He's got him on the run over there. First John chapter 1. 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 of the word of life. For the life was manifested and we have seen it. and bear witness and show unto you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us. That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you that ye also may have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. and these things write we unto you that your joy may be full. This then is the message which we have heard of him and declare unto you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth. But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar and His Word is not in us. Father, we do thank You for the reading of the Word. Thank You, Father, for John and how that he brings forth Jesus and the gospel and the true doctrine of Christ in such a way that we realize that we have a intimate relationship with the Lord Jesus. That our fellowship is with the Father and the Son because God the Father has sent forth his Son and God the Son brought forth the Holy Spirit in time that we might have a comforter and a great companion of fellowship through Jesus Christ our Lord. Pray Father you will Bless us as we read and bring out the truths of the Word of God in this passage, in Jesus' name, Amen. Well, we see here that John, as is often said, is not only talking about Christ as the incarnate Word of God, but how that the fellowship that we have with Christ, with the Father, is made possible by the Son. And in these first couple of verses here, we find that he talks about the Word, the Word of Life. The date of the writing, I guess, has been somewhat in controversy, as well as who it has been written to. Some of the early church fathers thought it was written to the Parthians, but I guess their native language was more Hebrew than Greek. And so that was kind of abandoned, that idea. because it wasn't the natural language of the people also we find that you know probably in your bible you have a date of the writing around 90 or 95 but some place it is early as 69 or 70 in the date so it's been over the years I guess has been under some controversy as to who it is written to exactly because it doesn't say and the date of the writing is a little bit up in the air as well because it cannot be nailed down as far as to whom it was written also we find that There is some question in some of the commentators minds about the phrase in the beginning or from the beginning here in this passage. Is it referring to from the beginning from such as before creation or at creation or was it from the beginning of the gospel being preached? Christ himself preaching after he came and of course John himself being the forerunner, that is John the Baptist being the forerunner. We know that those years that followed were a time of beginning to proclaim the gospel of the kingdom and so there's some controversy about just exactly where to place that phrase that which was from the beginning and of course within the context he says which we have heard and so that would seem to place it perhaps not exactly talking about from the beginning of the foundation of the world or from the beginning of creation but rather from the beginning of the time of the apostles when they were called and the proclamation of the kingdom as well as the gospel which later was revealed as that message unto salvation. 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 of the word of life." Well, here again, we note that this later statement, expanding of the statement, goes to the fact that the apostles did see Jesus, personally, they had a personal encounter with Christ, that they viewed Christ, of course, in every aspect because they were with Him. And when we look at this phrase, which we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the Word of Life, so is he talking about literally handling that is being in intimate relationship, fellowship with Christ or the revealed Word of God as it relates to the revelation of the Word of God through Christ. Now we know Christ of course is the Messiah and at one point Jesus asked the disciples, who do you think I am? And Peter says, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And so Jesus promptly told Peter that man did not reveal that to him, that God the Father revealed that to him. And so we have this sense here, this sense of seeing and being with Christ and under the tutelage of the master the word of life and of course we know that in John 1 that the idea of the word is given to us in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God the same was in the beginning with God All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and in life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. So we have this sense that Jesus is called the Word. And of course also, when you add this phrase, of life, put the whole phrase together, word of life, it is the revelation of him who is from the beginning and of course when did that take place but at the incarnation and subsequently thereafter as Jesus public ministry began through the preaching of John the Baptist and then the disciples being called they are setting under the teaching of Christ and then also he is sending them forth, sending them out. For the life was manifested and we have seen it and probably in this phrase we sense also the incarnation, for the life was manifested. Certainly he did come as the incarnate of God and we know that Christ did many miracles of manifestation, that is many things as signs to the children of Israel that he was the Christ. At one particular point Jesus makes the comment to his audience