Final words… the last moments of your life… your last breath on this earth. Maybe you have contemplated what you might say. How would you use those last breaths?

Isn’t it interesting that no one ever shares their bank account information, or their wifi password with those final breaths.

- DO people use those final breaths to ask a question?
- To state their desires?
- To recite their regrets?
- Typically, they leave behind all that is pointless in life and seek to communicate what they want their loved ones TO KNOW.
- You want them to KNOW how you care for them so they will never forget it. You want them to KNOW how thankful you are for them.
- Essentially, you would probably say, “if you know nothing else about me, KNOW THIS!”

How do I know? What’s the last thing you say before you leave on a plane to your loved ones?


Because when you are leaving behind your last words… your last communications. You tend to center on what is lasting and what is of most importance to you. You try to offer the purest thoughts and intentions of your heart toward those you leave behind. Because it's the last thing they will remember from you and they will never forget it.

And that is what John aims to do as we look at the finale of this letter.

- Daron Roberts was preaching to 1 thessalonians this morning at our new church plant. And he began by stating that Satan's chief goal is to cast doubt in the life of a Christian. He seeks to trip you up, keep you on the ground, vulnerable to his schemes. To keep you confused by casting doubt into your MIND. And he highlighted three areas he wants to sow doubt in the life of a christian.
- Doubt in the leadership of the church
- Doubt in Your doctrine.
- Doubt in God’s work in you

So just as you might offer your final declarations and affirmations to your children on you death bed. John seeks to do the same here in this letter. Even throughout this letter he continually calls the readers of this letter “Little children”.

So he seeks to bolster the mind and heart of the reader by leaving them with what he wants them to KNOW so that they won’t be carried off by the schemes of the evil one.


- Thematically, this is
- This is like the ABC’s of Christianity. The undeniable, incontrovertible facts. This is like gravity, this is like physics of What christians need to know.

One other thing I want to point out before we dive into our passage, is that Joh uses a less linear style of argumentation. Therefore, much of what he states in this finale, ha already been fleshed out and illustrated in the previous chapters. So as we analyze each phrase, we will be jumping back and forth through the letter to gain a more clear picture of what he means.

- Exegetical keys
- Change from 3rd person singular in v19 to 1st person plural (we)

Plural noun
In this finale to the letter, John anchors our faith with Three relational certainties and a strategic response to them.