1 John 1:1-10

1 John

Good evening everyone! How’s everyone doing? I’ve got a question for y’all. How many of you love a good secret? Don’t say the secret but raise your hands if you like a good secret? Everybody loves a good secret. You know when your friend comes in and is like, “I’ve just gotta tell you this, but you can’t tell anyone.” We are all like, “yeah, tell me!”

Why is that? Why do we love a secret? Does it make us feel like we know more? Or figured out something we weren’t supposed to know? And Usually, secrets come with this unspoken but usually spoken promise of “You cannot tell a soul!”

How many of you have not kept that promise of keeping the secret, secret? on the flip side. How many of you have told some one a secret, that wasn’t supposed to get out, and then they went and told that secret to someone and then it gets out and people find out about your secret? I’ve had that happen, and what is worse? That your secret is out, or that the person who you told the secret in confidence betrayed your trust. Our first reaction is alway, “how could you have told that? you broke the promise!”

Secrets and Promises. That where we are going to be tonight. and I want y’all to think about this, for the rest of the night, let this be in the backdrop of your mind while we are talking about this passage tonight. Jesus keeps His promises. None of what we are going to talk about tonight is possible if Jesus doesn’t keep his promises.

Background

Okay sweet, so tonight and the next few weeks we are going to be 1 John. So go ahead and turn to 1 John 1 in your bible, if you don’t have a bible. raise your hand and we will get you one, and if you like that one, take it home. And I really want to encourage you to bring a physical bible. I know they have them for phones, I have the bible app. It’s great. Whole bible is right there in my pocket, but it’s so easy to not be on the bible app when you’re trying to read your bible. You get a text and boom your muscle memory kicks in and you’re back on snapchat.

Also, side bar, if you haven’t watched the Social Dilemma on Netflix, check it out, it’s wild how much of our behavior is changed by just having social media in our pockets.

Anyways, if you need a bible, throw a hand up and we will get one to you.

Okay, so 1 John 1. That is where we are going to be tonight, and while you’re turning there Let me give you some background on as to what is going on in John’s life at that time. Also, 1 John is the back of the New Testament. 1 John, not the Gospel of John.

So John is who wrote this letter, this is the same John who wrote the Gospel of John and the same guy who wrote the book of Revelation. John was one of the disciples of Jesus, which meant that he knew Jesus. He was super close to Jesus. He got to go around with Jesus in the flesh and witness first hand all of the things that happened in Jesus’ ministry. He was there. And this is super important to realize that John was physically with Jesus.

So what’s going on? And hang on with me, I’m going to give you a ton of background, because we will really miss what the point of this passage is. So, John has already written his gospel. Why is there now a first John? Well this book was written well after his days with Jesus, like close to 60 years after Jesus was here on earth. This was written around 90ish AD, so John was an older dude. And he had left his home in Jerusalem after the Romans sacked the city around 70 AD. So John is living near Ephesus now, and is one of the leaders at the Church in Ephesus. This is the same Ephesus that Paul wrote his letter to about 30 years earlier, and the same Church that Timothy was put in charge of. To me this is pretty cool because it shows how interconnected the bible really is. You have at least 8 different letters in the bible be written to, or in Ephesus.

But, that is not why John is writing this letter. The reason John is writing this letter is because, there is a new thought coming to rise in the church. And this Belief system is called Gnosticism. Can everybody say the word, Gnosticism? Also, pay attention here, because it is possible that I’m going to ask you what Gnosticism is next week and the first person to explain it, just might get a gift card to Dairy Queen.

Cool, the Gnostics had this idea that Jesus wasn’t really who everyone thought He was. They felt that they had come to learn a secret knowledge about Jesus and who He is. The word Gnostic literally means, secret knowledge. The Gnostics are probably the first heretics in the Christian faith. And this secret was, that Jesus was not really God. So first off, the christian faith is not even 60 years old and we already see people discounting Jesus. One of their main things, is that Jesus did not come as a human, he may have looked mike a human, but he wasn’t really here in the flesh. And this made them discount the work of Christ. And this lead them to believe that sin wasn’t all that bad, and that they could have fellowship with God, even though they were living in open sin. And so because of this, the Gnostics had a real sense of arrogance about them because they knew the secret knowledge, and in turn they didn’t treat each other with real Christian love.

Have y’all ever met anyone who was just arrogant, and especially if they had no reason to be? Like I get it if LeBron James is a tad arrogant, I don’t think he actually is, but I’d understand. But have y’all ever met someone who was arrogant for nor real reason, or was arrogant even though they were ad at something?

I kid you not, when I was in middle school, we had a kid in our grade who would walk up to compete strangers, me included, and get right in their face and say, “you’re poor!” And it didn’t go well for that kid, I went to a rougher middle school and he said that one to many times to the wrong kid and got thrown through into the lockers. But thats how these Gnostic were acting towards the other people in the church. Like not only were they wrong, they were being mean about it.

