WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:08.919 Okay, we come to the second section of this letter that John, or this almost like a sermon 00:00:08.919 --> 00:00:17.199 that he gives to probably be passed round a number of house churches, possibly around 00:00:17.199 --> 00:00:19.160 the Ephesus area. 00:00:19.160 --> 00:00:25.920 And the assumption that I make today as we come to it, and forgive me if it's a wrong 00:00:25.920 --> 00:00:30.400 assumption is that what we're looking at is the truth. 00:00:30.400 --> 00:00:33.400 We're looking at what is true. 00:00:33.400 --> 00:00:34.840 That's why we're here, right? 00:00:34.840 --> 00:00:41.960 Because as if we're believers, then we've come to recognize God's Word and the revelation 00:00:41.960 --> 00:00:45.000 that we have in Jesus Christ as the truth. 00:00:45.000 --> 00:00:51.120 And that's very much what John is wanting to get across to those who will read his 00:00:51.119 --> 00:00:53.559 epistle, including ourselves. 00:00:53.559 --> 00:00:59.439 He is speaking about the message, Corrie mentioned that last week. 00:00:59.439 --> 00:01:04.400 This verse five is the message we have heard, and we proclaim it to you. 00:01:04.400 --> 00:01:08.239 It's something deliberate and clear that he's bringing to the people. 00:01:08.239 --> 00:01:09.799 You could translate that. 00:01:09.799 --> 00:01:13.000 This is the message that is messaged. 00:01:13.000 --> 00:01:17.439 It's the same root word that these two words reflect. 00:01:17.439 --> 00:01:24.439 It's the same root word that comes, that is connected with the word angel, the messenger 00:01:24.439 --> 00:01:26.719 that brings a message. 00:01:26.719 --> 00:01:31.719 And he's wanting to get across the message of the gospel, the message of the church, 00:01:31.719 --> 00:01:38.359 the message that has transformed his and their lives is consistent from the very beginning 00:01:38.359 --> 00:01:44.000 right through to Christ and beyond its consistent God in the beginning that we read brought 00:01:44.000 --> 00:01:47.640 light into the world, created the world. 00:01:47.640 --> 00:01:53.040 And with all that happened in between, we come to the Christ who in John chapter eight 00:01:53.040 --> 00:01:56.239 says, I am the light of the world. 00:01:56.239 --> 00:02:02.960 And John says that he is an eyewitness or an ear witness because he speaks about the 00:02:02.960 --> 00:02:05.159 message that they had heard. 00:02:05.159 --> 00:02:11.400 And he's bringing that to us and he's bringing it to the original readers. 00:02:11.400 --> 00:02:16.480 And I think in this letter, it's a specific message, isn't it? 00:02:16.480 --> 00:02:19.000 As we mentioned before, he's coming to the end of his life. 00:02:19.000 --> 00:02:21.439 He's probably the last living apostle. 00:02:21.439 --> 00:02:24.840 And he's got something important to say. 00:02:24.840 --> 00:02:31.159 And it really is a specific message that he's bringing, a word that he's bringing in verse 00:02:31.159 --> 00:02:35.520 seven of chapter one. 00:02:35.520 --> 00:02:41.200 He says, but if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with 00:02:41.199 --> 00:02:42.560 one another. 00:02:42.560 --> 00:02:50.359 In chapter two in verse seven, he brings this word that they had had from the beginning, 00:02:50.359 --> 00:02:54.280 which is a new commandment that they love one another. 00:02:54.280 --> 00:03:00.000 And in chapter three, verse 11, he speaks about this message again that you have heard, 00:03:00.000 --> 00:03:02.919 that we should love one another. 00:03:02.919 --> 00:03:07.879 So he's built the foundation of loving God. 00:03:07.879 --> 00:03:13.840 And he adds now the importance of, or fellowshiping with God and the importance as a result of 00:03:13.840 --> 00:03:19.079 that of fellowshiping with one another, hugely significant. 00:03:19.079 --> 00:03:21.639 And that is the core of what he's saying. 00:03:21.639 --> 00:03:28.120 The commonality and love we have for each other because that is what walking in the 00:03:28.120 --> 00:03:30.280 light looks like. 00:03:30.280 --> 00:03:37.199 And in many ways, as he takes the significant and important realities, he is subsuming the 00:03:37.199 --> 00:03:39.719 whole of God's commands to us. 00:03:39.719 --> 00:03:43.119 Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind strength, and love your neighbour 00:03:43.119 --> 00:03:44.119 as yourself. 00:03:44.119 --> 00:03:46.359 These are the things he's speaking about. 00:03:46.359 --> 00:03:51.399 And the problem he's addressing is that there is false teaching, creeping in. 00:03:51.399 --> 00:03:55.639 People coming with a message that's different and understanding that it's different, that 00:03:55.639 --> 00:04:02.679 is bringing division and selfishness and hatred towards one another. 