Abide In The Vine

ABIDE IN THE VINE By Yazdi Bellihomji Where am I abiding? 1 John 3:6 “No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him.” ?? PRAYER Thank you Holy Spirit for your presence. I ask you to brood over us today with your sweet grace, the sweet grace which convicts our hearts, which moves us to turn to you. I rely on you completely and totally. Lord God have your way in us and thru us. In Jesus name. 1 ME How do I struggle with this? The other day my wife, Edna and I were sitting at the kitchen table and looking through pictures. We are in total awe of our children, they are just so amazing! I’m sure every parent says the same thing about their own children. As we were looking through them we started remembering those moments in which the pictures were taken. We would say to each other, oh yeah look at his eyes, they look just like yours and that nose… oh, he is doing that thing with his lips as you do. That’s where he gets it from. From the features of our children, we moved to the way they act. It’s so funny what we parents do with our poor kids. We at times Point out each other’s little cute annoyances through our kids. My mom used to do the same thing with me. She used to tell me that I’m acting just like my father, and I always used to think isn’t that a good thing? I mean since you married him and all. This is so true though. Our kids look like us the parents because we are in their genes, they act like us because it’s in their genes as well, and also they are living with us. Think about it day after day they play with us, they hear the way we speak, handle problems, act in our emotions. Things that make us laugh, things that make us sad and things that get on our nerves. Our children even, for the most part, enjoy the same foods we enjoy. My dad used to love mixing all his food into a big delicious mess. Guess what? I do the very same thing. My wife, however, is the type of woman who doesn’t want her mash potatoes even slightly touching her veggies. The funny thing is, neither does my son Malachi. I mean this kid will literally not want to eat his food if something like this were to happen. It is uncanny how similar our kids are to us. My firstborn son, he looks like his mama, but there are a lot of ways he acts like me. Our younger son Micah, he looks so much like me, yet he acts a lot like my wife. It is a natural and scientific fact that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree in the good and the bad. Our children are going to look and act like their parents. Now, something else is pretty amazing, when Malachi, our firstborn used to go to my wife’s sister’s house for baby sitting he used to come home acting like them. I remember my son used to like wearing his hat just like his uncle and he used to point with his pointer finger when he would try to speak just like his uncle. Needless to say, he is very fond of his uncle. So now this proved something else, you don’t need to be directly related to someone to behave like them. It was the amount of time that my son used to spend over their house. It was great! We used to have so many laughs, it used to be like a game. Who is Malachi acting like? The more time Chi was spending with his aunt and uncle the more he would start acting like them. 2 WE How do we all struggle with this? In the very same way our children act and look like their parents and act like the people they spend the most time with, we as adults start acting like who we spend the most time with. This is waht we will be talking about today. If we as Christians go out into this broke sinful world when we go to work, or to go shopping, when we turn the television on and watch novelas or other tv shows, Lets face it 99 percent of the shows and movies on TV are dread fully sinful. This is our culture, it is immersed in sin. Everything is sexulaized, why? Because sex sells! In order to sell a watch, the marketing companies will show a well dressd man with a beautiful “sexy” woman or women and then put the name of the watch. Most likely they won’t even show the watch it self. What Kind of message do most sit coms and novelas send to us? Do what ever makes you feel good, even if it is at the cost of others welfare or even if it is something God hates. If you are not happy with your spouse simply divorce them or better yet commit adultery. Hey we wont tell if you don’t tell. I remember a few years ago driving to home depot in Linden plaza and seeing a BIG Billboard for a Motel called the Benadict Motel. It said ”What happens in Linden, Stays in Linden” Ofcourse the name of the Motel itself was the name of a American traitor named Benadict Arnold. What message was that sending? We will cover your adultery, so when you want to cheat on your wife, use our Motel. Because we are discreate. Now we are bombarded with this kind of media from the time that we can understand words. All around us. It is so very difficult to live a godly life in this sinful culture. How can we possibly live to honor God when everything around us is shouting please yourself, you are your own God! Let us see what scripture has to teach us today. We are going to open our Bibles to 1 John 3: 6 3 GOD Bible Verse 1 John 3:6 (NIV-SPA) 6Todo el que permanece en él no practica el pecado. Todo el que practica el pecado no lo ha visto ni lo ha conocido. Nueva Versión Internacional (NVI) Santa Biblia, NUEVA VERSIÓN INTERNACIONAL® NVI® © 1999, 2015 por Biblica, Inc.®, Inc.® Usado con permiso de Biblica, Inc.® Reservados todos los derechos en todo el mundo. