Sermon Tone Analysis

We started our series entitled Radical Community - There word Radical is defined in the Dictionary as as something that sprouts from the root…For in Botany it means - “coming from the root or the stem of a plant.”

We talk about “grass roots” movements --- going back to the beginning of when something sprouted…

We have in history— Radical movements like the Civil Rights movement…We remember Martin Luther King Jr speech “I have dream” that inspired our nation… What from sprouted from his passion was message and a movement....

We have Radical movements such as the… Reformation —led by Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Huss, John Wycliffe… Luther saw corruption in the church and the problem of John Tansel.. selling indulgences…for the forgivesness of sins… Luther saw Romans 3 that righteousness is achieved through faith… the Just shall live by faith..

The Great Awakening - led by Jonathan Edwards, George Whitfield, Wesley.. caused wave of revival in this nation ---

Radical Movements begin when a powerful message or idea resonates with a group of people…and the idea spreads… and compounds and impact future generations.

The message of 1 John is a Radical message - it is a message that has resonated with one generation of Christians to the next… and here we stand 2000 years later and still talking about what John taught about - building a community that loves God and one another..

last Sunday and we began this series by talking Beautiful imperfection…True community begins with us coming to terms with our own imperfection…

If we don’t own our imperfections we will never be able do deal with each others imperfections..

In chapter 1 John laid out a foundation begining with God being light … God is the measure of perfection -

John tells us that God is light and in him is no darkness at all… In other words --- God is the great luminary in creation and anything next to God is going to be pail in comparison..

We live in a society that is obsessed with perfection and success… but Despite our near-phobic fear of failure, the facts suggest that Failure is actually a common, almost universal, experience:

Steven Bauman, in his book Break Open the Sky - gives us these Statistics

75 percent of venture-capital-backed start-ups fail, and 95 percent do not meet the initial expectations.

40 percent of CEOs don't last eighteen months.

70 to 90 percent of mergers and acquisitions fail to add shareholder value.

81 percent of new hires don't work out.

99 percent of new patents never earn a penny.

95 percent of new products introduced in a given year fail.

68 percent of information technology projects fail to meet their goals.

88 percent of New Year's resolutions end in failure.

100 percent of all human bodies fail.

It seems Alexander Pope the English poet was right when he said

“to err is human”… Alexander Pope

How do we handle Failure?

There is this story of...

A man who had grown weary of the constant pressure to “keep up with the Joneses” decided to get away from it all, so he joined a mute monastery.

It was a very demanding commitment.

Monks could only say two words every five years.

For the first fifteen years, monks were on trial.

If they were successful in meeting the requirements of the monastery during this fifteen-year trial period, then they could take final vows.

Perfect, the man thought.

No phones to ring.

No clients to call on.

No credit cards to pay off.

This is just what I need.

So he joined and for the first five years didn’t say a word.

At the end of that time, he was called into his superior’s office where he was told he could say two words.

“Bad food!” he complained.

“Thank you, I’ll make a note of your observation,” his superior said, rather stiffly.

The man went back to his duties and for another five years didn’t utter a word.

At the end of that time, his superior asked him if he had anything he would like to say in two words.

The man replied, “Hard bed!”

For another five years he said not a word.

His superior called him in and asked him if he had anything to say and if he were ready to take his final vows.

The man stood up and said, “I quit!”

His superior replied, “Well, I’m not surprised.

You’ve done nothing but complain since you got here!”

We can’t just check out of life… because our imperfections follow us… rather than our failures making us feel inadequate (less than) --- Failure should drive us towards the knowing God.... Frank illustrated it in our mens group the other day… our righteousness is like carrying a flash light in comparison to the brilliance of the sun… 130 watt per square foot..

John tells us that the answer to failure is know I gotta Jesus— We not only need to know the Logos the eternal word… but as John says that we have been given the the “word (message) of life…

To know God, to abide in God and to have fellowship with God has always been the quest of the human spirit —

The African Theologian.

St Augustine said that - “God had made us for himself and that our hearts were restless until they found their rest in him.”

