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Unlocking the New Testament Part 30 - Letters of John 1

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it's the story of how God was seeking a

bride for his son each book is different

from every other book I'm trying to give

you the keys for you to unlock it for [Music]

[Music]

yourself tucked away at the end of the

new Testament are three little Letters

by the Apostle John one quite long and

two very short and they're quite

different from Paul's letters which

we've been looking at well they're

written by someone else and the Holy

Spirit so inspired the writers of

scripture that the Holy Spirit didn't

override their temperament or their

particular Outlook their character and

personality and that's beautiful God can

use our

personalities and uh so they have a

different feel about them they're very

warm very personal uh some have called

them very fatherly letters I call them

very grandfatherly letters Because by

the time John wrote These he was an old

man he was the only Apostle to die of

old age all the others were killed ex

executed assassinated or whatever but

John was allowed to live and indeed

Jesus had hinted about this when Peter

had been told by Jesus you're going to

to die a uh horrible death crucifixion

actually you'll be carried somewhere by

others that you don't want to go and

Peter said but what about

John and Jesus said that's none of your business

business

Peter if I want him still to be around

when I return that's my business and

from then a rumor began that Jesus would

start come back before Jesus died before

John died that's not what Jesus was

saying actually and in John's gospel

he corrects that wrong impression but he

did live to an old age and he looked

after Mary the mother of Jesus of course

and they moved to Ephesus and that's

where the these letters were

written and later we're going to look at

the Book of Revelation and that's not

unconnected with Ephesus either well now

when we look at these letters there are

again these Bible scholars who say

they're not written by the Apostle John

but when you compare these letters with

John's gospel they have the same stamp

on them the same style the same

vocabulary and many of the features are the

the

same but the thing that really ties

these letters to John's gospel though in

a sense they're not named nevertheless

is the fact that all the way through

there there are these absolute contrasts

John is a very black and white person

and is always presenting things in terms

of absolute opposites and we who live in

an age of

relativism find this very different

relativ relativism means there's nothing

either true or false everything's just

an opinion there's nothing right or

wrong there's no black and white

everything's Shades of Gray and we live

in a society that's devoted to

relativist thinking whereas the Bible is

very much in absolutes Black and Whites

and John particularly sees things very

clearly as a matter of life or death a

matter of light or Darkness truth or

Lies Love or hate righteousness or

lawlessness children of God or children

of Satan love of the father or love of

the world and he just says these are totally

totally

incompatible and there is no third

position there's no middle ground

there's no in between you're either

walking in light or you're walking in

darkness and ultimately of course the

biggest contrast is heaven or hell and

there's nowhere else every everybody's

heading for one or the

other well that tells me that it is John

who's writing these letters and the

gospel as well that it's the same man

this is how he thinks now who does he

address his letters to well he does tell

us in chapter 2: 12- 14 he says I'm

writing to three groups of

people he says I'm writing to Little

Children I'm writing to young men and

I'm writing to fathers

now he's not in in a sense writing to

different physical ages but different

spiritual ages young children are recent

converts those who've just been born

again little children who need to be

given milk rather than meat to help them

little children who have experienced two

things they know forgiveness and they

now know God as father and that's about

the limit of their knowledge and he's

writing to them little children new

converts babes in Christ he also wants

to write to young men those who've grown

up a bit and who've matured a bit and he

says three things about them young men

young men in Christ have begun to

develop their strength they've grown a

bit stronger they're not weak like

babies they've also digested the

scripture they know the scriptures

they've been studying the Bible and that

has helped them to grow and above all

they've had their first battles with

Satan and they've had victory over Satan

and when you get a victory over the

devil that helps you to grow so these

are young Christians who are growing

strong in those three ways and then he

writes to much older CH Christians he

calls them fathers and he writes to

these because their experience has both

length and depth some people just have

length of experience and not depth but

he says fathers real fathers real mature

Christians have both length and depth of

experience with God so he's writing to

three groups all at once that's quite a

a big Target to

hit uh we do notice that he puts them

all into male

form and in fact you may have noticed

the whole new testament is addressed to

brothers and not brothers and

sisters well that's an important thing

to notice for a number of reasons it

