The Thrill of Hope (2)

Series Review:

The Thrill of Hope: Hope is thrilling because those whose hope is in the Lord have a certain hope. But this hope is not not only in the future reality of our union with Christ, but it exists in the presence as well.

This is where the Christian’s way of life comes in. We persevere. God preserves His people so that they will not ever fall away from Him.

But perseverance is not just getting by or making it through the difficulty and some times misery of life. Living our daily lives is an act of perseverance, but I suggest that here should be a certain wonder that accompanies our daily living. A certain sense of excitement and expectation that the people of God should possess in the ups and downs of life. Why?

Because we have been created by, redeemed by, justified by, adopted by and are being preserved by a holy and righteous God. And we need to dwell on the fact that God is holy. As we do, we will see the wonder that is always there beyond ourselves and when we reflect the holiness of God, persevering, even in the midst of trials, possesses a certain wonder to it.

Never-the-less, we experience pain. We need to persevere because sometimes life becomes hard. And while we should be honest about the pain that we experience when we go through trials, we need to know that even in the midst of these difficulty, there is wonder for Gd’s people. Because our trials are intended to spur us on the pathway to fellowship with God. Christ Himself, traveled the road to glory on the road of suffering. There is no trials so severe that it can defeat God’s people. Bring us to our knees? Stretch us beyond what we thought possible? Bring us to the edge? Yes. But knowing, even with tears streaming down our faces, that the life of Christ will prevail in our lives is wonderful.

But are we meant to experience the wonder in our perseverance on our own. Is that kind of living, that is, the living of a Christian a solo, 1 man/1 woman show? The Bible makes clear that the church is a family. For example, consider Paul’s words:

Ephesians 1:5 (ESV)

he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will...

The people of God are a family, and we experience this family in the context of the local church today. But this family, while possessing some of the same qualities as other families like different personalities, challenges in communication, people rubbing other people the wrong way, what’s unique to the family of God is our Father and the way by which we came into the family and how our status as children of God is maintained.

And so today, we will consider seeing the wonder in the family of God

Text Introduction

First John deals with questions like:

What is a real Christian?

What is real christian love?

What is real Christian fellowship?

What is real Christian faith?

What is real Christian morality?

And the approach John takes in this letter to answer these question is the use of a certain formula: The if/then formula.

If this is true then this is true

If you are this then you are that

If this is you then you are not that

If you do this then this is true of you

If you do this then this is not true of you

See the Wonder in the Family of God

1 John 1:5–10 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. 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.

Introduction

“Magic is the only honest profession. A magician promises to deceive you and he does.” – Karl Garmain (1878-1959)

Johann Georg Schröpfer coined the concept of smoke and mirrors as a common feature of stage magic and 19th-century phantasmagoria shows. The illusion technique traditionally uses a magic lantern or image projector and a light source to cast onto a conjured smoke in thin air to portray illusions of the flotation, existence and disappearance of objects.

Smoke & Mirrors

This expression alludes to the performances of stage conjurers who use actual smoke and mirrors to deceive the audience.

Do we employ the use of smoke and mirrors when it comes to what we ant to project about ourselves to those around us. Most of us readily admit we are not perfect, but when it comes to our struggles, our sin, our short-comings, we don’t want that to be part of the image we project. So we use smoke and mirrors to deceive our audience, that is, everyone around us. This crates a certain distance between us and others. We have friends and family, but despite having those relationships, some of us feel alone, isolated and even scared. So, often, we attempt to go it alone. Ne self-sufficient, we tell ourselves. We double down on the use of the smoke and mirrors of self-sufficiency and independence.

And this can and this does show itself in the church. We’re willing to share prayer requests with one another, but we don’t want to get too personal. We’re willing to admit we need forgiveness from God from time to time, but we don’t want to get specific about that. Some of us are most comfortable holding others at arm’s length. And while we acknowledge that we can’t hide anything from God, we spend some of our energy trying anyway.

We want to walk with God, but we not too closely.... especially when it come to others.

FCF: When it comes to walking with God, we often attempt it on our own.

