Looks exactly like the book of John as far as writing style.
So we're just going to go with it to book.
It was written by the apostle John because that's what all the
all the evidence really points to.
So that is my I don't know. I whenever I get to the point
where I'm reading it and I'm listening and I'm reading,
reading the scholars talk about, well, there was a guy that was
around called Elder John. And maybe he did Hey guys, or it
was just John. Let's just, you know, let's just
say that. So anyway, they, they sometimes
they can frustrate me, but I did look into it and it's, and we'll
get into that as far as just the similarities between this and
the book of John. So we'll just go through and
read it real quick. Verse one.
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard,
which we have seen with our eyes, which we have handled
concerning the word of life. The life was manifest, and we
have seen and bear witness and declare it to you, that eternal
life which was with the Father, and was manifest to us.
That which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that
you also may have fellowship with us, and truly our
fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.
And these things we write to you, that your joy may be full.
This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare
to you that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.
If we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in
darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.
But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have
fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His
Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we
have deceived ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us
our sins and declare us our sorry, to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness. If we say that we have not
sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in US and Lord
just just be with us and speak to us here tonight.
I pray all this in Jesus name, Amen.
So John was with was with Jesus from the very beginning in
Matthew 48. Sorry, 4/18.
It actually talks about starting in verse 18 and Jesus walking by
the Sea of Galilee saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and
Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were
fishermen. And then he said to them, follow
me and I will make you fishers of men.
They immediately left their Nets and followed him.
Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James, the son
of Zebony and John, his brother in a boat with Zebedee, their
father mending their Nets. He called them and immediately
they left the boat and their father and followed him.
So he was he was one of the the first right he was He's with
with Jesus from the very beginning.
And the the fun thing with that is John first hand knowledge.
John got to see things like Jesus changing water into law,
into wine, feeding thousands of people with with a few bread and
some few few fish and some bread, healing the blind,
healing the death, curing the sick, the injured and the
infirmed. He he cast out evil spirits.
He walked on water. He calmed storms.
He he raised people from the dead, not not just not just one
or two, but himself as well. Right.
And, and for John at this point, the, the, the other thing that
John can testify that that there's power in Jesus is that
at this point, church history would say that he'd they tried
to boil him in oil and he didn't die.
So he has he has a testimony, right.
And that's something as we go through this guy's that that we
need to share with people. I can I can get into the word
and I can tell you all the things that Jesus did and what
it says here, but what's he done to me, right?
What's how's he affected my life and and he has completely
changed my life. John goes on in I have my tabs
right in John 21 verse 24. John says it like this and, and
really my life and I would imagine your life if you've been
a believer for very long, I could I could write this
starting in verse 24. It says this is in chapter 21 of
John, verse 24. This is the disciple who
testifies of these things and wrote these things.
And we know that his testimony is true.
And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which if
they were written 1 by 1, I suppose that even the world
itself could not contain the books that would be written.
Amen. And that's, that's Jesus in my
life, right? When I go through it's, it's
not, it's not all that it's not all the big things every day.
It's it's or it's not the big things every once in a while.
It's the little things every day, all day long, right, That I
just get to see Jesus working in my life.
And that's that's John here. This is he goes on.
You know, the beginning here is that which was from the
beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our
eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands have handled
concerning the word of life. So he ties it back to to his his
Gospel right, which is he ties it back with the word with the
beginning and the word and John 11 says in the beginning was the
word and the word was with God and the word was God.
He was in the beginning with God.
All things that were made through him.
All things were made through him and without him nothing was
made. And the importance of that
statement at John's time, this is this book was written between
80 and 90 AD They they figure which is and Jesus was crucified
between 30 and 36 ADS. So this was between 50 and 60
years after Jesus died and what's the importance of that or
after he rose from the dead. The importance of that is 50 and
60 years. There is no John's telling them
things that they can check out, right?
I, I look at it, I'm reading a book right now that was written
by an English guy, but it's about Abraham Lincoln's life.
And it's, he, the, the book was put into print in 1917.
