We turn to 1 John chapter 1. 1 John chapter 1, and we'll look at the first four verses as we hear God's holy, inerrant, infallible word. That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have 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. Thus far, the reading of God's Word to us this morning. May He add His blessing to the reading and to the proclamation of it. dear congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, as the Reformed Church in many quarters celebrates this week the Great Protestant Reformation, perhaps many on this Sunday or next, it has been the habit for us to consider how man has attempted to corrupt the very body of Christ that is the Church. over the years. Since the inauguration of the New Covenant when Christ walked the earth and the building of the Apostolic Church, early saints have struggled to keep the Church orthodox and from becoming heterodox. Paul's letter to the Corinthians addresses the lack of unity and sin permeating within the ranks. His letter to the Galatians spoke to another gospel, which was no gospel at all. John's first letter in part focused on Gnosticism and Gnosticism, heresies that involved special revelation misidentifying Christ, which obviously diminished the glorious assurance that only the true, true gospel provides. Deformation in the church. regardless of the times, regardless of the players, the heresies, the movements, has always been about destroying the full assurance of salvation to fit paradigms, to fit man's ideas, so that he has a say in the salvation equation. It really comes down to this compound question. How is man really saved? And how can he really know that he really is saved? The apostle John writes to the church about just that. The first epistle of John, as one commentator put it, is justly called the epistle of eternal life. It shows how and in whom that life was uniquely and perfectly manifested. It shows how the presence of that life in men and women may be recognized. That's really 1 John in a nutshell. But there's much more to the epistle, and that more includes the apostles' actual witness. You see, before Christ ascended into the heavens to occupy the Davidic throne at the right hand of God Almighty, King Jesus gave some pretty, pretty important instructions to the apostles. Mark 16, 15 and following says, Go into the world and proclaim to the whole creation, whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. Now think about that for a moment. That's quite an assignment our Redeemer gave to the apostles. Go out into the world and proclaim to the whole creation, We're talking about maybe sometime around 33 AD, and if you do the math, it's 1,991 years ago, give or take. This might be hard to believe, beloved, but they did not have internet in the day, or anything remotely like social media, Facebook, things like that. Not even the old dial-up connection, and none of that! No emailing, no blogging, no mass communication, no mass transit. with just a tunic, a pair of sandals, and a very powerful message. The apostles were out to proclaim the gospel. And that message is still today the one and only gospel by which God works salvation. As Paul observed, it pleased God through the foolishness of a message preached to save those who believed God's people then and today. What is foolishness to the world is to us the glorious language about Jesus and His sacrificial love—that salvation unto eternal life in Christ Jesus and for those who believe in Him by grace through faith alone. Yeah, those are themes from the Reformation thereafter. And that gospel message is authentically manifested in the lives of those who profess His name. These are the very themes of the Apostle John in his first epistle. These are the very points Jesus Himself preached and passed on to be preached to all nations, to all places, and to all peoples. even in the year of our Lord, 2024. But this is nothing that we sophisticated Christians have not heard before. Yes, eternal life is only in Christ Jesus. We already know that. Tell us something new. Well, how about something old made new or renewed in our lives? You see, in Reformed and Biblical teaching, we speak of the attributes of the true church. Now, these are not to be confused with the marks of the true church that we know as the pure preaching of the gospel, the faithful administration of the sacraments, and the diligent exercise of church discipline. But the attributes of the true church include catholicity, that is, the holy universal church, a church chosen from every tribe, every tongue, and from every nation. The attributes include unity. The church is one body and has one Lord. The church is also holy and to be set apart from the world and set upon Christ. And another attribute is indestructibility. The church cannot be destroyed. God will always preserve arraignment in days when the church is faithless. And we know from church history there are periods, very sad periods, in which the church was very faithless. But the gates of hell cannot overcome her. She is eternal. The body of Christ is eternal. And then there's the attribute that is most germane to our text this morning, apostolicity. Paul says in Ephesians 2, So when you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone. The apostles, as you know, are the sent ones. John is one of those sent ones, and he introduces his epistle with an apology over what he proclaims. Now, this is not a, I'm so sorry, apology, but a bold defense of the faith for the message of the gospel. It's an apologetic, you might say, a defense of that very gospel. And John's letter is unique. It neither begins nor ends like an epistle. It does not start off with any indication of the identity of the writer or of the people whom he addresses, nor does it end with any kind of personal greeting. Please look back at verse 3. That which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us. Indeed, our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son. Jesus Christ. John's letter, or what is really the epistle of eternal life, cannot be rightly accepted unless we thoroughly trust the writer. We believe the source comes from the Spirit of God, but we must also trust the one whom the Spirit has chosen to breathe into the words of Christ. So let us meditate now upon John's words by seeking to