Do you believe in the sovereignty of God? Grace Community does. And our belief in sovereignty extends to ALL areas of life.
For those who do not know, because of Spring Break and what not, the building was broken into early Saturday Morning. All guitars on the stage were taken, all the mics were taken, all of the guitar amps were taken, every bass was taken, the piano was taken, every power strip was taken. A thief came in and stole our property. He stole what we use to glorify God through music.
Here is a timeline of the events yesterday. We had Straight Talk for Men at 7:00. Me and dad made it to the church by 6:15. We had our group up in the Crossroads room and after that we went to the auditorium to listen to a song Dad wants us to do. As we were listening to the song someone looked at the stage and said where is the Piano. Then someone asked where is Matt's bass equipment, the someone asked where is the guitars and the mics and the floor monitor. It was gone. The police were called and were there by 9:00. They looked at things and to be honest they did not give us any hope that we would see any of the stuff that was stolen ever again.
We were upset. I am not going to lie. The things we had worked so hard for and spent all the money on were gone. Not to mention the sentimental value that was attached to them as well.
In the midst of this though God is still in control. This was not out of the scope of God's sovereignty. This happened for a reason. It was not a random act. God could have allowed this to not happen, but He did allow it. I believe it was to test us as a church. We are still young. We are still starting to get off the ground. I believe God was asking us as a church, Are You willing to keep going and be faithful in the midst of our stuff being stolen. The answer was up to us. Will this distract us? Or will it be business as usual and seek to glorify God?
The day keeps going on though. At around 5:00 Rhea and Kim came to the church and wanted to help. They wanted to do something. So they went to all of the people who lived around the church and asked if they saw anything the night before or if they just knew anything. Keep this in mind, God worked through this.
At 7:00 the church had a corporate prayer meeting. The tone was very positive over all. The thought was NOTHING can separate us from the love of Christ. The thief may have stolen our musical equipment but what they cannot rob us of is our desire to Glorify God as a church. At the prayer meeting we just prayed that God would accomplish His will throughout this situation.
The meeting was over. We left. I went to the house because me and Matt and Todd were going to stay at the church just in case someone tried to break in again Saturday night. We were eating Pizza and watching the basketball game and Ashley all of the sudden yelled "THE POLICE ARE HERE." The officer came to the door and asked if we had stolen musical equipment. They needed someone to ID the equipment. Me and Matt went to one of the neighbors house and low and behold in one of the bedrooms was ALL of our musical equipment. It was there. It was stolen and it was back.
Why did this happen? To test us as a church. At the prayer meeting we had we were not praying to God to bring our equipment back to us. We prayed that we would glorify God even through this and God would work even in this situation. And that He did. It started with Rhea and Kim going to the neighbors house and the neighbor getting nervous about the equipment being there. They called a friend and asked the friend to come and get the stuff out of their house. The friend instead of getting the stuff called the Police. God worked through this for His glory. He was saying to us as a church, what is more important to you? Musical equipment or my Glory? As a church we answered your glory is more important to us.
God brings all things into the lives of believers for their good (Rom. 8:28). Even the church being robbed and our stuff being stolen.
Do you believe in the sovereignty of God? Grace Community does even in the midst of robbery.
What do we do now? We pray for the one who stole this. We should not be angry at them or wish they would burn in hell. WE should pray that God would save them. God would prick their conscience and bring them to Himself and maybe one day they will become members of Grace Community church. Only God knows what will happen and HIS WILL. IT WILL BE DONE nothing can turn away God's purpose (Job 42). God will be gloirifed in ALL THINGS, even in the midst of a thief stealing from a church.
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
First John 2:3-27
Introduction
In this lesson we are going to move pretty fast because we must cover 24 verses in order to stay on schedule.
In our last lesson we learned about the work of Jesus Christ as our Advocate and our Atoning Sacrifice. Something I want you to think about, we did not cover this to much. But it is only possible for Jesus to be our Advocate and our Atoning Sacrifice because of who He is. Mainly He is the Righteous one. He is God. If Jesus is not God then He is not able to be our advocate. But Jesus must also be fully human. Because if He is not human He cannot be our advocate before the Father, and if He is not God, He is not perfect He cannot be our Atoning Sacrifice because a mere man died which is good for nothing. But If Jesus is Fully God and Fully man, which He is fully both, then His work is amazing and effective.
John uses these two things to launch into a discussion which centers around obedience in vs. 3-6 then John just keeps going.
We are going to move at warp speed so feel free to ask questions if there is anything I am not making clear, or if there is a place where you want us to go further, since we are just going to get a survey of most of the verses in this lesson.
My Assurance comes from obeying God’s Commandments (vs. 3-6)
We as believers know that we have come to know God when we obey. The first theme of assurance in these verses is my assurance come from obeying God’s commandments. John in verse three uses an absolute statement and says by this we know. This is not a mere possibility that John is talking about, but rather by this one can know that they are a true believer. John uses this phrase by this we know eight times in the book. John contrasts a true believer with an unbeliever in this passage. In verse three the true believer is shown, and in verse four the unbeliever is shown. The person that claims to know God, but they do not keep His word, they are not obedient, these people are liars and the truth is not in them. In verse five the contrast between the believer and unbeliever continues. John says BUT whoever keeps His word in him truly the love of God is perfected. The meaning here is that if a man loves God, he will seek to please him and keep his commandments.
So the man that loves God will seek to please God by being obedient. And by this we may be sure that we are in Him. In verse six again we see that the person who says that they abide in God, this person will walk in the same way that He walked. Who exactly is the He in this verse? The He that John is talking about here Jesus. We see this in John fifteen where we are told to abide in the vine and the vine is Jesus. We will walk like He walked, we seek to do the will of the Father in everything that we do, if we are true believers.
My Assurance comes from loving other believers (vs. 9-11)
Those who obey God will also love their fellow brothers. Once again in verses nine through eleven John contrasts a true believer with the way that an unbeliever will live. In these verses we see the second theme of assurance in these verses which is my assurance comes from loving other believers.
Verse nine John says that anyone who claims to walk in the light, those who claim to lead a righteous life, yet this person hates their brother; they are still in the darkness. Love for other people, and more particular in this verse, love for other Christians is a sign of one who is a believer. After stating that those who claim to be in the light yet hate in verse nine John in verse ten tells us what a true believer will do. Whoever loves his brother this is the person who abides or walks and continues in the light. No only is that person in the light and walking in the light but in that person there is no cause for stumbling.
What exactly does John mean by there is no cause of stumbling in this person? The context demands that it applies to the individual believer, if he loves; he walks in the light and therefore does not himself stumble. So the person that is in the light will not stumble. Or as John says there is no cause for stumbling in Him.
Just think of it this way. You are in a dark building. While you are in that dark building you decide to find a way out. What you do not know is that there is a chair in that building. You are walking to find a way out you stumble upon this chair and you trip over it. Now why did you trip over this chair? It was dark you could not see it. Now reverse the situation. You are in the same building but it is well lit. You walk and you see the door and you head towards it. This time as you walk and get near the chair you see it and you avoid it. Just as the person who is walking in the light will be able to see the temptation to sin and you will know how to avoid sin. But those who are in the darkness can not see there sin, because they walk in sin. They are blinded by the darkness as John points it in verse eleven. So those who walk in the light will avoid the chair in the building because the blindness has been removed.
One implication that we see in this verse is that those who walk in the light will not cause other believers to stumble. The meaning of the verse is that they will not personally stumble. But those who walk in the light will live in such a way that they will not cause other people to stumble, because they are on guard and avoid stumbling themselves. Another implication is if we are to love fellow believers we must be a part of the church. In order to love other believers we need to be round other believers, and this takes place within the context of the church.
Different Levels of Maturity in the Church (v. 12-14)
Verses 12-14 are sometimes hard to interpret. Some people see the fathers, young men, and little children as being either physical or spiritual. In other words if it is physical it is a literal fathers or older age, and young children are actually little children and young men are actually young men.
What is actually going on here? Why does John write this? This here is referring to a spiritual age or to spiritual maturity. John addresses three different groups. John addresses all of these groups twice and each time it is a little different.
The Little Children
John addresses the little children first. He says I write to you little children because your sins have been forgiven. What does little children mean here? This is talking about a person who has just become a Christian. They are new believers. John writes to reassure that they are believers. So they will not be confused by what John has written.
He says they have been forgiven, but it was nothing that they had done. Instead it had everything to do with what God had done through Jesus Christ. They were forgiven for His Names Sake. It was not for our sake, it was for God’s glory that we were forgiven. God saved us for His glory. We had nothing to do with it, but God alone did.
