The Deity of Jesus Christ
To have a right relationship with God
and one another, we must have
a correct view of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Here's Gene:
When we look at this letter,
following the introduction, it's very clear
that John believed that
Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God.
It's very clear that he believed
that He was eternal life Himself.
And he goes on to elaborate.
Now, we've noticed
that in the opening introduction
we see his declaration:
They had seen the Lord.
That is the apostles. And that's who
he's referring to primarily here.
Many other people who saw Him other
than the apostles.
But he's referring back to that group
that Jesus chose. And he was one of them.
They had heard him teach
for nearly three and a half years.
They had touched him with their own hands.
And through that process, they had come to believe
that he was indeed Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
Now, here you have the declaration continuing,
following that introduction.
And here's what he said:
. . . what we have seen and heard
we also declare to you,
so that you may also have fellowship with us;
and indeed our fellowship is with the Father
and with his Son Jesus Christ.
We are writing these things
so that our joy may be complete.
We want you to know this.
We want you to believe this wonderful,
wonderful truth.
It's really interesting: One very significant
post-resurrection appearance
correlates so beautifully
with the way John introduced this Epistle.
And here's this amazing event.
Let me just share it with you.
And this is right at the end of John's Gospel--
he recorded this.
And this was following the resurrection:
When it was evening on that
first day of the week, the disciples...
And we know with the word "disciples,"
that's a larger term than apostles.
But here, many times--as it is here--
many times the word "disciples" is used
just to refer to the apostles.
Because in this setting it was these eleven men.
Of course, Judas was not there:
...[It was the] first day of the week,
[and] the disciples were gathered together
with the doors locked
because they feared the Jews. ...
I mean, this was a very, very tense time in Jerusalem.
Jesus Christ had been crucified.
And all the disciples, the apostles,
were scattered because of fear.
And said to them:
...Jesus came, stood among them...
Just appeared.
The doors were locked. He just appeared:
and said to them, "Peace be with you."
Having said this, he showed them
his hands and his side.
So the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
Now the interesting thing is that Thomas,
one of the apostles, was not there.
And when he once again joined them,
here's what they told him:
But Thomas (called "Twin"), one of the Twelve,
was not with them when Jesus came.
So the other disciples were telling him,
"We've seen the Lord!" ...
We've seen the Lord! We've seen Him.
We've seen the Prince. We've seen all of this.
...But he said to them [this is Thomas speaking],
"If I don't see the mark of the nails in his hands,
put my finger into the mark of the nails,
and put my hand into his side,
I will never believe."
This is one of the apostles.
Well, the interesting thing is that a week later,
the disciples were in the very same room.
But this time Thomas was there.
And here's what John recorded--
Jesus suddenly appears:
...[And] then he said to Thomas...
Now imagine they're all there
and Jesus appeared like he did a week before--
Thomas wasn't there.
He just appears and he says to Thomas,
. . . "[Thomas], put your finger here
[and] look at my hands.
Reach out your hand and put it into my side. ...
And you can see Thomas's eyes get big:
Who told Him?
They hadn't seen Jesus for a week.
Who told Him?
Jesus knew exactly what he had said.
And so immediately He just says: Thomas,
you wanted to see?
Take a look. Touch me:
...Don't be faithless, but believe."
[And] Thomas responded to him,
"My Lord and my God!" ...
And that's significant.
He's actually recognizing Jesus Christ,
not only as the Savior,
but as the God of the universe.
The one who was with God and was God-
..."My Lord and my God!" ...
And then here's a beautiful transition
that I think relates to all of us
as we read what John wrote:
...Jesus said, "Because you have seen me [Thomas],
you have believed.
Blessed are those...
That's us:
...Blessed are those
who have not seen and yet believe."
And one of the reasons we believe
is we have this incredible document.
Not just John's first Epistle,
but the whole of Scripture--
and the whole of the New Testament, particularly--
that gives us this verification
that Jesus Christ is who He said He was.
And so, let me just share this continued declaration
in the view of this experience
that we just read about with Thomas:
. . . what we have seen and heard...
