Sermon: Real Fellowship

But at this time, let's turn our attention to God's word. Please turn with me to First John chapter one,

first John one. I will be starting verse one and I'll be reading the first four verses, but before I do, please pray with me. And let's ask the Lord to open our eyes to see Him

our great God. We know very little, unless you help us to see

if it were totally up to us, there would be no way for us to grasp our way into the heavenly places, to know anything concrete or substantial or specific about who you are. So this morning we come with a great deal of gratitude and a great deal of solemnity, realizing that this word, which is before us this morning, this is, this is your word. This is what you have given to mankind, to the whole globe, to reveal yourself. Without it, we are lost.

And so we need you this morning to understand your word. Please make yourself known and and draw us deeper into an experience of what it means to have you as our Father, to relate to you as our God, and you pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.

Before we really dig into the passage this morning, I want to start with a question. Are you satisfied with your life? For the past four decades, a Gallup poll has been asking this basic question to Americans. And year after year though there's been some variation, about 80% of Americans respond with the answer. Yes. About 80% of Americans are at least somewhat satisfied with their lives. Now, many of us fall within this 80% of satisfied Americans.

But why do you suppose that is? Why do so many of us say that we're satisfied if we're honest? Many of us are satisfied with life simply because our lives are comfortable. We may have studied jobs and and pleasant homes, healthy bodies and abundance of good food, a good social network. And so as long as we have all these things, life feels good. But what would happen if those things were taken away? How satisfied would you feel if you lost your job?

If you lost your home, if you lost your closest friends and family, how satisfied will you be when you go through that season of chronic pain? How satisfied will you be in that hour before your death? It should be obvious to all of us that health, wealth and popularity, they're only temporary. They provide a flimsy sort of satisfaction that's incomplete.

Yet these are the things that we love and long for. We say, oh, if only my paycheck were a little bit higher, if only my, my body were a little bit thinner all the while. These things we keep wishing for are never quite enough. We keep coming back to empty wells and dry river beds expecting to find water. But the ultimate never ending satisfaction we're thirsting for is something only God can provide. As CS Lewis has famously said,

you've probably heard this quote before, but it is so true. It would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures fooling about with drink and sex and ambition. When infinite joy is offered us like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased

here in First John, the Holy Spirit speaks through one of Jesus Christ's closest companions. The Apostle John and he and John here is concerned that our desires are too weak. He wants us to take hold of supreme satisfaction and happiness. He wants us to know that fellowship with God produces completeness of joy. And with God's help. This morning, I want to unpack our text under three points. First, that Jesus brings knowledge of God. Second,

that this knowledge enables fellowship with God. And third, that this fellowship produces joy in God. Jesus brings knowledge of God. This knowledge enables fellowship with God, and this fellowship produces joy in God. So first, Jesus brings knowledge of God. John starts his letter by referring to that which was from the beginning and quickly it becomes clear He's not talking about some sort of ancient material like a rock or primordial slime. But instead,

he's pointing back to the dawn of time. At that moment when the material universe first began to have structure and coherence, and John tells us that something else had always already been there, non-existence didn't give birth to existence, nothingness didn't explode or expand into somethingness. But the finite material cosmos was established by an infinite metaphysical creator, an uncaused cause, an unmoved mover, something beyond space and time.

He's talking about God. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And here John is pointing back to that being in the beginning and he's saying, I personally know that someone, I know that which was at the beginning, but where did John get this special knowledge from? How can John speak about seeing and hearing and touching this something like he does here in verse one? Well, he can speak this way because God has revealed himself that knowledge of

God, which was so far above us, shrouded in mystery and transcendence. It's been brought near to us.

Or to put it another way, God brought down the hay to where the cows could eat it. And how did God do this? He did it by stepping down from the heavenly places himself into our world. And this is why John is able to write in his gospel account that our Lord became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, this event of God becoming flesh and dwelling among us. It's an event called the Incarnation, and John insists that the incarnation is a historical event.

It actually happened. He was there. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, really did stoop down and take on our human condition. And through Jesus Christ, we are given the clearest fullest picture of who God is. Jesus shows us God's righteousness. He shows us God's compassion. He shows us God's wisdom. Jesus even reveals God's nature. Through him, we come to a clear understanding that God is in fact triune. And when we say that God is triune,

we're simply summarizing what the Bible teaches, that there's one divine being one God, but this, this God consists of three persons, the Father, the Son, and Holy Spirit. And these three are equal in deity. They're united in one purpose and essence. And this is what it means for God to be triune. And in verses one through three, John alludes to all this with very carefully chosen words. He makes a distinction for us between the Father and the Son.

