Bible In A Year - 1, 2, 3 John

Good morning, so most of you should have a very thick booklet in your hand. I made just a few copies because it is kind of thick and also we won't spend too much time on the notes. So if you can just have one for family, that would help.

And if you don't have one of these, there should be one in the chair that's as you enter from the door. So this morning we're going to be looking at not one, not two, but three books in one. We're going to be looking at 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John this morning as part of our going through the Bible in a year or two.

We need to finish. So before we get started, why don't we go to the Lord in prayer. Dear God, our Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, for your Word, for these three books in particular that you've given to your church.

Help us, Lord, as we open this Word and as we understand what you have said to us through these words 2 ,000 years ago that we would not just understand it, but we would understand how these words relate to our lives today and that we would be doers of these words.

We ask all this in Jesus' name. Amen. How many of you remember Pastor Mike's sermon last Sunday? Was anyone not here? Okay, so you're in for a treat. So from those who were here last Sunday, what was the one primary thrust that Pastor Mike gave us as part of his message?

Anyone? Do. We looked at the Good Samaritan, and it's all fine and dandy to have nice ideas about the person who is in need or what you're looking at. But at the end of the day, if you are a believer in Christ, your life is characterized by action, and you need to be doer of the Word.

And today we're going to be looking at a couple of books which charge us in terms of how we ought to live our Christian lives. For many of you, you may be familiar with the Gospel of John, written by the Apostle John.

He wrote that with one purpose in mind. Why did he write the Gospel of John? That you may believe that Jesus is the Son of God. What we're talking about here is an evangelistic book that proclaims who Christ is, and you need to know who this Jesus is and trust in him in order to have eternal life.

And 1 John was written not just to people who did not know Christ. It was written specifically to the church, and it had a different purpose in mind. Let's open your Bibles to 1 John, and I want us to read chapter 5, verse 13, just to set the context of what we're going to be doing this morning.

In verse 13 of chapter 5, John says, These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life. John was writing to a church, and he was writing to, actually it was a circular letter, so it would go to many churches.

And he was here writing to give them assurance of the Christian faith that they had. And you may ask, how does John assure people in churches? Some of them he most likely met, but many of them whom he didn't even know through a letter.

How do I write a letter to somebody in Cape Cod and say, hey, press on, you're a believer in Christ, and enjoy the work of the Spirit? How do you do that? Well, we'll find out today, as we look at 1 John, how the Apostle John does that.

But before we get into it, I want to give a quick outline, because we're covering three books. I want to do a very quick, high-level overview, but it should give you enough information to say, here's what I need to do as a result of what I learned today.

We'll take about 20 minutes. We'll go through the book of 1 John, covering what John is applying to the church. And then we'll take about 10 minutes each with each of the books of 2 and 3 John. And you will see a pattern that lays out among the three books.

In the first book, we are going to look at what we will call the test of faith. And there are three key tests that we will look at. The first one, not in this particular order, the first one we will see is the test of truth, how you need to be solidly grounded in the word that has been delivered to us.

We will see what it means to have obedience to this word that we have. Our life must conform to the word. If not, we need to question the genuineness of your salvation. And finally, we will look at love, how love should characterize the life of believers.

So we will see these three things in 1 John. And then you will see, very surprisingly, well, maybe it shouldn't surprise us, because the same spirit and the same author writes here, the same three repeated both in 2 and 3 John.

You will see all these three terms that I mentioned in both of these books. But there is a slightly, there is a particular focus and application that comes in each of these two books. My daughter, she has a little stack of cards to remember the books of the Bible.

And some of you may have seen it. They have a picture of what that book is about. If you have Nehemiah, you have the wall. And for 2 John, there is a door that is shut. And for 3 John, there is a door that is open.

So we will look at what that shutting and opening of the door is. Primarily, it is close the door to false teachers and open the door to the brothers of the ministry. And we will see how those are applications of the love that we must have for the brethren.