Big Idea:

We walk with God in a group.

AQ:

What must be true of the group to walk with God?

v. 5 Introduces what John will discuss in verses 6-10. To put it another way, verses 6-10 ex plain what John says in v. 5. What’s the message?

God is light and in Him is no darkness at all

Now, of course, we want to know what that means. We may have some ideas in our heads about what it means, but it may ultimately be a little difficult to articulate the answer clearly. The best way to get more clarity is to consider how John uses the term light in his other writings. In particular, how he uses this word in his gospel

John 1:4 ESV

In him was life, and the life was the light of men.

Here life is equated with the light of human beings. It appears that light refers to the source of life.

Now consider the verse before

John 1:3 ESV

All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.

When it comes to the life of human beings, it was created by God. And who is God here?

John 1:1–2 ESV

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.

The Word, who is clearly Jesus, and all things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made.

So to put this all together, the light is the source of all life. All life was created by the Word (Jesus). So the light is Jesus who is the source of all life. To put it another way, John is saying that all life, derives its life from Jesus.

Now, is this how John is using light in First John? I think so because of what he says in

1 John 1:7–8 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.

Here, John makes a connection between the light and Jesus.

So back to v. 5, the message the John says he has heard from Jesus and is now proclaiming to the recipients of his letter and to us is that God is Jesus, who is the source of all life, and in Him is no darkness at all. And if light is Jesus, who is holy and righteous, then darkness would corruption. No corruption exists in Jesus at all.

So, John proceeds to explain this more in vss 6-10.

And again, if His people walk with Him in a group (as opposed to solo), what must be true of this group whose source of life is Jesus Himself?

Honesty (6-7)

AQ: About what are we to be honest?

Our need for the redemptive work of Christ (6)

false claim: we can have fellowship with God while we walk (habitually live) in darkness

Gnostics: antinomianism - the body was just a covering of the true person. The true person was spirit and was uncontaminated by the deeds of the body

Some gnostics taught that a person could become spiritual enough that he/she could achieve a state that was beyond any possibility of defilement. You could be righteous without necessarily doing any righteousness. What this understanding of the person yielded was the marginalization of morality.

Today, we may not call it gnosticism, but it is a common claim to be right with God without any intervention from God. No need for the cross of Christ. No need for forgiveness. No need for repentance. Not dependent on God for anything, and we are free to do as we please but maintain a connection to God that suits our comfort level.

And what does John say about anyone who possesses this understanding of God and life? We lie and do not the truth. We contradict the truth with the false claim of fellowship with God and deny the truth with our living.

This is walking in darkness. This is manifesting the corruption that is in us and our need for the source of life, the Light.... Jesus the Messiah

In case we are quick to think that such people, people who deny a need for God to be in fellowship with God, is describing other people other than ourselves, I want us to pause for a moment how v. 6 may show itself in the life of a local (this local) church.

We’re considering how we can recapture the wonder of our perseverance through seeing the wonder that it is in being part of the family of God. Is being part of the family of God wonderful?

Do you know what will cloud the wonder of being a part of the family of God? Denying our need for the redemptive work of Christ. Does that particular denial occur in the church. Do God’s people ever deny this? Perhaps not blatantly but it can happen.

What could a denial of our need for Christ look like? From Dane Ortlund’s Deeper

Explicit Dishonesty: projecting a sense of moral success than there actually is.

But there’s also implicit dishonesty: It’s showing up on Sunday projecting what we want others to see, even if what we want others to see is not real. We’ve erected a veneer, we’re keeping up appearances, we’re wearing the mask.

It is possible that the husbands here today do not love their wives as Christ loved the church as consistently as we should. Perhaps you are inclined to gossip on the phone, use foul language when church folk aren’t around, watch things on TV that are consistent with the darkness and not the light. And we don’t want anyone else to know that we struggle with these things.

And not only are we willing to do just about anything to keep up these appearances, we are also exhausted by these efforts. And when we try to keep up appearances, we kill the wonder that it is to be part of the family of God.

