The Foundation of Fellowship
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; 2 (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;) 3 That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. 4 And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.
As I had mentioned a few weeks back while we were moving through a four part series on why the epistle of 1 John was written, I was hoping God would allow us to just move through this epistle verse-by-verse, and with His help, that’s what we will begin tonight.
John was born in Bethsaida, a fishing village on the Sea of Galilee not far from Capernaum. His father was Zebedee and his mother Salome, the sister of Mary, the Mother of our Lord. His brother, James, was the first Apostle to be martyred. He was Convicted, Converted, and Called by the Lord Jesus.
The sweetest fellowship this side of Heaven, and the theme of First John is the Fellowship that comes through the life we have with the Lord Jesus Christ.
John wrote five Books of the Bible.
The Gospel of John, the Epistles of 1, 2, 3 John, and The Revelation.
Dr. Roy Laurin writes, “The Gospel of John is the deity of Jesus in life and death; the Epistle of John is the deity of Jesus in doctrine and experience; the Revelation of John is the unveiling of the deity of Jesus in eternal glory. The Gospel takes us back to the history of yesterday; the Epistle faces us with the practice of today; the Revelation carries us into the future unveiling of tomorrow’s glory. All three, however, center their message in a common theme: the person of the divine Christ, which provides a symmetry and fullness in Scripture that should be another persuasion of its divine authorship as well as another encouragement to our faith.”
I mentioned a moment ago that 1 John is all about fellowship, so it’s with that thought tonight, I want to preach a little while on, “The Foundation of Fellowship.”
This letter, written to Christians, is a very practical one for sure. Let’s dig in and see what treasures we can find within its pages.
The Eternal Word Made Manifest
The Eternal Word Made Manifest
1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;
John began this epistle in much of the same way he began the record of the Gospel of John:
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 The same was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made by 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.
The eternal Word came to earth, and John, among others, personally experienced Him!
John is telling us that this eternal God became accessible to man in the most basic way, a way that anyone could relate to. This eternal One can be known, and He has revealed Himself to us.
John had eyewitness evidence! He wasn’t talking about a myth or fairy tale! He wasn’t telling a clever story, He carefully studied this eternal One and he knew whom he spoke about.
This was a big deal because it debunked some false teaching in that day that was making it’s way into the Church, and by the way, it’s still alive and well today, it’s called Gnosticism…Gnosticism teaches that though Jesus was God, He wasn’t actually a physical man, but John here is saying, “I heard Him! I saw Him! I studied Him! I touched Him!”
What did John identify this eternally existent being, who was physically present with John and others?
Reduced to a single, simple phrase it is this—“the Word of Life.”
Jesus Christ is the “Word of Life” while the Bible is the “Word of Truth”.
The “Word of Life” is God’s word in flesh while the “Word of Truth” is God’s word in writing.
In Christ God clothed Himself in flesh, while in the Bible God clothed Himself in words. In Christ God speaks by a life while in the Bible God speaks by the letter.
The Gnostics of that day and still today say, “Well, you didn’t hear Him, see Him, look upon Him, or handle Him. How do you know He is real?”
They are right in that I’ve never seen Him with my eyes, I’ve never touched Him with my hands, but...
8 Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory:
How is this? He’s real, I know it because His Spirit has confirmed it in my heart!
2 (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;)
John makes it clear, “I have met this man and have personally heard Him.” We have heard from the Lord too, through His Word.
* We have heard from Him that we are to lay up our treasures in Heaven.
* We have heard that we are to love those who hurt us and turn the other cheek when smitten.
* We have heard His promise of eternal life by trusting in Him.
* We have heard Him command demons to leave those who were possessed and deranged.
* We have heard Him calm the storm and raging sea.
* We have heard His parables and His private words of wisdom and counsel.
* We have heard that He is the Light of the World, the Door of Heaven, the Good Shepherd, the Living Water, the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
* John could say, “I have heard the heartbeat of Christ as I laid against His chest.”
Jesus was no figment of imagination! He’s the Word of God made flesh for us! He’s real!
Moving on…we find:
The Fellowship of Light
The Fellowship of Light
3 That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.
John says that we declare what we have seen and heard and the reason we declare these things is that Jesus desires for you to have fellowship with the Father. The main purpose for Jesus coming to this earth was to save sinners from hell.
10 For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.
Because Jesus has paid the cost of our sin, the way is open for God to forgive us and welcome us into His family! We all need to be joined to God because we have all been separated from Him by sin.
Every person that has ever lived besides Jesus has sinned and have been separated from God. That is why Jesus came to reunite God and man, to reconcile man to God.
23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
God wants to have fellowship with His creation and He has provided the means for that to happen.
Jesus Christ calls sinners from every walk of life, puts His Spirit within them and gives them all something in common. We can travel the world and find Christians and churches and have fellowship with every believer. Believers have something in common because we have Someone in common.
We’ve been saved, we’ve been forgiven, we are heading to heaven!
The only way to get into the family of God is by being born again, Jesus said:
3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
When we put our trust in Jesus Christ, when we are born again, we have fellowship with God:
→ we become acceptable to Him
→ we are able to walk and talk with Him daily.
→ We can cast our problems upon Him
→ We can trust Him to meet our needs
→ We petition Him for strength, for wisdom, for guidance
→ We have love, peace, and life in Him
→ We are delivered from death, hell, and the grave.
We see the fellowship of Light, but then we see:
The Fellowship of Joy
The Fellowship of Joy
4 And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.
Those who know Jesus experience the love and joy of Jesus. Christians are to be filled with great joy in their lives.
All this, everything that we’ve read in the text up to this point, it’s all that our joy may be full.
Joy is the result of fellowship!
Warren Wiersbe wrote, “Joy is not something that we manufacture for ourselves; joy is a wonderful by-product of our fellowship with God.”
The same joy of worshiping God flowed into the New Testament because Jesus is God. He arose from the grave, conquering death. Christ is the source of joy for anyone who will trust in Him.
The truths contained in this letter should encourage all Christians to rejoice. God never intended for His children to be dragging their chins on the ground. Our Lord suffered so that we might have joy. He is our source of joy and gives it abundantly to us.
Sadly, in a recent survey about their faith, only 3% of Americans mentioned enjoyment of their relationship with God as their greatest source of spiritual fulfillment.
Jesus came that we may have joy, He wants our joy to be full, He wants our joy to be complete, He wants our joy to be full, not lacking in any way.
Conclusion
Conclusion
John began with the beginning – the eternal God, who was before all things.
He told us that this God was physically manifested, and that he and others could testify to this as eyewitnesses.
He told us that this God is the Word of life, the Logos.
He told us that this God is distinct from the person of God the Father.
He told us that we may have fellowship with this God, and that we are often introduced into this fellowship with God by the fellowship of God’s people.
He told us that this eternally existent God, the Word of Life, who was physically present with the disciples and others (and present for fellowship), is God the Son, named Jesus Christ.
He told us that fellowship with Jesus leads to a life lived in fullness of joy.
We could say that in these four verses, John gave us enough to live our whole Christian life on. In the Expositor’s Commentary, it says: “Observe the note of wonder in the Apostle’s language. Speech fails him. He labours for expression, adding definition to definition.”