Good morning. It's a beautiful day to see every one of you here. We're so thankful for that gospel meeting we had last week. I tell you that was some powerful lessons and it's hard to stand up here and preach after that. But I'll do my best, the best I can. In our text we're gonna be looking today at in First John chapter one and we're gonna cover into part of chapter two.
The concept of this passage and one of the key themes of the book of First John is fellowship. Just in the first seven verses, you see that word fellowship used four times. There are other terms throughout the book of First John that are somewhat synonymous with being in fellowship or the idea of fellowship.
What is Fellowship?
- John 1:1-2:3
"Fellowship is a relation between individuals, which involves a common interest and a mutual active participation in that interest and in each other." — Word Studies in the Newt Testament by M. R. Vincent
Think about this concept. You know, when we are in fellowship with one another, we are actively seeking one another's best will. We're actively working with and for one another when we are in that fellowship relationship with God. We are working with Him and God is working with us and through us, and so we are working together. We have that joint participation, we have that common interest in the work of the church, and in our work, our shared work, but also in each other.
We're promoting in our life that we are in fellowship with God. We are promoting His interests. We are seeking after what is best for God. And likewise He to us when we are in fellowship with Him. So this is an important concept and sometimes I think as we look at this text, there's a lot's been said over this particular text.
Uh, there's a lot that goes back and forth from one belief to another. Uh, you know, a lot of people say,
Well, boy, you know, this so and so agrees with me, so therefore I take a lot of comfort that he agreed with me. Or others say, Well, you know, we agree and disagree with that, and others disagree, agree with us in that disagreement, and we take comfort in that.
Now, here's the deal though. Where do we find authority? Where do we find comfort? Where do we establish what the Bible says? A little hint. It's in the Bible. We look in the Bible, what does the Bible say? That's really all I'm interested in. I don't care what somebody else said or what somebody wrote in a book or what somebody else said about what somebody said or about what somebody wrote in a book.
Let's what? Look at what the Bible says. And so that's what we're gonna do today.
Fellowship, I think is something that is overlooked a lot in this passage. So we need fellowship with one another to go to help one another.
You think about Adam and Eve in the garden. What did they do with God in the cool of the evening? They walked with Him in a way that we will not understand and never be able to understand until we are in Heaven. And so they walk with Him on this earth in a way that we will never be able to. Why were they able to walk with God? Because they were innocent and without sin. Now, when sin, uh, broke that relat. Never again were they able to walk, uh, and enjoy the same sense of fellowship that they had with God before that. And so, uh, we too enjoy fellowship with God, uh, but uh, not in the same sense that Adam and Eve did in the garden. We won't get to experience that till we're in heaven.
But we too enjoy fellowship with God and with one another as we walk in the light. And so that's why I titled this sermon, Our Fellowship in the Light. And so, another synonymous term with being in fellowship with God found in the text, verse seven, walking in the light.
"If we walk in the light, then we are in fellowship one with another." — 1 John 1:7
We'll get on into verse seven in a few moments. But, the idea here is a synonymous idea. Walking in the light means being in fellowship with Him. And as we come down to chapter two and verse three talks about knowing God, "And hereby we do know that we know him, ..." Again, the idea of knowing God is to be in fellowship with God.
That's a, a phrase that's repeated throughout First John, the knowing. And so, the knowing is the idea of fellowship. Walking in the light is the idea of fellowship. Fellowship is our joint participation. And so, let's develop this idea in the scripture and bring it out.
I kind of divided up this, this text of verse one through four is the basis of our fellowship. Notice, he says "That which was heard was from the beginning, which we have heard..."
Theme of the text: Fellowship
- The Basis of our Fellowship. 1:1-4
- The Standard of our Fellowship. 1:5
- The Limitations of our Fellowship. 1:6, 8, 10
- The Terms of our Fellowship. 1:7, 9; 2:3
- The Means of our Fellowship. 2:1-2
The Basis of our Fellowship
Notice the use of the senses that John brings out, which we have heard. Which we have seen with our eyes. Which we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the word of life. One of the reasons John writes this book, uh, this letter, is to encourage Christians because there was this false teaching that was rampant in those days, that Jesus didn't really come in the flesh, that He wasn't really here.
