THE LIVING WORD - 1 JOHN 1:1-4
Book of 1 John: Theme of book centers around FELLOWSHIP. What is necessary for believers to have real fellowship with one another?. It is more than shaking hands or coffee and donuts. It is a much much deeper word.
1) John writes to warn of things that are barriers to true fellowship in the church. Wrong view of Jesus - Casual attitude towards sin - Lack of love for others - No resistance against false doctrines.
1492 - Christopher Columbus set out for the Orient and ended up in the Caribean. 500 years later men still don’t stop and ask for directions
John is the only living Apostle: Elder statesman of the Church. After the death of Paul false doctrines began to filter through the church and now before he dies John takes time to clean things up a bit.
LIFE: spelled backwards is ’evil’. Today men and women are living their lives backwards and the result is a society with unspeakable evil. Something needs to happen to get us turned around and going back into the right direction.
1) Gospel of John written to convince sinners they were lost
2) Revelation of John written to comfort saints with hope
3) Epistles of John written to confirm saints that they were the real thing.
WATCHMAN NEE: What Shall This Man Do? Makes the point that the ministries of Peter, Paul, and John are extensions of what they once did:
1) When Jesus found Peter he was casting nets, fishing: We see him later drawing in large numbers(3,000/house of Cornelius 1/2 sermon)
2) Paul was a tentmaker: We see him constantly building churches, establishing foundations, and always on the move.
3) John: First found by Jesus mending nets. Now as heresies begin to creep in this aged apostle begins to fix what is broken.
We are going to talk this morning and this evening about getting our spiritual lives back on the right track. We are going to talk about Who Jesus was, what fellowship is meant to be, and where real joy comes from.
1) This letters starts like none other: No introductions or greetings but John jumps right into his task of mending the damaged nets which were to serve as protection to the body of Christ.
WHAT CAN WE KNOW ABOUT JESUS CHRIST? (1) What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have beheld and our hands handled concerning the Word of Life - (2) and the life was manifested, and we have seen and bear witness and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us -
SUPERMARKET TABLOIDS: Amazed at what some people will choose to believe: Recent Headlines: Mom on diet of on Chicken lays an egg! WW2 bomber found on moon! Child walks and talks in 3 days! Adam and Eve’s bones found in Asia!
GNOSTICISM: After Paul died a heresy arose in the church called gnosticism. This is the opposite of what we call today agnosticism. An agnostic holds that the reality of God is unknowable. That latin word for the greek agnostic is the word ignoramus. An agnostic says, ’I do not know’ while a gnostic says, ’I do know’. This was a group that claimed to have superior knowledge that simple Christians hadn’t arrived at. 1) Jesus was not a man but was like a phantom t hat walked around, he didn’t have a body of flesh. 2) Also held that the material world was sinful and had been created not by God but by another diety 3) Denied the diety of Jesus saying He was a created being.
1. WE CAN KNOW THAT JESUS IS FROM THE BEGINNING - (1) What was from the beginning
a. Bible talks about three different beginnings:
1) Gen 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Beginning of Creation When I was in school they said it was millions of years ago and now they say billions of years ago. It makes me really feel quite old.
2) John 1:1-3 In the beginning was the Word A beginning without a beginning. Because we are finite creatures and limited in our understanding we have to start somewhere.
He was in the beginnining with God and all things came
Into being by Him(Gen 1:1)
a) Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. We would say today Jesus is the A to Z. I have hundreds of books in my library and many libraries have hundreds of thousands of books but every library is made up of only 26 letters. Jesus is God’s alphabet, everything God had to say is said through Who Jesus was.
3) 1 John 1:1 What was from the beginning This beginning draws our attention back to Bethlehem when Jesus came into the world. When mankind could witness and know Him in is incarnation.
2. WE CAN KNOW THAT JESUS WAS REAL what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we beheld and our hands handled,
EYEWITNESS - I watched a show this week about how difficult it is to be an eyewitness. A college class of future lawyers was interupted by a man who entered and grabbed the teachers purse and ran. All in a matter of moments. They were then told it was staged and asked to give a description of what happened: heighth 5’6" to 6’3", color of clothing, size, weight, age….amazed at how badly they did. But they only saw him for a moment: John spent 3 years at the side of Jesus.
