1 John 1-3: Know that you know

We walk through 1 John 1 to 3 to trade anxiety and guesswork for real assurance grounded in Jesus, truth, and love. We look at the signs John gives for knowing we belong to God and how to spot faith that is only talk. 
• John’s purpose for writing 1 John as assurance of being God’s child 
• eyewitness testimony about Jesus as the foundation for confidence 
• God as light and what it means to walk in the light 
• confession of sin and God’s faithfulness to forgive and cleanse 
• Jesus Christ as advocate and atoning sacrifice for the whole world 
• obedience to God’s commands as evidence of knowing him 
• love for fellow Christians as a non-negotiable marker of life 
• warning against loving the world and its desires 
• deception, Antichrist language, and denying the Son 
• remaining in the Son and the Father as a stability test 
• children of God identity and the difference between stumbling and practicing sin 
• love in action, generosity, and compassion as proof of truth 
• confidence before God, conscience, and prayer tied to obedience 
• encouragement for spiritual stages like children, young people, fathers 

Join me next time and we'll tackle the second half of First John. 

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Transcript

Welcome And Assurance Theme

SPEAKER_00 0:11

This is the Out Loud Bible Project Podcast, and I am Mike. If you've been with me the past several episodes, you know that we've been going through the book of John, and we concluded it last episode. The book of John was written by John, one of Jesus' followers, one of his best friends. And the reason John wrote that gospel was to help you, the reader, know who Jesus is. And he wrote that Gospel after Matthew, Mark, and Luke wrote theirs. Of those three, interestingly enough, only one of them, Matthew, actually knew Jesus personally, but Mark and Luke drew from other sources, witnesses and friends of Jesus, through kind of some interviews and picking up some stories along the way as they compiled their accounts. But John knew Jesus directly and wanted to collect other stories that the other three account writers hadn't really included. And so John has a unique perspective and with a goal of do you know who Jesus is? And as I've mentioned before, this season of the podcast, where we're looking at predominantly John's writings, is called How to Be a Friend of Jesus, because that's what John was. And John's writings are helping us to be certain of our relationship with Jesus. You gotta know who he is. That's why he wrote the gospel. And now as we switch and take a look at some of his letters that he wrote, we're gonna take a look at 1 John today. First John has the purpose of building your assurance that you are a follower of Jesus. You know who he is. Okay, now are you a follower of him? Do you belong to him? Are you a child of God as well? There shouldn't be any wonder of like, oh, am I saved? Am I not saved? Oh, I don't know. I hope I'll just do enough good things in the meantime, and then we'll we'll see how it turns out when I get to heaven. None of that. We don't need that. We can have assurance now that we belong to Jesus. That's why John wrote this letter first to John. Maybe he wasn't very creative coming up with titles of his books and letters. I don't know. Uh but John wrote this as he was uh an apostle over an overseer over the region of Asia Minor, uh, which is modern day like Western Turkey, uh, being an apostle over those churches in that region. And so this letter is generally for everyone, everyone who proclaims faith in Christ to have assurance that you are a child of God. So, how do we know that? And what can we do to align ourselves more with being a friend and follower and child of God? Well, that's what this letter is for. So let's take a look at 1 John. We're going to be reading just the first three chapters here. It's a short book, but we'll take it in in two halves. So we'll take the first half of the book today. 1 John 1 through 3 in the New English Translation. This is what we proclaim to you, what was from the beginning, what we've heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we've looked at and our hands have touched concerning the word of life. And the life was revealed, and we've seen and testify and announce to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us. What we have seen and heard, we announce to you too, so that you may have fellowship with us. And indeed, our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. Thus we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete. Do you do you see here how John is heavily relying on the reliability of himself and others as a witness to Jesus? That you can have assurance of who he is, that's the gospel, and who you are in light of him, that's this letter. Here we go. Now, this is the gospel message we have heard from him and announced to you. God is light, and in him there's no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him and yet keep on walking in the darkness, we're lying and not practicing the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his son cleanses us from all sin. Now, if we say we don't bear the guilt of sin, we're deceiving ourselves and the truth's not in us. But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous, forgiving us our sins and cleansing us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. My little children, I'm writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous one, and he himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for our sins, but also for the whole world. Now by this we know that we have come to know God if we keep his commandments. The one who says, I've come to know God, and yet doesn't keep his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in such a person. But whoever obeys