The Fellowship of God | 1 John 1:1-4 | Lic. Joe Johnson | St. John’s Presbyterian Church

our new testament reading this morning comes from the gospel of or the sorry not the Gospel of John first John Epistle of John chapter 1 veres 1-4 please turn with me there in your scriptures 1 John 1 verses 1-4 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 con concerning the word of life the life was made manifest and we have seen it and testify to it and proclaimed 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 our joy may be complete the word of the lord well good morning what a pleasure to both preach from St John's epistle here and to be with St John's Community here and I want to begin with that word because it's the main central theme of of our scripture today Community it's his particular emphasis now that word Community comes from Latin communist meaning common or shared it's evolved to dis to to mean a group of people who share common interests or goals or values and often live or interact together so you've probably heard phrases like the scientific Community or the international business community in recent years it seems to be increasingly used among the church not only by you know postmodern Scholars saying who interpretation which Community but by Layman to describe the Vitality of their own church I'm sure you've heard somebody describe to you I really like this church it has great community in the secular World Community has been largely dominated by intersectional identity groups so you have the queer people of color Community an indigenous woman with disabilities community in these sorts of communities and so on but in St John's epistle Community is expressed in a specific word a Greek word coia it's often translated participation partnership sharing but most often Fellowship Fellowship and in the most basic terms this coino Fellowship means life together life together and that is not only what you have but what is being preached to us or proclaimed to us through the apostles In this passage this morning and so we want to look at it from three life together from three different uh angles as it were that you may continue to have abundant life together these are not three exhaustive things about Fellowship but they are what John brings to us in EP his epistle so first we see that you ought to live in the Divine Fellowship live in the Divine Fellowship so read with me again we hear that which was from the beginning which we have heard word which we have seen with our eyes and which we have looked upon and have touched with our hands concerning the word of life now John starts in the beginning and you might recognize that that's also how the Gospel of John begins but more importantly sometimes or for this purpose it's also how the Bible begins in the beginning God created the heavens and the Earth right so we have here a reference to both of those places in the scripture and it's sort of a strange way to start the sentence though here in first John because he actually doesn't get to the main verb of the sentence until verse three and that's not how we usually speak that which you heard from me I began to say to you or something like that is a strange way to talk right but he has a particular purpose in mind in doing this a particular emphasis while the main verb is to Proclaim right the main purpose of this uh passage will be that we that is John and the apostles Proclaim life to you in Christ so that we may live in God together that's the easy way to say it but he begins that which from the beginning because he wants you to look to that which was from the beginning and what is that more importantly who is that it is the Lord Jesus Christ and so he gets to this down in verse three that which we have seen and have heard we Proclaim also to you that you may have fellowship and indeed our fellowship is with the father and with his son Jesus Christ saying also the eternal life was made manifest now I want to focus on that phrase the eternal life was made manifest because there is so much there John when he or uh Jesus as John portrays in John 17 when he's praying before he goes to the Cross he says father glorify me now with the glory I had with you before the world was wow that's something to say right because what Jesus is saying is I existed before I became the person Jesus of Nazareth born of the Virgin Mary true body and a true human soul before all of that the Son of God existed from all eternity begotten not made and so also we have here that the eternal life was with the father and has been made manifest to us so you have from the beginning even before the beginning right because that's a a way of speaking in time the beginning even before that this is being shown to us this is uh the Jesus who was made manifest and the way that St John decides to describe Jesus becoming flesh for us is in this phrase eternal life now that is a phrase littered throughout the New Testament but it's actually only used one place in the Old Testament does anyone know it's from The Book of Daniel and in Daniel it is used in the context of judgment there it says that there will be multitudes of those who sleep in the dust and they will come awake they will awake some to everlasting life and others to Everlasting shame and contempt and so you have a very real understanding of what eternal life is okay and I I know this might seem ethereal but it's actually the exact opposite we're talking about things you can touch and taste and feel and that's all those tactile things is what John is talking about but it's also that way with eternal life you know when people think of John 3:16 God so loved the world right he came that we should have eternal life none should perish but have eternal life he's not just talking about a floaty space in the heavens right he's talking about some coming up from the dust being resurrected into life and living forever that's amazing right and what John is doing here in first John is saying the eternal life who is that that can bring us with him in Resurrection Jesus is identical with eternal life with Resurrection Life if you want to have life it's in him concerning the word of life so this is the way the Apostle Paul puts it in Colossians 3 you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God when Christ who is your life appears you will also appear with him in glory and so this eternal God who comes in a real human person brings with him life it's self eternal life and that is the first part of having Community if you want to have Community you must have the Divine Fellowship you must have specifically Jesus you must have him and that's your unshakable foundation