Sermon Outlines: 1 John 2:3-14

1st John 2:3-14

When Jesus Overtakes Us

Pastor Jason Stewart

I.      Introduction:

   As Christians we usually have one of two things that are controlling our lives. It is our Savior, or our Sin. Last week we looked at 1 John 2:1-2, in a message entitled, “When Sin Overtakes Us.” This week we will be looking at 1 John 2:3-14 in a message entitled “When Jesus Overtakes Us.”

Be sure to read What Controls you in life the Most? which helps drive home this idea.

This morning we are going to see what takes place in our life when we allow Jesus Christ to overtake our thoughts and our actions. Or in other words, we as Christians give permission to Jesus to be in the drivers’ seat of our lives.

II.     Revelation: What is going on in this passage?

   In this passage of Scripture we are going to discover that in order to experience the transformation in life that Scripture promises us, we have to be men and women who allow Jesus to overtake us.

a. Knowing Jesus means keeping His word (2:3-6)

   The first thing that I want to point out in this passage of Scripture is that John is stressing the importance of “knowing” Jesus. He begins the exhortation of this passage by saying: “now by this we KNOW that we KNOW Him...”

   To know is “ginosko” in the Greek, and speaks of a close and intimate relationship between two people. It means “to learn to know a person through direct personal experience, implying a continuity of relationship” (Lou Nida). In this passage of Scripture John equates knowing Jesus to:

1. Keeping His Commandments (2:3-4)
2. Experiencing God’s Love in our lives (2:5)
3. Walking through life just as Jesus walked (2:6)
4. Loving our brothers and sisters in the Lord (2:9-11)
5. Being forgiven of our sins (2:12)
6. Remaining strong in the faith (2:14)
7. Abiding in God’s Word (2:14)
8. Overcoming the wicked one (2:13-14)

And so we see here, that “knowing” Jesus personally will be verified by the way we do life.

   Another key aspect from this passage of Scripture is the importance of “keeping His commandments.” The Greek word for “keep” His commandments is tereo, and is in the present tense. Meaning, we can know that we know Him, and know that we are pleasing Him, only when we are “presently” keeping His commandments (cf. 1 Jn. 2:28). In other words, “Ongoing assurance that we are people who know God is dependent upon ongoing obedience to His commands” (Kruse, 77). Not keeping His Word, means we are lying to ourselves and to others about our relationship with Him (2:4).

   This does not mean that people who “know” God will be perfect. But what it does mean is that those who claim to know God and do not keep His commandments, are lying to themselves about their relationship with Him. The believers’ life will be characterized by godly living. Keeping His Word means that God’s love is being perfected in us, and we can know that we are in Him (2:5).

   If we say that we “know” Jesus and “abide” in Jesus, we must be men and women who “walk just as He walked” (2:6). This Greek word for “walked” is peripateo and is a verb in the aorist tense, which implies that those who say they “know” Jesus, will always strive to walk just as He has walked. Obedience to God does not bring about salvation (that is by faith alone), but obedience as a pattern of one’s life does give evidence that they have been born-again. John will go on to say that the way a person can bear fruit of knowing Jesus is not through special knowledge, but by the way they live our their lives in obedience to Him (2:3-5), by walking just as He walked (2:6).

b. Knowing Jesus means we love one another (2:7-11)

   We see in this next passage of Scripture that John is talking about a specific commandment from the Lord in this passage. John tells us that this is not a “new commandment,” but “an old commandment” (2:7). And then in (2:8) he writes that he is giving them a “new commandment”. What John is saying here is that on the one hand, his instruction is “old” because the church knew that loving God and others was the Greatest Commandment. And yet at the same time, it was a “new commandment” that Jesus gave to them right before He went to the cross. Jesus tells us in John 13:34-35, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” This is the overriding idea here in 1^st John 2. As Christians we are called to love one another as Christ Jesus has loved us.

   You cannot say that you are walking in the light (cf. 1:7) if you do not love your brother (2:9). Whoever hates his brother has no clue where he is going, and is spiritually lost. But if you do love your brother, you are abiding in the light (2:10)

c. Knowing Jesus means overcoming (2:12-14)

   In this passage of Scripture we read that John gives them a comforting exhortation, to remind them that they do know Jesus, and that they have overcome the enemy. He reminds them that their sins are forgiven (2:12), they have overcome the wicked one (2:13), and they are strong because the word of God abides in this (2:14). 

   John is telling them that because these truths are the reality of their spiritual condition, that they have been forgiven, that they are overcomes, and that they are strong in the faith because God’s word abides in them, that they can have confidence that they know Jesus, and have a relationship with Him.

   And so we see in this passage (2:3-14) that John lays out a clear description of what it looks like to “know” Jesus, and how believers can have confidence that they are in a right relationship with Him.

   Now how can we take what John has shared with the church of Asia Minor and apply it into our lives today, so that we can make sure that Jesus is in charge of our lives? How can we put ourselves in a position to where we allow Jesus to Overtake us, rather than our sin nature?

III.   Application: When Jesus Overtakes Us

The first way can be found in Point 1.

a. When Jesus Overtakes Us: We will walk as He walked (2:3-6)

   John tells us that if we say that we know Jesus, we have to walk as He walked. Meaning, if we say that we are His followers we have to follow in His footsteps. This Greek word for “walk” is peripateo, and is a verb in the aorist tense, which implies that those who say they “know” Jesus, will always strive to walk just as He has walked. Therefore, if we say that we are His followers, we have to follow in His footsteps by obeying His teachings and following His example of loving others as an ONGOING WAY OF LIFE.

The second way that we will allow Jesus to overtake us in found in (2:7-11), and deals with loving others as Jesus loved them.

b. When Jesus Overtakes Us: We will love as He loved (2:7-11)

   Here we see that being in a right relationship with God, and walking as Jesus walked is verified, not only by obeying God’s Word (2:3-6), but also by how we love one another. When we love one another, we are walking as Jesus walked. Jesus tells us in John 15:12-13, “This is My commandment: Love each other in THE SAME WAY I have loved you. There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friend.”

   The type of love that Jesus is speaking about here is sacrificial love. This is the kind of love that God honors because it is the type of love that comes with a sacrifice to the one extending it. This is how Jesus displayed His love to us, through sacrifice.

The third way that we will allow Jesus to overtake us is found in (2:12-14), and has to deal with overcoming as Jesus overcame.

c. When Jesus Overtakes Us: We will overcome as He overcame (2:12-14)

   In this passage John is not challenging us to become overcomers, he is reminding us that we are overcomers! He reminds us that we have been forgiven for our sins and overcome them because of our faith in Jesus (2:12), we have overcome the enemy, because of our relationship with God (2:13), and we have overcome because we “know” Jesus and we are “strong” in our faith, because God’s word “abides” in us (2:14). 
   John is quite clear in (4:4) that the reason we are overcomers is because Christ Jesus is within us, and "greater is He who is in us, than he who is in the world". John also emphasizes the importance that our faith in Jesus plays when it comes to being overcomers in chapter five. He says, "Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God" (1 John 5:5). This is how we overcome the enemy as Christians, and this is what our lives look like “When Jesus Overtakes us.”
  
IV.   Conclusion: When Jesus Overtakes Us
   When Jesus Overtakes us in life, we will see the evidence of this reality through the way that we (1) Walk as He walked, (2) Love as He loved, and (3) Overcome as He Overcame.