1-3 John - 1st John 1:1-4 Reality of the Incarnation - Part 2
1 John 1:1-4 · Roger Henderson · Jan 16, 2011
1, 2 & 3 John, No. 03
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926223525775

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

If you open your Bibles to 1 John. The scribes are writing it now. It's being copied here I think. 1 John chapter 1. So last week we started with the first two verses. If someone could read in their Bible verses 1 through 4 in chapter 1. 1 John chapter 1 verses 1 through 4. with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands concerning the word of life.

And the light was manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal light, which was with the Father and was manifested to us. What we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you may have fellowship with us. And indeed, our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. These things we write so that our joy may be made complete.

Last week we looked at verses 1 and 2 and we're going to go into verses 3 and 4 today. This is an eyewitness account of John and it's a very personal one. He talks about, if you think about it, how do you know somebody? You know them by sight, you know them by talking with a person, you may shake their hand, you know them by So John talks about in verses 1 and 2 about touching, talking, feeling.

And he writes it in such a way that he still remembers all that. And I was kind of using the illustration of Matt last week, Matt and Caroline. And Matt has come back from Afghanistan. I know if it's true, most people, a loved one, you remember them, you remember what they said, how they talked, their expressions, their handshake, their hug, or whatever. You remember intimately.

And John describes that. And that's just what's so wonderful in that, about this passage. These first four verses are a very, very personal account of our Savior. But it's written in a way that you have to kind of look at it. Because it uses a pronoun, what? I'm going to review that again today, in place of the Lord Jesus. So when it says, what was from the beginning, basically it says the Lord Jesus was from the beginning, in verse 1.

So, and then another thing I think that we're going to find today, that as we look at these two verses here, what we have seen and heard, it kind of looks back to what the previous verses, we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. These things we write so that our joy may be made complete. So we're going to see kind of a reiteration of this personal interaction with our Savior and then we're going to kind of move into really, some have said that the purpose of This writing of John is in this verse 3. I'm not going to tell you what it is exactly yet Just kind of keep you thinking here for a second and also another key word We're going to see fellowship is introduced here in this passage And and actually that's going to come about we're going to see more of that in the following weeks about our fellowship with the Lord Jesus Okay, well that kind of is a as a setting Actually do we pray Okay, thank you.

That reminds me. It happens in our house. I guess I'm a senior volunteer. It happens in our house sometimes. We'll pray for supper or whatever, and about halfway through he said, Did we pray? I apologize, I don't think I prayed for Tasha Questler or the other way around. Yeah, I apologize. I'm too focused on this. You bear with me. So, okay. Okay, so let's go on to verse one.

What we have seen and heard. So it repeats the message that we saw somewhat with the same words And basically the what, as I mentioned before, is a pronoun. It takes the place of a noun, right? And in the context of the previous verses, you could insert the Word of Life or the Lord Jesus Christ. Either one. And the Word of Life is, you know, if you look at, I mentioned before, you know, there's an accounting of how many names for the Lord Jesus in Scripture. 250. I mean, there's a lot. So this is one of the names, the Word of Life. And you could actually could have one in there.

I mean, it seems like that's a pronoun, but anyway, that's in this context That's what we're talking about. So basically the the phrase here what we have seen I'll just take the first part of the verse here what we have seen or you could say we have seen Jesus Christ and You know, this is where He again, and the word seen is the idea to stare at or so as to discern. It's not just a casual glance, it's a concentrated glance. It's a concentration, a focus. John is saying, and it's in what's called the perfect tense, which means it's something that happened in the past. I saw the Lord Jesus in the past and I continue to see him. I see him in my mind. I still see what he does. I still see his actions. And then I shared with you last week, this is kind of expanding the translation a little bit.

We have seen Jesus Christ in the past, and we continue to see Him at the present in our minds. And this is the Weiss translation of that, trying to bring to the front the perfect tense. We saw Him in the past, and we continue to see Him up into the present. We see Him in our mind's eye. He's still very real to us.

