Welcome to Bible Insights with Wayne Conrad. God's word is a lamp to our feet and a light on our path. God's word brings enlightenment to our understanding.

Today's topic, why a pastoral letter? I want to introduce you to one of the great pastors of the first century. His name is John. He was probably the youngest of Christ's disciples or apostles. And there was a very deep affection between Jesus and John that we're told about.

And John writes his gospel. It's unique in the gospel narratives. There are Matthew, Mark, Luke, and then John. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all are referred to as the Synoptic Gospels. They sort of parallel one another. There are narrative style. One is didactic, but the Gospel of John is different. In the Gospel of John, he focuses only on seven signs that Jesus is the Messiah, the Christ. And then for the second part of his letter, He emphasizes Jesus' teaching just before he goes to the cross. And he gives us the most extended section concerning Jesus' post-resurrection appearances.

But John never leaves us in the dark as about why he writes. That's one thing I really, really like about him. You don't have to guess as to why he's writing his book. For instance, in the Gospel of John, when he gives us the first sign, that is the turning of the water into wine at the wedding of Cana, he writes, this is the first of his signs Jesus did at Cana of Galilee and manifested his glory and his disciples believed in him.

So then for the next 11 chapters, all the way up to chapter 12 and possibly into some chapter 12, John focuses on these signs that Jesus did that proved to his disciples that he was the Christ. But then when he comes to the end of the book, he lays it all out. He says, now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples. I'm reading from John chapter 20 in verse 30. But these are written. so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing, you may have life in his name.

He's written as a testimony. His book is a testimony as to the signs that prove Jesus is the promised one, that he is the Messiah. Having laid out the evidence, he wants us then to Come in faith to this living Christ, this living Jesus Christ, who is the Son of God, because by believing on Him, we will have eternal life.

Now, John also wrote some letters to the churches, and they're known as 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John. in our particular congregation, we're going to be preaching through 1 John for the next several weeks, at least a month and maybe more. And in 1 John, he also is very clear as to why he's writing. In fact, he's clearer than he was in the Gospel of John because he has more than one reason why he's writing. He's addressing issues. That's why a pastor writes to his congregation.

I was a pastor a long time ago, and when I was a pastor, I did occasionally write pastoral letters to the congregation. And I would tell them maybe the direction we were headed. I would share concerns and teachings with them, or exhortations, encouragements, acknowledgments. It was a personal communication from me to the people to whom God had given me the privilege of shepherding as his under shepherd. And that's John, that's his heart. As he writes his epistle of 1st, 2nd and 3rd John, especially 1st John, he has something on his heart. And he wants to share his concerns. He wants to bolster their true fellowship. And at the same time, he wants to give them the truth that they will need to overcome false doctrine that is crept into the fellowships. And as a result is hindering the life of the Christian. Because it's hindering it by a corruption of the truth and a corruption of the Christian lifestyle. And so he writes of his concern and he lays out the truth that we need to hold on to so that we can resist the infiltration of the enemy.

First John, he gives several reasons. Let me introduce you to those. If you hear my paper rustling, it's because I'm moving the pages of 1 John while I read from the text. And particularly, I'm just using this particular translation today. It's not the one I use all the time, but it's the one I was studying from today. It's called the New English Translation or the Net Bible.

And John writes in the opening paragraph while he's writing, he says, What we, he's talking about the apostles, among whom he is one, what we have seen and heard, we announce to you, so that you may have fellowship with us, that is, with us, apostles, who were eyewitnesses to Jesus Christ, that Christ we saw, we heard, we touched, we shared life with him, He is eternal life. He is the word of life. That's who we knew. That's who we shared with you. That's who we have fellowship with. And what we have seen and heard, we announce to you so that you may have fellowship with us. And indeed our fellowship is with the father and with his son, Jesus Christ. Thus we're writing these things so that our joy may be complete. Now your translator may say your joy or our joy. They really are together. You see, John's joy will be complete when their joy has been restored. So the restoration of joy to them will bring a completion of joy to him.

Now he mentions the gospel message, the things he has proclaimed. The second reason he gives in what we call chapter two, verse one, he says, my little children, I'm writing these things to you so that you may not sin. Now that's on the heart of every pastor. We want God's people to grow in holiness and not to stumble into sin. That is to develop some kind of repetition of sinful behavior, either because of false teaching or because of false influence. We do not want God's people to sin, nor do we want to sin. But in addition, he wants us not to sin, but he does want us to know this. If we sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ. And that advocate, the righteous one who died for us, will take care of our sins because he was the atoning sacrifice for our sins. So he wants us to know he doesn't want us to sin, but when we do sin, then we should confess our sin, acknowledge it before God, name it. and God will cleanse us because of what Christ has done for us. Yes, he wants us to walk as Jesus walked. Jesus did not walk in sin. He walked in holiness. But we are sinful and sometimes we stumble, but we should not lose heart because we have an advocate with the Father.

