Grace Haven Church

0:00 So today we're going to continue with John because I'm warming up to John.

0:03 I'm getting to know John.

0:04 I'm liking John.

0:06 John's a good guy and so we're going to look at first, second, and third letter of John.

0:11 So these are New Testament letters towards the back end of the New Testament.

0:15 John's amazing.

0:17 He didn't just write the Gospel of John but he did these letters to the church and he's also the author of Revelation and I've never spoken about the book So now I'm in the John mode.

0:32 The next one is Revelation and it's not as crazy as you think.

0:43 Most think it's crazy but it's actually profound.

0:47 I've heard it said that if there's any New Testament book you should hold on to, the book of Revelation.

0:52 Wow.

0:53 So we're going to have a look at that but let's get into the letters, okay?

0:55 So we know most people accept it's John as the author and the reason I say that is because it's possibilities that sometimes other people contributed.

1:03 John, like the Apostle Paul, had a circle of people around him and they were sometimes involved in the process, sometimes even did the writing, but there was a consistency in format so that's just if you want to know more about that.

1:16 But John is widely accepted as the author.

1:18 There is in second and third John a reference to the elder.

1:22 John doesn't put his name in there but there's a reference to the elder.

1:25 There is debate whether it was a separate person, a different person, is it John?

1:30 These are good arguments, these are good debates and these are also interesting to look at.

1:34 However, it doesn't really take away from what's going on so it's just interesting to know that.

1:40 So we know five books are connected to John in some way but what I want to do is I want to just paint the picture because again today my goal is not to just give information because that's not going to change lives.

1:51 We just have information.

1:52 What do we do with it?

1:53 It's to take us as a church a little bit closer to go, you know what, I'm going to read that again.

1:58 You know what, I never read that or I'm going to look at this with fresh eyes.

2:03 So that's what I'm going to try and do today and the spirit of all of these moments are about Jesus.

2:11 Jesus is the key that unlocks the Bible.

2:13 So if you read these letters and don't see Jesus, we're doing ourselves an injustice because the whole letter, the whole letter and the whole construct and the whole structure of it is really about Jesus and we're going to see that as we get into it.

2:27 So John, he has been there from the beginning.

2:29 He's a young guy.

2:30 He turns up.

2:31 He's mending nets with his brother.

2:33 He's got a brother called Andrew and so Andrew and John, they're in the boat.

2:38 Their father's called Zebedee.

2:41 Why not?

2:44 And what happens is we know a little bit about his story because we get it through the Gospels.

2:49 We get it somehow but what is interesting is that Jesus turns up.

2:53 It's Andrew that actually brings Jesus into the scene.

2:57 Andrew is the brother of John.

2:59 So before we get John, we get Andrew.

3:01 Andrew is kind of hanging out with John the Baptist.

3:03 He's the crazy guy who's eaten locusts.

3:06 He's a wild man.

3:06 His hair's everywhere and he looks like he's sleeping rough at Alexander Platz.

3:09 He's not.

3:10 He's a prophet.

3:12 He's a prophet.

3:13 He's a wild man and people love him and hate him.

3:16 Some people are scared of him, but he is the man at the moment.

3:18 He makes it possible for Jesus to come in.

3:22 So Andrew's aware of this going on and he introduces really Peter and all of the guys to Jesus.

3:29 So that's interesting because his brother is John.

3:33 So John comes into this story and he's mending nets.

3:37 Like I said, Jesus calls Simon and Simon Peter is, he's got a brother called James.

3:43 So Jesus calls them first and then he goes over and he calls John and Andrew who are mending nets.

3:51 You always need people for the mission and you always need people who are going to support the mission that is out there.

3:56 Amen.

3:57 And Jesus is the master of picking teams.

3:59 He knows how to put people together.

4:01 Amen.

4:01 You want to pick a winning team?

4:02 No one does it better than Jesus.

4:04 So anyway, that's a sideline, but what I am saying is that this is the background a little bit.

4:10 So we know that John, alright, is there from an early age.

4:15 He's influenced, he's inspired, he senses something and he goes for it.