00:04:02.680 --> 00:04:09.960 Bringing theology and bringing people into camps and into tribes with their theological 00:04:09.960 --> 00:04:12.000 pride. 00:04:12.000 --> 00:04:18.400 And it's antithetical to the whole gospel, that kind of thinking and that kind of living. 00:04:18.400 --> 00:04:26.120 Knowing God means loving our spiritual siblings, primarily. 00:04:26.120 --> 00:04:28.079 It means loving our neighbour and loving our enemy. 00:04:28.079 --> 00:04:35.079 And here the focus is very much on the gospel communities and it's about loving and fellowship 00:04:35.079 --> 00:04:36.680 with one another. 00:04:36.680 --> 00:04:50.839 Ten times John says in this short sermon stroke epistle, dear children, dear children. 00:04:50.839 --> 00:04:53.680 He says little children are dear children. 00:04:53.680 --> 00:04:55.079 It's very pastoral. 00:04:55.079 --> 00:04:57.000 It's very warm. 00:04:57.000 --> 00:04:59.600 It's very familial. 00:04:59.600 --> 00:05:03.800 And what he's getting across is that this truth of loving one another is simply not 00:05:03.800 --> 00:05:04.800 secondary. 00:05:04.800 --> 00:05:06.800 It's not unimportant. 00:05:06.800 --> 00:05:08.319 It's not an added extra. 00:05:08.319 --> 00:05:15.600 It is fundamental to our understanding of the theology of God and of knowing who God 00:05:15.600 --> 00:05:18.360 is and of fellowshiping with God. 00:05:18.360 --> 00:05:22.759 This is not about whether we're good with people or not, whether we're introverts or 00:05:22.759 --> 00:05:25.319 extroverts or sociable or not. 00:05:25.319 --> 00:05:26.879 It's much deeper than that. 00:05:26.879 --> 00:05:32.240 It goes right to the heart of our understanding of God. 00:05:32.240 --> 00:05:38.279 The transformation that God brings, fellowship with God brings into our lives a whole different 00:05:38.279 --> 00:05:45.000 view of believers and how we love them, not if we love them. 00:05:45.000 --> 00:05:51.319 The danger is, and John was aware of this, of treating other believers as if my knowing 00:05:51.319 --> 00:05:59.759 God is actually irrelevant to the way I treat them, not making any serious effort to connect 00:05:59.759 --> 00:06:06.439 why God being my Savior and the Savior of my fellow believers should make any difference 00:06:06.439 --> 00:06:11.159 to the way I treat them as a believer myself. 00:06:11.159 --> 00:06:12.759 And he's wanting to get across it. 00:06:12.759 --> 00:06:20.560 This is the most powerful witness to our fellowshiping with God, the response we have and the way 00:06:20.560 --> 00:06:24.000 we treat one another as believers. 00:06:24.000 --> 00:06:32.759 What then is the theological truth that underpins our community with each other? 00:06:32.759 --> 00:06:33.759 Sorry. 00:06:33.759 --> 00:06:38.399 A terrible thought just came into my head there about this fly, and it's flying about 00:06:38.399 --> 00:06:43.519 my head, which is a very time to say, wow, devil's in that fly. 00:06:43.519 --> 00:06:46.879 But that's a terrible thing to say because I was at camp many years ago when I was a 00:06:46.879 --> 00:06:48.959 kid, a football camp. 00:06:48.959 --> 00:06:57.959 And we were in church, and it was a hot sunny day, and the doors were open, and it was on 00:06:57.959 --> 00:07:02.919 the highlands, and the door were open, and halfway through the sermon, much to the light 00:07:02.919 --> 00:07:08.919 of all the kids like me in the church, a dog came in and came down the front, and kind 00:07:08.919 --> 00:07:12.919 of everyone, you know, you could have been talking about Pluto, and no one would have 00:07:12.919 --> 00:07:16.079 listened, because everyone's eyes went in the dog, just as I'm seeing all your eyes 00:07:16.079 --> 00:07:18.240 on the fly. 00:07:18.240 --> 00:07:25.240 And the dog came in and went about it and then left, and then at the end of the service, 00:07:25.240 --> 00:07:29.759 one of the leaders who was being very pious said to this old lady who was walking out 00:07:29.759 --> 00:07:32.600 of the church, she said, that was a terrible distraction, wasn't it? 00:07:32.600 --> 00:07:36.680 I think the devil was in that dog, and she turned around and she said, what's not? 00:07:36.680 --> 00:07:39.600 That was my dog. 00:07:39.600 --> 00:07:41.439 It was the minister's wife. 00:07:41.439 --> 00:07:47.759 So this fly does not belong to anyone, and I don't think I'll offend anyone if I say 00:07:47.759 --> 00:07:49.399 the devil's in it. 00:07:49.399 --> 00:07:53.839 But please try not to be too distracted by it, because I've got some really important 00:07:53.839 --> 00:07:55.560 things to say here. 00:07:55.560 --> 00:08:01.319 So what's the theological truth that underpins our community with each other? 