Letters From John - Light and Life

All right, we are happy you guys are here.

I do have to apologize for not paying attention earlier.

Um that Josh was wondering about um if Cornelius was an actual real um character, and uh he was surprised to find out that he'll find out tonight.

All right, uh good with you guys.

Uh, my name is Kirk, Pastor here for visiting with us.

Uh so glad you're you're here checking out our church service this morning.

Um exciting day.

We just got through our Vision Sunday.

I'm excited that we're responding to that through uh invitation.

Excited because tonight is our youth year kickoff.

Yes, unfortunately.

Yeah, it's not at the farm, I know, but it's happening.

So um, and then lastly, excited because we're going into a new series right now.

We're we're making our way to uh hearing these letters from John.

And so uh you opened your Bibles earlier, you can stay there.

We'll be in 1 John chapter 1, verses 1 through 10.

1 John 1 · chapter mention

And so here's what we're gonna see in the series.

There's gonna be a continued theme from John of invitation, which I just love.

I'm excited to see what he's inviting us in towards.

And so as we uh get ready for this um this invitation from John, I think there's two important uh pieces of information that we need to draw out before we jump into the content of the letter.

Just two two spaces right before we go into this um this book here.

And just really necessary, really what I'd say background information.

So two things here.

Really, first one is who is John?

Okay, pretty simple.

Second one, who is John writing to?

Right?

So we got who and who.

Pretty straightforward there.

So, and once we do get that uh initial background, then we'll we'll really just dive into seeing what John desires for us uh to understand uh as a church, as just the gathered people of God here this morning.

So who and who, here we go.

First, who?

Who is John?

All right, let's let's let's talk through that because in the New Testament we do see other uh people who have this name, right?

Who share this name.

We have John John the baptizer, right?

We have uh in the book of Acts, you have John Mark, you have uh little John, yeah, right?

Um sorry, he's not real.

I'm gonna start over.

So we have uh we have to really figure out who is this John.

It's not little John.

All right.

This John is uh he is has the title of this apostle, he is the title of disciple, he is the title of the elder, John the Elder, he is titled John of Patmos, uh the artist formerly known as Sons of Thunder, that's his as well.

And my favorite, though, is this one it's John the beloved disciple of Jesus.

Now, why I love this is because throughout John's gospel, here's what he does: he presents himself, that's his identity.

He is the beloved disciple of Jesus.

It is such a powerful thing.

It's this beautiful way to identify us, right?

When we're in a world that's seeking identity from all these different places, John says, I'm the one Jesus loves.

And now it can come across, I can get that, it could come across that statement maybe a little arrogant, like, ah, sorry, Peter, I'm the one that Jesus loves, right?

But that's not John's point.

Although, John and Peter, there's something interesting there, right?

I'm just gonna give us a quick overview.

They seem to be competing a lot.

If you look at John's gospel, there's an incredible account here where they both are running towards the empty tomb of Jesus, okay?

And there's an important detail that John wants us to know.

This is really a theological, groundbreaking detail.

It's this he was faster than Peter.

He says, so Peter went out with the other disciple, and they were going toward the tomb.

Both of them are running together.

But the other disciple, hint, hint, John, outran Peter and reached the tomb first.

So really important theological uh point here, right?

It's point number one.

Peter was slower than John.

No.

Um here's what the point of really this this beautiful uh reality of John here.

John, he wants to tell us something important, and he wants to reveal this really powerful movement that John is close to Jesus.

There's a closeness to Jesus, okay?

There's a proximity to Jesus.

From the first invitation of Jesus to follow him, right?

It brought him into some of the closest moments of Jesus' ministry.

See, John witnessed things like the trans the transfiguration.

Right?

John was present and watched Jesus raise um Jairus' daughter from from the dead.

And so for three years, John John just did this.

He listened to Jesus, he walked with Jesus, he spent time with just wondering if this, you know, the beauty of who Jesus is, right?

He witnessed the miracles.

