WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.360 We start two new series today in the morning and evening. 00:00:07.360 --> 00:00:10.359 First John as we read just a moment ago this morning and then we'll be looking together 00:00:10.359 --> 00:00:15.599 tonight at a series on the Holy Spirit from now through the end of November. 00:00:15.599 --> 00:00:17.800 We read from this letter. 00:00:17.800 --> 00:00:21.839 First John, he wrote three letters that we have in our Bible and this is the apostle 00:00:21.839 --> 00:00:22.839 John. 00:00:22.839 --> 00:00:25.719 He's known as the beloved disciple of Jesus. 00:00:25.719 --> 00:00:28.160 He's the writer of the gospel. 00:00:28.160 --> 00:00:31.600 And you can know that without him telling us very quickly. 00:00:31.600 --> 00:00:35.640 When you look at the text you'll see in the very first verse he starts out by saying that 00:00:35.640 --> 00:00:40.640 which was from the beginning and then ends that verse with the word of life. 00:00:40.640 --> 00:00:44.480 And if you've read the gospel of John, you might remember John chapter one from the beginning 00:00:44.480 --> 00:00:46.799 in the beginning was the word. 00:00:46.799 --> 00:00:53.400 And so it's almost the exact same way to start and the gospel of John and first John here. 00:00:53.399 --> 00:00:59.479 And this is very likely written well after the gospel of John and it's probably the case 00:00:59.479 --> 00:01:03.839 that John is the very last living apostle when he writes this letter. 00:01:03.839 --> 00:01:08.159 And so you can ask, you know, when you're the last apostle, it's the very end of the 00:01:08.159 --> 00:01:13.120 apostolic age and you say, well, what is the very last apostle want to say to the next 00:01:13.120 --> 00:01:17.960 generation of Christians when the apostles, those who saw Jesus rise from the dead, when 00:01:17.960 --> 00:01:22.799 they're all gone and John, this is what John gives us, exactly what John gives us. 00:01:22.799 --> 00:01:26.159 And you know, as you say, what do you want to say to us, John, at the end of the apostolic 00:01:26.159 --> 00:01:27.239 age? 00:01:27.239 --> 00:01:31.560 And he says it right here in verses one to four. 00:01:31.560 --> 00:01:39.079 He gives you here the very purpose of Christianity, the entire point, the core of Christianity. 00:01:39.079 --> 00:01:45.640 And you know, you might, we might ask today in 2022 as modern 21st century people, why 00:01:45.640 --> 00:01:47.640 read the Bible? 00:01:47.640 --> 00:01:50.759 Why get up on Sunday and come to a worship service? 00:01:50.759 --> 00:01:51.759 Why pray? 00:01:51.760 --> 00:01:55.640 Why put money as we do into so many ministries? 00:01:55.640 --> 00:01:59.800 And here it is, it's right here in verse three, John tells you exactly the answer. 00:01:59.800 --> 00:02:05.680 He says, so that you might have fellowship with God like I have. 00:02:05.680 --> 00:02:11.159 And so he says here that the apostles, we, he said, we found fellowship with the living 00:02:11.159 --> 00:02:14.000 God. 00:02:14.000 --> 00:02:17.080 Do you want that? 00:02:17.080 --> 00:02:18.080 Is that you too? 00:02:18.080 --> 00:02:22.560 You know, do you want what John had found, fellowship with the living God? 00:02:22.560 --> 00:02:27.760 And so let's ask what that is, how to find it and how to have more of it. 00:02:27.760 --> 00:02:30.720 Okay, so first, what is it? 00:02:30.720 --> 00:02:31.720 Fellowship with God. 00:02:31.720 --> 00:02:36.680 I was talking last week with a member, an attendee here at our church and she said that 00:02:36.680 --> 00:02:41.640 she was having a casual conversation about her faith at work. 00:02:41.640 --> 00:02:46.920 And her coworker said, you know, I just, something like I just don't see why you need religion 00:02:46.919 --> 00:02:48.959 in order to have a happy life. 00:02:48.959 --> 00:02:51.639 Now look, that's incredibly common in a place like Edinburgh. 00:02:51.639 --> 00:02:57.319 We've all heard something like that from people and people will say, I can have a good life, 00:02:57.319 --> 00:03:03.399 a healthy life, a happy life without, without being devout, without being religious. 00:03:03.399 --> 00:03:06.439 And sometimes there, you know, there's two different meanings to that. 00:03:06.439 --> 00:03:10.839 One of the meanings is I don't need organized historic religion. 00:03:10.839 --> 00:03:15.879 You know, I don't need to step into a church building in order to have a happy life, but 00:03:15.879 --> 00:03:18.240 maybe I'm spiritual. 