The Word of Life

Thank you for remaining standing and turn to the first epistle of John 1st

John and chapter 1 this is

God's holy and infallible word That which was from the beginning

Which we have heard which we have seen with our eyes Which we have looked upon and our hands have handled concerning the word of life the life was

Manifested and we have seen and bear witness and declare to you That eternal life with which was with the father and was manifested to us

That which we have seen and heard we declare to you That you also may have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship is with the father and with his son

Jesus Christ and These things we write to you that your joy

May be full This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all

If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness We lie and do not practice the truth

But if we walk in the light as he is in the light We have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus Christ his son cleanses us from all sin

If we say that we have no sin We deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness

If we say that we have not sinned we make him a liar and his word is not in us

The Lord be pleased with our Consideration of his word. Please pray with me.

Oh Lord Jesus we Ascribe majesty to your holy name for you are the eternal word of God Come in the flesh

We thank you Oh Lord that you have procured and secured our salvation

You have crushed the enemies of sin and death and Satan and you have made us your people alive

And in this we rejoice Lord I pray that you would allow our hearts to soar heavenward with holy affections when we consider

Who Christ is? We ask Holy Spirit that you would supply both light and heat and we ask all this in Jesus name

Amen Please be seated I'm excited to start a new book with you and over the next several weeks

Preaching it. I will be supplying more introductory and thematic

Information today. We're going to jump right into it. There's two things that I want to point out to you

The first is this When we read just now in first John chapter 1.

I want you to look again at verse 4 We're not going to be preaching on verse 4 today But we see a clear purpose in John's writing here in chapter 1

He's writing these things that our joy might be full Now that's encouraging to me because I want to experience the fullness of joy.

I think you do too and a great overarching theme within John is assurance of salvation if you or someone you know

Has struggled with assurance of salvation in Christ first John is a tremendous antidote to that fear

John so characteristically seems to be completely engulfed entrenched enamored with the eternality of Christ and in this

Beginning part of chapter 1 we have a message that sounds a lot like his gospel in The first chapter in the prologue to the gospel of John He's going to argue here that that Jesus Christ is the eternal

Son of God the eternal word the the embodiment the personification of divine wisdom

And this is going to be needful because of the error that resides within The first thing

I'd like us to do is I'd like us to take up the hymnal and turn to page 846

I'd like us together as part of the sermon to recite the second

Paragraph the larger section of the Nicene Creed This is going to serve us well when we consider

Who Christ is? the Christological controversies of the early church have their root here in first John There are those who would deny that Jesus Christ would come in the flesh

The denial of Jesus Christ coming in the flesh means there can be no salvation

If Christ the Living God the second person of the Trinity does not come in the flesh we would not be saved

So John is very eager to to quench out this error and the

Nicene Creed is going to help us articulate The person of Christ, let's read it together as a congregation beginning with and and in one

Lord Jesus Christ The only begotten Son of God begotten of his father before all worlds

God of God light of light very God of very God Begotten not made being of one substance with the

Father by whom all things were made Salvation came down from heaven was incarnate by the

Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary and was made man Was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate rose again according to the scriptures

Send it into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father and he shall come again with glory

Judge both the living and the dead whose kingdom shall have no end.

Thank you Would you look and turn over to chapter 2?

I'm going to identify the error That John seems to be writing again, at least in the first part of the epistle look at verse 18 and following this is why

I believe he starts His epistle in much the same way that he starts his gospel.

It says little children It is the last hour

And as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming Even now many

Antichrists have come by which we know that it is the last hour

They went out from us But they were not of us

For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us, but they went out that they might be made manifest

That none of them were of us But you have an anointing from the

Holy One and you know all things. I Have not written to you because you do not know the truth but because you know it and There is no lie that no lie is of the truth

Who is a liar? But he who denies that Jesus is the

Christ He is Antichrist who denies the

Father and the Son Whoever denies the

Son does not have the Father either He who acknowledges the

Son Has the Father also To deny that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh

May be hearkening back in hopes of a an Old Testament Judaism John says that you don't know the

Father The Jews today who claim to know the God of Abraham Do not know the

God of Abraham if they do not know the Son The great challenge in every generation is for us to get

Christ right to have a biblically informed and defined doctrine of Christ Let's look at it again beginning at verse 1

It says that which was from the beginning Children, I want you many of you may have learned this it came to my mind a couple of days ago

When you're learning numbers, they sometimes teach you about the number line. Have you seen that?