He uh his compassion they saw of Jesus and he stood near the cross, right, as he encountered this risen Jesus.

Now, now here's why proximity is such a value here.

Because when John writes, he's not just describing someone he's just heard about, right?

He's experienced, he's bearing witness to someone that he knew.

He's like, I saw this, I heard this, I experienced, I was there.

And that that's what um John's gospel account is, and not just the letters, but his gospel account is built around.

It's it's around the testimony, it's around the signs, it's around the wonders of Jesus, the works of Jesus.

They're all pointing to this incredible truth that's just really who Jesus is, who he claimed to be.

And in fact, John um he closes his gospel with this just a powerful moment.

It says, This is the disciple who is bearing witness about these things, who has written these things, and we know that his testimony is true.

Now, there were also many other things that Jesus did.

Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.

And I love this.

John basically says, I'll I've given you the evidence, I've given you testimony, I've told you what I saw, and I understand I could keep going, right?

There's more.

There's so much more that Jesus did.

That John says this world couldn't even contain what Jesus did while he was present here on earth.

And here's what he wants us to understand.

This this beauty of John is that John once again was he was invited by Jesus to be a disciple, to know him, to walk with him, to witness truth about him, to receive his saving love.

And so because John was invited into that life with Jesus, here's what John does in turn.

He makes it his mission to invite others into that life as well.

And that's an important factor as we begin to read his letters.

Because John is writing as a witness.

It's a witness from a space of even healthy spiritual authority.

He's inviting those who don't know Christ yet to that Jesus can be trusted.

And here's what John is also inviting.

He's also uh putting a major emphasis in this letter about the closeness he has with Jesus because there's a recognition of something that's being um that is as being uh just being confused at the time.

And it's this recognition of what's called Christology.

Now, Christology is simply this it's the the study of the person of Jesus and the work of Jesus, right?

Who who he is, what he's done, right?

What that what that means for us.

And John insists that Jesus, he's not merely just a teacher, he's not merely just like a moral example, right?

He's not just a religious figure, he is the Messiah, he is the Son of God, God who has come near, right?

Savior, Lord, and King.

And that that's the truth, right?

That that that's that's uh that's no cap, like the kids stopped saying five years ago, right?

And he's inviting these readers to have this greater understanding of who Jesus actually is, to understand what the role of Messiah means, what the role of savior means, what the role of Lord means, and what the role of king means.

And so ultimately, what all that means in how we live as followers of Jesus.

So that is our first who John is, right?

That's first two.

Here's the second.

Who is he writing to?

Who's this who's this letter addressed to?

This is kind of an easy one, okay?

Uh it's intended to reach the audience of what's called the church, right?

Kind of a no-brainer there, but uh, you know, it's who else would he be going to?

Community forum, probably not, but as simple as that answer sounds, there's something really important that uh we have to understand as we begin to study this letter, okay?

It's the importance of what's called uh the intended audience, his intended audience.

And so to do that, I want to just I want to give us a tool, and and this hopefully will help whenever we study scripture, okay?

The reality is this letter, yes, it was written to the church.

But the question is, which church?

Right?

A specific geographical church?

Uh is it to the big C capital universal church?

And the answer is yes and yes, all right?

Let's um let's unpack that a little bit.

Now, now John's letter, I'll be honest, was not originally written and directed to Commonplace Church in Mount Olive, New Jersey.

No cap, okay?

But yet we are sitting here, 2026, studying this letter as a church.

So what do we do?

Right?

How do we navigate this?

How do we figure out?

Well, here's the intention in John's intended audience.

And there's a simple tool I love that just has been so helpful, right?

It's this, it's the Bible was not directly written to us, but it was written for us, okay?

You see the difference?

Written to us, not written to us, but it's written for us.

And here's what that means from a space of humility, as we study the word of God and we read, we we before we ask, like, what does this mean for me?

We we start with this.

Well, what did this mean for them, right?

Those who originally received it.

