What Do You Know?
I Know that Christ Lives in Me!
1 John 1:5-2:11
April 22, 2001
Intro:
A. The apostle John has been referred to as the apostle of love and rightfully so.
1. The reason he has been called this is because he talked about love so much.
2. In the book of 1 John the word "love" is used 33 times in the NIV.
3. But I was surprised to find that the word "know" is used 33 times in 1 John as well.
4. So for this series, I’m going to preach it from the perspective of what we can know.
5. There is no way to get around talking about love, but we are going to talk about it in the context of what we can know.
B. So for the next six weeks, I’m going to preach from the book of 1 John with a series that I’m calling: "What Do You Know?"
1. So I’m going to ask you to do something over the next six weeks.
2. I’m going to ask you to read the book of 1 John every week.
3. I’d like for us to read the book of 1 John six times in the next six weeks.
4. And I’m going to ask you to read it in one sitting; take 15 minutes once a week and read the book of 1 John.
5. Can you do that? Can you take a few minutes to read 5 chapters each week.
6. I believe that we will benefit by doing that and asking God to give us understanding!
C. So this week I want to start in the first two chapters, I want us to see that we can know that Christ lives in us…
1. You see, we really need to start thinking of our bodies as just a shell.
2. There are things that lives in us, like our soul; our spirit; the HS—and, of course demons can live in us as well.
3. We can’t see these things so it is hard to describe them.
4. There are some things that we can’t really see, but you can see the results of them.
5. So today I want to look at what the book of 1 John has to say about how we know when Christ is in us; first…
I. Because Christ lives in me, I walk in the light.
1 John 1:5-7, This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by 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, purifies us from all sin.
A. John says that if we walk in the light, we have fellowship with God.
1. To walk in the light simply means to live like God wants us to.
2. How does God want us to live? Its all recorded in this Book.
3. We read and study this book to see how God wants us to live.
4. And when we live the way God wants us to live, we have fellowship with God.
5. That is, we have a relationship with God.
6. And that is exactly what we want: we want a relationship with God to get us through this life as well as the next.
B. But let me talk a little bit about walking in the light.
1. I mentioned this briefly in the sunrise service last week.
2. John’s thinking for this teaching clearly comes from Psalms 119:105, Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.
3. The Psalm says that God’s Word is a lamp to my feet and light for my path.
4. When you walk down a path in the dark with a flashlight, that flashlight is a lamp to your feet and a light for your path.
5. We can shine that light directly in front of our feet and see that we don’t trip over anything.
6. We can shine that light out in front of us a little and possibly see where the next few steps are going to lead us.
7. We can shine that light to the left or right of the path and see the briars and thicket that are set to trap us if we leave the path.
8. But that flashlight will not give us a clear picture of all the twists and valleys, it will not give us a clear picture of the hills and creeks, it will not show us if their are wild animals or fallen trees along the path, and it certainly won’t tell us where the path winds up.
9. God’s Word is a flashlight to our feet and path.
10. This is where so many people have a problem…
a. Since they can’t see the whole path and everything that is going to happen, they’re afraid to walk the path of life using the Bible as a flashlight.
b. But my friends, if we stop to think about it, what happens if there is no flashlight?
c. How do we follow the path without the flashlight?
d. I’d sure a lot rather be able to see a little ways around me and ahead of me rather not be able to see anything at all!
11. That’s what John is talking about when He speaks of walking in the light.
C. When we have the light of the Bible in our hands and in our hearts, there is at least light to see what is immediately around us!
1. We don’t know what the years to come will bring.
2. We don’t know what the months ahead will bring.
3. We don’t even know what the days ahead will bring.
4. But we have enough light to see what is directly in front of us and that is all we need.
5. Because the light that keeps us on the right path will never burn out!
D. So now do you see what John is saying? (re-read)
1. When Christ lives in us, He is going to want to walk in the light.
2. And if He really is dwelling in our hearts we will allow Him to take our bodies where He wants to go.
3. When Christ lives in me, I walk in the light.
II. Because Christ lives in me, I know that I walk the wrong path sometimes.
1 John 1:8-10, If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.
A. When Christ lives in me, I know when I leave the path.
1. The HS will prick my conscience when I sin and will cause me to want to ask God to forgive me and keep me on the right path.
