NIV Study Bible – chris cribari blog

Updated: 5/11/2026

Sermon Prep

September of 2025 was a brutal and horrible month all around in our community. One mom in our community ran away from her husband and took her kids without the husband knowing. Navigating that stressful family situation was already tough enough on it’s own. Earlier in the month, my older brother John flew out from Texas to Colorado to intervene on a friend who was potentially suicidal. That intervention of sorts did end up being productive and those two actually got to meet up with their old youth pastor, which was great on it’s own.

For me though and for our church immediately before this message one of our own passed away after shortly entering hospice care. Her name was Heidi Jean Foster and she was Julie’s daughter that for years fought cerebral palsy. She had decided on her own earlier in the month to skip another high-risk surgery and instead in her own words, “wanted to go home to run and see Jesus.”

Given her condition, her mental cognition was similar to a 5 year old and yet she was 44 years old. Before her decision was made to go home to be with the Lord, it was difficult for loved ones and medical staff to know what to do for her because of this fact, along with increasingly complicated procedures to keep her alive. But to respect her decision the wonderful medical care team, her mom Julie, Bethany, her sisters, and myself mapped out what end of life care would look like for Heidi. It was my first time doing that side of pastoral ministry, but I believe we made the best decision in how Heidi’s hospice care would carry her to her last day.

Heidi was born on September 10th, 1981 and died on September 28th, 2025. She loved her unicorn stuffed animal, Jonathan from our church who visited often, and of course puzzles. She was loved and to this day is missed by our whole community.

As a pastor, it’s never easy losing one of your own and for me this loss was the same. Given she passed away early Sunday morning everyone on our core team now knew and that factored into how I taught this message. Returning to preaching after 2 months off was nice to go with an easier passage of scripture.

1 John 4 is fairly straightforward, so when I’m given a more directly applicable message I like to find a new way to teach it and details that bring out the richer meaning of the text. In this case, I drew on cross references on how to love one another and a couple study Bibles I have on hand. In the end, I think it shaped up well approaching it from this angle. Here’s the YouTube recording and the my notes below:

Sermon Notes

Opening Prayer

Father God, lead us this morning as we search the scriptures. Thank you for your Son whose sacrifice is our salvation. Would you speak through me, in spite of me, and beyond me. May you, Holy Spirit, dwell within us as you teach us today. Amen.

Intro

Story of older brother flying out to CO last week, so that he can see old, family friend and help him.

Main Point

We are most like Christ when we love one another just as Jesus loves each one of us.

Love One Another | 1 John 4 (NRSVue)

“[1] Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. [2] By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, [3] and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. And this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world. [4] Little children, you are from God and have conquered them, for the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. [5] They are from the world; therefore what they say is from the world, and the world listens to them. [6] We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us, and whoever is not from God does not listen to us. From this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. [7] Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. [8] Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. [9] God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. [10] In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. [11] Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. [12] No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us, and his love is perfected in us. [13] By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. [14] And we have seen and do testify that the Father has sent his Son as the Savior of the world. [15] God abides in those who confess that Jesus is the Son of God, and they abide in God. [16] So we have known and believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them. [17] Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. [18] There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. [19] We love because he first loved us. [20] Those who say, “I love God,” and hate a brother or sister are liars, for those who do not love a brother or sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. [21] The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.”