And so John answers that says, I saw him, I touched him, I heard him, I put my hands on, and he was real. He says,
" (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;) That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full." — 1 John 1:2-4
What is the thing that allows us to be in fellowship with one another? It is our common belief in Jesus, our common belief in God. And so John is saying, you can have the same joy that I haveI, witnessed Him. I know He was real. I saw Him, I touched Him, and I ate with Him. I lived with Him, I know beyond a doubt that He is real, that Jesus is really the Son of God. He heard the voice on the mount when it was said, "This is my beloved son." He knew beyond a doubt, and he wants us to know, and that's why he is writing so that we can know and be confident that Jesus is real.
And so, that's the basis of our fellowship. Our fellowship with one another and our fellowship with Him.
And here's how this works. If I am in fellowship with God, I have that relationship with God and other people. You all had that same relationship with God. We each are in fellowship with God and as a natural product of our individual being in fellowship with God, we are in fellowship with one another.
And so the basis, through of our faith is the basis of fellowship. So John writes so that our joy can be full, that we can be confident in the faith of Jesus.
The Standard of our Fellowship
"This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all." — 1 John 1:5
You know, God himself, the person of God, the character of God is the standard of our fellow. God is the perfect standard for what the Christian is striving to be.
- 1 Peter 1:15 -16
That is the standard. This is what we are striving to be, to be holy as God is.
- 2 Thessalonians 2:12
- Ephesians 5:1-2
An,d so we are to follow and imitate God as dear children. That is the standard for which we are striving to achieve in our fellowship.
The Limitations of our Fellowship
In 1 John verses 6,8, and 10, we have what I would would call the limitations of our fellowship or, you know, things that might hinder our fellowship. And so notice of verse six, it says, if. And, I want us to pay attention to the word if we're gonna see that in the next five verses. The word if is a conditional statement, there is a conditional clause. Most of the time it is, sometimes it's used a little bit differently and we see it used both ways in this text. But, notice it's a conditional clause.
I do not want to do a Greek grammar lesson but there's some things that we do need to bring out in the Greek language that, that is helpful. Notice there are different types of verbs here and just about all the verbs I have highlighted, some are highlighted in purple. And, this is in what is known as the aorist tense, which is a past action that happened once, it is in the subjunctive mood, which makes it a hypothetical statement.
And so, if per chance, hypothetically we might say, that we say have fellowship with God and walk in darkness [light], we lie and do not the truth. And so he's setting up a hypothetical situation. He uses it several times here.The verbs all highlighted there in yellow are present continuous action. These are just your normal sense of which verbs are used.
[For example:] Now I am standing here, and then, I stood over there, that was the, he's saying, I am standing here. That is the present tense. The fact that it's an active voice. I am the one doing it, the subject of the one doing the thing. It is indicative meaning it's in the most common sense in which that a verb is used. And so hypothetically, if we were to say that we are walking in the light, then we are lying and not doing the truth.
And so what does it mean we are walking in darkness? And so, if we say that we are walking in the light, if we [say we] have fellowship with Him and we are walking in darkness, then we are lying and we are not doing the truth. What does it mean to be walking in darkness? It simply means to, to be living sinfully.
If our present state is living in sin, then we cannot be in fellowship with God, can we? That's impossible. If we say that we can both walk in the light and in the darkness, we are lying to ourselves and we are not doing the truth. We're not being doers of the word.
- James 1:22-25
- John 17:17
So, we're not implementing God's word. We are hearing it, but not doing it. If we say we think that we can serve God and serve mammon at the same time, we cannot do that.
- Matthew 6:20
And so, if we're walking, if we say we're in fellowship with God, but we're actually walking in darkness, then we are lying.
- 1 John 1:8
Again, that's in that hypothetical situation. If we would say that we have no sin, and that's a present tense, if I was ever to say at this point I have no sin, when in fact I am sinning and I think that's implied in the text, then we are walking in self deception.
- James 1:26
This man's religion is, again, the idea of self-deception. We are deceiving ourselves, he says, and that's in the present tense. We are deceiving ourselves, and there is no truth in us. Again, God's word is truth. Those who refuse to acknowledge their sin do not possess the truth. They don't know God's word.
- 1 John 1:10
Now if we are saying, present tense now, we have not sin, is in the perfect tense. And so the aroist is that simple past tense. It happened once, yesterday. I ate, that was a simple past tense, right? I ate now in the perfect tense. Yesterday I ate and I'm still full today. That's how we would do it in English. I'm still feeling the effects. It's an ongoing thing. I ate and was filled and I'm still full.
And so, the idea here is that if we are saying that we have not sinned ever, if we are saying that we have never been guilty of sin. You know, the Jews did that a lot in the days of Jesus, didn't they? He says that we make Him a liar and His word is not in us. If we say we have not sinned, that we are sinless, then we are calling God a liar in His word.