does cover brothers and sisters but why

is there this male

emphasis because there there are now

non-sexist versions of the Bible that

put it as brothers and sisters all the

way through same Bible says God is

father mother and there's a whole lot of

confusion coming in there but I believe

one main reason is this the strength and

character of the

church can be seen in its

men and that men have the responsibility

of leadership in the church as well as

in the home and that their character is

the all important thing where a Church's

men are strong the whole church will

be where the men are weak that church

will be

weak and that's one reason why the last

five years I've spent so much time in

what we call our men for God conferences

and the most letters of thanks I've had

are from the

ladies for what's happened to their men

where the men are strong in the home and

the church the women and children will

be strong too but where the men are weak

that church will be weak it's an

important point and brothers are very

important and uh I'd be a wey man if I

had A1 pound note for every

family in church where the wife is ahead

of the husband

spiritually but it's healthy where the

husband is ahead of the wife

and a husband can't be ahead unless he's

ahead if you know what I mean so that's

the male emphasis it's not putting women

down or children down it's saying if the

men are strong in the faith the women

and children will be as well and that's

a profound

principle well now that's who he's

writing to so ask why is he writing and

we get a lot of answers because he gives

us so many answers and I've given you

two outlines two possible lists one is a

shorter one and one is a longer one but

you can put them together and make of

them what you will but for

example uh someone has said that he

writes for four reasons that these three

groups of people may be satisfied that

their Joy may be

full that they may be sinless and living

blameless lives that they may be safe

from all the Wilds of the devil

especially false teaching which is the

devil's particular approach to church

life and above all that they may be

sure Christians need to be

assured there's a doctrine of assurance

in these little letters that's terribly

important we don't want to be waking up

every morning

insecure but to be sure of who we are in

Christ and God and so he writes that

they may be sure that's picking out four

texts there I've got uh five here very

similar he's writing to promote Harmony

among them that they may have fellowship

with one another that they may really be

one writing to promote Harmony to

produce happiness that their Joy may be

full to protect Holiness that they may

remain a holy people and not distracted

from that and to prevent

heresy I'm sure you're getting the

message as we've gone through the

Epistles of Paul and now John that the

biggest danger to the church is false

teaching and we have to be on Constant

Guard against

it and finally to provide hope he wants

them to be full of Hope for the future

not depressed but looking forward with

eagerness to all that God's going to do

well you can put all those reasons

together but that's on his heart this

dear old man he's writing about the the

year 90 ad 60 years after he first heard

Jesus say follow me and here is the old

man I can see him with a long beard and

he's saying little children and young

men and fathers he he's saying I'm your

grandfather in the faith and I want you

to be satisfied and sure of who you are

and I want you to be holy and in Harmony

and full of hope that's why he's writing

so there's a very tender pastoral heart

right in these

letters well now let's try and sort

of get a pattern out of the letter it's

not easy because um there is no order in

this letter when you try and structure

it it's almost impossible to

analyze he sort of Goes Around in

Circles his thinking is as we say cyclic

rather than linear and I'm a linear man

I like AB c d you know I like to

see the progress of an argument and I

like to analyze and Paul is pretty good

at that he had a legal mind and I like

linear arguments so I find myself a

little lost when I come to a man who's

who thinks in circles and goes round and

round the same themes and keeps

returning to one and then starting off

again now why does he think in circles

rather than lines well he's a

fisherman for a start he's not a lawyer

like Paul he's a fisherman

and fisherman will talk from one thing

to another he he wasn't an educated man

he wasn't taught to think that way

that's a possible reason another

possible reason is his

age old men become

Gess and they talk around and around

things it's characteristic of age but I

think the real reason is this this man

is Jewish and though he's writing in the

Greek language he's Jewish and if you

study Jewish wisdom

Literature Like The Book of Proverbs it

is characteristic of Jewish Have you

listened to Jewish rabbis talk have you

seen the film Fiddler on the Roof they

they talk around things on this hand and

on the other hand and one Jew asked me

do you know why all Jews have short

necks and I

said see and and there there is this

kind of this Whimsical wisdom you know

on the one hand and on the other hand

um it's Jewish wisdom to talk around

subjects The Book of Proverbs for

example just goes round and round a

number of subjects it touches on

laziness and then on a nagging wife and

then on something else and then on

something else and then curse it be a

brother who Rises early in the morning

