Our advocate with the Father
1 John 2:1-2 · Roy Smith · Mar 20, 2022
Letters of John (2022), No. 07
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/49261926226205

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Today is lesson number seven, as you know, in 1 John. Actually, 1 John through 3 John would be the encompassing of this series. And it's my understanding, Roger, that Bill is working with Randy to try to get the site up so that the messages can be posted soon.

But there's been a glitch. And I was involved a little bit in that I, of course, using the tools, want to put up the messages that the Lord has given here. And I thought it was working on Friday. It sure looked like the little program that Randy wrote, came up anyway, but I didn't use it to post a message. And Bill's telling me this morning that that part of the program is not working.

So, that's where it's at. Okay, we understand. Father, we just lay that before you too. We need that cleared up, so that we can move ahead with posting what you've shared with us. Would you open your Bibles to 1 John, that's where we are this morning. Let's see if I can get this to work. Yep, it works, okay. This lesson, we have a title of Our Advocate with the Father, and it is about 1 John 2, verses 1 and 2.

There are five chapters in 1 John, so by way of just a real quick overview, The preface in verses 1 through 4, the second big section is, God is light, so his children ought to walk in the light, covers 1.5 through 2.29. The third section is, God is love, so his children ought to walk in the love, is chapter 3.1 through 5.12, and then it concludes with 5.13 through 21, And that conclusion and this outline is all found, to the grace of the Chester McCullough ministry, wordoftruthkc.org is where you can find that material.

I'm hopeful that most of you know about this, but I thought I'd show it just one more time. That's the outline of these five chapters that Chester shares in his messages. Let's review the text itself. One of the things, and this is my way of preface, that is the most helpful to me, and I hope maybe you'll pick up on that, and if you haven't already, I'll state it now.

The more times I read God's Word, the more times the Holy Spirit has an opportunity to show me God's Word. So let's review together from the New American Standard updated in 1995 version of what we've covered so far from chapter one. What was from the beginning? What we have heard? What we have seen with our eyes?

I'm in the camp with Paul that I'm losing my eyesight yesterday and working through this. I could barely see by the end of the day. So I'm going to have to go to an eye doctor again, I guess, because I'm losing my left eye a little bit. What we beheld with our hands and I'm sorry, what we beheld and our hands handled.

So he not only saw, but he touched with his hands and it was concerning the word of life. What a phrase, the word of life. That phrase is explained in verse two. The life was manifested. We have seen and bear witness and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us. What we've seen and heard, we proclaim to you that you also may have fellowship with us and indeed Our fellowship is with the Father, with His Son, Jesus Christ.

I want to emphasize something. These four verses, I believe, are the foundation that is laid by the Holy Spirit through John to be able to present to us in a form that we need to remember what he says here as we hear what he says later. Do you hear that? Remember what he says here so that we understand what he says later. These things we write, and this is the beginning of a repeated phrase through the epistle these things we write at least four times we're going to cover the second of them this morning but there's two more i'll leave that to you to discover in your reading look for them that your that our that your Both words are used in the texts of scripture that we have. The older ones, however, have it as our joy may be made complete. It doesn't really matter, does it? Both of us are involved here as believers. Those who wrote this, those who received this. That's why he wrote. joy might be full, make complete.

And this is the message that we've heard from him and announced to you that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie. We do not practice the truth. If we walk in the light as he himself 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 that we have no sin, we're deceiving ourselves. The truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, would make him a liar. And his word is not in us. Strong words. Now today's text. Verses one and two of chapter two. My little children, how endearing that is. I'm writing these things. Notice the repeat. I am writing.

I am writing these things to you. and you may not sin. And if anybody sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. He himself is the propitiation for our sins, not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world. I'll tell you, you can't get more clear when John writes something and says, I'm writing these things, he's referring back to everything he said in chapter one. That's the foundation. That you may not sin. Boy, what a statement. He is expressing God's will for us.

I'm sorry I rambled a little bit there, but that stands out to me. Let's take a look at the actual, what we would call exegesis from the words of the text. My little children, I'm writing these things to you that you may not see in this text. My little, look at that. Young people, how endearing that is. John uses this repeatedly through his epistle. This is to believers. Don't miss this. Many people teach this as not being to believers. I'm sorry. That is confusing. It was confusing to me. And I imagine it's confusing to many people to hear that taught that way. Let it be clear.

John is writing to the children of God who have believed the message that John gave them. And so he is an elder as an older man. Probably in his 90s. He was up there. Maybe older. I don't know. These are his children. Believers. Children of God. Through the message God gave. From God. These things. What things?

What he witnessed. The things that he's been talking about. I am writing, oh look, he shifts, it is no longer we, he says I here. I, he's speaking as a father to a child. To you, plural. His children in the Lord, these are believers. So that, with the result that, or with a goal in view, and that goal is very personal, it is so personal, that he encapsulates it in a personal, I don't know how to say this, in a personal way. He says it like a father to a son, like a father to a family, that you may not sin. And I've noticed something here that I had never seen before.

