1 John 1-2:2

If you have your Bibles, go ahead and turn them to 1 John. For the next several weeks we will be walking through this wonderful book in the Bible that is packed with incredibly rich statements about God in such simple and everyday language. It is in 1 John that we get such memorable and profoundly deep statements like God is love. John has a knack for boiling huge theological statements into these small phrases. If you read through his gospel you see many examples of this as he records the words of Jesus. Jesus is the bread of heaven; he is the living water; he is the Word; he is the light of the world; he is the resurrection and the life. Huge and deep meaning lie in these seemingly innocuous words.

English Standard Version Chapter 1

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

But perhaps more important, as we shall see in this pastoral letter, he takes these huge and deeply meaningful statements set in everyday language, and he demonstrates how they affect the way we live in the every day, ordinary, mundane of our lives. Which is why we’re calling this series through this letter, Life in the Light and Love of God. John wants to teach us and assure us of what it looks like to live as a believer of Jesus.

It’s a bit all over the place, isn’t it? I talk like this sometimes with Melanie and it infuriates her. I have something in particular to say, but I add on all these qualifiers and justifications and nuances, “So I was wondering, and you totally don’t have to agree to this, but it’s just been on my mind a lot, and you know how scattered I can get, but I think this could really help right now...” and Melanie’s just like, “Say what you mean already!” That’s what it feels like here a bit, doesn’t it? But actually, John is doing something in particular here, and it’s absolutely amazing.

English Standard Version Chapter 1

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—

Now, this morning we are looking at John’s introduction, and it is unlike any of the other letters that we find in the New Testament, except maybe the book of Hebrews. There is no, “from John to the church in Ephesus.” It just begins, and it starts fast, and with one really, really, really long sentence. Let’s read it in its entirety and then we’ll work to unpack it.

English Standard Version Chapter 1

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—

He begins in a familiar way, “That which was from the beginning...” Sounds like doesn’t it? “In the beginning...” Or sounds like the prologue to his gospel, “In the beginning was the Word.”

He starts out by striking a very similar tone to the introduction to his gospel where he says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Here we see that John has all of those same ideas here. That which was from the beginning, was concerning the word of life, not just any life though, in fact it was the eternal life, which was with the Father. What is John talking about ? He is talking about Jesus, and specifically that Jesus didn’t suddenly take part in God’s story with his birth at Christmas; he wasn’t a wise teacher or spiritual moralist, but that Jesus has been around since the beginning, writing this story with God the Father since and before. He has been with the Father, in fellowship with the Father eternally!

But while John will really reinforce this eternal nature of Jesus in his gospel, we see a very different emphasis in this letter. There was a reason for that. You see, John was dealing with a particular set of issues that had arisen in the Christian church by the time that this letter was written, about 60 years after the resurrection of Jesus. One of those issues was a spreading belief that Christ was not really human - the Son of God did not really take on human form. There were two schools of thought in this regard. One believed that Jesus was fully divine, but that he only seemed human, while the other taught that God by the Spirit inhabited Jesus at his baptism, but left before his crucifixion, because, they said, God could never allow himself to suffer and die as a human being. In either case, Jesus was not really human.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), 1 Jn 1:1.

With that in mind, look at where John’s focus lies. Yes, Jesus was from the beginning. Yes, he was with the Father. Yes, he is so completely other and different from us to the point that we could not possibly hope to even begin to understand him. And yet, that which was from the beginning, we have heard, we have seen with our eyes, we have looked upon and have touched with our hands. Again, in verse 2, we have seen it, because this Jesus, who has life in Himself, who is eternal life, was made manifest to us. This Jesus has shown himself to us in the perfect way possible, in the exact way that we needed to understand him and relate with him and follow him. He has revealed himself to us as one of us, and we have seen and heard and touched the One who is and has and offers eternal life.

And this, John says, is what he proclaims to his readers and therefore to us.

And John

The New International Version Chapter 1

1 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. 2 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. 3 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. 4 We write this to make our joy complete.

English Standard Version Chapter 1

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

It’s a bit all over the place, isn’t it? I talk like this sometimes with Melanie and it infuriates her. I have something in particular to say, but I add on all these qualifiers and justifications and nuances, “So I was wondering, and you totally don’t have to agree to this, but it’s just been on my mind a lot, and you know how scattered I can get, but I think this could really help right now...” and Melanie’s just like, “Say what you mean already!” That’s what it feels like here a bit, doesn’t it?

English Standard Version Chapter 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— 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— 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. 4 And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.

It’s a bit all over the place, isn’t it? I talk like this sometimes with Melanie and it infuriates her. I have something in particular to say, but I add on all these qualifiers and justifications and nuances, “So I was wondering, and you totally don’t have to agree to this, but it’s just been on my mind a lot, and you know how scattered I can get, but I think this could really help right now...” and Melanie’s just like, “Say what you mean already!” That’s what it feels like here a bit, doesn’t it?

Let’s unpack this together so that it can make sense to us. John is being a bit dramatic here. You know those TV episodes where they start with the last scene of the show, and nothing is really making sense, and then it blacks up to the beginning to show you how you got there? That’s kind of whats happening here. John is starting with the end of his thought, building tension, before finally coming to his point. His point isn’t found until the third verse, when we finally get the verb: “we proclaim also to you.” So everything before then has to do with describing what John is proclaiming to us.

That which

To proclaim in this context is to give an account of something or to make an announcement or give a report. The women who saw the empty tomb after Jesus had been raised from the dead ran to his disciples to give an account of what they had seen. When I was a kid, our kitchen flooded during the middle of the night, and as I walked down the stairs, the first to do so, my feet went squish on the carpet, and so I went upstairs to tell my mom that there must be a little leak: I was reporting back what I had seen.

