The Word of Life

Introduction

1 John 1:1–4 ESV

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

What is something that you saw with your own eye that was so strange that no one else believed you?

Or, have you ever been the eyewitness for something that you couldn’t believe was actually true?

John writes this letter around 80 AD. It is one of the last letters written. It is years after the other disciples have died, and many of the people to whom John writes will not know someone who has ever met Jesus. Was he actually real? Did he actually come into the world?

Danny Akin teaches that Jesus could only have been four things. He could have been a liar, lunatic, legend, or Lord.

Liar - Someone who simply was not who he claimed to be and knew it.

Lunatic - Someone who was not who others imagined him to be.

Legend - Someone who was not who others later imagined him to be

Lord - He is who He says he is, and His birth, life, death, and resurrection prove it to be true.

We know Him to be Lord.

Explanation

1 John 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—”

Jesus was

From the beginning

John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

Heard about him in the prophets

Seen by the disciples

Looked upon and touched by the disciples

“Concerning the word of life”

Imagine with me a doctor is about to come into the room to tell you that either, you have a life stealing cancer, or the biopsy that they took is benign.

He walks back into the room and says it is benign.

His words were words of life.

In the same way, the words of Jesus are the words of life.

1 John 1:2 “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—”

God was made manifest or present.

Peter, James, and John specifically saw Jesus on the mount of transfiguration as one separate from even Elijah and Moses.

This message was proclaimed by them to their eventual death.

Before Jesus came into the world, He was with the Father. God sent Jesus to be manifest among us so that we might have a new life in Him.

1 John 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.”

The Apostolic calling was to proclaim not what they read in the Scriptures but what they had SEEN.

They had seen Jesus, and they were granted fellowship with Jesus.

The believed that the same fellowship they had with Jesus could be had by anyone who gave themselves to Him.

We have a joint fellowship with one another and Christ. We have been invited into the circle.

I always loved BSU, because while BSU had a lot of normal folks, some of the strangest people you would ever meet hung out at BSU.

For the first time in their lives, they belonged. It wasn’t based off of what they had/hadn’t done. It was based on what Christ had done.

May we embrace the motto, there is always room for one more.

I know how social groups go. We do our best to jockey for positions to sit by the people we like or know or are familiar with.

What if we became that consumed with including others.

1 John 1:4 “And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.”

Invitation