00:08:01.319 --> 00:08:05.639 And it is stated here really clearly in verse 5. 00:08:05.639 --> 00:08:10.719 This is a message we heard from him and proclaimed to you that God is light. 00:08:10.719 --> 00:08:15.879 Now, there's two really profound truths expressed in this short letter. 00:08:15.879 --> 00:08:21.120 The first is that one, God is light, and then in chapter 4 verse 8, he says, God is love, 00:08:21.120 --> 00:08:27.360 to the greatest explanations of the character of God, God is light and God is love. 00:08:27.360 --> 00:08:34.159 And when he uses this expression of light, it's a very powerful biblical image and symbol 00:08:34.159 --> 00:08:44.120 of the character of God that is right through Scripture and often used by John himself. 00:08:44.120 --> 00:08:51.560 But there's that life that comes with light that is made clear in Genesis chapter 1 in 00:08:51.560 --> 00:09:01.279 the passage, the vitality of the created light, of the sun, of energy and warmth and life itself 00:09:01.279 --> 00:09:03.279 reflected in light. 00:09:03.279 --> 00:09:08.799 But it also speaks of revelation as well, goodness and righteousness. 00:09:08.799 --> 00:09:15.120 And truth in Ephesians chapter 5, Paul in verse 9 speaks about the fruit of the light 00:09:15.120 --> 00:09:20.759 that is the fruit of the light of God is found in all that is good and right and true. 00:09:20.759 --> 00:09:26.399 So there's revelatory right light in the character of God, goodness. 00:09:26.399 --> 00:09:31.000 And there is obviously purity and perfection. 00:09:31.000 --> 00:09:36.599 I can't really go into the characteristics of light as such, but there's a purity and 00:09:36.600 --> 00:09:40.120 a perfection that is reflected in light. 00:09:40.120 --> 00:09:41.639 And in God, he is light. 00:09:41.639 --> 00:09:43.240 In him, there is no darkness at all. 00:09:43.240 --> 00:09:47.159 What an astonishing statement of the character of God. 00:09:47.159 --> 00:09:49.480 No shadows whatsoever. 00:09:49.480 --> 00:09:53.399 Nothing sinful, a really significant statement. 00:09:53.399 --> 00:10:02.440 Nothing sinister, deceptive, never disappointment within his Trinitarian character. 00:10:02.440 --> 00:10:07.040 A perfect and equal love between the three persons of the Godhead. 00:10:07.040 --> 00:10:08.040 Never messes up. 00:10:08.040 --> 00:10:11.400 He's never guilty and he's never wrong. 00:10:11.400 --> 00:10:12.400 God is light. 00:10:12.400 --> 00:10:22.840 There's this phenomenal parallel to him being light and in him being no darkness at all. 00:10:22.840 --> 00:10:23.840 It's everything. 00:10:23.840 --> 00:10:27.440 It's everything we are not. 00:10:27.440 --> 00:10:34.760 You know, we can't create life from nothing and light from nothing as he did. 00:10:34.760 --> 00:10:37.280 Any light we create is derived light, of course. 00:10:37.280 --> 00:10:44.120 It's reflected light, but we can't even hide from ourselves. 00:10:44.120 --> 00:10:49.120 We try to and we certainly try to hide from others, but there's shadows within us, isn't 00:10:49.120 --> 00:10:50.120 there? 00:10:50.120 --> 00:10:52.040 We battle with personal demons. 00:10:52.039 --> 00:10:57.879 We fall short of our own standards, let alone God's perfect standards. 00:10:57.879 --> 00:11:07.199 We are gillridden and we see ugliness around us in the lives that we lead. 00:11:07.199 --> 00:11:13.120 And John 3.90, I'm going to come back briefly to these John reflections on light. 00:11:13.120 --> 00:11:17.799 Jesus says that people prefer the darkness rather than the light. 00:11:17.799 --> 00:11:23.639 So there's this, there's the natural recoiling from the character and purity and perfection 00:11:23.639 --> 00:11:26.319 and infinitude of God. 00:11:26.319 --> 00:11:32.079 And it's something that separates us from him, from his purity, so that we find ourselves 00:11:32.079 --> 00:11:34.639 under his just judgment. 00:11:34.639 --> 00:11:38.959 We don't and we can't love him as Lord. 00:11:38.959 --> 00:11:42.879 Exposes as leaves as naked before him. 00:11:42.879 --> 00:11:48.600 And that is a hurtful truth for us to consider. 00:11:48.600 --> 00:11:54.639 And kind of worse than that, as we recognize from 2 Corinthians 11, that the devil himself, 00:11:54.639 --> 00:12:01.240 who we sometimes call the Prince of Darkness, he's not specifically referred to that in 00:12:01.240 --> 00:12:02.240 the Scripture. 00:12:02.240 --> 00:12:07.000 He called the Prince of this world and much of the reference to him is about darkness. 