4:20 His only future is fishing and then suddenly Jesus turns up and does things in a way that he's like oh my goodness and he goes on the journey.

4:27 He doesn't fully understand, which is good for you and I because some of us step into this thing falling Jesus, we don't fully understand where it's going to take us, how it's going to shape our lives.

4:36 That's why the call of God upon you is going to take you further than anything else because Jesus called him.

4:45 He didn't call himself.

4:47 And it's the call of God that keeps John going the longest.

4:52 So he starts off in the early days.

4:54 And so if you want to look at the New Testament, especially the first century, you've got to understand the first couple of years with Jesus' life from the beginnings, our calendars are usually set from the life of Christ in that sense.

5:06 There's more in there, but the point is Jesus only lived a short life, 33 years of age.

5:10 There's no books, no letters written in the New Testament, they all come later.

5:15 And so we get a second stage where Rome is dominating, the Roman Empire is beginning to grow in stature, it's expanding, its influence is growing everywhere and its presence military is involved in this and so it's a very difficult time.

5:31 People are displaced, people have been exiled, people have been removed from cities, the Jews have been kicked out of Rome again.

5:36 All sorts of things are going on.

5:38 So if you can understand it's a disruptive time, it's a turbulent time.

5:43 Hello!

5:44 21st century, I thought 2022 would be my best.

5:50 And we're paying more for our energy, we're paying more for our food.

5:54 I mean beer's gone up too much lately, I mean what is it that upsets you?

5:58 And I'm not trying to be flippant because it is difficult and it is real.

6:02 But what I'm trying to say is it's not just ancient text and how does that affect us.

6:06 No, it connects very much into where we are right now.

6:11 It's incredibly disruptive.

6:13 There's persecution and it's now moving from random persecution to organised persecution.

6:19 See, for the Rome that was dominating, they'd piggybacked off the Greek civilisation.

6:24 A lot of the Greek speaking was happening, a lot of the Greek infrastructure was there.

6:29 And so the Romans just took it and developed it even more at some level.

6:33 But the point I'm making is that Romans or the Roman Empire understood Jews.

6:41 They knew their temples, they knew where they lived, they knew what they ate, they knew how they behaved, they knew what they looked like outwardly.

6:48 The cultural distinctive cultural markers that defined someone as a Jew was easy for someone who was a Roman.

6:54 Not all Romans were Italian, sometimes Roman wasn't a nationalistic idea, it was this

7:02 empire that anybody could be a part of, anybody could become a Roman.

7:06 And so what we've got is these people, the Roman who are expanding, basically knew how to handle Jews because they knew, they knew like, okay, I know where you go to your synagogues, I know your God, I know how you behave, I know where you eat.

7:21 So in other words, they weren't a threat, they kind of knew okay, we place you here.

7:27 But Christians, you couldn't place them anywhere.

7:30 That's why it became, Christians became problematic to the Roman Empire because who are these people?

7:36 Who's their allegiance to?

7:37 Is it Caesar or is it this Jesus?

7:41 Where's your temple?

7:42 There is no temple.

7:44 I am the temple.

7:46 Hello!

7:47 It's a lot easier to point to a building than to say I'm the temple.

7:51 And so what I'm trying to say I don't want to get buried in this, but you've got to understand the tension is Christians were a problem to the Roman Empire and all that it represented.

8:01 That's why they were easy to kill because they did turn the other cheek.

8:05 We're going to feed you to the lions.

8:08 Okay.

8:11 We're going to skin you alive.

8:14 Read the book.

8:15 Why did anyone become a Christian in the first three centuries?

8:18 See, if you don't at least acknowledge this, you'll never understand why John is writing these three letters to the church.

8:25 There's a lot of craziness going on.

8:27 And so let me give you a bit more here.

8:29 So it's not just challenges and problems, but there's heresies starting to creep in.

8:35 Heresies are like, you know, it was a mixture of Gnostic teachings.

8:39 And what does that mean?

8:40 It just means that people were mixing Greek theology or philosophy.

8:44 There was Jewish laws.

