"1 John" Tagged Sermons
A Prayer for Restoration
We are rightfully wary of any theology that turns God into a wish granting genie who exists just to please us… but we cannot let this scepticism hide the reality that God guarantees to hear and answer our prayers. In fact we can have every confidence that whatever we ask for according to His will is ours. This morning Pastor Joe looks at what it means to pray in God’s will and what God longs for us to do with…
Trustworthy Witnesses
Right throughout this letter we have seen that John has been prosecuting a case against the false teachers who were trying to win the hearts and minds of the people away from Jesus. Well as we come to the final chapter of the letter John is mounting his closing argument and he calls three witnesses for us to hear… witnesses who will radically confirm the most wonderful truth ever known.
Two Ways to Love
Whether it is love songs, love stories or the classic Disney Princess movies we are very familiar with what the world thinks of love. Unfortunately love in the world rarely works out the way that the songs and movies seem to suggest that it will. When John speaks of love he speaks of something far more satisfying and powerful than any image that Hollywood can conjure up… He speaks of a love that empowered by Jesus Christ through His gospel;…
The Voice of Truth
In life there are so many voices that all promise to give us something true. Even when it comes to church and our faith there are many different people who preach many different ideas about Jesus and salvation. In John’s day there were numerous false teachers who were vying for the hearts and minds of the church so in this passage he outlines how they can be sure that a message is true. Pastor Joe looks at John’s test and…
Gospel Empowered Love
As we continue in John’s letter to the churches we have to remember that he is writing to people who are plagued by false teachers who were trying to capture their hearts and minds. John has been constantly calling for the people to see the flaws in these teachers and see the hope and assurance in the gospel of Jesus. Today he unpacks how the gospel changes our relationships with one another and how the love that it empowers can…
Taking the Gospel for Granted
Familiarity breeds contempt… or so they say. Basically the longer you have something or someone in your life, the easier it is to take them for granted. As John writes to the churches who are probably a few generations old now, he desperately wants them to recognise that it is very easy to take Jesus for granted… to get bored of Jesus and chase after something else. So John takes a moment to remind the people just how powerful the…
The Gospel and Obedience
I am just going to say it, most of us don’t like being told to obey. It cuts against our preconceived idea that we know what is best for ourselves. In many ways it is one of the big reasons that people steer clear of Christianity, because they feel like they will be forced to obey rules and regulations rather than determine their own direction. So when John calls for radical obedience as evidence for our faith it could reinforce…
God is Light
When we are convicted of our sin it can often feel painful… this is mainly because our sin is pretty much always driven by our pride and so when we get ourselves into trouble it is a slap in the face to our pride as we realise we are not as good as we thought we were. As John continues to unpack the implications of the gospel we are going to wrestle with how we should deal with this conviction.
The Real Jesus
Late in the first century it was likely that John was the last remaining Apostle… the last eye-witness to the ministry of Jesus. So when teaching began to rise in the churches that called into question the message of the gospel that John and the other Apostles had proclaimed he responded by writing a letter. This letter still stands as one of the most confident and passionate cases for the certainty of Jesus Christ and the salvation we can have in…