Sunday Sermon: Jesus Appeared: For Fellowship And Joy

LaRue Baptist Church, OH

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The Old Testament reading is in Isaiah chapter seven, verses 10 through 17.

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Again, the Lord spoke to Ahaz, ask a sign of the Lord your God, let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.

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But Ahaz said, I will not ask and I will not put the Lord to the test. And he said, hear then,

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O house of David, is it too little for you to weary men that you weary God also?

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Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name

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Emmanuel. He shall eat curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good.

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For before the boy knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose kings you dread will be deserted.

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The Lord will bring upon you and upon your people and upon your father's house such days as have not come since the day of Ephraim, departed from Judah, the king of Assyria.

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The New Testament reading is from the book of Luke, chapter one, starting in verse 26 through verse 38, which is page 855 of the

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Pew Bible. In the sixth month, the angel

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Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was

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Joseph of the house of David. And the virgin's name was Mary. And he came to her and said, "'Greetings,

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O favored one. "'The Lord is with you.' But she was greatly troubled at the saying and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be.

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And the angel said to her, "'Do not be afraid, Mary, "'for you have found favor with God. "'And behold, you will conceive in your womb "'and bear a son, and you shall call his name

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Jesus. "'He will be great "'and will be called the Son of the Most High. "'And the

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Lord God will give to him "'the throne of his house, "'the throne of his father,

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David. "'And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. "'And his kingdom, there will be no end.'

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And Mary said to the angel, "'How will this be since I am a virgin?' And the angel answered her, "'The

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Holy Spirit will come upon you "'and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. "'Therefore, the child to be born "'will be called holy and the

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Son of God. "'And behold, your relative Elizabeth, "'in her old age, has also conceived a son, "'and this is the sixth month with her "'who was called barren.

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"'For nothing will be impossible with God.' And Mary said, "'Behold, I am the servant of the Lord. "'Let it be to me according to your word.'

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And the angel departed from her." You may be seated. Well, this is the first Sunday in Advent and many times, not always, but most of the time,

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I try to preach a series of sermons that goes with these

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Advent Sundays. This is the first Sunday of Advent and so the first Advent sermon. So if you will, let's bow and ask

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God to take his word and bring it to bear upon us as we look at it this morning.

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Father, we now come before you in needy people with our palms up, outstretched hands, asking you to feed us, help us today,

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Lord. We have all come from different circumstances and different trials, different blessings.

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We have come, all of us, each of us, with a whole history of this week and we have come here on this day to hear you speak to us and to address us.

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So speak to us, we pray, and by your spirit, Lord, open this text that we might see the glories of Jesus.

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Help us now to give our attention to you as you speak in your word.

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We pray this in Jesus' name, amen. Have you ever seen someone excited about Christmas?

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You may say to me, are you joking? Are you kidding me? My goodness, you ought to see my kids on Christmas Eve.

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They're just staring at the presents all night long and they're begging us, can we just open one, just one?

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Is it okay if we open just one? One? And you hold the line and you say no.

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And the next day, they can hardly contain themselves. It's five o 'clock in the morning and they're knocking down your bedroom door and dragging you out of bed, dragging you down the stairs and kicking the door open and rushing to the tree, right?

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Yeah, we've seen people excited about Christmas. But I wanna show you someone who's really excited about Christmas and for the right reasons.

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Let's turn to 1 John chapter one, the epistle of 1 John chapter one.

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The apostle John has something to say and you can almost catch the way he feels as he starts to write this short letter.

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Listen to him as he enthusiastically relates his version of Christmas. 1

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John chapter one, verse one. That which is 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, 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

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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

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Father and with his son, Jesus Christ and we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.

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See, John has something on his mind and he has to tell you about it. Eternal life has appeared and he has to tell you about it.

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Something extraordinary has happened. Eternal life in the person of Jesus has appeared on the stage of human experience.

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Jesus appeared. Isn't that what Christmas is all about? It's about the appearance of Jesus.

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Everyone knows that, yet it seems that too many people do not know why that's important.

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Literally, literally, literally, can I say billions of people are celebrating

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Christmas all over the world but do they know why? Do they know why it's so important to celebrate that?

