Ash Wednesday Sermon 1 John 1:1-10

Introduction

“A man named John Oglethorpe, in talking to John Wesley, once made the comment, “I never forgive.” Mr. Wesley wisely replied,

“Then, Sir, I hope that you never sin.”

A good illustration for what we will study today comes from the Nuremberg Trials.

These were trials against high level Nazis in Nuremberg, Germany after WW II regarding crimes against humanity.

The prosecutors sought to prove Nazi Germany’s crimes through the Germans' own words and testimony. They based the case primarily on thousands of German documents seized by the Allies. Most of the witnesses they called to testify had been members of the Nazi Party, SS, or German state or military.  

The Holocaust was not the main focus of the trial, but considerable evidence was presented about the "Final Solution," the Nazi plan to exterminate the Jewish people. This information included the mass murder operations at Auschwitz, the destruction of the Warsaw ghetto, and the estimate of six million Jewish victims.

The defendants did not deny the authenticity of the documentary evidence. Most acknowledged that the crimes charged did occur.

However, they denied that they bore any personal responsibility for them.

With this one statement they made a clear proclamation about what they thought of themselves and their crimes.

They proclaimed themselves “innocent”.

Initially these defendants, who were the highest level Nazi leaders just below Hitler, wanted to plead to the court their actions were only “crimes” Ex Facto (after the fact) simply because they did not win the war.

They were not allowed to use the “just following orders” defense.

Had they “won” WW II would their actions been righteous & honorable? Does the end justify the means?

Within their statement of denial we see the despicable side of human nature.

We see within humanity an overwhelming desire to sin against God & Man yet avoid personal responsibility.

In this illustration we come face to face with our own despicable human nature.

Our humanity/flesh tempts us repeatedly to deny our sinful culpability.

It begs the question whether the Nazi defendant were truly convinced of their innocence.

If so, knowing what we know and can prove today we would have to assert one of two possibilities

1. The defendants were lying

2. They were self-deluded

I think self-delusion is the more dangerous because you become “self convinced” and no one from the outside can un-convince a self-deluded person.

Today we celebrate Ash Wednesday.

It is a Christian celebration just before “Lent”.

Ash Wednesday places an emphasis on our individual sin.

The Ash is reflective of the destruction of sin in the life of a believer by Jesus’ sacrifice & resurrection.

It is a common Christian celebration for liturgical denominations.

However, not so much for Evangelical denominations.

In the past, believers have missed the more important message of God and only God’s forgiveness through His Son Jesus in the physical act of having ashes placed upon our foreheads.

So today, we are not here for absolution by ashes.

We are not here to lie to God, our brothers & sisters in Christ about our own sinfulness.

And we are especially not here to deny we are sinful for to do so would proclaim that what Jesus did for humanity was pointless and intimate that God is a liar.

We gather today to proclaim Jesus and the eternal life He offers.

We are here to find fellowship not among perfect people but people who strive to walk in the light.

We are here to celebrate God’s goodness & faithfulness in forgiving sinners like you & me.

The Nuremberg judgement resulted in 19 of 22 defendants being hanged for their crimes.

3 others were sentenced and would have hanged as well but evidence tying them directly was spotty.

They compartmentalized their cruelty using self-delusion.

Paul succinctly states in Romans:

Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

And John confronts believers about the realities of sin and how we should address it..

God provides a way forward IF we are willing to be HONEST about our sin.

And that is what we will learn from our reading in 1 John 1:1-10

We will look at three points:

1. Proclamation

2. God’s Character & Sin

3. Our Sin & God’s Forgiveness

READ 1 JOHN 1:1-10

Background

Scholars have noted the form of opening of 1 John provides a challenge because the form of writing to some extent determines how we interpret it.

The common formula of the day would have included the name of the author, the name of the recipient and then a greeting.

The most agreed upon is 1 John is an epistle, a letter written to a congregation addressing a specific issue, and given from a pastoral point of view.

Point #1 Proclamation vv 1-4

“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. 2 The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. 3 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4 We write this to make our joy complete.

John’s opening verses seeks to strongly establish in the mind of the reader two points.

