Last Sunday we studied the first 4 verses of chapter 1.
1) John alerted us to the missing ingredient in life of church and in most Christian’s experience: TRUE FELLOWSHIP.
2) The foundation of this kind of fellowship is not an agreement of facts or ideas but is a Person(1:1-2)
3) The extent of this fellowship is seen in verse 3: not only with one another but with God the Father and Jesus the Son.
4) The end result is to know real joy: A constant and not a variable. Not based on circumstances but on a relationship.
John’s purpose in his epistle is the fix what is wrong with the church in his day(John the Mender). He saw that barriers existed from people enjoying this kind of true fellowship: Wrong view of Jesus Christ(1:1-2), limited understanding of God(1:5), deceived look at our own lives(1:6-7)
Every form of life has it’s enemies: Insects look our for birds, birds for cats and dogs, even humans look out for drunk drivers, dangerous germs. TRUE FELLOWSHIP has an enemy: SIN
Pastor our visiting came across a young boy trying to sell a lawnmower: ’How much" ’enough to by a bicycle’ ’Take $20 for it?’ You got a deal’ Pastor began to pull the crank but the mower would not start. ’I forgot to tell you. You have to cuss a the mower to get it started.’ ’Son, I’ve been a Christian for 40 years and a pastor for 30. I have long since forgotten how to cuss’ continued pulling crank ’Mister, you keep pulling on that rope and it will come back to you’. SIN IS AN EVERPRESSENT ENEMY/crouching at the door with a desire for our lives
1) John used two different contrast to illustrate this: Light and Darkness & Saying verses doing
2) Christian life is to amount to more than just mere talk: If we are living in true fellowship then our walk with back up our talk. If our walk is inconsistent/contradicts with our talk then we are living a lie.
(John shares three important truths that every believer needs to never forget)
1) Truth about Who God is
2) Truth about what we are doing
3) Truth about what Christ has done
THE TRUTH ABOUT WHO GOD IS (5) And this is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.
1. John share the element of his message that we must not miss: GOD IS LIGHT! No darkness at all.
a. Jesus often spoke of His message being from the Father and now the Apostle John shares his message from Jesus.
2. WHAT IS LIGHT?
a. Scientifically: Dictionary: 3rd definition ’an electromagnetic radiation in the wavelength range including infrared, visible, ultraviolet, and x-rays and traveling in a vacuum with a speed of about 186,281 miles per SECOND’. 1st definition: ’something that makes vision possible’.
b. JESUS: declared Himself ’the Light of the world’. Everywhere He went He brought light: penetrated hearts, exposed sin, revealed truth…made seeing possible.
c. Light produces growth(crops), provides safety, reveals beauty, exposes flaws, impurity & uncleanness:
MCGEE: Hunting trip where separated and were to meet at certain spot. Began to rain, hurried to place, found cave, nestled in out of wet and cold, 1/2 hour decided to start fire to get warm: Fire light increased to expose nearby spiders, lizards, and a snake coiled and eyeing him. Light exposed the dangers surrounding him. He was perfectly comfortable in the dark but the light exposed the dangers and he could no longer remain comfortable. GOD EXPOSES the truth of what surrounds us: His Word, many remain in darkness and don’t even recognize the dangers of sin.
STEDMAN: Camping trip to Grand Canyon while in college. Arrived well after dark, parked and took sleeping back a distance into brush, lay down in darkness and woke up next morning to see that he had slept all night within arms length of the canyon itself: a 500 ft drop it he had rolled over twice.
1) If I had dirty hands I would not know it but for the light that helps me to see. God’s Word shows me the filth in my life and warns me of it’s dangers.
2) In the darkness both evil and good look alike but in the light they can be distinguished. In dark George Clooney and I look alike.
EARLY 60’s a previous generation reached up and attempted to turn off the light in this nation. Process of removing God’s Word began in the life of this nation. We as a people began to stumble blinding in the darkness. Spent the last 4 decades not being able to tell the difference between evil and good because in the darkness they both look alike.
3. Truth about God is not only that He is light but that in Him there is NO DARKNESS!
a. Skotia, not common word used to speak of physical darkness but refers to the consequences or result of sin. Meaning the state in which we all find ourselves by having sin natures. God is without sin. Lit. translation suggests ’darkness is not in Him ever’. Untainted by any evil and is perfectly holy and true.
TRUTH ABOUT WHAT WE ARE DOING (6) If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth;
1. Second Contrast: light & darkness and saying & doing. If we say we have true fellowship then our lives should be a demonstration of that truth.
a. Problem in the church with those who say one thing but their lives evidence another. Still exists today. People who claim to their world that they are in fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness.
1) Many today making lots off big claims: Made this decision, member of this church, gave to this cause but what about your life? What is it saying? Believe it or not that is what people are really listening to.
STEVE GARVEY(Baseball player): Shortly after divorcing his first wife and in preparation to marry another woman he commented on how he was helping to take care of some financial needs of a third woman who happened to be carrying his child said, ’I have certain responsibilities that must care for because of the Christian commitment in my life’.
