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Standing for the reading of God’s Word, we take a brief pause from our study of Isaiah to consider some passages from the Epistle of 1 John. This is a wonderful, glorious, and comforting portion of God’s Word. We will be considering 1 John 2, verses 12 through 14. You will find this passage beginning on page 1210 in your Pew Bibles. 1 John 2, verses 12 through 14.

I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for His name’s sake. I am writing to you, fathers, because you know Him who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I write to you, children, because you know the Father. I write to you, fathers, because you know Him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.

The grass withers and the flower fades, but the Word of our God endures forever. Let us pray together. Gracious Lord, Father in Heaven, we ask once again that You, the God who by Your Spirit has inspired the Scriptures, would by that same Spirit open our minds and our hearts. Illuminate us, Lord, that we might understand Your Word and see its relevance and significance not only to our individual lives as believers, but also to our church and our congregation this day. We pray, Heavenly Father, that You would enable me to declare Your Word with clarity and power for the edification of Your saints and the glory of Your name. We pray these things in Jesus’ name. And all of God’s people said, amen.

You may be seated. The title of my sermon this morning is Knowing the Father and the Son. The children will notice on the sermon outline that there are three key words I encourage you to keep track of during my sermon today. Please count them if you find that helpful. These words are forgiveness, know, and overcome.

Well, friends, as many of you know, parenthood is a wonderful blessing. But the parenting process can be, and often is, incredibly demanding. Raising your children well—raising them to be godly, responsible, emotionally stable, and well-rounded adults—requires prayerful discernment, godly wisdom, and constant watchfulness. Conscientious and wise parents understand that in child-rearing, it is vitally important to balance correction and warning on the one hand with words of encouragement, affirmation, and support on the other.

Well, friends, in our passage for this Lord’s Day morning, the Apostle John likewise understood the importance of balancing words of warning with encouraging words of affirmation. You see, under the Holy Spirit’s guidance, the Apostle John demonstrates himself in this passage to be a wise spiritual father to his readers, one who cared for those under his apostolic care and oversight. After all, in the preceding section of this epistle, in 1 John, John has just presented his readers with serious warnings.

He has clearly distinguished between, on the one hand, the false teachers he was seeking to refute and warn against, and on the other hand, his readers. This distinction is implied in passages such as verses four and five of chapter four. Let me read those verses. It says, “Whoever says, ‘I know him,’ but does not keep his commandments is a liar.”

Now, scholars who have carefully studied 1 John examine passages like this and see in the background of these words the teachings of those who had abandoned the Gospel and left the Apostolic Church under John’s oversight. They claimed to have special knowledge. They said, “I know him.” They claimed to possess a special understanding of God. They were the precursors to the heresy of Gnosticism, which emerged fully in the second century. They asserted exclusive knowledge of God, but John says, “Whoever says, ‘I know him,’ but does not keep his commandments, is a liar.”

On the other hand, whoever keeps his word—meaning one who embraces his gospel and lives in accordance with it—truly has the love of God made complete. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way that he walked. Consider, closer to our text for today, verses 9 through 11. John writes: “Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in the darkness. Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him there is no cause for stumbling. But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded him.” Thus, you see these heretics claimed special enlightenment. They claimed to be in the light, yet they rejected the gospel and separated themselves from the faithful Apostolic Church.

So after presenting these strong warnings to his readers in this highly stylized section of the letter known as 1 John, which we are considering this Lord’s Day morning, John next encourages his readers by reminding them of the spiritual blessings they have received in Christ. Again, the heretics and false teachers that John warns about in this epistle—those who rejected the gospel message of the incarnate, crucified, and resurrected Lord—those who had separated themselves from the Johannine Church—those who showed hatred for the Christian brotherhood through their heretical, schismatic, and divisive actions—were still in a condition of spiritual darkness. In fact, as John says, they were walking in darkness. They were living in accordance with that spiritual darkness. This was true despite their false claims to be walking in truth and light, as seen in verses 9 and 11 of chapter 2. But John’s readers, who continued to believe in and confess the good news of Jesus Christ, and who continued to show love for their brothers and sisters in Christ, were walking and abiding in the light. This raises the question: why were they able to continue walking in the light, despite the temptations to abandon the gospel and to join the heretics and apostates who sought to draw them away from the gospel and from the apostolic church?

