1 John 1:1-4—The Word of Life

Good morning, and thank you for being here today to worship the Lord together with the church family of Eastern Hills. I’m Bill Connors, senior pastor, and I’m excited to begin our next sermon series today. If you’re a guest of the Eastern Hills family this morning, we’re so glad you’re here. Just so you know, we just finished a sermon series that we did in parts throughout last year on our Statement of Belief. If you are interested in knowing our doctrinal stance, you can read out Statement of Belief on our What We Believe page, and the sermons are currently in our sermon archive, with the series title “We Believe.” We have a thank you gift for those of you who are our guests this morning, which I’d like the chance to give to you myself at the close of service today. So after service, please come down front and introduce yourself, and I’ll be happy to give you an EHBC coffee mug filled with candy. The staff would also like the chance to drop you a note and thank you for your visit today. You can communicate that information to us in two ways: digitally by texting the word WELCOME to 505-339-2004 and filling in the communication card you receive back, or by completing a physical card which you’ll find in the back of the pew in front of you. You can bring that to me at the close of service, or put it in the offering plates as you leave later on.

Thanks to the sound guys, and thanks to those who have worked on our lights. We won’t be able to dim them, but they can be turned on and off at full brightness for now, so that’s great!

Announcements

Grief Class Sunday mornings in room 104. Men and women.

Evangelism Conference Info

Monday night 2/27 starting at 5:45; pie fellowship following

Tuesday 2/28 all day starting at 8:50 am; breakout sessions that afternoon beginning at 1:00 pm; praise & worship & preaching that night beginning at 5:45 pm.

LMCO Final total $30,792.51

Opening

It has been a while since we’ve done a verse-by-verse sermon series. We did a verse-by-verse series on the Ten Commandments in 2021, the book of Amos in 2020, and the book of Galatians in 2019. We didn’t verse-by-verse through anything last year (although we did cover the entire book of Philemon), and we spent most of the year on things that are more topical primarily because of our series on our Statement of Belief, which I believe was an important series for our church to go through together. But as we continued through the more topical series last year, I strongly felt the need to get into another verse-by-verse look at Scripture. As I prayed about that and sought the Lord’s direction in what to cover, and then discussed it with the other pastors, we agreed that for what we have planned to be the next 13 weeks, we will spend our time going completely through the book of 1 John. We are calling this series “Letter of Life, Light, and Love,” because these are three of the major themes in this book.

So this morning, our focal passage is the first four verses of 1 John. So as you are able this morning, please stand as we read from God’s holy Word:

1 John 1:1–4 CSB

1 What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have observed and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life—2 that life was revealed, and we have seen it and we testify and declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us—3 what we have seen and heard we also declare to you, so that you may also have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4 We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.

PRAYER (Iglesia Bautista Sinai, Hector Belmonte; pray for Abigail and Deanna Chadwick)

I mentioned to a fellow pastor this week that we are embarking on this series, and he laughed and asked me if I was ready to have my toes stepped on by the Lord, and for Him to step on the toes of the congregation as well. I answered that it didn’t really matter if I’m ready or if we’re ready, because it’s where God has taken us, so I suppose we better get ready!

1 John is one of my favorite books of Scripture. I find that I come back to it over and over again in my own devotional reading, because while it’s pretty straight-forward, it’s also really challenging, as we will see in this series. We find in this letter some of the most direct statements about the connection between our testimony and our actions, the incredible calling of us as God’s children, and the wonder of how God has shown His love for us through the cross of Christ. It’s a powerful little book that essentially has John acting as our mentor or pastor, telling us the truth and calling us to a deeper faith in and adoration of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

In this, his first letter to the church, the apostle John is partially addressing some problems that have come up, specifically theological problems that have had an impact on the church. This John is the same John who wrote the Gospel of John, as well as the letters 2 John and 3 John, and the book of Revelation.

