John's Poem

Strong in the Lord
(1 John 2:13c-14, Preaching: Pastor Nathan Snyder, April 24, 2016)

I write to you, children, because you know the Father.  I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning.  I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.

In this letter John continually makes sharp contrasts between those who truly know Christ and those who do not.  There are those who have come into the light and those who remain in darkness.  The underlying premise from which John reasons is that “God is light and in him is no darkness at all” (1:5).  I know it is possible that a Christian who is discouraged by their own ongoing sinfulness could read some of John’s statements in this letter and despair, thinking “Clearly I remain in darkness and my faith in Christ is a sham.”  Yet John’s intent is not to tear down genuine believers and leave them hopeless.  Quite the contrary.  His purpose is to build us up.  At the end of the letter John explicitly states, “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life” (5:13).  John wants to make clear the marks of a true believer so that those that are believers would have a solid assurance that they are in fact children of God who possess eternal life in Christ.  Such assurance leads to greater power in the fight against sin, which is also a primary purpose in John’s writing this letter.  He says in 2:1, “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.”  Sin is the enemy of love, and John strongly urges throughout this letter that believers love one another, because God our Father is love and has first loved us.

If John’s intent is to assure believers of their salvation so that they will have greater power to grow in holiness and love, then the last thing he wants is for a struggling Christian to hear or read his letter and despair.  John does want to disturb those trying to live with one foot in the light and one foot in the darkness.  But his main purpose is to strengthen believers in faith, hope, and love.  It is to this end that he writes the poem we see in 2:12-14.  John, with a pastor’s heart, expresses to his readers the motivation behind his letter.  His motivation is the glorious reality of what he knows to be true of his readers because they are in Christ by faith.  John’s poetic address to his readers comes in a pair of three parallel statements.  We have looked at the first set of three statements in detail over the past three Sundays.  Today we conclude our study of John’s poem by meditating on the second set of three statements.

Throughout these verses John addresses his readers with terms of affection and respect: children, fathers, and young men.  Pastor Steve has already talked in more detail about how we might interpret these three terms and why John directs certain statements to each group within the church.  I want to focus today on what I see as being in common between the reasons John gives to each group for why he is writing to them.  Each time, John says that he writes because… and then he states something that is already true for believers.  He never says he is writing so that these things might become true, but because they already are true.  Children, you know the Father.  Fathers, you know him who is from the beginning, referring to God’s Son (cf. 1:1-2).  Young men, you are strong, the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.  John knows these are true facts for believers and he writes because he wants Christians to have confidence that these things are true and as a result strive in that gospel confidence for greater obedience to God and love for each other.

At this point I should defend my statement that what John says to each group here is something that is true for all believers.  This is obviously true of what he says to children and fathers.  All true believers know the Father and the Son.  Yet is it also true of what he says to young men?  Are all believers strong?  Does the word of God abide in all believers?  Have all believers overcome the evil one?  Clearly Christians possess varying levels of strength when it comes to spiritual warfare and battling temptation.  Yet all believers have overcome the evil one in that they have come out of his kingdom and into the kingdom of Christ.  We may give into Satan’s temptations at times.  We may foolishly believe his lies and accusations at times.  Yet we no longer belong to him.  We still battle the devil, but our final victory is secured because in the most fundamental sense we have already overcome him.  And this is not in our own strength.  We have overcome through Christ who defeated Satan by his death and resurrection.  Thus John writes in 4:4, “Little children, you are from God and have overcome them [referring to the antichrist spirits behind false prophets], for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.”  And in 5:18-19, “We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him.”  It is because we have overcome the evil one in Christ that we will finally win in our struggle with the temptations of the world.  John says in 5:4-5, “For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world.  And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.  Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?”  Are you an embattled Christian?  Do you wonder whether you will have victory?  If you are in Christ, then the battle’s final outcome is secured because Jesus has already defeated the evil one.  You have therefore overcome him through your union with Christ.  We battle sin and temptation therefore from the position of victory, not from a position of defeat.

