Text: I John 1:1-4
Title: The Essence of Christianity
Big Idea: Without Jesus Christ, there would be no Christianity; it is Christ, or nothing!
Bridgeway Church
Preached on: January 4, 2008
“A number of years ago, in preparation for a discussion period on a Christian radio program, an interviewer went into the streets of Philadelphia to ask people this question: ‘What is Christianity.’ The answers were surprising. Some said that Christianity is ‘the American way of life.’ Others called it ‘an organization.’ It was ‘an ethic.’ One man termed Christianity ‘a tool used by capitalists to repress the poor.’ When the interviewer tried to help the people by asking, ‘And who is Jesus Christ?’ the answers were even more outlandish. He was called ‘pure essence of energy,’ ‘a good man,’ ‘our leader.’ Many replied, ‘I am not sure…I just don’t know.’” (James Montgomery Boice, The Epistles of John: An Expositional Commentary, (Baker Books: 1979), p. 20)
The situation faced by the interviewer in Philadelphia is not a new problem. In fact, it is a very old problem. Today we are going to begin a series exploring the Epistle known as 1 John.
Author: The author of this book is the Apostle John. “John was the younger son of Zebedee (since James is almost always listed first when the two are mentioned together), a prosperous fisherman on the Sea of Galilee who owned his own boat and had hired servants (Mark 1:20). John’s mother was Salome (cf. Mark 15:40 with Matt. 27:56), who contributed financially to Jesus’ ministry (Matt.27:5-56), and who may have been the sister of Mary, the mother of Jesus (John 19:25). If so, John and Jesus would have been cousins” (John MacArthur, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary, (Chicago: Moody, 2007), p. 6)
“Along with James and Peter, John was part of the inner circle of the Twelve (cf. Matt. 17:1; Mark 5:37, 13:3, 14:33). After the Ascension, he became one of the leaders of the Jerusalem Church…According to tradition, John spent the last decades of his life at Ephesus, overseeing the churches in the surrounding region…and writing his gospel…and three epistles…Toward the end of his life…John lived until the time of the emperor Trajan [A.D. 98-117], and was banished to the island of Patmos. It is there that he received and wrote the visions described in the book of Revelation (c. A.D. 94-96)” (Ibid)
Theme: If I were to simply state the theme of the 1 John is that Christ is the Essence of Christianity. Without Jesus Christ, there is no Christianity. Without Christ there is no Christianity!
Purpose: The purpose in writing 1 John was to counteract a virulent heresy that was just in its beginning stages. The heresy grew to be a philosophical system known as Gnosticism. “Gnosticism taught that matter was inherently evil and spirit was good. That philosophical dualism led the false teachers whom John confronted to accept some form of Christ’s deity, but to deny His humanity. He could not, according to them, have taken on a physical body, since matter was evil.” (MacArthur, p. 8). Further, the Gnostics taught that salvation was not found through the shed blood of Christ, but rather through a special knowledge, or gnosis, of one’s true condition.
To these heretics and their followers the Apostle John boldly asserted: “What was from the beginning; what we have heard; what we have seen with our eyes; what we beheld and our hands touched…We proclaim also to you.” He said, “and the life appeared and we have seen and testify, and announce to you the eternal life which was with the Father and was revealed to us; What we have seen and heard we proclaim to you.
John makes it utterly apparent that salvation is not found by uncovering some secret revelation, but rather salvation is found in believing in a definitive revelation: the Incarnation, Crucifixion, and Resurrection of the God-Man, Jesus Christ.
I. Jesus Christ is the Source of our Salvation.
a. “Contrary to what the false teachers taught, experience Christ and His gospel is not some mystical, spiritually transcendent, secret insight reserved only for those elite who ascend to some higher understanding. John told his readers—even those who were young in their faith (cf. 2:12)—that they could apprehend the actual historical truth about the Word of Life” (MacArthur, p. 16)
b. This is not the words about life. This is the Life-giving Word, the Word of Life! John states here that Jesus Christ is the Source of our Salvation! How this echo’s his majestic prologue found in his Gospel and Chapter 1. “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. (Verse 4) In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. (Verse 14) And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory of the Only Begotten Son of God.”
c. Objective Evidences of the Existence of the Word of Life
i. In response to the early Gnostics, John says that far from some mystical experience or fantastic manifestation, the Word of Life, Jesus Christ is a historical figure.
ii. He lists four objective historical evidences of the Word of Life
1. Have Heard: John had heard the Lord Jesus Christ preach in public to the masses, and preach in private to his disciples.
2. Have Seen: John even added with “our eyes” to insure that the reader understood that he physically saw Christ and not a ghost or a vision.
3. Have looked at: “The word involved more than a mere glance or a quick look; instead, it denotes a long, searching gaze” (MacArthur, p. 16). It is the same word used in John 1:14 which reads, “And we beheld His glory…” John did not just see Jesus; He beheld Jesus’ power over demons, sickness, disease, death, the natural elements, and the grave.”
4. Have touched with our hands: “The word rendered touched means to ‘feel after,’ or ‘grope’” (Ibid., p. 17) John had observed the word of life.
iii.
d. Subjective Evidences of the Existence of the Word of Life: At this point we transition from historical to the experiential. No longer am I arguing from an historical perspective of the existence of Jesus Christ, but rather how the historical Jesus changed my personal history. When the Word of Life came into my life, I experienced a radical change in my life. 1 John 1:2 says, “The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it…”
i. Our Christian Witness is to be Experiential
1. Can you point to a moment in time when you experienced the life-changing power of Jesus Christ? Is there a moment in your life where you know for certain that you were transferred from death to life, your sins were blotted out, your soul was saved, your destiny was secured?
