The Remedy!

"The Remedy!"

Sermon Series: Walk in Faith (2 of 10)

1 John 1:5 -- 2:2

Pastor Jerry Ingalls

First Baptist Church-New Castle, Indiana

January 24, 2010

Are you ready to continue to dive into 1 John? Last week we covered the first 4 verses and today we will walk through the next 8 verses.

Please open your Bible to 1 John 1:5 -- 2:2.

⁵This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. ⁶If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. ⁷But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. ⁸If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. ⁹If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. ¹⁰If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives. ^2:1My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. ²He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

The Word of God; let us pray.

I am going to teach you these 8 verses by breaking the sermon into 3 points and unpacking each section. Then using my primary exegetical guideline of 'Scripture interpreting Scripture' I will utilize other Scriptures to teach the lesson. Essentially, we will be allowing God's Word to teach us God's Word.

Let's look at our first point so go ahead and pull out your sermon notes. You see the primary text is on the front cover with the verse numbers and on the inside (spilling over to the back page) are the 3 points with supporting Scriptures. Keep your Bible open, grab a pen, lean forward, and let's jump in...

JESUS CHRIST IS THE REMEDY FOR...DARKNESS! [Reference verses 5-7]

1 John 1:5 starts, "This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you [We see in the first 4 verses that the Apostle John is a personal witness to the ministry of Jesus Christ. He's now an old man by who is writing to 2nd and 3rd generation Christians. John is actively proclaiming this Gospel message that he heard in the past. He is making it clear that he is not making up the message, but that this is the message given to Him by Jesus Christ, Who is the Logos, the Word of Life. This mesage is the life-giving Gospel of Jesus Christ.] : God is light; in him there is no darkness at all."

John is drawing from his earlier work, the Gospel of John. He is doing that because this letter was written in the years after he sent the Gospel to these churches to clarify confusion and to teach the people a right view of who Jesus Christ is and how we should live in light of our faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, the Savior of the World.

The Gospel of John 1:4-5 majestically proclaims, "In him was life, and that life was the light of men. ⁵The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood [or a more literal translation of the Greek word -- the darkness has not overcome] it." [The it being the message passed on to the Apostle John.]

Let's dive into this phrase: "God is light; in him there is no darkness at all" Let's look at the Words of Jesus Christ and see if we can start to understand what John is teaching us when he declares that God is light:

Jesus proclaims in John 8:12, "When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, 'I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.'"

The Light is self-revealing! Jesus proclaimed, "I am the light of the world"...There is nothing secretive about the light. God wants to be seen and He desires to be known by all of His people. That is why God sent His son into the world to be the light exclaiming, "I am the light of the world."

We read in Paul's letter to the Colossians that Jesus Christ is the visible image of the invisible God. In the same way that Jesus Christ is the light of the world, we--His people, the Church--are to be a light on a hill for all to see. That is why God's vision for the Church is for us to be His Lamp stand...because Jesus Christ is Light and where there is Light there can be no darkness!

Jesus stated, 'Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.'

The Light points the way to go!

When I was an Infantry Officer we learned, practiced, and conducted a lot of land navigation...at night it is easy to get disoriented, lost, and in a heap of trouble quick! I learned quick to trust my map and my compass. [Share a story]

Jesus calls us to follow Him and His promise is that when we follow Him we will never walk in darkness...He is the light of life. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life and no one goes to the Father except through Him (John 14). In a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, you have the gift of the Holy Spirit who lights your way by giving you guidance on this road...we know how to orient our maps and set our compass because we have the Light of Life--Jesus Christ who is our True North. When we study the map (the Bible) and allow the Light to be our compass then we don't have to find ourselves stuck in the thorns or bogged down in the swamps.

Jesus exclaimed in John 12:46, "I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness."

Jesus is making it clear that the Light is the Great Revealer...where there is light there can be no darkness.

Flaws, imperfections, sin that is easily hidden in the dark is completely revealed in the Light. Let me explain a little deeper: The God who is Light is Perfect in all His ways; He is pure and all-holy; God is splendor; He is glory! To proclaim that God is light is to proclaim to the world of the sheer splendor and radiant glory of God!

That leads us into 1 John 1:6 very directly states, "If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth."

This is a good time to teach about darkness...we have unpacked the Light, now let's look at this darkness we are not supposed to be walking in.

Darkness represents the chaos of a Christless life; a life without God which is characterized by insecurity, selfishness, isolation, immorality, pettiness, greed, hatred and anger, unforgiveness and bitterness.

We saw earlier in the Gospel of John 1:5...the darkness may be opposed to the Light, but it cannot overcome it! The Darkness is an aggressor, but the Light will always pierce the Dark! Light prevails!

I don't want to take for granted that you know this, but in the Bible when you hear phrases like "walk in light, walk in the darkness, walk in love, walk in faith" they are each pointing "a habitual lifestyle of..."

This verse can be read: "If you claim to be in a right relationship with the God who is splendor and glory, who is holy and true and in whom there is no impurity or imperfection, but we choose to live a habitual lifestyle of immorality, selfishness, greed, bitterness and rage, and ignorance of the ways of God, then you are a liar and you are not living by the teaching of Jesus Christ which is life and the light is not in you."

