THE WORD OF LIFE – 1 JOHN 1:1-4 Our Heavenly Father, Creator of all things and Master Teacher, we humbly come into Your presence to seek Your Holy Spirit to open our eyes to these Holy Scriptures. We earnestly pray for enlightenment as we study together, and we ask You, Father, to open our eyes to see the truths contained in these words. Open our minds to comprehend that which we are reading, and open our hearts to receive the message that You have for us. Finally, dear Father, we ask for the strength and courage to live our lives in a manner of the called, constantly giving You the glory, honor, and praise that You deserve. We pray these things in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. 1 John 1:1–3 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;) That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. Claiming to possess super intellects, to be true thinkers, they were known as gnostics—or “the knowledgeable ones.” And these “knowledgeable ones,” these “enlightened ones” maintained that even if His followers claimed Jesus was God, they were embarrassingly naive to think He had a body physically, for anyone with any intelligence understood that anything in the material realm was inherently evil. Why did they make this claim? By arguing that everything material is evil, the gnostics absolved themselves of any responsibility for the activity of their bodies. In other words, their logic allowed them to position themselves as deep thinkers while behaving themselves as party animals. “It is impossible that God actually became a Man,” the gnostics declared. “Jesus was an emanation of God, but not God Incarnate.” And such thinking is the common denominator of all cults to this day. Here at the outset of his epistle, John says, “Wait a minute. Jesus wasn’t a phantom, an emanation, or a vision. We walked, hung out, and lived with Him. And we want you to have the same kind of fellowship with Him.” How can this happen? The same way it did for two men on their way to the town of Emmaus.… “Why are you so sad?” asked the Stranger walking with them. “Don’t you know what’s happened?” they replied, not realizing it was the Lord. And they went on to recount to Him how Jesus had died on the Cross just a few days before. Then, beginning with Moses and working His way through the Old Testament, Jesus opened the Word to them, explaining how it all pointed to Him. Upon reaching their destination, yet wanting to hear more, the two men invited Jesus to dine with them. And it was when they saw Jesus break bread that their eyes were opened to recognize Jesus in their midst (Luke 24). Two things took place on the Road to Emmaus: Jesus opened the Word to the disciples, and the eyes of the disciples were opened to Jesus. Haven’t you experienced the same thing? “Lo, I come in the volume of the book,” Jesus says (see Psalm 40:7). And truly this book causes us to have an awareness of the nearness of the Lord. When I don’t get into the Word, I miss Him. Oh, He’s still here, but, like the men on the Road to Emmaus, I don’t recognize Him as readily or see Him as clearly. Secondly, we see Jesus in the breaking of the bread at the table of Communion. “Take eat. This is My body broken for you,” He said (see 1 Corinthians 11:24). That’s why Communion is so very, very important. It’s not just a little cracker-and-juice-monthly ritual. It is infinitely more than that, for it is at the table that we are given the unspeakable privilege of seeing Jesus clearly once again. 1 John 1:4 And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full. John says that the reason to touch the Lord at the table of Communion and see Him in the pages of the Word is in order that we might be full of joy. Elton Trueblood, classic preacher from a generation past, put it this way: “The Christian is joyful not because he is blind to injustice and suffering, but because he is convinced that these, in the light of Divine Sovereignty, are never ultimate. The humor of the Christian is not a way of denying the tears but rather a way of affirming something that is deeper than tears.” We’re full of joy not because we’re trite or frivolous, but because there’s a deeper reality than the temporary separation from a loved one, the problem with the car, or the bankruptcy of the business. None of those things need rob us of joy because we know there’s a much bigger picture. Have a blessed day!
Posted on: Tue, 27 Jan 2015 13:46:03 +0000
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