The answer that our passage for today gives us is that they continued to abide in the light of Christ because their sins had been forgiven through Christ. And because they knew both the Father and the Son, they were strengthened by God to overcome the evil one, who had led the heretics into false teaching.

So, with this, hopefully setting this passage in context, let us look at this highly stylized section of 1 John 2, beginning at verse 12, as we consider the forgiveness of sins as the foundational blessing of our salvation. What is the foundational blessing of our salvation? Our salvation means being saved from sin, and the foundational blessing of our salvation is the forgiveness of our sins. You see, forgiveness—divine forgiveness—paves the way for us to know the Father, to know God as our loving Heavenly Father, and that strengthens us to overcome Satan, the evil one, and the world system that is under his control. Who are the ones who have received this amazing gift of forgiveness?

John identifies them in verse 12. He says, “I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for His name’s sake.” Little children—the Greek term is technia. He writes to you, little children, technia. Now, John uses various designations in verses 12 through 14. He speaks of little children, technia, but also, in verse 13, of fathers and of young men. Later in verse 13, children is a different word in the Greek, paideia. Then again, he mentions fathers and young men in verse 14.

Why these different categories? Why is he addressing or focusing on these particular groups? And what do these categories mean? What is the meaning of these different designations here? Some scholars have suggested that these different categories are merely stylistic ways of speaking about the church as a whole. One scholar, for example, Dr. C.H. Dodd, says that the threefold arrangement is probably not much more than a rhetorical figure.

All the privileges mentioned belong to all Christians. All the privileges mentioned here—forgiveness of sins, strength in the Lord, overcoming the evil one—all of these privileges belong to all Christians, regardless of age or status.

But emphasis and variety of expression are achieved by distributing them into groups. This is one possible way of understanding why John is doing this. After all, this section of his epistle is highly literary and stylized. However, others, including myself, believe that these different designations do in fact refer to various categories of individuals within Christ’s church. While it is true that all believers, and all the privileges mentioned here, belong to all true believers regardless of age or station in life, according to this interpretation, John has good and wise reasons for highlighting these particular privileges to these particular categories of individuals within the church. This is the view, as I mentioned, that I hold to because I believe it makes more sense of the wording and the context of our passage for today.

With that in mind, what does he mean by little children? This is a general term that he is using. The term technia, meaning little children, appears to be John’s way of identifying the church as a whole. What is the evidence for this? You can go back to chapter two, verse one, where he is clearly addressing the entire congregation, whether young or old.

He says, “My little children, I am writing these things to you.” This is a purpose statement he is making here. He makes such statements several times throughout his epistle. He is telling us why he is writing. He says, “My little children, I am writing these things to you, to you as a church as a whole, so that you may not sin.”

But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous one. The term “little children” in chapter two, verse one, is the same Greek term used in verse twelve. It is the term technia. Therefore, “little children” seems to be a general address to the church as a whole.

But then he also addresses fathers, young men, and children, paideia, in verse 13 and 14. So why these diminutive expressions, though? Why this particular term, little children? Why does he address the believers as little children? This is what we call a diminutive expression.

Is he talking down to them? No. This is a term of endearment, a term that expresses his heartfelt love for the church. John is not using the term technia, little children, in a patronizing or insulting way. He is not talking down to them. He is not putting them down or insulting them. No, he is addressing them as little children because he has a fatherly care, a spiritual fatherly care and concern for them.

He is expressing his pastoral heart of love and affection for his readers. He is eager to tell all the people of God and to remind them of this glorious gospel truth. He says, I am writing to you, little children, because, hear it again, your sins are forgiven for His name’s sake. He has already spoken about forgiveness earlier in this chapter, but he returns to it here because it is such an important truth.

Let us speak about the blessing of the forgiveness of sins. The Greek term here translated as forgiven is in the perfect tense. As one commentator puts it, the perfect tense indicates action that took place in the past with lasting effect for the present and the future. The passive voice implies that God is the agent who forgives. God forgives us; we receive His forgiveness. But given the perfect tense, the implication is that He continues to forgive. As this commentator points out, God forgives sins once for all. Sins have been, are, and remain forever forgiven.

