Joy and Assurance in Jesus Our Savior
Text: 1 John 1:1–2:6 ESV
Introduction
Good morning! Happy Father’s Day! Fathers, we are so thankful for you and the amazing ways you image forth the beautiful picture of the love our heavenly father has for his children, like we saw in Ephesians 6. It is an incredibly high bar to live up to, and we are so thankful that you care to try to love your children and others for the sake of them seeing how wonderful God’s love really is.
I have a pastor friend who once told me that our tendency as the church is to do Mother’s Day sermons that tell mothers how wonderful, beautiful, and loved they are, and to do Father’s Day sermons that tell them to do a better job and to be a better man. Today just so happens to be our introduction of 1 John, so it is an equal opportunity call to not just men, but also women, to walk out our life as it was described in Ephesians. Much of the last half of Ephesians we did during COVID and studied on our own. Here, John, much like Paul, speaks about how to live our Christian life. One major difference is that in 1 John, John is especially concerned that we know we can be assured of our salvation as we pursue walking out our faith well. I pray that in this introduction and first chapter today, that fathers, you find yourselves encouraged that you are found sufficient in Jesus Christ alone and that your salvation is assured through your faith and joy in Jesus and that we can all engage in this together.
Jesus Our Joy
In preparing for this series, I read a commentator who said there are four great “beginnings” in Scripture. Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth”, as we begin the journey of God’s love for his people throughout creation. Mark 1:1, “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God”, as Mark goes on to list the amazing prophecies regarding the Messiah. John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” And, interestingly, 1 John 1:1,
“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us— that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.” (1 John 1:1–4 ESV)
It is interesting that John wrote two of these great beginnings. That might not be what we would expect from this man. He is both the “beloved disciple” of Jesus in John 13:23, but also the son of Zebedee, a well-off fisherman who was working with his father on his boat when Jesus calls him and his brother James. Aside from the gospel of John and Revelation, he writes 1, 2, and 3 John, which are so different from Paul’s exact, precise, and nuanced letters. John writes with great passion and a sermonic call throughout his letters. Yet, he is also known with his brother as the “sons of thunder” (Mark 3:17), a nickname you do not give quiet, silent, brooding types. He is like Henry David Thoreau—mountain man meets poet. He is like John Urschel—an NFL player and guard for the Ravens and an MIT published Applied Mathematician and a fourth year PhD student. John likewise defies some of our standard categorizations.
But there is no confusion that John knew and loved Jesus, and Jesus loved him. In John’s gospel in chapter 19:26–27 we see that Jesus leaves the care of his mother Mary to John as he is dying on the cross. Here, likely writing from Ephesus in the late 80s and early 90s, John is remembering that this Jesus that he heard, saw, touched with his hands and was the very Word of life—God himself. When he thinks about this reality in verse two that Jesus chose to make himself manifest to John and to all of humanity, he wants to make sure that he proclaims the same thing to everyone he knows—in this case, to the areas surrounding Ephesus and the Christians there.
John starts where we would expect him to, reveling in who Jesus is and what he has done. And John tells us this is for two goals. First, he wants his readers to have fellowship with him and other Christians, and he knows that will only happen as they walk into relationship with the Father and Jesus Christ. Second, he believes that he will find joy in doing this. John is helpful throughout this letter and often tells us why he is writing things—like in this instance, joy.
Just from this quick introduction there are several ways we can be challenged by John. First, do you have a passion to know this life that God has given us like John does? Jesus Christ, the very life of God has been revealed. It has hard to say that you value life—even your life—if you don’t want to know the life that God has sent for us all. Similarly, if you know this life, if you know and love Jesus, do you have a passion to share this life? John realizes that true fellowship, true friendship and camaraderie only happens when we are walking together in our faith in God. There is a level of friendship we can have with others who are not Christians, but it will always fall short of the unity we saw when Paul talked in Ephesians about being part of one family, one new man, one people of God with one another. And maybe most importantly, do you find that your joy is only in knowing this Jesus—your life?
For John, who Jesus is drives much of his life, as it should be for him and for us. Jesus is the one we must come to know because he is very life itself. Jesus must be shared because in him is true fellowship and life with one another. And Jesus is to be enjoyed because he is where we find true and complete joy. John has learned to pursue this joy, so he writes 1 John.
