John Gilbert lived in a California town called Paradise. When he was 5 years old, he was diagnosed with Muscular Dystrophy. He was told it would eventually destroy every muscle and finally take his life. Each year John lost something. One year it was the ability to run. Another year he could no longer walk straight. Soon he couldn’t walk at all. John Gilbert passed away several years ago at the age of 25.
While alive, John experienced a lot of limitations. He loved basketball but couldn’t play. He could only take his wheelchair on to the court occasionally. One year he was named the ambassador for everyone with his condition in the state of California. He was flown to Sacramento and was ushered with his mother into the governor’s office for a private meeting.
That night the National Football League sponsored a fund-raising auction and dinner at which John was an honored guest. There were some NFL stars there who let John hold their massive Super Bowl rings. It was a great memory for him. When the fund-raising auction began, one particular item caught John’s attention: a basketball signed by the players of the Sacramento Kings. John got a little carried away, because when the ball was up for bid, he raised his hand. As soon as his hand went up, John’s mother pulled it down. In John’s words, “Astronauts never felt as many G’s as my wrist did that night.”
The bidding for the basketball rose to an astounding amount for an item that was not the most valuable treasure on the docket. Eventually, one man named a figure that shocked the room and the no one else could match. The man went to the front and collected his prize. But instead of returning to his seat, the man walked across the room and placed the signed basketball into the frail hands of the boy who had admired it so intently. The man placed the ball in hands that would never dribble it down a court, never throw it to a teammate on a fast break, never fire it from 3-point range. But those hands would cherish that basketball.
Have you bought a basketball for anyone lately?
Giving something of value to someone else, and it doesn’t just have to be material, it can be our time, it can be a listening and compassionate heart, but giving, Jesus said, brings more happiness than getting! “We are more happy when we give than when we receive.” (Jesus - Acts 20:35)
We know that but with all of the glitz coming out of Madison Avenue and all the glamour coming out of Hollywood it’s like we’re in a vise and have been squeezed into believing something else.
Giving trumps getting because when we give we’re imitating God. God is the greatest giver in the universe!
So we ought to ask ourselves, “How can we become more like God? How can we give to others and encourage others more?”
I want to talk to you about this today. “How Can We Help Others Cope by Our Friendship?” What can we do to give someone a basketball? What can we do to make the load lighter for others? And the good news is you don’t have to be able to outbid everyone else at a charity auction in order to do something important for someone. You don’t have to be rich or famous or super-talented to live a life that matters. You can be you.
And why should we be interested in helping others find meaning in life? Isn’t the search all about us?
We’re beginning a new series today called, “Made to Count” – and the subtitle asks a question, “Am I Living a Life that Matters?”
I think most of us want to live a life that matters. When we come to the end of our existence on earth we want to be able to say we made a difference. But in today’s world it’s easy to feel you’re nothing more than a number on a spreadsheet. It’s commonplace for us to feel insignificant.
The good news is each one of us does matter! Our lives matter!
We’re going to see how we’ve been created by God to make a difference by investigating the very encouraging and challenging first letter that the Apostle John wrote to the Christ followers of the early church. This letter has five chapters. So each Sunday this month we’ll investigate them one by one.
Today we begin with the topic of “fellowship” in 1 John chapter one.
Fellowship is a big part of the life that God gives us so we can lead happier and fuller lives, it’s one of the ways we were made to count. But we need to know HOW this great gift from God works so that we can be better equipped to put it to use. HOW can my fellowship with God and others help me live a life that matters?
As we read the first chapter of John’s first letter to the first century Christ followers I ask you to do two things. First, circle the word “fellowship” each of the four times it occurs. Next, notice the use of the first person plural pronouns, “we,” “our,” and “us.”
1 We proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen. We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands. He is the Word of life. 2 This one who is life itself was revealed to us, and we have seen him. And now we testify and proclaim to you that he is the one who is eternal life. He was with the Father, and then he was revealed to us. 3 We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4 We are writing these things so that you may fully share our joy.
5 This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. 6 So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth. 7 But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.
8 If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. 9 But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts. 1 John 1:1-10 (NLT)
Why did John use so many first person plural pronouns in this chapter? Why did he repeat the word “fellowship?” Because living a life that matters, means caring about others.