The second thing John says to the little children is you know the Father. They have come to the Father. They are infatuated with knowing the Father. They are enjoying their prayer life. They are exuberant about their new life and relationship with God.
Fathers
John now addresses the Fathers. Each time he says the same thing to them. They Fathers here refers to the spiritually mature. They know Him who was from the beginning. That is God the Father. They have an intimate knowledge of the Father. They have been through the good times and the bad and throughout all they have continued with the Father. They know the Father.
Young Men
John writes to the young men. These are the people who are growing in their Christian life. They are fighting against the evil one and they have overcome the evil one. But they have not overcome the evil one on their own. They have overcome the evil one because the word of God abides in them. What does this imply then? This implies that these people have been in the word of God. In order for the word of God to abide in them they must be studying the word of God. They must be reading the word of God.
If you think about it this is the way the church is set up. Some are more mature than others and they can help those who are not as mature. But their will be spiritual growth.
My Assurance comes from not loving the world (vs. 15-17)
John in verses nine through eleven showed us who a true believer will love. As we move on to verses fifteen through seventeen we see what a true believer will not love. The true believer will not love the world. This is the third theme of assurance in these verses. My assurance comes from not loving the world.
Verse fifteen is a warning. It is a warning from John that if anyone loves the world the love of the Father is not in them. The love that he is talking about here is an ongoing love. By contrast a true believer will have an ongoing love for the Father. The verse is in the form of an if then statement. If you love the things of the world, then you do not love the Father. We need to define here what John means by the world. It is important to remember as you study your Bible that the term world is usually a generic term and can mean many different things. John does not have in mind here so much the physical place in where we live, but rather the attitudes of the people in this world that we live. Danny Akin says that the world here is, “An evil organized system controlled by the power of the evil one that has aligned itself against God and His Kingdom.” We are not to love the things that are in opposition to God and to the advancement of His Kingdom. But what specifically should we avoid as believers? Well the scriptures have the answer for us in verse sixteen.
In verse sixteen we are told about three desires in the world that are going to pass away. The first is the desire of the flesh. This here is a general term that denotes those things that are for self, and things that are temporal. This first term, desires of the flesh encompass the next two which are more specific. The word desire is used in a negative sense.
The second desire is the desire or the lust of the eyes. This in a word is covetousness. You see what someone else has and you think I have to have that. This is the desire to keep up with the Joneses. If someone gets a promotion at work you want to one up them and you have to get a better promotion. We have to be the best at everything.
The third and final desire that the Christian is to not love of the world is the pride of possessions. What happens in this desire is the person fails to give the glory to God. They fail to recognize that everything that they have is a gift from the hand of God. This attitude proclaims look at what I have done. I have done all of this by myself, me me me me me. The Christian is to not say “look at what I have done.” The Christian is to give God the glory and to thank Him for everything that they have.
These attitudes are passing away, the desires and the attitudes of this world are passing away, but we see in verse seventeen John says that the person who does the will of God will abide forever. The will of God is to be obedient in what he has revealed to us.
The Church (vs.18-19)
Just a quick note on verses 18-19. John says it is the last hour and the antichrist is coming and even now many antichrists have come already. The antichrists that have come are those who are against Christ. They do not want anything to do with Christ, they do not want anything to do with the body of Christ the church.
John is thinking here of the heretics, more than likely. The reason is of what comes next. The heretics went out from the believing community. They did not want anything to do with the church. If they would have been a true believer they would not have left the church. Those who are true believers will be tied to a local church. If someone says they are a Christian and yet they want nothing to do with the body of Christ, for which he shed His blood, they are more than likely not a Christian. It is within the church where we are taught the word of God. It is within the church where discipleship takes place. The church is the place where we are held accountable for how we live. A believer will be committed to the local church, and those who neglect the church or deny the importance of the truth may not or are not true believers.
My Assurance comes from knowing the truth (vs. 20-21)
John’s readers have an anointing that teaches them all things. Now don’t get freaked out by the word anointing. It is not some mystical thing that just happens and then we have knowledge. The anointing that they have received is from the holy one. This anointing that all believers’ posses gives them all knowledge. So the theme of assurance we see is my assurance comes from knowing the truth.
There are a couple of questions that need to be answered to know how we have assurance from knowing the truth. First off what is the anointing that we have received? Colin Kruse says, “In this verse anointing is used to describe the anointing that the readers have from the Holy one is best interpreted as a reference to the Holy Spirit with whom they have been endowed by God (when they first believed), and who confirms to them the truth of the message that they heard at that time.” The Holy Spirit is the anointing that John is referring to here in this verse. This is one thing that is given to all believers when they believe and He is the Spirit of truth, and will lead all believers in the truth and not into falsehood.
The second question to answer is what does all knowledge mean? To answer this we will start with the negative aspect of it. This does not mean that John’s readers know everything that there is to know. As Christians we should not be know it alls. Those people who know everything there is to know about everything. That is what it does not mean. The positive side of it is the have full knowledge of who Jesus is, and the reason this is so is because of the anointing or the Holy Spirit that dwells within the believer. The Spirit leads them into all truth and therefore they know all things as pertaining to Jesus Christ. The knowledge of Jesus fits with the context, as we see in verse twenty-two John now moves on to the topic of a correct confession of Jesus.
So we have assurance because a true believer will know the truth about Jesus. The true believer will be able to spot falsehoods because of the Spirit that dwells within them. Christians have a built in lie detector. The true believer will know the truth and they will spot falsehoods. How will a believer spot falsehoods? There are two ways. The first one is what John says in this verse. They have an anointing, and because of this anointing they have all knowledge. The second way a believer will be able to spot falsehoods is by studying the truth. People who work in counterfeit bills do not hone their skill by studying counterfeit bills. They can spot the false one because they have studied the real McCoy. Just like people who work in spotting counterfeit bills believers must study the truth. We do not need to devote our time to studying false religions, although that has its place, but we should spend the majority of our time studying the truth, that way we can spot the lies that other religions tell us and what people believe.
My Assurance comes from a correct confession of Jesus and the Father (vs. 22-23)
Not only will a true believer know the truth about Jesus, because the Holy Spirit dwells within them, but they will also have a correct confession of Jesus and the Father. That is the theme of assurance that John writes about in verses twenty-two and twenty-three. Now once again here John is stating what the Gnostics believed. They denied that Jesus is the Christ. John says here that anyone who denies that Jesus is the Christ is two things. First off they are a liar. Second off they are antichrists. This means that any person who tries to separate the two natures of Jesus, His physical nature and His divine nature, they are actually against Christ. They are against Jesus. They really do not have anything to do with Jesus, even if they claim to have fellowship with Him. They are against Him because they deny the very essence of who He is. They deny what holds Christianity together, mainly that God took the form of a man in Jesus Christ, while remaining God, and lived a perfect life, and died to atone for sin. Those who deny this do not have fellowship with Jesus but are actually against Him.
But not only do these people deny Jesus, but John also calls them antichrists because they deny the Father as well. These people have missed it totally. By denying that Jesus was the Christ, they deny the Father as well. Since it was the Father who planned from the foundation of the world that he would send His Son Jesus Christ to earth, and His Son would be the God man, He would be God in the Flesh. By denying that Jesus was the Christ they are now against the Father and the Son. So what exactly is John teaching us here? This is where our theme of assurance comes into play. John is making sure that we get things right.
John is teaching us here that you cannot have the Son and have the Father, and you cannot have the Father and have the Son. If we claim to be in a relationship with Jesus we cannot say that we do not want the Father. The true believer will have a true confession of Jesus and the Father that is they will confess both of them and will want both of them. You cannot separate the two; they are one in the same. Two different people, but they are still in the Godhead. It is a package deal. In fact true believers will confess and want all three members of the trinity. There are some people, and this is becoming a popular view, who are Jesus only. In other words Jesus is all three persons of the godhead. At one time Jesus was the Father, then while on earth Jesus was actually Jesus Christ, and now Jesus is in the role of the Spirit. This view does serious damage to Christianity, and is unbiblical.
My Assurance comes from the gospel (vs. 24-25)
Another theme of assurance that John writes in this chapter is that the true believers assurance comes from the gospel. In verse twenty-four when John says let what you heard from the beginning abide in you, he is talking about the gospel. This would have been the first thing that they would have learned to begin their relationship with Jesus Christ. We are to abide in the gospel; we are to continue in the gospel. This is why it is so important for believers to still think and meditate on what God has done for sinners in the gospel. It is so easy to forget and become numb to what God has done for sinners, and the depth to which He has done it. He did it ALL. There is nothing that God missed when he set His redemptive plan in motion. He was not in heaven thinking oh I hope this works, I don’t know what else to do if it fails. God knew exactly what he was doing in the gospel.
