Sermon Tone Analysis

Verse 12 is a very short but loaded verse.

I will take the liberty to liken it to a small, tiny little present you may find under the Christmas tree.

At first glance, it doesn’t seem like much, and because of it’s limited length, could be easily overlooked, but it’s value, meaning and importance are significant and foundational to our faith and understanding of the character of God.

Therefore, my intention is to carefully unwrap the precious truths that it holds.

John continues to reveal these seemingly secondary, but incredibly rich and insightful reasons why he is taking the time to draft this Holy Spirit inspired letter.

Isn’t there something special about receiving a letter?

Isn’t there something significant that warms our hearts, when someone addresses us, in a personal way?

Maybe it is a nickname

Maybe they use a term of endearment like: sweetie, honey, babe . . .

or other conversations might include more manly terms, like: Dude, Man, Bro . . .

brother)

Well, John (inspired and perfectly guided by the Holy Spirit) chose to address the recipients of this letter as . . .

Little Children-

Dearly loved ones is a phrase that is used repeatedly (8 times) in this letter.

John is writing to members of the family of God, to those whom he loves and cherishes.

Don’t allow the repetitiveness of this term to dilute the importance of the title.

It really is a term of endearment, and though in the space of three verses he specifies three distinct groups (Little Children, Fathers and Young Men) there seems to be ample evidence that John is addressing the entire church (body of Christ/family of God) in this section, and not seeking to distinguish certain age groups, who have each given him separate reasons for writing.

John’s letter has been preserved for us by the power of God, and is though it was written thousands of years ago, is just as applicable for us today, as it was for the original recipients.

So now that we have discussed the first two phrases, what do you say?

Should we continue unwrapping this gem of a verse?

I am writing to you, my precious beloved young family members, because . . .

Your Sins are Forgiven

Your acts of disobedience to God’s commands,

Your selfish desires,

Your inability to live up to God’s perfect standard of holiness,

Has been forgiven.

Here in this verse, the verb forgiven, is in the perfect tense in the Greek.

It is accomplished.

This is an important observation, because it helps us to get an accurate picture of the message that John is communicating.

We frequently speak of Salvation, which is described throughout Scripture as justification. . .

Throughout Scripture, salvation is referred to as something that has happened in the believers life, something that is happening in the believers life and something that will continue to take place in the believers life.

and that act of justifying us we are told is accomplished by the forgiveness of our sins, by God’s grace.

This same act of God is referred to as something that has happened in the believer’s life, something that is happening in the believer’s life and something that will continue happen in the believer’s life.

Here John is writing because, he says, “Your sins are forgiven.”

The forgiveness of our sins has taken place and that isn’t going to change!

This is to be distinguished from the aspect of “forgiveness” mentioned in

1 John 1:9

In the verb forgive is in the aorist tense,

“The aorist verb tense is used by the writer to present the action of a verb as a “snapshot” event.

The verb’s action is portrayed simply and in summary fashion without respect to any process.”

as per Heiser, Michael S., and Vincent M. Setterholm.

Glossary of Morpho-Syntactic Database Terminology.

Lexham Press, 2013; 2013.

Heiser, Michael S., and Vincent M. Setterholm.

Glossary of Morpho-Syntactic Database Terminology.

Lexham Press, 2013; 2013.

In , the verb is in the perfect tense, in which case. . .

“The verb tense used by the writer to describe a completed verbal action that occurred in the past but which produced a state of being or a result that exists in the present (in relation to the writer).

The emphasis of the perfect is not the past action so much as it is as such but the present “state of affairs” resulting from the past action.

The verb tense used by the writer to describe a completed verbal action that occurred in the past but which produced a state of being or a result that exists in the present (in relation to the writer).

The emphasis of the perfect is not the past action so much as it is as such but the present “state of affairs” resulting from the past action.

Christ said on the cross, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do. . .

and then shortly after this we are told in , that He says.. .

“It is finished!”

Our justification took place when God’s Son gave His life for us, for the remission of our sins.

Peace with God

Last Sunday, I mentioned the reality of the horrendous grief and difficult suffering that Christ must have experienced during the time of His bearing our sins upon Himself, and being unable to fellowship with the Heavenly father.

We need to recognize that our wrongdoing, our sin is not undone, but our guilt has been undone, by the sacrifice which Christ was willing to make.

He took upon Himself our guilt!

Spared from God’s Wrath

Spared from God’s Wrath

Rom

Access to God

,

Rom 5

Charles Spurgeon

“As for us, this gracious forgiveness which they deny touches the chief spring of our soul, and stirs us with a hope of better things; this very grace which they deprecate as though it were immoral, and could not work men towards holiness, is the cause in our soul of hatred to sin, and the source of our hearts’ noblest aspirations after holiness.

Moved by gratitude, we long to honour our pardoning God, who, though he be glorious in holiness, is also glorious in grace when he blots out sin.

We would fain prove by our lives that we have not in vain received this gift of mercy, by letting all men see that we are now dead to sin, and cannot live any longer therein.

Evangelism does not flatter mere morality by making it the rival of Christ, but it is the highest promoter of all that is honest, temperate, and of good report, as our daily conversation shall prove.”

Why?

What was the reason that our sins have been forgiven?

There may be a number of reasons why God chose to allow Christ to take our sins, upon Himself, in order that we might have forgiveness.

Here though, John identifies one very important reason.

This is not the only place in Scripture, where we are told this either.

Look again at

For Christ’s Name Sake

To maintain the good name of Jesus Christ, to maintain His reputation, to uphold the recognition of His Holy, Righteous, Loving and Gracious Character.

God has forgiven our sins:

To accomplish what He had said He would do

To maintain His Holiness,

To maintain His Truthfulness

To maintain His Name’s Worth

I almost see our forgiveness as being a “by-product” or secondary result of God, being who He is and allowing Christ to be who He is and do what He does.

He must increase and I must decrease, were the words that John the Baptist spoke.

Luke

Ps 103:11

Luke 24:

I almost see our forgiveness as being a “by-product” or secondary result of God, being who He is and allowing Christ to be who He is and do what He does.

He must increase and I must decrease, were the words that John the Baptist spoke.

I certainly don’t mind the thought of my forgiveness and justification as being a means to an end, or a by-product of the character of God.

Listen to Christ’s words to His disciples when He appeared to them after His resurrection.

There are a few points of application for us here.

1.

When we fail to recognize and praise God for our forgiveness, we are stealing or withholding the credit that He deserves, the praises that are due Him and the glory of His good name.

What is the term that we might use for withholding credit, glory or praise from God?

I would call that sin.

We are told that God will not share His glory with another.

2. When we fail to recognize that we have been forgiven, it can lead to our unwillingness to forgive others, who have wronged us.

There is a parable about a servant who was forgiven a tremendous debt, and yet he turned around and chose not to forgive a fellow slave that owed him a very small debt.

We find ourselves in a similar position.

We have been forgiven a tremendous debt.