In the classic movie, A Christmas Story, young Ralphie wants a Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas, but his mom’s only response is, “You'll shoot your eye out!” In fact, all the adults in Ralphie’s life have the same response, including his teacher and even Santa Clause. Take a look (Show video “A Christmas Story: You’ll Shoot Your Eye Out”; www.youtube.com/ watch?v=YleZvTSDC6s).
Often, what we THINK will make us happy disappoints us in the end. So how do we experience the true joy of Christmas this year? How do we find real happiness this Christmas, the kind that doesn’t disappoint? Well, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to 1 John 1, 1 John 1, where the Bible shows us the source of true joy.
1 John 1:1-4 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us— that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete. (ESV)
Find complete joy in fellowship with God Himself. Discover a full and satisfying happiness in a close relationship with God the Father and God the Son.
That’s where John, the one who penned these words, says he and his friends found it. They were rugged fisherman, used to the hard life of the sea. They worked hard to earn a living, putting up with the unpredictable storms that often arose on the Sea of Galilee. Life was not easy for them.
In fact, John and his brother, James, were actually nicknamed “Sons of Thunder,” not because they were nice, easy-going fellows. No. They were the ones that wanted to call fire down from heaven on a town that rejected Jesus. They were not sissies in any sense of the word, and yet these rugged fishermen found joy in their companionship with Jesus. I get the sense that they had a lot of fun together.
They experienced God himself in the flesh. They heard Him with their own ears. They saw Him with their own eyes, and they touched Him with their own hands.
That’s the difference between Christianity and all other religions. All religions claim some sort of “revelation” from a deity.
According to John Dickson, a historian, “Buddhism depends on the insights Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha) gained while sitting under a Bodhi tree. Hinduism looks to the Vedas passed on to the first man at the dawn of time. Islam says that the angel Gabriel dictated to the Prophet Muhammad the very words of God.
“But Christianity claims something very different: a series of events [about Jesus' birth, life, death, and resurrection] which are said to have taken place in public, in datable time, recorded by a variety of witnesses… It is as if Christianity places its neck on the chopping block of [public] scrutiny and invites anyone who wishes to come and take a swing.
“[For example], Dickson says, “Imagine I came to you claiming that my late great, great grandfather revealed himself… in Times Square, New York, last Monday during the morning rush hour. His appearance stopped the traffic and left witnesses dumbfounded as he explained to them the truth about the spiritual realm… The claim itself is one you could test to some degree. You could watch the news services, read eyewitness accounts, check the New York traffic reports and so on. You might not be able to prove it beyond all doubt… but a fair-minded person would be able to arrive at a reasonable judgment about its truth or falsehood… If you found no evidence at all, you would be well within your rights to dismiss it. If you found good evidence, or at least more evidence than you would expect if the story were a fiction, then you could quite rationally accept it as true. This is what I mean by a testable claim.”
Dickson says, “The central claims of Christianity are to a degree testable. You can apply the normal tests of history… and find that we do in fact possess exactly the sort of evidence you would expect if the core of the Jesus story is true and decidedly more evidence than you would expect if the story were fabricated.” (John Dickson, “Jesus: God's Tangible Sign,” Just Thinking, 6-1-10; www.PreachingToday.com)
That’s exactly the claim John is making here in verse 1. It is a testable claim, where we are invited to examine the evidence. John says, “We heard… saw… and touched... the Word of Life.” He was not a figment of our imaginations. He was not an other-worldly revelation we received in a trance or from an angel that no one else saw. No! John says we experienced Jesus as a real flesh and blood human being.
You see, Jesus was such a fantastic person that a rumor began to circulate in the 1st and 2nd centuries, which said He didn’t really exist in the flesh. Some thought that he was just a spirit being that only appeared to have a body. But John says, “No. We heard Him, we saw Him, and we touched Him ourselves.” He was as real as you and me – God in the flesh.
Today, people say the historical Jesus is not all that important. It’s not all that important whether He did all those miracles. It’s not all that important whether He really died and rose again. It’s not all that important whether He really existed. What’s important are the ideas He represents. Hogwash! Nothing could be further from the truth. Jesus is more than just a nice idea. He is God in the flesh, a real person who makes a real difference in the lives of those who encounter Him.
