The God We Can Know | In light of love | 1 John 1:1-4 | Ep.1

Welcome to Preaching from Bryanston Bible Church, located in the northern suburbs of Johannesburg, South Africa.

It is our prayer that this teaching would bless you, deepen your love for God's word, and encourage you as you follow Jesus.

And if you're not a Christian, we pray that this message would encourage you as you explore the Christian faith.

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 testify to it, and we proclaim to you, which was with the Father, and was made manifest to us.

Which we have seen and heard and proclaimed also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us.

Indeed, our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.

We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.

Good morning, everyone.

A few uh months ago, weeks ago, in fact, I was standing by the side of a sporting field watching one of my boys uh playing in a regional game.

And I was there with a friend of mine, and uh we were doing the typical parenting thing, right?

Where you're part watching the game, part talking, and then part trying to decide whether the referee actually knows what he's really doing, as the expert sport pundits we are.

And and so as we stood there watching this uh this game unfold, I look out at a distance and I see two parents looking in our way in our direction, smile and wave and call out, buddy.

And then I immediately knew I was in trouble, right?

Because it was one of those we know you wave.

And so what I decided to do, I decided to do the mature, godly, uh emotionally secure, positive thing to do, and it was to smile back and wave with great confidence, not having a cooking clue, who do these guys were, and then they decided to walk towards us, and I sort of feel like uh oh, now in deep trouble, uh trouble because as they were coming uh coming close, I'm wondering to myself, who are these guys?

You know, are they from church, maybe from school, or maybe at a wedding that I did?

And then the closer and closer these guys start to get to me, I sort of realize, uh oh, I'm meant to know these guys.

All right, one of those guys was a parent who has stood by the side of the field with me on multiple occasions, and we have had long conversations over the last two or three years, but I couldn't remember his name.

And then the other guy who was along with him was a congregant from another friend's church, and they were both coming.

And I'm sitting there wondering, what do I do?

Because Bana, the window of opportunity, right?

That window where you could still ask the person, I remember me.

What's your name in?

I closed, but that but that uh, and so I'm still standing and wondering, What do I do?

What's gonna happen?

And so immediately I've just said, you know what, I'll do I'll take hold of the situation.

The moment they got to ask, I was like, Hey guys, how are you?

Meet my friend Paul, that's not his name.

And as I look to Paul, and then he said and they step back, and then he reaches out to meet these guys, and then praise God, they introduced themselves by their names.

And then as I stood there, my mama was like the moment I heard their names, I was like, of course, yes, right.

That's who these guys are, and so the situation was totally rescued uh at that moment.

Now you love for me and you should, right?

But we all know what it is like to be in that situation, yes?

Anyone else once again, right?

Because we all know that that's the strangest thing about living in Joba, right?

We can be doing laugh around people, rubbing shoulders with them and coming into contact with them every single time, and yet not do not know them at all, right?

We may recognize their face, we may even know their name, their family name, we may even know what they do at work, or even know a few surface-level details in their lives.

How about this one?

We may greet them at church every Sunday, right?

When we say, turn around and say, Oh, yes, how are you?

But yet we do not know them in uh in any deeper or meaningful level.

And so we all have found ourselves in those particular situations, and so this morning, as you think about that particular situation, I wonder how many of us that's exactly how we are towards God, right?

Where God is familiar to us, and yet we are not all that near to Him.

When we say we believe in God, and yet we do not truly enjoy it.

When we speak about God, and yet we do not deeply know it.

And so then we're just simply content to know God at a surface level, and already God be in our walk with God, listen, there is a kind of knowing, a kind of knowing of God that we're being invited to that would be truly relational, truly embodied, truly personal, truly life shape changing, and that's what the letters of what our John is inviting us into because John writes these letters so that we would truly know, truly know God and have our knowledge of God radically shape our relationships, our confidence, our joy, our walk with God.

So he writes these letters to that end.

Now, over the next few months as we move towards December, we'll spend time in the letters of one, two, and three of John.

John.

Now, these are small letters, but make no mistake, they are not lightweight letters.