Now what does John mean when he says, “the word of God abides in you”?  By the word of God I believe he is specifically referring to the gospel of Jesus Christ, which is the message the apostles had preached, and Christians had received and believed (cf. 2:23-27 where John contrasts the truth which had been proclaimed about Christ with the lies of false teachers).  John likes to use the word “abide” and I take this to refer to the truth of the gospel taking up residence in one’s heart.  The truth about Jesus has become a wellspring of life inside a person as they live by faith in that word.  Again, this is true of every genuine child of God.  John wrote in part because false teachers were spreading false ideas about Jesus.  As a result of false teaching, some had even left the church (2:19).  John writes to those that remained because they were sticking with the truth.  He sees this as evidence of the genuineness of their relationship to Christ and he is urging them to continue in the truth.

So when John says to “young men” that the word of God abides in them and they have overcome the evil one, he is stating truths about them that really apply to all believers, just as all believers know the Father and the Son.  By extension, I think John’s statement that young men are “strong” is something that he could have said to all believers.  Why?  Because as weak as a Christian might be in many ways, every Christian’s real source of strength is not in themselves anyway but in Jesus.  Our strength is in the Lord and the strength of his might.  Greater is he who is in us than he who is in the world.  John is writing to believers new and old, and he is writing to encourage us to press on his holiness and love with the confidence that we know the Father, that we know Jesus, that the word about Jesus has taken up residence in us, and that through Jesus we are strong and have overcome the evil one.  Do we battle sin?  Yes.  Do we battle weakness?  Yes.  Are we at war with the world, the flesh, and the devil?  Yes.  But the victory is already secured in Christ and thus we fight from a position of strength, not weakness.  O, our flesh is weak.  It always wants to pull us in the direction of sin and unbelief.  But if we are looking to Christ in faith, then we must not give in to discouragement, but press on in the Lord’s strength.

In pointing out that the truths John declares in this poem apply to all believers, I wouldn’t want to miss the fact that John has reason for saying specific things to “children”, to “fathers”, and to “young men”.  New believers, you need to know that you have come into God’s family now.  You know God as your Father and you are his beloved child.  Whatever life you have lived, that is who you are now.  Fathers and mothers in the faith, never forget that your maturity comes from your knowledge of Christ who is from the beginning.  Never try to grow beyond him, and always point younger believers to Christ.  He is your hope and he is theirs.  Young men and women in the faith, you need to know that you possess strength and victory in Christ through his abiding word.  So press on in in faith and ministry despite whatever obstacles you face.  All of us can press forward with hope of assured victory because we have already come to have God as our Father and Christ his Son has already won the decisive victory on our behalf.

I write to you, "young" men...

Overcoming Evil

(1 John 2:13b, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, April 17, 2016)

I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one.

Young men

The apostle John wrote to the churches so that they might be aided in their battle against sin. Over the last two weeks we have been considering a brief poetic section of 1 John where John distinguishes between “little children,” “fathers,” and now today “young men.” There is something to be said for applying all that he writes in these verses to everyone in the church. We have taken a different approach, using the words “little children” to refer to new believers, and the term “fathers” to address more mature leaders in the church. As we come to the final of these three labels, “young men,” it is our privilege to look at what the Bible says about this very important segment of the Lord's kingdom, and to make some applications for those who are in the thick of spiritual battle—those who have been given the strength from God to bear the burdens that the Lord has given us in His holy tabernacle.

I choose those two examples of young men, soldiers and tabernacle workers, because lower and sometimes upper age limits were commanded by the Lord when numbering those who were warriors and Levitical servants in ancient Israel. In Numbers 1 we encounter the expression “from twenty years old and upward” when describing those who were “able to go to war.” In the numbering of Levites who had specific tasks that supported divine worship, the ages were originally “from thirty years old up to fifty years old.” In the days of David this was changed to the same ages spoken of regarding warfare, “from twenty years old and upward.” In determining the value of people who were to be bought back out of bondage, age was relevant in assessing the price of a person according to the Law of Moses. One of the groups listed was males from twenty to sixty years of age—worth fifty shekels of silver (Leviticus 27:3). Caleb, a faithful contemporary of Joshua, was in his eighties at the time when Israel's young men were called to serve for the Lord in taking the Promised Land. He insisted that he was just as good as ever for the task (Joshua 14:10). He did not give up. May his tribe increase. But where would Israel have been without the energy of youth? Older men eventually reach the end of their days one way or another. Younger men need to take their places.

