211107 1st John

Title

OPENING SLIDE

On December 15th, 1791 the US Bill of rights was modified to add the sixth amendment.PAUSE INTRODUCTION SLIDE

Among other things the sixth amendment gives the US Citizen the right to 1). A speedy public trial 2). An impartial jury 3). A notice of accusation 4). A confrontation of witnesses 5). and lastly the right to counsel.

Without the benefit of the 6th amendment, we could be locked up indefinitely, we could have a jury stacked against us, we may never know what the charges against us actually are, or be confronted by our accusers - we may never be able to confer with a knowledgeable defender. Without these rights we would be at the mercy of anyone with an axe to grind against us…

The right to counsel is an especially important one. Just as we would not want to perform our own surgery - leaving that to well trained doctors or do our own taxes - leaving that to accountants we know that in cases of law it is paramount to retain a lawyer who can advocate for us. The sixth amendment gives the US Citizen the right to a public defender. Even if we are penniless, even if we owe millions of dollars and are completely bankrupt, we are guaranteed access to counsel, advocacy and representation. That is no small right…

Did you know, however, that you can choose to represent yourself. We have the right to counsel, we can choose to represent ourselves, be our own lawyer in a court case… PAUSE

Perhaps you have heard this adage, "He who will be his own lawyer has a fool for a client...”

"He who will be his own lawyer has a fool for a client...” What does that mean…?

It means that if you choose to be your own lawyer, knowing nothing more of the of the law than you do of surgery or accounting you will get what you deserve… you will get hurt, badly. Refusing to take advantage of a fundamental right is absolute lunacy and no one should attempt entering a courtroom without some form of counsel - the one who does will be responsible for their own fate. PAUSE

Friends, the Bible states in very clear terms that we, SLIDE all humans, me, you, everyone has committed crimes against God. Our crime is that we have defied His holiness, His perfection and rebelled against Him, refusing to treat Him as we ought to and for this we are culpable, we are blameworthy, we are guilty we have not achieved the perfection that He demands from us His creatures...PAUSE

We have an accuser, satan, who brings our sins before God and keeps them before God. Reminding God of our failures, faults and shortcomings… and the Just, Righteous God who does no evil hears these accusations against us. PAUSE We have sinned, we have fallen short, we deserve God’s infinite wrath…

Just like in a courtroom, our accuser stands, vehemently denouncing us, saying, “See God, the ones You created have defied You! Destroy them!”

SLOWLY The one who thinks that he will be able to wriggle out of this indictment based upon his own expertise is a fool. He who will be his own counselor has a fool for a client… We need good representation. Someone who understands the Law and can Advocate for us…

Those that believe in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord have have His Advocacy now. Those that reject Him, His representation will face the full fury of the perfectly just and absolutely impartial wrath of God.

We need this Advocate, and if we reject His representation we have only ourselves to blame for an eternity of suffering. He has come from God, because God does not desire that any should perish but for all to come to repentance... THREE SECOND LONG PAUSE

By way of transitioning to today’s sermon, I would invite you to turn with me to John chapter 3. The book of John was written by the best friend of Jesus Christ and chapter 3 documents a unique exchanged between Jesus and a teacher of Judaic law, whose name is Nicodemus.

In their discussion, there are many important themes that will come up in today’s message, Light, life, darkness, judgement, the scope of Christ’s payment for sin and what it looks like to know Jesus. READ SLOWLY

John 3:16–21 | 16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. 17 “For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. SLIDE 18 “He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 “This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. 20 “For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 21 “But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.”

God so loved the world, enough to send the world a Representative, free of charge, that could not only Advocate for them, but also pay the penalty for the crime that we committed. Some will come to Him and some will reject Him because they hate the Light, craving darkness instead.

And we all will ultimately get what we want.

He who believes in Him is not judged, he who does not believe has been judged already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God LONG PAUSE

MAIN POINT

Well, today the main point of this message is that "The believer's joy, our happiness, our great pleasure is to testify of the truth of the Gospel. The Gospel announces the free unmerited gift of fellowship with God, through Christ, by way of His complete atonement of sin; The proof of whether we are truly and legitimately saved is if we obey Christ's commandments.”

And His commandments are not burdensome

BLANK SLIDE

Let’s go to prayer and dedicate this time to worshipping God well.

PRAYER

Father God, what a wonder You are. You loved us so much that You were willing to send Your perfect Son to pay for our sins. To proclaim the release of captivity for those condemned to death. We do not disagree with You that our sins need to be punished but to think that You provided Your perfect Son to take what we deserved is incomprehensible, it is difficult to understand but we believe it.