The Test of Faith in 1 John

But let's begin with 1 John. And in 1 John, what I am going to do, we are going to spend some time digging into chapter 1 and chapter 2. As we understand the focus of what the apostle John is telling us.

And it is important for us to understand it and then examine our lives to see how we have to live by it. 1 John chapter 1. In the first four verses, you just read verse 1. What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands concerning the word of life.

Very similar to John chapter 1 verse 1. Here he says what was from the beginning. And in the beginning was the word. The word was with God and the word was God. That is John 1 .1 .2. Now, John is an eyewitness testimony to the life of Jesus Christ.

He was a disciple of Christ. And here, this book is written, it says here about 90 to 95 AD. Could be anywhere between 85 to 95. All these three books are written in that period, in that order. But anywhere between 85 to 95 AD.

Very late in the books. One of the last few books before the book of Revelation is actually written down. And here, John is saying, you know, you guys are probably second generation Christians. End of the first century.

Jesus Christ dies early in the first century. And he is resurrected. The church is formed. And now you have another generation that has come up. And here John is coming and telling these people, you haven't seen Christ.

But I am here as an apostle, one who has seen Christ. And, in fact, he says I have touched him with my hands. He is the one I am proclaiming to you, people who have not seen him with your own physical eyes.

And for us, that is what the testimony of the word does even today. Here is the testimony of the spirit. You and I weren't alive when Jesus Christ lived and died and rose again. But we have God's word telling us who this Christ is and how we are to live.

And John's particular thrust in this book, if you look at verse 5. He says, this is the message we have heard from him and announced to you. That God is light and in him is no darkness at all. He is, in this verse 5, proclaiming a central truth about the nature of God.

God is light. What does it mean that God is light? God is bright. Steve? That is true. Exactly. So when you look at the symbolic terms, the darkness that John especially very clearly refers to is sin in the world.

And God is the antithetical opposite of everything that is evil and wicked. And God is holy. He is pure. He is righteous. And it is on the basis of this pure and holy God in whom there is no darkness, no evil, no sin.

On account of this nature of this God, our lives must reflect something of who this God is. In fact, in verses 6, chapter 1, verse 6, all the way to chapter 2, verse 2. John goes on to elaborate what it means to be in the light.

And he uses a few terms which I want to point out to you. Because if you go back and study this book, you will realize that you want to know what some of the terminology that John uses here are. He says in verse 6, if you say we have fellowship with him, yet walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.

Fellowship. You have a relationship with Jesus Christ. You say, I am a believer. I am born again. I am a Christian. That is what John means by fellowship. But he says, yet walk in the darkness. If you walk in the darkness, what does it mean to walk in the darkness?

Obviously, he is not talking about workout here. And not workout at night either. He is saying that a walk, as many of you are familiar with, is a lifestyle, a characteristic of a person. So this is how I walk.

This is how you walk. Each of us has a way of living our lives out. And John here is saying, as a Christian, if your lifestyle, the way that you live, is characterized by darkness, and darkness here is sinfulness, then the claim that you have, that you have a relationship with Christ, is actually false.

Because one who is in relationship with God who is light, God who is holy, God who is righteous, will be characterized by a life that is also holy. It needs to be, it cannot be life constantly in sin.

And he goes on, and I want to point you to one other verse in this passage before we move ahead. In verse 9, he says, if we confess our sins, well let me read verse 8 and 9. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. One thing in the book of 1 John you will notice is the stark contrast that John presents.

He is never the guy who says, well, you know, if you go up to this line and then it starts getting gray, then maybe you are not a believer. And then you get this far, then you are wrong. He is like, I am taking a sword and cutting right in the middle.

You are either here or you are here. You are either light or you are dark. And he doesn't mince his words when it comes to talking about a believer either being a Christian or not a Christian. And so you have to be careful sometimes when you read this word.

So if you look at, for example, even the verse that I read earlier, walk in the darkness. Does that mean that a Christian should be perfect in all that he does? He cannot ever sin. I mean, I just sinned and I am not a Christian because John says so.

