I’ve said it many times before, that every miracle of the gospels is a spiritual parable, meant to teach spiritual principles. And we are looking at such a miracle today and the spiritual principles that we can learn from it.

Last time we talked about the gospel’s authority over the spiritual realm and the physical realm; the spiritual realm was illustrated by Jesus casting out the demon of the man in Capernaum, and then the physical realm was illustrated by the healing of the leper. Today, Mark is showing us the priority of the spiritual over the physical. The purpose of Christ coming to the earth, the purpose of the gospel, is to free men from sin. 1 John 3:8 says “The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.” He came to set the captives free from the dominion of darkness, to proclaim liberty to the captives. Christ’s authority over sin is the spiritual emancipation that delivers the physical from bondage. Sin is the root cause of all of life’s ills. The biggest problem in society is not lack of money or education, or resources. The biggest problem in life is the need for forgiveness of one’s sins.

So as I said the purpose then of the miracle is to teach spiritual principles. It is not to give us the idea that God intends for all people to be healed physically. There are a lot of fake healers out there who purport that God doesn’t want anyone to remain in illness or any sort of malady. And that it is a matter of faith to claim your healing. They say if you aren’t healed, it is due to a lack of faith. I am here to tell you today that is not what the Bible teaches. Paul had faith more than anyone, and he asked God three times for his thorn in the flesh to be removed from him, and yet God told him that His power is made perfect in weakness, and His grace was sufficient for Him to endure his illness. As I said a moment ago, God’s purpose in the gospel is to deliver men from sin, so that they might have spiritual life, that they might escape the second death, and that they might have fellowship with God. Everyone is going to die sooner or later. You may be healed from cancer, or some other sort of illness, but you will still die. The million dollar question is whether you will die in your sins, or be forgiven and receive eternal life.

Now there are several principles that we can establish that are being taught through this miracle. Let’s take them in order of appearance. We left off last time with the leper being cleansed, and contrary to Jesus’s command, he broadcast it far and wide, so that Jesus could hardly preach or teach due to the crowds that came looking for a miracle. We can determine from the gospel accounts, that the crowds were drawn to the miracles, but Jesus did not want them to come for that reason. Thus he told the leper not to tell of his healing, except to the priests. Jesus wanted him to follow the law’s requirements for healing of leprosy and present himself to the priests so that he would be declared clean and could return to society. Jesus wasn’t interested in building a ministry based on sensationalism. He wasn’t interested in drawing a crowd who were just interested in miracles. But Jesus’s main ministry was preaching the gospel. His main ministry was preaching the word. And so that is what we find Him doing in vs 1. He’s come back to Capernaum after a long time away, and He is in His home or possibly Peter’s home, and He is preaching the word. Jesus would say later, that the truth would make you free. That is the purpose of preaching the gospel. Only the truth will make you free from the captivity and dominion of sin.

There are a lot of people out there teaching a mixture of man’s philosophy or psychology with a little bit of the gospel mixed in. It has the appearance of godliness, but it is man’s wisdom. It is presented as self improvement. I heard a Christian counseling program on the radio the other day, and they gave 5 points to some poor guy who was struggling. The first step they recommended was to go to a psychiatrist and get some anti-depressant medicine, 2, see a counselor weekly, and so on. Around #4 they said go to a men’s Bible study, and the last one was another secular program. It sounded like wise counsel according to man’s wisdom. But that is not the truth of the gospel. Paul said in 1Cor. 2:3-7, 13 “I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God. Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature; a wisdom, however, not of this age nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away; but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory; … 13 which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.”

So we need to be aware that the wisdom of God, the power of the gospel, is the the only thing that really has the power to save. A lot of man’s wisdom sounds good, because it focuses on the physical. But the root of all man’s troubles are spiritual, and the sin that causes death. Jesus was teaching the word in Capernaum. That reveals the priority of the gospel.

The second principle I want to point out is the necessity for personal evangelism. I don’t like to use the word evangelism though. It sounds as if it’s some sort of revival crusade. How about we substitute the phrase personal intervention. If we can agree that sin is the source of all problems, and that the gospel is the only cure for it, then it stands to reason that men and women must help those caught in sin to come to the One who can help them. The problem with sin is that it is a trap. Again and again in the gospels we see sin likened to death, to leprosy, to lameness, to blindness, and here in this text, to being paralyzed. The point being that such people are in many cases helpless to help themselves. And as such they are a perfect picture of those who are trapped in sin. Sin is a condition that blinds people to the truth, that traps people in addiction, that causes people to be so handicapped that they are unable to extricate themselves on their own. And so their salvation many times is dependent upon a divine intervention. And God uses people to intervene on their behalf. That is what the Bible calls love. To intervene on behalf of others is loving one another.

This principle is such an integral part of the gospel. Jesus came not to condemn the world but that the world might be saved through Him. So as His ambassadors, we too must be about saving the world. In Zechariah 3 there is a vision of Joshua the High Priest, and he is standing in front of God in filthy garments. And it says that Satan was standing next to him to accuse him. But the Lord rebuked Satan saying, “The LORD rebuke you, Satan! Indeed, the LORD who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?” And the Lord removed Joshua’s filthy garments and clothed him in righteous garments. And as Christians, our mission is not to accuse the world as Satan does, but to tell the world of the forgiveness that is made possible through Christ, to pluck them as a brand from the fire.

As people who have the mind of Christ (let this mind be in you which is also in Christ Jesus) our reactions towards those caught in sin should be one of forgiveness, love, encouragement, esteeming their needs for salvation as worth any cost. The devil stands at our side to accuse us and discourage us, to tell us to give up and give in. But we are not of the devil, so we do not stand accusing, but rather forgiving, loving, helping and encouraging the weak. That is what I mean by intervention. And God has commissioned you to be that intervener. It’s not the job of angels, it’s not the job of psychiatrists or professional counselors, but God has chosen you to go to the lost in love, by personal sacrifice, and help them to come to him.

So it’s the mission of all Christians, to go into the world and proclaim the good news to all people. God wants to use us to spread the gospel, so that all may be saved. God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. So there is a great urgency in the gospel; people are perishing and the gospel is the antidote to sin and the death that is it’s consequence. Not only is there an urgency, but there is a blessing. James says in James 5:19-20 “My brethren, if any among you strays from the truth and one turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.” So there is a great blessing to those who answer that call of God to go to the lost and turn them to God.

Jesus illustrated this need for intervention by telling a parable about leaving the 99 who need no repentance and seeking out the one who is lost. In another place He gave a parable about the Good Samaritan, which not only teaches us to love our neighbor, but shows us that real love reaches down even to the stranger with the saving news of the gospel, no matter the cost or inconvenience to ourselves. No matter how much we may think the poor sinner brought it upon themselves. Realizing but for the grace of God so goes us all.

Now let’s look at this example in our text. Note that this paralyzed man had four friends that were determined to bring him to Christ. Four interveners. Oh that every sinner had four such friends that were determined to bring them to Christ. So determined were these friends that nothing would stop them. Here we see that the great crowds were actually a deterrent to the saving power of the gospel. God is not always in great crowds. Man seems to equate a large crowd with effective evangelism. But that is not so with God.

Nevertheless, they would not let the obstacles stop them. They climbed on the roof of the house where Jesus was teaching, and tore off the roof. These houses were built usually one story, with flat tiled roofs, and an exterior staircase. But can you imagine the consternation of the crowd inside and crowded around the doorway, when the roof starts being torn apart during the service, and they lower a man down on a stretcher at the feet of Jesus.

I would to God that we would all have such determination to see the lost saved. In this politically correct climate we live in today we are so afraid anymore of embarrassing anyone, of inconveniencing someone, least of all inconveniencing ourselves, that we dare not bother anyone with the gospel. Eric Clapton wrote a song a few years ago called “Tears in Heaven.” And he repeats the oft quoted adage that there are no tears in heaven. But my friends, I think many of us are going to be in tears in heaven. The Bible says that Jesus will wipe away all tears. But that is after we are in heaven. And if I can make the suggestion without being too dogmatic, I think there are going to be tears in heaven for us when we see our loved ones, our friends, cast into outer darkness for eternity, knowing that we did not do all that we could have done to bring them to the Lord. I think the problem is that most Christians don’t really believe the Bible. Somehow, they think that though their loved one was not saved, yet somehow Hell does not really exist, and God will not actually keep His word. Because if we truly believed the Bible, we would move heaven and earth to bring our loved ones to the Lord.

Well, moving on, Mark says in vs.5, “And Jesus seeing their faith said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” Now I want to point out something here that is going to surprise you perhaps. But notice that Mark said, Jesus “seeing their faith….” Now most commentators say that includes all five people. But I tend to think that it is specifically speaking of the faith of the four friends. I think there is a principle here that your faith, and your actions in faith, can contribute to another’s salvation. Let me say that again. Your faith, and your actions in faith, can contribute to another’s salvation. Now you can’t be saved for them. But you can contend for them. You can intercede for them. You can intervene for them. You can compel them to come to the Lord using every means at your disposal.

I’ll give you an Old Testament example of this principle. The Lord visited Abraham in human form one evening. And as He was ready to leave, the Lord told Abraham what He was about to do. He said the news of Sodom and Gomorrah’s debauchery had reached heaven, and He was going to see just how bad it was, and if it was as He had heard, He was going to destroy it. (Gen.18) But Abraham said, “Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked?” He then began to negotiate with God for the deliverance of his nephew, Lot. Abraham started by saying, what if there are 50 righteous, will you destroy the city? And God said “No, I won’t destroy it for the sake of 50.” But as you are familiar with the story, Abraham negotiated with God down to 10 people. Turns out there were not 10 righteous people either, but for the sake of righteous Lot, God did send two angels to take him out of the city before the destruction came.

Now that’s not a perfect illustration perhaps, but it is evidence of our ability to intervene with God on another’s behalf. James says in James 5:14-15 “Is anyone among you sick? Then he must call for the elders of the church and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him.” Everyone likes to quote those verses to suggest the power of healing, but I would point to the last part, which says if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him based on the prayers of others. I think it clearly teaches that we can pray for one another for spiritual healing, for sins to be forgiven, for their soul to be saved. And I think we can be effective in that at least to some degree.

You know if I were to ask a rhetorical question this morning, of how many of you have unsaved loved ones, I’m sure that 3/4 of you would raise your hands. But I wonder if I said how many of you spent even an hour, 60 actual minutes, praying for that loved one this week, how many would still raise their hands? There are 168 hours in a week. Is their soul not worth one hour to you?

John says something similar in 1John 5:1616 “If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask and God will for him give life to those who commit sin not leading to death.” Again, the principle is that someone sees his brother sinning, and petitions God on his behalf. God uses people to reach people, to bring them to God. We have a mission, and a responsibility to reach the lost for Christ.

The next principle I want us to look at is the priority of the spiritual over the physical. Now I have already alluded to this principle’s importance in my opening statements. But let’s unpack this a bit more as I believe God has a lot to say on this subject. First of all, we need to understand that in the Hebrew mind, the paralytic was obviously a terrible sinner whom God was judging in the flesh for everyone to witness. That was their understanding of sickness; that God brought it about as judgment. You will remember the disciples in John 9 asking Jesus about a blind man, saying, ““Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?” That was the common perception. Well, in that case, Jesus had answered, “It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him.”

But that teaching comes later. At this point, I think Jesus plays into their misconceptions in order to teach a couple of important lessons. So Jesus says, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” Now there are a couple of things going on here. I don’t think that it was that surprising that He would say that as far as the Pharisees were concerned, because they thought that sin was the reason this man was paralyzed. However, from our perspective, we automatically think that it’s a strange thing to say, because we think that the obvious problem was the man’s paralysis.

Jesus though answers all those problems with these words. His insightfulness cuts right to the quick of the real problem. First He shows the Pharisees that He is God. And He does that because of the principle that one cannot forgive someone of a sin against another. One forgives a sin against himself. I heard it illustrated this way. Tom, Dick and Harry were hanging out together, and Tom punched Dick in the nose. Harry went over and told Tom, I forgive you for punching Dick. But Dick objected, and said you can’t forgive him, he didn’t punch you, he punched me. The point being, the one injured is the one who has the power to forgive. In forgiving the paralytic, Jesus was teaching that all sins were against God, and He was God. He alone had the power to forgive sin.

Secondly, He was teaching us, that the physical problem is not the primary problem. It’s a symptom of a deeper problem. Jesus, seeing the heart, goes to the root of the problem. All sickness finds it’s root in sin. Now I know that is not a popular thing to say in this day and age. I might get stoned, or pelted with sand in this case, for saying such a thing. I’m not saying that every illness is the result of an individual’s particular sin. I am saying that sin is the result of living in a fallen world. Romans 5:12 says, “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned.” Sin is the cause of death, and death is the result of illness. The wages of sin is death. It is appointed unto man once to die. It is part of the curse that came upon the human race at the fall.

But in this modern world of healthcare and hospitals and luxury lifestyles, we suffer under the misconception that God wants everyone to be healthy, wealthy and happy. So from our perspective, the most important thing is health. But from God’s perspective, the most important thing is eternal life, undoing the curse of the fall. Unfortunately, oftentimes today even church leadership has the same short sided perspective. I was at a pastor’s conference a few years ago, and about a 1000 pastors were there from all over the country. A missionary was speaking about reaching one village after another with the gospel. They had never heard it before. And so entire villages were being saved and they had baptisms immediately afterwards before moving on the next village. The missionary spoke of how dozens and dozens, if not hundreds of natives were saved in village after village. And as he spoke, I heard a few Amens grunted here and there from the crowd. But then he spoke of a baptism in which one woman’s baby died. And she brought the baby to the pastor, and he said when it touched the water it came back to life, and he gave it back to the mother. And the whole crowd of pastors gave him a standing ovation. I found it incongruous that when 100’s of people were saved from the second death there were a few grunts of Amen. But when one baby is saved from the first death, it results in a standing ovation. That tells you where our theology is focused, ladies and gentlemen. We are not focused on men’s souls, but on men’s health and prosperity.

The most important principle taught here though is that of Christ’s authority to forgive sin. When Jesus said “your sins are forgiven,” the Pharisees started thinking “blasphemy!” They thought that they had found something to pin on Jesus in order to condemn Him. But Mark says that Jesus knew their hearts. He knew what they were thinking in their minds. I wish that we really believed that. That God could read our minds. If we truly believed that we would be down on our knees this morning asking for forgiveness for ourselves. Jeremiah 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” Well, God knows your heart.

Mark 2:6-9 “But some of the scribes were sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, “Why does this man speak that way? He is blaspheming; who can forgive sins but God alone?” Immediately Jesus, aware in His spirit that they were reasoning that way within themselves, said to them, “Why are you reasoning about these things in your hearts? “Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven’; or to say, ‘Get up, and pick up your pallet and walk’?

So we see that the Lord is willing to illustrate His authority over sin through physical healing. But the question He asks bears some scrutiny. The question of which is easier to say? Well it is certainly easier to say your sins be forgiven you if you are a charlatan. Because it is virtually impossible in this life to know if they are forgiven or not. So on the surface it would seem that Jesus is saying that it is harder to say “Get up and walk” because that requires results in real time. Not in eternity out there some where, but right here, right now.

But in actuality, Jesus may have been saying that it is harder to say “your sins are forgiven.” Because Jesus was the truth personified. He could not lie. And so for Him to be able to say that your sins are forgiven, then He had to be willing to die on the cross for sins. In that respect, it is immeasurably harder to forgive sins than to heal a physical handicap. A doctor can in some cases heal, but only God can forgive sins.

It’s interesting that the word used for “forgiven” means literally to be sent away. I spoke a couple of weeks ago in chapter one about how after Jesus’s baptism the Holy Spirit impelled Him to go out into the wilderness. And I said then that was a picture of the Day of Atonement ceremony, when the scapegoat was laid upon symbolically with the sins of the people and then driven out into the wilderness to bear away their sins. And how Christ, the sinless Lamb of God bore our sins away. Here again we see that illustrated. Jesus does not merely say “I will forget about your sins, they are not important,” but He illustrates the need to bear them away. God’s justice requires that sin be paid for. And Christ came to take away our sins upon Himself so that we might be made free. So it was more difficult to say “your sins are forgiven.”

But again, Jesus knows their hearts, knows their misconceptions, and so He answers them in their ignorance. He says in vs10, “But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—He *said to the paralytic, “I say to you, get up, pick up your pallet and go home.”

Please understand this. It is not that Jesus had the power to heal, therefore He has the power to forgive. But He has the power to forgive, therefore He has the power to heal. According to Hebrews 7:25, “He is able to save to the uttermost that come to God by Him, seeing that He ever lives to make intercession for them.” He is able to save not only physically, but eternally, because He is able to deal with the root cause of all infirmity, of all death.

It’s interesting that the word that Jesus uses to say get up, or rise up, is the same word that is used by Mark to speak of Jesus’s resurrection from the dead. So there is a sense in which as Jesus is healing him physically, He is also healing him spiritually, in raising him from his deadness, to walk in new life in Christ.

And that teaches us the final principle. That the Christian life is not just believing in some sort of detached, theological or intellectual way. But that in our sinful state we are incapacitated, unable to walk in the Spirit. Unable to walk in fellowship with God. Sin has paralyzed us spiritually, so that we are dead in our trespasses and sins. But when the love of God appeared, we are saved not on the basis of our works, which was impossible being dead and in our sins. But we were saved on the basis of Christ’s righteousness through the grace of God which is ` credited towards us. Then being forgiven and clothed in His righteousness, we are made able to walk in new life through the power of the Holy Spirit who now dwells in us. Faith is always tied to action in the Bible. Rise up and walk. Come and follow Me.

Notice in vs.12 the result; “And he got up and immediately picked up the pallet and went out in the sight of everyone, so that they were all amazed and were glorifying God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this.” Let me say it this way, a life that is transformed, that walks out their faith by their actions in the community, will result in not only the amazement of your community, but it will also glorify God. Our testimony is not necessarily our words, but our actions. When we live a life that is radically different than before, when we take on the nature of the life of Christ, then we bring glory to God. And that is our purpose. That is why God leaves us on this earth, to be useful in service to Him. But for the grace of God we should all be in the death grip of infirmity. God has granted us life and health so that we might serve Him and bring glory to God. And when we have fulfilled that purpose according to His will, He will take us home to be with Him. Until that day, let us use wisely the stewardship of life that He has given us, and be about the business of our Father, building up the kingdom of God.

Mark writes in the opening verse of this book, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” Gospel comes from the Greek word euaggelion, which means good news. And so thus far in this book, Mark has been showing us various aspects of the gospel. Last time we looked at the message of the gospel, which is repentance of your sins and faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God. Then we looked at the ministry of the gospel, which is to make disciples. Today, we are looking another aspect of the gospel, which is the authority of the gospel. Authority speaks of power, or control, or supremacy. Mark shows us in some very vivid ways that the gospel of Christ was one of authority. And to start with we are going to see that it has authority in two realms, both the physical and the spiritual. And that’s important to understand, because the gospel must have power in both realms in order to be what it claims to be. It cannot be merely physical, for then it would fall short of the spiritual, eternal realm, and it would have no lasting power to save. And it must not be merely spiritual, without any immediate benefit, because if it is ineffective on the temporal, then we should believe no claim of it’s benefit in the spiritual. So Mark shows that it is powerful in both realms. Thus we can agree with Paul in Romans 1:16; “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”

This principle of the authority of the gospel in the physical and spiritual realm is going to be emphasized again and again in Mark’s book, especially in our passage for next week in chapter 2 when we look at the healing of the paralytic. In that example, you will remember that Jesus was criticized for saying to the sick man, “your sins are forgiven.” The scribes said, “Who can forgive sins but God?” And so Jesus said to them, “Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven’; or to say, ‘Get up, and pick up your pallet and walk’? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—He *said to the paralytic, “I say to you, get up, pick up your pallet and go home.” Thus it is clear that Christ’s power over the physical realm which can be seen is evidence of His authority in the spiritual realm which is unseen.

Now that principle is illustrated in this passage by a series of events stretching over a 24 hour period of Jesus’s life. And in the process of studying these events, I hope to show you not only the authority of the gospel in the physical and spiritual realm, but the source of it’s authority, and an illustration of the power of the gospel to cleanse from sin, the power to save both now and forever.

First let’s start then in vs 21, as Jesus and His disciples go to Capernaum. There we see that Jesus went to the synagogue on the Sabbath and began to teach. And it says that He taught with authority, and the people were amazed at His teaching, because it was not as the scribes were used to doing, but He taught with authority. Twice in retelling this story, Mark uses the word authority to describe the teaching of Jesus. The gospel has authority because it is the truth of God. It has power because it is the truth of God. Jesus said in John 8:32, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

If the gospel is to be authoritative, if it is to have power, it must be the truth of God. And we cannot cherry pick truth. We can’t emphasize one aspect of God’s truth, and neglect others which we don’t necessarily favor, or which are not politically correct. Truth is composed of the whole counsel of God, and when certain parts are left out, then you end up with a half truth. And no one is saved with a half truth. They might like the way it tastes, but it has no power to save unless it is the undiluted, full truth of the gospel.

And what was He teaching? Well, we don’t know the particulars of His message, but we know the principles. There were two principles of His preaching as stated in vs 14, “Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” So the two basic tenets of the gospel are repentance and faith. That was the message of Jesus, and we can assume that is what He was teaching in Capernaum.

Now notice that as He was teaching, a man in the synagogue with an unclean spirit cried out, saying, ““What business do we have with each other, Jesus of Nazareth? Have You come to destroy us? I know who You are—the Holy One of God!” Now I don’t want to focus our attention completely on demons this morning. Our focus is on the authority and power of the gospel. But there are some things which we can learn from this regarding the authority of the gospel over the spiritual realm.

First though, I would point out that this man was in the synagogue on a Sabbath morning, presumably to worship God. I want you to know something folks, Paul said in 2 Cor.11:14 that Satan loves to disguise himself as an angel of light. Satan and his demons are fallen angels. They are called the dominion of darkness. In Ephesians 6:12 it says, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.” That’s the demonic realm, the spiritual realm, which is the dominion of darkness. And I want you to know that these fallen angels often hide out in the church, they operate under the cover of religion, they disguise themselves as angels of light.

I think Satan has deceived the world by the popular depictions of demons as portrayed by movies and media. And as a consequence we fail to recognize them. I would bet that prior to this outburst, no one in the church would have thought that this man was under demonic control. I’m sure he seemed perfectly normal, even religious. And I would also assure you that this is not just a first century phenomenon. Satan is alive and well in the church today. His unclean spirits are among us this morning. Contrary to popular doctrine, our singing of Jesus, our mention of Jesus or God, does not drive him away. He love to hide in the church.

In fact, Jesus gave a parable elsewhere in which He says that the Kingdom God (which is the church universal) is like a mustard seed, which grew into a very large tree, so that the birds nested in it’s branches. And I would suggest that many people have misinterpreted that parable. The fact that this mustard seed has not produced a normal mustard bush, but a very large tree, shows an abnormality that is not good. And furthermore, in the parable of the soils, Jesus made it clear that the birds of the air were the demons who plucked the gospel from the soil by the road, so that those who heard it were not given the opportunity for it to take root. In other words, the birds are demons who are working in the church, taking refuge in the church, to pluck up the seed, which is the word of God and prevent it from taking root. So we know that Satan and his angels are at work in the church. Not everything that happens in a church is sanctioned by God. In fact, Paul warns Timothy that the Spirit explicitly says in the last days some will fall away from the faith by listening to doctrines of demons. He isn’t talking about witchcraft there, but he is talking about false teachers in the church perverting or subverting the gospel.

Well, it’s unlikely that anyone would have suspected this man of being under the dominion of an unclean spirit. But as we see, he recognized Jesus, and he yells out at Him, “what have we to do with you Jesus of Nazareth?” You know at first glance, what the demon says doesn’t seem to bad. He says Jesus is the Holy One of God. But James tells us that the demons believe in God and shudder. They do not doubt God’s existence. They recognize Jesus, because they being a spirit recognize the Spirit of God in Christ. But they are terrified of Him because they know He has the authority to cast them into the pit of hell. And they know that He is going to do it. But I believe the unclean spirit cried out, because he knew that Christ recognized him, and knew that He had come to destroy the works of the devil. 1 John 3:8 says, “The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.”

Now let me expand upon this for a moment. Because I only quoted part of 1John 3:8. The whole verse tells us what the works of the devil are; “the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil.” So from that we can understand that demonic influence or control stems from sin, especially harboring unrepentant sin. I believe everyone who gives himself to sin, to some degree or another, perhaps unknowingly, opens himself up to demonic influence. The degree to which that influence is pervasive depends upon how much the person submits himself to that sin. And whether or not it is noticeable to himself or to others, he is under the influence of an unclean spirit, because he is bound by sin.

In the case of this man in Capernaum, as I said, I doubt that it was evident how much he was under the influence or control of a demon. But when he met Christ, it became apparent. I know I have encounter similar experiences on a number of occasions. A person seemed normal, even expressing perhaps a degree of spiritual knowledge, and then for some unexplained reason they seem to explode. They start yelling, cursing, and sometimes blaspheming God. And it can be a bizarre experience to see someone start acting like that. A lot of the time it’s not that apparent, maybe it’s just an outburst of anger and you don’t know where it comes from. I would suggest that it comes from a resentment towards the gospel, especially when you call out sin. But that’s when we have to realize that we are not fighting a person, we do not wrestle with flesh and blood, but we need to see the unclean spirit which is behind that person, pulling their strings.

Well, Jesus shows His authority over the spiritual realm, defeating it with His word. He commands the unclean spirit to be quiet, and to come out of him, and it throws the man in convulsions, and with a loud scream comes out of him. And Mark tells us the people are amazed, and declare that His teaching is with such authority, that even the unclean spirits obey Him.

Next we see Jesus’s authority over the physical realm. Mark says after visiting the synagogue, Jesus goes to Peter’s house, and his mother in law is sick. This indicates by the way that Peter was married, or at least had been married. One cannot have a mother in law unless you have been married. So those that teach that Peter was the first pope, (of which doctrine I disagree) need to reevaluate their policy of celibacy for priests based on the precedence of Peter.

Peter’s mother in law had a fever. Not much is known about the severity of her illness, but it was a hindrance to her hospitality at the very least. Jesus shows His compassion on her and upon Simon Peter and takes her by the hand and raises her up. And the scripture says her fever left her and she began to wait on them.

I would just point out the simplicity of this miracle of healing as a contrast to what we often see today portrayed as a healing ministry. Jesus in all of the healings that He performs, and in all the demons that He casts out, makes a point to tell the beneficiaries not to broadcast what He has done. But of course they can’t help it. And so as we see in the healing mentioned in vs45, the news about Him becomes spread throughout the region and great crowds start coming to Him so that He cannot even come into a city.

Now most modern day, so called faith healers would not see that kind of popularity as a bad thing. In fact they seek to take advantage of the sensational claims of healing to attract a crowd. But Jesus was not interested in drawing crowds to be healed, or drawing great crowds to witness miracles. He wasn’t interested in sensationalism. But He was interested in teaching and preaching the word of God.

I don’t believe the Bible teaches us, nor does this passage teach us, that God decrees that all physical ills will be healed. I believe that God does heal, and that Jesus healed many people, but He did not heal everyone. At the Pool of Bethesda, for instance. The porch area was filled with sick people, and yet Jesus healed just one. At the tomb of Lazarus, there were undoubtedly many dead people in the cemetery, but Jesus only raised Lazarus. I am not sure why God choses to heal some and not all. But I do know that the Bible teaches in Hebrews 9:27 that it is appointed unto all men once to die. Everyone is going to die once. And usually death comes through sickness of some sort. But what Christ came to save us from is the second death. The second death is eternal separation from God and torment for eternity.

But as Paul said, whether I live or die is not important to me, but if the Lord let’s me live, then that will mean fruitful labor for me, but if I die so much the better, I will be with the Lord. So perhaps that’s God’s motivation for healing physically. So that it might result in fruitful labor for the kingdom of God. Peter’s mother in law was healed of her illness, and as a result, she began to serve the Lord and His disciples. And that is a good picture of how we should respond to the grace of God in our lives. Our health, our physical blessings should make our hearts grateful to God so that we would serve God and not just ourselves. God’s gifts of health are not just for our own benefit. I know from experience, and I am sure some of you do as well, how fragile human health is, and how fleeting it is. Our life and health is a stewardship from God that we might use it in service of the Kingdom in the time that is allotted to us.

Now in vs32-34, Mark tells us that as the Sabbath ended, and travel was again enabled, people began to come to Capernaum where Jesus was to be healed and delivered from unclean spirits. And while that illustrates even further the two realms that Jesus had authority over, the spiritual and the physical, I would also point out that there is made a distinction between being afflicted by illness and being afflicted by demons. They are not necessarily the same. Sometimes we are going to see in scripture that someone suffered a physical infirmity because of a demon. But that in no way means that all illnesses are a result of demons. All illness is the result of the curse upon creation as a result of sin entering the world. But those that suffer illness do not necessarily suffer as a result of their individual sin. If that were the case, then none of us would escape. But ultimately, sin does cause all to die. The wages of sin is death. Romans 6:23. And all have sinned. But the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Well, we have to hurry if we want to finish this section. There is much more I could say, but not enough time this morning. Let’s look at the third aspect of authority, and that is the source of authority. Or the source of power. As we fight the spiritual battle and deal with the physical realm in which we live, the source of Jesus’s power and authority is the same source that we have, which is fellowship and communion with the Father. And we see that explained in vs.35: “In the early morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house, and went away to a secluded place, and was praying there.” I’ve said it before in defense of our early meeting times, that good things happen early in the morning. Jesus got up to pray while it was still dark.

You know, I love to surf. And yet I hate crowds. I like surfing with one or two guys max, but around here that just doesn’t happen. So I look forward to low tide when it comes early in the morning. I love paddling out while it is still dark. And when the light is just starting to glow on the horizon, I manage to get some good waves all to myself. But I also love to pray early in the morning. And I’ve found if I don’t pray in the morning, then the quality of my prayer life goes downhill. Surfers call those early morning sessions a dawn patrol. And perhaps that is a good name for our early prayer time. Get up early in the morning and walk and talk with the Lord and I assure you that it will provide power and authority in your spiritual walk.

Jesus of all people didn’t need to get up early and pray. And yet Jesus did it the most. Many times He prayed spent the night in prayer. I would suggest that the reason most of us do not have authority or power in our walk, or authority over sin, or see results in our evangelism, is because we do not avail ourselves of planned, purposeful, strategic prayer. If Jesus needed to pray all night or all morning, then how much more do we?

I would encourage you, pray purposefully. Jesus talked in the Sermon on the Mount about praying in your closet. Have a special place of prayer. Daniel prayed three times a day in his upper room facing Jerusalem. Pray strategically. There are a lot of things I could say about prayer. But just notice what Jesus illustrates in this example. He got up early, and He went to a secluded place. Get alone with God where you can really open up and talk to Him. I suggest praying out loud. That’s why it’s good to go to a secluded place. That way people don’t think you are crazy when they hear you talking out loud. I like those early surf sessions alone because I pray out loud. And sometimes I catch myself doing it when others come out. I was in California last week and I surfed Malibu Friday before I left. And I was having a great time, catching a lot of waves, and I was praying sporadically out loud. I thought no one was near by. But I happened to turn around and saw this guy had paddled up behind me and I didn’t know he was there. But California is full of crazy people. I saw more people talking to themselves out there than I’ve seen in my entire life. So I probably just fit in with everyone else. They figured I was as crazy as they were. But around here you might draw attention to yourself if you’re praying out loud.

However, I will say, that it is a benefit not only to you to pray out loud, I think it’s a benefit to God, and I think praying out loud defeats the devil as well. When he hears your prayers, when he hears your faith, then I think the devil knows that the source of your power is God. The source of Jesus’s authority was the communion and fellowship He had with the Father. And that is the source of our power as well. When we commune with God, when we fellowship with God, when we pray and read His word, then we have power with God, because we are united with God.

Mark ends this section with the story of the leper who was cleansed. I’ve said it before many times, that every miracle that Jesus did is a spiritual parable meant to teach us a spiritual principle. And I think that this miracle illustrates the power of the gospel over sin which is the root of all illness and all affliction. And I would point out that among the Jews during those days the rabbis taught that leprosy was the direct result of God’s visible judgment of sin in a person’s life. As a result, they taught that you were to avoid such people, not even to speak to them. They were outcasts from society. They were looked upon as the worst of sinners upon whom God had judged in the flesh for all to see. And so the leper had to announce his presence as he walked through the community by calling out “Unclean! Unclean!”

This leper that comes to Jesus is a picture of a repentant sinner who comes to Jesus for salvation. Notice first of all that he knows he is a leper. He knows he is unclean. He comes before Jesus and bows down on his knees. He has a repentant attitude. He doesn’t have any hope of healing outside of Jesus. There was no cure for leprosy. It was a horrible illness that rotted your fingers and then all your extremities away and totally destroyed you little by little. What a picture of the nature of sin. Satan loves to tell you that a little sin won’t hurt you. A little peccadillo won’t really matter. But he knows that sin is like leprosy. It starts with a little spot on your skin, and then it spreads to your hair, and then starts to rot your fingers and toes, your ears and your nose until it one day totally destroys you. Listen, there is no sanctified sin. Sin is death and sin brings death. Sin is an invitation to demonic affliction. Sin results in separation from the source of life, the Creator God.

But this leper illustrates how to be cleansed from sin. He comes on his knees. He comes as a beggar. He comes confessing his need to be clean. And then we see salvation. Jesus moved with compassion. Did you know that Jesus came to save the lost? He came to save those that were like this leper. Jesus says in chapter 2 vs 17, “They that are whole have no need of a physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Listen, don’t be deceived. You cannot be saved unless you first realize that you are lost, that you are diseased, that you are hopeless and helpless. Come to Jesus like that, and He will have compassion on you. And I want you to note something. Jesus touched the untouchable. You were not supposed to touch the leper. Jesus could have healed him with a word. But he touched him.

Folks, compassion for the lost means sometimes that you have to get your hands dirty. It’s not enough to just say you will pray for someone. Jesus gave a parable about the good shepherd who leaves the 99 sheep and goes to look for the one who is lost. He gives another parable about the good Samaritan, who gets off his horse and gets down in the dirt to tend to a stranger’s wounds. Let me tell you that ministry is a messy business. We are not called to sit in ivory towers and condemn sinners, but to go into all the world and compel them to come in. To go into the highways and the byways and tell them the good news. And sometimes in order to do that you have to help them to become well enough that they might hear it.

I tell you, California has a lot of problems. But the worst problem that it has is it’s homeless situation. I’ve never seen a greater homeless population in my life. I went to a church last Wednesday night and across the street from the entrance to their church was a empty lot that was a homeless camp. Santa Barbara is where all the movie stars have homes. You can sit in a upscale coffee shop with Maseratis and Lambourghinis parked out front, beautiful homes and all the beautiful people sipping coffee, and on the sidewalk homeless people are lying there covered in filth. Many of them are drug addicts who are helpless to get out of their situation. I don’t know how to reach them. It’s not as simple as giving them money because it just goes to fuel their addiction. But I can tell you that it’s a problem that is not going away on it’s own. It’s growing and it’s an epidemic. I do know the answer; it’s the gospel. Its the truth of God. But how to tell them when the devil has them so firmly under his control, I don’t have the answer for. But I do believe that Jesus is the only hope. So we have to do what we can, even if it means we get dirty doing it, to tell the lost that Jesus can deliver them. I believe that.

Jesus told the leper, a hopeless case if there ever was one; ““I am willing; be cleansed.” Jesus was willing to die in our place that we might have life. Jesus was willing to become our servant, so that we might become a child of God. Jesus was willing to die, so that we might be given eternal life.

Listen, that kind of humility and willingness to suffer and serve that was illustrated by Jesus is yet another source to power and authority in the gospel. Satan may tempt us with pride, he will attempt to control and oppress people through sin, but Romans 12:21 tells us that we overcome evil with good. We overcome pride with humility. We overcome sin with compassion. We overcome selfishness with service. Jesus said we should love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. We overcome evil with good. The gospel is good news. It is powerful. It is authoritative. And that power is available for those who abide in Christ, who are in fellowship with God and trust in God to provide all that is needful for service to Him. I pray that you will not be ashamed of the gospel of God, for it is the power of salvation to all who believe.

When Mark introduced this book, he said simply in vs1, that it was the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Gospel means good news, and was from the Greek word euangellion which was in use throughout the Roman Empire to announce festivals associated with emperor worship. When a new ruler took power, there was a herald that went through the kingdom announcing his coming, proclaiming the good news and calling the people to get ready for his appearing. So in like manner, Mark uses this word to describe the coming of the Kingdom of God. Mark said John the Baptist was the herald of Christ, calling people to a baptism of repentance, that their hearts might be ready to receive Him when He appeared.

So in this first chapter we see that Jesus did appear, and He was baptized in the Jordan. Not because He needed to repent of His sins, but so that He might identify with sinful man, and show that He had come to take away their sins. So as John declared “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world,” the Holy Spirit after His baptism drove Jesus out in to the wilderness, much like the scapegoat on the Day of Atonement bearing the sins of Israel was driven into the wilderness, as an illustration that Jesus would bear away the sins of the world. The scapegoat was an illustration of the essential doctrine of the gospel, that the innocent would die for the guilty. So as He was 40 days in the wilderness, Jesus emerges sinless. He overcomes all temptations of the devil.

