 We'll get started on the epistels of John now. I know this class onwards so we'll begin with an introduction to the first epistel of John a Little more specifically and also maybe we can just touch a little bit upon the other two Epistels as well. So this is just a brief introduction But next class onwards, we will be looking at the first epistle of John verse by verse today is just the Introduction so we look at the authorship We look at why the book why these epistels why these letters were written the purpose for it and Maybe very briefly the message which they contain So coming to authorship It was quite a controversial issue earlier In the very beginning, you know in the early church after the times of the early church during the early phase when you had many of these ancient church writers At that time there was a lot of controversy because people were not very sure whether or not they should consider Apostle John as the writer of these letters Because when if you were to look in your first John chapter 1, you will see that there it doesn't There's no introduction of any kind He just starts off the letter without even giving one line of introduction. He doesn't Explain who is writing? He doesn't explain to whom he is writing without any kind of address Addressing to of the people. He just quickly starts off with the subject matter And it's only in the book of Hebrews and in the first epistle of John that we see this When not even one word of explanation is given as to who is writing and you know why they are writing so However in second John and third John at least he introduces himself as the elder, okay, so In none of these three places does it very clearly say, you know, I am the disciple of Jesus who is writing this particular letter so Why do we say that these three epistles that these three letters belong to John? Why do we see that John is the writer of these? One main reason that people place put forward is that Polycarp of Smirna, he was considered a disciple of of John So he writes a letter to the Philippines and when he does that he makes quotations You know in in his letter to the Philippines. He includes quotations from the first epistle of John first John 4 2 to 3 and he also mentions first John to 24 in his letter and Because he was considered a disciple of John they say that he must have quoted from whatever he has learned from You know his his master's Epistles however Irene's of Leon's is the first one who specifically says that these letters first John and second John Were clearly written by John, okay? So he very clearly says that they were written by John so based on polycarps quotations And based on what Irene is openly says about the authorship we today accept that John was probably the author There's another person you see BS who also was one of these ancient, you know Christian writers and He says that many people consider the second John and third John as Antelego Mina. They had two lists of Of You know at that time the New Testament had not yet been fully put together and they were still considering which Letters should be considered as canonical and which should be you know, just left as letters and So at that time they had formed a list of two types of letters. The Lego Mina were the letters which Are regarded as being you know inspired they are they regarded as letters, which were written directly by the Apostles Or at least someone who was you know in close association with the Apostles on the other hand the Antelego Mina was a list would include letters where they are not very sure whether those people were Directly people who had known Jesus and associated with him or at least had associated with the disciples So you see this says that the second John and third John had been placed in the Antelego Mina list In the beginning, but he says that he personally is convinced that John himself has written written it So there's there's this little bit of controversy that was going on in the early times Regarding who the writer of these letters is However, they point out that when it comes to the subject matter Which is talked about in these letters and the kind of grammar and syntax and all which is used They say there's a great similarity between the Gospel of John and these epistels Which seems to indicate that they are that they're all being authored by the same person one main thing that we see about The Gospel of John is that John always uses contrasts. He talks about light and darkness He talks about the children of God and the and the children of the of the devil You know, he talks about truth and he talks about falsehood. So John always makes contrasts and we see that we see this very same thing even in the first Epistle of John we see many sets of contrasts being given and so They say that based on the similarity of the subject matter Based on the kind of Wordings that are used they all these epistels and the Gospel were all written by the same person We also see that Some of the very specific words and phrases which are used in The Gospel of John those very specific words and phrases are also found in the epistels For example, maybe we can just look at one example and if I know someone could actually read out a couple of verses for us Please if someone could read out for us first John chapter 3 verse 8 And then we will see how this particular verse You know resonates with something that is mentioned in the Gospel of John first John chapter 3 verse 8 if someone could read out please The devil has been sinning