Introduction:
5 Truths of the Gospel You Must Believe (1 John 1:1-4)
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It never CHANGES . (1 John 1:1)
Jude 3 - I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.
Revelation 14:6 - ...I saw another angel flying directly overhead, with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth...
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It's rooted in REALITY . (1 John 1:1-3a)
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It's our mission to PROCLAIM . (1 John 1:2-3)
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It results in RELATIONSHIPS . (1 John 1:3b)
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It CHANGES you. (1 John 1:4)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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Open those Bibles up. The book of 1 John. All the way near the back of your Bible. Look, I know it's a rainy day and you get sort of sleepy. But we are fired up for the Word of God. Amen? And if you're not there yet, look, we'll have service outside today. Alright? So let's get fired up for the Word of God. God has communicated some things to us in His His Word that He wants us to know. So let's get fired up for it and see what the Lord wants to teach us from His Word. Just take a moment, please, to pray for me to be faithful to communicate God's Word clearly and accurately as I should. And I will pray for you to have a heart open to receive what it is the Lord wants to teach us in His Word today. All right? Let's just take a moment and lift this time up before the Lord.
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Our Father in Heaven, as we turn to Your Word, we just spent some time singing concerning Your Son. And we're looking at a passage today that very obviously talks about Your Son. And I pray, Father, that You would have our hearts and minds to be laser-focused on what it is You want to teach us in Your Word.
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Father, I thank you ahead of time for what you're going to do through this message, through this series. We know, God, it's not my words. It's your word. Father, that's why we want nothing more than to be faithful to clearly and accurately represent your word, whoever's standing in this spot right here. Father, let your word be proclaimed. Let our hearts be open to receive.
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Let your word take root and bring transformation in all of us. Father, again, we thank you and praise you in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. And all of God's people said, Amen. Amen. We're kicking off our series on 1 John called Are You Sure? We're going to be talking about assurance as we go through 1, 2, and 3 John. And we started this last week, and we saw that Jeremiah taught us that your heart is a liar. Right? The Bible says above all things your heart is deceptive. Your heart is a liar and you will believe the lies that your own heart tells you. But the good news is under the new covenant God promises to give us a new heart. But here's the problem.
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on our end.
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Many people are unsure which heart they have.
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Okay?
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And when we think about salvation, people are just unsure because you have the unregenerate heart, the heart of the unbeliever is a liar, and it will lie to the unbeliever and say, yeah, you're obviously a Christian, you go to church, and you do all these nice things, and you're a generally good person, and it will lie to you.
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But the regenerate heart, the heart that's been redeemed, the heart that's been born again, still, it feels the weight. There's this tension that comes that though the heart is regenerated, we still live in sinful flesh. We still live in a body that craves sin, even though our heart has been transformed. And there's a tension. And ironically, that tension, is what causes doubt. It causes believers to doubt their salvation.
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So what do we do? What do we do?
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We do what the Bible tells us to do. We talked about this last week. Test your faith.
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You have to test your faith because here's the thing. Some people doubt their salvation and they shouldn't.
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They're saved, but they just lack any kind of confidence to boldly step out and serve the Lord because they're struggling with doubt. So there's people that doubt their salvation and shouldn't, but on the other hand, you have people that have confidence that they shouldn't. They're trusting in something to save them or that they are saved and that something isn't Jesus Christ. They have confidence in something they shouldn't. Test your faith. But look, here's the good news.
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You can know for sure whether you're truly saved or not.
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Which heart you have, you can know for sure.
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When I was in high school, I had a biology class.
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There was a two-period class, back-to-back.
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And there were so many days that the teacher would come into the biology class with his teacher book. And he would put the teacher book up on his podium. This happens so often. He'd open up the book and he'd go, I'll be right back. And he'd leave.
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And he didn't come back. For two periods. That happened so much. Well, sometimes, a little twist in the story here, sometimes when that happened, he'd come in, open the book, and he'd go, Do the lab assignment on page 56.
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I'll be right back.
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And he'd leave.
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And he didn't come back.
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And do you know what we would do?
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We knew he wasn't coming back.
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He told us to do the lab.
