The Fullness of Joy in Devotion to Christ | Week 1

You're visiting with us today. My name is Kyle, serve as lead

Pastor here. And I again, I want to welcome

you to to our worship service. Happy New Year.

I hope that you had a good New Year's, a good Christmas, that

all those holidays went well for you again.

It's it's good to be. Here we are.

We're going to begin a new series today through the book of

First John. So if you have your Bible, you

can open to the book of First John.

It's. Nearly at the end of your Bible

comes just before Jude in Revelation, and so you'll find

the the final letters. There are these three letters

grouped together from the Apostle John.

We're going to be in the book of First John anyway, so as you

turn in there, I'll tell you a little bit about what we're

doing. The series is titled The

Fullness of Joy and Devotion to Christ.

The Fullness of Joy and Devotion to Christ.

I'll tell you a little bit about the background, the author kind

of what's taking place again, to kind of I'll only do this once.

All right, So I'm not going to do this each week, but I want to

set up the series this way so we know where we're at in the

space-time continuum, right as we get started on this.

What's taking place? Again, the author of this is

most likely, and we believe this to be true, the apostle John,

who is also known as the beloved disciple of Jesus.

He wrote five of our 27 New Testament books.

So in your New Testament, you have 27 books.

John is the author of five of those.

He does not identify himself in any of these three letters.

In fact, he doesn't identify himself in his gospel.

Either. But the style and the vocabulary

of first John is so similar to his gospel that it's is just

fine for us to assume a common author here.

It is extremely likely you will notice that as we read our

verses today here in just a moment.

Secondly, another reason why we have good reason to believe John

wrote this is that major themes and emphasis of these writings

overlap between his gospel and what we see in first John.

We see the full humanity and divinity of Jesus.

We see the tight knit relationship between believing,

that is, between faith or doctrine and obeying God's

commandments which would come down to our works or ethics.

We see the primacy. Of love as marking.

Authentic knowledge of the true God through faith in his Son, so

that there ought to be an overflowing of love that issues

from the hearts of Christians as they have been saved by a loving

Father through his Son, by the Spirit.

Amen. And that mark shows itself in

love. In fact, Jesus says in John

John 13 · chapter mention

chapter 13 that this is 1 great way that the world will know

that you are my disciples by the way that you love one another

the way that you love one another.

This book is a lot about how we are to rightly love one another.

John likely wrote this from Ephesus.

So there's a map I think if it worked.

Yeah. All right.

So. A little bit tiny if you're all

the way back there, probably, but he likely wrote this from

Ephesus. What you see here, it's kind of

a coastal town. It was a port city.

It was a major, major hub of Christianity.

Paul spent much time in Ephesus. Timothy spent much time in

Ephesus. We have great reason to believe

that John retreated to Ephesus just before the destruction of

Jerusalem in 8070, and that would be likely where he was

when he wrote these letters. And so even around it, if you're

familiar with Revelation, you'll see some names.

You may recognize the church at Laodicea and Smyrna and.

Seems like there was a couple others.

Anyway, so yes, yes, yes. So you see some letter, you see

some there. These again would have been

churches in John's immediate area of impact.

I just thought that was an interesting side note anyway.

So that gives you some context as to where he was as he's

writing, he's in Ephesus. There's already been a church

established there during Paul's missionary journeys, and so here

we have the apostle John writing this letter and.

We need to. Ask this What What might we look

forward to seeing in this letter?

What might we look forward to learning?

What might we look forward to applying in our lives?

As we read this letter, I want to give you just a few glimpses

of some things you can expect to see or to hear, or to apply to

your own life, because we need to understand again, as Hebrews

412 lays it out that God's Word is living and active, but it's

sharper than any double edged sword that it pierces down to

the very heart, to the marrow of the man that reveals his

thoughts. It's thought reading, so to

speak. It knows you.

And so as you read the word of God, the Word of God is actually

reading your own soul. Amen.

And we need to be aware of that, that as we open up God's Word

roping a living, active thing here.

And God uses His Word to speak to his people, He uses His Word

to awake dead hearts to new life.

He uses His Word to train his people.

Amen. And so as we read the Word of

God, we can expect to be equipped.

Which means every time you open your Bibles, you've made a

commitment in the New Year to be reading the Scriptures.

You should be expecting that every time I open my Bible,

whether I see it immediately or know its impact immediately or

not, I know that the Holy Spirit is using the Word of God to

transform my life. Amen.

You should have that conviction that even as you wrestle with

words and you think, man, this is hard to understand or this is

difficult or this is laborious, as I walk through it, you can

trust that the Holy Spirit is making these, what seem like

secretive things, known to you. Amen.

And he's working them down in you.

So that's what we seek to do is we open up.

The Word of God. In this letter, John teaches his

readers that God is light. He teaches his readers that God

is love. He teaches his readers that

Christians have passed from death into.

Life, that they did not do this of their own accord.

Rather, God loved them and sent his Son to pay for their sins on

the cross. He teaches then that God caused

those who were dead and sinned to be born again, giving them

eternal life. He goes on to teach things like

this, that with this life they have received the Holy Spirit,

who gives spiritual understanding unto maturity,

which I was just talking to you about, that as you read the word

of God, the Spirit of God draws you further and further into

Christlikeness. Meaning He matures your soul, He

matures your mind, He matures your heart, He grows you.

Up. Literally.

So that believers are no longer of the world or of the devil.