it reminds me of the first Psalm right there's The Way of the Wicked they have a shakable Fellowship you know at at the end of the at the end of the world as it were and the world as we know it when Jesus comes back there are only going to be two groups there only going to be two communities there's all kinds of communities now there are only going to be two fellowships as it were those who have their fellowships in God those who do not those who will rise to life and those to Everlasting shame and contempt and it feels so sharp this antithesis sometimes it's hard to tell people this it's hard to live this out and to believe it when you sit in the pews and you sit next to people and think is this person going to be with me when Jesus separates sheep and goats which want which group will you stand in will you know the eternal life who was made manifest to the apostles that's where I want to go next is Apostolic life so not only live in etern in the Divine Fellowship but live in the apostolic Fellowship this also describes your community now John most all scholar ERS believe is writing at least in part to contradict or to fight or to deal with a group called gnostics and gnostics comes from this word nosis which means knowledge they believe they had some kind of special insight into Christianity oh you think that you know Christ let me tell you a little extra you might need to know actually here's one of the lies of the gnostics called dotism which means it's seems they said let me tell you something Jesus didn't actually exist in physical uh matter he only seemed to exist he only looked like he died on the cross right but he didn't that's what the gnostics claimed and they were Liars John gets to that very explicitly In this passage because he starts with that that which we've seen and heard and touched and witnessed and beheld he doesn't just say it once right he's seen once twice Thrice right and he says heard uh once and again and he says touched and he says witness twice he wants you to know this is this is something that we personally eyewitnessed right and to emphasize it he doesn't just say I saw Jesus he says I saw him with my eyes which is redundant right you see see something you see it with your eyes but it's like no no no this is very personal our hands handled him right that's how real Jesus was to the apostles he was not a fantasm right he is not just a myth that can be told and retold or a legend that is born out of uh cultural or uh primeval kind of stupidity Jesus is real and so you have these V verbs full of experience Jesus before that Resurrection washed the feet of John John reclined into his side and reclined on his breast as the one whom he loved and then post Resurrection right Thomas is touching in the in his sides and in his hands see my hands and feet he said to Thomas touch me and see a spirit does not have Flesh and Bones as you see that I have so it's important because it's real and John is declaring a truth despite these gnostics and the early church confirmed this witness one of my favorite passages from that early church is from ignacius who's called an Apostolic father because he was from one of the a the age itself of the Apostles and he said in his letter to the trions he said stop your ears when anyone speaks to you apart from Jesus Christ who was of the family of David who was born of Mary who really was born who both ate and drank who really was persecuted under pontious pilate who really was crucified ified and de and died while those in heaven and on Earth and under the Earth looked on who further really was raised from the dead uh when his father raised him then he goes on to say this but if it's as some atheists say that is unbelievers that he suffered an appearance only while they exist in appearance only then why why am I in these chains and why do I and why uh why do I suffer for no reason he says if that is the case I die for no reason and what's more I'm lying about the Lord right he believed just like we we must believe and a real physical Resurrection now maybe this is just all very easy for you because you're like of course of course this is what I grew up with this is obvious unfortunately it's not obvious to many in our culture who want to have Jesus without having the real Jesus right for example one very prominent scholar Jordan Peterson seems to psychologize all of Christianity into something that can just be merely believed as a principle a logos principle the word became flesh or he just needs to become flesh in us or some way of mystifying this whole thing it's not going to give you Fellowship it's not going to give you life right we do not believe in an eternal philosophy merely or a principle or an abstract R rule or a metaphysical imination we believe in person Jesus the Christ a a specific historical person now there are also modern identity movements that deny this very thing uh growing up I love the actor Jim Carrey uh he's a little off the deep end in some ways he has a portrait of Jesus supposedly right that he drew and in this portrait he tried to include all kinds of ethnicities because he said Jesus is for everyone it's like well I never thought that him being a first century Jew meant that he wasn't for me but that's the way of the world right now they say well if someone's not of your gender or of your ethnicity you can't understand them you can't know them you can't have fellowship with them and it's a why right so tell the white supremacist they must believe in a Jew and tell the feminist she needs a man and tell the Roman he needs an Israelite and tell the Jew that Jesus loves the Gentile because he's going to break your box if you believe in him this is the fellowship you have that John brings us to and it's a fellowship that the world hates the world hates it the devil wants to tear the body of Christ apart he's going to try and it's hard at times to get through that as a fellowship and as a body when heresies start to come in when identitarian movements start to push right but this leads me to this last point that you must live in a joyful Fellowship I say this as I I'm a little this some of this is heavy but we live in a joyful Fellowship now I almost didn't want to bring this but this last week when I Was preparing for the sermon I found almost the perfect anti text to John's text and it really epitomizes our culture so I'm gonna go to it and and we can go from there and delve back into first John but I read this announcement from uh Microsoft and they had uh celebrated in a 2024 Pride campaign right celebrating one of the cardinal sins uh they said LGBT qia A Plus what's the plus communities at Microsoft centered