Let me pray once more for our preaching. Lord, we do ask now that you would speak to us through your word, because your word is all that matters. I don't know any of the hearts here except for my own and even then I'm often deceived but you know every heart here. You know every heart here and your word is effective and so we ask now that in the preaching that you would guard my speech, that you would help me to be faithful to the text and that your spirit would apply it to our minds and hearts. Help us to understand it and help us to grasp It's emotionally in our hearts and in our very being to take the truth that you have given us and to respond appropriately. We ask this in Jesus' name and for His glory. Amen. Well today we're starting a new sermon series in the book of 1st John. So I invite you to turn with me to 1st John. We're going to be right at the beginning looking at the little prologue that's usually demarcated in your English Bibles all by itself, verses 1-4. So verses 1-4 of 1st John, you can turn with me there. And while you're turning there, I'll go ahead and read it out loud. But that's okay if you're not there yet because we want to keep the Bible open at all times so our eyes can always be on the text. Make your way to 1 John 1-4 as I read the text out loud. which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands concerning the word of life. The life was made manifest, and we have seen it and testified 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. Indulge a thought experiment with me for a moment. Imagine I say to my daughter, Ketsi, clean your room because Melody and Harmony are coming over for a sleepover. What's the main point of that sentence? What am I saying? What kind of sentence is it? What is its primary goal? It's a command. I gave a command. Clean your room. And I gave a reason for the command. So in giving that command, my main point, my main point in the moment is the command. I want the room cleaned. That's the main point. But that's not the ultimate reality. The more important foundational reality is your friends are coming over. You're going to have fun. You're going to play games. You're going to have a hot chocolate decorating contest. Similarly, if I say to Lexi, hey, we're out of sage and we don't have any potatoes, please run to the store because tomorrow is Thanksgiving and we need those ingredients. Again, the main point of that discourse in the moment is go to the store, get sage and potatoes. That's why I said the sentence, I want you to buy sage and potatoes. But the act of buying the sage and the potatoes isn't ultimate reality. The ultimate reality is eating turkey and mashed potatoes and stuffing and cranberry sauce. I am making this distinction between the main point of a discourse and the ultimate reality underneath the discourse because it is helpful when you read the Bible. The authors of Scripture always have a main point. In any given discourse, in any given section of Scripture, they have a main point. But often that main point is based on a more ultimate, foundational reality. For example, in 2 Corinthians chapters 8 and 9, Paul's main point, his main goal, is he wants the Corinthians to be faithful to their promises of generosity. He wants them to be faithful to their giving promises. He wants them to give generously. That's his main point. Give generously. But he grounds that in the more foundational, ultimate reality of the generosity of God towards us in Christ. So it's not a weird thing in the Bible for ultimate, foundational, metaphysical, historical reality in the moment to be subordinated to specific purposes, highly specific purposes. It does not dishonor the generosity of Christ at all to make the generosity of Christ the grounds for an appeal or the explanation of an action. And now I say all this because in our new sermon series that we're starting through the letter of 1 John. John opens here with a windy, twisty, giant run-on sentence. These first four verses is one sentence, which we just read. It's our sermon text. And in general, in general, the book of 1 John is very difficult to describe structurally, but we're going to talk a little bit more about that next week in our second sermon. But for now, we need only consider this opening sentence. And this opening sentence has been described by scholars, commentators, pastors of the past as discursive, and it's repetitive, disjointed, and even rambling. In fact, one of the best commentaries that I read in preparation for this message reorganized the first verses completely in their translation. And they were honest about this. The author said, this is the only time I'm doing this. I'm not going to do this any other time in the commentary, but I'm going to totally restructure these first four verses. Let's make verse 3 verse 1, and we'll make verse 1 the second verse, and we'll move verse 2 over here. The goal was to make what John said clear. Let's make this a clear sentence. Now, I don't have a problem with reorganizing the biblical text as you teach or present it. If I did, I'd be in big trouble, because whenever you teach or preach, unless you're just straight reading the text, you will be reorganizing the material to some extent. So I don't have a problem with reorganizing the material. But I do have a quibble with this particular commentary, because when the commentator did this, he mentioned, here's what's lost and here's what's gained by my reorganization. What's gained is some clarity. But when he mentioned what was lost, it was only a negative. What was lost by the reorganization was the confusion of the opening sentence. So we reorganized it. But I want to ask the question positively. What is lost? Meaning, what does the way John said what he said add to what he said? Does it add anything? Is there any positive benefit to the way John chose to say what he said? Is there any positive benefit to his chosen way of