00:03:18.240 --> 00:03:21.439 But the other meaning with that is I don't need a life of faith at all. 00:03:21.439 --> 00:03:25.479 I don't need to be spiritual at all in order to have a happy life. 00:03:25.479 --> 00:03:31.359 Now I think if the apostle John was still alive, if he was here in 2022, imagine that. 00:03:31.359 --> 00:03:36.680 I think if you, if, if somebody said that to him, he would say something like this, sure. 00:03:36.680 --> 00:03:41.479 You know, you, you don't need Christianity to have a happy life. 00:03:41.479 --> 00:03:44.039 You know, this is empirically obvious. 00:03:44.039 --> 00:03:46.519 It's empirically obvious to all of us. 00:03:46.519 --> 00:03:49.959 You can, you don't need religious faith to have a good time on a Saturday night. 00:03:49.959 --> 00:03:55.000 You don't need religious faith to enjoy the ring, the ring of power, the new net, the 00:03:55.000 --> 00:03:56.359 new Netflix and Amazon series. 00:03:56.359 --> 00:03:59.359 You know, you don't, you don't need faith for that. 00:03:59.359 --> 00:04:02.280 You don't need faith to have financial security. 00:04:02.280 --> 00:04:06.079 You don't need faith to find comforts. 00:04:06.079 --> 00:04:09.919 But what John would come to you, to all of us today, to the modern person in Edinburgh 00:04:09.919 --> 00:04:15.799 and say is, but do you want, but do you want more than little happinesses? 00:04:15.799 --> 00:04:17.599 Do you want fulfillment? 00:04:17.599 --> 00:04:20.159 Do you want joy verse four? 00:04:20.159 --> 00:04:25.039 Joy is when you're sad, but you're still full of hope. 00:04:25.039 --> 00:04:29.000 And so what he says here is, do you want true religion, not just religion, true religion, 00:04:29.000 --> 00:04:30.839 which is real fulfillment? 00:04:30.839 --> 00:04:33.399 Do you want, do you want it? 00:04:33.399 --> 00:04:35.360 And so he comes to say exactly what the answer is. 00:04:35.360 --> 00:04:40.720 You know, have you heard it said, I don't need faith to have happiness? 00:04:40.720 --> 00:04:43.280 And John asks you here, do you want everlasting joy? 00:04:43.280 --> 00:04:44.879 Do you want more than happiness? 00:04:44.879 --> 00:04:48.000 Do you want something else? 00:04:48.000 --> 00:04:50.480 Fellowship with God is core Christianity. 00:04:50.480 --> 00:04:53.480 It is the point of what we gather for. 00:04:53.480 --> 00:04:57.240 It is the point for which Jesus came into the world. 00:04:57.240 --> 00:04:59.120 It's the very centerpiece. 00:04:59.120 --> 00:05:06.160 J.H. Bavink is a Dutch philosopher and theologian from the middle of the 20th century. 00:05:06.160 --> 00:05:07.920 And he talked about this. 00:05:07.920 --> 00:05:13.280 He said that there's something in every single human being, something in every one of us 00:05:13.280 --> 00:05:16.680 that he called the magnetic points of the human heart. 00:05:16.680 --> 00:05:22.959 There's a way that the human heart, by nature of just being human, points to these norths. 00:05:22.959 --> 00:05:26.000 In other words, looks for answers that it cannot find. 00:05:26.000 --> 00:05:27.000 This is how he said it. 00:05:27.000 --> 00:05:28.560 Let me read it to you. 00:05:28.560 --> 00:05:33.519 He said, we humans, by virtue of our place in the world, must always and everywhere give 00:05:33.519 --> 00:05:35.879 answers to the same questions. 00:05:35.879 --> 00:05:40.560 We must struggle with the basic problems which our existence entails. 00:05:40.560 --> 00:05:43.759 We are afflicted by grief and by misfortune. 00:05:43.759 --> 00:05:47.680 We know adversity, but then we know prosperity. 00:05:47.680 --> 00:05:51.279 Deep in our hearts, we have a vague feeling of responsibility. 00:05:51.279 --> 00:05:56.160 We're aware that we're only small beings and in a measurable greatness of the universe. 00:05:56.160 --> 00:06:01.160 We know very well that sooner or later death will knock at our door. 00:06:01.160 --> 00:06:05.640 Wherever we go, we are surrounded by a multitude of questions. 00:06:05.640 --> 00:06:10.640 And although we have the power to escape from them for just a moment, we cannot help but 00:06:10.640 --> 00:06:13.400 being overwhelmed by these riddles. 00:06:13.400 --> 00:06:17.840 Our life is a riddle that threatens to crush us. 00:06:17.840 --> 00:06:20.080 Now he called these the magnetic points. 00:06:20.080 --> 00:06:21.879 Let me distill them to you in four questions. 00:06:21.879 --> 00:06:23.480 This is what they are. 00:06:23.480 --> 00:06:25.680 What do I do with my suffering? 00:06:25.680 --> 00:06:27.600 What do I do with my pain? 00:06:27.600 --> 00:06:33.240 What do I do with the moral weight that I feel pressing in on me, my guilt? 00:06:33.240 --> 00:06:39.160 Is there meaning for such a small thing as I in such a vast cosmos? 00:06:39.160 --> 00:06:40.800 Is there a purpose to my life? 00:06:40.800 --> 00:06:44.800 Is there a way to live or is death my only future? 00:06:44.800 --> 00:06:49.199 These are the magnetic questions that the directions our hearts always have to go. 00:06:49.199 --> 00:06:52.280 They're the riddles of life, the questions we can't get out from underneath. 