Welcome to Day 2689 of Wisdom-Trek. Thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

Day 2689 – A Joyful Life Because God Is Life

Putnam Church Message – 08/03/2025

Sermon Series: 1, 2, & 3 John

“A Joyful Life - God is Life.”

 

Last week, we began a new systematic verse-by-verse study of the letters 1, 2, & 3 John, followed by Jude with insights and introduction to 1, 2, & 3 John.,

This week, we will begin going through these letters, and today, we will cover 1 John 1:1-4 as we explore “A Joyful Life - God is Life.” Let’s read 1 John 1:1-4 from the NIV, which is found on page 1898 of your Pew Bibles.

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;/ 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 We write this to make our[a] joy complete.

Opening Prayer

The Old Elder's Sacred Hymnal

Imagine, if you will, a community nestled deep in the Appalachian Mountains, where generations had always found their deepest solace and strongest unity in the act of worship. At the very heart of their gatherings was a sacred treasure: the Sacred Hymnal. It was an ancient, hand-bound volume, filled not just with words and notes, but with the very deep and rich hymns of the faith that had been the core of their Christian community for centuries. This Hymnal held the essence of their spiritual identity,> their history with the Lord, their enduring promises, and their profound, unshakeable joy. Its melodies and truths had been intimately given and taught by the Divine Composer Himself, who had shared His very heart in song through His Beloved Son.

Now, only a few, very old members of this community, the Original Witness Bearers, had actually walked and sung with the Beloved Son. They had seen Him teach the very first hymns, had heard His voice ring out with divine authority, and had even felt the tangible presence of His Spirit as their hands held the first copies of the Hymnal's truths. Their lives were utterly intertwined with these living songs.

But as years turned into decades, and the younger generations grew up, many had begun to rely on distant echoes of the hymns. Some knew the words on the page, but the melody had faded in their hearts. Others listened to flimsy, modern tunes, catchy but shallow, that lacked the profound depth and spiritual weight of the originals. A subtle, lethargic boredom, a kind of spiritual apathy, crept into the community. The initial thrill of shared worship had subsided, the bright flame of devotion reduced to a flicker. The very spirit of the hymns felt lost.

The most beloved of these Original Witness Bearers, an old Elder much like the Apostle John, with clarity born of long perspective, began to send out urgent messages. His hand might have trembled with age, but his words were firm and clear. He said, "We are writing to you about what we ourselves have actually 'seen' with our own eyes in His life, and 'heard' with our own ears in His teachings, and physically 'handled' through His very presence—this we proclaim concerning the Word of Life. For the very 'Life' appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal Life, which was with the Divine Composer and has appeared to us. We declare this to you so that you, too, may have genuine kinship and deep harmony with us. And our fellowship is with the Divine Composer Himself and with His Beloved Son, the 'Living Word' of the Hymnal, who now embodies its very essence. We send you these accounts, dear family members, so that your joy in these hymns, and in Him, may be entirely clear and complete." (Directly linking to 1 John 1:1-4)

Ask any serious scholar of the Scriptures for their opinion on 1 John, and you’ll hear that it’s one of the most challenging of all the New Testament books. And unlike some books, like Romans, 1 Corinthians, or Hebrews, it doesn’t have a few “problem passages” in an otherwise straightforward argument; 1 John is complicated from the very beginning. However, this must not stop us from digging in and pulling out some profound and practical insights.

John wrote this letter with a simple, overarching message in mind: Spirit-enabled fellowship with the Father and the Son produces a joyful life, a clean life, a discerning life, and a confident life. This first section (1:1–10) presents the principle that fellowship produces a joyful life. An intimate relationship with God through Jesus Christ will result in close relationships with fellow believers, leading to profound, inexplicable joy. This joy is based on the blessings that come through deep intimacy with the glorious God of the universe. These blessings include eternal life (1:2), right living in a wicked world (1:5–6), and cleansing from the penalty and power of sin (1:7–10).

The apostle John may have been an elderly fisherman-turned-fisher-of-men and may on the surface seem to have been a simple-hearted follower of Jesus, but before long, we’ll see that what he wrote with just a few dips into his inkwell is profound and deep.

While Paul’s letters move logically and orderly through distinct themes toward a clear goal like steps on a staircase, John’s first letter feels more organic—like a dance in which several movements revolve around each other … or like a symphony, which visits and revisits distinct themes and melodies. Several major themes appear already in the opening chapter of 1 John: life, light, and truth. We’ll tackle the first of these in this section, which I have labeled God Is Life (1:1–4).

The phrase “the beginning” is prominent in two other books of the Bible, and I think John is intentionally trying to pull ideas together from both of them in the opening words of this letter. In Genesis 1:1, Moses refers to the beginning of Creation, when God brought light out of darkness, life out of nonlife: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” He formed and filled the formless and empty heavens and earth, bringing order out of chaos. Then, in the opening lines of the Gospel of John, the apostle writes, “In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1:1).

Each of these discussions of “the beginning” involves God’s Word—speaking everything into existence in Genesis 1 and becoming incarnate in John 1 and 1 John 1. And each of these passages also discusses the theme of light versus darkness.