Father, Your gift does not end there, Your perfect Son continues to advocate on our behalf, presenting His own perfection before You as our shield and covering.

We have so much to be grateful for, not the least of which is knowing these things are from You. Help us today to understand the magnitude of Your gift. Help us to worship You well. May Your Holy Spirit guide our hearts into a proper understanding of the Word and may You get all the honor and glory for what You have done for us. It is in Jesus’ name I pray, amen.

SERMON

So here’s the context...

CONTEXT

The apostle John wrote this little five chapter letter around AD 85 from Ephesus. I like to refer to John as Jesus’ best friend because in his gospel he says “he was the disciple whom Jesus loved.”

It has been approximately 50 years since his best friend paid for the sins of the world and then was raised from the dead and returned to heaven. John’s great joy is to tell about what his best friend has done for the believer and he is doing that because false teachers have begun spreading lies to the surrounding churches, MAP SLIDE telling them that Jesus didn’t actually come in the flesh. He wasn’t really real. He was a divine spirit alone and just looked real; John is defending the truth against these lies. PAUSE

Please turn with me to 1st John chapter 1 verse 1. This is different than the Gospel of John, and it is almost to the end of our Bibles, but written by the same man - the disciple whom Jesus loved - and he is combatting these heretical lies with truth that he can personally attest to. SLIDE

Behold the Word of Life, entirely Eternal and Completely Historical… Verse 1

I. Behold, the Word of Life (v1-2)

1 John 1–2:6 | 1 What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life— 2 and the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us— PAUSE

A. Entirely Eternal

I want to call out two things here. John uses similar verbiage to describe Jesus as he does in his Gospel account. He says “what was from the beginning...” This verbiage is very important to John, it was used in the creation account to describe the point in time when the only thing that existed was just God.

“What was from the Beginning” is an intentional reference to the Christ’s eternality. He always existed and He is the ultimate and only source of life. What was from the beginning we heard, we saw, we looked at, we touched because God became more than God, He became man.

Jesus is a truly Historical legitimate human person - John was His best friend - this is who he is describing and he is defending him against heresy

B. Completely Historical

Remember the heretics that are claiming that since God is spirit, perhaps claiming that Jesus just looked real. No no no, Jesus is real. You do not even have to rely on the Scriptural accounts for proof of that. There are secular historians from the first century that attest to His reality. One of them was a Jewish general (Josephus), another one was a Roman Senator (Tacitus) - there are nearly a dozen secular sources that describe Jesus.

The historicity of Jesus cannot be denied, He really existed and those that deny it are disinterested in evaluating the evidence impartially. They have already made up their mind.

As I say that, I cannot help but get off topic here a moment. Acknowledging the existence of Jesus takes no major intellectual effort and recognizing that He lived does not grant salvation, admitting that Jesus was real will not gain forgiveness for sins. SLIDE

We do not get credit with God for acknowledging these facts. I have heard, and you probably have as well, in your evangelism, “Oh yeah, I know God is real” this is really no more than what even the demons know and understand… they will not be pardoned for their wickedness. The demons have a very orthodox theology, they have a great understanding of eschatology or the end times… they know all this better than you or I probably and yet they do not have a relationship with God.

Do not be satisfied that whomever you are sharing the good news of salvation with is saved if they say, “Oh yeah, God and me, we’re cool, I believe He is real...” That is not enough. SLIDE

So, here is a fact I want us to walk away with: No one is saved because they agree that Jesus existed, period. It didn’t save the Pharisees, it didn’t save Judas and it will not save you or me because it does not satisfy God’s wrath against sin. PAUSE

John opens his letter with his attestation that not only is Christ real, not only does He exist, not only was He from the beginning in eternity past but I saw Him, He is my best friend, I touched Him and I want to tell you all about Him.

Jesus is the Good News, He is the Gospel, He is the Word of Life, He is how we have eternal life and relationship with the Father. Verse 3 SLIDE

II. He Is The Gospel We Preached (v3-4)

3 what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. 4 These things we write, so that our joy may be made complete. PAUSE 2

A. Through Jesus we have fellowship with God

The amazing thing that Jesus did, was make the believer right with God. In our courtroom illustration at the beginning we understood Jesus advocating on our behalf before God, but what Jesus did on the cross is so much more than just make believers right with God. His perfection became ours! His sinlessness was transferred to us and not only were we acquitted of our crimes we now have relationship with God. We now have fellowship with Him.

