2. 1 John 1-4: What is Christianity?

Turning your Bibles to the first epistle of John, that's 1st John, chapter 1, and we'll be reading verses 1 to 4 once again. 1st John, chapter 1, beginning in verse 1. Hear now the inspired word of God.

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 who 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.

Let's pray. Father, once again, as we look into your word, our prayer is simple and that is that you would impress your word upon our hearts, open our eyes, our ears, and our hearts that we would be able to see, hear, and understand what you have to say to us.

And especially, Father, in this important epistle, which is designed explicitly to give us the knowledge that would grant us assurance of our salvation. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Please be seated.

If we were to poll, take a poll in our community and ask just one question, what is Christianity? I wonder how many different answers we'd get. One of the things that surprised me when I became a pastor was the number of people I came in contact with that had never heard the gospel.

I'm not talking about people who were coming from third world countries or who have immigrated to America, but native-born New Yorkers who upon hearing the gospel that Jesus Christ came and died a vicarious death for your sin.

And as I would speak to people, I was stunned to hear somebody say, I never heard that before. So I can only imagine how many different answers there would be to the question, what is Christianity? I believe that the answers would surprise all of us.

But what if we were to limit our question to those people who are members or regularly attend Christian churches? Certainly, we would get a majority who could answer this question from within the church itself.

The reality is, according to the pollsters, that many churchgoers have difficulty answering such questions. And that leads us to John's purpose in writing his letter, this first epistle. Remember, we have his purpose in the fifth chapter of this letter.

He says, these things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. John is writing to give assurance to those churches under his care.

Remember the context for the letter, the churches in the latter part of the first century are being split by controversy and heretical teaching. So John writes to give the disillusioned body the assurance of faith.

And he's going to do this by emphasizing the true doctrine of the faith and also by expounding on one of the essentials, and that is love for God and love for one another. With those thoughts in mind, it becomes obvious to us why John opens his letter with these words.

One of the problems with polling people is there may be many different yet related answers to the question. For example, what is Christianity? Think of how many different ways people could answer that.

And without ever really getting to the essence of it. John answers this question very directly right here in the beginning of his letter. In this letter, he says, Christianity is not just a mere theology.

It's more than a theology. He says, Christianity is more than a code of ethics. Certainly has a code of ethics, but it's more than that. Christianity is more than a philosophy. Christianity is a person.

Christianity is Jesus Christ. And you will see just how important that concept is. But there is the definitive answer to the question. What is Christianity? It is Jesus Christ. Look at what John says in the preface to his epistle, verses one and two again.

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 manifest and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life with which was with the father and he was manifested to us.

It's a lot in those opening words. It's clear that John is not speaking about a philosophy. We're not even just a theology. He is commencing his letter. He is opening his letter by introducing Jesus Christ.

Notice what he says. What we have heard, what we have seen, what we have looked at. And then he gets very personal. We even touched with our hands. It's not a philosophy. It's not even a theology. What he calls it is the word of life.

Now, of course, the Bible is also called the word of life. It is the inscripturated word of life. But by his words, that can't be what John is speaking about here. He is describing the incarnate word of God.

John is referring back to the days of the Lord's earthly ministry when the disciples dwelt with him. The father manifested Jesus Christ to his disciples. And though in slightly different words, that is exactly the way John opened his gospel.

Look at the similarities. John 1 .1, in the beginning was the word. The word was with God and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God. Now, we cannot begin our study without looking at the word.

And that's word with a small w. Looking at the word that is used for the word with a capital W. I don't want to lose you there. But it's two very different concepts. Of course, the Greek word, small w, is logos.

But just a little background will be helpful here. Both the Greeks and the Jews had a concept of the logos, the word. So both Jews and Greeks, upon reading John's gospel or his epistles, could grasp what he meant.

Excuse me. The Greek concept of the logos goes all the way back to Heraclitus, around 500 BC. In Greek philosophy, the logos was like the captain or the pilot of the universe. The logos was the driving or directing principle in the universe.

And thus, by very nature, was distinct from the material world. The wording here is very important. Notice that. The logos, distinct from the material world. Notice the emphasis in Greek thought of a principle or a concept.

As compared to the writing of John, who says, the word became flesh. And so though the Greeks could at least in some degree understand John, but John was alluding to the Jewish thought and the Old Testament.