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And it's not just important for understanding of history. It's important to your existence as a human being.

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That is why John starts out all so excitedly in this letter. He wants you to grasp the importance of the appearance of Jesus.

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He wants you to grasp that importance. First of all, you have to realize that Jesus appeared.

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You see that in verses one and two. That which is 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, this life was made manifest and we have seen it and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life.

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Again, it was made manifest to us, made clear to us, it was revealed to us, it appeared to us.

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Realize that Jesus appeared. We celebrate this season because of the appearance of Jesus.

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But when John says that Jesus appeared, he does not mean the same thing as we would when we say

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Abraham Lincoln appeared on February 12th, 1809. He doesn't mean it in the same way.

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And that's what most today would assert that like any other person, Jesus appeared on the scene.

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He appeared on a day, on that day in a stable. That's what most people would mean.

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But John means something entirely different when he says that, entirely different.

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Suppose I said to you that one day last summer, I was sitting on the porch reading when a young man appeared on my porch, okay?

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You would not think that he came into existence at that moment, would you?

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You would not think that. Because here's a guy that has a whole history behind him. And now he appears on my porch.

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It doesn't mean all of a sudden he materialized. It means that he showed up, right?

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Here's a young man who has a history, a life of experience, but this is the first time that I have seen him when

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I use that terminology. You see, Jesus had an existence prior to his appearance.

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Verse one, he was what? He was from the beginning. If we look at the history of the world and look all the way back to the beginning,

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Jesus was there before he ever was born, all the way back to the beginning.

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So he must have existed before the beginning. And then if that's not enough, John says, and he makes the point clear when he says that Jesus, in verse two, was with the

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Father. Jesus was with the Father. Jesus had a history before he ever appeared in that stable one night over 2 ,000 years ago.

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He lived in perfect, loving fellowship with the Father and with the Spirit. From all eternity past, before the universe came to be, he walked with Adam and Eve.

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He knew Abraham. He was familiar, if not knowing intimately,

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David's greatest king and all his descendants. He could tell you more about the prophets than you could ever imagine.

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In fact, wrap your mind around this, he knew everything about his parents before they were born.

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Can you think that thought? He knew everything about his parents before they were ever born.

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Why? Because he had an existence before he appeared on the scene.

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He was eternal God, the second person of the Trinity. And he truly entered the realm of human experience.

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Jesus was someone, notice, how do I know he entered human, on the human stage? Because Jesus was someone that John heard.

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More than just hearing, he was seen. And so you don't miss the point, he says, with our eyes.

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All right, not just seen in a metaphorical way, but actually we saw him with our eyes.

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And this was not merely a quick seeing and hearing. It's not like the freight train speeding through town and I say to you, okay, now tell me about every car that went through.

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We say, I just saw the train, I can't tell you about every. That's not what he's saying. He's saying Jesus was thoroughly investigated, right?

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Which we have looked upon. That doesn't just mean saw, that means he investigated, thoroughly investigated.

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More than seeing, but beholding intelligently so as to grasp the meaning and significance of it all.

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And then he says, and our hands have touched. Use a term like a blind man groping. Ever see a blind person put their hand on someone's face and feel the features of their face?

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That's the term he's using. Jesus appeared, which is to say, God himself came and dwelt with us and in such a way that no one could possibly doubt that God had appeared.

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No one can possibly doubt it. We heard him, we saw him, we touched him, right?

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We investigated everything about him. Jesus appeared, that is God himself arrived on the stage of human history.

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Now here's the second thing John says, that you have to realize that Jesus appeared as life.

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Again, verses one and two, he emphasizes life. Now it's important to understand this because many have misunderstood

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Jesus at this very point. Many celebrate Jesus because he was a good teacher.

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They celebrate him because he was a good example, because he gave us a new and better ethical system.

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Quite frankly, we don't need another teacher. We don't need another philosopher. We don't need another ethics teacher to teach us a better way.

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You know, it's interesting to me that many people sing the praises of Jesus' ethics but never live by them.

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It's amazing to me to hear people say, well, Jesus said, that's right, so do what he says then.

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And no one does, no one does. John asserts that he proclaims, note in verse one, concerning the word of life, that his message is all about eternal life.

