1 John Introduction

I found a group bible study I taught on 1 John. Rather than a fully deep study, it is a study for high school. Read over it. They are oldddd! But they make sense.

Here is an introduction into the book. 


Turn in your bible to 1^st John. Today we live in a world much the same as when this book was written. It was written anywhere from 65 to 100 AD. No one really knows, but in any case it is at a time when most of the first generation of believers that had actually seen Jesus had died off. This second and third generation group of Christians had never seen the one in whom they choose to believe. You and I are in the same boat. We have never seen Jesus. We have never heard him speak or laugh or cry. We didn’t get to eat with him as he performed miracles meeting the needs of the people around him.

 So what you and have left to go on is the testimony of others. 1^st John is one such testimony. The church was beginning to have false teachers come in just as today. Some of these teachers were starting to teach a false gospel that said Jesus didn’t come on the flesh.

 This heresy was Gnosticism. Gnosticism was a philosophy that sought a higher knowledge. It was a higher knowledge that you could not get from just normal means of reading your bible of studying. A higher enlightenment it sounds like today’s false teacher that say God will offend your mind to get to your heart.

 They also believed that matter was evil: therefore Jesus could not have been flesh and bone.

 John confronted these false teachings. However there are explicit reasons John wrote the book and he told us why.

1. Chapter 1:4

4 We are writing these things so that our joy will be complete.

2.Chapter 2:1

1 My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you will not sin

3.Chapter 2:26

26 I have written these things to you because you need to be aware of those who want to lead you astray.

4.Chapter 5:13

13 I write this to you who believe in the Son of God, so that you may know you have eternal life.

These things were written for our benefit so we won’t doubt but believe. John is talking to us about that which is real. Sometimes we wonder is this all real? Are we living a dream or a fantasy? Because God is not seen some think that he is not a reality. But the truth is reality begins with him. So that is where John began. Read verse 1.

1 The one who existed from the beginning is the one we have heard and seen. We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands. He is Jesus Christ, the Word of life.

 In the beginning God period. This is total completeness.  Genesis 1:1 and John 1:1 start in similar fashion. Let’s read them.

Gen. 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

John 1:1 In the beginning the Word already existed. He was with God, and he was God.

Before anything else was God was. He is eternal; he is the prime mover of all things. He caused the beginning of all things. God is real. God is the great I AM!

 Knowing that he exist is really not enough. We need relationship. He didn’t create this place and just leave. No God so loved the world that he sent his son. John is speaking of his own relationship with God in the flesh, Jesus.

 Think of this guys John and the other disciples talked with God directly! They ate, drank, slept, and did every other imaginable task is direct contact with the God of all creation.

Can you get this? Do you realize how momentous this was. They were at the one time in history that God would become a man.

 They had seen God. They had touched God. Now because John had been an eyewitness he was going to tell about it.

 -This we proclaim concerning the word of life.-

Read 2

2 This one who is life from God was shown to us, and we have seen him. And now we testify and announce to you that he is the one who is eternal life. He was with the Father, and then he was shown to us.

Here in verse two John says the same type of thing he said in verse one. Life appeared, it was made visible, it was manifest to us in Jesus Christ. What does John mean? We saw eternal life in Jesus. In him we could see what Adam and Eve lost in the garden the special intimate relationship with God himself. This was the lost secret of humanity. This was they way man was intended to live: in total dependence on the Father. Looking at the Earthly life of Jesus you can see this. One such example is Jesus statement in John 14:10.

Read John 14:10

10 Don't you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I say are not my own, but my Father who lives in me does his work through me.

Jesus stayed in constant fellowship and communion with the Father. Our life depends on that same type of relationship. That is why following Jesus’ example it is a good idea to give the first part of your day to put your life in line with what he wants you to do for that day. Read Mark 1:35

35 The next morning Jesus awoke long before daybreak and went out alone into the wilderness to pray.

Jesus did this to get ready for the day ahead. It won’t hurt you or me to do the same.

Verse 3 Read.

3 We are telling you about what we ourselves have actually seen and heard, so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.

What is fellowship? On Navy guy said it was two fellows on the same ship. That may be partially true because yes there is first relationship. Having things in common. We all have things in common we all are in this life together. Here were all Americans, were all living in this community and other many such things. But the fellowship we talking about here is a unique one. This is something special that comes in this New Life we have in Christ Jesus. He brought us into the new relationship with the Father.

 This fellowship is multi-leveled. First our relationship with God. First accepting what the Father has provided for us in the cross of Jesus Christ. But then we don’t just stay there. We get to know Him. We find out what pleases Him. Some I fear never even take the second step.

 The second part of this fellowship is our relationship to other believers. We are to be in relationship to each other. This means doing things together, working together, caring for one another. We walk together in the common bond of Jesus Christ and the Father.

 Why is John so concerned with our fellowship, our relationship? Because of what it says in verse 4.

Read

4 We are writing these things so that our joy will be complete.

John wrote these things our joy would be complete:

Your joy, my joy, his joy. Complete full to the brim.

Joy is our sense of contentment in Christ knowing that all things are in His control and that he loves us. It isn’t necessarily happiness. This has to do with what is happening moment by moment.  Joy is far beyond that but can include happiness. The bible says the joy of the Lord is my strength.

Got to go.

 Let’s pray.