Transition
The rest of 1 John flows out of this passion to know, share, and enjoy Jesus, but it also comes with a desire to see his fellow Christians encouraged. In his gospel, John was concerned that his readers might know and have eternal life and salvation. Here in 1 John, the apostle is concerned that his Christian readers might be assured that they have eternal life and salvation. We can see that even here in the beginning where John starts by describing how he understands our call and our walk as Christians. Even here, John is already beginning to help us be assured in our salvation. John notices there is a tension in our faith. A tension that if we don’t embrace it, we may find ourselves discouraged, hopeless, and joyless.
Our Assurance: Our Call and Faith aka Walk in the Light (Don’t Sin)
“This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.” (1 John 1:5–10 ESV)
John starts with an analogy of our salvation and faith as darkness and light. This shouldn’t surprise us if we have read John’s gospel:
“In him was life and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.” (John 1:4 ESV)
John is reiterating how Jesus, the true light, has come into the darkness to reveal to us our need for him. Jesus is
“the true light, which enlightens everyone” (John 1:9 ESV)
John is using this imagery to say that being in the light is to be in fellowship or relationship with God, and to be in darkness is to be outside of that relationship. In verses six and seven he makes it clear that we can only be in one place—darkness or light—and can’t have it both ways. To hear this talk about light and dark is beautiful, but it can also feel nebulous. John helpfully makes the turn at the end of verse seven to connect darkness with walking in sin, and being in the light to walking in truth and confessed sins. Being in the light is to have relationship with God in Jesus and to be cleansed of our sins. Being in the darkness is to make God a liar and to deny his word (Jesus), who cannot be in us if we deny we had sin and still do sin.
John is calling us back to the story of our salvation in this particular image. Paul in his letter to the Romans walks us down this path well, reminding us that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). We all have to accept that we have fallen short of God’s perfect and righteous expectations and look for the only solution we have—salvation in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Yet John is using this image to remind us of more than just our path of salvation. To be in the light is both how we are saved and how we continue to walk daily afterward. To find ourselves in the light for the first time means we see ourselves as God sees us—warts and all. Sins and all. But we also can see Jesus Christ clearly for the first time. We see his beauty and glory and our desperate need, and we find hope in our faith in him because we know his blood has cleansed us all. Standing in the light of Jesus is amazingly beautiful because we can finally see the beauty of God, his plan, and his amazing love for us. But as we remain in that light and continue to blink off the dark night of our souls prior to our salvation…we begin to see clearer. Just like you only see the outlines of your room as you first open your eyes, things come into focus slowly. The sleep and slumber is rubbed out of our eyes. And in our life in the light of salvation even sins that we didn’t see previously begin to be visible. Not only old sins but new sins. And standing in the light can begin to feel like a late August afternoon—hot, unbearable, and constantly exposed.
One of the first aspects of being assured of our salvation is realizing that walking in the light that has exposed the beauty of God in Christ will continue to expose sin in our lives, today and until the day we come face-to-face with Christ in glory. To paraphrase a quote we have used before, whether for the first time or the ten-thousandth time, the gospel of Jesus both makes and matures disciples. To see your sin clearly is part of your assurance because it means you are still standing in the light. We shouldn’t be discouraged when we see our sins—we should expect this as part of our life of living in the light.
John’s entire desire here can be summed up with the phrase “do not lie.” First of all, do not lie to yourself and do not lie to others—we are all sinners. There is no getting away from that. If we are walking in the light, we are to confess our sins, as John says here. Is that how you live? Are you quick to live as one who confesses your wrongs, or would you prefer to hide? I think we would all say that it is difficult to want to confess, but it needs to become part of our nature both through our salvation and through our day-to-day life. Ultimately, it is how we don’t lie both to and about God. People who don’t yet believe in Jesus are watching us, and they most definitely see our sins, and sometimes are those who we have sinned against. If we walk around as though we can do no wrong or as if we have no sin still, we make God out to be a liar and we misrepresent to them what a Christian is. Do you walk in the light as God is in the light?
Now before we follow John to where he goes next, we have to admit the concern this passage can bring up. If I sin, do I prove that I am not a Christian? This passage has sadly been used to support that idea before. It has also been used to support the wrong claim that if you sin you have actually lost your salvation and are no longer “walking” with God. First, note that John throughout 1 John continues to deal with these types of objections. In fact, in 1 John 1:2 he has already said he proclaims to us, “eternal life,” and again in 1 John 5:11 he says,
“This is the testimony, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his son.” (1 John 5:11 ESV)
To have Jesus and to be known in him and to him is to have something eternal—eternal life. It is not fleeting. In Philippians 1:6 Paul says,
“And I am sure of this, he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” (Philippians 1:6 ESV)
It is God who opened up your eyes to his wonderous work on your behalf in Jesus Christ, and it is God who will keep you and grow you until you are with him forever in the new heavens and the new earth.
