Grosey's Messages

John 20:1-23   I John 1:1-4  THIS IS EYEWITNESS NEWS

People are supposed to tell you the news.   These days we hear the news people interrupt their own news programme with the words  "Breaking News" and sometimes we become cynical, because we had already read that news two days before on an international channel.

Hmmmm "Breaking News?" Maybe it is new news to the newsreader because they have been asleep or on holidays somewhere for a few days and never bothered to catch up on the news?

Well John is going to announce to us the news!

1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— 2 the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us— 3 that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. 4 And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.

1.       THIS IS BREAKING NEWS.

we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us.

In older days the newscaster was the village or town crier or herald.

We.. testify to it and proclaim to you.

Like a herald or town crier John is announcing to you and I something very important.  If you can imagine it, town criers didn't deliver trivial messages.  For everybody to stop work and listen, what they had to deliver was pretty important news.  He didn't make up or create the news as some of our newsreaders are prone to do.  He didn't give a left or right slant on each news item according to the political directions of his boss.  I was rather amazed that last week a boss at the ABC told the news readers they were no longer allowed to give their own slant on things!

IT IS ABOUT ETERNAL LIFE.     The Lord Jesus had spoken a lot about eternal life.

John 3 ¹⁵ that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. ¹⁶ "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

³⁶ Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

John 4 ¹⁴ but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." ³⁶ Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together.

John 5 ²⁴ Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.

John 6 ²⁷ Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal."

⁴⁰ For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day."

⁴⁷ Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.

1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life

It is about eternal life, because it is about Him who was from the beginning!

The beginning here refers to everything about this One who came into our world and was manifested.

He had been with the Father eternally! we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us

He had pre existed His own birth to become manifested!

This personal, preexistent Life "was manifested to us" in the incarnate Jesus. The repeated verb "was manifested" underlines this fact as a unique historical reality.

He who was from the beginning… That which was from the beginning,, He who was with the Father in the beginning, before all things came to be, He who was manifested at His birth announced by angels, glorifying Him as the incarnate Lord Jesus Christ, He is associated to the most important thing you can have, eternal life.

But He is more important than just the most important thing you can have, eternal life.  He is more important because this Jesus IS the eternal life.

2. was made manifest to us.   The words "to us" return the thought to the personal encounter of the apostles with this incarnate Life.

1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life

The four opening clauses, each beginning with "what" (o{), declare the reality of the Incarnation.   "beginning" here points to the unique events, described in Luke 1–2 that characterized the actual Incarnation, which John is proclaiming. "John's message must seem incredible until we start where he starts—at Bethlehem."

It is about Jesus being God the Son, being manifested taking true human flesh.

In the body of Jesus Christ was both a human nature and a divine nature.  For within Him dwelt the fullness of God (Col 1).  Watch Him, as John did – there were times throughout His life that He was so much like God that You'd think He couldn't be a man; and there were times when He was so much like a man that you'd think He wasn't God.    But He was both – the God-man.

This is Important News, the God who created all things and sustains allthings appeared in time as a human man, Jesus!

 

2.       THIS IS EYEWITNESS NEWS

And John effectively says, "Take it from me – I'm an eyewitness!"

Let me tell you about three things I can attest to. First, verse 1 continues, We (I and the other Apostles) heard Him . . .  In other word, I'm not repeating what others said He said – I was there to hear Him say it!  I heard Him teach on the hillsides and in the synagogues. I was there when the amazed audience said, "We never heard anyone speak like this man speaks" (John 7:46).

Peter said 16 For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. 17 For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased," 18 we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain. 19 And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place

.. no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone's own interpretation. 21 For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

The voice they heard and the Holy Scriptures confirm together Jesus is the Christ, God the Son.

John can say, I heard Him utter His astounding claim, "Before Abraham was, I am" (John 8:58).

