THE LETTERS OF JOHN • Dardanelle Missionary Baptist Church, Dardanelle, Arkansas
Pastor Chuck Trusty • Sunday evenings, with the deeper study on Wednesday
Begins Sunday evening, September 13, 2026.
“That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.” — 1 John 1:3
John was the last one left. He had outlived every other man who walked with the Lord. He had leaned on His breast at supper, he had stood at the cross when the rest of them ran, and he had looked into an empty tomb with his own eyes . . . and now he is an old man, writing to churches full of people who NEVER saw any of it.
So he does not argue. He writes like a man who was there: that which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled. Three short letters — you can read ALL three in half an hour — and in them John hands a church the tests by which it may know, for certain, that it belongs to God.
Two layers, two nights
These letters are worth more than ONE pass, so we are going to take two.
Sunday evening is the top layer. We take the passage as it stands, walk it through plainly, and carry home the one thing it is saying — the lesson a man can keep without a notebook.
The Wednesday after is the Deep Study. The same passage, second layer: the words underneath the English, the world John was writing into, and what his first readers understood without being told . . . same text, deeper down.
You are not lost if you only make one of the two. The Sunday lesson stands by itself and so does the Wednesday study. Together they are a whole.
What John is after
These letters were written into a real trouble. Men had come through the churches teaching that Jesus had not truly come in the flesh — that the Christ was a spirit who only seemed to be a man. Those men had gone out, and they had taken people with them, and the ones who stayed were shaken. Was their faith the real thing?
John answers with tests, not with feelings . . . do you walk in the light? Do you keep His commandments? Do you love the brethren? Do you confess that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh? He says why he wrote it, plainly: “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life...” (1 John 5:13)
Not hope so. Know.
The lessons
Sunday, September 13 — Evening (Series Introduction)
Opening the Letter
Who wrote it, why it was written, and how it is built • 1 John 1:1 • 1 John 2:19 • 1 John 1:4 • 1 John 5:13 • 1 John 5:11-12
Read the lesson • Watch the video (47:47)
Sunday, September 27 — Evening (Unit 1 — Sunday lesson)
The Word of Life
Handled, heard, and declared • 1 John 1:1-4 • Luke 24:39 • 1 Corinthians 2:9 • John 15:11
Read the lesson • Watch the video (51:15)
Wednesday, October 7 — Evening (Unit 1 — Wednesday Deep Study)
The Word of Life — The Deep Study
The grammar underneath the English • 1 John 1:1-4 • Luke 24:39 • Jude 1:3 • John 15:11 • 2 Peter 1:16
Read the lesson • Watch the video (40:06)
Every lesson is posted here as we go — the Sunday lesson and its Wednesday study together.
Every lesson is also kept on the Lessons page.
Sunday, October 11 — Evening (Unit 2 — Sunday lesson)
God Is Light — Three Lies and the Truth
Light, honesty, and fellowship • 1 John 1:5-10 • James 1:17 • Hebrews 4:13 • Romans 3:23 • 1 Peter 2:24 • 1 John 2:1
Read the lesson • Watch the video (40:58)
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