Third Presbyterian Sunday Morning Bible Study - April 19, 2020

Below is the Bible Study written by Jim Rudiger for his Sunday School Class which meets at Third Presbyterian Church, Norfolk, Virginia. It's based on l John 1:1-2:6.

Prayer

What was the subject you hated the most in school?  Generally, for women it is math and for guys it is English.  I still remember having to read Robert Frost’s poem about plucking the flower from the cranny wall, root and all.  When the teacher asked what Frost was getting at, I didn’t have the foggiest idea and, after about seventy years,  I still don’t.  English was composed of all of the elements designed to constantly humiliate me.  I called them the “SAP” deficiency - spelling, analyzing and punctuation.  If it hadn’t been for Classic comic books, I don’t think I could have gotten through “Ivanhoe” or “Silas Mariner”.  To complicate matters, words keep changing their meanings.  I remember when “mouse” was a furry little creature that chomped on cheese and not a means for getting around a computer screen.  Then there is “Spam”.  A can of ham parts mashed into an uneatable lump.  But now it means unwanted messages on the internet.  “Remote” meant something that was far away and not something used to drive your wife batty.  When you hear the word “awful”, what does it mean to you? Bad.  Terrible.  A hundred years ago, it meant full of awe, respect and admiration.  In other words, it means something entirely opposite today than it did a hundred years ago.

Before we get into that, who wrote this letter?  Like a lot of other books in the Bible, scholars seem to always argue that the person that we have always accepted as the author is the wrong guy.  So that we are all on the same page, I’m going with John the Apostle as the writer.   

The year is about 100 AD and John is an old man living in Ephesus. The Temple at Jerusalem had been destroyed by the Romans and the people have now been about twenty five years without the Temple. If we think back to 1995, twenty five years doesn’t seem so long ago. Who were the important people and issues then and where are they today?  Bill Clinton was president. He went through impeachment.  Now he is retired and has little to say about what is going on today. Timothy McVeigh was on trial for the Oklahoma City bombing.  McVeigh was convicted and sentenced to death. Tom Hanks won the Oscar for Forrest Gump. No four letter words on television. And, Columbo was still wearing his rumpled overcoat. See, a lot has changed in twenty five years.  Nobody would try to impeach a President now, would they?

And a lot had changed in the early Christian church. Eye witnesses to the church’s beginnings were almost gone. Peter, James and even Paul - all gone.  Second and third generation Christians were in the leadership of the church. Some of the excitement and fire of the early days were gone. There probably wasn’t as much persecution so there was more freedom to question and make the religion more relative to this new day. What better way to bring the religion into the new century than to become more sophisticated and by that I mean more intellectual.
       
And that is what had happened. Heresies developed, not to replace Christian beliefs, but to make them more relevant. By far the most persuasive heresy was Gnosticism. We discussed this heresy last year.  For a refresher course, what was Gnosticism? Basically, it believed that all matter was evil and only the spirit was clean or holy. This belief grew out of an intellectual attempt to redefine God and man and had it’s roots in Greek philosophy. The word Gnostic comes from the root for the word knowledge. So the idea was that if you possessed a special knowledge then you would be in a right relationship with God.

Some Gnostics believed that the spirit was pure and the body corrupt.  All sin occurred in the body and not in the spirit, therefore, since sin was working only on the corrupt and impure part, then the good part, the spirit, was not affected. So, sin was of no consequence to a really smart guy.

The heresy expanded until it claimed that the spirit of Christ only rested on body of Jesus but never became flesh since flesh was made up of matter which was evil. During the crucifixion, the spirit left him before he died. One apocryphal book, the Acts of  John, actually claims that while Jesus was on the cross, the spirit of Christ was talking with John in a cave and telling him he was to make sure that people realized later that what was happening to Jesus on cross did not happen to his spirit.
       
Why did people buy into this heresy? 

1. We were now several generations away from the original church. People had grown used to being a Christian. As I said before, the wonder was possibly diminished. 
2. Some may have felt that the Christian life demanded too much. Christians were called to be separate from others. Jesus had said that “If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you” (John 15:19) . Maybe they were tired of being different and hated.  They wanted to be accepted by the New York Times.
3. There was less persecution. Persecution was something that you could see. It was easy to identify the enemy.  It was outside, attacking the church. It actually bound the church together.  Like during the Second World War, America was bonded together in their war against Germany and Japan.  This new enemy was inside the church seducing the Christians. And it wasn’t men trying to destroy the Christian faith. It was men trying to improve it. It was men who were trying to make the Christian faith more intellectually acceptable. 
4. Jerusalem and Judah for centuries had been the physical link between the East and the West - Egypt and Assyria. Through this link flowed not only commerce but religious philosophies.  The people in this land link found themselves continually exposed to new religions and new views of old religions. After centuries, they probably developed a tolerance and patience with these new ideas.