from the beginning the reason the Son of God appears was to destroy the words of the devil Yeah, and this we have almost similar wording even in the Gospel of John So if you could read out John chapter 8 verse 44 John 844 please You are of your father the devil and you and your will Do what your father does He was a medriath from the beginning and does not understand Because there is no truth in me when we lies It's this out of his own character for he is a liar So we see both in first John 3 8 and in John 8 44 Very similar things as said in first John 3 8 it says the one who does what is sinful is of the devil and In John 8 44 the same thing is again repeated you belong to your father the devil and in First John 3 8 it says the devil has been sinning from the beginning and here in John 8 44 It again says something similar. He was a murderer from the beginning And I've just used one example You would have something like 20 30 you know Versus passages where you have similarities so if you were to go to one of these commentaries you'll have an entire list where they look at the Phrases used in the gospel of John and the phrases used over here in The epistels of John and they point out the great similarity in subject matter Great similarity in the phrases and wordings that are used So based on this based on the pattern based on the style Writing style in in in these particular epistels They say that they were all written by the same author now. You know those of us who are just Students of the bible and we just want to learn something from the word of god We kind of may ask ourselves Where is the need to know go into such depth about all of these things? But it matters right Because if someone makes the allegation that no these letters that you know regarding as John's works are in fact written by Some unknown person who never even knew Jesus and was never even associated with the disciples if they make an allegation like that then What we are holding on to as the truth, you know comes under question So it is important for us as students of the bible to know these things To understand how with great care The people in the past, you know the people who were there in the in the early times They took the effort to really analyze to look at the different writings of the different people To see what they are saying about these epistels And to you know compare and contrast and really find out whether either these this was genuinely authored by someone who personally knew Jesus or at least knew one of the disciples You know in a in a close manner and would probably have been taught by them So these things do matter for us Another thing that we see over here another similarity that we see Is the emphasis that is placed on Jesus coming in the flesh now that gets repeated a lot you know in Second John chapter seven It talks about Deceivers I say this because many deceivers who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh Have gone out into the world In first John 4 to a similar thing is expressed Where it says every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. So These epistels were written because there were false teachings going around about Jesus and John specifically writes these epistels to put an end to all of these wrong deceptive teachings which are going around And therefore he says, you know when he Starts writing first John chapter one. He in the beginning itself. He says That which was from the beginning which we have heard which we have seen with our eyes Which we have looked at and our hands have touched This we proclaim concerning the word of life, you know So he says again in verse three again He repeats himself and he says we proclaim to you what we have seen and heard and so He's urging the people in these letters in these epistels not to be Deceived not to be led away But he says, you know, we are witnesses. We have actually heard Jesus speaking We have we are putting down things which he has taught and so do not be led away by these false teachers who are you know teaching something wrong now There are people who Protested and said that they I know that a different person had Had written these epistels simply because they did not like the Teachings which were given in revelation. So because of that A lot of scholars They did not want to accept that john wrote the things which are written in the book of revelation And so they raised many many issues They raised all kinds of arguments Simply because for them it seemed very unacceptable that the man who wrote the gospel of john Would also have written revelation because in a revelation there was a lot of Debate going on about the millennium. What exactly does the millennium millennial period? You know talk about So all of those theories And the controversy surrounding those Went to such an extent where people were saying that no no no You know the disciple of john would never have written these things So they must have been a different john and so a theory came up at that time Saying that there were two johns one was john the elder because you know in second john and third john The writer addresses himself as john the elder So they began to say there's somebody named john the elder who wrote these epistels On the other hand the gospel of john was not written by john the elder But by john the apostle and so they began to say that there are two johns One is the apostle and one is the elder However, this is not a very good, you know explanation Because You know even paul in