8:47 So if you're a Gentile, you've got no Jewish heritage.

8:49 You believe in Jesus.

8:50 You've made Him your Lord and Saviour.

8:52 You don't need to read the Bible to get right with Jesus.

8:54 You just meet Him and then you begin to go on a journey of realizing what the Bible is all about.

8:59 That's my story.

9:01 You don't need to read the Bible for three years and then become a Christian.

9:04 Some people do, but most people just respond to the Gospel, spirit to spirit, and then you begin this journey of faith on the Word.

9:13 That's why it's important Jesus is in every book of the Bible and you understand that because directly or indirectly, He's there.

9:21 So the point I'm making is that there was conflict going on and it's important we understand that because you won't read the letter and fully understand unless you know what's going on in the background.

9:32 We often see a situation and maybe we misjudge it because we don't know the context.

9:36 What's the context?

9:38 There's leadership challenges.

9:40 Church leaders are arguing and fighting.

9:43 People are coming up with different doctrines.

9:45 The Gnostic one is a problem because they were starting to mess with the values of Jesus.

9:51 They started to water things down.

9:53 I'm going to read a few of the things that He had to deal with in these letters.

9:57 We can see that there's a lot of problems.

9:59 We've got persecution.

10:00 We've got discrimination.

10:03 A few weeks ago we were trying to find venues and we have cancellations on venues.

10:07 One of the emails that the hotel venue emailed back to the staff and said cancel that contract.

10:13 I don't want Christians.

10:15 I don't want the church in this building.

10:17 Unfortunately they forgot that we were on the email.

10:26 I don't know what that is but that's not nice.

10:30 And so what I'm trying to say to you but he said I don't want Christians or I don't want a church in my hotel.

10:38 That's okay.

10:38 We'll just go to the Adelon.

10:39 They said yes.

10:42 No, that's easy.

10:42 That's easy.

10:43 What am I trying to say?

10:44 But what happens if you just said that another distinctive identity or talked about I don't want this group of people or this belief system or that.

10:53 I'm telling you these are the things that they faced and we faced.

10:56 I would never say that we're under the same pressure that the first century would.

11:00 Never say that.

11:01 Not in this part of the world.

11:02 Maybe other parts of the world today yes.

11:04 There are Christians who are persecuted and they lose their lives.

11:08 But this is something that's going on and if you at least understand this then you'll realise why John talks the way he talks in this letter.

11:16 So I think it's important that we have some understanding there.

11:19 Is that okay?

11:20 Alright so we've got also power struggles.

11:24 We've got divisions.

11:25 We've got people walking away.

11:26 We've got conflicts and we've got false teaching and you've got all of these pressures.

11:32 So let me just say this.

11:33 John, he's an apostle.

11:35 He's an eyewitness.

11:36 He lived and breathed and walked with Jesus.

11:39 So he's got authority.

11:41 Jesus doesn't call anyone into it.

11:43 Paul comes in.

11:44 He's the only one who's not an eyewitness in the sense of he gets called later on the apostle Paul and he gets pretty much straight to it.

11:51 The work and the mission.

11:52 He starts the church at Ephesus where now John finds himself writing these letters.

11:58 So where is John?

12:00 We think he's in Ephesus because of all the persecution.

12:04 He has now left Jerusalem and the temple has been smashed in Jerusalem 70 CE.

12:11 So this is towards the back end of the first century.

12:13 All people are being scattered and moved around.

12:16 There's a lot of movement, a lot of disunity, a lot of misplacement but the gospel continues to carry through people.

12:23 So wherever the people of faith go, the gospel continues and that's why we see churches all through Turkey.

12:29 Next week I'm in Ephesus.

12:30 I'm going to go to the remains of this ancient city called Ephesus and I'm going to be looking at how, and scholars say that the church in Ephesus was probably around 50 to 60 thousand people in attendance.

12:42 Timothy, young Timothy was one of the pastors there.

12:44 John was pastoring there supposedly.

12:47 Paul started the church and then writes to them years later.

12:50 It's a church that's got influence.

12:51 It's a church that's on the move.

