Slideshow image

1 John 2:1-6

Intro

We are looking at the first letter of John together. This is our 3rd week and we are starting chapter 2. John was an apostle, he was one of Jesus disciples and one of his closet friends. In fact, John was one of only three of his disciples who went up with Jesus on a mountain and saw him completely transfigured (Matthew 17:1–8). As you can imagine, he was a very close friend of Jesus.

During the time John wrote this letter, he was involved in the church at Ephesus. He was probably the only remaining person at the church who had seen Jesus face to face. He writes that he looked upon him, he saw him, he touched him and he heard him (1 John 1:1).

At the end of the 1st century, John wrote this letter in order to encourage them to stick with “true doctrine, obedient living and fervent devotion” (ESV Study Bible, Introduction to 1 John).

[1] 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. [2] He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. [3] And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. [4] Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, [5] but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: [6] whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.

In this text, I see three things:

  1. We can know God
  2. We can know that we know God
  3. It’s only through Jesus that we can truly know God

1. We can know him

It is clear through this text that knowing God is not only possible, but expected of us as Christians. As a matter of fact, the only way I can call myself a Christian is if we know God. Being a Christian is not about a religion; it’s about knowing and having a relationship with God.

One of the modern day experts on the topic of knowing God was the Canadian J.I. Packer. Packer wrote a book that I’m sure many of us have read entitled “Knowing God.” Packer writes this:

Not many of us, I think, would ever naturally say that we have known God. The words imply a definiteness and matter-of-factness of experience to which most of us, if we are honest, have to admit that we are still strangers. We claim, perhaps, to have a testimony, and can rattle off our conversion story with the best of them; we say that we know God— this, after all, is what evangelicals are expected to say; but would it occur to us to say, without hesitation, and with reference to particular events in our personal history, that we have known God? I doubt it, for I suspect that with most of us experience of God has never become so vivid as that. - J.I. Packer, Knowing God

How would you answer this question: do you know God? Have you known him?

I can relate to what Packer says: there are days when I’m not sure. On those days, it’s much easier to say that I know about God rather than knowing God and being known by God.

All of the religions in the world contain some kind of deity or higher power that you can know about. But only Christianity says, “here’s a God you can know personally.”

Christianity is a relationship and relationships exist when two or more people know each other. Throughout history, God knew his people and his people knew him.

  • God walked with Adam and Eve in the garden; he knew them and they knew him.
  • God called Abraham and entered into a covenant relationship with him. Abraham knew God.
  • God called Moses. Moses frequently talked with God; he knew him, he was known by God.
  • The psalms are filled with “relationship” language:
    • Psalm 9:10 - “And those who know your name put their trust in you, for you, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek you.”
    • Psalm 36:10 - “Oh, continue your steadfast love to those who know you, and your righteousness to the upright of heart!”
    • Psalm 139:23 - “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts!”

In the NT, things take a dramatic turn as God himself came down to earth so many would know him. The commoners—the fishermen, the tax collectors, the farmers—were all able to know God through the person of Jesus Christ. God came and wiped away our sin by putting it on Jesus all in an effort for us to know him. And in chapter 1, John says that I knew this man, Jesus: I touched him, I looked upon him, I saw him and I heard him. I knew Jesus, and the same relationship that John had with him, he wants us to have as well.

So what does it look like to know God?

Like any other practice or spiritual discipline, if we want to know how we ought to act or behave, we need to look to our master, Jesus. We’re his disciples, and as disciples, we need to study every aspect of the life of Jesus. (1 John 2:6 “…ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.”)

When Jesus walked this earth, he said some very interesting, crazy and perhaps blasphemous things. One day while addressing a confused crowd wondering who this Jesus was and where he came from, Jesus said this in John 7:29: “I know him (the Father), for I come from him, and he sent me.” And then a little later while they were still confused, Jesus said “You know neither me nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also.” (John 8:19) So somehow, understanding and knowing Jesus is the key to knowing the Father.

What were some of the characteristics that Jesus displayed that modelled what a relationship with the Father looks like?

As we look at the life of Jesus, one thing is for certain: Jesus was constantly in prayer with his Father in Heaven. He often withdrew to quiet places to spend extended time in prayer. Here are a few examples:

  1. Before Jesus chose his 12 disciples, he spent all night in prayer: “In these days he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God. And when day came, he called his disciples and chose from them twelve, whom he named apostles.” (Luke 6:12–13)
  2. The night that he walked on water, he was found to be alone, praying: “And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone.” (Matthew 14:23)
  3. After he had healed someone, instead of staying with the crowds, the bible says: “But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray.” (Luke 5:16)

These are just 3 examples, but there are many others:

  • He prayed in Gethsemane
  • He prayed at his transfiguration
  • He prayed for little children
  • He prayed for Peter
  • He prayed while on the cross

If there’s one thing we could take from looking at Jesus’ life and how he knew God, it’s his prayer life. We can know God and be known by God by spending time in prayer and studying his word. You pray anywhere: you can pray as you go for a walk, you can pray as you drive. You can pray as you’re in the kitchen preparing a meal and you can pray as you’re lying awake in bed at night. The only way we’re going to grow and mature as Christians is by consistently time in prayer and time in the word.

2. We can know that we know him

The second thing I see in this text is that, not only do we see that we can know God, is that we can know that we know God.