And the nice thing about a book from 1917 about Abraham Lincoln
is that, that he didn't have an axe to grind.
I mean, it helps that he's from England, so he didn't have a
left or right axe to grind. But you just get a read about
the good and the bad in Lincoln's life and not from a
not from a skewed position, right?
And because, but he had to write it that way because there were
people that were alive that could check his facts.
I was going to, I didn't have time today, but I was going to
see how many of his contemporaries were still alive
when the book was written because the the guy calls out
all kinds of people, right? And the and calls him out good
and bad. And if he was lying, they, they
could have called him on that. Well, that's, that's John here,
right? Being being this close, John is
going to say things that are like, and you can check this
out, right? You can you, you are able to
because we live in it. We're it's at such a time in
history that this stuff is still in people's minds, right where
he says that others had sought have seen right.
Verse two goes on and says the life was manifest and we have
seen and bear witness and declare it to you that eternal
life which was with the Father and was manifested to us and
that manifested word there is just revealed what is hidden
right And John is actually in a battle in the the reason he's
writing this letter. The reason that he actually
wrote the the gospel when he wrote it and wrote the letter
later on is there are Gnostics which are just false teachers
out there teaching things like Jesus was a was he was only
spirit and not man, or that he was only man and not, not God.
And either one of those makes Jesus of no, no importance,
right? And what I mean by that if Jesus
was only God and not man, then he couldn't have died for my
sins because he didn't he, he didn't put on humanity to be
able to do that. And if he was only and if he was
only man and not God, then his death could have only he could
have. Even if he was perfect, his
death could have only saved one person.
So that's it. It's very important, right?
But what happens, and this is when I, you know, I pick on the
fuzzy thinker people. What happens is, and it's been
happening since the 1st century. They're trying to put the
Trinity into a box. And I have, I've heard the, the
Father, Son and the Holy Spirit are all God and there's only one
God. And I've heard that explained
many different ways and anybody that is good at explaining it
will start off with this illustration will break down.
It's not I can't, you know, I have, I have my, I have my body,
soul and mind, right. So that's someone guy with a
body, soul and mind. An egg has a shell, a white and
a yolk. You know, any of that stuff.
But the problem with us trying to explain the Trinity from our
position is the same thing as trying to explain to A2
dimensional being what 3 dimensions is.
And if you, if you think about that on A2 dimens a ball to to
A2 dimensional, how do you draw a ball?
It's a line. And if it bounces, it's a line
that gets shorter and gets taller, but it's a ball.
It's round. And how do you explain to A2
dimensional any but anything what round is because nothing in
their world is round. And so it's that that kind of
understand that there are things that are absolutely true and not
contradictory in the Bible that are beyond our ability to
actually grasp our head around it.
And and people can get offended by that.
But I will also say that the same thing it can be said about
the universe, right? I, I was listening to, I can't
remember the guy's name, but he's a astrophysicist guy that
says, so if you get to the edge of the universe and you throw a
spear and it goes through the through the edge of the
universe, that means there's something on the other side.
And if you get to the edge of the universe and you throw a
spear and it hits a wall, that means there's something on the
other side, right? So the universe goes on and on
and on, right? And we can't understand
eternity, You know, when you look at Jesus, and this is
what's important on this from the beginning and the eternal
life is Jesus was from the beginning.
He was, he was, he goes as far that way as he does that way,
right? He is he is he has always been
he's he was born as a baby about 2000 years ago, but Jesus has
always been and Jesus and and the thing with Jesus didn't
didn't mince words with this right.
John 539 says you search the scriptures for in them you think
you have eternal life and these are they which testify me, but
you are not willing to come to me that you may have life.
So this is him talking to the Pharisees, the religious leaders
that were thought they were the holiest man in the room, right?
And he is telling them that you search the scriptures and the
scriptures speak of me and then in and then if that wasn't like
clear enough for him 14-6 said Jesus says to him, and this is
him talking to Thomas actually, but I am the way the truth and
the life. No one comes to the Father
except through me. So when what this comes down to
and, and what John is explaining and, and Jesus cannot be a good
man, he unless he was God and the light of the world.
