(1 John 1:1-4)

1 What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have observed and have touched with our hands, concerning the Word of life— 2 that life was revealed, and we have seen it and we testify and declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us — 3 what we have seen and heard we also declare to you, so that you may have fellowship along with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. 4 We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.

What kind of things tempt you to doubt that you have eternal life, that God hears and answers your prayers, that Jesus keeps you from sin, and so on? We have all struggled in our life with questions about God. Questions like, "Can I really believe Him and can I really trust Him. We may ask why God, when God, how God. You can rest assured, you are among friends today because questions are not new. They have been around for a long time and that’s the reason 1 John was written.

The reason John wrote was that the Church had now been around for decades and was starting to drift away from some of the major doctrines and beliefs that were instilled by Jesus and the apostles. They were hearing other philosophies and ideas. They were beginning to question if what they believed about Jesus was really true. So John wrote this letter and in it over thirty times he uses the word “Know.” He wanted these Christians to have confidence and to reassure them that all they have been taught about Christ is true.

(1 John 5:13) I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.

All of us have doubts and questions at times and sometimes they are louder and stronger than at other times. John wanted to help them with this. But something you and I must know is that we can’t silence the questions forever because God is God and I am not. He is in control and I am not. He is infinite and I am not. There will always be questions but we want to begin to help you quite those doubts and fears.

The closer fellowship a Christian has with Christ, the quieter the doubts and fears of life will become.

The key idea I want you to go home with today is that John is talking about the fellowship we have with Christ and growing in deeper intimacy with Christ. So I want to give you several confidence builders I see from this text

Confidence builders

So many things are shaking our faith right how. It could be the pandemic, culture, tragedy, or something personal. All these things can cause us to have doubts, fears and questions in life. (John wrote to instill confidence for us to KNOW and have confidence of who Christ is and not be distracted by the things in our culture.

The philosophy that was prevalent at the time was Gnosticism (Jesus was not who He said He was. He was really just something someone made up) So John wanted to give the Church confidence in who Christ is and what Christ has done for us.

Christ-centered Confidence Builders

Christ has existed eternally with the Father. Everything else in this passage flows from this fact. There has never been a time when the Son is not and never will there be a time when He will not be. Verse 1 - “was from the beginning” He is eternal! He has no beginning and He will have no ending. You probably remember that from Genesis 1:1 “in the beginning God created” then move to (John 1:1) In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

John is establishing the fact that you can have confidence in who Jesus is because He has always been. People were saying that maybe Jesus was born and lived a good moral life and taught some good things but He is not God. John stopped them in their tracks and said “Jesus has always been.” John says here that “we have fellowship with the One who is eternal life.” Why does this matter?

Because we live in a temporary world and we are exhausted from the temporary things in life. Culture and things in my life are changing constantly. Maybe relationships have broken down and you find out that those you thought were with you are not really there for you at all. So you are just so worn out from just trying to make it every day. You could be asking, “How am I supposed to have any foundation to stand on when everything in this world is constantly changing. Culture - things in my life.

But John says you are going to make it because Christ has always been and He always will be. You don’t place your faith in things that come and go and you are not swayed by things in culture. But the way you stand is by understanding that Christ will not come and go and He will not fade away. He will not say one thing and do another. He has always been and He always will be and He is not leaving you or forsaking you. Its that confidence - I stand on the nature and being of who Jesus Christ is.

The humanity of Christ can be verified. So, John wants us to know about the deity of Christ from the beginning but he also wants us to know about the humanity of Christ. He used specific language in verse one to prove who Jesus was  What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have observed and have touched with our hands, concerning the Word of life. He said; we’ve seen Him, we’ve heard Him, we’ve touched Him. This is not some religious philosophy we have been teaching. It is not some feel good religion. John says he wants to share who Jesus has been in our life and we walked with Him, we ate with Him, we traveled with Him. The objective reality is this: a man who was dead walked out of the grave! And we saw Him, we touched Him, it was a reality for us. This is real! The humanity of Jesus can be proven.

