This time last year we took a dozen sermons to look at the First Letter of John. If you missed those sermons, you can always watch them on Facebook or YouTube or read them on the blog. Can there be anything more to say about 1 John, you may well ask? But of course there always is! Last year we hardly touched on the topic of the work of the Holy Spirit in 1 John. John’s Gospel talks about the Holy Spirit more than Matthew, Mark or Luke. Chapter for chapter, 1 John talks more about the work of the Holy Spirit than any other letter in the New Testament, even 1 Corinthians. There are seven mentions of the Holy Spirit in 1 John, and another two verses which I believe refer to the work of the Holy Spirit although the Spirit is not named. So what does John have to say about the Holy Spirit in this Letter? And how does that tie in with what we heard last week from John’s Gospel, about the Helper, the paracletos, the presence of Jesus inside every believer?
In comparing John’s Gospel with the Letters it is important to say that I agree with the traditional view that the Gospel and the Letters of John were written by the same person. That the author was John, brother of James and son of Zebedee, the “beloved disciple” and one of Jesus’s inner circle. There is also one more point to make before we start talking specifically about the Holy Spirit. And that comes in chapter 2.
1 John 2:1 My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. 2 He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
This verse could easily confuse us because here John uses the same word advocate, paracletos, as he used in Chapters 14 to 17 of his Gospel. This is the only other place in the Bible where that word is used. But here it is unambiguously referring to Jesus our saviour who sacrificed himself for the sins of the world. This is not a reference to the Holy Spirit our Helper. In contrast, in what we talked about last week, paracletos in John’s Gospel is only ever referring to the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth and not to Jesus. With that out of the way, how does 1 John extend our understanding of the work of the Holy Spirit as the Helper, the paracletos, the presence of Jesus in his disciples?
Last week we read this from John’s Gospel.
John 14 26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.
John 16 13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth.
We saw last week that the Holy Spirit will help Jesus’s disciples bring to mind everything he has taught them. And the Spirit will teach them all things, helping them to understand and experience Jesus’s teaching for themselves. The Spirit will guide disciples into all the truth. We can see how John expands on this theme in his Letter.
1 John 2 20 But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth. 21 I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth.
John is confident that his readers know the truth because of “the anointing they have received from the Holy One.” The Holy One is clearly a reference to the Holy Spirit, who leads believers into all truth.
1 John 2 26 I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray. 27 As for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit—just as it has taught you, remain in him.
In his letter John is encouraging Christians to stick to the truth they have already believed because they received it from the Holy Spirit who teaches believers all things they need to know. This is what gives us assurance that we are saved.
1 John 319 This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence: 20 if our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything. 21 Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God 22 and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him.
The Holy helps us to obey God, and to believe in Jesus and to love each other.
1 John 3 23 And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us. 24 The one who keeps God’s commands lives in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: we know it by the Spirit he gave us.
We live in God and God lives in us! We know that is true because of the Holy Spirit living inside us. As we saw last week the Holy Spirit the Helper, the paracletos, is the personal presence of Jesus in believers. The Spirit brings us all our experiences of God living inside us. We read this last week in John’s Gospel.
John 14 15 ‘If you love me, keep my commands. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you for ever – 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.
The Holy Spirit is another advocate, another Helper, living inside Christians and continuing the work of Jesus.
1 John goes on to explain how the Holy Spirit helps us to distinguish truth from error and to recognize false prophets and false teachers who try to lead the church astray.
1 John 4:1 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 This is how you can recognise the Spirit of God: every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.
The Holy Spirit confirms for us that Jesus did come in the flesh, in other words that Jesus was truly and completely human. As the Message translation puts it, Jesus Christ came as an actual flesh-and-blood person
1 John 4 4 You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. 5 They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognise the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.
John is making a bold claim here, but as the “beloved disciple” he is entitled to do so. John is saying that believers who truly know God will listen to him and to his followers. If people do not listen to him then that is proof that they do not know God and are being led astray by a spirit of falsehood. Those who are led by the Holy Spirit will listen to John. So the Holy Spirit will help Christians to know which teachers can be trusted, and which are false prophets.
In the middle of that passage did you happen to spot a verse which deserved a whole sermon to itself last year?
