Three levels of spiritual maturity, 1 John 2: 12-14

The apostle John has been showing in this epistle the contrast between those who live in sin, and those who are righteous.  He has been showing a contrast between those who walk in the light, and those who walk in darkness.  He has been showing a contrast between those who keep the commandments, and those who do not keep the commandments.  And the basic difference between these two types of people is that one is saved, and the other is unsaved.  Those that are unsaved may claim they are saved, they may claim that they know God, but they show

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A new commandment, 1 John 2:7-11

What John has been teaching up to this point is that a life of sin and new life in Christ are incompatible.  He says in chapter 1 vs 6 that you cannot walk in darkness, that means walk in sin, and say that you have fellowship with  God.  He also makes it clear in the next verse that fellowship with one another is predicated on being right with God. Now that is the positive perspective, being right with God is being in fellowship with God and with one another.  From a negative perspective, John says that sin breaks fellowship with

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The positive proofs of knowing God, 1 John 2:3-6

As we continue in our study of 1 John, we are looking at line of reasoning which John has been presenting concerning the reality of our faith.  The great concern of his as he is writing this epistle has been the false teaching that has arisen in the church.  That false doctrine is what is called Gnosticism.  Gnosticism comes from the Greek word ginōskō which means to know.  John uses the word know 26 times in this epistle, and introduces it in the verses we are looking at today in vs 3-6.  For instance, John uses it twice in vs

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Christ our Helper and Propitiation, 1 John 2:1,2

At the time of the writing of this epistle, this letter to the churches, John is about 90 years old.  His writing, which is inspired by the Holy Spirit, is brilliant.  His writing is pure, divine truth. He pens one statement of absolute truth after another, in a cyclical fashion, each statement building upon the other, oftentimes restating the same truth but from a different perspective.  It is really brilliant stuff that deserves our careful study and contemplation.  And it must be careful study, because even though every word that he writes is inspired truth, there are certain statements that

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Three false claims of false Christians, 1 John 1:6-2:1

In the first century, Christianity was facing a problem which we still have with us today. The problem was a false gospel, a false Christianity, propagated by false teachers. That has always been a threat against the church, and it remains so today.  The enemy works to destroy the church from within and without, and attacks from within are sometimes more difficult for us to discern and to deal with. So John’s epistle is addressing this by looking at the doctrinal distinctive’s of the gospel, and in this passage, presenting a contrast between the message of God, and the message

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God is Light, John 1:5,6

In the first few verses of 1 John, John is declaring to us the Word of God, which is the message of God, which is the truth of God.  And he says the truth of God produces in us the life of God so that we might have fellowship with God.  He said in vs 1, the Word of God is eternal, that which was from the beginning. He said in the gospel of John chapter 1 that “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” He goes on to say

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Fellowship with God, 1 John 1:1-4

At the time this epistle is written, John was the last surviving apostle, and probably one of the last people living who had seen and heard Jesus during His ministry on earth.  When John was one of Jesus’s disciples, he was known as the disciple whom Jesus loved.  He had a special relationship with Jesus.  It’s believed that he was  the youngest of the 12 disciples of Christ, perhaps not even 20 years old when he first started to follow Christ.  He had an older brother named James, and together they were referred to as “the sons of thunder.”  His

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The Parable of the Wedding Feast, Matthew 22:1-14

Today we are concluding our series on the parables of Christ by looking at the parable of the wedding feast. And I want to first consider the historical context in which this parable is given. This would have been Wednesday of the last week before Christ’s death. On Friday, He will be crucified. On Sunday, He will rise from the dead. For three years He has been preaching and teaching the Gospel of the kingdom. He has been presenting Himself as the Messiah, the Son of God, the Savior of the world. He has been offering an invitation into His

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Parable of the wheat and the tares, Matthew 13:24-33

We are continuing in our series on the parables of Jesus, and today we have come to a trilogy of parables which I believe are teaching a similar principle, albeit from differing perspectives.  These parables are part of a greater sermon that Jesus taught which is called the Olivet Discourse.   Last week we looked at another parable from this sermon, which comes directly before these three. It is the parable of the sower. If you will recall, in that parable Jesus spoke of four types of soil, representing four conditions of the heart, all of which received the seed

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The Parable of the Sower, Matthew 13:1-23

Today, of course, is the holiday we call Easter. The origins of this holiday are not completely clear. Some people think that the Emperor Constantine changed a pagan holiday on this date to become a day which the resurrection of Christ would be celebrated. That cannot be verified. But we do know that by the time of Martin Luther and the Reformation, the association by Christians with Easter as a celebration of the resurrection was pretty much established. So much so that the translators of the King James Version substituted the word Easter for the original word Passover in Acts

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