1 John 1:1-4 : Trust the Testimony

Introduction

Can you think of a time when you had an amazing experience by encountering something that seemed far beyond your expectations? Maybe it was the birth of your child. You were able feel, smell, hear, and see that wonderful blessing in your arms.

Maybe it was getting to see an amazing anomaly in nature. You were able to see a shooting star or an eclipse. You were able to see and hear the rushing water of a majestic waterfall or see, hear, and feel the waves of the ocean. You were able to feel the sand beneath your feet and smell the saltiness in the air.

I am sure we have all had experiences in our lives that seemed surreal. We had to spend time really focusing on our senses in order to understand exactly what we were experiencing. It just seemed too good to be true!

Today we are going to see John testify regarding his experience with Christ. We are going to see him explain his testimony of the most surreal moment in the history of the world. The moment that God, Himself, came to earth in human form. The moment that the transcendent God - meaning the God who is not limited by time and space - took on the frailness of humanity and chose to temporarily be subjected to the confines and boundaries of time. The untouchable God in regards to sinful man became tangible. The God who felt far off became intimately relational.

Please join me as we dive into this Scripture today.

Read Full Scripture:

1 John 1:1–4 ESV

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.

Prayer

Today’s sermon is going to focus on three different reasons why you can trust this testimony concerning Christ. The first is...

I. You Can Trust the Testimony Concerning Christ Because Jesus is Transcendent (1a)

1 John 1:1 ESV

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—

This book starts off with a unique phrase - that which. When we look further it can be confusing because ‘that which’ seems to describe the Gospel - yet it also seems to refer to the Word of Life seen at the end of verse 1 here, namely Christ. How can a phrase like that refer to both? It is because Christ is the Word (John 1:1). The Scriptures are important because they are the very words of Christ. You cannot remove the Scriptures from Christ.

So many try to do so today my friends. They may preach a false Gospel and teach a Jesus that is not found on the pages of the Scripture. They may teach mysticism and experientialism. They cry - just seek and meditate on who you want Christ to be. They cry - Jesus can be what you want Him to be! Others may deny the Word of God through intellectual means as they search for the “historical Jesus.” They say, just ignore the Scriptures and we will search the “true documents of the world” - namely secular literature because they are not biased because obviously secular humanism has no biases at all!

Brothers and sisters. Do not fall for these lies from the pit of Hell. The Scriptures teach us that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever (Hebrews 13:8). The Jesus of the Bible is the only Jesus that has ever existed. And here we see John nail home the point that the Gospel and the Perfect written Word of God cannot be unraveled from the Person of Christ. Jesus is the Word.

Then we get to the phrase ‘was from the beginning.’ There is a beautiful parallel between this book and the Gospel of John.

John 1:1 ESV

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

And this is a beautiful parallel of Genesis 1:1:

Genesis 1:1 ESV

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

John wants the readers to know that Jesus Christ is eternal. He is transcendent as we discussed earlier meaning that time has no hold on Him. He has always been and always will be!

Why does John seem to feel the need to clarify the deity of Christ as he starts off this book?

Many think it was because of the false teaching of Gnosticism which is an oxymoronic term meaning ‘having knowledge.’

We learn from the writings of Irenaeus (said: Ear-uh-neigh-us) that apparently there was a false teacher named Cerinthus that John fought against. According to these writings, it was reported that John had once cried out in the public baths at Ephesus after discovering Cerinthus there, “Let us save ourselves; the bath house may fall down, for inside is Cerinthus, the enemy of the truth.”

Cerinthus was one of the earliest Gnostics. He believed that Jesus was the earthly man and that Christ was a heavenly deity who descended on the person of Jesus at his baptism and ascended from Jesus before the crucifixion.

The heresy of this teaching would mean that Jesus the man died on the cross and not the Son of God. It would mean that there is no payment for our sins! It would mean that we are forever condemned to destruction in Hell!

It makes sense that John wanted to teach against this when we read 1 John 2:22:

1 John 2:22 ESV

22 Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son.

It is clear that John wants us to see that Jesus is the Christ - the Son of God - God made flesh.

Each one of us has to make a decision on who we say Jesus is. This is the most important decision you will ever make brothers and sisters.

One of my favorite quotes of Jesus is when He looks at the disciples and asks them:

Matthew 16:15 ESV

15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”

Each of us must answer that question. Do we believe that Jesus is the Christ - the Son of God? Or do we believe He was just a man who did some special works? Do we believe that His death on the cross took on the sins of the world as the perfect sacrificial lamb. That by repenting or turning from our sins and putting our faith in Christ - eternal life is available for all who trust in His name? Or do we reject the idea that we are sinners and are need of a Savior. Friends, the choice is yours today. What is your answer? Who do you say Christ is?

