If We Confess Our Sins...

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Good morning. I am Terri Kochi.

I'm a member of the Women Reading Women in North Berkeley community groups.

Today's scripture reading is from 1 John 1, verse 5 through chapter 2, verse 2, as printed in the liturgy.

1 John 1:5

This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another,

and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

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.

He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Thank you for that scripture reading, Terry.

Good morning, Christ Church.

My name is Andrew.

If you're new here, I'm one of the pastors here.

Our lead pastor is on sabbatical, so you might be seeing me a little bit more.

Yeah, that's just how it is.

That's the way it goes.

Will you join me in prayer as we come into God's word?

Lord, we come before you wanting to acknowledge that you are a God.

God, merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.

As high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is your love toward us.

As far as the east is from the west, so far have you removed our transgressions from us.

As a father shows compassion to his children, so you, Lord, show compassion to us.

Lord, would you make us a people that say wow to those truths?

Help me to preach this morning in a way that does not just convey that I believe these things are true,

but help me to preach in a way that conveys that I believe these things are beautiful.

And I pray that you'd convince my friends, my brothers and sisters here,

those exploring who Jesus is and what you're about,

would you convince them as well that this is not just true, but it's beautiful.

This is good news for the world.

And would you do so, Lord, to the glory of your name we pray.

Amen.

Amen.

So we are now in a series in the New Testament letter of 1 John.

We're calling the series Life, Light, and Love.

And last week we began it talking about the God who is life.

John opens up by stating what his intentions are.

Eternal life has appeared to these apostles in the flesh, in history,

and they cannot help but proclaim what they saw and what they heard

and what they touched and what they beheld, Jesus Christ.

The eternal life itself come into the world to bring us back into fellowship

with the triune God for our joy.

But today we move on from 1 John's intentions to the actual content of this letter,

to the actual message that Jesus gave his apostles to share.

Today we move on to the first thing we absolutely have to know about God

in order to come into this completeness of joy and fellowship that he wants for us.

Now I have a question for you.

If you were to summarize the main message of Jesus,

like what he came to reveal to us about God,

the central truth that he wanted us to know about God,

in a three-word sentence, God is fill in the blank,

what would you say?

God is love.

I heard a lot of love right there.

Love, all right?

I imagine many of us, even those of us who aren't Christians,

might say love.

God is love.

Everybody knows that one, right?

Everybody loves that one, that saying that God is love.

It's one of the most famous passages in the Bible.

It's one of the most famous descriptions of who God is.

It's popular at weddings.

Even people who aren't Christians,

this is what they know that Christians believe, that God is love.

And you know this famous saying, God is love,

it actually does come later here in this letter, 1 John.

It comes later in chapter 4, but the thing is,

we're not there yet.

It doesn't come, again, until chapter 4.

And the interesting thing about our passage today,

still very much in the beginning of 1 John,

is that the message, the main point,

that 1 John wants to transmit from Jesus,

the starting point truth from which the whole rest

of this letter flows,

in order that people might have this fellowship and joy

that's appeared to us,

is not that God is love.

Actually, as it says here in verse 5,

this is the message we have heard from him

and proclaimed to you,

that God is light.

And in him is no darkness at all.

Now why in the world does this letter start with,

God is light?

Why is that so important?

What does that even mean, that God is light,

and in him there is no darkness at all?

Well, I think that what 1 John is meaning to say

is that we have to start with the reality

that in this world there is light,

and there is darkness.

There is truth, and there is falsehood.

There is good, and there is evil.

And that God is light means that he is completely opposed

to darkness and falsehood and evil.

And I want to try to unpack that for us this morning,

because it's so important.

It's so important.

Because unless we are convinced

that God is first and foremost light,

we will actually never really experience

his abundant life and the fellowship and joy

that he intends for us.

Unless we're convinced that God is light,

we won't know him truly as he is,

as the God who is love.

So will you look with me at verses 5 through 7?

Let's think about this for a second, all right?

Verses 5 through 7.