John goes on to say that if we as believers abide or continue in the gospel then we will abide in the Son and the Father. If we remember the gospel and what God did for us in the gospel then we will continue with the Son and the Father because we know and meditate on what was accomplished for us.
In verse twenty-five we see a promise that was made to believers. The and in this verse indicates that John is going to relate further blessing from abiding in the gospel, and abiding in Christ. The further blessing that we see is that those who abide in the gospel, those who abide in the Son and the Father these people have eternal life. We as believers can be assured that we have eternal life because we abide in the gospel and we abide in the Son and the Father. This is a promise that we have from God. The great thing about abiding though is we do not do it alone. God is there with us and His Holy Spirit is giving us the strength to keep going to persevere in the gospel of grace and to continue to walk with the Father and the Son and the Spirit. The believer can be assured by the gospel, and by abiding in it, because those who do posses eternal life.
Do we not need any Teachers as Believers? (vs.26-27)
John writes to these believers about those who are trying to deceive them.
John points out two things about believers in this verse. First the anointing that believers have is the Holy Spirit (See 3:24). The anointing believers have received abides in them.
Second this anointing, the Holy Spirit, as stated above, teaches believers all things and therefore believers have no need for anyone to teach them. But is John saying here that teachers in and of themselves are not essential? John is saying here that as believers we have NO NEED for anyone to teach us the truth about Jesus Christ. These heretics came into the church and were trying to teach them false things about Jesus. Believers know the truth about Jesus. They know who Jesus is and therefore they have no need for anyone to teach them about Jesus. If John were saying there was no need for teachers at all then he would not have written this letter. But these believers know who Jesus is and they have no need for anyone to teach them the truth about Jesus because they have an anointing which abides in them, The Holy Spirit.
Conclusion
Here is a summary of the ways John Assures believers in these verses.
• As we obey God and we are assured,
• When we love other believers we our assured and also we see what we are not to love, which is the world with its desires.
• Next we are assured as believers because we know the truth because the Holy Spirit dwells within us.
• Next we can be assured because we have a correct confession of the Father and the Son, that is to say that we do not claim one and do not want the other.
• And lastly our assurance as believers comes from abiding in the gospel and the Father and the Son, and assuring us that we have eternal life.
In this lesson we are going to move pretty fast because we must cover 24 verses in order to stay on schedule.
In our last lesson we learned about the work of Jesus Christ as our Advocate and our Atoning Sacrifice. Something I want you to think about, we did not cover this to much. But it is only possible for Jesus to be our Advocate and our Atoning Sacrifice because of who He is. Mainly He is the Righteous one. He is God. If Jesus is not God then He is not able to be our advocate. But Jesus must also be fully human. Because if He is not human He cannot be our advocate before the Father, and if He is not God, He is not perfect He cannot be our Atoning Sacrifice because a mere man died which is good for nothing. But If Jesus is Fully God and Fully man, which He is fully both, then His work is amazing and effective.
John uses these two things to launch into a discussion which centers around obedience in vs. 3-6 then John just keeps going.
We are going to move at warp speed so feel free to ask questions if there is anything I am not making clear, or if there is a place where you want us to go further, since we are just going to get a survey of most of the verses in this lesson.
My Assurance comes from obeying God’s Commandments (vs. 3-6)
We as believers know that we have come to know God when we obey. The first theme of assurance in these verses is my assurance come from obeying God’s commandments. John in verse three uses an absolute statement and says by this we know. This is not a mere possibility that John is talking about, but rather by this one can know that they are a true believer. John uses this phrase by this we know eight times in the book. John contrasts a true believer with an unbeliever in this passage. In verse three the true believer is shown, and in verse four the unbeliever is shown. The person that claims to know God, but they do not keep His word, they are not obedient, these people are liars and the truth is not in them. In verse five the contrast between the believer and unbeliever continues. John says BUT whoever keeps His word in him truly the love of God is perfected. The meaning here is that if a man loves God, he will seek to please him and keep his commandments.
So the man that loves God will seek to please God by being obedient. And by this we may be sure that we are in Him. In verse six again we see that the person who says that they abide in God, this person will walk in the same way that He walked. Who exactly is the He in this verse? The He that John is talking about here Jesus. We see this in John fifteen where we are told to abide in the vine and the vine is Jesus. We will walk like He walked, we seek to do the will of the Father in everything that we do, if we are true believers.
My Assurance comes from loving other believers (vs. 9-11)
Those who obey God will also love their fellow brothers. Once again in verses nine through eleven John contrasts a true believer with the way that an unbeliever will live. In these verses we see the second theme of assurance in these verses which is my assurance comes from loving other believers.
Verse nine John says that anyone who claims to walk in the light, those who claim to lead a righteous life, yet this person hates their brother; they are still in the darkness. Love for other people, and more particular in this verse, love for other Christians is a sign of one who is a believer. After stating that those who claim to be in the light yet hate in verse nine John in verse ten tells us what a true believer will do. Whoever loves his brother this is the person who abides or walks and continues in the light. No only is that person in the light and walking in the light but in that person there is no cause for stumbling.
What exactly does John mean by there is no cause of stumbling in this person? The context demands that it applies to the individual believer, if he loves; he walks in the light and therefore does not himself stumble. So the person that is in the light will not stumble. Or as John says there is no cause for stumbling in Him.
Just think of it this way. You are in a dark building. While you are in that dark building you decide to find a way out. What you do not know is that there is a chair in that building. You are walking to find a way out you stumble upon this chair and you trip over it. Now why did you trip over this chair? It was dark you could not see it. Now reverse the situation. You are in the same building but it is well lit. You walk and you see the door and you head towards it. This time as you walk and get near the chair you see it and you avoid it. Just as the person who is walking in the light will be able to see the temptation to sin and you will know how to avoid sin. But those who are in the darkness can not see there sin, because they walk in sin. They are blinded by the darkness as John points it in verse eleven. So those who walk in the light will avoid the chair in the building because the blindness has been removed.
One implication that we see in this verse is that those who walk in the light will not cause other believers to stumble. The meaning of the verse is that they will not personally stumble. But those who walk in the light will live in such a way that they will not cause other people to stumble, because they are on guard and avoid stumbling themselves. Another implication is if we are to love fellow believers we must be a part of the church. In order to love other believers we need to be round other believers, and this takes place within the context of the church.
Different Levels of Maturity in the Church (v. 12-14)
Verses 12-14 are sometimes hard to interpret. Some people see the fathers, young men, and little children as being either physical or spiritual. In other words if it is physical it is a literal fathers or older age, and young children are actually little children and young men are actually young men.
What is actually going on here? Why does John write this? This here is referring to a spiritual age or to spiritual maturity. John addresses three different groups. John addresses all of these groups twice and each time it is a little different.
The Little Children
John addresses the little children first. He says I write to you little children because your sins have been forgiven. What does little children mean here? This is talking about a person who has just become a Christian. They are new believers. John writes to reassure that they are believers. So they will not be confused by what John has written.
He says they have been forgiven, but it was nothing that they had done. Instead it had everything to do with what God had done through Jesus Christ. They were forgiven for His Names Sake. It was not for our sake, it was for God’s glory that we were forgiven. God saved us for His glory. We had nothing to do with it, but God alone did.
The second thing John says to the little children is you know the Father. They have come to the Father. They are infatuated with knowing the Father. They are enjoying their prayer life. They are exuberant about their new life and relationship with God.
Fathers
John now addresses the Fathers. Each time he says the same thing to them. They Fathers here refers to the spiritually mature. They know Him who was from the beginning. That is God the Father. They have an intimate knowledge of the Father. They have been through the good times and the bad and throughout all they have continued with the Father. They know the Father.
Young Men
John writes to the young men. These are the people who are growing in their Christian life. They are fighting against the evil one and they have overcome the evil one. But they have not overcome the evil one on their own. They have overcome the evil one because the word of God abides in them. What does this imply then? This implies that these people have been in the word of God. In order for the word of God to abide in them they must be studying the word of God. They must be reading the word of God.
If you think about it this is the way the church is set up. Some are more mature than others and they can help those who are not as mature. But their will be spiritual growth.
My Assurance comes from not loving the world (vs. 15-17)
John in verses nine through eleven showed us who a true believer will love. As we move on to verses fifteen through seventeen we see what a true believer will not love. The true believer will not love the world. This is the third theme of assurance in these verses. My assurance comes from not loving the world.
