Now what we're going to do is we're going to take a look for the next several weeks
at the letter of 1 John, 1 John chapter 1 verses 1 through 4.
Now if you are going to read 1 John, let's just say you want to go home and read it,
you've got to understand it doesn't read like an ordinary Pauline epistle.
Now Paul seems to go from point A to point B.
John doesn't go that way, it's sort of like he's going in a lot of circles, but it comes
back to this one point.
Because Jesus Christ came into this world flesh and blood, you are to have fellowship
with him and one another.
That is the gist of 1 John.
Now try to outline it, just try to think of that theme and the way he presents it over
and over again.
And that is something you and I need to hear today because of the place we find ourselves
in.
This world is not in the fellowship with God.
It is certainly not in fellowship with one another.
But this is part of the gospel message.
So let's see what God's word says to us this morning.
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.
The life appeared, we have seen it and testified to it and we proclaim to you the eternal life
which was with the Father and has appeared to us.
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.
We write this to make our joy complete.
Let's pray and ask God to bless what we have just heard.
Holy Spirit, we need your help this morning.
We need your help to take what John is going to say to us to heart, to seek fellowship
with you and with one another and for joy.
A joy that the world cannot understand.
So be with us now and help us because we are weak and we are weary and we need you.
I make this prayer in his name, amen.
If I were to ask you this question, what would you say?
What is the gospel?
What would you say?
I can tell you what some of you would say, especially if you went to Sunday school this
morning.
We talked about Christ.
You might say the cross.
You might say eternal life.
You might say the atonement.
You might say Jesus died.
All of that is very, very true.
I do not want you to think that I don't believe that.
That has a lot to do with the gospel.
I remember in a graduate class in religion at Florida State, one of the professors said,
the problem with Christianity today is we've got bloodless Christianity.
In other words, he was saying, no one's talking about the cross anymore.
That is part of Christianity.
But there's more.
There's a lot more.
That's what John is going to bring out this morning because he is saying to us what we
often leave out is this idea of fellowship, getting along with one another, getting along
with God, being in a relationship with him.
Here he teaches us about that.
If there is a person in the Bible who knew about fellowship with Jesus and with the
church, it's John.
He was one of the sons of Zebedee.
He says of James and John, they were the sons of thunder, which probably meant they had
a bit of a temper problem.
But the same John was the one who Jesus praised at times.
He is the one on the night he was betrayed was sitting with Jesus at his breast.
He is the one who was also rebuked because he and his brothers wanted to sit on the right
hand of God.
So this man knew about fellowship with Jesus Christ.
And now probably from the church in Ephesus, probably around ADAD, he is writing to his
fellow believers and he's saying, you know, if you really understood this Christianity,
you would want fellowship with God and you'd want fellowship with each other.
That's what he's saying.
I know there's some barriers when we say that.
There may be some who think, well, we just need as more intellectual doctrine.
Well, not against that, but there is more to the Christian faith than that.
We are made people who are designed to be in relationship with each other.
We are not designed to be a bunch of lone rangers.
For example, in 1 Corinthians 1-9, listen to what Paul says, God is faithful who has
called you into fellowship with his son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
And we also know he's called us into fellowship with one another.
We're the body of believers.
And yet what we've got to face in this world is a lot of individualism where people just
want to be on their own, do what they want to do with no concern for the body of Christ
or even fellowship with Christ.
But that's not the gospel.
So what we want to look at today is that fellowship, we want to look at the flesh, the bones and
the blood, the flesh, the bones and the blood of being in fellowship with Christ.
So let's start out now, talk about the flesh.
And what I'm going to begin with is the description that John gives of Jesus Christ.
He says he came in flesh and blood.
Now why would John want to focus in on that?
Tell you why.
Because there were people back then who did not believe that Jesus Christ came in flesh
and blood.
They thought Jesus, well, he appeared to be a man of flesh and blood.
But he really wasn't flesh and blood.
He was an ancient heresy.
And they believe that Jesus was sort of maybe a ghost-like figure.
But that is not what John says.
Today we have a modern version of that because we downplay the flesh and blood.
Back then they used to think the flesh was all evil.
It was bad.
God wouldn't have anything to do with fleshly people.
The modern Christian version of that is you go to heaven and you somehow like Casper,
the friendly ghost, floating around on clouds all day.
That is not the Christian message.
Christian message is about flesh and blood.
How did God create us with a body?
The Bible message here is that Jesus Christ came into this world as a babe of flesh and
blood.
He grew up to be a man of flesh and blood.
He is the real deal.
And why did this have to happen?
