Fellowship Based on the Word of Life

Transcript

GR 1087
11/7/1982

1 John 1:1-4
Gil Rugh

As I have mentioned this morning we are going to begin looking into the book of I John this evening. So turn in your Bibles if you will, to the first epistle of John.

Not going to spend a great deal of time in the background to this book. Just a few basic items. Then we'll launch right into our study and as I usually do, encourage you to be reading the Book through the time of our study. Take time to sit down and read it through. You could do that once a week you would find yourself with a significant grasp of the Book. Again, I John has the advantage of being a short epistle and so one that you could sit down and read through at one sitting fairly easily. And that helps give you a feeling for the continuity and emphases that John has.

The thrust that is being given in the Book has to do with the assurance of our salvation. He is writing to believers to assure them, to give them the assurance of their salvation.

Turn over to I John 5. He says in verse 13, "These things I have written to you who believe in the Name of the Son of God in order that you may know that you have eternal life." So I have written to you believers so that you may know that you have eternal life, the assurance of salvation is the thrust that John is giving. Now the way that he'll do that is to lay out the characteristics of a believer and the characteristics of an unbeliever so that you have a concrete, tangible evidence to give you the assurance. Oh, I am a child of God. I see that. That contrasts with his purpose when he wrote his gospel.

Let me just read it for you in John's gospel chapter 20:30. "Many other signs therefore Jesus also performed in the presence of His disciples which are not written in this book. But these have been written in order that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing, you may have life in His Name." So the Gospel of John was written to draw people to faith in Jesus Christ. The first epistle of John is written to give assurance to those who have believed that they do have eternal life.

Now let me note. I John 5:13 says "These things have been written to you who believe." So John's first epistle is written to believers but he writes about unbelievers also in the book.

Look in chapter 2:26. "These things I have written to you concerning those who are trying to deceive you." So even though we would say, Yes, I John is written to believers. In that book John also writes about unbelievers. He will describe the characteristics of an unbeliever as well as the characteristics of a believer. So that we have the ability to discern and recognize, to distinguish a believer from unbeliever. And thus also to have assurance regarding our salvation. Because I look at the characteristics of a believer and I see those characteristics manifest in my life, then I recognize that I am a child of God.

To give this evidence or assurance, most writers see in the first epistle of John a series of tests. Back around the turn of this century a man named Robert Law wrote a book that some of you may have read or may be interested in reading. Not exactly a commentary but it is a development of the first epistle of John. And in that he developed three basic tests that John repeatedly returns to throughout the epistle as the tests of a believer. And I believe the title of his book were the tests of life and most modem commentaries and commentators have picked up on these three tests.

The first one is what is called a moral test. The test of righteousness or obedience. So if you wanted one word, you could use righteousness or obedience. You can tell a believer by the righteousness of his life. Or another way to say that, by his obedience to the Word of God. That is a manifestation that you are a believer, if you are obedient to God. If the righteous character of God is seen in your life. That is a test of whether you are a believer. If you fail that test, John says you're a liar. You came to be a believer but flunked the test of righteousness, John says, you’re a liar.

Second test is what some have called the social test or the test of love. One word we'd use is the word love. Believers are characterized by having love, love for God and love for fellow believers and without this John says, you’re not a believer. So that's a test for a believer.

Third test is called the doctrinal test by some. It's the test of faith or belief in Christ. We see this as the most basic. John includes it as one of three evaluators—faith in Christ. You don't believe in Christ and His finished work, then you have no relationship with God. So these three areas—obedience, love and faith. We'll see these will continue to cycle through the Book of John—I John as he tries to drive home, this is what a believer really is.

Now the writer of the epistle is the Apostle John. Take it, the same writer who wrote the Gospel of John. Probably written about 90 A.D. Later in John's life, one of the late epistles and late books in the New Testament. And he'll address those that he writes to as his children and we'll see that when we get on into the Book.

No destination noted in this epistle. It begins very abruptly. Now church history tells us that John centered his ministry in later life in Ephesus, the region of Asia Minor. Now if that's the case that would fit the pattern here. It doesn't make any difference although if that is the case, the condition in those churches would fit what is reflected in this Book. Those churches, sad to say, basically later reflect a negative character. Churches like Ephesus in their later history seem to have deteriorated.