I heard Him in the garden of Gethsemane, when the crowd came armed with torches and swords to arrest Him and Jesus asked them, "Whom do you seek?" We seek Jesus the Nazarene." And I heard Jesus respond, "I am!" I saw all of them immediately fall down on the ground at just the word of Jesus declaring He was the great I AM (John 18:6).  I heard Jesus stand in that boat and say to the wind and the waves, "Peace, be still" (Mark 4:39) – and all grew quiet again.  I heard Him stand before the grave and shout, "Lazarus, come forth . . . and Lazarus came back from the dead." ( I was there . . . I heard him with my own ears. I can testify as an eyewitness to the words of Jesus Christ.

Secondly, John adds, we not only heard Him, we have seen Him with our eyes, what we have looked at . . .  In other words, He wasn't a phantom . . . a ghost . . . a figment of our imagination! We saw the God-man with our own eyes.  John uses two different verbs for looking or seeing here in this phrase.  The second verb, translated "looked at" is from the word theaomai which gives us our word theater. It refers to careful contemplation, like you would carefully watch the actors upon a stage.

John effectively says, "Jesus was on the stage of human history and we carefully watched Him play out His role as the God-man."

The first verb in this phrase is even more instructive. John writes, "what we have seen with our own eyes . . ." – the verb to see here is from horao.  It means to see with understanding.

John used this word as a part of his own personal testimony where his faith crystalized into bedrock belief as God opened his eyes.

When he and the other Apostles were told that the body of Jesus was missing, John and Peter raced to the garden tomb.

John got there first and entered the tomb and saw the linen wrappings lying there – he saw them. The word is blepo (blepw) which is a common verb for casual observation.

Then the text records that Peter showed up and entered the tomb and saw the linen wrappings.

John uses a different verb "to see" which is from theoreo  which means to puzzle . . . to scrutinize". Theoreo gives us the word theorize.

John 20:1 Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, a nd saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. 2 So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him." 3 So Peter went out with the other disciple, and they were going toward the tomb. 4 Both of them were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 And stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there, 7 and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen cloths but folded up in a place by itself. 8 Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; 9 for as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead.

In other words, Peter's standing inside the tomb, looking at these grave clothes trying to figure out what happened.       Think about what they're both seeing.  The linen wrappings were not disheveled and thrown all around the tomb; in fact, they hadn't been ripped off by grave robbers – they are still lying there on that stone ledge, literally still in their folds.  After three days and three nights, these spices that had been wrapped into the linen grave cloths or strips – as they were wound around the body – would have begun to harden. When the disciples entered that tomb, they were both struck immediately by the grave cloths – in the form of a body, slightly caved in and empty – like the empty cocoon of a caterpillar that had flown away.  The cloths hadn't been unwrapped . . . they weren't torn apart either.  The body had disappeared from within.  At that moment, John writes in his gospel, that he came in for a closer inspection and he saw – a different verb – he saw and believed.

It's the verb for seeing and understanding what you're seeing. John put the puzzle together . . . Jesus Christ had come back to life.

Then  the end of verse 1, we not only heard Him . . . not only have we seen Him with our eyes . . . notice, we touched Him with our hands . . .

John 20:  19 On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, "Peace be with you." 20 When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.

Are you sure you weren't seeing things, John?    Oh no . . . we touched him.

John 20:20 They would have touched His scars . . . the verb John uses in 1 John is the verb "to handle" . . . to run their hands and fingers over the marks He chose to retain as eternal reminders of His atonement.  Jesus will be the only person in heaven with any scars.    And John says, "I not only saw Him and heard Him, but in that moment, I handled His hands . . . for myself."  Jesus wasn't a ghost or a vision or a vapor or a disembodied spirit or a phantom.  He's real. God has a body; a glorified, tangible, resurrected, eternal body.  Jesus isn't an abstraction from God; He is the revelation of God – in the flesh.  John – the eyewitness – tells us . . . just who is Jesus?

Luke 24: 37 But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit. 38 And he said to them, "Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? 39 See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have." 40 And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet.

