Our Doctrine, Jesus, and 1 John
1 John 1-4
The first reason we
worship Jesus, is because he said he was God.
·
Jesus
said he was God! John 10:30 (ESV) I and the Father are one.”
·
This
is very important, through the history of the world, very few people have ever
claim to be God.
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Buddha,
Confucius, Mohammed, and Gandhi all said they were men.
Christianity
is the only religion that is founded by someone who claims to be God. Everyone
else claims to be a servant of God, or a prophet of God, or a pointer to God,
or a spokesman for God, but no one claims to be God. They just don’t. They just
simply don’t.
The second Reason that
Jesus is God and we worship him is that he says that he came down from Heaven.
John 16:28 (ESV) I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now
I am leaving the world and going to the Father.”
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What
Jesus says, is Heaven is mine—home-sweet-home—that’s where I’m from.
·
I
came down into human history here on the Earth as a man, and when I finish my
ministry, I will return back into Heaven.
·
All
other religious leaders have not had this claim
·
People
have near death experiences and claim to have seem earth, but know claims to
have come from there, except God
All
religious teachers, spiritual leaders, people who write books, people that are
popular in our present day; they will tell you that they are not from Heaven.
That they are from the Earth—they were born here—that they had their beginnings
here. And they’re hope is to get a glimpse into Heaven and perhaps, one day, to
actually go to Heaven.
But Jesus is distinct, different, and
superior, because he came from Heaven. Heaven belongs to him. That’s why if you
want to get to Heaven, you got to follow Jesus. He’s from there. He came here
and he went back. And so if you want to go there, you need to follow him. He’s
the only one who’s ever been from there. He’s the only one who knows how to
return to there.
The third reason we
worship Jesus, as God, is that he said he was sinless.
John 8:46 (ESV) Which one of you convicts me of sin?
If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me?
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How
many of you can make this claim?
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We’re
all sinners.
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We
sin by omission; we don’t do what we’re supposed to do.
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We
sin by commission; we do what we’re not supposed to do.
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We
sin in our motives; we do the right thing for the wrong reason.
·
We
sin in our attitudes, our actions, our thoughts, our lust, and our desires.
We
know that we’re sinners, and even the very best of us knows that we’re sinners.
It’s interesting, you know, when you think of the Holiest people that ever
lived, most people would put somewhere on the list, a guy like Gandhi, right? A
selfless man committed to peace. Gandhi, in his life, confessed that he was a
sinner. Muhammad, who is the founder of Islam Muhammad, said he was a sinner
and Jesus said he wasn’t. And so Jesus is superior to Muhammad. A sinner can be
wrong, and he is.
Jesus
claims to be sinless, and thereby superior and more trustworthy and believable
and true. And because he’s sinless, he doesn’t make mistakes and errors as a
sinner would, especially in his instruction and his teaching. Religious leaders
never make this claim. Spiritual people never make this claim.
I’m
a sinner. We’re all sinners. Everyone’s a sinner. And everyone claims to be a
sinner. Everyone acknowledges they’re a sinner, except for Jesus. He says he’s
without sin. Very, very, very unusual. No one has been able to make that claim
with any credibility. And no religious leader, no religious teacher, or no
religious founder has been able to make that claim.
Fourth reason we
worship Jesus as God is that he forgives sins.
Matthew 9:2 (ESV) And behold, some people brought to him
a paralytic, lying on a bed. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the
paralytic, “Take
heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.”
·
This
is amazing. Sin is our problem. We only truly have one problem, that’s the sin
problem. That’s the cause for all of the other affects.
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If
we didn’t have the sin problem, we wouldn’t have homelessness and poverty and
war.
·
There
is one cause for all of the affects that we see in the world, and that’s the
sin problem.
·
Some
of you have sinned, and you have a guilty conscience. You feel burden,
convicted. You want to know what to do with your sin.
·
Others
of you have been sinned against, and you feel violated and angry and bitter.
You don’t know what to do with the sin.
·
We
have counselors and therapists and medications and treatment, and our whole
culture has an enormous industry trying to deal with sin.
·
Christianity
is the only religion that offers you forgiveness for sin if you’ve sinned
against God.
·
Every
other religion will tell you that you need to do something to pay God back; you
need to suffer in this life, or maybe you’re reincarnate and come back again
and again and again and again and again.