Jesus is either who he said he was or he isn't anything right.
And I'm sure that you guys have heard that he is either a liar,
a lunatic, or God because he either knew that he wasn't God
and lied about it. That makes him a liar.
He thought he was God. That makes him a lunatic or he
was God. Well, on the third day when he
rose again, he proved he was God, right?
I mean, he healed people, He did many miracles, but on the third
day when he rose again, he proved he was God and had power
over over the grave, right, John?
First, John 1/3 says that which we have seen and heard, we
declare to you that you also may have fellowship with us.
And truly our fellowship is with the Father, with his Son Jesus
Christ. And these things rewrite to you
that your joy may be full. And this is John not just
wanting to make it clear to them all that Jesus has done, but
and, and the other apostles and all of that, that it was true
and could be trusted, but more that it was truth.
These truths were a source of joy, right?
They're not just, they're not just facts on a page.
This is this is joy. If Jesus came and rose again on
the third day and and forgives me for my sin, I have eternity
with him. This is a joy, no matter how bad
my life sucks, right? Embracing the suck is the thing
I talk about, but it's that's what we get to embrace.
I was, this isn't in my notes, but I was listening to, I'm
doing one of my classes and the pastor was talking about at the
Passover meal, the the lamb was slain and his blood was put in a
bowl and then the family had the blood in the bowl.
So in the house, there was a there was a sacrificed lamb,
there was blood in a bowl. But until they took that blood
and applied it to the doorposts, they weren't covered.
So it's important for us to apply that right, to apply that
to our lives. One of the fun things about the
the doorposts and I'll it's there's only a few of us here.
I'll ruin it for us in the when we're in Exodus when we get to
Passover. So how long has the cross been
in existence? Right.
The Romans came up with crucifixion, but Passover lamb
3500 years ago, God told them to put the blood on the on the
Mantel and on the doorpost. And if you take it, take some
hyssop and you put it in a bowl. Or you put blood in the bowl and
you take some hyssop and you put it in the bowl and then you put
it on the you put it on the Mantel and then you put it on
both doorposts. What did you just do right out
of blood and tell me that ain't just cool, right?
I mean, that's, that's Jesus being being there then, right
They were that, that blood dripping from the from the
doorpost down and then on both door.
This is this is the cross before it was even a thing, right.
So just a just one of those fun pictures that I mean, we know
the Passover lamb is a picture of Jesus, but that is just a
like direct connection. Verse 5.
This is the message which we have heard from him and declared
to you that God is light and in him is no darkness.
And Jesus said he's the light of the world.
And Jesus is reminded or John is reminding us of Jesus's words,
right? John 812 says, then Jesus spoke
to them again saying, I am the light of the world.
He who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light
of life. And I, I talk about it a lot,
but being in Christ, right, it's raining outside right now.
And if, if I knocked out those windows, we would be affected by
that rain, right? If I, if, if I walked outside,
I'm no longer in the building and now I'm getting wet.
And the idea being in Christ is we are in Christ.
We're in his light, but he is not he is not a slave.
He is not a forceful parent, right?
He he allows us free will and will allow us free will until
the day we come to see him. And that means that I'm in
Christ, but I can reach out of him.
And Nehemiah, they, it, it's like breeches in the wall.
And when I, when, when I starting breaking windows out of
this building or knocking holes in the walls, suddenly this
building is a whole lot harder to keep warm, right?
I'm, I'm, I'm a lot more affected by the outside world.
So the importance of walking in his light, being in him and and
having that be our focus on a, on a daily moment to moment
basis, right. John 16 says if we say that we
have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do
not practice the truth. And this is this lie that he's
talking about is like I talked about on Sunday is about our
where is our heart? Are we are we in it for what I
can get or what he's already done and do I think that at any
point I deserve to be in Christ and that I mean the Pharisees
and we'll get into that at the end of this that you know, they
got it in their head that they had something to offer.