- Romans 3:23
If we claim to walk with God, if we claim to be in fellowship with God, but rather than that we are walking in darkness, refusing to acknowledge and repent of our sins, then we have no understanding of God's word.
Can we go to heaven at all if we're not putting God's word into action in our live, living in self delusion? I don't think we can. Those, you might say, are the limitations of our fellowship.
The Terms of our Fellowship
- 1 John 1:7,9,10
There's a lot more throughout the book of First John that we could put here, but primarily notice verse seven.
"But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us, but if we confess our sins, he is faithful in just to give us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We say, we have not sinned. We make him a liar, and his word is not in." — 1 John 1:7,9,10
And going on to chapter 2 verse three.
- 1 John 2:3
"And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments." — 1 John 2:3
The idea of knowing God is to be in fellowship with God. And we're just, a couple weeks ago, we, we studied the life of King Manassah, and remember from 2nd Chronicles that King Manassah, after he had been humbled after he'd been dragged into captivity with hooks and thorns, after he'd been dragged off, he while in captivity, repented, and remember, the Lord restored him to his kingdom. And it says there that Manassah knew the Lord that He was God. And I believe the idea here is that Manassah began to walk with God and began to be in fellowship with God after this.
And so, if we walk in the light, he goes on in verse seven again, what does this mean? It means that we're in fellowship. It means that we are doing God's commandments. Hereby we do know that we know him if we keep his commandments. So how can we be assured that we are in fellowship with God because we're keeping His commandments? Wo what happens as we walk in the light, again, walking in the light is keeping His commandments.
You know, things like loving one another, loving God, loving the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and loving our neighbor like ourself, upon these, hang all the law and the prophets, Jesus said in Matthew 22. But what happens when we are doing that, when we are walking in the light and notice again, let's go back and look at the tenses of these, in verse seven, If we walk, that's present tense. If we are walking in the light, as He is in the light, God is the light, Christ is the light. He is the light. And, we have, he says, then, we have and there an implied then we have present tense fellowship, one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, is cleansing us from all sins. As we are walking in light, we are being cleansed from all sins. These are present tense verbs. And so what happens when we walk in the light? We have fellowship with God, and we have fellowship with others who walk in the light. We have cleansing from all sin. Again, this is the present tense.
Active voice indicates mood on all verbs in this verse. Some are indicative mood. That means it's the most common sense in which that verb is used. And so, there are some that argue about this, the means of how this takes place, [how] this walking and cleansing takes place.
You know, some say, you sin it is immediately wiped out as if it never happened. And others say, well no, that would then be once saved, always saved. And so, neither one of those is really the correct statement or the position held by others. Some say, well, you don't believe this, and you don't believe in grace, and you don't believe in mercy and all of this. Again, that's a misrepresentation of what they actually believe. But, we're not here to talk about that really. We're here to talk about what the scriptures say. And so, does it matter what people say or what the scriptures say. Of course we know it's the scriptures And so, verse seven here is not the end of the topic.
When the Bible was inspired, there were no chapter breaks, there were no verse breaks. And so, we can't just chop it up, say, well, this is talking about that and it has no bearing on what's next. That's not true. It all relates, it's all interrelated. It's one long message that he's trying to get out. It is a [continuous] thought that's trying to get to. So verse seven is not the end all here.
Some say, it says as we walk in the light our sins are washed away immediately. Good enough for me. Well, what does it say in verse nine? And I know there's some what abouts or what ifs that come up here, and we'll get to those in a minute. And that's really where the division comes in. That's really where the problems come in, is the what ifs.
- 1 John 1:9
"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." — 1 John 1:9
This is the present tense. It is an active voice and it is in the subjunctive mood again, which makes it a hypothetical you might say. He says, if we are confessing our sins, that's an if, it's not a guaranteed that we are. But he says if and when we are confessing our sins. Notice that word is is in the present tense. Because God is in the present tense. Always, every attribute of God is in the present tense, always. If we confess our sins. And, I think the word because could be put in here to imply because He is faithful and just. God is faithful and just.
He's gonna do what's right no matter what. He is faithful. He's gonna do what He has said no matter what, He is faithful and just to forgive. And, and again, that's in the hypothetical, aoris tense. If we are the type that does this, then God, because He is what He is, will do these other things to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
And again, there's the word - if, there is a implied contingent, the, if, is contingent. If we do these things, then God will do those things.