The letter to the seven churches. Turn over to Revelation chapter 2. Just as an example. And the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3 are in the region of Asia Minor as you are familiar. And so in this region where John would minister. But just look at the church at Ephesus. "To the angel of the church at Ephesus write, 'To the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand, the One who walks among the seven golden lampstands says this, "I know your deed, your toil, your perseverance, that you cannot endure evil men. You put to the test those who call themselves apostles and they are not. You have found them to be false. You have perseverance, have endured for My Name's sake have not grown weary, but I have this against you—that you have left your first love." Then the warning. If things don't change, I am going to remove your candlestick. You can no longer be a functioning church on My behalf. Fits with our study in Philippians. Remember here they put them to the test, but they failed in love. You must have both doctrinal purity and the love manifested. So here you see in the Church at Ephesus basically a deteriorated spiritual condition.

Look over in Paul's second letter to Timothy, the last letter that Paul writes. He reflects something of the condition spiritually of the churches and the believers in Asia Minor, Ephesus and the surrounding region. In II Timothy chapter 1:15. "You are aware of the fact that all who are in Asia turned away from me." Startling statement. Paul says that when the pressure builds, all the believers in Asia abandon me. I see something of a deteriorated spiritual condition there—that they were unwilling to stand with Paul for the gospel because of persecution and suffering.

Over in chapter 2:26 Paul talks about those who have come that have been held captive by the devil to do his will. Perhaps by faithfulness of ministry they will be rescued from that. In chapter 3:7 he talks about those who are always learning and never able to come to a knowledge of the truth.

Over in Acts chapter 20 you remember when Paul left the Ephesian elders in verses 29 and 30 he warned than that there would be false teachers arising from within their own midst who would be luring away disciples after them. So the elders were to be on guard for the purity of the flock. That may be the church setting in which John is ministering.

The doctrine or theological problem seems to be what is known as gnosticism. And we just mention that. Won't go into detail on it. But it will help you understand some of the emphases in John. Gnosticisim from the word we talked about this morning for knowledge, gnosis, Greek word for knowledge. So the gnostics were those who had a strong emphases on knowledge. Fact, they complained, they claimed a superior knowledge, superior insight into spiritual things. It was a combination of intellectual ism and mysticism, that they were the ones who had the knowledge and they were also mystical. They believed that matter was evil. Physical things are evil and as a result of this some of the gnostics denied the reality of the physical body of Jesus Christ because if matter is evil, if the physical body is evil, and Jesus Christ is not evil, therefore He could not have a physical body. Some of these who held to this were called dosetics. If you read in I John you will see that word. Now dosetic comes from the Greek word that means "to seem" and they were dosetics because they said it just seemed like Christ had a physical body, but he didn't really. It was, I don't know whether you would say a ghost, but it didn't really exist in substance.

Now this lead to other problems. Because if the physical body is evil and you make a radical break between the physical and the spiritual, then you can come to say it really doesn't matter what my physical body does because it is inherently evil anyway and I can't be held accountable for that. And so they made a break between your physical activity and your spiritual life which lead to all kinds of gross licentiousness because my body can commit any kind of sin and immorality. What are you going to do? The body is sinful—that is just the way it is. But that doesn't affect my spiritual life. So that kind of break between the spiritual and the physical. Now John is going to have a strong emphases on both the spiritual divine character of Christ and also His physical humanity. He is going to have a strong emphasis on the necessity of faith, the doctrinal test and also a strong emphasis on righteousness of life. Both go together. Gnosticism really didn't become full-blown until the second century but the elements of it and the foundations of it were operating during John's time.

The Book of Colossians seems to allude to some of these kinds of errors as well. We're just going to look at the opening verses in our study together this evening. The first four verses which really talks about the proclamation that John made. John and the other apostles. And he begins by dealing with the subject which is Jesus Christ. He is the One that is proclaimed.