John didn’t say “I”, and “me” and “mine.” He said, “we,” and “us,” and “ours!” This is an important observation. So very many people want to lead lives that matter but they are stymied because they are trying to accomplish this flying solo. We can’t live lives that matter unless we get involved in the lives of others, until we purchase basketballs for others, until we learn not to just say, “I” and “me” and “mine,” but “we” and “us” and “ours!
Where did this strong emphasis John placed on community come from? Where did he get this BIG emphasis on fellowship? Why did he associate our living a life that matters with fellowship with others?
John got this idea from Jesus! This is God’s idea! John opens his letter by telling how he was one of Jesus’ close friends. He saw the significance and substance of community in Christ’s interaction with His disciples. John’s friendship experiences with Jesus and the other apostles were still vivid in his mind and heart when he wrote these words. He had already penned a Good News account of the life of Jesus and now he writes to the early Christ followers several years later because false teachers were challenging their faith. [One of the crucial tools for not being fooled by religious con artists is fellowship. We’ll come back to this later in this book.] The interesting part of John’s testimony is that he was an “eyewitness” to the things Jesus did and said.
Some would attempt to discredit the eyewitness testimony of John and the other apostles because there have been articles in magazines and newspapers and on the Internet and even TV segments that suggest that eyewitness testimony, especially in court cases, is sometimes not as reliable as we might think.
This is why criminal court cases have begun to focus more on scientific evidence rather than eyewitness testimony. For instance, a bank teller is rehearses to police what a suspect looks like, and later, when apprehended, there are differences between her description of the criminal and what he actually looks like. He’s six foot two instead of five foot eight. His eyes are blue and not green, etc.
Some people say, “You know what, the eyewitness testimony of the apostles is suspect because we all know that eyewitness testimony is not as credible as we once thought.”
Do you know how we ought to respond to this? John is not describing a bank robber to police after having only had a brief glimpse of him under duress. That’s not the kind of “eyewitness” testimony John is giving! He says in verse one, “We (not only) saw him with our own eyes, (but we) touched him with our own hands. He is the Word of life.”
John saw Jesus die for the world’s sins on the cross on Skull Hill. He touched the wounds in Jesus’ hands and side after Christ’s resurrection. John had walked and talked with Jesus for three and a half years. He didn’t just have a fleeting “glimpse” of Jesus! In fact, John is known as “the disciple Jesus loved,” (John 19:26; 20:2; 21:7 & 21:20) because He and Jesus were such close friends.
John’s friendship with Jesus is a big part of what motivated him to begin his letter the way he did. He knew firsthand the benefits of having the right kind of friends, the right kind of fellowship. He knew how having fellowship with Jesus and having fellowship with others who followed Jesus added such great significance to his life! He knew the value of the church! He wanted his readers to know and grow deep in the kind of friendship that he and the other apostles had with Jesus and with one another.
How does this happen? How do we help our friends find the great resource of fellowship with God and friendship with those who are enjoying God and enjoying fellowship with one another?
In this first chapter he tells us HOW TO HELP OTHERS COPE by our fellowship.
I. The first way we can help others cope is BY SHARING OUR JOY!
In verse 3 John says, “We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.” And in verse four he says, “We are writing these things so that you may fully share our joy.”
Once you experience fellowship with Christ and fellowship with other Christ’s followers you want others experience the joy you feel. You want to share the joy! Fellowship is joy sharing! John establishes this as one of the goals of fellowship.
John was very good about clearly stating his purposes for writing.
His great purpose for the entire letter is found in 1 John 5:13 (NLT) “I write these things to you who believe in the Son of God, so that you may know you have eternal life.” Circle the words “know” and “have.” The entire letter is an extremely purposeful letter. John is saying, “I want you to read this letter because I want this letter to reassure you that if you believe in the Son of God you may KNOW you HAVE eternal life.”
The false teachers in John’s day were trying to muddy the waters about Jesus. [We face the same attacks on Christ’s authenticity in the 21st Century that the church faced in the 1st Century. That’s one of the reasons the consideration of this letter is so timely.] Their teachings led to doubt instead of assurance. We’ll get to their teachings later in the letter as John addresses them. If you need assurance you should stay tuned. But in this first chapter we need to clearly see one of the main purposes for which the church exists.
The church exists to share the joy by helping others find out how to KNOW they HAVE fellowship with God! That’s one of our primary purposes! “We are writing these things so that you may fully share our joy.”