This is the message we have heard from him

and proclaim to you that God is light,

and in him is no darkness at all.

If we say we have fellowship with him

while we walk in darkness,

we lie and do not practice the truth.

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light,

we have fellowship with one another,

and the blood of Jesus his son

cleanses us from all sin.

Now one trick I want to teach you

for interpreting the Bible,

one trick that I think can help us

better understand the significance

of many of these verses

is to try to imagine the opposite

of what these verses are saying.

Like try to imagine the alternative

to what 1 John is saying here.

So try to imagine with me,

what if God wasn't light?

And what if in him,

he like allowed within himself darkness,

or even a lot of darkness?

What if he was still cool with fellowshipping

with those who walked in darkness

outside of the light?

What if God was cool with all those

who did not practice the truth?

Imagine that.

What would that mean for us?

Even if we still held on to our favorite passage,

God is love.

It wouldn't be so compelling anymore, would it?

Well, I think it'd mean that his love

was a compromised love

if we didn't also recognize that God is light.

Like sure, God is love,

but it's a love that just tolerates

and coexists and commingles

with darkness and falsehood, right?

And I wonder if that's how a lot of us

understand God and his love

when we say God is love.

We understand the love of God

through the lens of this cultural moment

that we're in where we just have

this simplistic and selective acceptance

and tolerance,

where we so often just say certain things

are just okay.

Hey, that unhealthy thing in your life,

that bad habit, that selfishness,

that greed, that gluttony.

Hey, it's okay.

We all do it.

We're all human,

and therefore it's not so bad.

It's not that offensive to God.

It doesn't really grieve him

in any significant way.

God's ultimately just about accepting

all of us anyway, right?

Just as we are.

That's what God's about, right?

Making us feel better about ourselves

no matter how much of a mess we're in.

Let's just hold hands,

sing kumbaya,

and worship the God of low

or maybe no standards at all, right?

It is something to cry about.

But my question is,

is this really the kind of God

we actually want?

Is this really the kind of God

that we believe the world needs?

Do we really want a God

who can have fellowship with darkness?

Do we want a God whose love

does not absolutely abhor and hate

the darkness in and around and within us?

Do we want a God who doesn't burn

with wrathful passion

against all that is wicked

in this world,

even what is wicked within us?

You know, recently,

one of our youth mentors

shared a question with me

that he got from one of our youth.

And I don't know who this youth was,

but I think the question

really illustrates

why we need a God who is light

and in whom there is no darkness.

The student asked the mentor,

wouldn't it be better

if God just got rid of Putin?

Wouldn't it be better for the world?

And I won't get into all the complexities

of answering this question.

I'll leave that to the mentors.

But I do want to highlight

the impulse behind that question, right?

Like, God, this is evil.

This is evil stuff.

And wouldn't the world be better

if you got rid of evil?

You know, for so many of us,

privileged, educated,

professional, western types of people

who can afford, you know,

not to believe in God

or who've never been wronged so badly

that we've cried out to God

for justice,

it can be easy for us to think of God

as a divine, cosmic teddy bear,

you know, just gushing

with the kind of generic,

sentimental love

that the Beatles

so naively sang about, right?

All you need is love

and flower power.

But is permissiveness

and tolerance

and low-bar acceptance

really the same thing as love?

Is that really the same thing as love?

Is that really such a high expression of love?

See, I don't think so.

And I want to read to you

a quote from this Croatian theologian

who once had trouble

believing in the wrath of God

because he wanted to be all about

God is love.

This Croatian theologian,

his name is Miroslav Volf,

he said,

I used to think

that wrath was unworthy of God.

Isn't God love?

Shouldn't divine love

be beyond wrath?

God is love.

And God loves every person

and every creature.

That's exactly why God is wrathful

against some of them.

My last resistance

to the idea of God's wrath

was a casualty of the war

in the former Yugoslavia,

the region from which I come.

According to some estimates,

200,000 people were killed,

over 3 million were displaced.

My villages and cities were destroyed,

my people shelled day in and day out,

some of them brutalized beyond imagination.