Is that what it means in verse 6? Yeah, because we just read verse 8 and 9 where John very clearly says in verse 8, if you say we have no sin. So you are a believer and you say, well, I have no sin because I am a believer.

Christ has washed all my sins away. And since the day I have come and trusted in Christ, I don't sin anymore. And then John says, well, that makes you a liar as well because we are positionally made righteous with God.

When we trust in Christ, we are justified. We are made righteous because of what Christ has done on our behalf. But while we are here on earth, we have a process called sanctification. We need to be more and more made like Christ, which is why that word walk is very important to understand.

It is a lifestyle. It is not that the moment we say we were kind of translated and then we are living sinlessly from that moment on. But rather that our life from moment to moment is going to be characterized by keeping our eyes on Jesus Christ, the author and finisher of our faith.

That we will look up to him and that our life will be transformed in greater measure of holiness. And we can say that I am walking on the path that he has prepared for me, a path of righteousness that I will willfully obey.

And but he also guarantees here that while we are here on earth until one day we go to heaven, we will sin. And as we send, we have a provision. That God has given us, which we read in verse nine, we need to confess our sins.

What does confess mean? Anyone. Agreeing with God, you say we agree with God on two things. The first thing is that a what I have done is sinful. If you're not a believer, more than likely you might just say, well, it's a mistake or, you know, everybody does this.

But if you're a believer, the first thing that will come to your mind is what I have done is an offense against a holy God. And that's the second thing. The first thing is that what you've done is wrong.

And the second thing is that it is not just it is wrong, but it is an offense against God himself. And you need to agree with God and receive his forgiveness for what you have done. So our lives as a believer must be characterized by constant confession.

We need to recognize that we will sin. But our life must be a life. That is on a path of holiness that we will live after him. Now, let me go through the three tests that John gives us. So John is not going to give three tests to the believers to say, well, are you sure you are a Christian?

Are you not sure? Here are three things to check. Check your spiritual pulse by. So the first one he gives us the test of obedience. I'd like someone to read this for me. A chapter two versus three to six.

Can someone volunteer to read it aloud?

Bruce, the word obedience is not seen here, but it is.

There are synonymous words that are used. You can see them in verse three. Keep his commandments. And it's repeated again in verse four. And finally in verse six, he concludes by saying we need to walk in the same manner in which he walked.

So when you know what God expects of you. So you are a believer. You've come to know, you know, you've been saved from your sin. What do you do? You come to the word to find out what pleases God. That's his commandments that we're talking about here.

And you say, you know, I love the word of God. I want to know how I can please my father who has rescued me from sin. And then you say, I am going to commit my life to obeying him. Now. How is this different than salvation by works?

When I say I'm going to keep God's commandments, I'm going to obey what God has told me to do. How is that different than saying? I'm going to go to heaven because I'm living a life that yes, Bernard.

There's something that has happened before. Yes, Tony. That's that's exactly right. This is the heart of the matter. Here you have a heart that has been redeemed from sin by the work of another. And it is a heart of gratitude that now lives a life that is pleasing to to the father.

It is not relying on its works to make some steps to go up into heaven. It is already in heaven. What it is doing instead is is living out a life of gratitude. When you really love your God, you will do what what pleases him.

In fact, that's the second command that we're going to look at, which is love. And let's actually read that. And I'll I'll I'll expand on that in a minute. That's chapters two versus seven through eleven.

And let me just point out a few verses. Verse four was seven. He says, I'm not writing to you a new commandment. But an old commandment, which you had from the beginning and the old commandment is a word which you have heard.

And in verse eight, on the other hand, I'm writing a new commandment to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away. The true light is already shining. The one who says he's in the light and yet hates his brother.

That's the first clue that we're talking about. Love here. His brother is in the darkness until now. The one who loves his brother abides in the light and has no cause of stumbling in him. But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness, walks in the darkness, does not know where he's going because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

In fact, in verses three to six, John says, the first test that you want to look at is, is your heart desiring to obey God? Is it looking for ways to say, you know, what does the scripture says pleases God and how do I do it?