Do you remember that parents? And it has arrows going in both directions the beginning in the beginning and providentially today

We were reading in Genesis chapter 1 that could be the first dot on the number line

But there's an arrow pointing in the other direction And in the middle of that number line there could be another dot and that would be the arrival the incarnation of the

Lord Jesus Christ That would be the dot in the middle and the third dot

Would be the dot of the last day the great judgment the last day of the world as we know it

And the consummation of Christ's kingdom and there's an arrow going beyond it The straight number line has two arrows and what

John is saying here very clearly is before the first dot Before when

Jameson read Genesis 1 1 before there was a Genesis 1 1 there was an eternal word of God the second person of the

Trinity the Lord Jesus Christ that Divine logos, which was from the beginning and here's the part that is so startling

John says We the Apostles the early disciples the early followers of Christ We have heard his voice

We have seen him with our own eyes We Have looked upon him our hands have laid hold of him and and handled him the divine logos the the truth

Has been revealed in the person of Christ I'd like you to turn back with me to John's gospel in John chapter 1 another side observation,

I think it's Interesting that John is so taken with Christ in his

Divinity big theme in his gospel, but also in his eternality in the past When the

Sun was shining as Jameson read chapter 1 and the night is falling There is the accounting of what we understand to be time

And before there was time as we know it there was a a second person of the

Trinity himself very God of very God begotten not made

It says in his gospel beginning at verse 1 in the beginning was the word the logos and The word the logos was with God and here's the startling revelation and the word the logos was

God He was in the beginning with God All things were made through him

Without him nothing was made that was made We often think about that creation account of being about God the

Father and maybe the Spirit But we forget that Jesus Was an agent the agent of creation.

I Want you to contemplate that for a moment? The divine word of God Existing in eternity past The one whom we read about in John's gospel and epistle

This one this second person of the Trinity He was present and he is the agent the operator when it comes to creation

This one is going to rescue his creatures from their soul death

He's going to come in the flesh to make them right with God.

It's absolutely amazing to consider What Christ has done?

the great sculptor the great fabricator the great maker comes to retrieve and rescue his creation from Destruction in our text the idea of word and life are so Strongly linked and this is consistent in John's gospel it says in verse 4 and him was life and the life was the light of men and the light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it

There was a man sent from God whose name was John this man came for a witness

To bear witness of the light that all through him might believe he was not that light

But was sent to bear witness of that light This was the true light which gives light to every man coming into the world.

I want you to pause here He was in the world and the world was made through him and the world did not know him

He came to his own in his own did not receive him this refers to of course

Israel But as many as received him to them he gave the right to become children of God To those who believe in his name who were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man

But of God John continues and The word became flesh

And dwelt among us and we beheld his glory the glory is of the only begotten of the

Father full of grace and truth John bore witness of him and cried out saying this was he of whom

I said he who comes after me is preferred before me for he was Before me

And of his fullness we have all Received and grace for grace for the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ No one has seen

God at any time the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the

Father? Has declared him Now let's go back to our text

And first John we cannot be

Unmoved About these things John says this idea the reason the divine wisdom the divine truth is not an ethereal concept but is corporeal

Truth and wisdom and divinity and humanity reside in one person the

Lord Jesus Christ Invariably the question about what the word means

Has to be answered the last half of last part of verse 1 of 1st

John the word the logos Makes salvation possible

If there is no divine word if there's no incarnate word as I stated at the outset there can be no salvation to deny that Jesus comes in the flesh

Or to deny that he is himself divine removes the possibility of a person's salvation

He must be divine he must be human he must come in the flesh or we are still in our sins

The father and the son are Inseparable they are one

God not two One is not lower or lesser than the other the son is not a creation of the father

But has always existed with the father and is co -equal with him children

I Want you to imagine and understand and lay hold of there was no time

When he was not We think about Jesus coming in the middle of that timeline that dot in the middle in the incarnation

