1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:06,720 Now what we're going to do is we're going to take a look for the next several weeks 2 00:00:06,720 --> 00:00:16,440 at the letter of 1 John, 1 John chapter 1 verses 1 through 4. 3 00:00:16,440 --> 00:00:24,080 Now if you are going to read 1 John, let's just say you want to go home and read it, 4 00:00:24,080 --> 00:00:29,960 you've got to understand it doesn't read like an ordinary Pauline epistle. 5 00:00:29,960 --> 00:00:34,040 Now Paul seems to go from point A to point B. 6 00:00:34,040 --> 00:00:39,240 John doesn't go that way, it's sort of like he's going in a lot of circles, but it comes 7 00:00:39,240 --> 00:00:42,520 back to this one point. 8 00:00:42,520 --> 00:00:51,400 Because Jesus Christ came into this world flesh and blood, you are to have fellowship 9 00:00:51,400 --> 00:00:53,600 with him and one another. 10 00:00:53,600 --> 00:00:57,480 That is the gist of 1 John. 11 00:00:57,480 --> 00:01:03,120 Now try to outline it, just try to think of that theme and the way he presents it over 12 00:01:03,120 --> 00:01:05,120 and over again. 13 00:01:05,120 --> 00:01:11,960 And that is something you and I need to hear today because of the place we find ourselves 14 00:01:11,960 --> 00:01:12,960 in. 15 00:01:12,960 --> 00:01:16,440 This world is not in the fellowship with God. 16 00:01:16,440 --> 00:01:21,200 It is certainly not in fellowship with one another. 17 00:01:21,200 --> 00:01:25,720 But this is part of the gospel message. 18 00:01:25,720 --> 00:01:32,960 So let's see what God's word says to us this morning. 19 00:01:32,960 --> 00:01:40,400 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, 20 00:01:40,400 --> 00:01:47,440 which we have looked at and our hands have touched, this we proclaim concerning the word 21 00:01:47,440 --> 00:01:49,120 of life. 22 00:01:49,120 --> 00:01:59,400 The life appeared, we have seen it and testified to it and we proclaim to you the eternal life 23 00:01:59,400 --> 00:02:05,560 which was with the Father and has appeared to us. 24 00:02:05,560 --> 00:02:10,720 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard so that you also may have fellowship with 25 00:02:10,720 --> 00:02:17,800 us and our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. 26 00:02:17,800 --> 00:02:22,720 We write this to make our joy complete. 27 00:02:22,720 --> 00:02:28,120 Let's pray and ask God to bless what we have just heard. 28 00:02:28,120 --> 00:02:32,640 Holy Spirit, we need your help this morning. 29 00:02:32,640 --> 00:02:41,040 We need your help to take what John is going to say to us to heart, to seek fellowship 30 00:02:41,040 --> 00:02:45,000 with you and with one another and for joy. 31 00:02:45,000 --> 00:02:49,560 A joy that the world cannot understand. 32 00:02:49,560 --> 00:02:59,040 So be with us now and help us because we are weak and we are weary and we need you. 33 00:02:59,040 --> 00:03:03,800 I make this prayer in his name, amen. 34 00:03:03,800 --> 00:03:08,280 If I were to ask you this question, what would you say? 35 00:03:08,280 --> 00:03:10,760 What is the gospel? 36 00:03:10,760 --> 00:03:13,440 What would you say? 37 00:03:13,440 --> 00:03:17,080 I can tell you what some of you would say, especially if you went to Sunday school this 38 00:03:17,080 --> 00:03:18,080 morning. 39 00:03:18,080 --> 00:03:21,320 We talked about Christ. 40 00:03:21,320 --> 00:03:24,280 You might say the cross. 41 00:03:24,280 --> 00:03:27,160 You might say eternal life. 42 00:03:27,160 --> 00:03:29,920 You might say the atonement. 