So much of this concern hinges on your understanding of “walking.” Just like in Ephesians, walking is your embrace of a specific path of life. To walk in darkness is to embrace your sin as good. It is to say it is the path that will be joyful, and it is the path that will give you life. To walk in light never means that you won’t sin, but it means you will find it something to fight against. You will see that your joy is actually in Jesus and his righteousness, no matter how attractive a sin may seem to you today. That is where John goes next. Walking in the light should cause us to see our indwelling sin and seeing our sin should grow us to make us hate it and desire to stop sinning, but not question our salvation. This is exactly what John says next in 1 John 2:1–6.
Our Assurance: An Advocate
"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. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.” (1 John 2:1–2 ESV)
The first assurance John gave us was to realize that we are still walking in the light of salvation and the gospel of Jesus Christ even as we continue to see our sin. Seeing it for the first time and seeing it again every day is part of being in the light of Jesus. His second assurance here is to remind us that we still have an advocate in Jesus Christ when we sin, even after we turned to him for the first time.
What may feel like a painful and difficult process in growth (what we often call sanctification) is actually an assurance to us. When we see our sin and feel bad, when we see it and hate that it is still in us, we can know that we still have an advocate in Jesus Christ. Say along with Paul from Romans 7—
“For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate… Wretched man [woman] that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:15, 24–25 ESV)
Our assurance is that we have an advocate. An advocate who saved us and continues, to this day, while we continue to grow and fight sin, to advocate on our behalf for our own good. John reminds us here, like Paul reminds us, that he has died for the “whole world”—Jew or Gentile, slave or free, anyone can find their salvation in Jesus. And he has interceded and will continue to intercede for us.
Our Assurance: Know him (Keep his commandments)
As we believe these truths about our God, Jesus Christ, we begin to know him. John has used his description of our salvation to give us two great assurances, but he gives us another. He reminds us that if we know Jesus, we will live out a life that shows that.
Undoubtedly there will be some gifts on this Father’s Day. A tie, a BBQ dinner, fun laughs together. Part of what makes those moments joyful is you know your father. You know his quirky love of odd socks. You know that a hat with a ponytail sticking out the back is a fun jab at his slow-balding process. You know he would love a McDonald’s meal more than most restaurants. You act out your love for your father because you know him and what he loves. It is no different with our God. Look at 1 John 2:3
“And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. (1 John 2:3–6 ESV)
The third assurance John give us comes from knowing God. If we know God, we are obviously walking with him. And we can demonstrate to ourselves and others that we know God as we walk in his commandments. John’s entire introduction has been moving us from viewing Jesus as a “get-out-of-jail-free” card and into a real relationship with him. To see the grandeur of his love laid out like an amazing vista from the top of Sawtooth mountains and know it will take an eternity to explore every aspect of it. To see his love, both definitive for our salvation, and for our growth today. And to see how his commandments are not capricious whims to keep us busy, but rather are an expression of what God himself loves. He loves caring for others, he loves being peaceful, gentle, good, self-controlled. He loves being worshipped because he is the only perfect person and worthy of honor and glory.
In knowing God, we are assured because our living out God’s desires are not to earn our salvation but because of a heart of relationship and thankfulness. To know Jesus, as we saw in 1 John 1:1–5, is to love what he loves. To love what he would have us do. To love his commandments.
This leaves us an eternity of learning and loving God. And an eternity of application. In this move toward assurance, John opens up the rest of Scripture for us, not as an act of worry and panic. We don’t need to come to Leviticus with fear of any law that might still be for us today. Rather, we find in each and every law, each and every prophet, each and every year of the reign of kings, our very God and who he is. We find assurance because we can and do know our God through his word and because of that we can walk well with him in the path of light.
Conclusion
Our once and forever salvation. Our constant process of living in the light and seeing our sins—running to Jesus again and again. Finding that we actually know him because we have a relationship with him and desire to pursue his commandments. These are all assurances to us that we are in right relationship with God and are indeed saved. It is what we celebrate when we come to communion. It is a moment to look back and be encouraged as John is encouraging us this morning—to find that we do indeed walk with our God. And a moment to look forward, as we all should each day, celebrating that we will walk eternally with our savior knowing him more each day.
Benediction
And this is eternal life, that you know the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom God our Father has sent. (John 17:3)