He uses may in Greek. May in Greek denies the idea of something. It never is used with the factual indicative mode. It is only used in the potential modes of Greek. Here it's used with a subjunctive potential. That it is possible for you to sin But he's writing this with the purpose that you would not sin.

He is expressing God's will. And because he gives it that way, he's got more to say in just a little bit. My Little Children is my literal translation. That does not encompass the full meaning of that word. That is so personal. These things I'm writing to you so that you may not sin. That's the goal. And that's the will of God. He's expressing God's will for us. That's what he's saying. Now let's take a look at the last part of verse one. And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the father, Jesus Christ, the righteous.

He begins with that conjunction chi, meaning and, also, or, even, if. And this is the beginning of a third class possible condition. By the way, there were five of them in chapter one in the same way. These are conditions that may or may not be true. It's that simple. OK? Third class means that.

And he uses aon with something other than the indicative verb. In this case, he uses it, anyone should sin. There is the subjunctive mood used with the if here, that it is a potential act of sin. And the anyone is in context, any believer, any of God's children. Comforter. Father Clayton, how big that word is.

We could spend weeks studying that. I'm going to try to cover it in just a few minutes. But I want you to know I feel very inadequate in what I say here. Very limited. He is the eternal helper, comforter, advocate, lawyer, one who has been called alongside to counsel, encourage, and defend. Everything in that word is in those short little statements. The functions of him are in you here. There's no article. The functions of him we have, according to this verb, Presently, actively, we as believers possess him. That stirs me up. I don't know about you, but he is our comforter, our advocate.

Where is he? He is face to face with the Father. fully in harmony with the Father on our behalf. Jesus our Savior faces him in harmony and only God can fathom the extent of joy that the Father and the Son enjoy with each other. And they want to share that joy with us and every member of God's new family. I want you to remember that this is what he has been talking about. He assumes that we will remember that when he says this.

Jesus Christ, righteous one, are the next phrase words. God's son, our savior. No article, so his character or essence again is in view. He's without sin, He's upright, He's just, He's good, and eternally in His existence, our Savior is giving His perfect body, His lifeblood, to make us clean and wash us from all our sins. He's the one who represents us and that brings us great comfort, doesn't it?

If anyone should sin, comforter we are having before the Father, face-to-face with the Father, intimately, sharing with him the fact that he has died in our place for our sins. Jesus Christ, the righteous one, and that is born on the end there by implication, he is the one and only, son of God.

Look at verse 2. Not satisfied with that, John amplifies it under the direction of the Holy Spirit with this. He himself, how intense that is, he himself is the propitiation for our sins. Not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world. Look at the beginning here. That personal pronoun is intense emphasis on he being involved himself. No one else. Jesus Christ, God's son, is our comforter.

The word here, elasmos, Can mean propitiation, big word, what's it mean? Can mean expiation, another big word, what's that mean? It can mean satisfaction. Not so big anymore, but really, what's being satisfied? Those are some questions that need to be answered. It is definitely for sin, And Jesus himself is the focus here, isn't it? Himself on the cross as the perfect sin offering.

He took our sin punishment. This is God's means to overcome the broken relationship set up by Adam and Eve back in the Garden of Eden of sin. God and sinful man have been separated relationally. But Jesus Christ is the one now who has released us from that separation and enabled us to be united to God in harmony and joy. That's the message John's delivering here Remember that.

He's free to do that. He himself took our punishment for our sins in his own body. He was both the offerer priest and the offering sacrifice, the perfect sacrifice. There's a ton in that word propitiation, isn't there? Notice the present active verb is being existing now and on into eternity. He is the one who satisfies any kind of guilt and any kind of penalty that is due to sin before God. Does Father know that? Yes. Does he plead that that's a fact? Yes. And does he do it continually? Yes. It's hard to just say that much, isn't it? It's hard to stop there. Guess what? The Holy Spirit doesn't stop there. He continues.

Not the sins of us alone, He continues there. I'm going to give you the literal translation of this part first. And he himself, satisfaction is being concerning the sins of us. But the verse doesn't end there. It goes on and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world. He switches the negative here to ooh, This is factual negation. It is not only concerning those of us, not only those. We are not the only ones God loves.

We who have come to believe. And there's a negative here. On the contrary, Allah. Indeed, certainly. The focus is on this contrast. Also, it is concerning all the world. And I don't know how to say this, but there is so much here that could be said. I'm going to sum it up with a little in brackets phrase. The mass of sin of the world. I got that through Freiburg and Smith online.

