1 John 2:13b

Teacher: Rusty Kennedy
​Series: 1 John

Rusty's Notes

1 John 2:12-13
12 I am writing to you, little children,
since your sins have been forgiven
on account of his name.
13 I am writing to you, fathers,
because you have come to know
the one who is from the beginning.
I am writing to you, young men,
because you have conquered the evil one.[1]
----------------------------
One Thing…

• I want to teach you one thing today.
• Don’t believe a word I say.
• This is something that I was not taught at OBU.
• I never heard in seminary.
• I did not learn this until I was 36 years old.

1 John 2:13
I am writing to you, young men, because you have conquered (had victory over) the evil one.
- Now let’s break this down…
 

• We are amid horror flicks at Halloween time.
• There is not a single reference from Romans to Revelation about casting out demons.
• Christians are not to spend their lives casting out demons.
• Instead, we are to present the Gospel to people that they may believe and be delivered from the influence of the evil one.
• All who are in Christ have the ability overcome the evil one.

 
- 1 Thessalonians 5:23 - Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. And may your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.[2]

• Paul indicates that we are 3 parts: spirit, soul and body.
• Body – “Body” obviously describes a person's physical being.
• Our physical being here on earth… originally came from dust and will return to dust.
• Your body is not going into eternity.
• This includes your brain (hard drive…memories)
• Our physical bodies are temporary and not redeemed.
• Not made perfect.

 

• Soul – (psychē) is the life force that all living things possess and that distinguishes them from the inanimate or the dead.
• The word is used of life itself, as the seat of internal thoughts, desires, and emotions, or of that aspect of life that survives physical death.
• Mind, will, emotions (personality). It makes each individual unique.
• The soul is eternal. (Luke 16 – Abraham & Lazarus on one side and the rich man on the other side)
• If the soul is eternal (out lasts the body) it must be redeemed. When is it redeemed?
• I have been given the mind of Christ. (1 Cor 2:16)

 

• Spirit – (pneuma) refers to the “breath” characteristic of life.
• It is roughly synonymous with “soul,” and like soul it sometimes is paired with “flesh” or “body” to sum up the entirety of a living being.
• In one Pauline context, (1 Cor 2:14–15). The “spiritual” (pneumatikos) person is one enabled to commune with the divine.
• The “natural” (psuchikos) person lives apart from the knowledge and power of God (cf. 1 Cor 15:42–46).
• The key distinction here is relational.
• Paul was not describing the human person as a three-part conglomerate but as a being with material and nonmaterial existence who may or may not be spiritually enlivened in relation to God.[3]

 

• It is our connection to God. We are born with a dead spirit… (from the seed of Adam).
• Galatians 2:19-20 – For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live for God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.[4]
• 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 - Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come! 18 Everything is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. 19 That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and he has committed the message of reconciliation to us.
• 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf, “Be reconciled to God.” 21 He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.[5]

 

• My spirit has been made alive in Christ and He in me.
• My spirit has been redeemed.
• This is who I am now… not what I do.

 
This is how the evil one works…
Romans 7:14-20 - For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold as a slave under sin. 15 For I do not understand what I am doing, because I do not practice what I want to do, but I do what I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want to do, I agree with the law that it is good. 17 So now I am no longer the one doing it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For the desire to do what is good is with me, but there is no ability to do it. 19 For I do not do the good that I want to do, but I practice the evil that I do not want to do. 20 Now if I do what I do not want, I am no longer the one that does it, but it is the sin that lives in me.[6]
 
- The evil one is constantly sending thoughts to our flesh brain.
- How does He do this? (application)
 - Family, friends, etc.
 - Social Networking
 - News
 - Entertainment
 - Society
 - Senses – Visual (hearing – words)
 - Flesh patterns in the brain
 
- What does it look like?
 - Perfect pictures… perfect FB & IG posts
 - Beauty & Fashion – Self-esteem and self-worth
 - Self Care – You can do it!
 - Addictions
 - Chemical imbalance
 - Fear – Personal threads and profiles
    -   Quit believing everything you read and hear.

• Times have changed since the internet.
• Conspiracies unproven
• The researchers found that overall, people were motivated to believe in conspiracy theories by a need to understand and feel safe in their environment and a need to feel like the community they identify with is superior to others.
• Elvis is dead, Kennedy was shot by Oswald and the Astros cheated.

 
We must be able to discern what truth really is.

