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1, 2 and 3 John 1, 2 and 3 John "Little Children, I write unto you…" Verse-by-verse through the Apostle John's epistles with Pastor David Legge 1ST, 2ND AND 3RD JOHN Pastor David Legge David Legge is a Christian evangelist, preacher and Bible teacher. He served as Assistant Pastor at Portadown Baptist Church before receiving a call to the pastorate of the Iron Hall Assembly in Belfast, Northern Ireland. He ministered as pastor-teacher of the Iron Hall from 1998- 2008, and now resides in Portadown with his wife Barbara, daughter Lydia and son Noah. Contents 1. INTRODUCTION TO 1 JOHN - 3 2. Authentic Christianity - 13 3. The Gospel According To Christ - 23 4. The Saint And Sin - 34 5. Practical Christianity - 45 6. The Christian And The World - 56 7. The Christian And False Doctrine - 67 8. The Family Likeness - 77 9. The Saint And The Sinful Existence - 87 10. Brotherly Love - 98 11. Confident Christianity - 109 12. Discerning Christianity - 120 13. Christian Love: Its Source And Sign - 131 14. The Features Of Effectual Faith - 141 15. The Case For Christ - 152 16. Sure Life And Prayer - 162 17. A Trinity Of Certainty And Security - 173 18. INTRODUCTION TO 2 JOHN - 183 19. Walking In Truth - 193 20. Handling Heresy - 202 21. Gaius - The Man Who Helped God's Work - 214 22. Diotrephes - The Man Who Hindered God's Work - 225 23. Demetrius - The Man Who Was Honoured In God's Work - 236 The audio for this series is available free of charge either on our website (www.preachtheword.com) or by request from [email protected] All material by Pastor Legge is copyrighted. However, these materials may be freely copied and distributed unaltered for the purpose of study and teaching, so long as they are made available to others free of charge, and the copyright is included. This does not include hosting or broadcasting the materials on another website, however linking to the resources on preachtheword.com is permitted. These materials may not, in any manner, be sold or used to solicit "donations" from others, nor may they be included in anything you intend to copyright, sell, or offer for a fee. This copyright is exercised to keep these materials freely available to all. 2 1ST, 2ND AND 3RD JOHN Pastor David Legge 1 John - Chapter 1 "Introduction To 1 John" Copyright 2005 by Pastor David Legge irst John, the first epistle of John, if you can find 1 and 2 Peter, it's just after it - just before the book of Jude, the little book before the last book in the Bible, the book of the F Revelation. So, if you can't find it after that, you're in trouble! Now, I haven't given this series a title, it's self-explanatory - 1 John - and the only title I have for tonight is 'An Introduction'. We'll not really be dealing with specific verses this evening in an expositional manner, I just want to give you somewhat of an overview and an introduction to this little book. I think that's important for our understanding in subsequent weeks, it gives us a backdrop and a context in which to fit our expositions from here on in. We'll read the first four verses of chapter 1, just to get the flow of John's argument in the introduction of his epistle. Verse 1: "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;) That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full". Now this first epistle of John, of course, if you're familiar with the New Testament, you will know it's the first of three epistles - the second straight after it, and the third which are only a chapter long each. John, the author of these three epistles, is one of the sons of Zebedee, along with his brother James that we read of in the Gospels. But of course, they were christened again by the Lord Jesus Christ 'The Sons of Thunder', because of their vehement personalities. John was also one of the inner circle of intimate disciples that had special fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ when He was upon the earth, the other two being James and also Peter. As such, as one of the twelve, and one of the inner three, he had a unique eyewitness experience of the ministry, the earthly life of our Lord Jesus Christ. Some would go as far as to say that, even beyond the inner circle of the three, that John was special, and indeed the Scriptures speak of him as 'the disciple whom Jesus loved'. There's something special about John and his relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, and indeed at the Last Supper he is found to be reclining on Jesus' breast. Of course John, the author of 1, 2 and 3 John, is also - and many people don't realise this, believe it or not - the author of John's gospel, and indeed the last book in the Bible, the Apocalypse, the book of the Revelation. He wrote them all. But this book in particular, although it's called a letter, is not really like a letter in that it has no proper introduction, or address, or even close - and it seems to be, because of that, a circular letter, a letter that isn't specifically addressed to one person or a particular church. It's not like the book of Romans or Ephesians, it's not addressed to an individual like Timothy or Titus or Philemon. Yet, as we read it, though it's not addressed to specific people, we find that it is intensely personal - so personal, in fact, that John doesn't even feel the need to mention his own name to those he's writing to. He knows that they will know who is writing to them, and he is so attached to them, so intimate with them, that he bares his pastoral heart of compassion and 3 1ST, 2ND AND 3RD JOHN Pastor David Legge love for them, and so often we read of him calling this flock 'My beloved', or 'My little children'. Now John's writings are dated near the end of the first century, probably somewhere between AD 85 and AD 95, and because of that John, as he is writing this first epistle, is a very old man. Now I want you to picture him, as he sits wherever he wrote this epistle with a quill and a piece of parchment, and there he is well over his pension age, and he looks back and reminisces over the life that he has lived with Christ - bodily on the earth - for Christ as an apostle, as an evangelist, as a missionary. He remembers all the experiences he had with the Lord, he reminisces concerning the rise and spread of Christianity across Europe - what must his thoughts have been? I don't know about you, but I think it's rather interesting to hear what old men of God have to say - especially at the end of their lives. If you can get aside an old man of God, listen to the advice that, as the Bible puts it, 'the hoary head' of wisdom would give to you! In fact, a very famous evangelist in our world today recently said, as he is almost at the end of his life looking back on the years of service that he spent for the Lord, that he wished that he had spent more time studying God's word and praying to the Lord. When someone who is a great giant of the faith says something like that, we tend to sit up and listen because of the authority of the experience, the weight that is behind their statements and the life that they have lived. When proven servants of God speak, we ought to listen! Now, here is John, the apostle, at the end of his life - and he is speaking with great authority and with great influence, because at this point he is the only apostle now still living. He's the only human being, really, who has had this intimate communion with the Lord Jesus in bodily form as He was upon the earth. So he speaks to these believers with a fatherly counsel. As we see in chapter 2 and verse 1, he says to them: "Little children" - 'This is the message that I give to you, as I look and scour over the whole of my life and I assess where the church of Christ is at this particular juncture in its history, this is the message that I feel that God would have me bring to you'. So what does he say? Well, that's one of the difficulties, because some have found it hard, in a sense, to analyse this little book - because it doesn't really develop an argument in any order, the way that, say, the book of Romans might do, or the book of Ephesians. John tends, as he goes through these five chapters, to repeat prominent themes that are in his mind and heart.
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