1 JOHN - BE REAL

INTRO

BLANK SLIDE FIRST

STARTED MY CAREER IN THE BANK

STARTED AT THE BOTTOM - W.A.S.T.E. DEPT.

DESIRED TO BE A TELLER - LOVED THE IDEA OF WORKING WITH PEOPLE

TELLER SCHOOL

2 WEEKS

WORKED WITH MONEY

THEY ONLY SHOWED US THE FAKE MONEY TOWARDS THE END OF THE TWO WEEKS

WHY?

WE NEEDED TO KNOW WHAT THE REAL THING WAS BECAUSE THEN WE WOULD RECOGNISE THE FAKE STUFF.

THE REAL DEAL - SLIDE #1

Suppose you have a counterfeit bill and actually think it's genuine you use it to pay for a tank of gas, the gas station manager uses the bill to buy supplies,

the supplier uses the bill to pay the grocer

the grocer bundles the bill up with 49 other $10 bills to take it to the bank and that teller says I'm sorry but this bill is a counterfeit and takes it out of circulation.

that $10 bill maybe have done a lot of good while it was in circulation but when it arrived at the bank it was exposed for what it really was and pulled out of circulation, so it is with a counterfeit Christian they may do many good things in their life but when they face the final judgement they will be rejected. Jesus’ words in

Matthew 7:22–23 NLT

22 On judgment day many will say to me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.’ 23 But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws.’

THAT PREVIOUS STORY WAS AN EXCERPT FROM A COMMENTARY BY WARREN WEIRSBE ON THE EPISTLE OF 1 JOHN.

BEGIN HERE -SLIDE #2 ????

A good man… yes…perhaps one of the best to ever lived…but “just a man” say many.

Others disagree, claiming that he suffered from “delusions of grandeur” a “Messiah complex,” and the argument rages over the true identity of this man called Jesus.

Suggestions have ranged from “simple teacher” to “egomaniac” and “misguided fool.”

But whoever he was, all would agree that Jesus left his mark on history.

CHANGE SLIDE - BLANK

First John was written to dispel doubts and to build assurance by presenting a clear picture of Christ.

Entering history, Jesus was and is God in the flesh and God in focus - seen, heard, and touched by the author of this letter John the Apostle.

John walked and talked with Jesus, saw him heal, heard him teach, watched him die, met him arisen, and saw him ascend. John knew God - he had lived with him and seen him work.

And John enjoyed fellowship with the father and the son all the days of his life.

First John was written to help you know the reality of God in your life through faith in Christ, to assure you that you have eternal life, aim to encourage you to remain in fellowship with a God who is light and love.

AS YOU Read this letter written by one overwhelmed by God's love, and with renewed confidence, pass on his love to others.

John wrote about the most vital aspects of faith so that his readers would know Christian truth from error he emphasized the basics of faith so we can be confident in our faith.

In our Dark World God is light,

In our cold world God brings the warmth of love,

In our dying world God brings life.

When we lack confidence, these truths bring us certainty.

The reason John wrote this letter was to give every believer the ability to evaluate the reality of their faith and to be confident in their Salvation. John wants you to have absolute, 100% confidence in regard to your Salvation.

The life that is real, John had discovered that satisfying reality is not to be found in things or thrills but in a person, Jesus Christ the son of God Christ reveals to us the mind and heart of God he is the living means of communication between God and men to know Jesus Christ is to know God.

The Christian life is about being real and authentic and once you've experienced this exciting life that is real, you will want to share it with other people just as John wanted to declare it to all of his readers in the 1st century.

Warren wiersbe says it the like this, the search for something real is not new. It has been going on since the beginning of history. Men have looked for reality and satisfaction in wealth, thrills, conquest, power, learning , and even in religion.

HISTORY - # 3 TIMELINE

This letter was written between AD70-95 before Johns exile to the island of patmos, see Jerusalem had been destroyed in 70 and the Christians were scattered throughout the empire.

by the time John wrote this letter Christianity had been around for more than a generation it had faced and survived severe persecution.

The main problem confronting the church at this time was declining commitment: many believers were conforming to the world's standards, failing to stand up for Christ, and compromising their faith.

False teachers were plentiful, and they were accelerating the churches downward slide away from the Christian faith.

John wrote this letter to put believers back on track to show the difference between light and darkness in other words truth and error and to encourage the church to grow in genuine love for God and for one another.

He also wrote to assure true believers that they possessed eternel life and to help them know that their faith was genuine so that they could enjoy all the benefits of being God’s children .

KEY VERSE - slide scripture

1 John 5:13 NLT

13 I have written this to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know you have eternal life.

EYE WITNESS - SLIDE

do you know what an eye witness is? someone who was at the scene - someone who lived and experienced a situation. We are all eye witnesses to our lives.

when there is a crime commited or the law has been broken - the police will take an eye witness statment over that of someone who is just speculating or happened to come on the scene after it happened

why am i telling you this: because I like John want you to know the truth, and who better than an eye witness to tell us the truth.

JOHN WAS AN ACTUAL EYE WITNESS

John opens this later by presenting his credentials as an eyewitness of the incarnation and by stating his reason for writing he presentED GOD as light, symbolizing absolute purity and holiness,

and he explains how believers can walk in the light and have fellowship with God, if they do sin,

Christ is their defender

and John urges them to obey Christ fully

and to love all the members of God's family he warns his readers of

antichrists and the Antichrist who will try to lead them away from the truth.

