1 John Week 1

Good Morning. Glad we can be here. Today we are going to a look at the book of 1 John. We will be working our way through it over the next several weeks. One of the great things about this book is it is short. It is easy for all of us to read this book and really dig into it together. To set some context this letter is attributed to John and unlike a lot of the letters of the New Testament it has no clear audience. It is safe to assume that it is being written to believers that John has influenced and most likely it is written to a church within a city. It is this openness to the letter that I think is wonderful because it allows it to transcend the limits of time easily and we can place ourselves as the audience with ease. Let’s join together and read the first 4 verses today.

1 John 1:1–4 NIV

1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. 2 The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. 3 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4 We write this to make our joy complete.

Let us pray!

Our Senses

What a powerful passage. I know it might not seem like much but these four verses hold a lot for us this morning. One of the first things that jumped out at me when reading this was in verse one when John talks about from the beginning

we have Heard

We have seen

and we have touched.

It is a reminder of how important to the witness the disciples had in the physical senses.

We use our senses a lot. I was really reminded of this on Monday. Now I know there were lots of predictions around the eclipse that we might be heading home but unfortunately it didn’t happen but we did get to see God’s Majesty and authority in our created universe in the face that he timed and planned out the universe in such a way that we could come to know the exact moments the sun would be covered by the moon and we got to bear witness to a beautiful moment in nature.

The eclipse was a testament to God. It was amazing also because it was more than just our eyes needed to witness to it. Of course our eyes were the primary sense we engaged. We had to protect them most of the time with these nifty glasses.

Don’t They look amazing?

Then of course we had those few minutes you didn’t need them and that was absolutely a neat thing to witness.

Yet, during the eclipse i noticed that there were some other senses that were engaged.

Depending on where you were watching it did you notice the change in sound around you. I did. The first was I noticed the birds stopped singing and the crickets started chirping. I can only imagine how confused these creatures were.

The Second thing with my hearing i noticed was there was i couldn’t hear a single car. It was a few moments of silence outside of the natural sounds. combine that with unique lighting that happened because of the eclipse it was a little eerie.

Of course our sense of touch was also affected. It was so interesting to feel the temperature drop so quickly in a short amount of time when the sun light was being taken away, and then how quickly it came back after the eclipse started to end. It was a big reminder how much warmth the sun provides for us.

All these senses and we engaged them no different than the disciples did with their bearing witness to who the Word of life was and is.

Our Senses

Unfortunately we don’t have the same luxury that the disciples had when it comes to our witness. The disciples had the privilege to see, hear, and even touch Jesus. They were engaged with him in a way that we never have. Yet, this is doesn’t mean that we don’t have a witness to be able to share. We don’t have to rely on our senses to have faith and to bear witness to the power of who Jesus is.

Instead we rely on our experienes and the word of God to inform our witness of the Word of LIfe. We know he appeared and he walked this earth and ministered to the world because we have the witness of those who came before us. That is why I love looking to passages of scripture like Hebrews 11 and the witness who came before us.

Hebrews 11:1–3 NIV

1 Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. 2 This is what the ancients were commended for. 3 By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.

Our Witness

It is because of the story and the shared experience of the generations that we have the witness of the word of God. It is also through these witnesses that God worked to share with us the word of God. That we have these things written down for us so that we can share in the story. The beauty of this story is that it doesn’t end. It is continuing in us. It is continuing in the fact that we share Christ with others around us. This is both truth and our calling to share the witness of the Word.

This leads us to a second truth that we can pull from this passage that John is sharing.

1 John 1:3–4 NIV

3 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4 We write this to make our joy complete.

Community

The Fellowship between each other and the fellowship with God is essential for who we are as Christians. John has invited and reminded the community that he is writing this too of that truth. That we are to be in fellowship with one another.

Now, this is a hard one for us in our culture today. One of the challenges we face with this idea of fellowship is the fact that as Americans we have a tendency toward going it solo. We like our freedom and we like our individualism. In fact this is something that has creep into the church a lot in recent memory.

It is my faith and it is my relationship with Jesus. It is my devotional life. It is my understanding of the word of God. It is my view of sin. The list goes on and on.

We have focused on our own personal experience and our own wants and needs that we have lost sight of the importance of the community of believers.

More and more we see people who want to live out their faith in isolation from other believers.

We must remember that the life of a Christian is not intended to be lived in isolation.

Is it possible to have faith without a body of believers. Sure. Is it going to be as deep of a faith probably not. Jesus regularly sought time to be alone time with God for is individual relationship but he never stayed there for long term. We can look to his pattern to see that there is more to our faith. We find that in our faith we need the fellowship of believers.

The truth is that we have to recognize the importance of what John is saying in one word in this passage. It is we not I.

We not I

John is using a collective voice to share the messsage and testimony about Jesus. He isn’t doing it from a position of his authority but the communities authority. It is in the vocalization of the many that the power of the message can be seen. This isn’t one person trying to convince you but the voice of many who have come to testify to who Christ is. There is power behind that group. It is in our unity that we come to realize that we can gain access to a level of joy and commitmment that we never would have had before because of the work he does in us as a whole.

Again, is it possible to believe in God and have faith independent of community sure. Is it where we will find complete joy and fellowship that we were intended no.

It is within the community that our Joy is made complete by including one another.

1 John 1:4 NIV

4 We write this to make our joy complete.

Complete Joy

We are called to bear witness to the life of Christ. This is the hallmark of the witness that we have seen and heard. It is here that we recognize that the life of a believer is a transformed life. It is a life that is seeking to follow and serve God. We are changed because we recognize what Christ did for us and in us. This comes to our knowledge through the fellowship of believers.

It may not always feel like we have joy in life. Life can get hard and we can struggle with the things of this world. We can face uncertianty. We can face challenges. We can face the overwhelming things of this world and you know what can allow us to have joy still.

It’s we not I.

Our joy comes in knowing that we can live the transformed life of a believer of God.

Our joy isn’t dependent on our circumstances.

Our joy comes from the inner peace of knowing that whatever comes we are rightly related to God

and to others.

Our joy is best experienced in the community of others as we build each other up through love, support, encouragement, guidance, and compassion.

Let us remember that this joy, the Joy of knowing Christ is for us as a collective not just us as individuals.