And the moment we start doing that, we are, we are reckoning,
we are we are thinking that I mean, my sin at that point is my
pride that I'm the one doing this and being when it says
walking in darkness, that's practicing sin, right?
That's that is that is when I I wish I could remember what I
said being Faye were talking about something years ago.
And I said something to the extent of never think that God
is okaying your excuse to sin, right?
It's I have anger issues. So it's OK that I yell and
scream at people, you know, and doesn't mean it doesn't mean
that I, that I never, I never sin.
When I sin, do I say God's OK with it?
I mean, that's, that's that walking in darkness.
When I say it's OK, it's how I'm made.
That's that's when, that's when you're, when you're walking in
darkness. You have chose, you have chose
to say, I know I'm sinning and God isn't happy with this, but
he's OK with it and I'll just keep doing it.
You know, and that's, you know, say somebody those, those I've
never had this problem, nor do I plan on ever having this
problem. But I always wonder about a, a
man that gets into an adulterous affair.
So he's going to church and he ends up sleeping around.
How does he think that's going to end?
I mean, there is no, there is no, there's no way out of that.
You, God's not going to allow you to continue.
There's going to be some grace and some time for you to repent
and, and, but you're going to have to repent, which means
you're going to have to come clean.
And if not, that's going to walk you off a short pier.
Sooner or later, you're light's going to happen, right?
Everybody's going to know. And that goes for all.
I mean, so that's a big sin that that I can I can use here.
But that goes for all of our sin, right?
If God's talking to us about about sin in your life, that's
something that you need to take serious and say, Lord, I want
that. I want what you want in my life,
right? I understand that I'm not where
you want me to be and I want to be where you want me to be.
So change me, right? He gives us that grace, but this
is how we're to do this. Romans 611 Likewise you also
reckon, reckon yourselves to be dead, indeed to sin, but alive
to God in Christ Jesus our Lord. So being in him in that position
is how we we reckon ourselves dead, right?
If I got up here as a dead guy, I wouldn't have any nerves at
all, right? I mean, you could set me up on
stage in front of 1,000,000 people and I'm not going to
sweat at all because I'm dead, right?
So dead people don't don't sin because they don't gratify the
flesh because they're dead. I always John Malkovich in Reds
too. I think John or Bruce Willis
takes a needle out of his lapel and shoves it into his hand.
John Malkovich ends up being alive, but he he takes that like
a like he's dead. And that's literally how if
we're dead, if we're dead to our flesh, that's our response to
things is just it is no, it's nothing to us, but our flesh is
definitely something that needs to be killed daily and sometimes
hourly, right. Six Romans 618 says, and have
you have been and have been set free from sin, you became slaves
of righteousness, which is go back to verse 16.
Do you not know that to whom you present yourself slaves to obey,
you are that one slave whom you obey, whether sin leading to
death or obedience leading to righteousness?
And that when we trust and rely on Christ as our Lord and King,
right? That trusting and relying on
Christ, imagine being in the room with your King and he asked
you to do something and you say, I'll think about it, that that's
not going to go well, right? That's when we gave our lives to
Jesus. That's what you're agreeing to,
right? You're agreeing to he is in
charge of my life and not he is in charge of my life where I
feel like letting him have charge of it.
It's my answer to him when he asked me a question is already
yes, it was yes before he asked it.
There's the that scene where you don't want to be a Peter on a
roof when God lowers down a blanket and says kill and eat
and Peter says not so Lord. So that is like an oxymoron.
Saying no and Lord at the same time it is an impossibility is
if he is your Lord, the answer is yes or OK, but it can't be
refusal because at that point he's not your Lord.
Verse 7 But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we
have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus Christ
his Son cleanses us from all sin.
And that's that's the thing guys.
When I when I knock out a window and I decide I'm going to step
outside, it is exactly 1 turn to come back in and he seals the
window up. But it takes repentance, which
is just turning around and calling sin what it's what it
is, right? Confessing my sin and that
doesn't, unfortunately, I tell people this as a on a regular
basis. Unfortunately, when we confess
our sins to Christ, He does forgive us our sins.
