 and we will pray before we get started, if by then I think some of our other friends will also join us. Anyone, could you please lead with the word of prayer and we'll get started for today. I'll pray faster. Yes, yes, please. Thank you. Thank you, Lord Father, for blessing this another new week to learn your word. Lord, as we go deeper in talking your word and as Pastor is going to show your word, Lord Father, give us wisdom and revelation, Lord, and prepare our heart, our minds so that Lord Father, we will be like the good soil that produce a hundred and thousand fall for your kingdom. So, Lord Father, I submit all the students, Pastor Nancy and Duhain, in Jesus' most precious name I pray, Amen. Amen. Yes, thank you. Thank you so much, Aran. As you all know, we will be studying through the books of one to three, John Episcels that John wrote, and also the book of John, which is the eyewitness account that John wrote about the life of Jesus. So, this is our content for this particular course. The way we are going to go through each of these episodes and then finally the book is, we will begin with the episodes. So, first John, let me know, second John, third John, and then move on to the book of John. So, as we start off, anything you all know about John the Apostle and his writings? John wrote revelation book. Okay, okay. What else? One of favorite disciples. Okay, one of Jesus' favorite disciples. No, he says, in his writings, you see, beloved disciple, he has written that about himself. So, I don't know. I mean, did the others also think that he was Jesus' beloved? We don't know. But of course, he had, yes, Thomas. Sorry ma'am, I don't know what's happening. The voice is too low, yours and others as well. Maybe I have to check in my mobile as well, I don't know. The book of John, it's a very unique Gospel among the four Gospels where he writes the revelation and Jesus is before the creation, his award. John got the deepest revelation about who Jesus is and his divinity he explained to end John. And more he talked about the love of God in one, two, three letters. So, he got more revelation than others and he written more about love than other disciples. Other than Paul, he written very deeper things of love. He says that, no, if you don't know love, you don't know God because God is love like those things and all. So, his letters are unique. Okay, thank you. Thanks, Thomas, for sharing what you know about John and his writings. I hope you can all hear me quite clearly. Can hear but the voice is very low, I don't know about others but for me it's very low. Okay, how about the others? Can you hear me well? I've seen you ma'am, your voice is quite low. Yeah, yeah. Okay, just let me know if, I mean, it's any better? It's a bit better now. Is it better? Is it better? Yeah, it's a bit better. Yes? Okay, okay. All right. Okay, fine. So, as long as you can hear me, all right, I will continue. So, as I've already told us, we will be going through the writings of John except for revelation. So, in the first episode of John, which is a letter, okay, episode is nothing but a letter, we see that, you know, he is writing on different themes and as Thomas pointed out, one of the themes that is common in most of his writings is about the Lord Jesus and the deity of the Lord Jesus. We see that here as well. This book and the other books were written by Apostle John and, you know, usually he struggles, unless they have the name of that person individually in the episodes, it's hard to say, right? Because in Paul's writings, you have an introduction and then Paul generally says that I am the Apostle, the servant of Christ. So, he begins his introduction in that manner. So, it's easy for us to recognize that those episodes were actually written by Paul. But in the case of John's episodes, you don't necessarily see his name anywhere, okay? However, there were disciples of John. One very well-known disciple is Paulicap Bishop of Smyrna. Many of you would have seen, you know, Paulicap Bishop of Smyrna, when you read the background of different books of the Bible. So, he seems to be a good historian and, you know, groomed by, they say, John. So, like in that line of mentors, so Paulicap testifies to the fact that these books were written by Apostle John and also Irenaeus, one of the other church fathers during the early times, also testifies that these episodes were written by John the Apostle. So, we are clear about the authorship of Apostle John. This John is also the brother of James. Now, you would recall there were times when Jesus called John and James as the sons of thunder in Mark 3. So, this is the John that we are referring to the brother of James. Now, both of these people, John and James, you know, when you look at the book of Acts, our batch is also doing the book of Acts. We know that earlier they did not quite understand what Jesus was doing and, you know, maybe not mature enough. Excuse me. But we notice that these same Apostles and disciples who did not stand firmly for Jesus during his trial, after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, they have all become very bold and lived a powerful life for Christ. So, John, he is this Apostle who is writing books and providing leadership to the early church. Similarly, James also, you know, he provided leadership to the early church. So, both of them were transformed by the work of God. They were leaders at their time. Now, the