Remember, as a young person before the Lord brought me to faith, I struggled with the idea of forgiveness. I wondered, if I sin and then die before I have an opportunity to confess my sins to the Lord, does that mean I am lost? The answer, obviously, is no. Christ died in the past for all our sins as God’s people, past, present, and future.

All your sin, believer, past, present, and future, has already been nailed to the cross and buried in His tomb. Jesus paid it all through His once-for-all and eternal sacrifice. Now, we continue to confess our sins and receive His daily fatherly forgiveness. But from a legal standpoint, your sin and mine, in our justification, has already been dealt with once for all and forever.

The author of Hebrews also emphasizes the once-for-all nature of our Savior’s sacrifice, which makes our redemption eternal and therefore secure. If you look at Hebrews 10, verses 10 through 18, the author is speaking about the will of God that sent His Son to be our Savior, to make a sacrifice for our sins as our great high priest and the priest and the victim. He says, “And by that will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all.”

Jesus died once. His atonement, his sacrifice, was a perfect and all-sufficient sacrifice. That is why he could say on the cross, “It is finished.” The author of Hebrews goes on to say in verse 11, as he comments on the old covenant priests who were always standing daily to offer endless sacrifices: “And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sin.” But when Christ had offered, note again, what? For all time, a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. The Old Covenant priests were always standing because they were always sacrificing. All of those Old Covenant sacrifices pointed forward to Christ’s perfect, once-for-all sacrifice. It was finished and offered as that one sacrifice for sin.

After he rose from the dead and ascended into heaven, he is pictured as sitting down at the right hand of God. He sits down because it is finished. It has been dealt with. He sits down, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet.

For by a single offering, verse 14, by a single offering, he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us, for after saying, and he quotes here from the Old Testament, “After those days, declares the Lord, I will put my laws on their hearts and write them on their minds.” Then he adds, “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more. Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.” Isn’t that incredibly comforting to know, brothers and sisters in Christ? Our sin problem has been dealt with. And, you know, we need forgiveness because we are sinners. Many people today think that, “Oh, you’re insulting me if you’re calling me a sinner.” I’m not an ax murderer. I’m not a bank robber. I’m not a kidnapper.

Well, certainly those who are murderers, kidnappers, thieves, and robbers are sinners. But in the scriptures, the term sin often means to miss the mark. It means to miss the mark. We have all missed the mark. We have fallen short of the glory of God. But that is not the end of the story. Jesus died for our sins. We are sinners who have offended the Lord’s holy character, and our sins deserve His wrath. Therefore, we desperately need forgiveness. The good news is that we are legally forgiven once for all in our justification. And what made that possible? What the author of Hebrews was talking about, and what John is speaking of in this passage when he says your sins are forgiven—why, how?

For His name’s sake. What is His namesake? He is speaking about Christ. What does Christ’s name indicate? In Scripture, someone’s name is a revelation of their character, of who they are. So we are forgiven for His name’s sake. In other words, because of the person and saving work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ has removed the sin barrier that separates us sinners from a right relationship with God. Praise be to God for that. Do you, dear listener, recognize yourself as a sinner who deserves God’s judgment for your sins? I know that today this is often a difficult truth to accept, because our culture constantly tells us, “You are a good person. Everything is fine. I’m okay, you’re okay. Do your own thing. Be yourself.” But God’s Word says no. God is holy, infinitely holy and righteous.

And we are sinners; we miss the mark. It is like this: imagine yourself shooting arrows at a target, and not only do you miss the center, but you miss the target entirely. That was my experience as a child at summer camp. I was fortunate if I hit the target at all, even on the edge. We all miss the mark; we fall short of what God requires of us. But what we lack, Christ provides through His merit and sacrifice. So John says, “I am writing to you, little children.” He speaks with tenderness, yet with firmness. I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for His name’s sake.

That is why we pray in Jesus’ name. It is not that the words “in Jesus’ name” form a magical formula, so that God will accept our prayers simply because we say them. You can pray in Jesus’ name without uttering those exact words. To pray in Jesus’ name means to pray with the trust that Christ forgives your sins and makes your prayers acceptable to the Father. The basis of our forgiveness is the name of Christ—the person and saving work of Christ.

