Sermon Tone Analysis
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Opening Illustration
During my study this week I came across this interesting article about meerkats.
Meerkats are small mongooses found in southern Africa.
Most famously the character Timon from the movie Lion King is a meerkat.
They are often depicted and photographed standing up and looking guard over the rest of their group.
In the article I read it stated that the most trusted meerkats are those with impeccable reputations.
Here is an excerpt from the article:
“Experience beats age or rank when it comes to meerkat sentry duty.
Individuals who stand guard while other group members forage for food gain trust through reputation, not through their social rank.
Other foraging species that rely on sentries usually only pay attention to warnings from dominant or older individuals.
When meerkats forage for insects and other prey they bury their heads in the sand, so having a reliable lookout means they don’t have to be on the alert themselves for predatory snakes, hawks, eagles and jackals.
Good lookouts save lives by giving an alarm call when a nearby predator looks ready to attack.
Likewise, reliable “all-clear” calls allow peers to confidently resume foraging.”
The article goes on to say that after observing nine groups of meerkats for 3 months...
The most trusted meerkats stood guard 50% more than others.
Additionally, when a more trusted guard was placed other forging meerkats look up less and were able to focus on their task better.
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So, meerkats rightly show us that an individual’s reliability matters when lives are on the line.
This is true when it comes to spiritual warnings.
This is true when is comes to listening to spiritual truth.
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Today we start our series in 1 John and we will start by looking at the reliability of our author of the letter we will be studying.
Sermon Introduction
So, please turn your Bibles to the 1 John.
We will be conducting our study in Chapter 1 and focus on verses 1 through 4.
Our message this morning called “Word of Life”
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Opening Prayer
Before we consider our text, please join me in prayer...
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Let’s turn to our text for today:
Reading of the Text
Before we break this down, Church...
Lets get some background information on 1 John.
Background
Author:
The author was John, the Beloved Disciple.
He is also known as John the Evangelist, John of Patmos, and John the Elder.
He was one of the twelve disciples.
Additionally, he was also part of the inner three or three closest disciples to Jesus which also included Peter and James.
He wrote the Gospel of John...
He wrote 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John...
And he wrote Revelation.
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John was a successful fisherman and was part of the family business with his brother and their father, Zebedee.
He was partners with Peter and Andrew.
They were originally disciples with John the Baptist until they starting following Jesus.
Along with his brother James, Jesus nicknamed them the “Sons of Thunder”
John was so closed with Jesus he was know at the beloved disciple.
Often he would lean on Jesus like a close friend and brother.
John was the only disciple to be at the cross when Jesus was crucified...
And Jesus entrusted John with taking care of his own mother.
John lived a long life, probably into his mid 90s.
He is the only disciple to not die of martyrdom but was persecuted and exiled.
Format of the Writing:
1 John is an epistle.
That means it is written as a letter.
Date:
This letter was written in the late 1st century.
Original Audience:
The original audience was the churches of Asia Minor or modern day Turkey
Purpose of the Letter:
John intends to make clear the truth of Jesus full divinity and full humanity.
During this time many false teachers are rising up and trying to cast doubt on this truth.
So John is stressing the essential doctrines one must hole to even be a Christian and follower of Christ.
He stresses the core of Christianity and defines what is sound doctrine.
John warns to not hold to these beliefs is to make it evident that one is not a true believer and follower of Christ.
John also provides a spiritual check list so that we can evaluate ourselves and see if our faith is genuine of false.
John intends to give assurance of salvation for those who are truly born again...
And to warn false converts that they are not saved but can be if they surrender their life to the Lord.
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So with that background understood....
Let’s get into our text.
1) The Word (Jesus) is God
Verse 1a: That which was from the beginning,
Biblicaly speaking, the word “beginning” is considered a starting point or origin or source...
It refers to the time even before creation.
The Scriptures often describe God as the beginning and the end.
This description shows the eternity of God’s existence.
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We see this language in two of the most well known verses in of of Scripture.
The very first verse in the very first book of the Bible, Genesis 1:1 reads:
Notice as we said...
God existed before anything was ever created.
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And that just logically makes sense too.
Anything created needs a creator.
Nothing can create itself.
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Additionally, someone must exist that was never created but started the creation process...
Nothing can be set in motion without something outside of it initiating the move...
This is logical...
This is scientific...
And this is biblical...
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But be warned , beloved.
Desperate men will do desperate things when they are cornered.
Staunch atheists like Richard Dawkins tried to argue that “nothingness” actually created “something.”
His expression of these ideas publically have been meet with laughter over the ridiculousness of the statement.
Dawkins, who is well respected in the scientific community and generally with society was clearly shocked that many did not just follow his train of thought.
In fact, many scientists, both atheists and Christians, easily proved this as a logical fallacy.
With all we know of the laws of science and physics this idea is ludicrous.
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But a desperate man will do desperate things when he is cornered.
When the laws of science and physicals point to God...
Unbelievers panic.
Even well respected ones.
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But we as believers don’t need to worry about that.
We have the Scriptures...
And time and time again the Word of God has proven to be true and reliable.
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So, let’s go back to that language about the “beginning.”
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