12:53 It's a church that's starting new churches.

12:55 It's like us in Berlin going to Prague and Warsaw.

12:57 It's exactly what they're doing.

13:00 They're in a major Roman trade and commerce port that's influential.

13:06 Trade's coming in all around the world and they've got roads going out into the east and into Asia.

13:11 It's amazing and so it's a very multi-ethnic culture.

13:15 It's a multi-ethnic society.

13:18 Hello, what do you think Berlin is today?

13:25 I came to Berlin and I thought I'd hear German speakers and all I hear is English,

13:32 Slinglish, Ginglish, whatever it is.

13:35 But the point I'm making is it's not foreign or abstract.

13:39 It's very similar in so many ways.

13:42 So obviously Ephesus is this location where John finds himself.

13:48 The reason I want you to understand this is that he's an apostle so he's writing the letter to really deal with some crises and issues about the authority of who Christ is, the divinity of Christ.

13:59 Because all of these teachings and these falsehoods were starting to erode who Jesus was.

14:04 One of the things that they were starting to do was basically Jesus was spirit, yes, but he didn't really turn up in the flesh.

14:12 Gnostic teaching was all about, yeah, the spirit is good but inherent flesh and matter is evil.

14:18 So it was a little bit like before we talked about ghosting.

14:20 This was ghosting in the New Testament, early days.

14:23 Oh, Jesus was there but he wasn't really there.

14:26 He was a ghost.

14:26 He was a spirit.

14:27 You couldn't really touch him.

14:28 So there was a denial that Jesus was 100% % God and 100% % man.

14:33 So this is what he's dealing with.

14:35 So he's not just an apostle trying to keep continuation of what Jesus started and he wasn't just wanting them to hear it just casually.

14:46 He was wanting to realize that I'm at the end of my life.

14:49 All of the eyewitnesses are dead.

14:50 They've been persecuted.

14:51 Peter's dead.

14:52 He was executed in Rome.

14:54 Paul is dead.

14:55 He's been executed in Rome.

14:57 He went back to Jerusalem with a love offering and he never left prison.

15:00 He got put in prison.

15:01 He appealed to Caesar and he ended up writing prison letters from a prison in Rome.

15:06 He never left Rome.

15:07 He never got to Spain.

15:08 Oh, he so wanted to get to Valencia and Barcelona but he never made it.

15:13 But the Gospel is preached every day in Barcelona.

15:18 Preached all over Spain.

15:21 So the point I'm making is whatever you want, you leave it with God.

15:26 He can do better than what you could ever imagine.

15:27 You might get setbacks now but leave it with God.

15:29 He can take it further than you and I can ever take it.

15:32 So what I'm trying to say here is that John is not just the apostle trying to keep continuation into the young churches.

15:39 He is the only one who's still alive who's an eyewitness.

15:45 I'm not just telling you through hearsay.

15:47 I saw him.

15:48 I met with him.

15:49 I watched him die.

15:50 I watched him raise again from the dead.

15:53 I saw his hands.

15:54 I saw his feet.

15:56 I saw his scars.

15:57 So he's got authority that no one else has got because he's a real credible eyewitness.

16:04 That's what's important for these letters.

16:06 And so he's using that to really continue the authenticity of what this represents for young believers.

16:13 Everyone else who's listening to this or reading this, these letters were copied and circulated around the churches.

16:18 And what we need to understand is that these were second and third generation believers.

16:24 So they're like questioning, okay, was he really God?

16:28 I kind of like a few of his teachings but some of them were like, wow.

16:32 And this is what's going on.

16:34 So he's an apostle.

16:35 Yes, he's prophetic because we can see that with the book of Revelation.

16:38 But he's also pastoral.

16:40 He deeply cares about the young churches and the believers who are following Christ.

16:45 So let me hit one of them for you.

16:46 There's a few of them.

16:47 But let me see how many can get them.

16:48 One of the tensions that he's dealing with in the first letter of John is that there was a denying that Jesus was the Messiah.

16:57 Jesus is a good man.

16:58 Jesus is a prophet.