And then what we have heard Basically, or we could say, we have heard, replacing the what and rearranging the sentence in subject-verb order, we have seen Jesus Christ. I'm sorry, we have heard Jesus Christ. And then the rendering of that would be, we have heard Jesus Christ in the past, and we continue to hear him at the present in our remembrance. So we remember what he said, and we hear him. We still hear him. Okay, so basically he's going to say, we have some information about the Lord Jesus. What are we going to do with that information is the next part of this verse. So we're going to proclaim it.

So the question comes up, so what's your idea about proclaiming? What do you think proclaiming is? I have some ideas about that. If I say I'm going to proclaim something, what am I going to do with that information? him speak of him okay okay all right that sounds good all right good okay so actually there's a there's a very close parallel between verses two and three if you look in your Bibles there verse two says that we proclaim to you the eternal life And I believe that's Jesus Christ. I was reading some folks kind of think that is just proclaiming to you the fact of eternal life.

But several things, I think, the definite article is there, it's the eternal life. So I really think, and there's actually another reason, which I've forgotten, I apologize. But anyway, I think it refers to the Lord Jesus Christ. There's some discussion about that, but I think that's another name for the Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal life. And if we compare that with our verse here in verse 3, we proclaim to you also, or basically, rearranging it, what we have seen and heard, we proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, Jesus Christ. So very similar construction, but this time there's going to be a reason or a purpose, in addition to the fact that he's the eternal life, there's going to be a reason or a purpose.

Do you have a question? Well, I was just thinking that Proclaim has an idea that there's no doubt about what you're saying. When you proclaim something, you are certain of what you're stating. You're not just making a statement. Right. Most people that are proclaiming or testifying or sharing something, their motivation is normally of, I want to tell people. This is such a wonderful thing. I want to tell people about that. So they're doing it for a very good purpose. I think that's an excellent point. I want to know about it too.

Cool. Okay, it's cool. This is cool. Ryder? Yes, go ahead. The other thing is maybe the difference between seen and heard. You know, you can hear somebody say something, and they can say whatever they want. Right. Oh, it's true. Right. They saw what he did. Right, exactly. They saw the miracles? Exactly. I mean, you're right.

I mean, their seeing was a lot more than, you know, we may say, I saw the president, or I saw somebody important, you know, whoever, right? Or I saw the geyser, I saw this or that. I saw Matt Rushmore, you're right. So it's a lot different than just, they saw him multiple times, you know, his ministry on earth, basically. But it's what they saw.

Exactly. I don't know if he gets into that, but you see somebody heal the sick, that's... that's a good point he doesn't he doesn't he just says that he still remembers it i mean in the greek context the perfect tense and that's what i pull out of that but but he's going to proclaim to you the person of the lord jesus for a for a purpose he's going to say i'm going to proclaim to you the the eternal life the lord jesus and i have a purpose in mind here i i want to I have a very special purpose for this. And it's actually kind of a neat thing. And we'll see it unfold here shortly. But that's why I think your point is well taken. They saw all the wonderful things. He wasn't just an ordinary person. He was the God-man. He healed the blind. He did miraculous things. I think that's the main point of the whole story.

If you've seen the Son of Man standing and talking to you, let me tell you, you've never seen anything like that before. Right. Remember the passage where he said he spoke words like no one else spoke? I'm not really quoting that very well, but basically they said... With authority. With authority. What you're saying and what you're doing, no one else can do that. There's no other, you know...

He's totally unique. But I always think, when I hear that, I think, well, you know, I wasn't there, right? John's trying to clue us in and give us a real wonderful view of that. But it says we have a more clear revelation. And I can't think of a place without that. Interesting, from God's word, we actually have a greater benefit. I mean, that kind of is mind boggling. And maybe you might want to challenge me on that. But I think scripture supports that, that we have, by the Holy Spirit and God's word, we have a clear picture. Because we have the whole story. They had part of the story and they were confused and did things. Anyway, that's a rabbit trail. Anyway, OK, we'll carry on here.

OK, proclaim is apa angelio, to announce, to make known. And we're going to see that we have four forms of this Greek word. And this particular one is the idea to bring a message from. And that's, there's like a preposition. This is kind of a little bit geeky, but there's a, there's a preposition on the front of angelio or galeo. Apo is to bring from or from. So, so, uh, so the family of words are, there's another, another word called ana angelio.