thing about this epistle is that it was written somewhere around 1890 and passed on to the churches. And it's likely that John was, you know, a very well accepted leader by the churches. And in the book of Revelation, you would find there were seven churches that he's talking about. So, it's possible that John wrote these teachings and then it was taken, it was given out to the seven churches. So, he's basically instructing the churches on various aspects. And as Thomas pointed out, one of the key themes of John's writings is the love of God and living a true Christian life, where we are walking in the love of God. So, what is the intention behind writing these epistles? John, you would notice that he's encouraging the believers in various cities or churches. And he is warning believers about worldliness, worldliness and about sin. So, that is something we will observe as we go forward. He's also warning the believers about false teaching and false teachers. Because as the days go by, the apostles, they knew that there will be several such false teachers coming up. So, they needed to let the people be cautious. So, John is warning them about false teachings. John is also wanting to establish people in the love of God. So, that is another quote that we had in writing. And to remind the believers that they are actually overcomers. Though they are here in the world and they may be afflicted by various tactics of the evil ones. So, those are the intentions that John had in writing this particular epistle. This is John 1st John. We are talking about 1st John. So, as we go to 2nd John, as we go to 3rd John, we will see the key motivation that John the Apostle had in writing out those letters as well. So, today let us begin with John 1. And I think a good thing to do is to read through the entire passage quickly. We will do this initially, but I don't think we will keep reading the whole passage in the class. Ideally, if you can read it a couple of times and then come for class, that will be very good. But today let's do that. Let's go ahead and read 1 John, chapter 1 please. So, anyone who can start reading it, that will be good. We will read a few verses at a time and continue. Another person can take over after that. Who would like to start? 1st John, chapter 1. Yes. That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands have handled concerning the word of life. Keep going Manu. The life was manifested and we have seen and we are witness and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us, that which we have seen and heard we declare to you that you also may have fellowship with us. And truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. And these things will be right to you that your joy may be full. Yes. Thank you. Thank you Manu. Maybe the next person can read 4 verses. Can I read now? Yes please. This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you that God is light and Him no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have a fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, glances us from all sin. Can I continue or? If we say that we have... Yeah, 4. Yeah, 1 more verse. If we say that we have no sin, we deceived ourselves and truth is not in us. Yeah. Thanks Thomas. The next person please. 4 verses at a time will be good. We can then read more left. Yeah. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all untitledness. If we say that we have no sin, we make Him a liar and His word is not in us. Thank you Kira. Thank you so much for that. So, you notice here there seem to be two sections. The first section from verse 1 to verse 4, John is simply writing about the Lord Jesus and the second section which is from verse 5 to verse 10. He is writing about believers who walk in the truth and thereby walk in the light of God. So, we will look at that in these categories. So, we will begin with learning more about Jesus through the introduction of John the Apostle. He starts off by saying that that which was from the beginning, that which was from the beginning. Now, which beginning is he referring to? The beginning which he is referring to is even before man was created and put here on the earth. If you look back at Genesis chapter 1 and verse 1, the word begins with in the beginning. In the beginning is, you know, when we think our minds may not be able to grasp but we are going way back in the past to that you may call it the moment, right? Because God is even outside of time, but there is this beginning where only God existed. So, he is talking about that period where you had only the Trinity, right? So, there was nothing else, there was no one else but the Trinity, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit and their fellowship among themselves. So, in the beginning God created. So, God existed at that time and John has a reference to that beginning. So, he is saying that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes which we have looked upon and our hands have handled concerning the word of life. So, he is now talking about the fact that this God, look at this eternal God, he is not just a mythological figure because he is providing evidence of the existence of this God. Now, he is saying that he has along with several other believers heard, he has seen with his eyes, he has looked upon and he has handled whose hands have handled. So, he is referring to the Lord Jesus, we know that the Lord Jesus is the