Today, we are starting a 4-week series on Walking with Jesus from the book of 1 John. John was the last of the 12 surviving apostles who wrote the gospel of John which chronicled Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. He wrote the gospel 30 years after Jesus’ resurrection and ascension. In his 90’s he wrote 1, 2, and 3 John which teaches believers how to walk with Jesus in the present. And the last book he wrote is the book of Revelation which points to future events.
It’s a fascinating thing to think about this Apostle of love who experienced the love of Jesus first hand, who walked with the Savior of the world, and was called by God to write about it for all people to read. The purpose for John’s three epistles were to encourage believers to love God and one another and to reassure them that they were in Christ.
1 John 1:1-2:2
1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— 2 the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us— 3 that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. 4 And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.
5 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. 6 If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 7 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. 8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
2:1 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 2 He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world (ESV).
In 1 John, John reveals the reasons for why he wrote this epistle to these second and third generation believers. In chapter 1, v. 4 he wrote, “And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.” Obviously, something was lacking in the believers’ joy that John felt needed to be addressed. What was the thing that was lacking? What was happening at that time? Well, we know that Christians were experiencing persecution. For some, it could be that the initial excitement of being a follower of Jesus was gone and the flame of devotion to Christ was being extinguished. False teachers were infiltrating some of the churches, and there were Christians who were becoming lax in their Christian standards and commitment. John was dealing with the beginnings of Gnosticism, also known as dualism, a separating of the spirit and flesh. In Gnosticism, the flesh was seen as being evil or inferior to spiritual realities and the spirit was seen as good or pure. Human sinfulness was denied, and thus the need for redemption became moot. We will talk more about that later.
Just like the Christians in past ages, we also have to deal with so many distortions and inaccuracies about the Word that cause confusion over the reality of who Jesus really is and how we were meant to live. There is so much competing against our loyalty to the Lord, so much that can subtly come between our relationship with Him which definitely affects our love for Him and for each other.
John discerned this and brought to light the attitude of indifference and complacency toward sin and even the denial that sin exists. (Is it any different today?) He also addressed the necessity of love amongst Christians in the family of God. John’s heart beats for the health of the church, for the strengthening of brothers and sisters in the faith, and desired that our fellowship with Jesus and with other believers would be genuine. For all of this to take place - people need to walk with the real Jesus, not a theoretical spiritualized Jesus.
There are 3 things John wants us to know:
? Who Jesus is
? Who we are
? What we need
Let’s look at the first thing John is talking about:
1. Who Jesus is
In the beginning of this chapter John draws our attention to two important truths concerning the life of Jesus, a life which is like no other. He is the One who has always existed even before time began. There has never been a time when the Son was not. Never. He was before the beginning, in the beginning, and from the beginning. He is the Word of Life, the eternal God. In other words,
? Jesus is divine. However, he is not some far off, out of touch deity. Jesus is totally involved with the world He co-created. Jesus, the Word of life became flesh and dwelt among us.
What else do we know about Jesus according to the Scriptures and the historical account?
? Jesus is human. John said, “We heard Him with our ears.” God had a human voice and John knew what He sounded like. “We saw Him with our eyes.” He was saying, we observed him - we know what He looked like and how He acted. For three years we watched and observed His every move. We touched Him with our hands. He was a real living flesh-and-blood human being.
John was saying, “I and many other eyewitnesses are telling you right now - Jesus is the real deal.”
Why was John so emphatic about Jesus being fully God and fully man? He was exposing the Gnostic heresy that had crept into the church and I can say is still in the church and prevalent in society in various forms. Because the flesh is “bad” the Gnostics couldn’t accept that Jesus would stoop so low to become a man. One camp, called the Docetists, claimed Jesus was a ghost or phantom—He only appeared to be human. Another camp believed that the Christ-spirit came on and empowered the man Jesus at His baptism, but it also left Him at the cross. They could accept a spiritual Jesus but not a physical one.
Another thing the Gnostics believed that salvation came by possessing some mystical, even secretive, spiritual knowledge that comes from God. How does that play out in churches today? There are some who want to legitimize their words by saying, “the Spirit of God told me to say this”, or “to do this.” And maybe the Spirit did, but how would you be able to verify it? 1 John 4:1 warns us to test the spirits (speaking of false prophets) to see if they are speaking and living according to the Truth. It’s easy to deceive others and ourselves when we start worshiping a Jesus that doesn’t match up with who the Bible says He is.
This is why it is so important to understand the nature and doctrine of the incarnation: Jesus is fully God and fully man, not half God and half man, all God and no man, or all man and no God. The stumbling block of the incarnation is that when God becomes a man, he strips away every pretense of man to be God. When God became a man, man ceased to be the measure of all things, because this man, Jesus, became the measure of all things. Because of this truth, we can’t just do our own thing anymore - we are now accountable to the man who says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.”
In v. 3 in this chapter, we see that John can’t keep quiet about who Jesus is and must proclaim to others. The word “proclaim” focuses on the cause or original source that shapes the substance of what is announced. John was pointing to Jesus as the source and substance of this proclamation – Jesus, the very source of life. John’s joy was complete because he knew the moment that anyone entered into a personal relationship with Jesus, this life which comes from God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, which is incredibly rich, is theirs.
John said that the fellowship we have with the Father and with the Son Jesus Christ is the fellowship we have with each other. This fellowship with each other is far richer and deeper than getting together with people who have the same likes, hobbies, or sports team. It is far richer and deeper than being around those who have the same national identity or ethnic heritage. Your fellowship is not only with the Father and the Son, but with brothers and sisters from every nation, tribe, people, and language (Rev 7:9). We were made for these types of deep relationships. This type of fellowship brings a joy that can’t be achieved any other way. Without this type of fellowship an aspect of joy is definitely missing.