2. When I get off the path and walk in darkness, I’m going to know it.
B. And John said that even when Christ lives in us, we still sin.
1. The truth of the matter is that just because Christ comes into our hearts, that doesn’t mean that we will completely stop sinning.
2. Walking in the light is a process that we must learn.
3. It seems like it would be very easy to stay on the right path and keep walking in the light, but it is not.
4. And because we have the light, we know the places where we step out of the light.
5. We may step out of the light when we come to paths that have sexual temptations.
6. We may step out of the light when we come to paths that have gossip down them.
7. We may step out of the light when we come to paths that have things that will boost our ego and cause us to be prideful.
8. We may step out of the light when we come to paths that have things that will cause us to loose our temper and lash out at people.
9. But the truth is that we all get off the paths and we know the paths that we are tempted to go down.
10. We don’t try to deny it or hide, we admit them and pray for strength and guidance in those particular areas so that we can learn to overcome those temptations.
C. And John says that if we deny the fact that we sin, we are liars.
1. John says that if we deny that we sin, then the truth (which is Jesus) is not in us.
2. John says that if we deny that we sin, then we call Jesus a liar.
3. John says that if we deny that we sin, then the Bible has no place in our lives.
D. But John also says in verse nine that if we do sin, we should confess our sins.
1. John says that if we confess our sins, God is faithful and will forgive our sins.
2. John says that if we confess our sins, God will purify us from that unrighteousness.
3. If we tell God that we’ve wondered out of the light, He will forgive us just a as we forgive our children when they do something wrong.
4. And He still loves us just as much just as we still love our children when they do something wrong.
5. That is another advantage to walking in the light.
6. Since Christ lives in me, I know that I sin.
III. Because Christ lives in me, I want to walk less on the wrong paths.
1 John 2:1-2, My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense--Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. 2 He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.
A. This picks up where 1:9 left off.
1. John says that he’s writing this so that we will not sin.
2. John is not saying that because we can be forgiven that we should go off the path and out of the light all we want because we will be forgiven.
3. No. John says he’s writing this so that we will NOT sin.
B. But if we do sin, we have an Advocate.
1. We have One who will be or defense attorney.
2. We are guilty as sin can be, but we’ve got the best defense attorney in the world.
3. You think Johnny Cochran was good in the O.J. trial?
4. You haven’t seen anthing until you watch Jesus Christ get guilty people off scott-free for eternity!
5. And you’d better believe that you want this Attorney on your side!
6. John says that when we sin, we have One who speaks to the Father in our defense: Jesus Christ, the Righteous One!
7. You won’t have to go to jail; you won’t have to serve the time for your own lawlessness; you won’t have to do your time or pay your fine!
8. Because Jesus already took your sentence.
9. Jesus was executed for your crimes against God!
10. Jesus was crucified to pay the eternal penalty for your sins!
11. And not only that, when you do sin, He will plead your case in your defense before the highest Judge of them all!
12. We have a defense attorney second to none!
13. We have a defense attorney who already paid the ultimate penalty for our crimes against God!
C. Now let me ask you, does that cause you to want to sin more or do your best to sin less?
1. Does Jesus cause you to want to go out and sin all the more, or does He cause you to want to sin less and less and less?
2. John sure thought it would cause you to want to sin less and less; that’s why he wrote this.
3. (re-read 1-2)
4. Because Christ lives in me, I want to sin less.
IV. Because Christ lives in me, I walk where Jesus did.
1 John 2:3-6, We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. 4 The man who says, "I know him," but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. 5 But if anyone obeys his word, God’s love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: 6 Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.
A. John says that if Christ lives in us, we will walk where Jesus did.
1. Now let me tell you that Jesus did leave the path. But stay with me!
2. When I say that Jesus did leave the path, in no way do I mean that Jesus sinned.
3. The Bible is very clear throughout that Jesus WAS perfect and never sinned.
4. 1 Peter 2:22, "He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth."
