Scripture: 1 John 2:7-17
Theme: A Message for Everyone
The Apostle John wants to share a Message with everyone –
1. Jesus has paid the price for all your sins – Receive His Salvation
2. We can grow into Oneness With Him and Others (Spiritual Maturity)
INTRO:
Grace and peace from God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit!
Have you ever received a letter or an e-mail that made you happy?
Have you ever just waited for a letter or an e-mail to arrive that you just knew was going to make your day?
1st John is that type of communication.
The Apostle John wrote his letter with two main thoughts in mind:
1. He wanted to teach his people how to experience a life filled with God’s Given Supernatural Joy.
He wanted them to understand that as a result of them being Born Again, it was also possible for them to live in the anointing power and presence of God’s Holy Spirit. He wanted them to understand that they could live this amazing life filled with a supernatural joy that would surpass all understanding.
2. He wanted his readers to better understand how they could live a consistent Christ centered life overflowing with victories over trials, struggles and temptations.
The Apostle John wanted his readers to understand that they could live a life that is above sin. He wanted them to understand that they could live a life of spiritual victory. He wanted them to understand that they could live the Abundant Life Jesus that had promised His followers.
In our passage this morning, John takes shares with us some amazing truths that are for there for everyone to receive, understand and celebrate. Let’s look at them this morning:
1. In Jesus, All Our Sin(s) are Forgiven
John wants us understand that in Christ, in Jesus all of our sin(s) are forgiven.
Let that sink in for a moment.
The Apostle John wanted his readers to understand that every sin that has ever been committed or will be committed on this earth has already been provisionally forgiven by Jesus. The price of sin; the wages of sin has already been paid in full.
There is no sin out there that still exists that has not already been paid for by our Lord Jesus Christ. When Jesus went to the cross and gave His life as a ransom for you and me He defeated all sin, death, Hell and the grave forever.
There is no sin that cannot be covered by the blood of Jesus.
Again, let that fact sink in for a moment or two.
There is no sin that cannot be covered by the blood of Jesus.
In the Old Testament there are a great many stories that center around one of the most gifted and most spiritual men that has ever lived. His name was David. He lived an amazing life with God.
What we may not understand is that David was also one of the most evil and sinful men that has ever lived.
In 2 Samuel chapter 12 the prophet Nathan confronts David about his sin with Bathsheba the wife of Uriah.
Now, exactly what sin was the Prophet confronting David about?
+Was it his lying to himself, his family and to his nation?
+Was it the sin of coveting?
+Was it his sin of adultery?
+Was it his stealing a man’s wife away from him?
+Was it his lust?
+Was it his taking sexual advantage of a young woman half his age?
+Was it forsaking the life of holiness that God had anointed him to live?
+Was it orchestrating the death of Uriah and trying to cover it up?
I believe it was all those things and more.
David couldn’t stand before God with any type of holiness. His mind, his heart and his spirit had been deeply stained by all of these actions; these sins.
But notice David’s words and Nathan’s words in 1 Samuel 12:13
“David said to Nathan, ‘I have sinned against the LORD.’ And Nathan said to David, ‘The LORD has also has put away your sin; you shall not die.”
There are several things that are going on here that are important for us to understand:
+David was not forgiven just because he acknowledged his sin.
+David was not forgiven just because he repented.
Acknowledgement of sin is good. It is good for us to understand when we have sinned. It is good for us to understand when we have done something wrong. It is good for us to see the truth that
“all have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23)
Repentance is good. It is always good for us to turn away from our sin and turn towards God. It is always good for us to understand that we are to live a life of giving glory and honor to the LORD.
But none of David’s acts (his acknowledgement or repentance) removed the guilt or took away the penalty of his sin.
David was forgiven because God Himself forgave David. David was forgiven because the Son of God Himself came and died on a cross and paid the price for all sin. Jesus did what no one else could have done – Jesus made a way for us to be rescued and redeemed. Jesus made it possible for all of us to be able to be restored into the image of God.
Remember that old hymn – WHAT CAN WASH AWAY MY SIN?
By Robert Lowry (1826-1899)
What can wash away my sin?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus;
What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Oh! precious is the flow
That makes me white as snow;
No other fount I know,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
2
For my cleansing this I see—
Nothing but the blood of Jesus!
For my pardon this my plea—
Nothing but the blood of Jesus!
Oh! precious is the flow
That makes me white as snow;
No other fount I know,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
3
Nothing can my sin erase
Nothing but the blood of Jesus!
Naught of works, ’tis all of grace—
Nothing but the blood of Jesus!