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Verse two, we proclaim to you the eternal life, not just biological life now, but eternal life.

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We proclaim to you eternal life. As you look at the text, if you have an NIV, it has word of life, it has capital

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W. In the ESV, which is what most of us have, it has word, lowercase w, of life, lowercase l.

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I would suggest to you that the word should be lowercase but life should be uppercase, the word of life.

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Now, in John's gospel, the other book that John wrote, John wrote 1st, 2nd, 3rd

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John, the gospel of John and the book of Revelation. In the gospel of John, John emphasizes the word, capital

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W, all right, that Jesus is the word of God, the word that reveals

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God. Here, he's emphasizing not word, but life.

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The emphasis is on life. John wants you to see Jesus here not as the word, but John wants you to see here as Jesus as the life.

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And so he says here, he's speaking concerning the word or the message of life. He comes with the message of eternal life.

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In the gospel, Jesus is the word. Here, he is the life. That's the emphasis.

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Please notice that Jesus is identified with that life. He didn't come speaking about that life.

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He embodies that life. This is not an abstraction. He is eternal life.

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He's not come just to talk about it, he is that. That is to say, it's not about do this and you will know eternal life, nor is it follow this teaching and have eternal life.

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No, it's you've got to be joined to that person. There's got to be a connection between you and that person for you to have eternal life.

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You have to believe, you have to exercise faith in, you have to trust, you have to give yourself to this life in order to have life.

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It's a person, it's not a system, all right? It is a person, not a system.

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You have to be connected to this life in order for you to have eternal life.

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You know, and again, we need to work on this, but if you read any systematic theology, you'll find this phrase, union with Christ, which means we have been joined to Christ in some fashion, in a mystical way, so that we have what he is.

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He is eternal life, and as we're joined to him, we have life. So he doesn't come, Jesus doesn't come talking about life.

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He is the life, he is eternal life. Now, what's

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John anxious to do? To proclaim that life?

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The life was made manifest, it appeared, and we have seen it and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life.

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John and those that follow him do not proclaim a mere abstract message, but they proclaim a person who embodies this kind of life, this kind of life, and his proclamation carries with it great authority.

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Now, he uses two words here, testify and proclaim. He testifies to it.

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I testify because I'm a witness, not merely let me relate to you what happened, but witness in the

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New Testament carries with the idea of seeing defense and being so much a part of the events that you can't help but say something about those events.

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It means so apprehended, so captured by these events that you are compelled to plead the merits of the case.

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You're compelled to tell others. In other words, you become a passionate spokesman.

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When your first child was born and you witnessed that event, you didn't just stroll to the phone. Back then, of course,

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I'm thinking about when my children were born, which is pre -cell phone days, you had to go to the phone.

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You actually had to go to a phone. You didn't just, I didn't just stroll to the phone casually and say, well,

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Dad, I just had an interesting experience. Yeah, it was kind of interesting.

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We had a son and I thought you'd like to know. That's not how it works, is it? You're so much a part of those events that you can't wait to tell somebody about it.

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You are a passionate spokesman. Now, he goes on. He doesn't just say testify, but we proclaim to you eternal life.

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And proclaim has the idea here of authority, authority. He's not only as a witness, but he has been commissioned by Jesus to proclaim not only the events, but the significance of those events.

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Now, this is important to understand. He doesn't just tell you. He doesn't just tell you, hey,

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Jesus appeared. He tells you Jesus appeared and he is eternal life.

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He tells you the significance of Jesus appearing, the proper interpretation of those events.

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And that's exactly what he's doing here. He says, Jesus appeared, we saw him, we touched him, all that.

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And he is eternal life. In other words, he doesn't say, here's Jesus, right?

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Like most people today. Yeah, there was Jesus is born in this table from what we can tell from these ancient pieces of literature.

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This person, Jesus, was born in this table. He tells us the significance of that.

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He gives us the proper interpretation of the events. He doesn't leave the events for us to interpret. He says, and this is what it means.

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We're giving you the authoritative meaning of this. He's qualified as a commissioned authoritative spokesman.