Those are phrases that he uses but are from God or of God also

phrases we see and of the truth. Another phrase we see, God now

abides in His people, and so we understand that we are not alone

and that we are God's people. His word is so or his his name,

so to speak, is written on our foreheads.

We. Belong to him.

And his word abides in us as we abide in Him.

Amen. We see that we abide in light,

that Christians abide in the lights.

God is the light. We abide in the light.

True Christians are those people who know and love God.

This is another thing that he's going to set forth that it's

it's to know right doctrine. It's to understand who Christ

is, especially against the heretics that he is up against

at this time who are seeking to deny the deity of Christ.

Just trying to say that Jesus is simply a man and that he's not

connected to the eternal Messiah who was promised.

They're denying His Lordship. They're denying his Messiahship.

They're denying that he's the savior of of all who call.

On his name. And so he goes on to say that

they're wrong. And so Christians abide and lie.

True Christians are those who know God and who also love God,

right? He will say here that we love

him because he first loved us. This He goes on to add that you

can see by the fruit that they produce.

Now, fruit shows up in three ways, and if you want to write

these down, you can. They're not on the screen, but

it may be something worth remembering as we go through the

series that the fruit that true believers produce, according to

the to this letter of John, is that they love God.

There's an evidence. Love for God.

I love him. How does that love become

evident? Well, he goes on to say that

another fruit you will see is that they obey God.

They obey God. Which goes with what Christ says

in John chapter 15 that if you love.

John 15 · chapter mention

Me You will obey my commandments.

There's a love for God that seeks to obey God, and then the

third mark is that they love other believers and love one

another. There's a whole lot in here

about right belief producing right love, right affections for

God, which produces right affections for his people.

He'll be so strong as to say that if you hate your brother,

the love of God is not in you. In other words, you are not

saved. Strong, right.

We'll get into those things in the coming weeks.

In summary, the book of first John teaches us 3 basics of

Christian life, which I've just summed up a second ago, but I'll

sum them up this way. This time true doctrine,

obedient, obedient, living and fervent devotion.

And so therefore. We find the fullness of our joy

and our fervent devotion to Jesus Christ.

Hence the subtitle of the series this.

Is. I think worthy of the next

probably 20 weeks, we're going to be in this series through the

spring and and be looking at this just verse by verse,

chapter by chapter, as we walk through this book.

And so I invite you to come along.

For the journey. Amen.

Would you stand your feet now as I read the word of God?

When I'm finished reading, I'll say this is the word of the Lord

and you can respond. Thanks be to God, We're going to

read verses one through four, and first John, one that 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 testified to

it, and proclaimed 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.

The word of the Lord, thanks be to God, Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you again for your word.

We thank you, Lord, that you have not left us without

instruction. But you has also not left us

with simply black letters on white pages.

But Lord, we understand that these words are living and act,

and so we ask that by the power of your Spirit today.

Because of the work that you've done for us in Christ Jesus, and

that you've raised us also to new life by your Spirit, we ask

that your Spirit would. Open our eyes and our minds and

our hearts to see and to understand your word.

We know that we are powerless to read such a book and to

understand its meaning without the work of the Spirit in US.

And so, Lord, though I have sought to prepare in such a way

that I can make these words plain for your people, I too

know that I am powerless without the work of your spirit in their

lives. And so I trust does a plant and

water that you will give the increase today of what we ask

that you help our hearts be fertile soil, a place where we

can see fruit that is 20 and 30 and 60.

And 100. Fold.

Lord, we attribute all of this to your kindness toward us, and

that you gave your Son Jesus to die for our sins, to save us,

Lord, from a life of death and hell and sin.

And Lord, you have called us out of darkness into marvelous

light, and you have set us on the foundation of Christ Jesus,

who is called the cornerstone of this faith.

And you have built our faith on those foundational blocks, which

are the apostles and the prophets through their writings

that we have and we too now are being built brick.

By brick into the temple. Of.

Of. Of the Holy Spirit Lord, and we

thank you for this. In Christ name we pray.

Amen. Amen.

You may be seated. All right.

So if I could have you write down one sentence just to kind

of explain what it is we're going to be looking at, it'll

it'll be this. And then I'm going to seek to

explain kind of each part of the sentence.

What the sentence is this the manifestation of Christ?

Establishes fellowship and joy for believers.

The manifestation of Christ establishes fellowship and joy.

For believers now, I could use different words there, but as

always, I try to draw those summaries from the words that

are used in the text so that we might rightly understand their

usage. Again, the manifestation of

Christ establishes fellowship and joy for believers.

Let's look at first this idea of the manifestation of Christ.

What? What is it that John is laying

out for his hearers, for his readers, and for us by proxy?

Right, those of us who have come to believe because of this same

gospel which he talks about here on the manifestation of Christ.

We see this as as he explains it in verses one and two.

And I'll just read these again that which was from the

beginning. This is an interesting way to

start the letter, right? Most of your epistles are going

to start to the Church of Philippi or to the church at

Ephesus or you know, grace be to you and you know and and then

there's a signature. There from typically Paul or

Peter. But here the Apostle John just

goes right on in says that which was from the beginning which we

have heard. Now the we here is talking about

the. Apostles.

That's that which we have heard and 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 testified to it, and proclaimed to you the

eternal. Life which was with the Father

and was made manifest to us. You see the word manifest here.

The two verses are really thick the really dense with the

doctrine of Christ, which we just call Christology, right?