Look how the book opens up. "What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we beheld and our hands handled concerning the Word of life. The life was manifested. We have seen their witness and proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us." Note how abruptly he launches right into the subject. It's no John writing to so and so. Now it's not a harsh letter, like Galatians. Not an unkind letter, but there is no indication who he is writing to. Doesn't identify himself. John the Apostle. He gets right into the subject.

What was from the beginning? What we heard and so on and you have to come on down to get to the verb end of verse 3. We proclaim. So that whole sentence, going all the way down. You have to come all the way down to verse 3. We proclaim what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen, what we beheld, our hands handled concerning the Word of Life. This is the subject of our proclamation. What was from the beginning and that what I take it refers to the message of life.

Now they become blended here. "What" is in the neuter and that's why I say, it doesn't just, he is not talking about the person of Christ directly, but the message about Christ. But they come to blend to be the same thing. I talk about the message about Christ. He is the message. So what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen, the message concerning Christ or Christ Himself is what we are proclaiming. He is the One in view here.

I take it the beginning of this epistle is similar to the beginning of his gospel intentionally. "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God." You start at the beginning and John's gospel emphasizes very clearly by the tense of that verb "was". When you get to the beginning the Word already was, is the emphases there. So here John picks up again. As far as we can go back, you go back to the beginning. For us, Genesis 1:1 marks our beginning as far as we are concerned. Jesus Christ already was. So we are going to see in this. You going to emphasize His Deity. He is going to emphasize His humanity.

Note the expressions He uses in verse 1 to emphasize his involvement with the Word. I believe there's four of them. "What was from the beginning." That's the basic identification of the message concerning Christ. He is the One that we have heard. We heard Him. Now John's emphasis is going to be as a first-hand exposure to that One who Himself is eternal. We heard Him.

Okay. That's basic. Second. What we have seen with our eyes. Now that adds to it and we do that today. We use expressions like "Don't believe anything you hear and only half of what you see." Now we think there' s an added step. If you not only heard but you saw. Well, that adds credence to it so we not only
heard the message and they heard it from Christ as well as the message about Him. They also saw Him. All right. Next step. "What we beheld our hands handled. And that word "beheld" takes an added step. You have the word to see with our eyes and then beheld. And that word to see means to perceive the character. To have perception. So it goes on just what you see in a physical way, but to have perception into what is seen. So we have perceived. We have intently gazed at Him and grasped something of His character. We beheld Him. Our hands handled. Now that's crucial because here you know we are dealing. Is this a spirit? What about the physical body of Christ? It's a reality. It is something that we handled, that we touched. This may indicate that His emphasis is not only during the earthly life of Christ, but particularly after the resurrection which would be in view as well. This is the same word.

Turn back to Luke 24. And verse 39. "See My hands and My feet that it is I Myself. Touch Me. Handle Me." Same word as we have in I John 1:1. Handle Me. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have. Even after the resurrection Christ is more than a spirit. He has tangible, physical existence. Now after the resurrection it is in a glorified body. But it is a concrete tangible body. You could go up and put your arms around Him. It's not like you see, you know as a ghost where you go and grab and it's just a mist or air. He's not an apparition. So when John says in his first, this first verse of his first epistle, that what our hands handled. That's a stress on—He had a tangible, physical body. I can testify to His reality. I heard Him. I saw Him. I gazed intensely to perceive something of His true character. I handled Him. I touched Him. I know He was real. So that's strong evidence. Someone stands here and says how do you know Jesus Christ was real? Really a physical person. Says, Well, I heard Him. I saw Him. I gazed intensely on Him to perceive. I touched, and handled Him. That's all strong concrete evidence concerning the Word of Life. That's who He is. This is the message. It's the Word of Life and I take it it ties to the emphasis back in John's gospel as well.

You see the same theme. Now in the beginning was the Word and in Him was life and the life was the light of men in the first chapter of the gospel goes on. So He's the Word of Life and the message concerning Him is the Word of Life. The message about Christ brings life. It's a word of life. He Himself is the Word of Life, the message and the Person were inseparably linked in Jesus Christ. When you proclaim the gospel you are proclaiming a message about Christ. You are also proclaiming Jesus Christ. Both are true. You can say it either way. We are proclaiming Christ. WE are proclaiming the truth about Christ. They are one and the same thing.