43 00:03:29,920 --> 00:03:32,440 You might say Jesus died. 44 00:03:32,440 --> 00:03:35,640 All of that is very, very true. 45 00:03:35,640 --> 00:03:38,880 I do not want you to think that I don't believe that. 46 00:03:38,880 --> 00:03:41,200 That has a lot to do with the gospel. 47 00:03:41,200 --> 00:03:46,720 I remember in a graduate class in religion at Florida State, one of the professors said, 48 00:03:46,720 --> 00:03:51,440 the problem with Christianity today is we've got bloodless Christianity. 49 00:03:51,440 --> 00:03:56,680 In other words, he was saying, no one's talking about the cross anymore. 50 00:03:56,680 --> 00:03:59,480 That is part of Christianity. 51 00:03:59,480 --> 00:04:01,720 But there's more. 52 00:04:01,720 --> 00:04:03,720 There's a lot more. 53 00:04:03,720 --> 00:04:09,760 That's what John is going to bring out this morning because he is saying to us what we 54 00:04:09,760 --> 00:04:18,080 often leave out is this idea of fellowship, getting along with one another, getting along 55 00:04:18,080 --> 00:04:24,320 with God, being in a relationship with him. 56 00:04:24,320 --> 00:04:26,680 Here he teaches us about that. 57 00:04:26,680 --> 00:04:30,920 If there is a person in the Bible who knew about fellowship with Jesus and with the 58 00:04:30,920 --> 00:04:33,880 church, it's John. 59 00:04:33,880 --> 00:04:37,600 He was one of the sons of Zebedee. 60 00:04:37,600 --> 00:04:44,120 He says of James and John, they were the sons of thunder, which probably meant they had 61 00:04:44,120 --> 00:04:46,800 a bit of a temper problem. 62 00:04:46,800 --> 00:04:51,760 But the same John was the one who Jesus praised at times. 63 00:04:51,760 --> 00:04:58,160 He is the one on the night he was betrayed was sitting with Jesus at his breast. 64 00:04:58,160 --> 00:05:03,800 He is the one who was also rebuked because he and his brothers wanted to sit on the right 65 00:05:03,800 --> 00:05:06,280 hand of God. 66 00:05:06,280 --> 00:05:11,040 So this man knew about fellowship with Jesus Christ. 67 00:05:11,040 --> 00:05:18,240 And now probably from the church in Ephesus, probably around ADAD, he is writing to his 68 00:05:18,240 --> 00:05:26,360 fellow believers and he's saying, you know, if you really understood this Christianity, 69 00:05:26,360 --> 00:05:31,480 you would want fellowship with God and you'd want fellowship with each other. 70 00:05:31,480 --> 00:05:33,640 That's what he's saying. 71 00:05:33,640 --> 00:05:36,320 I know there's some barriers when we say that. 72 00:05:36,320 --> 00:05:42,320 There may be some who think, well, we just need as more intellectual doctrine. 73 00:05:42,320 --> 00:05:49,120 Well, not against that, but there is more to the Christian faith than that. 74 00:05:49,120 --> 00:05:54,920 We are made people who are designed to be in relationship with each other. 75 00:05:54,920 --> 00:05:59,200 We are not designed to be a bunch of lone rangers. 76 00:05:59,200 --> 00:06:04,600 For example, in 1 Corinthians 1-9, listen to what Paul says, God is faithful who has 77 00:06:04,600 --> 00:06:11,560 called you into fellowship with his son, Jesus Christ our Lord. 78 00:06:11,560 --> 00:06:16,400 And we also know he's called us into fellowship with one another. 79 00:06:16,400 --> 00:06:19,760 We're the body of believers. 80 00:06:19,760 --> 00:06:24,560 And yet what we've got to face in this world is a lot of individualism where people just 81 00:06:24,560 --> 00:06:32,840 want to be on their own, do what they want to do with no concern for the body of Christ 82 00:06:32,840 --> 00:06:37,000 or even fellowship with Christ. 83 00:06:37,000 --> 00:06:39,360 But that's not the gospel. 