As Paul writes in Romans 5, verse 8: “God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Christ did not die to save good people who have it all together. He died to save people like me and like you—people who are broken, people who need His cleansing and forgiveness.

So again, do you recognize yourself to be a sinner? And do you believe, dear listener, that your sins have been forgiven for the sake of Christ’s name? That is what saving faith does. It recognizes Christ as the all-sufficient Savior. It trusts in Christ as the one who has forgiven you. Do you believe that in Jesus you have a merciful and forgiving God? Indeed, He is merciful and forgiving toward all who trust in Him with a penitent faith.

We also learn in this passage that speaks of our forgiveness that through the gospel, through the good news of our forgiveness in Christ, we come to know the Son and the Father. Through the gospel, we come to know the Son and the Father.

Verse 13. John writes, I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. Not just know about him, but know him who is from the beginning. Then he continues: I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning.

He repeats himself for stylistic emphasis and to reinforce what he has been saying. Not just know about him intellectually, as important as that is, but to know him in a personal, saving, experiential way, in the sense of enjoying personal fellowship and communion with God. How do we know God in this saving way? Friends, what we learn here in this passage of 1 John is this: we know the Father and the Son by the Spirit through the gospel. We know the Father and the Son by the Spirit through the gospel, the message, the good news of Christ.

But why does he focus, in verse 13, on the fathers? He says, I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. He is not denying that the other categories do not know the Father, but he is focusing especially on these fathers. Who are these fathers?

Well, they are probably older, more spiritually mature members of John’s church, those who, through instruction and example, can pass the true faith on to future generations. This is one of the church’s greatest callings. We saw earlier in the service today a culmination of that calling: parents raising their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, so that they too might confess Christ and follow Him faithfully in discipleship all the days of their life. This call of the church and the church’s fathers to instruct covenant children is rooted in the Old Testament.

For example, Deuteronomy 6, verses 20 to 25. This is one of the reasons why we place such emphasis on catechesis and use Bible-based catechisms here. Deuteronomy 6, beginning with verse 20. Again, Moses is addressing fathers, particularly covenant fathers.

He says, “When your son asks you in time to come, ‘What is the meaning of the testimonies, the statutes, and the rules that the Lord our God has commanded you?’ Then you shall say to your son, ‘We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt. The Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. The Lord showed signs and wonders, great and grievous, against Egypt and against Pharaoh and all his household before our eyes. He brought us out from there in order to bring us in and give us the land that He swore to give to our fathers. The Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, that He might preserve us alive as we are this day. And it will be righteousness for us if we are careful to do all this commandment before the Lord our God, as He commanded us.'”

By the way, as an aside, did you notice that Moses says, when your son asks you this, you are to give your son a review of redemptive history? The Bible is not merely a collection of moral stories. It is the unfolding plan of redemption that God has revealed throughout history.

But in any case, we see Moses calling fathers to instruct their sons to pass the faith on to their sons, and by implication, their daughters as well. This is also true of spiritual fathers in the church. Those who are spiritually mature are to be concerned with passing the faith on to future generations.

He says, “I am writing to you fathers because you know him who is from the beginning.” This is significant in light of the heretics, the false teachers who claim special knowledge of God but who do not truly know God in a saving sense. John says, “No, it is not the false teachers, with their boasted claim of special insider knowledge, who know God. You, believers, know the Father.” He is speaking of genuine spiritual, saving knowledge, not the false knowledge, the gnosis, claimed by the false teachers. This reminds me of what our Lord Jesus says in his high priestly prayer.

John 17, verse 3: Before his crucifixion, Jesus said in his high priestly prayer to the Father, “And this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. Not merely know about you—though that is important—but know you, the only true God, with spiritual, saving knowledge. And who is the one that they know?”

The one who is described as being from the beginning is Jesus, the Son. You may ask, how do you know this? We will return to 1 John 1, verse 1. That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerns the word of life. When John speaks of the one who was from the beginning, he is referring to Jesus. Recall chapter one, verse one, where he reminds his readers that the apostles, as eyewitnesses, had seen Christ with their own eyes. They had heard His voice. They had touched Him. They had studied Him. They knew Him in a personal and real way. They knew the one who is from the beginning.

