1-3 John - 1st John 1:1-4 Reality of the Incarnation - Part 1
1 John 1:1-4 · Roger Henderson · Jan 9, 2011
1, 2 & 3 John, No. 02
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/492622329193

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

So today we start into chapter 1 of 1st John. We're going to do verses 1 and 2 today, and the next week I'll finish up on verses 3 and 4. And then Randy will do basically 5 and 6, 7 through 8, and Bob's going to do 9 through 10. And then there'll be a review at the end of the... But we put some review classes in here because we had enough time in here to do that. Would someone like to read?

You can read it from the overhead or from the Bible. Read verses 1 and 2 in 1 John. What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands concerning the word of life. And the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us. Well, probably this section of 1 John, I think, at least for me, is one of the most exciting parts of scripture because it talks about the disciples and how they talk about their experience with the Lord Jesus and realizing who he is and what he's done.

And actually, the structure is kind of interesting. There's the word what, or actually King James has it, that which. It's kind of an interesting word, and we're going to look at that in a bit here. But actually Christ is magnified and made personal here because they talk about that personal relationship.

They talk about hearing, seeing, touching. And we're going to go through it kind of phrase or clause by clause. I made sure I knew what a clause was. A clause is a subject and a verb or a predicate. So we're going to go through each of these lines is a subject and a verb. and tells us something about Christ. So we just kind of dive in.

The first thing is this word what of the King James has that which? And this is a pronoun. It takes the place of a noun. And so what was from the beginning? And so the first question is, in case you don't look at your handout, which you probably already have, what word can we substitute for what? It's a pronoun. It takes the place of a noun. So what is it taking the place of?

And actually, verse 1 answers the question. Answers that question for you. Jesus himself. Right. Or in the context, the word of life, right? So in the context, what you could put in there, you could say, the word of life was from the beginning. or Jesus Christ was from the beginning. So we're going to see this kind of common thread here that John's going to talk about the what. And the what is, in the context he calls it the word of life, which is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ was from the beginning.

And so when you look at that, you say, boy, that looks awful familiar. I think Randy mentioned this last week. It looks awful familiar. You know, in the Gospel of John, there's a very similar statement to that. So let's look at that. I had to note there too, that what there was in it had no beginning. Well, okay. And we're going to see. John's going to tell us about the what. Jesus Christ, he's going to make a statement. And basically the what was from the beginning. So what does that mean? Hopefully we're going to answer that. We know. Okay. Alright, that's good. Okay, so we're going to compare John 1, verse 1 with 1 John 1, verse 1.

So here are the two passages. what was from the beginning, was is a verb, from the beginning modifies was, and then we have in John 1.1 in the New American Standard it reads in the beginning was the word, but if you want to compare these I think you've got to put subject verb or subject predicate, so if you rearrange John 1.1, the Gospel of John 1.1, You have the word was in the beginning. So they're very, very similar statements. You look at them and say, boy, there isn't much difference there. You have from the beginning and in the beginning with the same, it's actually the same verb. It's the same verb in both passages.

So let's just look at the verb here for a second. The verb is an important Greek word. It's one of Hal's favorite verbs, and mine too. Anyone who looks at scripture, this is a pretty significant verb. It's this state of being verb, emi, the state in which something continuously exists. So what this is saying is, the what, or Jesus Christ, was continuously existing from the beginning or in the beginning.

Very similar statements. And another interesting thing is that it's this imperfect tense, which we don't see too often. And it actually is continuous action in past time. We don't talk about that very much. Vern's talking about the perfect tense, which is something happened in the past and the results are continued up into the present. Well, this is all in the past. Continuous action in past time.

So what this is saying, I think, is that Jesus Christ, was continuously existing in the past, from all eternity past. And I think Jack kind of related to that. He continuously existed from all eternity past, or from the beginning, which is... But there's no beginning. And that's right. Preceded time. Preceded time.

Well, how about Genesis 1.1? It says, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. So people have kind of struck... I mean, I don't have a clear... I'm not sure I... In the beginning, it's kind of a mystery in a way, if you think about it. As I said, in the beginning, you say, well, is he talking about when God, in a point in time, creation began? That was a point in time. He made the heavens and the earth. That was a point in time. Before that, there was no heavens or earth, right?

So, some have argued, well, you know, it's the beginning of when God, his creative forces, they've argued in the beginning is that. I kind of, I like in the beginning being eternity past, personally. But I can see the point. So it's saying two things. It's saying in the Gospel of John, it's saying that the Word, or Jesus Christ, was in the beginning. He was continually existing in eternity past, or when he created the heavens and the earth. 1.1 is saying Jesus Christ was from the beginning.

