1John 1.1-4 - "All In The Family"

1John 1.1-4

“All In The Family”

Context.  The big picture.  It is what helps us understand the meaning.  With that in mind, today we are beginning a study of the first epistle of John.  Please turn there with me if you will.

The book of 1John is unlike any other in the New Testament.  It is not a historical record like the Gospels and the book of Acts.  It doesn’t follow the normal pattern of the letters or epistles - there is no formal greeting or closing, no mention of who is writing or to whom the letter is sent.  One commentator suggests that we simply call it a writing, since that is how John himself describes it - 13 times in this letter.  I am writing, I have written.  Over and over.

There are some who question whether or not John wrote it.  In my opinion, many of these are those who question the broader authority of Scripture period.  Haters are gonna hate.  Skeptics are gonna skept.

Here’s what I think.  This particular letter does not bear John’s name, but that would be consistent for this self-effacing apostle who throughout his gospel repeatedly fails to show up as he refers to himself in the third person.  What we see in 1John is that the author of this letter was a notable witness of the life and ministry of Jesus.  And the church in antiquity received this letter as being written by John the apostle, brother of James and son of Zebedee.  In the absence of any compelling argument for a different author, there is no need to depart from this traditional view.  We also do not have any firm intel on the date or place of writing.  

What we do know is that this writing has the same hallmarks carried by the other New Testament books which bear John’s name.  His writing style is unlike any other.  He wrote the book of Revelation.  The Gospel which bears his name - “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us…In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.”

And so John begins here…

1John 1:1-4    

What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life — and the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us — what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. These things we write, so that our joy may be made complete.

Right from the get-go, John is talking about a life which is meant to be shared.  About this fellowship, this common-unity, this deep level of sharing which flows from a Father and a Son, Who is our Brother.  And so I would like to suggest a big picture, an overarching theme for this writing, and that is family.  This is our context.  I think you will see that for John, this idea of family is core to his understanding of the Christian life and for what he writes about in 1John.

As it so happens, families are God’s plan for blessing the nations.  Genesis 12.3 - “In you - Abraham, through your family - all the families of the earth will be blessed.”

What comes to your mind when you think about family?

Families share things in common.  They share, period.  Normal healthy families share.  Not thinking about the blended or broken or dysfunctional kinds which tend to discolor the modern family.  Think about family in the 1st centrury AD…

• common parents
• common ancestors (a great cloud of witnesses!)
• common heritage
• common stories
• common traditions and beliefs
• common religion
• common knowledge (family was school, where you learned)
• common livelihood (family - and home - was safety and security and support)
• if your dad was a smith, you were going to be a smith.  if he was a tanner, you were going to be a tanner.  if he was a carpenter, you were going to be a carpenter.  if he was a levite, you were going to be a levite.
• common space
• common food
• common meals
• common stuff

Any disruption in the family was potentially catastrophic.  Think about that - orphans, widows, strangers - these were regarded as the most vulnerable in society.  A special place in God’s heart.  Leaving the family, leaving the home, constituted a huge risk.  There was no hopping in the car or on a plane and zipping off to some other city or country.  There were no universities to attend.  Even going just a couple hundred miles to visit the cousins was a monumental undertaking.  So much uncertainty.  There were no state police, no 911, no tow trucks or OnStar services.  Family - and home - meant everything.  Family was the building block of society - and still is.

So these physical families are generally based on shared parents.  Genetics.  Common blood and DNA.  With this in mind, as we begin to look at the book of 1John together, I would like to suggest the backdrop of family.  That in the back of John’s mind, one of his fundamental ideas is this idea that the church, those who truly follow Jesus, are a family.  God’s family.  Holding these same values of sharing and common unity.  But here we are talking about a spiritual family.  Produced not by genetics but by faith, a shared belief and common commitment to a core set of truths, and to the person of Jesus Christ.  A common experience of eternal life which flows from our heavenly Father, Who sent His Son Jesus Christ to be the Way and the Truth and the Life.