It's just the doctrine of who Christ is from beginning to end.

Who is he? Which is that?

That doctrine is the foundation of the gospel.

We have to get Christ right. We have to get Jesus Christ

right and our understanding of feeling correct if we hope to

ever truly be saved. We must understand who he is.

Amen. We.

It's a it's part of it To know that we need a savior.

But next, you need to identify the savior.

Amen. You need to say with confidence

that this is him. I are not him, right?

I are. I are not.

But He is Him. Amen.

It's OK to chuckle. Jesus Christ, here is the Word

of Life. Now, in some study of this that

that Word of life, if you have it in the ESV, it's not

capitalizer. Some translators who believe

that this is not a direct title for Christ.

However, I've chosen in my interpretation of this, which

comes in line with the interpretation of many others.

I'm not making something up here, but I've chosen to see

this as a statement of who Christ is.

I also understand that in John's writings, as we see in the

Gospel of John, there are often a couple of meanings to his

phrases, and this could be another instance where he is

stating something about. Who Christ is while also stating

who Christ is, Does that make sense that He is the word of

life and that the word of life comes to us through Him?

And then that would be a statement about who he is.

And so Jesus. Christ, the word of life.

Which was from the beginning. This is from the pre dawn of

time, right? When we say from the beginning,

he's not talking about from the beginning of his birthright, his

conception, his his holy conception by the Spirit of God

with Mary. That's that's not it.

What he has here in mind is the pre dawn of time, as we see in

John 11, which he writes in the beginning was the Word and the

Word was with God, and the Word was God.

This is a very similar. Statement here in first John.

One so John is pointing his readers to the pre existence of

Christ. He is the eternally begotten Son

of the Father. Therefore He was before His

physical manifestation, right? He existed before He was

manifested physically in our presence.

Now why does that matter? Well, it matters because.

He's getting to what the heretics of the day and our day

as well to be sure. What the heretics are

proclaiming. There's there's no, there's you

know, Solomon writes and Ecclesiastes.

There's nothing new under the sun there.

There's no evil new under the sun.

It might show up in different ways, but it always seeks to

deny the deity of Christ. It always seeks to deny the

Lordship of Christ that that heresy has been around since the

garden. Did God actually say?

Well, God doesn't. Mean that he just doesn't want

you to be happy? He doesn't want you to be like

him. What is that doing?

It's denying the deity of Christ.

It's promoting the deity of man, which there is none, to be sure,

but it's trying to get you there, which is what pride does.

And so the same thing happens. Here in the heretics that are

around them, Christ is not Lord. Christ is not the Messiah.

You need to continue to follow us, right?

It's a promotion of self. And so any good preacher who's

worth his salt or worth his weight, right will say to you,

you do not follow me, you follow Christ Jesus.

Amen. And any preacher who seeks to

have someone follow him, or to promote him in some way, or to

become his follower to give to his campaign right, is not a

gospel preacher or preaching a false gospel.

And they'll be damned. Alongside of it, if they don't

repent. And we need to.

See it as that we can't, we can't just waffle on such

things. Christ is Lord Jesus.

Christ is the God man. He's the God man.

And that's why this matters, because eternal life is defined

as knowing God and in John 17 three, as Jesus is praying.

There to the Father he says this, he says.

And this is eternal life that they know you.

Now he's praying for his followers, that they know you,

the only true God and Jesus Christ.

Now he's praying about himself, whom you have sent.

So what's eternal life? It's that you have fellowship

with the Father and with his. Son, Which is the purpose of why

John writes. That's exactly what he's saying,

right? He was made manifest and he was

proclaimed so that. You may have.

Fellowship with one, with us. And so with one another, yes.

But as we have fellowship with the Father and his Son, Jesus

Christ, and he goes on there to name the Son as another jab in

the eye of his of the heretics of the day, the false teachers,

He's not afraid to jab the eyes of false teachers.

And so we should not be afraid to jab the eyes of.

Them either. Then He who is eternal life does

not enjoy some sort of immortal solitude.

This is what we need to understand about Christ.

He's not up there enjoying some immortal solitude where he just

exists forever and some happy little space detached from the

Father, detached from his people.

That is not the existence of Christ.

Whether he is always from the beginning of time, meaning from

the beginning, He is always in conscious, continuous and the

intimate communion as Son with the Father.

It's never been unbroken except once on the cross.

My, my God, my God, why have? You forsaken me.

And the moment that He wears our sin, there's a separation of

sorts between the Father and the Son, but it's so that he can

wear our sin for us. It was immediately restored by

the Spirit of God immediately, and that which is eternal put on

flesh and dwelt among us. This is what he's saying.

He's saying that which is eternal.

We have heard and seen and looked upon and touched.

The word of life was made manifest and we have seen it.

Now we're coming out of the Christmas season.

So I trust. That your doctrine of the birth,

the Incarnation, is good right now, right.

You've heard a lot about Christ being born, about the advent of

the Messiah, and so we're familiar with the truth right

now, Especially the infinite became an infant.

The Son of God became the son of a Carpenter and his wife, the

Creator, became like one of his creations as he put on flesh.

John 114 and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

And we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from

the Father, full of grace and truth.

See, John testifies as a witness of Christ Jesus.

He testifies as an apostle, one who was with Christ.

And he's saying, We, along with the other apostles, we have seen

and we have heard and we have touched Jesus Christ.

These three together, right? Seeing, hearing, touching, they

comprise the conclusive proof of material reality that the Word

did put on flesh, that the Word did dwell among us.

