A Word in Season: Truth and Joy (1 John 1:1–4)

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There are times, perhaps for some preachers many times, when you think, I could actually do no better than simply read the word of God to the people.

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The scriptures themselves seem so luminous, so full of light and life, that you wonder if you could really add anything to them.

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One such passage is the opening portion of John's first letter where he says,

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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 which was with the

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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

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Father and with his Son Jesus Christ, and these things we write to you that your joy may be full.

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Now what can you really add to that? What living preacher can say those things in precisely the same way that the apostles said them?

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It's why we rely upon the apostolic testimony when we come to preach the word of God.

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John had heard and seen with his own eyes, he'd looked upon and his hands had handled things concerning the word of life, the life that was revealed, the life that he saw and heard in the person of Jesus Christ, the

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Jesus of Nazareth, who was God in the flesh, and he had seen him, and he was a witness to his life and his death and his resurrection, and he was declaring to these believers the eternal life which was with the

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Father and was manifested to us. Already you begin to hear all those rolling echoes of John's favourite themes, the eternity of God, Father, Son and Spirit, the manifestation of God in the person of his incarnate

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Son, the word become flesh, and he's insistent. You see his confidence for himself and for them, that which we have seen and heard we declare to you.

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He's saying what Peter said, he's saying what Paul said, we're not making this stuff up, we're not spinning a line, we're not drawing things out of our own imagination, we're witnesses, we're testifying, we're declaring that which we know having seen it and heard it and touched it with our own eyes and ears and hands.

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That reason, the reason why he's doing it, the purpose that he has is that those who are hearing what he has heard, those who are having painted before their eyes the things which

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John saw with his, that they might have fellowship with the apostles in knowing the

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Father and his Son Jesus Christ. And that is something which every true preacher wants to enter into.

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Yes, we may not have had for ourselves with our physical eyes a sight of the

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Lord Jesus Christ in his glory. Yes, we may not have heard for ourselves from the blessed lips of our

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Saviour the words of truth that he scattered so bountifully and so generously.

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But we ourselves have entered into this fellowship, we have received the apostolic testimony in common with many believers who have heard it from the lips of other preachers down through the centuries.

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We know what is true, we know our Christ, we enjoy fellowship with him and with his

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Father by his Spirit's work in our hearts. We know the truth as it is in Jesus and we are declarers of it, not eyewitnesses in precisely the same way as the apostles, but still witnesses to their witness, still testifying of the things that they heard and saw.

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And what John wrote, we speak so that the joy of God's people may be full.

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That's the concern that preachers will have as they speak the Word of God on the

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Lord's day. It's the concern that they'll have as they speak the Word of God on any day, that they may make known this apostolic testimony, that they may speak of the life that was manifested among us, that they may bear witness to the apostolic witness and that the saints may come to know the fullness of joy that flows out of fellowship with God the

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Father and with his Son Jesus Christ, the fellowship that every true

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Christian can know and does know to the joy of their souls now and forever.