They can be read in one setting, easy peasy, short enough, read in one setting, but they're deep enough to keep our hearts captivated by what God has to say to us.

Now, John writes these letters, the context in which he wrote those letters, the church, was not a calm and uncomplicated context.

From the little we can piece together from these letters, uh, there was conflict in that church context.

There might have even been a church split in that context, in that church context.

And so the people who were leaving their church were not just uh leaving peacefully, but saying, like, well, we're unhappy here, and so we'll go quietly.

Not at all.

As they were leaving, they were trying to take other people with them.

Uh with them.

And the reason why they were doing so was because they believed that John was wrong in his teaching, that somehow they had discovered a deeper, more intimate and relevant uh version of Christianity.

And so that's why they're trying to pull others along with them.

And at the heart of this conflict and uh that church context was Jesus Christ.

More specifically, is the incarnate Jesus Christ central to the Christian faith?

And so these people who were leaving were saying, not so.

We need to somehow graduate from the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so John writes his letters to say, No, no, you cannot have Christianity if you move beyond Christ, you cannot have the life of God if you will drift away from the Son of God, and so he's writing to say everything is meant to be centered upon the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

That's why he writes and he urge the church to remain faithful, to remain anchored in their thoughts, uh in their belief about Jesus.

And so what we'll find is that John will keep on bringing everything back to Jesus in these letters.

Now, as John writes, right, we might find as we go through these letters, these writing style are quite challenging because if you're someone who loves linear logical arguments that easily stack upon one another, then I've got bad news for you.

John doesn't write in that way, right?

You're not going to get that from John.

Instead, John uses the writing style called uh known as amplification.

And so what that means is he circles around a few core ideas again and again and again and keeps coming back to it.

And so, as we'll be making our way through the letters of John, you may be uh feeling at some point be like, wait a minute, didn't John just say this?

Yes, he did, but he's not simply rambling on.

Every single time he makes, he loops back to a particular issue, he approaches it in a slightly different angle with a slightly different nuance.

Now the question is why?

Why does he do this?

Because the most important and deep truths are those that we all we don't just learn once, right, in our lives, or just in one way and then we forget about them.

No, we keep coming back to them.

And so John does not write like a lawyer, instead, he has how he writes, he writes like a father addressing the same family concerns from different angles.

That's how he writes.

Because when you love your children, you do not just tell them the most important things once in their lives, right?

No, you keep repeating them.

Why?

Because you forgot what you said before.

No, but why do you keep repeating that?

Because love repeats what is most important.

Love repeats what is most important, and so John writes like a spiritual father looking to develop his children, he's writing to believers so that they will truly know the eternal life that can be found in God through Jesus Christ.

And so you keep repeating.

And so then that brings us to the major, major theme section of one John that we'll spend the next few months in.

And it is this that God is light.

God is light.

And so, as a way of just enjoying the fellowship that John will go on to talk about in this section uh of the letter, I want to do one thing together.

I want to read this, these few verses together out loud.

And so I want to invite you.

Why don't you stand and then the verses will go on uh on the screen, and then let's read and edify it to uh one another on three, three.

Let's go.

Not joking.

One, two, three.

Let's read that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have 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 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.

Please be seated.

And so here's the one simple summary of which I hope we will get gain from these verses, and it is this that in Jesus Christ, the eternal God stepped into history so that we might share a life of deep connection with God and with one another, resulting in complete joy.

Then Jesus Christ, the eternal God stepped into history so that we might share a life of deep connection with God and with one another, resulting in complete joy.

And so here's the first thing that John wants us to see, and it is a first point that the God who stepped into history is the eternal center of it all.

He's the eternal center of it all.

Look at how he begins, verse 1 that which was from the beginning.

Is that familiar?

Because John is deliberately alluding to Genesis 1 and the prologue of John's gospel, which is such a bold and definitive claim.

Bold and definitive claim.

Why?

Because here's what John is saying in these few verse uh verse uh words.

He's essentially saying this to us that that which I'm about to declare, that we're about to proclaim to you, to you, was always there before history ever began.