And we testify to this because we have seen him, and we have

heard him, and we have touched him, right?

You think about the moment of Thomas who doubted the

resurrection of Christ. Christ appeared to the 10 right

who were remaining because Judas OFT himself.

But he appears to the 10 who are remaining.

And there's an 11th who's not present Thomas.

And and when they report to him that Jesus has come, we've seen

him, we've touched him. And he says, unless I touch his

wounds I will not believe. And what happens?

Christ appears, Christ appears there with him.

And what does he do? Rather than rebuking?

He says. See my wounds.

Touch them. As further evidence they ate

with Christ. They ate with.

Christ, the resurrected Christ. You've been so John is saying,

look, all of these people around us are saying in one hand that

Christ is not the Messiah and he's not the Messiah because he

died. He didn't establish a Kingdom.

They're they're trying to decry his messiahship.

But on the other hand, John is saying.

But look, he rose. Again.

And we saw him, and we heard him, and we touched these. 3

Bear witness that he has indeed risen.

We testified at this Had Jesus Christ not put on flesh?

Had he not risen again and shown his flesh?

Then this truth would not be so. We would have.

Very many reasons to doubt the Messiahship of Christ, for

people can only know about God. But he is pleased to reveal

about himself to them, and praise God he has.

Chosen to reveal himself. Amen.

That we might know him. If you'll remember too.

You think you might be sitting there thinking, well, if I could

touch. I would believe.

If I could see, I would believe well.

That's just simply not true. It might help you.

You might think it would help you, but Christ.

Told Thomas when Thomas says, now that I have touched you, I

believe, now that I've seen you, I believe.

And Jesus told him. He says, Blessed are those who

will not see and yet believe you And I have not laid eyes on

Christ physically, have we? If you say yes, we're going to

find you some help, OK, We're going to ask you.

What medications you've been taking, all right.

We haven't seen Christ, And though you have not seen him,

you love him. And though you do not yow see

him, you believe in him. Why?

Because of the spirit of God bears witness that he's alive.

Amen. And so we believe, we trust.

We live our lives for him. And John stresses all of this.

Because of the heretics, again, who are seeking to disrupt the

early Christian community, they're trying to deny the

physical manifestation of Christ.

And we cannot separate Jesus from Christ.

Christ is not his last name, but Jesus and Christ go together

better than peanut butter and Jelly.

Amen. Jesus and Christ cannot be

separated. They are the same person.

They are both God and man. And and we need to stress the

importance of this doctrine today, that the God man did walk

the earth, that he did die for the sins of humanity.

That he did rise again, And that he lives now in the presence of

God, where he rules and reigns over all of the events of the

world, And that everything will one day bow to His Lordship.

Everyone will testify that he is Lord.

Every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Christ

is Lord, Paul writes in Philippians 2, verse 11.

Philippians 2:11

But this is important today because there are scientists and

radicals and Mystics. Who seek to?

Destroy the doctrine of the Son of God, who put on flesh to save

his people from their sins. They want to deny the existence

of Jesus Christ, but it's the message.

That we proclaim. And we proclaim it boldly.

We proclaim it lovingly. We proclaim it with passion,

because this is the message of eternal life, Is that the word

of life put on flesh. He dwelt among us.

He lived a perfectly sinless life.

He died on the cross for sinners and he rose again on the third

third day defeating death and hell and humans who were all

together. Unlike the God man, nothing like

him other than we have flesh. We are only sinners by our

birth. We are only sinners by our

nature. We are children of wrath like

the rest of mankind, Ephesians 2 tells us.

Yet God chooses to save to the other most all of them who will

repent of their sins and believe in Jesus Christ and his

atonement for their sins becomes their atonement.

Such belief then results in new life, and they become new

creations in Christ Jesus. According to Second Corinthians

517, which is by the saving grace of God, according to

Ephesians 2, verse six and eight, Amen, they're saved.

By God's. Grace.

Because he's rich in mercy and with great love, He has put

Christ, his own Son, forward for you so that you could have new

life, so that you could enjoy the community of the Saints

under or with as the foundation your communion with Christ.

Your communion with His Father for Psalm 1/3 says 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. The manifestation of Christ

establishes fellowship. And joy for believers.

Now let's look at the fellowship of believers.

The fellowship of believers, so that you too may have fellowship

with us, and indeed our fellowship is with the Father.

And with his Son, Jesus Christ. The proclamation of these gospel

truths. Was not an end in itself.

We don't want to miss this because this is life.

Now, if if belief in the gospel of Jesus Christ was the end of

it, if that was the end of it, then you might as well kick

dust. You might as well.

Kill over after belief, but that's.

Not the end of it. John now goes on to define the

immediate end and the ultimate end of belief in the Gospel.

The immediate end is fellowship, the immediate end is fellowship,

and the ultimate end is. Joy.

So let's look at. Fellowship, the purpose of the

proclamation of the Gospels here stated not in terms of

salvation, which is part of it, yes, but of fellowship, because

if salvation is properly understood, it is nothing less

than fellowship. Amen.

Now this word for fellowship is the word Koinonia, which is just

really fun to say, but it's important because it's a

distinctly Christian word. The pagans did not invent this

idea of Koinonia. Koinonia exists.

Fellowship. This way exists because you as a

Christian have fellowship with the father and with his son.

You have Koinonia with the father and with the son, meaning

you've been brought near to them and you share in what they

share. And so.