talking? Why does John say what he says the way he says what he says? And so I asked that. And I mulled over it and meditated. And the answer, I think, The answer I submit to you is that John speaks in such a way in these opening four verses that emphasizes, it emphasizes ultimate reality with particularly emotive vividness while he makes his main point. Because the ultimate reality here is not his main point, but he speaks in such a way that still emphasizes that ultimate reality. Look again at verse 1. So you read verse 1 with me. Just verse 1. That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands concerning the word of life. That's not a sentence yet. That's not even the subject of the sentence that John will eventually construct. That's the object. So here it is. Here's the simple version. Here's the simple version of John's sentence. Here's a simple version of the implied statement in these four verses. What we have heard, we announce to you. That's the main sentence. What we have heard and seen and touched, we announce to you. We're telling you about it. We heard it, we saw it, we're telling you about it. That's the main point. That's the simple sentence. And the reasons for the announcement. He does give reasons. We saw it and we're telling you about it because, and that's his main point. The main point of the whole first four verses is the apostolic announcement of Jesus and the purpose for that announcement that John gives. What we have heard we announce to you because. But that's not how John says it. He could have said it that way, right? I'm reorganizing it to help, but John didn't say it that way. He could have said, what we have heard we announce to you because. He could have kept it very direct and simple, but he doesn't. He doesn't say it. John cannot help talking about ultimate reality and putting Jesus first and meandering in a good way on Jesus. He savors the miracle. He takes a minute to savor the miracle. John's discursive, repetitive opening sentence puts a big, bold highlight on ultimate reality, Jesus Christ. John echoes the opening of his gospel. And that helps us unpack some of the significance of what he says here. In fact, I will submit to you, you will hear often during this sermon series appeals to the Gospel of John. I submit to you that if you want to understand the book of 1 John, the best thing you can do is read it in conjunction with the Gospel of John. We'll just look at how the Gospel of John starts. You remember the prologue of the Gospel of John. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him. Without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and that light was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. So when John starts talking here in 1 John about that which was from the beginning. He's not talking about an impersonal thing. We recognize that, right? He's not talking about just an it. This is personal. He's talking about Jesus. The word of life at the end of verse one should probably be capital W word, the word, like in John's gospel, the word in whom there was life. Life is a big theme in John's gospel. And there, Jesus not only talks about giving life, but he talks about being life. In John 5, 26, Jesus said, John 10, 28, Jesus says, John 11, 25, Jesus says to the woman, I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live. John 14, 6, Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. And as we've already heard in John's prologue, Jesus is the one who was in the beginning with God, with the Father. Just as life is described at the end of verse 2 here as with the Father. John speaks of eternal life with the Father. What does it mean that eternal life was with the Father? What is John getting at? What is he describing? Like is eternal life some substance that God is in possession of? Like in the beginning, God had this thing, eternal life, that He's now sharing with you, this impersonal thing. No, it's personal here. The eternal life that dwelt together with the Father. Because the eternal life was the Son. As Jesus both describes Himself and is described in John's Gospel. The Word became flesh. It dwelt among us. We have seen His glory. Glory of the only Son from the Father. John 1.18, no one has ever seen God, but the only God who is at the Father's side, he has made him known. Or in John 17.5, now Father, Jesus prays, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. What's with the Father in the beginning is the Son. The Son, a person. A person is with the Father. Twice, once at the beginning of verse 2 and once at the end of our text John says that this life, this eternal life, it manifested, it appeared, it shows up. John is talking about the Incarnation here. This is all personal. John is talking about the Incarnation, just like in his prologue he does in verse 18. So this Word of Life, the eternal life that John is talking about in our verses, that was with the Father from the beginning, that appeared, John's talking about Jesus, the person. We can't under-emphasize that. I assume most of us naturally, intuitively understand this. John is talking specifically about Jesus, but we can't under-emphasize this. He's not primarily talking about a benefit of Jesus. Like, oh, we get eternal life from Jesus. He's talking about Jesus, the person, who is life, the Word, who became flesh, whom John saw and heard and touched. John tested. Not only do you think about the times when he touched Jesus' hands and the apostles all wanted to see the scars on his hands, but John spent time with Jesus. John was the disciple who in the Last Supper was sitting next to Jesus. He literally was able to rub his shoulder up against Jesus' shoulder. I mean, he touched Him. He saw Him. He heard Him. So this is the point. He is talking about a person. And he can't help going on about the person, just momentarily. Can't help going on about Jesus, because Jesus is from the beginning. Jesus was