Oh! precious is the flow
That makes me white as snow;
No other fount I know,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
4
This is all my hope and peace—
Nothing but the blood of Jesus!
This is all my righteousness—
Nothing but the blood of Jesus!
Oh! precious is the flow
That makes me white as snow;
No other fount I know,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
That song is not only a great hymn to sing but it holds a fundamental truth – Jesus is the Only One who could pay for our sins. We couldn’t pay for them. We couldn’t pay for the big ones or the small ones.
Jesus paid the price for everyone’s sins – from Adam and Eve’s sin down to us today and if the LORD tarries for a day, for a week or for a 1000 more years it will be for all those who are yet to be born.
+But don’t I have to do something to really be forgiven and for my sins to be washed away?
+I mean isn’t there some steps that I have to do to have my sins forgiven?
Again, we must always understand that you and I could never pay the price for our sins. Only Jesus could pay the price. Only Jesus could make it possible for us to be rescued, redeem and restored into His image. Only Jesus could make it possible for us to experience the New Birth and the infilling presence of His Holy Spirit.
+This morning, we need to fully receive the Lord’s grace, mercy, love and forgiveness.
+We need to accept Jesus Christ as Our Personal Savior and Lord.
+We need to open up our hearts, minds and souls to the infilling presence of His Holy Spirit.
We cannot earn our salvation. We cannot buy our salvation. It is a gift. It is a gift from God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
What we can do is to humbly acknowledge these truths:
+We cannot save ourselves. We are born into sin and we have sinned – plain and simple.
+Only Jesus can take away our sins.
“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 every sin. If we say that we do not have sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” – 1 John 1:7-9
+ We can be Born Again in Christ.
“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our LORD.” – Romans 6:23
+We can then acknowledge what is already an everlasting truth – Jesus is Lord of Lords and King of Kings.
“…if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one believes and is saved.” – Romans 10:9-10.
+We can then live a life that reflects God’s glory and honor.
+We can therefore live a life that is being restored into the image of Jesus.
II. Secondly, John wants us to understand that we live a life of Spiritual Maturity
We all know that we are saved from something
+We are saved from sin
+We are saved from spending eternity in Hell
+We are saved from the power and penalty of sin
What we don’t speak enough about in the Church is what we are saved for.
We are saved for example:
+To experience an everlasting life on the New Heaven and New Earth
+To be One with the Holy Spirit – now and forevermore
+To live a Supernatural Abundant Life
+To live a life here and now that is led and guided by the Holy Spirit
+To live a life here and now that produces the fruit of the Holy Spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control
+To live a life that we experience a oneness with others follower of Jesus – where we live and act like the Body of Christ
+To live a life that imitates the Life of Jesus Christ
Now, of course to do all of those things we have to be open to obeying and hearing the LORD.
In order to do those things we have to allow the LORD to renew our hearts, our minds and our spirits.
And that is where John wants to remind us and even compel us to understand that we are to grow towards a life of spiritual maturity.
+We are not to stay children in the faith.
+We are not even to stay young people in the faith.
+Instead, we are to grow so close to God that we are called by the term Father. In essence that means that we are able to not only grow close to the LORD ourselves but we are to be the very means by which others come to faith.
In order to be a father you must of course have children. In this case of course that means spiritual children.
It means that the mission of Christ followers is to not only help their own generation but to make sure that are generations to follow.
We see this vividly happening in the life of the Apostle Paul. Paul did his best to bring the Good News to all those in his peer group. He reached out to his fellow Pharisees. He reached out to those his age that were Gentiles.
But he didn’t stop there. He did all he could to make sure that the church was multi-generational.
Look at his second letter to young Timothy. Notice how Paul praises what has been going on in Timothy’s family.
“I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well. For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of hands, for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.” – 2 Timothy 1:5-7 (ESV)
One of the greatest needs in the Church today are for children, young men and fathers in the faith. The same is true if we use the words children, young women and mothers in the faith.
But in order for that to happen there has to be spiritual maturity that is happening in the Church.
We all know that if we wait long enough a baby will grow into a child, then into a teen, then into a young adult, an adult and then into a senior adult.
We don’t even think about it. It is just a fact of life. We are born, we grow and then we grow up.
But what is obvious in the natural world is not always true in the spiritual world. In the spiritual world the fact remains that a great many people who sadly never get beyond the milk bottle stage.
Growth in the Spiritual Life is a Determined and Dedicated Process.