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And guess where all the answers were? In his book that he left open to the page on the podium. So do you know what my friends and I would do? We would just go up to the book and copy all the answers. Done. Now listen. I want to be very clear about something. Kids. Kids in the room. I am not condoning such behavior.
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to do that. I was wrong. I should not have done that. Okay? That was bad. All right, kids? Are we clear on that, kids? Stay in school, don't do drugs, all that stuff. Are we clear on that, kids? That was bad. But, but, this is the good news when it comes to church, is that God actually encourages that behavior, kids. God actually says, look, my book is open. I gave you an assignment to test your faith, And here's what I want you to do, kids. I want you to come up and look in the book where the answers are. And that's what we're doing for this series. That's what the book of 1 John is all about. 1 John was written by John. At this point, he's an old pastor in Ephesus when he writes this to the other churches in Asia Minor. Now, we just finished the book of 1 Corinthians.
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And if you were with us on that journey, we saw that Paul wrote like a lawyer. Right? Paul, in his writing, he gives this reasoning and this logical flow, and he's building his case and his arguments, and that's how Paul writes. John doesn't write like that. Paul wrote like a lawyer. John writes like a dad.
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I want to tell you some stuff. About the Lord I want to tell you some stuff that's really important. And he just tells it like it is. And you're going to see as we go through 1 John nothing is vague. Everything to John is black and white. John speaks in absolutes. Right? You're going to see that throughout. John's like look here's the deal. You're either walking in the light or you're walking in the dark. He's like here's the deal.
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It's truth or it's a lie. Here's the deal. You're either a child of God or you are a child of the devil. It's black and white. So he starts this test, this assurance test with, look at verse 1. Look at the end of verse 1. He says, concerning the word of life. That's where the test starts.
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Now, when he talks about the word of life, who do you think he's talking about? I'll give you a hint. We just sang a whole bunch of songs about him. Who do you think he's talking about? Go ahead and say his name. Jesus. That's who he's talking about. And here's where the test starts. Are you sure that you know Jesus? Because to be sure that you're saved, you have to be sure about the gospel. So John kicks off with five truths of the gospel that you You have to believe. These are things that, these are truths, these are convictions that true believers have. That a true believer in Christ will not waver on these convictions of the gospel. Five truths of the gospel that you must believe. Number one, write this down on your outline. It never changes. It never changes. Look at verse 1. He says, That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and have touched with our hands concerning the word of life. Stop there for a second. Look at this first phrase. That which was from the beginning. The beginning of what? The beginning of what? Well, obviously in the context here, he's talking about the beginning of the incarnation of God, Jesus Christ.
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God came to the earth. Christ lived His perfect life and His teaching and the apostles' teaching and the gospel. He says the gospel has not changed. This is exactly what Jude was talking about. Jude verse 3. He says, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to, look at this, contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints.
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Jude says, look, you've got to fight for this. You've got to fight to maintain the purity of the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's a hill that you have to die on. Keep the gospel pure. John says, it's been this way from the beginning. We've got to fight for that church. It's never changed. It's been the same from the beginning.
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Heretics always have something new.
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Heretics always have something new.
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Like look at the Mormon church.
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It's about new revelation.
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Look at the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Christian science.
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About new revelation.
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Look at more modern, non-denominational churches.
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Always got something new.
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Oh, I got new revelation.
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I got this new word from God. And John's like, no, it's been the same from the beginning. These people that are like, I unlocked it. I cracked the code. There's no code. All right? It's been this way from the beginning. And people are like, hey, I discovered the secret. Have you seen these people? I discovered the secret. And it's like reading between the lines and the numbers of the verses add up to.
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John says, no, no, no, no, no. This is once and for all. There's nothing new. There's nothing new. Why are we adding stuff to it? Can somebody explain to me why we're adding stuff to it? How in the world can you dress up the gospel? Do you know what the gospel teaches? The gospel teaches that we have completely turned our backs as a human race. We have turned our backs on the God who created us. We have spit in His face, and we have said, you're not going to to tell us what to do. We're going to do what we want to do. And how did God respond to that? God responded to that by becoming a man living a sinless life on this earth to die on the cross the penalty that I deserve and that you deserve. He came to take our place and die a horrible, humiliating death. To be wrapped up and put in a grave. Oh, but that wasn't the end of the story.