84 00:06:39,360 --> 00:06:47,720 So what we want to look at today is that fellowship, we want to look at the flesh, the bones and 85 00:06:47,720 --> 00:06:53,880 the blood, the flesh, the bones and the blood of being in fellowship with Christ. 86 00:06:53,880 --> 00:06:57,480 So let's start out now, talk about the flesh. 87 00:06:57,480 --> 00:07:05,120 And what I'm going to begin with is the description that John gives of Jesus Christ. 88 00:07:05,120 --> 00:07:07,880 He says he came in flesh and blood. 89 00:07:07,880 --> 00:07:14,800 Now why would John want to focus in on that? 90 00:07:14,800 --> 00:07:16,400 Tell you why. 91 00:07:16,400 --> 00:07:21,360 Because there were people back then who did not believe that Jesus Christ came in flesh 92 00:07:21,360 --> 00:07:23,080 and blood. 93 00:07:23,080 --> 00:07:31,960 They thought Jesus, well, he appeared to be a man of flesh and blood. 94 00:07:31,960 --> 00:07:34,560 But he really wasn't flesh and blood. 95 00:07:34,560 --> 00:07:37,480 He was an ancient heresy. 96 00:07:37,480 --> 00:07:43,640 And they believe that Jesus was sort of maybe a ghost-like figure. 97 00:07:43,640 --> 00:07:47,120 But that is not what John says. 98 00:07:47,120 --> 00:07:53,240 Today we have a modern version of that because we downplay the flesh and blood. 99 00:07:53,240 --> 00:07:56,680 Back then they used to think the flesh was all evil. 100 00:07:56,680 --> 00:07:58,600 It was bad. 101 00:07:58,600 --> 00:08:03,160 God wouldn't have anything to do with fleshly people. 102 00:08:03,160 --> 00:08:07,360 The modern Christian version of that is you go to heaven and you somehow like Casper, 103 00:08:07,360 --> 00:08:11,000 the friendly ghost, floating around on clouds all day. 104 00:08:11,000 --> 00:08:13,400 That is not the Christian message. 105 00:08:13,400 --> 00:08:15,880 Christian message is about flesh and blood. 106 00:08:15,880 --> 00:08:19,560 How did God create us with a body? 107 00:08:19,560 --> 00:08:27,160 The Bible message here is that Jesus Christ came into this world as a babe of flesh and 108 00:08:27,160 --> 00:08:28,160 blood. 109 00:08:28,160 --> 00:08:31,360 He grew up to be a man of flesh and blood. 110 00:08:31,360 --> 00:08:34,800 He is the real deal. 111 00:08:34,800 --> 00:08:37,280 And why did this have to happen? 112 00:08:37,280 --> 00:08:42,680 Because from all eternity God said, I'm going to redeem my people. 113 00:08:42,680 --> 00:08:47,280 It's going to be like it was in Eden where I walked and talked with them. 114 00:08:47,280 --> 00:08:52,200 And the way he was going to do that was to bring Jesus Christ into this world as a real 115 00:08:52,200 --> 00:08:57,960 man because there had to be a flesh and blood atonement to make up for our imperfections 116 00:08:57,960 --> 00:08:59,400 in the flesh and blood. 117 00:08:59,400 --> 00:09:01,960 And so he did that. 118 00:09:01,960 --> 00:09:02,960 So I want you to think about that. 119 00:09:02,960 --> 00:09:06,840 When you think of Jesus, you've got to think of Jesus Christ when he was young. 120 00:09:06,840 --> 00:09:09,800 He scraped his knee. 121 00:09:09,800 --> 00:09:11,720 He sweated. 122 00:09:11,720 --> 00:09:13,040 He understood pain. 123 00:09:13,040 --> 00:09:15,200 He understood joy. 124 00:09:15,200 --> 00:09:20,480 He understood the same temptations that you and I have. 125 00:09:20,480 --> 00:09:26,000 And listen to what John is saying in these verses. 126 00:09:26,000 --> 00:09:31,080 Notice how physical it is. 127 00:09:31,080 --> 00:09:37,480 That which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and 128 00:09:37,480 --> 00:09:41,440 our hands have touched. 