2) Interesting that John is often thought of as being the creampuff disciple. Apostle of Love. Jesus called Him a ’son of thunder’. Here he is very blunt: you say you are right with God and live in sin? YOU ARE A LIAR! Nobody should claim to be in fellowship with God if their lives contradict it by their accomidation with sin.
BABY is born and eventually learns among other things to walk. Walking has an enemy: GRAVITY. Causes stumbling and falling. New believer also must learn to ’walk in the light’. Christian life is often called a walk: progress, moving forward but like a child it is learned behavior. One enemy of Christian walk: SIN-constantly pulling us down, cause us to stumble and fall.
1) SIN is not simply outer disobedience but is inner rebellion. It is a refusal to submit to the law of God. The essence of sin is a desire for personal independence from God’s demands upon our lives.
ISAIAH 5:18-20 Woe to those who DRAW SIN ALONG WITH CORDS OF DECEIT, and wickedness AS WITH CART ROPES…..(20) Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness…(Hebrew for sin is ’falsehood’ and it is a picture of people dragging their burdensome sin around the way you would pull a heavy wagon loaded with rocks. Sin makes life hard but people persistantly cling to it’s bondage.)
1 Peter 2:9 You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of Him Who called you out of darkness to into His marvelous light. Amazingly with this blood stained invitation to freedom we cling to our cartload of heavy sins.
2. SIX WAYS WE STUMBLE IN THE DARK(know our lives are not in fellowship with God)
a. Stop coming to church: try to avoid the light, light makes us uncomfortable.
b. Fail to read Scripture: remove truth that contradicts our darkness
c. Don’t participate in Worship: others truly worship while we think of other things
d. Avoid Self-Examination : Avoid the hard, penetrating questions that might confront us.
e. Compare ourselves with others: criticize others and compare ourselves to others who make us look good, their sins are the really bad ones while our concerns are minor.
f. Never admit our struggles: Put on masks and pretend. Never allow the body to bring healing to us as a part.
(What is your condition?)
Have some shirts in the back of my closet that are very expensive by rarely worn: Reason is one way or another they have gotten stained: ink pen, spagetti sause, …wear them under sweater or in ways that cover the stains. Although a great price was paid for them they have been relegated to the back of the closet and rarely used. Is that characteristic of your life? Jesus paid a great price for your salvation but various stains have made use of your life a rare occurance?
3. John states there are only two options: walking in darkness or practicing the truth(in training for holiness). Like that little child learns to take those physical steps each day we learn more more how to apply spiritual truths into our lives.
a. Every wonder when you watch the Olympics and see gymnists navigating flip after flip and see people running faster than any other person in the world that they at one time were learning the basics of just putting one foot in front of the other? It takes time and practice and anything is possible.
TRUTH ABOUT WHAT CHRIST HAD DONE (7) but if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.
1. To walk with Jesus it has to be on His turf: the light. When we are walking with Jesus in the light it is then that true fellowship is possible with one another.
a. We can exist together in church as we would down at the Rotery club, just aquaintances with a common interest, or we can know TRUE HEAVENLY LIFE TOGETHER as we walk together with Jesus.
b. TO WALK IN THE LIGHT: is to live a life 1) illumined by the truth, 2) In Constant contact with God, 3) With no tolerance for the darkness,
c. Together we agree upon these groundrules for fellowship: Doesn’t presuppose perfection:
HARRY IRONSIDE: Said this verse gave him some confussion. In his mind it meant ’to walk according to the light’. He wore himself out trying to obey every command until he realized it says, ’to walk in the light’. It is where we walk and not how. It means to daily walk in the presence of God and allow His word to shine on us and His power to strengthen us.(brings us to the last point)
2. To walk with Jesus it has to be on His terms: Cleansing. The blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.
a. This Phrase contains a Greek word from which we get our english ’cartharsis’ CARTHAGENIC(cleansing agent) idea of ’purify by fire, cleanse by pruing, free from corruption, unstained by guilt’.
b. This word is also a continuous cleansing: A constant activity in our lives. Word forgiveness in v:9 is less thorough and carries the idea of a one time removal while our cleansing is a constant activity. It is in the present tense meaning the blood of Jesus just keeps on cleansing.
c. Forgiveness deals with our position while cleansing deals with our relationship. We never lose our salvation but without His cleansing we can lose our fellowship.
LEVITICUS 4: Old Testament describes how believers would symbolically transfer their sins to an animal and then the animal would be slain with their sins in tow. It was a symbol upon which they could invest their faith in that God would one day send His own Son upon which our sins would be placed and Who which would then be sacrificed with our sins in tow. THOSE ARE GOD’S TERMS. ANYTHING ELSE IS A WALK IN THE DARK.
Are you walking in the light? Do your have real fellowship in your life with Jesus and others in the body of Christ? Are you just fooling yourself with your own deceptive words and for another day just continuing to pull along your wagonload of sins when Jesus waits to cleanse you and set you free?
