Sermon Tone Analysis
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Big Idea: God is light, and when we believe we have joy in fellowship with the Father and with Jesus.
Complication: we have all sinned, and in order to have fellowship we must confess, and he promises to forgive and cleanse.
Hiding
Have you ever hidden something from someone you love?
When I was little we had a strict, no snacking policy in our home.
You ate at meal times, and that was that.
Sometimes at night my tummy would growl and I would think about that yummy home-made bread in the fridge.
When mom and dad were tucked away in their room I’d sneak as quietly as possible into the kitchen, open the fridge door, sneak a couple pieces of bread, and then quietly head back to bed.
Sometimes my sister and I would share in the scheme.
You can argue all you want about whether we should have been allowed to snack or not, or whether what we did was right or wrong.
That’s not really the point.
The point is that we knew we were breaking the rules and so we hid.
On more than one occasion a parent would come into the room after I had already gotten some bread and I’d have to quickly hide it under the pillow and pretend I was asleep.
But I didn’t hide it well enough.
Eventually mom would come help with my bed and find bread crumbs under the pillow.
When I was hiding things from my mom I would be afraid she’d find out.
Hiding made me not want to be around her. I’d stop being as friendly to her for fear that she’d find out my secret.
Hiding one thing caused me to hide my whole self.
The pattern of hiding would last as long as I kept the secret, or until she found out on her own.
Have you ever hidden something from someone you love?
If so, then you know that hiding things creates a break in your relationship.
It’s as though we put up a wall—a barrier—between us and the person we love so that they can’t see that thing we want to hide.
Every new thing we hide from them makes the wall grow taller.
The hiding wall can get so tall that by the time you’re a teenager all you want to do is grab your phone, put on some earbuds and disappear into your own world—hiding in plain sight.
Children hide from their parents.
Husbands hide from their wives, and wives hide from their husbands.
Friends hide from friends.
Hiding for fear of being found out.
Hiding for fear of being condemned.
Hiding for fear of being exposed.
Fellowship
We’re starting a new series on the book of first John that I’m calling Little Children.
We’ll start the first couple of chapters this month and then finish it up during the summer.
John was a special friend of Jesus.
He was probably the youngest disciple among the twelve.
Many scholars think that he was between 17 and 20 when Jesus called him from mending nets by the sea of Galilee.
He had the kind of close friendship with Jesus that you would see in life-long friends.
It wouldn’t have been uncommon or awkward to see him leaning up against Jesus with his arm around his shoulder.
They were best friends.
Its no surprise that the Gospel according to John is the most intimate look into the heart of Jesus of any of the other gospel books.
After Jesus’ ascension John didn’t go off to become a missionary like Peter who started the Roman church or like Paul who started churches all throughout Turkey and eastern Europe.
John was a mender of nets, not an adventurer.
So, John’s ministry was as a local pastor.
When persecution by the Jews drove him out of Jerusalem John ended up in Ephesus.
He remained there as something of an elder statesman in the that church until Roman officials imprisoned him on the Island of Patmos.
Like other apostles, John had an interest in the whole movement of Christianity, and so when he wrote the letter of 1 John he wrote to all the churches, even though it was probably first read in the church in Ephesus.
Let’s read the first four verses of 1 John chapter 1:
John is writing about “that which was from the beginning” and “the life” and “that which we have seen and touched,” “the word of life.”
In other words, John is writing about Jesus and the gospel of Jesus’ Kingdom.
The gospel, to John, includes the manifestation of the Word in Jesus, and the promise of eternal life with Him and with the Father.
This is big, motivating stuff for John, and he’s especially excited to share about it because he had personal experienced Jesus.
He’s one of Jesus’ best friends!
But notice his so-that statements.
These are the reasons he’s writing—the desired outcome of this letter.
So that you may have fellowship with us
So that our joy may be complete
That word, fellowship, is the greek word κοινωνία.
It’s a word used to describe the church—the fellowship—as well as any close relationship.
When you have κοινωνία you have a close mutual association.
You’re willing to communicate.
You have things in common.
The new Christians in Acts saw that there was persecution and many people were losing their homes and livelihood when they chose to accept Jesus.
Acts 2:44 says
the words common and fellowship have the same root — κοινά.
In Acts this meant that people who had property sold it to help provide for the needs of those who had lost everything.
In a very real sense, they shared their lives and livelihood with each other.
They had everything in common.
John wants Christians to have fellowship—to have a shared life—with him by having all things in common with Jesus and the Father.
He says that the result would be that their joy would be complete or full.
Wouldn’t you agree that this “all things in common” is less than an ideal arrangement?
If you’re on the receiving end, you feel helpless and guilty.
If you’re on the giving end you feel a little bitter for having lost your posessions.
Besides that, it sounds a lot like a weird hippie commune, or worse yet, like communism.
There is very little about this idea of having things in common that we like.
At best, we look at it as an unachievable idealism.
And yet, it also seems like something that would be fantastic if your benefactor has endless resources.
That is the promise of fellowship with God.
He wants to share his infinite resources with you—to have all things in common with you.
That sounds like a really good arrangement.
And that is exactly John’s point.
Our joy is full when we have fellowship with Jesus — when he shares his endless resources with us.
But there is a problem with this whole fellowship thing.
Fellowship, or communion, requires a bi-directional relationship.
God will share everything with you but you also have to share everything with Him—and with HIs children.
And that’s the rub.
We have a problem that keeps us from sharing with God.
Sin.
Light
If you keep reading in John’s letter, he introduces the problem with a stark comparison between light and darkness.
God is light, with no darkness at all.
I did some research about light and darkness in the Bible.
There are several themes that come up over and over again.
Light is synonymous with
Truth and Knowledge
Righteousness
The Messiah
God is the source of light.
He dwells in light.
In contrast, darkness is synonymous with
Ignorance and foolishness
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