This chapter has two halves → 1 John 4:1-6 (spirits test) + 1 John 4:7-21 (Christian test).
- John contrasts biblical love with cultural norms of conditional and reciprocal relationships common in John’s day and unfortunately we still experience today.
Spirits test is the confession that Jesus is fully God and fully man (i.e. hypostatic union).
- Inspired by OT method of testing prophets in Deuteronomy 13:2-6 and 18:15-22.
- Potentially modified the secessionist opponents’ own slogan as the spirits test.
  - “John excludes the Gnostics, especially the Cerinthians, who taught that the divine Christ came upon the human Jesus at his baptism and then left him at the cross, so it was only the man Jesus who died.” – NIV Study Bible, Fully Revised Edition (Grand Rapids; Zondervan, 2020), 2220, note on 1 John 4:2.
1 John 1:5 (light), 4:7 (love), and 4:24 (spirit) are Johannine formulas describing God.
- The term Johannine scholars use to refer to John’s theology and writing style.
1 John 4:13 implicitly defends the idea that salvation can’t be lost because the Spirit of God makes a permanent dwelling with those who humbly trust him with their life.
- μένομεν (menomen) = we abide/dwell/remain; the “we” is God and us mutually.
- Our assurance of salvation is the gift of the Holy Spirit himself dwelling within us.
  - “How can we know God lives in us? John gives a fourfold answer: (1) if we love one another (v. 12), (2) if we have been given His Spirit (v. 13), (3) if we can confess Jesus is the Son of God (v. 15), and (4) if we abide in the love of God (v. 16).” – 1 John 4:12-16 note, in The Orthodox Study Bible: Ancient Faith Edition (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2008), 1702.
  - All Christians behave like Christ, believe in Christ, and belong to Christ.

Why It Matters

God’s love is at its best and perfected when we love others as we’re told to do by God.

“[34] I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. [35] By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”” – John 13:34-35 (NRSVue)

God might be invisible, yet he’s seen when we love one another as siblings in Christ.

“[43] “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ [44] But I say to you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, [45] so that you may be children of your Father in heaven, for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.”” – Matthew 5:43-45 (NRSVue)

Love is part of the greater litmus test of whether or not someone is a genuine Christian.
- Just as we need to have right belief (orthodoxy), we also need to have right behavior (orthopraxy) and right belonging (orthokoinonia). This is the test.

Power Text

Behavior: “[10] For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we may walk in them.” – Ephesians 2:10 (NRSVue)
Belonging: “[24] And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, [25] not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” – Hebrews 10:24-25 (NRSVue)

Outro

The spiritual journey requires all of you and the whole self as you walk the way of Jesus.
- We do as he did and live as he lived, which includes loving our friends and foes.
  - So be like Christ and love not just your own world, but the whole world.

Final Thoughts

Surprisingly give the background for this sermon, the delivery and day of had lots of laughs. It was actually one of my funnier sermons by happenstance and not intentionally on my part. Although, I was a dick the way I handled baby Penny grunting which made Azzy laugh. It was fun and we all laughed, but I handled it wrong and misread the situation from the pulpit. Given preaching feels like mere minutes and is such a blur I missed that whole context altogether. But we made things right after service.

The sermon was very well received once I sat down to do Table Talks. I think it was a great sermon, but very trying times as everyone in church seemed to be going through something in September. Like life in general, a church community has ebbs and flows too.

There’s highs and lows in the life of a church, which this month was a low for us all. That low would bleed into the fall with my next topical teaching, but we’ll cover that in the next sermon recap. With that, Godspeed and Jesus bless.

Photo Cred: (1) | Updated: 4/16/2026

Sermon Prep

A few weeks had passed since my first sermon back from paternity leave and I was right back into the swing of things. Work was dragging and my drive to be the best was start to wane a bit given I desperately wanted to get out of sales. I actually ended my paternity leave early, so that I could apply for a role in the Customer Success team.

But I didn’t get the job, so I was frustrated by that fact too. What bothered me even more was that there were other people who got the promotion onto that team before me in my department and were either decent in their roles or flat out bottom tier sales reps. Since I made President’s Club and was the best person in the department, that did get under my skin because I just assumed they’d pick me.

Yet that’s just part of the corporate game. It’s not a meritocracy, it’s a networkocracy where instead of what you know it’s who you know that gets you ahead in life. Can’t hate the player, but you can hate the corporate game. In this season, I really hated the game. Anyways, here’s the notes from that sermon below.

Sermon Notes

Opening Line

Story of going to gym again post-paternity leave.

Intro

Building off of Andrew’s message, Paul is putting the Corinthians in their place.

Main Point

Paul’s reminding them that they’re not the big picture, but a part of the big picture.
By God’s grand design, the church is built different than the world.

