The Word of LIFE | 1 John 1:1-4

We're reading from John 1. This is very much

a repeat of Genesis 1, but I don't think Michael's

going there this morning, he told me, but we're

in John 1. Verse 1 to 14. This is God's Word.

was not anything made that was made. In him was

life and the life was the light of men. The light

shines in the darkness and the darkness has not

overcome it. There was a man sent from God whose

name was John. He came as a witness to bear witness

about the light that all might believe through

him. He was not the light but came to bear witness

about the light. The true light which gives light

to everyone was coming into the world. He was

in the world and the world was made through him,

yet the world did not know him. He came to his

own and his own people did not receive him. But

to all who did receive him, who believed in his

name, he gave the right to become children of

God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will

of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of

God. and the Word became flesh and dwelt among

us and we have seen His glory, glory as the only

Son from the Father, full of grace and truth."

And then we turn to 1 John 1, and that's on page

959, if you have the Pew Bibles, and we're reading

the first four verses. 1 John 1. 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. This is God's

word and may he add his blessing to the reading

and preaching of that word. Thanks Anton. Good

morning everyone. So it's great to be together

here in Armidale on this beautiful crisp, we

might say, Sunday morning where we have the privilege

to sing together, pray together and hear God's

word in our midst. Now as you may have noticed,

we have new Pew Bibles which are in the ESV translation

and they're in that translation because we'll

be using the ESV from now on to lead our services

and to preach from. And you may have also noticed

that we're starting a new series today. in the

letter of First John, which should be taking

us, God willing, pretty much to the end of the

year. Now, I just wanted to say a couple of things

on this series before we get into the passage

that we have before us this morning. The elders

here at Grace wanted to take you through this

little letter because it's a really... powerful

part of scripture that gets us, the people of

God, to focus in on what is the Christian life.

Hence why the title of this series reflects that

very thing. Now, John, the apostle, he covers

a whole load of subjects in this letter. And

through this series, we want to particularly

focus in on what he has to say about what we

as Christians must believe, how we're to relate

to one another in the church and how we are to

live our faith out in this world. We also want

to take you through this letter because John

deals with issues that are so very important

to us personally, like our assurance of faith

and our identity in the Lord Jesus Christ. In

fact, John pretty much tells us there in chapter

five, verse 13, his purpose for the book. And

listen to these words. He says, I write these

things to you who believe in the name of the

Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal

life. Listen to what our apostle is saying there.

He's written to us, the church, to help us in

our assurance of salvation and to know what we

have in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are a people.

who have at this very moment eternal life because

of our faith in the Son of God. Church, what

our author sets out to achieve here and what

we want to really explore in this series is that

as we come to know and to trust and to live in

light of what Jesus has achieved on behalf of

his people, that we would hopefully become a

more confident and thankful and humble people

who really walk and act differently in this world.

