Take your Bibles with me tonight and turn to 1 John 1. 1 John 1. I'm starting a little series tonight through the book of 1 John and I'm just going to give you some introductory material and cover the first few verses - this isn't going to be a whole sermon tonight.

At this point, I've preached through every New Testament book except for 1, 2 and 3 John and the book of Luke. I plan on starting in on Luke after we finish Colossians and I plan on going right through 1, 2 and 3rd John.

Before we get into 1 John though, I have a confession to make: There is a reason why it's taken me this long to go through this book. Of all of the epistles in the New Testament, 1 John has always been the one that made me scratch my head.

When you read one of Paul's epistles - like Colossians or Ephesians - it is very logical. It is very straightforward. There is no question what Paul is getting at.

But when you read 1 John, it seems to go in circles.

For instance, look at chapter 2 verses 7-8:

[!bible] [1 John 2:7-8 - KJV](https://bible-api.com/1 John+2:7-8?translation=kjv) 7. Brethren, I write no new commandment unto you, but an old commandment which ye had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word which ye have heard from the beginning. 8. Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you: because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth.

I write no new commandment, but here is a new commandment. What??

There are a lot of parts of 1 John that are like this. It seems like John is talking in circles.

Then, there are other things about 1 John that give people fits. Some of 1 John seems like John is writing about works salvation.

For instance, 1 John 1:6 says:

[!bible] [1 John 1:6 - KJV](https://bible-api.com/1 John+1:6?translation=kjv) 6. If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:

Or look at chapter 2 verses 3-4:

[!bible] [1 John 2:3-4 - KJV](https://bible-api.com/1 John+2:3-4?translation=kjv) 3. And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. 4. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

Or look at chapter 3 verse 6:

[!bible] [1 John 3:6 - KJV](https://bible-api.com/1 John+3:6?translation=kjv) 6. Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him.

Those verses seem to undermine the rest of the New Testament. I mean, when you read a pentecostal who teaches you can be sinlessly perfect - they are almost always going to go to 1 John.

And so it's a problematic little book.

But, I think it's problematic because it's misunderstood. And the biggest source of the misunderstanding comes from not understand who it was written to and why it was written.

This little book was written by the Apostle John. The same John who leaned on Jesus' breast during the last supper. The same John who got to go up on the mount of transfiguration with Peter and James.

John was most likely the youngest of the apostles. He could have been a mere teenager when Jesus was with them. But when John wrote 1 John, he was very likely the last apostle who was still alive. The rest of them had likely already died martyrs deaths.

John was a pastor in Ephesus. He was a pastor there for a long time. And about the time John was getting ready to die there was a wave of false-teachers coming through the church.

Historically, we know who these guys were. They were a kind of early gnostic called Cerinthianists. They were followers of a guy named Cerinthus who was a false teacher in Asia Minor.

Cerenthus and John were kind of arch enemies. There is this famous story of John going to the bath house to have his bath, and he sees Cerenthus is there and he grabs his clothes and runs out and says "We have to get out of here, lest God destroy the bathhouse because Cerenthus, that enemy of truth, is in here."

But this guy Cerenthus, was popular. He basically taught two things we see combatted again and again in the scripture:

First, he taught that Jesus wasn't fully human and fully God. He actually taught that Jesus became the Christ at His baptism and that the Christ left Jesus at the cross and just Jesus the man died. He denied the virgin birth of Christ and the deity of Christ and tried to mix Christianity with the pagan gnosticism that was popular in Asia Minor at the time.

Second, Cerenthus taught that if you want to be saved, you have to be circumcised and follow the Old Testament law.

What a lot of scholars think happened is that Cerenthus came into the churches around Asia Minor where John was and convinced a lot of people to go astray. There was a great "church split" here in the churches at Asia Minor and a lot of people followed this false teacher and left the church.

And so you have John, who is this elder statesman at this point, he is this beloved old apostle and pastor in Asia Minor, and he is writing to these Christians who he pastors trying to do several things:

First, he's trying to console them as a pastor. There is a lot of "my little children" talk in 1 John.

Second, he's trying to put a nail in the coffin of this false doctrine of Cerenthianism. So you have verses like chapter 2 verse 22 where John says things like:

[!bible] [1 John 2:22 - KJV](https://bible-api.com/1 John+2:22?translation=kjv) 22. Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son.

Finally, John is trying to give comfort and assurance to the people who have stayed by the truth. He's trying to show them that they are in fact real Christians and how these people they all thought were Christians were not in fact, real Christians.

