In 2007 a popular science magazine (Wired) had a cover article titled “What We Don’t Know About . . .” The article then ran short pieces on such unanswered mysteries as “Why Do We Sleep?” “Is Time an Illusion?” “What’s at the Earth’s Core?” “What is the Universe Made of?” and “Why Can’t We Predict the Weather?”
Even after hundreds of years of scientific advancement, on such basics, we’re still in the dark!
Fortunately, on the most basic of all questions (and by far more important than “What’s at the earth’s core?”)— questions such as “How did we get here?” “Why are we here?” and “Where are we going?”—we haven’t been left to grope in darkness. Instead, God has revealed to us, in the Bible, the answers to these fundamental concerns. And among those revelations given to us in Scripture, we have the writings of John the evangelist.
This quarter, instead of studying John’s Gospel (his own inspired eyewitness account of Jesus) or the book of Revelation (which he also wrote), we’re going to study his three letters. Though addressed to certain churches and individuals in his time, they deal with issues relevant to us today, issues such as false doctrine, sin, love, apostasy and obedience. But most important of all, they deal with Jesus Christ, the One through whom we were created (“How did we get here?”), the One who gives our existence meaning and purpose (“Why are we here?”) and the One who promises to come again and raise us to eternal life (“Where are we going?”). In short, in Jesus we find the answers to the most important questions.
That’s why the three epistles of John speak to issues relevant for the church today. We would do well to listen to them, because we believe that ultimately it is God who is
speaking to us through John’s words, the God who—though not revealing to us answers to such questions as “What’s at the earth’s core?”—has revealed to us truths about a greater and firmer foundation upon which we can rest: our Creator and Redeemer, Jesus Christ.
* Please note that the remaining lessons for second quarter 2009 are still on the ABSG Web site. Click on the purple button below for the edition in which you are interested. The first quarter lessons can be found directly underneath the listing for the second quarter lessons by simply scrolling down the page.
