The letters that are contained in the New Testament are written to the early church to give an understanding to the people of God, that extends beyond what they already knew, I’m keen to do a series on the letters of John.
A little bit of background on these letters from a start. John was the apostle John, John the brother of James, the son of Zebedee and Salome, who was incidentally Mary, Jesus mums sister by some accounts. This makes John, Jesus’s cousin. It is believed that the letters and John’s gospel have the same author; as does the book of Revelation. It is thought John lived until the second century, which shows his young age when becoming a disciple of Jesus. He was the only disciple of Jesus who was not martyred. He is also remembered in the gospels as the “beloved disciple”. He was a fisherman when called by Jesus.
You may recall that when Jesus calls his first disciples he calls Peter and Andrew. “Then going from there, he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, and immediately they left their boat and their father and followed him.” (Matthew 4:21-22)
John, a young fisherman, a student of the rabbi Jesus, lives alongside the other eleven throughout Jesus ministry. He is one of three disciples along with Peter and James who made up Jesus inner circle. From this man we have an in-depth first hand insight into who Jesus is. It is thought that the letter is written by him before 85AD.
Well, all that considered let’s have a look at John’s first letter. Let’s read the first chapter all ten verses. [READ].
1) In the first couple of verses we get this description of ‘something’, ‘something’ that was in the beginning – now when was the beginning? Well my own beginning was back in 1963, but I get the idea here that we are going back a bit further, what year were you born Fred? (Fred is 89, 1923), or Dorothy 1919? No I think we’re going back further than that, to THE beginning. Yip right back to where God created the heavens and the earth, to the Genesis of creation itself. But we might even be going a little further back than then. If we look at Johns Gospel we have a bit of a parallel sort of explanation going on, “In the beginning was the Word, [note the capital W depicting a name] and the Word was with God , and the Word was God, He was with God in the beginning.” (John 1:1-2) Are you with me? So this something John is discussing is God.
John goes onto describe this ‘something’ as “we have heard, we have seen with our own eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched” - this he proclaims concerning the Word [there goes that name again] of life.
So looking at this first verse; what John is doing is giving this description that I said was of something or so it appears but actually by giving the title “Word of life”. John is actually describing someone. Someone they heard, they saw, they touched. What John is doing here is saying I’ve lived beside this person I’m talking about, this is a first-hand true account that I’m coming out with, my own knowledge of the Word of Life.” It’s a bit like me saying that “I’ve known a good number of you for a few years now, I’ve shaken your hands, I’ve heard you speak and spent a bit of time with you, I may have heard about you before, but now I have first-hand knowledge of you”. In the same way John is stating that he has first-hand experience of what he is talking about.
2) He goes on to say that because he has seen this life, he has first hand knowledge of this person, and can tell you about it, he can now “proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the Father and has appeared to us”.
Now if I’m right and it does happen occasionally, John just said something here that is worthy of a bit of a look at. There was something in that sentence about “the eternal life which was with the Father and has appeared to us”. So what John is saying is ‘The Word, is the eternal life’, that this someone was with the Father, Father meaning God!
3) In verse three things become clear, the Optrex hits the eyes, the prescription lenses make everything clear as John gets right to the point. You see that the first four sentences in Greek are actually one sentence and when he says “we proclaim” he’s actually getting to the point of the letter.
There’s the whole ‘we’ve seen, we’ve heard’ thing again, then why not so that we can be jealous? No. This is no brag sheet, the reason is: {I’ve done this as a responsive reading on PowerPoint, Me reading the John part as well as the narration.
John- so you
All- that’s us and others that get this letter also
John- “may have fellowship with us”,
All- that’s John and other believers,
Narrator- We’re really close to the point now!
John- And our fellowship from now on is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.”
All- So why are you writing this John?
John- “We write this to make our joy complete.”
You see it was a great thing for John to be able to share this message, in fact sharing this news completes his joy. John was so much the evangelist!
So out of those four verses we get this depiction of Jesus, a description that measures up really well with our own doctrines. Read doctrines.
For instance Doctrine Three: We believe that there are three persons in the Godhead, the father, the Son and the Holy Ghost [Spirit] undivided in essence and co-equal in power and glory. Though at this stage in this letter John has only introduced the Father and Jesus. If you want a really good description of The Trinity check out Johns Gospel chapter 14. You might however find your bible ends up highlighted and underlined.
Another doctrine is; Doctrine four: “We believe that in the person of Jesus Christ the Divine and human natures are united, so that He is truly and properly God and truly and properly man.
Now John then goes onto tell the message that he has heard; that his fellow disciples have heard from Jesus and it’s this, “God is light: in him there is no darkness at all.”