00:06:52.279 --> 00:06:57.399 And at the end, he says here that we use coping mechanisms to try to run from them, to try 00:06:57.399 --> 00:07:01.159 to escape facing them as they really stand before us. 00:07:01.159 --> 00:07:05.919 John comes to you today and says that there's a secret to life. 00:07:05.919 --> 00:07:07.759 There's a secret. 00:07:07.759 --> 00:07:09.479 And the secret is this. 00:07:09.479 --> 00:07:13.839 Every single one of the questions is answered because you were made for fellowship with 00:07:13.839 --> 00:07:15.000 God. 00:07:15.000 --> 00:07:17.959 You were made by God for fellowship with God. 00:07:17.959 --> 00:07:23.879 Now this word fellowship, I want to give you the Greek term that stands underneath it because 00:07:23.879 --> 00:07:26.120 it's very famous and many of you will probably know it. 00:07:26.120 --> 00:07:28.039 It's the word koinonia. 00:07:28.039 --> 00:07:29.039 You've heard it. 00:07:29.039 --> 00:07:33.439 There's a lot of churches in America named koinonia Baptist or something like that. 00:07:33.439 --> 00:07:34.639 It's a well-known word. 00:07:34.639 --> 00:07:38.939 When we use it to talk about other people, our relationship with each other, it's often 00:07:38.939 --> 00:07:41.120 translated to hospitality. 00:07:41.120 --> 00:07:45.679 So fellowship with God or hospitality or hospitality with other people, that's how 00:07:45.679 --> 00:07:47.279 it's often used. 00:07:47.279 --> 00:07:49.199 There's a synonym. 00:07:49.199 --> 00:07:51.599 Let me say this first. 00:07:51.599 --> 00:07:55.359 Fellowship with God answers the intellectual questions, the riddle of life, but it's more 00:07:55.359 --> 00:07:56.439 than that. 00:07:56.439 --> 00:07:58.319 It's much more than that. 00:07:58.319 --> 00:08:02.719 And let me tell you two things that it is here before we move on. 00:08:02.719 --> 00:08:07.439 The first thing is found in the synonym for this word and you can see it in verse two. 00:08:07.439 --> 00:08:12.959 He says that this life was made manifest and we have seen it and we testify to it and proclaim 00:08:12.959 --> 00:08:16.839 to you the eternal life. 00:08:16.839 --> 00:08:20.799 The eternal life is the synonym. 00:08:20.799 --> 00:08:26.479 It's the same thing having the eternal life as fellowship with God. 00:08:26.479 --> 00:08:33.039 And the reason we know that is because John has a thesis statement in his gospel and it's 00:08:33.039 --> 00:08:42.079 John 17 verse three, very famous moment where he says, this is eternal life to know God. 00:08:42.079 --> 00:08:44.839 And so here's how it works. 00:08:44.840 --> 00:08:50.360 Eternal life is fellowship with God and fellowship with God and eternal life both mean to know 00:08:50.360 --> 00:08:56.120 God and that means that fellowship with God means to know God. 00:08:56.120 --> 00:09:00.680 To know God and that's not just intellectual, that's deeply personal. 00:09:00.680 --> 00:09:03.200 To know God is deeply personal. 00:09:03.200 --> 00:09:09.720 I was reading one writer this week who had a quote from an 18th century, 19th century 00:09:09.720 --> 00:09:14.879 I should say Methodist preacher named Daniel Steele and this is what Daniel Steele said 00:09:14.879 --> 00:09:17.399 about his experience of knowing God. 00:09:17.399 --> 00:09:24.240 He said, almost every week and sometimes every day, the pressure of God's great love 00:09:24.240 --> 00:09:26.720 comes down upon my heart. 00:09:26.720 --> 00:09:33.120 Here it again, almost every week, sometimes every day, the pressure of God's great love 00:09:33.120 --> 00:09:40.720 comes down to my heart with the light of his radiant presence, the spot before untouched 00:09:40.720 --> 00:09:47.759 has now been reached and all of its hardness has melted away in the present of that universal 00:09:47.759 --> 00:09:52.159 solvent, love divine, all loves excelling. 00:09:52.159 --> 00:09:53.159 Now you hear what he's saying? 00:09:53.159 --> 00:10:00.279 He's saying, Daniel was saying, sometimes, sometimes I have a moment where the love of 00:10:00.279 --> 00:10:05.519 God hits me so hard that I'm melted, that I'm undone. 00:10:05.519 --> 00:10:10.319 It's when I say I'm undone before God yet he loves me so much that my heart is melted 00:10:10.319 --> 00:10:15.399 before him and that's what it means to have fellowship with God. 00:10:15.399 --> 00:10:20.279 It's more than intellectual, it's answering the great magnetic questions, the riddles 00:10:20.279 --> 00:10:22.079 of life but it's more than that. 00:10:22.079 --> 00:10:26.199 It's to know the living God personally. 