1 John 1:1-4 Fellowship

1 John 1:1-4 (Evangelical Heritage Version)

1That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have observed and our hands have touched regarding the Word of Life—2the life appeared, and we have seen it. We testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. 3We are proclaiming what we have seen and heard also to you, so that you may have fellowship with us. Our fellowship is with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ. 4We write these things to you so that our joy may be complete.

Fellowship

I.

A political Messiah. That, it would seem, is what everyone had been looking for before Good Friday. It was, perhaps, the religious leaders who best understood the words Jesus had been speaking throughout his earthly ministry. Maybe that’s a shocking thing to say, but they were the ones who really took Jesus at his word. They didn’t want the kind of Messiah Jesus was speaking about—such a person would represent a spiritual leader, not a political one.

While they didn’t believe that Jesus was the Messiah, political or spiritual, his ongoing rhetoric was a threat to their status as the power base of the religious establishment. They didn’t want that. They couldn’t tolerate that. As long as Jesus was alive, his teachings would continue to undermine them and their power and their status. He had to go.

Good Friday happened, and the threat from Jesus was well and truly dealt with. So they believed. The Roman soldiers were very efficient. The death of Jesus is one of the most certain and established facts in all human history. Crucifixion never left anyone alive. To be absolutely, 100% certain, a Roman soldier thrust his spear into Jesus’ side. They knew from fighting exactly where to make a lethal thrust—right into the vital organs. Before they released Jesus’ body for burial they made absolutely sure he was dead.

While the four gospels record the fact that Jesus told his disciples clearly that he would rise again after three days, they didn’t understand what he meant. But the actions of the religious establishment after Jesus died showed that they understood. It was Jesus’ enemies who had demanded the guard posted by the rock rolled in front of the tomb. They were afraid that the disciples would steal the body and make unfounded claims of a resurrection.

But John and the rest of the Eleven showed their own lack of understanding by what they were doing on Resurrection Sunday. John recorded it in today’s Gospel. Ten out of the Eleven locked themselves in a room because they were afraid the religious leaders would come after them to kill them.

They were frightened out of their wits. They had thought Jesus was the Messiah, but they were looking for the same kind of political Messiah everyone was looking for back then. They wanted a political Jesus. His death shattered their hopes. It shattered their expectations. Their defender was gone, and now their lives were at risk, too.

II.

The political Jesus is still popular. Much of Christianity is looking for Jesus to come at his Second Coming and establish a new earthly kingdom. Christians will be vindicated. Jesus will reign, and believers will no longer face the same kind of scoffing and scorn directed at his followers. Only days before Easter I heard a commentator talking about the events in Israel and the plans of the Jewish people. He said that Christians ought to pray for certain sacrifices to take place and certain things to happen because that would usher in the kingdom Jesus promised.

Except that he didn’t. These words of Jesus were directed to Pontius Pilate, but I’m sure he didn’t stutter, he said them very clearly: “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36, EHV). His words still apply, millennia later. His kingdom is still not of this world. It’s shocking how many Christians still look for a political Jesus when he comes the second time around.

Even many Christians who don’t direct their attention at a political kingdom to come still look for an earthly Jesus. They are looking for personal success in this life, or personal comfort. They want freedom from bill collectors and serious illnesses. Jesus’ miracles while he was on earth show that health is not beyond his power, so they begin to think that if a person just believes firmly enough, Jesus will take away any and every physical ailment.

Even those modern-day Christians who understand that Jesus came for spiritual reasons often cower behind locked doors, just like the Eleven. Wearing your faith on your sleeve will surely draw some funny looks, if not some outright sneers. It’s far easier to be the coward and keep your faith private. After all, politics and religion are the two subjects we are told most firmly and regularly to avoid.

III.

“That which was” (1 John 1:1, EHV). So John begins his First Letter and today’s Second Reading. Hindsight is 20-20. Those events of Holy Week had not been fantasy—they really happened.

“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have observed and our hands have touched regarding the Word of Life—2the life appeared, and we have seen it” (1 John 1:1-2, EHV). John piles up the personal experiences of himself and his fellow disciples.

The days and weeks after Resurrection Sunday the eyes of the Eleven and other followers of Jesus had been truly opened. Now they understood. John could look back with clarity.

The religious leaders had understood Jesus’ words, but they didn’t believe them. That’s why they wanted to shut things down as quickly and efficiently as possible. John and the others didn’t understand—at first.

But Jesus appeared in that locked room. He didn’t open the locked door and come in—he was just there. They saw with their own eyes; they saw the marks from the nails, and the gash in his side. Their hands—all of them, at one time or another, not just Thomas—touched the risen Lord.

“We testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us” (1 John 1:2, EHV). When Jesus came to the Eleven behind locked doors he announced to them: “peace.” He filled them with peace. Not the relief of stress that came because of their fear of the Jews, but a greater peace. Jesus announced to them the peace of eternal life, which he had achieved for them with his death on the cross.

“Our fellowship is with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:3, EHV). The peace Jesus announced in the room behind locked doors was a between these frightened, cowardly, disciples, and God—a peace that brought them into fellowship with God, himself. Fellowship with God is real peace.

IV.

“We are proclaiming what we have seen and heard also to you, so that you may have fellowship with us. Our fellowship is with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ” (1 John 1:3, EHV).

Remember Peter, who lurked in the shadows at Jesus’ trial? No sooner did he slink up to the burn barrel to warm his hands than he was confronted about being a follower of Jesus. To afraid to admit it, he denied ever knowing Jesus, just as Jesus had predicted he would. The fellowship Jesus won on the cross isn’t just fellowship for the first cowardly followers of Jesus, like Peter. It wasn’t just for the Eleven who were so scared they refused to meet out in the open, but locked the doors. John said that same fellowship was for his readers, too—both then and now.

Imagine the Eleven after Jesus left the locked room. They must have looked around at the rest of those standing there and realized that the fellowship they had with God was a shared fellowship. These Eleven, and whoever else might have been in the room those two Sundays, shared a deep bond—the bond of Christian faith in Jesus.

John wrote so he could enfold us within the fellowship of believers. This is why we choose for our form of worship a liturgical service. The liturgy links our hearts and hands and voices with believers of the past. We use the very words they use in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs that make up our worship service. We are linked by faith in Jesus to believers of all times and places.

“We write these things to you so that our joy may be complete” (1 John 1:4, EHV).