Now you have a parenthesis in verse 2 where he elaborates on the Word of Life. The life was manifested. And that's an interesting word. It means to reveal something that already exists. Bring something to light that already exists. So you say, the life was manifested. That's an indication of His prior existence. He has been revealed who had prior existence. So again you see in John's development, the subtle and not-so-subtle stress on He is both divine and human. He was manifested but He had prior existence to that. The life was manifested and we have seen. So He's manifested.
WE have seen and bear witness. That's the word we get the word martyr from, one who testifies or bears witness. It came to mean one who dies giving testimony or on behalf of his testimony. Thus a martyr. We are testifying to this and proclaim to you. So He says it's a testimony and it is a proclamation. Is it a testimony of me the eyewitness, is a proclamation of me a spokesman for God. Proclaim to you the eternal life. So the Word of Life, a little bit of an elaboration. The Word of Life is eternal life and is that eternal relationship with Him and that's what life is. Life is a relationship. Eternal life is a relationship with God for eternity to be developed in the last part of chapter 1.

What was with the Father and was manifested to us. So again, emphasis on the prior existence. He was with the Father. He was manifested to us. This is the subject of our proclamation. Now crucial. You see how he has launched right in and hit it so directly. Let me tell you about the One who was with the Father and was manifested to us. So both His Deity and His humanity are stressed at the beginning. He is the message. That's so crucial. You know we sometimes we it for granted as believers.

I read a message preached in this city a couple of weeks ago and you know there was not one reference to Jesus Christ from the beginning to end. Not one. That's not unusual because there was not one reference to Scripture from beginning to end in the entire message preached in a so-called respectable Protestant pulpit. It was a joke. A serious joke. Not a funny one, I guess. Even circulating among the staff. I circulate it among you for your entertainment to get an idea. We lost sight of what is the proclamation. The proclamation is Jesus Christ the divine Son of God has become a Man. Now that naturally will lead to the next question which will be developed. Why did He do that? We know the answer—that He might be the Savior of the world.

John picks up in verse 3, the purpose of this proclamation then. What we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also. We are proclaiming this message. Jesus Christ to you. For two purposes. And you can just circle the word. I don't know how you mark your Bible. In order that we proclaim to you that.. and that next word, that you may have, expresses purpose. We are proclaiming in order that this purpose might be realized. Then in verse 4. "These things we write so that..." expressing purposes again. In order that. So we proclaim and we write for these purposes. Two-fold. I take it what he writes is the same thing he proclaims so they end up saying the same thing.

First, that we might have fellowship. We're going to be talking about fellowship in the first epistle of John. What we have seen and heard we proclaim to you that you also may have fellowship with us and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ.

We have talked about the word "fellowship" in our study of the Book of Philippians. It means to share in common. It's the word coinonia here. To have something in common. To be a partner together with someone. So we are writing. We are proclaiming in order that you may share together with us. Have fellowship with us. Be a partner together with us and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. I take it what He is saying here is the horizontal relationship ties to the vertical relationship.

We proclaim this message about Christ. Why? So that they might believe in it. He doesn't give that elaboration here. That will flow out as he writes the rest of the letter. So that you might believe in Christ so that you might enter into a relationship with God. And when you enter into a relationship with God you also enter into a relationship on this level, on the horizontal with other believers.

We want to have fellowship. We want to share together with you and indeed our fellowship, our sharing together is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. Another clear emphasis on the deity of Christ. He is joined together with the Father as those that we share with. So sharing together with believers is based upon sharing together with God. That's crucial. And that's what we belabored in our study in the verses of Philippians. So we're not going to go back into that. Those who listen to the tape will wonder, why does he keep alluding to Philippians? I don't come to church on Sunday morning. But you do. You know we talked about with fellowship. For the idea of it turn back to John 17 verse 20.
You see the idea here without the word particularly. John 17:20. Jesus in His high priestly prayer. I do not ask on behalf of these alone, these who have believed in Me, but also for those who believe in Me through their Word. See the purpose of the proclamation. That some will believe because of the message that is presented, the Word of Life by John and the others. In order that...note the purpose. Verse 21. In order that they may all be one, even as you Father are in Me and I in you that they also may be in us. So you see the sharing that goes on. We fellowship together. We share together with Christ in God. Now we all do that as believers. You know what that means? We share together in one another as well. There is the mutual sharing in God and in one another. That's why apart from sharing together in God's life, there is no sharing together with one another. Now that's crucial. We are talking about fellowship and its basic significant meaning. Not like we often use the word fellowship of superficial things. They are important to have a place. We are talking about a bond here as Jesus talks about. They may all be one even as the Father and the Son are— that we'd be one in them.

