1 John 1, and we'll be studying 1-3a, but we will be reading 1-4. 1-4, the Word of God. That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we look 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." Amen. Dear Saints, you may be seated. We have arrived at the second sermon in our brand new, fresh series in 1 John, and this one is very exciting. Before we go to it, as always, let's approach the throne and pray. Father, we thank you that Jesus is thrilling and the church is a beautiful place. We thank you that to hear the gospel fresh and new every Sunday is a privilege that is reserved for your special people. And we are that way because you have made us that in Christ Jesus. And we pray that you will bless us in this series and in this sermon through Christ alone, in whose name we pray. Amen. So, dears, the plan is to crawl out of the gate of 1 John by taking the first three weeks or sermons and covering only the first four verses. Next week, Lord willing, we're going to look at verses three and four. The title of the sermon will be The Fellowship of the Church. But the reason that we are doing it this way is because the foundation of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ is so absolutely important and key that he cannot be overestimated, overemphasized, or overstressed in any way. Now be aware that after this we will speed up a bit. In fact, in two weeks or so we'll probably look at verses 5 through 10 because they hold together so clearly and cogently. But we see here in this text an apostle who is not about works, not about speculation, not about sophistication, not about theory. Instead, he is adamant about the person of the Lord Jesus Christ and the historical veracity or validity or truthfulness of the fact that he was incarnate in human form. We had Elder Ken read that passage today from Isaiah 714. It will be called, Emmanuel, God with us. He's incarnate. We're talking about concrete blood and guts, objective truth concerning the reality of the Son of God. over against the heretics of the Gnostics of those days, the Docetists, who were teaching that Jesus only appeared to be a man, he wasn't really, he was sort of a phantom, sort of one of those holograms, whatever. But none of that's true. Jesus Christ really came in the flesh for us. And the Apostle John knew that, he saw him, he heard him. And he brings this truth to us today. The motive behind this Apostle's gospel passion is love. Love for God, to be sure, but also love for Christ's church, which he, the Apostle John, wanted to share, the church share, in the joy that he experienced. Now, at the end of verse 4 it says, our joy may be full. That can go either way, your joy, our joy. I prefer your joy, but it could be either way. And in fact, wherever there is the gospel and the love of Christ, the whole church's joy is full, whether it was John and his apostolic brethren, or the rest of the body of Christ in all ages. And certainly, that is our joy today, sharing in it. In light of this glorious truth and situation, let's make it our gospel goal this Sabbath day, this resurrection day, to know and love God in and through Jesus Christ, looking at 1 John 1, 1-3a. Getting a grip on life, Jesus Christ. We hear that expression sometimes, get a grip, get a grip on life. Well, if that's to be done, it must be the person of Christ. The doctrine. The Christian life is impossible without Jesus Christ. Now, that doctrinal statement may seem obvious at first glance, but the reality is that Christ is usually missing in most forms of even alleged Christian expressions of religion. And this is why most religion in the world is dead and ineffective and just worthless, not even worth paying attention to. Jesus Christ is not part of the Christian faith. or the essential core of everything that exists. He is the principal part of it all. He is the main kernel and core of it all. Without Him, there is nothing that is. Before we go any further in this book or in the sermon today, let us settle on this fact, that the Christian life is impossible without Jesus Christ. First, all efforts to avoid him lead to death. Now someone might ask, why would anybody want to avoid Jesus Christ? After all, is he not a gentle and mild person? Well, the solid biblical and ecclesiastical answer to that query both unmasks the hypocrisy of sinners and it also reveals the real reason unregenerate people stay away from or avoid the person, the subject, the doctrine, the theology, the reality of Christ Jesus. The world's notion of Christ's meekness and mildness is actually designed to seek to disarm him of his rightful power and authority, which cannot be done. And this is all based on the supposed meekness and mildness that they portray, a sort of deception as proffered, and that the result would be that no one need really pay any attention to him. Sort of a harmless being. Well, nothing could be further from the truth. It is the case that Christ is meek and mild toward his redeemed members of his elect and regenerated church. That is true. And for us, that's a wonderful thing. Come to me, all you labor and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Matthew 11. There's those glorious truths, and it is the case. He shed his blood for us. He gave it all for us. Everything he had, his very person, his being, we're going to look at that and see it in the table here today. It is true, but he is also ultimate and absolutely, unconditionally, without exception, sovereign over everything and everyone. Every piece of creation, every molecule, every atom, every subatomic thing. He's over it all. So whenever it comes to religion, dears, particularly, beware