No test. Very good. Let's begin with the word of prayer. Father in heaven, it is our privilege to look into your word, that word, which is a source of light and life, the bread of life, the bread of life who is also our savior, the word of life.
In the beginning was the word, the word was with God, and the word was God. And such is our savior, the one who was and is divine, and who is also our savior. Help us to delve into these things this morning that our souls might be enriched and that we might be strengthened for 2022. We pray in Jesus name, amen.
My wife could not be with us this morning. She has had a head cold since Wednesday. The moral support of my wife is very important. As any married man would be able to tell you, that is true.
The moral support of one's wife is to use an overused word, a very empowering thing. That is my experience. She may not say a great deal about any given message, but her moral support means the world to me as of about Wednesday. She started doing the things.
Don't kiss me. I've got to call. Too late. Don't kiss me.
Too late. That's been going on since Wednesday. My theory is that the library of immunity in my body needs to learn something. I collect books.
I collect antigens. I figure that I will just build up the immune system that's in there. And if I'm going to get it, I'm going to get it. I live with this person.
We bump into each other in the kitchen, and we breathe the same air. If I'm going to get it, I'm going to get it. So she's not here this morning. I'm feeling energetic.
I've had my usual coffee. And thanks to visitors yesterday, my breakfast was a collection of Christmas desserts. Cupcakes and shortbread and besters, plum cake with whipped cream, the breakfast of champions, the Christmas dessert breakfast. I love it.
I just love it. So this morning, we're going to look at the book of First John. And it is very good to take a big picture of you when looking at the Bible, as well as to get into the trees, to see the forest, but also to, of course, think of the details within scripture. The book of, for example, Leviticus is a complex book with many complex ceremonies.
And much significance. But here's a big picture observation about the book of Leviticus. God wants to meet with you. That's very significant.
That's very significant. I wonder what the man on the sidewalk would say if we said to him, God wants to meet with you. I wonder what he would say. I think there could be the reaction of, well, I don't know that I want to meet with God in this day and age.
Well, I think such an individual had better consider that response very carefully, because as we know, he and we are going to meet God anyway, whether you like it or not, every knee shall bow. Every knee shall bow. God wants to meet with you. The book of Leviticus also indicates that it is on God's terms.
Should there be anything surprising about that, God being God. If God says I would like to meet with you, we don't pull out our thing. Well, you know, maybe Tuesday at 11, I might be free to talk to you, God. Is that an appropriate response to the God of the universe and your creator who wants to meet with you?
And you say, well, it's going to be on my terms. I'm not sure. I like this book. I want it to be on my terms.
Well, there's no surprise in the news that it is not on your terms or my terms. It is on God's terms. That should give us pause. That should not surprise us.
Last week, we meditated in the breaking of bread a little bit about the light. And again, this morning, in the beginning, God said, let there be light. And then we come all the way to the gospels, passing through all the redemptive significance of Leviticus, full of redemptive significance that enables that meeting with God. And we pass through that wonderful information and accounts and history and drama of the most spiritual and significant kind up to the gospels, the New Testament.
And we see light at the birth of Christ, at this time of year. My father, though he was not a believer, I don't know if he ever became a believer, frankly. But I know that at that time he was not a believer. He said, you know, in Denmark, we opened the presence on Christmas Eve.
And in Denmark, we also asked the eldest son to read Luke chapter 2. David, would you read that passage? Luke chapter 2, and I was shocked. We didn't read the Bible in my house.
But if nothing else, my father was a dane. And if there was a Danish tradition, he was probably all for it. And so I did. And as you can read for yourselves, and as we have read at this time of year, you have light, physical, actual light coming down from an astronomical event and coming down from angels, actual light, physical light, photons, coming down to the place where the Lord Jesus was born and laid in a manger having been wrapped in swaddling.
That's one word in the Greek. The swaddling wraps the wraps. Wrap up the baby. And then you have the synoptic gospels that present the life of Christ, the life and death of this person and his resurrection.
These three synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. And then you come to John, rich in decades later. And John knows perfectly well what is already known and does not recover in many respects, the ground, that the other gospel writers have covered. But he does reveal to us things that the Lord Jesus did and said, I believe that many times there were learned Pharisees and scribes that were nearby such as Nicodemus and later others, that the disciple John was able to listen to.
And being the disciple that Jesus loved, he was never very far from the Savior. And he could hear many things that the Lord Jesus said and prayed that are not recorded in the other three gospels. And we find in the beginning of that gospel, John is very aware of this personage, this Lord Jesus Christ, this Jesus of Nazareth. And he describes him as the light.