We are forgiven 100% at that moment.
You may have some worldly consequences to pay, right?
That that is that that doesn't go away just because he's, he
forgave you, right? If you stole money, you're going
to need to return it. If you, if you hurt people,
you're you're going to have to pay for that, right?
That's that is, there are still worldly consequences, but you
are forgiven when you ask to be forgiven.
It's not and it isn't a it isn't.
Well, then I can do whatever I want to and then ask to be
forgiven. That's not, that's not walking
in the light, right? That's that is that is never
getting the windows back in the building.
That's that's running around outside of the building.
And then to remember, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive
ourselves and the truth is not in US guys, we're going to fail.
And that's we just are. And that is because there of our
of our nature, right a dirt, dirt is not real smart.
We are are are starting in in just that.
I kind of laughed when I when I quit chewing and got to the end
of myself and finally gave up and said, Lord, I can't.
And he, he took it away and I had no more, no more cravings at
all. You would think that I I learned
that lesson and I would only have to learn that lesson once.
And every time I have something, some sin in my life that he's
asking me to do, I'm fighting it with all I got until I get to
the end of myself and say Lord, I can't.
And he goes, I know that's why I'm here.
That's the whole but you would think that I would learn that
and just give up, but I don't So remembering that right, John 19
says if if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to
forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
So he is that big. Now the the in Psalms 103 verse
12 it says and as far as the East is from the West.
So far has he removed our transgressions from us and and
I'm sure we've many of us have heard that, but what?
And I I've shared this here before a while back, but did you
know Jesus did not die for my sin.
He died for me and I came with sin.
And how I explain this in Uganda is so that JB has big long
trucks and some of them haul, some of them haul people, some
of them haul material, some of them haul garbage.
And JBJB buys a garbage truck and gets a good deal on it.
And he comes home and unloading all the garbage and burning it
and cleaning the truck and scrubbing it and collecting the
water and gets everything clean. And he actually didn't burn in
the garbage yet. He's got it piled up.
And, and then Mama piece, his wife gets home and the truck's
out front, but he wants, he takes her in the back and shows
her all this garbage he bought and how much he paid for it.
She'd look at him like he's stupid because he didn't.
He didn't buy the garbage, He bought the truck.
Jesus didn't buy our sin. He paid for it, but he bought us
and that's that's the thing guys is that he he is more than
willing to throw our sin as far as the East is from the West to
have a relationship with us right to have a relationship
with me. He is John.
John here is talking about keeping short accounts, right?
Is is it is way easier to say I'm sorry, right?
I mean, and, and turn around right when the mistake happens
than it is to keep going down that path and then thinking
that. And and he's not like us because
we think the farther away from him, the farther down this path
that I go, the farther away from him I am and the the more mad
he's going to be in the, the more in trouble I am.
And none of that is true. It is always one turn, but we
our flesh, our heart does not want to make that turn the
farther down the road we get. 19 quit drinking on 92931994 whole
lot of I had a bunch of court stuff I had to do in Alaska and
my dad lived in Alaska and I moved.
I went up there for I was there for three months getting getting
all this a bunch of stuff I did right after I graduated high
school taken care of and was up there for three months.
My, I got a little brother that's 10 years younger than me
and a stepbrother that's 7-8 years younger than me.
And I stayed at their house and did all the things.
And then I got on my then three months later and me and my dad
did not have the best relationship, but lived with him
for three months. And then I got on the plane to
fly home to tri-cities. And when the plane landed, I
forgot to call my dad this back way before like everybody had a
cell phone. Then I forgot to call my dad.
I'll get to it. And then a week went by and now
he's just going to complain at me.
So 2 weeks went by, 2 1/2 years went by before I talked to my
dad because he it, it just was life.
I mean, I'm not defending that in any way shape or form.
But that was the, the first few times I didn't call him was
because I forgot. But then it was I didn't want to
hear it. And that was he.
And I wasn't mad. I mean, it was lit.