Too. Then that is your foundation.

You share Koinonia or fellowship with other believers.

Is it not a bit weird to you? Strange to you?

To sit in a room with such diversity, with so many

different stories and so many different histories and so many

different raisings and occupations and pursuits and

loves and desires, right? I mean, it's it's strange that

we would come together under anything other than something

supernatural has taken place in our hearts and minds.

We have been saved. We have been saved by Christ

Jesus. We've been given new life, and

so therefore, we have new desires.

We have new pursuits. And the fellowship of the

Brethren or the fellowship of the Saints matters deeply to us.

Amen. All hell will not keep me from

worshiping with you all on Sunday mornings.

Amen. It's a great joy.

It's a great joy. The immediate is fellowship.

It's proper if salvation is to be properly understood.

It's nothing less than fellowship.

The meaning of salvation and its widest embrace includes the

reconciliation to God in Christ. That is, that fellowship with

the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ, that John mentions

here. But it also includes a holiness

of life. You're growing from 1° of glory

to another in holiness, so to speak, in Christlikeness.

You're being matured and it's incorporation in the Church that

you may have fellowship with. Us, he writes.

So this fellowship is the meaning of eternal life.

Again, John 17 Three And this is eternal life that they know you.

I read this earlier, The only true God and Jesus Christ.

Whom you have sent, What is eternal life?

That they know you and they know me.

And together they, knowing us, know one another.

Amen. There's fellowship, not just

with one another. Our highest fellowship is our

fellowship with Christ, which operates as the thing that we're

looking unto every time we gather, whether that's in a Home

group or biblical manhood or womanhood or Sunday school or

worship on Sunday mornings, or we gather to to play in the park

together. Our.

Highest, Our highest pursuit, is our fellowship with Christ, and

it's also the foundation of our fellowship with one another.

Meaning it's what we. Stand on as we fellowship with

each other, we stand on it, and we.

Look to it at the same time. And so we pursue it.

With one another. Just as the Son, who is eternal

life, was eternally with the Father, so he purposes that we

should have fellowship with them and one another.

And so again I say to you, fellowship is a distinctly

Christian idea, and it communicates the common

participation in the grace of God.

It communicates the salvation of Christ.

It communicates the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, which is our

spiritual birthright. As believers, this fellowship is

our common possession of the Triune God.

We have a common possession of God the Father, the Son, the

Spirit, and that makes US1 with each other.

Amen. This is why you can read the

latter half of Romans 12 and you can read verses like weep with

one another, rejoice with one another.

Understand that you are the body of Christ and the gifts are

diverse, and one gift cannot say to the other, have no need of

you. Right.

We're bonded together in Christ. He is our head.

We are his body. We are his people.

John 1721 Jesus Continuing his prayer.

He says that they may all be one and this part of the.

The prayer He's praying for all believers to come, which would

include you and I today, and all who will come after us and all

who have come before us, between US and Christ.

He says that they may all be one, just as you Father, or in

me and I in you, that they also may be in US, so that the world

may believe that you have sent me.

Amen. It's the testimony of the

Saints, the fact that there are Saints who trust in the Lord

through trial and hardship and through suffering and pain.

And unto death unto losing their heads.

Right, We stand on the shoulders of people who have lost head and

limb and life for Christ. And we know the gospel today

because brave men and women have paid the ultimate price that we

might know it. Now we must understand there is

a place reserved for martyrs in heaven.

Amen. And they're worthy of our salute

and our praise and and our thankfulness.

But you and I should be no less ready to give life and limb.

For. Christ.

Should our number be called? But what creates?

That in you is just a general like manliness or womanliness.

It just says, all right, I'm going to buck up and if I have

to do this, I'll do it. Well, no, no.

That may exist in the military to some extent, but that does

not what exists in Christianity. What exists in Christianity is

the witness of the spirit in you.

Who says I cannot deny Christ? Though it may cost me my life,

I'm bonded together with Christ in heaven.

And though you may take my life, you cannot harm my soul.

Amen. And you and I are knit together

with that same fervor, that same desire to make Christ known.

It knits us together because we have been known by Christ, and

so we're willing. We should be we should be

willing to give up wrong pursuits, wrong desires, things

that take us from Christ. Amen.

Things that detract our attention, things we think are

more worthy of our pursuit. We should be careful not to

forsake the fellowship. That we have with Jesus and that

we have with the Saints. He's called us to this, and He's

prayed for it that it may be so. And so you have a twofold what

I'm identifying here is a twofold fellowship for

believers. There's your fellowship with the

Father and his Son, and there's your fellowship with the Saints.

And our fellowship with one another arises and depends on

our fellowship with the Father and His Son through the Spirit

or by the Spirit. You understand that in Ephesians

one we are told that in Christ you have become Co heirs with

Christ by the grace of God and the mercy and the love that the

new birth has brought to you, so that you may have fellowship

with the Father through the Son by the Spirit.

This is the work of God in your life, and so our fellowship with

one another depends on our being in them.

In other words, our our fellowship with one another is

impossible without the fellowship of the Father and the

Son. Our human fellowship arises from

the divine fellowship of the Trinity.

The Father loves the Son by the Spirit, and the Son loves the

Father by the Spirit. And so do we love the Father and

the Son by the Spirit. So This is why Christ says it is

good that I go from you because I'm going to send a helper fit

for you or a helper not fit for you.

