A. The book of 1John is a declaration of light, love, and
life through Christ Jesus.
1.
This book
describes the basis of our fellowship with God and one another in terms of
walking in God's "light,” which is a figure of His truth and righteousness.
2.
It also
emphasizes the need for the love of God and the love of one another that
naturally results from God's love for us through Christ.
3.
The ultimate
result of this light and love is eternal life for those who are in Christ.
B. In our present lesson, we will further examine the
message of 1John by considering what else we obtain by possessing Jesus as our own.
1.
Before beginning
this study, let us consider what it means to "have Jesus” in the context of
1John.
a. John speaks of having Jesus in the sense of having a
genuine relationship with Him. John
himself had obtained such a relationship through his personal experience with
Jesus, and he sought to pass the benefit of that experience on to us so that we
may share in this same relationship (1John 1:1-4).
b. John shows that those who have Jesus in this way
believe that He is the Son of God and confess that He has come in the flesh. They also love Him by keeping His
commandments, which includes having love for those whom He loves (1John 5:1-3).
2.
With that
considered, let us now notice what we also have when we have Jesus.
II. WHEN YOU HAVE JESUS, YOU ALSO HAVE…
A. When you have Jesus, you also have God the Father.
1.
This truth is
expressed in 1John 2:23 – "Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father; the
one who confesses the Son has the Father also.”
a. In the immediate context of the passage, John wrote
concerning the "antichrist,” which is any person who denies that Jesus is the
Christ and thus denies the Father and the Son (1John 2:18-22).
b. At the time of John's writing, there apparently were
some who attempted to follow some of the teachings of Jesus without accepting
the truth of who Jesus really is. There
are still many people who attempt to do this today.
c.
John refuted
these people by stating that you cannot have the Father without the Son. In other words, it is impossible to have a
good relationship with God the Father while denying that Jesus is the Christ
and the Son of God. Any such attempt at
religion is vain.
2.
It is a simple,
core truth of the gospel that no person can have a claim on God apart from
Christ.
a. When Thomas asked Jesus to show the apostles the way
He was going, Jesus said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one
comes to the Father but through Me” (John 14:6). Jesus followed this statement with a
discourse that shows how He alone is the key to a relationship with the Father
(John 14:7f).
b. Therefore, anyone who thinks he can have God as his
Father apart from Jesus is mistaken and self-deceived. Notice Ephesians 1:5 – "[The Father]
predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according
to the kind intention of His will.”
3.
Through Christ,
you can receive God as your true Father.
a. There is a sense in which God is Father to all (Eph.
3:14-15; 4:6), but there is a greater, spiritual sense in which God is Father
only to those who are adopted into His household through Jesus Christ (Eph.
2:11-22).
b. Notice Romans 8:15-17:
For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading
to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we
cry out, "Abba! Father!” The Spirit
Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children,
heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with
Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.
c.
Speaking of what
God had done for us through His Son, John wrote, "See how great a love the
Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we
are” (1John 3:1).
B. When you have Jesus, you also have the Holy Spirit.
1.
This truth is
expressed in 1John 4:2-3 – "By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit
that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every
spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the
antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in
the world.”
2.
Like the Father,
the Holy Spirit is also intimately associated with the Son of God so that they
are inseparable.
a. Consider Romans 8:9-11, and notice how the Holy Spirit
is described as both the "Spirit of God” and the "Spirit of Christ.”
However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit,
if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of
Christ, he does not belong to Him. If
Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is
alive because of righteousness. But if
the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised
Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through
His Spirit who dwells in you.
b. The Holy Spirit works by the authority and direction
of Christ. The Father, the Son, and the
Spirit all work together, and we cannot have one without the others (John
14:16-17, 26; 15:26; 16:7-15).
C. When you have Jesus, you also have eternal life.
1.
Notice 1John
5:10-13
The one who believes in the Son of God has the
testimony in himself; the one who does not believe God has made Him a liar,
because he has not believed in the testimony that God has given concerning His
Son. And the testimony is this, that God
has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does
not have the Son of God does not have the life.
These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of
God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.
a. The "testimony” of which John speaks is the main theme
throughout John's writings. It is the
same testimony declared by Jesus is John 3:16 – "For God so loved the world,
that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not
perish, but have eternal life.”
b. In this passage, John declares that his purpose in
writing is that we can know that to have (believe in) Jesus is to have eternal
life. This is the same purpose he stated
concerning the gospel account he wrote (see John 20:30-31). The gospel of John directly speaks of this
life more than forty times.
2.
Jesus is so
intimately connected with eternal life that He is even described as life.
a. Notice how John describes Christ in 1John 1:1-3:
What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what
we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands,
concerning the Word of Life – and the life was manifested, and we have seen and
testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was
manifested to us – what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that
you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the
Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.
b. As we noticed before, Jesus called Himself "the way,
and the truth, and the life” in John 14:6.
c.
John 1:4 says of
Jesus, "In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.”
d. In Colossians 3:4, Paul wrote that Christ "is our life.”
III. CONCLUSION
A. Knowing Jesus is a tremendous blessing that is worth
more than the whole world (Phil. 3:7-11).
Knowing Him is the key to the most precious gifts we can ever have. When we have Jesus, we also have the Father,
the Holy Spirit, and eternal life. No
one else can offer what Jesus has made possible through the gospel.
B. Therefore, let us take hold of all that is available
to us in Jesus and give thanks in His name for God's amazing grace.