So it's sort of like Randy just walked in from his house. I could say Randy came from his house. Jesus Christ came from all eternity past and was present with the disciples and with John. So the from and the from or in are slightly different aspects of that, it seems like to me. And they're different Greek words. One is apo, which is in, and one is en, which is from.

So I think what is really cool here, it says, John is saying Jesus Christ was from the beginning. We have him right here. He was in eternity past with God. He's right here with us. And we can see him, we can touch him, we can feel him. He's a real person.

I think that's just so cool. I mean, it's just outstanding. And we have some yellow paper, Randy, and some white paper. And it's just a copy. I figured, since I was late, It's hard to get the old paper. Yeah. Your mom asked if we were all adults in this class. They handle different colors. So you pass. Aren't you glad. OK. Any other. So we're taking it. You know, clause by clause. Each one of us.

So this is the first statement is. We have Jesus Christ from the beginning, and he's here with us. Which I think is just incredible. I mean, the God of the universe is here with us. So I think that's what he's trying to convey here. If not, we'll just keep going here. OK, so that's the first clause. The second clause, we have heard. So there's going to be a series of these clauses.

We have heard, we have touched, we have, just like you might say, boy, Randy just came here, and hey, I shook his hand. And I really felt, boy, he has a warm hand. He has a good hand, a strong handshake. He looks good. He's talking. He's alive. This is a very personal passage here. So the first one is what we have heard.

And once again, you can You can rearrange these words here. You can make it subject verbs. You can have it, we have heard what, which sounds kind of made awkward in English. We have heard what, but what is a pronoun again? We have heard Jesus Christ. We have heard the word of life. And actually, I have it. I probably should rearrange some of these bullets, but I didn't take the time to do that. So this word, akuo, is a normal word to hear. But it's in the perfect tense. And this is really kind of cool. This gets you excited.

And I'll go back to the Randy example. I could say, you know, I heard Randy last week teaching the overview of 1 John 1. I heard him. And you know, everything he's saying, I can still hear him talking about that. Boy, that was really good. I learned about all the distribution of the words, this word and that word. I can still hear him talking about that. Well, that's what they're saying here. We heard Jesus Christ in the past and we still hear him. I can still hear him saying those words and talking to me.

I mean any person that you've... isn't there something significant maybe in your life or maybe your husband or wife or a grandparent and you still remember what they said at a certain time. You still remember exactly what they said. You can quote exactly what they said. In fact in our family we have Famous quotes from one another. I'll remember what I said. Sometimes a negative. And she would tell you the negative ones. Stop while you can. I'm going to stop. And once again, this is past completed action with abiding results. This passage is a perfect example of the perfect tense. I've got a perfect example of a double saying there. But anyway, it's really neat. So I actually rearranged it there.

What we have heard, we have heard, and we're still hearing the what? The word of life, Jesus Christ. In most of this presentation I've included the Weiss translation and how he rendered it. I just love this. That which we have heard with the present result that is ringing in our ears. It's incredible. I get so excited about this passage because, wait a minute, Jesus Christ says, I heard him, I still hear him, he's still talking to me. It's neat. So instead of hearing, it's echoing. Echoing, okay, ringing your ears. Okay, good Tom. Okey dokey, all right, let's go on.

Okay, the next clause is what we have seen. So we're gonna go through all the sentences here just about, you know, what we have seen with our eyes. And you can rearrange this again. You could say, what we have, we have seen what? We have seen Jesus Christ with our eyes.

That's a pretty significant statement. I mean, all the disciples and others there in that time could say that. And this is a word for see, hurrah, hurrah maybe, hurrah is better. To stare out, to stare at, or to discern. The verb tense is perfect again. So what they're saying again, we saw him in the past, we can still see him.

It's just so personal, same kind of deal. I'm sure with Matt, I'm sure Caroline says, When she saw Matt again, all the time you were gone, I just pictured you. I could see you every day with me, or whatever. That's just normal. I can see you. Not even there I can see you. It's still there. It's still in your mind. And that's what they're saying.

They saw Christ in the past, and they can still see him. Rearranging the subject and verb. We have seen what? Jesus Christ with our eyes. And then here's the expanded. That which we have discerningly seen with our eyes with a present result that it's in our mind's eye We still we still see it and this this word Harao Let's just look at a passage here the one I have up in the John 6 And it uses that same word Just to get the idea that that word Harao John 6. Can someone read John 6? 35 and 36. And Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me shall never hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst. But I said to you that you have seen me, and yet do not believe.