Always there before history ever began.

And so he's not a letter addition to the story, he's the heart of the whole story, and so he's the eternal center of it all.

And then John goes on to try to show us who is truly this eternal center of it all.

And so, as we continue in uh with verse one, near the end of verse one, he says that all that we're about to tell you about has to uh has to do with this concerning the word of life.

End of verse one, and then in verse two, he re relates this word of life to the eternal life which was with the Father and was made manifest to us.

And so John is saying, listen, we're not declaring to you, uh to you, or talking to you about some vague force that was out there.

No, we're speaking to you about the eternal life that was with God from the very beginning, and that entered and stepped into human history.

And so, who is he speaking about?

The Lord Jesus Christ.

That Jesus Christ was the eternal life with the Father from the very beginning, and that Jesus Christ stepped into human history.

And so we're being taught and seen that Jesus Christ's friends is not simply a religious leader or moral, uh religious leader who had lots to say that became popular over time, or simply a uh uh a spiritual uh leader amongst many, or is he just a moral leader whom people later on built a religion upon?

That's not Jesus.

You see, Jesus is the eternal center of all reality, that everything begins with Jesus, that everything finds its meaning in Jesus, that everything is held together in Jesus, and ultimately everything will be held accountable to Jesus.

And so, right off the bat, John does not allow us to be non-committal when it comes to Jesus.

If he is indeed the eternal center of it all, then Jesus is not optional, friends.

He cannot be worshipped on a Sunday, then ignored on a Monday.

Right?

That Jesus cannot be trusted for our salvation and then laid aside when it comes to our sanctification.

Jesus Christ ought to shape everything about our lives, that He is the center of it all, that keeps all of our relationships, the way in which we perceive and view the world, the way in which we use our money, our ambition, our sexuality, our obedience, our concerns, our private life.

Christ Jesus ought to shape it all.

And so then this morning, perhaps the first question we're being confronted with would be to ask of ourselves, uh of ourselves is this is Jesus Christ central to my life or is he a part of my life?

Friends, those two are radically different.

Because if he's just simply a part of my life, then it means that Jesus has a place in my life.

But if he's central to my life, it means that Jesus gets the throne of my life.

If he's a part of my life, it just means that sometimes Jesus gets consulted when it comes to the things of my life.

But if he's central to my life, then everything is reordered around Jesus Christ.

And so if Jesus is the eternal center of it all, then the following things, friends, are no longer optional.

That is truth must shape everything we believe, that is light, must expose how we walk, that is, love must transform the way in which we relate to one another, and that his life becomes the shared life that we share in with one another.

It's no longer optional.

Then John goes on to explain to us that the eternal center who is Jesus Christ, truly came near.

Truly came near.

Look at what he writes from continuing with verse one.

That which we 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.

And so John, who's one of the 12 apostles of Jesus, uh Jesus, and who wrote to the gospel, oh John, is yeah, he keeps piling up and emphasizing the real tangible encounters that the apostles had with Jesus Christ.

So you say, We heard him with our own ears, we saw and looked upon him with our own eyes, we touched him with our own hands, and so the apostles' experience with Jesus or time with Jesus was audible, was visible, was tangible, palpable.

And so John is saying, listen, we're not declaring to you, friends, an idea that we somehow developed.

We're not proclaiming to you, friends, some kind of spiritual experience we sensed or a feeling we had in our hearts.

That's not what we're declaring to you.

What are we declaring?

We're declaring to you the wonder of the incarnation.

That's what we're declaring.

That the eternal God in Christ Jesus came and drew near to us.

Close enough that so that we could hear him, close enough so that we could see him, close enough so that we could touch him.

And so then what does that mean for you and me as we consider what John is claiming?

It means this, friends, that we cannot invent God.

Cannot invent God, nor can we choose to reshape him into some version or into a version that we will feel most comfortable with.

No, the only God there is is the only God that can be known through whom he has revealed himself there, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ.

That's the only way you can know God.

That's the only way you can know God.

And so as we think about that reality, that birth, friends, confronts us and comforts us.

