1 John Sketch by Minick

1 John Sketch by Minick

1 John 1:1-10     
(1)  The BEGINNING is the most transcendent (farthest from every day stuff) concept imaginable.  You can’t go back in farther away than the beginning.  Yet, the farthest concept, thing…person possible is the very same one they experienced as close as can be experienced.  The WORD of LIFE is the stunning connection of the deepest and distant together with the most personal and immediate.
(2)  What does one do with such information; with such an experience?  Proclaim it.  Don’t keep as a secret what was revealed.  Reveal it more.
(3) The reason is that just as John and his friends were able to live connected to the transcendent and immanent, so can everyone who receives the message they proclaim and is brought into communion with the Father and the Son.
(4)  A shared joy is a magnified joy.
(5)  So, what is their message?  God is totally good without bad.
(6)  God plus a dark life does not add up.  It is not a true life.
(7)  Life in the essence of God is where we connect with others.  The sacrificial death of Christ for our sins makes this possible
(8)  The need for dealing with sin is a foundational truth we need to realize.
(9)  Acknowledging our sins and sinfulness to Him is our way out of condemnation.
(10)  Denial of our guilt accuses God and makes learning from Him impossible
1 John 2:1-29     
(1)  The point of the proclamation is to affect how we deal with sin.  The goal is to avoid it and if necessary absolve it.
(2)  Jesus Christ (the man who got life right) is the means of taking away God’s wrath at our sin, which if attached to us, means wrath towards us.
(3)  Do we know the righteous man?  Well, do we do what he says?
(4)  e.g.  “I know the righteous one, I just don’t do what he says”  Nope.  That one just does not get it.
(5)  We need to actually do what he says, that is how God’s love grows in us and we have confidence about our faith.  Without growing love from doing what he says no wonder people doubt their faith.
(6)  IF I am IN HIM there should be some resemblance!
(7)  So what is it that Jesus the righteous one said to do that John is now telling us to do?  It is the same thing we have always heard.
(8)  Still, there is a fresh angle to it in that Christ has lived it out for us and is making everything more clear.
(9)  Enlightenment and contempt do not go together
(10)  Valuing, loving other people (your brother) is living in enlightenment, and when you are enlightened, you can see where you are going and don’t need to be so worried about falling over things.
(11) But, if contempt is what you have for others, then you can’t see and you don’t know direction because darkness has blocked you.
(12)  Again, the point is to make use of the forgiveness of our sins so that God’s name (Jesus=YHWH SAVES) will be honored
(13)  Old guys are aware of the transcendent, young guys are focused on the immanent, kids feel the relationship
(14)  Old guys are connected to him who is the source of all transcendence, lads are strong and active, living the word here and now.
(15)  The cosmos and stuff in it are not to be loved (agape), that is not the Father’s agape and if you had the father’s agape you would not agape that stuff
(16)  World=flesh desire, perception desire, pride desire, not from the Father.
(17)  Cosmos will not last, nor will the desire thing.  People who know and do God’s will remain.
(18)  There is an antichrist after antichrists which shows the end is near
(19)  Antichrists are people who abandon Christ and that shows they did not get it
(20)  But you have been anointed by the Holy One, and you all have knowledge.     The separated on has given you knowledge
(21)  I am writing to help you focus on the truth you already have
(22)  The lie is that Jesus is not enough, that Father and Son is not how it is
(23)  There is no FATHER without the Son (and to have the Son is to have the Father)
(24)  Grow in the basic start.  The original message will keep you in the Son and Father
(25)  Why? Eternal life is what the Son-Father promised.
(26)  Watch out for people tricking you
(27)  He gave you what you need and it is in you.  Don’t be dependent on others teaching you.  What has been poured into you is true and trustworthy.  Listen to that and stay with Him
(28)  So, stay in him and when He is finally shown fully we will not move away but towards
(29)  When you think of him do you think “That’s Right!”  If that is your value system in life you are His.
1 John 3:1-24
(1)  God said we are his kids, because we are.  The reason other people don’t see us this way is because they don’t know him.
(2)  We are already God’s kids, but what that fully means is not yet revealed to us and won’t be until Christ shows up and we see him (and he is who we know we will be like).
(3)  The hope of being like Christ motivates you to get on with cleaning yourself up to be clean and unmixed like him.
(4)  The habit of ‘sin’ is the habit of not doing what you are designed and told to do.  Sin=rebellion
(5)  Christ came to take away rebellion, he is not a rebel
(6)  You can’t abide, rest, exist in him and be a rebel at the same time.  Defiant rebels have not seen or known him.
(7)  Don’t be tricked, righteousness shows up in actions
(8)  Active rebelling comes from the devil who has always been the rebelling.  The Son of God came to put and end to the rebelliousness of the devil.
(9)  If you are from God (born as his kid) you can’t persist in rebellion, it is not the nature in you that is from God.
(10)  So, how do we distinguish God’s kids and the devil’s kids?  See if the actually live out righteousness and love their brothers.
(11)  The message from the start has been to actually love each other.
(12)  Cain is not the example for us, he was evil and murdered his brother.  He killed his brother because Cain was committed to evil actions and his brother to righteousness.
(13)  So don’t be shocked that you meet people who hate you.
(14)  Death is where there is no love, we know we have stepped out of that into life if we now are in fact loving.
(15)  Hate your brother=murder.  Murder?= no eternal life in him.
(16)  How did he show he loved us?  Gave his life.  How do we love others?  Give our lives.
(17)  If love is giving our life but we won’t even give our $tuff, is it likely that God’s love matches that?
(18)  Kids, come on, love isn’t just talk it is real and we do things.
(19)  Actually living out love by sacrificial generosity reassures us inside our hearts
(20)  God is greater than our hearts (which can put us down)
(21)  But if even our own heart is not condemning us (we can have confidence there) then we can have confidence from God
(22)  Since we have confidence because we are doing what he wants, we can ask and receive from him in the same way.
(23)  So, what are we supposed to be doing?  Trust in the NAME=Jesus and love each other like we were told.
(24)  Do what he says, you are with him and him with you.  His Spirit will let us know we are with him.