It is to bring back tidings or a message. Let me, I'll go through these for now. I'll go back and show you a verse on each one. And then there's dia. Dia Angelio to announce a message to a person and then there's Cata Angelio to preach a message. So they're all very, very similar. In fact, I had a hard time. So I found verses for each of these. So we have four words here. We have Ana Angelio, which is in our context here. We have Apa Angelio, Ana, Via, and Cata. I was like, not the Ninja Turtles, no. I'm not sure they would have gotten into that.

But anyway. So anyway, but they're all very, very similar ideas. And this is kind of an idea of, I thought it would be helpful to see, well, what's proclaiming about? And this covers, I'm not sure it's all of them, but a good part of the words in scripture that are rendered proclaim are one of these four Greek words. So let's just look.

And I think you're going to see there's a very close similarity to what's being shared in each of these words. Okay, the first one, let's go to Acts, Acts 17. Acts 17 and verse, Can someone read verses 29 and 30 in Acts 17? Verses 29 and 30. Therefore, since we are God's offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image made by man's design and skill.

In the past, God overlooked such ignorance that now he commands all people everywhere to repent. Okay. Basically, that's interesting. Okay, I have mine. Does someone have another translation? What translation did you have? New International. Does someone else have another translation of the same? Especially verse 30. Another translation of that? New King James. You want 30? Yeah,

30. Surely these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent. Interesting, okay.

Well, numerical standard has our word here, has declaring or proclaiming. So this is actually, this is commanding. Boy, commanding sure sounds different than declaring. I'm struggling with that a little bit, so I don't know. The word in the Greek is our apangelio, to declare. So God is declaring, is now declaring to men that everywhere they should repent. Okay, so that's the first example. The next one we're gonna look at, anangelio. Hopefully it'll be a little clearer. Let's look at, still in Acts, Acts 20. 2027. Acts 2027. Did someone read that?

For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. Okay, so here we have the word we're looking for is declaring. For I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God. So in this context this is This is Paul speaking here. He declared the whole purpose of God. So now let's look at Dea.

Dea is in Romans 9.17. Hopefully this is enlightening.

Romans 9.17. This is a good one here, 9.17.

Does someone read that? The scripture says to Pharaoh, for this very purpose I raised you up to demonstrate my power on you and that my name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth. Okay. And remember Dio was to announce, I think this kind of fits nicely. With the Dio Angelio, it's to announce a message to a person. So basically, in this case, it's actually not, it's the scriptures it says.

The scriptures say to Pharaoh, for this purpose I raised you up to demonstrate my power and that my name might be proclaimed through the whole earth. And then lastly, to preach a message, back to Acts, Acts 17. Acts 17, and can someone read verses 2 and 3? Then Paul, as his custom was, went into them, and for three sabbaths reasoned with them from the scriptures, explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, This Jesus, whom I have preached to you, is the Christ.

Right. Okay, that's good. So basically, Catangelio is preaching. So basically, what John is doing here, he says, I'm going to proclaim to you something very special. In verse 2, he proclaimed to you the eternal life, the person of Christ. Now he's going to proclaim what's going to follow. Let's go on here. So basically this is what he's going to proclaim and he says, and the way we know that is, actually this is, first of all he'll tell you the purpose. so that you too may have fellowship with us so the that or so that is kind of indicator when you see in scripture a that or so that is kind of a kind of a red flag that says what's going to follow is a purpose for what I just said so that you too may have fellowship with us and so that is a purpose for proclaiming It could be basically you two also may have fellowship with us. So the question comes up here. What... Let's see what question I want to ask here. So probably a basic question.

Before we look at this, how do we have fellowship? If I want to have fellowship... I keep picking on Randy because he's my co-teacher here. If I want to have fellowship with Randy, How is that, in a biblical sense, how is that possible? How is it possible for Randy and I to have fellowship? Now I can have, you know, fellowship maybe in the broader sense in this world, you might say I might have fellowship, I might go out to dinner with Randy and we, you know, we talk. But biblical fellowship, how am I going to have biblical fellowship with Randy? How is that accomplished? How is that possible?

Maybe it's even better. through the Holy Spirit. Okay, I think that's certainly part of it. Anything else you think? Are there any requirements? Through the Holy Spirit, the light, we walk in the light, we have fellowship. Okay, I think you're getting there. So what's the most basic requirement for both Randy and myself to have fellowship? At the very lowest level? To be believers. Amen. Yes.