And the second test that John tells us is there is one commandment which is very particular of all the commandments that you have. And that's the commandment that I'm going to focus on as a second test.

And that commandment is a test, a commandment of love. And I don't want to get deeper into what this means about the old commandment and the new commandment. But in a very one line sentence, old commandment, loving God and loving your neighbor is as old as the Old Testament.

What does the Deuteronomy six say about loving God? Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. That's that's there in the old in the Old Testament. Leviticus 19, 18, I think, talks about loving your neighbor as yourself.

And both of these are old commandments that they've had ever since the beginning. But there is a newness of this commandment that Jesus brings that the people did not know about. They had no idea what it means to love someone who hates you to go on the cross and die on their behalf.

That's a kind of love that that just rocked their world in the first century. And it still does our world today. So if you think you love your neighbor, you have a model that you need to look at. And that's Jesus Christ himself who died for those who hated him with all their with all their guts.

And he loved them enough that he would die for them and bring salvation to them. So that's the kind of love that we need to have for for one another. And then John here says. All your words about your relationship with God is fine.

You know, you want to obey God. That's good. But if you are not characterized by by a wholesome love for your brothers. In fact, he says, if you hate your brother, you are in darkness. And but the one who genuinely loves God would love his brothers as well.

Let me quickly move on, because I want to apply some of this here as well. The there is a section that I'm going to skip over 12 through 14, where John actually takes a break from these tests. And he talks about Christian maturity.

You know, are you a little child? Are you a young man or a young woman? Or are you an elderly person in the faith? And if you are not yet an elder in the faith, keep on pressing on towards growing in maturity.

And he gives some characteristics and then he gives some admonition versus 15 through 17 about what your love should be set upon. Having just said that love is an important test. He says there are certain things you shouldn't love, especially do not love the world.

And then in verses 18 through 27, he gives the third test, and that is the test of truth. And he talks about people who have departed from the way. And then he says in verse 27, I have not written to you because you do not know the truth.

Because what? Because you do know it and no lies of the truth. And in verse 24, he says, here is how you need to know what is true. Let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also abide in the son and in the father.

And then finally, in verse 27, he says, as for you, the anointing which you received from him abides in you. And you have no need for anyone to teach you. But as the anointing teaches you about all things and is true and is not a lie, just as it has taught you, you abide in him.

He says there are two things you need to safeguard your belief system by. The first one is what was delivered once for all to the saints. You have the word of God that you have had since the beginning.

You will have a lot of innovative doctrines that come up. In fact, that's what he's talking about in verse 18 and 19. New people who have come claim to be one of us and they really were not of us because they have walked away from the truth.

And he says, you know, you have one solid assurance and that is the word of God. And the second thing he talks about is the anointing, which is the Holy Spirit that we receive when we come into salvation.

And it is the spirit of God that makes this truth and enlightens us to the truth and enables us to understand it. And we have these two safeguards against error. Now, if you are tempted to go with these people who mislead, then that's the third test that you need to be watching out for.

Because if you stray away from the truth, there is a sure sign of not being in the truth to begin with and the faith to begin with. So those are the three tests, the test of obedience, the test of love and the test of truth.

Let's let's quickly talk about the test of obedience. What comes to mind when you think of obedience? In fact, yes, last week, last Sunday, Pastor Mike preached about being about do. What did you do last week because you knew the word of God expected you to be doing?

What does obedience mean? Practically in your life, in the life of this church. Any volunteers, no wrong answers. Don't hesitate. Yes, Tony. That is that is good in a general sense. Yes. Give me something more specific.

What what do you what? Give me give me an example. I'm not looking for the the best thing to do. Just give me anything that. Yes, Bruce. That's that is true. So how do we order? How do we worship? We want to follow what God tells us to do it and we want to obey him in that manner.

