Lechem Panim #69 ”Igniting The Fire Again” (Introduction to 1 John) Pastor Cameron Ury

Greetings! Welcome to Lechem Panim. Today we will be beginning a new series on a book of the Bible that has been (at least for me) one of the most challenging, convicting, and yet concise books in the New Testament. Its author (the Apostle John), speaks so powerfully to so many people, that it is little wonder that (just as he was called the “beloved disciple” so His writings are amongst the most beloved. Now this tiny epistle of 1 John was meant to be read to the Christian Church in and around Ephesus in Asia Minor.

​The Last Books— 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John were the last of John’s writings, written even after he wrote the book of Revelation. And some expositors believe them to be the last written books of the Bible. And [The three epistles are called letters; yet the first epistle is not in the form or style of a letter. It has no salutation at its beginning nor greeting at its conclusion. Its style is more that of a sermon.] 

A New Generation-- And this fits because sometime around when Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed around A.D. 70, [John left Jerusalem where he was a church leader and relocated to Ephesus.] And John here pastored the Church in Ephesus until he died sometime around A.D. 98. And it was here that he likely wrote his three epistles. And John is very old now. And he is writing to a new generation, whom he refers to as “my little children”. When Paul first started the Church in Ephesus, their faith was glorious and exciting. Those were the days when Paul had come to the city and challenged Diana/Artemis, the false god of the Ephesians. The whole city was in uproar. In that chapter in Acts 19 we read of how Paul’s teaching effected the synagogue at Ephesus and what effect his daily teaching in the school of Tyrannus had for two years. Every church has its “glory days.” And those were the glory days of the church in Ephesus, their being filled with zeal and love for Christ. But now a new generation had risen up. And many of these believers were either children or grandchildren of those first Christians. And while their parents and grandparents were holy and set apart for God, this generation had begun merging with the world. When John wrote the words of Christ spoken to him while he was in exile on the Island of Patmos, He said to the church in Ephesus:

Revelation 2:4 (ESV)-- 4 But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. [And this reflected what Jesus had said all the way back in:]

Matthew 24:12-13 (ESV)-- 12 And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. 13 But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

The Day Niagara Stopped-- A couple of years ago my family and I went to see Niagara falls; and boy what an incredible sight that was. Such incredible power. However, for you history buffs, you might be interested to know that [On the night of March 29, 1848, Niagara Falls completely and mysteriously stopped flowing. The estimated 500,000 gallons of water that customarily rushed over the falls stalled to a trickle. James Francis Macklem, a village justice of the peace in the Niagara area, wrote that he had witnessed the subsidence of the waters and the phenomenon of the Niagara running dry "caused great excitement in the neighborhood at the time."To some, the mystery of this sudden "turning off" of the river seemed to be an ominous portent, and nightfall found most of the churches packed with people praying or talking in frightened voices about the end of the world. Fear grew into the proportions of panic. The cause of this unusual event began along the shores of Lake Erie near Buffalo. For several days, the wind had been blowing to the east over Lake Erie, driving much of its ice flow down river. Then the winds suddenly shifted to the west, driving the lake water west and causing the lake’s ice to break up and dam the river. The Niagara River ceased to flow for almost 30 hours until the ice shifted and the dam broke up….] Now in our own day to day lives, we have to watch out for ice; we need to be careful to fan the flame of the fire of God in our lives. We have to keep the presence of Christ in us hot so that the flow of His Spirit might not become frozen in our hearts. When you first became a Christian, you were likely on fire for God. And I’m not just talking about emotion; I’m talking about devotion; a desire to be holy; a desire to follow Christ anywhere and into anything. We need to be careful not to lose that flame. And in order for us not to lose that fire, we need to surround ourselves by things that are flammable (spiritually flammable); by friends who are flammable, not flame retardent. Now if you ask them, “Are you retardent?” they may misunderstand you. And you don’t need to ask them. You can tell if they are spiritually flammable. And if their not, be careful. Your central aim in your walk with Christ is to keep the fire hot. There’s an old song called:

Give Me Oil in My Lamp
Give me oil in my lamp, keep me burning
Give me oil in my lamp, I pray
Give me oil in my lamp, keep me burning
Keep me burning till the break of day

A Time of Compromise-- The Ephesian’s love of Christ had cooled. And there was a growing fracturing between their lifestyle and the ethics of the Bible. And they began to disregard the standards given to them in scripture. They began to compromise. Now compromise is not always a bad thing. It can be a good thing. But not always.