The Beloved John is throwing our covers and calling us out. He is stating, 'You proclaim Christ as Lord and Savior, I will tell you if you are by the way you live your life....because if you really believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, Savior of the World, then you will be obedient to His teachings.

Let's continue in our study, the first half of 1 John 1:7 promises, "But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another...

When we are in God's perfect fellowship then our lives should be characterized by the character and quality and deeds of the light. The old has gone and the new has come...

And one of the primary ways that we can see the truth of conversion is in our fellowship with one another; I can't emphasize enough to you that our fellowship as a church is critical to our lives and to our mission as a church of God...listen to this verse from the Apostle Peter in 1 Peter 2:9, "But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light."

It is the purpose of our existence as the set apart people of God to be God's chosen people, our identity is in the Light, not in our nationality or ethnicity. We belong to God now and our ethics, our values, our morals, our lifestyle choices...everything should be called into the wonderful light!

Let's finish verse 8..., and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

The phrase "blood of Jesus, his Son" is pointing us to the victory of the crucifixion of the Christ and the background to understanding this salvific event is located in Israel's history (especially the Exodus and the Passover Lamb) and then the Jewish sacrificial system detailed out in the books of Exodus and Leviticus.

The verb "purifies" is a continuous present verb meaning that the blood of Jesus shed on the Cross of Calvary continues today to cleanse you; to purify you from the sin in your life.

The shed blood of Jesus Christ is the final atoning sacrifice that once and for all eliminated the need to sacrifice animals twice a day (morning and twilight) because God provided the perfect sacrifice, His Son--God Himself, the 2nd person of the dynamic love affair we call the Triune God--to tear down the barrier between God and man caused by sin, once and for all.

The blood of Jesus--the unblemished lamb of God, our Passover--covers a multitude of sins and because He was the perfect sacrifice we are continuously cleansed of our imperfection in the sight of God. God did this for us because we could not do it ourselves...

Listen to this teaching from the Apostle Paul in Colossians 1:13-14, "For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins."

Jesus is the remedy for the Darkness and we have to make a choice on what that will mean for our lives in how we will live each day.

ACTION ITEM: I will intentionally walk in the Light. [I believe right now that the Light is illuminating your heart and minds. Do you need to step out of the darkness in a specific area of your life today?

Let's look at the next 3 verses of our passage and in this section we will learn that JESUS CHRIST IS THE REMEDY FOR...DECEPTION!

1 John 1:8 teaches, "If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us."

More accurately, this text is talking about Self-Deception and self-deception is a deliberate refusal to face the facts!

The Greek word for sin is harmartia which literally means "to miss the target" as in Archery. So whenever the Bible talks about sin it is talking about anything that misses the target on who we are supposed to be in the eyes of God. God created us to be His image bearers for the purpose of bringing glory and worship to His name and to draw other people towards Him; to bless the nations! That means that anything we do that falls short of that purpose is sin.

This is not isolated to Newspaper worthy incidents...in that case many might be able to say that they are without sin. But this is when we fall short of being the husband, father, wife, mother, daughter, son, friend, worker or employer, or when we simply struggle with our own selfishness and insecurity and don't make good choices that end up hurting ourselves and others.

This is deception that states either 1) I have no sin at all; or 2) I have no responsibility for my sin. This is the classic blame shifting tendency that started with Adam and Eve and will continue until Jesus comes back. This is the tendency to blame our family of origin and upbringing, our genetics, our temperament (well, I can't help it that I was made this way!), or how we love to blame our circumstances for our bad choices! The list is long and well used. It is a rut that many of us have fallen into from time to time.

How does the Truth of Jesus Christ serve as a Remedy for this level of deception? Jesus is the remedy for deception because He is the Light and the Light is to be the Great Revealer. Let me illuminate this with something Paul says.

In his pastoral letter to Timothy 1:15-16 Paul humbly proclaims for our benefit, "Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. ¹⁶But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life."

Come on Paul, how are you, the great missionary and author of 13 letters in the New Testament, the Chief of sinners?

Here it is brothers and sisters: The closer you get to the Light, the more you see yourself as you really are. The closer in proximity you get to perfection, glory, splendor, radiance [the marvelous light!] the more you see your own blemishes.

I do not believe that Paul is wrapped up in a lifestyle of sin or is overstating his sinful nature, but rather this statement reflects his proximity to the Light! Friends, the closer we grow in personal relationship with Jesus Christ--the Light of Life--the more we will know that we are sinners saved by God's scandalous grace and extravagant love! We become enraptured in His light! We are humbled by His mercy! Spiritual pride has no place in the life of a Christian!

That leads us into 1 John 1:9-10, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just [the focus is on God's faithfulness to act upon His covenant promises, one of which includes forgiveness of sin when a sacrifice of atonement is made for the sinner!] and will forgive us our sins [something only God can do!] and purify us from all unrighteousness [this is possible through the blood of Jesus as we saw in verse 7 and the words "all unrighteousness" parallel "walk in the darkness"--a Godless immoral life!]. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word [This again is the Greek word Logos which implies the Word of Life who is Jesus Christ] has no place in our lives.