You know what the answer is to this? Acknowledging, in a real way, that we need the redemptive work of Christ. Everyday. This is not to suggest that we air our dirty laundry to everyone we see on Sunday mornings, but it does mean that we will have some relationships with people in which we will confess our sins and ask for the prayer and support to live lives of repentance and that project a dependence of our Savior.

And this brings us to something else we need to be honest about. Not only our need for the redemptive work of Christ but also

Our need for the fellowship with Christ’s redeemed (7)

Now, I’m not sure what comes to your minds when you think of fellowship with God’s people. Most Sundays, we have what we call a fellowship time after the worship service. Perhaps fellowship means treats and coffee to you. Perhaps it’s having pleasant conversation with people we feel comfortable.

But, what I want us to do today is to allow what John says in v. 7 to shape and perhaps, reshape our understanding of fellowship

When John exhorts us to walk in the light as he is in the light, is he exhorting us to live morally pure? Certainly we see this in Scripture. But is that John’s point here?

Honesty with other Christians

v. 8 - if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves

v. 10 - if we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar.

And the right reaction to sin is in v. 9: if we confess our sins....

Dane Ortlund again: Walking in the light, in this text, is not primarily avoiding sin but acknowledging it.

So, this is not to deny that confessing our sins to God is not important, or that we should think that if we do not confess our sins to other people that we are not forgiven.

So if you’re objecting right now, saying 1 John 1:9 is an exhortation to confess our sins to God not to other people. And I would agree that this exhortation includes confessing our sins to God and furthermore, only God and not people can grant us forgiveness for our sin. But remember, when we are trying to understand what the Bible says, we must consider the context. So walk through this with me:

v. 6 - we deny our claim of fellowship with God when we portray any kind of independence from the redemptive work of Christ

v. 7 - exhorts us to walk in the light (What does that mean? That’s the question)

v. 8, 10 - tells us that is we deny we contend with sin we lie

v. 9 is the answer to how we deal with sin and is one part of walking in the light. So again, is v. 9 and exhortation to confessing our sin to God only or is it also to one another? I suggest it is both based on what v. 7 says:

1 John 1:7 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.

What results if we walk in the light (which in part is confessing our sins) as He is in the light? Yes, the blood of Christ cleanses us from all sin, but also we have fellowship with one another.

There it is church. We have a need for fellowship with Christ’s redeemed to, in part, have a loving community to see and know the real us. As we confess our sins to one another (not everyone), our fellowship with one another strengthens.

Do these kind of relationships take time to develop? Yes. Do they develop without intention on our parts? No.

Let’s stop laboring under our efforts to portray something we are not. We need to be honest with God and with one another. We all know we all struggle with sin. But let’s be honest bout it with one another by dispensing with meaningless generalities, and getting real with one another, and loving one another when we hear one another’s struggles.

This kind of community is full of wonder, and it is this kind of community that we will see the thrill of hope more clearly.

We walk with God in a group. Something else that needs to be true of the group:

Transparency (8-9)

This is referencing vulnerability. Letting down the guard. Taking off the mask. Dispensing with the veneer. This is hard.

AQ: What makes transparency so difficult?

Denial (8)

Verse 8 begins with an outrageous claim: to be without sin. Again, this was some of the thinking of the gnostics.

Notice that the word sin in v. 8 is singular. This is referring to one’s nature and not behavior. The gnostics were saying that their behavior had nothing to do with their nature. They could do whatever they wanted, but they could also be spiritually pure in their nature. John is calling that out claim as a lie.

And John goes further than he did in v. 6. Not only are those who make this kind of claim guilty of not doing or practicing the truth (6), but they are also void of the truth (8).

But I am fairly certain that none of us are practicing gnostics here today, so why are we inclined to deny the presence of sin in our lives?

It could be because of pride. We might be like the church in Laodicea in Rev. 3 who said

Revelation 3:17 ESV

For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.

A denial of dependence on God because of wealth and prosperity. Certainly a possible inclination among the church in the U.S.

