The Living Word Series

THE LIVING WORD - 1 JOHN 1:1-4

 Book of 1 John: Theme of book centers around FELLOWSHIP. What is necessary for believers to have real fellowship with one another?. It is more than shaking hands or coffee and donuts. It is a much much deeper word.

1) John writes to warn of things that are barriers to true fellowship in the church. Wrong view of Jesus - Casual attitude towards sin - Lack of love for others - No resistance against false doctrines.

1492 - Christopher Columbus set out for the Orient and ended up in the Caribean. 500 years later men still don’t stop and ask for directions

 John is the only living Apostle: Elder statesman of the Church. After the death of Paul false doctrines began to filter through the church and now before he dies John takes time to clean things up a bit.

LIFE: spelled backwards is ’evil’. Today men and women are living their lives backwards and the result is a society with unspeakable evil. Something needs to happen to get us turned around and going back into the right direction.

1) Gospel of John written to convince sinners they were lost

2) Revelation of John written to comfort saints with hope

3) Epistles of John written to confirm saints that they were the real thing.

WATCHMAN NEE: What Shall This Man Do? Makes the point that the ministries of Peter, Paul, and John are extensions of what they once did:

1) When Jesus found Peter he was casting nets, fishing: We see him later drawing in large numbers(3,000/house of Cornelius 1/2 sermon)

2) Paul was a tentmaker: We see him constantly building churches, establishing foundations, and always on the move.

3) John: First found by Jesus mending nets. Now as heresies begin to creep in this aged apostle begins to fix what is broken.

 We are going to talk this morning and this evening about getting our spiritual lives back on the right track. We are going to talk about Who Jesus was, what fellowship is meant to be, and where real joy comes from.

1) This letters starts like none other: No introductions or greetings but John jumps right into his task of mending the damaged nets which were to serve as protection to the body of Christ.

WHAT CAN WE KNOW ABOUT JESUS CHRIST? (1) What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have beheld and our hands handled concerning the Word of Life - (2) and the life was manifested, and we have seen and bear witness and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us -

SUPERMARKET TABLOIDS: Amazed at what some people will choose to believe: Recent Headlines: Mom on diet of on Chicken lays an egg! WW2 bomber found on moon! Child walks and talks in 3 days! Adam and Eve’s bones found in Asia!

GNOSTICISM: After Paul died a heresy arose in the church called gnosticism. This is the opposite of what we call today agnosticism. An agnostic holds that the reality of God is unknowable. That latin word for the greek agnostic is the word ignoramus. An agnostic says, ’I do not know’ while a gnostic says, ’I do know’. This was a group that claimed to have superior knowledge that simple Christians hadn’t arrived at. 1) Jesus was not a man but was like a phantom t hat walked around, he didn’t have a body of flesh. 2) Also held that the material world was sinful and had been created not by God but by another diety 3) Denied the diety of Jesus saying He was a created being.

1. WE CAN KNOW THAT JESUS IS FROM THE BEGINNING - (1) What was from the beginning

a. Bible talks about three different beginnings:

1) Gen 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Beginning of Creation When I was in school they said it was millions of years ago and now they say billions of years ago. It makes me really feel quite old.

2) John 1:1-3 In the beginning was the Word A beginning without a beginning. Because we are finite creatures and limited in our understanding we have to start somewhere.

He was in the beginnining with God and all things came

Into being by Him(Gen 1:1)

a) Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. We would say today Jesus is the A to Z. I have hundreds of books in my library and many libraries have hundreds of thousands of books but every library is made up of only 26 letters. Jesus is God’s alphabet, everything God had to say is said through Who Jesus was.