Verse fifteen is a warning. It is a warning from John that if anyone loves the world the love of the Father is not in them. The love that he is talking about here is an ongoing love. By contrast a true believer will have an ongoing love for the Father. The verse is in the form of an if then statement. If you love the things of the world, then you do not love the Father. We need to define here what John means by the world. It is important to remember as you study your Bible that the term world is usually a generic term and can mean many different things. John does not have in mind here so much the physical place in where we live, but rather the attitudes of the people in this world that we live. Danny Akin says that the world here is, “An evil organized system controlled by the power of the evil one that has aligned itself against God and His Kingdom.” We are not to love the things that are in opposition to God and to the advancement of His Kingdom. But what specifically should we avoid as believers? Well the scriptures have the answer for us in verse sixteen.
In verse sixteen we are told about three desires in the world that are going to pass away. The first is the desire of the flesh. This here is a general term that denotes those things that are for self, and things that are temporal. This first term, desires of the flesh encompass the next two which are more specific. The word desire is used in a negative sense.
The second desire is the desire or the lust of the eyes. This in a word is covetousness. You see what someone else has and you think I have to have that. This is the desire to keep up with the Joneses. If someone gets a promotion at work you want to one up them and you have to get a better promotion. We have to be the best at everything.
The third and final desire that the Christian is to not love of the world is the pride of possessions. What happens in this desire is the person fails to give the glory to God. They fail to recognize that everything that they have is a gift from the hand of God. This attitude proclaims look at what I have done. I have done all of this by myself, me me me me me. The Christian is to not say “look at what I have done.” The Christian is to give God the glory and to thank Him for everything that they have.
These attitudes are passing away, the desires and the attitudes of this world are passing away, but we see in verse seventeen John says that the person who does the will of God will abide forever. The will of God is to be obedient in what he has revealed to us.
The Church (vs.18-19)
Just a quick note on verses 18-19. John says it is the last hour and the antichrist is coming and even now many antichrists have come already. The antichrists that have come are those who are against Christ. They do not want anything to do with Christ, they do not want anything to do with the body of Christ the church.
John is thinking here of the heretics, more than likely. The reason is of what comes next. The heretics went out from the believing community. They did not want anything to do with the church. If they would have been a true believer they would not have left the church. Those who are true believers will be tied to a local church. If someone says they are a Christian and yet they want nothing to do with the body of Christ, for which he shed His blood, they are more than likely not a Christian. It is within the church where we are taught the word of God. It is within the church where discipleship takes place. The church is the place where we are held accountable for how we live. A believer will be committed to the local church, and those who neglect the church or deny the importance of the truth may not or are not true believers.
My Assurance comes from knowing the truth (vs. 20-21)
John’s readers have an anointing that teaches them all things. Now don’t get freaked out by the word anointing. It is not some mystical thing that just happens and then we have knowledge. The anointing that they have received is from the holy one. This anointing that all believers’ posses gives them all knowledge. So the theme of assurance we see is my assurance comes from knowing the truth.
There are a couple of questions that need to be answered to know how we have assurance from knowing the truth. First off what is the anointing that we have received? Colin Kruse says, “In this verse anointing is used to describe the anointing that the readers have from the Holy one is best interpreted as a reference to the Holy Spirit with whom they have been endowed by God (when they first believed), and who confirms to them the truth of the message that they heard at that time.” The Holy Spirit is the anointing that John is referring to here in this verse. This is one thing that is given to all believers when they believe and He is the Spirit of truth, and will lead all believers in the truth and not into falsehood.
The second question to answer is what does all knowledge mean? To answer this we will start with the negative aspect of it. This does not mean that John’s readers know everything that there is to know. As Christians we should not be know it alls. Those people who know everything there is to know about everything. That is what it does not mean. The positive side of it is the have full knowledge of who Jesus is, and the reason this is so is because of the anointing or the Holy Spirit that dwells within the believer. The Spirit leads them into all truth and therefore they know all things as pertaining to Jesus Christ. The knowledge of Jesus fits with the context, as we see in verse twenty-two John now moves on to the topic of a correct confession of Jesus.
So we have assurance because a true believer will know the truth about Jesus. The true believer will be able to spot falsehoods because of the Spirit that dwells within them. Christians have a built in lie detector. The true believer will know the truth and they will spot falsehoods. How will a believer spot falsehoods? There are two ways. The first one is what John says in this verse. They have an anointing, and because of this anointing they have all knowledge. The second way a believer will be able to spot falsehoods is by studying the truth. People who work in counterfeit bills do not hone their skill by studying counterfeit bills. They can spot the false one because they have studied the real McCoy. Just like people who work in spotting counterfeit bills believers must study the truth. We do not need to devote our time to studying false religions, although that has its place, but we should spend the majority of our time studying the truth, that way we can spot the lies that other religions tell us and what people believe.
My Assurance comes from a correct confession of Jesus and the Father (vs. 22-23)
Not only will a true believer know the truth about Jesus, because the Holy Spirit dwells within them, but they will also have a correct confession of Jesus and the Father. That is the theme of assurance that John writes about in verses twenty-two and twenty-three. Now once again here John is stating what the Gnostics believed. They denied that Jesus is the Christ. John says here that anyone who denies that Jesus is the Christ is two things. First off they are a liar. Second off they are antichrists. This means that any person who tries to separate the two natures of Jesus, His physical nature and His divine nature, they are actually against Christ. They are against Jesus. They really do not have anything to do with Jesus, even if they claim to have fellowship with Him. They are against Him because they deny the very essence of who He is. They deny what holds Christianity together, mainly that God took the form of a man in Jesus Christ, while remaining God, and lived a perfect life, and died to atone for sin. Those who deny this do not have fellowship with Jesus but are actually against Him.
But not only do these people deny Jesus, but John also calls them antichrists because they deny the Father as well. These people have missed it totally. By denying that Jesus was the Christ, they deny the Father as well. Since it was the Father who planned from the foundation of the world that he would send His Son Jesus Christ to earth, and His Son would be the God man, He would be God in the Flesh. By denying that Jesus was the Christ they are now against the Father and the Son. So what exactly is John teaching us here? This is where our theme of assurance comes into play. John is making sure that we get things right.
John is teaching us here that you cannot have the Son and have the Father, and you cannot have the Father and have the Son. If we claim to be in a relationship with Jesus we cannot say that we do not want the Father. The true believer will have a true confession of Jesus and the Father that is they will confess both of them and will want both of them. You cannot separate the two; they are one in the same. Two different people, but they are still in the Godhead. It is a package deal. In fact true believers will confess and want all three members of the trinity. There are some people, and this is becoming a popular view, who are Jesus only. In other words Jesus is all three persons of the godhead. At one time Jesus was the Father, then while on earth Jesus was actually Jesus Christ, and now Jesus is in the role of the Spirit. This view does serious damage to Christianity, and is unbiblical.
My Assurance comes from the gospel (vs. 24-25)
Another theme of assurance that John writes in this chapter is that the true believers assurance comes from the gospel. In verse twenty-four when John says let what you heard from the beginning abide in you, he is talking about the gospel. This would have been the first thing that they would have learned to begin their relationship with Jesus Christ. We are to abide in the gospel; we are to continue in the gospel. This is why it is so important for believers to still think and meditate on what God has done for sinners in the gospel. It is so easy to forget and become numb to what God has done for sinners, and the depth to which He has done it. He did it ALL. There is nothing that God missed when he set His redemptive plan in motion. He was not in heaven thinking oh I hope this works, I don’t know what else to do if it fails. God knew exactly what he was doing in the gospel.
John goes on to say that if we as believers abide or continue in the gospel then we will abide in the Son and the Father. If we remember the gospel and what God did for us in the gospel then we will continue with the Son and the Father because we know and meditate on what was accomplished for us.
In verse twenty-five we see a promise that was made to believers. The and in this verse indicates that John is going to relate further blessing from abiding in the gospel, and abiding in Christ. The further blessing that we see is that those who abide in the gospel, those who abide in the Son and the Father these people have eternal life. We as believers can be assured that we have eternal life because we abide in the gospel and we abide in the Son and the Father. This is a promise that we have from God. The great thing about abiding though is we do not do it alone. God is there with us and His Holy Spirit is giving us the strength to keep going to persevere in the gospel of grace and to continue to walk with the Father and the Son and the Spirit. The believer can be assured by the gospel, and by abiding in it, because those who do posses eternal life.
Do we not need any Teachers as Believers? (vs.26-27)
John writes to these believers about those who are trying to deceive them.
John points out two things about believers in this verse. First the anointing that believers have is the Holy Spirit (See 3:24). The anointing believers have received abides in them.