Friends, we know from personal experience that we make God out to be a liar if we say we do not sin or we do not take personal responsibility for our sin and its consequences. But, if you still deny this truth from your personal experience,The Word declares that we all have sinned (including you and me!) in Romans 3:3, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." That means all need forgiveness!

The remedy to self deception is to have a sober assessment of ourselves and to know that we are sinners and then with a humble heart, do what King David did in Psalm 51...come to God in confession, just as John is commanding us to do in verse 9!

David prayed in Psalm 51:1-2,"Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin."

Once again, the emphasis is on God's unfailing love and His great compassion! Not your perfection; you don't have to be perfect! That is a key point John is making--sin is real and we are not perfect (we all sin and will continue to struggle with our sin nature!). Do not live in denial; rather confess your sin and receive forgiveness and life!

ACTION ITEM: I will daily approach God with a humble and sober heart. [I will confess my sins and receive His forgiveness...confession is necessary!]

Let's close with our final teaching point that is found from the first 2 verses of 1 John 2. JESUS CHRIST IS THE REMEDY FOR...DEATH!

In 1 John 1:1, the elderly Apostle John, compassionately writes, "My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. [That is the goal of the Christian life, to become more and more like Jesus Christ who was without sin! John is stating one of his chief purposes for writing...He is telling these confused followers of Jesus Christ that sin does matter! They not only have to have a right view of God in Jesus Christ, but also of their lifestyles.] But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.

The word that is translated "one who speaks to the Father in our defense" is the word Parakletos which is a rich word in John's writings. This is a word that means "Advocate, Mediator, Helper, Intercessor" and the emphasis is on "Jesus Christ, the Righteous One" because the Intercessor has to be able to advocate or intercede on our behalf...as God is righteous, Jesus Christ is Righteous. He has the right! He is able! He is qualified! He has the ear of His Father for your benefit!

In Hebrews 7:25 we read about Jesus Christ, "Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them."

Thank you Jesus, my Advocate, My Defender, My Interceder, My Wonderful Counselor! Jesus did not come to earth 2000 years ago ONLY to die as the perfect atoning sacrifice for our sins. He did that, but the good news friend is that Jesus Christ is ALIVE! He rose from the dead 3 days later and 40 days later ascended to the right hand of the Father to be our Interceder and then 10 days after that sent His Spirit, also called the Parakletos to be our Sustainer. This is amazing...we have a Paraklete both at the right hand of the Father interceding for us and in our hearts sustaining and empowering us! God has your back and mine, if you will come to Him!

Let's finish our last verse, 1 John 2:2, "He is [once again the grammar of the Greek teaches this is a continuing quality...now and always!] the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world."

Jesus is not only our Paraklete, He is our Propitiation!

God is the One who provides the offering that was acceptable to Himself. We see this in 2 Corinthians 5:21 where Paul teaches, "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.") This was necessary to turn away His wrath and fulfill the requirements of His Covenant for all of humanity to be restored into a right relationship with Himself.

Paul teaches in Romans 5:8-10,

"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!"

Life defeats death just as the Light defeats Darkness!

In His great love for you and me, for the entire world, God has provided the means for everyone to be restored into fellowship with God. There are no limits to the efficacy of the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ--the final atoning sacrifice; our Passover Lamb!

Let me tell you some great news! Jesus came to free us from works-based religions and sacrificial systems to teach us about a personal relationship with God! This is the gift of God!

Romans 6:23, "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."

You do not have to ever experience the sting of death in your life! When a Christian dies, they do not stop living, they pass on to their Father's House where they receive their rich inheritance of eternal life! From life to Life!

This earthly tent is folded up and we receive an imperishable glorified body! Jesus is the remedy for death because He has removed the stain of sin that kept you from being in God's perfect fellowship!

God is offering this gift to you today; what are you going to do?

ACTION ITEM: Today, I wholeheartedly accept the free gift of eternal life in Jesus Christ.

RESPONSE TIME: Ken and his team are now going to lead us in a time of response. Today is the day of Salvation and Transformation! This is a call for each of us to answer: are you ready to walk fully in the light? Are you ready to humble confess your sins to God? Are you ready to receive the free gift of eternal life in Jesus Christ with your whole heart?

Thank you Jesus!

Good evening friends...

Yes, another failed attempt at falling asleep and more great intimacy time with God. I think I'm seeing a pattern of when I think I am tired and I get into bed with my family, yet the next thing I know I am hearing the steady breathing of my sleeping bride next to me (and Beorn too...he's not yet upstairs in his bed...kinda working on that...) and that inward nudge to head to my Bible for some daily bread. It's kind of crazy, in a good way crazy, because today I actually spent many hours studying and working on my sermon, but I'm still hungry for God's Word...just can't get enough.