discern, first, the content of the Apostolic Proclamation, second, the purpose of the Apostolic Proclamation, and finally, the goal of the Apostolic Proclamation. So first, we look at the content of the Apostolic Proclamation. One of the many blessings the Church has received over the centuries from John's writings is clarity. John is an easier epistle to read. The Greek is easier to discern. That's why many seminaries start their students off reading John, because it's simple. Keep it simple. And that's what John endeavors to do. For John, this is what we proclaim, and why we proclaim it. It's that simple. This is what we proclaim, and why we proclaim it. Verse 2, "...we have seen it, and testified to it, and proclaimed to you the eternal life, which was with the Father, and was made manifest to us." We have seen it! John is saying that the apostles are our first-hand witnesses of the work and word of our Lord Jesus Christ. In order to testify anything, one must be a first-hand witness. In order to write the definitive epistle of eternal life, one must be a primary source. If John were not at Jesus' side and wrote only on the basis of fanciful anecdotes with no credibility whatsoever, his letter would be like pure fiction. The musings of one man and not the gospel truth. The content of John's, as with all the Apostle proclamation is really Jesus Christ. It's all about Jesus Christ. You're not going to be reading about John's personal life and achievements in this epistle. You're not going to find a line or two that says, look at me, I am so great, look at me, glorifying God. No. Look at me, I'm Christ's beloved apostle, and I will now improve upon his message. No, that's nowhere near, nowhere at all shaped, manner or form, in his epistle. In the first four verses, John talks about the two natures of Christ. Talk about getting into the weeds right away. Jesus is true God, and true, sinless man, and the natures exist at the same time. The God-man-to-nature Savior would become the subject of much controversy for the Church in the centuries to come. We have seen this in our Sunday School series in the last few weeks, last few months, how man has corrupted This person of Christ. Because man felt he could improve upon the apostles' first-hand, straightforward testimony. But what resulted was one heresy after another. Deformation. John begins his epistle on eternal life by defending the two-nature teaching that already was under attack by the Gnostics, who believed that by attaining higher knowledge, one could secure his salvation. Moreover, to the Gnostics, only the spiritual is good and the physical is evil. Therefore, God becoming man is completely unacceptable to the Gnostics. And from Gnosticism, we have a string called Gnosticism, which flatly denies the humanity of Christ. Christ, a man, was only a phantom. He really wasn't a man. His flesh and blood were not real. The power of God was on the man Jesus, but the power of God left the man Jesus before the crucifixion. That's utter nonsense. John's Gospel account says, "...and the Word became flesh and taught among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth." John's Epistle says, "...the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testified to it, and proclaim to you the eternal life." Friends, do you accept the testimony? of the Apostle John? Do you believe that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and have touched with our hands concerning the Word of life? Do you believe that? Do you believe in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God in the beginning with God? He was in the beginning with God. Beloved, John is wonderfully consistent in his gospel and in his epistle. But that should not come as a surprise to any one of us. For there is one truth that John proclaims. Jesus is God. Jesus is God. And Jesus is man. And if we take away one or the other, we have no salvation. So John defends the deity of Christ. The Son of God was eternally existent. There was never a point in time when Jesus became the Son of God. And John is saying that this Jesus who dwelt among us is eternal. He is the Word. He is God in the flesh. Was it not Jesus? Was it not Jesus who said, If you have seen me, you have seen the Father? That's a bold statement. John also points to Christ's humanity by saying, He has appeared to us. Already in Genesis 3, the promise of the Messiah is revealed. But John is telling us that the hope of all the Old Testament and the Church to come has The hope has arrived. The apostles saw him. The apostles touched him. There was no doubt. He was no phantom. The foundation of the church beloved, that is the apostles, declares that God in the flesh was seen and heard. And yet others saw the work of Christ too and said that the prince of demons, he's driving out demons. So how do we know that what the apostles saw was really, really right? They had it right. Well, John's gospel account says, we have seen his glory, the glory as the only son and the father full of grace and truth. You see, by the illumination from the Spirit, the apostles were able to see beyond Christ's veil of flesh, His physical appearance. 2 Peter 1.16 summarizes this beautifully. For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made it known to you the power of coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty. And if C is still not believing, what about John's words? We looked upon and have touched him with our hands. Again, the apostles touched him. Luke 24, 39 says, See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have. And the Greek word for touch in Luke's account is the same one used John has in his epistle. Touch really means to handle, to investigate. John wants you to know beyond any doubt that Christ is the eternal Son of God, who became flesh in order to secure eternal life. That's the content of his apostolic Our Lord Himself says in Matthew 13, But blessed are your eyes, for they see in your ears, for they hear. Truly I say to you, many prophets and righteous people long to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear. Hear what? The content of apostolic proclamation that Christ is eternal, the eternal Son of God, the one who procures eternal life. John also proclaims the purpose of apostolic proclamation our second point this morning, the purpose. What is the