There Is Real Life

Introduction

It is very important to establish a very important clarification: The evidences of real spiritual life DOES NOT produce life! There was then and even today a large debate of the source of REAL LIFE.

Illustration: There was a time when you were overly satisfied with stories that began with, “Once upon a time...” This was an open door into a make-believe dreamworld that helped you forget all your childhood problems.

As the search for something real continues today so does the confusion of what is real and where it comes from.

Examples: wealth, thrills, conquest, power, learning and religion.

Illustration: eating cotton candy / wanting and finding something real is different.

This is where this epistle comes in. This letter was written centuries ago with theme, “the life that is real.” John will display for us by his own person witness that satisfying reality is found in a PERSON; JESUS CHRIST.

1) Real Life Revealed

A. Jesus Incarnate

FALSE TEACHING (anti-Christ)

Gnosticism, influenced by such philosophers as Plato, advocated a dualism asserting that matter was inherently evil and spirit was good. As a result of this presupposition, these false teachers, although attributing some form of deity to Christ, denied His true humanity to preserve Him from evil.

Instead of divine revelation standing as judge over man’s ideas, man’s ideas judged God’s revelation.

Two heretical ideas:

Jesus’ body only SEEMED to by physical (Docetism; to appear)

Jesus’ “spirit” descended on the human Jesus at his baptism but left him just before his crucifixion.

MORMONS believe that the Father came down and had sexual relations with Mary in order for Jesus to be incarnate.

John makes no mistake in his identification of Jesus Christ; THE SON OF GOD!

NOTICE: 1 John 2:22 & 1 John 4:2-3

“That which was from the beginning...”

“That” speaks of the personal experiences he and the others apostles encountered at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry.

Same Greek word used in John’s Gospel but different CONTEXT

We find in John 1:1-2 that he speaks of Jesus’ eternal pre-existing and co-equal nature to the Father.

Notice these words: heard, see with out eyes, looked upon, handled

John heard Jesus speak many times.

He looked upon Him year after year. The Gnostics had not seen Jesus. John had!

“looked upon” = to view with attention, to gaze, to look with admiration.

“handled” - Luke 24:39

Notice what Jesus is called; “the Word of life.”

Why would Jesus be called this?

Jesus is the Father’s revelation of Himself.

Jesus is to us what your words are to others.

Your words reveal things about you (feelings, emotions, beliefs, etc.)

Jesus is the LIVING REVELATION of the mind and heart of God.

Jesus is the LIVING MEANS of communication between God and man.

To know Jesus is to know God!

2) Real Life Experienced

A. More than imitation

While non-negotiable evidences DO validate real life, they DO NOT produce real life!!!!!

DON’T MISS THIS

The apostle John had a PERSONAL ENCOUNTER with Jesus Christ.

Illustration: Some twentieth-century student may say: “Yes, and this means that John had an advantage. He lived when Jesus walked on earth. He knew Jesus personally. But I was born twenty centuries too late!” But this is where our student is wrong! It was not the Apostles’ physical nearness to Jesus Christ that made them what they were. It was their spiritual nearness. They had committed themselves to Him as their Saviour and their Lord. Jesus Christ was real and exciting to John and his colleagues because they had trusted Him. By trusting Christ, they had experienced eternal life! [Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 2, p. 475). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.]

Turn to: John 3:3, 6-7

Turn to: 1 John 5:1

The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter One: It’s Real! (1 John 1:1–4)

John wrote his Gospel to tell people how to receive this wonderful life (John 20:31). He wrote his first letter to tell people how to be sure they have really been born of God (1 John 5:9–13).

The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter One: It’s Real! (1 John 1:1–4)

A college student returned to the campus after going home for a family funeral, and almost at once his grades began to go down. His counselor thought that the death of his grandmother had affected the boy, and that time would heal the wound, but the grades only became worse. Finally the boy confessed the real problem. While he was home, he happened to look into his grandmother’s old Bible, and there he discovered in the family record that he was an adopted son.

“I don’t know who I belong to,” he told his counselor. “I don’t know where I came from!”

B. Practical evidences

“For the life was manifested”

“Manifested” = to shine; to bring to light; to show plainly

They witnessed His perfect goodness in a world where there was no one “good.”

He never lost His temper, never hasty, thoughtless or unkind.

He was humble, holy, loving, lowly, patient and pure.

There are certain characteristics that are true of ALL God’s children.

Lives a righteous life (2:29)

No love for the world system (2:15-17)

The world hates your identity (3:13)

God’s children OVERCOME the world (5:4)

Every believer is a partaker of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4)

John’s desire for your heart is to not live the life of a counterfeit.

Illustration: Suppose you have a counterfeit bill and actually think it is genuine. You use it to pay for a tank of gas. The gas station manager uses the bill to buy supplies. The supplier uses the bill to pay the grocer. The grocer bundles the bill up with forty-nine other ten-dollar bills and takes it to the bank. And the teller says, “I’m sorry, but this bill is a counterfeit.” That ten-dollar bill may have done a lot of good while it was in circulation, but when it arrived at the bank it was exposed for what it really was, and put out of circulation. [Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 2, p. 476). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.]

Each of us must ask himself honestly, “Am I a true child of God or am I a counterfeit Christian? Have I truly been born of God?”

Why is this life real?

It is revealed in Jesus Christ.

It is experienced only when you place your faith in Him as your Savior.

3) Sharing The Real Life

A. To have real fellowship

Illustration: A famous British writer was leaving Liverpool by ship. He noticed that the other passengers were waving to friends on the dock. He rushed down to the dock and stopped a little boy. “Would you wave to me if I paid you?” he asked the lad, and of course the boy agreed. The writer rushed back on board and leaned over the rail, glad for someone to wave to. And sure enough, there was the boy waving back to him!

Everyone hates loneliness!

“Fellowship” = to have in common

As sinners, men have nothing in common with the holy God.

God in His grace sent Christ to have something in common with men.

Christ took on Himself a human body and became a man. Then He went to the cross and took on that body the sins of the world (1 Peter 2:24).

Because He paid the price for our sins, the way is open for God to forgive us and take us into His family.

Jesus’ gospel solved man’s basic problem of loneliness.

Matthew 28:20

B. To have real joy

Not only is fellowship restored through the bodily sacrifice of Jesus Christ, but also the dilemma of man’s joy.

The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter One: It’s Real! (1 John 1:1–4)

Joy is not something that we manufacture for ourselves; joy is a wonderful by-product of our fellowship with God.

The LIFE that is REAL produces REAL JOY.

John 16:22

John 15:11

Karl Marx wrote, “The first requisite for the people’s happiness is the abolition of religion.”

However, John is not talking about religion!

He is sharing with us today the real life, fellowship and joy that has been provided to all who would believe through the personal work of Jesus Christ.

Conclusion

You have a choice to make! You can either reject Jesus by relying on someone’s distant opinion of Jesus or you can believe what the eye witness of John is telling you.

Others say, “Jesus was not really who He said He was.” John says, “I WAS THERE.”