Because really, to have true biblical fellowship And that's exactly what he's going to tell us. He's going to say, I want you to have fellowship. But my fellowship is where? With the father and his son. So already he ups it to the highest level. It's so much like you go to the bank and you say, I want to have fellowship with you. And they say, well what bank do you come from? And you say, well I come from the one the highest heaven one, which one do you come from? He says, well, I come from Chase, Manhattan. You say, sorry, we can't have fellowship. I'm not sure it's the best example, but it's at the basic level, you have to know the Savior.

So there's a transaction fee. And it's more than $4. So his desire is to have fellowship with us. And basically it's going to say, I'm writing these things. We're going to get to that part in a second. I'm getting ahead of myself here. OK, so let's keep going here. So let's just look at this for a second.

So actually, we're going to get a little, the subject of this clause here is you. May have is a verb, fellowship, and with us, it modifies fellowship. So he wants us to have fellowship with us. So let's look at may have. It's this word echo. It's the idea to have, to hold, implying a continuous possession. He wants us to be a continual thing. He wants to have fellowship on a continuing basis.

I think it was mentioned here. we have to be walking with the Lord. The Spirit has to be guiding us. And that's true. You cannot have fellowship if I... and we're going to learn next week when we walk in darkness. We're going to learn the negative side of this next week.

So the idea here is that we may have... we want to possess continually this fellowship. And fellowship is koinonia. having in common, a partnership. It's also going to be translated communion. And I was thinking about when we have the Lord's Table, and I was kind of thinking about some of those aspects. And I'll get to that in just a second. And maybe kind of a side note here, I should have written in here maybe, you must possess something in common with that person, to have true fellowship. And the in common part is being a believer. So you could add to this definition, The fellowshipping parties must have something in common. And what's in common is that they both know the Lord. Actually, in doing a little research, I came across this little thing. I look at his notes. There's a Wyss translation, and he has notes on each of the books, a good number of the books.

But he shared this thing about this doctor. This is about, in the definition of fellowship, koinonia, this fourth century doctor, a medicine, he wrote an inscription on his wife's, maybe her tombstone, at her death. She was also a doctor, so this doctor wrote about his wife, which was also a doctor, and he expressed this word fellowship in words, and he said, it's not very long, it says, as with you alone, referring to his wife, as with you alone, I shared my life. It takes a lot of thinking. As with you alone, I shared my life. So in the human sense, they had something in common. They both were doctors, right? So they had a common thread and they shared their life because of that common thread.

Well, how much more that we have as believers? I was kind of thinking like here at Holly Hills. We talk a lot about grace. And we attempt to teach it so people will understand it. We attempt to teach what grace is so that when we share about grace, that's fellowship. I'm sharing about grace because we're on a common plane. We understand, well, grace is God's unmerited favor. So that's the essence of fellowship.

It's a sharing in common, but you have to have a commonality to start with to have biblical fellowship. So let's look, I have a verse. Actually, I put down some verses here. I have some verses here. Actually, some of them aren't the best. I have one I'd like to do first. 1 Corinthians 10, and this is the one we do at the Lord's Table quite a few times. I think it expresses this idea here. 1 Corinthians 10, and let's read 16 and 17. 1 Corinthians 10, 16 and 17. Can someone read that?

Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ? Since there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake the one bread. So our word, kononia, appears twice in verse 16. It says, Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing or fellowshipping in the blood of Christ is not the bread which we break a sharing in our fellowship in the body of Christ. So collectively as we celebrate the Lord's table we are fellowshipping because we have a commonality, we know the Lord Jesus and actually we have a common focus. We're looking at his body and his blood.

Yeah, I'm sorry. OK. So that's kind of the essence of that word koinonia. And I have some other verses in here, which are OK. The one in Galatians is about the right hand of fellowship. And I thought they kind of talk about fellowship in the sense of the believer might respond to some need in the body. And that's wonderful. OK, good. words that shows up immediately after the church service. Is it okay? Sure, perfect.

Acts 2.3 says they were continually devoting themselves to the Apostles teaching and to the fellowship, which is the koinonia right there.