129 00:09:41,440 --> 00:09:52,000 John is giving his readers and you and I a firsthand account of his experience with 130 00:09:52,000 --> 00:09:59,240 Jesus as one personally knew him. 131 00:09:59,240 --> 00:10:02,120 They touched Jesus with their hands. 132 00:10:02,120 --> 00:10:09,960 And I want you to think about after Jesus was crucified and rose, they touched his wounds. 133 00:10:09,960 --> 00:10:12,400 They saw Jesus with their eyes. 134 00:10:12,400 --> 00:10:16,400 They heard Jesus with their ears. 135 00:10:16,400 --> 00:10:25,600 And now he's telling us that is the Lord that you have fellowship with. 136 00:10:25,600 --> 00:10:31,160 And he wasn't just a man, God and man together. 137 00:10:31,160 --> 00:10:35,600 And if you look at this, it says that which was from the beginning. 138 00:10:35,600 --> 00:10:40,120 It's your mind is John one in the beginning was the word, the word was with God. 139 00:10:40,120 --> 00:10:42,880 It's your mind is Genesis one one in the beginning. 140 00:10:42,880 --> 00:10:45,840 God created the heavens and the earth. 141 00:10:45,840 --> 00:10:50,720 It's telling us the eternal Son of God, the second person, the Trinity came into this 142 00:10:50,720 --> 00:10:55,120 world and took on what we have flesh. 143 00:10:55,120 --> 00:10:59,080 What is it saying John one? 144 00:10:59,080 --> 00:11:07,400 The word became flesh and dwelt amongst us. 145 00:11:07,400 --> 00:11:13,400 And we can go to chapter four verse two and listen to what it says. 146 00:11:13,400 --> 00:11:16,720 This is how we can recognize the spirit of God. 147 00:11:16,720 --> 00:11:25,680 Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come into the flesh is from God. 148 00:11:25,680 --> 00:11:33,920 What we believe was an eyewitness account of people who engaged with a Christ who had 149 00:11:33,920 --> 00:11:45,440 flesh and blood and scrapes and bruises just like you and I have. 150 00:11:45,440 --> 00:11:47,600 And why should this be so important? 151 00:11:47,600 --> 00:11:49,920 Let me tell you why it's important. 152 00:11:49,920 --> 00:11:57,080 It's because God cares so much for his people that he said I'm going to enter into their 153 00:11:57,080 --> 00:12:08,200 world, a world I create and God and humans were going to be joined together. 154 00:12:08,200 --> 00:12:17,000 And that God man Jesus Christ would suffer like we do have the ailments that we do had 155 00:12:17,000 --> 00:12:28,200 the colds and fevers that we knew all because he wanted to bring us back to Eden. 156 00:12:28,200 --> 00:12:35,200 And one day we would be in the new heavens and the new earth as people of flesh and blood 157 00:12:35,200 --> 00:12:40,680 not disembodied spirits floating around on clouds somewhere. 158 00:12:40,680 --> 00:12:43,360 No wonder people don't want to go to heaven. 159 00:12:43,360 --> 00:12:49,920 We make it too boring but a flesh and blood Christ came to redeem flesh and blood people 160 00:12:49,920 --> 00:12:55,320 to bring us into a new heavens and new earth which will be perfect for people of flesh 161 00:12:55,320 --> 00:12:57,480 and blood. 162 00:12:57,480 --> 00:13:01,440 And we also have to understand here something. 163 00:13:01,440 --> 00:13:03,800 We think of the redemption of Christ. 164 00:13:03,800 --> 00:13:05,080 Think of it this way. 165 00:13:05,080 --> 00:13:11,320 Do we say for God so loved the world that he sent an email? 166 00:13:11,320 --> 00:13:16,880 For God so loved the world that he sent a text message. 