Experiencing Jesus

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Experiencing Jesus

We are starting a new series this week and I am really excited to be jumping into something new.

Today we are going to begin a letter written by the apostle John. Whenever we dive into a letter I feel like it is important to understand who wrote the letter, when the letter was written, who it was written to, and why the letter was written.

Scholars do not know definitively if John wrote this letter before his Gospel or after. The believe that John wrote the letter after being forced out of Jerusalem due to mounting persecution. The believe that the letter was written sometime in the the AD 80s. This would have meant that John was upward in age and that he was most likely writing from Ephesus.

John had migrated there and had found success ministering to the Gentiles. It is to the Gentiles in that region that John is writing after a church split. A rival group had formed and a crisis in the church was forming. John writes this group to encourage them remain in Christ and to not separate themselves from the teachings of the Apostles. He also was instructing them to separate themselves from those who had left.

Why, Because they were teaching Heresy.

They were teaching Docetism: this idea that Jesus didn’t have a real body and that he appeared in a phantom form. They also taught that he really did not suffer on the cross he only appeared to suffer.

Now it is real easy to sit back and say that’s crazy why would they believe that.

However distortions of the truth are all around us.

Just the other day I saw a supposed Christian post on Facebook that you can practice both Christianity and Buddism together because Buddism is a philosophy not a religion.

Or Take the Mormons for example. They profess that they are followers of the same God as us. However they also believe that God was once a man and lived such a holy life filled with good works that he became a God and was give our planet to rule and if you are holy enough and fullfill enough good works you will become a God too.

John is going to speak to us through this letter that we should not live in fellowship with false teachers.

John was so adamant about this idea that when he found out he was in the same Bath house as Cerinthus the leader of the group that left. John is quoted as saying “Let us save ourselves; the bath house may fall down, for inside is Cerinthus, the enemy of the truth.”

Grant Osborne, Philip W. Comfort, Cornerstone Biblical Commentary, Vol 13: John and 1, 2, and 3 John (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2007), 320.

As we dive into this letter I believe God is going to speak to us in new ways and open our eyes to some of the false doctrines we face today.

As we journey let us keep in mind who John was.

The first disciple to follow Jesus.

He sat closest to Jesus at the last supper

He was there with Jesus at his trial

He was the only disciple to go with Jesus to the Cross

He was given the charge by Jesus to take care of his mother.

He outran Peter to the empty tomb and was the first to believe in Jesus’ resurrection.

He was the first to recognize Jesus when he showed up while the disciples were fishing.

John knew Jesus. He had the closest relationship with God in the Flesh of any one and that is exactly why we can trust his words.

John wrote four letters that were put in the new testament.

The Gospel of John - His account of Jesus

1,2,3 John Letters to the first century church

I want to begin today with the opening of the Gospel of John because I feel like it ties into the opening of 1 John.

John 1:1–5 ESV

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

In the Beginning was Jesus- The Word of God, The Physical Embodiment of God, The One The Triune God spoke all things into existence.

We need to really grasp this fact about Jesus. He always was therefore he always will be.

This discounts this idea today that Jesus was a good guy on another planet that was so good that he got his own planet to be God of. If he was there in the beginning that means there was no one before him.

Now lets take a look at 1 John.

1 John 1:1 ESV

1 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—

John comes out swinging at he heretical teachings of Cerinthus.

I Saw Him and I Touched Him.

1 John 1:2 ESV

2 the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us—

I Experienced Him.

1 John 1:3 ESV

3 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.

I Want You to Experience Him

1 John 1:4 ESV

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

There Is No Greater Joy Than Sharing Your Christ Experience.

Talk about experiencing Jesus.