Sunday Sermon Notes from March 14, 2021
Read 1 John, the whole book
- Who do you think is the author of this letter and why?
- Likely John the apostle, who walked with Jesus
- Lots of similarities of the writing style of the writer of the Gospel of John
- What kind of language is he using in his writing?
- Terms of endearment like: friend and children
- How would you feel if the leader of your church sent you a letter like this?
- Wouldn’t he have to have been close with these people in order to write a letter like this? Otherwise it could come off as fake, right?
- John experienced and understood Jesus so much that in his writing he communicates this intimacy to us
- We are able to experience Jesus’s love through this writing
- This writing was also a clear stance against the thinking of the day where many thought Jesus was not a real human being in the flesh: Docetism
- When Jesus came back from the dead, he ate with his disciples in flesh and blood
- Jesus allowed his disciples to touch his wounds
- When we spend time with each other we can experience what it was like to be with Jesus in the flesh.
- Some people in John’s time thought that the “flesh” was bad and therefore it doesn’t matter how we live in the flesh since only our belief matters
- Many were using this thinking to give into fleshly desires of sin
- 1 John 1: 5-10
- We actually need to obey God’s word
- What we DO actually matters
- What are some examples of living one way, yet believing another?
- Eg. engaging in living together with a significant other and not being married
- Not walking in the light, not sharing our sins and getting help to get out of darkness
- When we confess our sins we can get help and feel close to other believers
- 1 John 2: 1-14
- John 13: 34-35
- What “new” Command is he referring to?
- To love each other like Jesus loves us- he served us, he died for us, he acted as a slave for us
- What does it look like to love another person the way Jesus did?
- Consider Leviticus 19
- We are commanded to not hate in our heart but to also love and serve each other
- We can be honest and open because we are already forgiven
- Nothing can take us away from the love of God so we can be open and honest with who we are and where we are at
- What “new” Command is he referring to?