1 John Sermon 1 - 1:1-4

1 John

Author: John, the Apostle

There is some discussion here, as there is another John from the first century that is referred to as John the Elder by outside texts, but the shared Greek style and terminology, which will be evident to you from the very first verses, I think make it clear that the man who authored this letter is the same as the author of the gospel of John. Additionally, all early sources believed the author to be the apostle.

Background: False Teachers

Likely in Ephesus between AD 80-95, We will see this throughout the book, but Some men had left the faith and were evangelizing their false beliefs, trying to convince others in the churches that Jesus wasn’t the Christ, wasn’t the Son of God, didn’t actually come in the flesh, and more. Many of the believers had become confused and questioned whether they really knew God, had eternal life, and were in the truth.

John wanted to assure these believers that they had the Truth, the Gospel they first received was the truth, and to help them identify false teachers.

John in this letter 4 times tells us why he is writing.

1:4 - Promote Full Joy

2:1 - Prevent Sin

2:26 - Protect against False Teachers

5:13 - Provide Assurance of Salvation

Style: Non-Linear

Not like Paul’s letters, moves in logical steps from premise to conclusion and through an argument. John’s letters are much more like a sermon, there are main points John desires to get across, and he weaves back and forth from them emphasizing different things each time.

Let’s begin. Verse 1.

1 John 1:1 ESV

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—

WAIT, STOP - One of, perhaps THE, most profound and oldest philosophical questions has just been answered.

1 John 1:1 (ESV)

That which was from the beginning

There’s one big idea that is presented in these first 4 verses, and it comes in 3 parts.

The One from the Beginning

One of the greatest and most thought about questions that we humans have been asking as far back as recorded history.

What is the ultimate reality?

What is at the origin of everything?

Think about it in terms of you personally, why do you exist - simple answer, because your parents, why do they exist, because of their parents . . . at some point you have to come to the origin of all these parents, the FIRST, the BEGINNING.

The same thing is true about EVERYTHING, every effect, what caused that, and what caused that, and what caused that, it is true of the very universe itself! At some point you must get back to what philosophers call the BRUTE FACT - just is, exists of its own nature, without need of anything else for its existence

When we follow all the causal chains back to their origins, what do we find staring us in the face.

When we dig down to the bedrock of reality, deeper than everything else, what does our shovel strike against.

There have been many candidates through the history of philosophy for the most basic original reality.

The philosophers before Socrates famously argued that everything was fundamentally made of water.

The newest philosophers may propose that everything is made of strings, or waves.

The Bible’s audacious answer is that ultimate reality is PERSONAL, that at the very bottom, at the very beginning of the chain of causation, is a Being (capital B)

Before matter. Before energy. Before space and time. This Uncaused Cause we are taught to call Father. The unmoved mover that we are taught actually loves us. The brute fact that speaks, plans, acts, promises, mourns.

John 1:1 (ESV)

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Hebrews 1:10 (ESV)

“You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands

Colossians 1:17 (ESV)

And he is before all things

Genesis 1:1 (ESV)

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

1 John 1:1 (ESV)

That which was from the beginning

When there was literally nothing else, there was never a time when Jesus was not.

There is only one entity, only one thing, only One that is from the beginning. Everything else, EVERYTHING, comes from that One who himself had no beginning.

The One from the Beginning Came for Us

You have likely become numb to the shock of that. John wasn’t numb to it, listen to how he talks about this. The Jews didn’t have exclamation points, but if they did they would have been all through these 4 verses. Listen to them .

1 John 1:1-4.

The Jews didn’t have exclamation points, but the tone here is like this

The insanity of the incarnation wasn’t lost on John! Like he himself can’t believe it! It’s like he is shocking himself as he is reminding himself that he actually saw the one from the beginning, he actually heard the voice of the Eternal one, he actually SAW HIM???!! HE TOUCHED THE BEGINNER!

John 1:14 ESV

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 1:9 ESV

The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.

