Vital signs of Life

1st John Sermon Series

Part 1

The Vital Signs of LIFE

Scripture: 1 John 1:1-4

Amen and amen in the last few months we have been preaching on subject matters mostly dealing with outreach, what it means to share our faith not only for us, and those who receive that faith, but also what it does for the kingdom of God

THIS WEEK WE BEGIN A DIFFERENT JOURNEY TOGETHER.

Over the next few week we will be focusing on the book of 1st John. This book will remind us that as Born-again believers that we to walk the road of faith together as one.

Now you already know that the road of faith is not an easy road, in fact the Bible tells that is narrow and difficult, this road is full of potholes and side streets, but when we as a church walk it together it makes the journey a lot easier. Because the New Testament tell us that we are supposed to be encouraging one another, we are to love one another, we are to be praying for one another and we are living the life of faith with one another.

That is the life of the church.

With that said; If you have your Bible with you today and I hope that you do, open your Bible with me to the book of 1st John.

If you are unfamiliar to where 1st John is you can find it by going to the back of the bible the last book of Revelation, then work your way forward to Jude, third John, second John and there will be 1st John. 1st John chapter 1 is where we will be this morning.

Now before we dig into the sermon, I want to make sure that we are all on the same page because I don’t take for granted that all of us know certain things about the Apostle John.

Here are the basic things we need to know about 1 John.

This book was written by no other than the Apostle John, He is one of the original twelve disciples who then become an apostle of Jesus Christ.

Now John was a normal guy who spent his early years as a fisherman. Until Jesus called him to become a disciple, His whole life was changed.

By definition he was the one of the closest friends of Jesus. He was one of the inner three disciples Peter, John and His brother James.

It can be argued that John was Jesus’ best friend, the Bible describes John as “The disciple whom Jesus loved”.

Also we see this incredible friendship in John 19:26-27 when Jesus was on the cross and Mary, His mother was there along with John. As Christ is dying on the cross, the Bible tells us “When Jesus therefore saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing by, He said to His mother, “Woman, behold your son!” 27 Then He said to the disciple, “Behold your mother!”

So Jesus hands off the care of the His mother to John, who then took her and cared for her for the rest of her life.

But I want you to know today that although Jesus had levels of friendship, He did not love John any more than the other disciples.

What we see in the Bible is that God loves all people the same, John 3:16 “For God so loved the world”- Ephesians 5:2 teaches that Jesus also loved us as He given Himself for us, for the church. So we are all loved by God, but what I see about John and the rest is this. Watch this.. don’t miss this: They chose how close they were with Jesus. Did you get that?

Isn't that true in our relationships today?

We choose how close we are with other people and listen:

Born Again believers are as close to Jesus as they choose to be.

And we see that John was one of the closest. At the time of this letter John was probably the only surviving member of the twelve. He wrote this letter in 80-85 AD, therefore we know that he was somewhere in the range of 100 plus years of old.

He is the co-author along with the Holy Spirit of five books of the New Testament. The Gospel of John, 1,2,3 John and the final book of Revelation.

John had spent his later years around Ephesus and He wrote this letter to the church in Asia Minor where he was a pastor.

Most of the first-generation of believers are all gone or elderly and now the church in part is compiled of second and third generation believers. In other words, there were no first-hand witnesses of Christ left in the church.

For some of these believers it was a time of persecution. For others their devotion to Christ was wavering, some were led astray by false teachers, and then there were the ones who were becoming relaxed in their biblical standards.

Now I know what you are thinking; and it does sound like the church here in the twenty first century. John is addressing the theological issues that existed in the church then and that we still see today in two central themes.

First is about the authentic fellowship with God and His people, and second is about getting back to the basics of their faith.

And we are going to look at both of these throughout our mini series.

The title of our message today is:

The Vital Signs of Life!

I love what John does here because John writes this letter to the believers as an older man, the one with experience, maybe even the grandfather figure.

In this letter John talks straight about walking the road of faith. He discusses a lot of things that are the vital signs of life with Christ Jesus. He is going to discuss important issues facing our lives as believers. He begins right away dealing with false teachers. People who have infiltrated the church and are leading others astray.

John was confronting the false teaching of those who denied that Jesus had come in “human flesh.” This teaching was known as Gnosticism. Gnostics claimed to have superior knowledge, which ordinary believers did not possess.

They taught “all matter” was evil and the Spirit was good. Therefore, Jesus could not have been in a human body because they believed the body was evil. Some rejected the incarnation by denying the deity of Christ. Others said the body of Jesus was an illusion that he only seemed to have a human body. The Apostle John declared anyone who denied that “Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God.”