Well, to my devotion and through my four chapters tonight (Exodus 29-32) there was a lot of diversity in this reading. Some crazy stuff that just doesn't show up in the Hollywood retelling of the Exodus (read about it in Ex 32:19-35); some great leadership does and don't does (those don't does are from our good friend the High Priest Aaron who fails at leadership 101...he may be able to sacrifice animals, but he can't lead people to save their lives (actually he gets 3000 of them killed at the hands of the Levites by order of Moses, but that brings you back to Ex 32:19-35 and the part of the story that the cute cartoon movies leave out)); and some more of the always detailed directions from God to Moses on Mt. Sinai of how to build the Tabernacle, Altar, etc. All good stuff, not all easy to digest or understand or even begin to put into devotional thought. Some of it is absolutley horrifying and others of it is just too other worldly with the sacrificial system.

But that moves me to my devotion from Ex 29:36-37, "Each day you shall offer a bull as a sin offering for atonement, and you shall purify the alter when you make atonement for it, and you shall anoint it to consecrate it. For seven days you shall make atonement for the altar and consecrate it; then the altar shall be most holy, and whatever touches the altar shall be holy." We actually learn in the next few verses (38-42) that there are to be two sacrifices made on this altar every day (morning and twilight) continuously...a continual sacrifice of atonement.

This actually jumped out at me because I'm studying 1 John pretty deeply right now and this Sunday I am preaching 8 verses (1:5-2:2) and there is reference to the "blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin" (1 John 1:7) and Jesus "Himself is the propitiation for our sins" (2:2). These are very theologically rich statements that we as Christians read through knowing what we know about the Cross of Calvary, atonement theory, NT Scripture references, etc. But ultimately, without a firm understanding of passages such as Ex. 29:36-37 we have don't get the full extent of how radically indebted to Jesus Christ we are for the freedom and the atonement that we have in Him and through Him. Just check out the absolute focus on holiness and ritualistic preparation that the priests of Israel had to go through in preparation of the altar to make the twice a day sacrifice that had to happen every day...not too mention the process of being ordained and properly dressed and the amazingly detailed and elaborate process for building the Tabernacle, altar, etc... This is the means God established for man to be able to deal with the sin that prevented them from having a relationship with God until by God's grace He sent His Son "Jesus Christ, the righteous" (2:1) to became the once and for all sin offering of atonement that dealt a final blow to the sin separation between man and God. Because of Jesus Christ, God's indescribable gift to us, all of humanity can now have a relationship with God...the most inclusive and extensive sacrifice of atonement possible and all we have to do is accept it and receive it and welcome Jesus Christ into our lives as Lord and Savior acknowledging He was the atoning sacrifice for my sins...Thank you Jesus!

It is my hope that as we dive into God's Word that we realize that we are truly just skimming the surface of God's infinite Truth. May we grow as students of the Old Testament to fully comprehend what Christ has done for us. And as we study, may our gratitude grow and may our obedience flow out of the deep understanding that we can never say "Thank you" enough or give of ourselves (Time, Treasures, and Talents) enough, or do anything to deserve the fullness of God's love and the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the unblemished Passover Lamb (that's another OT allusion found in Exodus...read your Bible and don't rely on Sunday School stories from year's past or Hollywood movies to teach you the eternal truths God has given us in the Bible.

Love to you as you give God all the glory for the indescribable gift of Jesus Christ...THANK YOU Jesus!

In His Service,
Jerry

My God cares about the details!

Friends,

A very unorthodox devotion from Exodus 25-28...

If you know me then you know I am a pretty focused kind of guy...I love my God, I love my family, and I love my ministry in the Church of Jesus Christ. I am in my 2nd week of being the Senior Pastor of First Baptist Church in New Castle, Indiana and it rocks...the people of God are amazing and the call of God is tremendous. The days fly by full of study, work, leadership, counseling, pastoral care, management, friendship, celebration and laughter as well as grief and tears. I only wish I had more time to give in a day because it's just so much fun and a joy to be working for Jesus every day (it's also a joy to get that sweet Sabbath day off too!!!).

Nothing I do can fill me up or sustain me! No ministry task, no ministry position (whether in lay ministry, staff pastor, Associate Pastor, or Senior Pastor!), no great teaching experience or counseling breakthrough can replace my personal relationship with Jesus Christ! My ministry is not my personal relationship with Jesus Christ! My ministry is not my identity or my source of strength!

So, going back to my personality...I am driven and I love to work! Not quite a work aholic (denial!) because my wife won't allow it, nor will my 3 year old son! But, I love to work and I love to be with people and I truly enjoy the demands and challenges of ministry. But, the greatest challenge of all is continually abiding in Christ...yes, you heard it here first, it takes more daily discipline in my life to abide in Christ and focus on my personal relationship with Him then to be a good worker for Him. It's easier for me to put in a 12 hour work day for God, then to spend quality and quantity time as His beloved on a continuous basis!

Crazy and crazy making!