Second this anointing, the Holy Spirit, as stated above, teaches believers all things and therefore believers have no need for anyone to teach them. But is John saying here that teachers in and of themselves are not essential? John is saying here that as believers we have NO NEED for anyone to teach us the truth about Jesus Christ. These heretics came into the church and were trying to teach them false things about Jesus. Believers know the truth about Jesus. They know who Jesus is and therefore they have no need for anyone to teach them about Jesus. If John were saying there was no need for teachers at all then he would not have written this letter. But these believers know who Jesus is and they have no need for anyone to teach them the truth about Jesus because they have an anointing which abides in them, The Holy Spirit.
Conclusion
Here is a summary of the ways John Assures believers in these verses.
• As we obey God and we are assured,
• When we love other believers we our assured and also we see what we are not to love, which is the world with its desires.
• Next we are assured as believers because we know the truth because the Holy Spirit dwells within us.
• Next we can be assured because we have a correct confession of the Father and the Son, that is to say that we do not claim one and do not want the other.
• And lastly our assurance as believers comes from abiding in the gospel and the Father and the Son, and assuring us that we have eternal life.
Saturday, March 8, 2008
First John 2:1-2
Introduction
Before we do verses 1-2 of chapter 2 we should review what we have done so far since we have been away from First John for almost a month now.
1. The theme of the book is ASSURANCE, which is found in 5:13, John writes to those who believe in Jesus Christ already so they may know they have eternal life. A key thing to remember here is assurance is OBJECTIVE. That is you know you are assured of salvation when you are doing something, mainly obeying the word of God. Assurance for JOHN NEVER comes from a past event. It is something we see from the present. Are we living for Christ now? Do we continually live for Christ and obey His word? Are we spending time in His word? These are questions we should all ask ourselves when facing issues with assurance and we are having doubts.
2. John was battling a false teaching known as Gnosticism. This teaching denied that Jesus was who He said he was, who the Apostles said He was. They believed that salvation was not found in Jesus Christ but is found through a secret knowledge which only a few have and this knowledge was given to them by God. These teachers somehow invaded the community to whom John wrote this letter and threw the believers faith into disarray.
3. In verses 1-4 John pointed his readers to the historical significance of the incarnation. The incarnation is God taking on the form of human flesh in the person of Jesus Christ. John says Jesus was a real man. I saw him, I touched him, I heard him, and so did the other Apostles. I was not the only one there.
4. In verses 5-10 John took his opponents head on. First he assured his readers in vs.5 by pointing them to the character of God, when he said God is light. Believers can be assured because of who God is. Then is verses 6,8,10 John directly challenged what his opponents were teaching. They claimed they were perfect. They had no sin. John says this cannot happen. All people everywhere sin and t deny this truth is to make God out to be a liar, and His truth is not in such a person. Believers realize there sinfulness and they confess their sins to their Father who is faithful and just to forgive them their sins.
This is what we have learned so far. In this lesson we will tackle 2:1-2. These verses end out a section of the book which was started in 1:5. These verses can be difficult if we lose sight of WHO John is writing to.
In 1:6-10 John is directly challenging the false teachers. As we come to verse 1 of chapter 2 John is now addressing believers. Keep this in mind as we look at these verses, I think they will clear up a lot of misunderstanding about these verses. For some here I may present some things you may not have heard before, but my goal is to let the scriptures speak for themselves, and not to put any viewpoint I have into the text.
The Reality of Sin in the Believers Life
Every believer whether we want to or not still sins. In fact a true believer will acknowledge that they sin. John here in vs.1 acknowledges that believers will still sin, although they will confess their sin and know there sin is wrong.
The language of this first part of this verse can be kind of confusing in our English translations. The reason this is because our translations say I write these things so that you may not sin. It seems to us as if John is saying I write these things so you will not sin at all as believers. But then John goes on to say if anyone does sin. So what is John saying here?
First off John is setting forth a standard of Perfectionism in that believers can and should achieve perfection here in this life. If John were to be saying this he would contradict himself and his readers would wonder why he exhorted them to confess their sins just a few moments ago. John is not contradicting himself here.
John is acknowledging the reality of sin in a believers life. The phrase here in this verse “conveys the strong probability of actual occurrence… (which) could be translated ‘if anyone sins and it will happen.’” (MacArthur, John, 1-3 John, 45) John acknowledges that believers will sin. A danger here will be to think that John is condoning sin in the life of a believer. This is not the case at all John is trying to “prevent sin not condone it.” (Stott, John, Letters of John, TNCS, 84) There is no hint whatsoever that John is condoning sin, and this is clear from all of the book which will be VERY clear as we go along in the book.
Sin whether we as believers like it or not is something we will struggle with until we reach eternity with the Father then we will be perfect, we will be glorified we will have new bodies. The difference between a believer, a Christian, and someone who is not a Christian, is the Christian will fight against their sin. They do not want to sin, they will be like Paul in Romans 7 where he says he wants to not sin, but he keeps on doing it. The believer will still sin, but the believer at the same time will not want to sin.
Jesus our Advocate
John acknowledging that believers will still sin, sin is still a reality in the lives of Christians, immediately points the believers to Jesus Christ their advocate.
The first thing to answer here is what does ADVOCATE mean for the believer? The word literally means called along side of (Stott, 85). It means advocate or counsel for the defense in a legal context (Marshall, The Epistles of John, NICNT, 116). In other words it is someone who is called to help someone on their behalf. But what does this mean for the Christian?
First we must realize that Jesus is pleading on the behalf of sinners is not pleading based off of what the believers has done. In fact Jesus is an odd defense attorney in that he realizes and acknowledges the person’s guilt before God. They are guilty. James Montgomery Boice says this on this verse: “In John the idea of merit on the part of the accused is entirely absent; rather the merit is on the part of the advocate.” (Boice, James Montgomery, The Epistles of John, 38) Jesus is our advocate but he pleads our case on what HE has done and NOT on what WE as believers have done. The reason is we have done nothing which could possibly merit any forgiveness at all. If Jesus were to be our advocate based upon what we have done He would lose his case every time, but He is our advocate based on what he has done and therefore “Jesus as our advocate has never lost a case and never will.” (MacArthur, 44)
Here is what the scene is. You all have heard this before from me. I Ben Wilson am standing before the Holy Judge of the Universe, God the Father. He is trying me and going through everything I have ever done in my life. As He looks at my life and holds my life up to the light of His Holiness the only sentence God the Father can give me is eternal punishment in Hell, that is all I deserve. The trial is almost over the gavel is about to strike the desk and all of the sudden there is this crashing in the back of the courtroom. We look at around to see who it is and it is Jesus. Jesus pleads on my behalf and says Father I obeyed your will for him, I died for Him and I rose for Him. I know he is guilty and deserves your wrath, but Father in your love you sent me to die for him so he could be made right with you. I did all I did for him. He is mine.
Lest someone think this analogy pins Jesus and God the Father against one another rest assured it does not. Jesus is not against the Father and the Father is not against Jesus. They work together, they have the same purpose. John Stott put it this way: “In a picture of a righteous advocate standing before the Father on our behalf, ‘the case is not that of love pleading with justice.’ Rather the opposite ‘Justice pleads with love for our release.’” (Stott, 86)
Jesus can only be our advocate because of who He is. He is Jesus Christ the Righteous. Jesus is righteous. Everything about Him is righteous. His death is only effective once and for all time because he is righteous. Jesus the righteous one is our advocate before the Father. What a comfort this is to think upon as believers. Knowing that we still sin, James Montgomery Boice said this of this verse as believers we have, “forgiveness in advance for any sin that might come into our lives. This is God’s promise, and it is given that we might not sin. God is not shocked by human behavior, as we often are, for he sees it in advance, including the sins of Christians.” (Boice, 37)
As believers who still struggle with sin may we remember we have a righteous advocate before the Father Jesus Christ.
Jesus our Atonement
Before we begin this verse I want to throw out a word of caution. This verse has been HIGHLY and HOTLY debated throughout the History of the church. The reason is there is two different views relating to the EXTENT or the SCOPE of the ATONEMENT OF CHRIST. Did Christ die for all people unqualified? As in every person on the earth? Or did Christ die for a specific people, mainly those who believe? These are all sensitive questions, and questions which we as believers must let the scriptures speak on their own.
The key to understanding this verse is focusing upon the word PROPITIATION. If we do this vs.2 will not be as difficult as some make it out to be. Many want to focus on the word world and this throws confusion into everything.
John starts off this verse by saying Jesus is the propitiation for our sins, that is for himself and the people to whom he is writing to. Some translations of the Bible use “atoning sacrifice” here is this verse instead of propitiation, and this is probably preferable. But what we must keep in mind though is if we take this view propitiation is still in view. Just because we use a different phrase does not mean propitiation is gone. Some problems people have with this verse and what word to us instead of propitiation is the Greek word here is used only twice in the whole New Testament and the other use is in ch. 4:10 of First John.