COLLEGE PROFESSOR: Loved to ridicule the idea of God. ’Have any of you ever seen God? Have any of you ever heard God? Have any of you ever touched God? So there is no God. LONG SILENCE. Student raised hand and asked if he also might ask the class a question. ’Have any of you ever seen the professor’s brain? Have any of you ever heard the professor’s brain? Have any of you ever touched the professor’s brain? Then we must conclude that the professor has no brain according to his logic.
a. John uses four words to decribe the experience of having Jesus physically in his presence. Interesting that our main battle in our day is with people who deny the diety of Jesus but John had to combat those who denied His humanity. (70’s musicals such as Jesus Christ Superstar & Godspel emphasized His humanity and attacked His diety)
b. It is as much a heresy to deny His humanity as it is to deny His deity. Apart from His humanity we could not be saved. His sinless blood is what saved me.
1) WHAT WE HAVE SEEN AND HEARD
a) Bible calls us witnesses and not lawyers. Lawyers argue a case while a witness just tells what they have seen and heard. John says Jesus was a real person. He appeared in history….heard His words, looked into His eyes…John who is said to have laid on His bosom must have actually heard the heartbeat of God.
b) SPECIAL TENSE: Not the same with the following two verbs. Speaks of an event that has lasting impact. John is writing 60 yrs after Jesus died and still overwhelmed by the fact of having walked with Him on this earth. Anything from 1940 still overwhelm any of you?
c) John reminds us that Christianity is does not rest upon agreements with certain ideas or doctrinal statements but becoming a Christian is to become related to a person. He who has the Son has the life and he who does not have the Son does not have the life. 5:12 Doesn’t matter how religious you are: Has Jesus impacted your life?
FUNERAL - Pastor was asked to do a funeral which turned out to be quite unusual. A 40 year old man had died of a heart attack and was placed in the casket in bib overhauls and a dirty ball cap. In his pocket was a pack of Camel’s cigarettes and in his hand a can of Mountain Dew. These were his loves: he smoked 3 packs a day and drank half a case. The family wanted a short service with nothing religious and at the end instead of hymn wanted to play a 60’s rock and roll song called ’Wipe Out’.
The bottom line of your life should all add up at your funeral. It should make the ultimate statement about what or who has impacted your life.
CASKETS - purchased today with artwork across the inner lid. Golfers can get ’Fairway to Heaven’ picture. Beach scene, NY skyline, Elvis with bold red letters ’Return to Sender’. The last 60 yrs of John’s life had been impacted by one theme: JESUS
2) WHAT WE BEHELD
a) English word Theater comes from the Greek equivolent word. ’to gaze intently’. Theater is a place where you don’t just take a passing glance but you intently look for a couple of hours. John did that with Jesus. Constantly taken back by new depths of things He would say and do.
b) Rubberneck pass an accident scene but others come and examine closely: dust for prints, analyze blood, take photos, search for DNA evidence…cover every detail
3) WHAT WE HANDLED
a) Word used in OT Greek translation in Gen 27 where blind Isaac groped to determine whether what he was hearing was the truth.
b) Jesus and THOMAS: Check and see if it is really Me, reach out your hands and touch My wounds and feel My side.
Story of Dead Soldier: Pronounced dead even though body had not been found. Funeral held without body present. Boy came home! Family could not believe it was actually him. During the night his mom came in and touched him, then later his dad did the same…they just wanted to make sure. John must have constantly gone over in his mind the images he saw of Jesus and the Words he heard(Read a book of someone you hear speak the words are in their voice) And I even touched Him, I can remember the touch. JOHN TOUCHED WHO - WORD OF LIFE/ETERNAL LIFE
3. WE CAN KNOW THAT JESUS IS LIFE concerning the Word of life. (2) And the life was manifested and we have seen and bear witness and proclaim to you the Eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us.
a. John saw, heard, & touched the WORD OF LIFE
b. John saw, heard, & touched ETERNAL LIFE.