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because three days later, he walks out of the grave and appears triumphant and victorious.
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And then, and then, he flies back to heaven.
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So tell me, what are we possibly adding to that to make that a better story?
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Like, why are we dressing this up?
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The gospel does not change.
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It will not change.
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And listen, I have it on perfect authority that the gospel will never change. I know for a fact that the gospel will never change. You're like, how do you know that? I'll tell you how I know that. You get to the book of Revelation that describes the last days of earth. And look at what it says in Revelation chapter 14, verse 6. John, same guy, says, I saw another angel flying directly overhead with an, see this? Eternal gospel.
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to proclaim to those who dwell on earth. See that? In the last days of the earth, he says it's still the same gospel. It's an eternal gospel. It hasn't changed. Man's condition, sin, hasn't changed. God's solution, Jesus, hasn't changed. The gospel never changes. Right? That's number one. It never changes. Five truths of the gospel you've got to get on board with. Number two, it's rooted in reality.
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It's rooted in reality. We're going to look at verse 1 again. I want you to see he keeps hammering something specific. I want you to see if you pick it up. I think it's pretty clear in the text. He said, that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and have touched with our hands concerning the word of life.
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The life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testified to it, and proclaimed to you the eternal life which was with the Father, and was made manifest to us that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you. Stop there. You see, John, it is so clear in these verses, John is so obviously over the top as As emphatic as he can possibly be, he's saying this, listen, the word of life was a person. Meaning this, Jesus was not some mystical idea. Jesus wasn't some spiritual experience that somebody had. Jesus wasn't some vision that somebody had while they were sleeping. It's very clear, John's point here, is this. God literally became a man, a real flesh and blood human man.
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Do you see the verbiage he used? He goes, we heard him. We heard him teach. We've seen him. I like how he adds, with our eyes. Just to be clear, we didn't see him with like, our minds lie in a dream, blah, blah, blah. He goes, no, we saw him with our eyeballs.
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And he says, we looked upon him. Like, wait, wait. Isn't that the same as seeing him? Not exactly. I thought this was really interesting this week when I was studying. That word for looked upon in the Greek is where we get the word theater. What do you do at the theater? When you go to the movies, you sit down and what do you do? You closely, intently watch.
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You're gazing on the screen. You're watching and following and looking close. See how that's different than Saw? You can walk by and get a glimpse of something. And John's like, yeah, we did see him with our eyeballs, but we did more than that. We sat down and we watched him intently like one would watch a movie in a theater. And he says, we touched him with our hands. He wasn't a ghost like some people taught.
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this apparition. No, Jesus Christ was a man, a flesh and blood man that we touched him with our hands. You're like, okay, so you heard him, you saw him, you watched him closely, you touched Jesus Christ. What's your conclusion, John? What's your conclusion? John says, my conclusion is he's the word of life. He was with the Father. That's another way of saying he's God. He's the word of life made man of That's when something is invisible, but it's been made visible. John's like, my conclusion is this. Yeah, we spend so much time with him, and Jesus is God. That's our conclusion. You're like, all right, all right, all right. All right. You're like, Pastor Jeff, why is John so adamant in this letter to emphasize the fact that Jesus was actually a a real flesh and blood human. Why was he so adamant about that? Well, you know, there's different waves of false teaching that the church has to deal with over her history. And this particular false teaching that John was fighting head on Gnosticism. Have you ever heard of that? Ish. Even if you've never heard that word, you should be kind of familiar with it. Have you ever heard of an agnostic? Have you ever heard of that? What does an agnostic say? An agnostic says, I don't know if there is a God. Gnosticism, when you put that little A at the beginning of the word, that means not, right? So, Gnosticism is the person that says, I do know something, right? Agnostic says, I don't know.
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A Gnostic says, I do know. I know something special. I know something you don't know. I have a secret knowledge about God. And one of those things that the Gnostics thought they knew, which isn't true, but this is what they taught. The Gnostics taught this idea that matter was evil and spirit is good.
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it, smell it, hear it, like matter. That's obviously something evil, but if it's spiritual, it's good.
