INTRODUCTION
SLIDE #1
• How many of us would like to see Jesus in person. Who would like to speak with Him, and walk with Him, maybe even go shopping with Him?
• I think we all would like to be able to sit down and have a face to face with Jesus. I had a friend of mine I used to work with who would tell me that he would believe in Jesus if Jesus would appear to him and speak with Him.
• It is interesting to me that the disciples spent three years walking with Jesus, listening to His wonderful teachings, observing the miracles, yet they still had problems with their faith at times.
• These men spent three years with Jesus, yet I have to believe they still remained unconvinced as to who He was.
• I do not want to sound like I am picking on them, because when you think about what Jesus was claiming about Himself, it was incredible to think about.
• In my opinion it was not until after the resurrection that the disciples fully grasped who Jesus was, and once that happened, nothing would stop them from carrying out the missions at hand. They were fearless because they KNEW who Jesus was.
• The disciples knew Jesus, but after the resurrection, they REALLY KNEW without a doubt who He was.
• Thomas was one of the disciples who would not believe Jesus was alive unless he saw Jesus himself. When Jesus appeared to Thomas, He said in John 20:29. SLIDE #2
• John 20:29 says: Jesus said* to him, “Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.”
• Now let us think about our situation for a moment. It is EXTREMELY unlikely that we are going to get a face to face with Jesus as long as we live on this earth.
• Then, how can we get to know Him as the disciples came to know Him? How can we believe who He is without seeing Him?
• If you cannot experience something for yourself, or if you cannot have the opportunity to know someone in person, what is the next best thing we can do?
• We can read what others say about a person or an event.
• We visited the Lincoln Library. I have read stuff about the Civil War, but to read what those who were in the battles had to say really brought me close to what happened even after over 100 plus years.
• All that we know about history comes to us through what others have written. How do we determine if what we are reading is true or an embellished story? If we were to read a book about a Democratic president for instance we would want to know the writers bias. We would want to know who the writer was, what their credentials were and what their motive for writing their book was.
• Is the person an eyewitness to what they are writing about or are they getting things second third or fourth hand?
• When we know these things, we then can make a determination as to if we are going to trust the content.
• Today we are going to start a series of messages in 1 John. We are going to answer some of the questions I have raised.
• Sometimes I believe we just read the Bible was if it were some story written from the mind man instead of understanding what we are reading is the mind of God written through man.
• We need to realize the Biblical writers were real men who lived real lives in a real time.
• Today we are going to look at one of the witnesses to Jesus. I hope that as we read his words that we will realize that this person gives us a firsthand personal account about Jesus. This person is a reliable witness. SLIDE #3
SERMON
I. THE WITNESS.
• Who is the witness we are reading from? Is this person a reliable source for good information?
• As we look at the book of 1 John, you will not see the author naming himself in the beginning of the letter as typical of the time; however, there has been little to no question concerning the authorship of this book.
• CLICK #3 The book is attributed to the Apostle John. Two of John’s disciples Polycarp and Papias quote from it attributing it to their teacher. We have a plethora of other evidence we could go to in order to establish the author is John the Apostle who also wrote Revelation and the Gospel of John.
• CLICK #3 John was the son of Zebedee. CLICK #3 John was apparently a well-to-do fisherman. (Lk 8:3, Jn 19:27, 18:15)
• John was a close friend to Simon-Peter and was often mentioned in the same sentence with Peter. John may have been one of the first disciples of John the Baptist and was one of the first to leave him for Jesus. (Jn 1:35-39)
• SLIDE #4 (John 19:26) When Jesus was on the cross, He gave His mother over to be taken care of by John and often John was referred to as the one who Jesus loved.
• The Apostle John was a close friend of Jesus. John is most likely writing this letter about 90 A.D. some 60 years after Jesus ascended into heaven. By the time John wrote this there was a lot of heresy concerning Jesus that John subtly deals with. One popular one was that Jesus was only a spirit without a real body.
• In the gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John), Matthew, Mark and Luke told us what Jesus did, John, because of his intimate friendship with Jesus tells us more how Jesus felt and what He thought as he describes events.
• As you read 1 John, you will see several parallels with John’s gospel.
• As you read his writings, you cannot help but to feel the impact that Jesus had on John.
• Love is one of the themes of this book, the word love and its derivatives are used over 51 times in this short letter.
• John is not just sharing facts and figures about Jesus in his letters; he is sharing from his heart about a Savoir with whom he had personal knowledge and a deep love for. John did not know about Jesus, he knew Jesus, what better source can we look to in order to get to know our Lord? SLIDE #5
II. HIS CREDENTIALS.
• Whenever I read a book, I want to know a bit about the credentials of the one writing it? If I am reading a book about Psychology, I want to make sure the author is qualified to speak on the subject.
• If I want to read a book about how to teach Rachel how to pitch better, I want to make sure the author is an authority on the subject.
• As we ventured through the Lincoln Library we learned a lot about President Lincoln. How do we know what we were hearing was not a bunch of made up stories?
• Those who wrote them were authorities on the life of Lincoln.
• What credentials does John present to us in the beginning of this letter?
• CLICK #5 He heard Jesus. John heard Jesus speak, he heard the sermons, he heard the teachings, he heard how Jesus how Jesus spoke to people, the tones of His voice.
