Introduction

Around 100AD, the churches in and around Ephesus underwent all kinds of turmoil, tension, and conflict. This was not so much to do with external persecution as internal strife because of false teaching.

Early records indicate that the Apostle John (the “Beloved”) lived in Ephesus at this time, and that he wrote his Gospel and three letters partly to counter some of the false views that were going around.

He wanted people to not be led astray but to know who the real God is and how everyone can get to know him. Because John was one of Jesus’ inner circle of three with Peter and James, he knew the truth about his identity and his deity—that he really is the Son of God who became a human being, the Word made flesh.

The chief trouble-maker in Ephesus may have been a man named Cerinthus he claimed to be a Christ follower but had been influenced and taught wrong beliefs, close to what became something called Docetism.

These teachers had no problem believing Jesus was God but he only appeared to be human. They were influenced by Greek thought where spirit is pure and matter evil. So the false teachers denied that Jesus Christ could be heavenly and earthly at the same time.

This led to a variety of splits in the church over the next decades with some denying Jesus was fully God, and others denying he was truly human. John confronts both of those wrong ideas (1 John 2:22; 1 John 4:2-3).

In paintings artists historically tended to portray John as kind of weak and effeminate, the only one of the twelve who can’t grow a beard. But when you read what he writes you’ll see he doesn’t mess about!

It may shock us at times in our day when there seems to be no right and nothing wrong except to hurt someone’s feelings. John is black and white, very clear with no compromise, strong convictions and many contrasts.

For John the danger he warns of is that wrong belief leads to wrong behaviour, with people saying it doesn’t matter what you do with your body, as long as your soul is pure.

John wrote the fourth Gospel to show historically that Jesus Christ is full God and fully man. Decades later in 1 John he writes what is really a sermon, to remind believers of that truth they have already believed and to show the difference in our lives as individuals and together that believing in Jesus makes.

It wasn’t a popular truth in his day to say Jesus is Lord because the world said Caesar was lord. Soon John would be exiled on a prison island for holding onto the truth of Scripture in a world that won’t tolerate it and that’s where he received and wrote the final book of the Bible, Revelation.

Tough Love

When John wrote 1 John he was in his late 80s or early 90s and his compelling reflections come from a place of deep spiritual maturity. In his youth, John was a bit of an angry young man known for his fiery zeal nature, wanting God to vapourise his opponents. Jesus nicknamed him one of the Sons of Thunder.

Now, in his old age, he’s a more humble, reflective, and tender, often referring to his beloved readers as "little children.” He’s never unloving, but John’s way is tough love because it won’t compromise truth.

Loving the truth is true love, so despite the pressure to conform he did not shy away from calling out the false ideas, teachings, and teachers infecting believers in the churches. In those days you didn’t check out churches to find which ones had the best programs to meet your needs. You were called to be all in, and John’s letters bring truth and clarity in the face of false teachings.

His primary aim was to remind and reassure the early Christians of the truth of Christianity, and the tests of whether you or anyone else is a disciple.

The Apostle Paul warned the believers there in Ephesus that the very thing they were facing would happen long before in Acts 20:29-30. He told them in the future "savage wolves" would come in, not sparing the flock, heretics distorting the truth.

Now the wolves were wearing sheep’s clothing or shepherd’s robes, “Who is Jesus really? Who is a true believer? How should believers live?”

John’s response as that prophecy was fulfilled in his day (and I believe it’s happening again right now), was to focus on the essence of true Christianity, centred on the person of Jesus Christ; what we must do to be saved by him, and the difference it should show in our lives if we say we are Christians.

Heresy, in the essence of the word, means to "select or choose," often by mixing some truth with personal opinions, picking and choosing the bits of truth that suit me and usually won’t change or challenge me. So there’s NO transformation required or possible.

John's letters remind us that Christianity is not just a set of ethical guidelines or doctrines to discuss, debate, and discard if we don’t like the sound of them, but as we’ll see right at the start of the letter it’s all about Jesus. The real Jesus.

It’s about our relationship with a real person who is fully God and fully human who is the only One who can fully save us, body, mind, and spirit, forever.

Let’s all open our hearts to the transforming love of Christ, which has the power to renew and reshape our lives in profound ways, so we go and change the world for him as the first readers were challenged to, whatever the world says.