But this denial could also be because of shame. I don’t think this was the gnostics’ problem, but certainly for us it can. Sins of the past, sins of the present. We will outright deny this struggle all together because the thought of someone else knowing this ugliness about us terrifies us. And that fear is fueled by shame. Now this is not a sermon on shame, but we can be just like Adam and Eve. Remember what Adam said after he and Eve ate the fruit he heard God in the garden?

Genesis 3:10 ESV

And he said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.”

Shame drives us to this kind of denial. We attempt to conceal ourselves from one another but we must remember we cannot conceal anything from God. And again, that’s not bad news. We are not called to deny that we have sinned, or even wallow in self-defeating guilt because of our sin. We are called to acknowledge it.

How do we do this? Well, the answer is connected to something else that makes transparency difficult for us.

Doubt

Doubting who? Each other? We do that. But notice what v. 9 says: if we confess our sin, he is faithful to forgives us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

We, perhaps doubt God. Perhaps we doubt that completeness of His forgiveness and cleansing power. We may say to ourselves that a particular sin requires something from us to gain forgiveness and cleansing. A little self-deprecation, a little self-loathing, a little self-inflicted guilt trip along with God forgiveness and cleansing.

This is a lie. We cannot doubt. From what does God cleanse His people? All unrighteousness. Who does this? God. How thoroughly does He forgive and cleanse? Total.

But the other side of this doubt relates to what I suggested earlier regarding confessing our sins. Yes, we confess our sins to God, and only God can grant forgiveness and cleansing. But we are also, I suggest, called to confess to one another here. Certainly, elsewhere, the Bible supports this:

James 5:16 ESV

Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.

And while this demonstrates that God’s people should confess their sins to one another, it doesn’t prove that this is what John is calling us to do here in v. 9. Again, when we consider the flow of argument beginning in v. 6 through v. 10, the exchange we have with one another regarding our sin is a determining factor in the richness of our fellowship with one another. If we walk in the light… we have fellowship with one another (7).

Do we doubt that doing the painful, awkward work of being vulnerable with one another and confessing our sins to one another is part of God’s design for the fellowship of His people? Are we going to go into our fellowship time today with no intention to at least pray about who we could possible with to have this kind of relationship? Is it just treats and coffee? There no real wonder in treats in coffee. Seeing the wonder in the family of God is seen in this kind of transparency.

There’s something else that must be true of the group to walk with God together

Authenticity (10)

V. 10 is very similar to v. 8, so I will not spend too much time on this.

The gnostics went as far as to claim that their superior spirituality made them incapable of sinning all-together.

See the progression of the false claims of the gnostics. To claim that we do not contend with sin is to

tell a deliberate lie (6)

to be completely deluded (8)

to accuse God of lying (10)

Authentic Christians are real about their sin. We contend with it, we struggle with it, hopefully struggle against it and we confess it to God and to one another.

Let’s rid ourselves of any delusion that we are unaffected by sin. We are. Let’s be real about our sin with God and one another.

Conclusion

We walk with God in a group

What will help us make this truth more of an active reality in our community? What will foster the honesty, transparency and authenticity needed to see the wonder in the family of God? I suppose there are many answers to this question, but let me suggest some things to consider

Faithful presence in church life: This starts with Sunday mornings. The kind of relationships that we have discussed this morning will not develop without intention. And we can’t be intentional about developing relationships with one another if we don’t see one another regularly. I realize some of you get together during the week and that’s great. But this is more than getting lunch together. More than a 5 minute phone call. Sunday mornings are, in my opinion, a great time to foster this kind of community with one another.

Pray about this. Pray that our church would be a place where this kind of community develops and flourishes. Pray that God would lead you to one or two people with whom you can meet with regularly for prayer, accountability and encouragement.

Be vulnerable. Even approaching someone to consider this kind of interaction may be intimidating. Being receptive this kind of proposal from someone else will be all too easy to reject with the excuse, I just don’t have the time.

But it’s when we walk with God together, with a commitment to honesty, transparency and authenticity that we will see the wonder in the family of God, and this will awaken the thrill of hope we have in Christ.