Fellowship with God (I John 1:1-4)

FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD (I John 1: 1-4)

April 12, 2009
Pastor's Study
"…holding forth the word of life" (Philippians 2:16a)

Beloved, I am happy to be with you today, especially at this time of the year - this lovely Christmas season. Throughout the world, Christians are celebrating the incarnation. Today we are thinking about that glorious moment in time when “God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons” (Galatians 4:4-5).

Today I’d like to speak to you on this great truth: God became flesh so that we might have fellowship with him. The apostle John writes about this good news in 1 John. For our text this morning, we’ll look at 1 John chapter 1:1 -4. The apostle writes, “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 you 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.” Amen.

And now, by God’s grace and help, I’d like to speak to you on the subject “Fellowship with God.” I’d like to emphasize today two ideas:
1. The Declaration – God became flesh.

2. The Purpose – that we might have fellowship with Him.

Let’s talk about the first idea – the declaration: God became flesh. Notice that John emphasizes the eternal nature of the one who became flesh. The apostle says: “that which was from the beginning.” Who is this who has always existed? The Son of God, the Second Person of the Trinity, the Word, the Word of Life. John 1:1, 14 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” This Jesus who walked among us was God Himself. John calls Him “the Word of Life….that eternal life which was with the Father… the true God and eternal life” (I John 1:1-2; 5:20).

As we read I John, we find that 23 times John refers to Jesus as the Son of God from all eternity. He with the Father and the Spirit is God Himself. Jesus is God. But in time, He became the God-man. It’s a great mystery that God became flesh. Look at what John says in chapter 1:1, we heard Him, we saw Him, we examined Him, and we handled Him. John says 3 times in I John 1:1-3 that we have witnessed this God who became flesh. “The life,” he said, “was manifested” or revealed and we have seen it and bear witness.

This is John’s declaration - God became flesh, and we saw Him, and we heard Him. Oh, how we heard His gracious words as He preached the good news of the kingdom! We heard Him as he called men to follow Him. We heard Him as He called the people to repentance. We heard Him as He conversed with the woman at Jacob’s well, reminding her of that eternal water which quenches the soul’s thirst. We heard Him as He shouted that life-giving command at the tomb of Lazarus. Oh, how we heard Him as He cried from the cross, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” We heard Him as He sent his disciples into the world with that glorious mandate – “Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations.” John says that God became flesh, and we heard Him, we saw Him, we examined Him, and we handled Him.

Now, the expression - “which we have looked upon” or “which we have examined” - is a very interesting one. It means to put under a microscope, to scrutinize, to carefully examine. What is John saying? The apostle is saying that we did not merely see Him and think that He was a phantom, a figment of the imagination, a ghost. No! John says that we scrutinized Him, we gazed upon Him. This is what the apostle emphasizes. He dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory. That word “beheld” in John 1:14 is the same word used here in 1 John 1:1 where the apostle says we “looked upon” Him. What is John teaching us? He is teaching us that God became flesh, and for 33 years as He walked among us we checked Him out and we knew that this was God, revealing Himself to us.

We must be careful, brethren, of the religious groups that deny that God became flesh. Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t believe that God became flesh.
This past summer, I was in St. Thomas in the Caribbean, sharing Christ with Jehovah’s Witnesses who deny this truth. Two years ago, I was coming back from Africa. Thirty-eight thousand feet above the Alps, in the region of Switzerland, I was sharing Christ with Halimo (a Muslim from Somalia), and she agreed with almost everything I said until I came to this point – God became flesh that we might have fellowship with Him. Halimo told me very clearly that Muslims don’t believe that God can become flesh. She stumbled at this truth. Three years ago, I was sharing Christ in the interior of Uganda among the Basoga. As the local pastor and I witnessed to a Muslim woman, we came to this hurdle – God became flesh. The woman faltered. But as we opened the Scriptures that day, she became convinced that God assumed flesh that we might have fellowship with Him. On that glorious day, 3 Muslims accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior. Amen!

As Christians, we must be able to “earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints” (Jude3). God in time became flesh. This is what John says in 1 John 4:2, “Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every Spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God.” In 2 John 7, the apostle says, “For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.”