That's what First John is somewhat about and

what we'll be looking at in this series in the

coming months. But before we get into this series

and the text that we have before us this morning,

why don't you join me in praying for what we're

doing here together? Would you please pray with

me? Father God, we are so thankful that we are

able to gather together here in this building

so publicly, that we're able to plan on a series

and ask for you to lead and guide and give us

direction through it. Lord, we are such a privileged

people that we're even able to have pew Bibles

and so much access to your word. These are all

such... wonderful blessings and grace from your

hand. This morning, Lord, as we come to the word,

we would ask that you would teach us by your

Holy Spirit that the Lord Jesus Christ would

be held high among us and that you would have

all the glory. And we ask for this in the name

of Jesus. Amen. One of my mates who has travelled

the world extensively made me aware of something

once, and that's that Australia, in his opinion

at least, is one of the hardest places in the

world to speak to people about the Gospel. He

said that literally anywhere on the face of the

planet that he's gone to go visit, people are

ready to engage, ready to listen, and even argue

about what it is to be saved and justified before

God. But not here in Australia. because for the

most part he reckons Aussies are somewhat prone

to think a similar thing and that's that they're

happy for him and they're happy that his faith

has kind of made him feel like a better person

but they're doing just fine in the way that they're

doing things. Whatever works for you, mate, kind

of thing. My friend gets really frustrated by

that response because at its core it reveals

a fundamental misunderstanding in our culture

about the true nature of the gospel. The gospel

isn't something that's subjective, like a TV

show that you can decide whether is good or bad

based on your personal taste. No, the truth of

the gospel is absolute. which is to say remains

true regardless of whether someone believes it

or not. To put it simply, when it comes to the

truth of the good news of Jesus Christ, whatever

works for you mate, doesn't work at all. And

I mentioned that to you this morning because

the truth of the nature of God, the place of

Jesus in the Christian life and the way of salvation

being somewhat up to the individual was very

much the problem that our apostle here, John,

wrote into this church in first century Ephesus,

which is in modern day Turkey. You see, at some

point, John had written his gospel and it's circulated

quite far and wide but over time there was different

false teachers that had different takes on what

John and the other apostles taught about repentance

and faith and even about the nature of God and

Jesus Christ himself and because Greek philosophy

had a place for different opinions, being relevant

for the individual, whatever works for you kind

of thing. Well, that mindset had somewhat infiltrated

the church. And the danger was Christians could

be carried away by that hashtag my truth mindset,

which would have drastic and eternal consequences

on all who adopted that way of approaching the

gospel. And so John wrote into this problem refuting

false teachers that had married the mission of

Jesus to different Greek philosophies while also

encouraging maturity in the faith that was once

and for all delivered to the saints. That's a

bit of context for this letter. And so with that

in mind, we turn our attention to verse one here.

We read, that which was from the beginning, which

we've heard, which we've seen with our eyes,

which we've looked upon and touched with our

hands concerning the word of life. There's a

couple of things that I want you to see here.

First, look at where John takes our attention

from the get -go. It's to the very beginning,

right? Now as I just read those first few words,

as Anton read them just before, you may have

been thinking to yourself, what exactly is John

talking about here? What was from the beginning?

What does our author have in mind here? Well

if we look at the end of verse one in our text

this morning, John's speaking about the word

of life. Now before we jump to any conclusions

and think that he's only speaking about a message

here, it's clear that John has seen, that he

has looked upon, that he has touched this very

thing that he's speaking about, which he was

able to do, because if you look there in verse

two, it was manifested in this world, which is

to say this thing that he's talking about was

revealed in such a way that he was able to physically

experience it. Church, I think we have a better

understanding of what's going on here when we

understand what he's saying here in light of

John 1. Because our author is actually speaking

about two things simultaneously. Yes, he's talking

about the word of life, which is the gospel,

yet at the very same time, he's speaking about

the word as a person, who as we just heard is

Jesus. They're not contrary things, but one and

the same thing that's been from the beginning

that came into this world which John has heard,

which he has handled and seen. It's one and the

same thing. Think about it like this. Imagine

that you've been speaking to someone and they've

been texting a person. They've read all their

messages, they know the tone, they even understand

the personality behind the words. You might say

that they really have got to know that person,

right? But one day, that person shows up in real

life, they shake their hand, they see the way

that they move, they see the expressions in their

face, and then they hang out with them. They're

no longer just a message on a screen, right?

No, they're a real present and physical person.

I think that's the sort of thing that John is

trying to grapple our minds with here. Just like

how the message and the person behind them are

one and the same thing, John is saying to us

here, Jesus, he is the word of life. He is the

message of the Good News who was from the beginning

with the Father and he existed before he came

to be seen in this world by myself and others

who heard, handled and saw him. And that's the

second thing that I want you to notice here.

I want you to see the language of verse 1. See

how it's all in the plural. that which we've

heard, we've seen, that which we've looked upon.

What's John doing here? Well, what I think he's

doing is he's making sure that we know that he

is united to the other apostles and to the gospel

that they preached. And he's saying in so many

words that it would be wise to listen to us because

we knew Jesus. We saw him, we heard him, we walked

with him, we knew who he was because we were

the ones who were with him when he was here.

It's a style of writing to ensure us that we

can be confident with the words that our apostle

is giving to us here because he's a guy who really

was with Jesus in his earthly ministry and in

his inner circle with the rest of the apostles.

He was part of those people that Jesus personally

chose to speak on his behalf. All this to say

church, John opens his letter with an absolute

left hook in regards to the false teachers that

had made their way into the church there in Ephesus

and were confusing people with this new and approved

Greekified Jesus. He wasn't a recent idea. No,

we see it here. John opens his letter by saying,

Jesus, the word of life already existed in the

beginning with the father. He really did come

into this world and we really did walk and talk

with him. And this Jesus didn't just tell us

the good news. He is the good news. He is the

very Word of God, the very word of life made

flesh. All in all what John is telling us here

is that the gospel isn't a new thing but has

been something, but is something that has always

been. It wasn't invented yesterday or it wasn't

made up by a bunch of guys 2 ,000 years ago there

in Jerusalem. No, it's unchanging and rooted

in eternity because it's rooted in the person

of Jesus Christ. And so the church must be very

aware of anyone who brings us any other teaching.

