1 John Series September 10, 2006
Introduction
1 John 1:1-4
When Pam and I were first married, we had an extended honeymoon traveling in the west of Canada. When we were in Vancouver we heard about the Stein Valley Festival, which was this 3 day rock and roll, environmentalist, native rights festival to save the Stein Valley. It looked amazing, so Pam and I took the city bus as far as it would take us north, and then hitch-hiked up to the festival. We were picked up almost immediately by this woman driving a beat up old Toyota, she of course was wearing Birkenstocks, hemp clothing and beads. She was great; we became fast friends and camped together at the festival. I remember one morning as she shared a cup of coffee with us, she remarked that if Jesus were alive today, he’d be right here with us, doing what he could to save the Stein Valley. I have to admit that I laughed and said that I think there are a lot of people who think that Jesus would be doing exactly what they are doing! We all think that He would be really into what ever cause is consuming our lives.
It is a strange thing in our culture that we think that we can decide who Jesus really is. We think that if we believe that something is true, it is true for us, other people might believe something very different is true, and that is “true for them.” In this way of thinking, something is true if you believe it, not “I believe it because it is true.” When you apply this thinking to Jesus, he is what ever I want to believe he is!
Flash through images of Jesus
You would think that since this way of thinking is so individualistic that we would have thousands of possible “Jesus”s out there in the thoughts of people. What I have encountered can be placed (I think) into two different steams.
2 streams
1 – Jesus is just a man – good teacher, like a 1st century Dr. Phil or if He is more Mystical, like a Jewish Buddha. People might say that he was human like us, but just more in touch with the divine within all of us.
This sort of thinking is very popular; it comes out in places like the Da Vinci Code that would have us believe that everything that we believe about Jesus is false, including his divinity.
People who create this “Jesus” in their minds are usually pretty free to pick and choose which of Jesus’ teaching that they will live by, and they will even add a fee themselves
2 - Jesus is only divine. This one is a little more rare, but I think that it exists and is becoming more popular in Tom Harpur’s books.
– possibly did not exist at all, but the stories & the teaching have a divine Spark. Harpur If I’m getting this right) teaches that the early Christians took ancient divine stories and applied them to Jesus of Nazareth. They were never meant to be taken literally, but were Spiritual stories that would teach us of the divine spark that is in all of us.
People have been calling these trains of thought “neo-gnosticism.” That might not matter much to you, except that when John wrote his letters, he wrote to a church community that had been struggling with what some scholars called Pre-gnosticism.
The Gnostics were a group of people in the 2nd century on who borrowed from different religions and philosophies to make their own diverse religion/philosophy. They had the original Ipod spirituality. They only downloaded the parts of religions that they liked. They had a very dualistic view of reality. The main dualism being that matter was bad, but Spirit was good. Thus, Jesus could not be divine, because “how could the pure spirit divine have anything to do with the base evil fleshly body?”
You are saved, not by God come in flesh, but by receiving a special knowledge (knowledge – gnosis – gnosticism) that ignites the divine spark in you. After you die, that divine spark is purged of all things material and fleshly, and you live eternally with the original God.
Gnostics would say one of two about Jesus.
1 – he was human like the rest of us, except that the divine “Christ” came upon him after his baptism, and left him just before his death. It was the Christ who taught us and will lead us to discover the divine spark within
0r, 2 – Jesus only appeared to be human, but he was the divine Christ who disguised himself to give us the secret knowledge that save us.
Can you imagine having people like this in your church? It would be like having ¼ of the church reading the Da Vinci Code and Holy Blood Holy Grail and saying “right that’s what it is really all about!” and trying to convince you that Jesus was just human and we got it all wrong! And it would be like another ¼ read The Pagan Christ and said “wow, I don’t think Jesus ever really existed, but that doesn’t mean the stories are false, they are spiritual stories that give us a secret knowledge that is going to save us! And they spend every conversation with you trying to prove that Tom is right.
It would make your head spin!
That is what the church that John was writing to were experiencing. The pre-Gnostics had left, but they were still feeding their weird ideas into the church. And the Christians that were left were filled with doubt and bewildered about what was really true. They were an intellectually beaten-down and battle weary group. John writes to them to encourage them, to assure them and to challenge them to live for the real Jesus.
Sound good? Do you need some of that?
This is how he begins…
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at with our eyes, which we have looked at, which we have touched – this we proclaim concerning the word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which with the Father has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete.
