A Walk Through the epistles of The Apostle John
In The Beginning
1 John 1.1-5
If there is one thing people in the church are out of touch with it is the fact that there are people all around us who have no idea what we are talking about when we mention anything having to with Jesus, or asking for forgiveness for our sins, or turning one's life over to God to let Him call the shots and let Him lead the way. (That latter part is something many folks in the church have not acquainted themselves with either. We'll see if we can remedy that.) In order to properly understand a letter like John has written here, we need to understand the world in which John is writing and speaking in.
We have new Christians. This whole thing is something brand new on the face and scope of the earth. This Jesus was only here around 33 years and society only truly got a taste of him for about 3 and a half of those years before he dies, rises up from being dead and goes back to being with the Father in Heaven. You should read that and hear that exactly as I have put it into words. Because it might seem like I'm using some sarcasm or some jocularity as I say it. And, that;s exactly how some people will take the message of Jesus. It's hard to believe. It's hard to fathom. It's difficult to wrap the heart and brain around. This Jesus, born of a virgin girl, out of wedlock, created and filled with the Holy Spirit ("what's that?" someone might say) grows up in obscurity in Israel, of all places, and senses around the age of 30 that God has called Him to be the Messiah who will save the world from their sins. Not only that, He will tick off most of the people he is talking to, end up getting Himself killed by those masses and religious leaders only to rise from a tomb 3 days after being brutally beaten and hung on a cross. You want more? After rising from the grave, he tells those who will follow Him to prepare because the Holy Spirit is coming and will be poured out on them and they will be the ones to carry on the message and the work that began during his three and a half year ministry. And, you are being told to believe all this and put your trust and faith in the person of Jesus Christ for salvation from sin and promised a place in heaven when Jesus returns. Oh yea. He's coming back. And, it's going to be amazing. Bloodshed. War. Famine. (If we are to believe writings like the Book of Revelation, which John wrote based on a dream/vision he had while in prison on the Isle of Patmos) People giving their lives for this message about salvation in the name and person of Jesus Christ all because this salvation means more than anything else you can buy or find in this great big small world we live and die in.
And, we wonder why people scoff at the idea.
It's More Than Just a Story
So, the year is 1996. I'm in my hometown of Shelby, OH. I am going to school at Mt Vernon Nazarene College and I think I have a pretty good grip on the message of Jesus Christ. The one thing I want to do is share that message with someone. The target audience I have in mind at that time is my own brother. We don't see much of each other. I decide I am going to stop by one day and talk to him. I walk over to his apartment to have this 'Jesus conversation' with him. When I arrive, I automatically think my brother has moved, because the person who answers the door cannot be my brother. It's 1996, as I mentioned. But, the person answering the door looks like something out of an Elton John music video. Striped shirt. Polka dot paints. Big glasses and wild hair. I'm looking right at him and I had to ask if he knew where my brother had moved to. This was the last address I knew where he lived. Then the voice coming from this person helps me realize it is my brother! I look him up and down and think I have time traveled back to the 1970s. He invites me in and we sit to chat for a bit. My brother has always been one to be a bit eccentric and carefree. He wonders what I'm up to and I tell him I wanted a chance to apologize. We have spoken about Jesus before. But, I really felt like maybe I was too pushy or demanding in my delivery. I can't apologize for the message of Jesus. He is Lord. He is the Savior. What he has done for everyone is the truth. What I could apologize for is the way I have delivered that message before. What my brother says to me that day will stay with me forever. "You know man, it's just story. It's like a fairy-tale. Like a lot of other stories we heard growing up." Whew. Had to take a deep breath on that. I have sat with other Christians at McDonald's and argued other theology, pounding the table and getting loud. I have spoken with some downright belligerent non-believers and wanted to shout and holler about some of the comments made. That day I had a different approach. This passage from 1 John is where I went.
John is writing to a world where people are new to faith and they are in a world where people are hearing this message for the first time. It's a pill to swallow. He has to know that. It's hard to hang on to a message like that and trust in it when you see people around you being treated cruel, being hurt for the faith they want to believe in. John's word are meant to encourage these new believers living in a tough world as well as challenge those who would defy the message of salvation in Jesus. Last week, as we covered the overview of John's 1st letter, I mentioned something about 'starting at the beginning'. The beginning can be different for everyone. The beginning I think John is think about here is not Creation or anything to do with Jesus, per se, but the beginning of where it all started for the disciples. The first time Jesus spoke to them, calls their names, commanded them to follow. The beginning for this context is those three and a half years they spent walking and hearing and see first hand for themselves who Jesus is. They saw it with their own eyes. They touched it with their own hands. They were there. They were witnesses to it. When I have dealt with people like my brother who have their doubts and have a hard time believing this message, I take them here to 1 John 1 and share why I believe in this "story" of Jesus. It's not like any other story we have ever been told. It's the story that really matters. It's the one you can hold on to and trust with all your soul.