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You're like, all right, so maybe they believe a little different than you do, Pastor Jeff. So what's the big deal? The big deal in that belief system is found in the implications of what that teaches. Because you see, for the Gnostics, one of the implications was this.
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and John's going to address this through the letter. One of the implications was sin doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if I sin. Why? Because my body's evil, matter's evil. If I sin, it's just an evil world, right? That's just what happens. It doesn't matter if I sin because all sin is done like in the flesh and matter. That's just what's going to happen. So they didn't think sin was that big of a deal. John's going to address that down the road here. But when it comes to Jesus Christ, here's the problem.
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with Gnosticism, a good spiritual God would not be able to take on flesh, they taught. Why? Well, if God's good because He's spirit, as soon as He took on flesh, that would make Him evil because matter is evil. So Gnostics taught Jesus wasn't really a flesh and blood human. He was a ghost that was walking around. He was an apparition. And understand this idea that Jesus wasn't actually a real human being.
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completely undermines the entire gospel. Because the gospel is this, God became a man to die as a man to pay the penalty for sins committed by man. So Jesus isn't some mythology. Jesus isn't some fictional character. John's making a point here to say, no, no, no, Jesus is a real historical person.
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The Gospel's rooted in reality. Believers are convinced of that. Look, we're not here to celebrate some fairy tale. We're here to celebrate the God who broke into history as a man. True believers get that and hold that conviction. Number three, truths of the Gospel. John comes right out of the gate and says, you've got to get on board with this. You've got to believe this. Number three, it's our mission to proclaim it. Look at verses 2 and 3 again. Verse 2. He says, The life was made manifest, and we have seen it and testify to it, and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us.
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That which we have seen and heard. Here it is again. Verse 3.
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We proclaim also to you.
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Believers get this.
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It's our mission to be a part of advancing the kingdom. In the church, in the mission field, it's our mission. Believers get that. Believers get on board with that in some way, shape, or form. Praying, giving, going. True believers are on board with the mission of Jesus Christ. That's what John here is saying. John's like, we witnessed Him. That's why we're proclaiming Him. And understand that that's really the only way The way gospel can be effective in somebody's life is if they hear it. Right? One of my favorite illustrations of that, I heard a pastor share this one time, but he said, you know, going back to the days before our technology, right? Going back before cell phones and emails and even telephones. He says, imagine that you have a death row inmate who's, going to be executed like today.
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But he has a pardon from the governor.
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The governor wrote up a pardon and it's sitting on the governor's desk.
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And the governor needs to get that pardon to the site of execution.
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Are you with me?
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This guy is going to be killed but the governor says he's pardoned.
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So the governor, again we're throwing out technology for this illustration.
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So the government actually gives the pardon to a carrier.
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a mailman. And says, hey, I need you to take this to the site of execution. This pardon will let this man go free. And he gives the pardon to the carrier. And on the way, the carrier gets distracted. And he decides to, I don't know, go to the arcade. He stops at Taco Bell, whatever.
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The Way just stops. And He never delivers the pardon. Did the pardon do the man on death row any good? No. You see, the pardon itself was great. The pardon itself was effectual. The pardon itself would have saved a man's life, but the problem was the man who was supposed to give the message failed to give the message. And if you fail to give the message, then the pardon just doesn't matter.
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See, John, he keeps saying, I proclaim this to you, I proclaim this to you.
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The true believer has that burden. The true believer has that burden to reach the lost. And I can ask you, if you're sitting here like, I don't really care. If you don't care about the lost people, I just have to ask, how can the love of God be in you?
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Because when Jesus has saved you, you know, you know, look, He saved me from hell. He saved me from my own rebellious sin. You know. Now, I've got to tell other people about this. I've got to be involved somehow in advancing this glorious kingdom of Jesus Christ. Five truths of the gospel you must believe. Number four, it results in reality.
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relationships.
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Look at the second part of verse 3.
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He says, We proclaim also to you, Look at this, So that you too may have fellowship with us.
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And indeed, our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ.
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Fellowship.
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What is fellowship?
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I would suggest to you the word fellowship has gotten severely diluted in the church today. You know what we call fellowship? Getting together and having a potluck. And you're like, what's wrong with having a potluck? Lots of things. I don't love potlucks. I remember when I was a kid we went to the Methodist church.
