Introduction to 1 John

1 John Introduction to 1 John Introduction: Some 60 years had passed since the Holy Spirit had descended upon those gathered in the upper room on the day of Pentecost. John is the last surviving Apostle, and strange new ideas about Jesus Christ and the Christian faith have begun to make inroads into the church. Some had espoused the idea that Jesus wasn’t really human. He was actually more of a spirit being, an apparition, a phantom. Others were denying his messiah-ship and belief in the Trinity. There was a denial of the reality of sin, and a rejection of a scripturally based morality. There was a deep animosity and hatred toward those who held fast to the old views and rejected the new ideas of the enlightened few. In this letter, John weighs in with Apostolic authority and eyewitness integrity to set the record straight. One of the interesting things to me about the scriptures is how they never lose their relevance. We, two thousand years later, find ourselves in a similar situation to those that John had initially written to. Strange new ideas, not unlike those that John had to address, are presently making inroads into the church. 1. The New Age Jesus- An apparition, an ascended master, one with Buddha, and Krishna. 2. Liberalism’s Jesus- He’s anything but divine, he’s anything but what the N.T. declares him to be. A charismatic, pre-Marxist revolutionary, with social justice at the top of his agenda. 3. Sin is no longer a violation of God’s righteous standard, but the failure to love one’s self, or a lack of tolerance. 4. A scripturally based morality is blatantly rejected. The term sexual sin is seen as a vestige of an unenlightened age. (Divorce, adultery, fornication, homosexuality etc.) a. John’s epistle is very relevant to our situation today. 1. The Author a. Author i. It was customary in antiquity for a correspondent to begin a letter by announcing his identity. We find this in all of Paul’s letters, as well as Peter’s, James, and Jude’s. Only the epistle to the Hebrews and John first epistle begin without any announcement of the Author’s name or title and without in introductory greeting. ii. But just because it lacks these things it does not mean that the letter is impersonal or simply a general letter. 1 John is a genuinely personal message addressed to a particular congregation, in a particular situation. iii. The writer, continually uses language such as, “I, you, we”. The recipients of the letter are the author’s “dear children” or “dear friends”, whose spiritual history and present situation he knows well. 1. “It is a truly pastoral letter, sent by a pastor to his flock” - Stott. b. So who is this mysterious Pastor? i. Internal Evidence 1. There was never really any debate as to whether John the Apostle was the author of the 4th gospel, the 3 epistles and the Apocalypse (Revelation) until the so called “Critical Era”. I say “so called” because we got it in our heads that some how we were all of a sudden more enlightened and critical of things than our ancestors were in the past. It was at this time we began to question all authority, and the authority of the Bible came under much criticism during this time. 2. During the “Critical Era” doubts arose about the authenticity of many of the books of the Bible and their authorship. a. All though almost all of the early church fathers and the church for the last 2 thousand years have held that John the Apostle is the author of these books, we don’t have any name or signature attached to them except for the book of Revelation. ii. So What do we have? 1. First, the author both of the 4th Gospel and this epistle claims to be an eye witness. 2. Second we have a very similar writing style, speaking with absolute assurance of the things he has seen, heard and touched. He speaks using contrast: light and dark, life and death, love and hate, truth and lies. 3. Both The 4th Gospel and the 1st of John’s epistles have a purpose statement in them. a. John 20:30-31 “but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” b. 1 John 5:13 “ I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life. i. You’ll notice also that the Gospel and the epistle have a similar purpose. The gospel was written that those who hear it might believe, and might have life in Jesus name; the epistle is written that those who already believe might be assured that they have eternal life.” iii. External evidence 1. Commentators have found possible allusions to the letters of John in a number of the early church fathers writings. a. Clement of Rome twice twice described God’s elect people as being perfected in love. b. Yet there is no formal or exact quotation, nor any mention of John or the letters by name. 2. The earliest definite reference from these letters in the Fathers comes from Polycarp of Smyrna (AD 155) who in the seventh chapter of his letters to the Philippians, written 30 or 40 yrs before his martyrdom, asserts that whoever does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is antichrist. He goes on to urge a return to the message that was passed down from the beginning. (These are references to 1 John 2:22; and 4:2-3) 3. The first to refer specifically to a Johannine letter was Papias of Hierapolis in the middle of the 2nd century. 