Certain Eternity – An Introduction to 1 John
1 John 5:13
Introduction
Joshua – moving into a new season of kingdom work
Jesus commission – how we do the kingdom work
1 John – gives certainty to our kingdom work
o 1 John 5:13 “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son
of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.”
As of last night, the US has won 122 medals at this year’s Olympics – 42 bronze,
42 silver, and 38 gold…over 30 medals more than the next closest, China –
though China currently has 39 gold medals…1 more than the US…with the US
playing in the women’s volleyball and basketball gold medal games this morning.
o Since 2000, over 100 medals have been taken away athletes – mostly for
doping or otherwise cheating the event – but sometimes for changes in the
scoring of the event. At this year’s Olympics, one of the American
gymnasts, Jordan Chiles, may have her bronze medal taken from her as
her score was appealed and revised downward enough to move her from
3 rd place on the floor exercise to 5 th place.
o More famously, the very first Olympic athlete to have his medals taken from
him was Jim Thorpe. Thorpe had won gold in both the 1912 pentathlon and
decathlon but was later ruled to have been a professional baseball player
because of a semi-pro contract he had before the Olympics.
o I can’t imagine how devastating it must have been to work so hard and so
long and to think that you had achieved gold, only to have that taken away
from you. To fall short even though you thought you had achieved victory.
The sad reality is that many folks who claim Christ and seek to serve Him,
struggle with having a confidence in their place as victors with Christ; struggle
with knowing that they are saved children of God.
o One of the many attacks that the enemy will make on the believer is to get
them to doubt their salvation or to think that, like those medals, it can be
stripped away if they do something wrong.
o On the flip side, there are many people who think they are on the winning
team – claiming to be Christians – who are in reality self-deceived cheaters
who will have their prize stripped away because they were never actually
walking with Christ.
John writes his letter to address both of these camps.
o JD Greear, the author of Stop Asking Jesus into Your Heart: How to Know
for Sure You Are Saved, says of this epistle, “John is seeking to comfort
those who are unnecessarily troubled and trouble those who are
unnecessarily comforted.”
Author
All conservative scholars agree that First John was written by the apostle John.
Comparison of the thought and style of parallel passages in the Gospel of John
(whose authorship is well established) and First John make it clear that the same
person wrote both works.
John, son of Zebedee
o From the Gennesaret region – northwest Galilee between Magdala and
Capernaum
ch-22_lake-of-gennesaret.png (1496×897) (wp.com)
o Son of Zebedee; fisherman in business with Simon and Peter, successful
enough to have hired servants (see Mark 1:16-20, Luke 5:1-11));
nicknamed sons of thunder with brother James (Mark 3:17, see Luke 9:54
for calling down fire))
o With Andrew, was one of the first disciples of Jesus (see John 1:35-42)
o Part of the inner circle of Christ (Pater, James, and John – sometimes
Andrew)
Raising of Jairus’s daughter (see Mark 5:35-43)
“37 And he allowed no one to follow him except Peter and
James and John the brother of James.”
Transfiguration (see Matthew 17:1-13)
“1 And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James, and
John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by
themselves.”
Gethsemane (see Matthew 26:36-46)
“36 Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane,
and he said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go over there and
pray.” 37 And taking with him Peter and the two sons of
Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled….”
o Referred to himself as “the disciple whom Jesus loved” (John 19:26,
21:20)
o The one to whom Jesus entrusted His mother (John 19:26-27)
o Witnessed the opened and empty tomb with Peter (John 20:2-10)
o One of the weightiest voices of the early church alongside Peter
Appeared boldly before Sanhedrin (Acts 4:13)
Investigated claims of Samaritan conversion (Acts 8:14)
Likely the youngest of the disciples and the one who lived the longest – only one
not martyred
o See John 21:21-23
Historical Context
Widest estimates = written between 70 A.D. and 100 A.D.; most concise estimate
is between 85-90 A.D. Why? Goes off of what we know for certain…
o 30-33 A.D. Jesus’ passion and resurrection
o 60-100 A.D. doctrinal/ecclesial epistles written
o 70 A.D. Destruction of the Temple and increasing persecution of church
Many begin questioning when Christ will return and what it means to
be a follower of Jesus – many begin to walk away thus giving
question to whether they are still saved or if they ever were
o 95 A.D. John exiled to Patmos and writes Revelation
o 100 A.D John dies
o 200 A.D Gnosticism full-blown
Church history tells us they tried to kill John multiple times, even boiling him in oil
– eventually they exiled him to the island of Patmos where he had his revelation
of Christ and the end times, which we have written down.
o In the meantime, church history again teaches us that his ministry settled
down in Ephesus, where he helped oversee the growing church that Paul
and planted.