Everybody thinks I was mad at him.
I wasn't mad at him. There was.
I just, I just didn't. Jesus is not like my dad.
But we very often act like I did right, that I don't want to do
that. I don't want to just turn
around. I don't want to just pick up the
phone because I'm going to have to hear it.
You're not going to have to hear it.
He's going to say, he's going to say, put a robe on him.
He's going to love you, right? But it has to be a sincere from
you between you and him, right? It has to be straightforward.
And it's an, it's a we Jesus doesn't play games.
We play games. The world plays games.
There's lots of manipulations and lots of, lots of ways to get
things accomplished. Jesus wants your heart and there
is no amount of acting like he has it that will give it to him.
Not a there is no religious game or checking boxes.
You know, coming on a Wednesday night or coming on a Friday
night or coming on a Sunday night, coming every day of the
week, all the days of work, the the church is open.
You are getting zero credit unless you're doing it because
you want to know him more right? It it isn't about you know, my,
my girls when they first moved out of the house were looking
for different churches and stuff as they moved away and they
well, I just haven't I'm like, girl, church is not God does not
sit up in heaven with a check box and going well, you didn't
make it to church on Sunday. That's a demerit going to have
some detention to do this. The point of this, the point of
a Sunday morning, the point of a Wednesday night, the point of it
is for the body to gather together and build each other
up. And so it's a time that we get
to care for one another. Galatians 6-7 says do not be
deceived. God is not mocked for whatever
man sows that he will also reap, for he who sows to the flesh
will reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will reap
everlasting life. And that's that's it, right?
That is our John is just saying guys don't don't think that this
is a game to be played and that you need to look a certain way
and you need to act a certain way or you don't need to look a
certain way or you don't need to act a certain way.
You and Jesus need to meet and he's got joy unspeakable to pour
into your life, but that's you and him.
I I talk every week about the get TOS of being a Christian and
really that's John here just saying the same thing.
Be in the light, right? Being in the light is a get to
if we are in Christ, we are in pure light and there is no
darkness, right. When I'm hanging out with him,
when I'm when I'm reading my Bible and I'm, I don't read my
Bible because I need to. I need to read 4 chapters today
or I need to read 3 verses today.
I want to spend time with him. I, I talk about the Bible about
if my grandfather had wrote a book all about him and his
friends specifically so that I would know him better.
And then when he died, somebody came up and handed it to me and
said, you're so Grandpa D wrote this for you.
Would I read it? Absolutely right.
That's what this is. That's why we, that's why we
read the Bible is to know him more.
And this is, this is the, the Pharisee.
And these are the two different people in the world, right?
There's, there's actually, there's, there's more, but these
are the two people a lot of times in a church building
starting at Luke 18. Also, he spoke this parable to
some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and
despised others. Two men went up to the temple to
pray. 1A Pharisee and the other tax collector.
The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself.
God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners,
unjust adulterers or even this tax collector.
I fast twice a week. I give ties of all I possess.
And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as
raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, God be
merciful to me, a Sinner. I tell you, this man went down
to his house justified rather than the other.
For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who
humbles himself will be exalted. And we want to be the tax
collector, humble of our of our outside worth.
His saving grace is, is all that matters, right?
In his grace, we are more than conquerors.
And that's The thing is that as I, as I say that that we need to
be humble, but know that that in that, in that humble, I'm humble
because I know who I serve. And you know, Romans 837 says,
yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through him
who loved us. And that's when we're in Christ.
I can be humble because he's already 1.
I don't, I don't have to, I don't have to show up and tell
everybody how big a deal I am. I don't have to act like a
Christian. I just get to be 1.
I just get to hang out with my God and and learn about him and
enjoy him. And last, the only thing we
bring to salvation is our need for it, right?
So Lord, I just lift up this time and I lift up everybody
here and thank you for a beautiful Wednesday night and
even with the rain out there. And I just thank you for this
time. And you'd be with us all as
we're driving home. Keep everybody safe.
I pray this all in Jesus name, Amen.