WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.960 can have Christian certainty in a world of confusion. And we'll keep coming back to this 00:00:06.960 --> 00:00:11.900 theme in John's letter. It's very appropriate, I think, for our time. Think about the huge 00:00:11.900 --> 00:00:17.859 social changes that we have lived through just in the last few years. We have gone through the 00:00:17.859 --> 00:00:23.839 upheaval of pandemic. We have seen the Me Too movement and Black Lives Matter and Brexit and 00:00:23.839 --> 00:00:30.980 changes to gay marriage and transgender issues, and that's just in the last few years. And it's 00:00:30.980 --> 00:00:37.079 really easy, I think, with the pace of change and the kind of change, to feel disorientated, distressed, 00:00:37.700 --> 00:00:46.519 perhaps just plain dizzy because of all this confusion. And then add into the mix the huge 00:00:46.519 --> 00:00:52.920 array of different ideas about Jesus popular today. So, you could walk three minutes up the road and 00:00:52.920 --> 00:01:00.700 discover Muslims believe in Jesus too. In what sense? Jehovah's Witnesses think of Jesus as a 00:01:00.700 --> 00:01:07.620 created being, not God, one who was only resurrected spiritually. We might encounter that on our 00:01:07.620 --> 00:01:14.460 doorstep. There is the idea that was popularized again recently by Philip Pullman of the good man 00:01:14.460 --> 00:01:21.000 Jesus and the scoundrel Christ. For some people, Jesus is a freedom fighter. For some people, 00:01:21.000 --> 00:01:28.359 Jesus is some kind of wise guru. For some people, He's simply a legend. So, who is right? Who can we trust? 00:01:29.099 --> 00:01:41.079 How can we know? Christian certainty, confident Christianity. So, Pastor John's letter is a gift for us. 00:01:41.780 --> 00:01:48.159 As he writes with the authority of an apostle, he writes to give true believers assurance 00:01:48.159 --> 00:01:56.019 and to challenge the false assurance coming from false teaching about Jesus. So, he writes from the 00:01:56.019 --> 00:02:03.299 city of Ephesus, mid to late first century. Ephesus, a place of great moral and spiritual confusion. 00:02:04.900 --> 00:02:11.919 The city was dominated by the center of the Artemis or Diana cult, a great big temple, lots of idols, 00:02:11.919 --> 00:02:20.539 a place associated with black magic and the dark arts. And from this place, Ephesus, false teaching 00:02:20.539 --> 00:02:26.560 was beginning to be taught and to take hold. In particular, there was a chap by the name of 00:02:26.560 --> 00:02:34.500 Serinthus who wanted to separate the divine and the human. Didn't believe that Jesus could be both God 00:02:34.500 --> 00:02:42.580 and man. Thought about God, about Jesus only as being a spirit being, not truly human. That the spirit 00:02:42.580 --> 00:02:48.979 came on Jesus from baptism, left Him before the cross. And so, the churches were beginning to hear 00:02:48.979 --> 00:02:58.340 these alternative views about Jesus and about Christianity. One of the themes that we have in 00:02:58.340 --> 00:03:08.259 John's letter is that repeating refrain, we know. As apostles, there are truths that we know. So, we read 00:03:08.259 --> 00:03:17.439 1 John 5 verse 20, we know that the Son of God has come. We are in Him who is true. He is the true God 00:03:17.439 --> 00:03:26.199 and eternal life. So, there are certain things that we can know if we listen to the apostle to be true. 00:03:26.199 --> 00:03:32.759 What we didn't read as we go to the end of the letter was the very last words. He says, 00:03:32.879 --> 00:03:39.939 Dear children, keep yourselves from idols. And so, commentators are puzzled over. That's a funny kind of 00:03:39.939 --> 00:03:45.939 ending. But I think what John is saying and what he'll say to us is that if we are to have certainty 00:03:45.939 --> 00:03:54.459 in our Christian faith that we are holding to the truth, if we are to live with confident Christianity, 00:03:54.460 --> 00:04:01.560 we need to keep ourselves from idols. And in particular, we must not accept a twisted message 00:04:01.560 --> 00:04:10.120 about a distorted Jesus. And so, this letter is going to show us here are the things that we need 00:04:10.120 --> 00:04:14.319 to know. And if we know them and believe them, we can have assurance that we belong to God. 00:04:14.980 --> 00:04:20.800 So, we're going to hear some theological tests. Do we believe that Jesus is the Son of God who came in 00:04:20.800 --> 00:04:28.220 the flesh? We're going to hear some moral tests. Do we obey the commands of Jesus and take sin seriously? 