Jesus being our atoning sacrifice is our propitiation and our expiation. Propitiation has to do with the removal of the wrath of God. Jesus in His death on the cross bore the wrath of God for sin. Jesus is also our expiation. That is Jesus on the cross-bought the removal of sin, so we can be forgiven. I. Howard Marshall says here: “The one action has the double effect of expiating the sin and thereby propitiating God.” (Marshall, 118)
The problem many people face here is they see the idea of propitiation as archaic and heathen. In Ancient times people would offer sacrifices, mainly human sacrifices, to ward off an angry deity. They believed this would appease the wrath of this angry deity. The truth of propitiation is TOTALLY different in a biblical context. “In Christianity it is never the man who takes the initiative or makes the sacrifice, but God himself who out of his great love for the sinner provides the way by which his own wrath against sin may be placated.” (Boice, 40)
• “There can, therefore, be no question of human beings appeasing an angry deity by their gifts. The Christian propitiation is quite different, not only in the character of the divine anger but in the means by which it is propitiated. It is an appeasement of the wrath of God by the love of God through the gift of God… His wrath is averted not be an external gift, but by his own self-giving to die the death of sinners.” (Stott, 93)
Propitiation is the love of God sending His son to die for sinners so they could be made right with him. The death of Jesus is the most loving thing God could have done. As sinners we deserve the wrath of God against our sin. But God in His love has made a way whereby our sins can be forgiven and his wrath can be turned away from us, Jesus Christ our ATONING SACRIFICE.
One last hurdle must be jumped to understand this verse. What is meant by world here? Some say that the whole world, “must be comprehended as a generic expression that refers to humanity in general, but not necessarily every individual.” (MacArthur, 49) Another has suggested that “The universal provision implies that all men have need of it… the possibility of forgiveness is cosmic and universal.” (Marshall, 119) The question we want to know is in a biblical framework can world here mean every person in the world or can it mean something different. In other words to whom does the atoning sacrifice of Christ apply? Another thing to keep in mind here is the Greek word for would can also mean humankind (BDAG, 562). This is a general term and not a specific term. It can just mean humanity in general, without meaning every person individually.
One questions must be answered first. If Christ died for EVERYONE in the world why then is there a future judgment? Part of the work of Christ on the cross is taking the judgment that we as sinners deserve. If then, as many people believe this verse teaches, Christ paid the penalty for ALL SIN, that is EVERY persons’ sin why is there a judgment that will take place, and that judgment is because of sin?
Second is Christ paid for the SINS of ALL PEOPLE everywhere why do people stay in unbelief? If Christ died for every sin of every person on the face of the earth then why do people no believe, since unbelief is a sin, and Christ paid for it?
Enough of worthless speculation to the source, to the scriptures. It is wise in this case since we are studying John that we should look at what John has to say about the extent of the atonement. Who did Christ die for?
First to better understand what John means here by sins of the world I want to look for what John said in John 11:45-52. What we have going on here is Caiaphas is the High priest this year. The Jews are together and they are planning how they can put Jesus to death, how could they kill Jesus? He says in this verse that it is better that one-man die for the nation of Israel, which is Jesus, and John says he did not say this of his own accord but he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, but not the nation only but for the children who are scattered abroad from every nation. In other words Jesus died for more people than just the Jews. He died for all of those who would believe from the nations.
Another verse we can look at to this point is Rev, 5:9-10:
Jesus in his death ransomed a people for God from every, tribe. Tongue and nation. In other words Jesus ransomed people from all over the world for the Father. Those who believed from all around the world Jesus died for.
First lets look at John 3:14-16:
Jesus says here is verse 15 first that whoever believes has eternal life, and then in verse 16 Jesus was sent into the world by the Father to die so that whoever believes in Jesus will have eternal life. Notice in vs.16 we see the word world, but in the same verse we see that those who believe have eternal life.
This verse teaches us that whoever believes in the Son has Eternal life but whoever does not obey the Son, those who do not believe in Him, the will not see life and the wrath of God remains on them. They did not believe therefore the wrath of God remained on them therefore the wrath of God for their sin was not placed upon Jesus because they did not believe in Jesus. They will face the wrath of God on their sin because they did not believe.
Jesus laid his life down for his sheep. Jesus said this in John 10:11, the sheep are those who believe in Him. They are his children.
John 17 is the last thing we will look at. This is commonly called the High Priestly prayer of Jesus. Jesus in this prayer is interceding for those who are his disciples. First he prays for the disciples he had then and in vs.20 he prays for those who would believe because of their word. He is praying for those who would believe in later times. What is important is in vs.9 Jesus says I am not praying for the world, the whole world, but I am praying for those who were given to me, those who believed.
If the scope of Jesus’ intercessory work had a scope in which only believers were then why would the cross be any different. We also see in 1Jn. 2:1 that those for whom Jesus is an advocate is limited. It is limited in the sense that Jesus is the advocate for ALL who believe. It is important to remember that although Jesus only paid for the sins of those who believed the gospel is open to all, anyone may believe. So world here should probably best be taken as those who have believed from all over the world, because if people have not believed they are still under the wrath of God, and the Atonement of Jesus has not effect on them. The world here therefore “Cannot be pressed into meaning that all sins are automatically pardoned through the propitiation of Christ, but that a universal pardon is offered (for the sins of) the whole world and is enjoyed by those who embrace it.” (Stott, 89)
We do see from scripture where the cross has some impact on the world. There are so many passage which point to this, but we also see that scripture CLEARLY teaches that Jesus paid the penalty only for those who believe in Him. If Jesus paid the penalty for ALL people everywhere and people still do not believe there is something wrong with the atonement of Jesus Christ, this view gives the Atonement more power in that the Atonement actually secured the salvation of those who believe, not merely making it possible so some could be saved. The Atonement has unlimited power in anyone who believes in Jesus Christ’s atoning death on the cross can be saved.
Lets review here for a moment. Jesus is the atoning sacrifice for all who believe in his name. Jesus die for all peoples without distinction. That means anyone can believe in Jesus. No matter where they live who they are or what they believed before. The atonement is infinitely powerful to save all who believe in the name of Jesus Christ and trust in His Life, Atoning Death, and Resurrection from the dead.
Conclusion
As we do in every lesson we want to tie everything we have learned in with what John has taught us from the theme of First John: Assurance.
1. We can have assurance because Jesus is pleading our case before the Father. When we sin we should know that Jesus is still pleading our case. He does not stop because we failed, in fact the way John presents this is that we will fail and Jesus and God the Father already know this, but they still give believers there grace and mercy.
2. Jesus is our atoning sacrifice. Jesus paid the price we could not pay. In His death on the cross Jesus bought my forgiveness and turned away the wrath of God from me. There was nothing I could do. There was nothing I could do to earn the forgiveness of God or to turn away the wrath of God, but Jesus did it. There was no gift I could offer for this to happen Jesus and Jesus alone could do it. And from this I should be assured there is nothing I can do to ruin what Jesus has done for me, even when I sin, if I am a true believer a true Christian, His death still was for me.
In our next lesson we will pick up the pace just a little and we will do 2:3-14 so we might finish First John before the end of the semester.
Before we do verses 1-2 of chapter 2 we should review what we have done so far since we have been away from First John for almost a month now.
1. The theme of the book is ASSURANCE, which is found in 5:13, John writes to those who believe in Jesus Christ already so they may know they have eternal life. A key thing to remember here is assurance is OBJECTIVE. That is you know you are assured of salvation when you are doing something, mainly obeying the word of God. Assurance for JOHN NEVER comes from a past event. It is something we see from the present. Are we living for Christ now? Do we continually live for Christ and obey His word? Are we spending time in His word? These are questions we should all ask ourselves when facing issues with assurance and we are having doubts.
2. John was battling a false teaching known as Gnosticism. This teaching denied that Jesus was who He said he was, who the Apostles said He was. They believed that salvation was not found in Jesus Christ but is found through a secret knowledge which only a few have and this knowledge was given to them by God. These teachers somehow invaded the community to whom John wrote this letter and threw the believers faith into disarray.
3. In verses 1-4 John pointed his readers to the historical significance of the incarnation. The incarnation is God taking on the form of human flesh in the person of Jesus Christ. John says Jesus was a real man. I saw him, I touched him, I heard him, and so did the other Apostles. I was not the only one there.