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All right, now, we're all familiar with the presidential spokesman. And the one that stands out in most of our minds,

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I can't even remember the present one's name. I remember last name is McEnany, but the little blonde haired girl, the

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McEnany girl, right? I'm sorry, I don't mean to be dismissive of her. I don't mean that at all. Okay, that sounds,

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I'd call her a girl. Well, this woman who stands before the press, and you notice she will stand behind a podium that has a seal on the front of it.

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That's the seal of the White House. Now, what's important about that woman who stands behind the podium with the seal with the

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White House on it and reporters sitting in front of her, she is the White House press secretary.

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What does that mean? When she speaks on an issue, everybody listens.

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Well, you know, most of the time they listen.

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Why? Because whatever she says is the official position of the president on the issue.

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You don't have to have the president stand there and tell you. If she says it, that's the president's position.

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That's the official position of the president because she's been commissioned to speak for him.

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That's what John is here. He's been commissioned to speak for Jesus. He's one who proclaims.

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He's one who, as a commissioned representative of Jesus, tells you who

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Jesus is, all right? So, what you have here is a passionate and authoritative spokesman about what

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Jesus is all about. And so, now that eternal life has appeared in the person of Jesus, we must now proclaim him with all authority.

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We talk about him, and that's what John is doing here. Now, verses three and four, know that Jesus appeared for a purpose.

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Jesus has appeared as life, so what? So you could experience fellowship.

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So you could experience fellowship. That which we have seen and heard, we proclaim also to you. Why? So that you too may have fellowship with us.

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And indeed, our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.

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God says here that Jesus appeared, that Jesus must be proclaimed, and that fellowship results.

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Fellowship happens. There can be no fellowship, listen now, there can be no fellowship without the authoritative, dogmatic proclamation of Jesus.

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Fellowship and peace will never be produced by peacekeeping forces.

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Fellowship between people will not be produced by sensitivity training, where we learn to celebrate a diversity.

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Fellowship will not happen because we learn anger management techniques. It will not happen through mere education.

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Fellowship between people will only happen through the authoritative proclamation of the good news of Jesus Christ.

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That's the only way fellowship can happen. Now, let's make sure we understand what we're talking about. What is fellowship?

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We're brought together into fellowship with one another. What does that mean? The word is koinonia, which means communion, close communion, intimate participation with, union of.

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It's more than just we get along. It's that our lives intersect. It goes beyond superficialities to actual participation in one another's lives, where we are all joined together in this close, intimate kind of a relationship.

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It's not merely knowing about someone, but actually knowing someone.

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You know the difference. It's not just knowing about someone. It's actually knowing someone. I don't merely know

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Becca. I don't just know her, or I don't just know about her.

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I know her because we have intimate participation in one another's lives.

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I know what delights her. I know what she values. I know what she doesn't like.

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We walk and we talk together when we're alone. We have good times that are sweet and refreshing.

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And that's the promise held out here in the gospel of Jesus, that that can happen with us.

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Those kinds of things where we know one another, we love one another, we actually know those people and that person.

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But that's impossible without Jesus. Listen, we can talk about all the things that are going on and how to solve them.

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And our culture is stuck on education. Right? Education is not gonna bring this about.

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It may achieve a certain amount of, okay, I'll leave you alone, or I'll respect you, but it won't produce this.

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Never can. Only Jesus can do that. It's impossible without Jesus. Look at Ephesians 2, for example.

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Turn over to Ephesians 2. Ephesians 2, he's contrasting the two categories of humankind that God had pronounced.

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God had said, Israel is my people, the rest are not. So, my people, not my people.

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The two God -imposed differences of humanity. What could possibly overcome

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God -imposed differences in humanity to make one?

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Here's what he says. Verse 11, therefore, remember that at one time, you Gentiles, not people of God, in the flesh, called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands.

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Remember that you are at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope without God, having no hope and without God in the world.

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But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

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For he himself, he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances that he might create in himself one new man, one new humanity in the place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility, all right?

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Only Jesus can do that. He breaks down all the walls. So if he can break down the walls of a

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God -imposed difference in humanity, he can surely break down all the walls that we have constructed in terms of race, or economics, or standing, social standing, or class.

