1 John 1:1-4

Hey, what's up? I'm Jeff. Welcome to Trailer 1689. Hey, what's up?

So here we are. We're gonna go through the the book of First John. Before we get into it,

I had to do a little set, and I know I was videoing inside my place.

You know, dogs, cats, kids kept interrupting, so it was really hard to get intimate with the text, so I was having to do real quick videos.

So I decided to build something, because I want to go through books of the Bible at my church.

I'm teaching in Sunday school through the book of First John, and so I thought

I would start there, which is going to be a lot different than than teaching people whenever you're asking good questions and anticipating good answers and having to to follow up from there.

So we're not going to do that. We're going to expositionally walk through the text, but before we do, I want to remind you, if you have not gotten a

Bible bound by Post Tenderbloss Lux Bible Rebinding after Darkness Light, what's up?

I mean, what's going on? What's really going on? Best Bibles in the world. I represent to the fullest.

All right, so in First John, things that we know. Well, right now we haven't really talked about anything, right?

But we do know this, that it's believed that that First John was written by the

Apostle John who wrote the Gospel of John. I say believed because John did not, there was no

John Hancock. He did not sign the letters such as as Paul would or or Peter.

So John does not give any identity of who he is when he writes this epistle.

So about 2013, I started listening to John MacArthur, well -known

Bible teacher, exposition, and he recommended a Bible reading plan to find short books of the

Bible, or if it's a long book, then to take a few chapters at a time, three, five, seven chapters, and read them in a day for 30 days.

And so I did this and ended up reading First John for 90 days. I got to the point where I could answer most any question by using

First John, whether I was hanging out with my friends that were asking questions at home, at church, on the street witnessing, like I was able to to answer most any question using using this book.

About two years ago, like I really got real acquainted with the

Gospel of John, like I went through it several times. And so this last year,

I started digging in to First John again, and then recently, about three months ago,

I started teaching First John. Well, after this round of going through it and teaching it, like it's clear to me that this epistle is written by John the

Apostle. So like I said, I was able to answer most questions by using the epistle.

Well, this epistle is really good for that. So like you don't have a big question such as what is sin?

And then it would have a straightforward answer. Sin is lawlessness. So what is sin?

Sin is lawlessness. And so it's really good for answering those big questions.

But you can go to the Gospel of John, and the

Gospel of John gives great textual support for the things that we find in First John.

So one of the things that I hope to do is to make that clear, and if you're watching these videos, you'll be able to to be able to respond to people, whether in church settings, witnessing, or whatever, to answer these questions.

And we'll also give you a range of scripture that you could go to to support the text.

So that's my plan. And as I write down this text, you can judge for yourself whether I make the case.

One thing that I'm really against is whenever...

I've read lots of commentary, and I've been listening to lots of preaching concerns in this book, and I get really upset when

I do these things. You say, well, why? Well, because when it, you know,

I feel like they have the scriptures in one hand, and then their tradition in the other hand, and whenever they get to the scripture that contradicts their tradition, they go with their tradition.

And it absolutely makes me mad. Now, as the name of this

YouTube channel goes, 1689, I London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689.

And as we get into here, specifically in chapter two, we're going to come across something that the 1689 says, but I can't find that in scripture, and we're not going to go with 1689.

We're going to go with scripture. I will not abandon the text from my tradition. So a lot of y 'all who are going to be watching this, you're probably never going to hear any of this stuff before, because I am not siding with tradition over the text.

That's, you know, that is what it is. If you feel comfortable with doing so, you know what?

You have to answer to God, not I for you. So we're going to go through this text. I'm going to check it out.

So I've just introduced to you the text. We're going to go through it. 1 John chapter 1, 1 through 4 is what we're going to break down today.

1 John chapter 1, 1 through 4. That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and have touched with our hands concerning the word of life.

This life was made manifest. We have seen it and testified to it and proclaim to you the eternal life.

That which was with the Father and was made manifest to us, that which we have seen and heard, we proclaim to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us, and indeed our fellowship is with the

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

So from this text I have four propositions, four statements of truth, four judgments here, all right?

Number one, from the beginning. Two, made manifest.

Three, the eternal life. Four, complete joy.

Now I know what you're thinking, how did you come up with those four propositions?

I know, right? Like it's just coming out of the text, right? All I want to do is follow the text.

I want to follow the argument of the text. That's it. I do not want to, you know, go saw in the text and try to make something out of that.

So I say from the beginning, made manifest, the eternal life, and complete joy.

Those are my propositions, and the propositions are going to be aiming at one point that I feel like this text is trying to make.

