The apostle John ranks only second to the apostle Paul in the number of letters he has bequeathed to the church across the ages. His Gospel and his apocalyptic book of Revelation are longer than any of Paul’s epistles, while his second and third epistle compete quite favorably with Paul’s shortest ones. In between these extremes hangs 1 John. Like most epistles in the New Testament, 1 John is a good length for a relatively brief series of expository sermons. It’s not too long and not too short.
But that’s not the primary reason why I would commend it. With some gaps to handle other sermons, I preached through it to our congregation from 2014 to 2018. The more I studied it piece-by-piece, the more my appreciation grew. Looking back now, there are at least five reasons why I would commend this epistle to fellow pastors to preach to their congregations.
1. It shows us with freshness the divinity and humanity of Christ.
The opening of 1 John (1:1–4) reminds us of the opening of John’s Gospel. From the start, he introduces us to profound eternal truths. And yet, because of his skillful pen, John makes doctrine put on shoes
To continue...read the full-length post originally published on this site.