1. The historical nature of Christianity- it is not based on someones opinion or subjective judgement

2. Credibility- eyewitness accounts

John points out at least three eyewitness senses:

Sight, hearing & touch.

John was not just a distant and subjective follower of Jesus.

He literally saw Jesus wit his own eyes

He literally heard Jesus with how own ears

And

He literally touched the person of Jesus Christ.

He appeals to our senses by revealing how PERSONAL it was for him

And why his PROCLAMATION about Jesus is not just some sham or false statement.

In four short verses John mentions seven times the physical senses he experienced Jesus in the flesh:

“Heard”- 2 times

“Seen”- 4 times

“Touch”- 1 time

John is emphasizing the importance of the incarnation- namely that Jesus, as God, took on human flesh.

Jesus was not merely an image of a human- he was human and He was also God.

The early Christian church was often attacked by false teachers.

A form of gnosticism taught that Jesus did not become fully human.

So John is refuting this false teaching and proclaiming what he knows based on personal knowledge & experience.

RELEVANCE:

What are you proclaiming to the world?

Have you personally met & experienced the Lord Jesus?

Have you experienced his forgiveness-his goodness-his faithfulness through the challenges of life or his healing & reconciliation

Have you listened and heard His voice guide you through a difficult decision?

Have you seen Him deliver you out of a terrible circumstance?

Have you felt his arm comforting you when in despair?

If so, then you, I & John proclaim Jesus and eternal life through the forgiveness of sin from a very personal perspective.

Transition:

John is also very clear doctrinally.

Eternal life requires fellowship with God (who is Holy & Pure) not just lip service.

As Isaiah 29:13 reminds us “"These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.”

Point #2 God’s Character & Sin vv 5-7

“5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. 7 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, purifies us from all sin.

The “him” John refers to is Jesus.

John now begins to address an understanding of God’s character and the intersection between God’s character and sin.

Once again, John highlights he heard this truth straight from the Son of God which he now proclaims- That God is light- Pure & Holy.

God’s character has no dark areas-

God has no sin areas in His eternal existence and in fact, sin cannot co-exist in God’s presence.

This truth about God- that He is good, sinless, holy, pure- that He is indeed the light by which believers are led folds right into a theological understanding in verse 6.

“6 If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth.”

Now we must carefully interpret what John is & is not saying here.

John is not saying as believers that once saved we will never sin or if we do that God will reject us.

We will sin- we will make mistakes.

Yet there is a big difference between a believer who has a momentary indiscretion and fails from time to time from a believer who perpetually lives in sin continually.

The person who wants to claim the title of “Christian” but never repents of sin is not walking in the light.

John is correcting a heretical teaching that inferred “God is okay with my sin” or a wrong theology that “because I am saved I can live in sin and still have fellowship with God.”

Brothers & sisters we can no more have fellowship (the word fellowship in the Greek was Koinonia meaning in common) with faithful believers if we choose to live in sin than we can with our Lord & Savior Jesus Christ.

A “Christian” life willfully walking in sin demonstrates a lack of gratitude for Jesus’ sacrifice.

Galatians 5:17 speaks of the tension between what God calls us to and what our sinful human nature pulls us toward:

“17 For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want.

If we lie about sinfulness we are living an ungrateful life of sin.

When we lie about our wrongdoing we act like a spoiled brat who has been given everything but wants more.

Everyone can see how spoiled we are other than ourselves.

This type of “believer” cannot stand in the presence of God.

For as long as we are dishonest about our sinfulness we are relying on ourselves rather than being purified by the blood of Jesus Christ.

TRANSITION:

i am just finishing the book 1984 by George Orwell.

Not to ruin the book for you but one major theme in the story is the idea of self deception-rewriting history to match whatever the “Party” wants at that moment in time.

Even more important in the book regarding self-deception is that the individuals actually BELIEVE the “new truth”.

The “Party” had an organization called The Ministry of Truth which was entirely concerned with propagating lies- the truth was nowhere in them.

This is what self-deception does and this is where John now turns.

Point #3 Our Sin & God’s Forgiveness vv 8-10

“8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.