I feel like the point of the text is the hypostatic union. So for those of you that don't know what the hypostatic union is, it's basically the

God -man. Jesus Christ is the God -man. So the hypostatic union is the theological word which describes the

God -man, all right? So if I was to give an analogy, the best and only analogy that I can give is the way your hand fills a glove.

The way your hand goes into a glove, the way it fills a glove, God filled a human body, all right?

So the hypostatic union, the God -man, it's not 50.

So Jesus is not 50 % man and 50 %

God making 100%, but rather he is 100 % man and 100 %

God and one person. So a glove, 100 % glove, 100 % hand filling the glove.

I'm not going to take it no further than that. That's it. We believe that the eternal entered into creation and became finite.

So the eternal, 100 % God, became a man, 100 % flesh.

The God -man, the God, took on flesh. So that's the hypostatic union. That's what

I feel like this portion of Scripture is teaching, and I think that he lays the foundation because as you move on through 1

John, that it's going to be like the hypostatic union will be its foundation.

So a lot that we're going to go through, it's going to be based on the belief of the hypostatic union.

Judge for yourself whether I make the case, but that's where I feel like 1

John is headed. So we'll go to our first proposition, from the beginning. We'll take it pretty slow at first.

That which was from the beginning. So here in 1 John, he says that which was from the beginning.

So as of right now, he hasn't laid any kind of identity. We know down here in verse 3, he points, verse 2, made manifest.

Verse 3 speaks of Jesus Christ. But at the very beginning of verse 1, he says, that which was from the beginning.

All right, so this draws support to the Gospel of John. You get to the

Gospel of John, chapter 1, verse 1 through 4, it says this. In the beginning was the

Word, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God, and all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.

In him was life, and that life was the light of man.

So John points out that in the beginning was the Word, and the

Word was with God, and the Word was God. So right here at the opening of the

Gospel of John, there seems to be a separateness and a togetherness.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was

God. So there was a, there seemed to be some kind of a separateness between the

Word and God, and then there seemed to be a togetherness between the

Word and God. So in the Gospel, verses 1 through 4 and so on,

I do believe that they are also teaching the hypostatic union. Just like in 1

John, I believe it's teaching the hypostatic union. Now as an Orthodox Christian, I believe the the totality of Scripture teaches the doctrine of the

Trinity. So for those of you who may not know what the doctrine of the Trinity is, as a

Orthodox believer, we believe that there's one God. We are monotheists, but we are also

Trinitarian. We believe that this one God, this one being has revealed himself in Scripture in three persons, three separate distinct persons.

God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. And we can show and prove through the text that this

Tris God, this Triune God, the

Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit are all three worshiped. All three worshiped.

They are not one in body, they are one in being.

They're not one in person, they're three in person, one in being.

I will not give any analogies of the doctrine of the Trinity. It's been well said that there's two ways to commit heresy when it comes to the doctrine of the

Trinity. There are those that deny it and those that try to explain it.

Now I know earlier I gave an analogy of the hypostatic union.

I feel like that's a fair analogy. I don't feel like there's any way

I can truly explain to you the doctrine of the Trinity outside of what the text has revealed.

We know that there's one God. We know that there's three persons that are revealed to us and they are all worshiped as the one

God. All right, so back to the text. So we see this separateness and we see this togetherness.

And in the Gospel of John where it says in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the

Word was God and he was with and he was in the beginning with God but that all things were made through him, through the

Word. So all things were made through the Word and without him was not anything made that was made.

And in him was life and that life was the light of man.

So you go back to the epistle, verse John, he says that which was from the beginning, which is the

Word, that was with God and was God. He said that which we heard, that which we seen, that which we looked upon and touched.

He said then we heard him speak. That which was from the beginning, the

Word that was with God and is God, we heard him speak. We seen him, we seen him with our own eyes.

John is saying we heard him speak, we saw him, we looked upon him, we saw him interacting with other people.

We touched him. He's physical. That which was from the beginning, the

Word, the Logos, that was with God and was God, we touched him.

This was not a physical, this was not a spiritual being, this was a physical being.

We seen him, we heard him, we watch him interact with other people.

We touched him. He touched us. He washed our feet.

He said this is the Word of life, the

Word of life. We heard

God speak. Are you getting this? This is where he's taking it.

He said then we heard him speak. We saw him like he is expressing intimacy.

Intimacy. He said then this

Word that created everything, that's so far above us, this

God that's eternal, we hung out with him.

That's the point that he is trying to make right here. That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, which we have touched concerning the

Word of life. Proposition number two, he is made manifest concerning the

Word of life. Let's go back and look at verse 4, at the end of verse 4, where it says of the gospel,

John. In him was life, and the life was the light of man.

In him was life, and the life was the light of man. So John is saying that this is concerning the

Word of life, and the Word that was with God is the

Word of life, and he is the light of man. He is made manifest.