16:59 Jesus is this, Jesus that.

17:00 He had a few good ideas.

17:01 Yeah, I kind of liked him.

17:03 I wish I'd have met him.

17:05 There's this casualness.

17:08 I mean, there's nothing wrong.

17:10 Queen Elizabeth II has passed away and it's amazing how people are coming and generally giving thanks because of the life that she lived.

17:21 And it's profound and these are human experiences that can affect us all.

17:25 But what we've got to realise is that

17:29 they're watering down the truth.

17:31 And the truth is that Jesus was the Messiah.

17:34 And so he's having to defend this in some way.

17:36 He's bringing this to the table.

17:37 So let me read 1 John chapter 2.

17:38 Are you okay with this?

17:41 He says, This is the Antichrist.

18:01 So he puts attention on it and this is what you'll find through these letters.

18:04 He's always bringing attention between dark and light.

18:08 Light and dark.

18:10 God and Satan.

18:11 He's always bringing a dualistic symbolic essence to this.

18:14 He's talking about us and them that became a division within the churches.

18:19 And so he's always doing that.

18:22 And so he goes on, he mentions the Antichrist and this is what he says, The spirit of the Antichrist, he says, He who denies the Father and the Son.

18:41 Verse 23 If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, then you too will abide in the Son and in the Father.

18:52 And this is the promise that is made to us eternal life.

18:55 So here you can see in 1 John, he's reminding them, remember the beginning?

19:01 You remember what got you started?

19:03 Don't depart from that.

19:04 So often we lose our foundation and we depart and we go off into any place and we wonder, oh my goodness, how did I get here?

19:10 How did you get here?

19:12 You left your foundation.

19:14 You've got to hold on to the truth in Jesus who He is.

19:17 He's God.

19:19 We talked about that in the Gospel of John.

19:21 The divinity of Jesus.

19:22 If He is God, we'd better give everything.

19:24 We'd better not withhold anything.

19:25 He's God.

19:27 And so if He's not, what does that mean?

19:29 It means do whatever you want.

19:31 Smoke whatever you want.

19:32 Live whatever you want.

19:33 Think whatever you want.

19:34 Just don't blame me if it all goes wrong.

19:38 And I know I'm simplifying, but these are the tensions.

19:41 Even though we're in the 21st century, they had to wake up to the fact, what got you started?

19:47 Jesus is God.

19:50 Next one, denying the humanity of Jesus.

19:53 This is what I love about John.

19:55 He's very practical, pastoral.

19:56 He's saying, let me give you some tests so you know to know what's rubbish and what's good.

20:01 What is misleading and what is deceptive.

20:04 And so 1 John chapter 4, you got a little bit more?

20:07 Alright, let me read a bit more.

20:08 Beloved.

20:10 Who loves to be called beloved?

20:12 I love my beloved.

20:14 Beloved.

20:15 So again, spirit of just endearing.

20:18 Do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God.

20:23 For many false prophets have gone out into the world.

20:26 By this you know the Spirit of God.

20:29 Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God.

20:35 And every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.

20:40 This is the spirit of the Antichrist which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.

20:46 I don't recommend you call people an Antichrist.

20:51 Antichrist!

20:52 Not helpful at all.

20:55 But the spirit of what that represents, a different spirit.

20:59 Working against the things of heaven, not working for the things of heaven.

21:03 So you've got to understand the spirit works through people.

21:06 Same way the Antichrist spirit works through people.

21:09 It doesn't just work through individuals, it also works through systems.

21:12 It also works through nations.

21:14 It also works because principalities and powers.

21:17 So we've got to be smarter about these things.

21:20 But this is what it says.

21:22 And every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.

21:25 This is the spirit of the Antichrist which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.

21:33 Little children, you are from God and have overcome them.

21:39 Why is he calling them little children?

21:41 Because when you live to 90 years of age and you're almost 100, everyone is young below you.

21:46 They're like little kids.

21:47 Amen?

21:48 Most people say that John lived and died of natural causes and that he lived into his 90s possibly even to 100 years of age.