when he was questioned about healing a certain man he said which is easier to heal or to forgive sins and he promptly told them that either of them must be done by God man cannot do either one man cannot do a miracle of healing might use medicine but We remember the issue, the woman who had the issue of blood, she was under the medicine physicians for a number of years but could not heal her and she comes along in the crowd and touches the hem of his garment, virtue goes out of Christ and she is healed. In other words, we find that Jesus was manifested as the Christ. For the life was manifested and we have seen it. Of course, the disciples were eyewitnesses to it. They did see all these things take place. They were there upon many occasions when miracles were done, when healings were revealed or shown. And even when sins were forgiven, they were there to witness those things as well. And so we find that this is a beautiful way of saying something about someone such as Christ who was an eyewitness of all things that related to him as the true Messiah of God. For the light was manifested and we have seen it and bear witness and bear witness. And so this witness, this testimony that John gives is a witness of an eyewitness account of himself, of Christ. And of course that becomes important to the verification of who Jesus is. Many people have questioned who Jesus is and Some of the commentators and some of the critical thinkers that have tried to really unravel scriptural manuscripts have brought this into question many times concerning Christ. And they do it in a way that discredits Jesus. But we find that in the Word of God, John and the other apostles, Christ, the apostle John, of course, was there. He was the beloved John. Paul had his personal intimate encounter with Christ on the road to Damascus. Peter, as a fisherman, had his intimate relationship with Christ and Christ even exhorted him to feed his sheep, his lambs, his sheep, to feed them. And we find that Jesus revealed himself to them over and over again at different points along the way. in the upper room at various times, it seems that even though Judas did not recognize Christ for who he was, yet the other disciples in the upper room did have a good understanding of Christ, even though all things were not revealed to them at that time. And they felt very offended that they might be somehow a betrayer. But Judas, he made no sense, no rebuttal at all. Jesus just told him, go and get those things, go and do those things that were necessary. The disciples of course thought that it was in relationship to the Passover, but actually Judas was headed out to the to the high priests or the officials and were going to betray Christ. In other words, the relationship that the true disciples had to Christ was much different than the relationship of Judas or others. Even the two on the road to Emmaus, walking along the road and encountering Christ, but yet not knowing him yet. And it took a special revelation to those two on the road to Emmaus before they recognized he was the Christ. But as soon as he revealed himself, they knew it immediately. And so all of these various aspects show the manifestation of Christ and how he revealed himself at different times. And John was a witness, not just a bystander, but one who was with Jesus. And we have to wonder perhaps, you know, if perhaps John was the favorite disciple of Jesus. We know that God doesn't show partiality, that kind of thing, but at the same time they had very close relationships with one another. John is called John the Beloved. He seems to have this closer connection in some sense with Jesus. And so he writes in that way. And it says here, for the life was manifested and we have seen it and bear witness and show unto you that eternal life. And show unto you that eternal life. Well, as an apostle, it was the job of the apostles to go and to preach eternal life. To show it, to demonstrate in some sense. And how would they do that? By telling about the very man, the very God-man whom they encountered and impacted their lives so greatly. And so we know that eternal life is a faith requirement. And so John would have had to have faith to to show unto anyone that eternal life. And how is that done, really? Except by the witness and testimony of one who possesses eternal life. And so John had this close encounter with Christ. He says, which was with the Father, this eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us. Because the other thing that we see here is that this is very doctrinally based. It's very doctrinally grounded. It's grounded in such phrases as from the beginning and manifested and eternal life and the word father being employed here. and was manifested unto us. Well, we know that Jesus was sent forth from the Father. He was manifested unto the world. Angels announced it to Mary. Angels, God even spoke unto Joseph. And we find these various encounters along the way as the Father ordained this revelation to those that were impacted by the coming of the Christ. Even the Magi's who came from the East, though they seem kind of obscure almost in some ways, not knowing much about them, but they appear on the scene. and there is even a sign in the sky of this astrological change that these magi, these wise men seem to be following they seem to be exploring what this is all about and they must have had some kind of communication concerning this person, this coming of the Christ although we are not given all the information about it but they obviously they came for a reason it wasn't that they just saw a star in the sky and started wandering around somehow perhaps