There are many things in life where it’s helpful to know that you know something.

Before you pour yourself a bowl of cereal, it’s good to know that you have milk in the fridge. Before we make muffins, we need to know how many eggs we have available. Before you take your car out for a drive, you look at the gas gauge so that you know that you will make it to your destination.

However, I don’t need to know that I know everything in life.

When I put food in my fridge, I’m just hoping and trusting that the fridge will work and keep my food cold. I’m not taking it apart and looking at all the electronics and checking the refrigerant levels. I’m just trusting.

But what if we’re talking about something that our future depended on? What if your eternal destiny depended on this? In this case, I need to know that I know. I need to be certain of my salvation. My life on earth is only a fraction of my existence. There are only two outcomes for my life after I die. If I knew Jesus in this life, I’m going to spend eternity with him in the next. But if I didn’t know Jesus in this life, I’ll be eternally lost and separated from him the next life. 

The big question today is: how do we know that we know God?

I’m married. How do I know I’m in a relationship with Natasha? Do I have to think back 21 years to remember the time we both stood at the altar and said “I do.” No. I simply need to look at the evidence of the past 21 years: we live as a married couple should live. We go on dates together, we’ve had 5 kids together, we’ve travelled the world together, we’ve moved many times together, we’ve purchased houses together. You could, I suppose, take any one those examples and argue that any couple, married or not, could do that. But if you look at the fruit of our last 21 years and compare it to what God says a marriage should look like in the bible, you’ll likely say, yes, they are married.

Or as another example, if I took a small twig from a tree and I gave it to you and I asked you to tell me which tree it came from, you probably wouldn’t know. But if I took a small branch with an apple on it and asked you what kind of tree it was, you’d say, it’s obvious, that’s from an apple tree.

The same is true for us as Christians. We know that we know God because we bear the fruit of the tree of a Christian. 

What is that fruit? How do we know that we know God? John answers this in verse 3:

1 John 2:3
[3] And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments.

And then he repeats himself 2 verses later:

1 John 2:5–6
[5] …By this we may know that we are in him: [6] whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.

We know that we know by keeping his commandments and walking in the way in which he walked.

One thing to note:

The moment we are saved, we’re different. The bible tells us that we become a new creation: the old has passed away and the new has come. God has put the holy spirit in us as a seal, as a guarantee. Our sins are forgiven. We are justified. We are made right with God. We are declared righteous. And as we live our day to day lives, God is sanctifying us; his holy spirit is working in our lives making us more like Jesus.

1 - I am declared righteous the moment I put my trust in Jesus
2 - I am becoming righteous as the Holy Spirit now works in my life, always pointing me to Jesus, always leading me as a shepherd leads his sheep
3 - There will be a day when the bride is ready and Jesus returns

John is focussing on the middle section -

  • how we grow
  • what does sanctification look like
  • how are we becoming more like Jesus every day
  • what is the Holy Spirit doing in my life that is causing me to fix my eyes continually on Jesus?
  • what steps am I taking in order to allow this to happen?
  • does my life look the same as it did 2 years ago?
  • does my life look the same as it did 2 months ago?

How do we know that we know?

By keeping Jesus’ commandments and walking in the way in which he walked.

That’s it! We just need to do what Jesus tells us to do, plain and simple. 

Remember the Francis Chan video I showed last June? In the video he says, “when I tell my daughter to go clean her room, I don’t want her to come down an hour later and tell me that she studied what I said, that she memorized the words ‘go clean your room.’ I don’t want her to say, ‘look, dad, I can say it in Greek.’ No, I just want her to be obedient to my word.” This is what John is saying.

Now just so I’m clear, we are not talking about a salvation decision that we may have made 5 years ago; we’re not talking about the moment you were declared righteous and made right in God’s eyes. We’re talking about this time of sanctification where God is making us more like Jesus — this time between our conversion and when Jesus returns. John says that if you’ve truly been sealed by the holy spirit, if you’ve truly been made right and declared righteous, then you will be someone who keeps God’s commands and walks in the way in which Jesus walked.

We don’t become a Christian by keeping God’s commands, it’s simply the fruit of being a Christian.

3. It’s only through Jesus that we can know God

It’s only through Jesus that we can know him.

And it’s only through obeying and keeping Jesus’ commands do we know that we know him.

But there’s one more thing.

Look at verses 1 and 2:

[1] 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. [2] He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

The life of a Christian is not without sin. Our lives ought to look like a continuous upward journey to that final moment when Christ returns. But our lives are not without failures and setbacks and sin. Sometimes life looks like 2 steps forward and 1 step backward. But we have an advocate in Jesus who stood where we stand, he walked where we walk, he was tempted in every way, just like us. We read this in Hebrews 4:14–16:

Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Brothers and sisters, Jesus is advocating on our behalf, he was the propitiation for our sins. God’s wrath was on him instead of us. Just knowing this should prompt us not to sin.  “I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.” We shouldn’t want to put any more sin on Jesus. But if we do, when we do, Jesus is advocating for us. The anger of God which is caused by my sin was averted and placed on Jesus.

Conclusion

Can you really and honestly say that you know God? Are you known by God?

J.I. Packer says that there are some evidences to this:

Those who know God have great energy for God.
Those who know God have great thoughts of God.
Those who know God show great boldness for God.
Those who know God have great contentment in God.

“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.”