That's where my daily disciplines come in...I am in the middle of Exodus in my 2010 walk through the Bible journey in the NAU. It's been marvelous to spend QT in the Word simply to abide and enjoy God's fresh bread--His revelation for my life! I am listening to God and praying each day and honestly He's keeping me up almost every night! That's where I'm finding the time to write this... I'm hearing Him speak to me about the Lent Season of Preparation coming up and I am putting some disciplines in place. I want more of God because He is my source, my rock, my comforter, my all in all... It's not enough to work for Him or put in 60 hours a week for Him. In the midst of all this great stuff though I think about my January 1 post and how I truly feel that God wants me to post my devotion time on the blog. He wants me to journal! He's been telling me this for years...Lord, help me to prioritize and go all the way because you don't want half-hearted obedience, you want me to obey fully! But, how do you write a devotion out of Exodus 25-28? It's about curtains of Goat's hair, boards and sockets, lots of gold and precious jewels and crazy outfits for priests, and other detailed directions for making the Tabernacle...pretty boring and esoteric stuff, but I know it's important because it's in the Word so teach me O LORD... You are a God of details and I am learning that you want me/us to follow you to the T and not half-effort our devotion to you!

God wants all of my heart...He wants all of your heart! He wants us to follow Him to the T. He's a God of details and He wants us to pay attention to the details of our intimacy with Him, our personal relationship with Jesus Christ, our ministry to Him and the world He has called us to be a light to.

God, thank you for continual patience in my life...teaching me to abide in you; teaching me to trust fully in you; teaching me that you do not call me as your hired hand, but as your adopted son. Lord, I ask in the name of Jesus that you teach me to live in the fullness of your inheritance and in the perfection of your fellowship. Complete my joy and teach me to rejoice always and pray continuously. I want to be your lover and experience your intimacy. I want to follow you to a T because you dotted every i and CROSSed every T so that I can be in relationship with you! Thank you Jesus!

Friends, may we turn to Him and not toward the work we think we should do for Him. May He guide us and direct our paths. May we follow fully!

Love,
Jerry

Perfect Fellowship!

"Perfect Fellowship!"

Sermon Series: Walk in Faith (1 of 10)

1 John 1:1-4

Pastor Jerry Ingalls

First Baptist Church-New Castle, Indiana

January 17, 2010

This morning we are starting our first sermon series. I prayed for months about which book of the Bible to start with and after reading through numerous books and praying, I truly feel that God led me to First John.

Why? Because First John is an amazing book that teaches us how to Walk in Faith. This is a letter written by the Beloved of Jesus Christ, the Apostle John, to the Beloved Children of God, His Church. This is a letter written to the early church because the 2nd and 3rd generation Christians were having a hard time understanding who Jesus Christ was and the implications of their faith in Jesus as the Son of God, their Lord and Savior.

We will read a letter written in the late first century AD, most likely 60 years after Jesus Christ's earthly ministry--his miracles, his teachings, his death on the cross and his resurrection; his appearances after death and his ascension into Heaven to be at the right hand of the Father for eternity.

So, this is a letter to deal with people who were saying that Jesus Christ never truly was a human as well as to deal with those who were saying He is not really God. John, an eye witness of all Christ did, said, and was sets the record straight for not only this church, but for the Church throughout history. He is a first hand account!

Beyond his witness, John sets us straight on how we should live our lives because of our right understanding of who Jesus Christ is as fully man and fully God. As the Savior of all humanity!

So, as we walk through this study over these next 10 weeks we are going to dive deeply into who God is as well as how we should live our lives differently because Jesus Christ is God! We are going to close the gap between our heads and our hearts and start to truly live as disciples of Jesus Christ!

It is God's timing that we start this study today, on January 17, 2010. Tomorrow we celebrate the life of one of God's chosen instruments in contemporary history--the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. A man who though not perfect, strived to know God and to live out his faith by bringing God's reconciliation to all people regardless of their skin color. We remember the contributions of this great man of God!

It is in such times as we are in today when the world needs disciples of Jesus Christ to start walking in faith and being the hands and feet of Christ.

With tragedy at the local level with the death of Jessica Wantz; war, a crippling economy and soaring unemployment rates at the national level; and catastrophe at the international level with the devastation of Haiti; the local, national, and international community needs the Church of Jesus Christ to Shine the Glory of God.

First Baptist Church of New Castle, Indiana it is God's charge to us to be His lamp stand and shine the Light of Jesus Christ. As a spirit-filled missional church, how are we going to respond?

Our Scripture reading is the first four verses of First John. Please open your Bibles and turn with me to 1 John 1:1-4; pull out your sermon notes and grab a pen or pencil because we are going to get into God's Word.

God's Word to us today, "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete."

The Word of God; let us pray.

This is a rich prologue to the letter...an introduction that sets the stage for why John is writing. I want to highlight three significant points that I gleam from studying this text. If you open up your sermon notes which I have provided for you to follow along with to take notes in you will see that I organized these three points around this phrase, "Perfect Fellowship with God..." Each point will complete that heading. There are some blanks for you to fill in.

The first point of our study comes out of the first 2 verses,

PERFECT FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD...IS ONLY POSSIBLE THROUGH A PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP WITH JESUS CHRIST!

1 John 1:1-2 states, "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us."

This has striking similarities to the first 2 verses of The Gospel of John, written by the same John, the Beloved Apostle of Jesus Christ. Listen to these words:

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning." - John 1:1-2

In both sets of verses we see John pointing to the fact that in the beginning, the Word was with God. The Greek word for Word is Logos and it has two possible connotations in our Scripture Lesson. It is either pointing to Jesus Christ as the Word of Life or the Gospel of Jesus Christ as the Word of Life. Either way, there is one thing that is very clear: "the life-giving word of the gospel is essentially a proclamation about Jesus Christ who is the living Word of God."

