Conclusion of 1John
Notes
Transcript
Well good morning!
How is everyone doing today
So as promised we are on our
Last Sermon in 1 John
and so we are about to move into a new study
And I have decided we are going to move
Into the book of Mark
So to be honest
I have about six months left here
And so I figured if we took a chapter a week
We might be able to get through the book of Mark
Before I leave
Plus I polled a bunch of you
And it was interesting
Because I was going back and forth between
The book of Mark and the book of Acts
And while the book of Acts would be a fascinating
Book to go through
I just don’t have the time left
Here in Germany
Anyways
So the next time we meet
Which will be the 8th of May
Just so you know
I am on leave next weekend
So the 8th of May
We will be opening up with Mark
So that’s exciting and I really hope you can join us
But before we get into it today
I really want to do a quick review
On what we have learned
Over the last few months
Because I really think that if you
Take the book of 1 John
You can really get a lot out of it
In fact I would argue this is one book that can truly
Help you mature in your faith
Help you grow in your understanding
Of what a church really is
Of what God had intended for you
The body of Christ to be
Maybe help understand what it truly means to be a Christian
And even help you in understanding
How to resist temptation
How to resist Satan
Which in my mind,
Is perhaps some of the most important things in life
And as a point of application
I look at my daughter all the time
And I bounce the idea of
Her future off of my own past
Off of my wifes past
And all the mistakes we made coming up
And I just think
If I can get her to absorb the book of 1 John
Help her dive deep into the understanding of the Bible
I can prevent her from so much pain
So much heart ache
But most importantly
I can solidify that relationship
With Christ that I so desperately want her to have
That I so desperately want you all to have
And even that I personally want to have
But anyways,
Let me not get side tracked here today
Because we have a ton to go over
And very little time to do it
So lets get into the word of God
So if you would please open up your Bibles
Ipads
Iphones
Etc.
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. And we are confident that he hears us whenever we ask for anything that pleases him. And since we know he hears us when we make our requests, we also know that he will give us what we ask for.
If you see a fellow believer sinning in a way that does not lead to death, you should pray, and God will give that person life. But there is a sin that leads to death, and I am not saying you should pray for those who commit it. All wicked actions are sin, but not every sin leads to death.
We know that God’s children do not make a practice of sinning, for God’s Son holds them securely, and the evil one cannot touch them. We know that we are children of God and that the world around us is under the control of the evil one.
And we know that the Son of God has come, and he has given us understanding so that we can know the true God. And now we live in fellowship with the true God because we live in fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ. He is the only true God, and he is eternal life.
Dear children, keep away from anything that might take God’s place in your hearts.
Prayer
So as John closes out this letter
Lets just take that journey throughout this book
Lets just take a few minutes
To help us gather
Where John has been leading us
And if you recall
Perhaps my favorite parts of this book
is when John opens up this letter
In the first couple verses
where he is absolutely excited about everything
He has seen and heard
In fact as he opens up this book its almost like John
Is expressing the shear disbelief of his own
Which has just been challenged
With real life experience
That he simply cannot deny
By way of actual events that happened
Right before his very eyes
I mean listen to these words one more time
We proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen. We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands. He is the Word of life. This one who is life itself was revealed to us, and we have seen him. And now we testify and proclaim to you that he is the one who is eternal life. He was with the Father, and then he was revealed to us. We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.