of any doctrine or any doctrine peddler who seeks to draw you away from Christ your Savior and King, your only source of life. And that's what they do. If you haven't noticed it, I'll tell you now. This is the goal of everyone who is not connected to the Lord Jesus Christ, and rightly so, it makes sense. They have no life, they want you to have no life, and they're afraid of this life, but we bring it to them in love. The Christian life is impossible without Jesus Christ. All efforts to avoid him lead to death. And all truth and reality is connected to Him. Yes, you heard that right. All truth and reality, no matter what it is, is connected to and emanates from our Lord Jesus Christ. Do you need a little bit of scriptural proof of that? Well, how about Colossians 1, 16b and 19-20a, partly referenced on your outline? All things were created through Christ and for Christ. For in Christ all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell. And through him Christ, to reconcile to himself the triune God, had all things, whether on earth or in heaven. There's simply no truth or actual existence apart from God, the Triune Being, who created everything and sustains everything through the Word of God, Christ the Son of God, the Second Person of the Blessed Holy Trinity. Now that profound theological fact that all truth and reality is inextricably bound to our Lord Jesus Christ does a lot for our Christian confidence in this world, in this dark and sinful world where we live as church disciples of the Great King, the Savior of God's elect. No foe has a ghost of a chance against us, so long as we are found to be faithful in Christ Jesus, fully in Him, by saving in vital faith, resulting in genuine love, heartfelt compliance, and covenant faithfulness, i.e. life in the body, the Church of Jesus. Let's look at these exciting verses 1-3a, 1 John 1. and be wise to how human beings come to live authentically. Now, I don't say here, may come to live, but do come to live. People outside of Jesus Christ merely exist. They're walking dead people bumping into things. People who love God through Christ actually live, in the biblical sense of the word, the term. There's a huge difference between these two exclusive and absolute categories of being. Now, this understanding will help us navigate the world in which we find ourselves, and it will also give us compassion for souls who are subsisting far below their potential, all of which must be found in Christ alone, just as we found it to be true for ourselves by the grace of God. So how human beings come to live authentically, we're going to see three ways from these two and a half verses. First, through personal experience with Christ, verse one, 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." Now, dears, please notice the experiential language in this first verse. Now, granted, we looked at this verse last week. We did study it. We concentrated on it. There's really no substitute for experience in religion or Christian faith, but not just any experience, and this is where we have to be careful. All true and God-honoring experience, in order for it to be credible, real, and just and honorable, must be in Christ. Any religious experience outside of Christ is essentially worthless and completely vacuous or empty. It's worth nothing except to remind us of how empty life is outside of Jesus Christ. So never be too impressed by people who are touting their spiritual experiences, unless it is in the Christ, in the context of his faithful church. That's where it truly does mean something. In fact, when solid regenerated Christian churchmen talk about experience with or of Christ, we actually mean what 1 John 1.1 is talking about. those areas right there, hearing, we've heard, seen with our eyes, touched, looked upon with our hands concerning the word of life. And that all starts here, doesn't it, in church on Sunday? Hearing what you're doing right now, means of grace, preaching, touching, seeing, sacrament of the Lord's Supper, the word of life, the Christ through whom we pray to the Father and the Holy Spirit and the Son of God, Christ the God-man, all those beautiful, precious means of grace. With our brother, the Apostle John, we hear Jesus preach to us, we see in Handelman the sacrament, and we pray. Now one of the great glories and beauties of this is that then we go on throughout the rest of our lives and the rest of the week, the six days of the week, Monday through Saturday, Bearing about within us by the grace of God, the bread of life, the life of God, the wine of life, the joy of life, the truth of life, the benefits of life, the peace of life, the grace of God, every good and perfect thing. Now we need to come back every week because we forget, and we forget that it's all about grace, all about Christ, we think it's about works, ourselves, or something else, and the world tarnishes us, but we come back and get refreshed, and get that new manna, that fresh manna, every Lord's Day. How human beings come to live authentically through personal experience with Christ, and we may have that, anyone that wants it may have it. Anyone that offers a prayer, Father, I want to hear Jesus Christ preached to me. I want to hear Him. I want to hear His gospel. I want to see Him, spiritually speaking. It may be. It may be had. Our will is the only thing that stands in the way. And then verse 2, through personal closeness to Christ, closeness, 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. Now, there are three key words found here, and they come twice in verse 2. And they are, was made manifest. And this is true, it is true, that John is immediately referring