And that's fine. So actually it's not, it doesn't really jump out here, but verse 36 says, I said to you that you have seen me, you have hurrahed me, you stared at me, you discern, you know, some discern for salvation, some did not. And I thought it was kind of interesting, in this context they didn't see him to salvation, they saw him But they didn't discern him for salvation. They didn't come to know him as their savior. So that was kind of interesting.

Because this word means discerning. So there was some discernment, but it was like, no, I don't want him. And that's like Romans. People know about Christ. They know about the Lord. But they say, I don't want him. And it falls back to them, not his ability to show himself. OK.

So let's go on. So the next clause is, we have looked at, I mean, what we have looked at, or we have looked at what? We have looked at Jesus Christ. So you think, we got a couple of words here for this, looking with your eyes and proceeding. So this is a little bit different word. This is, sorry, theaomai. It's actually the word, it's the word we get our word theater from. So when you go to the theater, Think about your experience at the theater. What do you do? You go in there and it's dark. Do you notice people around you much? You might notice them when you first walk in.

Maybe if kids are kicking the seat behind you. Somebody's still on their cell phone. They're told not to have their cell phone on, but it doesn't matter. They're texting or whatever. Normally, when the lights go out, you watch the screen. Everything else, you might whisper to somebody else with you. Besides that, you watch. You theater. You behold, you contemplate, you view attentively. In fact, it's so attentively that you usually get involved, if it's a good movie, and if they've done a good job, you identify with the people.

We went to see last night the king's speech. It's R-rated, and it's mostly bad language that happened when he was trying to overcome his stuttering problem. So they found that the guy who helped him said, well, if you, you know, you don't stutter with bad language. And apparently not, I had not really thought about that. So that was in the movie.

That's what made it R, which is kind of, it's kind of a shame actually. But anyway, you identified with this Prince, help me out, Yvonne. King George VI. King George VI, right. He, he wanted, it was during World War II and his brother had abdicated and he really wanted to, serve the country, but he had to make the speech right at the beginning of the war.

And it was just, and so you struggle with every word. I mean, it was just, you know, intense. So it's really, from that, I'd recommend it from that perspective. The other part's about him learning, you know, foul words. And it was, they did it okay. It was, you know, okay. So I'm kind of digressing here a bit, maybe, but. So basically, In that movie, we contemplated him. You identify with that person.

Looking at the Lord Jesus, you're contemplating him. I have a bunch of verses in this section. Let's just look at this verse in Luke here first. Luke chapter 23. And let's look at 52 through 55. Someone read that. Luke 23, 52 through 55. This man went on to Pilate and made the body of Jesus at that point? Yes, that's right. Okay. And Bob, how many men? Down to 55. 55.

And he took it down and wrapped it in linen and laid it in a sepulcher that was hewn in stone wherein never man before had laid. And that day was the preparation and Sabbath drew on. And the women also which came with him from Galilee followed after and beheld the sepulchre and how his body was laid."

Okay, that's great. Thanks. Okay, it's the very last verse in 55 where it says, and they saw the tomb or beheld the tomb and how the body was laid. So basically, they theatered They looked carefully at that and said, look at how that was. That really was something that they entered into. That's how he was laid. That's the whole way it is. So they entered into that.

So that's the same word that we have here. And this is basically It's in the Aorist tense and so it's a pass point action and basically we have looked at what? We have looked at Jesus Christ and then we have that which we gazed upon as a spectacle. So they gazed upon Him, they looked at Him intently, they identified with Him in a sense. They identified with our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Alright, so let's go on to the next one. So now we've gotten through, we heard We saw kind of in two ways, right?

And now we've touched with our hands, or literally it could be the hands of us touched. Okay, so this is the idea to feel, to touch, to handle. The verse here is Luke 24 and verse 39. Luke 24 and verse 39. Actually, can we go back? How about we do 38 and 39? Luke 24, 38 and 39. And he said unto them, Why are ye troubled? And why do thoughts arise in your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself handle me and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see ye have."

Right. So the idea to handle me or to touch me, they're the same word. So John's saying here, you know, we touched him. He's flesh and blood. We actually touched him. So that's what's being conveyed here. They touched, they handled him. And it's a past. So at a past point in time, they're remembering that. The hands of us touched. And the expanded translation is, in our hands handled with a view to investigation. OK, so let's go on.