00:12:07.000 --> 00:12:13.000 But he's referred to as an angel of light there because that is in the context of false 00:12:13.000 --> 00:12:20.559 teaching, which is the same context as here, where Paul exposes deceitful workmen who are 00:12:20.559 --> 00:12:24.919 disguised as believers but whose deeds expose them. 00:12:24.919 --> 00:12:29.480 And that's coming round to what is very important here, not only about our belief and fellowship 00:12:29.480 --> 00:12:34.559 with God, but how that works out in our lives. 00:12:34.559 --> 00:12:40.919 But these false teachers were divisive, spreading disunity, disharmony and lovelessness and 00:12:40.919 --> 00:12:45.119 separation. 00:12:45.119 --> 00:12:48.799 So God is everything we're not yet as Christians today. 00:12:48.799 --> 00:12:50.159 What do we do? 00:12:50.159 --> 00:12:54.539 We claim to share commonality with God, don't we? 00:12:54.539 --> 00:13:01.979 We claim, as Corrie preached last Sunday, to have fellowship with God. 00:13:01.979 --> 00:13:04.359 And that's what he was proclaiming. 00:13:04.360 --> 00:13:10.279 That is, relationship, family ties with, commonality with God. 00:13:10.279 --> 00:13:14.200 How can we in our darkness? 00:13:14.200 --> 00:13:19.279 We can, of course, because, and we know this, because of Jesus, because God in His power 00:13:19.279 --> 00:13:28.200 and His love chose to reveal that in emptying Himself from the person with His Son and to 00:13:28.200 --> 00:13:33.399 die in the cross midday in darkness. 00:13:33.399 --> 00:13:43.399 The three hours of darkness taking this symbolism very clearly to its spiritual level. 00:13:43.399 --> 00:13:50.600 And so John speaks here about Jesus Christ in chapter 2 and verse 1. 00:13:50.600 --> 00:13:55.240 He's saying, my dear children, I'm writing these things to you so that you may not sin, 00:13:55.240 --> 00:13:56.240 but anyone does sin. 00:13:56.240 --> 00:13:59.559 We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. 00:13:59.559 --> 00:14:04.599 He is the propitiation for our sins, not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world. 00:14:04.599 --> 00:14:09.879 And therein he's explaining why we can have fellowship with God, isn't it? 00:14:09.879 --> 00:14:14.599 Because he explains to them about Jesus, the righteous one. 00:14:14.599 --> 00:14:17.919 Jesus, the righteous, the light of the world. 00:14:17.919 --> 00:14:22.879 And if you go through the gospel of John, we mentioned that last week, you'll find this 00:14:22.879 --> 00:14:30.200 theme repeating itself many times through the gospel of John. 00:14:30.200 --> 00:14:39.279 John the Baptist introduces Jesus as the light who was life and connects the two together. 00:14:39.279 --> 00:14:46.200 In verse chapter 3, it speaks about Jesus who overcomes the darkness, the light overcoming 00:14:46.200 --> 00:14:48.799 darkness and exposing it darkness. 00:14:48.799 --> 00:14:55.319 In chapter 8, we mentioned before Jesus makes that amazing claim, I am the light of the world. 00:14:55.319 --> 00:15:01.359 And in chapter 12, he says, no one who believes in Jesus should stay in the dark. 00:15:01.359 --> 00:15:05.479 So there's this transformation and change. 00:15:05.479 --> 00:15:12.120 And then of course Paul takes that image further by describing Jesus in 2 Corinthians 4 verse 00:15:12.120 --> 00:15:17.240 6 as the light of the knowledge of God's glory in the face of Jesus Christ. 00:15:17.240 --> 00:15:23.919 So you have all these interconnecting symbolic pictures of who Jesus is, the righteous one, 00:15:23.919 --> 00:15:31.159 the right one, the light one, the one in whom there is no darkness, yet the one who becomes 00:15:31.159 --> 00:15:45.600 the propitiation for our sins, God's own gift to remove and turn away his just wrath against 00:15:45.600 --> 00:15:50.360 the darkness and blackness and rebellion of our sin. 00:15:50.360 --> 00:15:58.159 And his perfect love he provides, he is all of that Old Testament sacrificial system pointing 00:15:58.159 --> 00:16:07.120 forward towards the one, the coming of Jesus who empties himself, who sheds his blood, the 00:16:07.120 --> 00:16:15.360 life being in the blood and goes through the darkness of hell in our place as the God's 00:16:15.360 --> 00:16:21.680 perfect and only answer to the darkness of our hearts and of the world in which we live 00:16:21.680 --> 00:16:27.680 in all the brokenness and pain and disordered loves that we recognize. 00:16:27.680 --> 00:16:30.120 And it's not an interesting verse. 00:16:30.120 --> 00:16:36.159 He says, not only for our sins, not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world, 00:16:36.159 --> 00:16:43.519 is that a universal statement that he died for everyone and that everyone is forgiven. 