2. Do you have an internal confirmation of the change that Jesus Christ brings when He comes into a life?
3. From time to time as I engage a person in spiritual conversation I will ask them when they became a Christian. It is amazing to me how many people say, “Well, you know, I’ve always been a Christian…”
4. No one has always been a Christian. We were born into sin, committed sin, dwelt in sin, and loved our sin. We wallowed in the muck and the mire of our sin like a sow in the mud until we comprehended the incredible change that Jesus Christ’s blood brings into our life.
5. Your salvation must be experiential. This is the internal observation.
ii. Our Christian Witness is to be Observable
1. When John said that, “we testify to the light…” he is literally saying, “we bear witness to Jesus Christ.”
2. I believe that when Jesus Christ comes into your life he brings about such a change that the way you live your life bears witness to Jesus Christ.
3. I don’t drink, smoke, gamble or chew not because of some man-made list of rules. I don’t drink, smoke, gamble or chew because God remade this man and now rules in my life.
4. I am not just some “Holy Roller;” I have a “Holy Ruler” that leads me and guides me into all truth, purity, and righteousness.
5. I want to live my life in such a way that it bears witness to God’s Light and God’s Life that dwells in me richly.
II. Jesus Christ is to be the Center of our Communication
a. Our Testimony
i. John said, not only did the Apostles bear witness to the Word of Life, he told his readers that he also proclaimed eternal life.
ii. Do you know that the word “testify” comes from the Greek word “martyrein?” Guess what English word we get from “martyrein?” The word, “martyr.” What is a martyr? In modern vernacular it has come me someone that dies for a cause.
iii. The word in the Greek is in the present tense. The present tense in Greek implies an on-going, continual action.
iv. Are you continually laying down your life for the good of the Gospel. I hear a lot of people speaking and preaching about Christian liberty, but not very many people who are willing to live holy! Jesus said, “If any one would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me.” Our goal in the w
Christian walk is not to see how much we can get away with, but how much we give away for the sake of the Gospel.
v. John is saying, “My life is continually testifying to the Word of Life.”
vi. When it comes to your testimony, there is your walk and your talk. There is the way you live your life, and the way you share your story. Every Christian needs to carefully do both.
vii. You see, your walk talks, and your talk talks, but your talk talks louder than your walk talks.
b. Our Proclamation
i. At first glance these four verses seem to be a tangled web of words. The complexity may on the surface seem to confound our understanding. But the reality is that there is intentionality in the construction! In the Greek language, the placement of the main verb is critical to the understanding of the passage. In these four verses, the main verb is found in the second half of verse three. “We proclaim…”
ii. “Placing the main verb of the sentence in verse 3 permits John to stack four relative clauses at the beginning (a fifth is in 3a) and thereby emphasize the object of the proclamation (the Word) rather than the act of proclaiming it itself” (Gary M. Burge, The NIV Application Commentary: Letters of John (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996), 52.)
iii. The placement of the “Word of Life” between the relative clauses and the main verbal idea highlights the importance of the Word of Life.
iv. In non-technical terms:
1. Christ is Central
2. Christ is the hinge upon which our Salvation hangs!
3. Christ is the source of our salvation
v. You can hear a man preach, but if Christ isn’t the center he is not preaching the Gospel. You can hear a man proclaim words, but if the Word of Life isn’t central he is not preaching the Gospel.
vi. I believe it is the God-given responsibility of every preacher of the Word to take a text in his arms and run with it the Cross of Jesus Christ.
vii. We need less sermons on how to be happy and more sermons on how to be holy
viii. We need less preachers worried about being culturally-relevant and more preachers proclaiming the cross of Jesus Christ
ix. We need less preachers worried about giving a good watered down, wish-washy, felt-needs message and more preachers giving a good old fashioned Gospel Message.
x. Here it is my friend. I could say these three sentences and walk off the stage and you would hear more than you will from most pulpits in American today.
1. Without Jesus Christ you will not have eternal life because you are a sinner in need of a Savior
2. You can receive Jesus Christ today as your Savior, Sanctifier, Healer, Lord, and Friend
3. Jesus Christ died on Mount Calvary but was raised from the grave victoriously, so that you can live for eternity!
xi. I am telling you today that the Devil is happy with most churches today because the pews are filled with happy and healthy heathens who gather each Sunday for a pep rally but are never confronted with their sin or their need for the Savior.
xii. Old Apostle John knew the Center of the Gospel Message is the Word of Life.
xiii. Refrain
Tell me the story of Jesus,
Write on my heart every word,
Tell me the story most precious,
Sweetest that ever was heard.
3
Tell of the cross where they nailed Him,
Writhing in anguish and pain;
Tell of the grave where they laid Him,
Tell how He liveth again;
Love in that story so tender,
Clearer than ever I see;
Stay, let me weep while you whisper,
Love paid the ransom for me.
III. Jesus Christ is to be the Cause of our Celebration
a. “Because it is transforming truth, John’s message is one that brings consummate joy, produces full satisfaction and complete fulfillment that can never be lost…Jesus told the apostles in the upper room, ‘These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full…(MacArthur, p. 19).
b. The benefit of the Word of Life coming into your life is that you can live a life of joy.
c. Joy is the natural by-product of a life lived for Christ.