So far we have seen that we can trust the testimony concerning Christ because Jesus is Transcendent. We can also...

Scripture References: John 1:1, Hebrews 13:8, Genesis 1:1, 1 John 2:22, Matt 16:15

II. You Can Trust the Testimony Concerning Christ Because Jesus is Tangible (1b-3a)

1 John 1:1–3 ESV

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.

Explanation

1 John 1:1 ESV

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—

We then see John move into his senses. Isn’t it amazing that God created us to have five senses. We can see, smell, taste, hear, and touch. How gracious is our God to allow us these wonderful abilities?

John makes a few statements here if we look further into this first verse. He says we - who is we? - he means that he and the disciples and the other eyewitnesses of Christ.

So he says We:

Have heard

Have seen with our eyes, looked upon

Have touched with our hands

Don’t you love how John gives such a vivid picture here. He doesn’t just say that we need to believe what he says. He explains the actual encountering of Christ in the flesh! How wonderful is it to hear from an actual eyewitness who walked with Christ for over three years daily. Not only that - but John uses the perfect tense in have heard and have seen which refers to the still abiding effects of these wonderful encounters! This time with Christ changed his life forever.

May I interject here here my friends - time with Christ will change your life forever as well.

At the end of verse 1 we see Christ is called the Word of Life. This is such a wonderful name for Christ. He is the Word as John stated in his Gospel. He spoke the world into existence by the power of His Word! Genesis 1 has a repetitive phrase throughout the chapter. Can anyone finish the sentence for me?

And God....said.

God, being Jesus, said! He spoke everything into existence. How amazing is that? And then there is the end of this phrase - life. As we break this down we see that He is the Creator of Life! He has made all things including life. He spoke us into existence. The very breath in your lungs came from the spoken Word of Life. This is amazing truth.

1 John 1:2 ESV

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—

As we move forward we see John say that the life - referring to the Word of Life, namely Jesus Christ - was made manifest.

What does that mean? Many of us may not use the word manifest daily. This word is focused more on the sensory than the cognitive. It is as if to say I was there and I saw it - heard it - experienced it. It refers to something that is made visible or revealed. Remember at the beginning of this message when we discussed surreal experiences that we have had? John is testifying about his amazing experience as he walked with Christ.

He wants to testify to this manifestation of God in the flesh. He wants to proclaim the good news of eternal life through Jesus Christ to you and me.

Why do we need to listen to this guy’s testimony? I hesitate to make much of John as he was a mortal human like you and I. However, he was a man who experienced fellowship with God in the flesh! There is something to be said about that!

If I wanted to know about living in a small town in rural Kansas, I could go online and look up stores, browse real estate for sale, and even look at their city data to see a breakdown of demographics. Yet, I wouldn’t really know much about what it is like to live there. The best way to know what it is like to live there is to what? - To ask someone who lives there or has lived there! Those are the best witnesses!

That is who John is. He is a guy who lived with Christ. He walked with Him for over 3 years. He saw the miracles Jesus did. He was one of the inner circle even among the disciples. He and his brother James along with Peter saw more miracles that Jesus performed than anyone on earth did. This,John, is the same guy that Jesus asks to care for His mother, Mary, while he hangs on cross as seen in John 19:26-27.

This man’s testimony is true and valid. Listen to him. He writes the very words of the Word of Life. His words lead to the Word of Life.

Trust the testimony my friends. Trust the testimony regarding the transcendent Jesus who became tangible. And trust the testimony of the tangible Jesus who is relational.

Scripture References: Genesis 1, John 19:26-27

III. You Can Trust the Testimony Concerning Christ Because Jesus is Relational (3b-4)

1 John 1:3–4 ESV

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.

This is where my alliteration (words that start with the same letter) breaks down. I couldn’t come up with a better word than relational. How amazing is this idea that Jesus is relational? The same God that created the universe is relational. He had conversations with mortal men and walked on earth in human form. He understands pain, weakness, temptation, and trials because He experienced them all. He is able to understand what you are going through more than anyone else in this world!

John is proclaiming the truth of who Christ is. He is letting you know that Jesus Christ desires a relationship with you. Jesus desires fellowship with you and desires you to have fellowship with other believers.

It is this truth that has spurred us on to start this new church. We are aiming to preach the Gospel so that people might have fellowship with Christ and to live life together in fellowship as a community of believers.

But what exactly is fellowship anyway?

The Greek word, fellowship, given here is koinōnía. It is a difficult word to put into English. It can mean communion, fellowship, partnership - But it’s true Greek meaning is actually much deeper than that. It can mean partners in business, shareholders in a common enterprise, and joint owners of a piece of property. It means that if it goes poorly for one then it goes poorly for all. If it goes well for one then it goes well for all. There is a sense of oneness of faith and community.