00:04:29.040 --> 00:04:36.879 We're going to hear social tests. Do we love one another within the church to express our love for Christ? 00:04:38.920 --> 00:04:43.879 That's just a preview some of the places where we'll be going. But this evening, we're just thinking 00:04:43.879 --> 00:04:49.259 about the introduction, but it's a really important introduction to the whole letter because it 00:04:49.259 --> 00:04:56.540 introduces us to the incarnation of Jesus. Jesus coming, the Son of God coming in the flesh as the 00:04:56.540 --> 00:05:03.040 Word of Life. So, we're going to think about that as the message. It also does something really important 00:05:03.040 --> 00:05:11.079 because it introduces us to John as an eyewitness. There is an authority here as he proclaims truth 00:05:11.079 --> 00:05:19.159 about Jesus. And it also introduces us to some wonderful results that flow from believing what 00:05:19.159 --> 00:05:24.000 he talks about, the promise of fellowship with God himself and the promise of deep joy. 00:05:25.319 --> 00:05:30.719 So, let's have a look at this introduction. We'll ask some different questions. The first question 00:05:30.719 --> 00:05:39.860 is, what is John's message about Jesus? Okay, this letter is one of those, Hebrews is similar. It has an 00:05:39.860 --> 00:05:46.060 unusual opening. There's no greeting. There's no thanksgiving. Rather, he wants to get straight into 00:05:46.060 --> 00:05:52.939 truth. And he says, here is the truth that I want to testify to, that I want to proclaim, 00:05:53.319 --> 00:06:00.460 that has been revealed. And it's the truth, if you look in verse, end of verse 1, it's the truth we 00:06:00.460 --> 00:06:07.460 proclaim concerning the Word of Life. Okay, so we need to think about the Word of Life. What does John teach 00:06:07.459 --> 00:06:13.719 about it? So, let's follow some of the different strands of evidence here and understand why he is 00:06:13.719 --> 00:06:19.379 writing the way he is writing, because it matters to his argument and to his purpose. The first thing 00:06:19.379 --> 00:06:26.679 that becomes clear that John wants us to know is that the Word of Life is eternal. Okay, his introduction 00:06:26.679 --> 00:06:35.199 is no accident. That which was from the beginning. Taking us back to Genesis 1, in the beginning, 00:06:35.199 --> 00:06:42.120 God created the heavens and the earth, taking us back to the way John introduced his own gospel. 00:06:43.099 --> 00:06:50.279 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. His particular point here 00:06:50.279 --> 00:06:57.560 is not exactly the same as that in Genesis and John. So, there is, go back as far as you can before 00:06:57.560 --> 00:07:04.360 there was anything made, and there was God, and there was the Word for all eternity. But his particular 00:07:04.360 --> 00:07:13.319 point here is that before the life appeared, so he's thinking before Jesus was born, before Jesus took on 00:07:13.319 --> 00:07:25.840 flesh, he was the eternal Son of God. He says that there in verse 2, we proclaim to you the eternal life 00:07:25.839 --> 00:07:34.839 which was with the Father, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. So, this one that John is talking 00:07:34.839 --> 00:07:42.799 to us about is the one who was there before there was anything other than God the Father, and God the Son, and God 00:07:42.799 --> 00:07:50.839 the Holy Spirit. Here is the Son of God described as the Word of Life, living an eternal personal relationship 00:07:50.839 --> 00:08:00.839 with God the Father. So, the Word of Life is eternal. We'll come back to that. But the Word of Life is also 00:08:00.839 --> 00:08:07.259 historical. So, notice what John does. He says, that which was from the beginning, 00:08:08.399 --> 00:08:14.179 going back into eternity, which we have heard and seen and looked at and touched. What's his point? 