OK, so this is the very last part of verse 1. So this is kind of the focus. So they did all these things concerning the word of life. So this plus the word of what? And with this ending the verse, it kind of really nails it down, okay? Concerning the word of life, Jesus Christ.

So it's kind of probably instructive to look a little bit at the word of life, concerning the word of life. And the word concerning is this word, peri, with respect to, so it's with respect to the word of life. And actually, if you go back, in the structure of this, if you have your, let me just see here. I'm going to do this, it's kind of hard to see. This little phrase here actually modifies the verb touch, it seems like, concerning the word of life. So with respect to the word of life, and that's actually a little obvious, I don't think. I'll just go on.

So the word here is the word Logos, a word, speech, with the article, the. So it is the word, actually it's the word of the life. So this word, if you look through scripture, six times in John's writings he uses word. And in those cases, and actually in Revelation as well, it focuses on Jesus Christ. In the beginning was the Word, and then 114, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. So each of those times. And in contrast to that, there are other Greek words for the word were, and one is the word rhema, which is just speech, normal speech, but this is a very significant word, used only a few times.

So now I actually found that in going through this, that the word of life appears in John 1.1, and then we have the bread of life, And then we have the Prince of Life. And then we have just The Life.

So each of these talk about, you know, a different name for our Savior. You know, if you look, I think there's something like maybe over 200, 250 or so different words in Scripture. titles for Christ. And this is a collection all focusing here on the life. And we're going to see that there's going to be another word, just the life, that also speaks of Jesus Christ.

So let's go on. So we finished verse 1. So now we're going to start into verse 2. And you notice right away, we're going to jump right into the life. Once again, almost in every Every phrase, every clause in this sentence, Christ's name is mentioned. So we're going to see it right here again in the first clause of verse 2.

The life was manifested. So here we have a visual idea again. Phaneruo, to make visible, to make clear. And this is kind of interesting. It's a past point fact. Error is tense, but it's in the passive voice. So what's interesting here is, so what does the passive voice mean? You guys remember what that means? What does it say about the subject and the verb? What does it say about the subject and the verb? Passive voice.

It's being active. Okay, good. So what's the subject of this little clause here? The life, right? So it says, what's interesting, it says that the life, Jesus Christ, was manifested. So I found that at first kind of, and it's passive, right? Now it says, you think, how about this, what if I said the life is manifested? So you think, well, okay. Christ at a point in time manifested himself. Well this is saying that it was manifested. So it made me think of this verse. So let's just go to Galatians. We just got finished with Galatians so I had to go back there. So Galatians chapter 4 and verse 4. Because I want to read verse 4 in chapter 4 in Galatians.

But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law. Okay, great. So I think this kind of fit, you know. The Lord Jesus agreed in turn to be passed that he would, in the eternal covenant, that he would take up the sins of the world. But it was the Father, in the fullness of time, he said, go forth. He was sent forth. So it kind of fit. He was manifested. you know, at the proper time.

Sure, go ahead, Randy, if you have a thought. I don't want to steal his view. No, no, no, go ahead. I probably don't. Well, the thing that's interesting is that this communicates the relationship of the father and the son in such a way that the son subjected himself in full agreement with the father.

The father worked out. Yeah, it's like you left that decision, it's sort of like we agree, and I say, Randy, whatever you say, tell me to go, just give me a call, and I go. And you call me, and I go do it. But the fact that the father started that work so that the son could be in a serving position, and that's a part of being a recipient of grace. I know.

It's pretty incredible. The Godhead in total harmony. So it's neat. Was the Spirit involved in that too? Well, it probably was. I was trying to think. The Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. That's another passage. I think the Spirit's in there too. You know what's amazing? Didn't the Spirit descend on Christ? He did. I was just kind of thinking in the sense that, you know, saying that sending forth his son at the right, you know, the father said, now is the right, now is the time.

I guess I can't, off the top of my head, I can't think of a passage that, the Spirit is certainly involved, but I can't think of a passage that, that same phraseology. Yeah. Other thoughts? I don't know. Margaret? Yeah, I was just saying what Donna said, that because Jesus jumped in the womb, This particular passage doesn't seem to imply that. I think there are some other places.

