An excerpt from my recent sermon, “A Message of Light and Love,” on 1 John 1:1-4.

THE CENTER OF FAITH

John writes, “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.” So this prologue is all about “the word of life,” but what is the word of life? Look at how in 1:2 John gives a parenthesis of sorts to describe the word of life, he says, “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.” It seems right to say in light of 1:1-2 that the word of life is a message and a man.

For those of you who’ve read John’s gospel you can’t help but see the similarities the two prologues have, for they focus on the man of Christ and the message of Christ, Him who was “from the beginning.” And that which was from the beginning, John says, “was made manifest.” The word of life came. I want you to see a couple things from these verses about Jesus’ coming.

• His coming was historical. Twice John says the “life was made manifest.” Jesus, God of very God who has existed from eternity past, came to be born of a virgin. John says in his gospel prologue’s primary verse, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory” (John 1:14). Jesus appeared in history. Our faith is not based on mystical truth, theoretical belief, or subjective intuition, but on the actual – historical – life and ministry of Jesus Christ. This fact is oh so important in the letter because we will soon hear how the chief error coming from the false teachers among John’s flock was their conviction that Jesus didn’t really come in the flesh. He’ll say in 4:2, “By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.”

• His coming was experiential. John says he and the apostles “have heard . . . seen with our eyes . . . looked upon and . . . touched.” John’s experience of Jesus is a foundation for his authority in this letter.

• His coming brings the eternal. At the end of 1:2 John writes we “proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father.” Jesus came from eternity in order to bring people into eternity. If you’re in here tonight and are not a Christian, I hope you will keep coming back for this series. Jesus brings eternal life, John says. Your sin will lead to eternal death, but if you trust in who Jesus is and what Jesus did – He will bring you into eternal life with the Father.

These three dimensions of Jesus’ coming not only mean Jesus is central to faith, but also that our faith is personal and is a proclamation. Notice how John gets to the heart of the matter at the beginning of 1:3, “that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you.” A proclaimed Christ is the center of true faith and fellowship. Do you long for, pray for, and rejoice in the proclamation of Jesus? If you are a Christian, do you have increasing delight in hearing about Jesus? Are you more captivated with Christ this year than you were a couple years ago? Our weekly gatherings are where we rally around the announcement of a crucified King.

Which gets us then to a couple purpose statements we find in the last two verses of our text, the truth that Jesus is “The Center of Fellowship.”

THE CENTER OF FELLOWSHIP

Look at the end of 1:3. John says, we proclaim this word of life, “so that you too may have fellowship with us, and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.” Now, we need to accurately get our heads around this idea of fellowship. In most circles today when Christians and churches talk about fellowship it normally doesn’t mean much more than church members hanging out while eating food. But the fellowship John desires is so much deeper in its spiritual soul. G. Campbell Morgan said the word “fellowship” is “a rich and spacious word, full of suggestiveness, almost impossible of full and final translation.” This is not the fellowship of shared identity like you might have with someone who went to the same university or college. It’s not the common association you have with people who root for the same sports team, no matter how emotional that unity could possible be. No, this fellowship is the living communion of people who have a shared, living experience of Jesus Christ. This means, when church members meet together and no one can speak of the way Jesus is moving, mending, and leading in our lives than we shouldn’t call it fellowship at all. When you meet with other Christians, what subjects dominate your conversation? The degree to which your conversations are Christ-centered is the degree to which you are experiencing real fellowship.

We need to recognize from the outset of this book that John is telling us true fellowship is more about corporate experience than personal experience. This letter is going to beat that drum until its truth pounds its way into our hearts. The Christian community is one where the force and energy of collective celebration in Christ supersedes personal preference about Christ. Jesus is the center of faith and fellowship.

THE STARTING BLOCKS OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE

The movie I watched, more than any other, in my childhood years was Chariots of Fire. Have you ever seen it? It’s tells the story of two sprinters competing at the 1924 Olympics: Eric Liddell a devout Christian from Scotland and Harold Abrahams, an English Jews who runs to overcome prejudice. Many scenes from the movie are indelibly inked on my brain, but for whatever reason one shot I thought about this week was when Abrahams takes a little handheld shovel to dig two holes in the track for his starting positions. Starting blocks didn’t come into popular use until 1937.

We know from the rest of the New Testament that the Christian life is a race, and I think our text gives us the two starting blocks for our race. If we are going to start well and thus run well, I believe our text is telling us we launch from two particular things.

Learn about Jesus rightly. He came from the Father to take on flesh in order to give us eternal life. AW Tozer once famously said, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” I think John is saying, “The first thing that comes into our minds when think about Jesus is the most important thing about us.” Who is Jesus to you? Who is Jesus to us? Oh, may He be everything to you, to us! Furthermore, this tells us our faith is a thinking faith. Thinking rightly about Jesus is, literally, a matter of eternal life and death. And 1 John tells us our learning ought to lead to living. Which leads to the second starting block . . .

Live in Jesus joyfully. 1:3 tells us John is writing this message for fellowship, but notice he give another reason in 1:4, “And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.” Do you find an other-worldly joy when you are with the people of God, celebrating and exalting in out fellowship with the Son of God? Learn about Jesus rightly so you may live in Jesus joyfully.

These then are our starting points: learning about Jesus rightly and living in Jesus joyfully. For Jesus is the center of faith and fellowship.