It was the son who was manifested. The son was the one who took on flesh, not the father. But at the same time, he contends that the Father and the Son are equally divine. See back in verse one, when John speaks about that, which is from the beginning, John is specifically speaking here about the second person of the Trinity. He's talking about the son Jesus. And he affirms that Jesus existed from the beginning. Why? Because he wants to con,

to affirm to us that the son is just as eternal and just as infinite as the Father. And John does something similar in verse two, speaking about Jesus. He says, the life was made manifest, and we have seen it and testified to it and proclaimed to you the eternal life which was with the Father. So notice here, the eternal life, this full expansive, unending life. It isn't something outside of Jesus that he received from someone else.

Rather the son has always had eternal life from within himself. The text says He is the eternal life, which further affirms that he's co-equal and co-eternal with the Father. He has this divine, unending eternal life within himself. But why does John emphasize the deity of Jesus here? It's because he wants to press home the reality that when Jesus Christ lived among us, we weren't just being visited by an archangel. It wasn't just a wise teacher. It was really God.

And that's why John is repeating over and over and these verses. He has seen him. He has heard him, he has touched him. John is pleading with us again and again to pay attention. He isn't talking about a myth. He isn't talking about somebody's dream or opinion. He's talking about real life. You can almost hear John testifying here, the holy one of heaven. He came down and he spoke to me. I was there in the boat mending nets and his voice called my name.

I was there in the boat with him when he calmed the raging sea. I was there at the wedding when the water was transformed into wine.

I was watching when he raised Jairus's daughter from the dead. I was even in the upper room when the King of Kings wrapped a towel around his waist and he bent down to wash my feet.

I was there at the cross. I watched my Lord and God suffer and bleed and die for me, for us.

Oh, but I was also there at the empty tomb. I was there after his resurrection when he showed me the marks in his hands and his feet, and I was there when he disappeared into the clouds and rose into glory.

Don't you get it? I've seen these things. I have seen God.

But notice from our text, John isn't the only voice speaking here. He doesn't merely say I saw, I heard, I touched. He says, we, Jesus Christ brought knowledge of the invisible God, not only to John A, but hundreds of others. Thousands, A chorus of voices are joining together here to testify that God is real, that God has come and that through knowing Jesus Christ, you can know God too, but there's still a problem. Our

problem isn't that God is unknowable. Our problem is that many of us simply don't care to know him. We're so satisfied to bumble about through life with our amusements and our leisure activities. We feel no sense of urgency, no interest in divine glory, no reverence or seriousness about the things of God. We're content with cheap imitations. We're satisfied to have hydrogenated shredded plastic on our pizza instead of

insisting on real mozzarella cheese.

And I hope you see from all this that there is something deeply wrong with us. The Bible explains what this problem is. Our hearts and our minds are warped by sin. Sin whispers into our soul that God isn't relevant, that God isn't trustworthy, that God isn't precious sin. Cheers for us when we refuse to listen to God's word. Sin even smiles when we say nice things about God. But we secretly worship and love ourselves.

And since the whole human race has walked in sin like this since we've all been traitors and hypocrites and liars, who suppressed the truth, you'd expect that God would be disgusted with us angry even that he'd be set on wiping off the face of the earth every single one of us,

but consider again the life of Jesus. What has he shown us about God's intent? When the Son of God came to live among us, he did not come on a war horse to destroy us. He came to deliver us out of our wickedness, out of our blindness, out of our rebellion. Jesus was sentenced and condemned under the law of God so that we could go forgiven. He died in our place so that we could rise with him to eternal life. And Jesus hasn't just brought us knowledge of God existence.

You'll see here he, he hasn't just given us more insight into God's personality or God's commands, but Jesus has uniquely brought us knowledge about God's salvation. And this is what brings me to my second point, that this knowledge from Jesus not merely an academic knowledge, but an experiential knowledge of Jesus, this knowledge that Jesus brings us enables us to have fellowship with God. In verse three, John says that which we have seen and heard,

we proclaim also to you. Why? Why does he proclaim it so that you may have fellowship with us? And who does John say is included in that? Us? Well, certainly it includes John and other people in the church, but it goes further than that. John says, indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his son, Jesus Christ. When John speaks about fellowship here, the word he's using refers to close relationships where there's a sense of

partnership. It's a real bond. There's a sense of shared familiarity and transparency and loyalty, not something that's superficial or disposable. And John reports that this real relationship with God is something that he has and that it's something that he wants us to have. But how can we have fellowship with God like this? Notice first what John doesn't say, he doesn't encourage people to listen for some sort of mystical voice in their

hearts. He doesn't tell people to seek out emotional experiences in nature. But instead, John tells us that fellowship with God comes through hearing about Jesus. John says that which we have seen and heard, we proclaim also to you so that you may have fellowship. See, in John's mind, how will we draw near to a transcendent and righteous God? John tells us Christ needs to be proclaimed. We need to know the person and the work of Jesus.