00:10:26.200 --> 00:10:29.960 It's when you come to a place in your life where you say, who am I that you would think 00:10:29.960 --> 00:10:30.960 of me, God? 00:10:30.960 --> 00:10:33.080 Who am I that you would think of me? 00:10:33.080 --> 00:10:34.400 And yet you do. 00:10:34.400 --> 00:10:38.759 For all the times that I've ignored you in my daily life, you think of me, you've come 00:10:38.759 --> 00:10:41.440 down for me, you love me. 00:10:41.440 --> 00:10:45.440 It's when the love of God melts your heart and so the first thing to know is to have 00:10:45.440 --> 00:10:48.759 fellowship with God is to know God personally. 00:10:48.759 --> 00:10:51.759 It's to be in relationship with the living God. 00:10:51.759 --> 00:10:55.080 It's to have your heart melted by his love. 00:10:55.080 --> 00:11:02.080 Secondly, and this brings us to point number two, we have to also see how you can find 00:11:02.080 --> 00:11:04.920 it and this is the second aspect of fellowship with God. 00:11:04.920 --> 00:11:07.160 How do you find fellowship with God? 00:11:07.160 --> 00:11:13.759 Secondly, and John tells us here that first you've got to look in the right place for 00:11:13.759 --> 00:11:14.759 it. 00:11:14.759 --> 00:11:16.759 You've got to look in the right place. 00:11:16.759 --> 00:11:22.960 Now in order to understand what he says here in the first and second verses, clearly you 00:11:22.960 --> 00:11:32.879 have to know that most of the letter of John is actually written to push back against a 00:11:32.879 --> 00:11:37.840 group of teachers that were present probably in the area of Ephesus at the very end of 00:11:37.840 --> 00:11:39.800 the first century AD. 00:11:39.800 --> 00:11:46.639 And John is writing to remind the church of the gospel that he had preached and we know 00:11:46.639 --> 00:11:49.160 a little bit more about them than John gives us. 00:11:49.160 --> 00:11:52.800 You know what you have to do to figure out exactly who he's talking about? 00:11:52.799 --> 00:11:56.399 You have to go through, you can do this, you go through, you pour through the letter and 00:11:56.399 --> 00:12:00.679 you look at all the places where he's countering something subtly and you can start to put 00:12:00.679 --> 00:12:05.519 it together and say, ah, this must have been what the opponents were teaching at the time. 00:12:05.519 --> 00:12:11.079 And then we know from a couple of John's own disciples, some guys that he discipled, one 00:12:11.079 --> 00:12:16.639 by the name of Polycarp, a little bit more about who these folks were and we think probably 00:12:16.639 --> 00:12:21.079 that they were a group of people that are later going to be called the Ebianites. 00:12:21.079 --> 00:12:22.439 That name's not important at all. 00:12:22.440 --> 00:12:24.200 What they were teaching was quite simple. 00:12:24.200 --> 00:12:29.040 You can see it actually very subtly in 1 John 4 verse 2. 00:12:29.040 --> 00:12:32.600 He says, by this you know the spirit of God. 00:12:32.600 --> 00:12:36.240 How do you know if the spirit of God, what you're hearing is true? 00:12:36.240 --> 00:12:42.760 Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. 00:12:42.760 --> 00:12:47.000 Now it's subtle, but listen, what he's saying there is that there's probably a group of 00:12:47.000 --> 00:12:52.879 teachers that he's opposing that were saying, the Jesus that you've seen, first century 00:12:52.879 --> 00:12:59.960 people in flesh, this human being is not the Christ of God. 00:12:59.960 --> 00:13:05.519 In other words, that he's not from God and of God or co-eternal with God, that he's 00:13:05.519 --> 00:13:07.039 just a man. 00:13:07.039 --> 00:13:09.720 That's what they were teaching. 00:13:09.720 --> 00:13:14.639 And what they said even more was that, okay, John said this, but do you want to have fellowship 00:13:14.639 --> 00:13:17.279 with God, here's how you get it. 00:13:17.279 --> 00:13:18.279 Here's how you get it. 00:13:18.279 --> 00:13:20.600 Jesus is a great moral teacher. 00:13:20.600 --> 00:13:21.879 And you need to come underneath him. 00:13:21.879 --> 00:13:26.240 You need to follow him because what happened in the Gospels, they say, is that Jesus was 00:13:26.240 --> 00:13:33.639 so holy, he was so morally good before God, that God accepted Jesus as his son. 00:13:33.639 --> 00:13:38.519 Jesus was a normal human, but then God looked and said, that man is particularly great among 00:13:38.519 --> 00:13:39.519 all people. 00:13:39.519 --> 00:13:44.120 And so he said, I'm adopting him as my special son, and I'm going to use him as the great 00:13:44.120 --> 00:13:46.200 example to the world of how to live. 00:13:46.200 --> 00:13:47.399 And so the Ebeonites were saying that. 00:13:47.399 --> 00:13:53.200 They were saying, look, have you heard this before? 00:13:53.200 --> 00:13:56.080 I don't need religion. 00:13:56.080 --> 00:13:57.159 I don't need devout faith. 