Christ and Sin - 1 John 1:1-2:2

In our study of the Book of First John we have already covered the first chapter. On October 12th I wrote out an introduction to 1 John. Today I hope to go over some of the truths that I have learned from this chapter, and to share with you what the Word of God says.

1 John 1:1 - 2:2 Christ and Sin:

John opens his epistle by testifying to the deity of Jesus Christ. He says in verse one, "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled..." John makes the claim that Jesus came in the flesh as a human being. He gives us four actions that he himself, one of the apostles, had done when Jesus was on earth. It has already been 60 years since Christ was on earth but the time spent with Him was still vivid in John's mind.  He remembers hearing the voice of Christ, seeing his person, being able to touch him, and look upon his glory. He says that this life of Jesus was shown to him, and that he is a witness to that life. In his letter, John is going to declare to us what he has seen and heard so, "...that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ." And not only that we would have sweet fellowship with our Lord but also that our, "...joy may be full."
So, what is this message that John wishes to make know to us? He says in verse 5, "This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all." John begins his message by saying that God is light! In the scriptures, the word light refers to the truth of God's Word, holiness, and purity. God is the very essence of these characteristics. He is Holy, (1 Peter 1:15a) and perfectly pure, (1 John 3:5). All this reflects the light. Contrary to the light, is darkness and there is absolutely no darkness in God. The darkness, reflects that which is evil, sinful, and wrong. Because of the perfect purity of God, there can be no darkness in Him. And not only is there no darkness in God, we His people are called to flee from the darkness and live like our Master. So, what does it look like to walk in the light and to flee the darkness? Let's find out.

Walk in the Light:
To walk in the light is to live just as God would live. We read that God is light, he is pure, and holy, so we his people should live as he would want us to live. How would he want us to live? Well, 1 Peter 1:16 says, "because it is written, 'YOU SHALL BE HOLY FOR I AM HOLY." God wants us to be holy, and pure in his sight. An excellent passage that speak about us Christians walking in light is Ephesians 5:8-11, "for you were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of light (for the fruit of light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth), trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness but instead even expose them." In this letter, Paul makes the comparison as to what we were and now what we are. The old deeds of darkness are gone, they have been put off and now we are in the light. Do we still sin? Absolutely, but no longer are we slaves to that sin. And we do not sin willingly. John himself tells us what to do when we sin. I John 2:1, "My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, he has an advocate with the father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And he himself is the propitiation for out sins, and not for our only but also for the whole world." What marvelous mercy there is in the person and work of Jesus Christ. He has died for our sins and made us whiter than snow. We have been healed, justified, and made alive with Christ, His righteous blood covers every sin. We are children of God, and we live in the light.

Flee from the Darkness:
As we learned above, the darkness is that which is contrary to the light.  It is sin, whether big or small, all sin is darkness. The father of the darkness is Satan, the evil ruler of this world. We are the children of God, and therefore resist the darkness whenever we encounter it. Paul even said in Ephesians that we expose the darkness, not for the purpose of dwelling on it, but rather to keep the people of God pure according to His word. In our world many, so-called Christians delude the difference between light and darkness. In the word of God this is not the case. God will expose that which is darkness and for this reason we must avoid it at all costs.

Let us therefore arise, and live the Christian life with vigour and passion to glorify God in our actions. May we walk in the light, and learn that which pleases the Lord. So that we can bring our saviour the honour he deserves. Honour that He receives when we obey His will and His word.

Blessings,
       Lucas C.         

Strange Fire Quotes:

The Strange Fire Conference has been excellent. The Truth of the Word of God has been preached for all to hear and understand. And many people have heard the message. Yesterday the hash tag #StrangeFire was the most used hash tag around the entire world! Here are some great quotes from the conference so far:

Pastor John Macarthur:

"The biggest problem in the church to day is absence of discernment...Exercising discernment is the heart of Christian living because Christian living flows out of Christian thinking."

"Taking the Lord's name in vain is more than just swearing. It's speaking of Him in an irreverent manner, or assigning to him things he would never do and things He would never say."

"Show me a person obsessed with the Holy Spirit and I'll show you a person not filled with the Holy Spirit."

"The only way you're living your best life now is if your going to hell."

"When the Holy Spirit is the person being sought, His work has been rejected."

Pastor Conrad Mbewe:

"You cannot have spiritual life when this book, (the Bible) is closed...Where the Word of God is closed, the gospel has been lost, and invariably the life remains sinful and self-centered. And one fo the effects of that has been the loss of true worship."

Pastor Tom Pennington:

"The man of God needs no additional revelation. It's all right here (the Bible)."

"The charismatic gifts are not the same as the New Testament gifts because they are not the New Testament gifts."

"Those who are in Christ are driven by the mind, by their understanding of truth."

Pastor Justin Peters:

"There is no prosperity gospel; no social gospel. If you add an adjective to the gospel, than you don't have the gospel."

