1. Neither the author nor the addressees are named (cf. Scofield introduction).
2. It is obvious that the author knew our Lord well and had spent time with Him (1:1-4). Also, the vocabulary and expression coincide with the Gospel of John, II John, and III John.
3. It was probably written after AD 90 (cf. Scofield).
4. BACKGROUND: At the time John was writing this epistle, a false cult had arisen which became known as "Gnosticism." These Gnostics made a distinction between Jesus and "the Christ." To them "the Christ" was a divine emanation which came upon Jesus at His baptism and left before His death.
5. According to this strange teaching (which forms the basis of Christian Science, theosophy, the Unity cult, and many of the weird new-age cults today), Jesus did die, but "the Christ" did not die. They denied His incarnation and that Jesus is both man and God (cf. I John 1:1; John 1:1).
6. John warned his readers that the Gnostics were not true Christians (though they claimed to be), and pointed out that they did not have the marks of true children of God (cf. 1:6,8,10, 2:4,9,11,15,18,19,22; 3:6,8-10, etc.).
7. The Gnostics professed to "know" the truth but really did not. Therefore, John uses the word "know" 38 times (cf. 5:13).
8. Today, we will look into chapter 1 and the beginning of chapter 2, which deals with fellowship with God (cf. 1:3).

I. PARTICIPATION IN THE FELLOWSHIP (1:1-4).

1. The Gnostics taught that Jesus was nothing but a phantasm, some sort of spook, but John starts right off by refuting this (1:1-3).
2. These opening verses affirm the eternality and the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ. He not only gives eternal life, but He is eternal life (1:2; cf. 5:20).
3. The first of the purposes stated by John for writing this epistle is so that the reader might enjoy true Christian fellowship (1:3). The word "fellowship" appears four times in chapter 1 and it is one of the key words in the letter (1:3,6,7).
4. Our English word "fellowship" as it is used today, usually means "friendly social intercourse." This is not exactly what John had in mind. The word as used here conveys the meaning of "partnership" (cf. Phil.1:5). The same word is translated "partakers" in II Peter 1:4.
5. This kind of fellowship with God brings joy to the life of the believer (1:4). The world can never experience this joy, the world can never provide this joy – true joy, lasting joy can only come through knowing Jesus Christ.
6. Notice John says, "And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full" (1:4; cf. John 15:11).
7. True Christianity is a religion of joy because it is one of fellowship with Christ. Have you ever noticed the gloom and sadness attached to all the other religions? Even their music is spooky and melancholy.
8. One Christian defined joy as "the flag which is flown from the castle of the heart when the King is in residence there."
9. When you have the joy of the Lord even your countenance changes. Many years ago the great missionary to Burma, Adoniram Judson, was home on furlough and passed through the city of Stonington, Connecticut. A young boy playing down at the wharf at the time of Judson’s arrival was struck by his appearance. Never before had he seen such a light on any human face.
10. Many years later that boy became the well-known preacher, Henry Clay Trumbull. In his autobiography, he wrote a chapter entitled, "What a Boy Saw in the Face of Adoniram Judson," explaining how Judson’s shining countenance changed his life.
11. They say it takes 72 muscles to frown and only 14 to smile!

II. THE CONDITIONS OF FELLOWSHIP (1:5-7).

1. As I stated earlier, fellowship means partnership. John now gives instructions for true fellowship with God – these are the conditions:

1. "God is light and in Him is no darkness at all" (1:5). In other words, God is absolutely holy. God cannot look with favor upon any form of sin (Hab.1:13a; I Tim.6:15,16).
2. Therefore, to have fellowship with God we cannot walk in darkness (1:6).
3. On the other hand, if we walk in the light, than we can have fellowship with God and with one another (1:7).
4. This is all based upon Christ’s shed blood (1:7). There was a "parliament of religions" over 100 years ago at the World’s Fair and one by one each major world religion had their representative speak on how wonderful his religion was, how it benefited mankind, and so forth. Finally, it was time for the Christian to speak, a preacher from Boston. He vividly described the blood on Lady Macbeth’s hands, how she tried scrubbing and scrubbing and it wouldn’t come off. He looked around the huge auditorium, he looked at each speaker who had already spoken, and he asked: "Is there any one here tonight who can help her? What can remove this blood? Lady Macbeth is beside herself with guilt, the victim’s blood is on her hands, and she can’t wash it off. Can anyone here help her? After considerable silence, the preacher, a Pastor Cooke, quoted I John 1:7.

2. John says one of the conditions of fellowship with God is that we cannot walk in darkness (1:6; cf. John 3:19-21).
3. Darkness in the Bible represents sin – spiritual darkness is idolatry, unbelief, false religion, and doctrinal error. Moral darkness is sexual immorality, lying, stealing, drinking, drugs, and so forth.
4. According to the Bible, most people are in darkness. Fellowshiping with God and walking in darkness are mutually exclusive experiences (cf. Matt.5:14-16; John 8:12; Eph.5:8; Col.1:13; I Peter 2:9).
5. One of God’s first acts in creation was separating the light from the darkness (Gen.1:3,4) because darkness and light cannot exist together at the same time (cf. II Cor.6:14).
6. We need to get the Gospel light out to those in darkness – then they will get under conviction of sin and get saved. J. Vernon McGee gives a good illustration of this. He was out hunting when it started pouring so he ducked into a cave. It was pitch black in the cave but that didn’t bother him at all. But after about a half an hour he felt cold so he gathered together some leaves that were on the floor and started a fire. Then he noticed that there were lizards, snakes, and all sorts of unfriendly creatures crawling all over the place – so he ran out of there. The point is that he was quite comfortable in the cave until there was light – then his eyes were opened to the reality of the situation. Likewise, multitudes of people are comfortable in darkness because they never hear the Word of God but once they do, the Holy Spirit brings them under conviction.