Now when we get to vs14, we find that Mark skips about a year in the chronology of Jesus’s ministry, and picks it back up with John the Baptist having been delivered over to Herod, where he was put to death. And at that time, Mark says that Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the same gospel message that John had been preaching. Jesus was preaching, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

So in this passage we are looking at today, we are going to see two characteristics of this gospel of Jesus Christ. First we are going to look at the message of the gospel, and then the ministry of the gospel. Let’s examine first the message of the gospel.

I don’t want to gloss over the mention Mark makes that John the Baptist had been delivered up. I think this is an important principle. John had said concerning Jesus, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” And so, in this briefest of Mark’s mentions, John gives up his life in service to the Kingdom of God. That fact, that martyrdom, establishes at the outset the priority of the gospel’s message. It is a message that is worth dying for. And one way or another, the gospel demands that we all surrender our lives for the sake of the Kingdom of God. If we are to receive the life of Christ, we must be willing to give up our lives so that we might have new life. Jesus said later in Mark 8:35 “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it.” To receive the life of Christ, one must be willing to lose his life. And John the Baptist illustrated that principle when he gave his life for the sake of the gospel.

Next, we see that Jesus came preaching the gospel of God; saying, Notice first that Jesus came preaching. Preaching has fallen out of favor today. It’s unfashionable. Now that we are more sophisticated we can think of a lot better ways to present Christianity than by preaching. But Jesus came preaching. Preaching has been God’s preferred method of presenting the gospel since the days preceding the flood. Peter said Noah was a preacher of righteousness. As Paul said in 1Cor. 1:21, “For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.” Preaching may be foolishness to the world, but it is the wisdom of God by which men might believe.

So what did Jesus preach exactly? He said, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” Let’s consider the phrase “the time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand…” Greek scholars tell us that the word used here for time is not speaking of chronology so much as it refers to opportunity. The way we might understand this is He is saying, the opportunity has presented itself, the Kingdom of God is near, it’s at hand, it’s right now. Now is the acceptable day of salvation. Let me give you a warning, ladies and gentlemen. The longer you resist the gospel, the less likely you are to receive it. When you resist the urging of the Holy Spirit, then you quench the Spirit, and you harden your heart until one day, you no longer can hear the Spirit of God’s call. Do not harden your heart. The golden opportunity is now, the kingdom of God is at hand.

Now let’s consider that phrase “kingdom of God.” Matthew uses a similar phrase, “kingdom of Heaven.” They basically mean the same thing. Jesus Christ came to inaugurate the Kingdom of God. It refers to a spiritual kingdom, in which God rules the hearts and minds of His people. The Jews were looking for a physical kingdom. They were looking for Jesus to be a military conqueror, like David had been, and for the Messiah to take back his throne. But during the period between the first and second coming of Christ, the kingdom of God is spiritual. Christ rules in the hearts of His people. Jesus said in Luke 17:20. “The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed; nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or, ‘There it is!’ For behold, the kingdom of God is within you.” So for now it’s a spiritual kingdom, then at His second coming, the heavens and earth will be remade, and we will rule and reign in the new heaven and earth with Christ as HIs bride.

So for now it is spiritual, but there is a physical component of the Kingdom of God; and that is it is His church. We that are saved are the physical manifestation of the spiritual kingdom. We are the hands and feet of Christ. We are His body, His people, His community, even His sons and daughters. And so we represent the Kingdom to the world. Col. 1:13 says, “For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son.” The whole world is captive to the prince of darkness, and ensnared in the web of this world to do his will. But through Christ, we who have believed have been transferred to the Kingdom of God, and now we live for Him, and live through Him as aliens in this present world until that day when He comes back to claim His own.

Then notice next that there are two pillars of the gospel which Jesus is preaching. I mentioned these last Sunday, but it bears going over again. For the gospel is based on these two essential pillars. And when you remove one or the other, the whole gospel cannot stand. The two pillars are repentance and faith. Jesus said, ““The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” We can imagine that the gospel could be reduced to one word, truth. The truth about God, about Christ, and how we might know God. So if the truth is the gospel canopy, the pillars which hold it aloft are repentance and faith.

Last time we talked a while about repentance, particularly the aspect of confession and how it is necessary for repentance. But today I wish to bring out another aspect of repentance. The word is translated repent in some of your Bible translations is “be converted.” And that phrase graphically describes the nature of repentance. Repentance is not merely feeling sorry. But it is being converted. Being changed. Turning completely around and going in the opposite direction. It means a change of heart. And at it’s root is the realization that all that you believed and lived by until Christ is a lie and is condemning you to death. It’s an appeal to God to be remade, to be transformed, to be made anew. Repentance means to be converted, to be changed. Listen, when you go to another country, the first thing you need to do is convert your currency to the currency of the country you are in. You cannot spend your money there. You need their money. And when you come to the Kingdom of God, you cannot spend the money from the dominion of darkness there. You must convert your currency. And your currency is your very life. It must be converted by the grace of God.

And that conversion requires faith, the other pillar of the gospel. The Bible tells us that “Abraham believed God, and He counted it to Him as righteousness.” That is the new currency of the new life in the Kingdom of God; righteousness. And God gives us righteousness in exchange for our sins. That’s pretty crazy isn’t it? We give God our sins, and He gives us in exchange righteousness. Our sins are transferred to Jesus, and His righteousness is transferred to us. 2Cor.5:21 says, “God made Jesus, who knew no sin, to become sin for us, that we might be made righteous in Him.” That is the gospel. That is how we are transferred to the Kingdom of God. Not by works, not by baptism, not even by confession, but by faith in what Jesus did on the cross for us. He was the innocent Son of God, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, who took upon Himself our sins on the cross so that we who believe on Him would be granted His righteousness. Now that is the message of the gospel that Jesus was preaching.

Next, let’s look at the ministry of the gospel. Ministry means work or service. Jesus after His resurrection left those of us in HIs church with a work to do. It is a ministry of service that all of us are supposed to be doing until He comes. Do you remember what this work is? It’s found in Matt. 28:18-20 “And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

So the key word there is disciples; the ministry of the gospel is to make disciples. We that have been taught, are to teach others. We that have been brought to Christ, are to bring others. And Jesus illustrates this very thing Himself. He has already met these four fishermen several months before. Mark does not elaborate on that, but John’s gospel tells us how these men initially met the Lord. But now Christ comes to them and calls them to follow Him. He says to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men.”

This principle of becoming followers of Christ is so important. Peter talks about following Jesus’s example. 1Peter 2:21 “For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps.” Being a disciple is not a position you rest upon, but a person you imitate. To be a disciple is to be a follower of Christ, or a follower of another exemplary Christian. Paul said, “be imitators of me.” Folks, if we could say that to our children, if we could say that to our families, if we could say that to our neighbors, then the church would be a radically different place.

Well, Jesus called these men to be His disciples; to walk where He walked, to say what He said, to do as He did. In other words, it means being conformed to the image of Christ. Romans 8:29-30 “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.” We have been called to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. We are to look like Him, talk like Him, act like Him. That is how the spiritual Kingdom of God is manifested to the world.

Now how does this work itself out in the real world? Let’s look at Peter, Andrew, James and John and find out. I want you to notice though first of all, that these are just working class guys. Jesus could have called high ranking government officials to be His followers. He could have recruited a few movie stars or maybe a rock and roll band or two. He could have gone to a few major league ball teams and got some famous players to help Him spread the gospel. That’s how we would probably do it, wouldn’t we? Those kind of people would attract a crowd. But instead, He goes to Galilee and picks four regular guys, uneducated, a little rough around the edges. They might even have had a particular fishy odor about them. But that was who Jesus chose to be His closest companions and ambassadors to the world. And I believe He did so that we might know that He came to seek and to save those that were lost. Jesus said in Luke 5:32 “I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”

And that is because there is none righteous, no not one. That is why repentance is necessary for conversion. But also Christ chose the worthless things of the world so that salvation may be of God and not of man. 1Cor. 1:26-29 For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God.”

So Christ calls these men, these common, everyday, working class guys, to leave everything and follow Him, and in return He will make them fishers of men. Now that’s a test of our value system isn’t it? Which do you think is more valuable? Your career, your business? Or being a fisherman for the Kingdom of God?

Well, Peter and Andrew, his brother, were using a casting net to catch fish when Jesus came by. And when He called them, they left their nets and followed Him. There is nothing inherently sinful about fishing, of course. That’s not why they left their nets. But there was something a lot better. Jesus said on another occasion in Matt. 6:24 “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.” Peter and Andrew decided it was better to serve God rather than the world, to lay up eternal treasure in heaven than to store up temporal treasure on earth.

James and John were working down the beach, mending nets. And when Jesus came by them, He called them to follow Him as well. And immediately, Mark said, they left their nets, they left their father with the boat and hired hands and followed Jesus. Jesus said at another occasion in Matt. 10:37-39 “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it.” James and John were willing to leave everything, even family, for the sake of knowing Jesus. Being a disciple then means that he who loses his life for Christ’s sake will find it.

Now it’s interesting that Mark records two aspects of fishing as illustrated by these four disciples. And perhaps we might learn something from this in regards to being fishers of men. First note that Peter and Andrew were using a casting net, which they would cast out in a large circle, and the weights around the outer edge would then drop down and capture the fish.

Jesus at another time gave a parable about using a net like that in relation to the Kingdom of God. He said in Matt.13:47-50, “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind: Which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away. So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just, And shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.”

Now that’s a picture of the preaching of the gospel. It is cast into the world, and many types of people are caught up in it. Many come under the sound of the gospel, they hear the truth. But some repent and believe and are saved into the Kingdom of God, and some reject it, and are lost. And at the judgment, those that have rejected the truth of the gospel will be thrown into the Lake of Fire. But those who are found written in the book of life, will reign forever with the Lord.

Then notice that James and John are mending their nets when Jesus passes by. This picture illustrates the other aspect of ministry. Mark’s term for mending their nets means to put in order, or to make ready, and so includes cleansing, mending and preparing the nets for the next day’s fishing. Interestingly enough, a derivative of this same word is used in Ephesians 4:12 in which Paul describes the work of the pastor as equipping the saints. Strong’s Bible dictionary says that to equip means to complete thoroughly, to repair or adjust, to fit, to mend, to make perfect, to perfectly join together, to prepare, or restore.

So there is the other aspect of ministry; to prepare others, to equip others, to restore others, to complete others in the church. In other words, to disciple other disciples. That’s the two fold ministry of the gospel. One to preach the gospel, casting a wide net over the world to all who will hear. We are responsible to cast forth the word, and God will give the increase or the harvest. We just preach or proclaim the good news to all who will listen. The second aspect of ministry is to disciple those who believe in the gospel. To help them, correct them, complete in them what is necessary so that they may be furnished for every good work. That they might be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. And when we are faithfully preaching the message of the gospel, and doing the ministry of the gospel, then we are truly disciples; following Jesus’s example, and we too are being confirmed to the image of Christ. May we be about the business of the Kingdom of God, until Christ comes back to take us home with Him. May we be found faithful when He comes.

If you have not yet become a disciple of Jesus Christ, then today I urge you to make the most of this opportunity. Today is the acceptable day of salvation. It is the opportune time. Please don’t harden your heart against the Holy Spirit. Repent and believe the gospel that you might be saved. When you confess your sins to God, He will exchange your sins for Christ’s righteousness and give you life in Him. Take advantage of this offer today. Come to Jesus today.

Today we begin our study in the gospel of Mark. Mark is the shortest of all the gospels. It is thought by some to be the first of the four gospels written. And yet, I have saved it for last. We have finished Matthew, Luke and John and now it behooves us to look at this book. And following Mark’s example at directness and terseness, I don’t want to spend a lot of time on an introduction and filling in all sorts of biographical details. I want to get right to the message, just as Mark did.

I will only say by way of introduction that Mark is the same as John Mark, found elsewhere in the scriptures. He was a cousin of Barnabas, and accompanied Barnabas and Paul on a missionary journey. But perhaps due to his young age, or some other reason, he deserted the mission trip mid way, and as such caused a great division between Paul and Barnabas later on when Barnabas wanted to take him on another trip. Paul and Barnabas went their separate ways, but later on, at the end of Paul’s ministry, he makes mention of Mark and how desirable he was for service to the Lord.

One reason for that seems to be that during those intervening years, Mark became a close disciple of Peter. Peter was the first elder of the church at Jerusalem, and there seems to be an indication that Peter’s church was often held at Mark’s mother’s house, whose name was Mary. So though Mark was not one of the 12 disciples, nor one of the apostles, he was a protege and interpreter for Peter. And so his historical information comes from Peter, and of course, the Holy Spirit provided the divine inspiration.

Now that’s enough of an introduction. By the way, John Mark does not identify himself by name as the author, but as early as the 2nd century church fathers wrote that Mark was in fact the author, and that view seems to be held without question. However, Mark is not interested in introducing himself, because he is focused on introducing Jesus Christ to a primarily Gentile audience in Rome. And so he gets right to it, in vs.1.

I want to point out first that Mark is the only gospel writer to call his book the gospel. The word “gospel” is one of those church words we hear from time to time, without perhaps knowing exactly the significance of it. Gospel comes from the Greek word euaggelion, which means good news, or good tidings. That word euaggelion is the same word from which we get our word evangelist. Evangelist means simply, the bearer of good news.

It’s interesting that in Roman times, euaggelion was used in celebration of the emperor cult, when they announced the birthday of the emperor or his ascension to power, it was celebrated with festivals called an evangel. Mark, writing to a primarily Roman audience, uses this same word to announce the inauguration of the Kingdom of God, whose Lord of all is Jesus Christ. The good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is a reason for rejoicing throughout the world, from that day through the ages to come.

So Mark says in vs1 that this is the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ. He is not writing a history, he is not writing a biography, but the gospel of Jesus Christ. The good news of Jesus Christ; who He is, what He said, and what He manifested to the world about God the Father, about Himself and God’s love for mankind.

Now let’s look at who Mark says Jesus is. First he says His name is Jesus, which means Jehovah saves; a real man, verified by history and eyewitnesses, who lived in the region of Galilee, who walked the earth 2000 years ago. Secondly, Mark says He is the Christ. That’s not the last name of Jesus, but a title. Christ is the Greek word for the Messiah. Jesus is the promised One, the seed of the woman, who would crush Satan’s head and provide liberty for the captives. Thirdly, Mark says He is the Son of God. He is deity, the incarnate God born in human flesh. Then there is one more title for Jesus in vs.3 which Mark attributes to Jesus, and that is Lord. Lord means sovereign, Master, ruler over the kingdom. But the scripture in Isaiah which Mark is quoting presents Lord in all capital letters, which was the word the Hebrews designated as a substitute for the personal, holy name of God, which is Jehovah. So Mark is in effect attributing LORD Jehovah to the name of Jesus.

Now that is good news! God has come down to man, in the form of Jesus Christ, to establish His kingdom, and to declare freedom to those who are held captive to the dominion of darkness.

Now in the uaggelion of the Romans, when an Emperor would take over his regime, there would be messengers who would go throughout the empire announcing his coming and preparing the people for his arrival. And in somewhat of a similar fashion, God appointed evangelists to prepare the hearts of the people as well to receive His King. Mark introduces the primary evangel, one John the Baptist, by reminding the reader that such a messenger had been prophesied in the scriptures.

Mark is quoting from the book of Isaiah, chapter 40 which was fulfilled by the ministry of John the Baptist. John the Baptist fulfills not only prophecy, but also a vital function in the preparation for the gospel. He prepares the way for Christ’s kingdom not by sweeping the streets and putting the village or city in order, but by preparing people’s hearts so that they will receive the gospel. The kingdom of God is a spiritual kingdom, and so the preparation of the heart for receiving the Lord was the ministry of John.

Now how did John do that? Well, vs4 tells us; he preached a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Listen, the vital ingredient to the gospel that is often missing today is repentance. Lot’s of people claim a sort of faith or belief that God exists. They may believe certain facts about Jesus. But without repentance, there is no forgiveness of sin. Jesus said in Luke 24:46-47 “Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.” Repentance is essential for forgiveness. Repentance is recognizing you are a sinner, that you are lost, that you are estranged from God and helpless to be reconciled to God on your own.

And that is the significance of baptism. The significance is not water, whether by immersion or sprinkling. The significance was it was a public confession that you needed to be totally cleansed of your sin in order to be acceptable to the Lord and admitted into His kingdom. Now that was taught by baptism. In Jewish life, there was a baptism that was practiced to a limited degree, but it was not for Jews. It was a baptism for converts to Judaism from the pagan world. It was called becoming a proselyte. There was a method for converting a Gentile to being accepted by God and that was the baptism of a proselyte.

So in effect, what John the Baptist was showing them was that this repentance went so far as to say not only are you a sinner, but even your birthright is of no benefit to you. You are so estranged from God that you need to come to Him just as a pagan must come; renouncing all that you are, all that you claim, all your works, for the sake of knowing God and being accepted by God.

And note in vs.5, Mark says that the whole country was so moved by John’s message, that they came out of the cities to him in the wilderness, to be baptized in the dirty, muddy water of the Jordan, (that provided a necessary humbling experience in and of itself) and note what he says, “confessing their sins.” Make no mistake, confession is an essential ingredient in repentance. 1 John 1:9 says “if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” David says in Psalm 32:5 “I acknowledged my sin to You, And my iniquity I did not hide; I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the LORD’; And You forgave the guilt of my sin.” James 5:16 says, “Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed.” James is not necessarily talking about physical healing there, but spiritual healing.

Listen, there is no need to sit down and think of every bad thing you have ever done and write them down. Some of us would be there a year just making confession! But what confession is meant to do is establish that sin is indeed sin. There is no sanctified sin. There may be more severe punishment for some sins above others, but sin is sin. And confession means confessing that your sin is sin and that it is worthy of death. It is more than enough to prohibit you from entrance into God’s kingdom.

That’s why in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus equates hate with murder, lust with adultery and so forth. What we think isn’t so bad, in God’s eyes is an abomination. He is holy and righteous and just. And in His kingdom, sin must be dealt with. And the first step to that is recognizing your sin is sin, and it is an affront to a Holy and Righteous Creator. So repentance, which means to humble yourself, confess your sins, and proclaim your need for forgiveness is one of the twin pillars of the gospel, and it is illustrated by baptism.

Baptism is being lowered under the water, which signifies dying to the old nature, and then being raised from the water, which signifies new life in the Spirit. Baptism then is not the means of salvation, but an illustration of it; a public confession of your sins and your need for new life.

Now in vs6, Mark tells us that John the Baptist came clothed in the garments of an Old Testament prophet, as in the spirit of Elijah. Elijah was the greatest prophet in the Old Testament, and later on Jesus will say concerning John the Baptist, that he was the greatest among men. But though Elijah was the greatest prophet up to John the Baptist, and John the Baptist was the greatest among men, yet John tells us that someone much greater than he was coming.

