How Shall we Live?

2 That is the gospel, the message that I preached to you. You are saved by the gospel if you hold firmly to it—unless it was for nothing that you believed [GROWING].

So - if we believe that Jesus lived, died and rose again, then we believe that the world is not as we always thought it was. We have to then ask: What should we do?

How should we live?

1 John says we should walk in the light.

1 John 1:7 NRSV

7 but if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

Walk in the light of Jesus, have fellowship, and be cleansed.

I’ll focus on 1 John 1:7 today.

But first we visit Acts 4 - a practical understanding of how a massive change took place in people’s lives when they witnessed the resurrection. Then I want to look at the context of 1 John 1:7 in the light of the rest of 1 John 1:1-2:2.

Acts 4 - New World!

The Early Christians in the book of Acts did something we can hardly imagine:

Acts 4:32 NRSV

32 Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common.

Their understanding of the world was so radically changed that they relinquished their right to private property!

I love my car - and I’d like to believe I’d lend it to you if you asked me… but I’m not sure I’d be so comfortable.

They truly threw themselves in to whole hearted and risky faith - trusting Jesus as Lord of all and of the church community.

Verse 33 goes on to say:

Acts 4:33 …and great grace was upon them all!

So - because of their Embrace of the new reality (Jesus had died and risen again), and their grounding in this faith - this new perspective, they grew into a new relationship with money and possessions.

For a moment we might think what an awesome community - but soon in Acts 5 we read of problems that arose out of people’s dishonesty and within a century or so the church reverted to a different sort of economy of tithes and offerings.

Walk in the Light.

So this Early Church had a massive values change. Selling their possessions - holding everything in common. And like I said - this initial fervour did not last very long. Human sin got in the way.

But what can we do to keep the community going, and deal with sin? 1 John 1:1-2:2 might offer us a helpful solution. And it has to do with walking the light - as 1 John 1:7 reminds us.

Put simply:

1 John 1:7 NRSV

7 but if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

Walk in the Light Have Fellowship Deal with Sin

1 John 1:7 (NRSV)

7 but if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light,

Turn the Light on

Light does amazing things. Even ancient people knew that it was more than just something to see by. They saw that if plants had light they grew well. If people had too little light they got ill.

Today we see even more - solar panels can produce electricity. Some people have so many solar panels even their washing machine and TV just runs on sunlight.

Light helps us to see.

And light gives us life.

In John’s writing there is a lot of talk about light.

The word occurs 23 times in John and only 6 or 7 in Matthew and Luke, once in Mark.

And we know the language John uses - John 1 our favourite I am sure:

John 1:3–5 (NRSV)

3 What has come into being 4 in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5 The light shines in the darkness…

John 1:9 NRSV

9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

I don’t want to ruin your favourite restaurant for you - but I doubt the lights are very bright there.

When you turn on the flood lights you can see how dirty everything is.

But when you have lovely candle light - you’re not too worried.

Different lights help you to see differently.

The light that we need to turn on in our lives is a Jesus light.

John 8:12 NRSV

12 Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.”

The switch for this light:

1 - Pay attention to Jesus first. Read the Bible - understand God through the light of Jesus. Start with the gospels

2 - Prayer - Ask Jesus to help you see things in his light - even the reading of the Bible. Jesus will send God the Holy Spirit to help.

1 John 1:7 (NRSV)

7 but if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

Fellowship

I have a lovely powerful torch for load shedding. It is a bit problematic though. It is so bright that if I’m shining it at you - you can’t see me.

It is also so bright that when I shine it at things in the house and walk from room to room the shadows seem bigger and darker and a bit more scary than usual.

So my trick with my super bright flash light is to shine it at the roof. And that gives us enough light to see.

But when the power comes back on - my lounge has about 6 of those downlighters. Because they’re all positioned in different spaces - there are no shadows. Just light:

1 John 1:7 NRSV

7 but if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.

In our Christian fellowship - we’ve agreed:

1 - I want to see in the light of Jesus.

2 - My understanding of God, of Scripture of life is going to be Jesus shaped.

Part of the Jesus way of seeing things - a lovely parable about eyes:

Matthew 7:3 NRSV

3 Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye?

We need each other to help with picking the logs out of our eyes.

We need the light of each one of us’s understanding in order to get the full picture of a Jesus’ understanding.

Fellowship is a partnership of fellow pilgrims trying to walk in the light of Jesus

realising that the little lamp I am holding is not quite good enough - I need more lamps.

And the only way I can get those is to have fellowship with other believers.

1 John 1:7 (NIV84)

- 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.

So - in response to Jesus’ death and resurrection we:

1 - Turn on the Lights

2 - Open ourselves to fellowship

3 - Deal with sin

Sin

I’m sometimes a bit jealous of the preachers of one hundred years ago or so - even John Wesley.

They were very good at talking about how bad we were as sinners:

Sermons, on Several Occasions (Sermon 5: Justification by Faith)

…thou vile, helpless, miserable sinner! I charge thee before God, the Judge of all, go straight unto him, with all thy ungodliness.

Vile, Helpless and Miserable Sinner.

I’m not a big fan of being called ‘Vile’ ‘Helpless’ and ‘Miserable’.

And in our culture of ‘positivity’ we might have become a bit too sensitive to negative feedback.

If maybe in the 18th century people might have been a little too conscious of their sin - in the 21st century I think we might have become a little too unconscious of our sin.

1 John reminds us to be conscious of our sin:

1 John 1:8 NRSV

8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

Just honest.

I’m a sinner.

You’re a sinner.

And we’re probably - like John Wesley says:

vile, helpless and miserable.

We’re tempted to justify ourselves. Ignore our failures. Over emphasise our positive points.

But if you look at the mess we’ve made of our lives. The ways we’ve hurt ourselves and others -

Maybe we need to own up to our sinfulness.

And we can face our failures because Christ has faced them for us.

1 John 1 continues:

1 John 1:9 NRSV

9 If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

John Wesley goes on to preach in his sermon on Justification by faith:

Sermons, on Several Occasions (Sermon 5: Justification by Faith)

O come quickly! Believe in the Lord Jesus; and thou, even thou, art reconciled to God.

1 John 1:7 (NIV84)

- 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.

If we walk in the light.

We turn the light of Jesus on - and we start to see the cockroaches in our lives.

If we walk in the light.

We have fellowship with each other. This means we partner for a purpose… to follow Jesus.

If we walk in the light.

We’ll be honest about being sinners. We’ll be patient with each other because we’re all sinners. And we’ll allow the blood of Jesus (the son of God) to purify us.

Next Steps

1 - Don’t just attend [join]

Fellowship / Care and Prayer / Regular Bible Study

2 - Don’t wait for Sunday

Read / Connect / Devote Yourselves (Choose wisely!)

3 - Be honest and patient - you’re a mess - but God has got you.

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