And that becomes very evident in the opening phrase of his gospel. In the beginning was the word. Notice John brings us all the way back to Genesis with that phrase. In the beginning. You know, it's interesting.

In Jewish culture, a book of scripture was often referred to by its opening words. So when the Jews would speak about Genesis, they would say, the book of in the beginning. So John brings us back to creation here.

In the beginning was the word. The word of God is God himself, specifically in his creative action. God spoke, things happened. Let there be light. Light came into existence. In the Old Testament scriptures, the word of God is God in his powerful and effective actions.

Not just in creation, but also in deliverance and in judgment. I've decided to read, I don't know if you noticed the first scripture reading. It was, again, Psalm. From the Psalms. We're going to be reading through that from 120 on into the 130s.

They're called the Psalms of Ascent. These were the Psalms that the Jews would recite as they were going into worship. And it specifically has relationship to what we'll be studying over the next few weeks.

So we're going to be reading the Psalms of Ascent. So thus says the Lord is a powerful statement in the scripture. We also see this in the book of Proverbs. As wisdom, as wisdom is personified. Proverbs 8, 22.

The Lord possessed me at the beginning of his way, before his works of old. From everlasting I was established, from the beginning, from the earliest of times. And in verse 27 of the same chapter. When he established the heavens, I was there.

Proverbs 8, 30. Then I was beside him as a master workman. This is wisdom personified. In the scriptures. Here's an interesting fact. In the synagogues of old, the phrase the word of God replaced the name of God when being read aloud.

The Jews considered the name of God too holy to speak. And so they substituted the word of God. Notice how John brings forth the deity of Jesus in such a profound way. The four phrases of the first two verses of his gospel speak volumes to the person of who Jesus Christ is.

By definition, God has no beginning. So it also addresses the eternality of Jesus in those first two verses of the gospel. God has no beginning. Now everyone knows that, but who can really understand that?

Think about it. No beginning. You know, we have no words that can describe eternity. We think in terms of time. Even creation in the beginning has reference to time. What happened before creation? There was no time.

Talk about not having time. What does it mean to think back to before the world was here? We don't know how to express it. It's funny to listen to philosophers trying to talk about the concept of eternality in no time.

We talk about things that happened before the world was, and then time began in the beginning. And the phrase that sums up the eternality of God is that first phrase of the Bible, in the beginning, God.

And that's exactly what John says in his gospel. And Jesus Christ shares God's eternality. He was in the beginning. And John repeats this just so we don't miss it. In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God.

The Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. You know, one of the fundamental questions philosophers ask is this. Why is there not nothing? Think about that. Why is there not nothing? Bishop Leslie Newbing said the answer is that in the beginning was the Word.

And as though Jesus lived within time as a human being, he is not bound by time. Athanasius said there never was when he was not. That means as far back as you can possibly conceive in your mind, in whatever event you can think of, Jesus was Lord.

Now, there's some serious implications of how we view God. Since Jesus is the eternal Word. And he said, I and the Father are one. And anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. That means that God is always like Jesus and vice versa.

Now, I want you to follow me very closely here, because you can do a misstep into heresy very quickly. There can never be a disparity within the persons of the Godhead. And that's important. There is some popular theology that says Jesus portrays God differently in the New Testament than God was revealed in the Old Testament.

I'm going to quote Bruce Milner, commentator. He says, this is important for the way we read the Old Testament. The significance of the open phrase of John is that God, who speaks in the Old Testament, who entered into covenant with his people, Israel, and inspired and moved the prophets, was none other than the God known in Jesus Christ.

God has not changed or evolved. Jesus Christ was always at the heart of God. It's important to keep that in mind that we serve a Trinitarian God. We are not polytheists. There is one God. And so clearly stated in Deuteronomy 6, Hero Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one.

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might. And the teaching of John about the word of God reinforces that. You cannot divide or separate the persons of the Trinity.

But that being said, you can distinguish between the persons. And John does so at the end of verse 2 of his epistle. And in the second phrase of verse 1 of his gospel. Now, I just want to pause for a moment.

Why is John going through these lengths talking about God? And we're going to be looking at the deity of Jesus in a few moments. Because the Gnostic heresy separated. They didn't believe that God could become flesh.