So it is pleasing to him and brings glory to him. That's a good point. Why do we wake up and have Bible study, read the Bible in the morning and meditate on it? Because that's what the scripture says.

And we feed on the word because that pleases him. We do it because we know it pleases God. Yes, that's very good. In fact, I think in. In Chapter three, verse 17, whoever has the world's goods but sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him.

How does the love of God abide in him? So you read this word. You see your brother who is in need and you say, well, Christ. And in fact, if you read the previous words, it talks about, you know, being willing to die on behalf of your brother.

And if Christ has died for you and your life is not your own and it belongs to Christ. And you see another brother and another brother is not, you know, the long lost sibling I never knew about. It's about each and every one of us here.

So if you see another brother or sister in Christ here who is in need and your heart does not go out to him. I mean, the language here is your spleen. Your guts don't feel wrenched at it. That means, you know, you have a problem with with something in your heart.

That is the thing called love is not really there. You need to be moved in your guts when you see somebody who is in need and do something about it. So you see somebody in need. You go out and do it. I mean, I'm so encouraged when I hear about people in this church, especially new people in this church who who who just say, you know, it says on a widow's or, you know, help those in need.

And they don't even know 90 percent of the people in the church. But among the 10 percent, they know if somebody is in need, they just go there and drive two hours to go and help somebody who is in need.

And somebody else is is working hard and they need they have something that needs to get done. They take two days off of their busy schedule and go and help that person doing whatever they need to do.

I mean, that's that's a heart that is moved by the need of your brother and sister in Christ that goes and does it. So, you know, whether it is obedience in general or obedience with regards to love. It needs to be a heart that is changed.

Once again, you know, the reason I asked you earlier about. Why obedience does not purchase a salvation is when we do these things, it is very, very important for us to remember. We are not doing these things because, you know, we want to somehow look good before God.

You can never look any better than what Christ has already done for you. We do these things because we remember the preciousness of the death of Jesus Christ and what he has done for us. And we are here to please him.

And this is how we do our joyful sacrifice of love and of obedience. And and lastly, the importance of truth. Yeah. Last Sunday evening, Pastor Mike talked about this. He talked about mysticism in particular, but he also referred to some of the teachers of the Bible on TV who walk away with with strange doctrines.

And sometimes it seems very unloving. In fact, we're going to jump into second John to look at that in a minute that, you know, these guys are also somehow they have the gospel in them somewhere, I think, and they seem to be talking nice things about Jesus.

Why do we need to be talking bad about these guys? Let me just point you again to verse 18 of chapter two. Just as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now, many Antichrist have appeared.

Who is he talking about? He's not talking about the devil here. He's talking about false teachers. He calls them Antichrist. And John doesn't mince words about people who pervert the gospel and and try to get away with it.

He says, you know, you watch out for these people. And turn, turn with me to second John. And in verse seven, he says, many deceivers have gone out into the world. Those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as having come in the flesh.

This is the deceiver and the Antichrist. Watch yourselves that you do not lose what we have accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward. Verse nine. Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ does not have God.

And the one who abides in the teaching, he has both the father and the son. And here is the instruction that John gives to you when you think of false teachers, whether it is you want to give them audience to your in your car radios or in your TVs.

Listen to this in verse 10. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house and do not give him a greeting for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds.

I kind of jumped right into second John without giving too much context. But very briefly, early church. You have the apostles teaching. You have young teachers, apollos, men like that who are also instructing the church.

And you have a very missional church, early church where people are going on and presenting who Jesus Christ is. There's more churches being formed. And there are teachers going around. Eichner and teachers who would come to your church for like three days and teach about who Jesus Christ is.

And if such a one were to come, but did not have sound teaching. John says, close your door shut. Don't let this deceiver come in. Don't show any kindness to him in. You know, here is a guy who's traveled three days.

He needs a day to kind of, you know, hang his boots and do his work and move on. If you were to let him come to your house, which would be a hospitable, hospitable thing to do. But if you were to host him and he were to launch his base of operations from your home, you are sharing in that same sin that this man is actually propagating.