The breaking of the bread and the prayer. And Luke Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe, and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles, and all those who had believed were together and had all things in common. They began selling their property and possessions, and were sharing with all as anyone might have need. Day by day, continuing with one mind in the temple and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity apart. praising God and having favor with all the people, and the Lord was adding to their number day by day, in which he would be saved. No, that's good. I have that. Motivated by walking with the Lord. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Okay. All right. The other thing is here that, you know, he's right.

John is writing here, and it occurred to me also is that He wants to have fellowship, but he realizes some may not know the Savior. So he's saying, in a way, he first said, I proclaim to you the eternal life, the Lord Jesus. So he proclaimed Christ so that they would know what the foundation is, because he wants to have fellowship with them. So that's kind of in there too. I didn't say that as much, but that seems to be in there too, the fact that, because he says, that you may have fellowship with us.

And before he said, I proclaim the message of the eternal life, who Christ is. So he wants those who do not know the Savior to come to know the Savior so he can have fellowship with them. So there's a broader circle, maybe, from believers as well. So they will come to know the Savior.

So also, some have said, basically, this is the purpose for the letter, that you may have fellowship with us. Anyway, OK, so now let's go on to the foundation. So the foundation of the fellowship is, he said, and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. So this is a foundation for the fellowship, the Father and the Son.

And with here is meta. It's the idea of in the midst of a Hmong implying accompaniment. So our fellowship is with. This is like, as I mentioned, as you go into the bank, this is our credit line. This is who we are. OK. Fellowship between believers and God.

So the first thing, if you notice here, we're going to see in these verses here, we're going to see that it talks about having fellowship with the father and with his son. And we're going to see it talking also about the Lord Jesus and about the Spirit. So our fellowship, as with many aspects of the Christian life, is with the three persons of the Trinity. I'm always amazed that I can find, and I can find, you can find too, anybody can find, that a given truth, a given relationship between yourself and God is many, many times, Scripture will state it through all three persons of the Godhead.

So here we have one, 1 Corinthians 1.9, God is faithful through whom you are called into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ. So that's kind of a reiteration of the other one. And the other thing is, this isn't just, oh by the way, You know, this is your calling.

You were called into fellowship. This is a, quote, positional thing. You know, we're not, well, okay, tomorrow I'm not gonna be, you know. There's a positional aspect of fellowship and there's a conditional aspect. So this says we were called into fellowship with the sun. So that, to me, speaks of a positional aspect of our fellowship. And then, okay. Okay, let's look at 2 Corinthians. Ah, here's another another one here. Second Corinthians two, 13, 14. I'm sorry. Second Corinthians 13, 14. It's a closing to 2 Corinthians. Last verse in 2 Corinthians.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. This is the third person of the Godhead. And I have one additional verse here that I thought was interesting. Sometimes fellowship may not, well I won't, let's look at Philippians chapter three. I won't say it, I won't give it away here. Philippians chapter three. Here's another aspect of fellowship. Philippians chapter three in verse 10. Maybe you can quote it without. Right. So, as with many things, if you truly have fellowship with one another, when difficult times are there, you're there. I'm there for you, in the vernacular.

So basically Christ says, in our fellowship, there will be suffering. And don't be surprised, in a sense. Don't be surprised there'll be suffering in our fellowship. There's the aspect, the wonderful aspect, where there's also suffering. I suffered, and you'll suffer, too. So we share in common with the Savior, suffering. I mean, in a way, I think that's pretty mind-boggling. But I mean, we also see it very, you know, in our daily lives, too.

Any thoughts about fellowship here? We're going to keep going here. No. No. So I think we can rest, you know, sometimes you take a fellowship, well that's just what I do, that's kind of the last, you know, Randy read the thing, well we're going to tell the breaking of bread, the Lord's table, we study the scripture, well fellowship is sort of the end of the road here, well by the way when I have a little bit of time I'll take Randy out, I'll take Randy out and we'll have a bite to eat and we'll have a little fellowship.