When you take the authorship of John and the purposes of his writing in mind, I believe it is clear that the Logos is clearly intended to be Jesus Christ.

You see, John is saying that He, and the other Apostles, are first-hand eye witnesses to Jesus Christ. They had a personal encounter with Jesus Christ, who is the Word of Life.

What makes up a personal encounter? Let's look at our Scripture and you can underline these phrases: "we have heard", "we have seen with our eyes", "which we have looked at", and "our hands have touched".

John is proclaiming that which he is a witness of...that which he knows personally he is sharing. That's what it means to be a witness--to proclaim that which you know is true because of your personal encounter with God through Jesus Christ!

When you have a personal encounter with Jesus Christ and accept Him as the Son of God and ask Him into your life to be your Lord and Savior then you enter into a personal relationship with God, who is the One who welcomes us into His Perfect Fellowship.

Let me unpack this phrase for you: Perfect Fellowship.

I want to proclaim to you that which I know is true and have experienced personally: God is a dynamic love affair (a perfect fellowship) who is seeking to restore each of us (you and me!), His lost children back into a perfect relationship.

God exists as three persons in One perfect fellowship. God is One, yet is a dynamic love affair of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God is perfect and complete--He is community! And out of His great outflow of His love, He chose to create this universe and hand selected our world to breathe life into His creation. He created His children in His image so that they could populate the world and rule over it. Yet, being in the image of God He gave us free will and in that freedom we broke God's heart and went against His divine intent for our existence which forever stained us with a rebellious and deceitful heart of sin. This sin nature causes us to be selfish and insecure at our core level; and in our selfishness and insecurity we hurt others. The Bible calls these actions sin.

The Bible is the recording of God's story to create out of His perfect fellowship, and then His persevering enduring efforts to restore all of His creation to His perfect fellowship. That is what John is writing about in the Gospel of John and now is writing First John to further emphasize and clarify God's love and message to home churches fractured by wrong views of Jesus leading to wrong life choices.

Turn to Verse 2 of 1 John 1: "The life appeared (a reference to the Logos from verse 1); we have seen it and testify to it (yet more emphasis on the personal witness!), we proclaim to you the eternal life (eternal life is perfect fellowship with God that is only possible in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ), which was with the Father and has appeared to us."

The last phrase "which was with the Father and has appeared to us" is now an emphasis on the Incarnation of God...the Christmas miracle which we just celebrated! Immanuel, God is with us!

In God's dynamic love affair with His children, He sent out of His Perfect Fellowship, His Son Jesus Christ so that we might become One with God in His Perfect Fellowship. God made a way for us to be in relationship with Him not because we are perfect (remember, we are corrupted by our sin nature), but because Jesus Christ, who is perfect, took all of our sin onto Himself on the Cross of Calvary. God took away the sin that corrupts us and that makes it impossible for us to be in His presence, so that for all time, when we ask God to live in us through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, Jesus' blood covers our transgressions and makes us whole--acceptable in God's sight. Acceptable for eternal life! By faith and not by works so that no man should boast!

The Incarnation of God is the miracle of God's love manifesting itself to us in a way that we can personally experience and know God.

From Paul's letter to the Galatians 4:4-6, "But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, 'Abba, Father.'"

This is God sending His Son Jesus Christ so that we may see the God who is Spirit and experience the indescribable gift of eternal life.

Our hearts cry out to the God who made us, Abba, which means Daddy (an intimate term of personal relationship) because we have now become fellow heirs of God--as sons of God we have the right of inheritance (you see in the cultural setting of the New Testament literature daughters did not have right to inheritance which is why he emphasized all believers (men and women) to receive the right of sonship). All that is the Father's is ours because of our personal relationship!

How do we know we have been welcomed into this perfect fellowship?

God gives us His Holy Spirit to live in our hearts! The God who is a dynamic love affair, who is perfect in all ways, enters our hearts and lives in and through us so that the world may know that He exists and desires for all of humanity to know Him.

The Apostle John further emphasizes this in 1 John 4:13-15, "We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God."

John is an eye witness to Jesus Christ as one who walked with Him. We are eyes witnesses to Jesus Christ as people who have been given the Holy Spirit. As Spirit-filled disciples of Jesus Christ, we know that God lives in our hearts because of our faith confession in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, the Savior of the world!

We have fellowship with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. He has given us the fullness of His perfect relationship!

AND THIS PERFECT FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD...LEADS TO FELLOWSHIP WITH FELLOW BELIEVERS!

Let's get it straight up front that our side of fellowship with God and each side of our fellowship with other believers is imperfect because though we are justified in Christ; saved for eternal life in the moment we ask Jesus Christ in our hearts, it is a long journey that takes daily vigilance over our entire lives to live out the perfection of our justification (our salvation!).