I think Ephesians is a good book because it goes into all three parts of the Godhead, intervening with the human. But it's amazing, if you spend a little time, you can find the three aspects, Father, Son and Spirit, For a little careful study, you can find that they are involved in almost every, even though they have unique ministries, they are involved in most aspects of, you know. It's just a code of presentation, but it's best to be presented of the Trinity. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And that confirms the Son's part in that Trinity. And how to explain it. And I think that's what it's doing. Okay, let's look at, let's see here. Manifest, actually we kind of skipped over what the word manifest is about. Manifest is the idea, to make visible, to make clear.

I have a bunch of passages here, but I think the one that's most interesting is the one in 1 John 4.9. 1 John 4.9. I'll get someone to read that. By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God was sent, that God has sent his only begotten son into the world so that we might live through him. Right. Okay, so this is just another kind of parallel passage.

Basically he talks about his love was made clear or visible. How do we know God's love? We know God's love by the fact that his son was sent. His only begotten Son, so we might live through Him. And then actually in John 17, which is always a neat passage, it talks about Christ, in verse 6, talks about Him manifesting your name, God the Father's name, to the men whom you gave me out of the world.

Say that again. Let's look at it, Jack. Let's look at John 17. John 17, actually I like to do it in the ones with the V's and the vowels that kind of hang you up, but John 17, in verse 6, I can read that. It says, I have manifested, that's our word, I have made clear, made visible, your name, or thy name, to men whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word." So this is the truth that we're a gift from God the Father to God the Son. That's just mind boggling. I think of myself as a gift and I think, I don't know. And that wasn't a good deal. None of us were a good deal. We're only of value because we're in Christ. Our sinful nature is of no value to Him. Christ died for that. We're of value to Him because we're in Christ. Well, this is totally rabbitry.

But one of the things I think is awesome is John emphasizes Old Testament references, and this is John 17 and not 1 John, but the idea of being a gift from God the Father to the Son is that the Son was the one through whom all creation was created. Colossians tells us that. The Son is the one through whom all creation was created. So to restore us and make us the perfection of God's creation that He had made, is a kind and loving thing to do.

It makes us, not only are we a worthy gift because of Christ, but it is a token of this coming gift of the new heavens and the new earth that are coming that will manifest the fullness of God's glory. If you think of us from the perspective of not just a gift, but being the first fruits of a thing that's to come, And what's interesting, let's see here.

Sorry, I totally read it. No, that's just fine. That's just cool. Okay, so let's go on here. Let's go. Okay. And actually, here's the least rendering of this. And this aforementioned life for Jesus Christ was made visible. In some cases, it's not as astounding there. Okay.

The next clause here, and we have seen and testify and proclaim." So three things, seen, testified and proclaimed to you, the eternal life. So what's interesting is verse one talks about how they remembered him, they saw him, they touched him, and it's still in their minds. And then verse two says, we didn't just say, hey, that's a great thing.

Here's what we did with that information. Here's what we do. That information didn't just stay dormant. We did something. We did something about that. And so the idea of seeing is repeated again here. We have seen the eternal life. So actually, if you were, there's a parallelism here. We've got three statements, and they all have the same direct object. Eternal life, eternal life. We have seen the eternal life. We testify to the eternal life. We proclaim to you the eternal life. Okay. All right. So have seen is basically it's the same one we saw previously. They just repeated hurrah. Testify is to bear witness. So let's just look at bear witness for a second here.

Look at John. Yeah, you know what's amazing and as we go through this book, the gospel of John is invaluable to understanding 1 John. I mean, you go there constantly because there's constantly more information in the Gospel of John to help you with 1 John. So John 3, 31 and 32. So can I get someone to read that please?

He who comes from above is above all. He who is of the earth deserves to live and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all. And what he has seen and heard, that he testifies. Okay, now if you look carefully here, there's a pattern here. It took me a while to kind of, maybe it's just kind of slow sometimes. Verse 32, this is talking about the Lord Jesus, right? What He has seen, so, and with God the Father, right? He saw, He has seen, same word here, harah, and heard. I'm not sure, it might be the same one we looked at earlier. Of that He bears witness.

So, and no man receives. So there's some negative parts here, Christ is bearing witness of what he saw the Father doing. Remember he says, I do nothing. He says there's nothing. I don't do one single thing that I don't see the Father doing. I'm in total harmony with that.

So Christ is saying that he's doing what he sees the Father doing. What do believers say? And our verse says here that we testify about what Christ has done. So you see this wonderful harmony. The Son is testifying about the Father and we're testifying about the Son. Which I thought that was just a cool thing that kind of The light bulb went on here when I started looking through that.