00:13:57.159 --> 00:14:04.039 I don't need a historic Christianity to have a happy life, but I really do like Jesus, 00:14:04.039 --> 00:14:05.320 the moral teacher. 00:14:05.320 --> 00:14:08.159 I really do find that Jesus is a great example. 00:14:08.159 --> 00:14:13.480 I look at him and I think, I want to live my life like that, but I don't need this. 00:14:13.480 --> 00:14:15.000 I don't need the rest of it. 00:14:15.000 --> 00:14:16.240 I don't need this. 00:14:16.240 --> 00:14:20.399 I don't need historic Christianity in any other way to be happy. 00:14:20.399 --> 00:14:26.800 And look, John is saying first, here's how not to find fellowship with God. 00:14:26.800 --> 00:14:31.399 He's saying that, well, there's nothing new under the sun. 00:14:31.399 --> 00:14:34.399 You come and say today, science has now shown us. 00:14:34.399 --> 00:14:40.440 We now know that the miracles and all the extra stuff in the Gospels that couldn't be real, 00:14:40.440 --> 00:14:43.440 that really what we have to do with Jesus is that we have to go with him. 00:14:43.440 --> 00:14:48.200 We have to look for the good bits, which is his great moral teaching, love one another, 00:14:48.200 --> 00:14:50.400 love God, love neighbor as you love yourself. 00:14:50.400 --> 00:14:54.240 And John was dealing with that in the very first century, that there's nothing new under 00:14:54.240 --> 00:14:56.120 the sun. 00:14:56.120 --> 00:14:57.120 And here's what John says. 00:14:57.120 --> 00:15:00.640 He comes and says, that's how not to find fellowship with God. 00:15:00.640 --> 00:15:02.240 Here's how to find fellowship with God. 00:15:02.240 --> 00:15:04.120 You see what he's doing in verse one and two? 00:15:04.120 --> 00:15:06.440 He's countering that teaching. 00:15:06.440 --> 00:15:07.920 And how does he say it? 00:15:07.920 --> 00:15:08.920 What does he say? 00:15:08.919 --> 00:15:14.360 First, that which was from the beginning, that which was from the beginning, the word 00:15:14.360 --> 00:15:15.559 of life. 00:15:15.559 --> 00:15:21.079 And so immediately he's trying to say, remember the Gospel, John chapter one, the Gospel of 00:15:21.079 --> 00:15:28.240 John, where I said to you, the man that I knew was from the very beginning, in the beginning 00:15:28.240 --> 00:15:29.240 in fact. 00:15:29.240 --> 00:15:34.559 In other words, he was there saying, he is the Creator God, co-eternal with the God that 00:15:34.559 --> 00:15:41.239 you know, the Father, that he is so much the Creator that he is God himself. 00:15:41.239 --> 00:15:42.239 That was John one. 00:15:42.239 --> 00:15:43.559 That's why he starts this way. 00:15:43.559 --> 00:15:45.559 But then what does he go to secondly? 00:15:45.559 --> 00:15:53.639 He says, that which we have heard, seen, looked upon, touched concerning the word of life. 00:15:53.639 --> 00:15:54.639 And you see what he's doing? 00:15:54.639 --> 00:15:58.319 He's saying to the Ebeonites and to all of us and to every modern person that struggles 00:15:58.319 --> 00:15:59.559 with this today. 00:15:59.559 --> 00:16:05.119 He's saying, look, if you want to say Jesus was just a great moral teacher, you can't do 00:16:05.119 --> 00:16:06.279 that. 00:16:06.279 --> 00:16:08.599 You can't just do that. 00:16:08.599 --> 00:16:15.799 Because he's saying, we the apostles were there and we first saw, we first heard, he 00:16:15.799 --> 00:16:18.199 starts with hearing, we first heard his teaching. 00:16:18.199 --> 00:16:20.559 Then we saw his actions. 00:16:20.559 --> 00:16:26.719 Then we looked upon, why, repeat vision twice because he's saying secondly, we gazed. 00:16:26.720 --> 00:16:29.519 We first saw what he did. 00:16:29.519 --> 00:16:32.840 He brought Jairus' daughter up from the dead. 00:16:32.840 --> 00:16:37.320 But then we gazed and said, who is this? 00:16:37.320 --> 00:16:40.920 And then it says, and then we moved from there and we touched him. 00:16:40.920 --> 00:16:42.040 And he's remembering there. 00:16:42.040 --> 00:16:47.240 He's remembering that Jesus said, I will give my life away and in three days I will take 00:16:47.240 --> 00:16:49.360 it back again. 00:16:49.360 --> 00:16:51.840 And he's saying, do you know that I touched him? 00:16:51.840 --> 00:16:54.040 I touched him. 00:16:54.039 --> 00:16:58.159 And there were many, many witnesses, more than 500 and every one of the apostles is going 00:16:58.159 --> 00:16:59.799 forth saying the same thing. 00:16:59.799 --> 00:17:00.879 And so here's what John's doing. 00:17:00.879 --> 00:17:04.759 He's saying to the Ebeonites, he's saying to the modern person who says, Jesus is just 00:17:04.759 --> 00:17:06.960 a great moral teacher and that's enough for me. 00:17:06.960 --> 00:17:09.799 He's saying, you can't do that. 00:17:09.799 --> 00:17:16.000 Because I'm telling you that I looked upon him, I touched him, I saw him, that there 00:17:16.000 --> 00:17:23.559 is a historic audible, visible, tangible appearance of the eternal God that has come into history. 