Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction: Introduce self, pray

2 Tim 4.3-4, Romans 16.17-18

How do we know who is right?

Who are we to trust?

With whom ought we have fellowship with and why?

(text) 1 John 1:1-4

We’ll talk about background of 1 John, then we will read our passage for today and I pray that we will know how to discern with whom we ought to share with in fellowship.

Introduction to 1 John

Author

The Apostle John - per tradition the letter itself is anonymous

Son of Zebedee & brother of James (Mk 1:19-20)

Author of the Gospel of John, 1, 2, and 3 John, as well as Revelation

Why John?

Author claims to be an eyewitness 1 John 1:1-3

Internal evidence

Vocabulary (especially, parakletos, only five times in Scripture all five in the Gospel of John and this letter)

Syntax (how it is written)

Theology

All very similar to the Gospel of John

51 parallel references in 1 John and his Gospel have been identified

External evidence

Early church ascribed this epistle to the apostle

the Didache

Clement of Rome

Both late in the 1st century, maybe early 2nd

The Epistle of Barnabas (2nd century)

Polycarp (a disciple of John)

Papias born around 60 AD

First one to make a specific reference to the letter as a work of the Apostle

Irenaeus does likewise, though later in the 2nd century

Strong evidence for the Apostle John as the author of 1 John… 2 and 3 John not as strong… probably due to their brevity and lack of use in the early church… we’ll talk more as we get to each of those

Date

In Irenaeus work Against Heresies, he tells us that John wrote his gospel in Ephesus and stayed there until the time of Trajan.

Trajan was a Roman emperor from 98-117 AD...

Thus the letter had to be written obviously before his death

so 85-98 AD is a reasonable dating

A later dating is preferred as to allow enough time for the issues of which John addresses to develop and become an issue worthy of address.

In case you are wondering which came first… it is believe by many, not all, that the Gospel was written first, then this letter… which again will push the date closer to around 90 AD

Structure & Purpose

Lacks the usual formal characteristics of a letter unlike 2 & 3 John

1 John is best understood as an address or even a sermon written for a specific church or churches

Why?

False teaching and heresies were influencing these churches

Especially in the area of Christology...

These were people who came from the body of Christ, making it all the more deceiving…

These teachers had left the church, though were still influencing the church

In what ways were they leading believers astray?

One commentator sums up the long list into three areas:

Doctrinally

Gnostic undertones by emphasizing the spirit over the flesh

Their understanding of who Christ was… and their specific denial of Jesus as human being the Christ…

Their understanding of the atonement

Morally

Minimized the significance of sin

Especially in regards to how it impacts our fellowship with God

Socially

Their spiritual pride resulted in a lack of love for one another...

All of this will get spelled out for us as we make our way through the letter…

There’s another purpose though

The purpose behind the purpose...

John writes to refute false teaching to reassure the believers of their faith

Most people follow false teaching for a variety of reasons

What has been taught they don’t understand

Or perhaps it’s too hard

Or perhaps it’s not tangible enough for them

Or b/c they lack faith and as Jesus says they look for signs from Heaven, they want more than what has been given them...

This letter, if you have never gone through it, will be eye-opening...

The many false teachings and heresies that exist within the American church, I pray, will become evident

How we ought to engage with such false teachings should as well… especially in 2 John where he tells us not to even greet them.

Understanding John’s public opposition to a false teacher Cerinthus, a Docetist (they believed Jesus only seemed to be human but was actually just a spirit), helps I think with insight to this letter… Irenaeus of Lyons writes about this in his writings title “Against Heresies”...

There are also those who heard from him that John, the disciple of the Lord, going to bathe at Ephesus, and perceiving Cerinthus within, rushed out of the bath-house without bathing, exclaiming, “Let us fly, lest even the bath-house fall down, because Cerinthus, the enemy of the truth, is within.”

And Polycarp himself replied to Marcion, who met him on one occasion, and said, “Dost thou know me?” “I do know thee, the first-born of Satan.”

Such was the horror which the apostles and their disciples had against holding even verbal communication with any corrupters of the truth;

 Irenaeus of Lyons, “Irenæus against Heresies,” in The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus, ed.

Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe, vol. 1, The Ante-Nicene Fathers (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company, 1885), 416.

I pray that as a church, as we work through these letters, that we will consider how we associate, how we engage, and how we deal with false teaching and those of which the teachings come from....

From the books we read, the podcasts we listen to, and the songs we either listen to personally, or the songs we sing here at church.

May we be faithful to God’s will in accordance to His Word… and faithful to the teachings of the Apostles as it has been modeled for us and instructed to us in this matter.

Please remember, that I do not stand up here to give you my word or my opinion, but strictly the Word of God and how it ought to be obeyed.

READ 1 John 1:1-4

The Prologue of his letter

Similar to His Gospel (John 1:1-18)

In these 4 verses

Why they should listen

Why he writes

Eternal Life Revealed

He’s a Witness to the Word of Life

He was in the beginning with the Word of Life

From the start of the ministry of the Good News w/ Jesus

He heard the Word of Life

He saw the Word of Life

He touched the Word of Life

The Word of Life which has been revealed is Jesus

Jesus is both the messenger and the message

Who do you listen to?

Who is your source on the matters of eternal life?

Who do you let your children and family listen to and be influenced by?

Were they there in the beginning?

Did they personally hear Him teach?

Have they seen Jesus in the flesh?