Now Gnostics reject the teachings of the early Apostles that Jesus was physically born, lived, did ministry and died in a physical body and that body rose again.

Yet this is the foundation of our faith today, it is the foundation of the Holy Word of God and anyone who does not believe cannot be a believer. Therefore, cannot be of God.

Today there are still Gnostics in our world. There are false teachers in our midst leading people astray.

Well, that leads us to our scripture. If you are there in 1st John chapter 1 let’s begin looking and the Vital Signs of True Life with Christ reading along with me from verse 1-4.

This is the Word of God and it begins like this:

“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life— 2 the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us— 3 that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. 4 And these things we write to you that your joy may be full.”

Now I think it is important to note here that this is a very different tone of letter than what the Apostle Paul would write. John here gets straight to the point about everlasting life and fellowship because these were what the false teachings of Gnosticism we getting at.

Which brings us to our take-home truth today.

THE TAKE HOME TRUTH IS:

SPIRITUAL FELLOWSHIP IS THE VITAL SIGN OF TRUE LIFE.

Just as there are clear indications that of physical life, there are also indications of Spiritual life.

We all have a pulse, we have a heartbeat which indicates that we are alive.

If you suffer from any trauma the first thing the EMS or a Doctor or even a Nurse does, is check your pulse. It’s the first indicator for them that you are alive, if they don’t get a pulse from you the next step is to listen for a heartbeat. The heartbeat is the indicator that you are alive!

In the same way that there are vital signs which shows a person alive, there are vital signs to show that our spiritual life is alive as well. Some of those include;

Being a professing believer?

Your speech. What comes out of your mouth the Bible says is what you believe in your heart.

Your walk in Christ?

Or what about those four characteristics of love, grow, serve, and share.

These are all indicators to others that you are alive spiritually. And according to grandpa John (you don’t mind me calling him grandpa John, do you? He is in his 100’s, he is a grandfather figure to the church, He is speaking like grandfathers do.) So, Grandpa John says that the one true indicator of your spiritual life is this word fellowship.

Notice with the second part of verse 3 John writes: “that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.”

The word fellowship has been hijacked by a lot of people including the church.

Some people believe that it is sharing a meal together. Others believe it is being in Bible study together, still others believe that fellowship happens when we are in the presence of one another.

If the definitions are stand alone, then by themselves they are not true to the word fellowship, because then fellowship can only happen when you are doing one or all of these actions with another.

However; the definition of word in the Greek means that people are sharing something in common- it literally means a partnership and community.

This is show to us in the beginning of the church in Acts 2:42 “And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers”

The same Greek word used for fellowship in our scripture today.

And this describes our relationship with God and the church. It describes not something that is agonizing to you, but rather things that you cannot wait to get to.

When we have receive this spiritual fellowship, we are in community with other believers and that we are now in partnership with God Father and His Son for the mission to the world. When you receive this spiritual fellowship, you begin walking the road of faith with those who you are in community with and with God and the Son as your leader.

So the indicator that you are alive spiritually is to have fellowship with God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit and brothers and sisters in the faith in community. Amen?

This morning I want to share with you what John reveals to us about Spiritual Fellowship.

If we take to heart these three truths then we can be in spiritual fellowship with God, the Son and other believers.

The first truth is this:

1.Spiritual Fellowship is received by Christ being revealed.

Notice what John says in verses 1 and 2.

“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life— 2 the life was manifested (revealed), and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us”

Now from the beginning of history mankind has tried every trick in the book to attempt to bridge the gap between man and God. To reason against the natural need to fill the void of spiritual loneliness.

Since sin entered into the world we have failed and that failure has taken with it our fellowship with God. The Bible tells us that it was Christ has bridged that gap on the cross.

So John begins by grounding his readers in the historic reality of the Gospel.

He also makes a point throughout the book that fellowship with God is impossible without the fellowship of His Son.

Jesus the Word of life is, has been and always will be the source of our fellowship with God the Father.

John reminds us that from the beginning there was a plan to save God’s people. In verse 1 John says that Jesus is the Word of Life, in verse 2 that He is the eternal life and third that He brings us back into fellowship with God.

He said that this has been God’s plan all along that we would be in fellowship with Him.

Look at those first five words “What was from the beginning”

Now in this Gospel history lesson Paul’s assertion here is that Jesus was the from the very foundation of the universe being formed. Which mirrors what John says in the opening verse of his Gospel John 1:1-3. John plainly declares that “In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him” Therefore, Jesus existed in the beginning, and what that tells us is there was never been a point of time where Jesus did not exist.