The connection between this letter and John’s Gospel are quite striking, especially the prologues. However, the purposes of the two books are slightly different. The Gospel of John was written so that we might believe that Jesus is the Messiah, according to John 20:31:

John 20:31 CSB

31 But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

But as we will see as we go through this series, the letter of 1 John to the church was written to believers so that they would be encouraged in their faith, especially as those thorny issues arose. His stated goals, at least in part, were that the believers who read this letter would be brought into the fellowship of joy (1 John 1:4), that they would resist sin (1 John 2:1), that they would stand firm in the face of deceivers (1 John 2:26), and that they would have confidence in their salvation (1 John 5:13). I pray that studying this entire book will have the same effect on us.

John’s introduction to his letter sets the stage for everything else he is going to say, because all of it is based on the person and work of Jesus Christ, of whom he was a first-person witness. Just for one point of clarification: John uses the first person plural pronouns throughout his introduction, and in fact throughout all of chapter 1. He is identifying himself with the apostles, the group of people who actually walked with and lived with Jesus. I’m going to preach from just John’s perspective, to avoid confusion from the “we” things today.

Anyway, John opens with a statement about the reality of Jesus as both God and man:

1) The incarnation is true

The term “incarnation” does not appear in Scripture, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not a thoroughly biblical term. Like terms such as “Trinity” or “discipleship,” we accurately use the word “incarnation” to explain the fact that the Second Divine Person, God the Son, left His heavenly position and took on both a human body and human nature, being born as a human baby, Jesus of Nazareth. The doctrine of the incarnation says that Jesus is both fully God and fully human at the same time.

Daniel Akin explained it this way:

“The biblical Jesus is no myth, fairy tale, or fable. He is no ghost or illusion. He is indeed the God who took on full humanity… Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man. He is not half God and half man, all God and no man, or all man and no God. Nor is He simply a man uniquely in touch with the divine. No, He is the God-man, like no one else who will ever live.”

— Daniel Akin, Exalting Jesus in 1, 2 & 3 John

John writes about the truth of the incarnation in the first two verses of this letter:

1 John 1:1–2 CSB

It’s not until verse 3 that John gives us the identity of the “Word of life” as Jesus the Christ, but there are several things that he says in just these two verses about the incarnation that point to the uniqueness of Jesus as this “Word of life.” He makes what I see to be four claims about Jesus’ divinity and His humanity, and how they go together:

A) The Word of life is the eternal God in time.

John doesn’t mess around with the start of this letter. He just jumps right in without an introduction or salutation. This is likely because of how well known he was to the churches that he was writing to. He opens with a declaration of the divinity of the Word of life, saying that the Word has always been, or : “What was from the beginning...” When John here writes that the Word of life is from the beginning, he’s saying the Word existed first, before the beginning of everything that we understand. The Word of life is also, according to verse 2, “the eternal life that was with the Father.” As the Father is eternal, so the Word of life is eternal. There has never been a time when the Word of life was not.

His opening statement is reminiscent of how he opened his Gospel as well.

John 1:1–2 CSB

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning.

Just like in his introductory statement in his epistle, John eventually gets around to giving us the identity of the Word in his Gospel:

John 1:16–17 CSB

16 Indeed, we have all received grace upon grace from his fullness, 17 for the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

So not only is the Word of life eternal, having always existed, but John identifies the Word with a particular human being, who existed in a particular place at a particular time and did particular things in particular ways. In short, the Word of life, who is God Himself, bridged the distance from eternity to time, becoming a flesh and blood human like us:

John 1:14 CSB

14 The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

In Jesus, we discover that the endless horizon of eternity has been brought near as God the Son straps Himself to the constraints of time in order to live with us as one of us.

B) The Word of life is the transcendent God knowable.

The word “transcendent” can be one of those words that we sometimes have a hard time getting our minds around. The modern definition of the word as it relates in this sense is: “being beyond comprehension.” (m-w.com). Our triune God is infinite. We are finite. God is omniscient. He knows everything, both real and possible, through all of time. We can’t begin to comprehend all that is currently, or to even really predict what’s going to happen in the next minute, much less the next year or the next millennia. God is omnipotent. And I don’t know about you, but I often lack the power to even control myself, much less the whole universe.