• If we can’t determine the truth, then we must learn to trust the only Truth.
• I don’t know when we are going to Israel… but I am hopeful that we are still going.
• Whatever that looks like, I trust Him.
• I have in the past… He hasn’t failed me yet… and He never will.

 
If the evil one is here to destroy me… either through my choices or other’s choices… I must know the game.

• Not every thought that enters my head is truth.
• I must filter thoughts in my brain through my “mind of Christ”.

1 Corinthians 2:10-16 - Now God has revealed these things to us by the Spirit, since the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. 11 For who knows a person’s thoughts except his spirit within him? In the same way, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who comes from God, so that we may understand what has been freely given to us by God. 13 We also speak these things, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual things to spiritual people. 14 But the person without the Spirit does not receive what comes from God’s Spirit, because it is foolishness to him; he is not able to understand it since it is evaluated spiritually. 15 The spiritual person, however, can evaluate everything, and yet he himself cannot be evaluated by anyone. 16 For
who has known the Lord’s mind,
that he may instruct him? (Isaiah 40:13)
But we have the mind of Christ.[7]
 
- We make a choice… walk by the flesh… or Spirit.
 
Here is a good example of what I am talking about.
- What we have been taught vs. what the Bible says.
- This is what it sounds like…


Flesh says, “I am a sinner”.
1 Timothy 1:15 - This saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”—and I am the worst of them.[8]
 
Spirit says…

• John 1:12 - I am a child of God (Romans 8:16).
• John 15:15 - I am Christ's friend.
• John 15:16 - I am chosen and appointed by Christ to bear His fruit.
• Romans 3:24 - I have been justified and redeemed.
• Romans 6:7 - I have been freed from sin's power over me.
• Romans 8:1 - I am forever free from condemnation.
• Romans 8:17 - I am an heir of God and fellow heir with Christ.
• Romans 11:16 - I am holy.
• Romans 15:7 - Christ has accepted me.
• 1 Corinthians 1:2 - I have been sanctified.
• 1 Corinthians 2:12 - I have received the Spirit of God into my life that I might know the things freely given to me by God.
• 1 Corinthians 6:17 - I am joined to the Lord and am one spirit with Him.
• 2 Corinthians 1:21 - I have been established in Christ and anointed by God.
• Galatians 2:4 - I have liberty in Christ Jesus.
• Ephesians 1:1 - I am a saint (1 Corinthians 1:2; Philippians 1:1; Colossians 1:2).
• Ephesians 1:3 - I am blessed with every spiritual blessing.
• Ephesians 2:5 - I have been made alive together with Christ.
• Ephesians 2:10 - I am God's workmanship, created in Christ to do His work that He planned beforehand that I should do.
• Ephesians 2:18 - I have direct access to God through the Spirit.
• Ephesians 3:12 - I may approach God with boldness and confidence.
• Philippians 4:7 - His peace guards my heart and my mind.
• Philippians 4:19 - God will supply all my needs.
• Colossians 1:27 - Christ Himself is in me.
• Colossians 2:10 - I have been made complete in Christ.
• Colossians 3:4 - Christ is now my life.
• 1 Thessalonians 5:5 - I am a child of light and not of darkness.
• 2 Timothy 1:7 - I have been given a spirit of power, love, and discipline.
• Hebrews 2:11 - Because I am sanctified and am one with Christ, He is not ashamed to call me His.
• Hebrews 4:16 - I may come boldly before the throne of God to receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
• Hebrews 10:14 – I have been perfected by His one offering.
• 1 John 3:1 - God has bestowed a great love on me and called me His child.
• 1 John 4:15 - God is in me, and I am in God.

 
1 John 2:12
12 I am writing to you, little children,
since your sins have been forgiven
on account of his name.
13 … I am writing to you, young men,
because you have conquered the evil one.[9]
 
We traveled from the simplest of things of our faith (forgiveness) to one of the least understood issues of the Scripture (being victorious over the evil one).

[1] Christian Standard Bible. 2020. Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[2] Christian Standard Bible. 2020. Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[3] Martin, D. M. (1995). 1, 2 Thessalonians (Vol. 33, p. 189). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.
[4] Christian Standard Bible. 2020. Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[5] Christian Standard Bible. 2020. Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[6] Christian Standard Bible. 2020. Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[7] Christian Standard Bible. 2020. Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[8] Christian Standard Bible. 2020. Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.
[9] Christian Standard Bible. 2020. Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers.