| Teacher: Rusty Kennedy Series: 1 John |
Rusty's Notes | |
A WARNING ABOUT THE WORLD
15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
- John is warning those who do not believe in Jesus about their spiritual condition.
- All who are in Christ have the love of God poured out inside of them (Romans 5:5).
- Unbelievers love the world.
- They trust in the world system.
- Therefore, they do not have the Holy Spirit in them.
- Unbelievers are enslaved to the lust of the flesh, eyes, and pride of life.
- Christians, however, have been set free from the world system.
- This does not mean that Christians cannot struggle with the ways of the world.
- It does, however, mean that we are no longer enslaved to it.
- God’s will which lets us live forever is Jesus.
- God’s will is Christ.
- He wants us to believe in Him and live forever as a result.
- God’s will – Walk in His Spirit
- The one trick pony says:
1) Know who you are in Christ
2) Walk by His Spirit (know Him)
3) Anything outside of this is not natural… it is of
the world.
- The priority for Leavener… teach identity.
- The second is live in community.
- Hitch your wagon to that pony.
- Job
- Dating
- Relationships
THE LAST HOUR
18 Children, it is the last hour. And as you have heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come. By this we know that it is the last hour.
- John is the only writer who actually uses the word "antichrist(s)" (I John 2:18, I John 2:22, I John 4:3 and II John 1:7).
- The Beast of Revelation 13:1-10 who is generally known as the antichrist, is never really called "The Antichrist," and the usage of the title by John in these verses doesn't seem to be identifying a particular prophetic individual like that prophetic Beast.
- John does use the term "antichrist" in the context of those who stand against Christ.
- In that respect, many feel comfortable in applying that reference to the beast of Revelation 13.
- The epistle is focused on getting people out of major theological error imposed by Gnosticism.
- These beliefs and these false teachers are antichrists.
- For John, the antichrist is not some future figure who will lead an army against the people of God.
- Instead, the antichrists are those who were at one time amongst Christians but who proved to not be authentic believers because of their theological error.
- These false prophets are “antichrists.”
- They have left the churches and have undermined the foundations of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
- However, they are still in contact with the believers and are leading some of them astray with their deviant gospel.
- Here is what they are teaching: The material world of matter is evil.
- Therefore, the Divine Christ could not have come to the earth in human flesh.
- He rather came in spirit and only seemed to be touchable human flesh.
- This denial of the Lord’s incarnation later came to be known as Docetism.
- Docetism is the belief that Christ could not possibly dwell in a human body.
- His body must have “seemed” to be human.
- Gnostics did not believe that Jesus came in the flesh.
- Jesus was not the Son of God.
- Since salvation means deliverance from the physical world, including the physical body, it does not matter how a person behaves in their bodies.
- Since sin is part of the material world, sin does not exist for the Christian.
- We (the false prophets) are sinless.
- We (the false prophets) have special insight from God’s Spirit to see these deeper truths.
- As a consequence of embracing this false gospel, some of the brethren are exhibiting hatred toward one another.
- Others are claiming that they have never sinned and that sin does not exist.
- Apparently, the Gnostics were at one point part of the Christian church gatherings.
- But they were soon revealed to be false teachers through their teachings against the humanity of Jesus as well as the reality of sin (1 John 1).
- John saw these teachings as proof that these were not true believers.
- These Gnostics became their own pseudo-Christian group.
- All people in Christ have an anointing from Christ.
- Jesus lives within them and they have been adopted into God’s family.
- To the contrary, all who are of the Gnostic teachings and who have rejected the physicality of Jesus, do not contain an anointing.
23 No one who denies the Son has the Father; he who confesses the Son has the Father as well.
- All who reject Jesus reject the Father also.
- It does not matter how good a person’s works are, or how nice their beliefs are, if they do not believe in Jesus, they are also denying the Father because God is one being and three persons.
- All who confess the Son of God also confess the Father and the Spirit.
- They are a package deal.
- This means that the entire Trinity is pleased with God’s children.
- Believers are perpetually abiding in God, and God is perpetually abiding in His children.
REMAINING WITH GOD
24 What you have heard from the beginning is to remain in you. If what you have heard from the beginning remains in you, then you will remain in the Son and in the Father. 25 And this is the promise that he himself made to us: eternal life.
- God is offering an unending life, the very life of Jesus, to all who believe in Him.
- This salvation is an eternal salvation. This means that nothing can interrupt or interfere with it.
- God’s salvation has nothing to do with our promises or works before God.
- Rather, salvation is based on His promise to save all who believe in Jesus.
- This is the heartbeat of the New Covenant.
- John is not suggesting that believers do not need to benefit from one another’s spiritual gifts.
- John is simply telling the church that they have an anointing from God: His presence within.
- Because Jesus lives within them, they have been introduced to the nature and character of God.
- Believers know God and can resist false theology such as Gnosticism as a result.
- 1 Corinthians 2:15-16 - The spiritual person, however, can evaluate everything, and yet he himself cannot be evaluated by anyone. 16 For
that he may instruct him? (Isaiah 40:13)
But we have the mind of Christ.[1]
GOD’S CHILDREN
28 So now, little children, (they understand forgiveness) remain in him so that when he appears we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming.
- Believers will not be punished and judged at the Second Coming.
- Believers can, therefore, have confidence at His coming.
- Unbelievers, however, will be judged because they have rejected Christ and do not have eternal life.
- Throughout the letter John argues that there are only two groups of people: Those in the light and those in the dark.
- Those who are in the light are characterized by righteousness.
- God has made them righteous at the core of their being, and they naturally want to live from this new nature.
- Believers practice how to live from their identity in Christ.
[1] Christian Standard Bible. 2020. Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[2] Christian Standard Bible. 2020. Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[3] Farley, Andrew. www.BibleCommentary.com. 1 John 2.
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