Sorry. That's Genesis, a helper for you

who is going to bear witness about me and the Father.

He's going to teach you things. He's going to give you

instruction along the way. He'll help you recall the words

of Christ in those moments where you need the most, right.

He's the one who bears witness that we are his, that we belong

to God because of Christ. And it's that fellowship that

the Father and the Son have together that we now have with

the Father and the Son because of his great love for us,

because he is set as. Seal as the Spirit is called in

Ephesians one upon us that it's a guarantee of our inheritance

with Christ. The Father loves the Son, the

Son loves the Father, and so do we love the Father and the Son

by the Spirit who gives us eternal life.

And so our shared love for the Father and the Son by the Spirit

unites us together as Christ's body.

Because he is our head. And so there's no such thing as

a Christianity that does not involve the fellowship of the

Saints. I'm so grateful that you have

chosen on the 1st Sunday in a new year to be at church,

because it's not just simply that you are at church.

You were among a fellowship of Saints.

And if you're an outsider, if you're an unbeliever and you

kind of smirk and laugh at these kinds of things, and you're, you

think this is just mysticism, that I have.

Another thing for you to know, you're wrong and you need to

repent, and you need to believe in Christ and enjoy shared

fellowship with the Father and with the Son and with his.

People we will. Gladly welcome you into this

place. Gladly.

And we'll help you follow him just as we're trying to help one

another in the same pursuit. Amen.

Church. Please give an Amen to that.

The Father loves the Son. Amen.

And the Son loves the Father. And so we have fellowship with

the Father, Son. We have fellowship with one

another. There's this phrase around these

parts. That you can get just as much of

God on a deer stand or at the lake, or insert phrase here as

you can and in church. But I want you to know, again,

that this is a lie. You cannot forsake the assembly

and the fellowship of the Saints and mature in Christ likeness.

You want to understand the ramifications of forsaking the

assembly. Just.

Look back at COVID. Look back at all the churches

who shut down and all the Christians who decided we don't

need church or we'll watch church in our pajamas online,

something we tried as well for a few weeks and we quickly.

Realized we have misunderstood the doctrine of the church.

We've misunderstood what Christ is doing when his people gather.

And so we repented and said we're coming together regardless

of what illnesses may exist. Or not exist.

Amen. But if you look back at the

damage that was done during that time.

We we hear lost people. Who have never once stepped foot

back in this place. Since then, we've had people

return who left during that time, and praise God they did.

But I see it across the churches in America.

I talked to friends who were pastors and who attend other

churches. The same thing has happened and

many of them stayed shut down for months.

Well, what's what's the deal? Here the deal is we don't

understand what takes place when we come together to worship.

Not well enough. Not so much so that we think,

well, I can just forsake this time.

I don't have to be. Here I can take it or leave it.

It can be part of my week or it cannot be part of my week.

That's not true, Christian You must give yourself to worship

alongside your brothers and sisters.

You cannot find as much of God, quote UN quote, on the dear

Sander at the lake or in your home as you will when you come

here. You cannot forsake the assembly

and the fellowship of the Saints and mature in Christ's likeness.

For it is our shared pursuit of Christ that we spur one another

to love and good works, and that is to belief and obedience.

Hebrews 10/24/20. 5. And let us consider how to stir

one another up to love and good works, not neglecting to meet

together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one

another. And all the more, as you see the

day, the day of Christ return, drawing near, we must not.

Forsake this, the doctrine of the heretics was seeking to

disrupt the fellowship of the Church.

However, John rightly establishes that the true gospel

message produces true fellowship manifestation.

Of Christ establishes fellowship and joy for believers.

Let's look at joy for the joy of believers now.

First, John 14. And we are writing these things

so that our joy may be complete. Our joy.

Here, this phrase means both our joy and your joy.

Why? Because he's just laid out.

We have fellowship together, and so that is our common pursuit is

the same pursuit this is about. Our joy being complete.

And together, as we do this, our joy will be complete.

John is including all the apostles and all the Saints

here, all those who are around the world serving the Lord

today. Right.

We're all. Included in this, this message

that we deliver in this letter is for the completion of joy and

every one of us. John is saying now that is to

say that which we have read already is for our joy, as we've

read about the manifestation of Christ Jesus that he put on

flesh and he dwelt among us, and we've seen him and we've heard

him and we've touched his resurrected body.

We know that he rose again and that the gospel is true.

And so we proclaim it to you that you might have fellowship

with us and that our fellowship would be with the Father and

with His Son, Jesus Christ. All of that is for your joy.

Christ wants to fill you. With Joy brothers and sisters.

For too long we've had this view of God that he's just joy

zapping, that he's joy taking, that he's not interested in the

happiness of his people at all. He just wants them to drum on

and on in obedience and that there's no fruit of that.

There's no joy. There's no life in that.

But nothing is further from the truth.

Again, you've been fed a lie by the deceiver, the father of

lies, who's been from the beginning a father of lies.

That's all that he can do, is lie to you.

And he has told you that there is no joy in serving Christ.

But the word of God says no, there is great joy.

In fact, there is completion of joy As you look to Christ.

You can have joy, joy unhindered.

Christians should be walking around with joy.

It doesn't mean you have to walk around with a fake smile all the

time, but you should at least be joyous.

It should be something that marks you that you're growing in

joy. You're not growing in anger or

bitterness. You're not growing in

grumpiness. As you age, right?

You're becoming more and more joy filled because you're

becoming more and more Christ filled.

And so he's saying that all that I've written for you is for your

joy, but it's also an introduction into the rest of

the letter. And we are writing these things

so that our joy may be complete. It's going to bring us joy as

you hear these things and believe these things and obey

these things and begin to love one another.

Well, that's going to fill us with joy.

It's going to fill us with joy as we proclaim the gospel to you

and new people, come to Christ, and you begin to disciple them

and bring them into the fellowship of the Father and the

Son with his people. That's going to give us joy, but

it's also going to give you great joy.

As you believe these things, and as you obey these things, and as

you submit yourself to Christ Jesus and His Lordship of your

life, you're going to be full of joy.

Brothers and sisters, this is what he wants you to know.

You're going to be full of joy. Your joy may be complete.

I am intentionally saying this over and over, because I need

you to get this in here, not just here.

I too want to be filled with joy as I watch you and your joy

becoming more and more complete with each passing year.

And So what he's getting at is. Yet what I'll say to you and the

rest of this letter is meant that our joy may be complete as

well. So, brothers and sisters, I need

you to remember this phrase in John first John chapter one,

verse 4. Mark it if you're into marking

your Bible. The rest of this letter is meant

to help you be complete in joy. And John 1511, Jesus says this.

He says these things I have spoken to you, that my joy may

be in you, and that your joy may be full.

You know what he had just told them?

That I am the vine and you are the branches.

And if you'll abide in me as I abide in the Father, if you'll

abide in my love as I abide in the Father's love, these things

I've spoken to you, that my joy may be in you and that your joy

may be full. This means that everything about

your life is about trying to usher your desires to the left.

It's trying to get you this direction.

This is Satan's motives for you. This is what he wants for you is

to just mess up your desires so that you'll have wrong pursuits

and you'll have wrong ideas of what joy must be.

I must forsake my marriage so that I can be happy.

I must forsake the doctrines of Christ so that I'll be happy.

I must forsake the doctrine of obedience so that I can be

happy. I must go on and on into my

sinfulness and pursue my own heart, which is the sole message

of modern psychology as you should pursue whatever your

heart desires. Tell me that's not a lie.

If modern psychology works so well, then why are the the

suicide rates of young men skyrocketing?

Because you've been fed a lie. I'm tired of people being lied

to. You cannot pursue whatever your

heart wants and find joy. There's no joy in it.

Brothers and sisters, forsake it.

Forsake it. And don't listen to me, but look

at the words that are in front of you.

This is the word of God speaking to you.

And he's saying to you right now.

I've written these things to you so that your joy may be

complete. I'm not making this up.

This is for your joy. And we look at this and think

about it. Think about it.

We look at these kinds of words and we.

Scoff. And we mock.

And how do we scoff when we mock?

Because we go do directly the opposite.

We March to the left. Christ is saying to you today

there is a still more better way.

And I have spoken these things to you that my joy may be in

you. Think about it, Hebrews 12/1.

Christ endured the cross for the sorrow that was set before him.

Joy. Christ endured the.

Cross for the joy that was set before him.

What was the joy? It was the fellowship that he

would have with his people. And that they would have with

one another. And he knew that as he pursued

his death for them, as he paid the penalty for their sins, and

that as he defeated death and hell and the grave, and as he

rose again, that now finally people could be set free, they

could be raised to new life by the Spirit of God, and they

could pursue joy just as he pursued joy.

But joy would be found in obeying him.

It would be found in believing that he is the Son of God, and

that nothing and no one can save you from your sins except Christ

Jesus. And be sure brother and sister

or friend you need to be saved from your sins, but nothing.

Would save you except Christ. And if you'll believe in him,

But belief, again, is not mere mental ascent, because even the

demons believe in shudder, James Wright in Chapter One.

Even the demons believe in shudder.

That's more than we can say for most Christians.

There ain't a lot of shuddering going on, is there?

It's just I believe. I believe Jesus is real.

I believe he died from a sins. Oh yeah?

Then why do you so unashamedly walk around sinning?

You don't even shudder at his name.

You don't shudder that you defile the name of Christ that

you make a mockery of. Christianity.

That you make a mockery of the death of.

Jesus. See, we're all in need of

salvation, and even sometimes when we think we've arrived at

it in our mind, we're still far away.

So the message that happens to be in First John, is this

message of checking your heart and your soul before the Lord to

see that you were truly in Christ.

You're going to have to measure fruit as we go through this.

You're going to have to say whether or not you're a fruit.

Producing Christian Do my actions line up with my mouth?

Do my actions line up with the things I say?

I believe. About the Lord you're going to

have to come face to face with. That, but I invite you to do it

because it's a good thing and what lies in.

Front of you, if you will, is complete joy.

It's not to say there's not hardship.

There's hardship when we face our sins, is there not?

But there's joy, complete joy, as we obey Christ.

The secret of the fullness of joy, John Calvin said it is the

complete and perfect Felicity which which we obtain from the

gospel. In other words, it is the

fellowship with the Father and the Son and one another which

the proclamation and belief of the gospel creates.

The immediate purpose of the gospel is the establishment of

the fellowship with the Father and with the Son and with one

another. But the ultimate purpose of the

gospel is the completion of joy. This is the divine order as set

forth in John's letter here. It's that the gospel begets

fellowship, begets joy. The One leads to the others.

You believe the gospel. You join the fellowship of the

Father and the Son, along with other believers, and then you

join in Joy. Joy is being made complete now,

while joy is going. Well, joy is happening.