That's the first thing we see here. The second

thing that John draws our attention to is that

truth and life are found in Jesus. Truth and

life is found in Jesus. I really love how the

ESV shows us what's going on here in the underlining

Greek by their use of dashes. If you have a pubile

you'll see there's a few dashes going on there.

It's like John is explaining to us who Jesus

is and then goes off on this little tangent.

It's a really beautiful thing. It's like explaining

to someone something about the love of your life

that you get really excited about and then as

you're explaining you just need to add in this

extra little detail. because there's just so

many good things to say about that person. That's

somewhat the vibe of what's happening here. John

explains something to us about the word of life,

about Jesus, our Lord, and then he needs to add

in this vital detail about Jesus. Now, unlike

someone who does go off on a tangent and usually

gives superfluous information, that's definitely

not what's going on here. John is saying something

absolutely vital for us to understand because

he's saying to have eternal life and relationship

with God. Well, that is only found in the gospel.

that they proclaim. Listen to how our apostle

puts it here in verse 2. The life was made manifest

and we've seen it and testified to it and proclaim

to you the eternal life which was with the Father

and was made manifest to us. I want you to see

a few things here. First, John reiterates that

the Jesus that the apostles really walked with

was the eternal life who would really come into

our time and space sent from the Father. That

is who they proclaim to us. They proclaim Jesus

who is the eternal life that they saw in the

flesh. That's going to become, that detail is

going to become really important as we go on

in this book and this series. Second, John tells

us that the proclamation of this man and the

message being Jesus and the gospel is of eternal

significance because of its very nature. And

third, because of the very nature of Jesus and

the gospel. John is saying that this is absolute

truth. It's absolute truth for all humanity.

It's from God and thus it's not an optional extra

kind of thing. And so there's a couple of things

that we see straight off the bat in just these

first couple of verses that our apostle gives

to us. First, the gospel wasn't invented by the

apostles but has been from the very beginning

in Jesus who was with the Father and came into

this world. These men, these apostles, they walked

with him. And second, the gospel is of eternal

worth and is absolutely true because of its very

nature that is rooted in the triune God. himself.

The third truth that the church must pay attention

to is found there in verse three and it's John's

explanation as to why he is writing to us and

it's simply this. Like what he and the other

apostles experienced, he wants all of us to experience

that as well. He wants us to experience true

fellowship. Listen to how he says it in verse

three, that which we've seen and heard we proclaim

also to you so that, so that you too may have

fellowship with us. And indeed our fellowship

is with the father and with his son, Jesus Christ.

John proclaims this message to us so that we

too may have fellowship. It's an interesting

Greek word he uses here. It means a real lasting,

a real intimate relationship with something that

you have in common. Kind of like a marriage,

but with whom? Well, first of all, Notice it

here in verse 3, he says, with us. With us. That's

really interesting because the stress of that

phrase isn't on having fellowship maybe with

one another like you would naturally think, but

with John and the other apostles. Which is really

quite interesting until we understand the context.

in which our apostle writes into here. You see,

John was speaking into a context where, as we've

seen briefly, individualism in the Christian

life was a real danger for the church, very much

like this day and age for us. And so John is

saying that the Christian life was... never designed

to be a choose your own adventure where one picks

and chooses what seems good and right and true

to them. Like what the false teachers were making

allowance for by marrying Christ to different

Greek philosophies. No, to believe what the apostles

taught about Jesus and to accept the truth of

their teaching To believe it, that is to really

be part of the church that they are the foundation

of. I really think that's what John wants us

to see here. To have fellowship, relationship,

connection, one has to be in fellowship, we might

say, with the apostles by believing and accepting

what they taught about the Jesus that they really

walked. and talked and lived life with. And let

me just say here, brothers and sisters, a church

that is built on the foundation of the apostles

and the prophets, as Paul will put it, is a church

that's committed to the teaching of the apostles

as found in their inspired words to us, as found

in the Bible. That's how we come to have this

fellowship with them and how real disciples of

Jesus are made. Listen to a wonderful American

missionary here, a guy by the name of Paul Washer.

He says, in modern day evangelism, the precious

doctrine of regeneration has been reduced to

nothing more than a human decision to raise one's

hand, walk an aisle, or pray a sinner's prayer.

As a result, the majority of Americans believe

that their born -again disciples, even though

their thoughts, words, and deeds are in continual

contradiction to the nature and the will of God

as revealed in the Bible. Brothers and sisters,

John's goal for the church, for you and me, wasn't

merely to get people to pray a prayer or make

a one -time decision and then go on to then pick

and choose what seems good and right and true

to us. No, his goal is that the people of God

would share in one life together. And that comes

by accepting what the apostles have shared with

us. And that's the second thing that I want you

to see here in verse three, because he doesn't

just leave it here in this natural relationship.