He's made manifest. Verse 2 of verse

John, concerning the Word of life, the life that was made manifest, we have seen it, we testify to it, and proclaim it to you.

He's saying, man, we've seen it. This letter is part and parcel of him proclaiming it to you.

They, as the apostles, went out proclaiming the

Word of life, what they saw, what they heard, what they seen, what they saw, what they touched.

They went and they proclaimed it. And this letter, that's what, this letter is a piece of that.

This letter is a piece of that. The gospel of John 1 .14.

The gospel of John 1 .14. And the

Word became flesh, and dwelt among us. And we have seen his glory, glory as the only

Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. He was made manifest.

The infinite became finite. The Creator, He created all things.

Without Him was anything made. The Creator entered into creation.

The Word that was with God, and was God, was in the beginning with God, that created all things, that is the light of man, became a man.

The Word became flesh, and He dwelt among us. He hung out with us.

He hung out with us. That's what John's telling us. And He hung out with us. We've seen

His glory, glory as the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

So we see that concerning the Word of life, the life was made manifest. We we seen it and testify to it.

We testify to all men this truth, this truth, that the

Word from the beginning became a man that we heard, seen, saw, and touched.

What was seen? The eternal life. Proposition number three, the eternal life.

We'll go back and read some verse two to gather us into this. The life was made manifest.

We seen it. We testify to it. Proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the

Father, and was made manifest to us. So John always seems to to kind of like push the point, put the knife in deeper, like he harps on what he's trying to say.

And that's one of the reasons why I really, really like John. So when

I'm working, I work with my hands. Like I'm physically working with my hands.

And so as I'm working, I listen to stuff. And like I always have an earbud in my left ear.

Like I have a constant ringing in my left ear. So like I always try to keep an earbud in my left ear with something going, something playing, whether it's music or whatever it is.

But for the most part, I listen to debates, scripture.

There was a time where I was going through the Bible every four weeks just just listening to the scriptures as I worked.

Well, a lot of times for me, I have to listen to something over and over and over to get it in.

You know, like I just want to pour myself into it. So over and over and over,

I listen to the same thing over and over and over. That's just how

I do. It's just the way that I get to know something. I want the point to be made.

I want to know when I whenever I walk away from something, I heard the argument and I can articulate to it,

I can articulate it to you pretty well. Excuse my stutter.

So that's what John seems to be doing here. And he's harping on the eternal, the hypostatic union.

And right here he's saying he is the eternal life. The Greek will render it something like he is the life, the eternal.

Like if you was to break down the English of what the Greeks saying. He is the life, the eternal.

Jesus is the life, the eternal. And Jesus says of himself in John 14 6,

Jesus said to him, I am the way, speaking in tongues,

I am the way, the truth, and the life. He says

I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through me.

Jesus says I am the way, I am the truth, I'm the life. No one comes to the father except through me.

The life, the eternal. In here he's saying that he was made, that he was made manifest.

Again he's harping, we've seen it, we testify to it, proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the father.

He was with the father and he was made manifest. So the word was with God and was

God. He was with the word that is God, was with God the father, and then he was made manifest to us.

He said to us. John said to us he was made manifested.

Again listen, verse 3, he carries it out. We have seen it, and heard it, and proclaim it also to you.

See he's going back, he's done articulating, this is the third time where he said he's articulating that same thing.

He's driving that knife in deeper. Verse 1, we've seen, we've heard, we've seen with our eyes, we looked upon.

Verse 2, we've seen it and testified to it. Verse 3, that which we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also.

Why? So that you too may have fellowship with us, and our fellowship is with the father and with his son

Jesus Christ. So he's saying that to his listeners, so us now, he says man

I've seen him, I heard him, I saw him,

I touched him, I'm proclaiming it to you because my fellowship is with the father, and it's with his son, and he's saying that he's proclaiming it to us so that our fellowship can be with him, with them the apostles, our fellowship can be with them, and with the father, and with the son.

This is the body of Christ. We enter into the body of Christ through this message.

The hypostatic union is an essential doctrine. You cannot be a

Christian and deny the hypostatic union, period. It does not happen. It's not happening.

Jesus is the God man. He says man I've seen it. I proclaim it also to you.

Why? So that you may have fellowship with us. This is him speaking to this audience, telling them that they can have fellowship with him, and those who, he's a part of the apostles, the other

Christians. He says and indeed our fellowship is with the father, and with his son,

Jesus Christ. So in order to have fellowship, the same fellowship as the apostles, which is with the father and with Jesus Christ, we must listen to what he is saying about Jesus Christ, about the word becoming flesh, about the infinite becoming finite.