What were they experiencing?

Uh, were there any issues that the writer was addressing during this this time?

And so so healthy scripture reading, it begins with an understanding of this, of the author's intent.

And and now, now, of course, right, once we understand what text meant for them at the time, then it helps us.

We become better equipped to understand what this word is trying to, how we apply it to our lives today, where we find ourselves today.

And that becomes really important when you look at the letter of 1 John, okay?

Because John isn't just sitting around um just one afternoon thinking about the church, you know, like I want to write them a letter right now.

He's he's not like that's there's there's a reason he's taking the time to write this.

There's something that's happening within the early church that concerns John so deeply.

The issue of false teaching, and it's begun uh infiltrating the Christian community, the church.

It's a concern of people who are doing this, who are claiming the name of Jesus, while teaching things about Jesus that that are that are contrary to that truth.

And so John he recognizes this danger.

I love I love his idea here.

He's he says, uh, if you get Jesus wrong, okay, if you're wrong about Jesus, the the thing is you you're probably eventually gonna be get the gospel wrong, right?

And and and if you get the gospel wrong, eventually you're gonna get this whole Christian life wrong.

So so John he addresses the issues to the early church.

And also for us as the church here today, it's it's it's powerful.

And so some of the ideas that John appears to be confronting uh would eventually become associated with with a teaching at that time that's called Gnosticism, okay?

Gnosticism, fun, fun word.

And now, commonplace, we're we're we're gonna get a little theological, logically nerdy for just a couple minutes, okay?

So hang in there with me.

Um the word gnosis means this, it means knowledge.

That's that's simply the the kind of uh the reality of how to translate.

And one of the major movements of Gnosticism was this claim that said certain people possessed a deeper hidden spiritual knowledge unavailable to ordinary people.

Like we know something you don't.

We've unlocked the secret, which has really always been an effective tool uh for false teachers, even even cult leaders, right?

Claiming that God gave them something specific that that no one else could could get, right?

And and so one of the Gnostic teachings John is confronting, it's it goes even deeper than that, which is that's not a great thing, but it goes even further.

Because one particular idea is what would be called docetism.

And this idea was essentially that Jesus, he only appeared to be physically human.

He only appeared to be, but he actually wasn't.

And and here's what these the this belief thought is because these philosophies they viewed physical matter as this as inherently corrupt or or inferior, while the spiritual realm was considered the one what's pure.

And so if Jesus was truly divine, how could God possibly take an active physical body?

And their solution, well, they said he didn't.

Jesus merely appeared human.

Think of something like maybe like a hologram or something like that, right?

Like he he he looks physical, he appears physical, but God didn't actually take on flesh.

And of course, John recognizes a problem with that because that's that's not the Jesus that John knew, right?

John says, I touched him.

He says, I ate with him.

He's like I walked beside him, I watched him suffer, I watched him bleed, I saw him die, and then I encountered him physically resurrected from the dead, right?

That's that's just incredible.

Like Jesus didn't just appear human, Jesus actually became human.

God became human through the work of Christ.

That's the incarnation, and that's that's gonna become incredibly important when we read the words that John opens.

He says, that which we have heard, which we have our eyes have seen, which we looked upon, we have touched with our hands.

Right?

Does it make sense why John is like emphasizing those points right now?

Right?

He's going after, he's not just like filling a space, he's not just um just kind of saying things, he's confronting a lie.

Because some of the Gnostic teachings, they tried to separate Jesus, the man, from Christ as divine.

There's an early teacher named Serenthus.

Uh he's associated with this idea that the divine Christ came upon human Jesus, but then did this.

It later departed from him.

Like, okay, like and John says, no, Jesus is not two separate people.

Uh Christian theology later uses the phrase of what's called hypostatic union.

It's it's Jesus as one person, two natures, fully God, fully human.

And so then there was this other danger and dangerous consequence of some of these Gnostic teachings, that the separation of the human reality, existence, of spiritual and physical.