Well it's just, it's so much more than that, I mean it actually in a way, It permeates every aspect of what the believer's life is. Because we have this commonality of a background. We came from the same place. Our history is Christ. So what we share, wherever it is, It doesn't have to be, oh, I'm going to have a fellowship time. I'm as guilty as anybody else. Let's have a fellowship time. We're going to have fellowship. We use that kind of a loose sentence. But fellowship is to permeate our life in Christ.

And that's why I think John was so excited. He said, I've been there. I've seen the Savior. I want to tell you how wonderful this is. And I was personally there, and I can testify this is true. OK. The funny thing is that if fellowship is a secondary or tertiary sort of a thing where it's like low priority, what does the scripture describe as the benefit of the fellowship within the body? Does it make it a secondary or lower priority? based on the revelation of the scripture? Well, it certainly doesn't, I mean, if I look at what John's saying, he has this elevated up there, right, you know, it's a fabric of what you're doing. And it's not like we take a second, like when we, our home Bible studies, I have fellowship with there as we go through the scriptures.

I mean, you know, and someone will share this and someone, I don't understand that, and as those misunderstandings are resolved, Oh, I didn't see that before. That's fellowship. So, I mean, I think we have it kind of, you know, we pigeonholed it over here when it needs to be permeating, you know, and in a sense it is.

I don't think you have to even think about doing it. I'm now going to have, this is a fellowship moment. the manifest destiny or the American dream mindset in our culture. We are Americans, right? So therefore we must have this dream. And we want the stuff and the things more than that fellowship.

But what are the things that when you look back on your life, you don't look back on, boy, I had a 386 computer. That was the best. I'm sure glad I had time with my dad. I'm sure glad I had time with my brothers and sisters. And yet we get busy, and I know this is totally self-reflection here, but when I get busy, when I look back on the busyness, the benefit of that busyness is hardly biblically oriented for the most part. And that's just something for me that this is a convicting passage. We haven't even gotten to the part where people have to wrestle. No, that's good. Would you think there's a reason that fellowship is not applied to resurrection? He says power of his resurrection and fellowship of his suffering.

Is there a distinction functionally there? Well, first of all, the first part, that I might know him, to know the power of his resurrection, the statement, it's like a compound idea here, right? And the power of resurrection, the fellowship of his suffering, so the power of his resurrection, we're to live a resurrected life, right? Because we died with him, we were buried with him, we were raised with him, so I think he's pointing out that that's one group of knowledge we're to have, And then an additional group of knowledge is the fellowship of his suffering. And then it says being conformed to his death. So I think it's a separate in the sense that the fellowship of his suffering is something that shows us our intimacy with him. The power of his resurrection put us there. I mean, we were raised with him. We were buried with him.

So I think that's, I'm not sure I'm answering your question. Does that help at all? I'm just trying to figure out if we, in conjunction with the power of His resurrection, if we have fellowship in His resurrection too. Well, I would say yes. That's identification. Yeah, we've been identified with Him. So if we as a body of believers come to understand that, then we have a whole new level of interaction and we see it all the time. When we have a truth we understand, then we can communicate about that truth.

It's just so wonderful when a person says, oh I see, I never saw that before. It happens, all the aha moments, I never saw that before. And then you can talk about that on another level. Go ahead Tom. And in the most exalted sense, it's an OMG moment.

Do you think that John could have written this while he was being a disciple, while he was walking around with Jesus? I don't know. I've seen different things. Supposedly the Isle of Patmos is where he spent his... Are you asking if he could have philosophically If he understood who he really was. I see your point. You're saying it seems way too exalted for just a guy, you know. That's a good point. Well, and without the spirit. I mean, he didn't have a spirit at that time either, right? Until the upper room when they were filled with the spirit. Yeah, I'm not real good on the word First John Falls.

In fact, Randi, where does it fall in the it's about 70... consensus is about 70 AD. OK, right. He would have the Holy Spirit. Yeah, by that time. It certainly seems that way, I mean... What was the question? Well, I think she was saying... I was just thinking or reflecting on the idea that John, he's writing this, what, 70 years after? being with Christ, and I think the Spirit working in him all this time, he now looks back at that time, and it just floors him. The God of the universe was in human form, and he knew him and touched him. She's just amazed how he can say 70 years later, I can still hear his words. I can still feel his touch.