4. In verses 5-10 John took his opponents head on. First he assured his readers in vs.5 by pointing them to the character of God, when he said God is light. Believers can be assured because of who God is. Then is verses 6,8,10 John directly challenged what his opponents were teaching. They claimed they were perfect. They had no sin. John says this cannot happen. All people everywhere sin and t deny this truth is to make God out to be a liar, and His truth is not in such a person. Believers realize there sinfulness and they confess their sins to their Father who is faithful and just to forgive them their sins.
This is what we have learned so far. In this lesson we will tackle 2:1-2. These verses end out a section of the book which was started in 1:5. These verses can be difficult if we lose sight of WHO John is writing to.
In 1:6-10 John is directly challenging the false teachers. As we come to verse 1 of chapter 2 John is now addressing believers. Keep this in mind as we look at these verses, I think they will clear up a lot of misunderstanding about these verses. For some here I may present some things you may not have heard before, but my goal is to let the scriptures speak for themselves, and not to put any viewpoint I have into the text.
The Reality of Sin in the Believers Life
Every believer whether we want to or not still sins. In fact a true believer will acknowledge that they sin. John here in vs.1 acknowledges that believers will still sin, although they will confess their sin and know there sin is wrong.
The language of this first part of this verse can be kind of confusing in our English translations. The reason this is because our translations say I write these things so that you may not sin. It seems to us as if John is saying I write these things so you will not sin at all as believers. But then John goes on to say if anyone does sin. So what is John saying here?
First off John is setting forth a standard of Perfectionism in that believers can and should achieve perfection here in this life. If John were to be saying this he would contradict himself and his readers would wonder why he exhorted them to confess their sins just a few moments ago. John is not contradicting himself here.
John is acknowledging the reality of sin in a believers life. The phrase here in this verse “conveys the strong probability of actual occurrence… (which) could be translated ‘if anyone sins and it will happen.’” (MacArthur, John, 1-3 John, 45) John acknowledges that believers will sin. A danger here will be to think that John is condoning sin in the life of a believer. This is not the case at all John is trying to “prevent sin not condone it.” (Stott, John, Letters of John, TNCS, 84) There is no hint whatsoever that John is condoning sin, and this is clear from all of the book which will be VERY clear as we go along in the book.
Sin whether we as believers like it or not is something we will struggle with until we reach eternity with the Father then we will be perfect, we will be glorified we will have new bodies. The difference between a believer, a Christian, and someone who is not a Christian, is the Christian will fight against their sin. They do not want to sin, they will be like Paul in Romans 7 where he says he wants to not sin, but he keeps on doing it. The believer will still sin, but the believer at the same time will not want to sin.
Jesus our Advocate
John acknowledging that believers will still sin, sin is still a reality in the lives of Christians, immediately points the believers to Jesus Christ their advocate.
The first thing to answer here is what does ADVOCATE mean for the believer? The word literally means called along side of (Stott, 85). It means advocate or counsel for the defense in a legal context (Marshall, The Epistles of John, NICNT, 116). In other words it is someone who is called to help someone on their behalf. But what does this mean for the Christian?
First we must realize that Jesus is pleading on the behalf of sinners is not pleading based off of what the believers has done. In fact Jesus is an odd defense attorney in that he realizes and acknowledges the person’s guilt before God. They are guilty. James Montgomery Boice says this on this verse: “In John the idea of merit on the part of the accused is entirely absent; rather the merit is on the part of the advocate.” (Boice, James Montgomery, The Epistles of John, 38) Jesus is our advocate but he pleads our case on what HE has done and NOT on what WE as believers have done. The reason is we have done nothing which could possibly merit any forgiveness at all. If Jesus were to be our advocate based upon what we have done He would lose his case every time, but He is our advocate based on what he has done and therefore “Jesus as our advocate has never lost a case and never will.” (MacArthur, 44)
Here is what the scene is. You all have heard this before from me. I Ben Wilson am standing before the Holy Judge of the Universe, God the Father. He is trying me and going through everything I have ever done in my life. As He looks at my life and holds my life up to the light of His Holiness the only sentence God the Father can give me is eternal punishment in Hell, that is all I deserve. The trial is almost over the gavel is about to strike the desk and all of the sudden there is this crashing in the back of the courtroom. We look at around to see who it is and it is Jesus. Jesus pleads on my behalf and says Father I obeyed your will for him, I died for Him and I rose for Him. I know he is guilty and deserves your wrath, but Father in your love you sent me to die for him so he could be made right with you. I did all I did for him. He is mine.
Lest someone think this analogy pins Jesus and God the Father against one another rest assured it does not. Jesus is not against the Father and the Father is not against Jesus. They work together, they have the same purpose. John Stott put it this way: “In a picture of a righteous advocate standing before the Father on our behalf, ‘the case is not that of love pleading with justice.’ Rather the opposite ‘Justice pleads with love for our release.’” (Stott, 86)
Jesus can only be our advocate because of who He is. He is Jesus Christ the Righteous. Jesus is righteous. Everything about Him is righteous. His death is only effective once and for all time because he is righteous. Jesus the righteous one is our advocate before the Father. What a comfort this is to think upon as believers. Knowing that we still sin, James Montgomery Boice said this of this verse as believers we have, “forgiveness in advance for any sin that might come into our lives. This is God’s promise, and it is given that we might not sin. God is not shocked by human behavior, as we often are, for he sees it in advance, including the sins of Christians.” (Boice, 37)
As believers who still struggle with sin may we remember we have a righteous advocate before the Father Jesus Christ.
Jesus our Atonement
Before we begin this verse I want to throw out a word of caution. This verse has been HIGHLY and HOTLY debated throughout the History of the church. The reason is there is two different views relating to the EXTENT or the SCOPE of the ATONEMENT OF CHRIST. Did Christ die for all people unqualified? As in every person on the earth? Or did Christ die for a specific people, mainly those who believe? These are all sensitive questions, and questions which we as believers must let the scriptures speak on their own.
The key to understanding this verse is focusing upon the word PROPITIATION. If we do this vs.2 will not be as difficult as some make it out to be. Many want to focus on the word world and this throws confusion into everything.
John starts off this verse by saying Jesus is the propitiation for our sins, that is for himself and the people to whom he is writing to. Some translations of the Bible use “atoning sacrifice” here is this verse instead of propitiation, and this is probably preferable. But what we must keep in mind though is if we take this view propitiation is still in view. Just because we use a different phrase does not mean propitiation is gone. Some problems people have with this verse and what word to us instead of propitiation is the Greek word here is used only twice in the whole New Testament and the other use is in ch. 4:10 of First John.
Jesus being our atoning sacrifice is our propitiation and our expiation. Propitiation has to do with the removal of the wrath of God. Jesus in His death on the cross bore the wrath of God for sin. Jesus is also our expiation. That is Jesus on the cross-bought the removal of sin, so we can be forgiven. I. Howard Marshall says here: “The one action has the double effect of expiating the sin and thereby propitiating God.” (Marshall, 118)
The problem many people face here is they see the idea of propitiation as archaic and heathen. In Ancient times people would offer sacrifices, mainly human sacrifices, to ward off an angry deity. They believed this would appease the wrath of this angry deity. The truth of propitiation is TOTALLY different in a biblical context. “In Christianity it is never the man who takes the initiative or makes the sacrifice, but God himself who out of his great love for the sinner provides the way by which his own wrath against sin may be placated.” (Boice, 40)
• “There can, therefore, be no question of human beings appeasing an angry deity by their gifts. The Christian propitiation is quite different, not only in the character of the divine anger but in the means by which it is propitiated. It is an appeasement of the wrath of God by the love of God through the gift of God… His wrath is averted not be an external gift, but by his own self-giving to die the death of sinners.” (Stott, 93)
Propitiation is the love of God sending His son to die for sinners so they could be made right with him. The death of Jesus is the most loving thing God could have done. As sinners we deserve the wrath of God against our sin. But God in His love has made a way whereby our sins can be forgiven and his wrath can be turned away from us, Jesus Christ our ATONING SACRIFICE.
One last hurdle must be jumped to understand this verse. What is meant by world here? Some say that the whole world, “must be comprehended as a generic expression that refers to humanity in general, but not necessarily every individual.” (MacArthur, 49) Another has suggested that “The universal provision implies that all men have need of it… the possibility of forgiveness is cosmic and universal.” (Marshall, 119) The question we want to know is in a biblical framework can world here mean every person in the world or can it mean something different. In other words to whom does the atoning sacrifice of Christ apply? Another thing to keep in mind here is the Greek word for would can also mean humankind (BDAG, 562). This is a general term and not a specific term. It can just mean humanity in general, without meaning every person individually.