Who was John writing to? If it was a church, the church isn’t identified. Some scholars believe that this wasn’t as much a letter as it was a manual for Christians living in 100 AD.  Although we call this a letter, it really is more of an instruction manual intended to be read in the churches he was taking care of.  John wanted to set the record straight and counter the claims of the Gnostics.  With this background, let’s see what John has to say.

Now John is living in Ephesus and he sees this particular Gnosticism growing and influencing  churches. So he takes action and writes an argument to testify against this destructive new view of man’s relationship with God.  I don’t know about you, but when I sit down to write a letter, it is with some object in mind. I know who I am writing to and I want to express my thoughts and ideas in a way that produces some effect on the person receiving the letter. In writing we have          to be precise since our voice tone and facial expressions cannot soften or harden what we say. John has set some goals in writing this argument.

1 John 1:1 We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes what we have looked at and touched with our hands, conerning the word of life – 2 this life was revealed and we have seen it and testify to it, and declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us--

John in this declaration, as in his Gospel, refers to Jesus as the word of life. Now, anyone’s word or talk is a person’s prime means of communication. It is how we express ourselves to others. And how we express ourselves defines in large part how others view us.  God’s word then would be the ultimate communication that He would have with us. And Jesus is identified as that very word, the full expression of God.  It gives us a view of God that we could never have otherwise.

John starts his argument testifying to four physical encounters the disciples have had with Christ.

What were they? (1) We heard him.  (2) We saw him.  (3) We looked at him or, as some translations put it, we beheld him.  (4) Most importantly, we touched him.  All things that would certainly attest to Jesus being human.  John is striking at the main pillar that supports Gnosticism - that Christ was not human, but a spirit. John could have added, “I saw Christ eat the same food we did.  He washed his hands before supper.  Not only that, he washed our feet.
       

John is saying that this is no second hand account but one in which he, John, was a party.  And Jesus was a real in the flesh man.  What is the difference between “saw” and “looked at” or “beheld”? Have you ever been walking through Walmart and you are glancing over the stuff displayed and all of the sudden something catches your eye? You stop and direct all of your attention on the display studying it and probably evaluating how you will use it. Well this is what happened. You were walking along and you saw the display. You stopped and “looked at” or “beheld” the display. The first encounter - the seeing part - is casual even fleeting, but the beholding part - that’s when you stand there and study what you saw.. What John is saying is that they saw Jesus as he walked along as you might say that you saw me walking Fifi yesterday. Then John says after that, they evaluated what they saw in Jesus and drew some conclusions from their observations. Like seeing me walk Fifi might cause you to evaluate, “I didn’t think Jim could be dragged that fast down the street.  Maybe I better hold off giving Dad that puppy.” In other words, if Jesus had gone around with a sign around his neck saying “I am the Christ, The Son of God,” John could testify that he saw the sign. But, if in addition to just seeing the sign, he watched how Jesus handled particular situations, the way he responded to God’s will, then John could testify that Jesus was indeed who the sign said he was.  He was the Christ and the Son of God.
       
1 John 1:3 we declare to you what we have seen and heard so that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.

John tries to clarify for us the meaning of “fellowship”.  What does “fellowship” conjure up in your mind?  A group of like minded people characterized by friendly, non-judgmental, get along attitudes.  John says that while this is fine for a social club, fellowship with God is a whole different ball game.  It isn’t a structured organization which uses “fellowship” as part of it’s title.  The key words for fellowship is like minded people. Can Republicans and Democrats fellowship?  My son and I support different political parties.  Does that mean we can’t fellowship?  What it means is that we agree to not talk politics. That’s fine.  There is peace in the family. If either one of us were die hard Republicans or Democrats, our “no politics” agreement probably wouldn’t protect us from each other.

What John is talking about is an area of people’s lives where there can’t be compromise.  Christ is the Son of God who came down to earth and lived as a human so he could die for our sins or he isn’t.  There is no wiggle room here.  John wants the Gnostics to be in fellowship with him, but that can’t happen if they aren’t like minded on the person of Jesus Christ.  You see, the way John sees it, their very fellowship with God and His Son depends upon the Son of God - Jesus Christ - becoming a man and sacrificing himself to benefit all of us by removing our sin. If that sounds too intolerant of other beliefs, so be it.  Just be glad that God tolerates fools.

1 John 1:4 We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.

Why is John writing this argument?  Does he hate Gnostics? What will give John joy?  When they accept Jesus Christ as the human who was sacrificed for our sins.  It is a s simple as that.

1 John 1:5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all.  6 If we say that we have fellowship with him while we are walking in darkness, we lie and do not do what is true; but if we walk in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.
     