John says, we experienced Jesus as a real flesh and blood human being, and we also experienced Jesus as the “Word of Life” (vs.1). He was God Himself, o logos in the original Greek, the Word. That’s the title the Greeks gave to what they called “the Controlling Reason of the Universe.” Jesus was the Word – God Himself. But he was more than that. He was the Word of LIFE – the LIVING God Himself.
Everywhere Jesus went, he brought life! Do you know Jesus broke up every funeral he ever attended? That’s right! He was always raising the corpses back to life. He raised the widow’s son in Luke 7. He raised his best friend, Lazarus, in John 11, and He even raised Himself from the dead at the end of all four Gospels.
To be around Jesus was really and truly “THE LIFE!” And that’s how John describes Him in verse 2 – the Life was made manifest – i.e., the Life appeared. Jesus Himself said, “I have come that they may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10).
Just three short years after his father was murdered, Michael Jordan and the Chicago Cubs won one of their six NBA championships. After the game's final shot, a buzzing herd of reporters followed the players into the locker room to interview the victors in the celebration. There, they saw Michael Jordan – the greatest basketball player in history – laying in the corner of the room, weeping, facedown, overcome, inconsolable, holding an orange basketball in his arms.
It was Father's Day. Jordan was a broken champion that year with everything the world had to offer but with no father to grab him by the shoulders and say, “Son, I'm so proud of you.” Reporter after reported had asked Jordan what it was like to win everything, have everything, and be loved by everyone. But for Jordan, his success, fame, and money didn't seem to matter. They saw it in his eyes. When he gazed around the locker room that day, he found everything he could ever dream of, but he couldn't find his dad. (A. J. Swoboda, The Glorious Dark, Baker Books 2015, pp. 36-37; www.PreachingToday.com)
That’s life without Jesus. It’s like having everything you've ever wanted, but having no father in the room to celebrate with.
Jesus, a real flesh and blood human being is the Word of Life! That’s how John and his friends experienced Him, and they want us to experience Jesus in the same way. That’s why John is writing these words here in 1 John.
1 John 1:3 that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. (ESV)
That word, “fellowship,” means to share things in common. John wants us to share in his experience with the Lord. He wants us to have that same experience he had with Jesus, that life-changing, personal encounter with the Living God of the Universe, who became a flesh and blood human being.
In the movie, Jurassic Park, there is a powerful moment when world-class paleontologist, Allen Grant, comes face-to-face with real, live prehistoric creatures. He has devoted his life to the study of dinosaurs, but when he comes face to face with one, he suddenly falls to the ground, dumbstruck.
You see, it is one thing to study books about dinosaurs. It is one thing to pick through fossils and bones of dinosaurs. It is one thing to picture dinosaurs in your head, but to encounter an actual dinosaur—well, there is nothing like it. (William D. Hendricks, Exit Interviews, Chicago: Moody, 1993)
Sad to say, for many people, their Christianity amounts to picking through the artifacts of faith that have survived from long ago and far away. They read about Jesus. They wear crosses, and they try to imagine what it must have been like to live in His day, but that’s as far as it goes.
Please, don’t do that to yourself. If you want to experience the true joy of Christmas this year, if you want to find real happiness this Christmas, then…
EXPERIENCE CHRIST PERSONALLY.
By faith, hear and see and touch the God who is real. Don’t just know ABOUT Him. Get to KNOW him intimately and personally. Invite Him into your life, and then spend time in His Word. Talk to Him. Let Him become your closest friend, and let Him change your life from the inside out.
Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you, James 4:8 says.
Please, don’t confuse religious activity with a real relationship with the real Lord, Jesus Christ. Sheila Walsh did even as a Christian singer, writer and speaker. Several years ago, in Leadership Journal, she wrote,
“The five years I was co-hosting the 700 Club were probably the five loneliest years of my life. I discovered the ministry is a very, very effective place to hide. If you're the kind of person who doesn't really want to deal with what's going on in your own life, if you don't really want to listen to the distant rumble in your own soul, the more you immerse yourself in helping other people, the easier it is to hide.
“Everyone at CBN knew I had an open-door policy, and people could come in and tell me anything. And we would cry, laugh, and pray about it together. But I never did that with anyone. There was no one that I reached out to and said, “I'm struggling here” or “I don't want to do this anymore.” So I kept struggling with this huge inner turmoil, while the audience thought I was the embodiment of godliness. It was a very strange struggle.