Like they could claim that the physical world doesn't really matter.

And so here's the thought if my body doesn't really matter, only my spirit matters, then what I do with my body, well, it doesn't really matter at all.

And that leads to what's called theologians called the anti-nomanism.

And this is the idea that moral obedience becomes unnecessary.

Right?

In other words, I can claim to know God spiritually while living however I want physically.

And if you've read 1 John before, you can probably uh already see where John is going, right?

Because John he repeatedly says things like this if you if we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie.

If we know him but don't keep his commandments, we lie.

If we say we love God but hate our brother, we lie, right?

See what John's doing here?

It's really fascinating.

He's confronting the separation between like what I claim to believe and how I actually live.

But John says those things they can't be separated.

What you believe about Jesus, well, it it matters.

It matters.

And if you truly know Jesus, eventually that knowledge should bring begin changing the way that we live.

And so John, he is writing from this particular uh moment for this particular group of churches in in a historical time.

Those who are facing particular false teachings that were leading people away from the truth.

But which brings us back to that initial question.

Was first John originally written for us?

Um, or I'm sorry, to us?

Uh not necessarily, right?

We we don't, I don't think we have like a huge Gnostic uprising in Mount Olive at this time.

It could be, right?

I'm not aware of it, but but was First John written for commonplace church?

Absolutely, right?

Because while the names of false teachings they might change, the human tendency behind them uh really hasn't, right?

We still have people claiming Jesus while just redefining who he is.

We still have voices offering things like even secret truth, right?

We have voices who offer things like the benefits of Jesus without his authority in our lives.

We have voices that uh offer spirituality that never confronts our our more our morality, right?

Just just labels that that these labels they might change, but the question it remains like, well, who actually is Jesus?

Who who is who is Jesus?

And that's why this ancient letter, why it makes sense, why it matters.

Because John is gonna offer firsthand knowledge of Christ.

Now, once again, was this originally written to us?

No, but uh it was absolutely preserved for us, which is I love this.

This is the beauty of the inspired scriptures, of the word of God, because it can speak into an actual like moment in history, but its truth transcends that moment.

It's what what the writer Hebrews tells us that as culture changes, as as false teachings kind of get to the names, God's God's truth remains.

The Hebrew says, for God is living, for the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword.

So written then, right?

But it's still speaking now.

That's amazing.

Now, um, why have I taken the time to give us these intro understandings?

Because here's here's what we have when we study scripture, okay?

It's it's context is the key to content, okay?

Context is the key to content.

And so we've established the who, we've established the who.

It's John, right into the church.

Now, let's get to the let's get to the what here, okay?

What is John inviting us into?

Well, for those of us who are sitting in this room today, what what is it?

What is he inviting us to understand?

What is he inviting us to experience?

And and I think the first invitation John gives us is this it's to receive.

Receive the word of life.

That's verses one one through four.

It's just the simple invitation, right?

That's John.

Receive life.

Receive life.

Right?

Because remember what he just established.

John is clarifying the truth of the person of Jesus, that true life.

And so, of course, before we ask what that means to us, right?

Once again, let's let's dive a little more into what it meant for them.

John is confronting this false teaching that's questioning the humanity, the physical humanity of Jesus.

Look at this language again that John deliberately uses.

He says, We have heard, we have seen with our eyes, we have looked upon.

And then maybe the most like physical description of all in this passage is we've touched with our hands.

Now, John isn't being like poetic here, right?

He's being intentional.

He's going against any teaching that Jesus has only just appeared to be human.

John says, No, I was there.

Not only did I hear him, not only did I see him, not only did I look at him, but I touched him, right?

Jesus wasn't a hologram.

Jesus wasn't some sort of spiritual like apparition.

Like God, God actually entered into humanity, which of course is one of the most incredible truths of the Christian faith.

The incarnation.

The fact that the Son of God took on human flesh.

It's the same truth John actually emphasizes in his opening of his gospel, and it says, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory.