to his and his fellow apostles' experience of the manifestation of the historical beholding of the person of Christ, the eternally begotten Son of God, who became incarnate in human flesh. But he is not by any means excluding you or me or the recipients of his original letter that he sent out in the first century. He's not excluding us at all. This manifestation of Christ is not to be conceived of as something outside of our grasp today, or that of the period of any time after the apostolic era. Instead, John is insisting here that this manifestation, this closeness, is for us too, as we occupy the seats in the Kingdom Church of Jesus Christ. And our close proximity to God comes through the proclamation mentioned here again, i.e. preaching of the quote, eternal life, who is the person of Jesus Christ. Did we not see that in John 17 3 in our call to worship? Jesus Christ is eternal life. Do you remember how Paul put all this in Romans 10.8, where he, quoting Deuteronomy 30.14, wrote this? But what does it say? The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart. That is, the word of faith that we proclaim, Isn't that beautiful? So the Bible argues that we today experience an instant, real, time-space reality now, the same beautiful, glorious reality of the person and the Son of God in His church today as they did back then and John did when he saw Christ before he ascended into heaven. This gospel is so powerful that if Jesus didn't come back for another 10,000 years, a truly called gospel minister of the church preaching on the Lord's Day would have just as much power in that message as it ever did from the very beginning. It is an absolutely relevant, instantaneous, true, glorious message. It really is the case that you and I may be perfectly close to God through Christ Jesus, even in this world, so long as we see him manifest in his church's living gospel preaching and proper administration of the sacraments, which we are going to celebrate today. How human beings come to live. Good question. Through personal experience with Christ. No experience with Christ, no life. Through personal closeness to Christ. Yes, experience with Christ, close life. And finally, through personal sharing in Christ. Verse 3a. that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you so that you too may have fellowship with us." Now this half verse here again highlights the proclamation again, but now it introduces fellowship, something we plan to camp on a little bit more next Sunday. Ironically we're going to, at least some of us will be able to have fellowship dinner today downstairs. Now what John is doing here under the inspiration and in the power of the Holy Spirit, is uniting the entire church of every age and era and epoch, his included and ours too, around the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, the fellowship that true Christian churchmen have is not principally with each other, okay? Now follow me. Even though that's very obviously important and true. It's not first and foremost with each other. but true or authentic ecclesiastical fellowship is always first with the triune Godhead, and this is only achieved through the God-man mediator between God and man, the God-man, Jesus Christ the King, 1 Timothy 2.5, the person of the Lord Jesus. Once he has accomplished this, he's the bridge between the divine and the human, once he has accomplished that glorious transaction, Through saving grace and faith given to his saints, the inevitable result is fellowship, i.e. love and sharing among each other, in other words, all of us in the church. So when we think of fellowship, sometimes we think of just ourselves or with other Christians. That's right, but it's not first that way. The fellowship as John teaches it here always starts with the triune Godhead and comes down into the church through proclamation of the gospel. That's what unites us around, and so does the table, the means of grace. So always keep that in mind. John opens verse 3 yet again with another iteration of this great chorus of seeing, hearing, and proclaiming of Jesus Christ. And there's something else. Fellowship among the saints isn't something that needs to be manufactured or worked at or connived or tricked into or anything like that. Instead, true fellowship comes naturally via a supernatural means of grace, and it comes to all those who love God in the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ himself. As always, dear saints, let's do a little more application this morning and consider together why Jesus Christ is absolutely central to everything. You see, what you're hearing today isn't just for a small band of hearty, faithful Christians who are willing to hear a gospel on the Lord's days. It's not just for us, okay? Jesus Christ is absolutely central to everything. All this speech about our Lord Jesus Christ's prominence is not just for his elect and dearly loved church. No, no, no. When a gospel preacher preaches from the pulpit on the Lord's Day, that's not just for the church. The whole world is affected by it. It is THE news that really matters. No other news. In truth, everyone and everything is and must be concerned with Jesus, since everyone and everything exists as a result of His Christ's unique station as the Word of God, through whom all creation came to be. And I referenced for you two beautiful texts, you might want to write them down. John 1, 1-4, and Hebrews 1, 1-4. Ironically, those two have the same construct in terms of versification. Our gospel is not only completely relevant to everyone and everything, it's the only news that is eminently significant. No disrespect to media and