Too Good Not to Be True – 1 John 1:1-4 – Jesus is Real

Sermon Introduction

In our broken world filled with disappointment and pain, along comes a story about a carpenter from Nazareth who claimed to be God's Son. He healed the sick, fed thousands, walked on water, and rose from the dead. It sounds too good to be true, doesn't it? That's exactly what some people told the apostle John decades after he'd walked with Jesus. So John, now an old man, picked up his pen with tears in his eyes and wrote: "That which we have heard, seen, and touched—this we proclaim." Today we begin exploring why Jesus isn't too good to be true—He's too good not to be true.

I've included today's sermon manuscript below for your reference. However, I encourage you to focus on listening and engaging with the message as it's delivered. You can always return to the text later for study and reflection. You'll also find some questions at the end to help guide your further thinking. - Todd

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We sing a song that starts with a question: "Do you feel the world is broken?" And we all respond with, "We do." The world is indeed broken, and we are reminded of it often. This week we observed the 23rd anniversary of the terror of 9/11. But it's more than that. It's not like we see the brokenness of the world every quarter of a century. We see it weekly. Daily. We are constantly reminded that the world is broken.

Yet this is not unique to our times. Growing up in the 60s, I was told stories of Pearl Harbor and WWII. Although too young to remember, there were assassinations of JFK and MLK. I remember seeing the images on television of the war in Vietnam. I suppose my parents and their parents and their parents have their own stories of brokenness to tell. You can go back decades and centuries, and across time there are scars of brokenness that mark all of human history.

"Do you feel the world is broken?" is a question not only answered affirmatively by us, but across the decades and centuries we hear a consistent response—"We do!"

Meeting Jesus in the Brokenness

Let me take you back to the year AD 30, to Galilee. There lived predominantly Jewish people who certainly were familiar with brokenness. They had been slaves. They had been invaded by godless nations. Their temple built by King Solomon had been destroyed. Their people had been exiled to Babylon. And in AD 30, although they were back in their land, they had their own forms of brokenness—primarily embodied in a lifeless religion and occupying Roman armies. Life was not all good.

In Galilee there lived a man named John. He was in the fishing business. He and his brother James worked with their father Zebedee on the Sea of Galilee. They partnered with another set of brothers, Peter and Andrew. Fishing paid the bills, I suppose, but life probably hadn't turned out exactly like John would have hoped for. He, like all of us, was a victim of this broken world. If someone had asked John back then, "Do you feel the world is broken?" he would have laughed bitterly and said, "Look around. Of course it is."

But something began to change one day. There was this man, Jesus, who had begun gathering great crowds, especially around the Sea. He had a message of a Kingdom which had the ring of freedom and hope. He sounded like he may be able to fix the brokenness. And one day Jesus saw the boats and asked to use one of them as a floating stage, so to speak. And from that boat that smelled of fish and smelly fishermen, he spoke of hope.

After he was done, he told Peter, "Let's go fishing. Put the boat out into deeper water." John overheard Peter say it was useless. They had been out all night and hadn't caught a thing. Jesus needed to stick with teaching and leave the fishing to the professionals. But Peter, against his good sense, took the boat deeper into the lake and he dropped the nets. John watched from his own boat, and as they pulled up those nets, it looked like there were fish—and not just a few. They were having trouble pulling up the nets they were so full. He hears Peter screaming for help, so John pulls up and they haul in more fish than they had seen in a long time. As they pulled the nets onto the two boats, it felt like the boats were going to sink!

And John—he was amazed! John had been fishing these waters his entire life. He knew every cove, every current, every secret spot where fish might hide. But he had never—never—seen anything like this.

And for the first time in a long time—maybe the first time ever—he felt something fill his soul. Something he had read about and heard about but something he had never really experienced, at least not to this intensity. He struggled to find a word for this strange feeling, but then it came to him—he was feeling hope! Real, tangible, life-changing hope.

When they got back to shore, Peter fell at Jesus' feet and said, "Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!" But Jesus smiled and said words that would echo in John's heart for the rest of his life: "Don't be afraid; from now on you will fish for people."