The answer to all our problems
The answer to everything the jews
And even the world in fact
Has been waiting for
He is here
And as a side note
I have been talking to a few of you
About the reality of the implications
If this story is real
You know
And think on this
What if the truth is that Jesus is real
That would mean
That the answer to the fulfillment of the entire Old Testament is here
And thats the realization that John had come to
He is real
He was here
John had seen the Messiah
He had witnessed
Walked with
Talked with
The Messiah
The promised answer to our eternity with God
The answer to our sin
The answer to our separation from God
It all came down to Jesus
And so John recognizes the huge implications
Of what this means right off the bat
But then
John immediately moves to
helping us understand
What a right relationship with Jesus
THE MESSIAH, looks like
you can see that in Verse 5-7
But then John
Gives us hope in understanding
That despite a right relationship with God
You will always struggle
You will always struggle with sin
You see that very clearly verses 7-10
And I got to be honest
Because I find this section of Scripture
So comforting
So filled with hope
So filled with an understanding of who we are
In fact
Addictions counseling uses
This passage in helping us understand
That we all struggle with sin
That we won’t be perfect until we get to heaven
But also apart of that right relationship with God
Is coming to Him
Like a child and admitting our faults
And admitting that we need a savior
Perhaps even coming to him in prayer
Talking to God
Asking to help you with your issue
Help you with your walk
But then you see in Chapter 2
John tells us quite frankly
The entire purpose of this letter
Is NOT so that you have free reign to sin
But that you might not sin
As an encouragement to stay away from sin
But at the same time if you do sin
That Christ is there to save you from sin
and you see this in chapter 2:1-6
Then we see the importance coming together as a Church
And not just support each other
But to keep us from sin
Or better put
Supporting each other as a church
While at the same time
Resisting the world
and pushing against the desires
Of the world
And if you recall John really puts us at odds
With the world
And even making it sound as though
We are in a spiritual battle
Maybe even a war
Within this world
And what I truly find unique about that argument
Is that John follows up this statement
With the warning about the antichrist
And how Satan’s ultimate weapon
Is already at work within our world
Which really helps us understand why
John’s previous argument goes against sin
A warning against our carnal desires
And FOR a right relationship with God
And a right relationship with fellow believers
Is so vital to our walk with God
But then he solidifies our defense
With
The understanding that we have the ultimate weapon
Against Satan
Can anyone tell me what that is?
The Holy Spirit
As a believer you have the Holy Spirit within you
Helping you
Guiding you
Convicting you of sin
And even smacking you around a bit, when you fall into temptation
But then in Chapter 3
John really starts to bring home the understanding of what it
Means to be a child of God
And the hope that this brings
Because as children of God
We have an eternal family
Fellow brothers and sisters in Christ that we will spend
Eternity with
And I got to be honest
That exciting
How many of us struggle with feelings of loneliness
Maybe the idea of being accepted
PAUSE
Not in heaven
NOT IN HEAVEN
Think on this
Because in all reality
This truly cements the idea that we need to start
This community type living here and now
I mean you can start to live out the heart
The mind of Christ
Here and now
In the church
And what I truly find fascinating about his discussion here
Is you can really feel John’s heart here
You can really feel that John’s message here is to love
Each-other,
To stop bickering
To stop fighting
To start acting like children of A God who loves them.
Who desires the best for them
And to start imitating God in everything
Especially in our relationships with each other
Chapter 4 then opens up
With a reality of false teaching
And again hits on the importance of a solid relationship with God
Because the reality is
You will be tricked
You will be taught something false
You will be fooled
And one major way to get around the lies of the devil
Is to first put your trust in God
But then focusing on understanding the truth of His word
Banking on his promises
And really coming to a realization that
God is love, verse 16
That there is no fear in love, verse 17
And that we have that assurance of salvation,
That we truly have nothing to fear
Because of God’s promise in Jesus, verse 18
And I’ll tell you,
It is this section of Scripture
That i truly feel
If people would really study
We could get away from some of the ridiculousness that is taught in churches
If we based our salvation given to us at the cross
Meaning if we based our salvation off of the forgiveness of sin
Brought to us by the cross
And the reality that God is love
Then we can walk out of here today
With heads held high
As a community that loves each other
holding each other accountable
And assisting each other in the daily battle against Satan
Everything goes back to the cross folks
Everything
But then we get to the final section
and we begin to see
How God truly brings in the objective truth
The evidence
The solidification of what we believe
And John did this
Through the detailed argument
Against false doctrines
Against false beliefs
That try to take away divinity of Christ
And I love how John just obliterates the cultish mindset
That Christ is not God
Because lets face it
I mean in all reality
If the Holy Spirit through John
Hadn’t put this in here
Then there is a good possibility
That we may question John’s argument here
Of the entire book
But then we move on to the discussion for today
And what John does with the passage today
Is open up in verse 13 with a home run
And I love this
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.