Those are pretty... 70 years go by... It was more like 40 years. But still, the impact of 40 years is still... So that's true. In my inspired version, it says AD 90 to 95. Oh, OK. There was a pretty wide spot. Yeah, I don't know. This is not my strong point. Anyway, maybe we should move on in the interest of time. We've got one last verse left.

So this is verse 4, these things we write so that our joy may be made complete. So he says basically that our desires have fellowship with you and that fellowship is going to bring joy and it's going to be a completed idea. We write these things, so that, once again, so that, that's the numerical standard. I think the other ones have that possibly, so the purpose will follow that. So it's John and others, he talks about our joy. And joy here is kara, joy, delight, gladness. So what is the source of joy? So can I go down and get a bucket full of joy at the five and dime? I hope you remember that Sunday school song, Jesus and Guthards and You. It starts with Jesus. Okay, I like that. I like that. Jesus and Guthards and You. Okay.

So first of all, if you think about the fruit of the spirit, right? Love, joy, peace. So it's something that that man outside of the Savior really can't get a handle on. Joy is kind of, and I don't think I really scratched the surface of my study here. I felt I just kind of got a little bit into it. But joy is a fruit of the Spirit. It's a God-given ability through the Holy Spirit. So the other part is, when should we be joyful? When I get my bonus check, when I get my new car, when I get... So this is kind of a loaded question. When should we be joyful?

Check out Philippians. Okay, Tom. Okay. Let's look at... That's true. But once again, we're going to see another aspect. First Timothy. First Timothy, chapter 1, verse 6. Let's see, I might not have the right address there. Ah. No, I don't think it's the right one. What I was looking for, basically, I'll just read, I only copied down part of the verse, it's hopefully the first time I see it. Let's see, where is it here, Roger?

Okay, basically it says, they received the word in much tribulation with the joy of the Holy Spirit. So, it's talking about the fact that there was, in the ministry of, In the ministry of the Word, there was tribulation. They were proclaiming the Word, and they received it.

So tribulation is involved in being joyful sometimes. It seems like it's kind of a, how can that be? How can we have tribulation? I can be joyful. Well, if God's Word is going forth, and His work is being accomplished, then we're joyful in that. OK. So does that, I'm just looking at that. Sure.

Does that mean that if He didn't write this, joy wouldn't be complete? Well, I think he says, because I've written this about the Lord Jesus, these things we write so that, with a purpose set, these things we write so that our joy maybe may complete. He's saying, by writing this, my joy is completed.

I put it down on paper so it won't be lost. I mean, that's kind of how I take it. I put it down on paper, it's here, it won't be lost. And that will complete my joy. 1 Thessalonians 5, 16 says be joyful always. And then I think of other places where Paul or Peter or somebody says that you are our joy.

Exactly. These believers growing. Exactly. I remember that. That's good. That's excellent. There's always James. What's that? There's always James. Oh yeah, right. Actually, I have a little note here that says, joy is a product of fellowship with God. Actually, I have another verse here. John 15. I don't think I have the right address here. John 15. John 15, 11. I'll just read that John 15 11. These things I spoke to you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be made full. These things I spoke to you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be made full. That's kind of powerful. The Lord's joy is going to be enough. Like I said, I feel like I just scratched the surface on this. So let's just kind of wrap this up. The last part is... That passage reiterates that intimacy with the Father and the Son.

Exactly. And that's where the joy comes from. Absolutely. This may be made complete as a special construction in Greek. It's a verb plus a participle. If you're really geeky, it's a perfect paraphrastic. It's a tongue twister, too. Anyway, all that being said, it's the idea. And also, it's in the passive voice and perfect tense. So it's one of these ideas, again, that it started in the past and continues up into the present, to be made full, to fill, So a parallel verse is actually we get to here probably about almost December probably or November.

Though I have many things to write to you, I do not want to do so with paper, to do so with paper. So this time he doesn't want to do it. He's saying here I don't want to write it down paper and ink, but I hope to come to you and speak to you face to face so that your joy may be made full. Same may be made full Complete and full are the same word. So this one there is no writing involved.

He wants to be face to face. The other one he writes it down. Kind of interesting. So basically I tried to capture the perfect tense again. Made complete in the past. So his joy was complete in the past and may continue to be made complete up to the present. That's kind of the idea.