And as we look again at the beginning, what we clearly have here are the words of someone who heard and saw and touched and spent significant time with Jesus, listening to His words of life - life-giving, life-changing - learning from Him, hanging out with Him, enjoy special times of intimate interaction, witnessing wonders and beholding glory.  This writer - John - was a first-hand witness that Jesus, the very Son of God, came to earth bodily, in a real live flesh-and-blood body.  He saw Him with his own eyes, touched Him with his own hands, heard Him with His own ears.  He had tasted the bread and the fish which Jesus had multiplied to feed thousands, had drunk from the cup of the wine of His blood and eaten the bread of His body which was broken, and John had tasted (and smelled!) the fish Jesus cooked after He rose from the dead.   Most likely he smelled Jesus with his own nose.  We don’t know what Jesus smelled like exactly, but John doesn’t digress into that here… But John was a witness.  He is telling us what he knows - so that we can join the family…

Why is he writing?  He says it right here - so that you may have fellowship with us, and so that my joy may be made complete.   In his third letter, he tells us that he has no greater joy than when his children are walking in the truth.  Family.  Sharing.  Fellowship.  He doesn’t tells us to whom he is writing, but he cares about them, deeply, and he wants them to have this amazing experience of family.  Sharing the life of Christ together.  Walking in the truth of Jesus.  Let’s talk about these.

There are multiple recurring themes in 1John.  John here doesn’t just cover one topic and move onto the next the way most of the letters do in the NT.  He keeps coming back to a set of recurring themes. (all these words appear more frequently in 1John than any other book in the Bible):

• Truth - Truth about Jesus
• Truth = light/no darkness = no hiding
• Know - Know God and His truth AND that you are in the family
• Life - Eternal life through Jesus
• Giving (laying down your) life as opposed to taking life
• Love - Love God and His family
• Fellowship
• love for one another, for our brothers and sisters, this shared life and love
• Sin - Rejecting God’s truth and love and Son and family

He repeatedly comes back to these things because they are family traits.  Family traits - there is a resemblance.  There are ways we resemble one another.

Tests to know if you’re in the family:

• Walking in the light/confessing sins
• Believing in/confessing Jesus
• Keeping His commands
• Loving one another (His children)
• Laying down lives for one another
• meeting needs
• Not leaving the family

So John begins and jumps right in by declaring to us that there is this truth - he knows it, he is a first-hand witness.  This Truth is the truth, the Good News Message about Jesus Christ.  He is the Son of God, the Son Whom the Father sent to be the Savior of the world.  He IS the Truth.  John knew Him.  He and his companions heard Him teach.  They saw His life and His miracles with their own eyes.  They touched Him with their very own hands.  We can trust, we can believe the truth of what he is saying about Jesus.  This Jesus really was the Son of God.  This One Who was and is the Word of Life came to life, took on flesh, and dwelt among us.  He walked and lived and ate and drank and slept and suffered right before our very eyes, John says.  And He wants to tell us about Him - but He also wants us to embrace this knowledge, he wants us to be able to share in the knowledge and understanding of this truth, this life which is found only in Christ.

verse 2

-This Life, this Word of life, was manifested.  John is talking about Jesus, Who appeared, was brought to light and made visible.  He had been with the Father from all eternity, but in the fulness of time He made His appearance on planet earth, right there in Galilee and Judea, among that diminuitive band of simple fishermen and tax collectors and prostitutes and carpenters.  John is clearly aware of the monumental privilege it was for him and his friends to have seen in the flesh this Son of God Who was Life, THE Life (John 14.6).  He says it again, they saw it, they saw Him, and their testimony was (and IS) credible, they were first-hand witnesses.

-I think that John is talking about more than the simple fact that he and his friends saw Jesus, however.  He is talking about eternal life.  Yes, Jesus is the Source of this life, He is the Way to this life, and this life begins with Him and is all about Him.  But I think John also has in mind the simple fact of eternal life.  Do you want to live forever?  Do you want to live, even after you die?  This is what I’m talking about, he says.  I have an announcement, and it pertains to your eternal destiny.  And guess what?  My friends and I, we actually saw eternal life show up, plain as day.  We saw it happen, played out in our midst.  This One Who was, had existed forever with the Father in eternity, He came to earth, lived among us, was actually killed - put to death and buried - but then came back to life.  Eternal life, on display.  He defeated death and appeared among us in a resurrected never-to-die-again body which we both saw and touched.  He could go thru walls.  He could appear out of nowhere.  And He finally was taken up into heaven where He reigns on high and will someday return to take up to heaven all who have believed in Him in this life.  That’s what I’m talking about!

verse 3

-Pretty much the early church couldn’t stop talking about what they had seen and heard (Acts 4.20).  In other words, they couldn’t stop talking about Jesus.  John couldn’t either.  You know those things you just can’t stop talking about?  That crazy unbelievable play or that amazing finish?  That new life-changing product.  That unforgettable movie scene.  That speaker or book which is so moving.  Well, that is what these early believers had in Jesus.  Crazy, unbelievable, amazing, life-changing, unforgettable, moving - the superlatives runneth over.  He spoke life-changing truth, words of eternal life, He lived and died like no other, performing miracles (!!!), and then - wait for it - He. Rose. From. The. Dead.  Talk about an amazing unbelievable play!  A walk-off grand slam for the ages, THE ultimate game-changer right there.  And so anyone with half a brain who had witnessed those things could not stop witnessing to others about those things.