III. THE PROVISIONS OF THE FELLOWSHIP (1:8 – 2:2).

1. Fellowship with God requires that we acknowledge the truth about ourselves. To deny that we are sinners means self-deception (1:8).
2. This has always been a big problem – it was a problem with the self-righteous Pharisees, it was a problem with the deluded Gnostics, and it is a problem today with many confused people today – religious and irreligious, Protestants and Catholics and Jews, new-age and Jehovah’s Witnesses, et al. I remember trying to help a young man whose family was in the JW cult and his father chewed me out over the phone. I calmly told him, "Mr. Reyes, you can get saved if you trust in Jesus Christ" and he got more agitated – "Do you know who you are talking to?" he roared! AA people are nearly as bad.
3. When people recognize sin for what it really is, then they can begin to respect God for who He really is. When people fail to see sin for what it is, they also fail to recognize the holiness of God.
4. Conversion does not mean the eradication of the sin nature. Rather, it means the implanting of the new, divine nature, with power to live victoriously over indwelling sin (1:7-9).
5. H. A. Ironside tells a humorous story concerning the preacher Henry Varley. Varley was holding meetings in Oakland, California and was preaching on this passage and said: "I have been told that you have a good many sinless people out here in California. I have never seen one such person myself, and I have a real curiosity to see one; if there is one here tonight, I should like to see him as soon as the meeting is over." After the meeting, a man came up to the preacher and said, "I understand you want to meet a perfectly sinless man. Well, I haven’t sinned in 22 years, since I was wholly sanctified." "Well. Now, my dear brother," said Mr. Varley, "let me get this right. You realize, of course, that there are sins of omission as well as sins of commission?" The man said that, yes, he realized that, and no, he hadn’t committed any sins of either omission or commission in 22 years and so on, when all of a sudden an old lady came walking down the aisle and said: "Yes, there are some folks who say that they never commit sins, but try talking to their neighbors! I live next door to this man and listen to what I have to say…" At this the man disappeared into the crowd!
6. Fellowship with God involves keeping short accounts with God. It means confessing our sins and forsaking them (1:9; cf. Pro.28:13). There was false teacher on the radio who denied this and he was caught with a prostitute and is now off the air.
7. The Gnostics were guilty of antinomianism ("no law"). They thought of the body as a sort of envelope covering the spirit which could not be contaminated or defiled by the deeds of the body. Some even boasted that they were very spiritual and had progressed beyond the possibility of defilement. But the Bible teaches that sin is always a barrier to fellowship with God and that religion without morality is an abomination. Yet multitudes are being deceived by these satanic delusions.
8. First, we see God’s perfect standard – "that ye sin not" (2:1) -- sins of commission and sins of omission (cf. James 4:17). Because God is perfect, His standard for His people is absolute perfection. God cannot condone sin in the least degree, and so He sets perfection before us as the goal.
9. After God’s perfect standard, we see God’s perfect provision – "And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous" (2:1b). First, God gives us His perfect standard, at the same time, God knows all about us and so He graciously made provision for us in the event of failure.
10. An "advocate" (2:1) is one who comes to the side of another person in time of need in order to help. The word translated "advocate" is parakletos and is translated "Comforter" in the Gospel of John (14:16,26; 15:26; 16:7). These are the only five times it appears in the N.T. – only by John. Notice we have an advocate "with the Father" – we are still God’s children, He is still our Father.
11. The devil is "the accuser" of the brethren (Rev.12:10) but Christ is our advocate, our defense attorney.
12. "Propitiation" (2:2) means God’s wrath has been appeased, God is satisfied on account of Christ’s death on the cross. Christ is the propitiation for "the sins of the whole world" (2:2).

CONCLUSION:

1. Right now Jesus Christ is our advocate (2:1). He is up yonder in heaven interceding for us (cf. Heb.7:25).
2. But if you reject Him, you will have to face Him -- not as your advocate, but as your judge (cf. John 5:26,27; Acts 17:31; Rev.20:11-15).
3. Back in the horse and buggy days, a horse bolted and ran away with a wagon carrying a little boy. Seeing the child in danger, a young man risked his life to catch the horse and stop the wagon. The little boy grew up to be a bad man, a good for nothing outlaw.
4. One day this criminal stood before a judge to be sentenced for a serious crime. The prisoner recognized the judge as the same man who saved his life years ago. So he pled for mercy on the basis of that long ago incident.
5. But the judge was not moved. He said to the outlaw: "Young man, then I was your saviour; but today I am your judge and I must sentence you to be hanged."
6. Today, Christ is saying to lost sinners: "Come to me and I will save you.." But some day it will be too late and He will say: "I was your Saviour but you rejected me. Now I am your judge. Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire."