Sermon Tone Analysis

One day…one Sunday…I promise you…one Sunday one day I am going to give you a 30 minute sermon…BUT NOT TODAY!

No time for funny stories, no time for jokes…it is time to DIG INTO THE WORD!

Open your Bibles to 1 John chapter 2. We are going to be looking at verses 1-6 this morning.

So we are in our 3rd week in 1 John…lets not forget why this Epistle is written.

It is written to give the Christians confidence in the hope they have in Jesus Christ.

When someone mentions 1 John to you…just remember chapter 5:13…John says...

A lot of people think it is SO presumptuous for us to say, “I KNOW I have eternal life”.

Im not saying “I know that ONE DAY I will have eternal life”…I am saying “I know I have eternal life NOW”.

WE CAN be confident in this if we look to Christ alone.

It is those who look to Christ and themselves for salvation that can’t say they are 100% confident in their salvation.

It is only those who have faith in Christ ALONE that can KNOW they have eternal life.

Knowing

This whole thing is based on KNOWING.

What is wrong with the American Church today, the American Gospel, is that it is based on an emotion…it is based on an experience, a feeling.

I want you all to know that Christianity is based on the Word of God, not a feeling.

We learned that in Chapter 1:1-4 didn’t we.

It is based on believing the Word of God.

It is based on the apostolic writings.

Let’s look at it again...

1 John 1:1-4

So you want to know if you are truly a Christian…

Test #1: Do you believe the Word of God? Do you believe it when it goes against everything else? Do you put your logic and reasoning over Gods Word?

Do you believe the Word?

We know that God is love right?

That is what John tells us in chapter 4. But what he tells us before that is that God is light in verse 5 of chapter 1.

Why?

Because you can’t hide your sins from him!

In Him there is no darkness.

You want to know if you are a Christian?

Test #2: Do you come to the light or do you act as if you have no sin in your life?

Do you claim to have fellowship with God but walk in the darkness?

If so, you are a liar and the truth is not IN you.

But...

Confess your sins to God ya’ll, He is light and in Him there is no darkness…fall on your knees and confess your sins.

Lets stand and read our text this morning:

Let’s pray!

Alright!

Let’s Go!

The heart behind these first 3 words is something we all need to learn from John but especially those who are called to leadership.

John looks at this congregation that he is shepherding and says with sincerity, “My little children”.

He doesn’t say, “Listen to me because I am so much more spiritual than you”, he doesn’t say, “Listen to me because I am in an authoritative position, I have a title”…NO!

He loves them, he truly loves him.

The shepherd loves his sheep.

If you read this slowly look and see how many times he includes himself in the things he tells them.

He doesn’t look down his nose at them as if he is better than them…John loves his sheep because he knows the Shepherd that they ULTIMATELY belong to so he treats them as such.

We should all heed this but especially those in leadership over a flock.

He says, “I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.”

Imagine when they got this letter.

Imagine being the first group of Christians to read those words from the Apostle John.

Someone is standing up front waiting to read the letter…everyone is sitting around and you open the scroll its written on.

You start reading about John walking with the Lord, seeing him with his own eyes.

He tells you to trust what he says and what he proclaims to you and your’e thinking about the false teachers that were telling you all those things just a few weeks ago and how you entertained what they had to say for a moment.

Then you hear the person read how God is LIGHT and you can’t walk in darkness and claim fellowship with him.

The first section is over and you completely understand what John was telling you…don’t act like you don’t sin, don’t claim that you don’t sin.

Confess your sins.

Then....then your sitting there feeling convicted of your sin, feeling horrible for your sins…then he reads this line to you for the first time… “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.”

The reader pauses and looks up at you and everybody else in the room.

You look at him and you look at the others in the room and everyone is saying, “shhh…shhh…he’s about to tell us what to do so we don’t sin anymore”.

You can’t wait to hear what he is about to say can you…because you don’t WANT to sin.

The anticipation grows as the guy up front reads the next line to himself…you say, “what does it say?

What does it say?”

And he reads...

“But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”

How awesome is that!

I bet John was snickering when he wrote that line…when the Holy Spirit guided him to write that I bet it took him back to some of the things Jesus did and said.

I bet it reminded him of Jesus’ personality…always keeping his listeners on their toes.

He wasn’t about to contradict what he just said in chapter 1! In Chapter 1 he told us that we can’t act like we don’t sin…he knows that the Christian sins.

It is the deceived person, the liar that says he doesn’t sin.

So what is it that keeps us from living in sin?

It is keeping our eyes on Christ Jesus.

What keeps us from continuing to live in sin?

It is remembering the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Knowing his love for us and what he accomplished for us…keeping that at the forefront of our minds that by his grace alone He saved us.

But, when we DO sin…we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

So what is an ADVOCATE?

It is an intercessor, a mediator.

It is someone called to ones aid.

It is a legal assistant.

It is what Jesus is to us in Heaven right now before the Father…our legal assistant.

He is one who speaks on behalf of the accused.

When we say “legal assistant” we see a lawyer in a suit, a trained professional who defends the defendant.

In the ancient world in this context that John is writing they understood an ADVOCATE as a friend who speaks up in favour of the accused.

In Jesus calls us his friends.

How cool is that?

But what qualifies Jesus to be our ADVOCATE?

We find out in the next verse...

Lets look at it:

What makes him our advocate is the fact that he was our propitiation.

What is this saying?

If your napping…wake up for this one.

We are about to get deep here.

Stay with me and lets work through this text.

Propitiation?

It says that he is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the world.

We are going to go slow and lets look at the first part first… “He is the propitiation for our sins...”

What does that even mean?

Propitiation: it means atonement; the means of appeasing; sacrifice to atone, sin-offering.

The means of forgiveness.

This is a theological word…it is the means of reconciliation between God and people.

It is the act by which God and man are brought together in personal relationship.