It is likely that John wrote this letter from Ephesus – though we do not
know that with certainty – to the surrounding cities, many of whom
are also mentioned in Revelation 2-3.
Darryl Dash from Preaching on 1 John – “If written to churches in and around
Ephesus, then it’s written to a setting similar in many respects to big cities like
New York or Los Angeles: cultural centers with significant influence in politics,
business, and religion. It was a major port city; many people traveled there.
Ephesus was cosmopolitan and many wanted to live there. It was also a place
with competing belief systems, a city where the church has thrived, but also
faced threats.”
Other Writings
John wrote the gospel of John along with these three letters and the Book of
Revelation
o Similar and complementary themes throughout his writings:
John Piper:
Book of John—“Believe!”
Epistles—“Be Sure!”
Revelation—“Be Ready!”
Book of John–salvation
Epistles–sanctification
Revelation—sovereignty
Book of John—portrays Jesus as the prophet.
Epistles–priest
Revelation—king
The topics of his epistles are very much addressing the emerging gnostic
heresies of John’s day.
Emergence of Gnosticism
o Gnosticism generally presents a distinction between a supreme, hidden
God and a malevolent lesser divinity (often associated with Yahweh) who is
responsible for creating the material universe. Consequently, Gnostics
considered material existence evil, and held that salvation comes through
direct knowledge of the hidden divinity, attained via mystical or esoteric
insight. They taught that everyone has the light of the divine in them and
that it need only be sparked by the attainment of secret knowledge.
o They taught many heresies about Christ – including that He was not a
material being but – essentially – a divine spirit or “ghost” that took on
human form in order to lead humanity back to recognition of its own divine
nature through the acquisition of the necessary secret knowledge.
John is aware of these emerging gnostic teachings – recognizes that
they are from the devil – and teaches against them in this letter.
o Gnosticism is the precursor to and essentially morphed into present say
occultism and the search for secret knowledge. It has influenced many
world religions and the secular cultural norms of our world….this makes the
John’s writings especially useful in light of the lies around us in the world
today.
Key words
Truth or True – 1 John 1:6 1 John 1:8 1 John 2:4 1 John 2:8 1 John 2:21 1 John
2:27 1 John 3:18 1 John 3:19 1 John 4:61 John 5:6 1 John 5:20
Dark or Darkness – 1 John 1:5 1 John 1:6 1 John 2:8 1 John 2:9 1 John 2:11
Light – 1 John 1:5 1 John 1:7 1 John 2:8 1 John 2:9 1 John 2:10
Life (zoe) – 10x – 1Jn1:1, 1:2, 2:25, 3:14, 3:15, 5:11, 5:12, 5:13, 5:16, 5:20.
o Zoe is also a key word in the Gospel of John – 36x in 32v (135 uses in
entire NT). – John 1:4; 3:15, 16, 36; 4:14, 36; 5:24, 26, 29, 39, 40; 6:27, 33,
35, 40, 47, 48, 51, 53, 54, 63, 68; 8:12; 10:10, 28; 11:25; 12:25, 50; 14:6;
17:2, 3; 20:31
Love (loves, loved) (agape; agapao) – 46x in 26v (Total # uses of love(s)(ed) in
NT [NAS] = 291x in 228v) – 1 John 2:5, 2:10, 2:15, 3:1, 3:10, 3:11, 3:14, 3:16,
3:17, 3:18, 3:23, 4:7, 4:8, 4:9, 4:10, 4:11, 4:12, 4:16, 4:17, 4:18, 4:19, 4:20, 4:21,
5:1, 5:2, 5:3
Abide (21x in 15v) – 1 John 2:6 1 John 2:10 1 John 2:14 1 John 2:24 1 John 2:27
1 John 2:28 1 John 3:6 1 John 3:9 1 John 3:14 1 John 3:17 1 John 3:24 1 John
4:12 1 John 4:13 1 John 4:15 1 John 4:16
Know – 37x (Based on the use of the Greek verbs for “know”)
o Ginosko (22x) – 1 John 2:3 (2x), 1Jn 2:13, 14, 18, 29; 3:1 (2x), 1Jn 3:6, 16,
19, 20, 24; 4:2, 6 (2x), 1Jn 4:7, 8, 13, 16; 5:2, 20
o Eido (15x) – 1 John 2:11, 20, 21 (2x), 1Jn 2:29; 3:2, 5, 14, 15 (2x); 1Jn 5:13,
15, 18, 19, 20
o Note: Both verbs appear together in the following verses – 1Jn 2:29, 1Jn
5:20. In addition the word “know” occurs more in the Gospel of John than in
any of the other gospels, and occurs in 1 John more than in any other
epistle, another piece of indirect evidence in support of John as the author
of this epistle. Exactly the same phenomenon is noted for many other
vocabulary words. These include such words as; love, light, truth,
fellowship, commandment, abide, witness, eternal, manifest, keep,
overcome, beginning, father and son.