Here’s
the good news friend, you can have your sins forgiven. You don’t need to pay
God back. You don’t need to work it off. You don’t need to reincarnate. You
don’t need to go to Hell. You don’t need to deny your sin. You don’t need to
manage your sin. You can be forgiven for it. It can be cleansed and taken away.
See, Jesus lived without sin, but he died. The penalty for sin is Death, and Jesus died a
death for my sins and on the cross Jesus said “Forgive them” we are forgiven!
The fifth reason
that we worship Jesus is, because he said he was the only way to Heaven, and
indeed he is.
John 11:25 (ESV) Jesus
said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life.
Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live,
·
Other
religions will tell you there are a lot of paths to heaven
·
Jesus
says, “I am that path. I’m the only path, in fact.
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John 14:6 (ESV) Jesus said to
him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father
except through me.
Some
think that Christians are narrow, and we are, because Jesus was. They killed
him because he was narrow, and we simply are following in his example.
“To be a Christian, we must be faithful to
Christ.” And Jesus teaches that apart from him, there is no salvation. Apart
from him, there is no path to Heaven.
The sixth reason
that we worship Jesus as God is because he performed miracles, and his
greatest, obviously, was rising from death.
·
His
miracles included:
o Feeding upwards of
20,000–25,000 people with a little boys’ lunch,
o Walking on water,
o Healing people who
were sick.
·
Jesus performed a great number of miracles; he
had no problem demonstrating his authority and dominion over creation and
nature. But, his greatest miracle was his resurrection.
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Mark 8:31 (ESV) And he began to teach them that the Son of
Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests
and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again.
o Jesus for told his
own death!
o Every one of them;
Krishna, Buddha, Mohammed, Gandhi, whomever you choose, they’re all dead.
o Jesus is STILL ALIVE!!
How
many the books that you read for spiritual nourishment or encouragement were written
by people who feed the multitudes, healed the sick, bring back the dead, walk
on water, calm storms, cast out demons? How many have that kind of authority?
Jesus had the words of God and he had the works of God.
The
seventh reason that we worship Jesus, and this will be my final one, is that he
knew the future.
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We
are finite, and we don’t know what tomorrow brings
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Jesus
bats 1,000. Everything he says comes to pass exactly as he promised.
·
John 13:38 (ESV) Jesus answered, “Will you lay down your life for me? Truly, truly, I say to
you, the rooster will not crow till you have denied me three times.
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He
knew at the Last Supper, that Judas would betray him.
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He
knew that he would die and rise in three days.
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Jesus knew the future and he repeatedly spoke
of the future, and exactly what he promised has come to pass, which proves to
us that he rules over all of creation; he also rules over all of history. His
miracles demonstrate his authority over creation. His prophecy proves his
authority over history. It’s amazing isn’t it? No one has ever made these
claims. No one has ever backed them up. Jesus
is superior to all other options.
The letter From
John!
Explain the history
between John and Jesus
John
was now at the end of his life where he’d been telling Pastor Grandpa John
stories for a long time, and he was almost dead, he was just down to the end of
his life. And false teachers had climbed into the church—people that were
younger than him and were going to outlive him. They were saying, “Well, there
are other religions. There are other perspectives. There are other
opportunities to worship God. There’s other ways to God. There are other
spiritual teachers, and leaders. There are books other than the Bible. You
can’t be so narrow-minded. You got to keep your options and your perspectives
open.” John writes 1 John to say, “No, guys stick with Jesus. Don’t lose sight
of Jesus. Don’t lose love for Jesus. Don’t take your mind off of Jesus.” And he
writes 1 John as a series of Pastor Grandpa John stories, so that you and I, as
the new generation of the children of God, could continue to keep our eyes
fixed on Jesus as well.
·
John begins by
stating to us the reasons why we should listen to him, and we should trust him.
o
Read VS 1
o this has been some
60 plus years since Jesus has ascended
o The “WE” Factor
o When your mother and
brothers worship you as God, you are, right.
·
·
Jesus came in to
human history
o Read VS 2
o Jesus was with God
and came to earth to hang with us
o He left his throne
for a manager, streets of Gold, for muddy roads
o And John was there
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Jesus and the Great news
of Salvation
o
READ VS 3
o John wants to ensure
the great news is passed on
o He want fellowship
and friendship among believers
o And he wants to
bring fellowship between Us and God
o 2 Corinthians
5:21 (ESV) For
our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become
the righteousness of God.
§ Jesus reconciles us so we can have right relationship
with God
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The purpose for
writing the letter
o Read VS 4
o We write this to make our joy complete.” Our joy
complete
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