Still, when we think of specific young men in the Scriptures, they may not fit into our current categories as being young at all. We have already mentioned Caleb. His fellow soldier, Joshua, served Moses from his youth (Numbers 11:28). He died when he was 110. He was probably 20 years old when Moses sent him and others into Canaan in order to spy out the land, and about 60 when he led Israel into Jericho, meeting the true Commander of the Lord's army in Joshua 5:13-15. Samuel was just a little child when He began to serve the Lord. The young men who were sons of Eli were abusing their positions as priests of the Almighty (1 Samuel 2:22-25). They had the right age for their jobs, but lacked the requisite character.

The general category of young men in biblical history refers overwhelmingly to soldiers. Proverbs 20:29 tells us that “the glory of young men is their strength.” Prophets like Joel spoke of a coming day when a great host of unnamed young men would be spiritually gifted along with so many young women. Amos also prophesied regarding the day when God would raise up young men to be His special holy servants.

Today, many young men seem to be having a hard time finding their way in life. We need them very badly. Young women need them too. Perhaps they, and all of us young and old, need to hear a good word from 1 John 2, where the apostle writes with confidence about not only their future prospects, but also about their current status as winners—overcomers.

You have overcome

You might think, “That was then. This is now. Our world is a mess.” True, but there were plenty of troubles with first century society as well. It is not as if every young man that Jesus encountered in His earthly ministry was entirely clear-thinking and acting as he needed to. The rich young ruler in Matthew 19 is described using the same word that is translated “young men” in our text. That fellow went away sorrowful and defeated when Jesus challenged him to make a spiritually mature decision against the idolatry of wealth and for the surpassing greatness of following the Son of God. In Mark 14, the author, John Mark, describes a young man who ran away at the crucifixion of Christ, probably himself as a youth. That same John Mark caused so much trouble for Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey that they had quite a rift when Paul insisted that he not be allowed to be a part of the team for the second journey (Acts 15:36-41). Paul later changed his mind about Mark's usefulness (2 Timothy 4:11).

Where can young men and more seasoned men like Caleb find the strength and character that they need to serve? Our status as overcomers is not based on our own clear thinking and holy achievement. Jesus was a young man for us, and He won a great victory in His life and in His death. He was about 30 years old when He began His ministry (Luke 3:23).

Evil and the evil one

Since salvation belongs to the Lord (Psalm 3:8), and since Jesus came displaying power over death, even raising a young man from death (Luke 7:11-17), should we be surprised that we must come to Him for the help that we require? He is the only one who can defeat evil and the evil one (Colossians 2:15), but he enables us to crush Satan under our feet (Romans 16:20). Now we have been counted as more than conquerors through Him who loved us (Romans 8:37). All of our strength for spiritual victory comes from the Captain of our salvation. We face many spiritual foes, and we have a responsibility to fight the good fight, but our confidence is in Christ alone. How then can we fight evil and overcome?

First, are you fighting in the right battle? Are you just fighting for Me Inc. and wondering why it is so hard to recruit staff? Have you truly surrendered to Jesus in all that you do. Someone recently told me about some advice that he received from a Christian mentor that changed his life. He told him, “Faith is taking Jesus Christ at His word and staking your life on it!” Until you surrender like that, it is not clear that you are in the right battle.

Second, if you are in the right battle, are you fighting for the right side? You may imagine that victory for Jesus and you is a matter of being approved by others. Have you made the world your judge, so that you do what it takes to please nice people, even if means denying the Word. You may need to consider Romans 12:1-2 again and resolved that you not be conformed to this world. Make it your aim to please Him (2 Corinthians 5:9). See 2 Timothy 2:1-7.

Finally, will you fight boldly in the Lord? Find courage in Jesus. Be empowered like Caleb until the end. God will strengthen you right now. Pray to Him. Have faith. Serve with joy.

Old Testament Reading—Psalm 3 – Salvation belongs to the Lord

Gospel Reading—Luke 6:17-19 – The power of Jesus to heal

Knowing the Son of the Father

Fathers in the Faith

(1 John 2:13a, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, April 10, 2016)

I am writing to you, fathers, because you know Him who is from the beginning.

Fathers

In John 8 we read of an extended discourse between Jesus and His Pharisee enemies who wanted to kill Him. They were offended by the way that Jesus spoke of God as His father. Throughout this chapter the topic of who is the father of whom causes quite the violent controversy. Jesus insists that God is His father, and that they do not even know His father. He says that He has been sent by the Father, and that what He declares to Israel is precisely what He has heard from Him. He also tells them that the Father is with Him, and that He always does “the things that are pleasing to Him.”