Then John said that in verse 2 of our scripture look at there that Jesus was manifested which means revealed to Him. His relationship with Christ as Lord was revealed as God opened their eyes to see that the man, Jesus, was not just a godly man or a great teacher.

It was revealed to them that He is “the Christ, the Son of the living God” John experienced the true fellowship of God through His Son Christ Jesus. I want you to know that we too can experience the same fellowship because Christ is revealed to us through the Holy Word of God based from eye-witnesses. Rom 10:17 “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.”

We come to faith by putting our trust in Him, by believing what the Word tell us about Jesus and the salvation work that was completed on the cross, through His return to life.

Jesus said in after His resurrection in John 20:29 “Because you have seen me you believed, blessed are those who have not seen and yet believed” John said that it was revealed to him that Jesus was God and that he wanted to declare it to his readers so that they would share in the same life and fellowship that John has.

FIRST, WE RECEIVE SPIRITUAL FELLOWSHIP BY CHRIST BEING REVEALED.

THE SECOND TRUTH THAT JOHN SHARES WITH US IS:

SPIRITUAL FELLOWSHIP IS EXPERIENCED THOUGH CHRIST JESUS.

Now I don’t know about you, but I have experienced some things in my life, especially while in the Army. Some of you have experienced a lot as well, I have heard some stories. But the greatest thing was experiencing Christ in my life.

Look back at 1st verse: John shares His experience with us. He said he experienced Christ

“which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life”

Then he goes on to repeat himself in verses 2-3.

John is talking to the readers about what he first-hand experienced.

Now in a court of law an eye witness will seal the case. Their testimony goes further than any evidence either for or against an accused. In a lot of cases the eye witness testimony single handedly convicted people.

(Alibi) an eye-witness to your where you were when a crime was committed.

The point that John is making is that Jesus was not only there in the beginning, but He was incarnated, He became flesh, and that he and the rest of the apostles has experienced the physical presence of Christ.

Notice with me John uses three words to describe his personal encounter with Jesus!

1.He heard HIM

Jesus called his name and gave John a personal invitation to follow Him. John here can recall the 3 ½ years of Jesus’ teaching from the sermon on the mount to the parables of the ten virgins to the seven I AM statements that John personally wrote about:

I am the bread of life. (John 6:35)

I am the light of the World. (John 8:12)

I am the Gate. (John 10:9)

I am the Good Shepherd. (John 10:11)

I am the Resurrection and Life. (John 11:25-26)

I am the Way the Truth and the Life. (John 14:6)

I am the Vine. (John 15:5)

He is giving an eye witness testimony of what he heard.

You know I remember the day Jesus called my name to follow Him, I also remember the day I accepted the call. I remember the day that God spoke and told me I would become a pastor.

We have all heard the Word of God as well, through hymns, preaching, teaching, Bible studies, through prayer, the Church ect.. You have heard God speak to you, because you are now saved.

When we are in spiritual fellowship with Jesus we can hear Him in all things.

2nd John said He has seen Jesus with his own eyes and observed Him.

John lived with Jesus for 3 plus years. His memories of the miracles, signs, and wonders that Jesus did must have been amazing, and those that John participated in like the feeding if the 5000 or the transfiguration.

Think of the amazing things that are written in this Bible that the disciples where personal witnesses too. John says In John 21 “Jesus also did many other things. If they were all written down, I suppose the whole world could not contain the books that would be written.”

But John experienced something greater than just living with Jesus. He experienced the resurrected Jesus.

Can you just imagine?

But the great thing is, God is at work all around us and if we look we can see the great and wonderful things He does in our lives.

My wife and I, when we see God doing something in our lives we say “Favor”.

Just look at this church – God’s house has never been in better shape. We also have seen great growth in the church, we have seen so many come to faith, in the last eleven months we have baptized more than previous at least the 4-5 previous years.

Financially I don't believe that the church has ever done so well.

And can I tell you about how the spiritual growth of people that I have heard, seen, and witnessed?

Or the number of people who have stepped up to volunteer especially during our events.

We have seen prayers answered, amazing works of God done that we have seen with our own eyes.

John says that not only has he heard the Word of Life, but he has seen it, and then third, he says He has touched Jesus.

Heard, seen and touched Jesus.

They lived, worked, ate, walked, ran with Jesus, John also touched the living God. Jesus touched their lives and they physically had touched Jesus. But more than that they got to touch the resurrected Jesus!