00:08:14.180 --> 00:08:26.319 The Creator has entered into creation, has entered into time and space as a real figure in history. 00:08:27.480 --> 00:08:38.560 We heard him. We saw him. We touched him. That word, we touched with our hands, is the idea of how a blind 00:08:38.559 --> 00:08:48.079 person would touch an object in order to examine, in order to know what it was. John has personally 00:08:48.079 --> 00:08:58.759 examined Jesus as he came in history. As he would say in his gospel, the Word became flesh and made his 00:08:58.759 --> 00:09:07.799 dwelling among us, and we have seen his glory. The glory is as of the one and only, full of grace and truth. 00:09:07.799 --> 00:09:13.740 And so, the Word of Life is eternal, and the Word of Life is historical. And so, right from the beginning, 00:09:13.839 --> 00:09:19.639 he's saying to us, the Word of Life is fully God, and the Word of Life is fully man. And there's a 00:09:19.639 --> 00:09:27.899 mystery there, and he wants us to know this mystery is something that we can trust in. Because the Word of 00:09:27.899 --> 00:09:35.079 Life that he's talking about is all about Jesus. And he was an eyewitness to Jesus. The Word of Life 00:09:35.080 --> 00:09:42.100 is the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's interesting when you read these verses. Sometimes you can get the 00:09:42.100 --> 00:09:50.379 impression that the Word of Life is a title describing Jesus. Sometimes the Word of Life can sound like a 00:09:50.379 --> 00:09:58.900 description of the message about Jesus. And in truth, it can be used both ways, because the Christian 00:09:58.899 --> 00:10:09.659 message is identical. The person and work of Jesus is our good news. Christ is the gospel. 00:10:11.899 --> 00:10:20.579 Our good news isn't a statement of truths. Our good news is a person who is the truth. So, we proclaim 00:10:20.580 --> 00:10:33.840 redemption in Christ. Eternal life in Christ. Fellowship with God in Christ. Our good news is Jesus. 00:10:35.259 --> 00:10:43.220 The Jesus who said, I am the resurrection and the life. Jesus who said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. 00:10:43.220 --> 00:10:51.279 Jesus who said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. John's message is that Jesus is the eternal Son of God became 00:10:51.279 --> 00:11:02.980 human. Jesus is the dominant figure in history, in Western civilization. His life, his teaching, 00:11:03.340 --> 00:11:12.340 his moral character remains the foundation of society. Go on to Amazon, and you will find there are more 00:11:12.340 --> 00:11:21.840 more than 175,000 individual titles on the person and the work of the Lord Jesus. The search is still on. 00:11:22.080 --> 00:11:30.300 Who is Jesus? How can we find truth? How can we have confidence? And if we're Christians, how can we help 00:11:30.300 --> 00:11:39.680 others discover the truth about Jesus? And John writes this letter to say, I'm an apostle, listen to me. 00:11:39.679 --> 00:11:46.939 Let my truth guide you. Let my truth guide you into what you must believe and what we must teach. And two 00:11:46.939 --> 00:11:53.699 things that stand out for us that must be central to what we believe and what we proclaim. First, that Jesus 00:11:53.699 --> 00:12:03.079 is the God-man. We cannot settle for anything less than that. In contrast with every other religion, 00:12:03.080 --> 00:12:10.100 every other view of Jesus, even those that give him a relatively high view, prophet, teacher, mighty man, 00:12:10.180 --> 00:12:18.320 that doesn't go far enough. In contrast with modern views, where often people like him as a teacher, 00:12:18.960 --> 00:12:26.660 like some of his social justice, like the Good Samaritan parable, we need to affirm he is Son of God, 00:12:26.659 --> 00:12:34.139 become one of us, fully God, fully man. So we need to affirm that Jesus is the God-man and that Jesus 00:12:34.139 --> 00:12:45.919 is the gospel. The gospel that saves is that for us and for our salvation, the eternal Son of God 00:12:45.919 --> 00:12:56.500 God, left the glory of heaven, took on flesh in order to fully obey the law of God that we have broken and 00:12:56.500 --> 00:13:06.059 cannot keep, to go to the cross to suffer and die in the place of sinners, being the sin bearer, bearing 00:13:06.059 --> 00:13:15.579 the just judgment