00:17:23.559 --> 00:17:26.759 And he's saying, that's the claim I'm making. 00:17:26.759 --> 00:17:32.119 And so you can reject that claim, but you have to at least pass through it. 00:17:32.119 --> 00:17:34.039 You can't just say, well, Jesus was a great moral teacher. 00:17:34.039 --> 00:17:36.559 He's, no, all the eyewitnesses said otherwise. 00:17:36.559 --> 00:17:38.679 And so at least you have to wrestle with it. 00:17:38.679 --> 00:17:44.240 At least you have to be willing to walk through that claim and decide what to do with that 00:17:44.240 --> 00:17:47.399 claim, that Jesus Christ is not just a great moral teacher. 00:17:47.399 --> 00:17:52.960 He is God come into history itself, that he died and that he rose again from the dead. 00:17:52.960 --> 00:17:56.759 If a man in the middle of history rose from the dead and there were eyewitnesses, you've 00:17:56.759 --> 00:17:58.200 got to wrestle with that. 00:17:58.200 --> 00:17:59.799 You've got to do something with that. 00:17:59.799 --> 00:18:03.799 You've got to either bow before that man or totally reject him. 00:18:03.799 --> 00:18:07.880 There's no way to just go about and say, well, he was just a great moral teacher. 00:18:07.880 --> 00:18:10.840 And so this is what John says to move to our final point. 00:18:10.840 --> 00:18:15.319 He says, remember John 17, 3, this is eternal life. 00:18:15.319 --> 00:18:18.079 This is fellowship with God to know God. 00:18:18.079 --> 00:18:19.759 And then he adds this. 00:18:19.759 --> 00:18:25.799 And to know his son, Jesus Christ, sent from the Father. 00:18:25.799 --> 00:18:26.799 What is fellowship with God? 00:18:26.799 --> 00:18:27.960 What is John saying? 00:18:27.960 --> 00:18:31.240 He's saying, you've got to look in the right place for it. 00:18:31.240 --> 00:18:35.039 And the right place is through this man. 00:18:35.039 --> 00:18:36.759 God become man. 00:18:36.759 --> 00:18:38.359 God enter into history. 00:18:38.359 --> 00:18:43.379 God who said, I will give up my life and I will take it back again in three days. 00:18:43.379 --> 00:18:46.920 That this is the appearance of the living God into human history and that this is where 00:18:46.920 --> 00:18:52.080 you must go to find real fellowship with the living God. 00:18:52.080 --> 00:18:56.360 John is saying, listen, modern person, I'm not telling you a fable. 00:18:56.360 --> 00:18:58.400 I'm telling you a history. 00:18:58.400 --> 00:19:06.200 And Peter in 2 Peter 1 16, he remarks that even in the first century, the Greek enrollment 00:19:06.200 --> 00:19:11.680 mythologist understood that they were creating stories, fables. 00:19:11.680 --> 00:19:13.840 But that's not at all the genre that John's giving us here. 00:19:13.840 --> 00:19:15.560 He's giving us history. 00:19:15.560 --> 00:19:16.560 And we've got to wrestle with it. 00:19:16.559 --> 00:19:22.440 Now finally, finally, how to grow, how to have this, how to grow into this? 00:19:22.440 --> 00:19:24.519 Let me give you three ways. 00:19:24.519 --> 00:19:26.799 Let me give you three ways as we close. 00:19:26.799 --> 00:19:34.000 One, I've already said it, but to have fellowship with God, real fellowship is to believe in 00:19:34.000 --> 00:19:35.639 the age of life. 00:19:35.639 --> 00:19:40.359 All right, one more thing about eternal life. 00:19:40.359 --> 00:19:46.279 Ever since the 17th century, we've been translating this little phrase eternal life as eternal 00:19:46.279 --> 00:19:50.559 life, which is a very good way to translate it. 00:19:50.559 --> 00:19:56.279 In the Greek text, it's very literally, it says the age of life, the age of life. 00:19:56.279 --> 00:20:01.440 And so the word age or ages is often translated as eternal. 00:20:01.440 --> 00:20:02.759 And that's significant. 00:20:02.759 --> 00:20:12.759 I was reading an author this week who was talking about the early Soviet era in Russia. 00:20:12.759 --> 00:20:18.160 And there was a journalist named Nicholas Stephens, 1919 traveled to this very early 00:20:18.160 --> 00:20:23.920 Soviet Union and he came back, he looked at it and he came back and he said, I have seen 00:20:23.920 --> 00:20:27.440 the future and it works. 00:20:27.440 --> 00:20:33.519 He said, he saw early Soviet Russia and he said, I've seen the future and it works. 00:20:33.519 --> 00:20:39.640 Now you remember that future, that future turned out to be the Soviet gulag and the 00:20:39.640 --> 00:20:44.759 deaths, the deaths of millions and millions of people. 