“But God loves us enough that he doesn't want us just to survive. He wants us to live. (Sheila Walsh, “Staying Alive,” Leadership Journal, Summer 2002)
Do you want to really live? Then ask God to reveal Himself to you, personally and intimately. Ask God to fill you with His own Holy Spirit every day. Then bask in the light of His presence. Walk with Jesus, and live your life with Him at your side.
Pray your way through the day. Consult the Lord about every decision, and share every moment of every day with Him. You see a beautiful sunset; thank Him for the sunset. You face a problem; ask Him to help you through. Just enjoy His presence every step of the way.
If you want to experience true joy this Christmas, then by faith reach out and touch Jesus today. Get to know Him personally and intimately. Experience the Living God for yourself. Then don’t keep Him to yourself. If you want to increase the joy, then once you have experienced Him for yourself…
SHARE HIM WITH OTHERS.
Proclaim Him so others can join in the fun. Let people know of your experience, so they can share in the joy.
That’s what John is doing right here. Verse 2: We proclaim to you the eternal life. Verse 3: That which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you. Verse 4: We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.
John and his friends found great joy in knowing the Lord personally. They found great joy in hearing and seeing and touching Jesus. They found great joy in their experience with Christ, but they want to complete their joy; they want to make their joy full; they want to be filled with even more joy. How? By sharing their experience with others.
When the Kansas City Chiefs win, people around here are very happy. But do you know what made them even happier? It’s the opportunity to re-live the game with their friends. It’s the opportunity to share the good news with others.
There is joy in the victory, but there is even greater joy in the telling of the victory. So it is when we experience Jesus Christ. There is wonderful joy in the experience, but there is even greater joy in the telling of the experience.
Rosaria Butterfield, a pastor’s wife and author, writes about a robbery that occurred in their home in one of her recent books, Openness Unhindered. The thieves took her mother's precious jewelry, beat the family dog, and ransacked the house.
“We all were in a state of shock,” Rosaria writes. “My children's anxiety rocketed through the roof. Not one of us felt OK for months… It was hard to be robbed. It was hard to have God test so powerfully and privately what we proclaimed publicly – that even if you are hurt, people can't take the things that matter most and that will survive to the new heavens and earth: your soul and his Word.”
Rosaria’s family experienced the profound support of their church family through the whole ordeal. Her family also found the strength to reach out to other families after the robbery.
The day after they were robbed, her husband, Kent, pushed the grill to the front yard, where the picnic table was already waiting. Then, he posted three things on the neighborhood email list:
(1) We were robbed, he posted;
(2) Robbers took stuff, but not things of eternal value – the Word of God and the souls of people;
(3) And we would love for everyone to join us for burgers and hot dogs on the Lord's Day, starting at three o'clock.
That Lord's Day was Mother's Day, and Kent had just invited 300 people to their front yard.
Rosaria writes, “It was a joy-filled time, with hot dogs and kids and water guns and meeting new and old friends.” Twenty-one neighbors showed up, and most of their church family as well. And when their unbelieving neighbors asked how they were holding up, Kent was able to share the gospel with new legitimacy. [That’s] because, Rosaria writes, “God in your loss matters more to a skeptical, unbelieving, and watching world than God in your plenty.” (Rosaria Champagne Butterfield, Openness Unhindered, Crown and Covenant Publications, 2015; www.PreachingToday.com)
Personally, I know of no greater joy than sharing Christ with people and watching them respond by putting their faith in Him. Over the years, when I’ve been discouraged, my spirits are always lifted when I recall those whose lives God has transformed through my witness and testimony. There is no greater thrill! And I pray that all of you could have that experience, not just once, but many times in your life.
Do you want to experience true joy this Christmas? Then find it in fellowship with Christ. Discover a full and satisfying happiness in a close relationship with God’s Son. First, by faith, experience Christ personally. Then, share Him with others.
God rest ye merry gentlemen,
Let nothing you dismay.
Remember Christ our Savior
Was born on Christmas Day
To save us all from Satan's pow'r
When we were gone astray.
O tidings of comfort and joy,
Comfort and joy,
O tidings of comfort and joy.