4. It is not until Irenaeus of Lyons (AD 130-200) that at least the 1st and 2nd letters are clearly attributed to the John who was both the Apostle and the Author of the fourth Gospel. 5. Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, Cyprian and Eusibias all early church fathers Believed this to be an authentic letter from John the apostle and quoted from it. 6. It was used heavily by Tertullian, quoting from it about fifty times in his writing against Marcion, Praxeas, and the Gnostics. (heretics in the early church) iv. It is my belief that the writer of the fourth Gospel is also the author of what we know as 1,2, and 3 John and the book of Revelation; None other than John the Apostle. c. John i. What do we know about John? ii. The Apostle John was one of Jesus’ closest earthly friends. Possibly even a relative of Jesus. Not only was John one of twelve men that Jesus chose to follow him and be in community with him throughout his 3 1/2 yr earthly ministry. John was also a part of Jesus’ inner circle. It was only John, James, and Peter, who were eye witnesses of the transfiguration on Mt. Hermon. It was only John, James and Peter, who were eye witnesses to the raising of Jairus’s daughter. iii. We know from John’s gospel that he was the one who leaned on Jesus breast as they partook of the last supper. It was John, James and Peter, that Jesus chose to come and be with him as he prayed in the garden of gethsemane. iv. It was John who witnessed the death of Jesus; he was the only apostle that we know of who actually watched him die. He witnessed the blood and water that flowed from Jesus side after the centurion pierced him through. v. It was John that Jesus charged to take care of his mother Mary before he died. It was John who with Peter was the first to see the empty tomb. John was an eyewitness to the resurrection. He was there in the upper room; he was there in the boat, and ate fish with Jesus on the shore of the Galilee; and finally John in his Gospel refers to himself by this title, “The disciple whom Jesus loved”. John the eyewitness of the glory and majesty of Jesus Christ; mostly likely the only living apostle at this time, writes this letter to the Church. 2. The Date. a. Early post-apostolic figures like Polycarp and Papias (c. a.d. 100) presuppose or cite 1 John in their writings. This suggests a date of composition no later than the 90s a.d. This dovetails with the testimony of church fathers that, shortly before a.d. 67, John joined other Christians in departing from Jerusalem prior to the destruction of the city by Rome. b. John reportedly resumed his apostolic ministry in the vicinity of the great but highly idolatrous city of Ephesus (in modern western Turkey). He likely wrote 1 John as an elder statesman of the faith in the last third of the first century, perhaps to churches in the surrounding region. This might have included towns like those mentioned alongside Ephesus in the opening chapters of Revelation: Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea 3. The setting of the First century a. “The Roman world of the first century was a time of eclecticism between the Eastern and Western religions. The gods of the Greek and Roman pantheons were in ill repute. The Mystery religions were very popular because of their emphasis on personal relationship with the deity and secret knowledge. Secular Greek philosophy was popular and was merging with other world-views. Into this world of eclectic religion came the exclusiveness of the Christian faith (Jesus is the only way to God, cf. John 14:6). Whatever the exact background of the heresy, it was an attempt to make the seeming narrowness of Christianity plausible and intellectually acceptable to a wider Greek-Roman audience.” - Bob Utley 4. The Occasion. a. The reason for John’s first epistle is that sometime after the writing of the fourth Gospel, difficulties were arising in this community. Some of the members had taken on certain beliefs about the person and work of Jesus Christ. These were mostly likely a form of early Gnosticism which was not fully developed until the 2nd century AD. These new beliefs involved a denial that Jesus was the Christ, the son of God, come in the flesh, and that his death was necessary for the forgiveness of sins. (1 John 4:2-3;5:6-7) This resulted in two things: i. First, it resulted in a light view of sin. This group began to view righteousness/holiness as a matter of indifference. ii. Secondly it resulted in lovelessness. Claiming