Confronts and comforts us.

And so it confronts us in this way, right?

That Jesus Christ, the real Jesus Christ, may not comply with the version of Christ that you would rather adhere to.

If you're to follow after him, it's a confronting in some level, but then it is also deeply comforting.

How so?

Because it means, friends, that our God never plays hide and seek with us.

If you want to experience the fullness of the presence of God in your life, then look to Jesus, listen to Jesus, come to Jesus.

Why?

Because it is in Jesus Christ that our God has come near to us, wants to make himself fully known to us, and so we're deeply comforted by that reality.

Now, maybe some of us may be sitting here and thinking to ourselves, well, wow, that must have been great for John.

Right?

No wonder all the apostles believed in Jesus with such a great conviction.

Why?

Because they heard him, they saw him, they touched him.

But what about us?

Right?

Are we at a disadvantage?

Because we never saw what they saw, we never touched what they touched.

Right.

So look at what John does in the text to try to help us with it.

You see, John doesn't say, lucky us, right?

We heard.

We saw, we touched Jesus too bad for you.

That's not what he says.

Look at verse three.

That which we have seen and heard, we proclaim also to you.

We proclaim also to you.

We may miss this in the English reading, but in the original language, that verb we proclaim also to you is the main verb in these opening verses.

The main verb.

And so what's it telling us?

It's telling us that that part, that part is the man's thrust of this whole opening paragraph.

The main thrust.

And so what's it saying?

It is saying that the experience, the tangible, visible, audible experience that the apostles had with the Lord Jesus was never intended, was never meant to remain this private privilege they had.

Not at all.

It's meant to be proclaimed so that the generations that will come after them would also come to have a deep knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And that includes us.

And so we're seeing that God's intention or design was never, was never that the apostle will just keep Christ to themselves, but he allowed them to experience the fullness of Christ so that they will boldly declare, proclaim him, so that many others will come to a living knowledge at their uh or Jesus at their witness.

And so then we have, friends, where do we have the apostle the apostles' proclamation and our witness account of the uh of the Lord Jesus Christ, if not in his word?

Right?

The word of God.

And so every single time we come and we open the word of God, and the word of God is being faithfully proclaimed to us, and we are able to grasp it by faith, we are being drawn near to Jesus Christ through the word of God.

And so, friends, do not buy it or do not do not get easily, you know, uh uh swayed by some deeper or fleshier or more spiritual experience of God apart from the word of God.

Because the word, the Christ that is being proclaimed to us in the word of God.

God, through the apostle's testimony, is the only Christ that is who is, and the only means by which we get to know the Father.

And so pursue a deep, intimate knowledge of God through his word.

Don't get bored by the word of God, thinking like, oh, what I need in my life is some kind of an experience apart from the word of God.

You're not sustained in your Christian walk if you will sway from the living Lord Jesus Christ, who is revealed to us in the word of God.

And so pursue him in the word of God, make it central to your life.

Live and long to understand the fullness of what the scriptures are saying about Christ so that you will draw near to God.

Why?

Because, friends, the cross who came near has been proclaimed to us in God's word.

The cross who came near has been proclaimed to us in God's word, and as we draw near to him in his word, we go and draw near to the Father.

Then next notice the goal of this proclamation where John goes on to explain, says this verse three, that which we have seen and heard, we proclaim also to you, so that there's a purpose, so that you too may have fellowship with us.

Isn't it strange, right?

Isn't also so that you two may have salvation somewhere, guys, so that you too may have fellowship with us, and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his son Jesus Christ.

And so, what's the goal of proclaiming Christ?

The goal is fellowship, fellowship, a deep, meaningful connection with God and his people.

That's the goal, and so biblical fellowship, friends, is not just about tea and coffee after the service, it's not about awkward conversation, surfacy conversation in the foyer, but true fellowship, biblical fellowship, it's deep intimacy, deep life with God and his people, with God and his people.

That's what we've been called into.