Because from all eternity God said, I'm going to redeem my people.
It's going to be like it was in Eden where I walked and talked with them.
And the way he was going to do that was to bring Jesus Christ into this world as a real
man because there had to be a flesh and blood atonement to make up for our imperfections
in the flesh and blood.
And so he did that.
So I want you to think about that.
When you think of Jesus, you've got to think of Jesus Christ when he was young.
He scraped his knee.
He sweated.
He understood pain.
He understood joy.
He understood the same temptations that you and I have.
And listen to what John is saying in these verses.
Notice how physical it is.
That which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and
our hands have touched.
John is giving his readers and you and I a firsthand account of his experience with
Jesus as one personally knew him.
They touched Jesus with their hands.
And I want you to think about after Jesus was crucified and rose, they touched his wounds.
They saw Jesus with their eyes.
They heard Jesus with their ears.
And now he's telling us that is the Lord that you have fellowship with.
And he wasn't just a man, God and man together.
And if you look at this, it says that which was from the beginning.
It's your mind is John one in the beginning was the word, the word was with God.
It's your mind is Genesis one one in the beginning.
God created the heavens and the earth.
It's telling us the eternal Son of God, the second person, the Trinity came into this
world and took on what we have flesh.
What is it saying John one?
The word became flesh and dwelt amongst us.
And we can go to chapter four verse two and listen to what it says.
This is how we can recognize the spirit of God.
Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come into the flesh is from God.
What we believe was an eyewitness account of people who engaged with a Christ who had
flesh and blood and scrapes and bruises just like you and I have.
And why should this be so important?
Let me tell you why it's important.
It's because God cares so much for his people that he said I'm going to enter into their
world, a world I create and God and humans were going to be joined together.
And that God man Jesus Christ would suffer like we do have the ailments that we do had
the colds and fevers that we knew all because he wanted to bring us back to Eden.
And one day we would be in the new heavens and the new earth as people of flesh and blood
not disembodied spirits floating around on clouds somewhere.
No wonder people don't want to go to heaven.
We make it too boring but a flesh and blood Christ came to redeem flesh and blood people
to bring us into a new heavens and new earth which will be perfect for people of flesh
and blood.
And we also have to understand here something.
We think of the redemption of Christ.
Think of it this way.
Do we say for God so loved the world that he sent an email?
For God so loved the world that he sent a text message.
For God so loved the world that he had a Zoom meeting with you.
No.
For God so loved the world that he said his only begotten son.
He showed up on the scene.
He was a real person in the flesh.
Don't ever forget it.
He's real just as you and I are real.
That's the flesh of our fellowship.
But also consider something else.
We've got to consider the bones.
The bones, that's the heart of our fellowship, that's you and I.
And I want you to look at exactly what he's saying here about the bones.
Now what do we say?
What's the old song?
The hip bone is connected to the thigh bone.
I don't know what the thigh bone is connected to, but it's connected to something.
You get the picture, right?
All right.
It's telling us here there's a connection between our fellow believers.
Look at verse three for instance.
Notice what he's saying here.
He's talking about the flesh and blood Jesus Christ, but look what it leads to.
We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us.
He's saying we need to be together.
We don't live apart from each other in the body of Christ.
Now there is a particular Greek word there, koinonia.
Back in this history of warring to Presbyterian church, you used to have what we call K groups.
We pay from that Greek word koinonia.
And that word can mean association, communion, fellowship, bonding, the group dynamics where
everyone is together on the same page.
If you work for a corporation, they've got all sorts of training things that you have
to go through to bond the group together.
You do that in the military to be one as a group.
And if you look in the Bible, I want to read you what their fellowship was like when you
think of our fellowship.
Listen to how the early churches described in Acts.
And all the believers were one in heart and mind.
No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything
they had.
And with great power, the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord
Jesus Christ, and God's grace was so powerfully at work in them all, that there was no needy
person among them.
And from time to time, those who owned land or houses sold them and brought the money
from the sales and put them at the apostles feet, and it was distributed to anyone who
had need.
That's fellowship.
And notice what it revolved around, the teaching, helping each other out.
They were a band of brothers.
Now I read a book, Band of Brothers, and I got to tell you there's one moving section
in there when it talked about how those men bonded together.
And it is a bond which can very rarely happen in life unless you struggle together.
And usually that only takes place in wartime.
But yet when I read the Bible, that's what Christians have.
Now the question is, why don't we have it?
Why is a lot of times our fellowship, why is it so superficial?
Why does it seem to revolve around sports?
Why does it seem to revolve around social issues?