and greets with a loud voice and and

then it comes back to laziness and then

it goes on to nagging women again and

have you noticed it goes around in

circles and you have to pull everything

together from all over the place to find

a sermon on

laziness the same thing is in the letter of

James you read the letter of James and

he talks about the sins of the mouth and

then he goes onto faith and works then

he comes back to the mouth and it is

characteristic of Jewish wisdom to go

around circles and to have a number of

themes that you keep popping up and into

ens so you can't really structure it but

I've put it in a diagram of a kind kind

of world with two

hemispheres two halves of a

world and what he's saying is I want you

to live in this Hemisphere and not drift

into that

hemisphere I want you to stay up here

with the word of God and not go with the

world and that sort of little diagram

helps me when I'm reading through the

letters of John because the word above

the upper hemisphere the northern

hemisphere is where the children of God

are to live and that's a world of life

and love and

light because the biggest influence in

them is the word of

God but if you drift over the equator

you go to the other hemisphere that's

where the children of the devil

live and that's a world of

lawlessness of lust of

lies because they influenced by the

world and that's the choice that every

Christian has each day to live by the

word or to let the world shape their

life and that will be the character that

will result that'll be the kind of

atmosphere around the person as they

live if you love the world you'll soon

be living that kind of a life if you

love the word you'll be living this kind

of a life and once you've seen that

little simple framework of his thinking

you realize that in fact there is some

shape to the letter it's a bit of a

sandwich begins positive then negative

and then positive that's a nice sandwich

twice as much positive as negative and

the negative squeeze between the

positive what were to do what we not to

do and what we to do or to expand it a

little in chapter one we begin with life

and then as we go into chapter 2 light

and then there's the negative section

which concentrates Ates on the world's

kind of Life lust lies and lawlessness

that's from chapter 215 to 310 then he

goes back to the positive and emphasizes

love very strongly he is the only person

in the Bible to make the statement God

is love and that's the point at which he

makes it

there and then he finishes by talking

about life again now I wonder if you

realize what a Revolution it is to say

God is

love no other religion in the world has

ever said that and indeed

cannot not even Judaism can say that

Judaism can say God loves

us but that's a different statement to

say God is love means that God is more

than one

person because you can't Be Love by

yourself you understand that only

because we know that God is Father Son

and Holy Spirit can we say God is love

because before there was anybody else

around there was Father Son and the Holy

Spirit and father loved the son and son

loved the spirit and spirit loved the

son and son loved the father and they

all loved each other God is love which

means god is more than one person

whereas to Judaism God is only one

person therefore he can't be

love you understand what an

extraordinary statement it is to say God

is love and yet to say there's only one

God you can only say God is love if you

believe God is three in

one otherwise he can't be love you could

only say he loves

us but when there were no us to love how

could God Be Love unless he was three in

one in perfect love somebody once asked

me why did God make us I said well he

had one son and he loved him so much

that he wanted a bigger

family I said I can't put it more simply

than that he wanted to share the love he

already had with a larger Circle that's

why he wanted to make many

sons that's how it all came about well

that's a kind of

outline well we've got a lot to talk

quickly I'm looking at my notes and then

looking at that and I can't tie the two

together so I'm going to go back to my

notes for a moment and then we'll come

back to that that's a little further

ahead I want to deal with the heresy the

false teaching that he was having to

cope with right there in

Ephesus um you notice as he goes through

the letter he says we and you and they

and it's the they part that I just want

to talk about I haven't got any notes up

here for you basically again it's our

old enemy Greek philosophy that

separates the physical and the

spiritual and you know we we've so embi

this separated Outlook this

disintegrated outlook on life it is from

the Greeks that we got the word sacred

and secular

you'll never find that in the Bible and

yet even Christians say to me I'm in a

secular job I say you're in no such

thing unless it's immoral or illegal and

I keep saying there is nothing secular except

except

sin and you know when I said that once

in the north of England a pop singer a

nationally known pop singer was

converted through that

word there is nothing secular except sin

and from then on he began to sing for

the glory of God he thought he was in a

secular job and part of which was making

the jingles for commercial adverts on

TV he said I'm not going to do that for

the glory of God nothing secular accept

sin but the Greeks separated everything

into physical and spiritual secular and

sacred temporal and eternal they they

got it all separated