And I could not imagine God

not being angry.

Or think of Rwanda

in the last decade of the past century,

where 800,000 people

were hacked to death in 100 days.

How did God react to the carnage?

By doting on the perpetrators

in a grandparently fashion,

by refusing to condemn the bloodbath,

but instead affirming

the perpetrators' basic goodness,

wasn't God fiercely angry with them?

Though I used to complain

about the indecency

of the idea of God's wrath,

I came to think

that I would have to rebel

against a God

who wasn't wrathful

at the sight of the world's evil.

God isn't wrathful

in spite of being love.

God is wrathful

because God is love.

See, Wolf understands

that we need a God

who is light,

in whom there is no darkness at all.

And this is the God revealed to us

in 1 John.

Not some generic,

ambiguous,

anything-goes,

feel-good God

constructed from our fickle,

finite, fallible imaginations.

He's the God of Israel.

The triune God revealed to us

in the person of Jesus Christ

in history.

Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

And yes,

he wants our joy,

but definitely not

on our own sin-stained terms.

While the God of 1 John,

he genuinely wants

the joy of the world,

while he wants to unite

all people with each other

into his life

of eternal triune fellowship,

he's not a God

without standards.

And that's an amazing thing

about him,

that he can unite

all peoples

and still maintain

the highest of standards.

See, this God of life,

Jesus himself,

full of grace

and what truth.

He intends for us

to live out our eternal lives

in a certain way,

in a specific way.

He wants us to live

in his light

and in his presence.

In his presence,

there are some things,

many things,

that are simply black and white.

There are things

that are of God

and there are other things

that are not of God.

There are things

that God celebrates

and there are things

that he condemns.

There are things God loves

and things God also hates

because God is light.

He isn't some

all-permissive father, no.

And honestly,

he hates the darkness

in his children.

He hates it,

just as I hate it

when my own daughters

lie to me

or hit each other

or disrespect my wife,

their mother.

God won't abide

with the darkness

in his children.

He will neither

compromise his character

nor allow his children

to self-destruct

in their own darkness.

So as the God

who is light,

he calls out

all the liars.

And honestly,

if this sounds like

a wake-up call,

well, it should.

It should.

Verse six,

if we claim

to have fellowship

with God but walk,

that is,

if we live in a sustained

and unbothered lifestyle

outside of God's light,

God doesn't care

what you claim.

He could care less

if you call yourself

a Christian.

He isn't even that interested

in what you might believe

in your head.

Even the demons believe

the right things

in their heads.

Truth is not something

merely believed,

it's something lived

and practiced

and walked in.

If we claim

to have fellowship

with God

but don't walk

in his light,

then we are lying

to ourselves

and are far

from the only truth

that can really

give us life.

Now understand

that this is a pretty hard

word and even

an exclusive word.

And maybe this is

what some of us

despise about Christianity

or religion in general,

these rigid

and restrictive standards,

right,

that only seem

to divide

and alienate

and condemn

in the name of some

supposedly divine authority.

The God of light,

Moses' God,

the God revealed

in Jesus Christ,

a God who is Lord

over our whole lives,

Lord over all truth

and knowledge

and morality

and justice.

maybe you're not sure

if you're ready

to bow before

such a God.

But can I ask,

what is your better

alternative?

What is your alternative

light?

A God whose light

isn't so bright?

Maybe

no God

at all?

If you are here today

and feeling uncomfortable

with this God

who is light,

then one,

I've done my job

and two,

hey,

I'm right there with you.

I'm right there with you

because in my many moments

of darkened thinking

and living,

if I'm honest,

I very often prefer

other lights,

right?

I prefer other lights too,

lights that flatter me

and shine on just

the right spots,

maybe my eyebrows

and not my love handles,

you know?

I prefer muted lights

that don't expose

the dark areas

in my life,

lights I can conveniently

turn off

or dim

when they don't serve

my agenda.

I prefer gentle lights

that leave me,

that just leave me be

and don't purge me

toward becoming

the man I'm supposed

to be.