revelation of the Father and he was sent here to the world and John's book, when we read it, you will notice even there he begins with the introduction of the Lord Jesus as in the beginning the word of God, right? So, the word of God is the Logos, the Lord Jesus Himself and John has interacted with Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, the second person of the Godhead. So, he is providing evidence for this God, the second person of the Godhead and he is saying that all our physical senses must have experienced something to be natural, isn't it? So, he is saying that his ears have sensed or they have heard the Lord Jesus, his eyes have seen so his sense of sight has also experienced the Lord Jesus which we have looked upon. It could be considered as studied or deeply understood, he has deeply understood the Lord Jesus and he is also referring to the fact that their hands have handled, so the sense of touch, right? With all these senses, he has experienced the Lord Jesus. So, it is very clear that we are not talking about some imaginary person but a real human being who existed. Now, this is a beautiful progression because it begins by talking about the eternal God in the beginning, that was to eternity and the deity of Christ, okay? But it moves on to the humanity of Christ where the physical being of the Lord Jesus here on the earth is being clarified to the listeners. Now, this is important because due to the times of Jesus, there were several teachings and one particular line of thought was Gnosticism where they knew that Jesus was special but they did not really believe that he was completely human, okay? So thereby, the sufferings of the Lord Jesus went through, for them it would not mean that he is the Messiah. He carried some kind of supernatural powers through which he was able to bear the pain of the trial, the very excruciating pain when he was beaten and put on the cross. So, if he was not human, then we are denying what God did through Jesus as that atonement prize for us. So, there were several such teachings that denied the humanity of Christ. But John, you know, beautifully, he is intertwining the deity and the humanity of God. So, he was 100% God because he was already existed in the right at the beginning and he is 100% man because he was a physical person and John is saying that he has personally experienced this Christ and he moves on to reveal the Lord Jesus as the word of life, okay? Now again, in John chapter 1 and verse 1, can somebody read that passage please? John chapter 1 and verse 1. In the beginning was the world and the world was with God and the world was God. Yeah, very good. So again, in John chapter 1, see this is the revelation which Apostle John has that in the beginning was the world and the world was with God, the world was God. He is talking about Jesus and then as you read the passage you will see he says the world became flesh. So, the logos or the written word of God, the revealed word of God is Christ Jesus himself. Now, he has begun an introduction of the Lord Jesus and he is adding to that and saying that he is the word but he adds here of life, okay? So, logos of life. What is that term for life there? It is the word Zoe, okay? Zoe and Zoe means the God kind of life, okay? Or the life that flows from God and the life that flows in God. So, it is a supernatural kind of life that God carries and the word of life. So, the logos or the word of God who carries the life of God, okay? So, that is the introduction of the Lord Jesus. Now, you notice in this everything is an explanation about the Lord Jesus. So, basically you could call this the study of Christ or Christology and John is giving us a revelation of Christ in the very first chapter, very similar to the book of John where he describes that the word became flesh. Now, notice it was two. He says the life was manifested, the word became flesh. Word of life, word of Zoe, God kind of life was flowing through him and that life was manifested, manifested is appeared, okay? It was made real before our eyes. And again he testifies as an eyewitness and says we have seen and bear witness and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us, okay? So, he is reiterating the same thing that the Lord Jesus is eternal and he also became a human being. So, that's the point that he's making once again. Now, couple of other things that you notice here, you know, he says we have seen, we bear witness, okay? Which means that he is ready to affirm or testify of the deity and the humanity of Christ and he said not just know it but declare or proclaim or to tell you and here to tell you that eternal life which was with the Father, okay? Eternal life which was with the Father, okay? Referring to the Lord Jesus, we've already seen what title which was given to him which is the word of life. Now, he said the life of God himself, okay? In that sense, he's equating the Lord Jesus and the life that the Godhead carries and he said that eternal life which was with the Father was manifested to us. So, again, eternal and at the same time became physical and natural. So, the deity of Christ and the humanity of Christ. Moving on to verse 3, it says that which we have seen and heard, we declare to you. You see, it's really beautiful in the case of the disciples of Christ during that time. Like, you know, you would say from the time of 30 AD to all the way, I don't know how long people lived but since