I said, wow, that's really incredible. And the last one is proclaim. It's to announce, to declare. And there weren't a whole lot of verses. Actually, the best one is the Matthew one. It just talks about reporting back on something. In the interest of time, I'm just going to skip that.

So basically, we have seen, we testify, we proclaim. Alright, and then here's the expanded, what we have seen with discernment, hurrah, and have in our mind's eye, isn't that what the Christian life is about in a way? We have in our mind's eye, we have the mind of Christ, you know, that process they're describing is what we have too. We have in our mind what scripture says, and that's wonderful. and are bearing witness and bringing back to you a message concerning the life, the eternal life. And then the last phrase here, the last part is, which was with the Father and was manifest to us. So the first part is, so which, you know, It's kind of hard to say. What does which speak of? I was going to say, what's which? I couldn't think of an easy way to say that. So what is which?

I have tons of history here. This is not hard. Because like I said, every passage, which was what? Actually, I think I would say, once again, it's the Lord Jesus. He was with the Father and was manifest to us. Isn't it amazing? Every passage has Christ in view, but with a different what, which, the eternal life, the Word of Life. It's really pretty amazing. Which was manifest to us.

So He was with the Father, just that idea we had before. He was with the Father and was manifest to us. And basically I gave the answer here, or what I thought was the answer. And then it expanded is, which is of such a nature as to have been in fellowship with the Father and was made visible to us.

Okay, and then lastly here, I just gave you the full whammy. I gave you the entire verses in the Weiss translation. Some of my voice is going. I'd like to read this. You can read it from your handout or from the overhead. Randy? It's on the back side of the... Yeah, it's the last page. Sure, I'll do it.

Thanks, Randy. which we gazed upon as a spectacle, and our hands handled with a view to investigation, that which is concerning the word of life. And this aforementioned life was made visible, and we have seen it with discernment, and have it in our mind's eye, and are bearing witness and bringing back to you a message concerning the life, the eternal life, which is of such a nature as to have been in fellowship with the Father, and was And actually, Marilyn's statement, I think you actually have a point there. Actually, the way it's looking there is actually, I don't know, anyway. It's challenging to figure out, could it be the eternal life versus, of course, the eternal life is Christ anyway, so anyway. But in the context, it fits better with the eternal life, such a nature.

So that's Christ, I think. Questions? But if you're talking about evidences, if you're talking about the accountability and reliability of scripture, if you've got a witness that has seen something, if you were to go into a court case and say, were you at the scene of the crime? No. Well, why are you a witness? Well, I read about it in the newspaper. You would totally discount this witness if you the real God of the real universe. And that carries a lot of weight. It does, it does.

And how graphical it is, and how it's still in their mind, they still remember it. They both remember it, hearing it verbally as they remember what he said, and they remember that they saw him, they still can see him. And what made it more interesting was they were seeing it through put the point through.

Until the church age began, that's true. But you never can imagine seeing the Lord and not remembering him. Well it seemed like that was pretty, yeah, people remembered him. Some remembered him and they didn't want to remember him, right? They still, you know, they had their own agenda or whatever.

When our eyes are blind, when the eyes of the men on the road to Emmaus, they were intentionally blinded so that the Lord could teach them all the way from Moses to the present on this journey and then he could open their eyes and they would be like, wow, wait a minute, and then he moved on. I know, they find it's an aha and he's gone, right? Well, if that's so, we can call it quits.

How can you not have read this first intro to the letter? Those first two verses of the letter. Oh, I know. And just had your, just wait to see the rest of what John has to write. I know. When I first met the Lord, I thought the Gospel of John chapter 1 was just amazing, but I had not really read this part. And as I grew in the Lord, I realized that, boy, what if I could have read this part with, you know, you read the Gospel of John, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. I thought that was just so incredible. And then you read this part, it's just like, and then we had an interaction with Him.

I mean, it's just astounding. So the Gospel of John chapter 1 and 1 John 1 are just so, put them together, so marvelous about the Lord Jesus. Good each in their order, because he had to come first before the rest of us had to. Exactly, that's very true. Okay, well let's pray then. We thank you, Father. We thank you for this day, Lord. We thank you for the blessings we have in our Savior. Thank you that we can study your Word and we can see John how he describes the Savior and Lord how we can know him, we do know him and how we can interact with him through your word and we can come to know him and actually you say in your word that we actually have a more sure revelation even indicating that we even have it better than than actually a physical interaction with them and we we trust you lord for that and we thank you that we do have that and your spirit guides us into all the truth we ask it in christ's name amen