always there. He's from the beginning. Don't just get past that. He was always there. Jesus was there before there was a there. There was no space yet. There was no here and there, but Jesus was there. Jesus is the Word. He was the Word before there were any words. There were no languages, but there was a Word. And Jesus was life before there was any life. There were no plants, there were no animals, there was no one breathing yet because there was no air. But Jesus was there and He was life. He was with the Father in the beginning. You see, the reason John is so excited is because he heard him, right? He heard him and he saw him and he touched him and he understood who he was seeing and hearing and touching. The one who was there before there was there. The one who was word before there were words. The life before life. John heard him and he saw him and he touched him. Because the eternal life became manifest. He appeared. Jesus came. So this is not just an important reality. This is the important reality. This is the foundational, fundamental reality of everything. Literally, of all space and time and life and meaning and rationality. The Son who existed always with the Father, true God, true light, who has life in Himself, He came into the world. And I heard Him, and I saw Him, and I touched Him. That's why John rambles. It's because he can't help it. The main sentence is what we have heard we announced to you. But John can't say it that way. He has to go on. What was from the beginning, what we saw, what we heard, what we touched, the word of life. He appeared. He appeared and we saw him. And we're telling you about him, the eternal life that was with the Father. And it appeared and we heard it and we're telling you about it. He has to talk that way. You see there's an ultimate reality here and that ultimate reality is so real to John and it underlies these four verses and in fact the entire letter and indeed this entire church and every other true church on the planet. Eternal life has appeared and His name is Jesus. Now as we've said The foundational reality of Jesus and his incarnation is not John's main point though here. It's not his main point in these four verses. His main point in these four verses is what he does with that foundational reality. It's what he does in response to the ultimate reality of Jesus Christ becoming manifest. what he does with Jesus and why he does it. That's his main point. And he tells us the first part of the main point four times in different words. Twice in verse 2, once in verse 3, then again in verse 4. He says, we've seen it and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life. That which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you. We are writing these things. So what John does with Jesus and what he draws attention to in these four verses is that he testifies, he proclaims, he writes. John evangelizes. And John could have used more generic language for just speaking and saying, but he specifically says he testifies, he proclaims as we put it in English. And proclaim generally conveys something of a more public emphasis than normal verbs of speaking, right? There is a publicness to John's speaking about Jesus. There is a proclamation nature to this. And testify usually conveys more personal involvement than other verbs of speech tend to do. To testify is to wed yourself in some way to the thing you are saying so that you are either taking responsibility for and or lending credibility to the words that are coming out of your mouth. So this is what John does. This is what John does with the foundational, ultimate reality of Jesus. He talks about Jesus publicly. He gives personal testimony, identifying himself with the message and trying to get it out to as many people as possible. So there is a public nature to the message of the Gospel and there is an identifying with it. You can talk about something without identifying with it. He doesn't do that. And you can talk about something privately. But what John does is he talks publicly and he identifies with the message. He wants as many people as possible to believe, including the audience of this letter. So that's the first half of John's main point. His first half of his main point is, I am publicly witnessing to the amazing truth of eternal life made manifest. The first half of the main point. But the second half of the main point is equally essential. Because the second half of the main point of these four verses is not just that John is witnessing, he tells you why. So we've got this ultimate reality. The Word, the life, the eternal life manifests. We saw Him, we heard Him, we touched Him. And I'm telling you about Him. That's the first part of the main point. I'm telling you about Him and He gives you a why. And here's why. Here's why I'm telling you about Him. He gives you a purpose statement. In fact, He gives you two. A two-fold purpose statement. One at the end of verse 3 and one at the end of verse 4. So we have seen and heard, we proclaim also to you so that, here's the purpose, so that you too may have fellowship with us. And then again in verse four, we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete. So the whole version, the whole version of John's main point in these four verses is we are proclaiming Jesus so that you can have fellowship with us and so that our joy may be complete. That's the main point. That's the summary sentence. We are proclaiming Jesus so that you can have fellowship with us and so that our joy can be complete. And I think it probably makes most sense to view these not as two totally separate, independent purposes, right? These are two sides of the same purpose, as we'll see. We get the first purpose. John's goal is firstly that his readers would have fellowship with him and his co-workers, the other apostles, the other witnesses. John is quick to clarify, obviously. and in one sense sweeten the pot. He said the fellowship that John is inviting his readers into is with God and with Jesus. And indeed, he says, our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. What John is calling his audience to, and every reader who would ever read his epistle in all of perpetuity, what John is calling us to is fellowship. It's nothing less than participation in something that was enjoyed between the Father and Son before there was a world. We know this. We know that we are being invited into the very fellowship of the Father and the Son because Jesus unpacked this very idea in his Last Supper discourse, which is recorded for us in John, the Gospel of John, chapters 13 through 17. You go read those five chapters. I'll just give you a few highlights. In John 14, starting in verse 20, Jesus said, In that day you will know that I am in my Father and you in me, and I in you. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him. If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him." And in John 15, 9, Jesus says, as the Father has loved me, as the Father, as God, as God the Father loved God the Son, so I have loved you. Divine love, I offer that to you. says later in John 15. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing, but I have called you friends. For all, all that I have heard from my father I have made known to you, keeping no secrets. You're my friends. I'm inviting you into this. Jesus says in John 16, 27, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. See, John, the apostle, having heard and seen and touched Jesus and believed, he was now brought into that fellowship that Jesus himself promised, that he taught, that love that the Father had for the Son and which the Son promised for all who would believe in Him. And John's goal is to bring you, who hear his words, who haven't directly heard or seen or touched Jesus, but who hear John's words, who read his words, he wants to bring you into that same inner circle of love and friendship with God and with Jesus. That's what he wants. He wants to bring you in. That's His purpose. It's the main point of verses 1 and 4. It's the main point of the whole letter. John wants you to enter into the eternal life of fellowship with God the Father and with Jesus Christ, to enjoy love and friendship. I mean, fellowship is more than friendship, but it isn't less. Jesus said in the same section, as we read, but we'll read it a little further, greater love has no one than this, than someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends, he said. You're my friends. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing, but I have called you friends. You are invited into friendship with the one who was there before there was there, who is word before there was words, and who is life before there was life. But notice, We kind of started in the back half of that purpose, didn't we? Notice John doesn't just say the purpose for his witness is for you to enter into fellowship with God and Christ. That's actually, he gives that as a clarification. The way he says it is, we, the apostolic witnesses, announce these things so that you might have fellowship with us. That's how he says it first. And then he specifies, that fellowship is the fellowship with God and the Son. But the way he says it first is, so that you might have fellowship with us. John deliberately frames the fellowship in terms of fellowship with John and the other witnesses. So what's he doing here? I think the reason for this is twofold. First, as we've already stated, part of the purpose of his public witness is to make it possible for you to be functionally in the same position as John and all the others who got to literally see and hear and touch Jesus. You haven't literally heard or seen or touched Jesus. But the reason John announces the good news of Jesus is so that you can join him and be in the same position with no distinction, so that even though you didn't get to literally see and hear and touch, you get to know God and enter into the same quality and level of fellowship as John. John's witness makes your fellowship with God and Christ the same as his, because your fellowship is with him too. But secondly, John deliberately frames the goal of his proclamation as fellowship with him and his co-workers because the corporate togetherness nature, the corporate togetherness nature of salvation is central to the whole experience. The corporate togetherness nature of salvation is central to the whole experience. There is such a thing as your personal, individual relationship with God. But there is no such thing as an individual relationship to God without relationship to the whole of God's people. They are always bound together. You can have a really bad relationship in one sense, but there is no such thing as having an individual relationship with God without also having a relationship to God's people. John wants for himself to enjoy the fellowship of more believers because in some part The fellowship of all of God's people together, the fellowship of the Church Universal, the fellowship in small part, as we experience now, of the local church, the fellowship of all of God's people together is essential to enjoying the full fellowship with the Father and the Son for any individual believer. So for any individual believer, the fellowship of the whole body is essential for your fellowship with God the Father and with the Son. The individual experience of fellowship with God is tied inextricably to the collective experience of fellowship with each other and with God. Right? He says, I'm telling you this so that you'd have fellowship with us. That's my goal. And this ties us to the second purpose, I think, you'll see. This ties us to the second purpose that he gives us at the end of verse four. At the end of verse four, John says, we are writing these things, another purpose now, so that our joy may be complete. We're telling you these things