5. Jesus never sinned, but He did leave the path in order to help others find the path.
6. Jesus didn’t just stay on the path and hope that others would find it on their own.
7. Jesus said to leave the 99 in order to find the one that was lost.
8. Jesus said that He came to seek and save the lost.
9. Jesus said that He came to heal the sick and the wounded who are not on the path.
10. Jesus went to the prostitutes, the tax-collectors, the sinners, the divorcees, the criminals, and the outcasts of society in order to bring them into the light!
11. So Jesus did leave the path in order to find others to bring to the path.
12. And so must we, if we are to walk where Jesus did.
B. Make no mistake, that learning to walk in the light of the Word is our first priority.
1. Getting our own souls down the path and up the stairs to heaven is our first priority.
2. Pleasing our Defense Attorney by learning to resist temptation should be the first thing we do.
3. We should first learn to walk in obedience to God’s Word ourselves.
4. We should first learn to resist temptation ourselves.
5. And for some that may take years just learning to walk in the light themselves.
6. But once we’ve got some experience where we can leave the path for a short time with the light of the Word in our hearts, resisting the temptations that abound when we leave the path, we need to reach out to those around us and help lead them to Christ as well.
C. You should have received your newsletter this past week.
1. In it I put a quote that is appropriate here.
2. George McLeod said, "I simply argue that the cross be raised again, at the center of the marketplace as well as on the steeple of the church, I am rediscovering the claim that Christ was not crucified in a cathedral between two candles, but on a cross between two thieves, on the town garbage heap, on a crossroad so cosmopolitan that they had to write his title in Hebrew, Latin, and in Greek, or shall we say in English, in Bantu, and in African—at the kind of place where cynics talk smut, the thieves curse and soldiers gamble, because that is where He died, and that is what He died about, and that is where the Christians should be and what the Christians should be about."
3. We should walk in obedience to Christ along the path first and then leave the path in order to bring others into the light!
4. Because Christ lives in me, I walk where Christ walked.
V. Because Christ lives in me, I walk on time-tested paths.
1 John 2:7-8, Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard. 8 Yet I am writing you a new command; its truth is seen in him and you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.
A. First John says this is not a new command.
1. John says this is an old command.
2. You may think that as John is writing this in the NT that this would have been a relatively new teaching because Jesus had really not been dead all that long.
3. But the truth is that the commandment to love really is old.
4. Deuteronomy 6:5, Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.
5. Leviticus 19:18, Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.
6. Love God and love people is a commandment that clear back into the OT.
7. In that sense, this is not a new commandment. In that sense, this is not a new path.
B. But yet there is a sense in which it is new because it is in us.
1. It is new because this commandment is supposed to live anew in us, today, in 2001, in Greencastle, IN.
2. It is new in the sense that Christ is now living in us.
3. I believe that is what John is saying when he says that the truth is now living in us.
4. The truth is Jesus and now He is loving through us.
5. His light is shining through us—today.
6. And this is the mission of Somerset: love God and love people.
7. Do you recall the mission statement that I gave you before Easter?
8. Somerset Church is passionate about Christ; compassionate about people.
C. And although Satan and our society will tempt us to try supposed new and enlightened paths the promise the moon, but the truth is that they all lead to death.
1. Because there is no light down those paths and the end thereof is death.
2. The only path that we can walk is the path that Jesus walked.
3. And that path is illuminated for us in the pages of God’s Word.
4. The time-tested paths of the Word of God are the only paths that lead to happiness, fulfillment, satisfaction, and life!
5. When Christ dwells in me, I walk on time-tested paths.
VI. Because Christ lives in me, I love others enough to help them find the right path.
1 John 2:9-11, Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness. 10 Whoever loves his brother lives in the light, and there is nothing in him to make him stumble. 11 But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness; he does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him.
A. This is a tougher one.
1. John says that if Christ lives in us, we cannot hate anyone.
2. John says that if Christ lives in us, we will love others.
3. John says that if Christ lives in us, we will do everything we can to remove everything in our lives that will cause another stumble.