T/S In Chapter 2 John gives us the Key to dealing with failure..

How do we deal with failure?

1.Know that his love greater than our ability to fail.

This Chapter begins with an affectionate tone “My children I am writing to you.”

We get this sense that there is warm relationship that exists between John and the churches that are receiving this letter… Even though he is going to deal with failure… which is really a difficult subject to tackle… He does so with the motivation of parental love...

John desire that all us who read this letter might succeed in our walk with Christ.. We would find fellowship

with Christ and the father… that we would find fellowship in community of faith.... and the outcome --- would be the best outcome and that is.....Complete joy..

In Chapter 2 John is going to deal with the issue of our failures.

John knows that our trespasses or our sins is the barrier that comes up between our relationship with God and with others...

1 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin

John is not promoting a sinless life…there was only one person without sin...he is well aware of the reality of sin…But like a loving parent he pointing us in the right direction.

This verse reminded me of a toddler taking their first steps… You have one parent on the one side of the room holding the child ..and the other parent affectionately calling over their child… The one parent points the child in the right direction and say goto your mommy… As a parent you want them succeed… but at the same time you know that they may stumble and fall along the way.... its part of learning to walk…It is the same thing about learning how to walk in obedience..

He is not excusing sin… or like the gnostics saying that sin doesn’t matter.

but describing for us how to deal with failure and set us up for success…… It’s important that - He is not excusing sin…or promoting a life style of sin…

The theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in his book The Cost of Discipleship.. talks of this idea of cheap grace… Danger of using grace to excuse ourselves of our short coming..

Bonhofers.

“Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance… .

Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate”

… .this is not what John is propossing.

Quite the opposite… grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ”

John says desire to walk in right relationship with God others..... “but as you walk you are going to sin and when you do sin … God has provided a way for them to be cleansed.”

How does one deal with our propensity to sin and failure??

John tells us that Knowing Jesus as our Advocate is key

vrs 1.

But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

a.

We have representation..

We have an Advocate Parakletos - Often this word has been compared to a defense lawyer… but this is not quite the word used here… Rather it is more like an intercessor one who comes to our aid..

In the ancient world A Paraclete was normally a friend who was called in to plead one’s case… Someone who is a friend… has your best interest as hear rather “Advocate” in the sense of a defense lawyer a professional who does this for pay.

“Helper,” “Counselor.

What is interesting about this word is that it often used of the Holy Spirit being our helper, comforter,

counselor……When Jesus departed he said that he would sent another Comforter… implying that he himself is the original Paraclete… 1 John says that Jesus is our Advocate…

He’s the first one.

Christ is the first advocate—or agent—of God, who comes to tell us the truth and change our lives.. John pictures Jesus now in the heavenly realm… which may mirror the advocacy of the Spirit on earth…

The resurrected and ascended Jesus now represents us from his position on God’s throne itself.

He is no longer present on earth but brings us and our concerns directly to God.

He is no longer physically present on earth but brings embodied humanity into heaven and makes us present before God on his throne.

We have an Advocate WITH THE FATHER.

The word With is PROS in the Greek and it… means “in regards to” or “between”....John is telling us that Jesus stands between us and the Father --- Jesus is standing before the the Father of light— the one who he described as perfect in the absolute sense of the word…that in God there is no darkness at all… If we stand before him who is perfect…

Here is the thing if we standing next to a Holy Perfect God… our failure is going to be exposed…We can’t stand before God but Christ can… because

Jesus Christ is the righteous --- This was a title for Jesus in the Righteous one was an early title for Jesus

Jesus the one who has right standing before God...

We have an idea what this mind look like by kind of advocacy offered by Jesus in his prayer for Peter…

Jesus knew the temptation that Peter — that when was confronted by the authorities that Peter would cave in and deny knowing Jesus -

Jesus asked the Father to prevent Peter’s faith from collapsing.

He also had in mind Peter’s future helpfulness in strengthening the brother..

He desires them to aim at Holiness.. or wholeness…He wants us to aim at having a right relationship… set our sight on that… but our failure and imperfection reminds us daily that our need for the cross is not over....