The church is not a “closed” society. It’s not a clique. It’s not a place where we’ve found this tremendous treasure and want to keep it a secret so no one else will “horn in” on our fortune. No! We’re not stingy with the Good News about Jesus because there’s plenty of treasure to go around! This is the kind of treasure that grows as more people receive it!
Those of us who follow Christ are actively seeking others to follow Christ because we want them to be spiritually rich too! Not because we want to make them mindless spiritual robots; not because we’re insecure about having people dot every “i” and cross every “t” the way we do; but because we want to share the great experience of knowing God and of having friendship with one another! WE WANT TO SHARE THE JOY!
John’s sharing of his friendship experience with Jesus lays a great foundation for those of us who would make friends for Jesus. The closer we get to Christ and His church the more joy we’ll have AND the more we’ll want to share it! [Conversely, when you start drifting from Christ and His church your joy begins to fade.]
So the first thing we can do to help others know that they matter, and help them live lives that matter, is to share the tremendous joy we’ve found in Christ.
II. Another way we can help others cope is by AUTHENTIC LIVING.
5 This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. 6 So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth. 7 But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, THEN we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.
Here at Pathway we talk a lot about authentic living, about genuineness and being real. That’s because hypocrisy and mask wearing are counterproductive to having true fellowship with God and others.
Pretending to live in the light when we’re really living in the dark is detrimental to living a life that matters because it hinders us from sharing true fellowship with others. You have to have fellowship if you’re going to live a life that matters and you can’t have true fellowship with others if you’re two-faced. You have to take off your mask in order to have close fellowship with others. We’ve got to be authentic in order to live a life that matters.
To make sure we don’t misunderstand, John clearly states in verse 7 that our authenticity is not the thing that cleanses us from sin. It’s only the blood of Jesus that can clean us up spiritually and make us presentable before a God that is totally holy and without sin. “God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all.” (Verse 5)
"For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood." Romans 3:25a (NLT)
There’s darkness in me. I have this inbred capability to do bad things. Wrong things. Hurtful and mean things. We all have this capacity. Not only do we all have this sinful nature; we’ve all acted on it. We’ve all blown it. It’s called being a sinner.
I need something; in fact I need someone, who can help me deal with this sinful human nature I possess. That someone is Jesus. I must make a faith commitment to Him and what He did for me on the cross in paying for my sins if I am to deal with my sin problem.
But still, even though being authentic is not the thing that cleanses me from sin, the idea of cleansing is connected to authentic living. How?
Look again at what John says.
6 So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth. 7 But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, THEN we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.
My authenticity is a result of “living in the light.” My genuineness is seen by others when I’m “practicing the truth.” Circle those two phrases: “living in the light” in verses 6 & 7, and “practicing the truth” in verse 6.
Here’s some deductive reasoning that summarizes what John is saying.
a. God is in the light. [No deception in God. He never wears a mask. He’s holy. He’s pure, etc.]
b. Since God is in the light we cannot have fellowship with Him if we’re in the darkness.
c. We cannot share God’s fellowship with others if we’re not experiencing it for ourselves.
If we would have fellowship with God we must live in the light. Once we truly come to Christ we don’t go on stumbling around in the darkness. We don’t go on living a dark lifestyle. Will we fail sometimes? Sure. We’ll see how to handle our failures in the closing verses of this chapter in just a few minutes. But failure will be the exception rather than the rule. (Some days it will seem like failure is the rule, but overall, true followers of Christ live in the light, where God is.) We don’t live a lifestyle that is all about doing dark things.
The point John is making here is that there is a distinct difference between lying and saying we have fellowship with God when we don’t, and actually living in the light where God lives. And if we’re not living in the light GOD IS NOT GOING TO BE ABLE TO SHARE HIS JOY WITH US AND WE’RE NOT GOING TO BE ABLE TO SHARE IT WITH OTHERS. If our lives contradict our message we will be ineffective at having fellowship and living lives that matter.
A good microcosm of being two-faced and unauthentic is the steroid controversy currently raging in professional sports. I say microcosm because the rules-breaking in professional sports is a snapshot of American culture. We all have to ask ourselves, “Am I willing to break the rules in order to get ahead?”