• John speaks of what was from the beginning. In the context he is speaking about the period before creation. He is saying Jesus was preexistent. It is an affirmation of the eternal character of Jesus.
• As we look at these first couple of verses, we see that John lays out his contact with Jesus in increasing intensity.
• He begins with the hearing of Jesus. Hearing is not a very personal contact, it can be done at a distance with no design or purpose, and it can also be done unwillingly.
• Maybe someone made you come to church this morning to listen to the message?
• Just because you hear someone does not mean you have a relationship with them.
• CLICK #5 John goes on to say that He saw Jesus. He says what we have seen with our own eyes.
• Seeing is also involuntary. The eyes may be averted from what we do not want to see. John saw Jesus perform the miracles, John saw the love Jesus showed to people as He dealt with them. John saw it all, he was an eyewitness to all Jesus had done.
• CLICK #5 He observed or beheld Jesus. This level of involvement involves conscience and willful participation. Beholding or observing denotes a steady penetrating gaze designed to hold the object in view until all its characteristics are noted. It involves contemplating with pleasure, looking with delight, finding satisfaction in the object that is being contemplated.
• It is almost like studying a subject you thoroughly enjoy learning about verses one you do not like.
• John beheld Jesus, He studied His every word, and His every action until He knew Jesus as well as one could know another.
• CLICK #5 The last credential we are given from John is the fact that John touched Jesus.
• This is the most tangible, intimate and definitive evidence. John stood next to Jesus, he touched Jesus. Jesus was real.
• John used three of the senses to give us evidence that Jesus indeed was a real person who lived in a real time here on earth. He uses this evidence to share the reality concerning the Word of Life, Jesus.
• John uses the senses to debunk a lot of the false teachings that were gaining popularity in some circles during his time.
• John in this letter is not just speaking about the gospel and its teachings, but he is speaking to us about the source of the gospel. Jesus is more that an embodiment of great teachings, He is more than just a soothing speech. John emphasizes the literal fleshly body of Jesus which was seen, heard and handled! SLIDE #6
III. HIS MOTIVATION FOR TESTIFYING.
• Whenever you read something, it is important to understand the motives behind the author. What agenda does the author have? Does he have an axe to grind? Is he promoting propaganda? What drives the author to write?
• What was John’s motivation for writing this letter to us?
• CLICK #6 John was motivated to proclaim eternal life to us!
• Verse 2 tells us the life was manifested. Manifested means to “make known matters formerly concealed.” There is a progression of action. First, the life of Jesus was manifested, and then John saw the life, thus making him competent to testify regarding it.
• John wants to see all of us have eternal life. Life is only found in Jesus. There is no other way to receive eternal life except through Jesus. Remember in the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus asked the Father if there was another way to save people. There was no other way. If the Father allowed to Son to die because there was no other way, then what makes me think He will make an exception for me?
• John affirms the eternal nature of Jesus along with the fact that Jesus is the source of life.
• Eternal life is more than getting to spend eternity with God; it is about this life also.
• God can do so much for you if will only let Him!
• CLICK #6 The second motivation for John’s writing is so we could have fellowship with Jesus and other Christians!
• Fellowship is a partnership or joint sharing; it has the idea of community with others. It is always used to denote active participation where the results depends on the cooperation of the all involved.
• The Life Application Bible share the following concerning the principles involved in real fellowship.
1. Christian fellowship is grounded in the testimony of God’s Word. Without this underlying foundation, togetherness would be impossible.
2. Christian fellowship is mutual, depending on the unity of believers.
3. Christian fellowship is renewed daily through the Holy Spirit. True fellowship combines social and spiritual interaction and is made possible only through a living relationship with Christ.
4. Christian fellowship demands adherence to truth. In this case, it required loyalty to Jesus as the truth, rather than to the esoteric knowledge of the heretics.
• Fellowship is only possible when there is a common bond established in faith, works and love. Those outside of Christ cannot experience the same joyful fellowship those in Christ do until they give themselves to Jesus.
• Fellowship with God and with other Christians demands that we hold valid believes and convictions based on the truth of God’s Word as well as being obedient to those valid truths.
• CLICK #6 The third motive behind John’s writing is so his joy may be complete.
• There is some dispute as to if he is speaking of his joy or the joy of those who come into fellowship with Jesus and John.
• I think there is a bit of both, but for John, he was so focused on his calling that it gave him great joy to see others come to a knowledge of the truth and to submit their lives to Jesus.
• John wants his readers to accept his personal testimony about Jesus.
• How good does it make you feel to lead someone to Jesus after you shared what you know about Him? It is a wonderful feeling to know you played a part in saving a person and bringing them into fellowship with God! SLIDE #7
CONCLUSION
• John’s writings are some of my favorite. When people ask me where to start reading in the Bible, I usually start them off with John. His love for Jesus really shines though his writings.
• WE cannot have a face to face meeting with Jesus right now. The way we get to know Jesus is through those who knew and loved Him.
• John is a reliable witness to the ministry and person of Jesus Christ.
• I pray that you will take the time to read what he has to say.
• Next week we will start looking at the message of John, the disciple whom Jesus loved!