When John talks about our fellowship is with the Father and His Son Jesus Christ, he is talking about that basic sharing together in them. That's the idea of fellowship. Talking about the relationship that's established the moment you believe in Jesus Christ. That's why I believe that every believer is in fellowship all the time with God. And the use of the word fellowship because I never lose my salvation. I always share together in God the Father and in His Son Jesus Christ. I share together with Him every moment of every day and will for all eternity. I am never out of fellowship. I realize we use it in a different way today but that leaves a theological difficulty. I do not lead a perfect life. I do not lead a sinless life. If Marilyn was in the nursery I might have stretched that. You know I don't. But I'm always in fellowship.

We'll come and discuss this next week because it does something to me about sin. But I realize I cannot cease in my relationship with Christ even when I sin. That's what makes immorality so disgusting and revolting and repulsive isn't it? Didn't Paul write to the Corinthians and say that when you join yourself to a whore you have taken the members of Christ and made them one with a whore. I do not cease to share in common in Christ when I committed that sin. That makes sin all the more repulsive. Why?
My fellowship didn't end even while I was sinning. I was in fellowship with Him. I was sharing together in the life of God. That says something about our sin. We'll develop that somewhat next week.

Come back to I John chapter 1. Fellowship with one another. Fellowship with God the Father. That's why believers have a closeness, a depth of relationship with one another that you do not have apart from Christ. That's why He brings an added dimension to our lives. Every relationship takes on a new significance because we have a basic oneness and tie that supersedes even physical ties, even ties to family superseded by that tie to Jesus Christ and that bond with one another as believers. So He wants us to have that to enjoy that relationship with God and with other believers. Verse 4. "We write these things in order that our joy may be made complete." Complete joy and joy is fulfilled when we're all that God intends us to be and we have that relationship with Him that He intended us to have. And we have come to believe in Jesus Christ and then when we're living in light of who and what we are that our joy may be made complete. This is what Jesus prayed in the context of what we talked about that we might cane to believe in Him and share in that relationship. John says that brings joy to the full. You know what it's like. You share tine gospel with someone, someone you have been praying about, concerned about. You share the gospel with them and they come to believe. What does that do to your joy? Some of you experienced this in the 0082 outreach. People come to know Jesus Christ and believe in Him. That does something to your joy, doesn't it? John says we're writing these things so our joy might be made complete.

Now you note. This joy being made complete is dependent upon the proclamation of the gospel message. More joy in our lives maybe we ought to be spending more time proclaiming Jesus Christ and the message He has given us that our joy might be complete. The gospel is proclaimed. Here's the order. First the gospel is proclaimed. Then fellowship is established with God and man because of faith in that message.

Third, joy is brought to completion. That's the pattern he has established. Proclaim Jesus Christ. As a result of that proclamation men and waxen believe and are brought into a personal relationship with God and other believers. Therefore our joy is brought to completion. Got the right emphasis on Christ? We realize who He is. Oh, yeah we're doctrinally sure. Believe in the deity and the humanity of Christ.
Are we proclaiming that message? Are we making it known that others come into fellowship with Him and with us together so that we might have a fulfilled joy. Amazing—God's going to give us that opportunity to make Him known wherever we are the days of this week should Jesus tarry. Trust He'll impress upon our minds the importance of making Him known, proclaiming Him so that others might enjoy that relationship with God that we have. And we might have a personal relationship as fellow believers with them so that our joy might be brought to fulfillment and completion.

Let's pray together