out and in particular they separated the

body and the soul and we've suffered

from that ever since and then they took

one further step and they said the

physical is what is evil the spiritual

is what is good the body is evil the

soul is good and they gave people the

impression which we still have that

anything physical is somehow dirty or

sinful and we suffer from it in the

church and it's all wrong but when you

apply that to Jesus you got to problem

how could God be a

man that's impossible God is eternal and

man is in time God is spiritual man is

physical how could God be a man on Earth

and of course this struck at the very

root of our Christian

faith and it took many different forms

one of which was that Jesus only

appeared in the flesh that his flesh

wasn't real it was just an apparition

it's a isy called docetism which means

simply to put on a mask to

appear and so one of the things John

says in this letter is if you hear

someone say that Jesus hasn't come in

devil and so in fact at a deeper level

they did what the new age is doing right

now they separated the human Jesus from

the Divine

Christ and one heresy in the time of

John which again is taught today I've

heard it I've read it is that Jesus was

a human being and at his baptism at the

age of 30 the Christ came upon

him and then at his death the Christ

went away again and Jesus died and was

buried so that Jesus and the Christ are

actually two different things do do you

follow me and that is why the new age

talks about Christ

they don't like using the name Jesus but

they say Christ and they say every man

can have the Christ come upon him you

see now it's very subtle and it fools a

lot of people but you see the the

physical human Jesus has now been

separated from this spiritual Christ that's

that's

heresy Jesus Christ was one

person physical and spiritual Divine and

human of Time and Eternity

but the Greeks separate this out like

this one of their favorite statements

was that God is outside time that he's

Timeless the Bible never says that Bible

says God is

Everlasting that's quite a different

thing time is real to God God is the god

who was and who is and who is to come

because time is in God God isn't so much

in time as time is in God whereas the

Greeks separated God entirely from time

and you'd be amazed how many Christians

think that when we go to heaven we'll go outside

outside

time no we go into Everlasting

Life Time extended

infinitely time is real in God and time

is real in the Bible and therefore

history is his story so all this heresy

John really had to fight hard this

separation of the human Jesus from the

Divine Christ

he says if anybody says that Jesus

hasn't come in the flesh that's of

antichrist that's not of Christ so in

their beliefs this is what was happening

and so he had to say when the Christ

came he was a real human being he says

we saw him we touched him we heard

him and those are the three strongest physical

physical

senses sight hearing and

touch and so he emphasizes that which we

saw that which we heard that which we

have touched with our own hands and John

had actually lended against lent on the Christ

Christ

bosom he'd actually put his head on his

breast he said I touched

God it's as real as that the Incarnation is

fundamental you see I suppose what

people think about Christ is the

absolute fundamental question

somebody's put it in a little poem I'm

not sure if I've got it right you may be

able to correct me what do you think of

Christ that is the ultimate test if you

do not think rightly of him you cannot

be right in the

rest and that's it ultimately everything

boils down to what do you think of Jesus

have you realize that he is totally

Divine totally human that in him the

physical and the spirit spiritual are

totally integrated the other world and

this world have totally met and the

Greek idea that there is a separation

between Time and Eternity between

spiritual and physical has been absolutely

absolutely

smashed when the word became flesh and

lived among us and we beheld his

glory well John Saw His glory he says we

saw his glory and they certainly did on

the Mount of transfig figuration they

saw that but it was the human Jesus they

saw glorified it wasn't a spooky

Apparition well of course once you

separate the physical from the spiritual

that not only affects your belief about

Jesus it affects your Christian

behavior and that Greek idea that

salvation has nothing to do with what

you do with your body I tell you that

idea has got really hold of many people inside

inside

church and there are people we know

living quite immoral lives inside the

church but claiming to be

spiritual because what they do with

their body has nothing to do with their

soul you see that's what Greek thinking

does and you live in two different

compartments and your body lives in one

compartment and your soul lives in

another and never the twain shall

meet and I think you know what I'm

talking about this is

rif and John had to write against this

also you see people who think like this

begin to think sin doesn't matter in

Christians Got My Ticket To Heaven Sin

doesn't matter indeed some go even

further and say sin doesn't exist in

Christians there's a kind of

perfectionism that says that as far as

God is concerned I'm

sinless see one of the biggest I think

mistakes people make when they come to

Christ is to think that their future

sins are forgiven when they come to

Christ no only your past sins are foren

for given when you come to