167 00:13:16,880 --> 00:13:22,480 For God so loved the world that he had a Zoom meeting with you. 168 00:13:22,480 --> 00:13:24,480 No. 169 00:13:24,480 --> 00:13:29,920 For God so loved the world that he said his only begotten son. 170 00:13:29,920 --> 00:13:32,480 He showed up on the scene. 171 00:13:32,480 --> 00:13:36,600 He was a real person in the flesh. 172 00:13:36,600 --> 00:13:38,760 Don't ever forget it. 173 00:13:38,760 --> 00:13:42,560 He's real just as you and I are real. 174 00:13:42,560 --> 00:13:45,520 That's the flesh of our fellowship. 175 00:13:45,520 --> 00:13:47,040 But also consider something else. 176 00:13:47,040 --> 00:13:50,800 We've got to consider the bones. 177 00:13:50,800 --> 00:13:56,320 The bones, that's the heart of our fellowship, that's you and I. 178 00:13:56,320 --> 00:14:02,960 And I want you to look at exactly what he's saying here about the bones. 179 00:14:02,960 --> 00:14:03,960 Now what do we say? 180 00:14:03,960 --> 00:14:05,840 What's the old song? 181 00:14:05,840 --> 00:14:08,760 The hip bone is connected to the thigh bone. 182 00:14:08,760 --> 00:14:11,960 I don't know what the thigh bone is connected to, but it's connected to something. 183 00:14:11,960 --> 00:14:13,960 You get the picture, right? 184 00:14:13,960 --> 00:14:15,440 All right. 185 00:14:15,440 --> 00:14:19,080 It's telling us here there's a connection between our fellow believers. 186 00:14:19,080 --> 00:14:21,400 Look at verse three for instance. 187 00:14:21,400 --> 00:14:22,400 Notice what he's saying here. 188 00:14:22,400 --> 00:14:27,480 He's talking about the flesh and blood Jesus Christ, but look what it leads to. 189 00:14:27,480 --> 00:14:39,600 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us. 190 00:14:39,600 --> 00:14:43,960 He's saying we need to be together. 191 00:14:43,960 --> 00:14:48,440 We don't live apart from each other in the body of Christ. 192 00:14:48,440 --> 00:14:52,080 Now there is a particular Greek word there, koinonia. 193 00:14:52,080 --> 00:14:57,440 Back in this history of warring to Presbyterian church, you used to have what we call K groups. 194 00:14:57,440 --> 00:15:00,720 We pay from that Greek word koinonia. 195 00:15:00,720 --> 00:15:13,640 And that word can mean association, communion, fellowship, bonding, the group dynamics where 196 00:15:13,640 --> 00:15:16,560 everyone is together on the same page. 197 00:15:16,560 --> 00:15:22,200 If you work for a corporation, they've got all sorts of training things that you have 198 00:15:22,200 --> 00:15:25,200 to go through to bond the group together. 199 00:15:25,200 --> 00:15:30,640 You do that in the military to be one as a group. 200 00:15:30,640 --> 00:15:36,000 And if you look in the Bible, I want to read you what their fellowship was like when you 201 00:15:36,000 --> 00:15:37,960 think of our fellowship. 202 00:15:37,960 --> 00:15:43,160 Listen to how the early churches described in Acts. 203 00:15:43,160 --> 00:15:48,480 And all the believers were one in heart and mind. 204 00:15:48,480 --> 00:15:54,000 No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything 205 00:15:54,000 --> 00:15:55,440 they had. 206 00:15:55,440 --> 00:16:00,160 And with great power, the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord 207 00:16:00,160 --> 00:16:06,360 Jesus Christ, and God's grace was so powerfully at work in them all, that there was no needy 208 00:16:06,360 --> 00:16:08,720 person among them. 209 00:16:08,720 --> 00:16:13,560 And from time to time, those who owned land or houses sold them and brought the money 210 00:16:13,560 --> 00:16:19,040 from the sales and put them at the apostles feet, and it was distributed to anyone who 211 00:16:19,040 --> 00:16:21,440 had need. 212 00:16:21,440 --> 00:16:23,200 That's fellowship. 