[Boat Compromise-- “… {Once there was a man who} wanted a boat more than anything. His wife kept refusing, but he bought one anyway. "I’ll tell you what," he told her, "In the spirit of compromise, why don’t you name the boat?” {“You can paint any name on the side that you like.”} Being a good sport, she accepted. When her husband went to the dock for his maiden voyage, this is the name he saw painted on the side: "For Sale.”] Compromise is not always a good thing, especially when it comes to something we believe in. We can sometimes compromise on process; but if we compromise on our principles or on our doctrines, then we could (like the man with the boat) lose the very thing we love. That is what was happening to the church in Ephesus. They were losing their first love by their beginning to embrace the popular philosophy of the day, a new-age kind of religion that later developed into a false religion called Gnosticism, which we will talk about more as we proceed through the book. And so it became necessary for John to help his readers differentiate between the false teachers and the true ones. And so he gives them tests; tests they can apply to anyone (including themselves) that prove they are the real deal.

Three Tests-- And he gives 3 tests, each of which we will look at more fully in the coming weeks. First, does the person hold to sound doctrine? Do they believe the essentials regarding Jesus, man, sin, atonement, etc? Secondly, are they living lives that are moral in keeping with God’s commandments? This is a major theme in 1 John; the fact that the Christian is one who lives a life that is holy, demonstrating consistent victory over sin and a death to their old way of life. And thirdly, is the love of Christ manifest in that person’s heart and life? Do they demonstrate a love for God and a love for people that is (like Christ’s) self-sacrificing? You could summarize all three of these tests with one simple question? Is this person living a life that has obviously been truly transformed? Are they on fire for Christ?

Spiritual Temperature-- One of the things my kids love for me to do is to take their temperature. And we have a little thermometer that you hold up to their forehead and it immediately glows green, yellow, or red, depending on their temperature, which is then displayed. If you could take your spiritual temperature this morning, what would it show?Or let me ask you this. If your spouse, children or co-workers evaluated you this past week on the basis of John’s three “tests” (doctrine, morality, and love), what grade would you receive? If the number one characteristic of a Christian is a transformed life, would you pass the test? The real deal is never hard to spot.

Make Me Like Joe— Not long ago I read a story about a man named Joe. [Joe was a drunk who was miraculously converted at a Bowery mission. Prior to his conversion, he had gained the reputation of being a dirty wino for whom their was no hope, only a miserable existence in the ghetto. But following his conversion to a new life in Christ, everything changed.
Joe became the most caring person that anyone associated with the mission had ever known. Joe spent his days and nights hanging out at the mission, doing whatever needed to be done. There was never anything that he was asked to do that he considered beneath him. Whether it was cleaning up the vomit left by some violently sick alcoholic or scrubbing toilets after careless men left the men's room filthy, Joe did what was asked with a smile on his face and seeming gratitude for the chance to help. He could be counted on to feed feeble men who wandered off the street and into the mission, and to undress and tuck into bed men who were too out of it to take care of themselves.
One evening, when the director of the mission was delivering his evening evangelistic message to the usual crowd of still and sullen men with drooped heads, there was one man who looked up, came down the aisle to the altar and knelt to pray, crying out to God to help him change. The repentant drunk kept shouting, "Oh God! Make me like Joe! Make me like Joe! Make me like Joe!"
The director of the mission leaned over and said to the man "Son, I think it would be better if you prayed, 'Make me like Jesus.'"
The man looked up at the director with a quizzical expression on his face and asked, "Is he like Joe?"
{…..You know,…..} The greatest sermon we can ever preach, is not spoken. It is Lived!]

​Christianity That is Contagious-- One of the things that our world needs so desperately now is to experience the saving power of Jesus Christ in a real way; we need a Christianity that is not etherial and untouchable; but a Christianity that is practical; a Christianity that is lived out; the kind of Christianity that Jesus lived and taught. Our world is hungering for real Christians who look like Jesus; who smell like Jesus; who are spreading the fragrance of holiness by living lives that are truly transformed. It is that kind of Christianity that is contagious. And it is that kind of Christianity that John is calling us to in this epistle. He wants you and me to be the real deal; and to know that we are the real deal; so that we will live with confidence in a chaotic world, knowing what we believe, why we believe it; being empowered by the Holy Spirit to live lives in keeping with God’s word, and so that we love God and one another with all of who we are. Let’s ask God today to show us how genuine we are; and if we aren’t, to make us genuine as we place our faith in and commit to follow HIm. Amen.