John wrote. And I think, even though
it's 60 years later--and he was inspired
by the Holy Spirit--he had a fresh,
fresh reminder of what happened
60 years before in that room
that was locked and what he said to Thomas:
. . . what we have seen and heard
we also declare to you, so that you
may also have fellowship with us;
and indeed our fellowship is with the Father
and with his Son Jesus Christ.
We are writing these things
so that our joy may be complete.
Now, we do not know specifically,
when he uses the plural pronoun "you,"
who he's referring to.
Because it is a historical document--
written in the 90s. He says:
We declare to you so that you may believe.
Who was the audience?
Well, we're not sure totally.
Except here's again where church history
helps us, beside the Bible--
in addition to the Scriptures.
Because there was a gentleman
by the name of Irenaeus,
who lived in the second century.
And he was born in Smyrna,
and he was a disciple of Polycarp,
who was Bishop of Smyrna.
And Smyrna, by the way, was one of those churches--
cities and churches--that is mentioned
in the book of Revelation, that John wrote.
And Polycarp was the Bishop of Smyrna.
That is he was, we could say in today's parlance,
he was the lead pastor there in Smyrna.
And Polycarp was in turn a disciple of John.
Now think about that:
How close--how close this is in the second century,
to the stories about Jesus Christ
and the reality of Jesus Christ.
Then we have Clement of Alexandria:
He was born in Athens, Greece.
Notes in his writings--and there were
many writings that he did.
These were very intelligent men.
Notes in his writings indicate
that John not only ministered in Ephesus,
but in Smyrna.
So this leads us, I think to a pretty solid conclusion--
certainly speculation, but conclusion--
that John was writing this especially
to the believers in Ephesus, in Smyrna,
in Pergamum, in Thyatira, in Sardis,
in Philadelphia, Laodicea.
These are the seven churches that are mentioned
and written by John at the direction
of Jesus Christ in the book of Revelation.
So I believe this gives us
a pretty good perspective on the audience
that he is writing to here in relationship
to who Jesus Christ really is.
And demonstrating to them
that they need to know who Jesus Christ really is.
Now there's another interesting story,
or event, in the New Testament
that John also recorded.
And you can see how many correlations
there are with his Gospel
when you read this Epistle.
And it relates to--well it was actually
one of the apostles by the name of Philip.
And you know, he was one that saw Jesus
right from the very beginning.
He was one of the first
that actually was introduced to Jesus.
But he has a lot of doubts.
And you can see that these men were in process.
And here in John 14:8, he says:
Lord, just show us the Father.
Just show us the Father and we'll believe
and we'll understand.
And notice what Jesus said:
"Have I been among you all this time
and you do not know me, Philip? ...
I've been among all of you
and you don't know me
and He singles out Philip:
...The one who has seen me has seen the Father."
. . . "Don't you believe that I am in the Father
and the Father is in me?"
And you see, that is one of the
very significant concepts
that John is addressing all the way through.
Not only his Gospel but this little Epistle.
So here is the Principle
that grows out of this passage:
To have a right relationship with God
and one another, we must have
a correct view of the Lord Jesus Christ.
It's impossible to have fellowship with God
and the Lord Jesus Christ if we do not believe
that He was one with the Father.
And here's the question:
When people claim to be followers of Jesus
and yet believe that he was just a great teacher,
how does this invariably affect
their personal relationship with Christ?
Well, we might be a great admirer
of Abraham Lincoln. He was a great man.
And you see, there are people who teach:
Yeah, Jesus was a great man--
one of the greatest men.
But they don't believe he was God.
Now that certainly affects
how they're going to relate to Abraham Lincoln.
The same would be true of D. L. Moody--
a great man that God used.
But he wasn't Jesus. He was just a human being.
Jesus was both God and man.
I think of Dr. Merle Tenney who impacted my life
as a professor, particularly as I had a course
with him in the Gospel of John.
[He] helped to restore my faith, really.
And I respect him. I honor him.
I would like to imitate him.
He was a great model.
But I don't worship him.
I don't worship him.
You see, because of who Jesus is,
we can say with Thomas: My Lord and my God.
And we worship him.
That's the message
that John wants us to understand.