John is written at 90 AD, maybe there were people who lived on right 60 years, 70 years. So, up to 180. But these people were not talking out of some written account of another historian or a learned person. But this was their own experience. Notice how many times he is saying that I am a witness of this which we have heard. Our eyes have seen, we have looked upon, we have handled. Again, he comes back to say we have seen, we bear witness and we declare and once again, he is making that point and saying we have seen and heard, we declare to you. So, what a privilege, isn't it? That physically, they have observed all these things and so they are sure of the truth. And in those times, if you look at the writings and the eyewitness accounts of the Lord Jesus, you would know that incidents are accurate because several others are also written about it and there is that accuracy in it. So, these are all eyewitness accounts and we can be sure of the message that it is bringing to us. So, John is saying that I am talking out of experience and so believe me, the eternal was made manifest in the natural and he is actually talking about the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, why is he declaring it to us? So, that is the next flow of thought here. He says, verse 3, the second part, that you also may have fellowship with us. That you also may have fellowship with us. So, the revelation of the Lord Jesus, what does it cause us to do? What causes us to worship Him? But it also helps us relate to Him in a stronger and deeper way. That is why for us to get closer to God, we can spend time in the word of God because the word of God will reveal God to us. So, what are we really doing? We are interacting, we are engaging. In other terms, we are communing with God. So, that revelation will make us go closer to God and it must cause us to fellowship with God. So, that is the reason John is writing these things so that the churches who heard these messages will be enthused, they will be encouraged and they will know Christ in a deeper way and however, he uses the term fellowship with us. And you know this word fellowship, I am sure many of you have heard it, it is Koinonia. Koinonia simply means partnership and participation. So, this comes out of communion with God and this is a Greek word which is used for fellowship. So, the intention which John the Apostle had is that the believers would go ahead and interact fellowship with God Himself. Now, when we look at this term Koinonia, it is not just about knowledge of God and when you say interaction, it doesn't mean that you just touch base, you have some updates going and that's about it. But Koinonia refers to a communion where there is a two-way interaction where one person shares, the other person listens and similarly the other person shares and the next person listens. So, there is this whole getting to know one another and growing together. So, partnership, that kind of a partnership is what he is referring to. So, so far he has talked about the life of God. So, the life of God is introduced and he really wants the believer to participate in that life to have that life and to have that communion with God from where they can draw that life of God. So, God is being introduced or Christ is being introduced so that the believer can have a taste of it and walk in who God is and experience that life which God has and that is John's intention. So, I declare everything to you. Now, you can have what is there in the God and you can have what this internal word, this word that was manifested came to give us. So, his introduction is so that the believer can experience this Christ. So, he says that you also may have fellowship with us. Now, also may have fellowship with us, it shows us that he and he uses the term us. So, he and the ones who were obedient to God and who were following after God, they could experience the Godhead and all that the Godhead is about. And he continues to say and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his son, Jesus Christ. So, while the human fellowship is important, he kind of shifts the focus to the fellowship that he and the believers at his time had with the Godhead itself. So, we too can have fellowship with the Godhead. How can we have fellowship with the Father? Anybody? What are the ways in which we can fellowship with the Father? Your thoughts? How did Jesus fellowship with the Father? Okay, excellent. Yeah. So, prayer is a means by which we can fellowship with the Father and our fellowship with the Son by taking time in the word of God, right? We could have fellowship with the Son. So, there are many ways in which we can fellowship with the Father and we can fellowship with the Son. But the notable thing here is that God has given us an audience in the Godhead itself. Isn't it a beautiful thought that you and I can interact with God? We can commune with God. We can commune with the Father, the Son. And though the Holy Spirit is not mentioned here, we have other scriptures, right? Like in 2 Corinthians chapter 30. We see that, oh sorry, 1 Corinthians chapter 30 where we have talked about the coedonia or the fellowship with the Holy Spirit. So, we can engage with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit and that is the privilege of every believer. So, at times when we feel lonely, we feel that, you know, there is nobody, I don't have anybody. But honestly for a believer, we