00:16:43.519 --> 00:16:47.480 Only in the light of Scripture we recognize that that can't be the case. 00:16:47.480 --> 00:16:59.480 But imagine a pandemic and imagine that there's only one vaccination that enables those who 00:16:59.480 --> 00:17:02.799 become infected to be healed. 00:17:02.799 --> 00:17:12.079 There's only one vaccination, but while there's only one way of being healed, that vaccination 00:17:12.079 --> 00:17:19.319 still needs to be applied, it still needs to be taken, it still needs to be individually 00:17:19.319 --> 00:17:22.799 brought into the life of the person. 00:17:22.799 --> 00:17:27.799 It provides no healing if it remains in a cupboard. 00:17:27.799 --> 00:17:34.000 And I believe that's the sense in which John is speaking about Jesus' atoning work here. 00:17:34.000 --> 00:17:35.839 It is the only solution. 00:17:35.839 --> 00:17:42.559 It is the only cure, it's the only answer to the diagnosis we find ourselves in. 00:17:42.559 --> 00:17:55.879 But it remains only a meaningful and life-changing cure if we embrace and take that salvation 00:17:55.879 --> 00:17:57.399 of Jesus to ourselves. 00:17:57.399 --> 00:18:00.519 The Christ Himself is the message. 00:18:00.519 --> 00:18:02.959 He's the one in whom we trust. 00:18:02.960 --> 00:18:08.519 And because of what Christ has done in laying our trust in Him, we become sons and daughters 00:18:08.519 --> 00:18:17.440 of God, covered by the righteousness of His light and then dwelt by His life-giving spirit. 00:18:17.440 --> 00:18:22.480 So we can be people who say, we've seen the light in many ways. 00:18:22.480 --> 00:18:24.000 We've come to the light. 00:18:24.000 --> 00:18:31.400 We've confessed the darkness of our sins and no forgiveness. 00:18:31.400 --> 00:18:35.560 So I want to finish with this last section which brings us back to the beginning in a 00:18:35.560 --> 00:18:39.400 sense because we're called to walk in the light, aren't we? 00:18:39.400 --> 00:18:45.480 In verse 70 he says, but if we walk in the light, it's assumed as believers who fellowship 00:18:45.480 --> 00:18:51.280 with God, who is light, we walk in the light, then we have fellowship with one another. 00:18:51.280 --> 00:18:54.720 Now that's the conclusion really of what he's saying. 00:18:54.720 --> 00:18:59.920 God shares His light with us and we fellowship with Him. 00:18:59.920 --> 00:19:06.360 We emphasized that last week and it's our major emphasis that the reality of being Christians 00:19:06.360 --> 00:19:08.920 is fellowship with God. 00:19:08.920 --> 00:19:10.000 It's knowing God. 00:19:10.000 --> 00:19:12.920 It's walking with God. 00:19:12.920 --> 00:19:17.600 It's knowing that we've been released from spiritual darkness and the solitary confinement 00:19:17.600 --> 00:19:24.279 of not knowing God and coming into His presence, walking the hills with our heavenly Father, 00:19:24.279 --> 00:19:30.720 asking just in His character and who He is in His light and in His presence, making up 00:19:30.720 --> 00:19:38.799 for the lost time and seeking to live anew in a fresh way, looking and facing our living 00:19:38.799 --> 00:19:46.920 God, reshaping the reality of our lives from the four dark walls of deceit and darkness 00:19:46.920 --> 00:19:50.000 and unbelief into the freedom of His light. 00:19:50.000 --> 00:19:56.079 And He speaks of it here as a fellowship with God is walking in the light. 00:19:56.079 --> 00:19:58.680 It's a great picture. 00:19:58.680 --> 00:20:04.640 Walking is simply that habitual direction of our lives. 00:20:04.640 --> 00:20:07.119 It defines who we are. 00:20:07.119 --> 00:20:15.119 We use that in what walk of life are you in and which direction are you walking in the 00:20:15.119 --> 00:20:16.119 way we think. 00:20:16.119 --> 00:20:19.559 We use it in that term and that's what it means here. 00:20:19.559 --> 00:20:24.440 It's the direction in which we're traveling as people that defines who we are, the trajectory 00:20:24.440 --> 00:20:30.319 of our lives, the choices that we make, the decisions, all to be made in fellowship with 00:20:30.319 --> 00:20:40.200 God in prayer, in relationship, in listening, in waiting, in meditating, in this character 00:20:40.200 --> 00:20:41.200 of God. 00:20:41.200 --> 00:20:48.039 And I think it's significant that generally speaking in Scripture it's called a walk because 00:20:48.039 --> 00:20:53.399 a walk is not really a picture of flamboyance or drama. 00:20:53.399 --> 00:20:56.319 It's kind of the everyday thing. 00:20:56.319 --> 00:20:59.799 The everyday way we live is our relationship with God. 00:20:59.799 --> 00:21:04.159 I mean even the walking race in the Olympics need to be jazzed up a bit to make it exciting 00:21:04.159 --> 00:21:08.279 so that people wiggle our hips and do things that make it quite funny. 