purpose? Verse three, so that you too may have fellowship with us, and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. John is saying that what we have and what we want to have is fellowship with you, and that blessed fellowship is with the Father, and with the Son, and made known by the Spirit. It's a Trinitarian involvement. True unity among men can only come from those united with Christ. Fellowship today is often thought of as hanging out with each other, with food and some activity, usually as the common bait. But true biblical fellowship, and I wish I had I originally thought of this, but another preacher put this quite well. True biblical fellowship is living communion, knitting mind-to-mind, will-to-will, heart-to-heart, and is based on the knowledge of the eternal truth. That's true biblical fellowship. can you think of any sweeter assembly than the church? We have our clubs, right? We have our athletic teams, we have professional associations, and there are all types of groups, and we can find a sense of community from them, but nothing compares to the binding between true believers and the true church, being part of a body It is being in Christ that compels us to put aside private interests and come together as one to worship God with reverence and awe. Hebrews 10, 23-25 beautifully instructs us, let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another and all, the more, as you see, the day is drawing near. There is one faith, one hope, one Lord, and true believers unite as one body True fellowship is exciting. The Apostle John expresses his thoughts when he says, "...that which we have seen and heard, we proclaim also to you, that you may have fellowship with us. Indeed, our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ." Is there a greater fellowship out there? The residency of the Holy Spirit in our hearts gives us a new nature. And from that nature, we desire to seek the assembly of God's people. And that's the outcome of a regenerated heart. Conversely, a hard heart despises all things which binds us to Christ. God has called us believers to be his children. The believers' sins are forgiven, and Christ's righteousness has been imputed to them. To glorify the King is therefore our common goal. His law is our delight. We desire to abide in Christ. The purpose of apostolic proclamation is fellowship with God and the Church. Fellowship with God and the true Church begins with bowing before the Lord in humility, acknowledging our sin and complete dependence, complete dependence upon His grace, seeking Him, His forgiveness and desiring His We don't do fellowship like we do lunch, and we don't do worship like we do theater, or any other activity. Worship and fellowship are exercised unto the glory of Him according to Him, regulated, really regulated by His Word, God, who is, and was, and shall ever be, the One who came, became flesh, that we would be equipped to do these things. It's not for us to say, okay, God, you have ordained worship and fellowship, now let me tell you how we'll do it. And that's where many... evangelical churches are today. Okay, yeah, so you gave us something from which we can start and begin and build upon, and we'll take it from here, God. No, that's not how it goes. If John has truly seen the glory of God as is written in his gospel account, then John knows what he proclaims in his epistle of eternal life. He who was with the Father was made manifest to us. He saw, he witnessed God in the flesh. It's all about the person and work of Christ, and not what man can make of it. And that's where deformation comes, because man insists on his own work. And finally and briefly, John's goal of his apostolic proclamation is found in verse 4. We are writing these things so that our joy, our joy, may be complete. Now, there's a bit of a discrepancy here, as some Greek manuscripts have the phrase to make your joy complete. And the debate then is whether John is talking about the apostles' joy or the believers' joy. But to argue either way is to miss the bigger picture of the verse. If there is joy for the apostles, then there is joy for the believer. And if there is joy for the believer, then there is joy for the apostles. One does not cancel. There is simply joy whenever a person responds in faith and turns away from the old self and repents. Joy for the preacher and joy for the believer. Really, we should be exiting this place with hearts filled with joy because we have been in the presence In his third epistle, John writes, I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth. No greater joy, as Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 2. For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at His coming? Is it not you? For you are our glory and joy. And not the person, but Christ in the person. Christ who has changed the person. That's our glory, that's our joy. Christ is our glory. What is Jesus himself saying, John 15, 11? These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. In his epistle of eternal life, John wants you to have the joy of Christ. That is his joy. This is the common possession of the apostles and the reader of those who preach the word of God and those who receive it. This is why he begins his letter with a defense of who Christ is and what he has done for those who believe in him. Now John will later write in chapter 5 verse 13, I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. He wants you to know that. Don't be deceived. Don't be deceived. We know there's misery in the church. We know there's hurt in the church. We know bad things occur in the church. People say bad things about one another in the church. Don't let that rob the joy of Christ in you. And to reject the apostolic witness that testifies that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, is to reject Christ. And to reject Christ is to reject life everlasting with the King of kings and Lord of lords. So if we leave this place having not been affected, where then is the joy? Did we come here this morning just to to knock off a thing to do because we begin the week with worship? Or have we come to experience the joy of being in the presence of a holy God? To accept the witness by grace through faith, we unite with Him and procure our salvation. What a wonderful, wonderful unity that we have. Let's pray.