And so here we have John, and he’s written his Gospel, and but now he’s going to address the church in Ephesus and the other churches in Asia Minor about this Gnostic problem. So read with me 1 John Chapter 1, verses 1 and 2.

“1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— 2 the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us—”

1 John 1:1-2

1 John 1:1–2 ESV

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us—

Okay cool, this is brings me to my first point which is Jesus is Real. This seems like a no brainer, but this is foundational to the rest of this passage. Remember what I told you to think about while we are in this passage tonight, “Jesus Keeps his Promises.”

Jesus is Real v. 1-2

Okay so write that down if you’re taking notes, or write it in your bible, JESUS IS REAL.

John here in this first verse, comes out swinging, by making it painfully obvious that Jesus is real and that Jesus is was here in the flesh. Literally, “Look upon and touched with our hands.” But that is not all that John is trying to say here in these first two verses. Look at the very first phrase here, “That which was from the beginning.”

Does that sound familiar to anyone? It’s not word for word, but it is really close to two very famous passages in the bible, one of which may have been read by Bailey earlier tonight.

Any guesses?

“In the Beginning.”

Thats how the whole Bible starts in Genesis 1, and that is how John 1 starts, “In the beginning.” And this is not a coincidence. John is saying something very important here. Not only is Jesus Real, but that Jesus has always been real from eternity past. Jesus was there in the beginning, the very beginning. So this is John’s way of saying that Jesus is God, not a creation of God, not a lesser god, but God, the Almighty. Jesus has always been real, is real today, and will be real forever.

So John at the very start, says that Jesus is real, and that we all saw Him, and He revealed to the world who he was, to the people in that time, and that place, to bring salvation for the world. John wants to sets the record straight here that Jesus is real.

And I know what you might be thinking, “Why are we spending so much time on this? This seems simple.” and it is simple, but we see this today still. And part of following Christ is being able to explain why it matters that Jesus is God and that He was real.

Where do we see this today?

We see this all over the place today. We may not know anyone who calls themself a Gnostic, but we see a ton of people try to diminish Jesus and who He is, and what he has done. I want y’all to think about some of these things, and try to imagine how you would respond if someone told you them.

Jesus was just a moral teacher. We should only take some of His teachings seriously.

Jesus was a myth. He was created by the catholic church so they could consolidate power.

Jesus was a copy of other gods from that time period.

Sin isn’t sin, we are all going to go to heaven in the end.

Jesus was not really God, just a really good Rabbi.

Jesus never existed at all, He’s just a fairytale people tell other people to fell better about themselves.

How would you answer these questions? Because I guarantee you, if you haven’t already heard some of these things, you will hear them when you leave high school, and get in to college and the working world.

And I’m not saying these things to make you feel dumb, but I do want you to think about how you would answer them. And if you don’t have an answer, come talk to me about any hard question you may face with the Christian faith. Because Christians do have good answers for the hard questions the world with throw at you.

But remember that Jesus is Real, and Jesus keeps His Promises.

Okay let’s keep going, because John is starting to shift gears from the intellectual problem of the Gnostics to the social problem going on in the local churches. So read with me verses 3-6.

“3 That which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. 4 And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete. This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. 6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.”

1 John 1:3-6

1 John 1:3–6 ESV

that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete. This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.

Fellowship is essential in the Christian Life v. 3-6

Okay, so what we can see that this is a shift in gears, because what John is saying here is that we must love one another, so if you’re writing things down, write this down, Fellowship is Essential in the Christian Life. Remember what we were talking about earlier, the Gnostics were treating other people in the church poorly, and so John here is saying, “not only are you wrong about what you think you have figured out, here is proof. You are not loving well. God is Love, God is Light, there is not going to be any kind of hate towards each other. The Love is God is going to drive out the darkness in you.” John here is pleading with the Church to love one another well. And he tells them where this love is going to come from.

It comes from the only place it could come from, God. Only being in fellowship with God, can we have this love. And this is relevant to us today as well. There are a ton of things that are causing disunity in the church today. — and when I say Church, I mean Church as in all of the churches, not specifically FBC Gray— But we don’t have to look very far to see that things that should not divide believers are doing just that. Look at Politics. I know not all of you care much about politics, but it’s a big deal right now, but it should not be a big enough deal to divide believers from being in fellowship with one another. I have already seen the facebook posts saying if you don’t vote a certain way you can’t be a Christian, and I’ve seen from both sides of the political aisle. But what John is saying here in this passage is, “If you’re in right relationship with God, then the byproduct of that is going to be loving one another, and if you say you’re in fellowship with God but you are demonizing people in the church, then you’re a liar about being in fellowship with God.”

The way John explains this is really clever look again with me at verse 5 and 6

1 John 1:5-6

1 John 1:5–6 ESV

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.