This is what plagued the Apostle Paul about the Church in Corinth
“But I, brothers and sisters, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, for you are still of the flesh. For while there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not of the flesh and behaving only in a human way.” – 1 Corinthians 3:1-3
This is what plagued the Apostle Peter
“So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation – if indeed you have tasted the LORD is good.” - 2 Peter 2:1-3
This is what plagued the writer of the book of Hebrews
“About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.” – Hebrews 5:11-14
And of course we have read what the Apostle John writes in this letter.
There is an expectation that once we have come to faith that we will grow in that faith.
There is an expectation that once we are Born Again that we don’t stop at the door of the Christian Life but we go through the door and continue to grow deeper and richer in the Word, in prayer and in fellowship.
There is not only an expectation but there is both a challenge and an immediate need for Christians to do their best to grow and mature.
There is nothing on this earth that the Devil and his legion of demons are more afraid of than a Church that is filled with spiritually mature believers. He is more afraid of mature Christians than he is of any national party, any think tank or any other power on this planet.
There is no greater force for good, for holiness and for righteousness than a group of people who are spiritually mature. There is nothing more powerful against evil, against disease, against families breaking up and societies breaking down than men and women, boys and girls who are doing their best to be mature Christians.
For the more mature we are the more loving we are to ourselves and others around us.
For the more mature we are the more powerful we are as prayer warriors.
For the more mature we are the more we stand up for those who have been marginalized and those we are under sin’s slavery and domination.
For the more mature we are the more we understand God’s Word, the more supernatural wisdom we possess and the greater benefit we are to ourselves, our families, our friends and the world at large.
For the more mature we are the better we shine as God’s light and the greater we are as God’s salt in our world.
For the more mature we are the better we are “Birthing Stations” for New Christians.
All you have to do is to read Revelation chapters 2 and 3 and see what happens when a group of churches allow themselves to become immature and apathetic:
+They lost their first love and were in great danger of being closed by the Holy Spirit Himself.
+They allowed false doctrines and false teachers to become their leaders.
+They allowed the spirit of Jezebel to increasingly take over their ministries
+They began to compromise with the world and allowed world to dictate the temperature and direction of their churches
+Greed and immorality seeped into their church culture
+Jesus was no longer proclaimed as the Only Way, Truth and Life
+Their services become mere rituals and traditions lacking any true anointing of the Holy Spirit
+They became spiritually dull, blind and lost
All of those churches started off well. They preached and lived a life of joy, a life of being infilled with the Holy Spirit and a life of being led and guided by the Holy Spirit.
All of those churches started off being power stations in prayer, in healing and in evangelism.
But almost all of them at some point stopped growing. They stopped reading, studying and meditating on the Bible. They stopped their corporate prayer times. They stopped their own personal prayer times. They stopped repenting and turning towards wherever the Holy Spirit was leading them.
They began to believe the lie of the Devil who told them that they were close enough to God. They began to believe the lie of the Devil that said that they were okay in comparison with others around them. They began to believe the lie of the Devil that told them true holiness was just too hard and it was only for a very few.
But none of that was true.
That is what the Apostle John wants his readers 2000 years ago to understand and wants us to understand today.
We are called to be different.
We are called to grow into maturity.
We are called to reflect God’s Glory and Honor and be restored into the image of Jesus.
This morning, we are called to be a forgiven people:
+A people who by grace and mercy have called out to God and have received His Salvation.
+A people who have experienced what it means to be Born Again – redeemed by the blood of Jesus.
+A people who have been washed as white as snow and who have been infilled with God’s Holy Spirit.
This morning, we are called, we are challenged and we are being led by God Himself to be:
+A growing people – growing more like Jesus in our speech, in the way we think and in the way we act
+To be a spiritually mature people – to go from being children in the faith, to young people to becoming Fathers and Mothers in the faith – bringing others to Jesus and helping them grow in grace
+We are called to be a Spiritually Mature People – who are living testimonies of what it means to be filled with God’s Holy Spirit
This is what John is telling us in our passage this morning.
The questions we must ask ourselves:
+Have we accepted and received Jesus’ forgiveness?
+Have we experienced the New Birth?
+Are we filled with God’s Holy Spirit?
+Are we actively growing in faith?
+Do others see us as still spiritual children or as growing Fathers and Mothers?
+Are we enjoying the Life that God wants us to enjoy – a life of producing the fruit of the Holy Spirit?
+Are we a “Birthing People” – a place hungry for evangelism and salvation?
This morning as we close let me invite you
+To receive Jesus Christ as your Personal Savior and LORD
+To start or continue a walk towards spiritual maturity – towards holiness – towards righteousness
+To become a spiritually mature person who reflects God’s Glory in the way you talk, the way you think and the way you act not only inside the doors of a church but outside those doors.