In 1987, at his father’s funeral, American Carl Lewis placed his 100-meter gold medal from the 1984 Olympics in his father’s hands. “Don’t worry,” he told his surprised mother. “I’ll get another one.”
A year later, in the 100-meter final at the 1988 games, Lewis was competing against Canadian world-record-holder Ben Johnson. Halfway through the race Johnson was five feet in front. Lewis was convinced he could catch him. But at 80 meters, he was still five feet behind. “It’s over, Dad,” Lewis thought. As Johnson crossed the finish, he stared back at Lewis and thrust his right arm in the air, index finger extended. Lewis was exasperated. He had noticed Johnson’s bulging muscles and yellow-tinged eyes, both indications of steroid use. “I didn’t have the medal, but I could still give to my father by acting with class and dignity,” Lewis said later. He shook Johnson’s hand and left the track.
But then came the announcement that Johnson had tested positive for anabolic steroids. He was stripped of his medal. The gold went to Lewis, a replacement for the medal he had given his father.
When we’re asking ourselves the question of what rules are we willing to break in order to get ahead, we also need to consider the price we’re going to pay for breaking the rules.
Walking in the darkness and breaking the rules is not the answer to living a life that matters. It’s only a mirage, a counterfeit, an imitation and a delusion. It is walking in the light with God that brings meaning to our lives!
Sharing joy; living authentically…and…
III. The third way we can help others cope is by CONFESSION.
At first that may sound strange to you but look at what John says next.
8 If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. 9 But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts.
Just as it is non-productive to make a claim of having fellowship with God while walking in darkness, it is also misguided to claim that you walk perfectly in the light. Claiming to have “no sin” is self-delusion.
I’m so glad that John adds this paragraph on the heels of the previous paragraph. We must be authentic if we’re going to have the kind of encouraging and helpful fellowship that gives meaning to our lives, but at the same time we’re not going to be perfect at it. We’re only fooling ourselves if we claim to have no sin. Genuineness is achievable in our fellowship with God and others but perfection is not – not in this lifetime. What IS possible is avoiding deception about ourselves.
So what does the Bible tell us to do in order to handle this temptation at self-deceit? We’re told to confess.
9 But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts.
The Greek word John uses for “confess” here means: “to say the same thing.” The Greek word, “homologeho” is a composed from the words, “homoo,” which means, “the same,” and “logos,” which means “something said.” Confession is when we say the same thing that God says. In this case we are saying the same thing about our sin that God says about our sin.
If we speak an unkind word to someone we need to apologize to the person we said it to and to God. God says unkindness is wrong and we need to say the same thing about unkindness that God says. We need to confess. The list is long of the number of wrong things we’ve done that we need to confess.
We don’t always need to confess to others but we should always confess to God when we realize we have done something He said we shouldn’t have done.
A counselor from a seventh grade camp was discussing with a 12-year-old boy his experience with trying out ’snuff’ on the school camp with two other boys the night before.
The Counselor asked, “What did you think of the whole experience?” “I got really sick on the stuff and I won’t ever try it again. I’ve already told God I’m sorry, but please don’t tell my teacher - Mr. Johnston."
The counselor questioned: "But God knows what you did. What’s the difference between God’s knowing and Mr. Johnston knowing?"
The boy explained, "God won’t tell my parents."
You can confess anything to God. He keeps confidences. But acting like we haven’t sinned isn’t going to help. Owning up to our sin and confessing it is essential to worthwhile fellowship and living a life that matters.
No fellowship is going to be what God wants it to be if it’s missing confession. We can’t lead a life that matters without saying the same thing that God says about our sins.
In a marriage, if a husband never confess that he’s sorry, if a wife never apologizes and confesses, if spouses don’t “say the same thing” about their sin that God does, then the relationship suffers due to lack of honesty and openness. The same thing is true with our friends.
I. Sharing our joy.
II. Living authentically.
III. Confession.
God’s Word says these are some of the integral parts to fellowship and fellowship is an integral part to living a life that matters.
If you’d like your life to make a difference and you want to put into action one or more of these three steps, then today is a good time.
You can make a commitment to God today to share your joy – to get involved in the lives of others more by doing more things for others.
You can take your mask off today. You can say, “God, I don’t want to walk in the dark anymore. I want to walk in the light with you so I can have true fellowship with you and with others who are following Christ.”
You can confess. “If we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.”
If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Romans 10:9 (NLT)