You know, our character is determined by  the god we worship, If it is sexual desire, then we will have a nature which seeks out sensual things. If it is greed then we will look for ways of making more money, no matter what the cost to other people. John begins by laying down the nature of the God whom we worship. John says that this God is light and there is no darkness in him. What does that tell us about God?

1. Splendor and glory. Have you ever been in a completely dark room, like my office which doesn’t have any windows. My granddaughter, Natalie, and I used to play a little game in my office. We would shut the doors and turn out the lights. With no windows, the room became inky black. She controlled the flash light and when she turned it on there was a relief from the darkness.  That little flash light shined in glory because it overcame the darkness.  Think about looking into the winter night sky with all it’s blackness and seeing Venus shining bright in the sky. Isn’t there a glory and splendor in that little star shining bright in an immense dark sky? God‘s radiance is that kind of splendor and glory.
2. Self revealing. Light illuminates everything around it.  It reveals what is there. In my office with the light on, the chair could be seen. The desk and the pictures on the wall can be seen. To say that God is light is to say that there are no secrets.  What you see is what you get.
3. His purity and holiness. With light there is no hidden evil. We can see everything that is there. I’ll bet that with the door closed, your living room closet is dark and hides all kinds of  secrets like Fibber McGee’s closet. When the closet door is opened, there are no more secrets.  Everything is exposed to the light.  We see God pure and uncorrupted.
4. Guidance. Have you ever been to the Luray Caverns.  To illustrate how dark it is in the cavern, they turn out all of the lights.  I’ll tell you, if you don’t have a light down there, you would probably end up running into the walls of the cave or worse yet, fall into a hole. A light is used to guide us through unknown territory.  God through his word gives us guidance for meeting the unknown territory of life’s challenges.
5. It’s Revealing.  Some times in dim light, everything looks orderly and clean. But, in bright light, all of the pealing paint and dirty walls are there to be seen. In movies sometimes aging actresses are filmed through a screen or gauze so that the diffusion of the light through the gauze will mask the wrinkles that are there. If we met that actress on the street in broad daylight, we would be shocked by how much she had aged since that movie.  There is no way we are going to fool God by putting on a show to mask our true self.

John says that in God there is no darkness at all. In the New Testament, darkness stands for the very opposite of the Christian life.  Only in the light is truth exposed.  Darkness hides the truth.  This is important to John because he feels that truth is the basis for fellowship. The truth will not only draw us closer to God but will draw us as a church closer together.  Think of everybody in Third Presbyterian Church holding hands in a circle with Jesus in the middle of the circle.  As we walk toward the center and get closer to Jesus, physically, we are also getting closer to those whose hands we are holding. 
   
1 John: 8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from unrighteousness. 10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. 

What does John mean when he speaks of a man who says he has no sin?

1.  He has no responsibility for his sin. Some one else is responsible. “The devil made me do it”. It was the way we were raised.  We came from the Lambert’s Point.  We came from uncaring rich parents who gave us things but not their love and care.  We came from hard working parents whose work didn’t give them time to give us the attention that we needed.  Poor us.  Boo Hoo!  A deprived childhood made us sin today.
2. Not in fact sinned. This is not really that unusual.  If it is not something that is reported or not convicted of, then there is no sin. You aren’t guilty of speeding unless you got caught. You know, sin literally means “missing the mark”. In that sense, to fail to be a good husband, a good father, a good employee, a good son all would qualify as falling short of the mark and make us a sinner. Then what are we saying? We all sin and fall short of the glory of God.
3. The Gnostic View.  John was also dealing with a problem with Gnostics concerning sin.  Gnostics believed that only matter sinned - not your spirit.  Since your spirit remained pure regardless of what your body did, you could sin all you wanted to and you couldn’t be punished.  If that was true, then Christ was unnecessary.  The sins he took would have never convicted us. 

       

l John 2:1 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; 2 and he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.
       
Reading this verse, we can see how much loved and how dear these people were to John.  Remember John is an old man, possibly 90 years old. Yet he isn’t impatient with his young readers. He is going to win them over, not through condemnation or ridicule, but through love. John lets them know that sin is universal. It is everywhere and everyone has sinned including himself. He writes that anyone who says he has not sinned is a liar. But there is good news, forgiveness comes through what Jesus did and is still doing.
       
So, even if you hated English, you have to admit that English is about words.  Words sometime change with time.  But there is one Word which never changes.  The Word of God, Jesus Christ our Savior.  That Word was there when this old earth was formed and will be there to bring us cleansed of sin before God.  And it is through this Word and it’s truth that we have fellowship with God and with each other.  Not because we get along with God or even that we have paid our dues to a select club.  But because Christ paid our dues and God has promised to honor that payment.

Prayer: Father, forgive us when we have chosen darkness over light.  Forgive us when we have loved the creation of our own hands more than we loved you.  Lord, we seek that fellowship with you that John describes and seek to walk with you every step of the way.