Experiencing Life
Text: 1 Jn. 1:1-4
Introduction
1. Illustration: For many years British author C.S. Lewis had such a great difficulty in becoming a Christian. Religion in his culture was "faith without power". A blind religion that required learning without questioning and without a personal experience with the risen Savior. According to his brother Warren, his conversion was "no sudden plunge into a new life, but rather a slow, steady convalescence from a deep-seated spiritual illness - an illness that had its origins in his childhood, in the dry husks of religion offered by the semi-political church goings of Ulster, and the similar dull emptiness of compulsory church during our school days." Our Daily Bread, March 15, 1994.
2. Like Lewis, I too grew up going to church, and it was all very lifeless and boring. It seems I knew a lot about Jesus, but I didn't know Jesus. It wasn't until the evening of April 4, 1978 when I had a personal and dynamic encounter with the risen Jesus that I truly experienced life.
3. In the introduction to his first letter, the Apostle John tells us about experiencing Jesus. He talks about...
A. Life Revealed
B. Life Visualized
C. Life Shared
4. Let's stand together as we read 1 Jn. 1:1-4.
Proposition: When we experience Jesus we experience life.
Transition: First. let's talk about...
I. Life Is Revealed (1).
A. Word Of Life
1. As with many of the NT letters, John here is dealing with false teaching. In particular, he is dealing with an early form of a heresy called Gnosticism.
A. The basics behind Gnosticism is that everything that is "spirit" is entirely good, and everything that is physical is entirely bad.
B. This led to the belief that salvation could be achieved through escape from the body, which as accomplished not through Jesus Christ, but through special "knowledge" (the word Gnosticism comes from the Greek word for knowledge, gnosis).
C. This led to some to reject the idea that Jesus was actually human, and led to strange beliefs about Jesus’ life, death and resurrection.
D. Some of these Gnostics believed that Jesus only "appeared" to have a body. Others believed that a "spiritual" Christ was separate from a "physical" Christ and that they were only joined during the time between his baptism and shortly before his death.
E. So part of John’s purpose is to confront and correct these false teachings.
2. So in order to combat this false teaching, John wrote, "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."
A. John begins this letter in similar fashion to the opening of his gospel. He opens with a reference to the beginning and leads us directly to the Word.
B. However, unlike the prologue to his gospel account, John moves quickly to the hard evidence of the reality of the “Word of life.” He makes it very clear that he is not talking about some philosophical concept.
C. Contrary to the abstract conclusions of philosophers of his time, John affirmed that he had had the awesome privilege of walking with, listening to, learning from, and otherwise experiencing firsthand the one Who was the foundation of their faith.
D. The Greek verbs have added emphasis that could be translated that John had actually heard, seen, and touched the Lord.
E. This one fact, established by factual evidence, sets John’s basis for the truth of his teaching, which would immediately refute the vain theologies and false teachings which were creeping into the churches of Asia Minor.
F. None of the heresies espoused by these false teachers could make such a claim.
(, Easy-to-Read Commentary Series – The General Epistles: A Practical Faith, 295).
3. Scholars are somewhat puzzled by the term Word of life.
A. John, in his gospel, refers to Jesus Christ as the “Word became human” (John 1:14). Is John, therefore, speaking of Christ in this opening verse?
B. Sixteenth-century Reformation theologian John Calvin concludes, “As its substance is Christ, and as it contains nothing other than that He, who had always been with the Father, at length appeared to us, the first view seems to me the simpler and more genuine.”
C. This conclusion would be affirmed by the evidence of John’s own gospel when Jesus said to Martha, “I am the one who brings people back to life, and I am life itself. Those who believe in me will live even if they die” (John 11:25) (296).
D. As the "Word," the Son of God fully conveys and communicates God. John’s use of the Word is a good title for the Son who both created the universe with God and then came to earth to be the perfect expression of God to humanity.