The moment the word became flesh.

I don't want us to like move too quickly past that because here's what we see in this moment.

The creator, the creator of the universe, he enters into his creation.

The eternal enters into time.

The God who created flesh took on flesh.

And I think there's something incredible that we can take away from that reality because the incarnation says something profound.

It's profound of this, the sanctity, the dignity, the worth and the value of human life.

The things that we often just overlook by doing things like this, by dehumanizing others, by objectifying others, or just completely dismissing the well-being of another human.

But the value we see in the incarnation and incarnate Christ reminds us this that human beings bear the image of God, and then God does something almost unimaginable.

God chooses to bear the image of humanity.

Think about that reality.

God, as creator, has every right to enter his creation however he desires.

And throughout human history, we see different worldviews and religions that have located divine in things like places like nature, like animals, right?

Or just the universe, but the Christian claim is so powerful, so radically different.

It's because it's radically personal.

That God came near, that God entered into our existence.

God took on flesh.

God experienced life within the human condition.

And I think it's just so important for us because it means that the one offering us life here, where John's saying receive this life, it's not distance from the one who actually experienced actually living that life.

The one who offers us life is the one who created life and also the one who entered into life.

And this is where I started thinking about something very uh very current for us where we find ourselves in humanity.

It's this reality that for many of us, even here or just outside the church, we we currently, where we currently go to try to receive life, okay?

Right now, we live in a very unique moment.

Increasingly, we want to receive answers about life.

When we want information, we want advice and understanding, right?

Direction, we we overwhelmingly turn to something right that that's outside of experiencing the human life, what we call artificial intelligence, right?

AI.

And now listen, I'm not like this old guy on my lawn on the lawn saying, like, you kids in your AI.

I'm not going there, right?

I've I have plenty of uh interactions with Chatty G and helps like what gets me in some, you know, and Alexa, I've been really kind because one day when she takes over, she's gonna remember me.

Um, but I'm not anti-technology, but I do find the terminology interesting here, artificial intelligence.

Like artificial.

That means by design, right?

By definition, it isn't an authentic thing.

And sure, something like AI can produce like an enormous amount of information about humanity, it can describe grief, it can describe suffering, relationships, anxiety, love, parenting, marriage, and loss, but it can't say I lived it.

It can't say it.

And I wonder if there's something really important for us to recognize here because John, he's pointing us towards something completely different in who Jesus is.

Right?

Jesus doesn't merely possess information about humanity, Jesus enters into humanity.

He didn't just observe human existence from a distance, he lived it, he inhabited it, he knows it.

And so when Jesus says something like this in John 10, he says, I have come that you may have life and have it abundantly.

He's not just like offering a theoretical like description of human flourishing.

He's the creator of human life, who's entered into human life and now tells us what human life was actually created to be.

Paul describes Jesus in this way in Colossians when he says, He is the image of the invisible God, firstborn of all creation, for by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible.

All things were created through him and for him.

He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

And Paul says, For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.

We have to see the magnitude of this.

This the one who made you became like you.

That means Jesus knew, Jesus knew hunger, Jesus knew exhaustion, he knew friendship, he knew betrayal, he knew rejection, he knew grief, pain, tears.

He knew what it was to be misunderstood, to lose someone he loved.

Yet he never sinned, but he experienced the suffering that sin unleashed upon creation.

That's why the writer of Hebrews can say something like this: for we do not have a high priest who's unable to sympathize with our weakness, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are yet without sin.

And I love this word sympathize here, okay?

Because Jesus doesn't look at your pain and say, like, based upon information available to me, I believe I understand what you're experiencing.

No, he knows.

When your heart breaks, when your body hurts, when someone betrays you, or even when our obedience becomes costly, right, he knows.

Especially that last part.

Look at Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, right?

He he knows what's coming.

And he knows what obedience is going to cost.

He knows the cross is before him.

And what do we see?