his word truly in this person the love of God has been perfected. By this we know we are in him. The one who says he resides in God ought himself to walk just as Jesus walked. And again, if you were with me through the reading of the last half of the book of John here, none of this should come as a surprise. Jesus himself said these sort of things, and John is just emphasizing, yes, this is how it works. You can know if you are a follower of Christ, and I would say you can know if others are followers of Christ genuinely, based on do they obey the word? Do they do Jesus' commandments? Do they obey him and walk with him? Very clear. You can be reassured. All right, let's keep going. Verse 7 of chapter 2. Dear friends, I'm not writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you've heard from the beginning. The old commandment is the word you have already heard. On the other hand, I am writing a new commandment to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining. The one who says he's in the light, but still hates his fellow Christian is still in the darkness. The one who loves his fellow Christian resides in the light, and there's no cause for stumbling in him. But the one who hates his fellow Christian is in the darkness, walks in the darkness, and doesn't know where he's going because the darkness has blinded his eyes. I'm writing to you, little children, that your sins have been forgiven because of his name. I'm writing to you, fathers, that you've known him, who has been from the beginning, and I'm writing to you, young people, that you have conquered the evil one. I've written to you, children, that you have known the Father. I've written to you, fathers, that you have known him who has been from the beginning. And I've written to you, young people, that you're strong, and the word of God resides in you, and you have conquered the evil one. Don't love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Because all that's in the world, the desire of the flesh, and the desire of the eyes, and the arrogance produced by material possessions, is not from the Father, but it's from the world, and the world is passing away with all its desires. But the person who does the will of God remains forever. Children, it's the last hour, and just as you heard the Antichrist is coming, so now many Antichrists have appeared. We know from this that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they didn't really belong to us, because if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. But they went out from us to demonstrate that all of them do not belong to us. Nevertheless, you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know. I've not written to you that you do not know the truth, but that you do know it, and that no lie is of the truth. Who is the liar but a person who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This one is the Antichrist, the person who denies the Father and the Son. Everyone who denies the Son doesn't have the Father either. The person who confesses the Son has the Father also. As for you, what you've heard from the beginning must remain in you. If what you heard from the beginning remains in you, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. Now this is the promise that He Himself made to us eternal life. These things I've written to you about those who are trying to deceive you. Now, as for you, the anointing that you received from him resides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things, it's true, and it's not a lie, just as it has taught you, you reside in him. And now, little children, remain in him, so that when he appears, we may have confidence and not shrink away from him in shame when he comes back. If you know that he's righteous, you also know that everyone who practices righteousness has been fathered by him. See what sort of love the Father has given to us that we should be called God's children. And indeed we are. And for this reason, the world doesn't know us because it didn't know him. Dear friends, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that whenever it is revealed, we'll be like him because we'll see him just as he is. And everyone who has this hope focused on him purifies himself just as Jesus is pure. Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness. Indeed, sin is lawlessness. And you know that Jesus was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. Everyone who resides in him doesn't sin. Everyone who sins has neither seen him nor known him. Okay, now listen, because if you're thinking like, oh no, what if I sinned? Does that mean I'm not in him? Right, he he goes on. He says, Little children, let no one deceive you. The one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as Jesus is righteous. The one who practices sin is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. And for this purpose, the Son of God was revealed to destroy the works of the devil. Everyone who has been fathered by God does not practice sin, because God's seed resides in them, and thus they're not able to sin because they've been fathered by God. By this, the children of God and the children of the devil are revealed. Everyone who does not practice righteousness, the one who does not love his fellow Christian, is not of God. For this is the gospel message that you've heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. Not like Cain, who was of the evil one and brutally murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his deeds were evil, but his brothers were righteous. Therefore, don't be surprised, brothers and sisters, if the world hates you. We know that we've crossed over from death to life because we love our fellow Christians. The one who does not love remains in death. Everyone who hates his fellow Christian is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him. We've