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They had these potluck dinners all the time. You know what I did? The potluck dinner, you know what I did? I made sure going into it, I knew what my mom had made. And that was the only thing that I ate. Why? I don't know where this other stuff came from. I don't know. I don't know if 117-year-old Gladys had her cat sleeping in the crock pot, and then she made that nasty casserole. I don't know.
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that.
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I mean true or false?
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You're like oh.
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I guess we're not having a potluck here anytime soon.
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Oh you can.
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But I'm going to find out what Aaron made.
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But in the church world we're like that's fellowship.
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And I guess.
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I guess.
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But understand this biblically.
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is so much more than that. And it's such a hard word to really give an English equivalent. It's more than common interest. It's more than that. Like a bunch of people at a Penguins game are all hockey fans. It's more than that. The closest we can get to understanding the word fellowship is this idea of sharing.
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Versus making something one's own.
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And it goes back to what Pastor Taylor said during the Scripture reading today.
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It goes back to exactly what he said.
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To understand, yes, salvation is an individual decision.
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You're not saved because your mama or grandmama or your spouse are saved.
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You're saved when you personally, individually receive God's gift of grace in Jesus Christ. But salvation is a corporate concept biblically, right? That's what fellowship is. When we come together, like Pastor Taylor said, when we come together to sing, we're saying we are sharing all of this together. This Jesus, this salvation, this hope, we are sharing this together.
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This is something that we all have that we are sharing. John's audience that he was writing to, you know, they never met Jesus. But John says, we have fellowship together. Because of the proclamation of the gospel, they and we share this. That my relationship with God results in a unique relationship with others who also have a relationship with God through Jesus Christ. You know, we do membership interviews at Harvest. Part of the membership interview is, I want to hear your testimony. And if you're a true believer, you have a testimony. A testimony is just simply this. It's just simply this.
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was like before Jesus Christ. This is how I met Jesus Christ. And here is how Jesus Christ changed me. That's a testimony. Okay? But sometimes, sometimes whether it's through the membership process or baptism, sometimes we'll have people say, like, well, how did you come to know Jesus? They'll say this phrase, well, I've always been a Christian. I've always been a Christian.
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And I want to respectfully disagree with you. That's impossible. You have not always been a Christian. I mean, think about it this way. My wife, Erin, I could stand up here and I could say, I've always loved Erin. I've always loved her. But technically, that's not true. I didn't love her before I knew her. Right?
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be impossible. At some point in my life, I met her. And I fell in love with her. And I entered the covenant of marriage with her. But at some point, I had to meet her, right? And it's the same with Jesus Christ. At some point in your life, whether it was through a church or a ministry, whether it was being discipled in your home, at some point in your life, you met Jesus.
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And that resulted in a relationship with Him.
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And again, a unique relationship with others in the church.
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So true Christians, they know it.
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They live it.
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They're like, I'm not just a church goer.
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I have a relationship with God.
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And I have a relationship with the people in this room.
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Gospel results in relationships.
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And then number five, finally.
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John's like, these are things you've got to get on board with, Christians.
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If you're a Christian, you get this.
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You know this.
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This is a conviction that you refuse to let go of.
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Look at verse four.
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He says, and we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.
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The last one.
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It changes you.
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I love that. That's how John kind of bookends this passage. He's like, the gospel never changes, but it changes you. The gospel never changes, but it changes you. This, this is a life-changing message. And somebody might want to push back on that and say, yeah, you know what, life-changing message. Yeah, you know what?
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I'm still sick.
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I still struggle with things.
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Listen.
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Life change means me change.
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Jesus doesn't always change your circumstances.
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But He always changes you.
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And look, someday Jesus is going to make everything better.
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We just sang that.
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We believe that someday all things will be made new. But for now, for sure, Jesus is making you new. He's making you better. He's turned you from a dead person into an alive person. And if your faith hasn't changed you, then your faith hasn't saved you. Because the Bible says that God indwells every believer. We just covered this.
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1 Corinthians 3.16. Remember that? That was a good day. The Bible says God indwells every believer. And don't tell me that the God of the universe takes up residence in your heart and you haven't changed. We still live in fallen flesh. It's not about perfection, but it is definitely a new direction. And John is going to address that. You know a big part of that change?