But John writes next in his opening that he heard the Word of life. The word here in Greek is akoustos, which is where we get our word acoustics. Included in the definition of this word in both verses 1 and 3 is the idea of understanding. Because of Jesus, instead of God remaining completely and totally other, outside of the realm of his understanding or comprehension, John found the Word of life as Someone knowable, Someone he could relate to, talk with, and share his day-to-day life with. As the apostles walked with Jesus, they learned about who God is. Jesus said that to know Him was to know the Father, another indicator of the truth of the incarnation:

John 14:7 CSB

7 If you know me, you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”

Certainly in His divinity, Jesus was and still is completely transcendent. But taking on humanity brought Jesus close to us in a new way. The author of Hebrews says it like this:

Hebrews 2:17–18 CSB

17 Therefore, he had to be like his brothers and sisters in every way, so that he could become a merciful and faithful high priest in matters pertaining to God, to make atonement for the sins of the people. 18 For since he himself has suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are tempted.

In Jesus, the transcendence of God and the immanence of humanity (the actual opposite of transcendence) are somehow combined—allowing John, and us, to know God in a completely different way.

C) The Word of life is the invisible God visible.

Three times in verses 1-3 of John’s first epistle, John says that the Word of life was “seen” by him. He also says that he “observed” the Word, and that the life was “revealed.” All in all, in just verses 1-3, there are SIX references to seeing the Word of life with his eyes. Since the Word of life is God, then seeing the Word of life is seeing God:

John 1:18 CSB

18 No one has ever seen God. The one and only Son, who is himself God and is at the Father’s side—he has revealed him.

Just as Jesus said that to know Him was to know the Father, so Jesus said that to see Him was to see the Father:

John 14:9 CSB

9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been among you all this time and you do not know me, Philip? The one who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?

Paul and the author of Hebrews would also write about how Jesus made the invisible God visible:

Colossians 1:15 CSB

15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.

Hebrews 1:3a CSB

3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact expression of his nature, sustaining all things by his powerful word.

Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the radiance of His glory, and the exact expression of His nature. But Jesus is flesh and blood and bone just like us. He could be seen. He could be observed. And He revealed to us who God is. But not only was He visible. He was tangible.

D) The Word of life is the intangible God tangible.

I have to say that of all of these four things, this is the one that I look forward to experiencing myself in heaven. Let me illustrate this from something that happened just yesterday:

There’s a really nice guy named Jack who lives on the street but who comes by to get a cup of coffee and some food every now and then. I think that each of the pastors has talked to Jack about Jesus, and we’ve prayed with him about various things, and he claims to be a believer. Yesterday, he came by just after 9 in the morning, while we were getting ready for Blondell’s memorial service. We invited him in, and I fixed him a cup of coffee while we talked for a moment. And Jack said something about how good it is to get a cup of hot coffee in the winter. I agreed, saying something like it’s almost more of a need sometimes. And Jack said something that stopped me in my tracks. He said, “You know what’s even harder to get most of the time anymore is a hug. Sometimes I think I could just use a hug.” And so I stopped and gave Jack a hug. Sometimes, I think that we can all use a hug. There’s something about touch that so important to us.

John says in his letter that the Word of life was something that he had “touched with [his] hands.” While the Scripture doesn’t say that Jesus ever hugged John, I think we can safely say that Jesus is a hugger. He took little children “in His arms” in Mark 10:16, a word that means to embrace or hug. We know that at the Last Supper John “leaned back against Jesus” when he asked Him who would betray Him (John 13:25). And we also know that embraces and kisses were common greetings between friends in that time and culture. I’m sure Jesus hugged John at some point. John knew Jesus was human because he touched Him. He touched the Word of life.

The Word took on flesh, and He never took it off. In fact, His tangibility was one of the proofs that He gave that He had truly risen from the dead. Consider what Jesus told His disciple Thomas when Thomas needed assurance of Jesus’ bodily resurrection:

John 20:27 CSB

27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and look at my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Don’t be faithless, but believe.”

