Walking in the Fellowship of
God’s Light
I, II, III John series, part 2
Text: 1 John 1 (NASB)
Intro: What is this Christianity thing all about, anyway? Is it a bunch of traditions, or worse yet, a bunch of superstitions, rules, and regulations? Is it making God happy or trying to earn His favor? Is it about being a good person, or doing one’s religious duty? Or is it something more than all of this? As I’ve mentioned before, the bottom line of Christianity is a relationship with God—God our Creator and Savior.
Thesis: God calls us to live in fellowship with
Him.
Transition: It sounds so basic, doesn’t it? We say, “well, duh, isn’t that what Christianity should be all about?” Then why is it that so many people, even Christians, fail to do so? And how exactly do we go about doing it? In 1 John 1, we find three realities that point the way to our fellowship with God.
I. Fellowship with God—and with other
believers—is possible because of Jesus Christ. (v. 3)
A. Christ is the center of our faith.
1. We are Christians—that means we’re followers of Christ; it should be so in reality, not just in theory.
2. Too many people who call themselves Christians get sidetracked by other issues, some valid, some not
a. Some may be genuine Believers who get bogged down in theological, social, or other issues. It may be a good thing to be involved in. But if it takes us away from the centrality of Christ, it’s a problem. (Reformed doctrine, Charismatic practices, overemphasis on the social Gospel, etc.)
b. Others are missing the point (Jesus Christ), getting caught up in various radical theologies, worship practices, social concerns, and the like. Some reject Jesus altogether.
i. The God is dead notion
ii. Redefining God (goes back to ancient times; “God made man in His own image, and ever since, man has been returning the favor,” Larry Dixon.)
iii. Mother earth and other ecological extremism
iv. Sophia and other feminist movements or neo-pagan
3. Bottom line is, as Christians, we need to keep Christ at the center. Don’t get sidetracked.
B. It is because of Jesus’ work on the cross and His blood that we can have this fellowship with God. v. 7
1. Fellowship with the Father & the Son (v. 3), and by extension, the Holy Spirit, too
2. His blood “cleanses us from all sin” (v. 7). Sin is what damaged our relationship with our Creator. Hence, removes the blockage in the relationship.
C. Jesus therefore also enables our fellowship with each other as Christians. (v. 3)
1. “That you also may have fellowship with us” à points back to vv. 1-2 (they are witnesses of Jesus; they saw Him, heard Him, knew Him face-to-face; they knew in a special way the source of eternal life & are pointing the rest of us to Him).
2. Bible uses metaphors like family & body to show our interconnectedness with other Believers.
3. The Greek word here is koinonia, which is the most intimate kind of human relationship
4. We have a kind of bond that no other human relationship can have; the bonds of Jesus Christ. We hear people talk about other kinds of bonds, such as the brotherhood of humanity, or ethnic or racial ties, nationalistic ties, human family ties. But how much stronger should the bonds of love in Jesus Christ be!
5. Maybe that’s not we see in everyday life; Christians often fail to live united in fellowship; but the fault is ours, not the glue’s!
6. It’s prescriptive, not descriptive. It prescribes the way things should be, not describing the way things are. Therefore it can’t be rejected on the grounds of failing to reflect the way things seem to be.
II. God is light. (v. 5)
A. Light
1. Greek phos; important connections in Greek thought
a. The Logos (the Word) and the Light go hand-in-hand
b. Close connection in both Greek & Hebrew thought between light and truth; hence, the Word of Truth and God is Light are related statements
c. Light shows things as they really are. Darkness hides things as they really are.
2. Hebrew parallelism
a. Contrast light and darkness; darkness is opposite, so it also means falsehood
b. So statement “and in him there is no darkness at all” is a restatement in the negative form of “God is light”
B. Significance to our lives
1. We are to walk in the light (v. 7)
2. If we are living life (walking) in Christ’s way, then we will have to walk in the light (truth, righteous living). (v. 7)
3. We cannot both have fellowship with God and walk in darkness; it’s a contradiction (v. 6)
4. In fact, it’s a lie (John once again is very direct and thunderous); not just lie, but also do not tell the truth (again, Hebrew parallelism)
5. A clue to one of the causes of lack of Christian fellowship – people not walking in the light. v. 7a “but if we walk in the light, we have fellowship with one another.” So maybe part of the problem in lack of fellowship is lack of walking in the light.