always have the Godhead and we can commune with the Godhead. We can fellowship with the Godhead and our journey in fellowship with the Godhead will be through the revelation that we have of the Godhead. So, the more we know about the Father, the more we know about Jesus, the more we know about the Holy Spirit. And I say, no, it's not a head knowledge, you know, experientially in a way where we are seeking God to understand Him and to live for Him. So, when we know Him in that way, truly we are experiencing that fellowship with God and we have that privilege as believers. So, John is calling us to fellowship with the Godhead and verse 4, he says, and these things we write to you that your joy may be full. So, through the words of exhortation that John is bringing the believers, his intention is for the believers to rejoice. At the word joy here, for a lot of us the confusion is between joy and happiness. Happiness is a state of well-being, a state of rejoicing when circumstances are positive. But joy is a state of rejoicing even when circumstances are not proper. So, John wants us to understand that when we are fellowshiping with the Godhead, when we are living with the revelation of the Godhead, there is this internal, if you may call it from the Spirit, a sense of well-being, sense of rejoicing that you and I can have and this comes through the Holy Spirit. If you recall, scriptures tell us that righteousness, peace and joy, that's the Kingdom of God. So, it is birthed in us, it is birthed in us by the work of the Holy Spirit and this is the Kingdom of God that has been given to us. So, we can always have the Kingdom, right? The Kingdom has not given and it's gone one minute, not at all. But we've already received of it and we can have this joy and he wants the believer to experience that steady rejoicing of the Spirit. And he's saying that he's writing these things so that the believer can have fellowship with the Godhead and also that he might have joy. What kind of joy and how much of joy? He says that you may be full. And these things we write to you that your joy may be full. So, the believer should experience the fullness of joy. So, in knowing God, in knowing the Father, in fellowshiping with the Father, we have that experience of the fullness of joy. So, for John, revealing the Godhead was an important thing. And notice how though the term Trinity is not mentioned, there is a distinction that John is making and saying that there are separate persons. So, Jesus, the son fellowship with the, he could have just said fellowship with God, but he's making a distinction. Fellowship with the son, fellowship with the Father. So, the Trinity is coming through very clearly in these first few verses of the episode of John. So, these are some highlights from the first four verses. Now, we will continue and we will go through the next section here which has to do more with the fellowship of human beings or with our fellow believers. So, that is the second section. Before that, are you all doing okay? Any thoughts? Any comments? Is it too fast? Or you're comfortable with the pace? Just let me know. Comfortable, ma'am. Okay, great. Then that's good. So, you understood the first section then. We'll move on to the second section. So, here in the second section of verse five, he says that this is the message which we have heard from him and declared to you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. So, you notice it's one revelation after the other. And the revelation is about God. Jesus, when he walked the earth, he made the statement and said, you know, I am the light of the world. And John also says the same thing. He says that God is light. In him there is no darkness at all. You know, it seems like a given, obviously. Light and darkness are completely different. How can there be any darkness in the light? So, the statement that he's making that in itself clarifies some of the thoughts that he's going to share later on. Basically, it's about righteousness and sin. And he's giving us this distinction and saying these are two separate entities. You can't mix the two and say, okay, there's a little bit of light which lives with the darkness and that is normal. There is a little bit of darkness that lives with the light. So, that just cannot happen. So, he begins with this very clear example and illustration and says, you know, God, it's more than an illustration. It's true that God himself is light and in him there is no darkness at all. So, he's talking about the holiness of God. He's talking about the purity of God. He is teaching us that we must have a clear view of our God and His standards. So, when we get an idea of that, we will know what kind of life we need to live. And the standard that God has set for himself in his own nature, it is very, very high. We see that God is light and to make it clarified further, he says in him there is no darkness at all. Which means to say that, you know, God is completely, like he's very pure and there is even nothing in him which is sinful. So, God is light. Verse 6, if we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. So, now he's coming to the point. He's saying that we've understood God is a holy God and we have access to God. We can fellowship with God. But if we say that we are fellowshiping with God and if we walk in darkness. In other words, this is referring to a sinful lifestyle. Now, for us, we might have this question. You