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All those can be broken down in Christ and only in him. He'd also freeze us from the desires that rule us, marriages falling apart, situations at work that are just unbearable, friendships wrecked, why?

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Because people want what they want. They have these desires, and they want what they want, and so there is just the breakdown of relationships, the breakdown of everything, why?

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Because people want what they want. Only Jesus now can help us so that we conquer those desires and we live for something greater.

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We live for his glory, right? The Apostle Paul Philippians chapter one, where he says to the

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Philippians, pray that I'll have sufficient courage so that now, as always, Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life, whether things go my way, or whether by death, whether they don't.

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What happens to me is not that important. Only Jesus can do that so that we stop serving our desires and we start serving him.

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And thus, we're drawn closer and closer together. So through that eternal life, we're brought together into fellowship with one another.

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Not only that, but through that eternal life, we're brought into fellowship with the Father and with the Son. God does not just know about us.

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He now graciously enters your life. Your hurts are his concern.

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Your joys are his joys. Your welfare is a matter of great interest to him.

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You ever thought those thoughts? Again, let me say to you, is that how you think about your

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Father in heaven? Or do you see him too often as a guy, a

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God who you cannot please? He takes an interest. He is vitally involved in your joys and your hurts.

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Your welfare is of great interest to him. You know, when

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I say his welfare is of great interest to me, here's the thought that just popped into my mind. It's not like another human being has taken an interest in you and thinks about you periodically and maybe prays about you.

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This is an infinite being who's created everything, who has an interest in you.

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That's a bit different, wouldn't you agree? But the same thing happens to you, by the way.

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God's concern become your concerns. What he loves, you love. What he hates, you hate.

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You find your love for him growing. In short, your life and his start to become inextricably bound together so that you can't even look at life without looking at it through the lens that God gives you.

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You can't even take one step without thinking, okay, is this the right way to go?

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I need to understand that. And where does that finally lead to? Verse four, all of this leads to joy.

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God desires your joy. Jesus appeared for your joy.

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We write this, says John, so that this resulting fellowship will create joy.

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You wanna experience the kind of supernatural joy, that kind of supernatural joy, the kind that the world every

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Christmas yearns for but can never find, right? Do you ever notice every year, people around you, all your unbelieving friends, they all seem to just get this little bit of hope.

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Maybe there's joy around the corner. They all seem to kind of feel that way and it's all inevitably every year crushed within a week or two.

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Happens every year. Well, that joy comes through fellowship with God the

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Father and with his son, Jesus Christ. It comes through fellowship with God's people bound together because of their shared union with eternal life.

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There are no shortcuts. Jesus appeared. He must be proclaimed.

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Fellowship is created. Joy results. That's why

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Jesus appeared. He appears that you would find fellowship with him and with his

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Father. He appears that we would have fellowship with them and with one another.

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And he appears that in this world of hate and misery, we would experience joy.

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Why do we not experience that joy? Because we haven't entered into the fellowship with eternal life that we ought to.

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You know what? In the last few weeks, in the last few weeks, the transitory nature of life has really been impressed upon me.

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Some days ago, one of my heroes, Jay Adams, died. And then my friend,

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Rodney Armstrong, died on Thanksgiving Day. And the very next day, a pastor that I truly respected died.

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And yet, there's hope in the midst of that.

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Why? Because there is eternal life that isn't just some abstraction out there.

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There's an eternal life that has appeared and walked with us.

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And in the face of death, in the face of all the cruelty and the misery of this world, here is eternal life.

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Clearly, clearly appeared and walked amongst us.

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And so we have hope. And so let me say it again. Jesus appeared.

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He appeared as eternal life so that you could have fellowship with him and his

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Father, with one another, creating a fellowship that produces joy.

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So we have hope and we have joy. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for the appearance of Jesus on the stage of human experience and human history.

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We thank you that you did not leave us in darkness, but the light of life appeared amongst us.

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We thank you for this one whom the

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Apostle John saw and heard and touched and now proclaims to us.

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God, produce in us that fellowship with you and Jesus by the

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Spirit and that fellowship with one another. God, produce joy in us through the appearance of Jesus and we'll thank you for it all in Jesus' name.