they were reading Old Testament documents perhaps they were reading in the prophets but whatever God used to stir their imagination and their hearts toward him they also became witnesses of the manifestation of the Lord Jesus Christ and his coming into the world and he is being sent of the Father and so this brief introduction has very strong doctrinal implications here for us as we read on in verse 3 he says that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you declare we unto you and so this declaration if you will of the Lord Jesus Christ by John is a declaration that he would preach that he would preach unto them and so they would herald it they would preach it and bring forth this message a message that would truly change the world it would change the world so we find that they would declare this message as they were given it and We find that the declaration of that message became known as the Gospel of Christ, which we have seen and heard declare, we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us. Now how do we have fellowship with the Father and with those who are also of like believers, but through the Gospel? We receive the Gospel. God the Holy Spirit is at work in our hearts to bring us unto that faith. So this faith encounter is one that God uses that we might have fellowship with other believers. John, as John was writing to these really I suppose unknown Christians that is probably this brief epistle was sent to all the churches not just to one church but because it was directly said to have been sent to one particular church it makes sense that it was probably widely spread to all the churches And so perhaps he wrote in that particular manner for that particular reason, not wanting to leave anybody out of his communication concerning the Christ. And what do we do when we preach Christ? We don't try to leave anybody out, do we? No, we want to preach as universally as possible to all people. So as pastors should do that. And that this message of Christ is one that is universal in its ability to change the hearts and lives of people if they will turn to the Lord. And so in that sense, we believe in the universality of the gospel or in the universality of salvation to all people. We don't believe in a Unitarian concept of it. That all people are going to ultimately be saved and they have different paths to get to the same place. We don't believe in that. But we do believe the gospel is meant to be preached to all people. In fact, that's the whole missionary thrust of most of, I would hope, missionary boards. The missionary thrust would be to all people. Even though missionaries often go to individual countries or people groups or various people who have some particular need, whether it be to communicate the gospel in their own language wherein they perhaps don't have any translation of their own. Whatever reason, missionaries do what they do. is to communicate the gospel to all people. And that's very important, isn't it, as we stop and think about that. For God so loved the world, and of course the world means mankind in that particular usage, even though it's the same word, cosmos, it still means mankind. That's the context of the usage of it. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. That whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. And of course, if we understand everlasting life, it has a starting point. An ending in the future, or rather a full consummation I should say, in the future. But it has a starting point. And that's with Jesus. That's with Jesus. And from the gospel standpoint, it is that way. And we recognize that God means for us to take that message as universally as possible to others. That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you that ye also may have fellowship with us. So we have a fellowship with one another because of Christ and the gospel. and truly our fellowship is with the father we have fellowship with the father because we know Jesus Christ through the gospel and so if that is enough he says and with his son Jesus Christ and so through the preaching of the gospel And it seems almost like a kind of a backward way of saying it, doesn't it? Why would he start with us first and then go to the Father and then go to the Son? In effect, that is how we realize it. Because once we have come to faith in Christ, then all of a sudden we see other people based upon whether or not they are believers as we are. It isn't until then that we recognize anybody else as a true believer in Christ. Once you come to faith in Christ, you say, oh, I didn't know so and so was a believer. And all of a sudden, you begin to be able to talk to them like a believer, like one who is a true Christian. And then you begin to realize, yes, because of my salvation, now I know God the Father meant for me to come unto salvation through his son and so we again affirm our relationship to the son. So his placement of these seems to be more practical in view of the doctrine of Christ. And these things write we unto you that your joy may be full. And so here is, as has been often brought out about John's writings, he writes to the little children, as it were, to other believers, children who belong to the Father. And he writes about that intimate relationship that those who are children have with Jesus and with the Father. And so he says, and these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full. Probably one of the most difficult things in our Christian life is to keep that joy, that love, that intimate relationship in good health. We know that the church at Ephesus was accused of leaving his first love. We know that