The Three Letters

All three letters are written at a time when the church was made-up of house churches where various travelling preachers would roll up to offer their teaching.

1 John and 2 John have a particular emphasis on warning about false teaching and teachers who would bring heresy into the church and how to discern and deal with them (very timely!). 3 John encourages us not to shut the door so much that we keep out the truth from good teachers.

John's view of the world and the spiritual warfare we are in and the way he communicates is quite shocking to the relativistic (i.e. “your truth is good for you and mine is good for me” worldview of our day), where anything goes and everything’s just an opinion.

John draws absolute contrasts—light or dark, truth or lie, love or hate, children of God or children of Satan, Christ and antichrist, love of the Father or love of the world, heaven or hell. He doesn't go for middle ways as he warns people to hold on to the truth of Scripture, especially about who Jesus really is—fully man and fully God.

John wants us to know Christianity is not a system of religious practices, beliefs, philosophy, or spirituality where you can pick and choose whatever bits suit you, your preferences, and lifestyle choices.

He is writing to a confused church in danger to say it’s all about a relationship with a person who is the Lord, Jesus Christ. In the opening of his first letter he says, “Jesus is REAL, He leads us to REAL LIFE, when He is the One who is PREACHED, and everyone who knows him receives real transforming JOY in their lives.”

(Read 1 John 1:1-4)

Fact, Not Fiction

There’s no introduction or greeting, he starts off like he did in his Gospel. He wants us to know that Jesus Christ always was. He didn’t have a beginning or become God. Christ is eternal, the Alpha and Omega, without beginning or end.

The language here also echoes back to the very start of the Bible, Genesis 1:1: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” He’s telling us Jesus is God.

Here and in his Gospel, John says God became a man and came to earth, and he knew him. John had a personal encounter with him that transformed John forever. He’s been with Jesus from the start of Jesus’ ministry and what John is writing about Jesus is true, eyewitness accounts. It really happened!

The birth when he became flesh, the death when his blood was shed on the Cross, the empty tomb. The ascension to heaven. It’s all facts. It’s not sentimental stories or marvellous myths.

God became man and John walked the roads and shared meals with him, heard what Jesus taught, John saw miracles with his own eyes, as he observed closely the reality of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. John touched Jesus with his own hands so true Christianity is where Jesus is fact not fiction.

Preached, Not Private

This isn’t only “true for John” as a religious choice. It’s simply true. He has met and known God. Lived with him for three years as he became his disciple. John discovered and believed Jesus really is the Christ, the Messiah, the King, the Son of God.

Then he’d been commissioned by the resurrected Christ to go to all nations and make more disciples by preaching and proclaiming, declaring and demonstrating it’s all true. Not just a private religious choice, true for me. Jesus is the truth for everyone, so everyone needs to know that Jesus is Lord.

He is God. He’s the only one who defeated death. He became fully human so he could hurt like we do. He alone can bring us to everlasting life with the Father. When John preaches and teaches the truth, he is all about Jesus and he wants these people, in these churches, to be all about Jesus too.

Watch out for churches and teachers that talk about everything but Jesus and how you can know him.

I’m always amazed, but no longer surprised by that. I sat through a talk years ago as a church member while we were waiting for the next leader and a Vicar came along on Easter Day and all he talked about was cricket. I thought he was going to use it as an illustration or something but no.

I saw recently a post where everyone was invited to come to hear a new minister, a Bishop actually, “come and hear his gospel.” All about the environment and Creation Care. Great! But that’s not the gospel. We don’t just tag Jesus onto our politics and says that’s the gospel.

How many things that churches go on about have nothing to do with Jesus?

There are all kinds of things we can talk about because we love Jesus and people, and what the Word of God has to say about sex or social issues, but those are not what we are all about. Church is not about baking, bell ringing, or basket weaving. It’s a supernatural community that’s all about JESUS.

If it’s about anything else, it may be a club, a political party, a community event, or gathering – but it’s not church! Because it’s fact not fiction, it’s not private religion but Christ must be preached to everyone because as he goes on to say in verse 3.

Shared, Not Selfish

Not self-focused, other focused and God focused in fellowship. It’s not all about me. It’s not all about you. It’s all about him.