-John here says his end goal was for others, these readers included, to be able to share in the inexpressible joy and glory of sharing in the inexpressible joy and glory of this risen Savior as well as that of His heavenly Father (Who happens to be the happiest Being in the universe!).  John says they are having fellowship with the Father and with Jesus.  This word means close and deep sharing, the kind of real soul sharing where you’re close enough to actually get the other person’s dirt on your own soul.  Only no dirt here.  There’s no dirt in the Godhead.  Only glory.  Glorious indescribably breathtaking goodness.  That’s what John and these others had tapped in to.  THE heavenly kegger.  They were full of it, fully intoxicated - yes, they were drunk on Jesus.  He had filled up their lives and had taken control of their behavior.  Just like alcohol, only there’s no throwing up or hangovers or liver damage.  Only some temporal damage to their reputation - there’s every chance that those not thus intoxicated would call such a person a fool.  A fanatic.  An extremist, perhaps.  Oh, and they might try to kill you.  But loss of reputation or even life would not deter these witnesses, these would-be martyrs even (the word for ‘witness’ in the Greek is actually martyr).  Life lived to the full with and for Jesus was fully worth it.  And still is.  There’s SO much more there than a little Sunday-go-to-meeting, a little dab’ll-do-ya and 18-inches of pew once a week.  If only we will tap into it.  That's what John is talking about.  And he wants to help us do just that, to have what he’s having, to jump on in with him cuz the water is perfect.

verse 4

-John wants him some joy.  Joy.  It is not the same as happiness.  We all think we want to be happy, but what we really want is joy.  Happiness is fleeting, temporary.  Happiness is all circumstantial.  When my circumstances change, that can rob me of my happiness.  You and I don't really want to be happy - not when we understand the reality of the situation.  These aren't the droids you're looking for.  What you and I really want is joy.  Joy is qualitatively different.  It is a deeper and abiding sense of goodness and satisfaction which is rooted in the reality of Who God is, what He has done for me in His Son, and who I am in Him.  It is grounded in timeless unchanging truth.  Which is why Scripture - which is unchanging truth - can and does tell us to rejoice always, constantly.  Truth is always truth.  So that which is my cause of rejoicing today will (or should) still runneth over my cup tomorrow and the next day and the day after that.  Joy triumphs over circumstances - or should.  Joy washes over the brokenness and the sadness and the loss and the missteps, and says, something greater is here.  Something good, something better is here.  In fact, it is a Someone, and He working a weight of glory which is far beyond compare.  And right here, right now, He is good, He is in control, and He is with me.  Emmanuel.

-So why is John writing?  He here tells us that he is writing to fill up his own joy, but rest assured, his motives are altruistic.  There is an altruism, an others-centeredness, which transcends my natural instinct to merely please myself.  It finds joy and satisfaction in bringing joy to others, in helping them realize whatever desired outcomes they may have in mind.  But what is it that will complete his joy?  The source?  There are multiple possibilities here, any of which could be in play.  Is it simply writing?  John the Writer?  When I write I feel His pleasure?  Perhaps.  Is it joy from telling what he has seen and heard? Simply talking about Jesus, his Savior, his best friend, his life?  Most assuredly.  Is John’s joy is that of the friend of the bridegroom and will increase as more and more people begin to follow and honor the Groom, this One of Whom he is writing - his Savior, the Word of Life (cf John 3.29, Luke 15.7).  Is it the possibility of others joining in and sharing in this life? The deep thirst quenching soul satisfying joy of sharing the life of Christ with the family of God? The prospect of more people giving their hearts to worship and glorify God the Father through faith in His Son? Is it that John’s joy will increase as others begin to share a deep draught from this same fountain of heavenly delights from which he also drinks deeply?  Any of these, whether increased glory for Jesus or increased joy for his readers, will result in filling up his own joy.  That is why he is writing.  That is why he wrote this writing.

Are you in the family this morning?  Have you understood and embraced the truth about Jesus?  You should.  You need to.  I would love to talk to you about that.

And what we’ll see as we journey through this writing together, is that John will keep coming back to this theme.  Here is how you can know for sure that you are in the family.  We are family.  These are the family traits.  This is what it looks like - and what it does not.  This is what the family of God looks like.  Or should…

(shared at Hope Fellowship in Longview, TX on 1.13.19)