“Truth and Love”
“The Truth Presented” (1 John 1:1-4)
Introduction
This is the beginning of a new eleven week series entitled “Truth and Love” from 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John.
First a little background of John and the purposes of these three letters.
Five New Testament books are associated with the name John: a Gospel (one of the Bible’s four narrative accounts of the life of Jesus), three letters and the book of Revelation. John was a fisherman by trade, along with his brother, James, and their father, Zebedee. Together with Simon Peter, another former fisherman, John and James constituted an inner circle whom Jesus took with Him on significant occasions (see Mark 5:37; Mark 9:2; Mark 14:32-33). From the cross Jesus placed His mother in John’s tender care (see John 19:26). He was a leader in the Jerusalem church until the Roman army destroyed that city and its temple around A.D. 70. John then moved to Ephesus, where he continued his pastoral ministry and began to write the works of Scripture for which he is known. The Letters of John could have been written at any time between A.D. 70. and the early 90s. An added note: John was probably the only living one of the 12 disciples and may have been in his 80’s or even 90’s when he wrote the three letters and Revelation. Suffice it to say that he was an old man when he wrote these letters because no one really knows how old he was at that time.
John stated five explicit purposes for writing his first letter that
are still relevant for believers today.
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First, he wanted believers to have fellowship (1:3).
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Second, John wanted believers to have joy (1:4).
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Third, he wanted believers not to sin (2:1-2).
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His fourth purpose was his desire for believers to overcome error (2:26).
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His fifth and final purpose for writing was his desire for believers to have assurance of eternal life (5:13).
Now on to the message.
Read 1 John 1:1-4
1 “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. 2 The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. 3 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4 We write this to make our joy complete.”
The opening passage of 1 John is one eyewitness’s personal account of what was seen, heard, and experienced of Jesus Christ. John the apostle wrote late in the first century about his relationship with Jesus. He testified that he and others shared in experiencing Jesus as a real person in history. John’s testimony is significant for the Christian faith because of the importance it places on the incarnation of Jesus—that He was fully God and also completely human.
Teachers in the time of John’s ministry were spreading false information that was grounded in several erroneous beliefs.
To combat such erroneous teachings, John began his first letter with an emphatic prologue that declared the reality of who Jesus was and testified of his personal experience with Jesus. John vividly presented Jesus as a real person. Therefore, his testimony directly contradicted the false teaching that was circulating which denied that Jesus is the Christ (i.e., the promised Savior from God) and that Christ truly existed in human form. This false teaching was an early form of Gnosticism, which taught that “spirit” (i.e., the spirit realm) is basically good, while “matter” (i.e., the physical world) is basically evil. This led to the belief that salvation was achieved through escape from the body, which came not by faith in Christ, but by special knowledge (the Greek word for “knowledge” is gnosis. This incorrect belief caused some people to reject Jesus’ true humanity and led to other strange ideas, such as the thought that Jesus only appeared to have a physical body rather than actually having a physical body.
WITNESSED BY MANY (1 John 1:1)
1 “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.”
1 John 1:1 reflects the truths declared in Genesis 1:1 and 1 John 1:1. John was aware that Jesus preexisted in heaven prior to His incarnation on earth, a belief that’s foundational to the framework of Christianity. John followed this declaration about the preexistence of Christ with several statements that assert the reality of Jesus in human flesh, indicating that John was focusing more on Christ Himself rather than just the proclamation of the gospel message. John stated that he and his contemporaries had heard Jesus speak with their own ears, had seen Him with their own eyes, and had touched Him with their own hands. The One who existed with God before creation came to earth as a human to identify with other humans. These collective statements not only emphasize John’s firsthand experience with Jesus but also proclaim that Jesus had an actual physical body and wasn’t a mysterious being, as false teachers suggested. John described Jesus as “the Word of life.” This unique phrase could be a title, or it could mean that the message of life is contained in the person and work of Christ. John seemed to have in mind the eternal purpose of God that’s revealed in Christ. Jesus is God in human form, who gives everlasting life to all who believe in Him.
REVEALED AS LIFE
2 “The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us.”
Scripture records that God takes the initiative to reveal Himself to humankind. In the Old Testament God revealed Himself to Moses through a burning bush and revealed His expectations for His people with the Ten Commandments. In the person of Christ, God has made Himself known to humanity. God the Father didn’t present His Son, Jesus, as an abstract concept, nor did He disclose salvation in a mystical, mysterious way, as the false teachers of John’s day claimed. Rather, Jesus came to earth as God in the flesh to reveal God’s plan of salvation for humankind.
At least two significant truths for the Christian faith are found in John’s statement that Jesus is eternal life. First, being eternal, Jesus is unending and isn’t bound by the restrictions of time and space. Second, Jesus’ entry into the human race revealed Him as the source of eternal life available to all who would believe in Him. John affirmed that eternal life isn’t just experienced by believers in heaven but is also a present reality on earth as Jesus changes the quality of believers’ lives.
PROVIDED TRUE FELLOWSHIP
3 “We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4 We write this to make our joy complete.”
For the third time John informed readers that he didn’t merely hear someone else teach about Christ; rather, he was an eyewitness of Jesus’ incarnation, a firsthand experience that gave him the authority to proclaim truths about Jesus. John stated that his purpose in proclaiming Christ was so that believers could maintain ongoing fellowship (literally meaning “having in common”) with one another. John testified that fellowship among believers is made possible by their fellowship with the Father and the Son. If believers are unsure about who Jesus is and doubt their salvation, their fellowship with God is negatively impacted. A lack of fellowship with God leads to a lack of true fellowship with other believers.
In the closing verse of the prologue, John connected his joy to that of his readers. John stated that he had written these truths about Jesus Christ so that his readers’ joy would be complete, not lacking anything. The message of false teachers had led to doubt and confusion in the minds of some people, causing them to be unsure of their faith and adversely affecting their fellowship. What John had written to this point was meant to clear up any confusion about the person and work of Jesus Christ, and the results would be unity and fellowship among believers.
The source of joy John described is a vital union with Jesus Christ that he had personally experienced. John was so concerned with the spiritual welfare of his readers that he couldn’t experience true joy while they were confused in their faith. His repeated emphasis on the person and work of Christ in the opening verses of this letter gave his readers what they needed for spiritual renewal: a right understanding of Jesus Christ.
Closing Remarks and Application
It is clear that John emphasized that Jesus was a real person and secondly that to fellowship with other believers and God, the Father and Jesus, the Son was the basis for complete joy.
Therefore, what speaks to Jesus being a real person and signifies complete joy for us as the church body of West Shore Community Church? Without a doubt, our individual stories of who Jesus is in our lives and the fellowship of one another and God and Jesus answers that question. Perhaps, think of this way. We all come from different backgrounds and life experiences, but what we have in common and binds us together is our belief that Jesus is a real person. And the fellowship that we have with one another and our God and Savior makes our joy complete.