Temple Talk | 1 Corinthians 3:16-23 (NRSVue)

“[16] Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? [17] If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple. [18] Do not deceive yourselves. If you think that you are wise in this age, you should become fools so that you may become wise. [19] For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their craftiness,” [20] and again, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile.” [21] So let no one boast about people. For all things are yours, [22] whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, [23] and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.”

Verses 16 thru 17 is a plural you, but verses 18 thru 23 is singular.
The ANE had a different idea of idols than the Greeks/Romans (1 Corinthians 3:16-17).
- Read Genesis 2:7-8, 15 (NRSVue)
“[7] then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. [8] And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed… [15] The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it.”
- Read Leviticus 26:11-12 (NRSVue)
  - “[11] I will place my dwelling in your midst, and I shall not abhor you. [12] I will be your God, and you shall be my people.”
- “[It was] common in the world of Mesopotamia that when you created an idol you would have this opening of the mouth ceremony where the god would then infuse the idol with his spirit, so that the idol could function as a proper representation of the god… Not just a symbol. A living entity that represented the god that was in the idol… We are living, breathing representations of God… Humans were intended to carry his Spirit in everything that they do. To represent him faithfully as temples of his Spirit.” – Dr. Brittany Kim
- Read Ephesians 2:19-22 (NRSVue)
  - “[19] So then, you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, [20] built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone; [21] in him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord, [22] in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God.”
- This is Paul’s 4th analogy within the context of ch. 3 (milk, dirt; foundation).
  - “The Church is an organic whole… One who would break this unity would desecrate a sacred place.” – Orthodox Study Bible
- Referring to Corinthians as a temple was also in response to the prominent temples of the city like the Temple cult of Aphrodite atop the Acrocorinth.
Verse 18 can be cross-referenced with 1 Corinthians 1:18 (1 Corinthians 3:18, 21).
- Unclear who’s addressed here, but Paul is warning them to be responsible.
Paul is quoting Job 5:13 and Psalm 94:11 back-to-back (1 Corinthians 3:19-20)
What does “all things are yours” mean (1 Corinthians 3:21-23)?
- “[Christians] are heirs of all things-heirs of the ministries of all those who faithfully promote the gospel, and also of everything over which God and Christ hold sovereign rule, namely, all those things that the philosophers of this world claim to have mastered by their wisdom.” – NIV Study Bible
Apollos, Cephas, and Paul are co-workers working towards a common purpose as they collaborate with God (1 Corinthians 3:22).
- Cephas is generally believed to be the Apostle Peter (1 Corinthians 3:22).

Why It Matters

The church is the sum of many opposing parts put together for the same purpose.
God is building his temple to dwell among us and we, God’s people, are that temple.

Power Text

Avoid conformity and division, so that above all you can build unity as fellow workers.
“God is building his temple through the people of God. He causes the growth, but the community of Jesus’ followers participates with God in that work.” – Andrew Morrison

Outro

Our aim is to co-labor with God in the earthly and remain with God in the eternal.
- Mature Christians answer God’s call, humbly submit to his way, and exercise faith knowing that God will do what he said he would do.

Final Thoughts

I think this message was good and more teaching, than preaching. For me, I’ve always felt like a teacher more than a preacher and all of my messages I’ve done seem to reflect that. Leaning into the context and culture, more than the emotions and heart of a message.

What also is a thought that has burrowed in my mind lately is and probably began around the time I was on paternity leave was if I was actually a pastor. I’m not ordained, I just volunteered to help and teaching was one of the areas to help. This church I teach at is a non-denominational church, so it has more in common with corporate America than traditional liturgical Christianity.

That thought began to bother me in this season of reflection and continues to bother me today. Do I need someone to ordain me and say I’m a pastor? Do I just need to step up where there’s a need? To this day I still avoid the pastor title because I don’t really believe it myself. It’s sort of like calling yourself a professional athlete without being apart of a professional team and instead playing sports on the local level. Is that legit? I still don’t know. With that, Godspeed and Jesus bless.

Footnotes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opening_of_the_mouth_ceremony

Tag: NIV Study Bible

1 John: Love One Another | 9-28-25

1 Corinthians: God the Builder | 2-9-2025