John says, I saw Jesus, I know Him, I am telling you all about Him so that our joy may be made complete.

B. So that joy may abound

What does that mean? So that our joy may be made complete, what does that mean?

John wants to share about his best Friend so that he might experience great pleasure or happiness. That he might experience a filling up of joy. SLIDE

In 3rd John which we will get to in a couple of weeks he says, he has, ‘no greater joy than to hear that some have believed in the truth and are walking in it…’ I vividly recall Dan Brown texting me that verse when I told him of one of my children professing faith in Christ - such a thrill! PAUSE 2

SLIDE

Here’s a takeaway from this, pour out your life in sharing the truth of the good news, pray that those you love and even those that are your enemies might be saved. And when you see others grasp, understand it, share it and live it out you will experience an unparalleled level of joy.

To know that someone you have prayed for, poured out tears for and has heard the Gospel and will share eternity with you before the throne is an incredible privilege and a wonderful joy this is one of the reasons why John is writing to these churches. He wants his joy to be completed.

So he tells us the truth which is just what he received from Jesus, that God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all. Verse 5 SLIDE

III. His Message Is the Truth About God (v5)

5 This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.

A. Jesus told us the truth

B. In God there is perfect light and no darkness

I don’t want to take it for granted that we all understand what the light is that is being referenced here. God is the Originator or source of Light without moral defect or impurity. Genesis 1:3 says that “Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.” God is the Originator of light and He is the source of Life. If you would, please turn to John chapter 1

John 1:1-5 “In the beginning was the Word (That’s Christ), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.”

John is announcing his best friend, He is real, and He is both the source of Light and the Originator of life. There is no darkness in Him at all, there is no death, there is no immorality or evil. He is self existent and pure, perfect.

John writes, “This is the message that we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is light”, the source of life, and there is no darkness in Him at all. PAUSE

ENUNCIATE What do we do with this information? A choice must be made and a choice will always be made and the proof of what we believe will be reflected in our actions… verse 6 SLIDE

IV. What Is Our Response To The Truth?(v6-10)

6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him (WITH CHRIST) and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; 7 but if we walk in the Light as He Himself 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 that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.

A. What do we say?

What is our response to the truth… what do we say? What do we say about this set of assertions? That Christ is perfect holiness and we have no life apart from Him.

If we say we agree with these assertions, that is all well and good, but what does our life say about what we claim? We talk the talk but does our life look like we walk the walk? Is there proof in our life that we actually believe this… the proof is always there. What do we actually do?

B. What do we do?

Is our life a life of sinfulness? Do we walk in impurity? SLIDE Men and women love the darkness rather than the Light, because their deeds are evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.

What do we say? What do we do? We will be evaluated, we will be judged on the basis of both but the proof of what we believe is always born out of what we do. PAUSE

Do we deny our own sinfulness or do we honestly and frankly confess our sins, knowing that it took the perfect blood of Jesus to fully them… What do we say? What do we do? PAUSE

Chapter 2 SLIDE The Advocacy and Atonement of Christ

V. The Advocacy & Atonement of Christ (2:1-2)

1 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; 2 and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.

A. Advocacy

Christ is our Advocate, our παράκλητον, our Representative, our Intercessor our Mediator. One who perfectly understands God’s requirements, because He is God, and can stand between God and us and Advocate on our behalf. John 3:16 ““For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”

Because God is loving He has provided the way of escape and it is only through the authorized way. Think of the crime of rejecting Christ when God poured out all of His wrath on Him, think of representing yourself before God when God gave one way to come into fellowship with Him at such incredible cost. SLIDE

Friend, you and I desperately need to come only through the authorized way, through Jesus Christ. John 14:6 “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” We only need to take Christ up on His offer to do so. We only need to hide behind Christ and refuse any attempt to justify ourselves before God.

He who chooses to represent himself has a fool for a client… don’t be a fool. PAUSE

B. Atonement

SLIDE Verse two uses a unique word that I want to explain here now, propitiation - from the Greek word ἱλασμός. When the text says that Christ is the propitiation for our sins what does that mean?

The sense of propitiation is that it is the means of appeasing wrath and gaining the good will of an offended person. It is the sense of turning a relationship around that has soured and restoring it.

We have offended God and Christ, our Advocate stands in between us and Him and intercedes on the believer’s behalf. He doesn’t just absorb the punishment that is ours He also brings the believer into relationship with God. PAUSE

One other item bears mentioning and that is universal atonement. Not to be confused with universal salvation, which is the heresy that everyone eventually saved, that is a lie of satan meant to trap people in their sins… it is unscriptural and a lie.