00:20:44.759 --> 00:20:55.080 And that's just one example among many that no human government, no human society can 00:20:55.080 --> 00:21:00.720 ever offer this very specific word here, the age of life. 00:21:00.720 --> 00:21:05.920 That even in the best human society, we're still under the domain of the age of death, 00:21:05.920 --> 00:21:10.880 not the age of life, all of us, injustice is abound. 00:21:10.880 --> 00:21:15.759 And Augustine very famously put it so well when he said, the city of man can never be 00:21:15.759 --> 00:21:17.400 the city of God. 00:21:17.400 --> 00:21:19.680 Never, not in this life. 00:21:19.680 --> 00:21:28.600 Look, if you put your hope in something from this life like a politic, a government, your 00:21:28.600 --> 00:21:35.480 bank account, whatever it may be to fulfill you, then just know that you have religion, 00:21:35.480 --> 00:21:39.680 you have a life of faith, you have something that you've put your hope in, your trust in, 00:21:39.680 --> 00:21:44.200 that you think is going to fulfill you, bring for you the age of life and it will not, it 00:21:44.200 --> 00:21:46.640 will disappoint you, it will end. 00:21:46.640 --> 00:21:48.599 It is the age of death. 00:21:48.599 --> 00:21:51.120 We're underneath it because of our sin. 00:21:51.120 --> 00:21:52.319 We're underneath the age of death. 00:21:52.319 --> 00:21:58.160 And here, here John says, John 17, to know God is eternal life, to have fellowship with 00:21:58.160 --> 00:22:02.039 God is eternal life, the age of life. 00:22:02.039 --> 00:22:08.680 To have fellowship with God is the age of life, meaning that if you know Jesus personally, 00:22:08.680 --> 00:22:13.119 you have the age of life, not death. 00:22:13.119 --> 00:22:14.119 And how do you have it? 00:22:14.119 --> 00:22:16.559 And I'll end this first one with Paul. 00:22:16.559 --> 00:22:18.480 Paul says it like this, here's how you have it. 00:22:18.480 --> 00:22:26.039 If you believe on Christ today, you are so united to the age of life himself that when 00:22:26.039 --> 00:22:29.559 Jesus Christ died, it's as if you died there that day. 00:22:29.559 --> 00:22:31.440 Your sin died, your guilt died. 00:22:31.440 --> 00:22:38.279 It was crucified in him that you so have eternal life, the age of life, that when he rose from 00:22:38.279 --> 00:22:42.200 the dead, it's as if you have already risen beyond death. 00:22:42.200 --> 00:22:44.039 It's so sure. 00:22:44.039 --> 00:22:47.000 That's the assurance you have unto the age of life. 00:22:47.000 --> 00:22:52.000 If you are united to the age of life, Jesus Christ, by simply believing. 00:22:52.000 --> 00:22:54.640 And that's how you have fellowship with God. 00:22:54.640 --> 00:22:56.480 Secondly of three. 00:22:56.480 --> 00:22:59.720 That means then, that means you're a Christian, you know, that means that if you have that, 00:22:59.720 --> 00:23:03.160 you're a Christian and that means today we're all called as believers. 00:23:03.160 --> 00:23:08.799 If you're a believer today to then go forth and delight in his presence. 00:23:08.799 --> 00:23:12.120 How do you grow in fellowship with God? 00:23:12.120 --> 00:23:13.559 Delight into his presence. 00:23:13.559 --> 00:23:14.559 More and more. 00:23:14.559 --> 00:23:19.720 In other words, we sang it in Psalm 63, seek his face. 00:23:19.720 --> 00:23:22.559 And so let me just, let me offer you a quote from John Calvin. 00:23:22.559 --> 00:23:23.600 I love Calvin here. 00:23:23.600 --> 00:23:25.360 He's so helpful. 00:23:25.360 --> 00:23:29.559 He says, how difficult it is for us to believe. 00:23:29.559 --> 00:23:36.159 One of us knows too well by their own experience that it is hard to believe. 00:23:36.159 --> 00:23:37.159 Thank you, John. 00:23:37.159 --> 00:23:38.839 We love John for that. 00:23:38.839 --> 00:23:41.519 Look, are you a Christian today? 00:23:41.519 --> 00:23:48.200 And you say, you know, have you like me found times of prayer, times of reading scripture, 00:23:48.200 --> 00:23:55.879 times of worship stifling to your heart and difficult, difficult to really believe, difficult 00:23:55.879 --> 00:23:59.240 to fellowship with God when you're in the midst of worship, when you're in the midst 00:23:59.240 --> 00:24:02.960 of your Bible reading, the midst of your prayer life? 00:24:02.960 --> 00:24:09.120 And if you say yes to that, then I would say who among us can cast the first stone? 00:24:09.120 --> 00:24:11.319 John Calvin wouldn't. 00:24:11.319 --> 00:24:16.559 And you see, in other words, well, let me ask you this question. 00:24:16.559 --> 00:24:19.480 And I only ask you this because I know that this is my struggle. 00:24:19.480 --> 00:24:21.799 This is my heart. 