1 John (2)

About midway through Jesus’ three year life with His followers, He asked them two questions:

Matthew 16:13 (HCSB)

“Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”

I doubt Jesus really wanted to know what others really thought of Him. John, in his gospel reminds us that

John 2:24–25 (HCSB)

... He knew them all and because He did not need anyone to testify about man; for He Himself knew what was in man.

His question as to what others were saying was really leading to a much more important question:

Matthew 16:15 HCSB

“But you,” He asked them, “who do you say that I am?”

The account continues with Peter responding for the group:

Matthew 16:16 HCSB

Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God!”

A simple, non-controversial statement about Jesus’ identity.

Or is it?

John’s three letters, written late in his life, don’t where his readers live.

It is very likely that none of his audience had ever been to Jerusalem or the areas where Jesus physically walked. It is almost certain these believers had never seen Jesus with their own eyes.

They were - like the vast majority of Christians decades after the resurrection and ascension of Jesus - believers based on the testimony of others who believed because others they knew had seen Jesus, or had such personal encounters with Him that their entire life was changed.

Early in the book of Acts, which recalls the earliest days of the growth of the gospel, this transmission of the good news developed some interesting challenges.

For example, in Acts 8 we read how Philip, in Samaritan city was telling people of Jesus. Many were coming to know Jesus as a result of his words. One of those who heard was named Simon.

When the elders of the church in Jerusalem sent Peter and John to investigate, they discovered that these new believers had yet to experience the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Listen to this account:

Acts 8:17–19 (HCSB)

Then Peter and John laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.

When Simon saw that the Holy Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money,

saying, “Give me this power too, so that anyone I lay hands on may receive the Holy Spirit.”

Decades later, as the gospel has spread far and wide throughout the Roman Empire, John as well as others such as Peter, began to hear back of some powerful misunderstandings of Jesus. John’s first letter is aimed at clearing up any misconception as to the reality of Jesus as the LIFE of the World.

1 John 1:1–4 (HCSB)

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

— 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 —

what we have seen and heard we also declare to you, so that you may have fellowship along with us;

and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.

There are several certainties John wants his readers to grasp. These families, scattered across the Roman Empire, need to hold tightly to truth and not be swept away into speculation and outright error about the identity of Jesus.

Jesus is from before the beginning

Much like his account of Jesus’ life called the Gospel of John, he begins at the very beginning, the very origin.

In the gospel John makes it very clear that Jesus - the One we know as the Savior of the world - is identical to, and equal with God the Father, the Creator of all things.

The Eternal Son of God entered time and appeared to human beings.

Here John reminds his readers that he himself saw with his eyes, heard with his ears, and physically touched Jesus - not merely some apparition or ghost.

The word translated touched (epsēlaphēsan), the climax of the four relative clauses, describes more than a momentary contact.

‘ “Psēlaphan” is to grope or feel after in order to find, like a blind man or one in the dark; hence to handle, touch

… It may also be used in the sense of “examine closely” ’ (Brooke).

John R. W. Stott, The Letters of John: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 19, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1988), 64.

There were self-proclaimed ‘experts’ and ‘teachers’ suggesting that Jesus was not really a human being. They were teaching that Jesus may well have been a man, but that the Christ, well, the Christ was some sort of spiritual being that may have inhabited this man named Jesus. Certainly, according to these ‘teachers’ the Christ/Messiah could never die.

Thus the gospel, as proclaimed and believed upon in the Roman Empire that Jesus died for our sins, was buried, and was raised again needed modification.

There are still men and women teaching in our universities and religious graduate schools who regard much much “...in the Gospels as ‘myths’ (but you cannot ‘demythologize’ the incarnation without thereby contradicting it)

John R. W. Stott, The Letters of John: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 19, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1988), 65.

This is the Jesus we proclaim

That which John and those early followers of Jesus saw, heard, and closely observed was not simply for their own benefit. Their walking with and talking with Jesus was for us. That which they experienced, they shared.

