Letters of John Bible Studies Dr. James Stone

UNDERSTANDING THE CHURCH
AS IT WAS MEANT TO BE

The Letters of John
A Personal or Group Bible Study

10 X 11 X 1 3 Ring Binder
(131 Pages, 16 CD's)

It seems to be the best of times. With television stations flooded with Christian programming, radio airways saturated with religious broadcasting, and printing presses turning out a multi-million dollar business of church literature, the modern day church has no equal in any age in the promotion of itself to the world.

Magnificent church cathedrals are being built in city after city. Most congregations are actively pursuing more and better-trained ministry personal than in any other time in the history of the church. Supporting multi-million dollar budgets, the contemporary church has become big business.

In-depth training materials from personal money management to the operation of the spiritual gifts are readily available for everyone. The present day church, with its emphasis on reaching every age group, now offers a wide range of ministries to meet the needs of everyone.

For the first time ever in the history of the church, a new term, the mega-church, has been created to describe its success. With all of its multi-facet programs and activities, the modern day church should be judged as reaching an all-time high of spiritual excellency.

But, is all well with the church?

What the church was meant to be is about Jesus. It is not about man’s purpose or man’s potential. It actually is the realm where the influence, the recognition, and the realization of man decreases and the nearness, the manifestation, and the revelation of Jesus increases. No Jesus, no glory -- no glory, no church. For the church to be glorious it must exist in the manifestation of Jesus among the people.

PURPOSE OF COURSE

The simple preaching of Jesus that immediately changed lives has been replaced in the modern church by a multi-task obligation to be accomplished in this life in order to lay up treasures for the life to come. With the emphasis of the modern church message shifting from Jesus living in and through the believer to the believer becoming all they can be by their own positive thinking and their own assertive actions, Christianity has lost its Christ-centeredness and has become participant-centered. How the early followers of Jesus understood the living Word in their primitive ways calls the visible church with its modern ways into question. The living Jesus needs to be heard again. The purpose of this course is to bring the focus of the visible church back to Jesus.

THEME OF THE COURSE

The coming of Christ to be made apparent in the lives of His followers is the ultimate fulfillment of God’s purpose in sending His son to be clothed in human flesh. With John using the word know 42 times, the phrase in him (referring to being in Christ) 28 times, and the word abide 25 times in the 105 verses of his first letter, John desired that the first readers of his letter to understand the doctrine of Christ. Specifically, he wanted them to know, to experience, the manifestation of God in their lives. The early followers of Jesus were to know that they were abiding in him because they had a witness: "the Spirit raining upon them producing the kinship of their existence." John summarized that work of the Holy Spirit in the fellowship of believers in one word, love. Thirty-three times, John used love illustrating how Christ is manifested, once again, in the flesh. The theme of this course is the knowing, the abiding, and the loving that occurs in all believer when they are in Him.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Session 1:	What the Early Followers of Jesus Knew about the Church -- 1 John 1:1-4
Session 2:	The Church Is Fellowship with Jesus -- 1 John 1:5-10
Session 3:	Experiencing Jesus Produces the Church -- 1 John 2:1-14
Session 4:	The Holy Spirit Quickens the Church -- 1 John 2:15-29
Session 5:	The Church Lives by Grace -- 1 John 3:1-13
Session 6:	The Church Only Exist in Him -- 1 John 3:14-24
Session 7:	The Church Will Know the True Spirit -- 1 John 4:1-6
Session 8:	God Dwelling Among the Church -- 1 John 4:7-12
Session 9:	Seeing God in the Church -- 1 John 4:12-16
Session 10:	Experiencing God in the Church -- 1 John 4:17-21
Session 11:	The Church Overcoming the World -- 1 John 5:1-8
Session 12:	The Witness of God in the Church -- 1 John 5:9-15
Session 13:	No Idols in the Church -- 1 John 5:16-21
Session 14:	A Christ-Centered Church -- 2 John 1:1-13
Session 15:	The Journey to Jesus in the Church -- 3 John 1:1-14
Session 16:	Let the Church Be the Church -- Conclusion

A human being is a creature of two different worlds. He is a flesh and blood body that has been quickened by the breath of life, the Spirit of God. Since the body is inanimate material, it has to be infused with life by a force outside of itself. The spiritual has to penetrate the physical before life can be experienced by that which has no life. The challenge of those who experience the church is to keep their eyes upon Jesus as opposed to looking upon things that can be seen. Only the incorruptible, immortal, powerful and spiritual presence of Jesus can give life to the corruptible, mortal, weak, and physical man. The church must remain spiritual and resist the temptation to become fleshly.