Hartland Spring Convocation 2022: Walking in the Light

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Hartland Institute of Health and Education

Charles Holtry

1st Century Advice for 21st Century Christians

With a title like First Century Advice for 21st Century Christians, I could preach anywhere from the New Testament, but tonight I'm not going to.

I'm going to be looking at specifically at 1 book, 1st John.

We will be looking at the book of 1 John both this evening and tomorrow, and I believe that the message of 1 John is very important for the day that we're living in.

Before I get started though, would you be so kind as just to bow your heads with me?

Father, I'm kneeling here because I recognize it is your spirit that speaks to our hearts and we ask for your spirit to speak to us tonight.

What kind of advice would be relevant to us today from someone who was living so long ago with such a vastly different culture?

How could they write something that actually means something to us today?

You know, in the early decades of the Christian church, John had watched the church flourish and grow.

However, in the midst of the growth, he noticed that something was starting to die.

A foundational teaching of Jesus that was the litmus test for Christianity.

And so we are going to jump in to the study of the book of 1 John and find out what is the message of 1 John for us today.

Today, this evening, I can only give you part of the message.

I warn you that we will be left a little bit empty handed, not empty handed, but not quite sure what to do.

So I'm looking forward to part 2 tomorrow.

That being said, please Open up your Bibles with me to the book of 1 John.

This then is the message which we have heard from the beginning?

No, which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the Word of Life." So here is this picture.

We see that something has been heard, something has been seen, something has been looked upon, and it has been touched, yes?

Verse 2 says, For the life was manifested and we have what?

Seen it and bear witness and show unto you what?

That eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us." Clearly, we compare this with the book of John, we know we're talking about Jesus.

This message is based upon John's personal experience.

You know, I'd like to introduce a food to you tonight.

Then, well, you can't do the rest because I don't have it here.

I'm destroying it, but, and you know what I'm talking about.

I've had some people say, well that's soursop, and I say no it's not.

It may have some similarities but there's a difference.

So let me tell you what others have said.

Mark Twain said it is the most delicious fruit known to man.

A German botanist said this, if I were asked which were the best fruit I would choose without hesitation, cherimoya.

Its taste indeed surpasses that of every other fruit.

If you'd like to get some, make sure you get a plane ticket to Ecuador.

Is there some other places there is chile mojito?

Because I'm noticing there's some nodding heads here.

It's soft and you can just break it open like this.

I was traveling from Quito up into the mountains above there.

So we were pretty high in elevation, probably 10, 000, 12, 000 feet.

And the gentleman who was driving us, we were hungry.

We were college students on a choir trip and we were hungry.

We had woken up and not had breakfast and I don't know when you're 19 and you haven't had breakfast, man, life's falling apart.

And he stopped at a food stand, he threw a bag of oranges in the back, and he threw a bag of this light green yellowish looking whatever it was.

And being raised in the United States, I'm used to oranges being orange on the outside.

And so when I saw all the green oranges, I thought I'm not interested in them, not knowing that they were ripe and I just am used to painted oranges or whatever we call it.

And then a friend of mine opened up 1 of the chirimoyas.

And we put 1 in our mouth, a little bit sticky.

And we finished the whole bag of chile molla.

It's about this bag and I know they're a specialty fruit and when we got there, I don't know Spanish well, but and the man who I was traveling with did not speak much English, but he could say this word.

He had actually bought the oranges for us and the cherimoya for his workers who are working at the farm where we were going.

I can tell you it's worth you doing sometime.

It wasn't some hearsay that his father had told him about or maybe his pastor had told him about, John had a personal experience with Jesus Christ.

He had not just heard about the Beatitudes, he heard them.

He also heard Jesus asking him with his agonizing last breath to take care of his mother.

He had not just read about it on a page, but he had saw whole towns healed and free of disease.

He saw 10, 000 people at least fed with the loaves and the fishes.

Can you imagine what it would have been like to travel with Jesus and he goes to sleep and you sleep in the same area, and then you're snoozing in the morning around 05:00 and you hear something, you turn over and you see he's getting up and he's walking out of camp, and you know he's going to spend time with his father.

He saw how Jesus responded to those who were fighting with him, for those who loved him, to those who doubted him.

And maybe, just maybe, he felt the hand of Jesus on his shoulder.

He heard, he saw, he looked upon, and he handled of the Word of Life.

He goes on and tells us this in verse 3 of 1st John.

1st Century Advice for 21st Century Christians

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