news outlets and stuff like that. They have their place, but it's small potatoes compared to the news that really, really matters. Now let's look together at why Jesus Christ is absolutely central to everything. First, because he is the word of life upon whom we are all dependent. Do we understand, Dearest, that everyone is reliant upon God via Jesus Christ, not only for their daily bread, for instance, but for their very being? You know, if God, to speak in human terms, if God quit thinking about a person or a thing, that thing would simply cease to exist. No, it's not possible for God to quit thinking about something he created through the Son of God, the Word of God, Jesus Christ. That's not possible. But if it was, that thing would just evaporate. Everything is dependent upon Christ. John's first letter, which we call 1 John, was never intended to be limited in scope just for the church. We mentioned this last week, but this is one of those epistles we call a Catholic epistle, or a general epistle, or a universal epistle. It's written to the whole church for all time. It's not just written to one particular parish with a bunch of needs. That's fine, we're thankful for Corinthians, Thessalonians, Philippians, Colossians, Romans, and all of those. But this is a letter written for everyone all the time. Those are two. It's not limited at all in scope. In fact, the Apostle John, being the eminent man on the planet at that time, probably if he wrote this in the 90s, probably the last of the 11 faithful disciples still living, did live in Ephesus and lived a long life and died naturally. He probably fully expected that his Gnostic, Docetist, heretical opponents would become conversant with his letter. Heretics do typically like to wrestle with things and people and God's people and try to take us on. He probably expected that. And he was fine with that. He wanted them to read it. He wanted them to see what he had to say about them. Now he had some harsh words for them. He called them anti-Christ. He had some other things. Remember he is the son of thunder, not just the apostle of love. But that's how a good pastor is, that's how a good apostle is, that's how God is. He's gentle and tender with his own sheep, but he will beat to death the wolves that come to devour his people. And John was one of those without a doubt. And he probably, John did, probably expected that everybody else in the world of religion or non-religion would contemplate the meaning of life through his little letter, if they had access to it. And in case you're wondering, dears, whether you realize it, or I do, or not, or anybody else does, everybody who can think is a contemplator of the meaning of life. The only question is, will that be honorable or just suppression of the truth, trying to put it down in a way as long and as hard as could possibly be? Why Jesus Christ is absolutely central to everything? Because he is the Word of Life upon whom we are all dependent, and because he is the word of life through whose atonement the forgiven church is redeemed. Remember, dears, being forgiven, and that by God of all our sins, is the glorious effect of all this living experience, closeness, and sharing which we fully possess in our Lord Jesus Christ. We talked about it earlier. Experience, closeness, and sharing. It's the effect of being forgiven all our sins. John's very pastoral. A little bit later in this book, he's going to give us some great encouragement. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us. If we say we've not sinned, we make him a liar. His word's not in us. He goes on and deals pastorally with real sins, real people, real hardships. He says we have the propitiation for our sins. If anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. First John 2 at verse 2, he is the propitiation, the satisfaction for our sins. Not for ours, but also the sins of the world, which means the sins of all the elect people in the rest of the world too. This is a beautiful gospel, dears. No forgiveness, no life. Yes, forgiveness, full life in Christ alone. We've already argued that the gospel and written word of God, including 1 John, is for everyone, and it is. But the word of life's Christ's pristine blessing falls upon God's children of grace and promise. So how are we to think about those two things? The gospel and the word, everything is for the world, but the sweet blessing of it falls upon God's children. How are we to think about that? What are we to do about it? We who love God in Jesus Christ by His grace are to be mindful that this love is all of His doing, not ours. And we are to view all other fallen, sinful human beings as potential objects of this same grace that we, by God's mercy and kindness, have received in Jesus Christ, in His blood, atonement, and glorious resurrection. Who would have thought that the persecutor Saul would be a candidate to be the gospel minister, the Apostle Paul? So this is how we are to do it. In this light then, dears, let us call upon all people everywhere, including ourselves, and first ourselves, to believe in, love, and live for Christ, to the glory of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Beloved, getting a grip on life means getting a grip on Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Father, thank you for that. Without that, without that vital connection, union with Christ by faith, there's no life. No hope, no righteousness, no justification, no forgiveness, no salvation, nothing good. Everything depends on Him. Thank you for this text. It teaches us this. Other ones that do the same. We bless you for Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.