Chapter 1
Verses 1-4 »» “That” makes John the Apostle like Graham Greene 1
Verse 5 »» American Idol, Katy Perry, Bebe Rexha, and 1 John 1:5 2
Verse 6-10 »» People’s sin solutions: irrelevant to me, behind me, beneath me.3
Chapter 2
Verse 1-6 »» Don’t fret you’re in the family4
Verse 7-11 »» Riddles…Could you solve this one?5
Verse 12-17 »» Coupling encouragements to exhortations6
Verse 18-19 »» Clarity comes from continuance7
Verse 20-27 »» From antichrists to annointing8
Verse 28-3:3 »» How do we avoid shame? Abide in Christ9
Chapter 3
Verse 4-6 »» Followers follow. Sinfulness is no hallmark of Christ10
Verse 7-10 »» Satan’s “family,” credit card offers and Pac-dots.11
Verse 11-18 »» Behavior matters. God loves. Cain does not.12
Verse 19-24 »» Assurance of salvation is from actions AND faith13
(No lesson was given on 7/9/2018; 7/15/2018)
Chapter 4
Verse 1 »» Beliefs matter, so have some skepticism. 14
Verse 2 »» God first; man second. How to avoid spiritual spoofing.15
Verse 4-6 »» Overcoming by hearing with a new mother-tongue.16
Verse 7-8 »» Surely not another way to salvation!17
No lesson on verses 9-12
Verse 13-21 »» John’s life: A life that worked.18
Chapter 5
Verse 1-5 »» Betterment not burdens. 19
Verse 6: Part 1 »» The matterful mundane is about water and blood.20
Verse 6: Part 2 »» God’s eternal testimony.21
Verse 7-8 »» Real solutions and a triple testimony.22
Verse 9 »» Tailored testimony and Great Expectations.23
No lesson on verses 10-12
Verse 13-15 »» “I write that you may have confidence,” says John.24
Verse 16 »» Pray, don’t ponder (other Christian’s sins)25
No lesson on 17. That is the verse on the unforgivable sin. I had things for the lesson and we spoke on it 9/23/2018, but it never made it to my notes here. Check out this link if you want to see the vein I took with it in class.
Verse 18-21 »» Final encouragement: Live what you know26
Whew! Well, that was a good 25 lessons. Learned a lot; taught a lot.
People, books, places, and games in this series
- James Wardwell, Ph.D. – Houghton College language professor
- Graham Greene – Novelist (Link 1, Link 2, Link 3)
- Books referenced: The Power and the Glory, The Quiet American (Link 1, Link 2), The Heart of the Matter
- Characters referenced: Tench, the unnamed fugitive, Major Scobie, Yusef (the diamond smuggler)
- Tiger Woods – Golfer
- Don Quixote – Mentioned only as the character
- Luke Bryan, Lionel Richie, and Katy Perry – Musicians all mentioned in the context of American Idol
- Bebe Rexha – Musician – Also mentioned as a subpart of American Idol
- R.C. Sproul – Theologian, pastor (Link 1, Link 2)
- W. Hall Harris, III – Theologian, seminary professor
- Wayne Watson – Christian musician
- Marilynne Robinson – Author
- Book referenced: Home.
- Characters: Glory and Jack Boughton especially
- Pat Frank – Author (Link 1, Link 2)
- Book referenced: Alas, Babylon
- Characters referenced: the highwaymen, Mickey Cahane, Arch Fleggert, Leroy Settle and Thomas “Casey” Killinger, Frank Bragg, Randy Bragg, Lib McGovern, and Malachai Henry
- John Piper – Pastor, author
- Nicholas Sparks – Author. Only referenced him contextually
- Terry Brooks – Author
- Books referenced: The Voyage of the Jerle Shannara. (A trilogy)
- Character referenced: Morgawr (though only called and “evil character”), Grianne Ohmsford
- Charles Dickens – Author
- Book referenced: Great Expectations
- Characters referenced: Pip, Joe Gargery
- Bill Pearson – Leader of Campus Outreach Augusta (early 1990s)
- Star Wars
- Characters referenced: Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader
- Biblical characters
- Elijah (Mount Carmel), Joseph (Genesis 50), John, Jesus, James, David, Satan, God (at least)
- Pac-man World – Videogame
- Super Mario Galaxy – Videogame
- Restaurants (not sure why all pizza places):