Why can it even revolve around what people are wearing?
But I don't see that here.
I see something that's a little bit different.
It's life together.
That is what the incarnation of Christ leads to in first John, life together.
Now, fellowship in the Christian church is not just about hunting, football.
It's about something deep.
What's Christ doing in your life?
What's the Holy Spirit doing in your life?
What is spreading the gospel look like?
Who needs help?
Now we're getting closer to what Christian fellowship is about.
It's about those small groups.
It's about the Sunday school.
It's about the Wednesday night suppers.
And those Wednesday night suppers.
Sometimes people spill their guts.
And that's good.
We want them to spill their guts.
We want to pray for them because that's what it's about.
Now, we've got to think of a church like this.
Too often we think it's just a social club.
No, it's more like a lifeboat.
Now, what are you doing in a lifeboat?
Well, you're hopefully helping each other to survive because the Titanic just went down.
And you've got to keep going.
Well, I've got to tell you, the world doesn't like the Christian church.
The world does not like Christians.
Satan does not like you.
He's out to get you.
He's out to make you doubt your very faith in God.
And so who's going to help us?
The body of Christ will help us.
The bone structure, you could say, of the church, each other.
That's what we're here for.
That's what God wants from you as believers.
And do you think that somehow or another that becoming a Christian means that you're the
lone ranger for Jesus Christ?
Even the lone ranger had tanto.
Do you think fellowship in the body of Christ is an option?
Do you think you are being very holy when you can watch church at home and not protect
and participate in body life and be involved in the ministry of this church?
That's not what it's saying here.
That's not what was going on in Acts.
And yes, there's got to be fellowship with each other.
And we need to think about this for a moment.
How serious this is.
Because if you don't have fellowship with each other, do you really have fellowship
with God?
John says, how can you love God if you hate your brothers and sisters in Christ?
How can you have fellowship with the triune God if you have fellowship with each other?
Can't.
Because the bone structure of our fellowship is life together.
The flesh is Jesus Christ came to have fellowship with you.
The bone structure, each other.
But there's also the lifeblood.
And listen to what else it says here.
It talks about joy.
We write this for what purpose?
To make our joy complete.
And in some of your versions it may say you're joy.
But it's referring to the church overall.
There's an emotional element that runs through our fellowship together.
Now let me be honest.
I've been in churches just about all my life.
And often what is missing is joy.
There's a lot of anger.
That's a big emotion.
I go to press for carry meetings.
Lots of anger.
Not a lot of joy.
Lots of uptight people.
Right?
But this says joy.
Joy.
Gladness.
Happiness.
What's the mark of the spirit?
Love.
Joy.
Peace.
Patience.
Kindness.
Joy is a mark of the spirit.
Can you smile?
Martin Lloyd-Jones one time said this, the worst advertisement for Christianity as a Christian
has absolutely no joy.
Why would anyone want to join a bunch of believers who are always either angry or sad or the
worlds falling apart?
We know the world's falling apart.
What has happened to the joy?
Why joy?
Salvation.
You're bound for heaven.
This world's not going to last.
You've got an inheritance.
And you know, we worry about it's not going to be fun in heaven.
You're going to have your body's back.
You're going to live in a world that is a thousand times better than this and it can't
be taken away.
Our youth disappears.
I got a feeling one day you're going to have your body back and it's going to be like it
was in its prime.
Your heirs of the kingdom of God, you've won the lottery of life.
You're part of a group and a lot of people want to be part of something.
You can be part of a group, body of believers.
There was an English preacher, Martin Lloyd-Jones.
Everyone liked Martin Lloyd-Jones.
This is what he wrote about this passage.
New Testament joy is something quite particular that cannot be explained.
It is equality that belongs to the Christian life in its essence.
The world has never seen anyone who knew joy as our Lord knew it and yet he was a man of
sorrows acquainted with grief.
How's your joy?
Joy that you are the chosen of God.
Joy that is grace resides upon you.
Joy that you're going someplace that's better.
That's the joy we have.
What is salvation?
Salvation is that Christ died for your sins but now you have fellowship with him and with
each other.
Our bonding, our oneness, our joy comes from Christ.
Don't ignore the body.
Don't ignore the flesh.
Don't ignore the blood that should flow through our hearts.
It's a belief.
Let's pray.
Our Heavenly Father, we ask now that you will build us as the body of faith.
Strengthen us and help us to know the joy that comes from fellowshiping with a Jesus
Christ who is of flesh and blood and also one who dwells in our midst now.
Give us that joy.
A joy unspeakable.
There are proof.
Amen.
Our next hymn.