some places he addresses himself as one of the elders. Okay, so It's a term which the apostles used for themselves They were apostles in their calling but they also addressed themselves as elders and So we cannot say that This person john the elder is a different man and that he is not, you know, you're the disciple of jesus And moreover they say that you know john probably just simply referred to himself as john the elder because He was very well known. He had done a lot of years of ministry in emphasis In fact, you know, he even dies over there. His grave is also in emphasis itself I think it's iranious who says that that both john and his disciple poly cup They were you know, they died and they were buried in emphasis. So Ephesus was like the you know epicenter of a growing ministry So john would go out from there to different places Uh, you know doing follow-up work and then he would come back to the main center Which is emphasis and from there he was you know functioning. He was doing his ministry So he was very widely well known and so in his letters He just simply you know calls himself the elder because anyway, they will know who he is He doesn't need to give a given explanation about how he was a disciple of jesus and all of that Now coming to the occasion. Why was this book written? um Like I said, uh, he explains to uh to us in john says in first john chapter two was 26 I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray So he talks about three categories of people who are leading uh the church astray The first he calls them false prophets um That would be in first john chapter four verse one where he talks about uh, the false prophets now, um The prophets are supposed to be people who are speaking under the inspiration of the spirit Okay, so if it is a true prophet He would be speaking under the inspiration of the holy spirit On the other hand the false prophets would be speaking under the in under the inspiration of another spirit Not the holy spirit, but a fallen spirit So they would be false prophets in that sense, which is why in um, you know first john chapter four He says, um, you know, uh, he calls the examining of the you know, the teachings of the prophets He calls it the testing of the spirits. He doesn't just say, uh, you know an analysis of the prophets teachings Rather, he says testing of the spirits so why because uh, one set of teachings is coming down through a false spirit and the other set of teachings are coming down through the holy spirit and um So it's not just a matter of belief systems It's not just a matter of opinions. It's literally needing to know Whether what you are hearing and what you're being taught is coming out from the holy spirit directly the source You know, whether the source is the holy spirit Or whether these teachings which are being taught to you are coming from another spirit And it's very very important for us to discern that and so he says test the spirits Whenever something is being taught to you immediately, you know, depend on the lord and seek his guidance Um, uh, which is why, you know, discerning of the spirits is considered one of the giftings So you need to be able to know, uh, whether the things that are being taught Come from the holy spirit or that they're coming from an other spirit So he talks about these false prophets who are speaking through a Wrong false spirit and the second term that he uses for people who are leading the church astray Is the term deceivers. That's the term that is used in second john, uh, verse seven where he says that uh, deceivers are, uh, you know, um Very cleverly using half truths To make the people think that what is being said is the whole truth And in that way people are getting led astray and the third term that he uses he calls them Antichrists, uh, wherever he uses the word antichrists He's talking about people who are saying wrong things about the Divinity and the humanity of christ. Okay, so, uh, we, uh, you know, from what we see in the gospels We, uh, realized that Jesus was fully human and he was also fully god But then these antichrists, um, they are having they're bringing wrong doctrines about christ So they'll either say that he was, um, not fully human Or they will say no, no, he was not fully god So wrong doctrines like that, uh, were being brought in through the antichrists the ones who are against the actual correct teaching about christ Um Okay, there are two errors which are mainly dealt with One is a theological error which the people, uh, which the teachers or the wrong teachers were bringing in and there was an ethical error Okay, the theological error was mainly regarding the incarnation of jesus christ So they were saying that jesus did not really come down in the flesh That was the main theological error that was being made And the ethical error that was being made, um, was that, um Humans are not really, uh, you know, I mean believers. Believers are not really, uh, sinful uh because they have been Forgiven by god and they have been brought into his family So, you know, we, uh, the doctrine exists even today people who say that believers cannot sin When we do something which goes against god's word, it's it's a mistake that we have done But we are we can no longer sin Whatever we do, it is no longer a sin because we have been declared righteous righteous people cannot sin Uh, you know, so that was another wrong doctrine that was coming in. So, um, The theological error was that they were denying the entire complete