1 John 2:7-14 Knowing God

2:7,8

What is all this stuff about not being a new commandment, (v7) and then “I am writing a new command”(v8)? When we sinned we became slaves to sin, when we come to know Jesus we are born again, we are set free, what was once impossible is now possible. 

2:9,10

So a definite sign that we do know Jesus is that we love our brothers and sisters in Christ. If we hate our brothers then that is a pretty sure sign that we are still in the darkness, and the converse is true. Knowing Christ changes our attitude to other people.

2:11

The person who hates his brother is walking in the darkness. We should not follow such people for they have been blinded, they have no idea where they are going.

2:12-14

John is talking about sin, but we approach the subject from the position that we have been forgiven, John then mention two other groups, fathers and young men, Both are approached from a positive angle. Fathers know Him who is from the beginning, young men have overcome the evil one. The Gnostic types would claim to have special knowledge, and to be able to give the young men special power, but the way to overcome the evil one is through Christ alone. We have all the power and salvation that we need in Christ

1 John 2:3-6 - A test

2:3-6

We don’t earn salvation by what we do, but what we do shows whether or not we are saved, If Jesus comes into our lives things will start to change, we will start to change. Keeping His commands is a sign that we do actually know Him (see John 14:23). Conversely, if someone claims to know Jesus but does not obey Him, then they are a liar. We can ignore such a person. A sign that the love of God is complete in us is obedience to God. Obedience is the fruit of the gospel.Obedience to Christ is a test we should apply to all teachers.

1 John 2:1,2 - The perfect sacrifice

2:1,2

“My dear children”, John is writing to them with affection. The teaching on sin, and our attitude to it is vital. On the one hand there is a recognition that all of us do sin,  on the other hand the fruit of the gospel is that we become more and more christlike, i.e. we sin less. We should detest sin, especially in ourselves, but also in others. So what when we do sin. We need to repent, and we can be confident that God will forgive us, for we have an advocate with the Father. JHesus Christ speaks on our behalf, and He is the perfect atoning sacrifice. Our sins deserves God’s wrath, but Christ is a propitiatory sacrifice, He turns aside God’s wrath. Some people object to the propitiatory nature of Christ's sacrifice, but such people are fools, we should rejoice in the nature of Christ’s sacrifice, for it means we can come to God, and that anyone can be saved.

1 John 1:5-10 walking in the light

1:5

The gnostic types had their high falutin ideas, but the apostles had direct experience of Jesus and preached a simply effective message.  “God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all. This would counter some of the gnostic nonsense.  We need to remember that the glory of the gospel is that it works.

1:6

God is light, so if we claim to have fellowship with God then we too must live in the light. The lives of the gnostics were questionable, to say the least. If we live in darkness, yet claim to be representing God we are liars and know nothing of the truth.

1:7

Instead we must walk in the light as He is in the light. Then we have fellowship with one another. Two key aspects to being true disciples of Christ are (i) fellowship with Christ; (ii) fellowship with fellow believers. We are purified by the blood of Jesus,

1:8

Claiming perfection immediately identifies us as liars and know nothing of the truth. 

1:9,10

This verse always amazes me. “He is faithful and just” The gospel is a gospel of forgiveness, Jesus came to save sinners, not the righteousness. The cross is the perfect and complete answer to our sinfulness. But it is not just a matter of forgiveness, but of changing us as well, “purifying us of all unrighteousness”. If we think that because of forgiveness we can do what we want and be forgiven, then this only serves to demonstrate that we have a fundamental misunderstanding of the gospel, we have missed it. 

1 John 1:1-4 - the Word of Life

1:1

There are similarities in the introduction to the start of John’s gospel. He speaks about the Word, and stresses that the word was from the beginning, i.e.  the Word is eternal, also it is the Word of life. John also stresses his personal experience of the Word, i.e. that which we have seen, looked at and touched.