While many believe what Jesus is saying, some do not. They take offense when He says, “If you abide in My Word, you are truly My disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” They then bring the conversation back to the matter of who is the father of whom. “Abraham is our Father.” Jesus insists that their malice toward Him, the true Son of the Father, is a sign that their real spiritual father is the devil, even though they are physical descendants of Abraham.

Throughout this tense interchange, the Pharisees are making not so subtle insinuations that Jesus is the son of an unknown father—that He is actually a Samaritan, the mixed race people to the north who were the descendants of various groups that were displaced by the Assyrians in previous centuries. They mean this as an insult. They assert, perhaps by contrast, “We were not born of sexual immorality.” Then they add this phrase, “We have one Father—even God.” Jesus insists that they are not the true children of the Father, and that He is the true Son of God.

Finally the conflict returns to Abraham. “Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.” They countered with this incredulous question: “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” That was all they could take. John ends his account of this episode with these words: “So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.”

Another day in the life of the Son of God who came to die for our sins—a day that was leading to the cross. When Jesus was naked before the world as a sin offering, it must have surely appeared that the Pharisees were right—He did not know the Father. Wasn't this what the crowd insists on in Matthew 27:43? “He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him. For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’”

Jesus had said that He was the Son of the Father. His detractors claimed that He was instead the illegitimate offspring, probably of the Samaritans. We are not left to guess as to the truth. On the third day He rose from the dead. His resurrection is a declaration by God concerning Jesus. As Paul writes in Romans 1:4, Jesus was “declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead.”

You know Him

In 1 John 2:13 John writes with confidence now to those in the church that he calls “fathers.” These more experienced men in the faith, these leaders among God's flock, are not like the Pharisees who slandered our Lord. They knew Him. They demonstrated their knowledge of God by their knowledge of His Son.

This knowledge is not merely an intellectual admission of a fact. Everyone knows that there is a God. In Romans 1:21 Paul writes about all humanity, “For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.” The knowledge of true fathers in the church is a love for Christ and for the Father. The best fathers in the church know and love the Savior.

He is from the beginning

This Savior, in His divine nature, is from the beginning, just as the Father and the Spirit are also from the very beginning. He is the eternal wisdom of God written of in Proverbs 8:30, who says of His relationship with the Father, “I was beside Him, like a master workman, and I was daily His delight, rejoicing before Him always.” In the account of creation from Genesis 1, He was the eternal Word who said, “Let there be light.” As John said in John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” As Paul wrote in Colossians 1:15-17, “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.”

We need good fathers in the faith. They help us to see what it is to know Him who is from the beginning. They do more than acknowledge Jesus as a man. They have come to believe His own testimony about Himself, that He truly is the Son of God. More than this—for even the demons knew this and shuddered—the best fathers in faith show forth fruit in their lives of knowing our risen Lord.

Fathers take there place in a long line of faithful men extending back to men like Abraham and Job. They testify to the Christian hope in the most desperate times. They follow the apostolic fathers of the church in being willing to give their lives for Jesus. They are not Jesus. They just know Him. And they live that faith out in love, even unto death.

Take a look at our church's Book of Church Order in BCO 8-3 for the duties of elders. They are pastors of the flock, guardians of worship and teaching, prayer warriors, missionaries, and evangelists. Best to mention a word about our failings before all of our leaders resign from a heightened sense of inadequacy. Like Abraham, Job, and the original hand-picked disciples, today's church fathers are sinners. Where do these men, these fathers, get their gifts and graces to undertake such weighty tasks? They know Him who is from the beginning.

They are like you, in that they do not exercise their calling perfectly. See BCO 57-5 question 4. The best sign that they are genuine shepherds of the flock that will not devour the sheep is a growing humility and gentleness in the face of their own failing, yielding a listening ear. What is their best hope for growth in usefulness? They know the one who did all things well, and they turn to Him. He gives more grace, and makes us less like accusing Pharisees and more like Him.

Old Testament Reading—Job 19:23-27 – Job as a father in the faith

Gospel Reading—Luke 6:12-16 – Apostles and an apostolic foundation for the church

Forgiveness: Not for sale

Forgiveness from God

(1 John 2:12, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, April 3, 2016)

I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for his name's sake.