213 00:16:23,200 --> 00:16:30,120 And notice what it revolved around, the teaching, helping each other out. 214 00:16:30,120 --> 00:16:34,280 They were a band of brothers. 215 00:16:34,280 --> 00:16:38,320 Now I read a book, Band of Brothers, and I got to tell you there's one moving section 216 00:16:38,320 --> 00:16:45,000 in there when it talked about how those men bonded together. 217 00:16:45,000 --> 00:16:54,440 And it is a bond which can very rarely happen in life unless you struggle together. 218 00:16:54,440 --> 00:16:57,880 And usually that only takes place in wartime. 219 00:16:57,880 --> 00:17:02,840 But yet when I read the Bible, that's what Christians have. 220 00:17:02,840 --> 00:17:08,520 Now the question is, why don't we have it? 221 00:17:08,520 --> 00:17:14,520 Why is a lot of times our fellowship, why is it so superficial? 222 00:17:14,520 --> 00:17:19,040 Why does it seem to revolve around sports? 223 00:17:19,040 --> 00:17:24,160 Why does it seem to revolve around social issues? 224 00:17:24,160 --> 00:17:30,960 Why can it even revolve around what people are wearing? 225 00:17:30,960 --> 00:17:32,920 But I don't see that here. 226 00:17:32,920 --> 00:17:36,000 I see something that's a little bit different. 227 00:17:36,000 --> 00:17:38,000 It's life together. 228 00:17:38,000 --> 00:17:49,200 That is what the incarnation of Christ leads to in first John, life together. 229 00:17:49,200 --> 00:17:55,440 Now, fellowship in the Christian church is not just about hunting, football. 230 00:17:55,440 --> 00:18:01,040 It's about something deep. 231 00:18:01,040 --> 00:18:05,880 What's Christ doing in your life? 232 00:18:05,880 --> 00:18:10,320 What's the Holy Spirit doing in your life? 233 00:18:10,320 --> 00:18:13,880 What is spreading the gospel look like? 234 00:18:13,880 --> 00:18:18,200 Who needs help? 235 00:18:18,200 --> 00:18:23,760 Now we're getting closer to what Christian fellowship is about. 236 00:18:23,760 --> 00:18:26,600 It's about those small groups. 237 00:18:26,600 --> 00:18:28,280 It's about the Sunday school. 238 00:18:28,280 --> 00:18:31,520 It's about the Wednesday night suppers. 239 00:18:31,520 --> 00:18:35,160 And those Wednesday night suppers. 240 00:18:35,160 --> 00:18:37,360 Sometimes people spill their guts. 241 00:18:37,360 --> 00:18:39,040 And that's good. 242 00:18:39,040 --> 00:18:40,880 We want them to spill their guts. 243 00:18:40,880 --> 00:18:45,160 We want to pray for them because that's what it's about. 244 00:18:45,160 --> 00:18:48,120 Now, we've got to think of a church like this. 245 00:18:48,120 --> 00:18:50,080 Too often we think it's just a social club. 246 00:18:50,080 --> 00:18:51,880 No, it's more like a lifeboat. 247 00:18:51,880 --> 00:18:54,720 Now, what are you doing in a lifeboat? 248 00:18:54,720 --> 00:19:02,240 Well, you're hopefully helping each other to survive because the Titanic just went down. 249 00:19:02,240 --> 00:19:03,680 And you've got to keep going. 250 00:19:03,680 --> 00:19:07,240 Well, I've got to tell you, the world doesn't like the Christian church. 251 00:19:07,240 --> 00:19:09,280 The world does not like Christians. 252 00:19:09,280 --> 00:19:11,840 Satan does not like you. 253 00:19:11,840 --> 00:19:13,320 He's out to get you. 254 00:19:13,320 --> 00:19:17,840 He's out to make you doubt your very faith in God. 255 00:19:17,840 --> 00:19:19,800 And so who's going to help us? 256 00:19:19,800 --> 00:19:22,080 The body of Christ will help us. 257 00:19:22,080 --> 00:19:26,800 The bone structure, you could say, of the church, each other. 