When John refers to his subject as “the one who existed from the beginning,” he’s making profound biblical and theological connections. The subject of his proclamation, “He is the Word of life” (1 Jn. 1:1) is none other than the eternal, creative source of all things visible and invisible. He’s the one through whom all things were made. He’s the one who, with the Spirit of God, fashioned the heavens and the earth, made light shine in the darkness, and stepped into that creation when “So the Word became human” (John 1:14).

The term “word” (logos) had a profound significance to both Greeks and Jews in the first century. In Greek philosophy, logos referred to the uncreated principle of reason that gave order and structure to the universe. In the Old Testament, the “word” was both God’s means of revelation—His message to humanity—and, on many occasions, a divine presence that took some kind of physical form, indistinguishable from God (Jer. 1:1–14). In the early first century AD, the Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria seemed to merge these Greek and Jewish concepts. One author notes, “Philo of Alexandria puts a great deal of emphasis on the notion of logos, making it the mediating principle between God and the world.” By the end of the first century AD, when the apostle John was writing, Christians had no doubt about who this one mediator between God and men was—not an immaterial logos, but the Word made flesh, “the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 2:5).

John’s description of this logos is no mere discourse on secondhand information. The aged apostle isn’t theologizing or speculating when he talks about the Word. He claims to have literally experienced, firsthand, the incarnate Word. The following three relative clauses, still referring to the same subject of his proclamation, emphasize this fact. John was among those few people still alive late in the first century who had heard and seen with their own ears and eyes the incarnate God-man, Jesus Christ. John made this same claim in his Gospel when he referred to events of the Crucifixion. Speaking of himself in the third person, he wrote, “This report is from an eyewitness giving an accurate account. He speaks the truth so that you also may continue to believe.” (John 19:35).

It was vital for John that he had been an original earwitness of Christ’s teachings and an eyewitness to His life, miracles, death, and resurrection. When referring to the time he caught his first glimpse of the empty tomb, John wrote of himself (again in the third person), “Then the disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in, and he saw and believed” (John 20:8).

John had also been present with the rest of the disciples when “doubting Thomas” obstinately declared, “I won’t believe it unless I see the nail wounds in his hands, put my fingers into them, and place my hand into the wound in his side.” (John 20:25). Eight days later, the resurrected Lord Jesus called that same doubter to put his finger in His hands and side and to feel for himself that He had indeed risen bodily from the dead (John 20:26–27). Because they were eyewitnesses, John and his fellow disciples could confidently confess to Jesus Christ, as Thomas had, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28).

With this background, the apostle John added in his letter that he and the other disciples had “looked at and touched” the incarnate God both during His earthly ministry and in His resurrected state (1 Jn. 1:1). Why does John say that he had “looked at” the Word of Life after he already said that he had seen Him with his eyes? The term “looked at” is the Greek word theaomai [2300], which conveys more attentiveness than mere observation. It means “to have an intent look” or to perceive “above and beyond what is merely seen with the eye.” John also emphasized the fact that he and his companions had “touched the Word of Life with [their] hands” (1:1).

What a powerful testimony at a time when heretics were on the rise, spreading a false doctrine of a fleshless, phantom Christ (4:2–3; 2 Jn. 1:7; see “The First Heretics’ Fleshless Christ,” page 25). One commentator sums up John’s testimony well: “John’s experience was both a mysterious perception of the living Lord, and yet it was also fundamental and down to earth. Jesus was no phantom of the spiritual realm, but He was Jesus of Nazareth.”

The brief parenthetical statement in 1 John 1:2 explains how it was that John could experience the “Word of Life” in the flesh. The life—the very wellspring of eternal life itself—“was manifested.” This verb, phaneroō [5319], refers to the entire course of Jesus’ earthly existence—His earthly ministry (John 1:31), His resurrection (John 21:1), and even His future coming to earth in glory (1 Jn. 2:28).

The life that was manifested wasn’t the normal, everyday, earthbound life—what we may call “biological life” (Greek bios [979]). In John’s usage, this life, zōē [2222], refers to eternal, heavenly, divine life, literally embodied in Jesus Christ. He is “the bread of life” (John 6:48), “the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25), and “the way, and the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). This is the life that was “with the Father and was manifested to us,” which is why He was able to be seen (1 Jn. 1:2). When a person has seen the Word of Life manifested in the flesh, the only reasonable response is to “testify and proclaim” this eternal life.

1:3–4

After the parenthetical comment in 1:2, John picks up his original thought and finally arrives at the main verb: “What we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also” (1:3). The verb “proclaim” (apangellō [518]) is related to the word for “gospel” (euangelion [2098]), which refers to a message of good news. The content of John’s proclamation is the good news concerning Jesus Christ, defined so well by the apostle Paul in the opening verses of Romans. It is

God promised this Good News long ago through his prophets in the holy Scriptures. 3 The Good News is about his Son. In his earthly life, he was born into King David’s family line, 4 and he was shown to be[a] the Son of God when he was raised from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit.[b] He is Jesus Christ our Lord. (Rom. 1:2–4)

This proclamation of good news is “the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes” (Rom. 1:16).