And that the light came into the world and that the world wouldn't receive it, even though, as we read in verse 14, his life was full of grace and truth. This man, the light of the world, which he also himself said that he was, was full of grace and truth. That means a great deal to me, and I think it should mean a great deal to us, as we contemplate how to live our lives in the coming year. We read in the Gospel of John about light, and Jesus saying, I am the light of the world.
We read about the Lord Jesus feeding 5,000 and saying, I am the bread of life. We read about the Lord Jesus meeting with a woman and saying, you know, I am the water of eternal life that springs up to eternal life. And then, in the context of raising Lazarus, I am the resurrection and the life. There is the water of life for your daily life, and yes, you need it.
And if you don't know it, you are much the poorer. You are much the, almost I would say, disabled by not knowing the bread of life and the water of life on a day-to-day basis in your life. The child of God knows well what these things mean. These things are precious to us, that the Lord Jesus is our bread of life and our water of life for our daily lives.
But more than that, he is the resurrection and the life. What a hope we have, what a hope we have in him. And so then, scholars believe that not long after John put down that gospel, he wrote three letters, first, second, and third John. And that's where we will be this morning.
First, second, and third John are just before the book of Revelation, which makes it very easy to find them. I would recommend to you that you read all three books together in the coming month, just as an encouragement to your soul, and because it is just so very rich with Christian truth. Before I explore this very important phrase that appears five times in the book of 1 John, I want to for a moment think about the defense of the Christian faith, the apologetic aspect of these writings. If you read things like Morrison or McDowell, or even Lee Stravale, who's popularized a great deal of apologetic literature that's dialog, dialogical in its approach, in its presentation, it's very readable.
It's very readable to take in a conversation, which is an interview. And Lee Stravale has written about the resurrection and Easter, both in shorter books and in longer books. His wife was a Christian, and he was not a Christian, and this went on for some decades, and he was a journalist. And he began to ask some very simple questions, probably the testimony of his wife's life as well, caused him to think.
And he began the way that a journalist would, to begin, to interview experts. He interviewed psychiatrists. He interviewed people who are experts in the history of the papri-ri. He interviewed experts in the realm of hallucinations, of wide range of experts on both the external history and the internal workings of the human heart and mind as you take in the gospels.
And there are many aspects to these works, by Stravale, that would strengthen your faith, that would cause you to have more confidence. After all, we are to be people who are able to give an answer for the reason of the hope that is in us, as per First Timothy. And one of the interesting aspects that came up in my interaction with someone in my building recently as it happens is why did a bunch of devout Jewish men drop their religion? Devout Jewish men don't just drop their religion.
And they did. Not only did they drop their devout Jewish religion, they traveled all over the place, spreading this message, that Jesus Christ was the Messiah, and that He is alive, going sometimes great distances to tell people of the resurrection that the resurrection had actually happened as a historical event. And the question can be posed from a historical point of view, why? Why?
They must have seen something. People don't do that. People don't drop a religion in which they are devout. And begin going at great personal expense and risk to the point of death for something that is not true.
When human beings want to perhaps get a control on other people, even here in 1 John, we have in a nutshell, in 29 about the nature of the human being that the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, that makes people tick. These are the things that make people tick. And at a lower level, you have people that might steal in order to increase their own personal level of comfort. You have people who will seek pleasure.
But these things are rather shallow, are they not? What we can see from world history and human behavior and the megalomania that can happen is that one of the ways that men can take a great deal of pleasure in the pride of life is to control others. And if I am a person who is controlling human behavior and getting people to run hither and thither and do my bidding, there is a sinful human aspect of enjoyment in the control of other people. But it can go another level.
And that is, I tell other people what is right and wrong. And they look to me to decide whether something is right or wrong. I am not only on the moral high ground, I am the moral high ground. There is a tremendously sinful human aspect of that.
It is a very, very sinful and wrong thing for a man to tell other people what is right and wrong and to take spiritual pride in controlling others. And that is to me, that is one of the high points of human sinfulness. So if a man is going to go out and tell people at great personal risk that Jesus Christ has risen from the dead and ends up being killed for it, all but John, we're killed for it. Well, what did they get out of that?
They got no, you might say, good outcome out of that. Did they get to control people? Did they get to influence people? What we know, as I pointed out in some of Strobel's writings, is you put the thumbscrews to people and they'll say, don't kill me, I'm lying.
Please don't kill me. I was manipulating you. I was lying. Please don't kill me.
All but one of these men said, kill me if you want to. Whether they were in Europe or Thomas went to India, kill me if you want to. I know that Jesus Christ of Nazareth rose from the dead and that he is the Messiah. So there is that aspect of the apologetics of the gospel and the testimony that is in your Bible.
