Since We Are Saved, Christians, How Should We Live? Series

Since We Are Saved, Christians, How Should We Live?

1 John 2:1-6

Sermon by Rick Crandall

Series: The First Epistle of John

(Prepared November 18, 2023)

BACKGROUND:

*Before we begin our study today, let me remind you that the Apostle John was a very old man by the time he wrote this letter. Bible scholars estimate that it was written between 85 and 100 A.D. John Phillips explained that John was "feeling the weight of his years and aware that his days on earth were about done. A godly life lay behind him and a very long memory thrilled him. His native land of Israel was far away, for John now lived in Ephesus, a pagan city on the edge of the European world. Just as Jesus had prophesied, Israel had been crushed by the Roman army. Jerusalem had fallen, the Temple had been destroyed, and Jewish national life had basically ended.

*Also by this time, false teachings were spreading spiritual poison in God's churches. For example, some false teachers denied the divinity of Christ. Others denied the humanity of Christ. And John denounced these false teachings in the strongest possible way, so one of the greatest themes here is the truth of the Gospel. (1)

*Another great theme is God's kind of agape love. We know this, because the original words show up 51 times this very short letter. Of course God's agape love should radically affect the way we Christians live. And that's our focus today. Please think about it as we read 1 John 2:1-6.

MESSAGE:

*In January of 2015, Daniel and Heather Felton went on a Disney Pacific cruise to Mexico. And that young couple from Louisville, Kentucky did something I don't think I ever would have done: They took their 13-month-old baby along for the trip.

*Guess what: Between the different time zones and all the excitement, little Katherine couldn't get to sleep. They were up most of the night, and as their ship sailed near Mexico, Mom and dad thought: "We're on this big ship. Nobody's awake but us, and there's all this room on deck," so they went outside.

*Mom later told a TV reporter, "We were taking pictures of her, and then we both kind of heard something. We were the only people out on the deck. It was early enough that we didn't see anybody else, and we heard it a second time. I ran out toward the edge of the boat, and I looked down, and someone's going right by, yelling for help!"

*Heather ran and found some crew members. She told them about the life-or-death situation. Seconds later a loudspeaker announced: 'Mr. MOB.'" (That's code for man overboard.) The ship turned around as soon as possible. And the Disney crew was able to rescue the man who had been in the ocean for 5 hours! That 22-year-old was a passenger who had fallen off another cruise liner! (2)

*Think of the infinite odds against that man out in the ocean being heard and seen and rescued. Think how desperate he was to be saved from the sea! There is no doubt that God was watching over that man, and I hope he knows it. What a rescue! What a great story of salvation!

*But Christians: We have a much greater story of salvation! Because of our sin, we were far more hopeless than the man lost at sea. We were completely helpless and hopeless without Jesus. We know this because the first part of Romans 6:23 says "the wages of sin is death," and that is talking about everlasting death. We were helpless and hopeless without Jesus.

*But here is the great news: John 3:16 tells us about the gracious love of God, and says: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." Without Jesus Christ we were completely hopeless, because again in Romans 6:23, "The wages of sin is death. . ." But thank God that verse goes on to say that "the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

*Christians: Now we are saved! Now we are forgiven. Now we are born again by the Holy Spirit of God into the Family of God. But how should we live our new life as Christians? The Apostle John helps us see in today's Scripture.

1. FIRST: WE SHOULD REJOICE IN THE MERCY OF OUR MASTER.

*And we can see God's mercy in vs. 1-2, where John said:

1. My little children, these things I write to you, that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

2. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.