6. So walking in God’s way allows us fellowship with God and with other Believers.
III. Forgiveness comes through confessing our
sins. (v. 9)
A. Not a radical new idea; goes back to OT
1. Ps. 51:10-13, 17 (NASB)
2. Same passage in The Message:
10God, make a fresh start in
me,
shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life.
11Don't throw me out with the trash,
or fail to breathe holiness in me.
12Bring me back from gray exile,
put a fresh wind in my sails!
13Give me a job teaching rebels your ways
so the lost can find their way home.
14Commute my death sentence, God, my salvation God,
3. Ps. 32:1-2, 5
4. Ps. 86:5 (“For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, And abundant in lovingkindness to all who call upon You.”)
B. Salvation comes through the forgiveness of sins, through the cleansing brought about by Jesus’ blood
1. Lots of other ideas in the world of what brings about salvation (salvation through education, technology, science/ medicine, social welfare, enlightenment, pop psychology, through rejecting these Christian concepts of sin and salvation through Christ alone, i.e. salvation from Christianity, etc.)
2. But the bottom line is that the Bible makes it clear that there is one way to experience salvation, and that what we need to be saved from is our sin. So if we recognize that we have been created by God, and that the Bible is His Word, then we know that we have the sin problem and we need the salvation that comes from Jesus when we confess our sins.
C. We must admit that we have a sin problem
1. One of the biggest attacks on Christianity these days comes in the form of people refusing to recognize that we have a sin problem.
a. “The thing modernity most vehemently hates and fears [is] the notion of sin. For modernity the only sin is to believe in sin.” – (Peter Kreeft, C.S. Lewis for the Third Millenium)
b. Pascal – “There are only two kinds of people in the world: saints who know they are sinners, and sinners who think they are saints.”
c. Suggest that you are in favor of an unborn child’s right to live, or that homosexuality is wrong according to the Bible, or that God intended sex to take place in marriage, not wherever, whenever, with whomever, or that we were created by God and not evolved from prehistoric swamp goo, or that there are absolutes, right and wrong. Suggest any of these things, and you offend a lot of people these days. You are suddenly intolerant, close-minded, judgmental, an enemy to modern society. You become an object of ridicule by the three opinion-molders of today—education, film & tv entertainment, and the media.
d.
The reality of tolerance: “God knew that there were many people, even within
His family of faith, who lose their moral bearings after being exposed to sin
over a period of time. Then what happens next is what Scripture calls, “playing
the harlot and chasing after other gods.” Our society calls that tolerance.
But what it really is is a gradual erosion of spiritual principles.” (“Sorting through Life’s
Alternatives” by Steven Chapman)
e. So as Christians, we must make our stand. Do we confess our sin (and thus our need for a savior), or do we give in to popular pressure? We can’t sit on the fence on this issue. At one time, it was the popular position (at least in Western Society) to be a Christian, or at least to identify with Christianity. That’s changing. Yet we have this text staring back at us: “If we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.” (v. 10) God says we’ve sinned, and He is the Truth. He’s God almighty! There ain’t no arguing with Him, folks!
2. Jesus didn’t come just to provide an example for us or to tell us we’re not so bad after all (as some claim).
a. He came to seek and save the lost.
b. One fallacious Easter sermon that was really preached: Jesus message from the Cross was, “I’m okay, you’re okay.” NO!!
3. The only way to achieve salvation is to admit to your sin problem and recognize that you need a savior. It helps to understand that we were made by God, and that sin is rebellion against our maker. Salvation puts us back into relationship with God.
4. Pascal’s “God-shaped piece” – the part of our hearts that is empty and can only be filled by God.
D. Affects the way we do evangelism.
1. Too many well-intentioned Believers fail to help non-Believers come to understand this; they just throw out slogans like, “you need to be saved,” “you need Jesus,” and even terms like heaven and hell.
2. We have to recognize that our society doesn’t even understand these statements and terms. We need to bring people to the point where they understand the full implications of the sin problem before the idea of a savior makes sense.
3. It would be pretty hard to convince people to go see a cancer specialist if they were certain they didn’t have cancer. It seems to be even harder to convince people that they are terminal with spiritual cancer, but until we do, they’re not interested in The Great Physician.
Conclusion:
· God calls us to live in fellowship with Him.
·
Fellowship with God—and with
other believers—is possible because of Jesus Christ.
· God is light. Light is truth. We must walk in the light in order to have fellowship with Him.
· Forgiveness comes through confessing our sins.
· Are you in fellowship with God and with other Believers? If you aren’t, do you want to be?