Christ you will need to go on getting

forgiveness for later sins and John has

to say and he's writing to Christians

remember he says if we go on confessing

our sins he is faithful and just to go

on forgiving our sins and the blood of

Jesus Will Go On cleansing us from all

unrighteousness it's not if I come to

Christ now all my sins are forgiven I've

got a blank check to sin

now it's all my past sins are now

forgiven and now I keep short accounts with

with

God and I found out how to deal with

sins and I confess them and he goes un

forgiving but only as I go on

confessing got the picture now again

this teaching is very much needed in the

church today we need John's

letter that kind of Greek thinking not

only leads to lawlessness in the church

and immorality it leads to a spiritual

elitism that thinks that Christians are

above the normal rules of right and

wrong and we're not read Romans 2 Paul

says how dare you who condemn others yet

do the same things yourself think that

you will escape God is absolutely Fair

he doesn't Overlook sin in unbelievers

he doesn't Overlook it in

believers but he's waiting to forgive

get it cleaned up and dealt

with well that's the kind of background

in fact it leads to a moral arrogance

combined sorry a mental arrogance

combined with a moral decadence and

that's a very dangerous combination in

the church well now let's move on you

see he wants Christians to be sure they

are Christians to have

confidence and so he said say the

children of the father reflect the

father's character if God is light his

children embrace the light they walk in

it if God is love then his children will express

express

love and if God is life then his

children will enjoy

life so that begins to tell you

something how do you find out who's a

child of the father well there's a family

family

likeness how do you know who belongs to

God well they embrace the light and they

express love and they enjoy life because

that's what God is like and his children

are like him but then he goes into much

more detail and he gives four

four

tests of real

Christianity and they are quite severe

tests and uh he goes through them very

care in great detail we haven't time to

look at them in detail but I want to

give you the keys so that you can look

into John and see what he's getting at

the first is the doctrinal

test and every Christian true Christian

must pass this test how do they think of

Christ and if they have that

shaky understanding that's not quite

sure if the human Jesus is the Divine

Christ or whether he's fully Divine and

human at the same time they don't pass

the test a true Christian first of all

must pass the doctrinal test otherwise

they're into heresy about Jesus and

there are plenty of people in church who

think of Jesus as a great human

being as a person who responded to God

better than any other but that's not the

doctrinal test that's

heresy he is both God and man fully both

very God of very God and very man of

very man that's the first test if if you

don't believe that then you don't pass

the first test the second test is the

spiritual test hereby know we that we

are sons of God because he has given us his

his

spirit and that is the witness of the

spirit bearing witness with our spirit

that we are sons of God without the Holy

Spirit you don't pass the second test

because it's the spirit who tells you

you are the children of God and you

no now just let me put a word in here

some people try and get Assurance from

scripture the Bible never does I mean by

that here's a horrible word for you by a

syllogism from scripture by a deduction

from scripture in simple terms the Bible

says it I believe it that settles it

have you heard that kind of thing trying

to prove to people that they're

Christians by pointing them to a text in

the scripture that is not the way of the

New Testament Assurance comes from the

spirit rather than the scripture in the

New Testament you see you can't try and

prove that you're a Christian by quoting

texts it's the spirit who tells you

you're a Christian not the scripture

it's the spiritual test hereby know we

that we're his children because he has

given us his spirit and if you know you

have the Holy Spirit then you've passed

the second

test if you have hav't got the spirit

then you're

still in the possession of the

devil and you're liable to be possessed

by his evil spirits the third test is

the moral

test if you are living right then your

conscience tells you you belong to the

father your conscience was given to you

as part of your

assurance and with a clear

conscience you know if you're living right

right

and if you're living as God wants you to

live then in biblical terms if you are

practicing righteousness if you find

yourself keeping the laws of God then

that's the moral test that confirms you

are his child but if you're rebelling

against his laws if you're kicking

against the way he wants you to live

then you don't pass the third test

you're following me you must read it all

in detail in his letter and there's a

fourth test it's the social test if you

love his other children then you pass the

the

test because you cannot say you love

Christ and don't like

Christians because Christ is in those

other Christians and if you love Christ

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YouTube Transcript:Unlocking the New Testament Part 30 - Letters of John 1

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YouTube Transcript:
Unlocking the New Testament Part 30 - Letters of John 1