I just read a report from Harvard Graduate School of Education last week about the rise in anxiety and depression, especially amongst young adults. In a survey, 44% of respondents said that loneliness and lack of meaningful relationships was a key driver behind their depression and anxiety. Why is this the case? It’s because God has created us for deep, meaningful relationships with Himself and other believers and has provided opportunities for fellowship in the church. This brings us to our second point, knowing:
2. Who we are
It is by knowing who God is that we rightly know who we are. In v. 5, John proclaimed: “God is light and in Him is no darkness at all, no evil, no sin.” God is absolutely pure, perfect and good and throughout the book of 1 John, he reminds us that we are called sons and daughters of God. Therefore, in v. 6 he wrote, “If we say we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.” The believer who walks in darkness isn’t necessarily claiming they do not have sin but that his or her sin doesn’t matter.
This Gnostic, dualistic ideology means that I can do what I want with my physical body because it doesn’t affect my spiritual relationship with Jesus. I could be living and acting a certain way that clearly goes against the Word of God and still think my relationship with Jesus is fine because my spirit is pure. John is saying, “You can say that your relationship with God is not affected, you can claim this, and you can even believe it… but God says it is a lie.” We are lying to ourselves.
Because we are God’s children He wants us to be fruitful. That means God will prune away those areas that rob us of our fellowship and joy. Because God is light, and He is our heavenly Father He will bring things to light for our good and use situations to prune our lives so we will be even more fruitful.
There was an interesting article in an Australian newspaper about moms who bought these special black lights that exposed the dirt in their homes - when they used these ultraviolet lights they were shocked by what they found on the walls, fixtures, floors and carpets that were not seen by the natural eye. Some moms sent the lights back because they would rather not spend the rest of their life cleaning their home. The point is we can’t be in the presence of God who is light and not have our sin exposed or simply ignore it when God is clearly saying these things don’t belong in the house. In fact, the more intimate our relationship with God becomes, the more aware we will be of the darkness in our hearts and the more aware of our need for Jesus, for His forgiveness and cleansing.
V. 7 - If we are to walk in the light with other believers, if we are to have true fellowship then we need to come clean with them. We need to drop any pretense that we are any more righteous than anyone else. That’s why the Bible tells us not to gossip, speak unkind words about each other or hold unforgiveness or grudges against others because we are in God’s family, purchased by the blood of Jesus and we are His bride. We are without spot or wrinkle in God’s eyes - do we choose to see each other this way? We are accepted in the beloved so as the light reveals things, we can be honest with ourselves, with God, and others. That’s why we need to confess our sins to each other.
The light makes everything clear, even the hidden motives of our hearts. Now that I see it, what do I do with it? How can I become clean? This brings us to the last point, knowing:
3. What we need
In v. 9 John says,
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
As we confess our sin God does two things - He forgives us and He cleanses us. God does these two things because He is two things: faithful and just. Faithful to keep His Word, His promises, He cannot lie, He doesn’t go back on what he says. If we confess our sin, meaning we are in full agreement with God’s assessment of our sins and we turn from it, He forgives without question. Our sin is removed, as far as the east is from the west and He won’t bring it up again.
God is just. There is no one He gives more forgiveness to, there is no one more righteous or more unrighteous in His eyes. Therefore, He treats everyone the same, He completely forgives and cleanses us of all unrighteousness because of Christ’s righteousness. He not only removes the stain, He frees us from the guilt of sin. God lets it go and it never comes back. It’s gone forever. Clean slate. But this is not a once and for all act, we need forgiveness and cleansing every day, need to have our feet washed. In fact, the more you walk in the light the more you realize you need forgiveness. The more you confess, the more you experience His forgiveness and cleansing.
The closer to the light we come the more we realize how much we need Jesus. This goes for our human relationships. The closer we get to each other, the more vulnerable we become, we begin to appreciate each other's strengths but we also get to see each other's weaknesses and there is a greater possibility of hurting others and being hurt. That means there is a greater need to forgive and seek forgiveness. The beauty of forgiveness is we not only cancel the debt that we believe someone owes us, but we also let it go and never bring it up again. Just like Jesus forgave us. This kind of love and forgiveness is impossible, the only way we can do this is by being in fellowship with God the Father and God the Son.
In v. 10 he repeats what he wrote in v. 8:
If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
Sadly, today we live in a world that denies the reality of sin and the need for a Savior. Some Christians believe they no longer have a sin nature.
J. B. Phillips says it this way:
For if we take up the attitude “we have not sinned,” we flatly deny God's diagnosis of our condition and cut ourselves off from what He has to say to us. When it comes to the average Christian view of sin, we think it only involves doing the bad stuff. We are grieved by the sin and evils of society and even with all that has happened in the church, but how many of us mourn over our own selfishness, our critical spirit, our impatience or anger.
Tim Keller said:
Sin isn't only doing bad things; it’s more fundamentally making good things into ultimate things. Sin is building your life and meaning on anything, even a very good thing, more than on God.
God loves us so much and we love Him, so of course we don’t want to bring harm into our relationship, we don’t want to sin, but there are times when we do. John said in chapter 2, v. 1, “If anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father. John’s not talking about crisis counseling or a support group, but about a Person, Jesus Christ, who has been in our shoes, who knows what we have faced, who was tempted in every way but never sinned. He is the only One who can stand in front of God on our behalf and say to Him that this sin that we are confessing has been paid for in full. He is the only One who is worthy and He made us acceptable to God.
John wants our joy to be complete - He wants us to know who God is, who we are, and what we need, to experience the most amazing fellowship with the Father, the Son, and with each other. Then our joy will be complete.
