What They Saw, They Shared
You missed it. Every child lives in fear of those words. For in so many schools there is a cherished class trip that they go on. When I was a child we would go to a swimming pool at the end of the year. And you lived in fear of being sick on that day. You lived in fear of being at home sick in bed and having someone say those words, “you missed it” the next day at school. This morning that’s how these words from 1 John start. We read: “1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. 2 The life appeared” (1 John 1:1–2 NIV11-GKE)
What is John doing in these words? As an old man, most likely in his 90’s, he is answering a very basic, but important question: who is Jesus? Who is Jesus? He is the word. He is perfect communication itself. He knew all things perfectly. He knew how to communicate them perfectly. Who is Jesus? He is the life. In other words, he is the one who is eternal life and gives eternal life.
That’s who Jesus was. But then John answers the next question: how did they interact with Jesus? They heard this perfect teacher share God’s word. They saw Jesus on the cross. And they saw Jesus after he rose from the dead with their own eyes. And even more than that, they touched him—putting their hands in his side and in the nail marks in his hands.
So John, in these opening words answers those two questions: Who is Jesus and how did they interact with Jesus? But what is the problem? The people who John was speaking and writing to could so very easily say to themselves, “We missed it.” They could say, “All the people who saw Jesus with their own eyes and put their hands in his side—they’re dead. And John is in his 90’s and he’s going to die.” And from that fact they faced two great temptations to sin: First, they faced the temptation to give into envy. They could ask the question, “why can’t I see Jesus with my own eyes and have him speak to me with his own mouth?” And the other temptation is to give into fear. They could say to themselves, “John will die. And when he dies, our church will die because we have no one to answer that question, “who is Jesus” anymore.
And now, so many hundreds of years later, we too face the same temptations. We face the temptation to give into envy, thinking to ourselves, “why can’t I be the one who was there to see Jesus in his resurrected body.” We face the temptation to doubt, concluding that since John has died and now we are so many generations away from Jesus’ resurrection, we cannot be sure of what happened.
How does John deal with these temptations? We read: “2 we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. 3 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 4” (1 John 1:2–3 NIV11-GKE)
What theys saw, they shared. First, What they saw, they spoke about. John and the rest of the evangelists wrote their gospels so that you would know…who created you, who cares for you, who was crucified for you, who crushes death for you. All of these important facts you know for one simple reason. The apostles spoke about them. And with that comes the truth that your sins are forgiven—even those sins you commit when you either give into envy or give into fear. They are forgiven. And what is the result of this? We have fellowship with them. Nobody wants to be on the outside looking in. I remember when I was in high school and the movie Dancing With Wolves came out. And the kids in school were going around saying “Tatonka!” And, since I hadn’t seen the movie I was on the outside looking in. Or, to use John’s words, I didn’t have fellowship with them. But because what John saw and heard he spoke, we today, even hundreds of years later, have fellowship with them.
So what they saw, they spoke. But just as important what they spoke is the fact that what they saw they also wrote: “We write this to make our joy complete.” (1 John 1:4 NIV11-GKE) Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and others they wrote down what they saw and heard. They wrote it down and the Holy Spirit carefully preserved what they wrote so that we have it today. And what is the amazing result of this? John tells us that we are filled with joy.1 And we have an example of that joy this morning in the gospel. Look at Thomas. We find so much joy in him because we are just like him. Don’t you, like Thomas, want to reach out and not just see that Jesus has risen from the dead, but also touch those wounds? Doesn’t it make you laugh to hear Thomas ‘double-down’ and say that unless he sees and touches Jesus, he will never, ever believe? Doesn’t it fill you with such joy to hear Jesus say those words, ““Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”” (John 20:29 NIV11-GKE) Jesus is talking about us. We are the ones that have not seen Jesus. But God’s word has performed a miracle. The Holy Spirit has created faith in our hearts so that even though we do not see Jesus, we believe in him.
That is the sort of joy that John promises we are filled with for one simple reason: They wrote it down. Notice then what our attitude towards God’s word will be then: We read it. What will our attitude be? We will learn it by going to bible study with our pastor. In December you formally and officially told me that that is what you wanted me to do for you. You wanted me to teach you God’s word. So now, taking you at your word, please allow me to do just that. Come to bible study classes. And there I promise that you will find fellowship with those early Christians and joy in Christ. And I can promise that because that is exactly what John promises here. For what they saw they shared. They spoke about it. They wrote about it. And that great treasure is ours. Amen.
1 “ⲓ̈ⲛⲁⲏⲭⲁⲣⲁⲩ̈ⲙⲱⲛⲏⲡⲉⲡⲗⲏⲣⲱⲙⲉⲛⲏ” (1 John 1:4 GNT-ALEX)