The biggest barriers that stand between us and God are our ignorance and the opposition in our hearts against him. And we need Christ to resolve both of these things. We need Jesus to reveal our God and his salvation to us. We need to experience that salvation. We need Jesus to rescue us from our corruption. We need to know what it means to have our hearts renewed by him. That's why it's so necessary for us to proclaim Christ,

not a fake version of Jesus that we invent for ourselves. Not Jesus 2.0, but the real historical Jesus proclaimed by John and the apostles. This is how God convicts us of sin. This is how he confirms our salvation. This is how he calls us into fellowship with him. Through Christ, we have direct access to God in prayer. We have real peace with God, real sympathy from Jesus, our high priest, real comfort and empowerment from his spirit.

We live in His grace. We we rest in his promises and we labor with all the energy he supplies when we walk in fellowship with God. And yet the experience of this fellowship and often ebbs, seems to ebb and flow on a day-to-day basis. Many of us objectively know that we have fellowship with God through the blood of Jesus that not has been tied. And yet subjectively you and I don't always sense it. You may have days when you feel a million miles away from

God's approval. For some of you that might even be this morning, there may be days when heaven seems very silent and when your heart just feels numb. And this is because there's still a disconnect between our God and our world on account of sin. For as long as we're a part of this fallen world, that disconnect still impacts our relationships with God and even frankly, the people around us. And yet this sin will not obscure our relationship with God forever.

If it's possible, I want you to catch a glimpse of what fellowship looks like when it's totally free from corruption and sin from want you to consider the fellowship which has always existed between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit or the fullness of eternity. God has always existed in three persons. God has never experienced social isolation or solitude. The Son didn't become a son. The Father didn't become a father,

but within the eternal existence of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit have always had each other. The three persons of our triune God have loved each other in vivid harmony. And even now, right now, they're relating to one another in continuous faithfulness and mutual joy. No trace of jealousy, no conflict, no misunderstandings, never any gossip or grudges or manipulation. We almost lack words to describe the purity and the perfection

of of this relationship. The Father, son, and Holy Spirit have real fellowship, and God invites us and into fellowship that's marked by the same things into an eternal state of togetherness and commitment, a place of relational safety and warmth and depth and sweetness. No more artificial sweeteners will have the real thing, real sweetness and satisfaction for our souls. And this brings me to my final point. Fellowship produces joy in God. This fellowship that we're talking about,

it produces a joy in our God. And verse four, John writes, we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete, which is to say we're writing about what it means to know Jesus and to have fellowship with him so that all our joy, your joy, and our joy will be complete. John recognizes that there's only one way to have joy. That's 100% maximized and permanent and complete.

It's through having fellowship with God. We can be amused by video games and waterparks. We can get excited by college sports and vacations. We can enjoy good food and long lasting relationships. All the things we taste and touch and treasure. These are good things. And yet, none of these things are the actual source and fountain of joy. That's God. All these other things, they're like light bulbs that glow with warmth and light,

but the light bulbs don't turn themselves on. God is the invisible power source that makes these things shine. The reason that we're not immediately plunged into the misery and torment, the reason that we're able to enjoy anything at all frankly, is because God gives us these lights because he's shining through these lights to show us his goodness. And God's goodness is infinite. It's glorious. It really lasts. I told you that the greatest form of human happiness was eating ice cream and

that we should therefore devote our lives to eating ice cream. You'd think I'm ridiculous, at least most of you would. But why is that? It's because we all know that the pleasurableness of ice cream isn't complete. It falls short. It comes to an end, and everything else under the sun has the same limitations. Getting a PhD, getting married, having kids winning the lottery, these are good gifts, but they won't complete your joy.