God didn’t have to become man, you must understand that nothing required God to do what He did, God was not lonely or needy or required to do anything - - God, the one from the beginning, came specifically because he wanted us, and this was the way to have us.

Romans 8:3–4 (ESV)

For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us

Hebrews 2:17–18 (ESV)

Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.

Colossians 1:22 ESV

he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him,

The only way to present one like me as holy, blameless. . .

John 3:16 (ESV)

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Do you realize how incredible and insane that is, that THE ONE FROM THE BEGINNING CAME BECAUSE HE LOVED YOU AND ME and wanted us with him!

As Frances Thompson famously called God the Hound of Heaven who has come for me

The One from the Beginning Came for Us So that we may be in the Fellowship

1 John 1:1–4 (ESV)

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.

Koinonia - partnership, connection, fellowship but stronger, oneness in desire and goal and purpose

This is why you can pray and talk to God whenever you like as if he is right here with you, this is why you can know that Christ is with you every step you take into a new situation, or a difficult relationship, or a persecution. Because you, little old you, have KOINONIA, PARTNERSHIP, CONNECTION WITH THAT GOD!

John 15:5 ESV

I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

THAT IS KOINONIA! So utterly connected that to be connected is to be alive, and to be apart means to experience the truest kind of death.

Its also important that you see here (1 John 1:3) that it isn’t that Christ came so that you would have fellowship with God over here and with his people over there, it is that he came to welcome you into the One fellowship. Fellowship with God and with his people are inseparable from one another.

1 John 1:3 ESV

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.

Ephesians 2:18–19 (ESV)

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God

John 17:21 (ESV)

that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us

Connection to the vine is also connection to the other branches. It is one vine, it is one fellowship.

You are koinonia with Christ, and you are koinonia with me and everyone in here that is Christ’s, even the difficult ones, which is all of us, if you don’t think so you just dont know us well enough yet.

We are connected to the vine not as complete branches, if there is such a thing, but as branches that are growing.

1 John 1:4 ESV

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

Make no mistake, your joy lies nowhere else but in this fellowship for which you were created. Your heart will be restless until it finds its rest in this fellowship.

Maybe my favorite movie as a young child, one of those that mom and dad could just put on and I’d sit and watch it every time, was Homeward Bound - Chance, Shadow, Sassy

These dogs end up away from home and travel the world wide trying to get back, they go to tons of beautiful places, places they could stop and live and be fine, even places that would care for them, but they just couldn’t stop, couldn’t quit trying to get back home, where they belonged and with the people they belonged to.

The same is true here, you were made for this fellowship.

Hound of Heaven - God has been pursuing you from the beginning, and you see don’t you that He has been pursuing you all of your life.

It is from this ground that everything else in 1 John grows, from this fountainhead that everything else flows.

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Ancient sources say that when John got old, 90’s or even better, he couldn’t make it to the assembly on Sunday mornings on his own, so younger men of the church would come and get him and carry him to the ekklesia. Each service, they would ask him to speak. Imagine having this sort of resource in your church, the beloved disciple himself, one who not only walked with Jesus but was his closest friend, he must have the answers to all of our questions. Surely they wanted to know, John could you go over the how God could die thing again, John how can we have free will if God is sovereign, John how should we understand Genesis 1-11, John do we have this stuff about women right, John are we baptizing correctly, John are we singing the right songs, John is our church better than the one down the road. Here, a source with all the answers. Surely they sat at his feet with amazement, waiting to learn something new and fresh and profound; they would sit up and open their eyes wide when he began to open his mouth. Tradition says that each week they would carry him down front to say something, and he would repeat the same one phrase, week after week, “Little children, love one another. After months of this, the annoyed people asked, “Teacher, why do you always say this?” To which he replied, “Because it is the Lord’s commandment and it if alone is kept, it is sufficient.”

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Witnesses (Lk 24:48, Jn 15:27, 21:24, Ac 1:8, 2:32, 4:20, 5:32, 13:31, 1 Pet 5:1)

Qualifications of the Apostles

Apostles as foundation of church

GOSPEL