Little children

It is good to be a little child with the Lord. In fact, Jesus says in Matthew 18:3 “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” And in the following verse, “Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”

Yet there is another sense in which a person who stays a child forever causes his parents great concern. We want to see the little ones thrive and grow. This is true physically, but it is also true spiritually. Paul says to the church in Ephesus that they are all to aspire “to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.” (Ephesians 4:13-14)

John has written an encouraging poem to his readers that we are going to consider over the next few weeks. While the terms “children,” “young men,” and “fathers” do not need to be taken literally—that is, John could be referring to the whole church—he did structure his thoughts using these three categories, so we are going to make the most of that and see what the Lord may have for us in making some distinctions based on this interesting reference to children.

Who are the “little children?” The quote from Ephesians 4:13-14 is helpful. The children are not necessarily identified by age. Someone might be 60 years old and yet be a little child in the Lord. That is not necessarily something to be ashamed of. Everyone who wants to be alive in the Lord needs to be born sometime. While we do not wish to encourage a prolonged spiritual babyhood for everyone in the church, we know that John is not critiquing his hearers in this poem. If he is making the distinction between three general categories here, he first addresses the ones who are new in Christ. He is writing to them with the confidence that they will hear and read his words, and that they will grow as a result of what they take in.

This is also what Peter writes about in 1 Peter 1:22-2:3 when he encourages the church to eagerly receive the Word of God that they might grow. “Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; for

'All flesh is like grass

and all its glory like the flower of grass.

The grass withers,

and the flower falls,

but the word of the Lord remains forever.'

And this word is the good news that was preached to you. So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation—if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.” So, again, John's point is affirming and constructive, rather than corrective in these verses. He is writing to the church, including the new believers and their families, because he knows that they will listen to and profit from his words.

Your sins are forgiven

In particular, he writes to them because their sins are forgiven. This is a most important matter, and something that every new believer should understand. First, there is sin in us, and second that these sins have been forgiven. As John has already written earlier, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

It may help us to know that the word John uses to convey the concept of “forgiven” in our verse this morning has to do with leaving. When Jesus called some of His disciples in Matthew 4:20, they “left” their nets and followed Him. Later in Matthew 26:56, all his disciples “left” Him and they fled.

It turns out that many people would like to know some way to have their guilt and sin leave them. In fact, throughout history, people have made lots of money selling the forgiveness of sins.

For His name's sake

Of course, John knew that you could never buy the forgiveness of sins. He says very clearly in this first line of his poem that sins are forgiven for Jesus' name's sake. Another verse with the word forgive might help here. It is a very familiar one from Matthew 6:12, “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.”

Considering sins as debts may help us to appreciate the absolute centrality of Christ in this entire matter of taking away our debt. If I am able to pay off my mortgage completely, the bank has no hold on my house. They cannot take it away. When it comes to sin, only one poor man from Galilee could actually pay the debt that I owed to God for my sin. He payed that debt in full with His righteousness and His blood. His Name reflects the strength of His heavenly gold when it comes to the matter of perfect obedience to God's law. No one else has even a cent of that tender.

If I tried to pay it off myself little by little, it would be like me making my first payment on a thirty year mortgage, and not even having enough money to cover that month's interest on the loan. My debt would only go up every month. But Jesus paid it all, and my debt left me.

Any pretense by the church that they can sell me forgiveness of sins is seriously misplaced. Even a baby Christian should know the truth about forgiveness. Yet for centuries very smart people were confused on this basic matter. But you don't have to be confused. The church has forgiveness of sins only through the name of Jesus. This is not something you can buy. If you try, you only add to your debt by insulting the Name of the Lord, claiming that you can buy with your own partial holiness what only comes to you as a gift of Jesus' perfect righteousness.

The message of the gospel is all about His Name rather than ours. The church has sent us out as His ambassadors. We are announcing forgiveness to you today based on the Name of Jesus. Our record of holiness is the same as that which we read about concerning the Old Covenant people in Nehemiah 9. Yes we are contrite, but contrition is not enough. Yes we confess our fault, but we cannot provide satisfaction to God for our sins through anyone's works but those of Jesus. That great wealth of spiritual blessing is not for sale. It is His gift to all who believe and receive.

Old Testament Reading—Nehemiah 9:26-31 – Generations of sin and divine mercy

Gospel Reading—Luke 6:6-11 – Jesus heals and His enemies are filled with fury