of God against sin, rising in victory and for our salvation, so that by faith in him, 00:13:16.859 --> 00:13:21.279 we are saved, we are forgiven, and we have eternal life. 00:13:24.079 --> 00:13:31.859 John's message about Jesus. But the second thing that we need to ask as soon as we affirm that is, 00:13:31.860 --> 00:13:41.379 what is John's authority? It's a really important thing to consider. Some of us, you've just arrived 00:13:41.379 --> 00:13:50.080 here in Edinburgh to study. Others, you're in the midst of that. Some teach others. And a key part of 00:13:50.080 --> 00:13:57.279 studying is to understand and to appreciate in all the possible sources that you could access, 00:13:57.279 --> 00:14:09.159 Wikipedia included, which sources carry the most weight. Which authors are respected as experts in 00:14:09.159 --> 00:14:16.720 their field? Those are the sources we want to know and we want to cite. Put differently, 00:14:17.759 --> 00:14:24.860 as you arrive in the city and as you begin to meet people, you might find people asking questions 00:14:24.860 --> 00:14:33.860 if they discover that you're a Christian. What, you really believe the Bible? Isn't that outdated and 00:14:33.860 --> 00:14:43.840 out of touch? Surely we don't need to live by an ancient moral code and confidence can easily be shaken. 00:14:43.840 --> 00:14:54.820 And so John wants us as readers to understand something about his authority. That we would 00:14:54.820 --> 00:15:03.280 understand to listen to what the apostle John teaches is to listen to God's truth, is to listen to 00:15:03.280 --> 00:15:12.960 revelation. The church in that day is being confronted with an alternative. Listening to false teaching, 00:15:12.960 --> 00:15:19.680 man-made speculation, man-made speculation. But they're being invited, and we are being invited, 00:15:19.680 --> 00:15:31.519 to trust John's account of Jesus because he is an eyewitness and an apostle. Confident Christianity 00:15:31.519 --> 00:15:42.879 rests in the authority of the apostles' message. In fact, the true church rests on the authority of 00:15:42.879 --> 00:15:52.860 the apostles' message. Back to our text and another surprising feature that you may have noticed 00:15:52.860 --> 00:16:01.299 as we were reading together. There is no personal introduction. There's no, here am I, John, an apostle. 00:16:01.759 --> 00:16:09.320 Rather, we hear the frequent use of we. Did you notice that? Listen to verse 1, 00:16:09.320 --> 00:16:14.460 that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen, which we have looked at. 00:16:14.960 --> 00:16:20.820 Verse 2, the life appeared, we have seen it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life. And so it goes. 00:16:21.760 --> 00:16:31.680 So who is the we that's being spoken of? And this we is John saying, I stand shoulder to shoulder 00:16:31.679 --> 00:16:41.739 with the other apostles as Jesus' messengers. That's the we. He represents those who are with Jesus and 00:16:41.739 --> 00:16:51.179 those who are sent by Jesus. So his authority should count for a lot. He uses two particular words 00:16:51.179 --> 00:16:57.419 to show his authority as an apostle in two different ways. There is first of all the word 00:16:57.419 --> 00:17:06.220 that. He says, testify. See it there in verse 2, the life appeared, we have seen it, and testify to it. 00:17:06.839 --> 00:17:15.339 That's a law courtroom word, isn't it? The idea of giving testimony. John's point is that his authority 00:17:15.339 --> 00:17:24.480 is based on eyewitness testimony. So we're going to move for a few minutes from this letter to his gospel 00:17:24.480 --> 00:17:31.920 to think about this. Verse 1, John spoke about things which he has heard and seen and touched. 00:17:31.980 --> 00:17:39.259 What kind of things did John hear? Well, remember that John, of all the gospel writers, records those 00:17:39.259 --> 00:17:46.200 wonderful seven sayings of Jesus, known as the I Am sayings, where Jesus takes the name of God in the 00:17:46.200 --> 00:17:53.680 Old Testament, and he applies it to himself. I am God, and as God, I am. I am the bread of life. 00:17:54.480 --> 00:18:01.579 I am the one who satisfies, not just physically, but the spiritual longing of every heart. 