This fellowship, according to John, can only truly occur through the proclamation and acceptance of the Gospel. True fellowship with one another can only occur in light of a right relationship with God.

True fellowship can only occur in a people who have a common purpose. The Gospel knocks down all barriers in life. Skin color, culture, politics, or any other factor melts away when considering the Creator and Savior of Mankind! This is why we will continue to preach the Word of God boldly at this church. The only way we can truly have solid fellowship with one another is to be Christ-centered in everything we do.

When we are self-centered, problem-centered, issue-centered - our fellowship is marred by disagreements about social issues, politics, preferences and other things. We cannot allow Satan to destroy our fellowship by getting us off of the true focus. John lets us know here that the Gospel is the means in which true fellowship is founded upon. Fellowship with both God and with fellow man.

Don’t miss the point here. I do not deny that there are issues to stand for or battles to fight. But my friends - if I might be so bold - what you think does not matter. What your Facebook post says does not matter. What your Twitter feed states does not matter. What your Instagram post states does not matter. Jonathan - that is awfully harsh of you isn’t it? Maybe - but true fellowship comes through this:

No longer do we say what we think. We say what God thinks. We hold His Word in high regard. We agree with every word found in the Bible which is the living and active and inerrant and all-sufficient Word of God (2 Tim 3:16). We don’t explain it away through cultural influence. We don’t apologize for what it says.

Brothers and sisters, our fellowship can only be consistent and unbridled when we agree with God and die to our own desires and preferences.

Finally we come to the last verse in the section. The first three verses form one giant run-on sentence. John has a lot to say in that first sentence! But then he gets to the last sentence in this small section of Scripture which is a simple and beautiful sentence.

Verse 4 - We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.

The great Martyn Lloyd-Jones said of Joy:

“Joy is something very deep and profound, something that affects the whole and entire personality. In other words it comes to this; there is only one thing that can give true joy and that is contemplation of the Lord Jesus Christ. He satisfies my mind; He satisfies my emotions; He satisfies my every desire. He and His great salvation include the whole personality and nothing less, and in Him I am complete. Joy, in other words, is the response and the reaction of the soul to a knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. (Life in Christ, 30)”

It is this joy that John speaks of. He speaks of having joy in Christ and being joyful when others find this joy in Christ. He wrote this so that even today we might share in the joy that he had some 2000 years ago! His testimony is true my friends. I have been blessed to have encountered this same Jesus - albeit not in the flesh. Yet through His Word I have been able to encounter this transcendent, tangible, relational Jesus. He changed my life forever my friends. I know many of you have come to a saving knowledge of Christ that are here today as well.

Yet, there may be some who have not. Maybe you know the Gospel intellectually. Maybe you are even a moral person for the most part. Yet there is not a joy like we just read Lloyd-Jones articulate. You do not have a zeal for serving the Lord. The very act of coming to church seems a chore. Your passion is not there.

Friend, do you truly know the Savior? Do you truly know Jesus Christ as Lord. When one knows the joy that comes from Jesus Christ it changes your life forever. The theological term for this is regeneration. We see this in John 3 when Nicodemus tries to understand salvation. Jesus tells him that he must born again. In order to be saved one must not only believe the right things - that Jesus is the Son of God, God made flesh, who lived a perfect and sinless life, died on the cross and rose from the dead three days later and now is at the right hand of the Father - but one must repent or turn away from their sins and be given a new heart from God. This happens through the wonderful working of the Holy Spirit in the life of one who truly repents and believes in Christ. He is a new creation - the old is gone and new has come (2 Cor 5:17).

Are you a new creation? I pray that you are! If you are not, please examine your life and your heart. Turn from your sins today and turn toward Christ. He can fill you with joy inexpressible. Yes, life will still be difficult on this side of eternity. But even among the difficulties there will be joy overflowing because of your fellowship with Christ.

Scripture References: 2 Tim 3:16, John 3, 2 Corinthians 5:17

Conclusion

As we prepare to come to a close we have discussed why we should trust the testimony of John - namely the testimony considering the greatest man - or better stated God-man. We have seen that we can trust the testimony concerning Christ because he is transcendent. There is not any limitation on Christ. We can trust the testimony concerning Christ because He is tangible. He was born a man and walked among us. And finally we can trust the testimony because Christ is relational. He is not a God far off but one who is near.

Let us leave this place today with a further understanding of how wonderful Christ is. I pray that each of us experiences the joy that can come only from a right relationship with Christ.

Let us pray.