Like this is essential. You have to hold to this truth to be a

Christian. Proposition number four, hold on, before I get to proposition four,

I want to read something very similar. Simon Peter said this, and 2

Peter 1 .1. A servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ to those who have obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our

God and Savior Jesus Christ. Paul's saying, I mean Peter's saying the same thing

John is. He's speaking to this audience. You have obtained a faith equal with ours.

You have obtained a faith equal with ours by the righteousness of our

God and Savior Jesus Christ. Again, I think he's saying the same thing as John's saying right here.

By obtaining the same faith, you have fellowship with the apostles, and you have fellowship with the father and with his son

Jesus Christ. Let me read you something real quick.

The gospel of Luke. Let me read the gospel of Luke chapter one beginning in verse 26.

In the sixth month, the angel

Gabriel sent from God to a city of Galilee named

Nazareth to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was

Joseph of the house of David, and the virgin's name was

Mary. And he came to her and said, Greetings, O favored one, the

Lord is with you. But she was greatly troubled at the sand, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be.

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 his name

Jesus, and he will be great and will be called the son of the most high.

And the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever.

In his kingdom there will be no end. And Mary said to the angel,

How will this be since I am a virgin? And the angel answered her,

The 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, the son of God.

And behold, I think we can end there. That's fine. Yeah. The son of God.

So right here we're talking about the hypostatic union, which is the incarnation, which is the word which is well, with God the father and is

God the son, who who who was made a man.

He became flesh and he dwelt among us, he said.

And we see him, and we hear him, we see him, we saw him, we touch him, we proclaim him to you so that you may obtain the same faith as we have, so that you may have fellowship with us, and our fellowship is is with the father and with his son

Jesus Christ. I hope this is clear.

Proposition number four, complete joy, verse four. And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.

He said we're writing these things to you so that our joy may be complete. So like I've been

I've been basically hibernating on this verse. Like just just sleeping on it, like meditating on it.

And so like whenever you read the gospel of John, so the gospel of John at the very end it says this,

John 20 30 to 31. Now Jesus did many signs in the presence of his disciples which are not written in this book, but these that are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the

Christ, the son of God, and by believing you may know you have life in his name.

So the gospel of John was written so that you may believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God.

Well he has a similar statement in 1 John chapter 5 verse 13.

He says I write these things to you who believe in the name of the son of God, so that you may know you have eternal life.

So gospel of John, I'm writing these so that you may believe that Jesus is the son of God.

The epistles, I write to you who believe that Jesus is the son of God. So that you may know you have eternal life.

Well how are we to know? Well verse four is not basically just speaking of the the verses that are the first three verses above it.

Verse four is uh is speaking about yes the first three verses, but also the rest of this book.

So as we as we go through this book it's going to give tests.

It's going to give test after test after test so that we may know if we if we have eternal life.

You say you believe. You say you believe. We're going to he's going to give test after test after test.

So many tests you're like, man will you please stop giving me tests? And I can't. I gotta go verse by verse.

But he wrote it so that we so that so that so that his joy may be complete.

His joy is so that we may know we have eternal life. He wrote this so that we may know we have eternal life.

And that's a joy when you know you know that you have eternal life.

It's such a joy. It's such a joy. He says, man

I'm writing this letter so that you may know you have eternal life.

And come back here to verse four. He says that our joy may be complete.

He's writing these things so that our joy may be complete. Very powerful.

Very powerful. So verses one through four, excuse me, verses one through three

I believe they're totally focused on the incarnation. Totally focused on the hypostatic union of the triune

God. God the Father.

It says that the Word, God the Son was with God the Father. And he was

God. Not God the Father, but God as a being. And then it tells us that all things are made through him.

Without him was not anything made. In him was life, and that life was the light of man. And you skip down to verse 14.

And the Word became flesh. So as we dig into this more, we're going to see why this foundation was laid so thick.

Why he kept repeating himself over about hearing and seeing and being able to touch and proclaiming.

Because it's totally essential. You have to hold to this doctrine to be a

Christian. You have to believe in the incarnation that that God became a man in the person of Jesus Christ.

You have to believe that. And so I believe that this book is focused on that, which is why

I am just so thrilled to be able to teach it. So judge for yourself whether I made the case.

Again, this is Trailer 1689. Once again,

Post Tenderbuss Lux Bible Rebinding. If you haven't contacted us, check out our email.

I mean, excuse me, check out our website.

Yeah, check out our website at ptlbiblerebinding .com. Again, I thank you for hanging out with me.

If you enjoyed this video, like and share. And if you didn't, sorry about your luck. But this, that's just how

I am. I don't, I don't really, I don't care. So hallelujah, hallelujah.