the church at Laodicea was guilty of Well, it seems like they had left Jesus out of everything. And, you know, so there is a sense here that believers can err on this, make a big error on this side of having a right relationship with the Father and keeping this joy and going in their life. Even the church at Corinth seemed to be out of sync with things. They were more focused on gifts than they were on a right relationship with God. They had this schismatic thing going on. some of Peter, some of Paul, some of Apollos, and you know, this kind of thing. Whenever there is a lot of problems in the church, it seems like the joy of one's salvation is somehow hindered. It's inflicted with pain. Why? Because if we're out of fellowship one with another, we're out of fellowship with Christ, or then we're out of fellowship with one another. And we find that to be true. You know, in churches, it seems like the minute something kind of gets out of joint, out of sync with the Lord, there's little problems that just kind of surface immediately. Some resentment, some hurt feelings, some sliding people feel, just a number of things that go on, personality differences and so forth. But if there is a good relationship in the church with the Lord, if people have a good relationship to Christ, there is less of that going on. And these things write we unto you that your joy may be full. Your joy may be full. Well, of course, we've all heard of the acrostic, J-O-Y, Jesus, others, and yourself. We've all heard that acrostic. And OK, that's fine. That's fine. It's a good way to put it, but we know that it You know, it's like when something isn't well, it takes a long time to get it back healthy again. I like houseplants, you know, at home, but I got this one plant, it's not well. I've tried everything to get that plant well, I can't get that plant well. Every time I look at it, I want to throw it away. I just can't get it well. No matter what I do to it, I can't get it well. And you know, sometimes people are like that. Sometimes people, you want to get them well. Spiritually. And you struggle to get them well. You just hope that the message you're saying at church is going to help them. Or you hope that the Bible studying lesson is going to be meaningful. Or you hope that some little act of kindness or generosity or mercy or grace that you show somebody is going to do something and sometimes you do everything you can and they don't get well and that's very discouraging but is it possible for them to get well? yes but it seems that they really it's something they have to do more themselves than what somebody does for them It's something they really have to do for themselves. They have to mean business with the Lord. They have to humble themselves before the Lord. John talks about it later, confessing sin. They have to be willing to do that to the Lord. Not so much to other people because other people can't be trusted with your sins. That's probably one of the worst things you could do is tell other people your sins. They're just not a good idea. But to tell the Lord is a good idea. And you see, that's probably the one thing that these people who aren't well... I don't really have a solution for that plant. I wish I did. I keep trying, but nothing's working. But, you know, that's just plants for you. And it seems like with plants, that once they go just about so far, it's hard to bring them back. You know, you just... You've done enough gardening, I'm sure all of you, so you know if you have a sick plant out in the garden, and you keep working at it and working at it, and you give it a little bit more fertilizer, a little bit more water, and all of a sudden, it dies. It just dies. Well, I don't know if that really has a spiritual application to what we're saying. Because we aren't plants. We are created in the image and likeness of God. And God wants to have a relationship with us. And if we're not willing to work at that, it seems that things won't go well. It's sad that that seems to be the case. But what do we do? We pray. We do continue to pray, which we always should do. But this was one of the things, it seems, that John was interested in, that their relationship with the Father, with the Son, and with one another in the family of God, would be a joyful relationship, a full and joyful relationship, an abundant relationship. And I'm just trying to look at this word full and see what it had to say. Complete. Complete carries the thought of complete. There's a number of different applications, but it seems like that would be the one that might apply better. The joyful relationship that's complete. Nothing lacking in that sense. Nothing lacking. And of course one should always strive to that end as those who minister to others. But I think sometimes people who do minister to others think they can do it themselves, which is a big mistake, you can't. But what's John doing? John is really preaching Jesus in a very strong doctrinal sense. He's preaching Jesus, telling about his relationship, his witness, but he is preaching of Jesus to these little children, these who should have a joyful and full, complete relationship to the Lord, a joyful relationship. Well, we'll stop right there, we won't go any further today, and we'll pick it up next time and go through some of this further here. Let us look to the Lord in prayer. Loving Father, we do thank you. Father, I've been preaching to myself, too, today, because each of us need a more joyful and a more complete and full relationship with you in Jesus Christ, our Lord. So I pray, Father, that you will bless this message to our hearts. In Jesus' name, amen.