The strongest argument in court is when you can get a first hand witness. If you begin a case with the statement that this persons grandmother’s sister’s brother’s neighbor heard something, the other side is going to say that it isn’t believable. But if you have a first person witness on the stand saying they saw it, touched it and I am going to tell you just how things went down. Now you have authority in that case. That is why John is saying they had authority. They were there with Jesus. That’s why we believe in Him. Yes He has always existed and He is divine but He is also fully human and He walked with us and He lived with us.

Our enemy loves casting doubt and that is what he wants to do; make you doubt who Christ is or doubt what Christ has done or doubt the miracles He has done. John records many things in his writings that Christ did. It would have been amazing to be with these disciples watching the miracles, hearing the teaching and watching Him change lives. They were there to witness this and see it first hand and travel with Him.

Remember the time when Jesus and His disciples came upon a blind man and Jesus spits in the dirt and rubs it on the man’s eyes and then the man washes it off and he sees. Think of this. The man had always been there blind and begging and now everyone knows that he can see. Then this group of people; the Pharisees or religious group, walk in and they want to cast doubt on all this. The first thing they do is to say that this man wasn’t blind from birth. They go and get his parents and ask them to verify it was their son and to verify he had been blind from birth. They did. So the Pharisees then tried to get Jesus on a technicality; that Jesus healed a blind man on the Sabbath. This was not lawful to do in Jewish life. They said Jesus worked on the Sabbath. Then they go to the blind man for a second time and ask him if he thinks Jesus is a sinner. The blind man says “whether He is a sinner or not I don’t know but one thing I do know, I was blind and now I see". He verified that Jesus healed him.

A word used twice in these four verses is “manifest.” They said Jesus was “manifest” or “made know” to us. John said so we pass on to you what was verified by us. “Manifest” means to “make known” or “take the lid off.” The truth here is that God has gone to tremendous lengths to make know to you and to make visible to you and He has done it through His Son Jesus Christ. He wants you to know Him. This is all about fellowship with Jesus. The way He provided that was through the manifest of His Son Jesus on earth. Our lives are established and reconnected with God when we receive Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior.

Gospel presentation - Some of you might say that you didn’t know you could have fellowship with God. You may not have known that this is the reason you were created and that you exist for and to have fellowship with Him. But that fellowship was broken back in Genesis because we have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God. God has always wanted to restore that relationship. The way it is restored is through His Son Jesus Christ.

In Christ, we have eternal fellowship with God the Father. "what we have seen and heard we also declare to you, so that you may have fellowship along with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ." (1 John 5:11-12) 11 And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. 12 The one who has the Son has life. The one who doesn’t have the Son of God does not have life.

“Fellowship” in Greek is “koinonia.” The word means “experiential fellowship.” It means we experience it and it is not something we just talk about. It means we actually have fellowship with almighty God because of what Christ has done. Christianity is not a creed. It is personally knowing Christ as your Lord and Savior.

We could talk about Abraham Lincoln and the things he did, his family, and his life. But all you will walk away with is head knowledge of Lincolon. You would know some things about him. But you don’t know Abraham Lincoln. This is what Jesus has done for us. Jesus has given us the access, the bridge, to have a relationship with God. Not just some head knowledge about Him. It is about knowing Him in fellowship personally. The questions, doubts and fears will never grow fewer until our relationship with Him grows. Have you crossed that bridge to know Christ as your personal Lord and Savior?

Fellowship with other believers is based on Christ. "what we have seen and heard we also declare to you, so that you may have fellowship along with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ." Remember, the word “fellowship” means that we share and experience together. That what we do as believers is that we share and experience around our personal fellowship that we have with Jesus Christ. That is why John is saying he wants us to know and have confidence in who Christ is. Have confidence that Christ is the basis of fellowship with other believers.

Many in our church have made it back to church after over a year. But some of you are still waiting. We are not made for isolation. We are made to sharpen one another, to encourage one another, to carry the burdens for one another, to walk with each other when we go through times of doubt and fear. We are designed to be there for one another. John says that their joy was complete because they were able to walk with one another. The core of that fellowship is with Christ.