21:56 In the first century it's unthinkable that someone would live that long.

21:59 However we do know that there is evidence that he lived a long life.

22:05 And I love John for lots of reasons but one of the reasons is that he looked after Jesus' mother.

22:11 You know he's a good man when he looks after your friend's mother.

22:16 If you can get something out of this just put a little note.

22:18 Look after your friend's mother.

22:21 Amen?

22:21 He does.

22:21 And in Ephesus next week apparently there's a house where Mary spent the rest of her days.

22:26 Anyway that's a by way.

22:28 The point I'm making is he goes and he says little children you are from God and have overcome them.

22:33 For he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

22:39 Amen.

22:40 Preach that.

22:40 Get a tattoo or something but don't forget that word.

22:44 They are from the world therefore they speak from the world and the world listens to them.

22:48 We are from God.

22:51 Whoever knows God listens to us.

22:53 Whoever is not from God does not listen to us.

22:55 By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

22:59 So he's really helping the church in Ephesus or at least the churches in this region of Turkey what is modern day Turkey.

23:06 He is helping them to know the difference between what is of God and what is not of God.

23:11 And because they're facing all of these things he was flesh.

23:15 I saw him.

23:16 I saw him bleed.

23:18 I saw him cry.

23:19 I saw him have emotions.

23:21 I saw him get angry at the temple.

23:23 I saw these vast emotions that Jesus himself expressed.

23:30 It wasn't just particles and molecules floating through Jerusalem.

23:35 It was real.

23:38 His feet were dirty.

23:41 His hair probably did get tangled and knots.

23:43 No conditioner back in them days or probably they did but it was I don't know.

23:49 What I'm trying to say to you is there was this lie that was trying to make this Jesus into something mystical, mysterious.

24:03 And that's what he's trying to do.

24:04 He's saying hey it's a real death that he died.

24:09 It's a real crucifixion that he hung on.

24:12 The spear was real.

24:14 The Romans were real.

24:18 The spit and the saliva was real.

24:22 He was given wine or some kind of ointment that would take the pain away from his incruciating pain on the cross and he refused it.

24:33 And this is what he's bringing to the table and he's saying hey listen to us.

24:39 Why?

24:39 Because we came with him.

24:42 These guys who were trying to mess you up, they have no authority.

24:47 And this is what's going on in this letter.

24:50 They denied the teachings of Jesus, 1 John chapter 2.

24:53 And he's talking about understanding.

24:56 Jesus says if you love me, obey me.

24:58 They were trying to get him to do whatever they wanted to do and he's like no, no, no. If you love Jesus, then you will obey him.

25:03 In other words, obedience to the real Jesus is outworked through love.

25:09 Let me tell you this, you'll never be obedient until you really know how loved you are.

25:14 Love produces obedience.

25:17 When you know you're loved, you won't rebel and be unobedient.

25:21 You will be obedient because of his love.

25:25 It's not the fear of punishment that gets us to obey.

25:28 That's the work of the antichrist or the spirit of man or the spirit of the world.

25:33 He's saying hey, it's the love of God that will build a fruit called obedience.

25:39 And that's what he does in the second letter along.

25:42 But the thing that I want to highlight here as we try to land this for today because it's a big subject in a small amount of time, they were denying their own sin.

25:52 I'm sinless.

25:53 I'm without sin.

25:55 Sin doesn't exist.

25:56 What a lot of rubbish.

25:57 They were playing this whole idea of sin.

26:00 And this is a major doctrine in the, you know, people often, you know, why is religion so strong?

26:05 Because sin is so devastating.

26:08 Humanity has always been religious.

26:12 There's always something in us that wants to see redemption, forgiveness.

26:16 We just know that we're not where we should be.

26:18 Even if we bury it under lots of layers and lots of complications, there's something in us that says we need forgiveness.

26:24 We need redemption.

26:25 We need to be forgiven.

26:26 I need my story to go beyond this moment.

26:30 I don't know what it is but there's something about sin that we have to understand.

26:34 Jesus died to take all of the sin of the world.

