Sermon Tone Analysis

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

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

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

When it comes to the life of human beings, it was created by God.

And who is God here?

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

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)