3.       THIS IS REAL NEWS       

concerning the word of life. the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us---

John ends verse 1 by writing, "Oh, He is the word of Life!  Literally, the logos of life!  To the Greek world, the word logos or word, referred to a sense of meaning, reason and purpose. John says, "God the Son is the logos of life – He is the meaning of life . . . the purpose . . . the explanation of life."        Discard Him . . . ignore Him . . . reject Him and you reject the meaning and the purpose and the explanation of life!      Stephen Hawking wrote, "If we find an answer to (why we and the universe exist), it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason . . ."

Carl Sagan "Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves."

 The Word of Life has come . . . the answer from God has come.

the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us---3 that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.

Now John provides in verse 2, two claims about the Word of Life.

Notice, first, John writes that [Jesus] – the life was manifested to us.  You could render it, the life appeared! In other words, His life became visible and tangible. This wasn't the appearance of an abstract principle, but a real person.     He appeared in human history.  Jesus Christ intersected human history in His first coming and He will yet again intersect human history in His second coming. 

Again John tells us what he saw

John saw the Activity of the Love of Christ. And he saw the eternal love in Him.

John saw the Adequacy of the Power of Christ, and he saw the eternal life in Him.

John saw the Agony of the Passion of Christ. And he saw the love and power  and purpose of God in Him.

John saw the Victory of the resurrection of Christ. And he saw the eternal life in Him could come to you and me.

The second claim about the Word of Life?      Just as words are used for communication, so the Word of Life has come to communicate life to you and me!

 

4. THIS IS YOUR NEWS NOW!

3 that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.4 And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.

What difference does any of this make?

Notice verse 3 again – what we have seen and heard, we proclaim to you also, so that so that you too may have fellowship with us.

John Invites You Into A Relationship

The word "fellowship" is from koinonia which refers to a close bond or partnership.

It's a kindred spirit and a kindred heart and kindred mind.

This is why you can meet a woman or a man, a young person and no nothing about them except that they belong to Jesus Christ and there is immediate kinship. Immediate fellowship.

I've experienced this sitting in a hut in Papua New Guinea.  – nobody warned me . . . I would be preaching that night to all those gathered inside that hut, with one lantern in the middle of the room; so dark I couldn't see my notes or even my Bible. I had to quote everything . . . I was making stuff up.

But there's another result here . . . not only is their relationship;

John Invites You Into A Reconciliation!   3  you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.

There's horizontal fellowship with each other and there's vertical fellowship with God.

Reconciled to God through Christ – no longer at odds with Him, but in fellowship with Him.

Paul wrote to the Corinthians, Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18).

In other words, we now have the same ministry of Christ – we have the ministry of bringing people together with God.    Imagine being used to reconcile someone to God!  Can you imagine the joy of being used by God to bring people together?  This was John's great passion . . . to bring people together in relationship and people to God in reconciliation.  Is it any wonder that following that John the Apostle would add one more result of being an eyewitness account?

He Invites You Into A Rejoicing!   4. These things we write so that our joy may be made complete.  Some translations read, "so that your joy may be made complete."

This is where it is all going.  Here are some wonderful reasons to Rejoice!  You have been reconciled to God! You have a new relationship with God. Your have a Saviour who is risen!   Our hands touched Him after His resurrection John says. Your Risen Saviour means there is Vindication.  He isn't just a man, He is God the Son come to give you eternal Life.

There is Justification.   He completely reconciles you to God.  No rituals are necessary. No conditions are necessary. He has done it all to reconcile you to God.  When someone dies you don't have to pray for him for 9 days to try to get him into heaven.    He has said to them like He said to the dying thief, "This day you shall be with me in Paradise."  You don't need a priest to try to get you in. the real High Priest, the Lord Jesus has already done it all to get you in.

There is Transformation.  He gives you His Holy Spirit who changes your life as you realise these wonderful amazing truths. You have access to God, as you are reconciled to Him. Just s a child to his father, so you have relationship with God your Father who has reconciled you to Himself.