26:42 But the Gnostic teachings and some of these mixed philosophies were starting to basically say hey,

26:50 there is no sin.

26:52 And if you say there is no sin, you are also saying listen, you're rubbishing the incarnation and you are diminishing the very work of Christ by saying there is no sin.

27:07 If there's nothing to win and there's nothing to lose, then what's the consequences of that?

27:13 If everyone gets there in the end, love wins, what are we saying?

27:18 I can give you a lot of modern language today that would be very equivalent to what John was writing about.

27:26 You've got to understand, the incarnation, God Himself became human, took on human flesh and form, humbled Himself unto the point where He literally laid down His life and absorbed all of humanity's story into Himself.

27:40 All that's wrong with us He absorbed into Himself.

27:43 All that's right with Him He gave to our account.

27:46 Whosoever believes.

27:49 And so you can see this letter is really fighting for the believers and the young churches because if the young churches fall at this, then the future of the church is greatly diminished.

28:01 And that's why He's writing the letter.

28:03 There's an urgency, there's an importance.

28:05 He's pouring everything into it and this is what He says in 1 John chapter 1 verses 8,

28:26 He cleanses us from all unrighteousness.

28:29 If we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His Word is not in us.

28:36 So He is smashing this.

28:42 Are you going to let these people make Jesus into a liar, a hypocrite, an absolute deceptive person?

28:51 No, He's fighting a lot here.

28:53 He's saying sin exists and this is what we've got to wrestle with is we have been placed in Christ which means we have been presented.

29:00 Our position before the Father, your position before the Father is 100% % perfection because Christ has provided that position for you.

29:10 He positioned us perfect before the Father.

29:14 Our standing is perfect.

29:17 Our condition is that we are being renewed by the Word of God, by the truth of who He is and what He has done for us.

29:25 We have been cleansed, we are being cleansed, we will be clean.

29:30 I have salvation, I'm getting salvation.

29:33 I've got it and I am getting it.

29:37 How many of you had a shower last year?

29:40 Give us a wave.

29:42 You had a shower, a bath, some kind of water, cleansing water came over you, you washed your armpits, you washed your hair, you washed everything.

29:51 Amen?

29:52 How many of you had a shower last year?

29:56 How many of you decided to repeat it again this year?

29:59 How many of you are going to do it again next year?

30:02 Amen.

30:02 You have washed, you are being washed and you will continue to wash.

30:09 I'm just trying to help us get our head around it.

30:12 That's what the Word of God does for us.

30:15 It doesn't weaken you, it strengthens you.

30:18 And that's what His letter is doing for the believers.

30:21 It's saying, hey, you rubbish this sin thing, you deceive yourself and say sin's not real, it's not a problem, it doesn't exist.

30:31 Someone once said to me, the problem with this church is there's too much sin in it.

30:34 I said listen, if a church doesn't do well we always say it's sin, sin got in, sin got in.

30:40 No, ego probably got in but let me tell you, sins is always in the church.

30:45 Why?

30:45 Why is sin always in the church?

30:47 Because we're in it.

30:49 Well I'm going to quote you.

30:50 Quote me.

30:54 It's always here.

30:55 Why?

30:55 Because we're here.

30:57 We're the ones who flawed, not Jesus.

31:00 The majesty of the church is not that we are perfect, it's He is perfect and He brings us in to that space called perfection.

31:08 Our job is to stay in Him.

31:10 Stay in Christ.

31:13 Stay connected to what He's building.

31:15 That's why you're called to build the church, not leave the church.

31:19 Sin is a devastator.

31:22 God hates sin.

31:24 God is holy and He will not cohabit with sin.

31:28 That's why we need Jesus.

31:30 Amen.

31:31 This is huge.

31:32 It's the essence of our Christian story.

31:34 It's the most significant event that has ever happened in the human story is the incarnation God became human.

31:41 And not just that but He died, paid the price and rose again to lead us into that perfection forevermore.

31:48 It's the gospel.

31:51 But this is what was going on and He said to him, listen, God is faithful

31:57 all the time, every time.

32:00 We just got to know not to hide but to run to Him.