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Here's one of the biggest things that changes in a person's life when they come to Christ.
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And it's just that awesome little word.
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Joy.
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And it's not even just joy.
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He says complete joy.
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Full joy.
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Joy is more than happiness.
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Right?
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What's happiness?
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Happiness is a day at Kennywood.
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Right? Happiness is a pierogi. Happiness is puppy breath. That's happiness. True or false? True. That's happiness. Happiness is temporary. Right? It comes and goes. Joy doesn't come and go. Joy is this abiding quality.
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confidence in God's presence and His promises. That's joy. You know what, I had a horrible week, but I still have joy because I know things will not always be as they are now. Listen, my friends, if life isn't rough for you right now, just wait about 15 minutes because it will be.
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was never that Jesus is going to remove every hardship, but the promise was Jesus will be with you through every hardship.
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Knowing Jesus, really knowing the real Jesus changes you.
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John says he brings joy.
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The gospel of Jesus Christ brings complete joy.
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So this is the first test. It's a test of theology. John just simply comes out of the gate in this letter by asking, do you know the gospel? Nothing else matters if you don't. Are you sure that you know Jesus?
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team would make their way back up front and our communion servers.
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We're going to close this time around the Lord's table.
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You know, it's funny.
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I knew today we'd be talking about Jesus. So I'm like, what a great way to end a sermon by coming around the Lord's table. That makes sense, right? And then I was also thinking, well, going out of the sermon, you have to like lead into this time, right? And it just, it was amazing to me just the Word of God this week as I was sitting there thinking, all right, so what do we tell people that the Lord's Supper is about? What is this about?
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over my outline and I'm like, the Lord's Supper encompasses everything that John said in these verses. Isn't that awesome? I mean, think about this. We said the first thing about the gospel is it never changes. Do you realize this church and the church has been receiving the Lord's Supper since Jesus instituted it? That hasn't changed. This is an ordinance of God.
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that has not and will not change as long as the church is on the earth. And then we'll do it with Jesus in heaven. Then the second point rooted in reality. Thinking about that, what do we celebrate with the Lord's Supper? The body and blood of Jesus Christ. I'm like, yeah. That when we take the Lord's Supper, we're saying we believe that God became an actual man and bled and suffered and died for our sins.
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And then, okay, so the third point, you know, John was talking about proclaiming, proclaiming, and I'm like, we just studied this in 1 Corinthians, right? Chapter 11. What does Paul say we do as a church when we receive the Lord's Supper together? He says we proclaim the Lord's death until He comes. And I was looking down through, we talked about relationships, we talked about fellowship. Why do we take the Lord's Supper? This is something that we take the Lord's Supper.
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something that we share as a congregation. This is something we do together. This isn't like, hey, somebody get a doggy bag and take their Lord's Supper to go and have it in the car on the way home. No, we do this together. Why? When we proclaim the Lord's death, we're saying this is we, this is us, this is a body of Christ proclamation. And then the last thing here, we talked about how the gospel changes you. That's what we say.
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Celebrate in the Lord's Supper. We're not here for empty, dead religion. We're here to celebrate the God who died for your sins, who rose from the dead, so that you could be transformed by the power of His Spirit within you. So we're celebrating the life change, the joy that comes in knowing that our best days are absolutely ahead of us. So I'm going to invite you now to please stand, and our worship team is going to play.
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God's word tells us on the night that Jesus was betrayed. He took bread and he broke it and he gave thanks. And he said, this is my body, which is given for you. Eat this in remembrance of me. After the meal, Jesus took the cup and he said, this is the blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for the forgiveness of sin. Drink this in remembrance of me.
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Amen. Would you stand as we close in worship?
Small Group Discussion
Read 1 John 1:1-4
What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
Why is John so adamant that Jesus was flesh and blood (1 John 1:1-3)? Why does it matter?
As compelling as the pure Gospel is, why do you think people are always changing it / adding to it?
How would you reply to someone who says, “I've always been a Christian!”?
How is joy different from happiness? How does the Gospel make for “complete joy” (1 John 1:4)?
Breakout
Pray for one another.