This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

(upbeat music) - Welcome back for day three of week five of our look through the
New Testament. This day we're going to look at first, second, and third John. So I
have to begin with an apology 'cause I promised you a book a day and we're doing
three books today.

But if you just do the math, you realize there's 27 books in the New Testament.
We're doing 25 days over five weeks of this. And so I thought, these three books
fit together pretty well.

And second and third John are only one chapter books. So we're going to look at
those three books together today. And before talking about who wrote this book,
I want to talk about why it was written.

John says that he wrote throughout first John for five reasons. First, that you
might have fellowship with one another, chapter one, verse three. Second, that
your joy might be complete, chapter one, verse four.

He wrote chapter two, verse one, that you might not sin. In chapter two, verse
26, he says that you might be on your guard against error. And in chapter five,
verse 13, he says he writes that you might know that you have eternal life.

I want all those things. This is a wonderful book to read. I want to have
fellowship.

I want a joy that's complete. I don't want to sin. I want to be on guard against
error.

I want to know that I have eternal life. First John helps us in all those areas of
life. The major purpose of first John, well, John's gospel is written by the
apostle John also.

The major purpose of John's gospel is belief. John 20, 31 says that you might
believe. The major purpose of John's letter, first John, is assurance that you
might know that you believe in love, that you might love one another.

First John, chapter five, verse 13 says, I write these things to you who believe
in the name of the Son of God so that you might know you have eternal life, the
purpose of assurance. And first John four, seven, dear friends, let us love one
another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and
knows God.

We know, assurance, that phrase we know is used 36 times in first John. And we
love, the word love is used 36 times in the book of first John. So those are the
two major things that John talks to us about.

Now, when he talks about love, love is not a matter of feeling for John. It's a
matter of obedience. It's a matter of God loves us, and so we're able to love
others.

So with that in mind, what the book is all about, let me tell you a little bit
about John, the man through whom the Spirit inspired these letters. John was a
disciple. We know from his gospel that he was the disciple whom Jesus loved,
follower of Jesus Christ.

When he wrote this book, John was an older man, probably the only surviving
apostle by this time. And now what had happened to John between the end of
Jesus's life and now? Well, we know that he had taken care of Jesus's mother for
a time.

Jesus told him to at the cross and history tells us that he did. We know that he
was involved in the rapid expansion of the church. We know that he had an
extensive ministry to the churches of Ephesus and the Lycus Valley.

He was in prison probably after first John was written on Patmos, and it was
probably after first John was written that he recorded the revelation, one of
the books we're going to look at this week. John was an eyewitness. He wrote
authoritatively to give a new generation of believers confidence in their faith
'cause he'd seen, he'd walked with Jesus.

John was a pastor. Again and again you see in the books of first, second, and
third John that his motivation for writing was his concern for God's children.
John wrote the gospel of John and these three letters and the revelation, so he
wrote 20% of the New Testament.

He was used of God in that way. And this letter written probably 85 to 90 AD
from Ephesus, the problem he writes to confront is not persecution by the world,
but compromise with the world. He was writing to a group of people who were
struggling with trying to make Christianity intellectually respectable.

The problem was not people that were trying to destroy the faith, but people who
were trying to improve the faith. Let's just make it a little bit better. Let's
make it a little bit more acceptable.

Let's take a little bit of this sting out of it. And Satan was very quickly
discovering this to be a better strategy for keeping the church at bay because
the church was growing so quickly. So John writes to say, here's the truth about
who we are, the choice that we make when we come to know Jesus Christ.

And he puts it in terms throughout the book of seven contrasts. In a time when
the church was being tempted to compromise, John writes to let them know that
Christianity is a sharply defined faith. I mean, can you imagine Jesus, somebody
asked Jesus a question and Jesus says, well, you know, that's really a gray
area.

We don't really know about that one. Of course Jesus wouldn't say that because
he knew the truth about life. And so John is writing to say, when you choose to
follow Jesus Christ, you're choosing to follow the truth.

And that makes you choose to not follow the lie. In many ways, as a follower of
Jesus Christ, you are living a life of contrasts. And John talks about those in
this book.

Those seven contrasts he talks about, the first is light versus darkness. 1 John
1. 5, this is the message we have heard from him and declare to you, God is
light.

And in him, there's no darkness at all. So as a follower of Jesus Christ, you
have to be comfortable with the fact that you are living in the light. Now, not
prideful about it, but also not feeling guilty about it, like there's something
wrong with me that I'm different.

No, you're living in the light in a dark world. Why is it that people act the
way that they do towards you? Why is it that people respond the way that they do
toward a simple faith decision that you made in your life?

Because they're living in darkness, just as you were before you came to know
Jesus Christ. That's the contrast that we live in. He also says there's a second
contrast, God the Father versus the world.

