I John 1:1-2:5, John 15:9-10 Audio File is at the end of this text.
Have you noticed that today many churches are about entertainment? Let's not talk about death or blood because we want to get a lot of people in here and get them to come back. There's not much coming from the pulpit about what Jesus really did for us and how it happened and what he has really called us to do.
You don't hear much about sin and that each one of us sins. The Bible says,
your sins will find you out.
Nathan the prophet came to King David and told him a story about a very rich man taking a poor man's only sheep. While the rich man had thousands of sheep, the poor man only had one but the rich man used his power to take the poor man's only sheep. When King David heard the story he told Nathan, "Bring the rich man to me. I will deal with this terrible man." Then Nathan said to King David, "The terrible person is you."
David thought he could get away with his sin by covering it up. But God sees every sin and in the I John passage and others in the Bible we are told Jesus came to deal with.
I John 2:1 says, "I wrote this, dear children, to guide you out of sin. But if anyone does sin, we have a Priest-Friend in the presence of the Father: Jesus Christ, righteous Jesus. When he served as a sacrifice for our sins, he solved the sin problem for good--not only ours, but the whole earth."
This doesn't mean we keep on sinning and Jesus ignores us and gives us a free pass. Taking in the entire Gospel informs us that the blood sacrifices God required before Jesus were replaced by the painful, bloody death Jesus suffered on the cross. This is the part of the story that is messy and hard to hear but it the only part that really matters.
God promises to forgive confessed sin so our job is to be honest with God and with ourselves. Confess our sin then, I John 2:4-6, says, "Whoever says, 'I know him,' but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did."
What is the "word" we are told to obey? The famous John 15:12-13 tells us. "My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends." This is living as Jesus lived. He died for each of us and gives us the free gift of grace. The grace cost him his life and it was a bloody death that bought our freedom.
We are now to walk as Jesus walked, live as Jesus lived.
You don't hear much about sin and that each one of us sins. The Bible says,
your sins will find you out.
Nathan the prophet came to King David and told him a story about a very rich man taking a poor man's only sheep. While the rich man had thousands of sheep, the poor man only had one but the rich man used his power to take the poor man's only sheep. When King David heard the story he told Nathan, "Bring the rich man to me. I will deal with this terrible man." Then Nathan said to King David, "The terrible person is you."
David thought he could get away with his sin by covering it up. But God sees every sin and in the I John passage and others in the Bible we are told Jesus came to deal with.
I John 2:1 says, "I wrote this, dear children, to guide you out of sin. But if anyone does sin, we have a Priest-Friend in the presence of the Father: Jesus Christ, righteous Jesus. When he served as a sacrifice for our sins, he solved the sin problem for good--not only ours, but the whole earth."
This doesn't mean we keep on sinning and Jesus ignores us and gives us a free pass. Taking in the entire Gospel informs us that the blood sacrifices God required before Jesus were replaced by the painful, bloody death Jesus suffered on the cross. This is the part of the story that is messy and hard to hear but it the only part that really matters.
God promises to forgive confessed sin so our job is to be honest with God and with ourselves. Confess our sin then, I John 2:4-6, says, "Whoever says, 'I know him,' but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did."
What is the "word" we are told to obey? The famous John 15:12-13 tells us. "My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends." This is living as Jesus lived. He died for each of us and gives us the free gift of grace. The grace cost him his life and it was a bloody death that bought our freedom.
We are now to walk as Jesus walked, live as Jesus lived.