Ultimately,

I often don't want

God to be light

because God as light

is terrifying.

It's terrifying

and I don't know

if I could handle

the God of light.

I mean,

think about it,

God as light,

a light brighter

than the sun,

the very light

that inspired

and created

the sun.

As the Apostle Paul

says in his letter

to Timothy,

the Lord Jesus Christ

is the blessed

and only sovereign,

the King of kings

and Lord of lords

who alone

has immortality

and dwells

in unapproachable light.

This is the God

whom our Old Testament saints

could not come before.

The God who,

they had to take off

their sandals before,

they could not see him

or they would die.

This is that kind of light.

How could anyone bear

to stand in the presence

of the God

who is light?

God as light,

as the Holy Lord of all,

this can be

an incredibly

unsettling truth.

I totally get it.

I totally get it.

But what I need

to preach to myself

and what I'm here

to preach

to all of us today

is that as scary

as this may sound,

whether we like it or not,

God is light.

And that's actually

good news.

It's actually good news

for all of us.

I mean,

consider the alternative.

What if something else

was light?

What if someone else

was Lord

instead of God?

You know,

the enlightenment,

right,

the enlightenment

suggested the lights

of what,

science and reason

could save humanity.

If you just put

the gods of science

and reason

into the hands

of humans,

they could save themselves.

And sure,

I will admit,

they have shed

some helpful light

on this world,

helping us to discern

what is real

and good and true.

But while much

of the world

still worships

these two impersonal gods,

honestly,

science and reason

have yet

to permanently

save and unite us all.

And arguably,

these two secular gods,

science and reason,

have even contributed

their own evils

to this world

in the hands

of evil people.

Nuclear weapons,

chemical warfare,

think of the countless

logical justifications

made by various

genocidal supremacist regimes,

right?

Or maybe you're beyond that.

You know you shouldn't

have faith

in science and reason

in the hands

of sinful people.

Maybe you're

more of a post-enlightenment

kind of person.

You know enough

not to trust people

or institutions

in their use

of science and reason.

You're trying to chart

your own path.

You're trying to be

your own light, right?

Like the words

of Nietzsche's

fictional character

Zarathustra,

you have your way,

I have my way.

As for the right way,

the correct way,

and the only way,

it does not exist.

Or as we like to say today,

you do you, man.

You do you.

Follow your own

inner light,

make your own meaning,

discover whatever it is

that makes you happy.

But let's be real.

We all make

for terrible lords.

We all make

for terrible lights

of our own lives.

You do you

is not only a terrible

way to live

because it's selfish

and individualistic,

but it's an impossible

and self-destructively

crushing way to live.

Like who the heck

am I

to make my own meaning?

How could I

bear the burden

of finding out

what makes me happy?

And what if my search

turns up empty?

What hope then

is left?

Maybe that empty search

and that hopelessness

describes some of us

here today.

And if so,

I really feel for you.

I do.

And I believe that you

are trying your hardest

and we so respect

your search

for life-giving light

and truth here,

your quest to live

a life of love

and truth.

But may I suggest

that unless we come

to terms with this message

that God is light,

we'll never live

the joyous lives

of love

that we were made for.

I understand

how God is light

and the implications

here can seem

pretty terrifying.

Like if you're walking

in darkness

and therefore not

in God's light,

you cannot have fellowship

with God.

That's what it says here.

And maybe some of us here

live with that kind of fear

like am I walking

in the light

or am I walking

in the darkness

or am I walking

in the light

enough, right?

And how can I know?

I mean, I'm not perfect

but I try.

And maybe in this tightrope

of trying to walk

in God's light

where you find yourself

continually falling,

you are tempted

to either avoid

the sin and darkness

in your life.

Just put it out

of your mind

or you tell yourself

that your sin

is actually not that bad,

not that offensive

to God.

This is how my little girls

deal with their

many, many sins.

My youngest girl,

Leah, she's two.

When she knows

she's done something wrong,

she chooses

the route of avoidance.

She turns her head

away in shame.

She won't apologize.

She won't say sorry.