Jesus is still just as tangible, even though He’s not physically with us at the moment. So I look forward to hugging Jesus. It’s because of Him that I have peace and hope and joy and security. And I’m kind of a hugger. I hug people that I care about and love now—so I certainly am going to want to hug my Savior and Lord, my spiritual big brother according he Scripture. Because of Him, I have life. True life. Eternal life.

2) True life is in Jesus

John wasn’t just making an argument for the incarnation in his introduction to this letter. He was giving his own eyewitness testimony of the reality of the incarnation because of his own personal experience with the Word of life. John isn’t writing a theological treatise: He’s giving a deposition, testifying and declaring the truth about what he had personally heard and seen and observed and touched, what had been revealed in the Person of Jesus:

1 John 1:2–3 CSB

2 that life was revealed, and we have seen it and we testify and declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us—3 what we have seen and heard we also declare to you, so that you may also have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.

And John had experienced that life for Himself. He had walked with eternal life in the flesh, as had those who shared in the time of Jesus’ earthly ministry. And now, because of that experience, John cannot help but bear witness to the fact that Jesus is the Word of life, who is completely God and completely man, the One who makes fellowship possible between holy God and sinful humanity because of His sacrifice.

In His “High Priestly Prayer” in John 17, Jesus defined what eternal life meant. It meant knowing God and knowing Jesus.

John 17:3 CSB

3 This is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and the one you have sent—Jesus Christ.

Eternal life isn’t merely life forever. It’s life abundant. Life of both incredible quantity AND quality. Jesus laid down His perfect, abundant life so that He could pay for our sins, covering both our sins of commission—anything we do, say, or think that God doesn’t want us to—and our sins of omission—anything that we refuse to do, say, or think that God wants us to. Our biggest issue isn’t the moral decay of our culture. Our biggest issue isn’t the economy or the tensions in our land or the war in Ukraine or a spy balloon from China. Our biggest issue is that we all sin. We all fail to honor God with our lives in some way, and so we all deserve death.

Romans 6:23 CSB

23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

But God gave His Son, the Word of life, to take our place in death, so that we could be forgiven of our sins and have that eternal, abundant life that is only found in Jesus. Jesus laid down His life so that He could buy us out of slavery to sin—so that He could redeem us. Our redemption is something we never could have deserved or purchased, so God took care of it Himself through Christ. The only right response to what Jesus has done for us is surrender: to give up trying to save ourselves in our own futile ways, and to bow before Him has both Savior and as Lord. We will see later in this study that Jesus’ death shows us the true meaning of love, and He has shown us His love clearly in the cross. John says that he is testifying to the truth about Jesus so that his readers would join in that fellowship with God as well. Would you humble yourself, believe in Jesus, and surrender your life to Him in faith this morning?

For those who belong to Christ, like John, the Bible speaks of having fellowship with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. This is a picture of relationship—a relationship of life because Jesus is the Word of life. But also, we see that this invitation to relationship includes John saying, “so that you may also have fellowship with us.” When we come to faith in Jesus, not only do we receive eternal, abundant life, but we are adopted into the family and fellowship of the children of God. In this fellowship, we belong to each other on a global scale through the church. This is what we desire for Eastern Hills to model on a small scale: the family atmosphere of brothers and sisters in Christ in fellowship with each other, something that we are constantly striving to grow in.

And as the church, we believe that we have been given instructions, a mandate even, that we would testify and declare the things that God has done for us in Christ, which should be our great joy and privilege, as it was for John:

3) Our joy is to testify to the joy of knowing Jesus.

John has clearly stated what he has experienced. He has given his testimony of the real, living, breathing, flesh and blood Jesus, with whom he had experienced true life and fellowship. Finally in this prologue, John expresses this reason for writing: that there would be complete joy:

1 John 1:4 CSB

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

This isn’t halfway joy: this is complete joy. Total joy. Full joy. The interesting thing about this verse is that, you’ll notice in your footnotes in your Bibles that some manuscripts read “…so that your joy may be complete.” So which is it? Is John wanting his joy to be complete, or for his readers’ joy to be complete? The answer is yes.