It's going to be an ongoing fruit of belief in the gospel.

It's going to be an ongoing fruit of the fellowship that you

have with the Father and with his Son and with other

believers. And so we will not know the

completion of this joy until we arrive in heaven.

I want you to know that I'm not promising, nor is John

promising, that you'll know the completion of joy here.

But he's saying the completion of joy awaits you in heaven.

This world of sin means that it is impossible to have perfect

fellowship with the Father and the Son and one another.

We will sin. We will fail to believe.

We will stumble along the way. We will hurt one another, for

that is the curse of sinfulness, and we need to be aware of that.

Part of having a family here is, is that we act like a family,

which means there's going to be hurts, there's going to be pain,

there's going to be strife, But we overcome it because of our

common pursuit of Christ Jesus. Amen.

And so we forgive, and we lend forgiveness willingly because we

understand that we have been forgiven by the Father through

Jesus, and we're tenderhearted toward one another because God

has been tenderhearted toward us.

You see what I'm saying? And so the family is knit

together in the love of Christ and therefore shares in the love

of Christ. And yet we know what lies beyond

the Golden Stream, so to speak. Heaven and the glory of the

Father, with his Son and a host of Saints, lies just over.

There. Brothers and sisters.

I've really been unable to talk about heaven since when he

passed without crying, so I always try.

But it lies just on the other side of some decades.

It lies on the other side of some heartache and some

suffering. And so that we're not all doom

and gloom here, it lies on the other side of some glimpses of

joy, some victories, some gracious gifts from the Lord

just beyond the dash that falls after your birth date.

You will find your end date one day, and yet it won't be the end

at all. Rather, it's the beginning of

complete joy in the presence of God.

And every moment for the Christian between here and there

is for the building of complete. Joy.

And every moment in that God is working according to His

goodwill and His pleasure. For your complete joy we are

promised in Philippians 1/6 that he who begins the work is

faithful to bring it to completion in Psalm 1611,

Psalmist writes there. I've read this before.

Probably 100 times at this point.

You make known to me the path of life, but listen to this.

In your presence there is fullness of joy.

You see, you're in good company holding out the future presence

of Christ and the Father, knowing that joy lies there

holding that. Out as your hope, you're in good

company, for even, David here writes.

You make known to me the path of life.

In your presence there's fullness of joy, and at your

right hand or pleasures forevermore. 2nd Corinthians 416

through 18. I encourage you a couple of

weeks ago to read this book. Paul writes there so we do not

lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting

away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.

One way to say this is that. It's going on and on from 1° of

joy to the next. For this light momentary

affliction He continues his preparing for us an eternal wave

of glory beyond all comparison, that as we look to not to the

things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen.

For the things that are seen or transient mean they change, like

the wind. But the things that are unseen

are eternal. And it is to this ultimate end,

brothers and sisters, that He who was from the beginning

appeared in time, And that what the apostles heard, and what

they saw and what they touched they have proclaimed to us.

So that the substance of this gospel was the historical

manifestation of that which is eternal, and its purpose was and

is a fellowship with one another, which is based on the

fellowship that we have with the Father and the Son, which

outflows in fullness of joy. Christianity, brothers and

sisters, is not vague. It's not an abstract set of

ideas or an ethical system. It is, above all, the good news

of what God has done in our space and time.

It's a tangible experience of sending his Son to rescue us

from the destruction that our own sins are bringing upon us

apart from. And this is what John wants to

make known to his readers. And this, the manifestation of

Christ, establishes fellowship and joy for believers.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you

again for your word. Lord, I am here now to petition

you that by your spirit you would move hearts and minds

toward your Son Christ, by the power of your spirits, that you

would draw us into belief that we would surrender ourselves to

the Lordship of Jesus, that we would live for him, that we

would understand that our submission to Christ is meant

for complete joy. Lord, I pray, I ask that you

would deliver us from deception. You would deliver us from the

evil One who seeks to destroy faith, who seeks to destroy your

people. Even now, we understand that

there are those who were caught in his snare.

That they are. Following the desires and the

pursuits of their own hearts, they have no intentions of

slowing, Lord. We understand also that there is

no force more greats more powerful than the Holy Spirit,

which works to give life to those who are dead.

And we ask for the life for those, for those who are

deceived, for those who are wandering around in their own

Lordship, Would you uncover their eyes, help them to see

clearly, help them to see Christ and their need for a Lord, their

need for a Savior? May they be drawn unto Him for

the salvation of their souls. And father, for my brothers and

sisters in here, I ask that you would deliver us as well from

deception. Or we are guilty.

Of assumptions we are guilty of taking for granted that which is

eternal. And we need you to rouse us from

our slumber, to awaken our hearts and minds, to see once

again our first love. Lord, we beg it of you.

For again we understand that we are powerless to this end on our

own. We too need your Holy Spirit at

work in US, like for you to take a moment to pray, to repent, if

repentance is what the Lord is leading you to belief.

If there's something from this you need to believe that you

have not to trust. If you have not trusted, Christ,

Heavenly Father, once again we thank you for your words.

We thank you that it is truly a double edged sword piercing the

depths of us and that by it becomes like a mirror for us.

And that we're able to see, we're able to see clearly those

things in US which do not bring you glory, those things in which

we are glory seekers of our own instead.

And so I pray that you would grant repentance and faith

today. You would help us to follow you,

trust you, Lord Christ. Amen.