00:18:02.720 --> 00:18:11.740 Jesus says, I am the light of the world. I am God's truth, shining through the darkness, 00:18:12.420 --> 00:18:20.180 bringing clarity where there was confusion. Jesus said, I am the gate for the sheep. I am the way 00:18:20.180 --> 00:18:31.259 into God's kingdom, pictured as a flock. I am the resurrection and the life. I am the one who will 00:18:31.259 --> 00:18:39.360 live and die and rise again, giving eternal life to all who believe. I am the good shepherd, 00:18:40.539 --> 00:18:48.519 laying down my life for my sheep. I am the way, the truth, and the life, the only way to know God and 00:18:48.519 --> 00:18:58.400 life with God. I am the true vine. He is our source of spiritual life. That's just some of what John 00:18:58.400 --> 00:19:08.660 heard from Jesus that he brings to us. What kind of things did John see? Again, he records seven signs 00:19:08.660 --> 00:19:17.039 that testify to the glory and the power of Jesus and give us reason to believe. He saw those great and 00:19:17.039 --> 00:19:25.139 mighty healing miracles, the power and the love and compassion of Jesus combining. He saw Jesus walking 00:19:25.139 --> 00:19:35.559 on water, showing that he has the authority of God. And he saw Jesus' friend Lazarus come back from the dead, 00:19:36.200 --> 00:19:39.839 coming out of a tomb at the command of Jesus. 00:19:39.839 --> 00:19:50.799 Jesus. What did John's hands touch? He was a close personal friend of Jesus. He touched the hands of 00:19:50.799 --> 00:19:59.039 Jesus himself, helping to provide bread for 5,000 as Jesus worked that miracle and asked the disciples to 00:19:59.039 --> 00:20:09.299 disperse the bread and the fish. John was there. Those hands that made the mud pack to place on the man's 00:20:09.299 --> 00:20:14.159 eyes to then send him to wash with the authority to give him sight. John was there and saw it. 00:20:15.960 --> 00:20:22.779 He saw his friend's hands be pierced with nails on the cross, dying in our place and for our sin. 00:20:24.119 --> 00:20:33.039 He saw the hands of the risen Lord Jesus cooking fish at the beachside barbecue after his resurrection. 00:20:33.039 --> 00:20:40.960 And he gives testimony so we can believe. I was a personal friend of Jesus. 00:20:42.819 --> 00:20:54.379 The eternal Son of God. Christ was one of us. I saw how he lived. I saw how he died. And I saw him 00:20:54.379 --> 00:21:01.579 when he rose again. And so he gives testimony. He testifies. That's his authority. He's an eyewitness. 00:21:01.579 --> 00:21:07.460 But his second word that helps us to understand his authority is there in verse 2 and verse 3. 00:21:09.119 --> 00:21:14.939 Now, we have seen it. We have testified to it. And we proclaim to you the eternal life, 00:21:15.220 --> 00:21:21.980 which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard. 00:21:22.960 --> 00:21:28.639 Okay, so the first scene was a courtroom scene. This scene is different. This is the idea of a king's 00:21:28.640 --> 00:21:38.580 herald, a king's spokesperson, sent out to speak for the king. This is reminding us that John's words 00:21:38.580 --> 00:21:46.000 carry authority because John was called by Jesus to be an apostle. And the word apostle means a sent one. 00:21:46.000 --> 00:21:56.340 He is a sent one by Jesus. Having followed Jesus closely for three years during his public ministry, 00:21:56.339 --> 00:22:05.959 having then waited as Jesus commanded to receive the Holy Spirit, and then being sent out, commissioned to go and 00:22:05.959 --> 00:22:15.879 make disciples, he proclaims the king's message. That Jesus is the Christ, that long-appointed, 00:22:16.199 --> 00:22:21.559 promised king and savior who is none other than the Son of God himself. 00:22:21.559 --> 00:22:30.079 So he has authority as an eyewitness, and he has authority because he is sent as an apostle. 