This is what John is doing: he has experienced something - something absolutely incredible - and he is proclaiming it to us, giving us an account of what has happened.

So what’s happened? That’s the question.

Whatever has happened, it concerns the word of life, John says.

And what is the word of life? Well, Paul uses the phrase in one of his letters when he talks of Christians shining as lights in the midst of the world by holding fast to the word of life. Peter and the apostles, having been miraculously released from prison were told by an angel to “stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this life.” Again Peter, when asked whether he would turn away from Jesus at a time in his ministry when so many others were, Peter responded, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” So what is the word of life? It’s the message of the gospel! It’s the good news that God has begun to put all things back together through Jesus’ death and resurrection.

Of course this is what John is proclaiming, this is what all Christians are called to announce - Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again! These are the words that lead to life. Jesus asks if Peter will turn away from him, and Peter says, “What could we possibly turn to in this world that can bring the abundant life that is found in you? Money, success, power, possessions, philosophies, philanthropy? No! There’s nothing that can lead to life except you, Jesus.” And so Peter stays with Jesus, and ultimately gives up his life for the word of life. But we don’t pity him! No! Jesus himself said, you want to find life? You’ll find it by losing it for my sake.

So evidently, John is proclaiming to us the word that leads to life: the gospel, the good news.

But then he gets all confusing. If the gospel is the word that leads to life, and John then says, “and 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.”

Hold up. Life is found in the gospel, and that life was made manifest or revealed to us? And John has seen it? And this isn’t any sort of life, it is the eternal life - that which was from the beginning, which was with the Father? The answer is yes. The life that is found in the gospel has been revealed to us in the flesh.

This theme runs all throughout the writings of John. In John’s prologue he says, “In Jesus is life, and the life was the light of men.” Jesus says, “I am the resurrection and the life.” He says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” Later in this letter of 1 John he’ll explain it further, saying, “this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in the Son. Whoever has the Son has life.” And again he says that Jesus is the “true God and eternal life.” The eternal life that we hear about in the gospel has taken on personal form so that he could be heard, and seen, and even touched. How cool is that?

So is John proclaiming the gospel or is he proclaim Jesus? The answer is yes, because the gospel is Jesus.

Ours is a God who wants to be known! John is combating a belief that was spreading through the Christian community in Ephesus at this time that would eventually boil over into full blown heresy - at the core of this false teaching was that there was a secret, hidden knowledge of God, that only a few can ever hope to attain, but once you do attain this hidden revelation, you become enlightened and find true life. And so people would search out this hidden teaching, believing that if they could but find it, they could have eternal life.

It’s like the game Sardines. Sardines is like Hide & Seek but in reverse. One person hides and everyone else is looking for that one person, and if you find them, you just hide with them, until eventually it’s just one person out there searching for where the party is going on.

But John tells us that eternal life hasn’t hidden itself, but he has revealed himself to us openly so that we can draw so close as to touch him with our hands! Life has coming looking for you, John says. God has taken the initiative himself by revealing himself in Jesus, who is the Word, who is the gospel, who is eternal life, so that his life might be ours!

And this is what John proclaims to you. The eternal Son of God, who is the true God, who is the eternal life, has shown himself to you so that the life that he has and that is found in him, can be yours. Look at verse 3 and 4.

English Standard Version Chapter 1

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

Why is John proclaiming that the life of God has been revealed to us in Jesus? So that his readers might have fellowship with the church community - a fellowship that is derived from their fellowship with the Father and the Son, and so that his joy would be complete.

Isn’t it interesting that it is for fellowship that John is proclaiming Christ? How often do you think of evangelism like that? Typically we think and talk about proclaiming the gospel so that people would come to saving faith in Jesus. We think of evangelism in terms of salvation, but John is talking in terms of fellowship and community.

We could learn a lot from John’s perspective here. When we proclaim the gospel, or give an account of how we’ve seen and come to believe that the Son of God has been revealed in history in Jesus, we are not just calling people out of death and sin, nor are we simply assuring them of a better eternity. We are inviting them to share in the life of God with us. With us. This is so important to understand: fellowship is a specifically Christian word that speaks of a common participation in the grace of God, the salvation of Christ, and the indwelling of the Spirit; and this common possession of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit makes us one together. And so when we strive to make Christ known to others - friends, family, co-workers, neighbors - we are people into the joy of life with God in Christ. And let me tell you something - in a world as disconnected and lonely and community-starved as ours - that kind of invitation carries significant weight.

But to proclaim this is to have experienced it yourself. John stresses that he has seen, heard, looked upon, and touched the joy of life with God in Christ; and only because he has truly experienced it, can he truly give a convincing account of it to others. You must be a witness before you can bear witness, and so the question this morning is have you heard, have you seen, have you looked upon, and have you touched the One not just offers, but is eternal life?

And folks this isn’t just for those who have never put their trust in Jesus, it’s for all of us, because as we’ll talk about next week - even if we’ve seen the light, we’ve got to keep walking in the light. And so maybe it’s been a while since you’ve really been with God. Maybe it’s been a while since you’ve looked for him, sat with him, encountered him. John’s challenge this morning is this: Jesus is the life - you cannot know life without knowing Jesus - you cannot know fellowship without knowing Jesus. So put away what’s keeping you from him, and re-introduce yourself to the joy of life in Christ. Let’s pray.

In fact, we can see a lot of similarities between this introduction in 1 John and the prologue of the gospel of John. Look at the end of verse 2:

1 John 1-2:2

The Gospel Brings Us Into Fellowship with God.

Fellowship With God Requires A Brutal Honesty About Our Sins.

Fellowship With God Provides a Beautiful Remedy For Our Sins.

Conclusion