And it is vital for us as believers who love Jesus and love the truth to also know what is false. In fact, you know, when I was a young believer, I, I think all of us should have this. You know, we all want to give the benefit of the doubt to the people we hear.

Philippians talks about, you know, for think about noble things, think about things that are good. And when we hear something a little off, we say, I hope he meant this. But especially those of you who are men here leading your families, examine what you hear that comes into your house.

Because here is a very common example. There are preachers who would go about talking about doing good things all the time. You know, how do you take care of your anger? How do you live a life that is, you know, so joyful and, you know, everybody's happy when they come near you?

How do you motivate people around you? And all these sound like fun stuff. But you, you listen to it a couple of times and say, why does the guy not talk about the gospel? And you assume he kind of, you know, assumes that everybody knows about the gospel.

So he's talking about what comes out of the gospel. And my friends, you do that long enough, the gospel is no longer there. All you have there is doing, doing, doing without the root of a genuine salvation experience.

And if there is any teaching that is devoid of the gospel, that is not based on the finished work of Christ, if it is not based on the death and resurrection of Christ, there is really nothing there that is being presented but placebos.

All that is being taught there is how can you live a good life without Christ? And that will take people straight to hell. And you cannot participate in that. And you do not want that in your homes. And just let me point out quickly.

I mentioned that truth, obedience, and love are there in 2 John as well. If you look at verse 4, it says walking in the truth, very similar language of lifestyle. He talks about a commandment in verse 5, a new commandment.

And this is love that we walk according to his commandments. And, you know, there is obedience, there is love. And here he focuses specifically on false doctrine. Do not give opening to it. So you are in the truth when you can discern truth from error.

You are obeying God when you actually reject this false teacher. In fact, you are showing love for your brethren. And love, in fact, even for that false teacher when you reject him, audience, in your home.

You know, if someone were to come to you and say, I am a Jehovah's Witness but I am your long lost cousin. Let me just stay here and do my JW work from here. You can tell him, you can come here, you can stay with me and I can tell you about the truth.

But you can't do your work from here because you are not just deceiving yourself but you are deceiving other people as well. In a few minutes we have, let's go through 3 John. So 3 John gives you the open door.

You know, I still haven't taught my daughter the difference between the closed door and the open door. She just knows 2 John is close your door and 3 John is open your door. She was like, when people come in and go out.

But close your door to the false teacher but open your door to the brethren. I haven't pointed to your notes. But if you look at key people in 3 John, there is John who is writing. There is Gaius who is the recipient of John's letter.

There is Diotrephes who is self-centered and a domineering member of the church. And then there is Demetrius who is a faithful servant and role model. I always get Diotrephes and Demetrius mixed up. If I read it too fast, I think he is just commending somebody and then he is condemning somebody and commending the same guy again.

I mean these Greek names are easy to run into each other. But Diotrephes is the object of concern that John writes to in 3 John. I want to point out this brethren that John is going to talk about in 3 John here.

Hospitality and Support for Faithful Workers in 3 John

So if you look at verses, actually let's have someone read verses 5 through 8 of 3 John. Can I have a volunteer read 5 through 8? Yes, Pastor Dave. And let me read one more verse. This is in the last, actually let me read verse 10.

He talks about the problem with Diotrephes. And then he says, I will call attention to his deeds that he does, which is unjustly accusing us with false, with wicked words. And he himself does not receive the brethren either.

And he forbids those who desire to do so and puts them out of the church. So here we already saw the context of itinerant preachers in the first century church. Here are men who know the truth, would go from church to church, instruct these people.

You know the canon is still, there are some pieces of the canon that the people have, but it's still not available and these men go and instruct these churches on sound doctrine. And these men, it says in verse 7, they went out for the sake of the name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles.

Here they are self-supported, they are just going out and we need to support these men in the ministry that they are doing. And Demetrius, because of his selfishness, A, doesn't support these men as they come in, and B, he actually puts out the members of his church who want to support these men.