00:21:08.279 --> 00:21:11.759 But if it was just an ordinary walk, no one would watch it. 00:21:11.759 --> 00:21:18.039 And there's that sense in which the walk we have and the fellowship we have with God 00:21:18.039 --> 00:21:22.200 is our everyday direction. 00:21:22.200 --> 00:21:27.079 In his company, the perspective it gives us, the awareness of the obstacles that he opens 00:21:27.079 --> 00:21:33.000 our eyes to, our own heart that he reveals to us so that we are changing it all the time 00:21:33.000 --> 00:21:38.319 and living in the light of his truth, this character. 00:21:38.319 --> 00:21:40.160 And that involves a couple of things as we go. 00:21:40.160 --> 00:21:46.560 The first is confession of sin in verses 8 to 10 particularly. 00:21:46.560 --> 00:21:53.759 He speaks about walking in the light and the paradox of in doing so confessing sin. 00:21:53.759 --> 00:21:58.440 You know, he says if we walk in the light, see in the light, we have fellowship one another. 00:21:58.440 --> 00:22:00.360 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. 00:22:00.360 --> 00:22:01.360 The truth is not in us. 00:22:01.360 --> 00:22:05.720 If we confess our sin, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and cleanse us 00:22:05.720 --> 00:22:07.240 from all righteousness. 00:22:07.240 --> 00:22:10.160 If we say we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar. 00:22:10.160 --> 00:22:11.440 His truth is not in us. 00:22:11.440 --> 00:22:18.160 Isn't that interesting that in this walk of light, this walk with God, he wants us to 00:22:18.160 --> 00:22:22.519 be honest and open and confess that we're imperfect. 00:22:22.519 --> 00:22:27.519 We're to reject the whole idea that we are sinless. 00:22:27.519 --> 00:22:31.440 We're to reject the whole idea that our sin doesn't matter. 00:22:31.440 --> 00:22:40.400 He says if we say we have no sin, the NIV translate that, if we claim to be without sin or if 00:22:40.400 --> 00:22:46.080 we claim not to have sin, and it's quite a strong word that is translated that way, it's 00:22:46.080 --> 00:22:47.720 kind of making a demand. 00:22:47.720 --> 00:22:49.720 No, I'm not, don't be ridiculous. 00:22:49.720 --> 00:22:51.320 I'm not a sinner. 00:22:51.320 --> 00:22:53.759 And that wasn't sinful. 00:22:53.759 --> 00:22:56.720 He says don't claim to be like that. 00:22:56.720 --> 00:23:02.559 Don't defend sinful behavior and make it justifiable as if it's okay. 00:23:02.559 --> 00:23:05.000 And don't claim to not be sinners. 00:23:05.000 --> 00:23:10.000 He's saying that you've been exposed by the light, the light of God looks into our hearts 00:23:10.000 --> 00:23:12.160 and he sees everything. 00:23:12.160 --> 00:23:22.400 And when we live in such a way, okay, flies, bands, it's not easy today. 00:23:22.400 --> 00:23:23.400 I'm nearly finished. 00:23:23.400 --> 00:23:29.200 So I'm going to persevere, so my last point will be to the brass band, okay? 00:23:29.200 --> 00:23:35.840 But the importance is that, it's this recognition that these things are not insignificant. 00:23:35.840 --> 00:23:41.000 If we say we're, it doesn't matter if we're sinning or not, or if we say, well, I'm sure 00:23:41.000 --> 00:23:47.360 God doesn't see that, or we were deceived by our own goodness, then we're making out 00:23:47.360 --> 00:23:48.880 God to be a liar. 00:23:48.880 --> 00:23:55.640 That is a blasphemous accusation, we're saying God isn't like, we're saying God isn't truthful. 00:23:55.640 --> 00:23:58.040 He's like, I know my heart better than God. 00:23:58.040 --> 00:24:00.080 Really God, I think you've got things wrong there. 00:24:00.080 --> 00:24:04.640 I'm not sure if you needed to send Jesus all the way to the cross because I'm not so bad. 00:24:04.640 --> 00:24:06.840 And we make him out to be a liar. 00:24:06.840 --> 00:24:11.800 And that's tremendously significant because we're putting ourselves above God. 00:24:11.800 --> 00:24:16.760 We're saying we're the standard, we're what's important, and God doesn't really know he's 00:24:16.759 --> 00:24:24.160 old, it's a long time since he revealed himself. 00:24:24.160 --> 00:24:30.799 If we think like that, as Christians, and we often do, it may be not expressively in 00:24:30.799 --> 00:24:38.480 that way, but we'll lose sense of God's presence, and we don't lose our salvation unless we 00:24:38.480 --> 00:24:44.319 habitually are living that way, unless we've decided that God is wrong and that we are 00:24:44.319 --> 00:24:51.039 right, and that there is another theology, there's another way, there's another truth. 