Then he continues, at the end of verse 13, not only does he write to the fathers in the church—those who are spiritually mature—but he also writes to you, the children, paideia in the Greek, because you know the Father.

Who are these children? They may be the children of the church, or they may be new converts. The point is that even these young believers, even these new converts or those who are newly growing in the faith, also know the Father. You see, a saving knowledge of the Heavenly Father is the privilege of all who are redeemed and who believe in God. It is not limited to the intellectually gifted or the great theologians of the church. It is the simple believer with a childlike faith who knows the Father.

Praise be to God. Then in verse 14, John again addresses the fathers. I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. Fathers are addressed once again. It appears that John repeated this for stylistic emphasis. Well, friends, what is the takeaway from all of this? We know God in a general sense through his general revelation in creation and in human conscience. The apostle Paul reminds us of this in Romans chapter one. Therefore, there is a general sense in which all people, even those who have never heard of Jesus and have never seen a Bible in their lives, know that God exists, because of the witness of creation and the human conscience.

We also know God as a holy judge and a righteous governor, a moral governor, through the law of God, as summarized in the Ten Commandments. But we know God in a saving and redemptive sense. We know him as a loving Heavenly Father and a gracious covenant Lord only through the gospel of Jesus Christ. The good news of full and free salvation through the crucified, risen, ascended, and reigning Lord Jesus Christ. The gospel, after all, reveals Jesus Christ as the all-sufficient Savior of sinners. Again, dear listener, do you know him as your very own Savior and Lord?

Finally, not only does John focus on the wonderful blessing of forgiveness and the fact that believers know both the Father and the Son, but by implication we also know that through the Spirit in the gospel message. The gospel, as we learn here, equips us with strength to overcome the evil one. Being forgiven in Christ and knowing God as our Heavenly Father equips us to overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil. Therefore, he says at the end of verse 14, I write to you, young men, because you are strong and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.

What does he mean by young men? He is likely referring here to younger believers—those who have been in the faith for some time but have not yet reached the status of fathers, or by implication, mothers in the faith, and thus are not yet able to serve as spiritual nurturers to others. However, the qualities and graces mentioned in this passage are common to all believers, at least to some degree, whether we are speaking of young covenant children, adult converts, believers in the prime of life, or those who are fathers in the faith. Yet John addresses young men in particular. Why? Why does he focus on young men, saying, “You are strong”? The word of God, meaning the gospel especially, abides in you. You have overcome the evil one. Why does he focus on young men in particular?

John focuses on young men in particular, perhaps because they, in their youthful strength and vigor, exemplify the spiritual strength necessary to resist the spiritual deceptions and schemes of the evil one—the strength that the Lord supplies through His word and the Holy Spirit.

Thus, at the end of this passage in verse 14, we see the importance and necessity of abiding in the word of God, especially in the gospel message, in order to combat and overcome the evil one. As we conclude, I am reminded of the exhortation the apostle Peter gives at the end of his first epistle, 1 Peter 5, verses 6 through 11. Peter writes: “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time He may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on Him, because He cares for you. Be sober-minded, be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”

Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brothers and sisters throughout the world. And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him be the dominion forever and ever. And all of God’s people said, amen. Let’s pray.

Our gracious Lord and Father in heaven, we thank you that in Christ and through faith in the gospel, we are forgiven, that we come to know you, Father, and your Son, Jesus Christ, by the Spirit. And we thank you that because of that saving knowledge of you and that personal connection and fellowship with you, Lord, we are given grace and strength to fight the good fight of faith, to resist the evil one, and to overcome. We thank you that in Christ we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. We thank you that greater is he who is in us than he who is in the world. And we ask, Lord, that in our weakness we might know and experience your great strength. For, Lord, it is when we are weak that you are strong, and we are strong in you.

Be with us now, Lord. Bless us. Help us to take these truths to heart. And may we grow in our knowledge and love of you. We pray these things in Jesus’ name. And all of God’s people said, amen. Let’s respond to what we’ve heard by rising, and we’ll close our worship service today with Psalm 32. How blessed is he who has not been guilty of transgression. Psalm 32, let’s rise and sing together.