00:24:21.799 --> 00:24:30.000 If you find yourself struggling with fellowship with God, abiding with God in worship and 00:24:30.000 --> 00:24:34.799 prayer and scripture and all the other ways, let me ask you this. 00:24:34.799 --> 00:24:42.000 Are you practicing religion instead of seeking the face of God? 00:24:42.000 --> 00:24:45.839 In other words, are you praying, but you're not praying to God? 00:24:45.839 --> 00:24:51.279 Are you reading, but you're not coming to hear God speak? 00:24:51.279 --> 00:24:55.440 Are you coming to worship, but you're not coming to worship God? 00:24:55.440 --> 00:24:58.359 Are you prepared for that when you come into this place? 00:24:58.359 --> 00:25:02.639 To worship God, not just to worship. 00:25:02.639 --> 00:25:07.079 And sometimes, let me say it fair enough, sometimes practicing religion is exactly the 00:25:07.079 --> 00:25:11.440 thing we need to do because that's as far as we can get emotionally, depending on where 00:25:11.440 --> 00:25:12.879 we are in life. 00:25:12.879 --> 00:25:19.119 And at the same time, there's a challenge there to seek his face, to look for him, to 00:25:19.119 --> 00:25:23.279 approach the living God when you read, when you pray, when you worship. 00:25:23.279 --> 00:25:27.799 Seek his face, that's fellowship with God, that's the path to growing in it. 00:25:27.799 --> 00:25:33.279 Finally, finally, John tells us in verse four that growing in fellowship with God is 00:25:33.279 --> 00:25:35.559 warning others to have fellowship with God. 00:25:35.559 --> 00:25:41.359 Did you notice very subtly, we are writing these things to you so that our joy may be 00:25:41.359 --> 00:25:42.359 complete? 00:25:42.359 --> 00:25:43.359 He's talking about the apostles. 00:25:43.359 --> 00:25:51.079 Say, I representing the apostles write this about Jesus' history to you so that my joy 00:25:51.079 --> 00:25:52.079 might be full. 00:25:52.079 --> 00:25:57.959 And so he's saying, you want to have more fullness, more fellowship with the living 00:25:57.959 --> 00:25:59.039 God. 00:25:59.039 --> 00:26:06.479 Do you joy and delight in God the more you see others joying and delighting in God? 00:26:06.479 --> 00:26:12.479 Do you want to extend the history of Jesus Christ to other people so that you might know 00:26:12.480 --> 00:26:15.720 the joy of fellowship with God even more alongside him with them? 00:26:15.720 --> 00:26:16.720 That's what John says. 00:26:16.720 --> 00:26:21.000 John says, the more we give this gift to others, the more we share in it with brothers and 00:26:21.000 --> 00:26:26.519 sisters that believe, the more our joy goes up, the more we love God, the more we fellowship 00:26:26.519 --> 00:26:27.519 with God. 00:26:27.519 --> 00:26:33.960 And so as a last word, as a last word, there's an example of this very, very precise example 00:26:33.960 --> 00:26:35.599 of this. 00:26:35.599 --> 00:26:39.960 Delighting in the presence of God and enjoying God more because we fellowship with other 00:26:39.960 --> 00:26:43.000 people who enjoy God and it all comes together. 00:26:43.000 --> 00:26:45.600 Where does it all come together for the apostle Paul? 00:26:45.600 --> 00:26:47.720 First Corinthians 10. 00:26:47.720 --> 00:26:48.720 First Corinthians 10. 00:26:48.720 --> 00:26:55.200 Paul uses the phrase, the word, coinonia, and he says, fellowship, the cup of blessing 00:26:55.200 --> 00:27:03.360 that we bless, is it not fellowship together in the blood of Christ? 00:27:03.360 --> 00:27:09.440 The bread that we are about to break, is it not fellowship together in the body of Christ? 00:27:09.440 --> 00:27:15.080 And it's fellowship with God today by the Holy Spirit and fellowship with one another, 00:27:15.080 --> 00:27:16.080 coinonia. 00:27:16.080 --> 00:27:19.160 And so we grow in it more and more unto the joy of the living God. 00:27:19.160 --> 00:27:23.799 Will you take today and eat and drink the body and blood of Christ in order to fellowship, 00:27:23.799 --> 00:27:28.480 to know the presence of the living God through Jesus Christ? 00:27:28.480 --> 00:27:29.480 Let's pray. 00:27:29.480 --> 00:27:35.720 Father, we thank you for the history of Jesus and we ask today that you would help us to 00:27:35.720 --> 00:27:41.440 believe in the eyewitness testimony, Lord, that you would help us to believe the Christ 00:27:41.440 --> 00:27:44.039 of history is the Christ of faith. 00:27:44.039 --> 00:27:49.519 And so move upon us now to know the resurrected Son of God as we come to celebrate your Lord's 00:27:49.519 --> 00:27:51.120 supper this morning. 00:27:51.120 --> 00:27:55.799 As we come to witness to the day that you will come to see us in person, in the flesh, 00:27:55.799 --> 00:28:00.160 in real history where we will break bread and drink wine with you. 00:28:00.160 --> 00:28:01.240 We long for it. 00:28:01.240 --> 00:28:06.640 We say, Maranatha now, and we say, come and meet with us by the Holy Spirit in Christ's 00:28:06.640 --> 00:28:07.640 name. 00:28:07.640 --> 00:28:33.280 Amen.