Now, what does it mean to confess? Confess comes from the Greek word, homolego,
“To speak the same thing… to assent, accord, agree with," denotes, (a) "to confess, declare, admit," (b) "to confess by way of admitting oneself guilty of what one is accused of, the result of inward conviction” (c) "to declare openly by way of speaking out freely, such confession being the effect of deep conviction of facts…" — Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words
And so, when we confess that we have sinned and our confession is the God, if we confess our sins, we are saying with God that yes, Lord, I know I am in sin now. I think implied in this is repentance. If I really believe in my heart and in my mind that what I have done and what I am doing is sinful, then I am gonna act on that. I'm gonna stop doing it and I'm gonna repent. I'm gonna do better. And so implied in this is repentance and so you cannot escape the need. Repentance and confession again, we must be the type of person who does this in order to have our sins washed away.
This is not saying that we've gotta make a list. Every time I say I gotta make this big, long, list of every sin I can ever remember doing that I don't remember ever repenting of and go about it word by word, list by list and repent of each one of those things. I don't believe that is something we have to do. But here's what it, I think it means to be one who is the type that confesses and repents is when I recognize that I have sinned, I simply have to just say, you know, Lord, I recognize what I did was wrong. Please forgive me, help me not to do that again in the future.
I do, I say that prayer probably 10 times a day. That's not because, you know, I think if I fail to say that prayer I'm gonna be lost. I don't think that, but, that's the kind of person that I want to be, that I'm striving to be. The kind of person that looks at his life, recognizes when he is wrong and tries to do better, seeks to do better, and seeks God's aid in doing better.
You know, some say, well, I don't remember everything I did. Again, we don't have to make a list. Lord, please forgive me for those things that maybe I don't know about, maybe those things I have forgotten that I have done. Help me to recognize when I do wrong, help me to, to be better. You know, I don't think this is anything that's too difficult to do.
The Means of our Fellowship
- 1 John 2:1-2
"My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world." — 1 John 2:1-2
And so, if any man sins, he's writing this so that we will not sin, but he recognizes the fact that we will. There is not a, if any man sin. When we sin, that's a given. Were gonna sin. All right?
I just wanna briefly go over this four types of sin. There may be more, and you could categorize them differently than I've done here.
Willful sin will put us out of walking in the light or not walking in the lights if we're living in willful sin. And so there's your four types of sin.
Now, is there anything controversial about what we've looked at here? I don't think so. Where does the controversy come from? It comes from when people start throwing in the what if and the what abouts. You know, I've been on Facebook and I made comments similar to this, and then somebody, well, what if, what about this, this, this, and that and the other thing. And that's when you start causing, you know, the problems. That's where I guess our problems come in when we're not just satisfied to take the Bible and it's word for it, and we've gotta dream up all of these what abouts, and what ifs. But I think verse one of chapter two really answers and what about, or what ifs he says,
"My little children, these things I am writing under you so that you will not sin."
That's what he's saying here, and if and when are implied, if any man sin we have now, again, remember the the tense of this, if any man sin is that hypothetical situation, but he says we have, that's in the present tense, if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the Righteous. So if and when we sin, we have an advocate, and I think we overlook this word sometimes.
What is an advocate?
Advocate – “One who has been summoned, called to one’s side, especially called to one’s aid; one who pleads another’s cause before a judge, a pleader, counsel for defense, legal assistant, an advocate.” — Thayer's Greek Definitions
And so you think about, we are in fellowship if we're walking in the light, we are in fellowship with God and we're in fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ. And we're in fellowship with one another. That means that we are working for each other's best interest. And so we have an Advocate.
You know, Jesus is righteous. He's never gonna do wrong. He's always gonna do what's right for Him, for God, and for everyone. He is righteous.
- Hebrews 7:25
You know, in the judgment, we're gonna stand before a righteous judge who will always do right for everyone involved. We're going to stand before a righteous judge, and we're gonna be represented by a righteous advocate who makes intercession for us in the judgment. We're gonna stand there a in thend judgment we're gonna have to answer for any sin still on our accounts.
But, if I am a Christian and I have walked in the light all of my life and I make one fatal mistake and I die, as a result, when I go to judgment, I am not going to be standing there alone. I will have an advocate who will stand with me and take my part. And so you think about and answer the what ifs and the what abouts and recognize the fact that Christ knows those who are His.
- John 10:14
And [He] will intercede on their behalf as Hebrew 7:25 tells us. And he has already done so in the past by being the propitiation for our sins. You know, propitiation is that which appeases God's sense of justice. It must be appeased. God's love must be appeased. And so Jesus came and he took care of both. Out of God's love, He dealt with the problem of man and his sin. He appeased the righteous judgment of God. He continues to be our propitiation.