Key Themes / Goals for Understanding
Confident and Knowing Salvation – Certain Eternity
o 1 John 5:13 “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son
of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.”
Over 30 evidences in this letter of a transformed/transforming
heart
Importance of abiding in Christ/truth/light/His kingdom/righteousness
Not burdensome (5:3)
Christians bear observable fruit. They:
o practice truth/righteousness (1 John 1:6; 2:29; 3:7, 10)
o walk in the light/as he walked (1 John 1:7; 2:6)
o confess sins and have forgiveness (1 John 1:9; 2:12)
o keep/obey his commandments/Word (1 John 2:3, 5;
3:22, 24; 5:2, 3)
o love one another/the brothers (1 John 2:10; 3:10, 11, 14,
16, 18, 23; 4:7, 11, 21)
o overcome the evil one/the world (1 John 2:13, 14; 4:4;
5:4)
o do the will of God/cannot keep on sinning (1 John 2:17;
3:9, 22)
o confess the Son/believe in Jesus (1 John 2:23; 3:23; 4:2,
15; 5:1, 4, 13)
o Yahweh’s kingdom vs the kingdom of the world
Light vs dark (1:5-7; 2:8-11)
Truth vs Lie (1:8-10; 2:4, 21-22, 26-27; 3:7, 18-19; 4:5-6; 5:6-10, 20)
Christ vs antichrist (2:18-25; 3:8; 4:1-6; 5:21)
Purity vs Lawlessness (3:3-4)
That which is eternal vs that which is passing away (2:15-17; 5:4, 19)
Love vs Hate (3:13; 4:7-8)
o Good theology (against Gnosticism in particular)
Christology
From beginning (1:1-4)
Advocate (2:1)
Propitiation (2:2)
o Righteous (2:1, 29)
o Pure (3:3)
o Laid down live (3:16)
Exclusive way to the Father (2:23-25; 3:23; 4:14)
Destroys works of the devil (3:8)
Fully man (came in the flesh) (4:2, 5:6-9)
Son of God (4:8, 14-15)
Messiah (5:1)
Protector (5:18)
Jesus = true God and eternal life (5:20)
Pneumatology
Sealer/Anointer (2:20, 27; 3:24; 4:13)
False spirits (4:1-3)
Spirit of Truth (4:6)
Testifier of Christ (5:6-8)
Soteriology
Repentance (1:7-10)
Atonement (2:2; 3:9-10)
Perseverance of the saints (2:19, 28; 3:9-10)
Confession of faith (2:23; 4:14-15)
Assurance/Confidence (2:25; 3:19-20; 4:17-19; 5:11-13, 18)
Sinning unto death (5:16-17) (blasphemy of Spirit)
Eschatology
End is near (2:18, 28), but not yet (3:2)
Inheritance (3:2)
Judgment (4:17)
Identity
Righteous (1:9; 2:29; 3:7)
Children of God (3:1-2, 9-10, 21-22; 5:14-15)
Abide (2:6, 17, 27-28; 3:6, 24; 4:12-13) (i.e. do not persevere,
remain in the world)
Anointed by the Holy One/Spirit (2:20, 27; 3:24; 4:13)
Loved and Loving (2:7-11; 3:1, 11-18; 4:7-8, 11, 16-21; 5:1-5)
Overcomer (4:4; 5:4-5)
Charles Swindoll’s breakdown as summary slide for visual (if helpful and don’t
make your own)
o 1john.jpg (2063×1425) (preceptaustin.org)
Conclusion
o In 1983 – 30 years after his death – Jim Thorpe finally had his gold medals
reinstated. Many doubted he would ever receive the medals back. The story
ended well for Jim Thorpe’s legacy, but Thorpe himself died with the
disappointment of knowing he didn’t receive the prize.
o John has written this letter so that those of us running the kingdom race of faith
can have a certain confidence that we will receive the prize as we run for the
cause of Christ.
o The Lord does not want us to run in doubt, fear, questioning, or confusion. As we
unpack this letter together over the coming months, it is my prayer that those of
us who submit to Jesus by faith, through God’s grace, will continue to grow and
mature into knowing that we have a certain eternity with Jesus that can never be
stripped away.