That's what we've been uh that's what the gospel is being proclaimed to so that we will live our lives deeply connected to God and deeply connected to his people, where we can belong to God together, friends, where we can step into the light of God together, confess our sins to one another, carry each other's burdens, proclaim the truth of God both in truth and in deed.

And yeah and ultimately, friends, refuse, refuse to reduce our Christianity as just me and Jesus.

Refuse to reduce it because so many of us have made our Christian lives be somewhat that it is some sort of kind of arrangement just between me and God.

And so then in the process, we're happy to attend church, but we never get deeply connected to people.

We've learned the art of being polite publicly, but never actually revealing what's going on in the prophet.

Or maybe perhaps because of some pastor hurt, we're living apart or away from our brothers and sisters in Christ.

And so ultimately, we're people here will never, never be able to share our love transparently and vulnerably with one another.

And so we always say, Oh, I'm fine.

Why?

Because I know if I say I am not, I need help.

And it requires that I be vulnerable.

With some brothers and sisters in Christ, and so we would not have that.

And so, friends, I would hope that we'll be confronted by the word of God to realize that Jesus Christ did not come, the gospel is not being proclaimed, so that you would simply be reconciled to God privately.

That's not what we'll find in John's letters.

Instead, Christ Jesus has come so that we would deeply, deeply know the gospel, the King of God's kingdom, who ushers us to life in fellowship with his people.

That's what we're being offered through the gospel.

And then John goes on to say, lastly, verse 4, and we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete, our joy may be complete.

And so, what we're seeing, we're seeing this life of deep connection with God and his people is not meant to make us miserable.

I mean to make us miserable, but to give us great joy, great joy, friends.

The Christian life is meant to be a life of increasing joy, increasing joy, not perfect joy this side of eternity, but growing, increasing joy.

And so let me ask you this morning how is your joy?

Is it growing?

As you're walking your life with God and among his people, are you experiencing increasing joy?

Because that's what the Christian life and John would say that we ought to experience in fellowship with one another.

How's that joy?

And so, friends, pursue joy, don't settle for anything less than a life of deep intimacy with God, a life of true fellowship with one another that will culminate one day to the completion of our joy when he returns.

It's not just a joy that awaits up, but a joy we ought to walk in each day in fellowship with him.

And so, then in closing this morning, may friends, these letters of John lead us, lead us to truly know God intimately and to experience the fullness of life and love among his people to his glory and our ultimate God.

Let me pray.

Father, we thank you so much for your word, for the centrality of Christ Jesus, and I'm so wonderful.

So great that we get to draw near to you through the way that you have tied forward in the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so our prayer this morning, oh Lord, will be help us truly make Christ the center of our lives, the center of our lives, and so Lord, does that mean that you need to recalibrate certain things that we believe, whether they are just utterly false or heretical, or whether they are of this world and we do not want to let go of our grip of this world?

We ask, Oh Lord, would you would you help transform our belief?

Give us a right belief for sound doctrine in you.

We pray this morning, oh Lord, as we look to try to make Christ the center of our lives indeed, oh Lord, may it lead us to a life of great obedience, real and sincere obedience.

For the more we're called to be in Christ, the more it means that we ought to live our lives before Christ.

There is no separation between our belief and our behavior, between our doctrine and our practice, between truth and love, between conviction and compassion, between light and life.

Oh Lord, there's no separation, and we pray that you would help us walk in sincere obedience as we follow Jesus Christ.

And then lastly, oh Lord, we pray that you would empower us.

Empower us as we look to keep Christ at the center of it all, to be a people of costly sacrificial love towards our brothers and our sisters in Christ.

Lord, I confess here personally that I so many times I view my walk with you through my own lenses, and when I look through my own lenses, it seems like I'm doing fine.

I pray, oh Lord, that through these letters would you rock my world.

Rock my world, help me discover a depth of true brotherhood and sisterhood among this church community that will transform the way in which I will live, I will love, I will pastor, I will be a friend.

Because of how much you have loved us.

We pray all these things in our Lord Jesus Christ's name and all God's people say.

Amen.

Thanks for listening to this sermon from BBC.

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God bless you.