4. That is, to stumble in their walk towards Christ.
5. That is, that there is anything in our lives that would cause others to not come to Christ.
6. And, of course, the most important wants that we don’t want to stumble because of our example is our own children.
7. And I must also point out that John says that when we hate others, we are blind.
B. So let me clarify what love is again…
1. It is not a warm, gushy feeling that we get inside us.
2. Love is 1 Corinthians 13:4-7, Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
3. Love is not a feeling, it is the way we treat people.
4. Treating people with respect and kindness and courtesy is love.
5. Treating them like we would like to be treated is love.
6. If we are doing that, we will not hate them.
7. If we are doing that, we will do everything we can to keep them from stumbling.
8. That’s how Jesus can command us to love our enemies.
9. How do you command someone to have feelings for their enemies? You can’t.
10. But you can command someone to treat their enemies with courtesy, respect, and kindness.
11. You can command that someone treat their enemies the way they would want their enemies to treat them.
12. That is why love can be commanded—because it is not a feeling.
C. When we love others, we want to help them to find the right path.
1. When we truly understand how great it is to be living in the light, we won’t want to stray from it.
2. When we truly understand how great it is to be living in the light, we want to stay on the path.
3. When we truly understand how great it is to be living in the light, we will want others to be able to experience it as well.
4. We will truly want everyone to experience the light.
5. We will want everyone to not have to endure life in the dark.
6. When Christ lives in us, we will love others enough to help them find the path.
Conclusion:
A. How do I know that Christ lives in me?
1. I know that Christ lives in me when I walk in the light.
2. I know that Christ lives in me when I know that I walk the wrong path sometimes.
3. I know that Christ lives in me when I want to walk less on the wrong paths.
4. I know that Christ lives in me when I walk where Jesus did.
5. I know that Christ lives in me when I walk on time-tested paths.
6. I know that Christ lives in me when I love others enough to help them find the right path.
B. [In the Dark and Out of Control, Citation: Eugene Lowry, "Listening to the Dark," Preaching Today, Tape No. 125.]
When I was about 10 years old, the folks would be gone for an evening and left home alone were my older brother, Ralph--my oppressive older brother, Ralph--and me.
He is four years older than me; he has always been four years older than me!
And sometimes I would go down in the rec room to play something or other, and he would notice.
You know what he did?
He would come down the stairs quietly, slip in the door of the rec room and quietly shut it, and all of a sudden turn off the light.
Oh, it was utterly dark in there.
Then he would not say anything.
It was a little game; I guess he derived great pleasure from it.
It’s all dark in there, and I’m poised for--I don’t know what!
I’d say, "Ralph?" Nothing. "Ralph? Ralph?"
Pretty soon there was a rustling of some paper on one side of the room.
I’d turn that way. About the time I turned that way, there was a shift of some piece of furniture over here.
I’d look over there--well, I say I looked.
I couldn’t see! I looked but I did not see.
How could he see in the dark when I couldn’t see in the dark?
"Hey, Ralph! Ralph!" Ralph said not a word.
I felt out of control.
Do you know what I mean--out of control?
You say, "That is no big deal. You know there is a light switch just inside the door. Just walk over to the switch. You know where it is even in the dark. Go over to the switch; turn the light on."
Well, that’s easier said than done if you’re 10 years old.
Because I had a hunch that somewhere between me and the light switch was my brother, Ralph.
And I never knew what he might do.
I had a problem, and I was out of control.
1. Most of us have been afraid of the dark at times in our lives.
2. And let me assure you that THE Dark is very frightening.
3. There are all kinds of things out there in the dark that want to take away your soul and you don’t know what’s good and what’s not.
4. And you do feel out of control—because there is no control and you can’t even really see.
5. The only hope is to get Jesus into your life!
C. Do you need to get out of the dark and turn the light of Jesus on your life today?
1. Do you need to get Jesus in your life?
2. Do you need to get into the light of the Word?
3. Do you need to start shining the light off the path and help others to see the light?
4. Do you have Christ living in you?
5. Whatever response you need to make to the LIGHT OF THE WORLD, I want to encourage you to make it as we stand and sing "Sanctuary."