Vs.7 And he was preaching, and saying, “After me One is coming who is mightier than I, and I am not fit to stoop down and untie the thong of His sandals.” He was speaking like the job of the lowest servant, unworthy to do even the lowliest job, to untie the laces of Christ’s sandals. But it’s interesting that Jesus did exactly that at the Last Supper, when He washed the disciples feet. Jesus Christ, Lord God of all creation, humbled Himself to become our servant, to cleanse us so that we might be made sons and daughters of God.

But John was emphasizing Christ’s exalted position as Lord of All. Though John was a great prophet, and Moses and Elijah were great prophets, someone greater than a prophet was here, namely Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

John gives another contrast as well, which differentiates Christ’s ministry from John’s. He says in vs 8 “I baptized you with water; but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” Water was a symbol of dying to sin, repentance and confession, but when Christ baptizes you with the Holy Spirit, you are given new life so that you may walk in the Spirit. As the water cleanses you on the outside, completely enveloping your flesh, so the Spirit cleanses you on the inside, completely filling your flesh with a new nature. So that you no longer walk according to the flesh in this new life, but you walk in the Spirit. Any man can wash with water, but only God can cleanse your heart and make it like new.

Then in vs. 9, we now see Jesus coming from Nazareth, in Galilee to be baptized by John. Even this description of Mark reveals the humility of Jesus as He became man to be our Savior. Jesus was a common name, much like John might be today. Nazareth was a despised town, and Galilee was a region that was looked down upon as ignorant, backwoods people. The Son of God associated Himself with the commonest of man , so that He might be the Savior of all. Isaiah 53:2-3 speaks of the Messiah; “For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, And like a root out of parched ground; He has no stately form or majesty That we should look upon Him, Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him. He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.”

I dare say that no one who saw Jesus come to be baptized that day saw anything remarkable about Him. He would not have stood out of the crowd. He had no stately form or majesty that we should look admiringly upon Him. He was no more remarkable in appearance than a servant.

That is, until Jesus came up out of the water. Look at vs.10 “Immediately coming up out of the water, He saw the heavens opening, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon Him; and a voice came out of the heavens: “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well-pleased.” Prior to His baptism, no one recognized anything special about Him. But God the Father could not help but proclaim when He saw the Son submit to His will, “You are My beloved Son, in You I am well pleased.”

That’s an incredible affirmation from God Himself as to the divinity of Jesus Christ. But there is a question that must be asked. Why, if Jesus had so pleased God the Father, did He need a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins? Well the answer is that Jesus did not need to be baptized for HIs sin, but He was baptized to identify with our sin. He came to take away man’s sin by taking it upon Himself, and dying in our place to pay the penalty that we were due, so that we might be set free.

2Cor. 5:21 says, “[God] made [Jesus] who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” God was pleased with Christ’s righeousness. But God was well pleased because Christ humbled Himself to become our Savior, by taking our sins upon HImself.

Going back to Isaiah 53:10-12 we read “But the LORD was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand. As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, As He will bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, And He will divide the booty with the strong; Because He poured out Himself to death, And was numbered with the transgressors; Yet He Himself bore the sin of many, And interceded for the transgressors.”

So not only do we have the verbal testimony of God, but also a physical attestation from the Holy Spirit. Mark says the Holy Spirit descended upon Him like a dove. Notice that Mark doesn’t say it was a dove, but it was like a dove. I think it was clearly something extraordinary, something supernatural, something identifiable as the Spirit of God, but He was described as being “like a dove.”

The point is not to quibble though over the appearance and what that looked like, but to see the multiple testimonies that Jesus was the righteous, holy Messiah, the Son of God, who came as a man, to identify with man, and take away his sins. In fact in this text there are five witnesses of who Jesus is; Mark said Jesus is the Son of God in vs.1, the prophets said Jesus is Lord in vs3, John the Baptist said Jesus was the One after me who is mightier than I in vs7, God the Father said Jesus is the Beloved Son of God in vs.11, and the Holy Spirit anointed Him in vs10.

Now all of that testimony is given that we might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, the Savior of the world. In short, that we might have faith, the other essential pillar of the gospel. Faith in who Jesus is, and faith in what He came to do. Our faith is founded on facts from eyewitnesses to His glory. Peter said in 2Peter 1:16 “For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty.”

Faith is believing not only that He exists, but in the sufficiency of what He did. He was the One in whom the Father was well pleased. He knew no sin. But God placed on Him the iniquity of us all that He might be our substitute, by dying on the cross for sin. Faith is receiving His sacrifice as a substitute for my sins.

Mark makes one more statement about the sinlessness of Christ, so that He might be the perfect substitute, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And that is found in vs 12-13 “Immediately the Spirit impelled Him to go out into the wilderness. And He was in the wilderness forty days being tempted by Satan; and He was with the wild beasts, and the angels were ministering to Him.”

Most of us are familiar with the story of Jesus’s temptation. Satan tested Jesus with every temptation and Jesus refuted Him with the word of God. The other gospel’s of Matthew and Luke give us only three temptations. But notice that Mark says the temptation lasted 40 days. But it’s interesting that Mark does not give a more detailed account. It’s a brief mention, at best.

However what Mark does say is important. First he says the Spirit of God impelled Him to go into the wilderness. The picture there is one of force, the Spirit driving Jesus into the wilderness. I cannot help but see a parallel to Leviticus 16, in which the nation of Israel, on the day of Atonement, drove a scapegoat into the wilderness, in a symbolic illustration of God bearing away their sin. This is after all the ministry of the gospel, to take away sin. Jesus came to be our scapegoat.

We know from the other gospels that Jesus was innocent in those temptations in the wilderness. And once again, we are reminded of the scapegoat; the principle of the innocent dying for the guilty. That is what atonement means. The Holy and Righteous God required a payment for sin, but because of His love for us, He does not require it of us, but of His Son. Jesus was driven out into the wilderness as a picture of the innocent Lamb of God bearing away our sins as He identified with us in baptism. And having made atonement for us through His blood, we have forgiveness of sins by faith in Him, and we see the risen Jesus acting on our behalf as our High Priest. Hebrews 4:15 “For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.”

Well, that is the beginning of the gospel, according to Mark. The pillars of the gospel which are faith and repentance. In these first 11 verses, we see all that is necessary to be made righteous, to be given entrance into the kingdom of God. We have seen the need for repentance; confession and humility, the recognition of our sins and the need to be forgiven, to have a new life. And we have heard the testimony of Jesus Christ, the object of our faith. He is the Son of God, eternal in the heavens, in whom was no sin, and who offered Himself as our substitute, to pay our penalty for sin. And we have seen the illustration of baptism, which professes our desire to die to the old nature, and be resurrected to walk in the Spirit.

The question today is what have you done with the gospel? Have you repented and turned to Christ in faith for salvation? Do you desire to have a new life in Christ? I pray that no one here today would reject so great an offer of salvation. Jesus has paid the price, you simply must recognize that you are a sinner, and call upon the saving work of Jesus Christ the Righteous so that you may receive forgiveness and new life through Him. If you have seen your need today for forgiveness, then to paraphrase the Ethiopian eunuch, I say, “Look, there is water. What prevents you from being baptized?”

I thought I was going to be through with John last week. We finished up 1 John last Sunday, and I had planned on beginning the book of Mark, which is something I wanted to do months ago actually. But when I began to study Mark in preparation for this week, I did not feel that God was leading me to do so at this time. I think that there is still some more that He wants to teach us from John’s letters. And so this Sunday we are going to look at this very small book of 2 John in it’s entirety. Just think, you will be able to tell your friends back home that the pastor preached on a whole book of the Bible in one sitting.

But if you will remember from our studies in 1 John, the theme of that book was fellowship. And as I said, I thought we had finished all that God had to say on that subject and could move on. However, I believe that this letter of 2 John also speaks to this subject of fellowship. As I have said repeatedly, I believe John is teaching that the purpose of the Christian life is fellowship; fellowship with God and fellowship with His people. So in that vein, I have titled today’s message “The Fellowship of Truth.” Fellowship by definition means like mindedness. And there is a commonality in fellowship, Christian fellowship, that can only be found in the context of truth. There is no fellowship of light with darkness.

The Apostle Paul said in 2Cor. 6:14-18 “Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, “I WILL DWELL IN THEM AND WALK AMONG THEM; AND I WILL BE THEIR GOD, AND THEY SHALL BE MY PEOPLE. “Therefore, COME OUT FROM THEIR MIDST AND BE SEPARATE,” says the Lord. “AND DO NOT TOUCH WHAT IS UNCLEAN; And I will welcome you. “And I will be a father to you, And you shall be sons and daughters to Me,” Says the Lord Almighty.”

So the truth is the plumb line that delineates fellowship. You are either walking in the truth, or walking in darkness. As a church we are a fellowship of God’s people. Our whole purpose as a church is to learn the truth, preach the truth, and walk in the truth of God. And as we do those things, we have fellowship with God and with one another. Jesus said in the gospel of John, “I am the way, the truth and the life.” He went on to say that “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” He said on another occasion, “God is Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.” Before He was crucified Jesus told His disciples He would send them the Spirit of Truth, who would lead them into all truth. Truth is essential to fellowship. And Christian fellowship is impossible if it is not in the truth.

As I said last week, I sometimes feel inferior to other churches because we do not have all the bells and whistles that people often associate with church. But as far as I am concerned, the most important purpose of the church is to declare the truth, defend the truth and walk in the truth. Everything else is gravy. And if you don’t get the truth right, then nothing else matters. Fellowship without the truth is of no greater value than membership in a social club.

Now as I see it, there are five divisions of this letter. The first is the theme of the letter, which is the fellowship of the truth. Secondly, we see five blessings of the truth. Thirdly, John talks about walking in the truth; fourthly, the opposition to the truth, and finally, the joy of fellowship.
So let’s look first at what we have already introduced, that is the fellowship of the truth.

John addresses this letter to the chosen lady and her children. He identifies himself as an elder, which can indicate his apostleship over the churches, as well as possibly his age. Some have said that he would have been in his 90’s by this point. I think it has more to do with his position in the church, rather than his age. Ephesians says the church is built on the foundation of the apostles. And perhaps by this point, John is the only apostle still living,

But the interesting thing is who it is addressed to; the chosen lady and her children. Theologians are split between this being an individual, and it being a pseudonym for a particular church. My view is that he is addressing a church. John’s favorite name for Christians in the epistle of 1 John is “little children.” So I think that the chosen lady is a way of referring to a corporate body of believers, who have been chosen of God, to be the bride of Christ, and her children being the family of God, those that John refers to as being born of God. So it makes more sense to me that he is speaking to a church, and this letter was shared with other churches who had similar problems and concerns in those days, and as such it came to be accepted in the canon of scripture.

Now notice that in his address, John covers all those elements which are essential to fellowship, which as I said, is the purpose of the church. Three times in the first 2 verses he mentions truth. And in relation to the truth, he speaks of love and emphasizes the family of fellowship. He says first of all that there is a love for those who are of the truth. He loves them, and those who love the truth loves those in the church who are born of God. Fellowship produces love. Christian love is the natural outcome of fellowship with God, you will grow to love Him and love His body, that is His church, His people. But that love is within the context of truth. Three times he mentions truth, as if to underline again and again the essential nature of truth to fellowship.

There is another aspect of truth which is important to note, and that is where he says in vs 2, “the truth which abides in us and will be with us forever.” Jesus said in His high priestly prayer that God’s word is truth. Listen, God cannot be separated from His word. God is eternal, and the word of God endures forever. Isaiah 40:8 says, “The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God endures forever.” The word of God never fails, and it is an eternal truth that we will still be abiding in 10,000 years from now. That’s why John calls Jesus the Word in John chapter 1. The Word which was in the beginning with God, and the Word which was God. The Word of God is eternal truth which will be with us forever.

Now let’s move on to the second point; the five blessings of truth. Vs3 “Grace, mercy and peace will be with us, from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and love.” I say there are five blessings, but maybe another way of looking at this is that the first three come out of the second two. Grace, mercy and peace, come out of truth and love.

We could easily spend an entire sermon on these attributes. But in the essence of time, let’s just give a brief explanation. Truth and love are the major pillars of the fellowship of the church. In my introduction I addressed the essentiality of truth. Preaching and practicing the truth are the essential functions of the church. And we know that fellowship produces love. Jesus said “they will know you are My disciples by your love for one another.” Again and again in 1John we are told to love one another. He is going to say that again in this epistle in vs.5. So truth and love are the pillars of fellowship in the church.

But let’s look at the familiar benediction “Grace, mercy and peace.” Apart from truth and love, we can never really know grace, mercy and peace. Grace means getting what we don’t deserve; pardon for sin, a new life, eternal life, righteousness. Mercy is not getting what we do deserve; we deserve death as the penalty for our sin, but God put Christ to death in our place. And peace, means primarily peace with God. It’s not the cessation of war, though that might be desirable. But it’s making peace with God because our offense has been forgiven through the atonement of Jesus Christ by dying on the cross.

There are a lot of churches today that speak of grace, mercy and peace, but they see it as some sort of social panacea. They reject the truth of God’s word, but still want the blessings of grace, mercy and peace. They do not understand that grace, mercy and peace outside of the redemption through Christ’s blood is impossible. The truth shall make you free. Not social justice, not welfare programs, not rehabilitation. But the truth spoken in love. Paul said in Ephesians 4:13 that the church body is to “all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ.” So truth and love produces grace, mercy and peace through Christ, that we might become unified in the truth and conformed to the image of Christ.

Now that spiritual maturity comes through walking in the truth, John’s third point. Let’s read vs4, “I was very glad to find some of your children walking in truth, just as we have received commandment to do from the Father. Now I ask you, lady, not as though I were writing to you a new commandment, but the one which we have had from the beginning, that we love one another. And this is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, that you should walk in it.” Three times John emphasizes the need not only to know the truth, but to walk in the truth.

Some of the people in this church, John says, are walking in the truth. Some were being obedient to the truth and some were not. As James said, we must be doers of the word and not just hearers only. It’s one thing for the church to preach the truth, but it’s another to have the church walking in the truth. Walking in the truth requires obedience to the truth. Trusting in the truth enough to act upon it.

He goes on to describe walking in the truth as walking according to the commandments, and the commandments he sums up as loving one another. Then in vs6, he tells us what love is; love is walking according to His commandments. Now he isn’t just talking in circles. But he is emphasizing what Jesus said, which is “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” Love then is tied to obedience. Love is not an emotion, or sentimentality, but love is an act of the will, doing what God tells us to do.

Jesus defined loving your neighbor as illustrated by the Good Samaritan. He said a man had been set upon by robbers and was lying beside the road half dead. Many people passed him by, perhaps thinking that in some way he was responsible for his own misfortune, or perhaps too busy with their own concerns to take the time to help a stranger. But the Samaritan got down off his horse, and cleaned him up, bandaged him, and took care of his needs. He took him to an inn and left money with instructions for the innkeeper to take care of him until he could return, and he would pay whatever more was necessary. That was Jesus’s illustration of loving your neighbor, even a stranger And loving one another in the church family should go even beyond that. Love is sacrificing your priorities for the sake of another’s benefit.

In essence, loving one another is the fulfillment of all the law, because if you love one another with the sacrificial love that Christ showed for us, then you cannot lie to one another, you cannot steal from one another, you cannot covet what your brother has, and certainly you will not murder or commit adultery against your brother. So loving God and loving one another is the fulfillment, or the way to fulfillment, of all the commandments. Walking according to the commandments then is the way to fellowship in the truth with God and with our fellow brother.

Now the devil knows that walking in the truth is the way to fellowship with God. And he wants nothing more than to destroy that fellowship you have with God. He wants to put distance between you and God and ultimately destroy your fellowship with Him and with His church. Peter said that the devil goes about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may destroy. And the way the lion destroys and kills an antelope, is he separates him from the herd. Once he separates you from the church, then he can more easily take you down. And the way the devil works to separate you from the church is to first separate you from the truth.

Jesus said in John 8:44 that the devil is a liar and the father of liars. He is a deceiver. So that is his modus operandi; to tell you a half truth, to twist the truth, to misinterpret the word, and to ultimately get you to believe his lies. Now that opposition to the truth is John’s fourth point. Look at vs7, “For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist. Watch yourselves, that you do not lose what we have accomplished, but that you may receive a full reward. Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God; the one who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house, and do not give him a greeting; for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds.”

Now we could spend a month on these verses. But I just want to hit the highlights for you today. Notice that the devil has sent many of his emissaries out into the world, wolves in sheep’s clothing, pretending to be preachers of the truth, but instead they are deceiving people. He calls them the antiChrist. They are false prophets. This is not some teaching on eschatology. This was happening then, and it’s happened in every generation since John. 1John 2:18 says many antiChrists are in the world today, and they are teaching false doctrine.

Paul speaking to the elders of Ephesus said in Acts 20:29-30 “I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves men will arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them.” So the church itself is the place where the antiChrists exalt themselves.

Jude speaks of these wolves in sheep’s clothing in Jude 1:4 saying, “For certain persons have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into licentiousness and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.” See, these false teachers are teaching grace without works, salvation without sanctification, that somehow you could be spiritual, but not have works that attested to righteousness. James 2:19-20 speaks to the impossibility of faith without works. “You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder. But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless?”

Here is the issue in the church at the end of the first century. False teachers were promoting a teaching called Gnosticism. And while this teaching involved a lot of heresys, one of it’s principle teachings was that we could worship God in Spirit, but our flesh did not have to be involved. And they based that on the notion that Jesus had not really come in the flesh, only in Spirit. So they taught that spiritually you could be saved, but physically you could still live in the world. Spiritually you were righteous, but physically you could live in sin and not have anything to worry about. That philosophy is still in the church today, just under different names.

So what John is saying is that these people are teaching a form of the gospel, but not the whole truth of the gospel. And as such they were causing Christians to lose fellowship with God. They were causing people in the church to forfeit their reward, because there was no fruit to their salvation. As James said in the 2nd chapter of his epistle which we quoted from a moment ago; “For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.” (James 2:26) The Spirit gives life to the body. The body is sanctified by the Spirit, producing the fruit of the Spirit. The body is brought under submission to the Spirit of God, and thus is conformed to the image of Christ.

This is still the issue in the church today. Satan is still deceiving people into thinking that they can have grace, mercy and peace with God without truth and love, without obedience to the truth, without repentance from sin, without coming out of the world. And when he is successful then he destroys your fellowship with God, he destroys your fellowship with His church, and he destroys your testimony before others so that you hurt the cause of Christ. And ultimately he may even cause you to lose your life here on earth in your pursuit of worldly idols.

So what’s John’s admonition to the church? To avoid such people. To not have fellowship with them. To not show hospitality to them. To see such false teachers as a cancer that corrupts the body which will spread until it destroys completely. To have a holy horror of false doctrine. That is what John is saying. Don’t even eat with such people. Don’t even give them a greeting. That’s what he said in vs. 10, “If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house, and do not give him a greeting; for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds.”