"It makes is very hard for us to warn the people about the wolves when the leaders fo the sheep are associating with the wolves."

Pastor Steve Lawson:

"It's not that we get more of the Holy Spirit, It's that He gets more of us."

"Listen, right will always be right, wrong will always be wrong, the way of salvation will always be the way of salvation. God's revelation is unchanging because God Himself is immutable and unchanging."

"Do not bring your, 'Thus saith the Lord' into this house if it's not found in chapter and verse."

"This book (the Bible) is not hard to understand, It's just hard to swallow."

"May we here tonight have a cessation clause in our personal statement of faith...May the Word of God, and the Word of God alone, be our rule of authority and standard..."

Blessings,
       Lucas C.

Introduction to 1 John.

This year, our youth group is going to be studying the books of 1st, 2nd, 3rd John and Jude. Throughout the year I hope to post some thoughts on what we have studied or what may have impacted me from the Word of God. On Friday the 4th we had our first study and looked at and introduction to the book of 1 John. We are using Pastor John Macarthur's study guide as an outline and for homework throughout the year.

Introduction to 1 John:

1 John is the first book and the largest of John's three epistles that he has written. It is not addressed to any particular church and is believed to be a general epistle. John the apostle, and disciple (Luke 6:13-14) of Jesus is the writer of the three books.
"This anonymity strongly affirms the early church's identification of the epistle with John the apostle, for only someone of John's well-known and preeminent status as an apostle would be able to write with such unmistakeable authority, expecting complete obedience form his readers, without clearly identifying himself. (e.g. 4:6). He was well-known to the readers, so he didn't need to mention his name." -John Macarthur.

The overall theme of the book of 1 John is 'a call to return to the fundamentals of the faith', or 'back to the basics'. John deals with absolute certainties of the Christian life, not opinions or differences. Christianity is expressed throughout the book in clear and simple terms that cannot be mistaken. As he was older in age while writing, John uses a warm, conversational tone, like a father having a loving conversation with his children.
As a pastor and shepherd of many of the early churches, he wrote form his heart out of concern of his beloved sheep. He desired that they would understand the basics of the faith and be joyful in their certainty of their salvation rather than be upset by the false teaching or current defections of others.

In many ways, we can see the way that John writes is very similar to pastors who faithfully and Biblically lead their congregations. They love those whom they shepherd with a sacrificial and serving heart, wanting them to come to a complete knowledge of God and His word. But also, at the same time, they expose the deeds of those who do not obey or follow after the truth. Just as a shepherd who guards his flock, the pastor, like John, condemns those who depart from the truth as "False prophets" (4:1), "those who try to deceive" (2:26, 3:7), and "antichrists" (2:18). He defines them as potentially coming form the source of all defection from sound doctrine (4:1-7).

Finally, John stresses throughout the book the fundamentals of the Christian life in absolute terms. He presents scripture as black and white and uses the contrast of light and darkness. These contrasts point to the reality of being a child of God or a child of the devil. There is no middle ground (3:10). This point is extremely helpful to us Christians to realize that we must be fully committed to living a life entirely for the glory and praise of God.

"Those who claim to be Christians must absolutely display the characteristics of genuine Christians: sound doctrine, obedience, and love. Those who are truly born-again have been given a new nature, which gives evidence of itself. Those who do not display characteristics of the new nature don't have it, so were never truly born again." 

 

"For a person to be convinced God can save from sin, one needs to see someone who lives a holy life. When Christians claim to believe in God's Word but do not obey it, the Word is dishonoured. Many have mocked God and His truth because of the sinful behaviour of those who claim to be Christians."

- John Macarthur

 

Blessings,

       Lucas C.

Strange Fire Conference

The Strange Fire conference  is on October 16-18, in Southern California. What is this conference about? Well, it tackles one of the greatest issues in our day, the Charismatic movement.

What is this Conference About?

 

The Lord calls His people to honor Him, to treat Him as holy God.  In the book of Leviticus, particularly, Leviticus 10, God shows us a picture of the consequences of not doing so—of offering to Him strange fire.

 

Leviticus 10:1-2 - "Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took their respective firepans, and after putting fire in them, placed incense on it and offered strange fire before the LORD, which He had not commanded them. And fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD."  

 

For the last hundred years, the charismatic movement has been offering a strange fire of sorts to the third Person of the Godhead—the Holy Spirit. And evangelical churches have chosen to be silent and now defend this third person of the trinity. By this, they have dishonoured the church and the Holy Spirit.    

 

How should we respond to this?   

 

The Strange Fire conference will show us what the Bible truly says about the Holy Spirit, and how that squares with the charismatic movement. This conference is going to address in a biblical, straightforward manner the issue of the Holy Spirit and the Charismatic Movement. Because your view of the Holy Spirit influences your relationship with God, your personal holiness, and your commitment to the church and evangelism we must know the truth about him so that we may honour Him with our lives.

 

(Additional Resources @ Strangefire.org)



 

Blessings,

       Lucas C.