1) John is an eyewitness & a friend
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at with our eyes, which we have looked at, which we have touched – this we proclaim concerning the word of life.
John is not some theologian sitting in ivied towers trying to think great thoughts, nor is he a writer of pulp fiction trying to think up some great controversy that will tickle people’s ears and sell lots of books. John is a disciple and a friend of Jesus, he has seen him, heard him, touched him. One of our neighbours was able to snag tickets to the Toronto Film Festival’s gala opening of the latest Brad Pitt movie. She is so excited because Brad Pitt is going to be there and she might actually see him in the flesh. So when she gets back, we’re all going to gather around her and ask, “so… what’s he like?” John wasn’t in a crowd that saw Jesus pass by, or heard him speak once or twice and has now become an expert. I just love the picture of John and Jesus in John’s Gospel 13:22-25 John is eating with Jesus, they are on the floor, propped up on their sided and when John needs to ask him a question, he lays back on Jesus and talks to him. He describes himself as the disciple Jesus loved – that is the guy that I want to tell me about Jesus! John is the guy to go and ask “so, what’s he really like?
Do you know what you have in your hand when you pick up John’s gospel or his letters? You have the account written by the disciple that is closest to Jesus!
I have had friends who have traveled to Israel and they have come back talking about how amazing it was to walk in the same places that Jesus walked. I believe them. But do you realize that we have something better? We have the accounts written by his closest friends!
Do you hear how closely John chooses his word to argue with the proto-Gnostics? …To argue with Dan Brown and Tom Harpur? “I heard him, I saw him, I touched him…” “I was there, he is real flesh and blood, I ate with him, drank with him, leaned up against him like a brother – he’s the real thing, he is real man, not some divine creature faking it.” The Word of Life – remember the way John starts his gospel? John 1:1-14
He is flesh and blood; he is the Word – the Logos. Both human and Divine, not one or the other.
You can decide who Jesus is to you as easily as you could decide who I am to you! You could decide that I am a 6’6” black basketball player, but that wouldn’t change the fact I’m a 5’10” white guy who couldn’t sink the ball to save his life. To think that we can decide who Jesus is, or decide who God is is to say that there is no Jesus, no God, he is just a figment of my imagination!
2) John is a Proclaimer of Eternal Life
The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which with the Father has appeared to us.
Salvation is not gained through some secret knowledge that you might gain through some religious ceremony, or by reading Tom’s book – the eternal life appeared to John and his friend – The eternal life is a relationship with the Father through Jesus, the eternal life is a gift from God, not an enlightenment that we attain
3) John invites us in
We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete.
The Gnostics had strict rules about who was in and who was out – they had three levels – the top level, the enlightened ones the Gnostics themselves, and then those who could work there way into enlightenment, and then the people who couldn’t do anything other than live like animals. The enlightened ones had no time for the lower ranks and wanted nothing to do with the unenlightened ones.
On the other hand, John says, there is no secret knowledge here, we want you to understand these things so that you can be part of the family, because our family includes the Father and the Son, Jesus!
Jesus didn’t care if you were the head religious honcho, on of the great leaned ones, or a street prostitute, you could come and join him, as long as you were willing to give up your past life and start with him like a baby – to be “born again” as it were. That is what ticked the religious leaders off – Jesus opened the Kingdom of God to everyone! All of their enlightenment meant nothing in the kingdom! Jesus is not exclusive – he’ll take anyone, he takes everyone on the same terms – he’ll even take you, surprisingly he has even taken me. If you don’t like his terms, then you can stay out, but his invitation is open to everyone.
John says, If you hear the message and join the family, it will make my joy complete. How could you turn down an invitation from an old man like that? Can you imagine getting engaged and then going to your in-laws to tell them about it and they look at you and say, “to have you join our family will make our joy complete!”?
This is what the old apostle John is saying,
“I’ve seen, heard, felt Jesus the Christ – he is all-human, and he is the Son of God! And he has made a way for you to join with us in the family of God. Let me tell you about him so you can join, it would make me so happy.”
Conclusion:
We have so many voices around us saying look, “here is the messiah, he’s over here, this is what he looks like!” or, “come over here, we’ve got the ‘build your own messiah,’ just download the parts you like and leave the rest, you can even make a few parts up if you like!”
And then we have the old apostle John saying “I lived with the messiah, I leaned on his breast to eat my supper, let me tell you about him so that you can join the family of God, come listen, you can be my brother, you can be my sister, come listen.
We are going to listen to John over this fall, to hear the true Jesus.