So John says love has a limit, doesn’t it? Love has no limit for the lost, for the broken hearted, for the afflicted, for the needy. Love has no limit for the sinner. But love has a limit for false teaching, for that which purports to be the truth and yet is a slick lie of the devil. Don’t help those people. Don’t fellowship with those people. Certainly don’t support them. 2Cor. 6:17-18 “Therefore, COME OUT FROM THEIR MIDST AND BE SEPARATE,” says the Lord. “AND DO NOT TOUCH WHAT IS UNCLEAN; And I will welcome you. And I will be a father to you, And you shall be sons and daughters to Me,” Says the Lord Almighty.”

The last aspect of the fellowship of truth which John gives us here is really just a passing reference to something he calls the joy of fellowship. His goal he says in vs 12 is that their joy may be full. Listen, there is no greater joy than complete fellowship with God. You can have a great job, you can have all sorts of possessions, houses, cars. You can have all that this world can offer and still be miserable. But if you have complete fellowship with God, then you can have joy in pain, joy in suffering, joy in poverty, joy in being alone. If your joy is founded in your fellowship with God, then that is full joy, complete joy.

But sin destroys that joy. When David sinned against God, he prayed for forgiveness in Psalm 51, and said, “restore unto me the joy of my salvation.” He repented of his sin, he was restored to fellowship with God, and as a result the joy of his former fellowship was restored unto him. Nehemiah 8:10 says, “For the joy of the LORD is your strength.” That is what sustains us.

Full fellowship with God results in full joy. That is where we get the peace that passes all understanding; in the joy of the Lord. In the joy of knowing you are right with God, and He is with you and you with Him. Where you have sweet communion with God through the truth of His word. Where you show your love to Him through obedience to His word. Where sin has not broken the fellowship and intimacy of your love with Him or with His church.

John says in 1John 1:4, “these things we have written to you that our joy may be complete.” He was speaking of the writings of the apostles, the Holy Scriptures, the Bible. Our joy comes from abiding in His word. Now at the end of 2 John, he says, “Though I have many things to write to you, I do not want to do so with paper and ink; but I hope to come to you and speak face to face, so that your joy may be made full.” So there are two aspects to having joy in the Lord. The first is through His word, abiding in His word. The second is fellowship. John said he wanted to come in person. Face to face, person to person. We are made for fellowship with His body. We have joy when we have fellowship with one another and have love for one another in the body.

I can pray for someone. I can write to someone. But even better, I can go to someone. I can touch someone. I can be the hands of feet of Christ. That is how our joy may be full, and that is how the love of God is manifested in the church, when we love one another not just in word, but in deed. We need fellowship. God has designed us for fellowship with Him and with His family. Don’t let the lie of Satan deprive you of that fellowship with the Lord. Stay in the word, and do not neglect the assembling of yourselves together as the body of Christ. Stay in close fellowship with the flock and do not give the devil an opportunity.

Heb. 10:19-25 Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

We are coming to the end of our study in 1 John. This is the last message in this epistle, and I trust it has been as beneficial to you as it has to me. As I have said from the beginning, the theme of 1John is that of fellowship. Fellowship with God and with His body, the church. Last week, if you were here, we looked at the confidence of fellowship. That message is available online for those of you that are interested. This week we look more completely at the idea of assurance of fellowship, looking specifically at four assurances of fellowship with which John closes out his epistle. He wants us to know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that we are Christ’s, and He is ours. That we abide in Him, and He in us. That we have fellowship with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. And that this fellowship is characterized by eternal life, not just an endless life, but abundant life, life animated by the very Spirit of God.

John says in vs.13 of this chapter, “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.” Thirty-nine times in the epistle of 1John, he tells us that we might know. He gives us various tests and evidences and proofs that we might know we have this eternal, abundant life of fellowship with God. Now today in the closing statement of this passage, we see the word “know” used three times. And so in keeping with the theme of John’s message, I have entitled this sermon “Four assurances of fellowship.”

Let’s look then at each of them. The first assurance of fellowship we find in vs.18, “We know that no one who is born of God sins; but He who was born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him.” John has had much to say about sin in this epistle. He just finished saying in the preceding verses of 16 and 17, that there is a sin that a brother in Christ can commit which is not unto death, and there is also a sin unto death. Furthermore, he says, all unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin not unto death.

We talked about those somewhat difficult verses last time a great deal. And I won’t take the time to completely review them again this morning. But suffice it to say, that a Christian cannot sin unto death, because he has been given eternal life. He can sin, and that interrupts his fellowship with God, but he cannot sin unto death, because Christ has died for us in our place. God will not punish us with death when He has already punished Jesus with death on our behalf. All unrighteousness is sin, and John says there is a sin not unto death. That sin is the sin committed by a Christian. But he goes on to say that there is a sin unto death. And that is the sin of the unbeliever. He who has rejected the source of life, the Savior of mankind, such a one is still dead in his trespasses and sins. He is sinning unto death. He will die in his sins unless he is born again by faith in Christ and repentance of his sin.

So with that as our context, let us consider what John is saying here in vs.18, and why this should be a comfort and assurance for us. He says that we know that no one who is born of God sins. Well, remember in the preceding verses we just saw that there is a sin of a Christian. It is not unto death, but it is still a sin. So we need to look closer than just a superficial reading of this verse. And what we find is that in the Greek language, John was writing using the present tense, speaking of a continuous sin, a habitual sin. A pattern of continuing in sin. So he is saying that one who is born of God does not continue in sin. Sin no longer has dominion over the one born of God.

Now the key is that phrase “born of God.” John uses it twice in this one verse; once to speak of our relationship to God, and once to speak of Christ’s relationship to God. Our freedom from the power of sin depends not upon our self discipline or will power, but upon our new birth. When we are born again, we die to the old man, and appeal to God for to become a new creation. Old things are passed away, and all things become new. We are born of the Spirit of God. In this new creation, God gives us a new heart and puts His Spirit within us. In Ezekiel 36:25-27 God says, ”Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances.”

So when you become born again, God gives you the legal standing of righteousness. He gives you the capacity for righteousness. He gives you the desire for righteousness. And He gives you the power of the Spirit that you may work the works of righteousness. Therefore, sin no longer has dominion over you. As the song we sang a few minutes ago said, “In Christ Alone,” “sin’s curse has lost it’s grip on me.” Christ has been victorious over sin and death and as His people who are indwelled by His Spirit, we have been given freedom from sin. So as a Christian we may sin, but we will not continue in sin. We no longer have a pattern of sinfulness as our characteristic. That pattern has been broken. Sin’s hold over us has been broken. And so we know that no one who is born of God continuously sins.

The second part of that verse is especially meaningful to me. We know that one who is born of God does not continuously sin, because He who was born of God keeps him… Folks, that should be a reason to shout “Hallelujah!” Jesus Christ keeps us. Listen, it is incumbent upon the Shepherd to keep His sheep. He defends His sheep from ravening wolves and roaring lions. We are His sheep of His pasture. The Good Shepherd laid down His life for His sheep. Do you think that God is powerful enough to keep us from hell, but not powerful enough to keep us from falling back into a life of sin?

Jesus said in John 10:27-30 “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” I find great comfort in knowing that the Good Shepherd keeps HIs sheep. He watches over them and protects them, from their lying down to their rising up. And if you are born of God, then you can rest in the promise that Christ keeps you.

Listen, this is further evidence that vs16 and 17 are not talking about an unpardonable sin that cannot be forgiven, or a sin by which you can lose your salvation. Christ is entrusted with keeping His sheep. He will not let you go. It’s like the analogy I have said before about when my kids were little. As we would get ready to cross a busy highway, I would tell my kids, “hold onto Daddy’s hand.” And though I expected them to obey, I wanted them to hold my hand, I did not rely on their strength to hold onto me, but I held onto them, and nothing they could do would make me let go. I love my kids, and I can assure you that God loves His children, and nothing can snatch them out of the Father’s hand.

So the Only Begotten Son of God keeps them. Then notice a further provision; “and the evil one does not touch him.” I love that phrase. I am reminded of Christ’s assurance to Peter in Matt. 16:18, “I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.” If you are born of God then you are the church of God.And as the church of God no power of hell can overpower you. I think of another verse in this epistle, 1John 4:4 “You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.”

Listen, be confident, but not arrogant. John is not saying that the devil will not try to discourage you, that he will not attack you, that he will not try to deceive you. The Apostle Paul tells us in Ephesians that we do in fact wrestle against forces of darkness. Eph. 6:12 “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.” But though we wrestle against them, we do not fight in our own strength, we fight in the power of God, through the weapons of righteousness. And through Christ, we are guaranteed the victory as John told us previously in vs 4; “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world–our faith.”

So the devil cannot lay hold of us again to take us back under his dominion. We have been transferred to the kingdom of God. Col. 1:13 “For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son.” Satan cannot do anything to us, that he has not first received permission from our heavenly Father. We don’t belong to him anymore. We have been set free through Christ.

Now let’s look at the second assurance. Vs.19, 1John 5:19 “We know that we are of God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.” This assurance is really just an extrapolation of the first. We are born of God. God knows His children, and keeps His children, and nothing can snatch us out of the Father’s hand.

And then John shows us the contrast. You are either in the Kingdom of God, or the dominion of darkness. There is no middle ground. You are either born of God or you are born of your father the devil. John told us in chapter 3 vs 8, “the one who practices sin is of the devil.” We do not practice sin. We who are born again do not continuously practice a sinful lifestyle. We have been changed, reborn, remade. We have a new nature, and are a new creation. But those who practice sin are of the devil. John tells us there are only two options; you either are born of God or you are of the devil.

And that is evident by the things that you love. 1John 2:15-16 “Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.”

Now this idea of the world which the Bible speaks of, is another means of describing the dominion of darkness, that sphere of influence under the prince of this world, the prince of darkness, even the devil. The world refers to the world system that Satan has orchestrated through a system of lies and deceits and lusts in such a way as to capture the naive and hold them and ultimately condemn them to destruction.

John says that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. This world that seems so enticing, so alluring, so entertaining, is actually engineered by the evil one to entrap and be a snare. As Christians, we should not be seduced by the world’s philosophies, by her entertainments, by her materialism. For all these things will be one day burned up when God pours out His judgment upon this world. In Revelation, we see this world system pictured as a harlot named Babylon who is dressed in fine clothing, sitting upon the beast of Satan. And though she looks alluring, there are all kinds of blasphemies and corruptions within her. Rev 18:2-4 And he cried out with a mighty voice, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a dwelling place of demons and a prison of every unclean spirit, and a prison of every unclean and hateful bird. For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the passion of her immorality, and the kings of the earth have committed acts of immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich by the wealth of her sensuality.” I heard another voice from heaven, saying, “Come out of her, my people, so that you will not participate in her sins and receive of her plagues.”

As Christians, we must not be tempted by the charms of this world system. But recognize as James 4:4 says, that friendship with the world is to become an enemy of God. As Paul says in Gal. 4:9 “But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things, to which you desire to be enslaved all over again?”

Paul speaks of this world system in Eph. 2:2 saying, “in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.” The course of this world he likens to a course of a river, that sweeps along in it’s current the population who seem unaware that they are headed downstream to destruction. And yet because everyone else seems to be in it as well, they are ignorant of the devil’s schemes to destroy them. The fact that they don’t realize it, serves even more the purposes of the evil one. But thanks be to God that we are born of God, have been delivered from this world system and “no power of hell, no scheme of man, can ever pluck me from His hand; till He returns or calls me home, here in the power of Christ I’ll stand. “ (In Christ Alone)

The third assurance John gives us of our fellowship is the knowledge of truth. Vs. 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. This is the true God and eternal life.” Three times John speaks of what is true, or the truth. The word translated true is the Greek word alēthinos, which might be better translated as genuine.

Now in light of that, then consider what John is presenting to us; “ we know that the Son of God has come.” In other words, He that was in the beginning with God, who was God, has come down to man, to become flesh and blood, so that He might suffer for us the wages of sin, and that we might be made righteous through Him. That is the gospel; that the Son of God has come. We have come to know it through faith, and then through experience. As our faith becomes effective we have the witness within us that it is true. He says, “and give us understanding so that we might know Him who is true.”

Jesus came to earth to reveal the truth of God. That we might know the character and nature of God. And we know that because we see it in Christ. Jesus said, “I and the Father are one.” He said to Philip, “if you have seen Me, you have seen the Father.” Hebrews 1:1 says, “God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. And He [that is Christ] is the radiance of [God’s] glory and the exact representation of [God’s] nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.”

Now we not only have Jesus revealing the truth of God through His nature, but also we have understanding through His Spirit, the Spirit of Truth. John 15:26 “When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me.” And John 16:13″But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.” As vs6 of this chapter says, “It is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.”

So what is the truth which we have come to know? It is the genuine truth concerning God. Jesus said, God is Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.” That is essential, that we worship God in truth. And John says that we can know that we worship God in truth, because we are in Christ, who is the genuine Son of God, reflecting the genuine truth of God.

You know, as a pastor of this church, I am constantly aware of what we lack in comparison to other churches. I was complaining of our lack of growth the other day, and the person I was speaking to told me that if I became more like other churches, and had a high powered worship band, if I had a high octane children’s program, if I had more of the bells and whistles that we see in the popular churches, then we would be more successful. And I suppose that he is right. But let me tell you something. Jesus said you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free. A high octane children’s church is not going to set your child free from sin. A youth group will not necessarily set your teenager free from the entrapment of this world. Only the truth will make you free. And the truth is found in the preaching of God’s word. You can be religious and not be set free. You can rock out to a great worship band and not be set free. The whole world can sing “merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily” while floating down the stream to their destruction, but only the truth will set you free. I want to know the truth of God, that I might have the life of Christ in me. And that is the purpose of the church.

Now back to our text, John says He, that is Christ, is the true God and eternal life.Now that’s a tremendous statement. John says Christ is the true God. We believe that God is three persons in One. Father, Son and Spirit are equally God, but with different roles in unique personhoods. Jesus is fully God, and furthermore, as Hebrews says, He is the exact representation of the Father God. He is God who was made flesh and dwelt among us.

Doctrinally this is essential to our salvation. But also this verse is essential to our fellowship. We are in Him, that is Christ. He is the basis for our relationship to God as sons. He is how we are born again, that is born of God. You have to have this relationship with Christ in order to have fellowship with God. And when you believe in Christ and His work by faith, then God reckons that faith to you as righteousness, and He gives you eternal life. Remember what we have said repeatedly about the concept of eternal life? It does not just indicate endless life, but spiritual life, the life of Christ in us. This is the abundant life that Jesus spoke of. It is the life of fellowship with the Father and the Son and with HIs bride, the church.

Now there is one final assurance that John gives us as he closes this epistle. And at first it may seem to not follow the pattern of the first three. Note that vs.21 does not have the word “know” in it. John simply closes with “Little children, guard yourselves from idols.” And I’m sure you wonder, like I did, what relation this could have with the preceding verses. But if you think about it for a moment, I’m sure you will agree with me as well as with John, that obeying this principle is yet another assurance that you will have fellowship with God.

The fourth assurance of fellowship is that we guard ourselves from idols. The point that I think John is making here, is that it he has given us three assurances that are the provence of God that we might have fellowship. But now he is giving us one assurance of ourselves that we might have fellowship with God. In other words, God is sovereign and He has made sure we have fellowship with Him and will continue to have fellowship, based on His divine will and sovereignty. But there is also a responsibility that we have in our fellowship with God. I confess, I do not know where God’s sovereignty ends and my responsibility begins. God’s sovereignty began before the creation of the earth. He chose us before the foundation of the earth, the scripture says. But yet He tells us of our responsibility to believe, to repent, to confess, to obey, to love one another, to keep His commandments. So though God’s sovereignty is a great comfort and assurance of my fellowship throughout eternity with God, yet there is also a responsibility on my part to do what He wants me to do.

And so as John considers fellowship to be a product of our love for God, and our love for God producing ever more intimacy with God, then it makes sense that as the bride of Christ we should guard against committing adultery against God. Loving the world is a form of idolatry. And furthermore, idolatry is a form of adultery. James said it this way in James 4:4 “You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”

Paul speaking of the Old Testament church said in 1Cor. 10:7 “Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written, “THE PEOPLE SAT DOWN TO EAT AND DRINK, AND STOOD UP TO PLAY.” This really goes back to what we said at the beginning. That the world system has been strategically engineered by Satan to seduce people to become ensnared by the world, and having become trapped, to be destroyed. Satan may not be able to destroy a Christian’s eternal destiny, but he can destroy a Christian’s fellowship with God, and as such destroy a Christian’s testimony.

It’s unlikely that many of us today would bow down to an idol of wood or stone. But many of us can be found bowing down to the idols of entertainment, or bowing to the idols of sports, or bowing down to the idol of money, or career. There is no end to the idols that this world offers up in opposition to the truth of life in Christ. We are so easily led astray to worship false idols who offer us false hope of finding happiness or fulfillment outside of life in Christ. But just as hope in statues of wood or stone would be futile, so is our hope in idols of this world that sell us the lie that happiness can be found in things of this world.

Folks, there is only one source of joy and contentment and peace and love. The things of this world that are worth having when all is said and done, can only be found in the life of fellowship with God through Christ. Nothing else will satisfy. John said in chapter 1 vs. 3, “These things we write, so that our joy may be made complete.” Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. He is the only way to the Father. And there is no greater joy, no greater peace than that which is found in fellowship with Him. Little children, guard yourselves from idols. Come out from the world and be separate from her. These idols of the world will destroy your fellowship with God. They will never bring you the joy that God can give. He is the only way to life. I pray that you will guard yourself against the seductions of this world which can never satisfy. But Jesus said, “whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”

If you have been born of God, then I trust that the conclusion of this epistle has assured your heart of eternal fellowship with God. That you would guard yourselves from the allure and enticement of the false gods of this world. That you would cling only to the truth of Christ, and to Christ alone.

And if you are here today and you don’t know that life of fellowship which Jesus gives, I urge you to receive Him today as your Lord and Savior. He gives the water of life without cost and gives it freely to all who come to Him. If you are thirsty for that living water, come to Jesus today, He will satisfy you with the water of eternal life. Jesus said in John 4:14 “but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”

We are coming to the close of the epistle of 1 John. We will more than likely finish it next Sunday, Lord willing. I came into this epistle with naive expectations that we would spend a short study in it, and then we would begin the gospel of Mark as we started out the summer season. Turns out God had other plans. This is the seventeenth message in 1 John, with one more to go. This little epistle has taught me much concerning the life of a Christian, particularly in regards to what is Christian fellowship. There have been a number of interpretational challenges, as there is yet again today, but I believe God helped us navigate through them, and I for one, am the better for it.