And so here's the deal, if you are a faithful Christian who keeps God's word, you repent and confess. When you become aware of sin, if this is just simply how you live, this is the type of person you are, a walking in the light, confessing sin. We're continually doing these things and we fall under one of those. What of if or what about situations? Then know that we will not have to face judgment alone.
And do you really think that? What if? What if you could dream up? Or, what about scenario you could come up with that God has not already thought of that and already accounted for it in his plan of? And so, I think Jesus being our Advocate on the day of judgment is answer to all of those problems.
And so, you can, lean into this knowledge, do your part to the best of your ability. And if you do so, then you can know that you are safe.
"And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments." — 1 John 2:3
- 1 John 5:13
You can rest and know that you are in the hands of a righteous God who will deal with you righteously.
- 2 Timothy 1:12
Paul knew, John knew, and we can know. We can know! We know Him if we are doing His will, walking in the light.
We can know and we can put our trust in Him that He is not this angry God who is just waiting to zap us to hell. He is not that kind of God. He's also not a God that's gonna overlook us if we are walking away from Him. He's not gonna overlook that either. He is a God that wants us to do right. He's gonna help us to do right. And He has given us what we need in order to do right through His sight. And if we do these things, we don't have anything to be afraid of Him.
- 1 John 4:17-19
He says, "herein is our love made perfect", mature, complete you might say, "that we may have boldness in the day of judgment because as he is, so are we in this world, there is no fear in love, but perfect love cast without fear because fear has torment. He that fear is not made perfect in love. We love him because he first loved us."
You know, we can not be afraid. Wedon't need to be afraid. Love God, and obey him. Love your fellow man and, and serve and minister to him in this love and understanding. Then cast out fear. There's no room for fear. No reason of fear. Trust God and trust Jesus, your Advocate.
And let not your heart be troubled about any of these what ifs or what about situations. Do God's will—obey Him. Make that the way you live your life. Don't continue living in sin. Serve God and continue to serve God all of your life to the best of your ability.
And when you have messed up, recognize you have done so, make it right and continue on. That's what we're to do. That's how we can know that we are saved. That's how we can not be afraid on the day of judgement.
You know, if I, if I'm worried that my last act on this earth is going to be a sin, and I'm worried that I'm gonna have to stand before God to give an account for that sin, then maybe I need to consider my walking in the light. If you know, there's a saying that when in stress you regress. And when a stressful situation comes, like a 18-wheeler barreling down on you in the wrong lane straight at you, that's a stressful situation. How do you react when that happens?
You know, if you act sinfully and you die, you've got that advocate who's gonna help but, really think about how we're living. You know, when I drop a hammer on my toe, how do I react? Do I scream out obscenities? If that's how I react, then I need to work on that, don't I? And I think each one of us have areas that when we react to things suddenly without thinking. A lot of times that has to do with what's in our heart. Are we really living the way we should? If that's how we react, that's just something to consider.
Are you Walking in the Light?
So, if we walk in the light, how do we walk in the light? When we keep His commandments, we know that we know Him.
What commandments? Well, of course, Jesus gave us commandments on how to be saved from our sins. There are a lot of other commandments we need to continue to follow in, and grow in, and understand, and learn and come to our knowledge.
But in order to to be walking with God, we've got to first have our sins washed away. We can't walk in darkness and being fellowship with God. We walk in darkness because we're sinning, so we must repent of our sins. If we believe in God and we believe His will and His word, then we need to repent of our sins, confess our belief. Here, in this, we're not necessarily confessing our sins, but we're confessing that we believe that Jesus is the son of God. And then, we are repenting of our sins and we can't repent of a sin, which we don't acknowledge. That's, we don't have to, again, becoming a Christian, you have to make a list of everything you've ever done. Just know that when you confess that I have sinned, when you repent of your sin and you don't walk in sin anymore, that those sins are washed away when we are baptized. So I urge you, if you haven't been baptized into Christ to do so today.
If you are one who has willfully turned away from God, it's time to come back. It's time to repent. It's time to confess your sins and to be restored to that relationship with God today.
If you're here on your subject to the invitation, you want to become a child of God and walk with him, you need to study more about it. You wanna learn more about what it takes, uh, what's involved, then we'll be glad to sit down and study.
If there's anything that we can do for you at all in response to the gospel. Please let us know by contacting us.