And we'll see plenty of that later on. So right now, we're just going to focus on the deity of Jesus. In the beginning was the word, the word was with God, the word was God. He was in the beginning with God.

Literally, it means towards God. Most scholars see in these words an indication of an intimate relationship. A .T. Robertson, in his book, Grammar of the Greek New Testament, suggests this translation.

The word was face to face with God. And B .F .C. Atkinson refers to it in a sense of home. In other words, the word was in God's home. And all of these translations are necessary for us since we can't fully understand the trinity nor eternity.

And so after his first pronouncement, in the beginning was the word, he continues with the word, and the word was God. Here he distinguishes between the word and God without separating them and leading into theological error.

Remember, you can never separate the persons of the trinity. The phrase unambiguously affirms the deity of the word, the deity of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is God the son, the second person of the trinity, very God himself.

And it is so clear and so simply stated that one may ask how anyone can deny that this is what the word of God teaches. Yet some use this very text to deny the trinity. Some translated the word was God-like.

Others, the word was a God. But none of these translations can pass the theological or even the grammatical tests. The theology of John's gospel and his epistle alone repudiates any of these assertions.

In fact, John's gospel and his epistles have more theology concerning the person and of Jesus Christ than any other of the scriptures. The word for God is theos, the same word used in the phrase, the word was with God.

There is no a in front of God. He was not a God. Jesus Christ is God. And that too has to be clearly stated because all of those other translations are driven by a false theology. I just want to pause again for a moment and say, when we start talking about the trinity, eternality, the deity of Jesus Christ, we're treading on holy ground.

And whenever you do that, you must do so with great, great caution. Let me show you what I mean. Bruce Mills says this about the text. By putting the relationship thus, John is also avoiding the error of a complete identification of the two persons.

To quote Tasker, the word does not by himself make up the entire Godhead. To which we agree wholeheartedly. Then he continues by stating, there is more to the Godhead than either the father or the son.

If I stop there, we could be lapsing into heresy. So he continues, immediately follows the thought of somewhat of a correction or a caution. So I'm going to quote him. He says, we need great care in using more here.

Since as Augustine taught centuries ago, no two persons are greater than any one person. In other words, the father plus the son is not greater than the deity of the father alone. Or the son alone. Since both and both together with the spirit are one Godhead.

At this point, we confront the profound mystery of the trinity and apprehension moves imperceptibly but delightedly into adoration. Do you follow that? Let me just sum it up. The trinity is a mystery.

And we need to be very cautious that we don't lapse into Gnosticism or any one of the other heresies concerning the trinity or the person of Jesus Christ. Remember, John's goal here, and the reason I went through some of that is to present Jesus in the fullness of his deity.

Jesus is God. And that the Christian, why does John bring this up? So that the Christian may be fully assured of your salvation. But as he's presenting Jesus in this fashion, he's careful not to forget the trinitarian nature of God.

And so here in his first epistle, we get a foretaste of things that are going to come later on in the letter. It's important to note that John opens both the gospel and his epistle with reasons for his writing.

And he writes with the authority of both being an eyewitness and an expert witness. Having spent three and one half years with Jesus, he can speak with the authority concerning the doctrine that Jesus taught.

That's a cardinal rule of testimony when somebody is called in to testify in court. How are you an expert? John defines how he is an expert and how he can be speaking authoritatively. He says, what we have seen and heard.

John was there. He was with Christ. He both saw Christ and heard him. He says, we have looked and touched with our hands. Remember, John was the one who leaned on Jesus' breath. What Jesus had manifested to us, he says in his letter.

John is putting himself forward. He says, I know because I was there. He could have listed a lot of things. Just think, John could have gone into a lengthy list of his miracles. I saw these miracles. I saw Jesus transfigured in front of me.

I saw him crucified. I saw him when he was raised from the dead. I watched him ascend into heaven. John was there when the great commission was given to the disciples. All of that is behind his words that I saw him.

I heard the message. I touched him. I looked at him. It is his testimony that he speaks of in verse two. But he doesn't end there. Look at verse three. 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. He says, in obedience to our Lord, all of these things I now proclaim to you. Indeed, we have been commanded to take the gospel to the whole world.

Notice how opposite this is to the Gnostic thought. The Gnostics desired to form elite little groups who were alone the enlightened one. Doesn't everybody like to be included in something special? Come here.