so that our joy may be complete. I am announcing Jesus to you so that my joy can be complete. Why, that is a little selfish of you, John. You're doing this for yourself and for your own joy. Yes. Yes he is and it isn't selfish. Now I will say at this point, most of your Bibles, if you're looking at your Bibles, have a footnote at this part of the text saying that some manuscripts have your joy instead. We are writing these things so that your joy may be complete. Why do we have this variation? Because ultimately. Your and our are just as close in Greek as they are in English. One letter difference. It is very easy to imagine a particular scribe making a typo at some point, or mishearing while he was copying, or maybe even someone consciously making a change here, assuming that your must be correct. I mean, I'm sure some of you naturally think, your joy sounds better. That makes more sense. John is writing these things so that his reader's joy will be complete. So he's not selfish. Your joy. He's doing it for their joy, not his own joy. But without getting into the weeds and details, the manuscript evidence does support our joy. He's writing about our joy. I'm writing for my joy. I'm doing this so that my joy will be complete, John says. But materially, it does not make a difference. Doctrinally, theologically, or even exegetically, or expositionally. I would preach this text exactly the same way, whether it said your or ours, and you will see that in a moment. But first, let's reckon with the text as it stands. John and his associates, their purpose in writing, in announcing Jesus, is so that their own joy, their own personal joy, would be complete. I'm writing this so that my joy is complete. That's actually the main point of these four verses. I'm telling you this so that my joy would be complete. I'm writing these things for my joy. This whole book is for my joy to be complete. And this isn't selfish. It isn't selfish. First of all, Here's the reasons. First of all, joy is one of the divine purposes of the gospel. It's one of the divine purposes. It is not wrong to want joy. John's not riffing here. He's clinging to a promise that he heard from Jesus himself. Jesus said in John 15 11, these things I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full. That's the same in Greek. That word full is the same word here, be complete. that your joy may be complete. Jesus told John, I came and I taught so that the joy of the Son of God would be in you. So the same joy I have with the Father you would have. I came so that your joy would be complete. John also overheard Jesus say it to God in prayer. In the high priestly prayer in John 17, 13, Jesus said, Now I am coming to you, Father, and these things I speak in the world, that my disciples may have my joy fulfilled, again, same word, complete, from verse John, that they may have my joy complete in themselves. John, Jesus heard John, or John heard Jesus promise it to him and John heard Jesus ask God for it. John isn't being selfish. He's clinging to a promise, to a purpose of the gospel that Jesus himself gave. The promise of having Jesus's own joy in him fully and completely. John is publicly witnessing to Jesus in order to cash in on the promise of having Jesus's joy. He wants that promise fulfilled. He wants that joy. But then the question is, what is the connection then? So he wants this joy, Jesus promised it to him. So what is the connection between John's audience believing and his own joy? Why does them believing and entering into fellowship with John and God and Christ increase John's own experience of the joy of Jesus? And does that devalue Jesus? Do you see the problem? How come Jesus isn't enough joy for you, John? You need other friends too? How does the audience's joint fellowship with John increase his own joy in Jesus without devaluing Jesus? I think the answer is, no surprise at this point, in the Gospel of John. Right at the beginning we read how John the Baptist responds when Jesus starts getting a bigger following than him. You remember? Jesus starts getting a bigger following than John the Baptist and his disciples point that out. They're like, what are we going to do? People are following this Jesus guy more than you. And in John 3, 29, John the Baptist says, He must increase, I must decrease. So you understand what's happening in this scene. People are flocking to Jesus and John's Baptist disciples say, people are going to Jesus, are you upset about this? And he says, no, I'm happy about this. This is completing my joy that Jesus is getting all this attention. He's getting all this attention and all this love and this is completing my joy because He's the groom and I'm a friend of the groom. When you're a friend of the groom, it increases your joy when people pay attention to the groom. Not because you need more than the groom, but because you love the groom. Because you love him. If you were best man at your best friend's wedding, which would make you happier? An empty hall, silent, just you, him, the bride, and the pastor? Or a room full of excited spectators, stamping and hollering when he kissed his bride? Because John loves Jesus, because he loves him and he knows him, it increases John's joy when other people love Jesus too. And because Jesus is the source of John's joy, him desiring his audience to increase his own joy by knowing Jesus isn't selfish because it results in the greatest joy for his audience. He's wanting to share something with them and the very act of sharing it both increases his own joy and gives them joy. When you tell someone about your favorite book or movie or restaurant, your aim is always partly their joy and partly your own joy. It makes you happy. It makes you happy for you to share loves. It fulfills. It increases your joy both to tell and to see others come to love and enjoy the same thing you do. It increases John's joy for others to believe in