If you have been with us during this summer, you will know that I consider fellowship to be the theme of 1 John. And fellowship with God can only be possible if you have been born again into eternal life. Eternal life is inseparable from fellowship with God. Now, as I indicated last week, eternal life does not just refer to the longevity of life, but the quality of life. That which is spiritual is eternal by definition, thus we have to be born again by the Spirit of God, in order to become spiritual, because in our natural state, we are dead spiritually. That is due to the curse of sin from the Garden of Eden, when man ate of the tree, and as God said, they surely died. Adam and Eve died spiritually. And as descendants of Adam, all have sinned according to our nature and are spiritually dead. But once having received eternal life, we have fellowship with the Spirit who abides in us, and as such we now have eternal life in Christ.

Their is another aspect of the phrase eternal life, and that’s the word used for life; zoe in the original Greek. In Greek there are three words used for life. There is bios, from which we get the word biology. It refers to the physical body. Then there is psuche, from which we get the word psychology. It refers to the soul, or the mind, emotions and will of man. Sometimes it is also called the heart. Heart and soul are interchangeable. And then there is zoe, which refers to the zest of life, a life of special vitality or animation. And that word zoe is what the apostles use to speak of spiritual life. This is the life animated by God, the divine life that is eternal, abundant, and is the source of our fellowship with God. Without zoe life, we cannot have fellowship with God.

And by the way, eternal life does not begin when we get to heaven one day. Eternal life begins at salvation. Your life in Christ will never end. Jesus said in John 11:25, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?” When He said I am the life, He used the word zoe. We receive the life of Christ, divine life, which is eternal life, the moment we believe in Christ. That zoe life is the full life, abundant life of fellowship with God when we abide in Him and He in us. As Jesus affirmed in John 10:10, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” He’s not talking about physical prosperity, but about the full divine, spiritual life in Christ that results in fellowship with God.

Now John speaks to this indispensable principle of fellowship in vs.13. We talked about this verse some last time, but we need to look at it again this week to keep the following verses in context. Note vs.13, “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.”

Since the very first chapter, John has been concerned that we know that we have real fellowship with God. He is concerned that we know we have eternal life. The word “know” appears 39 times in this epistle and seven times in these last verses. This whole epistle is about knowing you have fellowship with God for certain.

And last time we showed that the way you know you have the eternal zoe life of God, that you have fellowship with God, is through the word of God. The promises of God are our guarantee, the confidence of our salvation, and our confidence of fellowship with Him. We don’t trust in feelings, we don’t trust in experiences, though those things may be significant. But we trust in the word of God. And that is why John says that these things have been written down for us, that we might know for certain that we have fellowship with God. The apostle’s doctrines which are written are scripture, which is inspired by the Spirit of God, that we may know the things of God.

Now John tells us in vs 14 that there is another proof, or evidence, that we have this fellowship, this zoe life of God abiding in us. And that evidence is answered prayer. Answered prayer is one of the most satisfying evidences of your fellowship with God. Sometimes they are major things we have been praying for, and God answers them. And sometimes there are small things we pray for, and God answers them. But whether they are big or small, answered prayer is one of the best confirmations of our fellowship with God, and one of the most tangible evidences that we share the zoe life of Christ.

But if the truth be known, answered prayer is an evidence which is sometimes lacking in our lives, is it not? We pray for things, we try to muster up faith that God will answer it, and then oftentimes He doesn’t seem to answer. And rather than encouraging our faith, it sometimes works to discourage us.

However John seems to give us this blank check that if we ask, we will receive what we ask for. But in actuality, it’s important to give full consideration to these verses if we hope to see this evidence of our life with Christ. Let’s look at the verses 14 and 15; “This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.”

Now let’s break this verse down. First of all, I want you to notice that we are to pray confidently. Now confidence is not presumption. Confidence is not arrogance. Confidence is not commanding God to do whatever we ask. If that were so, then we should worship ourselves, rather than worship God. If He exists to do our bidding, then He isn’t a God, He is a genie, and if we rub Aladdin’s lamp just so, and say the words just the right way, then abracadabra, God is at our service, and we get our wish!

No, that is not the God of the Bible. But we are told to be confident. We have that confidence because of our relationship to God through Christ who is our Great High Priest. Consider what
Hebrews 4:14-16 says, “Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

This kind of confidence arises from the knowledge of two fundamental principles of prayer, which John gives us here: the certainty of hearing, and the certainty of having. Notice both of these elements: “If we ask anything according to his will, we know that he hears us.” Now also notice that there is a caveat; according to His will. Perhaps the major reason for most of the unanswered prayers of the world is they are not according to God’s will, and therefore they are not heard. John makes it explicitly clear that a prayer that is according to God’s will is always heard. Thus he dismisses all those concepts of prayer which imply that prayer is a means of getting God to do our will. Prayer is never that.

In fact, James makes it clear that prayer offered on the wrong terms, according to our will rather than God’s, will not be answered. Look at James 4:2,3; “You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.” The idea there is that you pray for things based on worldly lusts.

Jesus said in John 14:14 “If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.” That is the basis for the traditional ending to most of our prayers. “We ask these things in Jesus’ name, Amen.” That however, is not what Jesus intended. To ask in His name is not simply to tack on Jesus’ name at the end of our prayer, but to ask according to Him, according to His nature, His character. And we know that Jesus was the visible image of the invisible God. He did everything which the Father was doing. Jesus said, “I and the Father are one.” So to ask in His name is to ask according to His will. It means the same thing. So when we ask according to His will, John says He hears us. Or perhaps better, He listens to us.

Now that is all that John explicitly says about prayer. That is the only condition he seems to put upon it; that we ask in accordance with God’s will. But that still leaves a lot of questions unanswered. The Bible has much to say about prayer. And if you go through the Old and New Testaments, you will find a lot of principles that apply to effective prayer. But what John seems to be presuming to be understood, is that this effective prayer he is talking about happens as a result of true fellowship with God. When you are in fellowship with God, abiding in Him, He abiding in you, His word abiding in you, and you abiding in obedience to His commandments, when all that encompasses true fellowship is in effect, then you will ask according to His will and He will do it.

Now if you are living outside of His will, then that would mean you are living in sin, wouldn’t it? If you sin, John says in chapter 1, then you don’t have fellowship with God. Sin breaks fellowship with God. As a Christian, sin will not make you lose your salvation, but it will disrupt your fellowship with God. 1John 1:6 “If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.” So the answer to unconfessed sin is to confess it, and be cleansed of it, so that we can have restored fellowship with God. But in an unconfessed state of sin, then we can expect not to have our prayers answered. David said in Psalm 66:18, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me.”

In fact, let me expand on that principle in a positive light. After years of reading James 5 regarding what James calls “effective prayer”, I finally saw the connection. James 5:16b, “The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.” It finally dawned on me one day that the secret to effective prayer is a “righteous man.” A man that does not regard iniquity in his heart. So James says in the same verse, “confess your sins one to another and pray for one another that you may be healed.” He isn’t talking about being healed from physical illness, but from a spiritual illness. Sin being an illness that besets the zoe life and disrupts the fellowship we have with God. So confessing our sins makes us whole again, restoring our full fellowship with God. That whole fellowship is the secret to answered prayer.

Now John is going to give us an illustration that will help to explain this principle of how God answers the prayer of those in fellowship with Him. And I will admit, that I wish John had come up with a different illustration. John has a way of making something simple sound confusing. But nevertheless, it is for our own good to be challenged by this type of illustration. It forces us to consider scripture in light of scripture. But I will say that the following verses have been the source of many a debate, and not a few false doctrines. Now I don’t claim to be smarter than everyone else. But after much pray and consideration I think I know what John is saying here. I guess that God is showing that not many wise, not many noble are called, but God has chosen the foolish things to shame the wise. So in that vein, let me try to explain John’s illustration. First let’s read the word; vs.16-17 “If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask and God will for him give life to those who commit sin not leading to death. There is a sin leading to death; I do not say that he should make request for this. All unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin not leading to death.”

Now as I alluded to while ago, there have been a lot of interpretations of these verses for centuries among theologians. And there have also been some false teachings that have arisen out of these verses. Some have tried to say this teaches that you can lose your salvation, or that you can somehow commit a sin which is not forgivable. Well, in consideration of time, I cannot address every false teaching here today. I will say, however, that you cannot lose what you have not acquired. Christ purchased your salvation, and God granted it to you on the basis of faith in Christ. It is eternal life that you received by grace. Not eternal, then whoops, you lost it! Eternal or better yet, everlasting life is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.

Remember the verse I quoted Jesus saying a few minutes ago? “He who believes on Me will never die.” There is an overwhelming preponderance of scripture which we don’t have time to review this morning which support the eternal nature of our new birth, and it would be foolish to suggest a doctrine on the basis of this one passage which might seem on the surface contrary to other scriptures which so clearly teach the perseverance and eternal security of the saints.

Throughout all of John’s epistle, he has been contrasting the true life of fellowship with that which is not in fellowship. He has contrasted the walk in the Light, with the walk in darkness. He has contrasted being born again, with being dead in your sins. Now in this passage, he is affirming the eternal life that comes in response to our faith. And he has shown multiple evidences of our faith; such as love, fellowship, keeping the commandments, and answered prayers. So in that context, the same contrast of spiritual life vs spiritual death is being shown here.

The life which is in fellowship with God, loves His brother in Christ. John has emphasized that again and again. So John says when we that are in fellowship with God see a brother who has sinned a sin not leading unto death, he shall ask and god will for him give life to those who commit sin not leading to death. First of all then, we know that this is a fellow believer. He is saved. He has been born again. But he has sinned. However the sin is not unto death. Now what does that mean? 

Well, Romans 6:23 has the answer. “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” So then, God has placed on Jesus the penalty of our sin, and He crucified Christ, putting Him to death for our sin, and transferred the life-giving righteousness of Christ to us, even eternal life. The believer cannot sin unto death, since he has been made spiritually, eternally alive. So there is a sin for the believer which is not unto spiritual death. That is the plain and simple meaning. Christ has already died for their sin. To punish that sin by death again would be double jeopardy. And God is not an unjust judge.

But nevertheless, we know that God’s will is that we do not sin. And sin breaks our fellowship with God, and it carries with it the consequences of sin which can affect our mortal bodies. So as a loving brother in Christ, we pray for our sinning brother, that he might be forgiven, and that he might be restored to life, that is restored to the full fellowship with God that we are designed to have.

Now the interesting thing John is saying is that we can pray for this brother, for their restoration and God will do it. John is giving this as an illustration of praying according to the will of God. And if you remember that verse from James I quoted a few minutes ago, you will see that James said virtually the same thing. He says, “Confess your sins one to another, and pray for one another that you may be healed, (spiritual healing). The word translated healed also can mean making whole. He goes on to say in James 5:15, “and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him.” And then James adds, that the effective prayer of a righteous man accomplishes much.

Now that’s a tremendous principle incorporating loving one another and answered prayer. And it’s a tremendous example of praying in accordance to the will of God. God’s desire is that we have fellowship with Him, and that we abide in Him, and He is us, and that we keep His commandments and that we love one another. And we are able to help one another and express our love for one another as we pray for each other that God will restore our erring brother.

Understanding that side of the equation then should make it easier to understand the other side of the equation. And John expresses that as follows; “There is a sin leading to death; I do not say that he should make request for this.” What is this sin leading to death? Should we live in fear that somehow we could fall into this sin which plunges us to eternal death, which is unforgivable? No, not at all. If the brother who sins a sin not leading to death is saved because he has received the gift of salvation on the basis of faith in Christ’s atonement, then what is the contrast to that? It’s the one who is not a believer. The one who has not believed unto salvation is one whose sin leads to death. He is still dead in his trespasses and sin.

So if you see this unsaved person leading a sinful life, John is not suggesting that we pray an intercessory prayer for such a person that they might be restored to fellowship. God will not restore someone to fellowship who has not first been born again spiritually having received eternal life. We are not told not to pray for their restoration, but obviously we should pray for such a person’s salvation. We should pray that God will bring them under the conviction of the Holy Spirit. But we cannot pray for their fellowship, because fellowship must be predicated on a relationship with Jesus Christ as our Savior.

Now John is writing to believers. He has just said he wants to affirm their faith, so that they may have confidence of eternal life, and confidence of answered prayers as a further evidence that they have fellowship with God. And so he doesn’t want to end on emphasizing the life of an unbeliever, but the life of a believer. So John says in vs.17, “All unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin not leading to death.” Sin is unfortunately a reality in the life of a believer. It should become less and less frequent, as we are conformed to the image of Jesus Christ, and as we grow in maturity and faith in the process the Bible calls sanctification. We learn to mortify the flesh. We become more like Christ as we draw closer to Him and walk with Him.

But as John said in chapter 1 vs. 10, “If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us.” So sin is going to happen occasionally in the life of a believer. But it is not a sin unto death. There is no death Jesus said for a believer. He has died in our place that we might have life. But when we sin as Christians, we hurt our fellowship with God, we get a guilty conscience, we hurt our testimony, and we hurt the cause of Christ. So in 1John 1:9 he gives us the antidote; “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

Well, I hope that you know as John has written, that you have the eternal life which is given on the basis of faith in Christ. If you don’t know you have eternal life, then the invitation to be born again spiritually is extended to you today. Christ has paid the penalty for your sins. If you reject Him as your Lord and Savior, then you today are dead in your sins. You will one day be subjected to eternal death for your decision to reject the truth of God. But if you confess your sins, He is faithful and just to forgive you and cleanse you from all unrighteousness and give you eternal life. Simply call on Jesus to save you today.

For those of you that are saved in the audience. I trust that you have the confidence of your salvation. I hope that you have the confidence to pray according to the will of God. And I hope that you will pray for one another, especially those that are struggling in sin, that they might be restored to the life of fellowship we were designed to live. That their joy and ours might be full. Let us pray.

If you have been following along with us in our study of 1 John, then you know that the theme of John’s epistle is that of fellowship. Fellowship means communion and union with God and with His people. John uses a number of different words or phrases which all speak of fellowship. For instance, he talks about abiding. That is fellowship. He talks about walking with God. That is fellowship. He talks about loving God. Love is the epitome of fellowship. So as I have said repeatedly, John is teaching that fellowship is the goal of our salvation. It is the means by which we have life and have it more abundantly.

Now John has been showing through various tests and proofs how we can know that we have fellowship with God. He started off in the book saying, “if we say we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.” And John builds on those type of arguments throughout the book, all of which we have expounded upon in previous messages. You can review them on our website, if you like.

But now we come to the last chapter, and John is wrapping up this letter. And he is still talking about fellowship. He may not have used that word specifically in a while, but the principle is still the prevalent theme. And as John wraps up this epistle, he states that he wants us to know, beyond any doubt, that we have fellowship with God.

Notice, if you will, vs 13 “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.” Now when John says eternal life, he is not just talking about life in terms of longevity, but he talking about life in terms of classification. He is talking about our new life in Christ, our life with Christ, and the fellowship which we have. Through Christ we have spiritual life. We have the Spirit living in us, who has given new birth to our spirit, making it possible for us to have fellowship with God and with His body.

So the goal in these last verses is that we might absolutely be sure that we have that life, and it is only possible, John says, if you have believed in the name of the Son of God. As he said in vs 1 of this chapter, “Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God.” Being born again is how we are made spiritual, how we are made righteous, and how we can have this eternal, spiritual life and fellowship with God. There is no other way. Jesus told Nicodemus in John 3, “You must be born again.” You have to be reborn spiritually by the Holy Spirit if you are to have fellowship with God and receive eternal life. That is how you overcome your carnal nature which is the predicament of all who live in this fallen world.

In vs 5, John says that we overcome the world by belief that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And yet John and the other apostles do not ask us to have just some sort of blind faith. But they are giving us personal, eyewitness testimony to the things they saw and heard. There was a law of Moses which required that every fact had to be confirmed by two or three witnesses. We still use that principle today in our court proceedings. And so John wants to confirm our faith by offering three witnesses to the fact that Jesus is the Messiah, and the Son of God.

In vs.6, speaking of Jesus, John says, “This is the One who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ; not with the water only, but with the water and with the blood. It is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three that testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement.” 

Now this particular passage has been debated among theologians since the days of Augustine. It is a difficult passage to understand. And there is little agreement among even conservative, evangelical commentators. Now I’m not smart enough to debate those guys, and try to set the record straight on all the nuances and the variations in the original Greek text vs the Latin text and so forth. But what I can tell you is what the plain meaning seems to indicate. John is clearly setting forth three witnesses to the Messiahship and the divinity of Jesus Christ. That much we know for sure. And he is saying, that whatever these three witnesses are, or symbolize, they are in agreement. That means the facts of Jesus life are established, they are testified by these three witnesses.

Now since we know that to be John’s intention, let’s examine each of these three witnesses and see if we can understand what they have to say about the Lord Jesus. The first witness John puts up to affirm that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God is the water. Now as I said, there is a lot of speculation about what this may be referring to. But remember, we are expecting a testimony that Jesus is the Messiah the Son of God. And when we consider all the various suggestions theologians have made concerning what water symbolizes, I would have to say that the only one which makes sense in this context is the water of baptism. We are expecting this water to confirm Jesus’s ministry as the Messiah, and that He is the Son of God.

Now that was confirmed at Jesus’s baptism, was it not? Baptism was the inauguration of Jesus’s ministry here on earth. And if you turn over to Matt. 3:16-17 we read, “After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on Him, and behold, a voice out of the heavens said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.”

There can be no clearer witness than at His baptism that Jesus Christ is the Messiah, and the Son of God. God Himself spoke from heaven and said “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.” Additionally, the Holy Spirit descended from heaven in the form of a dove and lighted upon Him. So you have the testimony of God the Father and the Holy Spirit in the baptism of Jesus Christ. Also, you have the testimony of John the Baptist who said “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” So three witnesses, three testimonies, in this first witness of John which is the water of baptism.

The second witness John presents is that of blood. Again, what is the expected testimony of this witness? That Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God. And when we see blood mentioned in scripture, it is almost always a picture of the death of Jesus. If the water was the inauguration of Jesus’s ministry, then the blood is the consummation of His ministry. On the cross, Jesus lifted up His voice and cried out, “It is finished!” He completed His ministry by dying on the cross for the sins of the world. The prophecy of Isaiah concerning the Messiah was that He would save His people from their sins. For instance, in Isaiah 53 there is the famous prophecy which talks about not only the Messiah saving His people, but the suffering and sacrifice that had to take place through Him for the forgiveness of our sins. And the New Testament speaks often of the blood which is necessary for salvation. Heb. 9:22 says “And according to the Law, one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.”

Now let’s consider how that bloody sacrifice elicited testimony that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God. Well, though it was meant as sarcasm, there was the testimony of Pilate and the soldiers who called Him the King of the Jews, the Christ. They even made a sign to that effect and nailed it on the cross above Him. They made a crown of thorns and put on Him a purple robe. But that was sarcasm, and little did they realize they were crucifying the Son of God.