1 John 2. 15, don't love the world or anything that's in the world. If anyone
loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

So I'm living this life of contrasts where I can't love both. I cannot love,
when he talks about the world here, he's not talking about a beautiful flower or
everything that God created in this world. This is the word that's used to mean
the system of this world.

And in one word, I'd call it selfishness. That's the system of this world. I
call it living for myself.

It's the lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh and the pride of life. If
you love those things, you can't love God. And if you love God, you can't love
those things.

He's saying it's pretty clear. So don't try to fool yourself to think you can do
both. Sometimes we are fooled into that by false teaching.

We try to make Christianity intellectually respectable. We try to make it okay
with everybody. It's not going to be okay with everybody because it's a clear
choice.

The next clear choice is very clear. He says you're making a choice between
Christ or antichrist. Now that's a word to get your interest, the antichrist.

John talks about it in 1 John, chapter two, verse 22 to 23. He says, "Who is the
liar? "It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ.

"Such a man is the antichrist. "He denies the Father and the Son. "No one who
denies the Son and the Father.

" Excuse me, let me read those verses again. "Who is the liar? "It is the man
who denies that Jesus is the Christ.

"Such a man is the antichrist. "He denies the Father and the Son. "No one who
denies the Son has the Father.

Whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also. So again, you see, he's giving
this clear contrast. And he says there's antichrists, people who speak against
God.

Now I know the book of Revelation talks about an antichrist that's coming at the
end of time. But John, in his letter, says there are many antichrists. They're
already with us.

They're the people who speak against what Christ wants to do in people's lives.
Maybe you were at one time an antichrist. You spoke against what God wanted to
do in your life and in other people's lives.

When you see this clear contrast, you begin to see the reality of the life we
get to live because of who God is and what God's done in our lives. The next
contrast he talks about is right works versus evil works. We've got a choice, he
says, one or the other, chapter 2, 29 to 3, 24.

And then he talks in chapter 4, verse 1 through 4, 6, about the Spirit, the
Spirit of God versus the spirits, the evil spirits of this world. He says you've
got a clear choice. Who are you going to follow?

In chapter 4, 7 to 21, maybe the most compelling contrast he draws is between
love and pretense. First John 4, 19 to 20, we love because he first loved us. If
anyone says I love God and yet hates his brother, he is a liar.

For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God,
whom he has not seen. John is just saying, it's very clear here. If you say you
love God but you don't love people, something's dramatically wrong.

And he doesn't pull any punches here. He says you can't love God if you don't
love people. It's just that clear.

It's just that simple. He's clear about the choice. He's clear about the
contrast.

He's not going to allow someone to come in and say, well, it's okay if you don't
really love people as long as you really love God. He says what? If you love
God, God made people, of course you're going to love the people that he made.

And then the most striking contrast is in the last one, chapter 5, verses 1 to
21. He talks about the contrast between life or no life. First John 5, 12, he
who has the son has life.

He who does not have the son of God does not have life. It's such a clear book.
And he goes on in 2 John and 3 John to continue this story about the contrast,
the clarity of our faith.

2 John, the main message of that book is how to balance truth and love. It's
interesting. This book is written to the elect lady.

It's written to a woman and her children. Some people think the elect lady is
the church. Some people think it's the setting of a home, a family.

If that's true, it's the only book in the Bible that's addressed to a woman. And
he talks about balancing truth and love. To balance truth and love, you have to
walk in truth, verses 1 to 6.

You have to guard the truth, verses 7 to 13. You hear it at John's pastor's
heart in verse 4. It has given me great joy to find some of your children
walking in the truth, just as the Father commanded us.

And then 3 John, continuing this contrast, is the contrast of good versus evil.
But as John in 3 John talks about good versus evil, he doesn't talk about the
philosophy of good and evil. He talks about our actions.

It's one thing to discuss good and evil. It's another thing to ask for God's
power to choose to do good instead of doing evil. And that's where John lands.

3 John, verse 11, "Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good.
Anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not
seen God.

" And in this letter, 3 John, he gives a list of people, some of them to
imitate, some of them not to imitate. So these three books, 1 John, 2 John, 3
John, are about the clarity of our faith. We live in a world of contrasts.

And I want to live on the side where God says I'm going to find life. I want to
live on the side where God says I'm going to find light. I want to live on the
side where God says I'm going to find Christ.

Let's pray for that together. Jesus, help us not to be drawn into this feeling
that it's not clear, that somehow we can't really know. John reminds us that we
can know, that we can know that we know you because we've trusted you, Jesus,
that we can see that we know you because you've given us a love for other
people, that you've brought light into our lives instead of darkness.

Lord, we live in a dark world and there's confusion all around us and sometimes
we get confused. I pray that the truth of your word would just clear the fog of
that confusion right now. And in its place, put this sense of confidence, this
assurance that we know you because of your love and we can live in that love
today.

I pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Tomorrow we look at the book of Jude, How to
Fight for What is Right.