to be now spiritually elite they began to look down upon those who were “unenlightened, and began to treat them with contempt. iii. Therefore a disagreement arose causing the secession or church split of those who embraced these new views. b. It seems that these secessionist were not content to keep their new views to themselves but began sending out itinerant preachers who circulated among the churches propagating these new views, with a desire to win people over to their new understanding of things. c. As a result those who remained loyal to “the faith once delivered” were confused. They began to question whether they truly knew God, if they were really experiencing eternal life ,and whether they were really in the truth. d. John writes to bolster the assurance of these people by providing them with criteria they could use to evaluate the claims being made by the secessionist and by which they could reassure themselves that they were in the truth. 5. The Message. a. I believe the purpose or the message of 1 John can be summed up in one word: Assurance. b. Another way to understand the purpose of this letter is by John’s continual usage of this phrase, “that you may know”. i. 1 John 5:13 “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life.” c. Again and again the reader is confronted by an author, an eyewitness that is so certain of the things he has seen, heard, and touched he continually uses language of absolute unflinching assurance. i. He continually says things like “we know”, “you know”. It is an epistle that is in absolutes. No gray areas. ii. John speaks of the light in contrast to darkness, truth in contrast with lies, Christ in contrast to anti-christ, Love in contrast to hatred/murder d. While I believe that this is the overarching theme of 1 John the reader/student will be continually confronted with several other statements of purpose as they read/study this epistle. Six in total to be exact. i. John says,“that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us” 1 John 1:3 ii. “We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.” 1 John 1:4 iii. “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.” 1 John 2:1 iv. “I write to you, not because you do not know the truth, but because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth.” 1 John 2:21 v. “I write these things to you about those who are trying to deceive you.” 1 John 2:26 vi. “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life.” 1 John 5:13 1. John’s purpose is to reassure his readers that they as opposed to the secessionist, are the ones who have been truly born of God and have eternal life abiding in them. John pursues this purpose with single-minded devotion from the first word to the last and each of his five purpose statements make this abundantly clear. 6. Our Purpose. a. I believe that the Lord has laid the epistle of 1st John on my heart for one main reason though I believe the Spirit will touch us on many other subjects as we make our way through it. That main reason for me is assurance. I believe that assurance of salvation is absolutely vital for the christian to fully function as a christian. God has given us all that we need that we might be certain of the truth, which is Jesus Christ, and that we might be certain that we are in the truth, which again is Jesus Christ. God does not want us as christians always wondering and doubting, he wants us to know that we know that we know. i. It has a practical focus for believers 1. To give us joy (cf. 1:4) 2. To encourage us to live godly lives (cf. 1:7; 2:1) 3. To command us (and remind us) to love one another and not the world. (the world system) 4. To give us assurance of our salvation in Christ (cf. 5:13) ii. It has a doctrinal focus for believers 1. To refute the error of separating Jesus’ deity and humanity 2. To refute the error of separating spirituality into an intellectualism devoid of godly living 3. To refute the error that one can be saved in isolation from others iii. It is applicable for today. 1. The same spirit of heresy is present with us today when people try to combine Christian truth with other systems of thought. 2. The spirit of this heresy is present with us today when people emphasize “correct” doctrine to the exclusion of personal relationship and lifestyle faith. 3. The spirit of this heresy is present with us today when people turn Christianity into an exclusive intellectual eliteness. 4. The spirit of this heresy is present with us today when people turn to asceticism or antinomianism. Conclusion: As we study this epistle John is going to give us many test of faith, ways in which we can test ourselves to know if we have eternal life. John will really nail it down to three things: Truth, righteousness, and Love. True Christianity must consist of Truth, Righteousness and Love. Where these do not exist, Christ does not abide.