00:24:51.039 --> 00:24:55.240 That is causing God to be a liar, and his word is not in us. 00:24:55.240 --> 00:25:00.599 And that matters because as I said at the very beginning, we come here because we believe 00:25:00.599 --> 00:25:08.119 God has revealed truth, and it's not just something we decide or make up ourselves. 00:25:08.119 --> 00:25:14.839 So as we live in the light, we're walking with God, and that involves confessing our 00:25:14.839 --> 00:25:15.839 sin. 00:25:15.839 --> 00:25:19.199 Don't be afraid that your sin's too bad. 00:25:19.199 --> 00:25:22.000 How often have we heard people say, oh, I can't come into a church, the church roof 00:25:22.000 --> 00:25:26.399 would fall down because I'm so bad. 00:25:26.399 --> 00:25:32.759 Please, give God some credit that he's the living God, and that he knows our hearts, 00:25:32.759 --> 00:25:34.559 and we don't need any pretense with him. 00:25:34.559 --> 00:25:39.079 We are pretending with each other a lot of the time, but we shouldn't be with God. 00:25:39.079 --> 00:25:43.279 And he says, look, confess your sins because I'm faithful and just. 00:25:43.279 --> 00:25:47.839 I've punished them in the person of my own son Jesus Christ out of love and voluntary 00:25:47.839 --> 00:25:50.000 desire for you. 00:25:50.000 --> 00:25:57.039 The Christ fully came in as the Spirit did with me in this plan of salvation. 00:25:57.039 --> 00:26:00.799 So please, I will not punish your sin twice. 00:26:00.799 --> 00:26:02.319 Confess, be honest. 00:26:02.319 --> 00:26:07.679 And lastly, as part of that, and I think most powerfully, then we fellowship with one another. 00:26:07.679 --> 00:26:15.559 And that's repeated as the logos, the word, the message three times in this short letter. 00:26:15.559 --> 00:26:20.799 But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another. 00:26:20.799 --> 00:26:26.799 That is the implication that he wants to drive home from this short letter, that we are not 00:26:26.799 --> 00:26:36.480 to be living our Christian lives on our, it's the whole focus, walking with God is a given. 00:26:36.480 --> 00:26:45.000 Therefore we share commonality and love, and we share this road, this walk with other Christians. 00:26:45.000 --> 00:26:48.559 We're on this road together. 00:26:48.559 --> 00:26:57.119 We have an eternal future destination, and that destination is not one birth. 00:26:57.119 --> 00:27:02.839 We're in that part of a multitude that nobody can number. 00:27:02.839 --> 00:27:09.319 And we are to fellowship on that road together and share that road with our spiritual family. 00:27:09.319 --> 00:27:17.200 Heaven is not me and my God, and even me and my God and reuniting with my earthly family, 00:27:17.200 --> 00:27:23.160 however significant that may be, heaven is a society, it's a nation, it's a family, 00:27:23.160 --> 00:27:27.039 it's a flock, it's a people. 00:27:27.039 --> 00:27:36.920 And I think sin in our lives makes us very often want to categorize or identify ourselves 00:27:36.920 --> 00:27:40.080 in what separates us from one another, isn't it? 00:27:40.080 --> 00:27:42.519 We're Scottish, not English. 00:27:42.519 --> 00:27:47.120 We're Hibbs fans, not Hartz fans, of course. 00:27:47.119 --> 00:27:50.679 And there's lots of different ways that we separate ourselves out and make ourselves 00:27:50.679 --> 00:27:52.719 different. 00:27:52.719 --> 00:27:57.919 And we do that as Christians, or Presbyterians, not Baptists, Reformed, or Arminian. 00:27:57.919 --> 00:28:01.679 We have lots and lots of divisions that we make. 00:28:01.679 --> 00:28:06.039 Now a lot of them are significant and not unimportant. 00:28:06.039 --> 00:28:09.199 But what lies beyond that is much more significant. 00:28:09.199 --> 00:28:13.879 We're not to be naive, we're not to expect everyone to believe the same things in every 00:28:13.879 --> 00:28:14.879 aspect. 00:28:14.880 --> 00:28:22.440 But in all honesty, as we are walking in the light, we focus on what unites us rather than 00:28:22.440 --> 00:28:23.440 what separates us. 00:28:23.440 --> 00:28:26.880 It doesn't need to be institutional unity. 00:28:26.880 --> 00:28:31.280 But in Christ, if we're spending eternity with people, let's start living like that 00:28:31.280 --> 00:28:35.160 now and confess when we fall short. 00:28:35.160 --> 00:28:41.080 We're walking towards a Trinitarian love, which is a perfect love between Father, Son, 00:28:41.080 --> 00:28:42.080 and Holy Spirit. 