The Resurrected Life - A Series in 1 John - Sermon notes and outline The struggle of Easter is that we have this season marked by just a day. The day ends. We go home. Everything turns back to normal. But that is not the way of Easter in the church. In the life of the Christian. In you. For if Christ has died. If Christ has risen. If the cross killed your sin, and the tomb lays barren now because death has been overcome by Jesus for you, then Easter Sunday is more than a day. It means more than a good meal and family. It means something has happened to you. In you. For you. Because of Jesus. Not just in one day either, but the course of your life. In fact in the church Easter lasts 50 days. 50 days of Peeps and dyed eggs. So, for the course of Easter Sundays, we are going to be spending our time hearing the word of God spoken to us by John in his first letter. 1 John is one of those books you go to better understand what the cross and empty tomb have to do with the Christian Monday-Saturday. It was a letter that history attests to as being written by the Apostle John. This same Apostle who was one of Jesus closest disciples. A man who calls himself “the disciple whom Jesus loved” in his Gospel account.
By the time the letter is written, John is living in Ephesus. He appears to be an overseer of a large number of churches. A multi-site pastor. Historians suppose that this letter was written to a collection of churches in what is modern day Turkey, and it was written most certainly in defense of the cross, of the incarnation, of God coming to us as Jesus to redeem us from sin and death. At the time, there was this teaching creeping in among the early church called “adoptionism” that stated that God did not come to earth as Jesus, but Jesus was just a dude. The son of Mary and Joseph. When he was baptized the Spirit descended on him and God adopted him as a son of God. When the crucifixion came, the Spirit left him so that God would not suffer or die, because that would just be crazy. So John, as an elderly leader in the church comes as a pastor, as a spiritual father in order to preach the truth of the cross, the crucified God. Because if there is no Son of God, there is no Christ, no suffering that can take away sin, no suffering God, no need for resurrection because our sins would still exist. John first brings this authority as apostle – beginning, heard, seen, observed and touched – the Word of life. Having seen the Word Himself. Able to tell them of the glory of God incarnate for salvation This great chain here of God’s Word
God’s sermon in the flesh to you I was there, I spoke with him Pastoral Guidance – to declare it (the message), not for the sake of it, but for your sake.
Purpose for John and for your pastor – in order that… vs 1:3-4 Koinonia – fellowship, communion, partnership…but more than that.
“With us”? –
Kara – joy, gladness, object of joy –
“Our”?
Do you have joy in this? –
The joy of fellowship – to see the light
Dichotomy - Light – truth, see the way, the road
Darkness – hide, abandoned, stumbling, secrets
But the light is where the blood of Jesus is
Purpose of the light – True enlightenment. If we say we have no sin… v8-10
The life of the Christian revolves around this cross of Jesus
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January 2021
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