Divinity and humanity of jesus the ethical error that the false teachers were bringing in is that No, no, no, it is not possible for believers to sin Which is why right in first john 1 9 he says uh first on first on 1 8 He says if you are saying that you're never sin, then, you know, you are being deceived. Uh, so Um, so all of we of course, you know, we'll be looking at all of these things in greater detail Uh, even as we go through the letters and the really interesting thing The important thing is that many of those false doctrines which were prevailing at that time They are prevailing in our churches even today And it's very very risky very very dangerous. So we need to know, um About these things and we will be studying them in detail. We need to know our doctrines correctly. So, uh So john takes the effort to write down these things so that believers are not led astray um When I was doing my theological education, uh, I Wait, this was many years ago There was this person who had come and um, he Was from a very reputed College in the usa So, you know, he had done a way his detailed studies. He knew his greek inside out and all of that and He used to teach used to say that We don't be believers don't have to know worry when we Are doing something that goes against god's word because we are incapable of sin He whatever we are doing it is not sin. In fact, he went to the extent of saying that if a person is addicted to something It's all right. You know, they just have to go on praying and saying lord, you know You release me from my addiction and you go on continuing doing those things which you are doing Because one day when it is time god will just bring you out of it And a whole bunch of other stuffs and He came under a lot of criticism and I think two years after that They stopped inviting him to come and teach in that institution because he was creating a lot of havoc with his doctrines so You know, we all of these things are prevailing even in the in the church even uh today So, um, it is so we are not looking at something. We just outdated We would be dealing when you know, even as we go through these three epistels We would be dealing with issues, uh, which are, you know, uh rearing their head even today among us in our current church So, uh, let's just very briefly, you know, look at three main wrong doctrines and the technical terms that are used for them and Yeah, let's see. Maybe we we don't need to go the entire You know, 15 minutes. We'll see how much ever we can, you know, look at and then we'll just close The first main thing was dosetism Okay, d-o-c-e-t-i-s-m uh, dosetism was basically this belief that Even though jesus was, you know, moving around among people as a human being He wasn't actually completely human Uh, he was still holding on to a lot of his divine, um, you know characteristics and he continued to use those, you know He did not give up. He did not surrender all of those supernatural divine powers which he had here. So he was never fully completely human and The argument that they used was that in the old testament, you know, whenever god appeared as the as the angel of the lord, you know In many many passages in the old testament, you have the angel of the lord coming to the people and he would look like a man, right? Um, because he would stand in front of them and then he would give them the message of god But uh, he was never fully human the angel of the lord in the old testament Even though he looked like a man. He was not fully human So they say that jesus was like that he Uh looked human but actually he was divine and he had held on to his divine, uh, you know privileges and powers Which he did not give up so, um john goes to great pains to try and you know, uh establish the fact that jesus was completely and totally human Uh And of course there was even a divine side of him which he had not lost But he never used his divine privileges. He never used his divine powers In fact, jesus goes to the extent of saying that everything that i am doing i only do it through the father. Okay, so Gnosticism, you know, which you must have heard. Um, was the other uh, wrong doctrine that was being spread And uh, that would be g no s t i c i s m. Okay, Gnosticism Now Gnosticism mainly The they they had two main teachings one They believe that all matter is impure and second its knowledge which is pure and superior So anything to do with matter The flesh it's all impure on the other hand, uh, the the thought Knowledge intellectualism that is pure is what they felt So in their minds the human body is something very evil and Um, so if god is good and if god is the creator, he could not have created matter He could not have created the human body and uh, you know all of creation because all of creation and human And the human body are all evil and corrupt And so they came up with a theory that god being too pure and holy could not have, um, created, uh, you know impure matter And so god began to kind of evolve he There were a series of emanations So from the original or from the original created being Okay, you know from the original creator another sub creator emerged and then from that sub creator another sub creator emerged and So somewhere down the line An impure form of the creator god He finally stooped down to the level where he created You know all of the trees and plants and animals and the human body and all of that. Why because God and his great purity cannot create something impure and the human body is impure Animals