But you know there is here in first John and in the letters. You also find that as has been written by some commentators about the apostle Paul's writings, the epistles, and your New Testament after the book of Acts is that these things bring out the heart of the gospel. If this is all a lie, how in the world could ordinary men bring such elevated thoughts to you and I if this is all a lie? When you look at the, I love the book of 1 Corinthians.
I had mentioned about the big picture sort of a comment from Leviticus. What's a big picture comment from 1 Corinthians? Well, here's what amazes me about 1 Corinthians. That it was written.
There is a letter to a dysfunctional church trying to bring them in to proper worship and proper function. And the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians and in 2 Corinthians and in Galatians and elsewhere wears his heart on his sleeve in order to try to please, please, try to bring believers, the children of God into a proper relationship with each other and with God in worship. Is all of that made up? Is all of that a concoction?
That strikes me as the height of ridiculousness. The apostle Paul suffered shipwrecks and would eventually be executed himself. And all he wants is for the worship of God to be what it should be. We as a small assembly have problems.
Are you surprised by that statement? Are you surprised by the statement that this assembly is not perfect? That I'm not perfect? That the leadership is not perfect and that we don't function perfectly.
The reason for that is because we are humans. We are human beings and we are not perfect. And we come together and we form an imperfect church. But 1 Corinthians says, that is not a reason to break it.
That is not a reason to dissolve it. And the things you will find in 1 Corinthians are worse than anything that I know of here, but the letter is still written. And Paul's heart is still broken. And he brings them in to a better and greater knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and how to worship him and in like manner when you look at the letters of John 1 2 and 3 John, you have a man, the disciple whom Jesus loved and knew it well.
I hope that that is your personal experience and knowledge that the love of the Lord Jesus is not a theory to you, but it is your daily experience as you experience the water of life and the bread of life and the light of life. And this very elevated part of Scripture, which is all Scripture, I don't know why I'm saying that 1 John is particularly elevated, it is very elevated. The teachings and principles that you can find in this, it will take you about 20 minutes to read all three letters. They're absolutely amazing.
And these little words as he is happened five times, but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus, his son cleanses us from all sin. So that is my phrase for you, six letters, three short words that happen five times in the space of a very short letter. These are beautiful words that have great richness. And as you pick them up in the book of 1 John, you can allow them to minister to your mind and to your soul.
One of the, the first one gives us one of the important principles of walking in the light. First it starts with but, that means it's possible to be a Christian and not really be walking in the light very well. But if you do, you will have great blessing, you will have light in your life that enables you to have true Christian fellowship with other believers. What do you have in common with them?
The ground is leveled before the cross. You have been cleansed by the blood and so has the other person. Do they have defects? I suppose.
Do you have more? I think so. I know I have more. I'm ashamed of myself more times than I can tell you.
But the Lord is not ashamed of me and he died for me and he washed my sins away and I have that in common with you. You and I are in level ground before the cross. So there is an aspect of our fellowship that is absolutely indestructible and inviolable. It is eternal.
It is eternal. I don't know what the Lord God will have for us in eternity. He will say, David, John expressed an interest in this galaxy. Perhaps you and John would like to explore that galaxy.
I'm up for that. I have no idea what the Lord has for us in eternity. But for here and now, I know that John and I are cleansed by the blood. And walking in the light as he is, as he is in the light, is the way to walk while we are here.
Chapter 3 happens twice in Chapter 3. If I'm not mistaken, two or three times. We love it. Now are we the children of God and what we will be has not yet appeared.
But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. What a promise. And everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself even as he is pure, as he is pure. We often, in these difficult days in the world and in Canada, there is more talk amongst Christians of the return of the Lord Jesus Christ than I have ever heard in my life.
And I'm not one bit surprised. I'm not one little bit sorry for the Christian to have that knowledge that when he appears, I shall be like him, for I shall see him. Not through a glass darkly, but as he is. That's truly wonderful.
That is a hope that I cling to in my heart. I don't know the mechanics of that. My engineering mind would probably love to know more about the mechanics of that, and I don't know. But I will be like him because I will see him as he is.
Paul says in a moment, we'll be changed. Wonderful. Wonderful. What a hope we have in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And there is a purifying effect of that hope. If you have that hope, it tends to put things in their place, doesn't it? There may be a lot going on, and you might say a lot not going on that should be going on, but because we have this hope in him that we will be like him, where we shall see him as he is, it has a purifying effect on us because we realize that this world is passing away and these troubles are temporary. That has a purifying effect on our hearts and minds.