know, is he talking about making a mistake? Sometimes we stumble. Sometimes we stumble and we repent, we confess our sins and we come back to God. Well, John is talking about sinning. But the context in which he is referring to sinning is, you know, a lifestyle where somebody is unwilling to change and they have made a practice and a habit of sin and they're not ready to give up. So, you know, that seems to be the context in which he is talking about sin. And what he's saying here is he's saying that as believers, he could say that I have a strong relationship with God. I have a deep fellowship, koinonia, communion with God. But at the same time, we could have habits, attitudes within ourselves where we are unwilling to yield to the conviction of the Holy Spirit. Now the Holy Spirit might be convicting us about, I'm just taking an example, unforgiveness in our hearts or bitterness that we're carrying against a brother or a sister in Christ or maybe a family member, but we still hold on to that bitterness and we don't let go of it though the Holy Spirit is ministered constantly with regard to that issue. And yet we're going about our Bible reading, our spiritual walk with the Lord, our schedule of prayer and fasting and so many things. But God wants to remind us that, you know, the practices are okay, but true fellowship isn't obedience. True fellowship is following after the very nature of God, which is sinless. God is holy and he wants us to be holy. So whenever he convicts us of a wrong lifestyle, some habits which do not glorify him, we must get rid of those things right away because only then we are having true fellowship with God. Otherwise you imagine, how is it possible for us to interact in the right way with God because we are not being honest, right? We are not being honest. So that's what he's saying here in verse 6. He says, if we say that we are fellowship with him and walk in darkness, he very strongly puts this across and says that we lie. So it's a life of self-deception. You know, one of the most dangerous things for any human being and particularly a believer is self-deception where we think we are right but by the standards of God, we are not right, okay? But we have convinced ourselves that the truth is different. So that is self-deception. And John is pointing that out and saying that if we do not walk righteously and in holiness, we are speaking lies to ourselves and don't think that God doesn't recognize that. So he says we lie and do not practice the truth, okay? So truth has to be practiced. A righteous way of living has to be practiced. So he says that we must respond to God immediately in repentance and let go of our sinful lifestyle and only then we are practicing the truth. In verse 7 he says, but on the contrary. So he says, but if we walk in the light as he is in the light. So this is about the Christian lifestyle, the Christian journey. So walk refers to the journey. Every believer has to walk through their life. So whatever we hear, that needs to be put into practice. Our faith is not just a matter of listening, but it's a matter of living out our lives. And that's where he's coming to now. He says, but if we walk in the light again, it's like if you practice the truth, if you practice living a righteous life as he is in the light. So God is truth. God is light and he is always in the light. There is no darkness in it meaning he is holy. He's pure. He's righteous. Now we are also following after that. We are living our lives according to the nature of God in the right standards of God. He says, it's only then that we have fellowship, not just with God, the right kind of fellowship, not just with God. But he says, we have fellowship with one another. We have our relationships as believers. Even that is when they get healed. It is blessed at the thriving when we walk in righteousness. So walking in righteousness, it will strengthen our relationship with God and it will also strengthen our relationship with one another. And he continues to say, at the blood of Jesus Christ, his son cleanses us from all sin. So what is he saying here? He's saying that what Jesus did on the cross, that is the ultimate atonement price. He has paid the ransom for all of us and the blood of Jesus Christ which was shed on the cross. He's using a present continuous. It cleanses us from all sin meaning even right now there is power in the shed blood of Jesus which was actually shed 2000 years ago. But that power, he's talking about the cleansing work of the blood. So that blood is able to clean us up only when we walk in righteousness. So it's interesting. So basically his point is that even if we sin, we must come back to God. We must acknowledge that sin and then what are we doing? We are allowing the work of the blood of Jesus to be done in us. But if we do not acknowledge, then we are not letting the blood of Jesus cleans us even though it has the power at all times to cleanse our sins. So we must walk in the light and that is the emphasis here. To tell the believer that you must live right before God and that will help us have right fellowship with God, right fellowship with one another. And if at all there is any sin in our lives, the blood of Jesus will continue to clean us up. So we stand righteously before God. So at this point we will stop, we will take a break. We'll come back in 10 minutes and continue with 1 John chapter 1, the last few verses. Thank you.