00:22:31.179 --> 00:22:38.940 Two important reflections for us when we think about our own discipleship, when we think about our own 00:22:38.940 --> 00:22:46.940 mission. Where does our authority rest? Not in being an apostle, but in trusting in the apostle's 00:22:46.940 --> 00:22:55.660 message, our authority is always and only the word of God. As Christians and as a church, we dare not 00:22:55.660 --> 00:23:04.460 shift from that. If we are to make any difference in this world, if we are to bring glory to God in this 00:23:04.460 --> 00:23:11.059 world, it is not going to be because of our human persuasion and logic, but as we proclaim Jesus Christ 00:23:11.059 --> 00:23:19.500 and Him crucified as we find it in Scripture, we must declare what the apostles as the eyewitnesses 00:23:19.500 --> 00:23:27.299 declared. We must be confident in the identity of the Lord Jesus as He's revealed to us by the apostles. 00:23:29.059 --> 00:23:33.980 We stake our lives on the authority of the Bible. 00:23:33.980 --> 00:23:40.279 Because our mission as a church, our mission as Christians depends on this. 00:23:41.480 --> 00:23:45.779 You think about that calling that Jesus gives first to the disciples and then by extension to 00:23:45.779 --> 00:23:51.299 the church, go and make disciples, teaching them to obey everything that I command. Where do we find 00:23:51.299 --> 00:23:58.380 those commands? In God's Word and in the gospel. So as we think about how we carry that out, whether 00:23:58.380 --> 00:24:03.360 we're thinking about in our families, whether we're thinking about how to be disciples in school or 00:24:03.359 --> 00:24:11.240 university with our colleagues or friends, truly we will do this only in the first place if we believe 00:24:11.240 --> 00:24:17.919 that this is true. We know the times that we're living. We're never going to share the Bible with 00:24:17.919 --> 00:24:27.379 anyone unless we are persuaded this is true and it is life-giving and it is good news. And so we need to 00:24:27.379 --> 00:24:32.419 keep hearing what Pastor John is sharing with us as he gives us testimony to the fact that the 00:24:32.420 --> 00:24:39.980 eternal Son of God came to live among us, came in the flesh to be our Savior, that he came to bear away sin. 00:24:40.300 --> 00:24:49.019 He came to give eternal life. He came to enter into personal communion with his people 00:24:49.019 --> 00:24:59.259 so that you and I can know God. This is the Word of life we believe. This is the Word of life we hold out 00:24:59.259 --> 00:25:05.980 to others as we read the Bible with our family or with a friend, as we explain what we believe to our 00:25:05.980 --> 00:25:14.059 classmate, as we look to disciple our children. The last thing to say, having thought about John's 00:25:14.059 --> 00:25:21.879 message and John's authority, is to think about John's goal. What's the result that flows from what 00:25:21.879 --> 00:25:26.200 he's taught us? And this is where Pastor John really helpfully takes this big theology and his big 00:25:26.200 --> 00:25:34.039 theology down to everyday life. He's given us the what. Here's what is true about Jesus. Now he gives us 00:25:34.039 --> 00:25:40.960 the so what. We've got two purpose statements in verse 3 and 4. Here's the first one. 00:25:41.580 --> 00:25:47.039 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard so that, here's our purpose statement, 00:25:47.039 --> 00:25:53.279 you also may have fellowship with us and our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, 00:25:53.420 --> 00:26:00.599 Jesus Christ. So that we may have fellowship. First of all, and fundamentally, fellowship with 00:26:00.599 --> 00:26:08.740 the Father and with the Son. By believing the truth about Jesus, by believing in Jesus as Lord and 00:26:08.740 --> 00:26:14.879 as Savior, we are brought into life with God, a living union with the living God. 00:26:14.880 --> 00:26:23.240 And it's a reminder to us as we think about fellowship, that fellowship and unity within 00:26:23.240 --> 00:26:29.720 a church, within Christ, is always built on truth. The truth of God's Word, the truth of the gospel 00:26:29.720 --> 00:26:36.940 about Jesus. So we are brought into fellowship with the Father and his Son. And then John also says, 00:26:37.340 --> 00:26:43.020 you have fellowship with us, which is amazing because he's one of the apostles. We share things in 00:26:43.019 --> 00:26:50.960 common shared privilege with the apostles. We're part of the same body of Christ, the church. 