1 John 4:1-21
(1)  Not every spirit or prophet is right.
(2)  The transcendent became physically immanent in Jesus the Messiah is the test for any teaching/spirit
(3)  Not with Jesus, not with God- This is the anti-Christ we warned about.
(4)  Kids, God in you means you have won over them.
(5)  This is their home territory, the fallen world, so they seem to fit
(6)  People that belong to God get it when we explain and teach, that is how we see the difference in people.
(7)  Our teaching is about effective love from God to one another,
(8)  Knowing God means doing what is essential to him: love
(9)  God’s love has shown up in Jesus as the way to life.
(10)  Love is not us reaching to God, but God reaching to us in the real life and real death that really made it possible for us to relate to and love God.
(11)  That example of Christ is what we should use for loving each other.
(12)  We don’t see God who is love with our eyes, we need to love one another to have his love grow up in us so we can see him better.
(13)  His spirit in us is how we know we are his.
(14)  The apostles did see and say that Jesus is the one who came from God for the world.
(15)  If you agree, you are with God.
(16)  Again, love is where we meet God and others, that is where our confidence is.
(17)  This confidence/faith is made sure when we are good at love and are therefore ready to meet him.
(18)  We move from fear to love as we grow in love and grow away from the fear of judgment.
(19)  Our love started with him.
(20)  Loving God shows in loving people right in front of us.
(21)  That is what God told us to do, love each other.

1 John 5:1-21
(1)  Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him.
(2)  By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments.
(3)  For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.
(4)  For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world--our faith.
(5)  Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
(6)  This is he who came by water and blood--Jesus Christ; not by the water only but by the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.
(7)  For there are three that testify:
(8)  the Spirit and the water and the blood; and these three agree.
(9)  If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater, for this is the testimony of God that he has borne concerning his Son.
(10)  Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning his Son.
(11)  And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
(12)  Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.
(13)  I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life.
(14)  And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us.
(15)  And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.
(16)  If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life--to those who commit sins that do not lead to death. There is sin that leads to death; I do not say that one should pray for that.
(17)  All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that does not lead to death.
(18)  We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him.
(19)  We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.
(20)  And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.
(21)  Little children, keep yourselves from idols.

Sojos Christmas Worship

December 25, 2005. How shall we gather? A progressive dinner with carroling; a pot luck meal in a home; an evening woship time: a morning worship time; a Christmas Eve time? Post your preferences and lets get a sense of what would fit most people this year. As always, may God in Christ be your joy and hope.

December 18 at Hughes' House

Bring something to sit on for a shady worship outside the 4 walls of the house church! Dwayne will be teaching from 1 John and the church will finalize plans for Christmas Sunday.

A Brief Journey Through Romans

Paul said his hope in writing to, and ultimately visiting his Roman co-sojourners was that he might impart to them some spiritual gift to strengthen them-- that is, that they would be mutually encouraged by each other's faith. From faith to faith, we have been encouraged and strengthened by the letter he wrote and we have reflected on with one another.

