The Word of Life

Graham Phillips

1 John • Sermon • Submitted 4 years ago

0 ratings

· 4 views

Who is the Jesus of the Apostles? What does it mean to have an Apostolic faith?

Notes

Transcript

The Word of Life

OPENING REMARKS

This afternoon we’re embarking on a study through the book of 1 John. It is the longest of three short epistles written by John and is believed to have been written to Jewish believers in modern day Turkey where the apostle John lived towards the end of his life.

There is some debate amoungst scholars as to whether the author of the Johannine epistles is the same John who wrote the gospel of John. Because the ancient manuscripts of 1 John don’t carry an inscription saying who wrote the letter it has led some to speculate. However, most conservative, non-liberal theologians do attribute these letters to the apostle John, and I personally agree. Just read the first four verses of 1 John and then go back and read the first few verses of John’s gospel. It’s clear to me that this is the same guy! The themes of light, life and love are present just as they are in John’s gospel. Even the sentence structure in the original language is similar. Plus, as we take a closer look at verses 1-4 today we’ll see how this letter only makes sense if understood that it was written by an apostle.

All of the books in the New Testament were written in the first century AD, Paul’s epistles, the book of James and the gospel of Mark being amoungst the earliest and the apostle John’s writings generally considered to have been written towards the close of the century in the mid 80’s to mid 90’s.

Why is this information important? Well, it means that the books which make up your new testament are eye witness accounts all written while other witnesses were still around. If the events the new testament describes actually never happened the could have and would have been debunked by other eye witnesses, since these books were in circulation during that time. Rather than finding 1st century secular historians debunking the new testament all we find are writings that actually support what the gospels say happened!

So when we read our Bibles, we are reading ancient history, written by real people about real things that happened. Let that sink in!

We’ve also got to bear in mind that this book was written in a world which no longer exists. The way of life these people knew was altogether different to what we know today. The things they valued aren’t necessarily the things we value today. So when we study these books, and study them we must, we’ve got to be aware that we’re wearing lenses. 21st century lenses that we need to attempt to remove or at least thin out so we can touch the past and the meaning of what the Apostle John was wanting his readers to catch.

For example, the main aim of John’s first epistle was actually to warn these believers about false teachers who were hanging out with them and teaching a different Christ. Now in the modern church it’s almost unheard of for a pastor to publically warn his congregation about false teachers and damnable heresies! It’s very uncool! In fact, in the words of Shai Linne ‘today the only heresy is saying that there’s heresy.’ In order to GET IT, we’ve got to resist the urge to rush through the bits we find a bit dry and get to 1 John 4:16 ‘God is love’ bit.

That which was from the beginning...

Can you imagine opening a letter from a friend and it beginning like this? It’s like being hit with a 2x4! Epic! Forget the preamble, let’s have it! From the beginning the subject is unclear and isn’t revealed immediately. But what does the apostle want them to catch and understand about the subject? That it was ‘from the beginning’. For Jewish ears the connection with Genesis 1 would have been unavoidable; in the beginning God… John is talking about God.

Which WE have heard, which WE have seen with our eyes, which WE have looked upon with our eyes and have touched with our hands concerning the Word of life.

John is talking about God whom He has heard, has seen with his eyes and has touched with his hands. Whatever John is talking about it is both very God and very human. And John is saying not just me, but WE. We have heard Him, we have seen Him, we have looked upon him, we have handled Him. The WE suggests what? Authority. It suggests, ‘hey, this isn’t just some crazy experience I’m asking you to believe with me, others have had the exact same encounter with this living God.’ John is saying; we are eyewitnesses, our testimony is true! We’re not like those hokey, hyperspiritual teachers you’ve started hanging out with who say they know God but don’t. We’re not out here trying to make ourselves look wise, speculating about God, we are spreading this message because we are eyewitnesses. And who is the ‘we’ referring to? It can only refer to the apostles of Christ. The Apostles were those Jesus appointed personally to be His eye witnesses on the earth. In order to be an apostle you had to have been with Jesus throughout His ministry and also have been an eye witness to His resurrection, Paul being the only exception to this criteria as one ‘born out of time’ in his own words. It is therefore impossible to be an apostle today in the same way that these men were apostles, who knew Jesus, did life with Him, placed their hands in His wounds. It is these apostles and their testimony that is the foundation of the church.