Let me read it again for us.

“This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.”

Let’s look at this metaphor about Light and Darkness. John starts by saying God is Light. So let’s think about that for a moment. Think about light. Light is revealing. Light shows what is hidden. Light drives out darkness.

If you were to turn on all the lights at full blast in the room, would there be a little column of darkness, like total darkness in the middle of the room that went from the floor to the ceiling? No!

Light drives out darkness.

The Lord does this in our lives. Once you meet Jesus, he will revealing things to you about yourself that only He is going to change. He will start changing you.

One of the ways He has done that in my life is when I was just a touch older than some of y’all in my early 20’s I had a pretty serious anger problem. Like it would take nothing to set me off. And I wasn’t abusive towards people, like I never hauled off and hit people out of anger. But I would get so mad, so quickly that I would be in an almost blind rage. Once anything set me off I would have to figure out how to not destroy anything near me. I could not get a handle on my anger. And now, through the work of the Holy Spirit and just the grace of God, I don’t have the hair trigger anger I used to have. The Lord did a real work in my life.

God is Light, and He will drive out darkness.

And John keeps going here in this passage by telling us what the basic marks of a christian are, and one of them is, a true follower is not going to willingly walk in the darkness. And what I mean by that, is that goes back to fellowship. We must have fellowship with God, that is the foundation, but we also must have fellowship with one another. The Christian Life was not meant to be walked alone. And this is why we do some of the things we do. This is one of the reasons we have small groups, it’s not just so that we can have fun on Sunday nights, but it is so that you can build friendships with other believers, so that when things start to go sideways you have your Brothers and Sister in Christ around you helping bear your burdens. If you aren’t coming to small group on Sunday Nights, you should, you’re missing out.

Okay so lets keep going, because if we stop at verse 6, then we may be tempted to think we have to live life in a legalistic way. So read with me verses 7-10

“But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.”

1 John 1:7-10

1 John 1:7–10 ESV

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

So John here is telling that Legalism is not the way. And for those of you who don’t know legalism is basically a works based plan of salvation. If I want to be a good Christian and go to heaven when I die, then I have to “X” I have to check all the good christian boxes every week. Did I read my bible, check. I’m covered, I did my good deed for the day.

And let me tell you not only is that exhausting, that is simply not how the Christian life works. Is reading your bible everyday a good thing, absolutely. Is reading your bible everyday what makes you right with God, not at all. See this passage here s telling us two things about the Christian Life. One, even after we have submitted our lives to Christ, we are still going to mess up and sin, if you say you don’t sin, you are now guilty of the sin of lying is what John is saying. The second things is that Jesus keeps his promises.

The Christian life is not marked with Legalism, but confession and repentance. v. 7-10

So if you’re writing things down, write this down. The Christian Life is not marked with Legalism, but Confession and Repentance.

Legalism is super easy to fall in to in the church, and it is simply not what the Christian faith is about. Legalism says, if I don’t do these things, God is going to send me to Hell or If I do these things, God is also going to send me to Hell.

Legalism is another word for Moralism which says if you’re a good person you go to heaven when you die, and if you’re a bad person you go to Hell when you die. That is not how it works. All of us sitting in here tonight deserve Hell.

None of us deserve Heaven. Think of the greatest people in your life, your mom, dad, grandma, grandad? None of them are great enough to get into heaven on their own. The only thing that gets you into heaven is the Blood of Christ willingly shed for you on the cross.

The Christian Life is marked with Confession and Repentance, not legalism. And what I mean by that is not, okay you’ve goofed and now you have to go to a priest and confess your sins to him. No, Confession is humble prayer before God. Confession and Repentance go hand in hand. What John is saying here is, you are still going to sin, and when that happens do not get bogged down in shame, but remember what Christ did on the Cross. Your sins are many, but his mercy is more. Jesus keeps is promises.

Why Does this matter?

This is meant to encourage those of you who are believers in Christ. Know that in your own power you cannot not live the perfect life, but you can live your life as a pursuit of the only one who ever did. If you are in Christ, then He is going to make you more Christ-like. This should take the burden of living a legalistic life off of your shoulders. Replace legalism which confession and repentance.

If you haven’t seen that change in your life, if nothing in your life has changed after you prayed a prayer, give some thought to the fact that you may not actually be following Christ. Following Christ is not a get out of hell card, it is a humble submission of your life to Christ, it is life long pursuit.

For those of you who aren’t followers of Christ or don’t know what you are, this is for you to consider. If Jesus is Real, then Jesus keeps his promises. Jesus can forgive anything you have done. You are never to far go to be unreachable by Jesus. Jesus keeps His promises. His promise is that He is faithful to save. This is the hope of the Gospel, the Good News of Jesus, He alone is the one who saves, and, he wants to save you. Ask him to save you, give your life to Him. Let him be the one who calls the shots in your life.

Pray with me.