This is in the singular here. It is not just sins of us, plural, as well as that. It is singular. the mass of sin of the world, which includes our sins, doesn't it? The rest of the organized world of humanity, he has paid the guilt and penalty by being himself the offering and by being the priest who offers himself on our behalf. The magnitude of these two verses I can't under-emphasize. I don't know how to say it better. Not only concerning those of us alone, but on the other hand also concerning the mass of sin of all the world, is my literal end quote of that verse. Yeah, that's amazing, Roy. That's just amazing. Isn't it? It's very hard to encapsulate this in the less than 40 minutes that we have. Here's the literal rendering. I've given you the New American Standard at the top.

My rendering is, my little children, these things I'm writing to you so that you may not sin. If anyone should sin, comforter we are having before the Father, Jesus Christ, righteous one, in all his purity, he himself satisfaction as being, now and forever. Concerning the sins of us, but not only concerning those of us alone, but on the other hand also concerning the mass of sins of all the world. And to help us look at it from the perspective of the eyes of a teacher from Greece, I've included Wiest's expanded translation here. My little children, born ones, or barns in English, old English. I think he might be from that background, I don't know.

These things I'm writing to you in order that you may not commit an act of sin. If anyone commits an act of sin, one who pleads our cause, we constantly have facing the Father. Jesus Christ, the righteous one. And he himself is the expiratory satisfaction for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world. He does an awfully good job, I think.

Yeah. Well, that's our favorite. That's Karen Ott's most favorite translation, right? Yeah. By the way, I downloaded this whole thing. in the Logos software. You can get it for a nominal price. Very cheap. That's great. A bit of an overview to stir up our minds by way of remembrance here.

John wrote five of the books of the New Testament Scriptures, the Gospel of John, the one through three John letters, and the revelation of Jesus Christ is not only the revelation of Him, but it's by Him. I want to be careful with that. John's gospel is about Christ revealing his glory to us. Our past is in view in that gospel with salvation to believe being presented for the divine son being given to reveal God.

What a book. John's letters are about Christ sharing his glory with us. It is our present that he's focusing on in these letters and it has to do with the focus of sanctification resulting in harmony and joy with each other and with God himself. That's his focus. Revelations about Christ's glory being recognized and honored. It's our future, sharing his glory and praising him and all of his glory. John presents Christ as God's way of entering us into his new family. First John presents God's children as his new family in harmony and joy. Revelation presents Christ's absolute glory being recognized and honored. Paul writes in a different name, but it's parallel to this. He says we are Christ's new creation, new in time, identified as his body, positionally complete, conditionally growing into his likeness.

Isn't that something? How much of a compliment could the Holy Spirit have given us for these two human authors and these two perspectives that fit us from his perspective, his view? Some observations regarding The first chapter, verses one through four. I've taken the liberty with the text to underline and put in bold and put in some colors the emphasis that is given to us here.

And I've answered these questions. One, the time of the incarnation of Jesus Christ, God taking human form. Who? Jesus Christ, God's Son, is God's perfect human expression of God Himself. What? Things about this glorious One, who was eternally existing with God, the Father, and came as God in human flesh, to reveal God's love to man. How? By pouring out his own perfect human lifeblood unto that, to bear the guilt and penalty of man's sin, and enable the washing away of man's sin as well. Why? so that God could offer man his eternal harmony and joy personally.

What an offering and what an accomplishment. But there's more, folks. This is God's grace. Moses brought the law, but in Christ, We have grace and truth. So John does what he does in the gospel of John in his first letter here. He talks about grace first. And then in verses five through 10, he goes on with these things. A message. that God is light without darkness of any kind. And how does he present that?

There are some possibilities and some consequences for believers alone. Only believers are in view. If we can be in harmony with God, and darkness at the same time will lie. This is not reality. Notice that. When we are at home in his light and his love, we are purified from sin is reality. that we are now perfect is self-deception. It is not reality. When we agree with God about our sins, he forgives and washes all sins, is reality. And finally, when we disagree with God about our sins, We call God a liar. That is not reality.

Anybody notice the chiasm here? John is a Jew and he, using his background as a Jew, writes a chiasm here. And notice the first and the last agree, the second and the second from the last, agree. And the center is the focus of it all. We're not perfect, unless we're deceived. Isn't that something? Saying we are perfect is deception, it's not reality.

He expects us to remember this when he writes the next verses. And this encapsulates God's truth, doesn't it? Grace and truth came with Jesus Christ, he said, in the Gospel of John. Here's some observations on this. In 1 John, all of God's children are presented as the new family in harmony and joy. John assumes that believers that he is writing to will remember this personal introduction about God through Christ giving us out of his love a participation of harmony and joy, full harmony and joy, as the foundation for all that he's about to present.