Yes, there is a third one in 1 John 3, chapter 3. When you look at the letters, you see that John is writing, it's actually a sermon poem or a poetic sermon that circles around certain issues like light and life and purity in that letter of five chapters. And he's trying to say in a very beautiful, elevated way why it is and how it is that you and I should be in meaningful fellowship and that it's precious and that it's, you might say, theologically grounded. It's well grounded.
It's grounded in the highest and best things of eternity, the cleansing of the blood of Christ. And then you come to 2 John and it is said, it is thought, scholars believe that John was thinking of a group of churches in and around Ephesus, which is just south of modern Ismir, and those house churches are having some problems. And he's a little bit more specific. And he's saying, if someone is faithful to these truths and the incarnation being the major one that he was both God and man, that's central truth.
If someone adheres to it and comes to you looking for fellowship, welcome them. It says though, John is saying, do I have to be more specific? I've told you in five chapters about the glories of Christ and of the incarnation and of all of the implications of these things. Now listen, if you have these things in common with someone, love them and welcome them into your home.
Amen to that. And then you come to 3 John and it's even shorter and it's even more specific and it's written to somebody named Gaius. He had mentioned somebody else named Diometrophes. So John says, well, I've given you the elevated picture in my first letter.
I've tried to make it a little bit more pointed in my second letter and now I'm actually going to name names. Gaius is a good man. He is listening to what I said in my second letter. But be wary of people like Diometrophes, people who are here for the sake of the human glory, for the sake of the attention.
Be wary of such people. Diometrophes said, well, if you're not in my camp, then I don't care if you are coming with the message from the apostle John, I don't care. I am in charge of this house church and I welcome who I say that we welcome. John says, don't even talk to such a person.
Do not have anything to do with such a person. He is more concerned with himself than he is with the truth. And that is, you know, very human. It is very human.
There's an aspect of our humanness that needs a little bit of recognition. But sometimes that desire for just a little bit of recognition can get out of control. And then people can then feel that the appropriate amount of recognition is not coming and get angry. That is tragic.
We watch for these things in our own hearts. To do unrighteous things is self-evidently wrong. And people who try to tell you that self-evidently righteous things are not unrighteous. Then they are simply wrong.
What's wrong is wrong. People's lives are self-evident. Is the person practicing righteousness? Is their life self-evidently a Christ-like life good?
Because that person is imitating Christ. The as he is righteousness. The righteousness that doesn't come from ourselves, it comes from him. This kind of thing is self-evident.
John says, watch for that. Watch for that. Finally the fifth instance here and I'm at the end of my message this morning. When we go out into the world, we are light to the world.
By this is love perfected with us so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment. Because as he is, so also are we in this world. The Lord Jesus and His Word are the light of the world. And it's you, your job and my job.
It is our job to be the light of the world. That is a very almost shocking responsibility. But if you walk in the light, as he is in the light, God will enable you to do that. Don't forget your role in this world to be his light.
Because he came to this world to be the light of the world. But we need to take those three words as he is and make them our own. We could take apart these three words and think about them as we read first John and I would encourage you to do it. As like, be like him.
Function like him. Be as he is in his walk and in his character. As you take in his life. Take in his life and character.
Be like that. As he is. As he is. Who is he?
He was the promised Messiah and he is alive. He rose from the dead. He is our Savior. He with a capital H.
As he is. He is not only the one that we emulate in some kind of an imitative way. He is our life. And so you come to the third word.
As he is. Sometimes, you know, you can go on YouTube and look at the quotations from Mark Twain and Napoleon and Pythagoras and some fascinating statements there. Yeah, they're all dead as a doornail. These guys, right?
They're completely dead. You might have an interesting thing to say or an interesting point or a funny point. And they might actually have some good life advice for you. That's not the same thing.
The Lord Jesus is the life of your life. And when the Scripture tells you to live and to live by the principle of as he is, it's because he is alive and he is your Savior and he does dwell within you and he does cleanse you from sin. Not only has he cleansed you from sin and saving you, he cleanses you from sin when you fail. You might fail against your brother.
You might fail against your spouse. No great surprise there, I suppose. But he cleanses us from all sin so that we can walk in the light and walk as he is. So in 2022, think of those three words.
Think of who the Lord Jesus is. Meditate upon who he is to you in your life, in your heart, in your spirit, in your soul as we move into 2022. Let's pray. Father, we thank you that we can know our Savior in a personal way.
Thank you that our Savior guides us. Day by day strengthens us. To us he is the water of life and the bread of life. Help us to be people who feed upon him day by day.
In his name we pray. Amen.