E. Jesus, the Word, reveals God’s mind to human beings. Not only is Jesus Christ "the Word," he is the Word of life—of spiritual life.
F. People may be physically alive but spiritually dead. Jesus, however, as the express image of God himself, gives both spiritual life and eternal life to all who believe in him (Barton, 1151).
B. Touched By Jesus
1. Illustration: Jesus lifted up the spirit of a discouraged preacher who retired early because of what happened to him. "In the Pentecostal Evangel church leader George U. Wood writes:
"Have you ever heard a healing take place? I have. I listened to an audiotape of Duane Miller teaching his Sunday school class from the text of Psalm 103 at the First Baptist Church in Brenham, Texas, on January 17, 1993. Duane prematurely retired from pastoring three years earlier because of a virus which penetrated the myelin sheath around the nerves in his vocal cords, reducing his speech to a raspy whisper....
"Teaching his class that day with a special microphone resting on his lips,
he reaffirmed his belief in divine healing and that miracles had not ended
with the Book of Acts. Listening to the tape, at times you can barely
understand his weakly spoken wheezy words of faith. The miracle happened at verse 4 when he said, "I have had and you have had in times
past pit experiences."
"On the word pit his life changed—the word was as clear as a bell, in contrast to the imperfect enunciation of the preceding "word past. He paused, startled; began again and stopped. He said a few more words—all in a normal clear tone—and stopped again. The class erupted with shouts of joy, astonishment and sounds of weeping. God completely healed him as he was declaring the truth in this psalm. If there is anything that this story tells us it is this, never underestimate what God can do! It was the healing touch of Jesus that gave Rev. Duane Miller the full range of his voice again!
2. We can know Jesus is real because he has touched us!
A. John 9:25 (NLT2)
25 “I don’t know whether he is a sinner,” the man replied. “But I know this: I was blind, and now I can see!”
B. You can tell me that the Bible is a bunch of made up stories.
C. You can tell me that Christianity is a myth for weak minded people.
D. But you can't tell me he that Jesus isn't real because he has touched me and made me whole!
E. I know that Jesus exists because I experienced Him that night in 1978 and I have experienced Him over and over and over in the past 40 years.
F. I can tell you beyond a shadow of a doubt He is alive and risen from the dead.
G. Not because of something I've read, or something I was told, but because I have felt his touch and heard His voice!
H. He has changed my life and given me a purpose and a hope because He revealed Himself to me!
Transition: Next, John tells us about...
II. Life Is Visualized (2)
A. We Have Seen Him
1. The other day, I got to go on my first combine ride. Now I had a working knowledge of how these big monstrosities work, but I've now ridden in one while it was doing its thing. Now I can tell you that combines do their job because I have personally seen one do it close up.
2. That's what John says in verse 2. He says, "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."
A. This “Word of life” was revealed to John and the other disciples. They did not seek Jesus. Rather, He sought them and revealed Himself to them.
B. John acknowledged the human darkness under which all men labor, but Jesus came to them and chose them to be witnesses of His glory.
C. Again, John affirmed this in his gospel. “You didn’t choose me, but I chose you. I have appointed you to go, to produce fruit that will last, and to ask the Father in my name to give you whatever you ask for” (John 15:16).
D. John affirmed that he had borne witness and continued to testify to the astounding revelation that the Father had given to the disciples.
E. The most fundamental aspect of that revelation was that their lives were transformed when they saw, heard, touched, and experienced the eternal Word of life Who had been sent to earth from the Father (296).
3. Divine, eternal life resided in Christ, so John described Jesus as this one who is life from God and repeated the fact that we have seen him. He, the other disciples, and thousands of other people had indeed "seen" Jesus.
A. Jesus was more than just a human being. John’s work during the many years since Jesus’ ascension had been to testify and announce to everyone that Jesus is the one who is eternal life.
B. Because Christ is eternal life, those who trust in him also have eternal life. In Greek, the phrase, he was with the Father, suggests that the Word was face-to-face with the Father.