come to know love by this, that Jesus laid down his life for us. Thus we ought to lay down our lives for our fellow Christians. But whoever has the world's possessions and sees his fellow Christian in need and shuts off his compassion against him, how can the love of God reside in such a person? Little children, let's not love with word or with tongue, but indeed and truth. And by this we'll know that we are of the truth and will convince our conscience in his presence that if our conscience condemns us, that God is greater than our conscience and knows all things. Dear friends, if our conscience does not condemn us, we have confidence in the presence of God, and whatever we ask, we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do the things that are pleasing to him. And now this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he gave us the commandment. And the person who keeps his commandments resides in God, and God in him. Now by this we know that God resides in us, by the Spirit He's given us. That might be worth another read. Go back and read that or listen to this episode again sometime later today, and just list almost the make a list of all these assurances that we have of how do we know that we belong to God, or how do we identify other fellow believers. We have the responsibility to make sure that those who are proclaiming to be Christians actually do belong to Him. Otherwise, they're gonna hurt people and lead people astray. We've been given the metrics, we've been given the signs to look for. We can know that we and others in the flock with us are Christians or not. Based on do we proclaim Jesus as God? Do we love each other? Do we have the Holy Spirit in us and the fruit of the Spirit residing and growing in us? We can be assured of these things. It's all about assurance. I really like the section in 1 John chapter 2 where John writes to children, fathers, and young people. Now he's not writing literally to children and teenagers and older fathers, but instead he's using these terms to refer to how long have you been a follower of Christ? Are you like a little child in this journey? You just were saved recently? Uh, are you a young person that you've been down the road a little bit? And you know, you're not, you know, a super uh veteran at this, but it's not new to you. Or are you like a father along this way? Like you've been on this road for a long time, you've led others to Christ along the way, and and you've just seen many seasons and and many ups and downs along this journey with Christ, which honestly, those three categories fit everybody. So see yourself. Where are you? Are you just like a child on this journey with some with some new excitement and a little bit of trepidation maybe and and not a whole lot of experience, but you you know, you're you're eager to start out and do this thing? Are you a young person that's like, well, you know, I'm I'm not exactly new at this, but I got a lot to learn, and and I I still have some energy and still have some fervor here to to spend on this, and or are you along the road further? And yeah, you know what, you're always growing and always learning, and you never figure everything out completely, but you know, you you've kind of you could say you've almost seen it all. Well, there's a message for you wherever you fit. Little children, two things you can know that your sins have been forgiven because of his name. And secondly, you have known the father. John wants to reassure you that your sins are forgiven, that life is behind you, and you do know the Father. Your reassurance that you have made the right choice, and you can be confident that you are where you want to be and need to be. No looking back, and you can be assured with confidence moving forward. And he speaks to young people two things. You have conquered the evil one, and secondly, you are strong, and the word of God resides in you, and he ref he repeats, you have conquered the evil one. Does that get you fired up? This should this should bolster you to like, yes, let's go make great strides for the kingdom, let's go tackle the gates of hell, let's go do this. You're strong, you have already conquered the evil one. He does not have control over you. You are strong in Christ, the word of God resides in you, and you can go forward with the boldness and confidence that comes by being a warrior of Christ. You do not need to grow more to be effective in the kingdom. That's the encouragement to you. And for you who have been down the road a while, you're a veteran at this. John has one message that he repeats both times. You have known him who has been from the beginning. You've known him who has been from the beginning. He says it twice. I think John doesn't say any more than that because I don't think one who has been down the road a while needs to hear more than that. If you've been down the road a while, you've seen how the world works. It's tiring and discouraging often to see. Oh man, I see how the world works. Kind of reminds me of Ecclesiastes, where the writer Solomon there is just reflecting on life, and it's just like, oh man, I just it's so meaningless. Everything just changes and the world changes, but not for the good. And I don't even know what what is my place anymore, you know? John gives the reassurance that God has not changed. And you've known him, who has been from the beginning. You've known him. You see everything change and you see the world degrade, but he is still on the throne. He is still the God of your youth. You're not missing anything. You've known him, you're on the right path. Keep going. I hope the first half of the book of First John here has been an encouragement to you and a reassurance to you in some way. Join me next time and we'll tackle the second half of First John. We'll see you then.