Jesus. There's nothing selfish about that because John's joy is in his listener's joy. There's nothing selfish about excitedly recommending your favorite restaurant to a friend because your joy and their joy become one at that point. That's why materially it makes no difference whether it says your joy or our joy in verse 4 because both ultimately work out to be the same thing. I write these things so that my joy would be full. And my joy in Jesus is full precisely when you love and glorify Jesus by enjoying him because I love him. You can say the opposite, it still works. I write these things so that your joy would be full in Jesus, which completes my joy because I love Jesus. I love him. When you enjoy him, that gives me joy. So hopefully you realize by this point that verses one through four Aren't the rambling, incoherent sentence that some people kind of characterize it as? It's a supersentence. This is a supersentence. Now there are a number of direct lessons we can take away from this supersentence, but I'll mention a few here. And hopefully you'll come back tonight and we can even talk about some more. But number one, some lessons from John 1, 1 through 4 for us. We ought to do what John does with Jesus. We ought to publicly identify with him and spread the news. If you, if you individual Christian in this church, if you have, through the witness of John and the other scriptures, if you have come to believe, invite others into the experience of eternal life, of knowing God in Jesus Christ. If you believe, publicly identify with that, invite others. Number two, you don't have to talk like John does. Paul and Luke don't talk like John does, but you do want to follow his, you should follow his example in keeping ultimate reality always close at hand. Always close at hand in your mind and heart. This goes for everything. Always remember, no matter what, what you're doing, what you're thinking, what decisions you're making, always remember the One who was there before there was there, who was word before there were words, who was life before there was life. Always remember that He came in the flesh and we can know Him and the Father because He came in the flesh. No matter what you're doing, you always remember that. You remember that when you're brushing your teeth. Number three, this probably calls for an attitude shift in many of us regarding evangelism. A shift from seeing it not primarily or only at least through the lens of obligation, an obligation that you must obey, but rather also understanding evangelism as the opportunity to increase your own joy. we should always view the command to evangelize without decoupling it from the underlying ultimate reality. I mean, when any biblical command is decoupled from underlying reality, it becomes action without meaning. Action without meaning usually becomes dreary or burdensome or legalistic and soul-crushing at the worst. So don't hear the command, clean your room, as an occasion for grumbling. Remember that it means friends are coming over. The command to evangelize is because you want more of the One who was there before there was there. You want more of life. You want more of Jesus. When you evangelize, this is an occasion for increasing your joy in Jesus. And number four, this probably also calls for an attitude shift for many of us regarding our fellow church members. The fellow believers in this room are a catalyst for your own joy in Jesus, and you are a catalyst for their joy in Jesus. Christian fellowship is about ever-increasing joy, ever-increasing enjoyment of Christ together, because there is joy in Jesus that we just can't get by ourselves. There is the joy of other people loving the thing we love, the one who is most lovable. It's not because Jesus isn't great enough on his own, it's rather the opposite. It's because of how unimaginably great he is, like all our favorite joys in this life, but to the nth degree, he demands to be shared for the joy to be full. Our joy increases as he is glorified in more and more eyes. So service, like now, or potluck, or your book studies, or your one-on-one get-togethers, these are not just opportunities for the joy of fellowship in the sense of, I really like this person and I enjoy hanging out with them. That's true. That's fine. You will get lots of that. That will happen. But those are not just occasions for that. They are opportunities for more of Jesus. There are always opportunities for more Jesus, for more delight in Jesus, because your joy in Christ increases as those who enjoy the object, Christ, increase. So services, potluck, book studies, those are not just opportunities to enjoy people you like. There are opportunities for you to get more joy of eternal life. And that's the point of here, verses 1-4, but it's also the point of all of 1 John. We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete. Let's pray. Lord, we do thank you for the joy of our salvation. We thank you for eternal life made manifest. And we do ask that you would help us ever always to keep this reality present before our eyes. That there was one who was from the beginning, that he has life in and of himself, that he was with you always, and that he was made manifest. Jesus appeared. Help that always ever to mean something to us. Grant us the joy of that salvation. And we do pray that that joy would become ever more complete by you bringing in more people to believe it and help us to be faithful, to proclaim it, to identify with it, to be the means of bringing more people in. We want more people to fellowship with us and to increase our own joy in you because you are worthy of all love and praise and honor. You are not dissatisfying, you are wholly satisfying and so you deserve more attention and praise. So make us bold and help us to be the means of you getting the praise that you deserve and so fulfill our joy in you. We ask this all in Jesus' name and for His glory. Amen.