00:26:51.440 --> 00:26:57.900 We're part of the same family of God. As he encourages us to pray, dear children, we are 00:26:57.900 --> 00:27:06.920 all children with the same Father, with Jesus as our elder brother, that believing brings us into living 00:27:06.920 --> 00:27:18.440 fellowship. And not only that, here's the second purpose. Verse 4, we write this to make our joy 00:27:18.440 --> 00:27:29.220 complete. There's the purpose. We write this in order to make our joy complete. Here is John the pastor. 00:27:29.220 --> 00:27:36.839 He's writing to a group of people that he loves being confronted with false teaching, living in a very 00:27:36.839 --> 00:27:48.880 confused society. And he says, this will give me joy. When you find your joy in Jesus, when you are enjoying 00:27:48.880 --> 00:27:57.720 fellowship with God himself, when you are believing this is true and living this is true, that's going to 00:27:57.720 --> 00:28:03.319 bring me joy. And it's going to bring the church joy. That's what brings us all joy. This kind of joy 00:28:03.319 --> 00:28:14.339 is rooted in truth. John has been telling us, when we are in Jesus, we have eternal life. He is the word 00:28:14.339 --> 00:28:25.039 of life who gives life. In Jesus, I have personal living fellowship with God. In Jesus, I have brothers and 00:28:25.039 --> 00:28:32.500 sisters to share life with you. We have cause for joy that is deep and lasting. 00:28:35.420 --> 00:28:42.519 And he takes us to think about complete joy, which reminds us that the joy that we experience now 00:28:42.519 --> 00:28:52.460 is only an appetizer, anticipating the great feast of joy still to come. When we have perfect 00:28:52.460 --> 00:29:00.180 fellowship with God, when we see Jesus face to face and we're made like him, when we get to spend 00:29:00.180 --> 00:29:06.860 eternity worshiping and working together with brothers and sisters in Christ, when sin is gone, 00:29:06.940 --> 00:29:11.059 when death is no more, when love and joy are ours forever. 00:29:11.059 --> 00:29:22.720 That's why John writes truth about Jesus, so that we could believe and we could have fellowship and we 00:29:22.720 --> 00:29:30.779 can have joy. It's great reasons for us to be sharing too, isn't it? John wants to establish confident 00:29:30.779 --> 00:29:41.720 Christianity, believers who are sure, believers who know Jesus is the Son of God. He is the promised 00:29:41.720 --> 00:29:50.519 Savior and he is my Savior. He wants to establish those confident Christians who are experiencing daily 00:29:50.519 --> 00:29:57.920 the privilege that we have of being called into fellowship with the living God. 00:29:57.920 --> 00:30:05.700 the joy that we can have in our salvation that comes from knowing God. 00:30:09.840 --> 00:30:16.360 And when we have that joy, when we're living out of that fellowship, we will have the truth 00:30:16.360 --> 00:30:24.380 and we will also find a desire to share that truth, to encourage our brothers and sisters and to bring 00:30:24.380 --> 00:30:33.760 good news to those who have maybe never heard it before. And so, John draws us into the truth to then send us out, 00:30:34.760 --> 00:30:44.120 to bring clarity instead of confusion, to offer certainty in place of uncertainty as we proclaim 00:30:44.120 --> 00:30:53.160 the truth of the eternal Son of God entering into history on a mission to save from sin and to bring people 00:30:53.160 --> 00:31:01.720 into joyful, personal fellowship with the living God. Let's pray briefly together. 00:31:05.140 --> 00:31:10.800 Lord, our God, we thank you for the wonderful letter of 1 John. 00:31:10.799 --> 00:31:11.799 Lord, our God. 00:31:11.899 --> 00:31:17.919 Lord, our God, we thank you for the wonderful letter of 1 John. 00:31:18.019 --> 00:31:19.899 Lord, our God, we thank you for the powerful letter of 1 John. 00:31:20.279 --> 00:31:20.579 Lord, our God, we thank you for theaches. 00:31:20.839 --> 00:31:22.000 Lord, our God, we thank you for the kiss of harmony with the Papa, to help you shall see us. 00:31:22.119 --> 00:31:24.039 Lord, our God, we thank you for the comfort of God in answer for 12 years, 00:31:24.039 --> 00:31:24.740 and many of the people for the purist and perhaps we thank you for the Holy Spirit. 00:31:25.000 --> 00:31:26.480 Lord, our God, we thank you for theithe of our Father. 00:31:26.480 --> 00:31:28.220 Lord, I thank you for the wisdom of what I lean through, 00:31:28.220 --> 00:31:40.779 Lord, you to the Holy Spirit.