are impure all of creation is impure um, so you see Uh, this doctrine in a very subtle manner. It was making people hate the beauty of god of what god had done um What god had declared You know as it is good, you know after each act of creation in the book of genesis, you know chapter one After each act of creation god looks upon it and he says it is good. It is perfect. It is complete And now this doctrine is trying to uh corrupt all of that Yes, it is true that you know because of the sin of man, uh, the creation has come under a curse And all of that is true but the Basic essence of god god made Is indeed beautiful and we can see that even now i mean even if you just simply look at the sunrise or the sunset Uh, you know, if you look at the beauty with which the insects have been made the detail with which he created each living being There's great beauty in all of that But the gnostics Were blinded to such an extent where they looked down upon creation Where they looked down upon everything of beauty that god had made and so they went to the extent of saying that God could not have created matter because matter is something evil. It is something very low and so for them accepting what uh the Bible is saying became very difficult because it says that god himself Became man and put on a human body. He came down in the flesh So for them it was impossible to understand. How can someone so holy put on something so unholy and corrupt and evil as the human body Now the point is the human body in itself is not evil, right? It is the inclinations the sinful nature which came down from generation No generation to generation because of adam that is evil But if you just simply take the human vessel the human, I know the the the flesh as such That itself is not evil and jesus when he came down And took on human flesh. He was just taking the human form He was not taking on the human inclinations which had come down from adam Uh, so because you know, he was born through the virgin birth So uh for them for the gnostics, it was difficult for them to understand How god could have taken on fleshly form because in their eyes The flesh was something evil and they also had a big problem with accepting the fact that uh the church um There you know, the the church is considered the uh temple of the holy spirit Now, how can human body human beings with human bodies, you know Contain the holy spirit in them because in their mind, uh, the human flesh is something corrupt And uh, so they came very strongly against the entire doctrine the very basic foundational doctrine Which you know the bible teaches and they began to criticize all of it and they said, you know, uh Um If you really want to be saved you need to have access to knowledge A superior knowledge which god reveals to certain people You know whom he will set free from their physical bodies and only such people have salvation Because god will reveal his secret Hidden knowledge to them and then they will be set free from their human body and they will be saved It all sounds rather far-fetched to us. Uh, but for the people in the early church It seemed like a very fancy doctrine because a lot of people began to follow that, you know, because they were they would have these Fancy meetings, you know, which were only the select few are invited and they would have secret discussions about all this special knowledge And everyone wanted to, you know, be invited to one of these so that they too can know this hidden knowledge and find out Um, you know get to know god in an intimate way and at all of that so for them it was like a very popular fancy theory that was going around and uh, the church The believers wanted to be a part of that and uh, so, um, john had to take very strong steps You know and talk about it and say, you know, um, there is no such thing as a hidden knowledge And um, there are scriptures where he in fact says, you know What god has revealed he has revealed it to all. Um I've written it down somewhere Yeah, you you have it in uh first john Chapter two versus 13 to 14 Uh again verse 20 And then in first john chapter five verse 20, you know where he says all of us know You know, all of us have received the same message. All of us have received the same anointing Um And from the beginning, you know, you have heard What has been taught and he you know says all of these things because he's counteracting this wrong teaching that there is some kind of Hidden special knowledge which god gives only to a few. So john is saying no, no, it's not that way Um, god has revealed his truth to all and we all know it. We have all received the same anointing and the same message Okay, so he says these things to contract the uh wrong teaching which these people were trying to bring in There was a third thing. Um, which was started by serentus. Okay, some person named serentus It was known as serenticism or something like that. Okay. Um, so, um This person now what was his teaching? He said that Jesus was born as a normal human being Uh, in fact, he was born to joseph and mary. Okay, so, uh, the The physical normal human baby that was born to this couple joseph and mary. That was jesus But even as jesus went about his, you know, childhood He was a very very godly person and so therefore one day when he when he was getting baptized Then christ came down, you know christ as in god got the sun christ came down and Took hold of him. So he came down in the form of a dow and that is when jesus Um became divine in the sense now