Here John gives an address of the three way fork in the road as it pertains to sin:

Claiming we are without sin

God’s willingness to forgive

Consequences of self-deception

John uses comparison and contrasting statements between verses 8 & 9.

“8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

COMPARE:

I think each of us can affirm the truth of verse 8.

This truth naturally applies to people old enough to know right from wrong.

An infant does not know right from wrong but you and I certainly know our own sin.

John tells us, if we claim to be without sin the only one we are deceiving is OURSELVES!

Bottom line: if we cannot be honest even in our own minds how can truth reside in us?

CONTRAST:

So in verse 8 John lays out self deception of sin.

Verse 9 he contrasts this with Gods forgiveness

9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

In one sense, if we hang onto self-deception and claim we have done nothing wrong (much like the Nazi’s) truth is nowhere to be found in us.

However, if we confess our failings/sins and ask forgiveness God’s merciful character now take overs.

The tense of the verb confess (Greek present, finite verb) implies a continuous or ongoing action.

Greek: ὁμολογέω homologomen- confess, acknowledge

Confession of sin is then the act of agreeing with God that sin is sin and embracing the sinfulness of personal sin.

But God is not cruel nor withholding of forgiveness-

John speaks from a personal, experiential knowledge (what he has seen, heard & touched) regarding God’s faithfulness & Justice.

Our human nature yearns for us to cling to our innocence EVEN when we KNOW we are GUILTY.

Everything in our legal system tells us that innocence is rewarded and guilt punished

It is the most unnatural feeling for us to confess our guilt in order to find freedom.

Yet this is exactly where John points us to because Jesus is faithful & just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us of ALL unrighteousness.

CONSEQUENCE:

10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.

John finishes off this first portion of his epistle with the natural conclusion/consequence of wrong doctrine.

If we choose to cling to the deception that we are sinless human beings then there can be only one conclusion regarding God- he is liar!

If it were true that we have not sinned then Jesus is unnecessary and the Gospel of Salvation a lie.

We must then make the assertion that God has then been pulling the wool over our eyes and fooling us.

By necessity we make God in a “liar”- we make him out to be a liar

Greek Word: ψεύστης pseustes liar

noun, accusative, singular, masculine- a double accusative

Definition: One who breaks faith, a person who has lied or who lies repeatedly

John instructs if we take the position we are innocent of sin then we must also say God is a liar and the consequence is God’s Word (Jesus) has NO place in our lives.

We have made no place for Him in our lives because the denial of our own sinfulness occupies the entire space!

CONCLUSION

“John writing with a pastors heart conveys the central theme and his concern within this letter, “that your joy may be full.”

From this proposition John develops a case for the working out of a personal relationship involving God the Father, Jesus the Son, in unity with the Holy Spirit and the believer.

Doctrine & fellowship are inherently connected.

In order to have fellowship we must understand and accept the doctrine Jesus Christ.

If we refuse to accept the incarnation of Jesus, His deity, His substitutionary death on a cross for our sins and his bodily resurrection by his own power over death we are refusing some of the most fundamental tenets of Christianity and we will not have fellowship (commonality).

This text begs a most natural question, “How can God be just and, at the same time, forgive the guilty?

The conclusion is that God can be both just and justifier through the sacrifice of Jesus.

Scholar John Stott writes, “God is faithful to forgive because he has promised to do so, and just because his Son died for our sins.”

Walking in the light does not mean a life of sinless perfection; it does mean a life of dedication to Christ, a life of repentance and faith.

This passage points out that there is a clear distinction between appearance and reality.

There is nothing in the passage which teaches that God’s forgiveness comes automatically.

The promise of God’s forgiveness is ours only when we “walk in the light” of Jesus Christ.

We must be aware of what God will do and what He expects us to do.

We should never pretend that we are sinless or that our sins are not important to God.

Thus, in that mindset we will prepare our hearts as we come forward to receive ashes in the form of a cross on our foreheads as a visible reminder of our mortality, our sinfulness and God’s faithfulness and justice to forgive as we continually confess our sins to Him.

Ash Service

“Genesis 3:19

“…From the ground you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.”