He talks about something supernatural happening

here as well. Notice that the apostles' fellowship

is with God the Father and with his son Jesus

Christ. And so what he's saying is that when

we're brought into fellowship with the apostles,

which is another way of saying accepting and

believing their message, we're also brought into

relationship with God himself. To put it simply,

accepting apostolic doctrine does something supernatural.

It brings us into fellowship with God the Father

and His eternal Son Jesus Christ Himself. That's

why John has written and why the Apostles proclaim

the Gospel to us. It's so that people will come

to experience fellowship and true life with the

Triune God Himself. I want to give you an example

of this. It's not a perfect example, so please

forgive me from the get -go. But it is an example.

Imagine you go to check your mailbox and you

find a hand -delivered envelope sealed with the

royal crest. You open it, inside is a formal

invitation from the King's personal ambassador.

It reads, you sir, you madam, you're invited

to come to dine with the King. All expenses paid,

your place has been prepared, come quickly. Surely

you'd think to yourself that this is a mistake,

that you've done nothing to deserve this kind

of treatment, but because the invite is legitimate

and it's personally addressed to you, you go.

Now imagine this. Imagine that when you get there,

to the palace, you're led straight to the king's

table where he stands to welcome you. You're

not kind of pushed off to the side kind of thing,

but invited to personally sit with him next to

his ambassadors to share laughter, food, and

the same joy as his people. To put it simply,

to sit at the table with them is to sit in fellowship

with him. And it goes further. to accept their

message really is to accept the invite from the

King. That's somewhat what I think John is telling

us here. When we accept the proclamation of the

apostles, their message which is the gospel,

We're not just agreeing to an idea or signing

up to some kind of weird life of religion. No,

we're stepping into a real living fellowship

with God the Father and his son, Jesus Christ,

through the almighty power of the Holy Spirit

at work. The proclamation, the acceptance, The

belief of the gospel has supernatural ramifications.

There's one last thing that I want to draw your

attention to. It's brief, but it's found there

in verse four, and it's what this fellowship,

this relationship, this intimacy produces. Verse

four, and we're writing these things so that

our joy may be complete. Our joy. Our joy, hear

that. When we hear and accept the gospel, the

good news and come into fellowship and relationship

with the living God, we're brought into a life

that's not burdensome or heavy or horrible. But

as our apostle tells us here, is a real delight

and joy. Church, I want you to notice what we've

seen so far. Verse one. The word of life. Verse

three, true fellowship. Verse four, joy. Notice

how our apostle lays it out for us. True gospel

proclamation leads to true fellowship, which

leads to true joy. Let me say that again. True

gospel proclamation. leads to true fellowship,

which leads to true joy. In other words, as the

Bible defines it, joy comes by sharing in the

life that comes from our heavenly father and

is found in his beloved son. And we find joy

in that fellowship as we engage in it with our

brothers and sisters in the church. As we finish

up in these very interesting verses that are

going to open our series, much like John's original

audience, we live in a world that propagates

the whatever works for you message. It's even

crept into the church to a degree. Christians

accept all sorts of teaching that comes through

YouTube and podcasts that tell them that if you

really want to have real joy and fullness and

happiness in this life, then all you have to

do is listen to my secret wisdom, to my teaching,

to buy my book, and even in some cases give money

to my ministry. Then and only then will you find

that real joy and happiness that you've been

after, Christian. But listen to our apostle's

approach here. Listen to his message to us, the

church. He's saying that fullness of joy is found

and always has been found in fellowship with

the living God and with others who are in that

fellowship with him. Brother, sister, if you

are trusting Jesus. If you're fellowshiping with

his people, then you're already a participant

in that joy. This is what brings real and lasting

joy. Not career success, money, fame, relationships

or whatever you might be searching for, but a

life that is rooted in the triune God and experienced

and experienced with those who have responded

to the same proclamation of truth as found in

the teaching of the apostles. Have you accepted

that invitation from the King? If not, then we

love that you're here with us this morning and

I would love to speak to you. straight after

the service about what that might look like.

But for now, why don't we come together and why

don't we pray? Would you please pray with me?

Lord God, we thank you for these words of eternal

life, the good message of the gospel. We ask

that as we sing together, that as we leave as

we fellowship together and then as we leave that

these words wouldn't depart from us quickly that

you by the work of your spirit would plunge them

into our hearts that we would have our eyes raised

to you Lord Jesus that you would change us by

the work of the spirit by the power of the gospel

that we would indeed be a different people in

this world for your glory. And we ask for this

in your name.