We do, we see anguish, we see agony, his body is like physically responding to the weight of this, of what he's about to endure.

And he says, Father, if you're willing, remove this cup.

But but Jesus in that moment, he's not like performing humanity, he's experiencing it.

And so when Jesus offers life, right, as John speaks of, here's what we need to be reminded of.

He's not offering life from a distance.

He's not giving us some abstract theory about what life might be like.

No, the one offering us life is the one who created life, who entered into it, who experienced, who surrendered his own life, who conquered death to give us an offering of eternal life.

And that's John's message.

Remember, remember how he describes Jesus, right?

He says the word of life.

John, the disciple Jesus loves saying this.

Hey, church, understand how personal this God truly is.

That he came near, that he took on flesh, that he entered our brokenness, he carried our sin.

He endured death.

And now he extends this invitation.

Come and receive life.

Receive life.

Not merely an existence and information or religious activity, right?

But life reconciled to the creator, lived in fellowship with the creator.

And John is about to show us what that life looks like.

Because life with God isn't simply like just something we we just claim to possess, something we actually learn to walk in.

John has this phrase that says, walking in the light.

Verses 5 through 7.

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

And then it goes pretty personal here.

He says, if we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie.

We 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 cleanses us from all sin.

So there's there's the movement.

John has moved from just the word of life to now the walk of life.

Because the invitation of Jesus isn't merely just receive life and stay there.

It's also now walk in that life.

John's language says, walk in the light.

It's so interesting throughout John's gospel and letters.

He usually he repeats this phrase of light, right?

And this image of Christ.

And it's not just like some nickname that John's been giving Jesus, right?

This is what Jesus himself declares.

He says, I am the light of the world.

Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.

Here's what's so interesting is that that language echoes Old Testament just purposes, right?

We think about the Pillar of Fire in Exodus.

You think about Isaiah's promise that people walking into darkness will receive great light, right?

This this language of light, it does something so powerful.

It shines truth on the claim of even what the Gnostics were saying of just walking in simply just enlightenment.

There's a difference, right?

John is speaking into those who are claiming this special enlightenment, right, through the secret knowledge.

And he's saying, hey, God is light.

Jesus, he is the light offered to this world.

And because of that, right, well, he shines even what's broken, even what's dark.

And one thought I had is why this terminology of light?

Well, light breeds life even from the beginning.

Let's think real quick about the conception of life.

Not your own experience of conception, that's awkward, but of God's creation.

This whole thing, how it begins.

Look at Genesis.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and earth.

The earth was without form and void.

Darkness was over the face of the deep.

Spirit of God was hovering over the face of waters.

God said, Let there be light.

And there was light.

God saw the light was good.

And God separated the light from darkness.

So in the beginning, darkness is covered, right?

Covered the deep.

And with one word, God brought light, right?

And light was declared good.

And light was illuminated by the word of God, the same word who became flesh and dwelt among us.

And so light and life are connected ultimately through Jesus, the author of both.

And so listen, secret knowledge may possess the promise like a status or power, but true light does something so different.

It illuminates, it reveals, it exposes.

It exposes what's dark.

What is opposition to the light?

Well, it's sin, it's death.

And so Jesus does this.

He shows us what actually brings life.

And then what he enlightens, what brings destruction.

He reveals righteousness and sin, right?

Holiness and harm.

And here's the challenge from John.

Like once again, direct opposition from the Gnostics here, right?

I believe it's the belief that their behavior in the physical is separate from the devotion to what is spiritual, okay?

It's that separation of body and spirit.

And it suggests that physical behavior didn't matter.

And John exposes how false and confusing that is.

We confuse ourselves, we damage our witness, and we live dishonestly.

John says plainly, he's like claiming fellowship with God while walking in darkness makes us liars.

Basically, knowledge alone doesn't prove fellowship with God.

Especially when something like pride blinds us from our sin.

And so for us, what does John want to reveal to us here this morning?