Understanding that this is his style of shorthand saving and assumed to be remembered truth. It's very important to understand statements made in the remaining parts of this letter about us as members of God's unique family. Many who teach this book as being a book of tests for a person coming to know if they're saved or lost or confused, along with their teachers, I believe. They have not observed that this book is for believers. To give us assurance that God is the one who saves, holds, cleans every one of us in his new of kind family, church age believers. Check out what I'm presenting to you. The text of scripture alone, not based on what may be a favorite personal assumption, but God's reality.

A booklet by Dennis Rockster has helped me, and I think might help many. It's titled, How to Interpret 1 John, and it's available through the Grace Gospel Press. It's being sold on Amazon very inexpensively, and you can download it in e-book form, so you can naturally copy and paste it into Word and read it that way. I believe clearly he explains God's message in 1 John, from the text and context of Scripture alone.

Now some observations on the two verses that we looked at today. Notice the shift from we to my and I in the text. It's very personal. John knows that he's writing to those who are born by God's doing into this unique God-made family. upon believing the message that John has delivered to them of God's love.

John calls the recipients as little children, and repeats this in verse 12 of chapter 2, and also verse 28, chapter 3, 7, and 18, chapter 4, 4, and 5, 21. This he copies, by the way, from his gospel account of what Jesus said regarding him. being his child. The teaching is that believers are not authorized to sin. The message from God through John is to tell believers that God does not want believers to sin.

God knows his children do commit acts of sin, so God has provided his son to stand instead of us, face to face with himself. in harmony with him, that his death is not only legal payment in full for our sins, but also the offering bearing the guilt and punishment for that sin. Isn't that something?

God the Son himself has removed sin. This sin is the barrier between us and God, and by becoming both the offerer-priest and the offering-sacrifice, not only just for our sins as believers, but also for the mass of sin of the whole world. Some observations about John 2, 1 through 2. Since God the Son himself has removed sin the barrier between us and God. The issue now becomes, for harmony between us and God, do we believe God has done this for us?

All of the following information that 1 John is based upon, these truths presented to us at this point in 1 John. Keep this observation in mind as you read and observe God's message to us in the rest of this letter. He wrote expecting the believers that he wrote to would receive this letter and remember these foundational truths given at the beginning and automatically supply it correctly, understanding what he says in the rest of the letter. By way of a summary, I'd like to just conclude with this.

God gave through John's writing these things about his son and his new family. He created us, he now lives in us, his glory is revealed through us, and his glory will forever be praised. What a work of God through the gospel, through the letters, and through the revelation. he has done to clearly present himself to us. What a blessing, huh? I'm ending here, but open to questions. So I like that at the last there in verse 2, that it talks about, he says, but also for the whole world. So that's actually, that was from Freiberg, you said, about the mass of sin?

Yeah, and Smith, and I think there's another person, oh gosh, I don't know, folks, I'd have to look it up, but I know Smith was involved in that as well. But the bottom line is that it doesn't really matter. It's a singular form. It has to do with the totality in a singular view. when we speak of Christ paying for this, you know, for all, you know, the total masses and that really brings it home rather than you think of the whole world, you say, well, maybe, you know, it doesn't seem as inclusive enough, but with the value of a map, the entire mass, it does. That's really good.

Could you also say there that it's like, um, Because it's all of our sins, so it's both personal and that huge mass where it's like he gathered all of those sins of each of us individually into this mass. You know what I mean? Like, I don't know how to explain it. Well, I think it helps us to see that it's also, we often say it's past, present, and future. Well, this kind of helps that idea. I mean, it helps that, we'll say that, you know, when we talk about Christ's propitiation for our sins, and this is really, I think it's really outstanding that the whole world takes that you know, accounts for that, and the whole mass, and it makes it easier to understand, at least in my mind.

Yeah. It is based on that that we enter into his family in the first place. Right. That barrier has been removed totally. But by the same token, if we don't believe that to be true, and accept that gift, we bear eternally our sins. by being separated from Him forever. I tell you, that's something, isn't it? Yeah, it is. And that's the message that the unsaved need to understand, that the transaction between God and man has been satisfied by His Son, and He took care of every single sin, this mass of sin.

And that's what makes that so wonderful, that rendering of that. Okay. Amazing. Yeah. Hi, Sue. You have something? No, just, you know. I think we probably need to close in prayer. Shall we do that now? Okay. Our Heavenly Father, looking at what you've done for us through the words that have been written, so that we may understand your will is that we do not sin. Peter put it, of course, in the positive way that we'd be holy because you are holy. Here we have it in the negative way that he doesn't want us to commit an act of sin. Oh boy.

You are magnifying this truth before us through, you know, the ongoing studies that we've had both in Peter and in 1 John here, coming to know you more intimately, more in harmony with you and your thinking, more inclusive with you and your joy. Father, we commit unto you the service that follows. We pray that in that service as well you would reveal yourself Clearly to us, in Christ's name, amen.