What does it look like then for us to experience this completeness of joy? How do we get there? Well, growing in our fellowship with God produces a growing sense of joy. Some people think that when they come to Christ, life will be one big mountaintop experience of bliss that our relationship with God will immediately feel like we've arrived. But I want you to take a look in verse four again, where John says that he's writing these things so that our joy may be

complete. John currently has real joy in his fellowship with God and his fellowship with God's people. Yet John Himself acknowledges that his own joy isn't yet complete. John is still in a sinful world still waiting for the day when he and his brothers and sisters will dwell in the intimate presence of God. And yet, uh, this, this experience of God's presence, this experience of fellowship with God, uh, it is, it is a substantial thing that as we continue to abide in him,

as we continue to walk with him, we can expect to make steps more and more in the same direction toward a fuller and truer experience of joy.

Just think about the other relationships that you have. Certainly the moment that you first met a friend the first time even you had a younger sibling born into the world, you didn't immediately have a full, intimate, mature relationship with that person. Relationships take time, relationships, they progress. These are things that develop over months and years. And the same can be true about our experience of fellowship with God and our

experience of joy in him. As you and I walk with God, our fellowship will grow and deepen. As you see God providing you with daily food and clothing and shelter, this is an opportunity for you to see the goodness of his providing hand. And your joy will grow

as he counsels you through your teenager angst. As God guides you through complicated relationships and into his calling on your life, those are other opportunities for you to look back and point and say, God was with me. I knew what it was like to see his hand there. And your joy in him grows. Whether you're celebrating a wedding or a new child, or perhaps you're instead clinging to Jesus in your loneliness, crying out next to an empty cradle,

those are opportunities too for you to see the Lord's nearness for your joy in Him to grow.

God draws near to us in our prosperity, and God also draws near to us in our pain. When we lose friends, children, parents, siblings, when we lose our jobs, when we lose our good health, when we feel like we're losing control of all of our circumstances, we will still find that God is faithful. His promises for us are still true, and his fellowship with us is still real and it still endures. Christian, what impact does that have on your soul?

Is this something that you just affirm as some sort of hypothetical thing, or does your soul really rest in this?

How does it feel to know that your God will never leave you nor forsake you? How does it affect you to know that God's grace is sufficient for you? That his mercies are new every morning?

When these promises cease to just be words on a page and they become the daily experience of our walk with God, it increases our joy. Our joy in the Lord grows. Now, I'm right there with you. Sometimes it's hard to live in the already, but not yet aspects of the Christian life, including as it relates to the experience of fellowship with God. But there is a not so distant day coming, a day when we ourselves will finally see and hear

and touch our Lord Jesus. We'll find fullness in His presence. We'll discover pleasures forevermore at his right hand, and on that day, our joy will be complete.

Friends, do you know, do you know anything of what it means to experience this fellowship with God through the Gospel of Christ? Have you found peace with him through faith in Christ? Have you felt the smile of God's favor through the word of Christ? Has God counseled you? Has he encouraged you? Has he kept you?

Do you know what it means to delight yourself in his presence? You find him to be an anchor for your soul and a refuge in your time of need.

I have found Christ to be more than enough in all these things. So today I, I add my little weak voice to John's voice, and I want to proclaim to you that which was from the beginning. I want to point to that eternal life who is with the Father, and I want you to know the fullness of Jesus because I long for you to have real fellowship with God.

At the beginning of the sermon, I asked you if you're satisfied with your life. And in one sense, I hope that your answer is yes. That like the Apostle Paul, you've learned in whatever situation you are to be content, that you agree that godliness with contentment is great gain, yes and amen. But in another sense, I hope that your answer is a firm. No. I hope that every time you drink a good cup of coffee, every time you hear a song that stirs your heart,

every time you have a conversation that warms your affections, that you won't be satisfied to have these things without having God. My hope is that these signposts will continue to direct your gaze upward to the Father who gives good gifts to his children, that you'll seek those things that are above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. That fellowship with God and His people will be more precious to you than all

the treasures of Egypt. I hope these things for you so that your joy may be complete. Please pray with me.

Our Father in heaven. What a gift to be invited into a bond that lasts forever, A bond of life, a bond of love, a bond of complete joy.

In this moment, we acknowledge that perhaps our hearts have been stirred, but that there will be many moments throughout the week to come where our hearts will, will feel numb, won't feel anything at all, and we cry out to you for grace. Please Lord, sustain us this week. Help us to be faithful plotters, who keep moving the same direction and trusting each part of our life to you, seeing you work so that our joy may grow, so that our fellowship may deepen

that your words may become alive to us. Touch us,

we pray, Lord, that we would know Christ

and that you would keep us on this race. Keep us on this course until we enter with you into glory, and we pray all these things in Jesus's name and for his sake. Amen.