What is a Christian?
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1 John is about- Big Idea
In God’s Love he opens the door with our life we walk threw it.
Read Psalm 34 8
8 Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.
1 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.
68 You are good, and what you do is good; teach me your decrees.
Question: Explain the term goodness of God?
Prevision
Care
Favor
His Love
Our Victory
Goodness is our desire to act well, and prioritize God’s desires: Love, Righteousness, Justice and Mercy
Goodness of God is what we see, we see that he loves us unconditionally...
Which at times leaves me wondering the sanity of God.
But thats just it We attempt to humanize God…Simply because we cant understand it.
John is facing a similar situation although not quiet there.....
John is a man of Life…he has the task of overseeing the churches in asia minor but also highly involved with the church in Ephesus.
What do we know about john?
Brother of James
Son of Zebedee
Grew up in Galilee
Fisher prior to Jesus
peter and Andrew worked for John’s Dad
john 13 23 John is called “the disciple whom Jesus loved”
In 2 john He is called the elder…
The Character of John
Son’s of Thunder…Called for Fire from heaven upon Samaria
Was suppose to die by boiling of oil but he wouldn't boil…so he was sentenced to Patmos where he wrote another book.
Instead died of old age.
John as an author
1 John is the most negative book.
Doesn't have an audience in specifics
John Preaches love but is getting beat up with the stories of the church being not over loving, but adaptoing a worldly loving criteria...
Love is acceptance…but not all accepting...
16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,
We do this in love but its for the better.
SO 1 john isa narrative of corrective actions…and i was us to dive into these for just a few minutes.
1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.
2 The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us.
3 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.
4 We write this to make our joy complete.
SO while we have john fixing an issue were going to see his corrective actions. Lets break it down under the question…What what is a christian.
A Christian is one who..(look at the verse) ..follows…Lets see this....
One who Follows
One who Follows
Heard
Seen
Touched
These are all actions we take to receive knowledge of....
We heard: that vocal evidence
We have Seen: that a physical evidence
We have touched: thats a closeness of relationship
I think those are good evidences of following right?
14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
John takes this prolific sentence this outrageous accusation and essentially says ive seen Glory...
This is how John is starting off the gospel.
This is how John is testifying to the evidences of jesus christ the messiah the one who would come and fulfill prophesy.
1 After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves.
John is in the circle…John was apart of a moment you and i can only hope to see one day. Jesus changed in appearance in order to show the disciples the diety of God with Jesus.
16 For we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
17 He received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”
18 We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain.
What we experience we must proclaim.
You know God has equipt you for such a time as this.
And when we decide to follow Jesus and the Way he sets before us we are on a journey of learning how to take our wordly pleasures and make them Godly Pleasures. We take our wordly suffering and make the Kingdom Sufferings..
We must in doing this take our old proclamations of lies and find new proclamations of truth.
So when we speak what are we saying, .John says the Word of Life.
Word: Logos: a thing that is spoken or a matter.
Logos can mean a spoken word. like in matt 22 46
or it can be used as a divine revelation.
like in John 1 1
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Where the word is identified with God
later in the chapter the word takes on flesh..
Then later shows jesus as that word which means he would be divine revelation for us all.
So the Study of Logos is the study of Divine things..
LEt me ask you a question.
When you want to make a large purchase do you just buy it?
Or do you study it like crazy!? Looking to and fro multiple different websites. Sometimes it leads you to buying something else, sometimes it gives you all the facts you need to purchase it.
Why dont we have that same type of compassion when it comes to our spiritual life....
Proclaimed the Word of Life
not blindly but according to the word “ LOGOS”
Read 1 John 1 5-10
5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.
6 If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth.
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.
Whats a christian?
One who Knows
One who Knows
Stands on the truth of God , He cleanses our minds when we know him. vs 5....
5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.
isnt talking about good verus evil…its talking about truth and error…and they cant and dont mix...
We must know Him. ....Jesus…threw the knowing of the word.
15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
God is truth and in him there is no error…is how that verse could read
When we set this up in our lives we take down the walls of humanizing Jesus…which is limiting God in our path.
God doesn't need us to water down gospels, or to get overwhelmed trying to save souls, nor does he need us to fret about tomorrow.
God is a God of everlasting…but God is also a God Righteousness.
Righteousness requires discipline, requires restraint, requires self control, requires integrity.
Righteousness requires more of us.
John is speaking to a people who have either given in, or given up.
and guess what John could have responded the same way.
But if you dont stand for something you stand for nothing.
Here john is standing on what He has seen, heard and touched. He is standing on Logos, The Prophetic, overbearing Glory of God that he had seen not only transform before him, but he has seen transform the lives of those around him, and even his own life.
.
What is a christian?
One who Confesses
One who Confesses
Forgiveness and purity are given to us.
vs 9
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
All unrighteousness
We confess because he is the light…he is the truth…and when we walk in confusion. when we walk in corruption, in deceitfulness.
When we walk in those things its everything that God dislikes…
13 But you have planted wickedness, you have reaped evil, you have eaten the fruit of deception. Because you have depended on your own strength and on your many warriors,
14 the roar of battle will rise against your people, so that all your fortresses will be devastated— as Shalman devastated Beth Arbel on the day of battle, when mothers were dashed to the ground with their children.
15 So will it happen to you, Bethel, because your wickedness is great. When that day dawns, the king of Israel will be completely destroyed.
Our Big Idea:
In God’s Love he opens the door
with our life we walk threw it.
Taste and see that the Lord is good;
blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.
Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
his love endures forever.