C. This common Greek expression indicated a personal relationship. By using this expression, John was saying that the Word (the Son) and God (the Father) enjoyed an intimate, personal relationship from the beginning.
D. In Jesus’ intercessory prayer, recorded in John 17, he revealed that the Father had loved him before the foundation of the world (John 17:24).
E. The words then he was shown to us refer to the revelation of the Son of God in human form (Barton, 1151).
4. This means that eternal life is not just a future hope but something that we can experience here and now from the time we enter into a personal relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ.
5. True life can only be found through obedient faith in Jesus Christ and a vital personal relationship with Him (Stamps, 2209).
B. Eyewitness
1. Illustration: The scene was San Diego Superior Court. Two men were on trial for armed robbery. An eyewitness took the stand, and the prosecutor moved carefully: "So, you say you were at the scene when the robbery took place?" "Yes." "And you saw a vehicle leave at a high rate of speed?" "Yes." "And did you observe the occupants?" "Yes, two men." "And," the prosecutor looking at the robbers boomed out loudly, "are those two men present in court today?" At this point the two defendants sealed their fate. They raised their hands.
2. We know Jesus is real because we have been eyewitnesses as to what He has done in the lives of others.
A. John 1:14 (NLT2)
14 So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.
B. In the 40 years since I've given my life to Christ I've seen people's lives changed by the power of the Gospel.
C. I've seen drug addicts and alcoholics set free from their bondage.
D. I've seen marriages healed.
E. I've people healed of incurable diseases.
F. I've seen God provide financial miracles that seemed impossible.
G. I've seen the impossible become possible.
H. I've seen the power of Satan destroyed in people's lives.
I. So don't you tell me my Jesus isn't real because I have seen his power with my own eyes!
Transition: Then John talks about...
III. Life Is Shared (3-4).
A. Fellowship With Us
1. In v. 3, we encounter a word that should be familiar to us, fellowship.
A. an association involving close mutual relations and involvement
(Johannes P. Louw and Eugene A. Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Symantic Domains, 446).
B. Fellowship is something that we as Christians should strive for, and it is Jesus Christ that makes it possilble.
2. This is what John says in v. 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."
A. As one who had personally seen and heard the eternal one, John wanted to assure everyone that his testimony was absolutely reliable.
B. What John has declared from the beginning of the church is completely and unequivocally true.
C. There is no error here, no vain hypothesizing, no dimly perceived philosophy.
D. There is only the clear, infallible ring of verifiable evidence that John had personally seen and heard.
E. John emphasized that his readers could also share in this fellowship just as the apostles did as long as that fellowship is centered in a mutual relationship to Jesus Christ.
F. John does not allow some misperception of the meaning of fellowship. Rather, it is centered in a relationship with the eternal God and made possible by His Son Jesus Christ, Who came into the world as the Lamb of God, the only acceptable sacrifice for the sins of the world (297).
G. As an eyewitness to Jesus’ ministry, John was qualified to teach the truth about him.
H. The readers of this letter had not seen and heard Jesus themselves, but they could trust that what John wrote was accurate.
I. Believers today are like those second- and third-generation Christians.
J. Though they have not personally seen, heard, or touched Jesus, they have the New Testament record of his eyewitnesses, and they can trust that these eyewitnesses spoke the truth about him (Barton, 1151).
3. Then John tells them the purpose for writting this letter, "We are writing these things so that you may fully share our joy."
A. This is the only valid resource of genuine Christian fellowship. The Greek verb p????? (ple-ro-oh) is in the passive tense, which would be better understood as meaning “that your joy may be made full.”
B. In English, we may assume that we are able to achieve some measure of joy on our own merits, but that is not the import of the Greek.
C. The original language tells us in no uncertain terms that the joy that we have as Christians is a gift that is bestowed upon us as an integral part of our salvation through Jesus Christ (297).