Quite boldly, the challenge of holding together such different people as the church in Rome begins with a clarification of why God is angry with this world. Romans 1 shows a huge problem in the world. We push down the truth for doing wrong (suppress the truth in unrighteousness). That is a fundamental part of bad worship and bad living. We twist and pervert what is good and right because we cannot figure out how to receive it rightly and wisely.

Romans 2 helps to calm the rising pride of the religious people. They can get smug hearing about idolatry and immorality and show an undue superiority. The message in Romans 2: it is easier to say that suppressing the truth in unrighteousness is wrong than to actually live righteously under the truth.

Romans 3 sums it up nicely. Pagans, religious experts, drifters, ponderers... They have the same problem. They all suppress the truth. God is glorious and his way is life and right. We each and every one of us are less than we should be in wisdom and rightness. We have all sinned and fallen short of God's glory. That is why God in man, the Lord Jesus Christ, came to save us from untruth and unrighteousness, and that by faith.

Romans 4 asks whether this is a new idea. How can we talk about faith (trust, confidence) in God and what he provides match up with the long history of God and his people? Abraham was the father of faith, and the point is well made. Before the law, blessing and the hope of all blessing was by faith.

Romans 5 draws the breadth of the circle of hope. If we were suppressing the truth in unrighteousness, and enemies of God (not even children of Abraham) is there any hope? A huge YES is given to show that even while we were against God, his very enemies regarding truth and rightness, God made it clear he loved us; he died for us. Our ancestor Adam shows how we fail in regard to truth and rightness, Jesus is offered as our new hope, the one who is Truth and Rightness, and who provides truth and rightness, and who makes it possible for us to live in truth and rightness.

So, if it is a gift, are we free to just party on without regard to truth and rightness? Romans 6 asks that question and resoundingly says Noooo. The gift is salvation from a failed life, not salvation from consequences so you can go on with a failed life. The pagans (gentiles) are urged not to go on with their old way plus Christ.

Romans 7 warns the carefully religious people (the Jews) not to make the same mistake. Adding Christ to a life of legalistic self justification doesn't make any more sense than adding to Christ to one's indulgent life.

Romans 8 shows the answer for Jews and gentiles, the careful and the carefree: keep in step with God's Spirit. That is the new life. It is hard but it is the life that works. Creation is groaning for humanity to no longer fall short of God's glory, we know we are (sickness, sadness, death and so on...). Even God's Spirit groans with us for the day that we will no longer suppress what is really true and live the way that is really right. Christ is that hope and that way, and we are assured we cannot be separated from within that love.

Romans 9 makes a point of preparing us for living that way. We must realize that God's mercy is totally without regard to any thing we offer. It is devastatingly humbling. In fact, it is almost depressing at first, like digging down in order to build a building up with a good foundation.

Romans 10 begins the building up by clarifying again that trust in the Lord is now and always has been the way of being saved from suppressing the truth in unrighteousness and having the hope of truth and rightness.

Romans 11 continues the foundation by showing how Israel has been foundational to the gentile hope and that God's plan is on schedule. In fact, though Paul makes it clear that the how and when of God's plan is not as clear as we would like, it is still marvelously and triumphantly better than anything we could dream up and worthy of our cheers and excitement.

Romans 12 now begins and emphasis on what to do: exchange humble submission to truth and rightness for the arrogance of insubordinate untruth and unrightness.

Romans 13 expands from personal challenges to social challenges and sums up with saying we are to be clothed in the light of the way of Christ; he is our light that shows us truth and rightness.

Romans 14 practically balances us as we are all trying to grow at the same time, though we have differences in where we are, what we understand, and how we are moving forward. Essentially, we have to find ways to look out for each others' good.

Romans 15 shows how Paul lived out his path of using his gifts and calling, and goes on to mention others. As each does their part, more and more people have a chance to take part in the life of light and hope found in Christ.

Romans 16 lists people who have come out from the way of suppressing the truth in unrighteousness and are helping others to see truth and rightness. There is real love and affection and honor shown. Paul warns about letting cranky or controlling people ruin the community and encourages them to keep on the way the is right and true.

We are grateful to have taken these few months to be challenged to look at our tendencies to let our own desires dominate our wills such that we push down the truth (distort, rationalize, manipulate) so we can get what we want no matter what. It is not easy, especially the reflection on how humbly we must view ourselves. God did not have any cause to save us based on anything in us. His amazing love is in spite of us. When we get that, then humility and gratitude aren't so hard. The challenge then is to continually humble ourselves under truth for the sake of hope, enduring with joy, because we know our hope will not disappoint us.