their 2024 Pride campaign on the idea of radical Joy quote the joy that radiates and inspires the joy that is not dependent on outside forces but is within us and within our control and when expressed can help make change for all and Inspire others to do the same radical Joy is an Anthem to those who Thrive Against All Odds right the world is talking about Joy they say we have joy and here's some cards you can go to the website and see there's these people that hold up cards and they've got rainbows and all these things around them uh here's what some of the cards say truth over tradition this is my joy what does John say we have the eternal life made F manifest and I'm bringing you the tradition and that is your joy the tradition of the Apostles here's another card choosing what my family can be this is my joy what does that mean choosing my family is he talking about are they talking about abortion are they talking about uh dishonoring or or you know calling your name from your family like a dead name or like are are you just what is that right but you have the family of God you Sons and Daughters of God through the tradition of the Apostles they're inviting you into Joy here's the next loving the person I see in the mirror this is my joy and how can you do that if you're not made in the image of God if you don't see yourself in Jesus ultimately you have no anchor for eternal security you're always going to be dissatisfied with yourself and in the end if you don't have Jesus you will not have life you will not have joy here's the next fearlessness is in my identity this is my joy well how are you how can you be Fearless in your identity if it's based off of uh you know denying Jud Christian values you know that's that's a hard one but here we have no fear like John says later in his gospel perfect love casts out fear uh proudly religious and queer this is my joy ah you know okay so let's synthesize religions let's say I can uh let's say I can have Jesus and live how I want what does the Apostle Paul say elsewhere that is not how you learned Christ to learn Christ is to know a body of truths contained in the scriptures for us right the apostolic deposit of the whole new testament is going to teach us how to live and how to know Christ and how to know eternal life pressing outside of gender expectations this is my joy wow uh that'll be the last one I read because they're so sad but it's the opposite of what Jesus said have you not read that he from the beginning made them male and female so I go through these not to just harp on one particular ideology but to show you again and again and again if you want True Fellowship if you want true Joy it's going to be found in Christ and in his people right here right right here people embracing one another but woe to those who call evil uh good and good evil right that is a fellowship of Darkness but you have the fellowship of light and life so John says indeed our fellowship is with the father and with his son Jesus Christ that is the joy it's an eternal Joy right the father and the son before the world was existed in in in in in complete love and joy and you to whom Christ has come through the message of the Apostles being even proclaimed to you right now are invited into the joy of the Eternal God and it's a trinitarian piece also I think about John when he writes in his gospel in chapter 16 Jesus says in his prayer I will ask the father and he will give you another helper to be with you forever let your hearts not be troubled believe in God believe also in me now John knew trouble it's probably it's likely that this epistle it might be an epistle might be a a circular letter or a tractate or a sermon probably more like a sermon but he wrote it in incredible turmoil imagine escaping the Jewish Wars and seeing Jerusalem destroyed and then going and and do you have Fellowship that we he probably wrote from Ephesus but do you have Fellowship there well even in this epistle he says there are some that went out from us because they were not of us so you have a church split here and John's starting this whole thing with True Fellowship and true joy and it can be hard in all the tumult of life to see through the woods right to see the clarity of this uh meaningful uh Joy but it is here in God and has come to them in the person of Jesus Christ there's a textual variant if you might have noticed in your Bibles at the bottom it says that our joy may be complete and some say some manuscript say your joy and I think that uh whichever one it it is whichever one John wrote they're both true right your joy will be brought to completion when you know the fellowship of God and so will the joy of the Apostles the church triumphant who come before us those who died so that you might have the scriptures or might know or your forefathers in the faith Who Loved you just like you know you may love your children and those who come after you we join together in a fellowship of love so then St John's here is the Divine the apostolic the joyful Fellowship of God set before you in Jesus Christ the greater you live in this reality that John describes the greater Christ will be seen in you live it this is your life together your community and your fellowship yes you know enjoy the the hot dogs and the things you usually think of when you think of Fellowship the simple things but never forget these deep matters of consequence and those who would wish to take your fellowship from you we must all encourage each other as we see the day of our Lord's coming approach and until then do what they did in acts 242 dedicate yourselves to the apostles teaching and to their quinia to their Fellowship to their life together amen let's pray our great God and Father we thank you that we have no worldly Fellowship that the World the Flesh and the devil may try to make inroads in your church but the Gates of Hell will not Prevail because Christ has won by his blood and all those who trust in him will have life eternal we thank you God that this is not an abstraction we thank you that we can truly know you truly trust you that we can come hand inand with one another we pray that you would build us in our confidence and in our faith today we pray that these attributes would uh live among us and in us not only in individually but as families and as this local embodiment of Christ's invisible church we thank you Father that you have seen fit to do all of this in your wisdom even to triumph over the Deeds of the devil in the person of Jesus we pray that you would help us to be in that group that exalts in you and with you to all eternity this we pray in the name of the father son and holy spirit amen