TONIGHT: Take a deeper look at what it means to know this One John knew to be real. Not a phantom, not a ghost but real flesh and blood humanity but also God of very God. John wrote, ’In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word WAS GOD’. Is that the Jesus you know?
COUNTERFIT MONEY: Interesting thing is that a counterfit bill can spend a lot of time in circulation. Someone might buy tank of gas, pay for groceries, put in offering plate but when it arrives at the bank it’s true value is noted. You may do a lot of good things in life but when you stand before God will you have religion, good works, or will you have Jesus Christ.
THIS MORNING: Looked at Who John knew Jesus to be.(Gnostic problem/eyewitness testimony/impact upon his life)
MISS JONES: elderly lady who lived in a small midwestern town. She gained popularity because she was the oldest resident of the town. She finally died and the local newspaper wanted to print a caption to remember her life. The editor examined her life and found there was little to write about: she had done nothing terribly wrong or anything worth remembering. The editor gave up and assigned the task to the first reporter he found, a sports writer. The caption came out:
Here lie the bones of Nancy Jones, her life held no terrors.
She lived an old maid. She died an old maid. No hits, no runs, no errors.
Christian life was not meant to be either meaningless or dull. John reminds us in these passages about what a difference it makes in life to know Jesus Christ. Tonight we will look at two distinct words: FELLOWSHIP & JOY. Are they in your life?
A LIFE OF REAL FELLOWSHIP
1. THE FOUNDATION OF FELLOWSHIP IS IN THE PERSON OF JESUS CHRIST.
a. THE WORD OF LIFE - Words are expressions to the outside which reveal who we are on the inside. If you were God how would you reveal yourself?
1) Revealed Himself in Creation(Rom 1:20) Enough to make every person accountable to know He is there.
2) Revealed Himself more fully in His Word:
3) Reveals Himself most fully in the Person of Jesus Christ ’He that has seen Me has seen the Father’(Jn 14:9). He is the Word, Final Statement of God.
b. ETERNAL LIFE - Our fellowship is not only founded upon the Person of Christ but what we all share together by knowing Him: Eternal life. He is the life. And the life was manifested, and we have seen and bear witness and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us.(2) Life which is not future but is now.
1) Jesus called Himself ’I am that I am’. That is a right now title. It we were to live in the worries of the past He would be, ’I am who I was" or in the concerns of the future, ’I am who I will be’. But eternal life is now
2) Jesus did not come to show us God(although that happened) but he came to show us how man is to be related to God. The lost secret of humanity is the knowledge of how man is meant to live in this Eternal life relationship. ’I don’t do these things ,it’s no I who accomplishes these works, it is the Father Who dwells in Me’(JN 14:10) He did exactly the will of God and when He spoke He expressed exactly the mind of God not because He was God but because He constantly looked to God and trusted God.
VANCE HAVNER: Story of elderly lady who had many troubles which were both real and imaginary. Her troubles came to the point where her family calmly told her, ’Grandma, we’ve done all that we can do for you. You’ll just have to trust God for the rest’. A look of despair came over her face and she said, ’O Dear, has it come to that?’ VANCE HAVNER, ’It always comes to that, so we might as well begin with that’.
F.B. MEYER: Unbelief puts our circumstances between us and God, but faith puts God between us and our circumstances’. Choose to trust God and believe Him for a life that really makes a difference.
2. THE REALITY OF FELLOWSHIP (3) what we have sen and heard we proclaim to you also t hat you also may have fellowship with us;
a. Greek word ’koinonia’ which means ’to hold in common together’ ’the setting aside of private interests and joining with others for a common purpose’. Other ways it is translated, ’communion, partnership,’
1) Consider the things we hold in common: American citizenship, Same state, same region of state…share the life of Jesus Christ…same Holy Spirit indwells us together.