Most scholars argue that the pronoun our is the better choice here, I’m fine with that. So if John’s focus here is to say “our” joy is made complete, then it is made complete through our declaring the Gospel and seeing people come to faith, thus adding them to our fellowship. Paul said something similar to this in 1 Thessalonians 2:

1 Thessalonians 2:19–20 CSB

19 For who is our hope or joy or crown of boasting in the presence of our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you? 20 Indeed you are our glory and joy!

Have you ever been there when someone has stepped from death into life as they heard the Gospel and trusted in Jesus, becoming your brother or sister in the faith? It’s so exciting! However, we won’t experience that same joy if we never share the Gospel. So tell people about the Word of life, and rejoice when they hear, but rejoice all the more when they believe!

On the other hand, if the focus of John’s statement here is that “your joy” may be complete, then this doesn’t actually change the meaning all that much. And in this way, John is echoing what He heard Jesus Himself say:

John 15:11 CSB

11 “I have told you these things so that my joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.

John 16:24 CSB

24 Until now you have asked for nothing in my name. Ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.

In this evaluation, John is confident that if his readers trust in Christ and enter into that fellowship, then their joy would be complete because they have received eternal life. And once they have that eternal life, then they would desire that others come to know and trust Christ as well, thus further increasing their joy, just like John. Either way, joy is made complete when we tell others about what Christ has done: both for the one who shares, and the one who receives!

Closing

John’s prologue sets the stage for where he’s going to go in this letter, and I think we could summarize it in one sentence: It’s all about Jesus. I pray that this morning, hearing from John has helped us to strengthen our trust in Christ, to deepen our love for Christ, and to build up our resolve to share Christ. I’m looking forward to this series together!

This morning, I believe that there are some listening who have never trusted in Christ. Can I ask you one question? Why not? What is keeping you from giving up going your own way and surrendering to the Word of life, who died so that you could have eternal, abundant life? God loves you, and Jesus is the proof. Trust Him as your Savior, and surrender to Him as Lord, and then follow Him as a disciple. If you have questions about salvation, or if today you are giving up and trusting Jesus to save you, come and let us know. In a moment, the band is going to get up and play a song of invitation, and I’ll be down here, as will Trevor and Kerry, for you to come and talk with. If you’re online and you would like to know more or to let us know that you’ve surrendered to Jesus, please send me an email to bill@ehbc.org, so we can get you some resources and help you.

If you believe that Eastern Hills is a church family where you can experience that fellowship that John spoke about in his introduction, then we’d love the opportunity to talk more with you about the church. Come and share with us, and we’ll set an appointment to sit down and talk, answer any questions that you have about Eastern Hills, and go over our Statement of Belief together. And if you’ve already had that conversation with me, and you’re still waiting to take that step, I invite you to prayerfully consider this morning if today is the day you make your formal step to join this church family.

If you need prayer this morning, you can pray right where you are, or you can come and pray at the steps, or you can come and pray with one of us.

You can also use this time of invitation to give your tithes and offerings via our website or mobile app. You can also use the plates by the doors to give in person as you leave at the close of service.

As the band comes, let’s pray.

PRAYER

Closing Remarks

VBS Lunch in Miller Hall immediately following service today, for those of you who are volunteering to serve with VBS this year, or for those interesting in knowing more about volunteering.

Bible reading (Zech 8 today, finishing on Saturday, then starting Song of Songs next Sunday) Calendar on the website.

Pastor’s Study 5:30 tonight

Prayer Meeting 5:45 Wednesday

Don’t forget to pick up your kids from the Clubhouse

Instructions for guests

Benediction

2 Peter 1:16–19 CSB

16 For we did not follow cleverly contrived myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ; instead, we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. 17 For he received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased!” 18 We ourselves heard this voice when it came from heaven while we were with him on the holy mountain. 19 We also have the prophetic word strongly confirmed, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.