And he does that by pointing out that these fake Christians had three things wrong with them:

So three themes that run through this little book are:

  1. True Christians have true doctrine of Christ.
  2. True Christians have righteous morality.
  3. True Christians love the brethren.

Now, once you understand that purpose, 1 John starts to make a lot more sense and it starts to seem a lot more "put together" and a lot less circular and contradictory.

Now, with all that in mind, I just want us to look at the first few verses of chapter 1 tonight.

[!bible] [1 John 1:1-4 - KJV](https://bible-api.com/1 John+1:1-4?translation=kjv)

  1. 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, of the Word of life;
  2. (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;)
  3. That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.
  4. And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.

Now, even in this short introduction, there is a lot going on.

Did you have to diagram sentences in school? The first three verses are really one long sentence and you don't get to the verb until verse 3.

The verb is "declare we unto you." So what is John saying?

Let me give it to you in a shorter sentence and then we'll talk about it for a minute. I believe the point John is making here in verses 1-4 is this:

We proclaim Jesus for all He is, because only around Jesus can we have true fellowship and joy.

Let's break that down into two parts.

"We proclaim Jesus for all He is..."

That's what John is doing here in the first three verses, He's telling us who Jesus is.

He tells us four things about Jesus:

First, Jesus was God, from the beginning.

Verse 1 says that which is from the beginning. He's not talking about the beginning of church - he's talking about the beginning of time.

It's similar to how John started the book of John:

[!bible] John 1:1 - KJV

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

Jesus is God. Jesus was from the beginning. Jesus didn't become God at His baptism. Jesus was always God.

So from the very first words of this book - John is making a swipe at these false teachers. No "Hi, this is John and I'm writing to the churches in Asia Minor." No. John doesn't have time for that. John starts with a bang "Jesus is God and He always was."

That's the first thing John tells us about Jesus. The second thing He tells us about Jesus is...

Second, Jesus was a historical figure. Jesus isn't some made up myth. Jesus was someone that John and others in this church had heard with their own ears, seen with their own eyes, and not just once or twice, but they looked upon Him, they studied Him.

Jesus wasn't some life force. Jesus was a real historical figure with plenty of living (at this point) witnesses.

The third thing John says about Jesus is that Jesus was man, a real man, a human. He says "our hands have handled" Him. Again, Jesus wasn't some hocus-pocus spirit. Jesus was God come in human flesh.

And why did He come? Well "He's the word of life." Jesus came to be the word and Jesus came to give us life.

That life, that eternal life, was manifested. It was shown to John and to the church. They were experiencing the eternal life Christ had given them. They were partakers of it.

So again "we proclaim Jesus for all He is..." that's what John is doing here in this letter. He is proclaiming Jesus. He is declaring Jesus.

But why is John declaring Jesus?

Well the second half of that statement I gave you is...

"...because only around Jesus can we have true fellowship and joy."

Look at verse 3 again:

[!bible] [1 John 1:3 - KJV](https://bible-api.com/1 John+1:3?translation=kjv) 3. That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.

That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you - that's the proclaim Jesus for all He is part - but look at the second half that you may have fellowship with us.

If you look at verse 4 it adds joy to fellowship. It says that your joy may be full.

So what John is saying is that if you want to have true fellowship and you want to have true joy - you have to know who Jesus is. You have to experience fellowship with Jesus. The real Jesus - not this made up Jesus the false teachers were pushing.

Imagine this church in Asia minor, and it's hurting, because a third or more of the people are gone. They followed after this cult and the church split.

And so John says listen, you didn't really have fellowship with those people - because they were worshipping a made up Jesus. They weren't worshipping the true Christ and the only way to truly have fellowship and the joy that comes with it is to have fellowship with the real Jesus Christ, so I'm telling you about Him.

Let me put it like this: Let's say you have some good friends who are mormons. I like mormons. They are wholesome, faith filled, moral people. Mormons make good neighbors.

But can you have fellowship with a mormon? No. Because they aren't worshipping the same Jesus as you. They've added all kinds of made up mumbo-jumbo to Christ. They've changed salvation. Eventually, if you befriend them, you are going to have to have that conversation - and you will likely lose a friend.

But you never had fellowship around Christ to begin with, because they worship a false Christ - and there is no joy in that - because it is a false religion.

So look. John is saying we declare the whole Jesus, because only around Jesus can we have true fellowship and joy.

That's what this book is going to be about. It's going to help us understand the person and work of Jesus, it's going to help us get assurance of our salvation without giving us false assurance. It's going to help us understand that not everyone who calls himself a christian is actually saved.

It's an important book - and when we are done with it there will be joy and fellowship.

Let's stand for invitation and prayer.