The Word of Life

The Word of Life

When Carmel and I were on holidays, four weeks ago, we finished our holidays by going to Sydney to visit our two sons. We went from Gosford to Warwick Farm where our motel was. When we hit Sydney, Carmel put the address into the GPS, and we were at the mercy of the GPS. We wanted to follow the M7 through the outskirts of the city to Warwick Farm. The only time we were on the M7 was when the GPS led us across it. It was like when you’re on black soil road in the rain. When your sliding around, the only time you’re on it is when you are crossing it.

The GPS weaved us back and forward across the road we wanted to follow until about the last five k’s. After a very long and stressful trip, we finally made it to our motel. Our two boys came over and they took us here and there shopping and to places where we could eat. It was such a difference having someone in the car that had firsthand knowledge of the place. You could clearly see that they knew the area and had firsthand knowledge of where to go.

This is similar to the experience that the apostle John was having with this particular church that he wrote this letter to. This church was experiencing false teaching that was trying to undermine the deity of Jesus. So, he is telling them, no, I’ve been there and I’ve seen Jesus firsthand, and he is who he claimed to be.

It is an unusual letter in that it doesn’t introduce the writer or tell the recipient who it’s from. But commentators agree that it is the same style as the Gospel that John wrote, so it definitely is him.

The time frame of this letter is getting toward the end of the first century and there were people that had their own ideas about Jesus being God and man. They couldn’t accept that Jesus was both man and God at the same time. They thought that God was good, and man was evil, so if God became man, then he would be evil. This false teaching was called Gnosticism and it mixed Christianity with pagan ideas.

So, John is going to speak up and assure them that he can testify to the fact that Jesus did come and that he was God in the flesh, a combination of God and man. This leads us to our first point…

1. John’s Testimony:

Read with me verses one to four, “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.”

As I’ve mentioned, John starts of his letter in an unusual manner, he jumps straight in. John was there from the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry. He was one of John the Baptist’s disciples and he was with him when Jesus came to them on the banks of the Jordan river to be baptised. He witnessed the Holy Spirit descending on Jesus in the shape of a dove, and God speaking from heaven declaring that Jesus was His Son in whom he is well pleased. It wasn’t long after this that Jesus called John and his brother to follow him, and they became disciples of Jesus.

He could testify that he had seen Jesus. He could also testify that he had heard him. As one of the disciples he would have been in many yarns with Jesus. He asked Jesus many questions, and when Jesus gathered the disciples or a crowd of people around to hear him teach, John was usually right in next to Jesus. At the last supper, John was sitting right next to Jesus and he actually put his head in Jesus’ chest. He gave Jesus a hug. Throughout the gospels, Jesus called John the disciple whom he loved. So, Jesus and john had a very close relationship.

When Jesus rose from the dead and appeared to the disciples, they thought he was a ghost and were frightened of him. Some doubted that he was a man. John seen and heard Jesus say to them, touch me and see that I am a man and not a spirit. So, he could testify that the disciple Thomas touched Jesus, he put his finger in the nail wounds in Jesus’ hands.

These false teachers had denied the incarnation, that is God took on human flesh in the person of Jesus. But John had seen and been with Jesus and he could verify that it was true. Jesus was God, and he was a man.

In John’s gospel, he says in chapter one verse one and fourteen, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And then in fourteen, The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son. John is proclaiming that the Word is Jesus who was in the beginning with God, and that the Word was God. And then the Word became man, Jesus, and dwelt among us as the Son of God. And this is the gospel of eternal life, that Jesus Christ came and died for our sins according to the scriptures. That he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures.

John rejoiced in the fact that he knew Jesus and what he had done to give him eternal life. He wanted his readers to listen to what he had to say so that they could share this same joy that he had in knowing that he had eternal life through his faith and trust in the Word of Life.

John had more to say, and in his message to them he declared that God is light, which is our next point…

2. God is Light:

Read with me verses five to seven, 5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 6 If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

This message is what Jesus told his disciples when he was teaching them, and now John is teaching this message to his readers. The scriptures associate God with good and light, whilst on the other side of the coin, darkness is evil and is what following the devil is all about. And we know there is a distinction between light and darkness, you go into a dark room and turn the light on, the darkness disappears and to room becomes light. The scriptures of truth are telling us that if we profess to be followers of God, yet we are still living in our sins, we are living a lie. Darkness and light can’t be together.

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But Jesus came and shed his blood on the cross, and because of that, we can be forgiven and cleansed from our sins. Then we can walk in the light as God is in the light, we can enjoy fellowship with other Christians.

Before we can walk in the light, we need to acknowledge our sinfulness, and ask God for forgiveness, which leads us to our third and final point.

3. Sinfulness and Forgiveness

Read with me verse eight, 8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

Gnostics believed in salvation through a secret knowledge and a dualistic worldview with equal powers of good and evil. As they increased in this secret knowledge, the less sinful they would become, until they became sinless. These heresies were creeping into the church and the apostle John is challenging these beliefs. He told them straight, if they claim to have no sin, they are only liars and deceiving themselves. The scriptures tell us in Romans 3: 23, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Everyone of us are sinners, and this implies that we need to be forgiven. We have that wonderful promise that we hear most Sunday mornings…

Read with me verses eight and nine, 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word is not in us.

When we realise our position before God, that we are sinners in need of being saved, we need to confess our sins to God and ask him to forgive our sins. Verse nine says that he is faithful and just, and our forgiveness is based on God’s justice. Because Jesus paid the penalty for our sins, a just God can look on that and forgive us our sins, not only forgive us, but purify us from all unrighteousness.

Unfortunately, as Christians, we are going to slip up at times and sin just as it is written in verse ten. We don’t deny we have sinned, we need to come clean with God and admit our failing and ask him for forgiveness for our failings.

In closing, the dear apostle John gives us some important words of encouragement. Read with me in chapter two, verses one and two, 1My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. 2 He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.

He addresses us as his dear children. He is delicately balancing these two issues that we face concerning sin. He isn’t giving us a licence or permission to sin, but he knows what our sinful nature is like. He is writing this letter to strengthen us in our Christian walk and to keep us from sinning. He is also letting us know that if we do fail, which is the more likely scenario, it’s not the end for us. We have one that speaks up on our behalf for us to His Father. Our Lord Jesus Christ pleads our case for us with his father. So don’t be afraid or ashamed to come before God’s throne of grace and ask for forgiveness, because our Lord Jesus Christ is right there beside us.

And he can do this for us because of His atoning sacrifice for our sins. That wonderful atoning sacrifice wasn’t just for you or me, it was for the whole world.

But this atoning sacrifice is only for those who came to God and ask him to forgive them,

Have you come to God and asked him to forgive you? …