Sermon Text: 1 John 1:1–4
Date: April 7, 2024
Event: The Second of Easter, Year B
1 John 1:1-4 (EHV)
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. 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.
The Life Appeared, and We Have Seen It!
This morning we get a chance to really spend a lot of time with the apostle John. One of Jesus’ twelve disciples and one of the close “inner circle” of the three disciples (along with Peter and James), John was with Jesus from almost the beginning of his ministry. He was in the courtyard during Jesus’ trial before the high priest. He stood at the foot of Jesus’ cross with Jesus’ mother, Mary. John raced to the tomb with Peter that first Easter morning once the reports of Jesus’ body being missing came to them. John would be an instrumental leader of the early church and likely the longest-living of the twelve, perhaps the only of them to die a natural death rather than be executed for the sake of the gospel.
So, if there were someone you would want to go to, someone you would trust, about anything that happened in Jesus’ ministry and the life of the early Christian church, it would be John. This morning, we have his accounting of the first Easter Sunday and the following weekend in our Gospel. Then, our Second Reading is a letter he wrote very late in life, reflecting on this message, his work, and encouraging the next generation of Christians. In some ways, we get to see both ends of the spectrum from John this morning: both the wide-eyed amazement and naivete of seeing the risen Jesus for the first time and then the quiet, calm words of an old man who had dedicated his life to the good news of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection for all people.
While the events recorded in John’s Gospel happen long before the end of John’s life, his New Testament letters and his Gospel are likely written around roughly the same time, so we can see parallels between what John writes in the introduction to his first letter that we have before us this morning and the famous introduction to his Gospel. John begins his first letter and our Second Reading for this morning this way: “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—the life appeared, and we have seen it…” Compare those words with the opening of his Gospel: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning…. The Word became flesh and dwelled among us. We have seen his glory, the glory he has as the only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:1-2, 14). Whether a letter of encouragement or a historical Gospel, John’s focus is the same: Jesus, the eternal Word of God, and what John has to share about him from his personal experience.
While eyewitness testimony is not always rock solid, you’d certainly rather have an eyewitness than someone who just heard something secondhand. For God, it was absolutely imperative that we have the assurance of eyewitness accounts of Jesus’ resurrection, not just hearsay or a mystery of an empty tomb paired with speculation. In our Gospel this morning, we saw how Jesus himself found this so important that he couldn’t let Thomas operate on the reporting of the other disciples and doubt: “Put your finger here…” (John 20:27). All of the apostles of the gospel would be eyewitnesses of Jesus’ actual, physical resurrection from the dead.
We were reminded on Easter how vital the resurrection is. Decades before John wrote any of his New Testament letters, the apostle Paul said that if Jesus hadn’t been raised from the dead, our faith would be empty and worthless, and we would still in our sins. Jesus’ resurrection proves that everything he promised and set out to do was finished. If Jesus had not been raised from the dead, we would still be in our sins, but because he has been raised, we are freed from our sins.
And this, decades later, is what John wants his readers to focus on. It would seem dark and lonely as a Christian in those early years. If this was God’s plan for the world, his plan to save all of mankind, why were Christians suffering for their faith? Why wasn’t there great power on display and mass conversions happening constantly? Why were Christians around the world being forced into hiding for their faith? Why were the most prominent and bold messengers of the gospel put to death? Was any of this worth it?
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—the 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. On Maundy Thursday evening, as Jesus sought to comfort, strengthen, and guide his disciples for the hours and years ahead, he offered them this reminder: “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father, except through me” (John 14:6). John is only one of the four Gospel writers to record these words from Jesus, and I have a hard time believing that these words weren’t echoing in John’s mind as he wrote the words of our Second Reading. After all, Jesus said the Holy Spirit would remind his disciples of everything he had said, a gift of perfect recall from God.
There’s a reason Jesus shared those words that night, and John echoes them in his writings near the end of the first century: no matter how it may feel or seem, Jesus is still the Way, the Truth, and the Life—eternal life.
So much of life is focused on death and trying to keep it at bay. Maybe it’s dealing with your health issues or caring for a loved one, such as a parent or child who needs you. Maybe it’s the pain of losing a loved one who was so dear to you. And yet, no matter how well we take care of ourselves or those entrusted to us, the best we can do is perhaps delay the inevitable. Death is coming for everyone at some point.
That reality can easily lead us to despair or apathy. What’s the point? Either I’m panicked all day, every day, fearful of what might be coming around the next corner or from the next battery of tests that the doctor runs, or I don’t care anymore and live my life however I, on a whim, might see fit. What really matters?
This narrow view of life is easy to get when all we have is what we can see and feel around us. This is why John brings us back to Easter, to the evening that Jesus declared, “Peace!” to a room full of terrified disciples.
What really matters? What’s the point? Well, John would have you and me remember that real life matters—eternal life. Jesus didn’t come to make everything here fine and dandy—he came to rescue us from this sin-corrupted and death-infested life. He came to rescue us when we were utterly helpless. He came to bring peace when we waged war with God in our sins. He came to be what the angels promised the shepherds he would be on that first Christmas night: “Do not be afraid. For behold, I bring you good news of great joy, which will be for all people: Today in the town of David, a Savior was born for you. He is Christ the Lord…. Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward mankind” (Luke 2:10-11, 14).
John’s all-consuming mission was for others to know the peace that he knew that Jesus gave to him and gave to the entire world. John calls knowing this peace a fellowship, a rallying and uniting of Christians and with God himself: 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.
The peace that Jesus won for us on the cross and proved by his empty tomb joins us together as brothers and sisters in faith and binds us to our Savior, Creator God. We have not just a professional or standoffish relationship with God; we are part of his family, sons and daughters of our Father, brothers and sisters of our Savior.
Jesus declared a uniting peace in those early appearances after his resurrection. “Peace!” he said. In other words, “Look, your sin is gone! What divided you from God has been obliterated! You have peace with God and the ability to have peace between each other because I have triumphed over sin, death, and hell for you!” This was the joy that drove Jesus to the cross and beyond. This is the joy we now have by God’s undeserved love for us.
So, your joy can be complete as John’s was. You can walk through the difficulties of this life neither driven by despair nor apathy. You can go knowing that you are God’s dearly loved child, redeemed in the blood of Jesus your Savior. You can go forward knowing what Jesus’ death and resurrection mean for you today: forgiveness of sins and the certain hope of eternal life. You can go forward in the complete joy of knowing what waits for us beyond this life: perfect, eternal fellowship with God forever.
You may have not been in the privleged position of John or Thomas, to be able to see with your eyes and even touch with your hands the Word of Life. But by your God-given faith, you too have seen the Life, our Savior Jesus, crucified and raised.
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Amen.