1 John 1:6–10 ESV

6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice 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 cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

John was the disciple whom Jesus loved. we see that in John 21:20 and along with Peter and James he had a very special relationship with Jesus,

HE WAS ONE OF THE 70

ONE OF THE 12

ONE OF THE 3

HE WAS THERE WHEN JESUS RAISED JARIUS’S DAUGHTER

HE WAS AT TRANSFUGURATION

HE WAS AT GETHSEMANE

HE WAS SENT TO PREPARE THE LAST SUPPER

HE WAS THE LAST ONE AROUND JESUS AT THE CROSS

HE WAS TRUSTWORTHY - THE READERS OF THIS LETTER KNEW THAT.

WE CAN KNOW THAT!!

JOHN REMINDS US THERE ARE 3 PRINCIPALS BEHIND TRUE CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP

SLIDE -

FIRST - GROUNDED IN THE TESTIMONY OF GOD’S WORD

without this underlying strength togetherness is impossible

SECOND IT IS MUTUAL

DEPENDING ON THE UNITY OF BELEIVERS

THIRD - RENEWED DAILY THROUGH THE HOLY SPIRIT

because true fellowship combines social and spiritual interaction and it is made possible only through a living relationship with Christ

THE PAST MONTH WE HAVE BEEN HEARING ABOUT LOVING

JESUS

OTHER

YOURSELVES

THIS BRINGS US JOY. - JOHN SAYS IN V 4 THAT THE REASON HE IS WRITTING THIS DOWN FOR US IS SO THAT WE CAN HAVE AND EXPERIENCE THE FULLNESS OF JOY.

KNOW THAT YOU KNOW THAT YOU KNOW.

THE GRINCH WHO STOLE CHRISTMAS SAYS :

THAT I MAY KNOW IN MY KNOWER.

LIVING IN LIGHT VERSES THE DARK - TRUTH OR ERROR

A FEW YEARS AGO I WENT TO A RESTAURANT IN TORONTO CALLED NOIR -

THIS IS A DINNING IN THE DARK EXPERIENCE

I FELT OUT OF CONTROL

AS MUCH AS I ENJOYED THAT EXPERIENCE I AM SO GRATEFUL THAT I DO NOT LIVE PERMANENTLY IN THE DARK.

SCRIPTURE FOCUS

1 John 1:6–10 NLT

6 So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth. 7 But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. 9 But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts.

LIVING IN DARKNESS VS LIGHT

VERSES 6-10 TELL US THREE THINGS THAT THE FALSE TEACHERS WERE CLAIMING

FIRST: OUR SIN DOES NOT BREAK FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD.

THEY TAUGHT THAT THE PHYSICAL BODY WAS EVIL OR WORTHLESS AND THEY HAD ONE OF THESE TWO APPROACHES:

THEY EITHER HAD A VERY RIGID DISCIPLINE OF SELF DENIAL

OR THEY APPROVED OF GRATIFYING EVERY PHYSICAL LUST BECAUSE OUR BODIES WOULD BE DESTROYED ANYWAY.

JOHN SAYS NO ONE CAN CLAIM TO BE A CHRISTIAN AND STILL LIVE IN EVIL AND IMMORALITY - WE CANNOT LOVE GOD AND COURT SIN AT THE SAME TIME.

SECONDLY THAT WE ARE BORN WITH A SINFUL NATURE:

THEY REFUSED TO TAKE SIN SERIOUSLY

THEY WANTED TO BE CHRISTIANS BUT NEVER SAW THE NEED OF CONFESSING AND REPENTING

WE ARE ALWAYS CAPABLE OF SINNING SO WE MUST NOT LET DOWN OUR GUARD.

THIRDLY - THAT THEY DO NOT SIN THEIR CONDUCT WAS NOT THAT OF A SINNER

The fact that they said we do not sin at all is a lie

because it ignored one basic truth:

all people are sinners by nature and by practice.

When we commit our lives to Christ - all our sins are forgiven past, present and future, yet even after we become Christians we still sin and still need to confess.

this kind of confession is not offered to gain God's acceptance but to remove the barrier of fellowship that our sin has put between us and him.

It is difficult however for many people to admit their faults and shortcomings even to God, it takes humility and honesty to recognize our weaknesses.

Most of us would rather pretend that we are strong.

we dont need to fear revealing our sins to God because he knows them already!!

he will not push us away no matter what we've done instead he will draw us to himself.

wiersbe SLIDE

As never before, Christians today need the ability to distinguish between right and wrong, between truth and error. The notion is widespread in our generation that there are no “absolutes” - that nothing is always wrong, and nothing is always right. False doctrines, therefore are more prevalent than at any time in history - and most men and women seem to be willing to accept almost any teaching except the truths of the Bible. ~Warren Weirsbe~

HOW DO WE KNOW WE ARE LIVING IN THE LIGHT

HOW DO WE KNOW THAT WE HAVE TRUTH AND NOT ERROR?

first I know that I'm truly saved if I have confessed my sin to God

second I know that I'm truly saved if I obey Jesus commands

Third I know that I am truly saved if I believe that Jesus came to earth some 2000 years ago as God in human flesh and

fourth I know I am truly saved if I love other believers.

end with this:

John told us that witnessing means sharing your spiritual experience with others both by the lives that we live and by the words that we speak