The false teachers who were leading these believers astray were teaching a mixture of Christianity and philosophy, they taught that Jesus only appeared to be human but wasn’t truly human, that His resurrection wasn’t actually physical but spiritual. They also taught that Jesus’s teachings, along with other teachers were a way to know more about the divine, and that the more knowledge you had, the closer to God you were. This was called Gnosticism, Docetic Gnosticism to be precise. You may think, well, what’s so bad about that? These people still believed Jesus was from God and that His teachings were good, why bother going after them. But herein lies the issue, any Jesus other than the Jesus preached by the apostles is a Jesus that can’t save! If Jesus was God but not truly human, how could He pay for the sins of humans on the cross?

There’s nothing new under the sun it’s often said. The same is true of heresy! All modern heresies are simply rebadged versions of the same false teachings the early church engaged with. Gnosticim? See the new age! Arianism? See Jehovah Witnesses. These groups say they believe in Jesus, oh yes! Some even claim to be Christians. Doubtless these false teachers John is confronting did too. The proof of whether someone is a Christian or not is not whether they say they are or not, it’s whether the Jesus they believe in is the same Jesus which the Apostles preached. Is He God but not man? Then He’s not the Jesus John preached! Is He man but not God? Then He’s not the Jesus John preached.

That you may have fellowship with us and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and His son...

“John teaches that whoever wants to have fellowship with God must first be joined to the apostolic testimony about God incarnate. divine fellowship demands apostolic fellowship. Put metaphorically, if we want to hold the hand of God (stay in fellowship with him), we must hold the apostles’ hands (stay in fellowship with their God-appointed and God-approved testimony concerning Jesus Christ).” Douglas Sean O’Donnell

We are an apostolic church, apostolic in the sense that our faith is in the Jesus Christ who the apostles preached and no other. And it is through our fellowship with the apostles in their message that we have fellowship with God for ‘How will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard?’

This fellowship of which John spoke is translated from the greek word koinonia. John uses this word 4 times in this epistle and this koinonia is based on agreement to the facts. He says; if you agree with us on the facts of the gospel then we have koinonia, and if you have koinonia with us, you have koinonia with the Father and the Son. If you continue to welcome these false teachers into your church then you have koinonia with them, and koinonia with them cannot give you koinonia with God.

The challenge for us here today is to ask ourselves; is the Jesus I am believing in the Jesus whom the apostles preached? Am I careful with the facts of the gospel? Do I mind all that much when I hear these facts toyed with by so called Christian teachers? Am I careful with what I listen to? Am I wanting koinonia with other believers who don’t subscribe to a Biblical view of Jesus? The fellowship John spoke of wasn’t a fellowship for the sake of fellowship. He didn’t advise these Christians that it was good to listen to lots of differing views about God and the gospel, so that we could take a balanced view, he goes on in his later writings to say ‘don’t even welcome these false teachers into your homes.’

CONCLUSION

Christianity is a faith like no other, it is a faith based on facts. Without the historical facts of Jesus’s life, death and resurrection the whole belief system falls apart. Christianity isn’t about moral betterment, it isn’t just one way amoung many of being a better person, it is a set of facts upon which we believe. It’s a set of facts by which ultimately the whole world will be judged.

Do we believe the Jesus who the apostles preached? The God man? Fully God, by whom and through whom ALL things were created and fully man, born according to the flesh by Mary, crucified by Pilate, who died and rose to life bodily on the third day? That’s the only Jesus who can save! The Jesus of the new age might sound like a nice chap but he can’t save. The Jesus of the Jehovah’s witness might sound plausible but only God could fully bear the full wrath of God against sin, so neither can that Jesus save.

Are we careful to appraise what we listen to? Are there preachers we hear who never mention these things? Do they only speak about the blessings of the Christian life and never warn against sin or false teaching? Or do they talk intellectualy but without love in their heart? Do they make it sound like they have hidden revelations about God that only they know? Our hearts have got to be tuned in to this stuff. As we know that false prophets have gone into the church disguised as harmless sheep but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. A false teacher will never look or sound harmful, in fact they’ll be the ones saying the things that make people feel good, only the things that make people feel good! Let’s stick close to our Bibles, it’s through this word and this word alone that we have fellowship with God.

Related Media

Related Sermons