But he exists on the other side of the arrow on both sides of the arrow

Before he came in the flesh. He was still the eternal word. He was still the second person of the

Trinity John and his great wisdom teaches us

That the divine wisdom the divine truth the word the logos

Has Come in the flesh logos appears about 330 times in the

New Testament and It's a concept word in the

Bible, which is symbolic of the nature and function of Jesus Christ And it's also used to refer to the revelation of God in the world

But usually in its ordinary sense, it's translated word or speech or utterance or message

But I'm here today to tell you that divine truth divine wisdom terminates in the person of Jesus Christ We can esteem the philosophers and all their contributions

We can listen to guys on the podcast today who aren't Christian who affirm masculinity or something like that, but until we acknowledge the source and origin the

Revealer of truth to be Jesus Christ. We lack wisdom divine truth and wisdom

Find their resolution. They find their source. They find their origin in the person of Jesus Christ, it's not merely ethereal

It's not wispy it's not airy it's not floating in the atmosphere amongst the nebula

Truth resides in a person the Lord Jesus Christ The truth is tangible

The the truth is Holdable The truth is accessible

God in his great love for us has brought the truth to bear in the person of Jesus Christ The word the eternal word has an entire book written about him the truth of the revelation of the canon of Scripture is the articulation of the person and work of the

Lord Jesus Christ You remember his discussion with the disciples on the road to Emmaus Beginning at Moses.

He taught them all the ways in which the scripture was about him and reveals him the word is used in this way that God speaks the creation into Existence it's very interesting because this speech this divine logos is identified as a person

Jesus is the creator Jesus is the Redeemer the whole world belongs to him for everything

Consists and finds their value and connection to him. He holds it all together

How could we reject? His incarnation How could we reject his?

divinity Well The logos and its standard meaning

Designates very simply a word a Speech The act of speaking its reference there in Acts chapter 7 with Stephen and his speech

The second instance logos and its special meeting there's a standard meaning a word a speech the act of speaking and there's a secondary more special meaning it refers to special revelation of God to his people

The divine logos is God's special revelation to his people

But here and in John's Gospel we find the third and most unique meeting and It's really confined to these two sections of scripture with an illusion again in John in Revelation 19

Logos and its most unique and perfect sense personifies the revelation of God as Jesus the

Messiah You and I there's probably no

New Testament subject that is more controversial than what does the logos mean?

We can be enamored with the idea of the logos But we have to get the message that John is conveying to us

We need to be enamored not with the varied uses of the logos But we need to be enamored with the person the word himself the

Lord Jesus Christ That needs to be what captivates our greatest interest

John says I Know him. I've heard him

I've seen him with my own eyes I've looked upon him

My hands have handled and touched him This is the word of life this chapter introduces again the idea that Jesus is the word the word that existed prior to creation the word that only exists in connection with God the the word that is himself

God and the word that became human by putting on flesh and dwelt among us and Who possessed a glory that can only be described as?

the glory of God John is an interesting figure.

He is the youngest of the disciples He seems to be the one who was in closest proximity to Jesus Relationally, and I think he followed him around very closely

He's present to see a lot of miraculous things in the life of Jesus But but what's most striking to me is on the day of crucifixion

John himself stood at the foot of the cross And Jesus commanded him to look after his mother

Mary and John is an eyewitness Not only to the ministry and life of Jesus But the crucifixion

The other disciples aren't there but but John is there He's the first of the disciples.

You'll remember from the Easter season. He's the first of the disciples to see the empty tomb

Seems fitting that he would be the one to receive the apocalyptic vision of the end of all things in Revelation John is consumed with the idea of the eternality of the

Son of God the divine nature of Christ, which is perfectly united to his human nature and the hypostatic union existing not as a bifurcated person but one person who is fully

God and fully man and the only possible source of life in Revelation 19 the returning

Messiah again authored penned by John is called the

Word of God in reference to both his person and work as The one who has been long awaited and revealed and also the one who is the revealer

The one who makes himself known Christ shows us the father.