But here is the question I would like to ask you today – Why did God become flesh? He became flesh that we might have fellowship with Him. As I ponder this truth, I am struck with awe that God wants to have fellowship with us. I believe the problem with us today is that we don’t want to have fellowship with anyone. The rich sometimes don’t want to associate with the poor; Hispanics and blacks are sometimes at loggerheads; blacks and whites are oftentimes racially divided. Jews versus Gentiles! Protestants against Catholics! This may well be the history of mankind – the history of falling out. If you look around today, perhaps you’d confess that we’ve had fractured relationships in families, in churches, in schools, in places of employment, and in our communities. Fractured relationships began in the Garden of Eden. God and man had perfect communion, but sin entered. Sin entered the world when Adam sinned, strayed from God, and forfeited His life. And what did God do? Did God consign man to hell? No! Did He leave him in his miserable estate? No! In great love and mercy, God, having judged man for his sin, gave man this precious promise in Genesis 3:15. In time, He would send the redeemer to rescue us from the tyranny of sin. Do you know what I find remarkable about this? God became flesh, that we might have fellowship with Him. Amen?

There was nothing good in us to commend us to God. Ephesians 2:1 reminds us that we were “dead in trespasses and sins.” Ephesians 2:2-3 reminds us that we “walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air… [We walked in the] lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath.” There was nothing good in us to commend ourselves to God. Paul reminds us of this great teaching in Romans 5:6-10. The apostle tells us we were without strength, ungodly, sinners, enemies of God. The expression “without strength” is interesting. Yesterday, I saw a baby trying to crawl, lift up the left or right foot. That was a picture of man - without strength, of puny capacity, depraved, alienated from God by wicked works, under the dominion of darkness, without strength. And while we were in our sin and misery, John tells us that God manifested His love toward us. How did He do this? He “sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him” (1 John 4:9). Amen! Think of that - that God manifested His love toward us by sending “His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him.” Why did God become flesh? He became flesh that we might have fellowship with Him. And as I look at you today, you are all trophies of God’s grace. And this is the message of Christmas – God became flesh that we might have fellowship with Him.

But what is this fellowship? I believe that John is emphasizing that fellowship is a sharing in God’s eternal life in a qualitative and quantitative manner. Now what do I mean by this? God sent His Son so that we might share in His eternal life in a qualitative way. In other words, eternal life begins immediately a person receives Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. It is a kind of life. This is what John says in 1 John 5:11-12, “And this is the record, that God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and He that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” This eternal life in a qualitative way is shown by holy living, by love of God, by hatred of sin, by zeal for righteousness, by walking in the light, by confession of sin. God sent His Son that we might have fellowship with Him, that we might share in His kind of life – eternal life in a qualitative way. But this eternal life is not only qualitative but also quantitative. That is, it is life that last forever in the presence of God Himself. That is why God became flesh, that we might have fellowship with Him. That we might share in His kind of life. That’s remarkable church - that God wants us to share in His eternal life. And as you read 1 John, you will find that 15 times the apostle writes about life, life, life. Six times he mentions “born again” or “begotten again.” The concept of life appears 21 times in this short message. The Father sent the Son that we might have fellowship or share life with Him.

Sadly, the problem today is that 2,000 years since Christ came to give us life, billions of people still languish in the shadows of death. Many believe that they have life if they have a large house. They believe that they have life if they have a lot of money. They think they have life because of their education, their gifts, their beauty, their fame. But the Bible says only those who have the Son have life. That’s why God sent His Son, to rescue us from the tyranny of the grave, to deliver us from death, to transfer us from the dominion of darkness into “the kingdom of His dear Son: In whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins.” That is God’s pledge to us. God’s pledge to us we find in John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” As we read
1 John, we notice that references to life occur at the beginning and at the end of the book. In 1 John 1:1, the writer tells us “our hands have handled …the Word of life.” I John 5:20 adds, “And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, [even] in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.” This idea of life informs the entire book. The Apostle is saying: Do you want life? It is found only in Jesus Christ, only in God. And throughout the Scriptures, God is the source of life. Revelation sums up all of history and speaks of the book of life, the river of life, the tree of life. Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” He came to give us life. Paul stated, “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21). In other words, living and Christ is co-extensive, one and the same thing. You want to see true living? It’s found only in Jesus Christ, and that’s what people all over the world are searching for.

The Bible tells us there is a way that seems right to a man but it leads to death. “I am come,” Jesus says, “that you might have life and have it more abundantly.” And Christ offers this life freely to anyone who comes to Him in repentance and faith. What is repentance? Repentance is Godly sorrow for sin and a desire to forsake sin and turn to the Savior; a work wrought in the heart, by the ministry of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God when it is preached. Repentance shows itself in Godly sorrow for sin so that a person turns from sin to the Savior. And what is faith? It is understanding the truth concerning God’s offer of salvation in Christ so that forsaking all others we put our trust in Jesus Christ alone as Savior and Lord. This Jesus calls you to come to Him today in repentance and faith. Come now; come now as He speaks by the Spirit in the power of His Word. Come now before it is too late. The Bible says in Romans 10:9-13, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
May God grant you mercy to call upon Him today in faith. I pray this in the name of Jesus Amen!


"No other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ" (I Corinthians 3:11).