July 21th, 2024

Light and Love
A Series in 1 John
Context: The authorship of 1 John is anonymous. However, internal evidence seemingly makes clear that John, the disciple that Jesus loved (John 21:20-24), is the author of 1 John. There are some theologians that argue John “the elder” is another follower that came later in the Jesus movement.
1 John is different from many writings in that it reads more like a sermon without a typical introduction. Many of the key ideas of 1 John come from John’s gospel in chapters 13-17. John desires to hit on three main themes, Life, love, and truth and he cycles through these ideas regularly.
John is writing approximately 60 years after Jesus’s ascension, around A.D. 85-90. He is pressed to write due to the threat of false teaching in the church, specifically “Docetic Gnosticism.” The belief that Jesus was a spirit who did not have a physical body. Obviously, this denies the humanity of Jesus, and so John writes this as a polemic, or argument against this false teaching. The purpose of John pushes farther and can be seen in 1:4, 2:1, 2:26, and 5:13.
There are a few themes that will be revealed in this sermon series. life (used 14x), light (6x), and love (45x). The word “love” is used in 1 John more than any other book of the Bible with the exception of Psalms which has 150 chapters.
The structure of the text is difficult to pin down. It is more like a musical score with a repeated melody. Yet, there are two clear sections indicated by the phrase “this is the message.” From this phrase we can see that God is light (1:5), and God is love (3:11-5:17)
Series Summary: The coming of Jesus reveals both light and love. It brings assurance of life, freedom through forgiveness, and truth to lies.
1 John 1:1-4 The Manifested Word
V. 1-4 are ____________ sentence in Greek
V. 1-4 are a ____________________ against Gnostic false teaching
V. 1 John builds his argument by appealing to_________________
Docetic Gnosticism denies the _____________________ of Jesus
Luke 24:39 refutes this teaching
Key word: “Manifest” (v. 2)
The Word of Life was from the _____________________ (v. 1)
“Beginning:” Archē - John 1:1; Doctrine of__________________
“Life:” Zoē: Absolute fullness of life
Why? Fellowship with Jesus and one another
Purpose #1 is in verse 4
1 John 5-10 Proclaiming the Contrasts
V. 5-10 is the truth that God is light and John is an eye witness to it
Underlying theme of John’s gospel is light
John 8:12, 9:5 “I am the light of the world.”
So many scriptures that point to this
1 Timothy 6:_____ God dwells in unapproachable light
James 1:_______ The Father of lights
Psalms 119:______ lamp to my feet…light to my path
Notice the contrast between light and dark, truth and lie
Look at the contrasts in verses 6, 8, 10, “If we say”
“If” verse 6, “but” verse 7
“If we say” v. 8 “If we confess” v. 9
V. 10 No acknowledgement = no word of life
Application: What do I do with this text? Why does it matter?
What? Understand the truth of what God has done
Why? When we come into agreement with who Jesus is and what God has done, our joy can be complete
Remember! (Series Summary) The coming of Jesus reveals both light and love. It brings assurance of life, freedom through forgiveness, and truth to lies.