He allows us to peer into the Godhead He himself is the revelation of history

He's the the great subject matter of the Holy Scriptures. He is the one who holds it all together

It all belongs to him and he's also the one who reveals the truth

In the Septuagint the Greek translation of the Old Testament It's regularly used this word logos to specify the

Word of the Lord Places like Isaiah 1 10 and this of course relates to the special proclamation of God in the world

It refers broadly to the dynamic active communication of God's purpose and plan to his people what we may be most interesting is

And in the Old Testament, there's not a direct

Personification of the logos the closest approximation we get to it is found in Proverbs 8 where wisdom is personified

This of course leads some to believe this is a precursor to the unique technical use of logos and John's New Testament writings.

I Like to see continuity between the Old Covenant and the new but oh the rapturous delight of the revelation of the

Word of God Bursting onto the scene in the incarnation The Jewish mind cannot conceive in its natural sense of God and man in one person

It causes their heads to spin But at that time the centerpiece of human history

Jesus Christ comes in the flesh born of a virgin Lives a sinless life perishes on the cross bearing your guilt and shame.

He rises again on the third day He's seen by many witnesses and 40 days later.

He ascends to the father on high Returning to his throne in his home

We've thought too little of the word of life

We've thought too little of the eternal Logos of God Much of what

John says about the logos Was found in the

Jewish literature about Divine wisdom. This would be extra biblical literature the idea of a person of personified wisdom

Was beginning to circulate more frequently in anticipation, I believe of the arrival of Jesus Christ the

Word of the Lord D .a.

Carson said God's Word logos and the

Old Testament is his powerful self -expression and creation revelation and salvation and the personification of that word

Makes it suitable for him to apply it as a title to God's ultimate self -disclosure

The person of his own son Brethren, the gospel is a person

It's Christ the good news isn't that there's just salvation in the world

The good news is there's salvation in Christ in Christ alone Truth is not floating in the air like ether

It's corporeal it's bodily it's personal it dwells and resides and and finds its terminus in Christ Jesus Who himself is the only way of salvation?

The source the author the creator the the substance of truth is also the word of Of life, let's look at the last part of verse 2 of 1st

John The life was Manifested Jesus Christ has been revealed

John again Affirms it with great credibility his witness his testimony.

We have seen we bear witness And declare to you that eternal life

Which was with the father It was manifested to us

That which we have seen and heard We declare to you that you may have fellowship with us

And truly our fellowship is with the father and with his son

Jesus Christ and these things we write to you that your joy may be full

Christian today, are you? properly reveling and rejoicing

That you have been united to the word Are you looking for truth out there?

somewhere other than the person of Christ Everything else is a delusion

The Lord has created an orderly world The enemies of God want to believe lies and propagate and promote them

He created men and women male and female think of the perversions of that idea

He says there is no salvation to be found apart for himself and the humanist manifesto

Says there is no God who can save us. We must save ourselves The Battle lines are clearly drawn.

It's black and it's white. It's right or it's wrong it's the truth the way the life in Christ and everything else

John is going to teach us That we have assurance of God's love because we've been united To the word himself

Is there a more compelling? Drama in the universe and the creator himself comes and rescues his creation for uncertain death that the divine husband rejoices to Recover his wayward wife and to bring her in to draw her to himself

This is how John starts his first epistle

Today I ask you are you filled with joy knowing Christ you ought to be

May the Lord be pleased to have John help us Achieve that in let's pray together.

Oh Lord we again acknowledge your preeminence over all things

You are The divine word the word made flesh

The Lord we thank you for Revealing yourself to us bringing us in We pray now.

Oh Lord that that we would see this concept of your Incarnation your flesh and your blood and and all of the implications as we approach the table

And that this will be glorifying

To you we ask this all in Jesus name. Amen To leave you with a

Word from the book of Hebrews I want you to think about these points in history.

There's going there's a speaking the world into existence There's a a last day

Declaration the arrival of the king Hebrews 1 says

God who at various times In various ways spoke in time passed by the prophets

Has in these last days spoken to us By his son whom he appointed heir of all things through whom also he made the worlds

Who being the brightness of his glory in the express image of his person and upholding all things by the word of his power

When he had by himself purged our sins Sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high