Well, I think for us as disciples of Jesus, to claim fellowship with God, we have to, we have to wonder how our own, maybe even spiritual pride, might be blinding us from seeing the beauty of the light.

How instead of maybe bringing our sin to light, we we we tend to want to just deny it or we try to hide it.

And yes, we may not claim some sort of Gnostic identity here, but we might practice the spirit, the same practice of compartmentalizing, right?

Compartmentalization.

Pride can can make our knowledge, our effort, and spiritual experience feel like that's the basis for fellowship with God and dismiss anything with our actions or our sinfulness.

It can keep us from being honest about sin.

It can make us eager to just only point out the speck in someone else's eye while ignoring the huge log on our own.

And yet Jesus, he isn't calling out the reality of sin just to leave it there, or John started to leave it there to bring it to guilt or shame, because this is John's final invitation.

It's this step into the light.

Here's what he says Jesus tells us to walk in the light, right?

Allow his holiness, allow righteousness to expose whatever is dark.

The sin that wants to kill, that wants to steal, wants to destroy, right?

Because sin doesn't just stay neatly compartmentalized, it reaches into our relationships, it affects our physical, emotional, mental, spiritual lives.

It wants to destroy what God created.

But but here's the joy that John wants to share: it's the blood of Jesus is so efficient and effective and sufficient that brings us into the fellowship into the light.

It's the blood of Jesus that also does this and maintains that fellowship that keeps us in the light.

It's Christ's atoning work.

It's the work of the one who took on flesh, who understands the human experience and also took him upon himself.

He took sin's curse, he paid the penalty of sin.

The innocent accepted the death, the death sentence of the guilty.

Look at 2 Corinthians says, For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might be the righteousness of God.

And why would he do this?

Well, it's so that those who were created in love could return to this true offering of life.

It's the beauty of the gospel, it's this good news.

But here's the thing before we can see the good, we have to be honest and understand the brutality of the bad of sin.

We have to be humble to admit that every one of us is born into the sinful existence.

We're all guilty of sin.

That's what John is inviting us all into, right?

The church then, the church now is just to be honest about our condition.

It's the openness that doesn't pretend we exist without sin, or the transpirity that doesn't try to like just hide our sin in darkness, try to cover it up, dismiss or deny.

But here's what it what John invites us to do: to allow the light of the righteousness of Christ, the holiness of Christ to expose it.

And John closes his letter by presenting this incredible invitation.

It's an invitation to be open and honest about sin.

Right?

Those who deny their sin, he says, make God a liar.

Because God is all-knowing.

Right?

We can't hide, we can't dismiss, we can't pretend our away our condition.

And pride can't can't exempt us from saying, it can try to exempt us by saying, like, oh, I'm a good person, right?

But here's the thing, sins, sin's curse has touched every part of creation, including each one of us.

But John's invitation is to be honest about your sin.

And it's not for you just to live in guilt or shame.

It's an invitation to then receive new life, to receive cleansing.

Because that's what what the idea of confession, repentance ultimately offers.

It says if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins, to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

You see, John, he knew the character of Jesus, right?

The one who came to seek and save the lost.

This healer who receives those who are honest enough about that they are sick.

And it's through Christ's blood, though.

God faithfully forgives.

He cleanses us from the sin stain that the sin that stay the stain that sin produces.

And so I just want to close with just an honest offering for us and an invitation.

This verse here, first John, uh, to confess our sins, he's faithful to us.

That's become my life verse, okay?

And why is because I know this side of heaven, I can't fully escape sin's presence in my life.

Now, yes, the God is sanctifying me, the Spirit sanctifying me, and and and I in that process I sin less, right?

But but the reality is I'm not fully sinless.

And so, sin for me, here's what it does: it tends to lead me to shame, it tends to lead me to hide from God, from others, and wants to cover in the darkness.

But then God brings this verse to my mind God, that he desires to forgive me, to forgive us.

Not only his desire, but he is faithful to do so.

That he alone, God alone, has the authority and justice to forgive.

