Untitled Sermon (6)

Hebrews and the book of 1 John are the only two books in the N.T. that don’t explicitly say who the author is, however the language and theology in 1 John are so similar to John’s Gospel that there is little question that John the brother of James the Son of Zebedee is the author.

Several of the Apostolic father’s name John as the writer of this letter.

John the Beloved disciple was in Jesus’ inner circle along with Peter and his brother James. He wrote five books of the N.T. His Gospel, Revelation, and the three letters.

His Gospel dealing with Salvation and this letter dealing with sanctification. The Gospel dealing with the past, the letters dealing with the present, and the book of Revelation dealing with the future.

I believe the Holy Spirit uses different methods to authenticate His Word. A lot of times He does that by using a Heptadic or seven-fold structure. I am sure most of us are aware there are tons of sevens in the Book of Revelation (7 Seals, bowls etc.), but it goes deeper than that. There are seven all over John’s writings. Seven miracles and I am statements are just a couple in his Gospel. Sevens are used by the Holy Spirit as a means of finger printing.

In this letter we have 7 contrasts or themes woven throughout the text-The Light vs. The Darkness, The Father vs. The World, Christ vs. the Antichrist, Good Works vs. Evil Works, Holy Spirit vs. Error, Love vs. Pious Pretence The God-Born vs. others

Seven Tests: Of Profession, Of Desire, Of Doctrine, Of Conduct, Of Discernment, Of Motive, Of New Birth

Other heptadic structures include: seven traits of the born again, seven reasons why this epistle was written, seven tests of Christian genuineness, seven tests of honesty and reality

Interesting only six liars are found

The letters of John are believed to be written around 85 ad – and at that time John was already dealing with people we were attacking the Church from both inside and out.

When the Lord called the disciples, Peter was casting nets and John was mending them.

The mending in (Mark 1:19) means to repair or set straight. And that is what John intended to do because once again he was mending and setting straight the nets Peter had cast, starting at Pentecost. The recipients of the letter would have probably been several house congregations, people he would have known and had authority over. The Church was dealing with an especially bad teaching Gnosticism. 1 John is really a short homily or sermon extorting the flock to stay away from such teaching and how to identify the dissenters among them.

Gnostic from the Greek: To know

1 salvation was found in higher, spiritual knowledge and only the “enlightened” were truly saved

2 they believed that Spirit and flesh were thought of as separate entities.

Spirit good, flesh bad believed that everything in the material world was bad. Christ only seemed to be a flesh and blood man but, in their teaching, He was completely Spirit.

There were different forms of Gnosticism but they all denied the physical death and Resurrection of Jesus because they believed that because flesh is evil Jesus was only spirit. This goes against the core Christian teaching of the substitutionary atonement, saying salvation comes only by special knowledge of God.

So, they said the old,” footsteps on the beach with Jesus but their reasons were different.

The heart of the issue was that the Gnostics didn’t understand at all either who Christ really was or why He had come.

John would have been building on the foundation of Christ. The foundational principles from his Gospel-

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. No man hath seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.” (John 1:1,14,18)

Or as some translations have, “the unique God”, instead of, ”only begotten”. He has exegeted Him, or He has explained Him to us.

Jesus explained the Father to us and now John is explaining the Son that which was from the beginning

Today the attack on who Christ is –Is amazing. Christ is the most polarizing person to ever walk the earth. You either love Him or you hate Him once you know who He is. The Lord from Heaven

A person’s understanding of Jesus of Nazareth is the single most important question of their lives. In the end it’s not gonna matter how many homes, how many cars, or how much stuff we owned. In the end all that will matter is our reception into Eternity.

Is Christ that which was from the Beginning going to welcome you into His Kingdom, telling you that you were “faithful”, or is He going to declare that, “He never knew you”, commanding you to “depart” from Him for Eternal separation from God? The answer to the question all comes down to what you believe about the Son. Once you understand who Christ is, it is your pleasure to serve Him as Lord. Not to say that we are made perfect, but we do press forward in faith to lay hold of Christ.

We know that this letter is written to us believers. It is written to people who believe that Jesus is the Messiah King spoken of in Daniel chapter nine, He is Logos the Eternal Preexistent Word of God, the promised Seed, starting in Gen 3going all the way through the law and the prophets ending at John the Baptist.

Here John is saying,” That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.(For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;)”

He is playing on words here and linking this letter with His Gospel by using the same language. The Greek word “Arche” beginning is as far back as time goes. So in His Gospel John was going back to the moment space-time was created, saying the Word exists as God outside of time. The language used in the Gospel of course linked back to Gen 1:1 Sept?

And here he is saying, that which “was” the was here means, the “was” was already existence when the succession of life began. It is the same word used in the Gospel of John 1:3; 7:34;8:58

The Savior had to be a man just like Adam. He must be a Kinsman Redeemer, but men had always fallen short and always would. That is why John wept in Revelation Chapter 5:3-5,’ 3,” And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon.4 And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon.5 And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to lose the seven seals thereof.”

There was no man worthy that is why it is necessary for whoever was to save to be a Kinsman of Adam, the book of Ruth is a beautiful story of Christ, Israel, and the Church showing Christ as the K.R.

but men have always fallen short and always would because of the sin that separates fallen man from a Holy God.

God kept making Covenants with man and man kept breaking them Adam, Noah all the Patriarchs , King David and we can go on but you get the picture Rom 3:23

says it all,” For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.”

So, a man had to do it but a man couldn’t do it but God was not caught of guard, Christ has been the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

I LOVE THE LINE,” He was crucified on a cross of wood, yet he made the hill on which it stood.”

Some so-called Christians especially in Charismatic circles today will say, Christ was only a man just like me and you and we can walk in the Spirit just like He did. He was just a man doing everything by the power of the Holy Spirit? We need to make sure that we understand that Christ did not lay aside any of His Eternal attributes. When Christ emptied Himself, He did not lay aside His Godhood.

Philippians 2:5,-11)” Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,[a] 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant,[c] being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

“though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, [c] being born in the likeness of men”

Christ emptied Himself by taking on the form of a servant. He did not subtract any of His Eternal qualities but rather veiled His Glory by taking on the form of a servant being born a flesh and blood man our K.R. but He is 100% God and 100% man, and this is what the Church has taught about Christ since His ascension.

It was put in creedal form at the council of Chalcedon 451 ad saying, ”one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-begotten, made known in two natures without confusion, without change, without division, without separation, the difference of the natures being by no means removed because of the union [of the divine and the human].”

The Book of Hebrews speaks of Christ as the Mediator of the New Covenant, “But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.” 8:6

Jesus Christ, God the Son is the only one in history that could hold the hand of both man and God and mediate a Covenant in His own blood.

Jesus is not only the Word but He is also the Resurrection and the Life John 11:25, AGAIN IT IS A DOUBLE MEANING,” That which was from the beginning”, and the “Word of Life” speak of both the Gospel of Christ, and the nature and Person of Christ .

In Philippians2:16

Paul refers to the Gospel as, “the word of life”. John also calls Christ, “the Word of God” in Rev 19:13Then John made sure we know why he wrote his Gospel- John 20:31,” But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.”

In 1 John he is reaffirming all the same things because they are so important.

John tells us 5:13, “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.”

John is saying, hey guys let’s make sure we are all on the same page. The Eternal God entered His own Creation as fully God and fully a flesh and blood man. We Heard Him, we saw Him and now we are telling you, so you can have eternal life.

That which was form the Beginning which we have heard.

The “hearing” here is in the perfect tense meaning the effects of hearing are still be enjoyed.

But we also know that we always want to keep hearing because faith comes by hearing and hearing the Word of Christ (Rom 10:17)

That is why it is so important to always be hearing good solid Word of God grounded messages. We can never hear too much. We have lasting effects, Eternally lasting effects from the first time we hear about Him and accept Him as our Savior, but it takes continual hearing and hearing some more to grow in faith in the lord.

vs 3,” That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.”

The word translated fellowship,” koinonia” means: To willingly participate in communication, sharing and contributing ideas in a partnership, jointly communing.

And just as Jesus explained the Father to the disciples the now Apostles are explaining God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ to us, so that we can have not just a relationship with them, but so we can have fellowship- koinonia with the Father, the Son, and the Body all through the Holy Spirit. I have a relationship with my Son, but it certainly isn’t a healthy good relationship. We don’t have true fellowship. So, it is possible to have a bad relationship, but the very nature of fellowship speaks of a good relationship. Fellowship speaks of communion and partnership.

The fellowship John is speaking about is the same fellowship Jesus Himself spoke of during His upper-room discourse. In John 14 the disciples are questioning Him about seeing God. They still did not understand, but they soon would.

John 14:21,23 He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. Jesus answered and said unto him, “If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.”

We can’t become legalistic I know we all want to serve the Lord perfectly in our behavior but until we realize that the way we are victories is by faith in the Son we will be frustrated beyond belief.

We always need to let Bible interrupt Bible. John tells us exactly what Christ means in the Gospel 14:21 in 1 John 3:23,” And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave [f]us commandment.”

And then in 5:5,” Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?”

I know we all want to be overcomers in life. We all want to have Christ give us a rich welcome into His Kingdom. But we have to realize it all depends on Christ and what He had done. Not what we have done or even what we will do in the future.

So, I challenge anyone that may be struggling to enjoy the fellowship John is speaking about here, to seek to know Christ better. We cannot work our way into rich welcome into the Kingdom, but we can hear our way there. That is why it is so important to have Churches like Calvary Chapel of Okeechobee that have heard the Word and experienced the fruit and are testifying to the Truth! So that we can keep on hearing and hearing and hearing the Word of Christ. That is when you will enter into that fellowship with God. But it all hangs on your relationship with Christ.