258 00:19:26,800 --> 00:19:30,840 That's what we're here for. 259 00:19:30,840 --> 00:19:35,600 That's what God wants from you as believers. 260 00:19:35,600 --> 00:19:39,560 And do you think that somehow or another that becoming a Christian means that you're the 261 00:19:39,560 --> 00:19:42,680 lone ranger for Jesus Christ? 262 00:19:42,680 --> 00:19:46,200 Even the lone ranger had tanto. 263 00:19:46,200 --> 00:19:53,040 Do you think fellowship in the body of Christ is an option? 264 00:19:53,040 --> 00:20:00,800 Do you think you are being very holy when you can watch church at home and not protect 265 00:20:00,800 --> 00:20:11,200 and participate in body life and be involved in the ministry of this church? 266 00:20:11,200 --> 00:20:15,600 That's not what it's saying here. 267 00:20:15,600 --> 00:20:19,680 That's not what was going on in Acts. 268 00:20:19,680 --> 00:20:25,560 And yes, there's got to be fellowship with each other. 269 00:20:25,560 --> 00:20:27,640 And we need to think about this for a moment. 270 00:20:27,640 --> 00:20:29,560 How serious this is. 271 00:20:29,560 --> 00:20:34,720 Because if you don't have fellowship with each other, do you really have fellowship 272 00:20:34,720 --> 00:20:38,440 with God? 273 00:20:38,440 --> 00:20:45,600 John says, how can you love God if you hate your brothers and sisters in Christ? 274 00:20:45,600 --> 00:20:52,360 How can you have fellowship with the triune God if you have fellowship with each other? 275 00:20:52,360 --> 00:20:53,560 Can't. 276 00:20:53,560 --> 00:20:57,680 Because the bone structure of our fellowship is life together. 277 00:20:57,680 --> 00:21:02,120 The flesh is Jesus Christ came to have fellowship with you. 278 00:21:02,120 --> 00:21:06,440 The bone structure, each other. 279 00:21:06,440 --> 00:21:09,720 But there's also the lifeblood. 280 00:21:09,720 --> 00:21:13,000 And listen to what else it says here. 281 00:21:13,000 --> 00:21:17,600 It talks about joy. 282 00:21:17,600 --> 00:21:23,400 We write this for what purpose? 283 00:21:23,400 --> 00:21:27,040 To make our joy complete. 284 00:21:27,040 --> 00:21:29,880 And in some of your versions it may say you're joy. 285 00:21:29,880 --> 00:21:34,360 But it's referring to the church overall. 286 00:21:34,360 --> 00:21:37,880 There's an emotional element that runs through our fellowship together. 287 00:21:37,880 --> 00:21:40,800 Now let me be honest. 288 00:21:40,800 --> 00:21:44,720 I've been in churches just about all my life. 289 00:21:44,720 --> 00:21:48,440 And often what is missing is joy. 290 00:21:48,440 --> 00:21:49,440 There's a lot of anger. 291 00:21:49,440 --> 00:21:52,280 That's a big emotion. 292 00:21:52,280 --> 00:21:54,520 I go to press for carry meetings. 293 00:21:54,520 --> 00:21:55,520 Lots of anger. 294 00:21:55,520 --> 00:21:56,520 Not a lot of joy. 295 00:21:56,520 --> 00:21:58,400 Lots of uptight people. 296 00:21:58,400 --> 00:21:59,400 Right? 297 00:21:59,400 --> 00:22:02,480 But this says joy. 298 00:22:02,480 --> 00:22:03,480 Joy. 299 00:22:03,480 --> 00:22:04,480 Gladness. 300 00:22:04,480 --> 00:22:05,480 Happiness. 301 00:22:05,480 --> 00:22:11,960 What's the mark of the spirit? 302 00:22:11,960 --> 00:22:12,960 Love. 303 00:22:12,960 --> 00:22:13,960 Joy. 304 00:22:13,960 --> 00:22:14,960 Peace. 305 00:22:14,960 --> 00:22:15,960 Patience. 306 00:22:15,960 --> 00:22:16,960 Kindness. 307 00:22:16,960 --> 00:22:23,160 Joy is a mark of the spirit. 308 00:22:23,160 --> 00:22:25,760 Can you smile? 