John touched the holes in His hands. Jesus told Thomas put your fingers in the holes of my hands, reach your hand out and put it into my side… Wow!

In the OT God does the same He told Moses – Stretch out you hand- then turned it to leprosy, then God changed it again- feeling the very power of God.

You know something? We too can feel the power of God, we can feel the touch of God as well.

God allows us to see Him through touching the lives of others. The Bible tells us that we too have God living within us:

1 Cor 3:16

Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?

MY, MY, MY.....

My wife shared with me one time that she was so excited to be the answer to prayer of someone she never had met.

We can see God touching the lives of others around us and we can feel the love of Christ Jesus in our hearts and our lives.

John said that the things he had heard, seen and touched all revealed life, what he means is the death, burial and resurrection of Christ has been declared to you so that we can have the same fellowship that John has.

Now I want you to understand that while we live in the post Resurrection and the pre-return of Christ there are things that help us experience God that are outlined in the Bible.

Here they are: the 7 Spiritual Disciplines.

Reading/ Studying/ Hearing the Word of God

Worship- remember that God is searching for people to worship Him in Spirit and truth.

Fasting, serving, giving and evangelism.

7 Biblical practices to add to your life to help you experience God and Christ.

FIRST, SPIRITUAL FELLOWSHIP IS RECEIVED BY CHRIST BEING REVEALED.

SECOND, SPIRITUAL FELLOWSHIP IS EXPERIENCED THOUGH CHRIST JESUS.

THEN 3RD SPIRITUAL FELLOWSHIP BRINGS JOY.

Look back at verse 4 with me.

John said “And these things we write to you that your joy may be full.” Some later manuscripts change it to say “so that our joy may be made complete.” and certainly that is true.

But the original reading was probably “your” joy, referring to the joy that we are to have.

Remember that John was by this point the only surviving apostle. He was a grandfather figure to the church and in the since of writing to the church his joy was made complete.

In 2nd John 1:4 John says that he was glad that some of the believers were “walking in the truth.”

Then 3rd John 1:4, “I have no greater joy than this, to hear of my children walking in the truth”

If John’s children would read these letters and not be carried away by the false teachers, but continue in the truth, he was a happy man and they would find lasting joy no matter what they would go through.

You may think that joy in the Lord is a nice extra, to the gift of the Spirit, but not essential.

Notice that in John 10:10 Jesus explains to us that He has come to give us an abundant life, but that abundant life without joy is not abundant at all.

John Piper often points out, we cannot glorify God properly unless we enjoy Him thoroughly. (X2)

Sometimes we get a little lost, we forget about having the joy that can only come from Christ through fellowship with Him, that’s why we have scripture like this to remind us that we are to a this joyful attitude about us, that can only be completed through Spiritual Fellowship with God the Father, God the Son, and the community of believers called the local church.

Our joy doesn’t come from the world, in fact if you watch the news it will not make you a joyous person, but rather a depressed person.

Charles Spurgeon was quoted as saying

“There is a marvelous medicinal power in joy. Most medicines are distasteful; but this, which is the best of all medicines, is sweet to the taste, and comforting to the heart. This blessed joy is very contagious. One dolorous spirit brings a kind of plague into the house; one person who is wretched seems to stop all the birds from singing wherever he goes . . . [But] the grace of joy is contagious.

Holy joy will oil the wheels of your life’s machinery. Holy joy will strengthen you for your daily labor. Holy joy will beautify you and give you an influence over the lives of others.”

You see believers joy is the presence of Jesus in our lives, by the means of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. I Love that Old Testament scripture from Nehemiah 8:10 “The joy of the Lord is my strength.”

The world and all of its glory cannot give us joy it cannot fill us with joy. The world cannot lead us to a joyous life on this side of heaven. Joy doesn’t only come in the morning, but it comes in the afternoon, evening and night time. It is always present and waiting for us to take hold of it and spread it out to the rest of the world.

John expresses to us that the fullness of joy comes only when we are in fellowship with the Father, the Son, and the Church.

Any other joy is incomplete.

Joy is the pulse and the heart beat that shows the health of your spiritual life. John says that this what we have testified to you, what we have declared to you concerning the Word of Life, Eternal Life. The truth is beloved, people will never experience the true fullness of joy without the fellowship with The Father, The Son and His Church.

It began and continues with Christ. He is revealed to us, we can experience Him though hearing, seeing and feeling which brings into fellowship with God and His church and it produces the richest of JOY.

Invitation