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2BC BIBLE STUDY NOTES

Wednesday in the Word

Second Baptist Church

July 17, 2013

1 Peter 1:1-10

  1. Today we will start our study on 1st John. This is the same John that wrote the gospel of John. The writer seeks to bring the church back to the foundation of the faith which is Jesus Christ. Many false prophets had come into the church and tried to lead the church to look at other things besides Christ, but John seeks to bring the church back to the foundation and that is Jesus. All we need is found in Christ. He is the One that believer must seek after. It is his life, his way, his will, his purpose, his love, and his desire that must become ours. What we need? He has. What we long for? What is the answer to our issues? Him. John wants the church to recall and remember what a true relationship with the Lord is all about. It is not about rituals, rules, traditions, buildings, and programs it is about a real relationship with God. When one has a real relationship with God they seek to please God, they seek to know God, and they seek to be transformed into his image.

  2. Verses 1-2. The writer begins by stating that what he has shared and will share is what he has heard from the beginning of his relationship with Christ. For John the true message has not changed, but many in the church had tried to change the message by either adding on or taking away. For John, the message is still Christ. The message is not a rule or a tradition, it is a person. The message is Christ. This message was not in in words that one just hears, but this message came alive. This message walked and talked. This message was seen and heard. This message reached out to you and held your hand. This message hugged you. This message touched the sick, laid hands on the cripple. This message wasn’t just some story that was passed on to others. This message existed before the foundations of the world. This message was eternal and became a living, breathing person. This message gave sight to blind. This message spoke to you, and forgave you. This message was life, and not just any life, but eternal life. This message walked with you and stood right in front of you. This message was living and it fellowshipped with you.

  3. Verses 3-4. John tells his audience that the reason he writes this letter is that he and the other apostles want the people to have the same fellowship with the Word that they had with the word. John shares that if the church has fellowship with them then they have fellowship with Christ. Because you can’t have fellowship with the Son and not with his true church. Sharing the message of Christ and seeing people come into that fellowship was a joyous thing for John and the other apostles. His motivation for writing this letter is so that others might come into the great fellowship of the saints with Christ.

  4. Verses 5-7. John shares the message of Christ. This message is that God is light. John wants to make something clear there is just light and darkness. Light is in God and darkness is the absence of light. Light is the truth, but darkness has no truth. Jesus said he was the Light of the World. If you are in Jesus you are in the light, and his light shines in you. If you are in Christ, than you are in the light. If you claim to be in the light you would not walk in darkness. You can’t walk in truth and lack of truth at the same time. You can’t be in darkness and the light. John shares that if we all walk in the light not only do we have fellowship with God but we also have fellowship with each other. Our fellowship with each other is hindered when we fail to walk in the light of Christ and his ways. But the good news is that as we walk in the light his light purifies us. Scientifically one of the best antiseptics is sunlight. Walking in the SONLIGHT will help us rid those sins that so easily infect us and ruin our fellowship. The Fellowship always suffers as a result of someone not walking in the light. .

  5. Verses 8-10. If there is one thing that Light does, it makes things clear. Walking in the light will make your life clear to you. Walking in the light will highlight the areas of your life that need to be changed. Walking in the light will highlight any sin that needs to be turned from. John shares with his audience that if one claims to not have sin they are not walking in the light, because the light will make it clear that they are in need of a savior. The good news about this light is that it highlights sin to rid us of sin not to condemn us of sin. The light will make it clear that they are filthy and in need of the cleansing power of Christ. If we confess or agree that we are in sin, the power of Christ can cleanse us. When Jesus went to the cross he did so because the whole world was condemned in sin. He went to the cross to save us from our sins. If we claim to not have sin we say that he went to the cross based on a lie that we were all sinners. John knows from experience that one cannot have a relationship with the LIGHT and not become painfully aware of our need for forgiveness and grace.

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