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Post by Josh on Feb 26, 2008 21:17:35 GMT -8
Post your thoughts, questions, or discussion starters on 1 John chapter 1 as replies here.
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Post by Josh on Feb 26, 2008 21:26:48 GMT -8
1 John 1:3-7
3We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4We write this to make our joy complete.
5This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. 7But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
John 1:1-2
1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was with God in the beginning.
This Sunday we're going to be discussing the discipline of fellowship. Fellowship is a major theme in 1 John and one of the things I'd like to draw out of this book and elsewhere in Scripture is how the pattern of what true fellowship in the Church is all about is found within the Trinitarian relationships within God Himself.
In other words, true fellowship between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit always existed, it is expressed as love. The love from this fellowship that God has always enjoyed has been lavished on us, and one of the results is that we can now begin to experience fellowship- fellowship with God and fellowship with one another- the love of God and love for one another.
Take a look through 1 John and notice how often this theme comes up. Here are just a few of the highlights:
1 John 1:1-10, 2:16-24, 1 John 4:7-21
There are some very choice, to-die-for phrases in this heavy book. Which ones speak the loudest to you and why?
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Post by Josh on Mar 1, 2008 20:06:45 GMT -8
Here are some points I'd like to make tomorrow about "Fellowship" in the Bible, with some verses in addition to the 1 John references we'll make:
Fellowship in Scripture:
1. Perfect fellowship has always existed, from even before the world began, within the Godhead (see John 1:1-4, John 17:5 and 24)
2. Jesus, on earth, experienced perfect fellowship with the Father and the Holy Spirit (see John 10:30, John 5:19-20a, John 14:10-11)
3. Jesus invites us into true fellowship with God- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (see John 14:6, Matthew 11:27, John 6:57)
4. God invites us into true fellowship with one another through love (see John 15:1-7 and 1 John passages in this packet, which sum up all these points)
5. Our experience of fellowship with God and others will one day be perfect (see John 17:6-10 and 13-26, 1 Corinthians 13:12)
Comments/ questions?
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