This is the process of sanctification: Essentially, as Paul teaches in Philippians 2:12, we have to "continue to work out our salvation with fear and trembling"...and yes, that leads us into the Apostle John's teaching about fellowship with one another, as co-heirs of Christ.

Turn back to 1 John 1 and let's read verse 3 of our Scripture lesson. It states, "We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ."

John continues to emphasize his personal experience with Jesus Christ and he teaches that it is our personal relationship with Jesus Christ--our faith, not our goodness or works, or nationality, or sports teams affiliation, or socio-economic status, or race (thank you Martin Luther King Jr. for getting it!)--it is our personal relationship with Jesus Christ that allows us to have fellowship with one another!

The Apostle Peter challenged in 1 Peter 1:22-23, "Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart. For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God."

Peter exhorts, "We are to love one another deeply, from the heart!" A question: because we have perfect fellowship with God, who lives in our hearts?

That's right: the Holy Spirit--the third person of the dynamic love affair who is God! We are to love one another deeply because the God who is love lives in our hearts! This is not the kind of love that can fall out of love with one another, or that kind of love that only loves when you feel like it. No, this is God's perfect love living out through us!

Are you a vehicle of God's perfect love? How is it even possible? Because in Jesus Christ you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.

In this verse, Peter is talking about the Logos who is Jesus Christ--the Word of Life--eternal life!

Friends, this is the power of God's Word when you dive deeply into it! The Logos who is Christ, the Logos which is the Gospel of Jesus Christ is what allows us to love deeply! To be in fellowship with one another!

Let's look at fellowship as God intended it from the beginning: From the early church history book, Acts 2:42-44: "They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. All the believers were together and had everything in common."

The fellowship of believers is the koinonia of the church--more than eating together and drinking coffee together--it is intended to be a miracle and a sign to the world that the God of the Universe can be heard, can be seen with our eyes, can be looked at and touched. Church, we are the visible expression of the Body of Christ; God is made visible to the world in our fellowship with one another.

Does New Castle see Christ visible in and through First Baptist Church? Will Haiti see Christ visible through the Church of Jesus Christ?

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us keep our hearts and minds focused on Christ and devote ourselves to the life of discipleship. That is the life of working out our salvation with fear and trembling by devoting ourselves to the teaching of the Word, the fellowship of the Church, the breaking of bread together, to prayer, let's truly have all things in common by tithing to the church and sacrificially giving above and beyond our tithe to help those in need.

Truly, if you are willing to join me and my family in fellowshipping in this way, we will be filled with awe and see many wonders and miraculous signs amongst us and through us. We will see God's glory in this generation!

Perfect fellowship with God through Jesus Christ leads us to fellowship with fellow believers and that leads us to our final teaching point: PERFECT FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD...COMPLETES OUR JOY!

Turn with me to the last verse in our Scripture Lesson, 1 John 1:4: "We write this to make our joy complete."

Notice that John emphasizes "our joy". This is a communal joy, not just a personal joy. God wants our fellowship together, only possible because of our perfect fellowship with him, to complete our joy! This is the ultimate intent of our loving Father--for His Children to know His joy and to experience it completely!

Do you believe that God loves you so deeply that He would step out of eternity, take on the human form and live amongst us, die on the cross to take on the punishment for your sin so that you may have eternal life and experience the completion of Joy? Do you believe?

Listen to these 2 teachings by Jesus Christ:

Jesus states in the Gospel of John 15:11, "I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete."

Jesus later commands in the Gospel of John 16:24, "Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete."

God is a dynamic love affair whose love for us reached out of eternity and comes to you this morning in a very personal way that you can experience. If you have not yet asked Jesus Christ into your life then in a few moments I am going to ask you to come forward and receive the joy of Christ who is the Word of Life, who is eternal life!

We know that those who choose to follow Jesus Christ, will be given the Holy Spirit as the comforter and sustainer in this life. If you choose to ask Jesus Christ into your life then God will fill you with His joy, regardless of your circumstances, and He will fill you with His personal presence--the Holy Spirit.

We see this recorded in the early church and it is true today. From the Book of Acts 13:52, "And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit."

Brothers and sisters, this is not only a call for those amongst us who need this joy for the first time, this is a call for all of us to return to the God who made us and saved us.

The fellowship that Jesus Christ calls us to demonstrates itself in the Church of Jesus Christ in a way that is unmistakable and only possible because of God's perfect fellowship. The Apostle Paul proclaims in his letter to the Philippians 2:1-2, "If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose."

Our fellowship is a witness when it is completed in Joy! This is the joy of Christ in the Church: when we are like-minded in Jesus Christ, when we have the same deep love for one another, and when we are unified through the Holy Spirit and the purpose for our existence--to joyfully worship God together!

We exist to proclaim our personal experience with Jesus Christ and to show ourselves as His followers by the way we love one another with Joy! This is the witness of Jesus Christ being our Lord and the Holy Spirit living in our hearts! May our Heavenly Father be glorified by our life together in His Perfect Fellowship and may our fellowship be such a witness that draws all of humanity to Jesus Christ

Abide in God

Happy New Year my friends!

During the last weeks of 2009, I spent a lot of time in prayer and contemplation as well as spent a good amount of time reading in the New Testament and some other good books. I have been thinking a lot about what God would expect of me as we left Sunnyvale, California and embarked on our new ministry adventure in New Castle, Indiana. This last week He made it very clear to me that there is one primary imperative for this year--to abide in Him! To remain connected to the True Vine, to practice the presence and rest in God, to soak deeply in the Sciptures daily and journal, to fast and listen, and in all things to remain focused on God who is the great Gift-Giver and not on the gifts themselves. As we learn in John 15 to prioritize the life-giving connection to Jesus Christ, who is the True Vine, and who through the Holy Spirit will sustain me and grow me so that the Father may bear fruit on my branch. Through the pruning, through the times of plenty and want, through seasons of great or little fruit, it is my imperative to abide! Not to focus on the fruit or even on myself as the branch, but to focus on my connection to the Vine.

So, as part of my personal journey in this new season of my spiritual disciplines, though no one thing I will be doing is new, I want to utilize my blog. As my mentor Pastor John does, I want to start the annual discipline of reading through the Bible in a new translation each year. What a great way to keep the Word of God fresh! For 2010, I am going to read through it in my favorite translation--the NAU or New American Standard Updated. For journaling, I am going to resume 'The Way' Journaling, but now post it on my online Blog. This is a format the pastoral team of Crosswalk learned from Pastor Wayne's Doing Church as a Team Conference probably over 5 years ago and that we encourage at Crosswalk. It's the S-O-A-P format where I record a Scripture that spoke to me in my daily reading, I make an observation about it and then I journal out a life application for my life and ministry. I then end with a prayer time.

Here is an example of what I hope to be posting each day from my Scripture reading for January 1, 2010 using the S-O-A-P system.

S: Read Genesis 1-4 (Genesis 3:21 describes, "The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.")

O: I have read through Genesis so many times and especially what I consider the Bible's Prologue (the first 11 chapters). There is so much to be found in these first 11 chapters that theologically and anthropologically undergird the entire metanarrative of God's pursuit of humanity starting with the chosing of Abram in Genesis 12. The Creation Narratives of the first 3 chapters, the first humans and the descendants of Adam and Eve including the drama of Cain and Abel. Then moving us to Noah and the story continues. Amazing stuff! This one verse jumped out in my reading today because of its context. We are talking about the Fall of Humanity...this is big stuff! Not only has sin entered the Garden of Eden, but the consequences of choice have been given to the serpent, the woman (who wasn't even named until after the Fall and she receives her consequences from God; then Adam names her in Gen 3:20--that's a whole other journal entry for another day), and then the man to include a curse of the ground. Ouch! There are serious long-standing generational consequences to good old Adam and Eve breaking a rule and listening to that seductive serpant, but what do we see in this verse. God is in intimate communion with His children: 1) in the midst of their bad choice (yes, that is sin!); 2) in the midst of receiving their consequences for said sin (Gen 3:14-19); and 3) moments from being cast out of the Garden of Eden (Gen 3:22-24)--break in trust leading to punishment. God is doing what a loving Parent (this action more of a Mother than Father in most cases in our society!) would do for His children prior to sending them out into the cold for a long and hard journey--God makes them "garments of skin...and clothed them." Wow! God, the Creator of the Heavens and the Earth, whose first two humans just made bad choices and disobeyed Him, is not so upset that He has to leave the room and count to 20; rather, He is lovingly providing for them on their next leg of the journey. He remains with them!

A: I must personally be aware of my God's intimate communion to this day with His children. As a believer in Jesus Christ, I have the sacred privilege of being called a child of God. God has promised to give me His presence and to never leave me even if I were to forsake Him. True, I may sin and there are very real consequenes (Oh, how I know this!). There are seasons of discipline and seasons of pruning, but in each of these times God is lovingly present and providing! Mine is not to fear, but to focus on God's presence and remember that He is the One who provides in my life. When I sin, I must face the consequences that will follow, but God will not turn away from me though He may have to turn me away from the good intent He had prepared for me. Just as Adam and Eve had to leave the Garden of Eden to face their new future, the story was not over and God remained intimately involved, even to the details of clothing them...a need that only arose because of their sin! Now, that is mind boggling...God is love!

P: Lord, teach me this kind of faith and faithful love. Teach me LORD of your rich provision in all circumstances. I love you LORD and ask that you open my heart and mind to the fullness of your glory and rich love, which is beyond my mind to grasp or apprehend. And Lord, as you teach me may I live this kind of life of love, trust, grace, truth, provision, protection, and pardon. May I learn to be who you have intended me to be. Thank you Lord for your richness and your great gifts! Thank you LORD for my salvation in Jesus Christ! I love you God. In Jesus' name. Amen.

This year of our LORD 2010 has countless possibilities and amazing grace to embrace. It is my prayer that I can share the conversation that God is having with me so that you may experience the fresh bread of my daily abiding in Christ. There is much more to describe and talk about with you on how God is impressing my heart for this year, but there will be more time for that in the coming weeks. Please pray for me and for us, as God's Church, that I and we will remain in Him as He remains in us.

I rest in Him,

Jerry