Why does he say this? Well the Jewish people saw God as not being able to be seen, as an “all consuming fire”. Which is understandable, God spoke to Moses out of a burning bush, the people were led across the desert by a pillar of fire and cloud, God descended on Mount Sinai “in fire” And “smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace.” In contrast Warren Wiersbe points out how “Jesus came down to earth not as a burning bush but as ‘a tender shoot, and a root out of dry ground’” Paraphrasing Isaiah 53:2. Warren Wiersbe, Jesus in the Present Tense, (Colorado Springs: David C Cook) 2011, 22.
4) But John states here that “God is light” (verse 5b). That “in him there is no darkness at all.” (verse 5c)
Now if we head back to the gospels we have this proclamation from Jesus, one of a number as to who Jesus is, when he tells us, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” Funnily enough from John’s gospel chapter 8 verse 12.
John in his letter echoes this when he says “if we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live in the truth.”
Now back in the day he was referring to darkness as that scuzzy stuff, all that clingy horrible stuff that separated people from God. The thing is you can’t be in two places at once, either you’re in the light place or the dark place. [Turn off the hall lights] In the dark place we lie and do not live by the truth. Now remember here that John is saying this in a context that he understands, he’s saying ‘we’ including himself – this is a place he could be also.
But he’s not because-
5) In the light place, we have fellowship with one another (one another being with God, fellowship with God, sounds great) and the blood of Jesus, Jesus giving his life for us purifies us from all sin.
Now, we get to the point of understanding here that Saint John one of the Apostles of Jesus, one of inner circle was not perfect. This bloke was a Saint and not perfect what hope is there for the rest of us? Well plenty because, “the blood of Jesus, purifies us from all sin.”
In fact, John goes onto to say that if we claim to be without sin, and he’s still including himself in the mix here, “the truth is not with us”. But; again that if we confess our sins, he [God] is faithful and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
God himself will make our relationship with him right again when we confess our sins. So the main point is that “Jesus is God in the flesh who can put us right with God the Father and that when we confess our sins he is faithful and just and our sins are forgiven”(SBI). John was witness to Jesus life and knows this to be true! And it completes his joy to pass this on.
So where to from here?
Jesus-God in the flesh came to earth, not as a burning fire but so that we could witness him, his life, his death, his resurrection in human form, John himself tells us of his first hand witness. He’s saying I was there, I witnessed what Jesus did, I saw him with my own eyes, I touched him with my hand, Jesus is the real deal. This was no ordinary sort of bod, he is God in the flesh!
He is light, there was nothing about him that was darkness, no back corner of nastiness, no hidden secret of wrong, and not a scareick of naughtiness, badness, vileness, evilness, not the tiniest little smidgen of anything wrong, he is light as God is light.
The challenge for us humans, as imperfect as we are is to live in Jesus light, as John puts it “if we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth.”
The thing is that Jesus because of his being the light – illuminates those dark areas of our lives, when we are in the wrong. The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ points out that darkness. The interesting thing with that is that there is none of us who are perfect so God allowed for that in Jesus death so that we could be put right with God as we confess our sins. Jesus is God in the flesh who can put us right with God the Father and that when we confess our sins he is faithful and just and our sins are forgiven.(SBI)
There are some who question the way God the Father allowed this to happen, I’ve heard the statement, so often “If God is a loving God how could he allow his son to suffer and die for our sins”. I say it’s a statement not a question as it is not said in a way that requires an answer, the one asking it has closed the door by using the words “how could”, their view on the matter is that a loving God would not do this to his son.
But remember it was God, who made the decision to go through with this death, when he prayed, in the garden “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.”(Matthew 26:42). Jesus who is truly and properly man and truly and properly God made that decision, to suffer, and die as an atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only ours but for the sins of the whole world. God the Son was willing.
Jesus was willing, Jesus is God in the flesh who can put us right with God the Father and that when we confess our sins he is faithful and just and our sins are forgiven.
What is it he did that for, what is it in your life that he did that for? Atonement, it is viewed in many ways, he paid the price, he stood in our place, he defeated the devil, he made amends, he took our punishment and more. However you look at atonement, however you look at Jesus, he is The Light of the World and whoever walks in his light need not ever be in darkness.
This morning is one that brings an opportunity, an opportunity to come to the Father and confess, to leave your burdens at the cross, however you wish to do that, we have the mercy seat, we have a place just were you are sitting, you may wish to knell or stand, but I just ask that you consider what it is and put it right with God right now. None of is exempt, for as John says “if we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.”
An opportunity now to leave the darkness and walk in the light, something too really celebrate.