He also indicates that he's writing a new old commandment to them. I say new and old because sometimes when you're reading the epistle of John, he'll have these contrasts, they're like black and white contrasts, and you scratch your head. That's why some people sort of stay away from this particular letter. They don't know what to do with his polemical contrast. Sometimes he'll say darkness and light. And then, like here, he says, I'm not writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment you've had from the beginning. An old commandment is the word that you've already heard. On the other hand, I'm writing a new commandment to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light's already shining.

So what is it, John? Is it an old or a new commandment? Well, it's the old commandment that comes to us in a new form. You find this also in the gospel narratives, in John chapter 13. The new commandment is the old commandment that we should love one another, but the new part of it is that we should love one another as Christ loves us. You see, it raises the standard, and that's what makes the old a new commandment, because now we know what love looks like. We know how love behaves, because Christ has demonstrated it for us. We are to love one another as Christ loves us.

And then, so that no one feels left out, and he singles out each group of the church in three classifications, again in chapter two and verses 12 through 14. And he repeats himself in these, so I'm gonna try to summarize them for you. I'm writing to you little children. He's talking about little children of the faith. Yeah. The young ones in the faith. He's not talking about children, children per se. He's talking about those that are new Christians, new believers. I'm writing to you little children that your sins have been forgiven because of his name. And in light of that, he repeats this. I've written to you children that you have known the father. He wants them to know with surety that they have salvation, that their sins have been forgiven because of what Christ has done for them. He wants his children in the faith to walk in assurance.

And then he writes to the mature ones, he calls them the fathers. They've been in the faith. They're birthing children through their witness to Christ. And now they must raise those children. He says, I'm writing to you fathers, that you have known him who has been from the beginning. I'm writing to you, fathers, that you've known him who has been from the beginning." He repeats it. Same sentence. He's saying, I'm writing to you because you've known him. You've known him for a long time, is what he's saying. You're mature in the faith. So I'm writing you. Why is he writing? He wants him to remember. what they've been taught because they're gonna need that to overcome the infiltration of false things in the congregation.

And then he writes to the young people. These are, we shall call them the spiritual adolescents or the spiritual young adults of our day. I'm writing to you young people that you have conquered the evil one. Now that's a wonderful statement. It indicates that they've been in conflict and they conquered the evil one. But then he repeats, I've written to you, young people, that you are strong and that the word of God resides in you and you have conquered the evil one. So now he's telling the, you conquered the evil one, why? Because you are spiritually strong because the word of God resides in you. And the word, remember, is our weapon. It's our sword by which we fight falsehood.

And then he takes up the issue of loving the world versus loving God. He takes up the issue of the Antichrist. The Apostle John is the one who speaks the most about the Antichrist. I think we have a lot of confusion sometimes about that doctrine because we're only looking maybe at what Paul wrote or our interpretation of what Paul wrote. But then he goes on in verse 26 of this chapter to say, these things I have written to you about those who are trying to deceive you. So we know he has concern that false doctrine and that results in a false lifestyle has infiltrated the assemblies. He wants them to know that if you have the son, you have the father, and if you have the father and the son, then you have eternal life.

Now this is the promise that he himself made to us, eternal life. And I've written these things about to you about those who are trying to deceive you. They're trying to deceive them in what way? They're trying to deceive them in lifestyle that mixes blatant sin with holiness. They don't mix. Walking after the world rather than walking after Christ.

But how do we overcome? We overcome falsehood by understanding, embracing truth. and letting the truth of what God has done in Christ and what he has accomplished in us when he's brought us to faith in Christ and given us eternal life, when we let this knowledge come against falsehood, then we have what it takes to overcome the evil one.

Now, there are many other reasons why he is writing this letter. All of them are perfectly related, but I don't want to delay. We'll stop at this point on why he wrote this letter. And there are some other reasons that he gives, and perhaps we will return to them in a future podcast. But let me summarize it. In Chapter 5, Verse 13, I've written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.

And what is eternal life? Well, eternal life is the knowledge of Jesus Christ, the knowledge of God in Jesus Christ. In verse 20, he says, we know the Son of God has come and given us insight to know him who is true. And we are in Him who is true, in His Son, Jesus Christ. This one is the true God and eternal life.

This has been Wayne Conrad with Bible Insights.