And here's the thing about God He's not this one and done forgiver, right, who's whose mercy must be saved for our biggest failure.

He is faithful, he is just to forgive all our sin, to cleanse us.

Because of the blood of Jesus, here's what happens.

I can then re I can confess, I can repent, I can turn from sin through the power of the Spirit, and I can be made new again.

I I think I I've used this car wash analogy uh before, but um it's that like before you know, you before you bring that car in and that post-washing, right?

How you bring it in might be a little dirty, a little messy, and then comes out those shiny, clean.

Even my son's car, okay, which is called the chum bucket.

Circa Honda Hyundai 20 2006, okay?

Like it's it's not new, it's a little bit beat up.

It's been through it, right?

But I remember like even him taking it through the car wash, and even that beater coming out looking clean, right?

And and and I I think I consider myself probably the chumbucket of humans.

All right, maybe some of you guys feel that way.

You've been through it, beat up, sin stained.

But this verse reminds us, reminds me, I'm invited to find cleansing.

I'm invited to receive healing, I'm invited towards forgiveness, I'm invited to remain in fellowship with Christ by the blood of Jesus, which washes, washes away all of my sin.

All the sin of those who are willing to receive that atoning work.

And so that's the invitation.

If you've never taken that step to receive that, that cleansing, that healing, that forgiveness, the life that Jesus offers to receive what Christ has done for you, uh let today be that day.

Take that step.

Maybe you showed up feeling like a chum bucket like me, right?

Beat up by your sin, whatever it is, maybe feeling convicted even by pride, right?

Take the invitation of this confessing, of repenting, and then of course receiving.

That's the gospel.

That's the offering of life.

It's this offering to live in the fellowship of light, living from this reminder that Jesus truly is the light of this world.

So I'm gonna I'm gonna invite um our worship team up and I want to pray for us, and I want to offer an invitation.

Would you join me in prayer?

God, thank you for your word that um that is living, that is active, Lord, that yes, given to a certain group at a certain time, but also transcending to us today, Lord.

Just a beautiful reminder, Lord, that um you alone, Jesus, you alone our life, you alone, Jesus, our abundant life, you alone, Jesus, offer eternal life.

Jesus, you alone invite us, Lord, as fallen, broken, just sinful, sin-stained creation, God, you invite us into finding healing, into finding wholeness.

You invite us back into the relationship, Lord, that sin tried to tried to keep us from, Lord.

The idea of being reconciled to you, Lord.

And it's through what Jesus has done, it's through Christ, we're in Christ alone, and he cleanses us up.

And I pray this morning, Lord, for anyone who's just tired of maybe running, tired of trying to, of hiding, trying to just trying to clean themselves up, Lord, to do all the things.

And Lord, you invite, you invite us to the cleansing, Lord.

You it's your blood that washes us clean.

So I just pray this morning, God, for anyone taking that, feeling that, Lord, just to take that step, Lord, to receive life, Lord, to recognize that, yes, Lord, just like each one of us here, we all fall short.

Your glory, we all are guilty of sin, and yet that's not the end of the story.

And Lord, we can confess, and you are faithful and just to cleanse us from all of our unrighteousness.

That's the power of the blood, it's the power of Christ.

Thank you for taking on flesh, Lord, for entering into just the experience of humanity and yet conquering it, Lord.

And so we we just praise you, God.

I pray that, Lord, as we we just sit in that reality, God, we would respond through just devotion and worship and just joy.

God, would you bring us joy this morning?

It's a it's a it's just a bleak day, Lord, but that doesn't mean we can't find joy.

Doesn't mean, God, in our hearts, you you can't bring us just this peace and just an excitement, Lord, because of the gospel.

Lord, I just pray we're we just are able to be charged up from your gospel, Lord.

Not even just for today, but for the for the week, Lord, that you have called us to go out.

Lord, just remind us that you're present with us in all of it.

We love you in Jesus' name.

Amen.