That's all it took. John says goodbye to his father. He drops his nets. And he becomes a full-time follower of Jesus. As much as he loved fishing, he knew that Jesus was able to do so much more for him. Fishing paid the bills and put food on the table, but Jesus fed the soul—and that's what John needed, that's what he wanted, that's what we all need, that's what we all want.

Three Years of Wonder

So for the next three years of his life, John follows Jesus just about everywhere he goes. And that catch of fish was just a glimpse of what he would see in those three years. He saw water turned to wine. He saw 5 loaves and two fish feed 5,000 people. He saw Jesus walk on the water, calm a storm. He saw a lame man walk at Jesus' command; he saw Jesus open the eyes of a blind man; and he saw Jesus call a dead man out of his grave.

And not only did he see these miracles—he liked to call them signs—he heard him speak. He heard him say things like, "I am the light of the world. I am the bread of life. I am the good shepherd. I am the resurrection and the life." And he saw how these words had this remarkable ability to heal what was really broken.

But more than the miracles, John watched Jesus with people. He saw how Jesus looked at the Samaritan woman at the well—not with judgment, but with compassion. He heard Jesus speak to tax collectors and prostitutes and religious outcasts with kindness and compassion infusing them with the same hope he had received at the shore of Galilee.

Jesus not only healed legs and eyes. Jesus was a healer of souls. He was fixing the brokenness.

Yeah, there are 11 other followers, but over the years John became especially close to Jesus. John, along with his brother James and his fishing partner Peter, were privileged to see some special things that the others didn't. They were with Jesus on the mountain when he was transfigured and Moses and Elijah appeared with Jesus. They were with Jesus when he raised a little girl from the dead. These three saw even more than the others.

But John was the only one who saw Jesus die—at least up close. Among the 12, only John was at the cross. And John saw him die. John saw in Jesus' face horrific pain. He saw the blood flow from his body when it was nailed to a cross. He heard him cry out from the cross. He saw it all. And he saw something that really blew him away—he saw the empty tomb and he saw Jesus—resurrected. He was one of the first to reach the empty tomb. He saw the grave clothes lying there. And then—miracle of miracles—he saw Jesus himself, alive, breathing, real.

The man who had fixed John's broken life had somehow fixed death itself.

And as Jesus was ascending back to heaven, he heard the words—Go. Go and tell others. Tell the broken world that there is healing. Tell them that there is hope in the brokenness. Tell them I have come to fix it all!

The Mission Continues

And "go" John did.

In the book of Acts, the early history of the church, John is found telling people about this Jesus with whom he shared the last three years. It wasn't always easy—he and Peter found themselves in jail once—but he couldn't stop. Acts frequently shows John and Peter acting together. They were inseparable in their early ministry, traveling to the Temple together, being questioned by the Sanhedrin, and being imprisoned. They healed a lame man and introduced the gospel to the Samaritans. He kept telling people about Jesus.

And then something devastating happened—they killed his brother, James. King Herod, who broke everything he touched, had enough of this talk about hope. King Herod, as many kings do, thrived on hopelessness.

And that's the last we hear of John in the book of Acts.

The Bible doesn't tell us where he went, but we have some reliable testimonies from the early church that do. About 200 years after John's life, a Christian named Eusebius wrote a history of the church, and in that history he cites a second-century Christian, Irenaeus, who wrote that John went to Ephesus—a prominent city in the Roman world—and there he planted churches.

And the story has it that people would come from miles away to hear John tell stories of Jesus. Can you imagine that? Can you imagine the stories John had to tell? Can you imagine talking to someone who really knew Jesus—who ate with him, who laughed with him, who cried with him? Wouldn't it be amazing to be able to hear John tell stories about Jesus who changed his life?

This may have prompted John to write his gospel. We don't know when it was written—at least a couple of decades or so after Jesus left—but John's gospel is remarkable. I love how he ends it:

Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written. (John 21:25)

John couldn't say enough about Jesus.