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. Bible Verse 1 John 3:6 (NIV) 6No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him. Reason For Letter What moved John to write his first epistle? An internal investigation of the lette provides the following clues. First John was written to a church or group of churches in crisis—churches who were being attacked by false teaching (cf. 2:18–28; 4:1–6; 5:6–7). Some individuals who had once be associated with the Christian community had adopted heretical doctrine, particularly as it related to Christology, and had left the church (2:19). Evidently, after their departure they continued to spread their teachings to those who remained within the Johannine churches. They went so far as to organiz and send out itinerant teachers/missionaries who moved among the churches with the goal of converting those in the churches to their beliefs (cf. 2:26; 4:1–3; 2 John 7). Undoubtedly, this theological assault created confusion and crisis within the believing community. In response to this situation, the author penned 1 John, which has two primary objectives: 1.To combat the propaganda of the false teachers.—As the author addresses the belief of these heretics, he argues that these individuals are not genuine believers; they lack the marks of authentic Christianity in at least three areas. (1)Doctrinally, they have compromised the person and work of Jesus Christ. John criticized in the strongest terms those who did not confess Jesus of Nazareth as the Christ (2:22) and denied that Jesus had come in the flesh (4:2–3). Most likely (as we will argue more fully in the commentary), these false teachers were influenced by early Gnostic ideas. Gnosticism wa a heretical movement that became prominent in the second century a.d. Although Gnosticism took many forms, it usually emphasized the essential goodness of spirit and the inherent evil or inferiority o all matter. Influenced by this type of understanding, these false teachers may have viewed Christ as some type of spirit, perhaps a spirit who had come upon the man Jesus during part of his ministry (fro his baptism until his crucifixion; cf. 5:6–8). They refused, however, to directly associate “the Christ” wi the human Jesus; this refusal led to a rejection of Jesus of Nazareth as the Christ, the unique God-man. Combined with this faulty view of the person of Christ was a deficient view of his death. (2)Morally, the false teachers minimized the seriousness of sin (1:6–10). They claimed that it was possible to have fellowship with God regardless of one’s behavior To contrast between the condemnation of the false teachers and the reassurance of believers is apparent throughout the book. First John shows that humanity can be divided into two groups—the children of God and the children of the devil (3:10). No other classification is possible. . BACKGROUND 1 John was written as a response to crisis sometime around 85-90 AD. “It indicates that 1 John existed in the first half of the second century” Therefore, it would seem reasonable to see the place of writing for the three epistles also as Ephesus We have already offered internal evidence that would indicate that John was an aged man when he wrote the epistles Akin, D. L. (2001). 1, 2, 3 John (Vol. 38, p. 27). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers . The letter of 1 John was written to Christians, who had among them a group of people called the Gnostics. In Greek, the word is derived from Genosis which means to know or learned so translated it was the learned ones, who claimed to have special knowledge of God. Some secret wisdom or news the God shared only with them. They considered the principal element of salvation to be direct knowledge of the supreme divinity, experienced as intuitive or esoteric insight. Generally, Gnostic cosmogony presents a distinction between a supreme, transcendent God and a blind, evil demiurge responsible for creating the materia universe, thereby trapping the divine spark within matter.[2] Many Gnostic texts deal not in concepts of sin and repentance, but with illusion and enlightenment.[2] Gnostic writings flourished among certain Christian groups in the Mediterranean world until about the second century when the Fathers of the early church denounced them as heresy. needless to say, the Gnostics sinned freely and taught the Christians that is was ok to sin. This teaching led to internal divisions within the congregation. The false teachers seem to have been claiming that they lived on a super-spiritual plane, well above any sort of law or rules, and so the Christian was free to ‘know’ God without keeping the commandments. John goes behind the idea that sin is the contravention of this or that specific law, to show that it is an attitude towards God, of which every sinner is guilty. Jackman, D. (1988). The message of John’s letters: living in the love of God (p. 87). Leicester, England; Downer’s Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press. In this section of the epistle, the author develops at greater length the responsibility that falls on the children of God. Quite clearly he expects that the children of God will bear an undeniable resemblanc to one whom they claim as their spiritual parent. That resemblance comes to the forefront primarily in the sphere of conduct, in the way the child lives out the responsibility summarized in the descriptive phrase does what is right (3:7). tn Here the verb ???? (men?) refers to the permanence of the relationship between Jesus and the believer, as in 2:27 and 2:28. It is clear that Jesus is the referent of the phrase ?? ???? (en aut?) because he is the subject of the discussion in v. 5. Biblical Studies Press. (2006). The NET Bible First Edition Notes (1 Jn 3:6). Biblical Studies Press. Bible Verse 1 John 3:4-8 (NIV) 4Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. 5But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. 6No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him. 7Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. 