1 John 4 4 You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.
The one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. Last year I spoke about the decisive victory over the devil which Christ accomplished on the cross. So I suggested that “the one who is in you” is referring to Jesus Christ. I think that is a good interpretation although the verse doesn’t actually specify which member of the Holy Trinity is in the believer. The one who is in you could be Father, Son or Holy Spirit. Verse 2 talks about the Spirit of God and verse 6 talks about the Spirit of Truth so the immediate context is speaking about the Holy Spirit. We said last week that the Holy Spirit the Helper is the personal presence of Jesus in the believer. So it could be that case that “the one who is in you” is actually referring to the Holy Spirit here. Believers have overcome the world because we have the Holy Spirit living inside us. And John goes on later to say that we know that God is living in us, because we have received the Holy Spirit.
1 John 4 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. 13 This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: he has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Saviour of the world. 15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God.
If we love one another, God lives in us. If we acknowledge that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in us and we live in God. And we know that this is true because he has given us of his Spirit. God lives in us, through the Holy Spirit. Again as we saw last week, this is the ministry of the Holy Spirit, the Helper, the paracletos.
John 14:17 The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.
John 14 18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19…. Because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will realise that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.
Jesus is living in us, through the agency of the Holy Spirit the paracletos.
John 14 23 Jesus replied, ‘Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.
The Father and the Son make their home with us, through the Holy Spirit. Like the branches are joined to the vine, Christians remain in union with Christ through the work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus prayed in his High Priestly Prayer,
John 17 26 I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.’
Jesus continues to live in his disciples, through the work of the Holy Spirit. So we can see that actually it doesn’t really matter which member of the Godhead John had in mind when he said, “the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. Father, Son and Holy Spirit are all living in believers through the agency of the Holy Spirit, and all are greater than the evil one! We have overcome evil and we have overcome the devil, because God lives in us. We said last year, here is the secret of victorious Christian living. It is to live moment by moment, not in our own strength but in Christ’s strength. To let Him live and reign in US! To abide in Christ – to live in union with Christ. “I am the Vine, you are the branches.” “The triumphant Christian does not fight for victory; he celebrates a victory already won.”
The Holy Spirit teaches us and leads us into all truth, and saves us from being led astray by false prophets. John speaks about God living in us through the Holy Spirit. Then we saw last week that the Holy Spirit performs one further important task in Jesus’s disciples – bearing witness to Jesus.
John 15 26 ‘When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me. 27 And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.
The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, testifies to the salvation Jesus brought. God the Holy Spirit gives us trustworthy testimony about Jesus the Son of God and the source of eternal life.
1 John 5 6 This is the one who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ. He did not come by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. 7 For there are three that testify: 8 the Spirit, the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement. 9 We accept human testimony, but God’s testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God, which he has given about his Son. 10 Whoever believes in the Son of God accepts this testimony. Whoever does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because they have not believed the testimony God has given about his Son. 11 And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.
There are three that testify, says John: the Spirit, the water and the blood. The water probably refers to Christ’s baptism. The blood is certainly pointing to Christ’s death on the cross. These two together bear witness that Jesus was truly the Son of God and that his death brings us eternal life. And then, says John,
1 John 5:6 … And it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. 7 For there are three that testify: 8 the Spirit, the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement.
Not only do we have the testimony of the disciples about the life and death and resurrection. Also, says John, the Holy Spirit bears witness to Jesus being the Son of God who gives us eternal life. Remember the witness of the Holy Spirit at Jesus’s baptism.
Matthew 3 16 As soon as Jesus was baptised, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.’
In particular, inside every believer the Holy Spirit bears witness to the fact that Jesus came in the flesh, that is that he was truly and completely human.
1 John 5:6 … And it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.
Theologians call this testimony from the Spirit “the inner witness of the Spirit,” “the inward work of the Holy Spirit, bearing witness by and with the word in our hearts.” The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, is working inside every believer bearing witness to who Jesus is and to the salvation he brings us. And the Spirit then helps disciples in their witness to the world. This inner witness of the Holy Spirit is very important, John says.
1 John 5 9 We accept human testimony, but God’s testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God, which he has given about his Son.
The Holy Spirit helps us to know the truth and he helps us to put our trust in God.
1 John 5 10 Whoever believes in the Son of God accepts this testimony. Whoever does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because they have not believed the testimony God has given about his Son. 11 And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.
So all these activities of the Holy Spirit which we learn about from 1 John fit exactly with what we learned last week from John’s Gospel about the Holy Spirit as the Helper, the paracletos. The Holy Spirit teaches us and leads us into all truth. The Spirit protects us from being led astray by false prophets. Indeed God lives inside us through the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth, testifies to Jesus and to the salvation he brought, and helps us to bear witness to Jesus. The one who is in us truly is greater than the one who is in the world!