Other Options
Of course, there are other options than Jesus. Which is a main component of the historical background of why John writes these three epistle. It doesn't take long for other options to pop up and offer alternatives to believing in Jesus. There have always been other saviors to turn to. From the earliest times of Old Testament history, from the earliest times of mankind's beginnings, people have been crying out for salvation. They've just been calling on stone statues or metal contraptions. Sometimes they have been calling on other humans beings who would pose as "god". There are no shortages when it comes to false messiahs in our world. Got the update just a week or so ago about a guy in the Columbus area who has been going around disrupting churches on Sunday mornings. He'll claim he is the Messiah. Then he'll went an offering taken up for himself. He will demand to speak to the congregation and want an audience. Things really haven't changed much since John was writing working with new believers in the church. One of the matters the Apostle has to deal with is a group of people who would later be known as The Gnostics. They don't have that title quite yet, but this is certainly where it all begins. It seems there were others who would start popping up after Jesus is gone and claim to have some greater, stronger, bigger idea of what it means to know God. These early mystics would even claim to have more understanding and knowledge than these disciples/apostles who claim that they actually walked and talked with this Jesus.
Take to Google and search "strange stories about messiahs" and you'll come across one about a man named Arnold Potter. Arnold Potter, a self-declared messiah who referred to himself as "Potter Christ", was a leader of a schismatic sect in the Latter Day Saint movement during the 1850s. On a mission to Australia in 1856, Potter claimed that he underwent a “purifying, quickening change,” whereby the spirit of Jesus Christ had entered his body causing him to become, “Potter Christ, Son of the living God.”
The following year, Potter returned from Australia and moved to California, where he quickly began to gather followers. Over the next year, Potter, along with his family and followers, moved throughout the country from California to Missouri to Iowa, where he would roam the streets in a white robe, preaching that he was the chosen one. Every week, “Potter Christ” would lead his devoted group in prayer sessions, and in 1872, he declared that the time had come for his ascension to Heaven.
Potter rode a donkey to the edge of a cliff, and with his followers watching in awe, he claimed that he would jump off only to ascend into Heaven, ultimately proving that he was indeed Christ, the Chosen One. While saying so, Potter turned around and leaped from the cliff. To everyone’s surprise, he did not ascend to heavens above; instead, he plummeted to his death. His bewildered and faithful followers ended up collecting their messiah’s mangled body and buried it, along with their shattered dreams and any form of logic.
Sharing In The Message
One other item of note that we see in John's opening words is an emphatic plea for fellowship. When we all share in this message of Jesus, together, there is unity. Division happens when we get side tracked by matters than don't have to do with what we are supposed to be having unity in. It happens. Why do we have so many church denominations and groups across this country and around the world? People have to get sidetracked on something. At the core of many of these distinguished groups and churches is a similar message of Jesus Christ saving us from our sins. So, why all the division? Why so many different churches? Because someone thought this piece of theology, or that kind of church government, or a more exuberant worship style, was pretty important. John says he writes to his readers so that could hear that message about what was seen and heard so they could all have joy. The kind of joy John is focused on is where we all embrace the simplicity of knowing this story about who Jesus is. It's really that simple. "Do you believe in Jesus?" Yep! "Fantastic! Come on in." Jesus even prayed a prayer along those lines that we read back in John 17 before he gets to the cross. Jesus prayed that his followers would all be one. That they could all get on the same page. At that time they weren't. These twelve guys have argued about who was the greatest among them. A couple of them have asked if they could sit on his right and left hands in glory. They aren't focused on the person of Jesus. They are focused on themselves. If they could put all the talk about other matters asisde and just see Jesus as the most important item, they could have unity.
I stood at my niece's birthday party yesterday under a canopy outback while it was raining talking with her grandparents (her mom's parents). My niece's mother was raised Lutheran. Missouri Synod, to be exact. Pretty strict form of Lutheranism. The kind of church where you can't take communion unless you have joined the church through their group and denomination. We were down there at that church a few years ago for one of the kids baptism. They happened to be serving communion that day. I approached the minister to suggest and idea about having some bread and juice handy so that, maybe, I could serve all my Methodist folks who were present in the service. The Lutheran folks could go to their pastor and I could be "over here" with some items for the other people who weren't Lutheran. Oh, that idea did not fly. You do not take communion in a Missouri Synod church unless you were put through catechism in a Missouri Synod church. I found myself sitting next to my wife growling under my breath from the tongue lashing I had received. We laughed about that as we talked yesterday. My niece's grandmother had been raised Catholic. She married into a Lutheran family. She rolled her eyes at the mention of so much division and separatism. The two of them are now in a church with no on young people. No one under the age of 18 attends their church. They have seen so many leave and never come back. They wish people could just get together in the same room if they believe in Jesus.
Depending on the manuscript that translators of the New Testament are working with, they might translate it "our" or "your". Either way works for the context of the passage. Because the focus is on the joy. And we only find that joy when we make it about something bigger than ourselves. Our joy is complete when we get together and put the person of Jesus between us. Your joy is complete when we find ourselves in the same room with people of like mindedness about Jesus.
It doesn't get much better than that.
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