David L. Allen - 1-3 John: Fellowship in Gods Family (Preaching the Word)

A rich resource covering one of the New Testaments most profound sections of Scripture, pastors and theologians of all persuasions will benefit from the thorough treatment Dr. Allen gives to these letters. This commentary, like Johns letters, is brimming with gospel hope.

J. D. Greear, Lead Pastor, The Summit Church, Durham, North Carolina; author, Stop Asking Jesus into Your Heart: How to Know for Sure You Are Saved

13 John is a welcomed addition to the Preaching the Word series. The 22 studies in this volume reveal careful research, theological insight, and exegetical integrity. Anyone preaching or teaching through the epistles of John will be greatly assisted by this volume. David Allen has rendered a valuable service to the church of the Lord Jesus that will bear fruit for years to come.

Daniel L. Akin, President, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary

In an excellent follow-up to his edited volume Text-Driven Preaching , David Allen crafts 22 sermons on 1, 2, and 3 John that exemplify the qualities that should characterize excellent preaching. These sermons are thoroughly Biblical, hermeneutically sound, Christ-centered, eminently practical, passionate, challenging, clear, and interesting. And these qualities shine through even when he navigates complex semantic issues, deals with heresies like Gnosticism and Docetism, and tackles pressing theological topics like the extent of the atonement. Here is a fine resource for anyone preaching through these three important New Testament letters!

Gregg R. Allison, Professor of Christian Theology, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

Jesus spoke of the man who brought out of his treasure what is new and what is old. David L. Allen does exactly that with these 22 well-researched expositions. Drawing on preachers and scholars from all ages of the church, he opens up Johns epistles with admirable clarity and force. In every chapter, you will encounter the truth of the text, the heart of the preacher, and the direction of the Lord regarding how you should respond. Readable, illuminating, and convicting, this book deserves wide circulation among individuals and Bible study groups. Pastors will find here a refresher course in how to preach Johns letters.

Robert W. Yarbrough, Professor of New Testament, Covenant Theological Seminary

The sermons in this book (Allen describes them as sermontariesmore than a sermon but less than a commentary) are undergirded by solid scholarship, supported by references to great preachers of the past, and enhanced by Allens own wisdom and applications for todays believers. A fine resource that I am very pleased to commend to all serious preachers of Scripture.

Colin G. Kruse, Senior Lecturer in New Testament, Melbourne School of Theology

Contents

13 John

Copyright 2013 by David L. Allen

Published by Crossway

1300 Crescent Street
Wheaton, Illinois 60187

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided for by USA copyright law.

Cover design: Jon McGrath, Simplicated Studio

Cover image: Adam Green, illustrator

First printing 2013

Printed in the United States of America

Scripture quotations are from the ESV Bible ( The Holy Bible, English Standard Version ), copyright 2001 by Crossway. 2011 Text Edition. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked nasb are from The New American Standard Bible . Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission.

Scripture references marked niv are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

All emphases in Scripture quotations have been added by the author.

ISBN-13: 978-1-4335-0285-9
ISBN-10: 1-4335-0285-2
PDF ISBN: 978-1-4335-3725-7
Mobipocket ISBN: 978-1-4335-3723-3
ePub ISBN: 978-1-4335-3724-0

Crossway is a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

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Authors Preface

For an analysis of how I go about my own sermon preparation for expositional preaching that uses 1 John 2:1517 as an example, see my Preparing a Text-Driven Sermon, Text-Driven Preaching: Gods Word at the Heart of Every Sermon (Nashville: B&H, 2010), pp. 101134.

. C. S. Lewis, God in the Dock (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1970), pp. 201, 202.

Chapter One: Meet Jesus: God in Human Flesh!

. Johannine authorship has often been questioned, but there is no reason to abandon the traditional view that the Apostle John is the author. For an accessible summary of this question and all other background issues, helpful especially to pastors, see, among others, Barry Joslin, Getting Up to Speed: An Essential Introduction to 1 John, Southern Baptist Journal of Theology 10.3 (2006), pp. 427; Stephen Smalley, 1, 2, 3 John , Word Biblical Commentary, vol. 51 (Waco, TX: Word, 1984), p. xxxii; Daniel Akin, 1, 2, 3 John , New American Commentary, vol. 38 (Nashville: B&H, 2001), pp. 2227; and more recently Robert Yarbrough, 13 John , Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2008), pp. 515. See also Donald Guthrie, New Testament Introduction , 4th rev. ed. (Leicester: Apollos/Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1990), pp. 858886; and Andreas Kstenberger, L. Scott Kellum, and Charles Quarles, The Cradle, the Cross, and the Crown: An Introduction to the New Testament (Nashville: B&H, 2009), pp. 781808. On the question of Johannine authorship of the Gospel of John and corresponding discussion on the epistles, I recommend the following three works: Craig L. Blomberg, The Historical Reliability of Johns Gospel: Issues and Commentary (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2001), pp. 2240; D. A. Carson, The Gospel According to John (Leicester, UK: Inter-Varsity; Grand Rapids, Eerdmans, 1991), pp. 6881; and C. S. Keener, The Gospel of John , 2 vols. (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2003).

. A helpful work for pastors on the Johannine epistles summarizing issues of form, style, content, authorship, theology, etc., is Ruth Edwards, The Johannine Epistles , New Testament Guides Series (Sheffield, UK: Sheffield Academic Press, 2001 reprint). A helpful work for those working with the Greek text in sermon preparation, in addition to exegetical commentaries, is Martin Culy, I, II, III John: A Handbook on the Greek Text (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2004). The introduction (pp. xi-xxiv) offers significant help from linguistics and discourse analysis in analyzing the syntactical and semantic structure of the letter, in a non-technical, pastor-friendly format.