32:05 When you know He's for you, you won't hide Him.

32:07 You will run to Him.

32:10 When we sin we often hide.

32:12 That's what they did to humanity in the garden.

32:14 We hid behind the tree.

32:15 That's God's creation.

32:16 That's what we do.

32:16 We hide behind this.

32:17 We hide behind Him.

32:19 We hide behind her.

32:20 We hide behind our jobs.

32:21 We hide behind this person, this situation, this circumstance.

32:24 That's what sin nature does.

32:26 It makes you a hider.

32:29 God came in the garden and said, hey, where are you?

32:32 It's not like God didn't know.

32:33 It's just that we didn't know.

32:37 And what did God do?

32:38 Takes an animal.

32:43 It's the essence of the blood covenant.

32:45 God Himself initiated redemption right there in the garden.

32:48 He literally takes the animal and the garments that are covering now.

32:53 The nakedness of Adam and Eve is that God now covered them with the very first sacrifice that was in the garden.

33:02 God is always covering, never exposing.

33:05 You are safe with your God.

33:08 You are safe.

33:11 Shame and guilt is the work of the enemy.

33:14 So what do you do when you haven't got all your little duckies in a row?

33:17 What do you do when you're not always doing your best?

33:19 What do you do when you're struggling with addictions?

33:21 And what do you do when you feel like, oh my goodness, I feel such a fake.

33:25 I feel like I'm a fraud.

33:26 I feel like I'm not really a follower of Christ.

33:29 Oh my goodness.

33:30 What do you do?

33:30 You do what John said.

33:32 You acknowledge who He is.

33:34 He's your Lord.

33:35 He's your Saviour.

33:36 He's Redeemer.

33:37 He's your Coverer.

33:39 He is the beginning and He is the end.

33:41 And you are in that middle.

33:44 That's where your strength comes from.

33:46 It's not a license to sin.

33:48 It's I just know what to do with my mess.

33:52 He is your best person ever.

33:56 That's the Gospel.

33:58 So that's what John's trying to do here.

34:00 So the third letter is so personal.

34:03 He turns it into a person called Gaius.

34:04 I know we want to call our children Gaius.

34:08 It's such a biblical name.

34:10 But in the third letter he literally goes to

34:14 Gaius.

34:15 Well done for staying faithful with all the opposition.

34:19 He makes the third letter personal and he addresses the letter to a person called Gaius.

34:27 He says, Gaius, you've been faithful even with all the opposition, even with this person who is causing a lot of pain in your life.

34:35 He says, well done for walking in the truth.

34:39 And if we don't walk in the truth daily, we will walk in deception.

34:42 And that's the essence of what he's trying to say here.

34:45 Walk in the truth daily.

34:48 Because if you don't you will drift into deception and other things that sound good but they deny the very power of God.

34:59 You can look godly and have no power of God on your life at all.

35:03 Amen.

35:04 It's not a building and the beauty of a building that makes you holy.

35:10 That's just architecture.

35:13 The only person who can make us holy is Jesus.

35:15 Amen.

35:16 So these letters are all about Jesus.

35:19 These letters are all about Jesus.

35:22 These letters are all about His divinity.

35:25 These letters are all about what He's done for you, what He's done for me, what He's doing for us.

35:30 He is safe.

35:31 We are safe with Jesus.

35:33 Amen.

35:34 So the lies, listen, if you tell a lie you have to build a family of lies to support one lie.

35:39 Next thing you've got a community of lies.

35:41 Next thing you've got a whole story of lies.

35:44 You tell one lie you've got to tell a thousand more to support it, to feel like it's comfortable.

35:49 Amen.

35:49 The only way you can break a lie is to tell the truth.

35:52 Amen.

35:52 Who are you?

35:53 You're a daughter of the King.

35:55 Who am I?

35:56 You're a son of the most high.

35:58 Who am I?

35:59 I am a child of God.

36:00 I have been bought with a price.

36:03 I belong to Jesus.

2022-09-18 - Jesus Is The Key That Unlocks The Bible (John 1-3) - Mark Wilkinson.

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