Some will spend eternity in hell, never released on good behavior, or when their crimes have been fully paid for. They can never fully pay for sin after death, once we die, that’s it. No second chances.

Different from universal salvation is the idea of universal atonement which is argued in verse 2. The atonement of Christ, His payment of sin is universal in the sense that Christ’s death on the cross was adequate, enough and sufficient to pay for every sin ever committed past present and future.

However, the benefits of His atoning sacrifice are only realized by those whom God foreknew, called out and chose before the foundation of the earth - they get the benefit of His atonement. But those that are still in their rebellion, those that have rejected Christ, do not realize, do not gain the full benefit of restored relationship with God and will suffer His wrath. The propitiation, the covering, the shielding of Christ is for those that believe in Him alone. PAUSE

Wouldn’t it be great if we could know if what camp we were a part of? Wouldn’t it be great to have a sense of assurance if we were truly saved? Let’s look at verse 3 SLIDE

VI. Our Assurance (2:3-6)

3 By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. 4 The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; 5 but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: 6 the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.

A. Obedience to Christ the criteria

Obedience to Christ is the criteria for salvation. We can know today, whether or not we are saved, chosen, called. Now is a great time to evaluate ourselves by asking ourselves, do I do what Christ commanded me? Is He my Master, my Boss, my Lord? Do I obey Him?

If we cannot affirm through words and actions that we obey Him, He is likely not our Lord and if He is not our Lord it is probably safe to assume that He is not our Savior either and our destination is hell.

What did Christ command us? Simply that we do what God commanded us to do, love God and love people, all people but especially fellow believers. SLIDE

John 15:12 | 12 “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.

B. Verbal affirmation insufficient

Perhaps, we protest, “I love God, I love people, sure...” the one who abides in Christ, the one who claims to be covered with His righteousness, ought to walk in the same manner as Christ did.

The believer’s life is to be marked by purity and holiness. We have that positionally through Jesus but we also grow in this by being renewed by the Spirit of Christ daily and conforming ourselves to Him.

Friend, verbal affirmation is insufficient to save anyone, there must be reality behind it.

In Summary

SLIDE

Friends, this message was written by Jesus’ best friend. He wanted to tell the truth about Jesus because there were liars undercutting the Gospel. Undermining confidence in Christ’s incarnation, becoming a man, and as a result saying that His sacrifice was insufficient to pay for our sins...

But that is not what happened. God became Man and took upon Himself all the world’s sins, paying for every one of them and offering restored relationship to those who accept His atonement on their behalf. Those that reject Him will confront God in their own merit and perish. But those that hide themselves in Christ will live.

The proof of whether or not we are in Christ, hidden by Him, covered by Him is if we obey His commandments. SLIDE

Let’s pray,

Father God, to think of what You must have gone through as You poured out Your wrath against sin upon Your Son. It is incomprehensible to think that we can avoid the punishment that we deserve if we abide in Christ, coming to Him in our weakness and confessing our need of a Savior - but that is what Your word says, so we believe it.

We are so grateful for Jesus. Thank You for Your incredible love - You so loved the world that You gave Your only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. Thank You for Jesus it is in His name we pray, amen.

COMMUNION

As we turn to our time of Communion I want us to reconsider SLIDE 1st John 1:7 “but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.”

The Fellowship or κοινωνίαν in view here is the act of sharing in activities or privileges of an intimate association or group, especially within the context of marriage or within the church. That is Communion, a deep and intimate fellowship together. If we walk in the Light of the truth, we can have fellowship not only with God but also with Jesus and we are purified by the perfect shed blood of Jesus.

As often as we partake of the bread and the cup we proclaim this message of Christ’s death, that His blood cleanses from all sin. Our participation in this ordinance was commanded and just as we were commanded to love one another we are commanded to partake of Communion as well. To take Christ up on His offer to cleanse us from all sin.

Now is the time to go to prayer and confess all our sins knowing that He is faithful and righteous to forgive us all our sins. Repentance is as simple as agreeing with God in each instance that His holiness is what is required, that we have failed and we are in need of forgiveness.

We are going to spend two minutes in prayer, dig deep and confess your need and when you have do not forget to thank God for the κοινωνίαν, the fellowship, the communion we now have because of Jesus.

The Lord Jesus

In the same way He took the cup also after supper

As often as You eat the bread and drink the cup