D. Just as the proclamation of the Good News was for others to join the fellowship (1:3), so John was writing these things to encourage the readers’ participation in both the fellowship and the joy that he (John) and the other believers were experiencing.
E. Proclamation produces fellowship; fellowship produces joy. John’s joy would be complete if his readers remained in the fellowship and did not wander off into false teaching.
F. John, caretaker of the churches and "spiritual father" to many of the believers in and around Ephesus, would only be able to experience "complete joy" if his "children" were experiencing the blessings of fellowship with one another and with God.
B. Sharing In Something
1. Illustration: Pastor Paul Ciniraj of India wrote these words:
"I’m a part of the fellowship of the unashamed. I have the power of the Holy Spirit. The dye has been cast. I have stepped over the line. The decision has been made. I’m a disciple of Jesus. I won’t look back, let up, slow down, back away, or be still.
My past is redeemed, my present makes sense, my future is secure. I’m finished and done with low living, sight walking, small planning, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tamed visions, cheap living, and dwarfed goals.
I no longer need pre-eminence, prosperity, position, promotions, plaudits, or popularity. I don’t have to be right, first, tops, recognized, praised, regarded, or rewarded. I now live by faith, lean on His presence, walk by patience, lift by prayer, and labour by power.
My face is set, my gait is fast, my goal is heaven, my road is narrow, my way rough, my companions few, my Guide reliable, my mission clear. I cannot be bought, compromised, detoured, lured away, turned back, deluded or delayed. I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in the presence of the adversary, negotiate at the table of the enemy, ponder at the pool of popularity, or meander in the maze of mediocrity.
I won’t give up, shut up, let up, until I have stayed up, stored up, prayed up, paid up, preached up for the cause of Christ. l have a great hope of His coming back. So I preach till all know, and work till He stops me. And when He comes for His own, He will have no problems recognizing me; for my banner is clear !!!"
2. We have reason for joy because we have fellowship with the Father, Son, Holy Spirit and each other through the blood of Jesus!
A. Ephesians 2:13-14 (NLT2)
13 But now you have been united with Christ Jesus. Once you were far away from God, but now you have been brought near to him through the blood of Christ.
14 For Christ himself has brought peace to us. He united Jews and Gentiles into one people when, in his own body on the cross, he broke down the wall of hostility that separated us.
B. We allow the devil to rob us of our joy when we focus on the wrong things.
C. We focus on circumstances, what we lack, what people do to us, and what others have that we do not.
D. However, we do this we focus on the wrong things.
E. We should focus on the face that we have saved, redeemed, set free and forgiven.
F. We should focus on the fact that our names are written in the Lambs Book of Life.
G. We should focus that our God meets all our needs based on His riches in glory.
H. We should focus on the fact that by His stripes we are healed.
I. We should focus on the fact that Jesus has prepared a place for us with no more sorrow, tears or pain.
J. We should focus on the fact that as long as we have the cross we have reason for joy!
Transition: Do you have joy today!
Conclusion
1. In the introduction to his first letter, the Apostle John tells us about experiencing Jesus. He talks about...
A. Life Revealed
B. Life Visualized
C. Life Shared
2. THREE THINGS TO REMEMBER...
A. THE NEXT TIME SOMEONE TELLS YOU THAT JESUS ISN'T REAL, YOU TELL THEM ALL THAT JESUS HAS DONE FOR YOU.
B. THE NEXT TIME SOMEONE TELLS YOU THAT JESUS ISN'T REAL TELL THEM WHAT HE HAS DONE IN THE LIVES OF YOUR FRIENDS THAT JESUS HAS TOUCHED.
C. THE NEXT TIME THE DEVIL TRIES TO TELL YOU ALL THAT IS WRONG IN YOUR LIFE, REMIND HIM OF ALL THAT JESUS HAS MADE RIGHT IN YOUR LIFE!