Those who hear and believe the message concerning Jesus Christ, whom John personally saw, heard, touched, and experienced, will be ushered into a permanent relationship with God through Him. John unpacks this profound truth when he states the twofold purpose of his proclamation of the Word of Life in 1 John 1:3-4.

First, John’s proclamation concerning the Word of Life is to result in true communion (1:3). Though most translations use the word “fellowship” here, I believe the word “fellowship” has been weakened in the minds of most Christians who use the word when they don’t know what else to say. Too often, “fellowship” means “coffee time,” “visiting before church,” or “going out with friends.” None of those things comes even close to the kind of relationship John had in mind.

The word koinōnia [2842], as used by first-century Christians, conveys an intimate, mutual participation in a life shared with one another. Let’s call it communion. It’s the outworking of a deep, spiritual union between God and the believer as well as between brothers and sisters in Christ (1 Cor. 1:9; 1 Jn. 1:3). As believers have this intimate communion “with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ,” they will have the same kind of deep communion with one another through the work of the Holy Spirit. John proclaimed the Word of Life so his readers could have this kind of fellowship.

Second, John’s proclamation concerning the Word of Life is to result in full joy (1:4). Just as the word “fellowship” has suffered from flippancy, so has “joy.” When we hear the word “joy,” we immediately begin to think of the emotion we feel when we find out we’re getting money back on our tax return … or when we pass a big exam … or when the person we’ve fallen for says, “I love you.” That’s joy, right? Wrong! Martyn Lloyd-Jones proposes this definition of biblical joy—

Joy is something intense and profound, something that affects the whole personality.… It comes to this: there is only one thing that can give true joy, and that is a contemplation of the Lord Jesus Christ. He satisfies my mind; He satisfies my emotions; He satisfies my every desire. He and His great salvation include the whole personality and nothing less, and in Him I am complete. Joy, in other words, is the response and the reaction of the soul to a knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

In 1:3–4, the purposes of true fellowship and complete joy are closely related. In order for the apostle’s joy to be full, he needs to have a genuine, intimate relationship with his fellow believers based on their mutual relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Authentic, lasting joy is inseparably linked to the Word of Life, whom we worship and adore. In this joy, shared by those who have fellowship with God and with one another, we are entirely accepted as we grow together in the Word of Life.

APPLICATION: 1 JOHN 1:1–4

àA Practical Response to a Profound Prologueß

In just four verses, making up only two sentences, the apostle John has packed a lifetime’s worth of practical principles we should never forget. I wouldn’t be exaggerating if I said we could spend the rest of our Christian lives meditating on and living out these few verses. The truths expressed by this passage are fundamental to Christian faith and life. Let me help us begin to ponder its truths by putting these four verses into a loose paraphrase that I hope catches the essence of the passage:

From the very first time we disciples laid our eyes on Him, taking it all in—hearing with our own ears, seeing with our own eyes, staring at and studying Him over the years … actually touching Him with these hands—we saw it all happen before our very eyes, literally, and we’re now declaring what we witnessed: incredibly, the infinite life of God Himself who took shape before us! And now I’m writing about it so all of you can experience what has transformed our lives: intimate communion with the Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ … and the same satisfying joy we’ve known since we began walking with Him. That’s why I’m writing you this letter today.

The Word of Life, Jesus Christ the God-man, paid the complete price for your sins—His death for your life. He did it for you. All you have to do to enter into this deep communion and to experience this complete joy is to accept the gift that God offers through faith in His Son.

The old Elder's purpose was singular. He wanted the mountain family to:

Renew their genuine connection: To stop relying on distant echoes and shallow imitations, and instead to seek direct, heart-to-heart fellowship with those who had intimately known the Divine Composer's Son and truly understood the Sacred Hymnal's profound meaning.

Restore the Hymnal's clarity: To carefully wipe away the dust of apathy and the smudges of careless interpretation, ensuring its truths resonated with full power.

Guard its authenticity: To develop a keen ear and spirit to discern the subtle differences between the genuine hymns and the superficial imitations, between the true doctrines and the deceptive whispers, even when they sounded appealing.

Rest in its enduring joy: To live with deep assurance in the Hymnal's unbreakable legacy, knowing that its joy and promises were eternally secure, passed down by a faithful Divine Composer and His Son, the Living Word.

The message from the Old Elder was urgent: True joy, real belonging, and lasting security came not from the fleeting trends of the valley or the deceptive promises of flimsy, new tunes, but from direct, unwavering fellowship with the Divine Composer and His Son, the Living Word—a connection rooted in the unshakeable testimony of those who had seen, heard, and handled the genuine Sacred Hymnal itself. And he longed for every member of the family to fully share in that unblemished, complete joy.

Next week, we will continue our exploration of 1 John in more detail. Our message for next week is “A Joyful Life – God is Light and our Blight.” Our Core verses for next week will be:  1 John 1:5-10

Closing Prayer