I can lock her

in her room for days.

She will not say sorry.

I have.

She stubbornly refuses

to acknowledge

the wrong she's done.

And I can see the shame

and the guilt on her face,

the fear of what might happen

if she faces the truth

that what she's done

is wrong.

She doesn't want

to face it.

But then my oldest,

Cammie, she's the opposite.

She'll push her sister over,

she'll slap our dog,

she'll blatantly disobey us

and then when called out

for it,

she'll just ham it up,

you know, smile, giggle

and say,

sorry, right?

Like it's a game.

Like we're just looking

for a magic word

to absolve her

of this behavior

that she is not

totally convinced

is really bad

in the first place.

But what I try to teach

and communicate

to my girls

is that yes,

their sin

is wicked.

They're really bad.

I tell them that every day.

You're so bad.

Because sin,

it paves a path

of self-destruction

and harm

to others

and this whole world.

Even what we might consider

the smallest offense,

the smallest sin,

the smallest act

of selfishness

and malice,

of just lack of concern

for someone else

is the very seed

of every atrocity

ever committed

in the world.

People don't go

into markets

in Buffalo

and just shoot

people up

just like that.

That doesn't happen

just like that.

That seed of sin

is within

each and every one of us

and it's up to us

whether or not

we want to feed it

or whether or not

we want to walk

in the light.

But you know what?

1 John says that

even so,

even though

the seed of sin

is within all of us,

what I pray

my girls learn

is that even though

our sin is far worse

than we could ever imagine,

there is nothing

to be gained

by hiding

or minimizing

our sin.

But there is everything

to be gained

by admitting our sin

and receiving

the full forgiveness

and mercy

of God in Christ.

Yeah, that's right.

I want my girls

to know

that they are

awful little sinners.

I want them to know

how heinous

their sins are,

how much they deserve

the consequences

of bringing more

and more darkness

into this world.

But I also want them

to know

that God is light.

God is light,

which also means

that no darkness

is too dark

for His light

to expose

and to expel

from their lives.

listen to verses

8-10.

If we say

we have no sin,

we deceive ourselves

and the truth

is not in us.

If we confess

our sins,

He is faithful

and just

to forgive us

our sins

and to cleanse us

from all unrighteousness.

If we say

we have not sinned,

we make Him a liar

and His word

is not in us.

And this is God's word

to us this morning,

that the answer

to our guilt

and shame

is not to say

that we have no sin.

As it says in verse 8,

that's only to deceive ourselves

and to walk further away

from the truth.

Even worse,

as it says in verse 10,

to say we have not sinned

is to neglect God's word,

is to call God

a liar.

No, the best response

to the God

who is light

is not to diminish

the brilliance

of His light

and to lower

His holy standard

that requires perfection.

And nor should our response

be to downplay

our darkness,

to downplay our sin.

No, the best response

is to tell the truth,

to admit our sin

all of it.

Proverbs chapter 23,

Proverbs 23 · chapter mention

chapter 28, verse 13,

whoever conceals

his transgressions

will not prosper,

but he who confesses

and forsakes them

will obtain mercy.

Even when we confess them

before the holy God

of light

who hates sin

with all His being

and He wants to put it

to death.

Look at verse 7.

Walking in the light,

it doesn't exactly mean

that we don't have any sin.

In fact,

it's presupposed here

that we have sin

that needs to be cleansed.

See, walking in the light

is about direction,

not perfection.

And the proper direction,

it begins with confession.

Now wait.

How could we confess

our darkness

before the God

who is light

with any expectation

of a good outcome for us?

Well, it's because here,

verse 9,

if we confess our sins,

He is faithful

and just

to forgive us our sins

and to cleanse us

from all unrighteousness.

And no,

this is not some

blanket forgiveness

like, oh God,

He's just gonna forgive me

no matter what.

That's His job.

That's His duty.

That's just what He does.

We just say sorry

and He forgives.

No, it is God's prerogative

to forgive.

He doesn't have

to be merciful.

But the God of light

does absolutely

have to be faithful

and just.