John uses two different Greek words in this one sentence (1 John 1:1-4 is one sentence in the original language - and verb doesn’t appear until towards the very end of the sentence!)

He used the word ‘testify.’ The Greek word translated ‘testify’ is the word from which we get the word ‘martyr.’

The word testify was a legal term in John’s day. One scholar notes

1, 2, & 3 John Explanation of the Text

To “see” and “bear witness” are legal terms of the courtroom deposition, where one not only gave evidence from eyewitness experience but also vouched for the truthfulness of what others said. The issue of what is true is at the heart of testimony, and therefore it is not coincidental that truth is also a major concept within John’s writings. In fact, Jesus states that the purpose of his incarnation was to testify to the truth (John 18:37b) of what he revealed about God and eternal life (1:18).

The second word John uses is translated ‘proclaim/declare.’ In the HCSB translation the words are in this order:

1 John 1:2 (HCSB)

we have seen it and we testify and declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us —

That which John has personally experienced, he can testify to. That which he testifies to is the basis of his invitation to share in the same quality of life - the eternal life that is ours through the Pre-Existent Jesus Christ.

In Jesus we we experience fellowship with God that produces an eternal joy.

In John’s era there were multiple ways of connecting with others.

For example: Simon Peter, Andrew, James, and John were all fishermen by trade. There must have been dozens of other fishermen working the coast of the Sea of Galilee.

Among the earliest followers of Jesus was one named Simon who was associated with a group of radical folks aiming to overthrow the Roman government called Zealots. Matthew was part of a trade group called tax collectors.

Jewish people were proud of their tribal identity. For example when Paul spoke before the Sanhedrin, recorded in Acts 23, he boasts of his connection with the Pharisees - a religiously conservative group seeking to recover the purity of Jewish faith. In his letter to believers in Philippi Paul notes:

Philippians 3:3–6 (HCSB)

For we are the circumcision, the ones who serve by the Spirit of God, boast in Christ Jesus, and do not put confidence in the flesh— although I once also had confidence in the flesh.

If anyone else thinks he has grounds for confidence in the flesh, I have more:

circumcised the eighth day;

of the nation of Israel,

of the tribe of Benjamin,

that we agrea Hebrew born of Hebrews; regarding the law,

a Pharisee;

regarding zeal, persecuting the church;

regarding the righteousness that is in the law, blameless.

As significant as those connections are, the connection, or fellowship, we experience because of our common faith in Jesus Christ - the One who was before the beginning, the very One who gives eternal life by dying in our place and being raised again by God to new life.

This is the basis of our joy.

REFLECT AND RESPOND

Do the details matter?

After all, Jesus lived sooooo long ago. There are none alive who can claim what John did - that they have seen Him, heard Him, carefully observed Him. How can we know that what John experienced is really true?

Trevin Wax, an author and researcher with the NAMB of the SBC writes,

The details matter because, together they tell a story.

They recount the history of the Son of God leaping down into his world to bring about his kingdom, and to take up the cross as his throne, on a hill where his humiliation…

resulted in destroying death by death, saving us from our sins, and ushering in God’s new creation.

Do we, with two thousand years of distance find the details of that story, or the identity of our Savior dull, boring, and impractical?

Trevin Wax, The Thrill of Orthodoxy: Rediscovering the Adventure of Christian Faith (Downers Grove, ILL.: Intervarsity Press, 2022) 76-77.

I believe the details matter a great deal. I couldn’t trust a Savior who - when death threatened - escaped in the form of a ghost or spirit.

I can trust a Savior who died - for my sin, who was willing and able to take the judgment due me -

and fully experience the terror of death so that through His resurrection and new life I can face life - and death - with confidence and assurance.

Because John testified and proclaimed Jesus we don’t have to invent ways to connect with one another, we don’t have to try harder to love one another. All we are called to do is believe...

Romans 10:9–10 (HCSB)

If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.

One believes with the heart, resulting in righteousness, and one confesses with the mouth, resulting in salvation.