FELLOWship: One of Best definitions was from J.V. McGee: Visited Oxford University where there are many specialized schools. One school specialized in Shakespear. Enter that school and attend classes and sit and listen to professors and students discuss Shakespear in ways you never heard before. You would begin to study and go to lectures. After 2 or 3 years they would make you what is called a Fellow. Then you would go and sit with students and professors and join in the discussions about Shakespear because you would have FELLOWSHIP with them in sharing the things about Shakespear. It is a common commitment around a central concern at a level the world cannot attain.
3. WHO IS OUR FELLOWSHIP WITH? And indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.
a. WOW: not just fellowship with one another(vertical & horizontal) but also fellowship with God and Jesus Christ. THIS IS AN EXCLUSIVE CLUB. MEANS SOME WONDERFUL THINGS
1) All I have is put at God’s disposal BUT all God has is put at my disposal as well. Power, wisdom, glory ,might ’I can do all things through Christ Who strengthens me’ ’My God shall supply all my need according to His riches and glory in Christ Jesus’ Phil 4
2) My life becomes an intimate relationship with God Jn 15:15 I have not called you servants, but I have called you friends’
a) What could I have in common with God: Holy with unholy, light with darkness, almighty with a worm. Comes back to Jesus Christ Who took away our sin that we might share in His righteousness. 2 Peter 1:4 ’we have become partakers of His divine nature’ same word: Koinonia
NEVER MARRY A LOST PERSON: Jesus told the lost pharisee ’you are like your father the devil’. You talk about inlaw problems when you marry someone like that. Not to be unequally yoked, out of koinonia with the person we marry. You will want Sunday to be a holy day and they will want it to be a holiday. Bible says that a threefold cord is not easily broken: You, spouse, God. This fellowship we can share together with God in our lives is so amazing and special why would we choose to deny in our marriage and family?
b) Friends share things together that others don’t know. Secrets/mysteries. You begin to discover that God is opening your eyes to things you never saw before: secrets about life, about yourself, about others around you
A LIFE OF REAL JOY (4) And these things we write, so that our joy may be made complete.
1. One of the purposes why John wrote is that believers might know the joy God has for their lives. Joy is a byproduct of real fellowship in our lives.
a. Desire a ’full’ joy. Happiness is a variable while joy is a constant. One is based upon circumstances while the other is based upon a relationship. Have to look in the right place to find real joy.
WOKE UP:one morning and realized that there was an empty space in the driveway where I usually park the car. My first thought was, ’Why would anybody steal a GEO?’ Second thought, ’I wonder where my car is right now? Chop shop being taken apart and the plastic sold for scrap’….THIRD THOUGHT. Oh I cleaned the garage yesterday and finally parked the car in there. Gotta know where to look to find something. Joy is only found in the fellowship we share in a relationship together with Jesus Christ as foundation. Ps 16:11 ’In Thy presence is fulness of joy’.
HAPPINESS is based upon circumstances: Buy a new car you are happy - first payment comes due you are unhappy - I walk up and give you a check to pay for your car you are very happy - you take it to the bank to try and cash it you are very unhappy
b. Sin promises joy but always produces sorrow. Any pleasure you gin in sin is only temporary. Jesus said, ’You joy no man takes from you..these things I have spoken to you that My joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full’.
RAY STEDMAN: Better word than joy, although it is an excellent word, but t o understand what John means , might be the word ’excitement’. That your excitement might be complete. Joy is a kind of inner excitement which results when we discover who we are in Christ, that God is actually using us, and that the truth we have found is the greatest truth the world can know.
Shohoiya Yokowai: Ever heard of him? He spent 28 years of his life in prison. Not a prison of bars & locks but a prison of ignorance. He was a Japanese soldier on the island of Guam during WW2. When the Americans landed he fled into the jungle and found a cave and hid for 28 years. He learned the truth that the war was over by pamphlets that were dropped but he thought it might be a trick. He lived in his cave eating rats, roaches, frogs, and mangoes until some natives finally found him and convinced to him it was safe to come out. ’What a waste of a life’ Is your life being wasted because you don’t know what it really means to be set free in Jesus?