A cross shaped love pulls us together, however different we are. That true message of who Jesus Christ is and what he has done brings us to unity.

A focus on unity is nice, but may not bring us together. It may often do the opposite as we notice the differences rather than celebrate them. John says, “We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, (why? What’s it for?) so that you also may have fellowship with us (horizontal). And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ (vertical).”

When we make Jesus, the Cross, the resurrection, the gospel, the focus, it brings us closer together. And we never stop growing and deepening, both ways.

There’s relationship—horizontal—with one another. But that only comes because we have both been reconciled—vertical—with God the Father through Jesus Christ in the power of the Spirit and are living for him. So now we can have fellowship together because of our shared belief not our selfish concerns and that’s biblical community.

That’s what the early church was like. We read in Acts 2:42: “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship ….” That’s the same word there. Why did they have such deep horizontal fellowship to one another? Because they didn’t just watch their favourite preachers online or even just come along on Sundays. They met in homes where they went deeper in prayer and worship and the Word with one another. They did the Jesus life together.

Do you feel like you’re growing as a Christian or stuck? How do we grow? We grow together.

So, John says true Christianity is all about Jesus and so it’s Fact, not Fiction. It’s Jesus who is preached, we proclaim him to everyone, in a shared life together that’s not self focused.

Rejoicing, Not Religion

The false teachers who were infiltrating the church with their fancy robes, and irrelevant qualifications, complicated arguments, and strange doctrines might have looked religious, but it was empty ritual. There’s no joy in that. They didn’t even know Jesus.

The difference Jesus makes in our lives, and this is one of the tests of true faith we are going to see as we go on in the letters, is we are filled with joy!

Joy no matter what. Joy even when it’s hard. When we are persecuted for what we believe. Joy that changes everything, even if everything doesn’t change.

The fellowship Jesus brings us into together with God and one another is the answer to spiritual loneliness, and joy in Jesus is the answer to spiritual emptiness.

Religion can never give you that. But true Christianity is not religion, it’s rejoicing, in Jesus.

We saw it in verse 4: “We write this to make our joy complete.”

The word “complete” means to be filled full up to the brim. What are we full of? You can tell when life knocks you.

Conclusion

Before we meet again next week can I ask you to do something? In Philippians 4:4 the Apostle Paul famously said, “Rejoice IN THE LORD, always – I’ll say it again – REJOICE!”

When we have Jesus, whatever is going on, we can have joy in Jesus.

So later today, before bedtime, make a rejoicing list. Take a sheet of paper and write at the top Reasons to Rejoice – IN JESUS.

There’s always so much bad news, but rather than focus on that give yourself five or ten minutes and start to list as many reasons as you can think of to rejoice. Rejoice in the Lord!

I did it recently after I remembered that yes my relationship with Jesus is fact, he’s real, so I can always rejoice in him. God came to earth to save us. Then I wrote down some reasons for rejoicing:

1) My sins are forgiven, now and forever!

2) I know God – he’s my loving heavenly Father

3) I can pray knowing all things are possible

4) I have a wife who loves me and a wonderful family

5) I have some great friends.

6) I’m part of an amazing loving church family.

7) I have the Word of God to guide me

8) The Holy Spirit to lead me

9) Enough money to give, save, and pay my bills

10) A few good books I’m reading

11) Good health

12) People who pray for me

13) Exciting projects planned for the future.

And if I ever get stuck I can just write Jesus again. Because I know him I know I’ll always have joy whatever happens, and even if there were less things on my list in terms of blessings Jesus is always my number one reason for rejoicing.

As the series progresses and you study this for yourself you’ll see how often John gets fired up with rejoicing because of Jesus.

He writes about some children in the church in 2 John 4: “It has given me great joy to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as the Father commanded us.” I love to see how the kids here at Ivy are growing in the Lord and they’re going to be studying this alongside us too.

John also rejoiced when saw he saw those in the church he considered his spiritual children in the church were living for the Lord too in 3 John 4 he says: “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.”

That’s going to be my prayer for all of us, that we will all go deeper in the Word of God, to walk in the truth, not stumbling in the dark but walking in the light.

Anthony Delaney is a Leader at Ivy Church in Manchester. He is also the leader for New Thing and the LAUNCH conference. He is an author and hosts the television show “Transforming Life.”