309 00:22:25,760 --> 00:22:32,000 Martin Lloyd-Jones one time said this, the worst advertisement for Christianity as a Christian 310 00:22:32,000 --> 00:22:33,520 has absolutely no joy. 311 00:22:33,520 --> 00:22:40,680 Why would anyone want to join a bunch of believers who are always either angry or sad or the 312 00:22:40,680 --> 00:22:41,680 worlds falling apart? 313 00:22:41,680 --> 00:22:45,680 We know the world's falling apart. 314 00:22:45,680 --> 00:22:48,960 What has happened to the joy? 315 00:22:48,960 --> 00:22:50,960 Why joy? 316 00:22:50,960 --> 00:22:53,640 Salvation. 317 00:22:53,640 --> 00:22:55,680 You're bound for heaven. 318 00:22:55,680 --> 00:22:57,400 This world's not going to last. 319 00:22:57,400 --> 00:22:58,920 You've got an inheritance. 320 00:22:58,920 --> 00:23:02,800 And you know, we worry about it's not going to be fun in heaven. 321 00:23:02,800 --> 00:23:05,760 You're going to have your body's back. 322 00:23:05,760 --> 00:23:10,720 You're going to live in a world that is a thousand times better than this and it can't 323 00:23:10,720 --> 00:23:13,960 be taken away. 324 00:23:13,960 --> 00:23:16,480 Our youth disappears. 325 00:23:16,480 --> 00:23:20,600 I got a feeling one day you're going to have your body back and it's going to be like it 326 00:23:20,600 --> 00:23:24,280 was in its prime. 327 00:23:24,280 --> 00:23:31,640 Your heirs of the kingdom of God, you've won the lottery of life. 328 00:23:31,640 --> 00:23:37,600 You're part of a group and a lot of people want to be part of something. 329 00:23:37,600 --> 00:23:43,000 You can be part of a group, body of believers. 330 00:23:43,000 --> 00:23:47,200 There was an English preacher, Martin Lloyd-Jones. 331 00:23:47,200 --> 00:23:48,200 Everyone liked Martin Lloyd-Jones. 332 00:23:48,200 --> 00:23:51,000 This is what he wrote about this passage. 333 00:23:51,000 --> 00:23:58,560 New Testament joy is something quite particular that cannot be explained. 334 00:23:58,560 --> 00:24:04,240 It is equality that belongs to the Christian life in its essence. 335 00:24:04,240 --> 00:24:13,280 The world has never seen anyone who knew joy as our Lord knew it and yet he was a man of 336 00:24:13,280 --> 00:24:17,480 sorrows acquainted with grief. 337 00:24:17,480 --> 00:24:19,920 How's your joy? 338 00:24:19,920 --> 00:24:22,560 Joy that you are the chosen of God. 339 00:24:22,560 --> 00:24:24,960 Joy that is grace resides upon you. 340 00:24:24,960 --> 00:24:29,200 Joy that you're going someplace that's better. 341 00:24:29,200 --> 00:24:33,400 That's the joy we have. 342 00:24:33,400 --> 00:24:37,320 What is salvation? 343 00:24:37,320 --> 00:24:44,200 Salvation is that Christ died for your sins but now you have fellowship with him and with 344 00:24:44,200 --> 00:24:46,920 each other. 345 00:24:46,920 --> 00:24:55,280 Our bonding, our oneness, our joy comes from Christ. 346 00:24:55,280 --> 00:24:59,120 Don't ignore the body. 347 00:24:59,120 --> 00:25:01,360 Don't ignore the flesh. 348 00:25:01,360 --> 00:25:05,200 Don't ignore the blood that should flow through our hearts. 349 00:25:05,200 --> 00:25:08,320 It's a belief. 350 00:25:08,320 --> 00:25:09,320 Let's pray. 351 00:25:09,320 --> 00:25:20,160 Our Heavenly Father, we ask now that you will build us as the body of faith. 352 00:25:20,160 --> 00:25:25,600 Strengthen us and help us to know the joy that comes from fellowshiping with a Jesus 353 00:25:25,600 --> 00:25:33,360 Christ who is of flesh and blood and also one who dwells in our midst now. 354 00:25:33,360 --> 00:25:34,520 Give us that joy. 355 00:25:34,520 --> 00:25:38,040 A joy unspeakable. 356 00:25:38,040 --> 00:25:40,040 There are proof. 357 00:25:40,040 --> 00:25:41,200 Amen. 358 00:25:41,200 --> 00:26:10,200 Our next hymn.