8The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. New International Version (NIV) Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. Outline For Bible Text. 4-10 https://sermons.faithlife.com/sermons/546016-family-resemblance What is Sin? Sin is missing the mark. Missing the mark of what? Sin is missing the mark of fulfilling the law. If you break even one once, you are therefore guilty of breaking them all. Our Saviour Since we are all doomed to fail at keeping the law or hitting the bulls eye, Jesus came to destroy sin and death on our behalf. Through His righteousness we are deemed righteous. The Great Deception Those that previously were in the Church left and became corrupted and perverted the Gospel. Now thinking they new better, came back in to the church under disguise and started spreading false doctrine, such as you can live in sin, because the body will be destroyed any way. Family Resemblance Wherever we abide, we will take on the habits of. If we live in sin, we will be sinners on our own dancing with death being deceived by Satan. If , however we are children of God we cannot abide in sin. The words “abideth” and “sinneth” are used here to designate a certain class of individuals. Character is shown by one’s habitual actions, not the extraordinary ones Wuest, K. S. (1997). Wuest’s word studies from the Greek New Testament: for the English reader (Vol. 13, p. 147). Grand Rapids: Eerdmans. The word abide is particular to John. The word abide means a lot more than to go through the correct motions, it signifies to have communion with Jesus an ongoing communion. A steadfastness of doing God’s will. weather through boredom, sadness, persecution, joy or glory. To stay with and alongside. When Jesus was arrested in the Garden, he was taken away. Some of his disciples followed Him, Peter followed behind as to not be found associated with Jesus, lest whatever was about to happen to Jesus fall on Peter. John the beloved disciple didn’t care or rather cared more about being with his master Jesus. John was abiding in Jesus. It is VITAL to remember to not put the cart before the horse. We don’t become children of God because we sin, less. That will lead us into salvation by works, rather we sin, less because He has already called us his. Furthermore, verse 9 goes on to say that IF we are born of God, we are unable to sin. Does this mean that there is some inhibitor, absolutely Not! For then we would be nothing more than robots, and God is not into cohersion. Rather what the text is trying to communicate is we having the Holy Spirit would not be able to live a lifestyle of sin unless we keep pushing Him away, which in that case we are not abiding. Wake Up! Do not be deceived by the lies. You will die if you continue sinning and that just proves that you never knew God in the first place. Who is my Daddy? If i persist in sin, then I look like the devil because he was a sinner from the beginning. make sure you don’t look like the devil, it is real simple to tell. What does the majority of your life look like? Sin or Righteousness? Recap In the present passage, the Elder makes this point in some of the most emphatic statements in the epistle when he writes that no one who lives in him keeps on sinning (3:6) and, more strongly, [they] cannot go on sinning (3:9). Because of their absolute and emphatic nature, these statements pose a great challenge to interpretation. (Surveys and discussions of the options are in Brown 1982:412–15; Marshall 1978:178–83; Smalley 1984:159–64; and Stott 1988:134–40.) They seem both overstated and inconsistent with human experience. And to make matters more complicated, 3:4–10 also seems to contradict earlier statements (1:8, 10) that the denial of sin is a sin in itself. In order to unravel this interpretative tangle, I shall first comment on the context and structure of the passage. Then after a verse-by-verse analysis, I shall try to tie together the threads of the discussion to clarify John’s intention in the context of the epistle. Thompson, M. M. (1992). 1–3 John (1 Jn 3:4). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press. 4 YOU What should you do about this? No one who sins has either seen him or known him states the opposite of v. 6a: a person who sins proves by that very fact that Christ is a stranger to him, whom he has never seen or known Haas, C., Jonge, M. de, & Swellengrebel, J. L. (1994). A handbook on the letters of John (p. 89). New York: United Bible Societies. Family Likeness (3:4–10) One of the first questions we ask when we hear of the birth of a baby is, “Who does she look like?” Features such as physical appearance, including the color of hair and eyes, facial characteristics, the shape of the mouth or nose, height and build, are given at birth. Later on, as the child grows and begins to reflect its parents’ habits of action, speech or attitude, we may speak of a child as “a chip off the old block.” Although not all children are simply smaller versions of their parents, it is unusual if there is not something in the physical, emotional or moral makeup of the child that reflects its birth or upbringing. 5 WE How can we all live this out together? Church—- The Body Of Christ Church —- The Bride Of Christ open up your ears today Examine your life Examine your heart If your Profession of Faith doesn’t match your lifestyle If the world around us loves us because we walk and talk like the world ? Please remember who you belong to. Remember who paid the ultimate price for you. Remember there is only ONE winning side . The line is drawn if we are Not abiding in Christ we are abiding in sin. There is no sitting on the fense! We are called to Abide in Christ, so we look, act and LOVE like Christ. This is the ONLY way that the world Will come to know who they are when they are touched by the spirit. Apart from Him we can do no good thing. He is the VIne we are the branches. in the Vine Abide Citation Excerpt(s) from COMMUNICATING FOR A CHANGE: SEVEN KEYS TO IRRESISTIBLE COMMUNICATION by Andy Stanley and Ronald Lane Jones, copyright © 2006 by Andy Stanley and Ronald Lane Jones. Used by permission of WaterBrook Multnomah, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)