And that's why verse 9

is one of my all-time

favorite verses.

If we confess our sins,

look,

it doesn't say

He is merciful

and gracious

to forgive us our sins.

It says He is faithful

and just

to forgive our sins.

What?

What?

How does that make sense?

How is it just

for the God

who is light

to forgive my sin?

Well, look down with me

at the last two verses

of our text.

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,

He is the propitiation

for our sins

and not for ours only,

but also for the sins

of the whole world.

Two words to learn today.

Advocate

and propitiation.

Advocate

and propitiation.

Burn them

into your memory,

teach them to your kids,

share them with your coworkers.

Advocate

and propitiation.

The good news

of the gospel

is that though God

is light

and we are participants

in darkness,

we have an advocate.

We have an advocate

with the Father,

Jesus Christ,

the righteous,

who, like a lawyer,

stands in the court of heaven.

Jesus Christ stands

before the Father

for us.

And while the devil

indicts us

for breaking the law

again and again

and again,

our advocate,

Jesus,

the righteous one

who fulfilled the law

for us,

says,

yes, Father,

Andrew,

He did it again.

But I would remind you

that there has already been

a propitiation,

that is,

a satisfaction,

an atonement

for his sins.

And as evidence

for the court,

Jesus rolls up

his sleeves

and shows forth

his nail-pierced hands

and he pleads our case

saying,

Father,

I would remind you

that Andrew's sins

and the sins

of his brothers

and sisters

and the family of God

all throughout the world

for all time,

they've been put to death.

They've been nailed

to a cross.

And that the wrath

due them

and their sins,

it's already been exhausted

upon me.

When I,

the light of the world,

endured the darkness

of Good Friday's cross

in their place,

there is blood

for their cleansing,

mine.

I've already shed it.

The blood of Jesus

poured out

for the forgiveness

of sins.

So Jesus says,

so Father,

forgive these children

who have repented

of their sins

and come to be united

with us.

You must.

He says,

you must,

Father,

because you have

to be faithful

and you have

to be just.

There is no

double punishment.

It's once and for all.

Justice has been satisfied.

We did it, Father.

We did it.

We've written

and fulfilled

the greatest story

ever told.

The victory of God

as both just

and the justifier.

And that's the gospel.

That God is just

and the justifier.

Victory of light

over darkness

without compromise.

God is light.

He remains light.

And somehow

we are forgiven

because of what

Jesus Christ,

our advocate,

has done.

The propitiation

for our sins.

And this is the gospel.

This is the gospel.

The good news

that we don't need

to hide our darkness

from the light.

but that the God

who is light,

he does us one better.

And he draws us

into his unapproachable light,

once unapproachable

yet now approachable

through the cleansing,

propitiating blood

of our righteous advocate,

Jesus.

What kind of people

do you think that forms

who believe this truth?

How free

do you imagine

that they would be

knowing that

the God who sees all,

the God who is light,

and who knows

every darkness

in each and every one of us

is still able

to forgive us

without at all

compromising

his justice.

forgiveness.

There's nothing else

like this.

This is the beautiful truth

of the gospel,

that he is faithful

and just

to forgive us

our sins

because he was merciful

and gracious

to pour out

the blood of Christ

for us

and satisfy the wrath

of God

in our place.

This is the gospel.

Will you pray with me?

Lord, would you bring us,

would you bring the world

this kind of liberty

this freedom

to be real

about

who we are

before you?

We are wretched

sinners.

We have done things

that we ought

not to have done

and we have not done

the things

that we ought

to have done.

We have not loved

our neighbors

as ourselves.

We have not

given you

all the glory,

honor,

and praise

that is due to you.

And still,

we have the gall

to think

that we're not

that bad.

Lord, forgive us.

Lord, forgive us.

Convict us

of sin

by your spirit.

And as you

convict us

of sin,

would you

enliven us

with the beautiful

truth

that you still

love us

in Christ,

our advocate,

our propitiation.

Thank you

for this gift,

we pray in the name

of Jesus.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.