You Are My All In All
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Title- You Are My All In All
Passage- 1 John 1:5
Attention-
Introduction-
Have you ever been in one of those schoolyard competitions
Whether it was basketball, baseball, dodgeball, or just a running race...
At some point there is a disagreement, isn’t there
You fouled me!
I was safe at first!
You missed me!
I crossed the finish line first!
Then there is a disagreement
An argument
A fight that might even turn into a scuffle
What is needed?
Someone to be the judge
The standard
I think if you dissect the simple playground arguments over these situations you come to the realization that each side is trying to establish themselves as the standard
The authority
That happens a lot in culture in general
It is dangerous when it happens in our Christian lives and within the church
That is art of what John is dealing with in this letter.
These believers have lost love
For one another, for Jesus, for their community
How?
They have forgotten the person and work of Jesus which we have dealt with the past few weeks.
Now John is going to remind them that their entire life is to be lived on the foundation that God is their source of everything
Main truth- John is defining God’s nature in order to establish the necessary qualifications for fellowship with Him, in order to have fellowship with him we need to live like God is our everything
Transition #1-
Lets look specifically at what John wrote to those believers
What is being taught? (Explain the passage and draw out the 1st century truth)
John has moved from the Son, Jesus Christ, to the Godhead
John started by stating that the purpose was to encourage them to persevere in their fellowship and joy with the apostolic eyewitnesses.
Remember…these things “we” write
It was John and the other apostles, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit testifying to those things they were eyewitnesses to.
Why switch to the Godhead at this point?
Because the message of the first four verses is to bring about the fellowship and joy with the triune God!
That is why they wrote.
So the person and work of Jesus Christ is vital to the Christian life…why?
It restores that relationship that was lost at the fall
Jesus died to pay a debt you could never pay
He took the punishment for you
Why?
You need a relationship with the God of Creation
Thats what is missing in your life
Jesus makes that relationship possible
Why do we need Jesus’ sacrifice
Because “God is light”...
What does the Bible mean when it says that God is light.
You may be thinking back to John’s Gospel where there is a discourse about Jesus being the light of the world.
I believe we need to see what John is saying here in a different context.
Jesus is referred to as the one who brought the light to the world.
If you notice verse 4 of John 1
In him was the life and the life was the light of men
I believe that John in his gospel in verse 4 is referring to the humanity and deity of Jesus in one person
That he was 100% man and 100% God at the same time
The the human body of Jesus was filled with 100% deity
Here in 1 John we get an expanded view of this
Here the subject is God, not Jesus and the noun he uses is “light” not “the light”
God is the source of life
You can see the amplification of this by the statement that “in Him is no darkness at all”
There is no lack of life
The New American Commentary: 1, 2, 3 John Excursus: “Light” in 1 John
John draws two sets of implications from this affirmation that God (as Jesus revealed him) is fullness of life itself without even a trace of deficiency (of life).
So all that John is dealing with in this verse is the character of God.
The Trinity
The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
They are life!
Anything outside of them is not life
When we get to verses 6 and following John will get to some more practical application of this but for this morning it is suffice to say that God is the source, the giver, the sustainer, the one who gives real meaning to life.
Transition #2-
So how does this impact us 2000 years later?
How do we understand this in our context? (Bridge 1st century truth to today)
In our culture today life is all about us
Get all you can, can all you get, and sit on the lid...
And it’s not just the material consumption
It’s relationships
It’s substances
It’s experiences
It’s how we look on social media
It’s all about us
Life is about how the things of this world can bring me happiness.
And as we saw last week happiness is a fleeting feeling because it is based on circumstances that change.
We find true joy through fellowship with the Father
To put it in more modern understanding
We will find whats missing in our lives when we come to the understanding that we need a relationship with the one who created us.
John is sharing the universal truth that if we want purpose in this life, if we want lasting joy we need to go to the source of life and the source of all life is God!!!
Transition #3-
How do we put these truths into practice?
How do we live this out in our context? (Application of the biblical truth to us personally)
The interesting reality comes as we take a sneak peek at next weeks verses
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
John is writing to those who have already placed their faith in Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins.
They have already come to the understanding that our sin is what separates us from the father
That they need to repent of those sins and accept the free gift of Jesus’ death for us.
Those who would be reading this we believers in Jesus
If you are here this morning and have never asked Jesus to forgive your sins for the purpose of restoring the relationship with God that you need I will share with you how to do that when we close in a few minutes
Believers…this is written to you!
It is a reminder that God is not only the reason you needed Jesus but He is the source of your everything
And I don’t mean your everything in the sense of material things…although that is true
He is the source of your wisdom
For the Lord giveth wisdom:
Out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.
That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:
If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
God is the source of life itself
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
God is the source of love
We love him, because he first loved us. If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?
Finally, brethren, farewell. Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you.
God is the source of peace
1 Corinthians 13:11
Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ,
Grace be to you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
God is the source of joy
Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
God is far beyond the one who owns the cattle on a thousand hills.
He does…he owns it all
He not only gives us our daily bread but gives us peace, joy, and love…and so much more
God is also the standard of all things.
Which is why we need Jesus
Darkness, as we will see next week, often represents sin in the Bible
It is that sin that separates us from God
There is no darkness in him
No sin
No moral imperfections
He is perfect
He is perfectly holy
We are not....we need him
and we need Jesus to make a way for our relationship with him to be restored again.
Conclusion-
Christians…remember the character of the God who saved you....
Remember those around you who need him
We will see next week that part of this is acting like you are a Christian
But before we act like a Christian we need to believe and to think like a Christian
That starts with who God is because He is our everything
He is our source
He is our all in all
Closing song-
161- What a Friend We Have In Jesus