You can have assurance of your salvation because Jesus is divine
Because of everything in Scripture
That validates and confirms
Of Johns argument here
The entire understanding
For the forgiveness of sins
And the assurance that we have eternal life
All because of Jesus
Because of the cross
Because of Father’s love for mankind
In reality, its the message of the Gospel
That through a single act
Seen
Predicted
and put into action before the foundations of the world
You and I are guaranteed everything in heaven
In fact Ephesians 1:4
Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.
But then look what John does here
And here is where you have to really be careful
Because it is this section of Scripture
That so many take out of context
That so many use to their advantage.
And yet properly applied
Can do so much good.
And let me ask how many in here have ever heard,
God has to obey his promises
God cannot lie
God will never go back on his promises
Which is why
God will give me my hearts desire
It says it plainly in Scripture
He has to give me anything i ask for
So long as I have faith
You know how many times I have heard such none-sense
Look at verses 14-15 hear
Because I am telling you
I have heard entire sermons preached on this concept
That God will give you everything you want
Because you have found some loop whole in the Bible
That forces God to be a lottery ticket
Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.
And what a lot of pastors
Of false teachers
Will do
Is take out His will
Take out His purpose
And even our understanding of Johns argument
That we are children of God
In fact what they do is they have turned God into their own puppet
Let me ask real quick
How many of us got everything we asked for as children?
How many of our parents would give us a loaded gun as a five year old just because we ask
Not everything you ask for
Is good for you
God knows this
So when your prayer isn’t answered
It may be for your own good
Another Serious question
and something I really want to bring home today
Which is prayer
Because prayer is something I truly think we fail on today
Do you realize what prayer really is
Its reliance on God
Its a relationship with your heavenly father
Its why the Bible puts so much emphasis on prayer
Paul tell us to never cease in prayer
To continually build that relationship with God
Through prayer
John tells us to ask for everything by prayer
James tell us to go to God as a church in prayer
Even making the argument that praying for one another
Or intercessory prayer
Is more important than individual prayer
Because it requires love
It requires a connection with God
A desire to do His will
The Old Testament says
That prayers are like a sweet aroma to God
Like the Incense coming from the altar
Connecting the heart and mind of God with the believer
And it is and always has been as desire of God
To connect with us
To have that relationship with us
And so many people ask me
How do I develop that relationship
This is it, Through prayer.
Through petition
And so when this passage
Which is meant to connect us to God through prayer
And turn God into a lottery ticket
You are in fact destroying that relationship with God
I would argue you are hindering the connection
The maturity you gain through a relationship
With God, that connects his heart and will
With your request and your actions
Which leads me to my final point
And a point of application that I think John is dead set on
Because this entire book
He has focused on love
Focused on our relationship with God
With each other
And yet here In John’s final words to the church
He not only encourages us as believers to keep from sinning
But to hold each other accountable
Look with me at verse 16
If you see a fellow believer sinning in a way that does not lead to death, you should pray, and God will give that person life. But there is a sin that leads to death, and I am not saying you should pray for those who commit it. All wicked actions are sin, but not every sin leads to death.
As a body of Christ
As a people group
That will inherit eternal life together
We are each others best defense against this world
And we owe it to God to love each other
To care for each other
To be extended arm,
The extended heart of Christ to each other
And even to the world
Because of our guarantee of eternal blessing
We live this life through His eyes
Through His goals
Through His will
Which is to first and formost
Put God first
But to second love each other as He loved us
And I’ll be honest
If you take anything away from the book of 1 John
Take away this
You’re apart of the body of Christ
Which means you’re loved by God first and foremost
But you and I have a responsibility to each other
To do life together
To be a united front together
To be live out God’s purpose in love together
And so as we segway
Into the book of Mark
I truly want you all to focus
On the behavior of Jesus
On the deeper truths of His actions
And understand as believers
We are to live a life pleasing to God
And to obey His desire, His purpose and His will
Take 1 John apply it to your life
use it as a system of check and balances
Ask yourself those hard questions
Such as Am I truly saved
Am I obedient as I should be
Off of my wife's pastife on mission for Him
Lets close in prayer
‘May the Lord bless you
and protect you.
May the Lord smile on you
and be gracious to you.
May the Lord show you his favor
and give you his peace.’