Okay, and then lastly here, I'll get Randy to read this again. This is the least translation of the two verses we just covered. And once again, that which is of what or the Lord Jesus, that's kind of a little side note there. So Randy, if you could read that for us.

That which we have seen with discernment and at present is in our mind's eye and that which we have heard and at present is ringing in our ears, we are reporting also to you in order that as for you also you may participate jointly in common with us. And the fellowship, indeed, which is ours, is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. In these things, as for us, we are writing in order that our joy, having been filled completely, full, in past times, or times past, may persist in that state of wholeness through the present time.

It's pretty amazing. I think, for me, the first four verses of 1 John are just I mean, for somebody to look into God's word and to see that richness. And also, it's just a really great Bible study for looking at how verb tenses are so important and can be so helpful. And I think, you know, some people have problems with Huys in other places, but I think in this part, I think he's done an outstanding job. He tried to bring across all the verb tenses, and I think he's just really made it wonderful. It's really helped me a lot in my study. Any other thoughts?

He's got a question. Is he writing this to believers? Actually, at first I would say yes, just off the bat, but then the more I looked at this, and he says, and these things I write, and these things, that's what we were writing. It sounds like he's trying to convince somebody And it makes me and especially, you know, I think it's first John one nine bucks. And I heard discussions. Well, is that written for believers that are asking this or is that asking is that nonbelievers? what we'll get into.

It's not clear who he's writing to. Certainly here it seems like that he wants to have fellowship and he says the only way we can have fellowship at the end of verse 1 is with the Father. He sets the bar. Here it is. You want to have fellowship with us? Here's the bar. He talks about the Savior and he proclaims it. Tom, you have something you want to say?

Not necessarily non-Christians, but maybe very young Christians who just barely come to the faith. Could be, yeah. That could be a point. I don't think I'm not, you know, it would be difficult. In fact, I was just talking with a guy on Friday. He's dying of cancer. And so a friend and I, another believer at work, went over to his house. So I put together verses on salvation. I read through the verses and I thought to myself, wow, I was studying this at the same time. Wow. You know, 1 John just talks about this, who the Savior, I thought it would be wonderful to put some verses out about this.

So, anyway. Other questions? I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm not going to get back on my hobby horse. Well, your hobby horse is coming up here. I know. I'm going to have to have you do, help you do. We're going to have to eliminate all these ifs in that. There's an if starting with it, and there's an if ending up with that. Clear down the, clear the end of that. Okay.

It's very interesting when you consider that in the mind of Christians, unless you realize that we have an intercessor with God in the heavens. It's good, I'm glad you're bringing it to that because I haven't wanted to explain it in my own clumsy way of expressing myself. You read that and I just try all these years to try to do what you're figuring out. You, is that Christians? Yeah, you're trying to come out who's this written to?

So certainly a believer is the one that's going to see, is going to understand what's going on here. Unbeliever, I don't know. I mean, he wants them to become a believer, it seems like, but I don't, I don't think, you know, once again, they won't have the Spirit of God, you know, to guide them.

It still labels us as still capable of sinning. That's why I say, but we have this Advocate in the heavenlies, the Father, which is Jesus Christ the Lord. And he intercedes on our behalf. But we still do sin. We do still do sin. It's not eliminating the fact that we do sin. No, we're going to have lots of...

Actually, I've delegated Bob Eccle to teach that class. But I get to do it with you afterwards. I don't mean to rabbit drill that thing every time I turn around, but I'm sure it does have a ring to my ear. Okay, okay, well that's good. Hopefully these parts are ringing in your ears tonight. That's good. Okay. Alright, we're going to close here.

We thank you, Father. We thank you so much for your word, Lord. We thank you for just the majesty, Lord, of what John has written about our Savior and just the desire that John has for us to have fellowship with him and how it made his joy complete when he was able to write it down. And we thank you that Your desire is to have fellowship with us 24-7, Lord, and we know that sometimes we do sin, Lord, and we're thankful that as brothers we have an advocate with the Father, and we're thankful that we can abide in You and not even sin in the first place, Lord. We trust You for just Your plans and purpose in our lives, Lord. Thank You for this time. In Christ's name, Amen.