But a better testimony was the earthquake. That shook things up and got their attention. Then darkness settled over the land for three hours. Imagine that; an eclipse in the middle of the day, just when Jesus is being crucified. Certainly the heavens declared that the Creator was hanging on that cross. Then the veil in the temple was rent in two, from top to bottom. Another supernatural event that testified that a new way had been made into the Holy of Holies.

But there was a third testimony in this second witness of His bloody death, and that was the witness of the thief on the cross. He looked over at the other thief who was hanging there and hurling insults at the Lord, and this repentant thief said, “Do you not even fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed are suffering justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” And he was saying, “Jesus, remember me when You come in Your kingdom!” In that statement, he recognized and confessed that Jesus was sinless, and that He was the promised Messiah who would come again to take His kingdom. And that sinner was born again in that moment, so that he would receive the life of Christ, as Jesus promised him, “today you will be with Me in Paradise.”

Now there are more testimonies we could present from the witness of blood, but time will not allow it. However, notice that John emphasizes the preeminence of blood in vs 6, saying “not with the water only, but with the water and with the blood.” The point being that baptism is not the means of salvation, but a testimony of our sanctification. It symbolizes being set apart, it represents dying to the world. But the blood indicates our justification. His blood speaks on our behalf at the judgment seat of God. Our punishment for our sins has been paid for by Christ’s death. We are made righteous by His blood. Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. Water washes the outside, but blood cleanses the inside. So our testimony of fellowship is not based on a superficial cleansing, but an inward purification through which we are made righteous before God, and having our sins transferred to Christ, His righteousness is transferred to us, so that we may be made righteous in Him. 2Cor. 5:21 [God] made [Jesus] who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” So not only the water, but the blood is necessary.

Let’s look now at the third witness that John presents; the Holy Spirit. “It is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.” If the water represented the inauguration of Jesus’s ministry, and the blood represented the consummation, then the Spirit is the validation of His ministry. So how does the Spirit validate or give testimony that this was the Christ, the Son of God? Well, one we have already mentioned. At His baptism the Spirit of God descended and lighted upon Jesus in the form of a dove. So that’s one, and the next closely follows it.

After His baptism, John says He was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And when the forty days of temptation were finished, when Jesus had overcome all the temptations, Luke 4:14 says that Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Holy Spirit, and He began to preach the gospel. And Jesus stood up to preach in His home town saying, “THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME, BECAUSE HE ANOINTED ME TO PREACH THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR. HE HAS SENT ME TO PROCLAIM RELEASE TO THE CAPTIVES, AND RECOVERY OF SIGHT TO THE BLIND, TO SET FREE THOSE WHO ARE OPPRESSED, TO PROCLAIM THE FAVORABLE YEAR OF THE LORD.”

Listen, I want you to understand something. Jesus’s miracles were a testimony of the Holy Spirit, but of no greater import than His preaching. The Spirit of God anointed Him to preach the gospel. Jesus said in John 6:63, “the words that I have spoken to you, are spirit and are life.” Miracles were just illustrations of the gospel. But the life giving gospel is proclaimed by preaching, and preaching in the power of the Holy Spirit. And the same is true today. In 1 Cor. 1:18 Paul declares that it is by the foolishness of preaching that men are saved by the power of God.

And let me emphasize in vs 6, John says that it is because the Spirit is the truth. Jesus said that the truth would set you free. So it was evident when those held captive by sin were released, as Jesus preached, that it was by the Spirit of God.

A third testimony of the Spirit of God that we might mention, is that of Pentecost. Pentecost was evidence or testimony that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God. That though the Jews had crucified Him, He had risen from the dead, He was seated at the right hand of the Father, and as He had promised, He sent the Comforter to help them proclaim the gospel. The many different nationalities that were assembled there for the feast in Jerusalem all heard the gospel presented in their own language. And again, the testimony of the Holy Spirit was the message that was preached, proclaiming that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God. In Acts 2:32-33, 36 Peter says “This Jesus God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses. “Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which you both see and hear. … “Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ–this Jesus whom you crucified.”

Now this testimony of the Holy Spirit is the testimony of God Himself. And John says that this testimony is the greatest testimony of all. He says in vs.9 “If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater; for the testimony of God is this, that He has testified concerning His Son.” In other words, John is saying that if we so readily accept the testimony of men, whether they be professors, or scientists or religious leaders or philosophers, how much more should we consider the testimony of God as true? John already told us in vs.6 that the Spirit of God is truth.

And there are two ways in which he says we can know that truth through the Spirit of God. One is the testimony in ourselves, if we are truly born of God and have the Spirit of God dwelling in us. He says in vs.10, “The one who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself; the one who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has given concerning His Son.” So there are two sides to this issue. The first is the one who has believed, he has the testimony of the Spirit in himself.

Paul speaks to that principle in Romans 8:16 “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God.” How does that work, you might ask? How can we recognize the Spirit testifying with our spirit that we are the children of God? Well, it’s as I alluded to earlier. You now are a new creation, having new life. Before you did not have an appetite for spiritual things. Now that you have believed, you have a change of heart, a change of desires. You have a hunger for the word of God. You have a desire for being with the people of God. And you have a desire to do the will of God. That is the evidence that John has been speaking of all along. If you love God, if you say you have fellowship with God, then you will keep His commandments. You will love one another. There will be a transformation on the inside that will work its way outside in your behavior. There is an internal witness of the Spirit in you.

On the other hand, the one who denies the conviction of the Holy Spirit upon his life, and denies that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, that same person John says in effect is calling God a liar. Because he doesn’t believe the testimony that God has given concerning His Son. Some of you here today may fall into that category. You have rejected Christ as your Messiah, as your Savior, as your Lord. And perhaps you think that is a harmless decision, a purely intellectual matter. But John says it is tantamount to calling God a liar to His face. The evidence and witness that God has provided is more than enough to hold you accountable, and make you culpable of the most grievous of sins. As Romans 1:19-21 declares; “because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.” Just looking at the expanse of the ocean before you today, teeming with life, is evidence of God. Just observing the heavens and the sun’s movement through the skies, and the clouds and birds and so forth, is evidence of the eternal attributes of God, which cannot be denied.

Now there is one more important way in which the Spirit of God bears testimony that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. And again we go back to vs6 for an indication of what this is. John says, “the Spirit is the truth.” Well, what should we consider truth? Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” So Jesus is the truth, and in John 15:26 we read that Jesus said I will send the Spirit of Truth. So the Holy Spirit speaks the words that Christ spoke. He teaches us the truth of the gospel. And in Jesus’s high priestly prayer in John 17:17, Jesus said in prayer to God; ““Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.”

Ah, so the word of God is the truth of God, written down for us, that it might be the ultimate testimony of God to the truth of Jesus Christ. And so we read in vs 11-13 “ And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.”

So the testimony of God, John says, is what he has written to us, that we may know we have eternal life and that this life is in HIs Son. That is the gospel in a nutshell. That is the message of the Word of God condensed into one paragraph. The word of God is the best evidence we have that we have fellowship with God, that we have the life of God abiding in us and we in Him. The word of God confirms His promises. The word of God probes deep into our hearts to quicken us, to plant the seed of truth in us, to cause new life to spring up in us. The word of God is the means by which God communicates with us. How we can know what God desires, how we can know how to please God. It is His covenant with us that cannot be broken. It is HIs manifesto of love for the lost world, and the blueprint for how we can be reconciled to God.

And the word of God is authored by the Holy Spirit. Peter said in 2Pet. 1:21 “for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.” And Paul is another witness to the inspiration of scripture in 2Tim. 3:16-17 “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.”

A third testimony of scripture is Heb. 4:12 “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” It is the word of God, working in our spirit, and is living and active and sharper than any two edged sword.

Listen, you want assurance of your salvation? It is found in the word of God. You want fellowship with God? its found in HIs Word. You want to know how to please God? God has declared it in HIs word. You want freedom from sin, and the captivity that comes with sin? It’s found in His word. Psalm 119:11 “Your word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against you.”

This is the means by which we assure our hearts before God. This is the way we can know that we have fellowship with God which can never be severed. John says, “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.”

I hope and pray that you do not leave here today without that sure knowledge that if you died today, you would go to be with the Lord. I pray no one here today rejects the testimony of God concerning His Son. He came that we might have life, even eternal life. Spiritual life. A righteous life in and through Jesus Christ. That we might have the abiding presence of the Spirit of Truth to lead us and guide us into all truth, and that the truth would make us free. If you don’t know that kind of assurance today, then I hope you will come up after the last song and let me explain to you how you can know the joy of salvation; of having your sins forgiven, of having fellowship with God, and having eternal life through Jesus Christ.

My kids are some of my greatest critics. If you have kids, then you know what I mean. Especially now that they are older, they have heard all my old stories again and again. And so now days, they never fail to let me know when I am repeating myself. We are usually driving in the car or something like that, having some sort of a discussion, and I start to launch into this story which I think illustrates the point, and they say something like, “Dad, you’ve told us this story before.” And I say, “I have?” with this real disappointed tone to my voice. And they say, “Yes, several times already.” And of course I’m crestfallen. But not always. Sometimes, if I feel really indignant about the subject, I’ll tell them I’m going to tell it again anyway, because you need to hear it again. After all, repetition, it is said, is the mother of all learning. Or, as the famous pirate quote goes, “The beatings will continue until the morale improves.” I like that one. So today some things may seem a bit repetitious, but its for your own good.

Now John is probably an old man when he is writing this epistle. And if you have been following along in our studies, then you will realize that also John has a tendency to repeat himself. But actually, John is deliberately repeating certain things over and over again. It’s part of his strategy. His teaching style is to cycle back over certain truths again and again, but if you will notice, each time he seems to add a new nuance, or a new perspective to each cycle, so that you learn more and more as you go through this book about these essential doctrines.

The primary principle that I believe John is presenting in this book is that of Christian fellowship. Fellowship is the goal of the Christian experience. Fellowship with God, and fellowship with Christ’s body, which is the church. Fellowship is the source of life, it’s the source of strength, it’s the source of love, and it’s the design of God for this new life in Christ.

Today in our study, we are going to hear John bring up many of the same themes regarding fellowship that he has talked about before many times. He talks about loving God, loving one another and keeping the commandments. All of which are essential to fellowship. But in today’s message as he cycles back through these now familiar topics, he adds another dimension that has not been fleshed out to the degree we see here in this text. And that new aspect of fellowship that he presents is faith. So I’ve titled today’s message The Faith of Fellowship. And as we examine this text, we are going to look at three aspects of faith, which are essential to our fellowship. First we see the family of faith, then the fidelity of faith, and finally the triumph of faith.

Let’s look first then at the family of faith. John says in vs 1, “Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him.” The ultimate fellowship that man can have is to have fellowship with God. But Jesus said that God is Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in truth. The problem, according to the scriptures, is men and women are not alive spiritually. We are dead spiritually. We have a sin nature inherited from our forefathers, traceable back to Adam and Eve in the garden. When they sinned against the word of God the punishment for that sin was that they would die, and their spirit died immediately. Their body took a few years longer. Sin brought about death, first spiritual, then physical. And Adam passed on that sin nature to every human being born on this planet. As a result, Romans 3:23 says, “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.”

But God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross to pay the penalty of our sins, that we might be restored and reconciled to God. Thus John says that those who believe that Jesus is the Christ, that is the promised Messiah, our Savior, then that person is born of God. That means that we who have faith in Christ have been born again, spiritually. We now are now spiritual like God, born into the family of God, and have the capacity to love God and worship God in spirit and in truth.

So if you would have fellowship with God, then it begins with faith in Christ. You must be born again. You cannot belong to Him, you cannot have fellowship with Him, you cannot have spiritual life through Him unless you have been born of the Spirit of God into the family of God.

The question is, how are you born of God? Well, John says in vs1, that it is by faith. By believing. Paul teaches the same principle in Romans 1:17 saying, “The righteous man shall live by faith.” Faith, or believing in Christ, is the basis for receiving righteousness. Paul explains this further in Galatians 3:6-7 “Even so Abraham BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS RECKONED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS. Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham.” So there we see that faith and believing are the same thing, and that faith is the means of being granted the righteousness of Christ in exchange for our sins.

But let’s be clear. What constitutes faith/believing in God? Not just believing or hoping that He exists. The Bible says the devils believe and tremble, but they are not born again. Faith is trusting in Him as your Savior and Lord. Faith is believing in the ministry and the message of Christ. Jesus said, “I am the way the truth and the life, no man comes to the Father except through Me.” He was teaching not just three different aspects of His deity, but also He was teaching that these three aspects are synonymous; the way= the truth=the life. And I will warn you, that if you start to tamper with the truth, then you do so at your own peril. If you keep deleting ingredients from an antibiotic, soon you will be left with a placebo, and a placebo has no power to save. Jesus’ gospel is the truth, about life, about God, about righteousness, and that truth is the way to reconciliation with God, it’s the way to life, abundant life, spiritual life, and eternal life. Faith encompasses all of that truth as God has revealed in His word.

There is a word there which may need clarification, Christ is the Greek translation which means Messiah. You can see in vs 5 that John uses Messiah interchangeably with the Son of God. So the gospel is that Jesus is God, who became flesh, who suffered the penalty for sin upon the cross, who is risen and seated on the throne in heaven, and faith in Him and His work is the means of our righteousness, the means of spiritual life, the source of all truth. All of that encompasses believing in Jesus as your Messiah, which is the means of being born again.

And one other word which we should clarify is the word faith. Hebrews 11:1 gives us the Biblical definition of faith; “Now Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Faith is trusting in the truth; what God has promised concerning Himself and the life which He gives. Faith is not mustering up some emotion, or a belief in something which isn’t true in order to make it true. Faith is believing in what God has declared is truth. Jesus said, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” Natural man is spiritually dead. Jesus is the truth that sets us free from the bondage of death, He is the truth that gives life.

If we skip ahead to vs11-13 we read about this life; “And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.”

So we are born again spiritually by faith in Christ to new life. And now, having been born into the family of God, John says in vs 1 that we love God and love His children. This love for God and for one another should be a natural outcome of our new birth. Children automatically love their parents. They should automatically love their siblings as well. So our love for God should be the result of our new life. We love our heavenly Father, and we love those who are born of God, those who have the same Spirit as us.

The question arises though, who are the family of God? John answers that in vs.2, “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandments.” Simply stated then, the family of God are those that love God and observe His commandments. This is how we recognize them. They exhibit the character and nature of God. If they say they love God, but they don’t exhibit the love of God towards others, and they don’t keep His commandments, then John tells us in 1 John chapter 1 that such men are liars. They are not born of God. But on a positive note, we know the family of God because they exhibit the nature and character of God dwelling in them.

Now there is also a love we are to have for those that are unsaved. There is a love we are to have for our neighbors. There is a love we are even to have for our enemies. All of that love is predicated on the realization that they need to know the truth to be saved, and we can show God’s love for them so that they might know the love which God has for them. The object or goal of our love is that they might be saved. But there is a special familial love that we are to have for the brethren. Those that are our brothers and sisters in the Lord are to have a special relationship with us. These family members make up the body of Christ. And how can we not show a special love for the body of Christ? There should be a closeness and a fellowship which is deeper than even the family ties of the natural man.

So we can know the family of God, as those who love God and keep His commandments. Jesus said in John 13:35 “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Now let’s move on to the second characteristic of faith, which is the fidelity of faith. Fidelity means faithfulness, trustworthiness, integrity, loyalty. We not only claim to believe, we not only claim saving faith, but we act in accordance to what we believe. Fidelity is often used in relation to a husband and wife. They keep their vows to one another. They love one another with an exclusive devotion. They love one another with a selfless, sacrificial love. The Bible teaches that marriage between a husband and a wife is a picture of Christ and the church. We submit to our husband, who is Christ. We honor and obey Him. This fidelity of our faith is realized in the faithfulness of our love, to honor and obey Him.

Jesus said in John 14:15, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” And so John urges us in this text to be faithful in our love by keeping His commandments. Vs.3, “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome.”

This idea of submission and obeying has fallen out of favor in marriages today. But in divine love, it remains true that if you love Him, you will obey Him, you will submit your will to do His will. The divine love that God has intended for us is sacrificial love. It’s the love of the will. And we are to love one another as Christ loved us. So we love with a sacrificial love, giving up our prerogatives so that we might do His will.

Now though that may sound oppressive or burdensome to the modern ear, yet it should not be. If you love someone, you should want to honor them, to please them, to serve them. It’s not a chore, it’s a labor of love. It reminds me of the story of a young man many years ago, long before the days when it was possible to get in your car and drive to school, and he was often seen carrying a little boy on his shoulder. And as one particular passerby noticed, the little boy that was being carried on his shoulder was lame. So he walked up to the young man who was carrying the lame boy and he said, “Do you carry him to school everyday?” And he said, “Yes sir, I carry him everyday.” “Well that’s a very heavy burden for you to carry,” said the stranger. And the young man replied, “He’s no a burden, he’s my brother.” His attitude illustrates what a difference love makes in carrying out the commandments of the Lord God.

And let me add, that HIs commandments are not a burden, because His commandments are for our benefit. God has made it possible for us to have new life, spiritual life, eternal life, abundant life, through faith in His Son. But He has also made a plan that we might know how we are to live. His commandments lead us in paths of righteousness. HIs commandments prevent us from going off into dangerous territory. His commandments are not meant to bind us up, but to free us to live a life that will be blessed. As someone once said, God’s commandments are not a wall to restrict us, but a guardrail to protect us. They are for our benefit. So then we should not find His commandments burdensome. If we love Him, we will want to please Him and we should realize His commandments are for our benefit.

Furthermore, Jesus has promised the Holy Spirit to be our Helper, so that we might be able to keep His commandments. When we have the Spirit of God working in us, He lightens the load and helps us. Jesus said in Matt. 11:28-30 “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

On the contrary, when we go against His will, and disobey His commandments, we cause ourselves to be weighted down with sins, which come with consequences that can weigh heavily upon us. So the fidelity of faith is our willingness to submit to God’s will, to keep His commandments as a testament of our love for God.

Finally, let’s look at the last characteristic of faith in this text, and that I call the triumph of faith. Let’s read the text in vs 4, “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.”

I want you to notice something in this verse. John says whatever is born of God. Not whoever, but whatever. Now what does He mean by whatever? Well, he gives the answer at the end of the verse; our faith is the whatever. So then we must understand that our faith is born of God. Now I don’t want to get mired down in some deep doctrinal issue here, but I do think it’s important to realize that God gives us faith to believe. Eph. 2:8 says “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.” Now you may argue that can speak of either salvation or faith being a gift, but I think that the Bible teaches both are true.

For instance consider Heb. 12:2 “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” He is the author of our faith, and the completion of our faith. So faith originates with God.