Just you and me. Just the three of us. No, no, not him. Just you and me. That was the theology of the Gnostics. It's just us. What does Jesus tell his disciples? Proclaim the gospel to the ends of the world.

And not in a quiet fashion. Jesus said in Luke 12, whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light. And whatever you have whispered in the inner rooms will be proclaimed upon the housetops.

Christianity is not some quiet religion that is meant to be hidden in dark and secret places. It is a world changing religion. It is life changing. It is personified in the person of Jesus Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life.

And this is what John said in verse two. And we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life. John Stott put it this way. He said, Jesus not only manifested himself to the disciples to qualify them as eyewitnesses, but gave them an authoritative commission as apostles to preach the gospel.

And John gives us the objective, then, for writing what he does in this epistle. Remember, this is just the introduction that we're looking at. His readers, which includes you and me, would have fellowship with him and the rest of the disciples.

Think about that. He's giving us one of the objectives. We know his purpose for writing. That's assurance. But one of his objectives in writing is that you and I can have fellowship. Christian fellowship is an integral part of being a Christian.

There's no such thing as a lone ranger Christian. We are in unity with Christ and with one another. And the fellowship, this fellowship that we have with God is manifested in the local churches. The local church is not a human invention.

The emphasis on belonging to a local church and having fellowship in that context is all through the scriptures. That's not my purpose for this morning. The point is, as John is writing to bring the churches to maturity, and to full assurance, he points out how this will come to be.

So right here in the preface of his letter, in his opening words to the church, John says, one of the first steps, if you want to be fully assured, if you want to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you have salvation, you need fellowship.

We need each other. That's the way God has designed the church. This will bring about true fellowship, but not only with the apostles, not only with each other, but with the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Look again at verse 3. He says, so that you too may have fellowship with us. And if you have fellowship with one another through the teaching of the apostles, you will also be in fellowship with God. How else can you come to assurance of faith if you have no fellowship?

If somebody walks in here as a stranger and says something, something that you're commanded to do, would you believe them? Who is this guy? Some of you say that about me. Who is this? No, but you get the point.

When you have fellowship, you'll learn how to trust. The fellowship that you have builds trust, which builds assurance of faith. And it also means we have fellowship with God. And then John adds one more concept.

We're not unfamiliar with this. Look at verse 4 once again. These things we write so that our joy may be made complete. Joy is one of the results of being assured of your salvation. The Christian will not have complete joy until he reaches glory, of course.

When all things with the Father has decreed will be complete. But the Christian can truly live a life of joy here on earth. The fact is that joy is part of the fruit of the Spirit. Therefore, joy is available to all believers to one degree or another.

Quenching the Spirit or grieving the Holy Spirit can certainly affect the amount of joy that you live with. Just like struggling with your assurance of salvation affects your joy. There is certainly a link between them as John points to both in his letter.

One last concept, comment about joy. The biblical concept of joy is not giddiness nor silliness. I've seen some crazy things happen and say, oh, we're celebrating the joy of the Lord. That's not the biblical concept of joy.

The biblical concept of joy is the best definition is that joy is an inner sense of calm delight. It's easy to see how this is related to assurance. When a person has been saved and given a new heart and is part of a loving body of believers enjoying true Christian fellowship and understands that the true historic Christianity is all about Jesus Christ, that person experiences that inner calm delight that overcomes whatever bad or tragic circumstances come into your path.

So what is Christianity? A simple yet profound question. How you answer it says a lot about who you are. Answering that question properly is an important step to attaining assurance of faith. Which, as John clearly shows, is an important element in living an obedient Christian life.

Remember the purpose of the letter. These things I've written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. As we work our way through the first epistle of John, it's my prayer that each of you would come to full assurance of faith.

That you would know that you have eternal life. In fact, John says, I want you to know that you know. Actually, he says, I want you to know that you know that you know. No, he does it 40 times. I'll stop at three.

If you're not a believer, I would refer you back to the Gospel of John as it stated the purpose of the letter of the Gospel of John. John says this, there are many other signs Jesus performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book.

But these have been written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and by believing you may have life in his name. The essence of the Gospel is simple. Paul states in Romans 10, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

For with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. Why should you believe? He has given you everything that you need to believe.

Repent of your sin, come to Jesus Christ, and be saved. Let's pray.