the now christ was living inside him And then at the time of crucifixion Uh christ leaves him The the spirit of christ goes away from him and now jesus just does the suffering on his own on the cross And you know, he dies and then later when the resurrection has to happen The the christ again comes into him and therefore he is able to arrive Now do you look at this, you know subtlety of this teaching? um On the cross when that work of crucifixion is going on according to this doctrine The spirit of christ is no longer there in this in this human jesus And so all that was done on the cross is like worthless useless, you know Look at the tactics that satan came up with during the time of the early church You know to cut right at the very base of of the fundamental doctrines on which, you know, we stand And so it was very very vital That john and the other apostles and the other writers of the bible come very strongly against these teachings And clarify to the people what is the truth? Okay, so, uh, this was this person serentus and There's this story which i think it was Irene yes, who writes, you know in his in one of his books He writes that one day John, um, you know the apostle john disciple of john disciple of jesus Had gone to the bath house in emphasis You know, right? I mean, um, they didn't have their own private bathrooms in their homes You know, they had this bath house. So if you want a bath, you would go over there and then, you know, you would You know, uh, sit there in those waters. So, um, uh, john the John the disciple of jesus goes over there to the bath house one day And he sees serentus over there and uh, he's supposed to have You know, not even taken his bath He just came out immediately and he said may the bath house I mean the may the roof of the bath house fall down because uh, serentus the enemy of the truth is inside Or something like that. So Irene's records this in his writings I mean, I don't know whether it's true or whether it is not true But the point is, um serentus was someone who was very much alive and you know, um Going around preaching his wrong teachings during the time of john And john had to deal with these issues. He had to protect the people of god from these wrong teachings okay, so These are just some of the main things that I wanted to know touch upon So next class onwards, uh, we would go into detail And look, uh, you know worse by worse Um What john has to say as a word of warning and as clarification to the believers of the early church regarding important matters of doctrine All right. So, uh, anyone who has any questions that you want to raise Yes, please go ahead. Yes Just to clarity ma it seems like john the apostle was kind of the last man standing out of the 12 From from our discussions on this introduction Yeah, he writes at a later time. So we have the first three gospels being written off, you know, very early um, they say within maybe around uh, you know mark ma the the gospel of mark Especially was written maybe just about 40 or 50 years after the death of death and resurrection of jesus christ So it was as early as that On the other hand, um, john writes much later In fact, they say that during the time of lifetime of john itself Peter gets martyred, you know, uh, is what they say, um that During the final years of nero, uh, you know before his death He gets he's the one who crucifies, uh, peter. So while john was still alive Peter gets martyred. So yes, it was a it was a late it was a at a later date Probably probably because john was maybe a younger person than the rest of the other disciples. So yes Thank you, ma Yes anything, uh else All right, we'll we'll close with the word of prayer Lord, we just thank you so much for, uh, the things that we could learn today We looked at the last chapter of, um, john and lord, we thank you for The lesson that you have imparted to us through the conversation that you had with peter You're not a god who wants to condemn us. You're not a god who wants to go on Uh holding a grudge against us regarding the ways that we have, you know fallen and been disloyal to you But lord, you're a god who forgives who forgets and who only wants to lift us up and build us up And so thank you a lot that in you we have hope Thank you a lot that in you, uh, there is hope that you will purify us and cleanse us from our unrighteousness And you will cause us to rise above and when the next time we are tempted in the same area We will be victorious in and through you Thank you for the deep assurance that we have a lot of victory in and through you Also lord, we thank you for these, uh, epistles of john which were written out in those days Thank you a lot for all the Truths and the clarifications that you have placed in these pages So that lord even today, uh, when we are faced with all kinds of uh, uh, half truths and wrong doctrines We will be able to stand up and speak out against those So lord from next class even as we go through the epistles You open up the scriptures to us a lot and you help us a lot to catch the truths Which you are, uh, which you have placed over there so that we can boldly, uh, you know Defend the truth and speak out when wrong doctrines come to our churches and our people. Thank you lord in jesus name Amen Thank you so much. Uh, now this session was rather, you know more of Dull introduction and theory, but uh, you know, all of you have been very patient and listening So thank you so much and we'll meet again next week. Thank you pastor Thank you