Defending the Truth

But it seems as the years went by, some people started to doubt whether these stories of Jesus were really true. Maybe John embellished them. Some people even began questioning whether or not Jesus was actually real. Some may have said things like, "This Jesus is too good to be true."

These claims of fabrication made their way to John. Imagine how he must have felt when people were questioning if Jesus ever really lived. John knew that these doubts would crush the people he had taught. John knew that if we don't believe in Jesus—a real Jesus who really lived, who really walked, who really cried, who really laughed, who really bled, who really lived again—he knew if that was taken away, there was no hope. There is no hope in a fictional character. Only a real Jesus can give hope. Only a real Jesus is the good shepherd. Only a real Jesus is the light of the world. Only a real Jesus is the bread of life. Only a real Jesus is the resurrection and the life.

John heard these disturbing rumors and he had to tell people the truth—that Jesus is real!

So one day, maybe an old man by now, he sits down and takes pen to paper and begins a letter to those churches he planted and to those believers whose lives, like his, had been transformed by Jesus. And while memories of his time with Jesus swirl in his mind and with tears in his eyes, he writes these words:

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We are writing these things so that you may fully share our joy. (1 John 1:1-4)

Hear the urgency in his voice. Some may say he was too good to be true, but John says he is too good not to be true. Because if Jesus is just a fictional character—if Jesus isn't God in the flesh—if Jesus is just a fairy tale, then this broken world will forever remain broken. If Jesus is just a myth, then your broken life can never be fixed. If this is all just a made-up story, then brokenness wins the day. If Jesus isn't real, then death wins, suffering has the last word, and hope is just a cruel joke.

But John knows better than that. John knows that on that day on the Sea of Galilee, he met someone who was real. He met someone who fixed him. John saw Jesus bring healing to so many people. He saw Jesus mend broken hearts and shattered lives. And a ghost can't do that. Only a real, live God-in-the-flesh man can do that.

Hope for the Broken

And that's what Jesus wants to do for you.

Maybe you think you are too broken. You know, when you knock over a porcelain figurine and see it smash into pieces. At first you think you may be able to glue it back together, but soon you see there are too many pieces. "I can never fix it." Maybe you feel like that. Maybe you feel like you're shattered beyond repair.

What would John say? Maybe he would say something like this:

"He took me, a smelly, down-on-my-luck fisherman and gave me hope that I never thought I would ever have. He gave me purpose. He forgave me even that time I asked him to call down fire from heaven on those ungrateful Samaritans. He gave James and me a nickname that I wasn't so proud of—Sons of Thunder. Even then he didn't fire me as an apostle. He loved me. Oh, how he loved me. He took all the broken pieces of my life and put them back together and made something of me that was more beautiful than anything I could have ever made. He fixed my brokenness. On that day when I was mending my torn nets I found someone who mends the tattered soul. If he could do that for me, he can do that for you. That's what he does!"

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Questions for Further Reflection

Too Good Not to Be True - Jesus is Real

Personal Reflection

When have you experienced moments where the world's brokenness felt overwhelming? How did those experiences affect your faith or hope?

John felt hope for the first time when he witnessed Jesus' miraculous catch of fish. Can you identify a specific moment when you first felt real hope in Jesus? What was that experience like?

John was just a "smelly, down-on-my-luck fisherman" when Jesus called him. How does it encourage you to know that Jesus chooses ordinary, broken people to be part of His story?

Faith and Doubt

Some people in John's time said Jesus was "too good to be true." What aspects of Jesus' life, claims, or promises do you sometimes struggle to believe? Why do you think these particular areas challenge you?

John emphasized the importance of Jesus being real—not just a story or myth. Why does the historical reality of Jesus matter for our faith today? How would your faith be different if Jesus were just an inspiring story?

Application

John couldn't stop telling people about Jesus, even when it led to persecution. What makes you excited to share Jesus with others? What holds you back from sharing your faith more boldly?

The sermon suggests that Jesus "specializes in taking broken things and making them beautiful again." What broken areas of your life do you need to trust Jesus to mend? How might He be calling you to hope again?