we are supposed to be.

Somehow the physical problems of evil are answered in the spiritual gathering of holy people in holy places who are working hard to maintain that position.

It is good advice of things you must do, that should shape your mind, and require you to achieve something.

With Christianity the problem is and the solution is a savior.

The problem is Sin and the solution is a Savior!

The bible tells us that Sin is more internal than just external… Sin is more than what you do, it is who you are before coming to Christ.

See the problem is with the flesh and the spirit, but the answer is found in Christs flesh and blood and by the Holy Spirit!

That is why we will take communion later and remind our selves of Christs sacrifice on our behalf in his flesh and blood, a work that is sealed in us by the Holy Spirit!

And all of that is Good news of what God has done for you in the person and work of Jesus Christ, if you will believe that, then you are saved!

It is truly Good news of something that has been DONE for you, that will change and shape your Heart, by inviting you to receive something!

It is God doing the work and us graciously receiving the free gift of Grace alone by Faith alone in Christ alone to the Glory of God alone and all this is found in Scripture alone!

Let’s look to those scriptures today and see this Gospel!

Notice he starts with the word THAT… That which was from the beginning.

What you need to understand is that the word That here is not a thing, but a Person… and not just a person but also a message.

In fact it is the Gospel in the form of a a person, Jesus!

So why didn’t he just say, “Jesus, which was from the beginning...”

Remember that John is making a defense against false teachers that are trying to separate the Deity or spirituality of Christ form the humanity of Christ.

So watch what he does in just a few short sentences.

THAT which was FROM THE BEGINNING… If you have been a Christian for any length of time, this should seem like a familiar verse, almost as if you have heard it before… In Fact John is one of the people who has written of it before...

The same John who wrote 1 john is the Apostle John who wrote the Gospel of John.

He is referred to as the “one who Jesus loved”… he was one of the three that seemed closest to Jesus, Peter, James and John.

And as we listen to … In the beginning was God, we are reminded of another verse that should be familiar to every Christian everywhere that has ever attempted to read the Bible...

Seems like John is echoing of something or someone which was from the beginning to remind us that the story stats long before a resurrection that people wanted to argue over.

The beginning of a the gospel message is a Person… and that person, who was at the beginning of time and creation, is God… God was at the Beginning, and according to John the Word was too, because the word is God, and the Gospel declares that Jesus is that Word and that Jesus is God!

For John, the phrase, “That which was from the beginning” Emphasizes the Stability of the Gospel message.

Since the beginning it has not changed!

Why is this important??? Because...

The Gospel is Static in a changing world… It will never change!

This world will go through many changes, with different world leaders and different trends and fads in the culture.

And so the Church is not Static… Churches has changed in appearances over the last 2 thousand years, yet the Gospel it preaches is never going to change.

Even when movements start that try to change it, they do not endure… Because God watches over his word to see it accomplish that which it was sent for.

And by saying, churches, I do not just mean building… the church is not a building you go to, but a people who are called out of the world, and they proclaim the good news and worship God. the Church is a gathering of Gods people… and as cultures change, people look and sound different, but the Gospel that saves them stays the same!

Notice John says that which is from the beginning is something that they have HEAR, SEEN, and TOUCHED!

He is defying the false teachers, who act like Jesus is a spiritual teacher to show a way to know more mystical knowledge, to discredit their eyewitness accounts of Jesus as being fully God and fully Man!

Think about it… A spirit cannot be heard, and if it could, then it couldn’t be seen and looked upon with their own eyes, and if it could, then it couldn’t be touched....

And if it could, then it would have to be more than just a spiritual teaching… more than just a spiritual deity… it would have to be both Flesh and spirit!

What is John getting at here?

The resurrected Christ!

Any who saw Jesus before his death on the cross would say this same thing but it wouldn’t be a big deal.

we saw him and heard him and touched him… but John was telling of something way more than that...

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They actually saw the and heard and touched the resurrected Christ!

He was not just some sort of spirit, because he ate with them… And this is good news because Christ has defeated Sin , death Hell and the Grave… He is alive!

John is telling the audience in the opening line of this letter to true believers that this Jesus is from the beginning, and that they experienced the resurrected Christ, who is the WORD of LIFE!

This is an important title being given to Jesus here… why?

Because John refers to Jesus as the WORD… that is what he said in … John uses “word” as a name for God, specifically the pre-incarnate Jesus, meaning Jesus before he came in flesh to this world.

Why is that important?

Listen, the Bible is not about you and me, it is a revelation of who God is… All through the OT God gives his word.

At creation...

to give revelation to his people who would speak for him...

he gives his word to heal and deliver his people...

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God’s word communicates himself and his being to humanity… Yet John calls Jesus the WORD!

But Jesus said of himself...

Jesus is the word of the Way to God, the word of the truth of God, and the word of Life that leads us to God.

John has made an awesome statement about a resurrected savior from the beginning who they have been eyewitnesses to, he is the word of Life!

All this from just one verse!

But again he is making a defense against those who teach falsehood about Jesus before he can talk to us about what sin is and who God is.

Did you notice the hyphen there?

Meaning we are one sentence into this thing and John has already interrupted himself with a thought to give more explanation to what he has already said.

Look at that second verse… does anything seem weird to you?