So what I think John is getting at, is that the object of our faith is the important thing here. Some people get focused on the size of faith, as if we somehow can muster up enough faith to accomplish some great miracle or something. But the emphasis I think John is giving us is that it is the object of our faith, Jesus, is the victory that has overcome the world. It is not the size of our faith. Jesus said if we had as little of faith as the size of a tiny mustard seed then we could move mountains. The point is not the size of our faith, but the object of our faith. We can have faith in what God has promised and who Christ is.

And Jesus has promised in the gospel of John 16:33 “These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.” Listen, we have faith in God’s promises which are fulfilled in Christ. Not in wishful thinking, not in hoping for some miracle of my own design, but our faith is in the written word of God. We have faith in what Jesus has accomplished and has promised to accomplish. And He has overcome the world.

Please understand what is meant by the world. The world is the world system. It is under the dominion of the prince of this world; Satan. Though God created the world and all things in it, Satan has subjugated the world system to his plan, to sweep mankind along in the course of this world to their eventual destruction. To trap mankind in the mire and muck of this world so that they miss the life giving truth of God.

Paul speaks of this world system in Eph. 2:1-3 “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.” The course of this world then is the world system conspired by Satan to sweep mankind to destruction in their ignorance of the truth.

But thanks be to God, Christ has overcome the world. He overcame sin. He overcame the devil. He overcame death. He has overcome the world. And our faith in Him overcomes the world as well. By faith in Him we can overcome the world system. We can escape the trap of sin that leads to death. Christ has come so that we might know the truth, and the truth would set us free. So that we might have life and have it more abundantly.

That leads us to vs5, which says because of Christ, we who are born of God can overcome the world as well. “Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?” Listen, as children of God, as children of the King, we have been given all the weapons necessary to overcome the world. We have been given the light of truth, we have been given the sword of the Lord, which is the word of God. We have been made righteous, we have been given the helmet of salvation, and the shield of faith. And through the Spirit of Christ working in us, we can be overcomers. We can overcome the world. I believe that means we can overcome the world system that is trying to trap our children. We can overcome the world system that has trapped sinners in it’s web. We can overcome through the blood of the Lamb.

Listen, we were made to be overcomers. The church is designed to overcome the world. The problem with the world system is that it is designed to look so enticing, that we feel we are missing out on all this fun stuff or exciting stuff that it offers. But the benefit to overcome the world is so much the better. The course of this world leads to death, but overcoming the world leads to life.

John wrote another book of the Bible, the book of Revelation. And in the first 3 chapters of Revelation Jesus gives John messages for 7 churches, which encompass not only 7 actual, historical churches, but also all the churches of the ages until He comes back. And in every one of those messages, Jesus says something about being an overcomer. To the church at Ephesus Jesus said, “To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the Paradise of God.” To the church of Smyrna Jesus says, “He who overcomes will not be hurt by the second death.” To the church of Pergamum Jesus says, “To him who overcomes, to him I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and a new name written on the stone which no one knows but he who receives it.” To the church of Thyatira, Jesus says, “He who overcomes, and he who keeps My deeds until the end, TO HIM I WILL GIVE AUTHORITY OVER THE NATIONS; AND HE SHALL RULE THEM WITH A ROD OF IRON, AS THE VESSELS OF THE POTTER ARE BROKEN TO PIECES, as I also have received authority from My Father; and I will give him the morning star.” To the church of Sardis Jesus says, “He who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments; and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.” To the church of Philadelphia Jesus says, “He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will not go out from it anymore; and I will write on him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God, and My new name.” And to the church of Laodecia Jesus says, “He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.”

Those are some wonderful promises, aren’t they? The greatest treasures of this earth at best are only temporary and cannot compare to the reward God has planned for those who love Him and who overcome this world. I pray that you by faith in Christ will be an overcomer. I pray that if you have never been born again that you would receive the faith that overcomes this world. That you would be given the righteousness of Christ and receive eternal life in Him. And I pray for you that have been born of God, that you would overcome the world through the testimony of your faith, by sharing the truth of God with others. I pray that you would find freedom from sin through your faith which overcomes the world.

And I will close by saying this; we overcome the world through our faith, and our faith produces love. Love is the way we will win the world to Christ. Love God, obey His commandments, and love one another even as Christ has loved you. Share the love of God towards sinners, that Christ has come to reconcile us to God, that we might be born of God, and have the everlasting life of God.

Jesus said in John 14:6, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” And essentially what that means is that the gospel of Jesus Christ is the truth of life. It is the source of life, and it’s the way of life. Belief in Christ’s gospel gives us life, and it teaches us how to live. You cannot truly live unless you have accepted this gospel as truth, and trusted in Christ as your Savior. Without that new life, the gospel teaches us that you are essentially dead in your sins.

Now a lot of people are attracted to religion for a variety of reasons. Far too many reasons to speculate on today. But John tells us in chapter 4 verse 1 that not everyone that claims Christianity is of the truth. He says there are many false spirits, deceiving spirits that have gone out into the world. So we are to test the spirits to see if they are from God. But John is writing this epistle primarily to people who are already supposed to have this new life in Christ. They are supposed to be born again, to be saved, to have become followers of the truth of Christ. They already have received the source of life that faith in the gospel provides.

So John isn’t primarily writing to people who are unsaved, to those who are still dead spiritually, but he is writing to people who have received this new life, and he is writing to make sure that they know the way to live. You understand the distinction? He’s not primarily teaching people how to become born again, how to have new life, (though the truths of salvation are evident in this epistle) but he is teaching believers how to live this new life.

And the major principle that John has been teaching is that if you are truly made alive in Christ, you are a new creation, then that new life will be characterized by fellowship with God. I believe that practically everything that John is presenting here in this book can be characterized as an aspect of fellowship. Fellowship is essential to this new life. This life cannot be lived as God designed it to be lived without fellowship. Now if you want to investigate this further, I would suggest that you go on our website and read some of the past sermons in 1John, and hopefully you will learn all the principles of fellowship and the benefits and blessings of it.

But as an introduction to today’s message, let me revisit one important principle of fellowship that John has stressed again and again. And that is that fellowship with God will produce love for God. The natural result of fellowship is love for God. You can illustrate that principle by looking at a couple that is dating. The more they hang out together, the more they learn about one another, the more they know the other person, the more they begin to love that person. So in like manner, fellowship is communing with God. Fellowship is spending time with God. John likes to use another word to indicate fellowship, and that is the word “abide.” To spend time with someone to the point that you never leave. And of course, in human love, that’s when the couple get married. They become one. They abide with one another. And their happiness and contentment comes from that abiding, or that fellowship. And that is the goal of our fellowship with God. That we would become one with God, that we have HIs Spirit abide in us, and we are in Him, that we communicate with Him through His word and through prayer, and the more we know Him the more we love Him, and the more we love Him the more we want to please Him. So the principle is that fellowship results in love.

The problem when we start talking about love is that the world’s concept of love falls far short of God’s definition of love. There is a tendency in the church today and in music and in teaching to present the word “love” as a euphemism for God. You hear this in contemporary Christian songs quite a bit, they talk about love coming down, or something to that effect, instead of using the name of Jesus. But the Bible never presents God and love as being synonymous. The Bible teaches that love is an attribute of God, it is defined by God, but God is not solely defined by love. And to attempt to reduce God to a one word description is to slight the name and character of God.

However, the possible basis for this misappropriation of God’s character is found right here in this chapter. Twice in this chapter it says “God is love.” Vs.8 and vs16. These are the only two places in the Bible where you find this statement in these exact words. But we need to understand that this statement does not limit God’s character to this one dimension. But rather John is just expounding this dimension of God’s nature, not excluding other essential attributes of God like He is holy, He is righteous, He is just, He is omnipotent, He is sovereign, He is light, He is Spirit, He is truth, He is light, and He is life.

But let me explain this attribute of God is love by saying that what John is teaching through this phrase“God is love”, is he is giving us a synopsis of the gospel. It is the gospel in shorthand. He isn’t talking about some sort of affectionate feeling from God. In fact, John himself interprets this statement for us in vs.10 which says, “Here is love, not that we loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” To say that God is love is to say that he sent the Lord Jesus Christ to be the propitiation for our sins. That’s the apostle’s definition of divine love.

Now to take that a step further, to fully comprehend “God is love” you must also understand what God hates. God hates sin. Sin is antiGod. In that it is the opposite of God’s nature and God’s intention and design in creation. Sin is death, God is life. Sin put the curse of death upon God’s creation. And God hates sin so much that He sent Jesus His Son to die on a cruel, horrible cross; beaten with a whip to within an inch of death, His head lacerated by a crown of thorns, HIs hands and feet pierced through with great iron nails. God put your sins and mine on Christ and let Him hang there naked and bleeding and hardly able to breathe and watched Him writhe in agony and torment and called it “love.” Now that is what “God is love” means.

Furthermore, God is love speaks of divine love. Not romantic love, not sentimental love, not sexual love – that’s how man speaks of love – but the love of God sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. That divine sacrificial love is the type of love that God desires for us to have in this new life. And as a spiritual new creation, if we truly have the life of God, then we have been given the capacity to love like God loved us. And God wants us to love like He loves so that our fellowship may be complete. That’s the title of my message today; the perfection of fellowship, or the completion of fellowship. John uses the word perfection, or perfected four times, which in every case might be interpreted as complete. God’s design for us is that we might have our fellowship, our love, completed.

Now John gives us a few principles which will help us to see how that is accomplished. How we can have complete fellowship with God. First fellowship is completed through the Spirit of God abiding in us. Vs. 13 says, “By this we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.” Remember, John started this chapter by saying that we should test the spirits to see if they are from God, because not all are. So you test the spirits how? How do you test to see if a spirit is from God? Well, the answer is that you test the spirits by the word of God. Because the Holy Spirit is the author of scripture.

Peter said in 2Peter 1:21 “for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.” So scripture is authored by the Holy Spirit, and since God cannot deny Himself, we can verify the spirits by the word of God. That’s the primary job of the Holy Spirit; to teach us through the word of God. Jesus said that “He will lead you and guide you into all truth.”

When you are born again, you are born by the Spirit of God. The Spirit lives in you. He abides in you, and you know this John says, because He has given us of His Spirit. That simply means that our spirit is reborn with God’s Spirit, so that our spirit has life, it has the interior witness of God’s truth as we read His word. We know that God is speaking to us. We are able to come to know God, to have communion with God. The Spirit of God in us is the foundation of our fellowship. He indwells us, so that we have communion with God. This is the first and foundational step of perfect fellowship with God. We must be born again by His Spirit and His Spirit must live in us.

Listen, don’t be deceived here by false spirits. Being born again by the Holy Spirit is not some supernatural or emotional or ecstatic experience by which we think we have come to know God. Being born again comes through faith; through believing in the truth of Christ’s propitiation for our sins. When we come to God as a sinner, and confess our sins, and call upon Christ to forgive us our sins and make us a new creation, to give us a new heart, then God answers that prayer and transfers our sins to Christ, and gives Christ’s righteousness to us, and once we are made holy and righteous He gives us a new spirit and the indwelling of His Spirit, so that we might be the children of God. We cannot have complete fellowship until we have the Spirit of God abiding in us.

So the Spirit in us is the internal witness to our fellowship. But there is an external witness as well which is closely correlated. We have already introduced it; it is the gospel of Christ, the word of God, which is the testimony of the apostles. Look at vs.14 “We have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.” John is speaking of the testimony of his fellow apostles. The apostles doctrine is the foundation of the church according to Ephesians chapter 2. So there is an external witness to our fellowship, and that is that we hold to the testimony of the apostles to Jesus being the Savior of the world.

We confess, we agree with the gospel as recorded by the apostles. His word abides in us, and that is evidence that He abides in us. Look at vs.15, “Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.” To confess means to agree with. So that’s the completion or perfection of fellowship. We have the Spirit of God in us through salvation, we confess, that is agree with that testimony of the apostles, and the word of God confirms that we have God abiding in us and that we abide with God.

Listen, God is love means God is truth. Love comes from faith, and Rom 10:17 says that “faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.” And if there is not this relationship of faith, belief in the word of God, there cannot be the life of God and there cannot be the fellowship with God and there cannot be the love of God. So faith in God’s word confirms God abiding in us. As you read and study HIs word, the Spirit confirms your faith.

John states this principle succinctly in vs.16 once more; “We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.” Now that is the perfection of fellowship. We have come to know the love of God because we have believed in the gospel by faith. As a result we have the abiding Spirit of God in us. And we abide in Him through obeying or abiding in His word.

This is how our love or our fellowship is perfected. We have faith in His gospel, we have His Spirit abide in us, and we abide in Him through obedience to His word. That is the perfection of fellowship says John in vs.17, “By this, love is perfected with us…” By this faith in the gospel, by this indwelling Spirit of God given to us as a result of our faith, and by our faith and obedience to His word. By this love is perfected within us. Now as a result of this love, this fellowship completed, John gives us three benefits or blessings of this perfect fellowship which are described in vs17 and 18, “By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.”

The first benefit is that of no fear of judgment. Because we have this fellowship with God through the inner testimony of the Spirit and the external witness of the Word, we have confidence concerning the judgment that is coming upon the world. We know we have nothing to fear when Jesus comes back because we love Him and He loves us, we are His bride and He is our bridegroom. The rest of the world will mourn that they rejected Christ as their Savior, but we will rejoice as a bride rejoices to see her husband.

Further, John says we have confidence because as He is, so also are we in this world. We have confidence that we are as He is because we keep His word. Because we keep His commandments. Listen, if we disobey His commandments then we have reason to fear. But if we truly love God, then we want to please God, and Jesus said if you love Me you will keep My commandments. So if we are keeping His commandments then we have no reason to fear. As He was a light to the world, so are we lights to the world. As He did the Father’s will, so we do the Father’s will. As He kept the Father’s word, so we keep the Father’s word. As He ministered in the power and strength of the Holy Spirit, so we minister in the power of the Holy Spirit. And we are able to keep His commandments because we have His Spirit abiding in us. Jesus is not just our Savior, but He is our example for how to live as God would have us live. He is our pattern as Peter tells us in 1Peter 2:21 “For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in His steps.” So as He is, so are we in this world.

The third benefit is that we have no fear of punishment. We have no fear of punishment because we have the love of God perfected in us. When the love of God is completed in us, when we love God as we are loved, then we have confidence in judgment, because there can be no punishment for those who have been forgiven. Now I want to make a distinction between punishment and discipline. The author of Hebrews tells us that if God loves us, He will also discipline us. Heb. 12:6-7 “FOR THOSE WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE DISCIPLINES, AND HE SCOURGES EVERY SON WHOM HE RECEIVES.” It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline?” So discipline is a necessary part of being a child of God, so that we might learn to walk as Christ walked.

But John isn’t taking about discipline here, he is talking about eternal punishment. The word punishment could also be translated as torment, as in eternal torment. I was speaking with a man in prison the other day, and during his incarceration he has become very knowledgeable about the law. And in the law is a principle called double jeopardy, which prevents a person being tried or punished twice for the same offense. I was telling this man that God has placed his punishment on Jesus. Christ has paid the penalty for our punishment. God being just and holy cannot punish twice for the same offense. So that is what John is getting at. We need not fear that God will punish us in eternal torment because God is love means that God has already punished Jesus for our crimes against Him.

Now there is one more point John makes concerning this completed fellowship, or the perfect love. And that is what we might call the expression of perfected love. The expression of love. In other words, the love of God does not stop with us. It is designed to flow through us, to be given out again to one another. Love is not just self directed, it is not selfish, love is self less. Love isn’t completed when it finds me, but when I love another as God loves me.

John declares this great principle in vs 19 “We love, because He first loved us.” Now this statement is so simple yet it is so profound. There are two major principles that are incorporated in this little statement. First is that our love for God is predicated on His love first finding us. As I said at the beginning, we cannot come to love God, to have fellowship with God without first coming to know the love of God towards us. That is the basis for our relationship. We have to first come to believe in God’s love for us that He sent His only Son into the world to save sinners by dying on the cross for our sins. That is how we are saved and how we are given the capacity to love.

But there is another application of this principle as well. Not that we are loved, but that we love others because He first loved us. Because we have the love of God in us, we are able to love like God loves. We are to love one another as we love God. There are two commandments Jesus said that are the foremost commandments of God. All the law could be contained in these two, which we read from Mark 12:30-31 “AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH.’ The second is this, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” So we are to love God and love one another in fulfillment or completion of the love of God towards us.

Now John illustrates these two commandments in the following verses. First, the commandment of loving God, John says, cannot be completed if you do not love others. Vs. 20, “If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen.”

John doesn’t give us an easy out. If we say we love God, but don’t love our brother, then we are a liar. We don’t really love God. Because if we have the love of God, then we share the nature of God, and God’s nature is to love. And he gives us only two options; you either love your brother or you hate him. You are either one way or the other. You either exhibit the nature of God or you do not. We tend to measure our Christianity by degrees. “I may not be perfect, but I’m better than this guy, and I’m not so bad as that guy.” But God measures our Christianity by Christ. He is perfect, so we are to be perfect. Peter said it this way in 1Peter 1:15-16 “but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, “YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY.” We either love our brother or our Christianity is a lie. That’s the options John gives us.

And the last illustration of this love of God, which is the love we are to have, is simply restating the commandment in vs.21, “And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.” I said last time that this is a mandate, it’s not a suggestion. Jesus said in John 14:15 “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” And His commandment is exactly what John has just said; the one who loves God should love his brother also. Our love for God is evidenced by our love for one another. We love others not because they are lovable, not because they are loving towards us, not because they deserve it, but we love them because God first loved us even when we were sinners, even when we were in rebellion against God. So in like manner we love others in order to manifest the love of God towards them. God uses His people to reveal His love to people. It’s that simple.

If we love God then we will love the things God loves. We love God enough to love those that God loves. And when we exhibit this kind of love, then the circle of fellowship is complete. There is so much talk today about how much God loves me. And He does. Thank God for His love for me. But I don’t reciprocate that love by just singing it back to Him. Or by saying it back to Him. We reciprocate God’s love by being obedient, and if we are obeying Him, then we will love one another because that is His commandment to the church. This is the template for fellowship. This is the way of life which God has designed for us to live. This is the way to fulfillment, to joy and contentment. Love one another, even as God loved us, giving up His life for us, revealing God’s truth to us, that we might have life in Him and fellowship with Him.

I cannot help but wonder if today there is someone here who does not know the love of God. You cannot say you have fellowship with God. You cannot say that you have the abiding presence of His Spirit within you. But perhaps today the Holy Spirit has convicted you of your need for forgiveness, your need for new life. I am here to proclaim to you today the good news. God sent Jesus to take the punishment for your sins, so that by faith in Jesus Christ, you might be born again by His Spirit, that you might come to know the truth, and that the truth would make you free. Jesus has paid the price for your salvation, all that remains is for you to recognize that you are a sinner and that Christ has paid your penalty, and by faith in Him as your Savior you can receive eternal life right now. Call on Jesus today, and He will save you. Today is the acceptable day of salvation. Let’s pray.