00:28:42.079 --> 00:28:48.720 And the whole of our remaining battle is against sin which revolves around that separation, 00:28:48.720 --> 00:28:57.039 division, hatred, moving away rather than moving towards condemning, criticizing, avoiding 00:28:57.039 --> 00:29:04.279 confession, focusing on the multitudes of sins of others without confessing our own 00:29:04.279 --> 00:29:08.720 and without allowing love to cover over a multitude of sins. 00:29:08.720 --> 00:29:19.079 And so we are called to love one another sacrificially rather than saying that simply doesn't matter. 00:29:19.079 --> 00:29:20.079 And that's tough. 00:29:20.079 --> 00:29:22.759 It's not an easy walk. 00:29:22.759 --> 00:29:26.160 It's so tempting to walk away, isn't it? 00:29:26.160 --> 00:29:30.360 Tempting to justify ourselves, tempting to say, I know better, tempting to say, I've 00:29:30.360 --> 00:29:33.640 been badly treated in the congregation. 00:29:33.640 --> 00:29:35.640 Let's not just make it theoretical. 00:29:35.640 --> 00:29:41.320 Let's think of our own sins, the congregation that we're part of here. 00:29:41.320 --> 00:29:49.120 We are called never to deny the centrality and the command to love one another, and especially 00:29:49.120 --> 00:29:54.360 love when there's brokenness or when there's division or when we hear things about other 00:29:54.360 --> 00:29:57.040 people or whatever it might be. 00:29:57.040 --> 00:30:01.680 Because if we deny that, the centrality, the significance, and the hard work that's involved 00:30:01.680 --> 00:30:05.960 in that and the transformation of our hearts, then we're calling God a liar. 00:30:05.960 --> 00:30:10.120 But we're called to live like that in St. Columbus. 00:30:10.120 --> 00:30:13.519 That's what we'll, you know, we talk about community and family. 00:30:13.519 --> 00:30:17.440 Important that is generosity, hospitality. 00:30:17.440 --> 00:30:19.400 We talk about all these things. 00:30:19.400 --> 00:30:20.400 They're not secondary. 00:30:20.400 --> 00:30:22.200 They're not insignificant. 00:30:22.200 --> 00:30:26.799 They're not just our particular distinctive. 00:30:26.799 --> 00:30:31.240 They're not things that we can just get tired of and retreat into our own shell. 00:30:31.240 --> 00:30:34.680 This is our understanding of fellowship with God. 00:30:34.680 --> 00:30:39.559 It is basic, important, crucial theology. 00:30:39.559 --> 00:30:44.880 As we fellowship with God, we love one another. 00:30:44.880 --> 00:30:48.759 And that gives us a global perspective as to our Christianity. 00:30:48.759 --> 00:30:56.880 Stops has been insular and isolated and isolationist in the way we live our Christian lives. 00:30:56.880 --> 00:31:01.480 Read this again, read the whole of it again. 00:31:01.480 --> 00:31:10.200 My little children, my dear children, ten times, old saint, probably not far from his 00:31:10.200 --> 00:31:15.560 death, who walked with Jesus, who had heard it and seen it all. 00:31:15.560 --> 00:31:22.920 This is the message he wanted to leave inspired by the Holy Spirit, that we have fellowship 00:31:22.920 --> 00:31:33.160 with God, and therefore, because of that, we love one another. 00:31:33.160 --> 00:31:37.880 I wonder what message we will share in our dotage. 00:31:37.880 --> 00:31:40.640 I mean, let's pray. 00:31:40.640 --> 00:31:46.039 Father God, we pray and ask your blessing on your word. 00:31:46.039 --> 00:31:51.480 We pray that you would take it and apply it to our hearts and to our lives. 00:31:51.480 --> 00:31:55.559 We would be challenged by it, comforted by it. 00:31:55.559 --> 00:31:59.799 What great comfort in walking and fellowship with God to know that we can not run away 00:31:59.799 --> 00:32:04.599 and hide like Adam and Eve did, but we can confess our sins because you're faithful and 00:32:04.599 --> 00:32:06.240 just to forgive our sins. 00:32:06.240 --> 00:32:13.360 Because what you have done is you paid the price, your light, and there's no darkness 00:32:13.360 --> 00:32:15.599 in you whatsoever. 00:32:15.599 --> 00:32:20.519 Forgive us when we accuse you of being, having darkness in you. 00:32:20.519 --> 00:32:34.000 When we accuse you of lying or being unfair or unjust or capricious or anything that is 00:32:34.000 --> 00:32:43.599 wrong and sinful, hard to understand a being that is all light in whom there is no darkness 00:32:43.599 --> 00:32:50.160 and not a solitary being, but one in trinitarian love, astonishing truth. 00:32:50.160 --> 00:32:56.480 May we meditate on today, may we consider the events of what is happening in the city 00:32:56.480 --> 00:33:04.560 today and meditate on these truths or these realities that we find and look at them with 00:33:04.560 --> 00:33:10.519 the perspective of being followers of Jesus and the reality that your kingdom will come, 00:33:10.519 --> 00:33:13.000 your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 00:33:13.000 --> 00:33:23.000 Amen.