One questions must be answered first. If Christ died for EVERYONE in the world why then is there a future judgment? Part of the work of Christ on the cross is taking the judgment that we as sinners deserve. If then, as many people believe this verse teaches, Christ paid the penalty for ALL SIN, that is EVERY persons’ sin why is there a judgment that will take place, and that judgment is because of sin?
Second is Christ paid for the SINS of ALL PEOPLE everywhere why do people stay in unbelief? If Christ died for every sin of every person on the face of the earth then why do people no believe, since unbelief is a sin, and Christ paid for it?
Enough of worthless speculation to the source, to the scriptures. It is wise in this case since we are studying John that we should look at what John has to say about the extent of the atonement. Who did Christ die for?
First to better understand what John means here by sins of the world I want to look for what John said in John 11:45-52. What we have going on here is Caiaphas is the High priest this year. The Jews are together and they are planning how they can put Jesus to death, how could they kill Jesus? He says in this verse that it is better that one-man die for the nation of Israel, which is Jesus, and John says he did not say this of his own accord but he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, but not the nation only but for the children who are scattered abroad from every nation. In other words Jesus died for more people than just the Jews. He died for all of those who would believe from the nations.
Another verse we can look at to this point is Rev, 5:9-10:
Rev. 5:9 And they sang a new song, saying,
“Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals,
for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God
from every tribe and language and people and nation,
Rev. 5:10 and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God,
and they shall reign on the earth.”
“Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals,
for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God
from every tribe and language and people and nation,
Rev. 5:10 and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God,
and they shall reign on the earth.”
Jesus in his death ransomed a people for God from every, tribe. Tongue and nation. In other words Jesus ransomed people from all over the world for the Father. Those who believed from all around the world Jesus died for.
First lets look at John 3:14-16:
John 3:14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
John 3:15 that whoever believes fin him may have eternal life.”*
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world,* that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
John 3:15 that whoever believes fin him may have eternal life.”*
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world,* that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Jesus says here is verse 15 first that whoever believes has eternal life, and then in verse 16 Jesus was sent into the world by the Father to die so that whoever believes in Jesus will have eternal life. Notice in vs.16 we see the word world, but in the same verse we see that those who believe have eternal life.
John 3:36 Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him
This verse teaches us that whoever believes in the Son has Eternal life but whoever does not obey the Son, those who do not believe in Him, the will not see life and the wrath of God remains on them. They did not believe therefore the wrath of God remained on them therefore the wrath of God for their sin was not placed upon Jesus because they did not believe in Jesus. They will face the wrath of God on their sin because they did not believe.
Jesus laid his life down for his sheep. Jesus said this in John 10:11, the sheep are those who believe in Him. They are his children.
John 17 is the last thing we will look at. This is commonly called the High Priestly prayer of Jesus. Jesus in this prayer is interceding for those who are his disciples. First he prays for the disciples he had then and in vs.20 he prays for those who would believe because of their word. He is praying for those who would believe in later times. What is important is in vs.9 Jesus says I am not praying for the world, the whole world, but I am praying for those who were given to me, those who believed.
If the scope of Jesus’ intercessory work had a scope in which only believers were then why would the cross be any different. We also see in 1Jn. 2:1 that those for whom Jesus is an advocate is limited. It is limited in the sense that Jesus is the advocate for ALL who believe. It is important to remember that although Jesus only paid for the sins of those who believed the gospel is open to all, anyone may believe. So world here should probably best be taken as those who have believed from all over the world, because if people have not believed they are still under the wrath of God, and the Atonement of Jesus has not effect on them. The world here therefore “Cannot be pressed into meaning that all sins are automatically pardoned through the propitiation of Christ, but that a universal pardon is offered (for the sins of) the whole world and is enjoyed by those who embrace it.” (Stott, 89)
We do see from scripture where the cross has some impact on the world. There are so many passage which point to this, but we also see that scripture CLEARLY teaches that Jesus paid the penalty only for those who believe in Him. If Jesus paid the penalty for ALL people everywhere and people still do not believe there is something wrong with the atonement of Jesus Christ, this view gives the Atonement more power in that the Atonement actually secured the salvation of those who believe, not merely making it possible so some could be saved. The Atonement has unlimited power in anyone who believes in Jesus Christ’s atoning death on the cross can be saved.
Lets review here for a moment. Jesus is the atoning sacrifice for all who believe in his name. Jesus die for all peoples without distinction. That means anyone can believe in Jesus. No matter where they live who they are or what they believed before. The atonement is infinitely powerful to save all who believe in the name of Jesus Christ and trust in His Life, Atoning Death, and Resurrection from the dead.
Conclusion
As we do in every lesson we want to tie everything we have learned in with what John has taught us from the theme of First John: Assurance.
1. We can have assurance because Jesus is pleading our case before the Father. When we sin we should know that Jesus is still pleading our case. He does not stop because we failed, in fact the way John presents this is that we will fail and Jesus and God the Father already know this, but they still give believers there grace and mercy.
2. Jesus is our atoning sacrifice. Jesus paid the price we could not pay. In His death on the cross Jesus bought my forgiveness and turned away the wrath of God from me. There was nothing I could do. There was nothing I could do to earn the forgiveness of God or to turn away the wrath of God, but Jesus did it. There was no gift I could offer for this to happen Jesus and Jesus alone could do it. And from this I should be assured there is nothing I can do to ruin what Jesus has done for me, even when I sin, if I am a true believer a true Christian, His death still was for me.
In our next lesson we will pick up the pace just a little and we will do 2:3-14 so we might finish First John before the end of the semester.
Saturday, March 1, 2008
The Church Part 2
Have you ever wondered what the church is? Who makes up the church? Can anyone be a part of a church? Is the church a social club that exists ONLY for social work?
These are questions many people face when they think of the church. And there are probably as many answers to these questions as there are people who try to answer these questions. As believers when we think of the church our ONE AND ONLY SOURCE is the scriptures.
In this second post on the church I want to look at one verse which talks about WHO makes up the community of the church. To do this I want to look at an Old Testament passage, Jeremiah 31:34, in the New American Standard Bible it reads like this:
These are questions many people face when they think of the church. And there are probably as many answers to these questions as there are people who try to answer these questions. As believers when we think of the church our ONE AND ONLY SOURCE is the scriptures.
In this second post on the church I want to look at one verse which talks about WHO makes up the community of the church. To do this I want to look at an Old Testament passage, Jeremiah 31:34, in the New American Standard Bible it reads like this:
"They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them," declares the Lord, "for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sins I will remember no more."
This passage in Jeremiah has been commonly called the New Covenant passage. God is making a new covenant with his people. This New Covenant, as the name suggests, is different. The Old one was broken by the people Israel and this new one is to replace the old one.
There are three things we learn about who makes the church in this verse.
1. They all know the Lord. Only someone who has been saved, who knows the Lord can be a member of the New Covenant Community, the Church. They will no longer have to teach everyone in the Community to know the Lord, as they did in the Old Covenant, because they will all know the Lord. This is commonly called a REGENERATE CHURCH MEMBERSHIP. Only a person who is saved can truly be a member of a local church and the universal church. Of course we know there will always be people in our churches who will not be saved, this is where the idea of the invisible and visible church comes in, which we will discuss in a later post. In order to be a true member of the church, the New Covenant Community a person MUST be a Christian.
2. The people who make up the church have had their sins forgiven. So the opposite is those who have not had their sins forgiven cannot be a part of the church. The people of the church are to be a forgiven people.
3. Lastly their sins are not remembered any more. Their sins are no longer in God's sight. They have been wiped away because of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
The people who make up the church are to be a saved people. They are to be Christians, believers in Christ, and only they can be a part of the New Covenant Community, the church.
Stay tuned for more next time.
There are three things we learn about who makes the church in this verse.
1. They all know the Lord. Only someone who has been saved, who knows the Lord can be a member of the New Covenant Community, the Church. They will no longer have to teach everyone in the Community to know the Lord, as they did in the Old Covenant, because they will all know the Lord. This is commonly called a REGENERATE CHURCH MEMBERSHIP. Only a person who is saved can truly be a member of a local church and the universal church. Of course we know there will always be people in our churches who will not be saved, this is where the idea of the invisible and visible church comes in, which we will discuss in a later post. In order to be a true member of the church, the New Covenant Community a person MUST be a Christian.
2. The people who make up the church have had their sins forgiven. So the opposite is those who have not had their sins forgiven cannot be a part of the church. The people of the church are to be a forgiven people.
3. Lastly their sins are not remembered any more. Their sins are no longer in God's sight. They have been wiped away because of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
The people who make up the church are to be a saved people. They are to be Christians, believers in Christ, and only they can be a part of the New Covenant Community, the church.
Stay tuned for more next time.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)