1:2

The Gnostics may have had grand sounding theories, but John, and others, had direct personal experience of the Word. The Word came from the Father, note how much stress is put on this in John’s gospel.

1:3.4

John and the apostles proclaimed what they had seen, and his hearers could have the same fellowship, they were not some special select group, their fellowship was with the Father and the Son. And they were delighted to share this good news. The gnostic types presented themselves as somehow set apart.

Epistles of John - Introduction

Introduction - Epistles of John

Th author is generally taken to be John the Apostle, the evidence for this comes from writings by several of the church fathers, inclusing Irenaeua, clement, trtullian and Origen. There are also several rsylistic similarities with John;s gospel.

The first letter may have been a tract circulated around the churches in the Ephesus region, warning against false teachings, and the other two shorter letters warn against false teachers. John is sometimes known as the “apostle of love”, and his letter warns of the importance of demonstrating love in practical ways. At the same time he also stresses the importance of doctrinal purity, so often we put the two in opposition to each other. The Bible does not do this.  One of the false teachings was nascent gnosticism, and was one of the earliest challenges to the gospel. The essence was that the spirit was good and matter was evil. From this flowed five key errors:

•  The human body is evil;

• Salvation is achieved by escape from the body;

• Christ’s true humanity was denied;

• The boidy was to be treated harshly;

• Conversely, it could lead to sexual sinfulness.

2 John was written to give advice on dealing with travelling false teachers. As christians there is a tendency for us to want to be “nice” and non-judgemental. John’s letters demonstrate the naivety of such an approach. The Bible, and John’s letters in particular, have a much more balanced approach. 

Matthew 28:11-20 - The gospel goes forward

28:11-15

Looking at Matthew there is a very high “apologetic” element to his account, and this section is directly apologetic. I.e. it seeks to defend the reality of the resurrection against those who say it didn’t happen. We have already noted a number of points as we have looked at earlier verses, this section is overtly apologetic. The guards went to the chief priests to explain what had happened, , no doubt doing this rather shame faced, wondering how on earth they were going to explain things. From the fact that the chief priests gave them “a large sum of money” it would seem likely that the guards initially told them the truth of what they had experienced, or something pretty close to it. The chief priests could never cope with the truth, so they bribed the guards and told them to say the disciples had stolen the body. If we look back over the account we will note that several points make it clear that this did not happen. Ordinarily the guards would have been in enormous trouble, possibly even facing death. The Chief priests promise to clear things for them.

28:16,17

The disciples went to Galilee, as the women had instructed them. There they met Jesus and worshipped Him, but some doubted. Other gospels give a much fuller account of the encounters, especially Luke and John. “but some doubted”. People sometimes say if only they had a direct encounter with God they would believe. Well maybe they would, and maybe they wouldn’t. Our capacity to refuse to see the truth is enormous.

28:18

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me”. This is one of the most important facts about Jesus. When we consider who Jesus is we absolutely must be aware of this. And its impact goes far deeper than expecting Jesus to heal or do other things for us or others. It must be fundamental to our whole worldview. Believing in Jesus is not just about seeking to be like Jesus, it is about knowing who He is.

28:19

The previous verse, the fact that Jesus has all authority, is the foundation for our going into the world to make disciples of all nations. Should we seek to convert Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Atheists? Of course we should. Not because of an idea, but because Jesus is the One with all power and authority, so all people are called to be disciples of Him. They are to be baptized into the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Our mission is a trinitarian mission.

28:20

“And teaching them to obey everything I have commanded them”. Obedience is central to the gospel, yet we so often forget this. We do not want to be “judgmental”. The Bible knows nothing of any “belief” that does not involve obedience. And Jesus will be with us to the very end of the age. We do not embark on this mission alone, Jesus is right there with us. And notice how the focus of 28:18-20 is all on Jesus. All too easily we will take these words and then subtly make them a man centred mission. This is a Christ centred, Christ driven mission.