1 John chapter 1. And we started, since we started
recording and sending out, we put titles on messages now and
lessons and things. And I sometimes had to think
about the title, but this one is going to be entitled, That
Which Was From the Beginning. And in 1 John chapter 1, let
me get there. I was actually reading in another
couple of places and when I came upon 1 John again and It's not a very big book, but
it has an awful lot in it, and we're gonna read the first four
verses to start with. First four verses of 1 John,
chapter one. That which was from the beginning,
which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which
we have looked upon, and our hands have handled of the word
of life. For the life was manifested and
we have seen it and bear witness and show unto you that eternal
life which was with the father and was manifested unto us. That
which we have seen and heard declare we unto you that ye may
also have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship is with
the father and with his son Jesus Christ. And these things write
we unto you that your joy may be full. a pretty good start
to a book and as we'll see there's a lot in this. We're going to
spend, we'll mention some of those other of these first four
verses but we're going to spend our time on a lot of it on verse
one. And I told Norman this morning
that I kind of rabbit trailed on studying this a little bit.
And it wasn't to no purpose. It actually was to bore upon
what we're going to look at today, but it was very interesting.
And I had to kind of circle back around and kind of gather the
thoughts up to put together today. But in the first verse, the first
verse of chapter one, it starts out, that which was from the
beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes,
which we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the
word of life. And Brother Hawker says about
this, about the book of first John, not just the first verse,
but the, of the book of first John, he says that it's the apostles
testimony, of the relationship to the church, the Father's love,
the Son's grace, and the Holy Ghost's fellowship through that. And if we are shown what is in
each passage from Genesis through, that's the sum in total of all
of Scripture, God's people are those things, the Father's love,
the Son's grace, and the Holy Spirit's fellowship. and those
things, how they indeed apply to God's people and to the church. That which was from the beginning,
at first it seemed odd to me a little
bit, how that started out, and not that I'm questioning what
God's word has to say, but where it starts out, that which was
from the beginning, and it's obviously, as it goes on, speaking
about our Lord Himself and what they saw and was in their midst. And I had to kind of contemplate
a little bit about why it would say that instead of Him or He
or the Lord Himself or whatever term they want to use. And it
has to do, and we'll see, it has a lot, to do with not only
the Lord himself, but the whole of, of salvation of his people. The, that that is talking about
is the, is, is all this that's wrapped up in, in our eternal
life as it's purchased by the son and as it's applied with
the, by the Holy spirit coming to his people and, and the love
of the father that, that, uh, that gave him a people, gave
the son of people. The that isn't categories our Lord as a that,
but there's much more wrapped up in it than just who they saw
the Lord as a person, as a man on the earth. And we're gonna
look into that. We're going to look at a couple
of other places as we start out here. Turn to Genesis chapter
1, first verse of chapter 1. It says, in the beginning God
created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form
and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the
Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said,
let there be light, and there was light. But primarily in the
first verse, in the beginning, God created the heaven and the
earth. And we've seen in a lot of different messages that our
pastor has brought to us and other lessons that Mike and others
have brought that in the beginning, God is a pretty good spot to
start with wherever we're looking. You boil it down to all things
that cause of all things in the beginning of God. I mean, you
have to start there. You can't start anywhere else.
And as in the physical creation it's speaking about, God was
the one that did that, that spoke everything into creation, into
being. And in the first And that we're aware of in our salvation
is that God moves that first to cause that. And we think,
and it's taught by a lot, and we think sometimes that we become
aware of stuff and then we make the move towards God as it were. We see in the scripture that
that's 180 degrees backwards. In the beginning, God has to
do that. If God doesn't cause a work or
start a work, it's not gonna get done. That's so as it is
in creation, physically and spiritual life too. And then in the book
of John, John chapter one and the start
of it. Let me get to the right page
here. Let me get to the right book first. Gospel of John. It says in chapter
one, verse one, in the beginning was the word, and the word was
with God, and the word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. All things were made by him,
and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was
life, and the life was the light of men, and the light shineth
in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. Boy, that's
quite a statement on the creation and Lord himself and the condition
of man after the fall. I mean, that's quite a statement
here. But in the beginning was the
word, it says, and the word was with God and the word was God. This is not speaking about the
beginning beginning. With God, there's no beginning.
There's no God, and we use the terms eternity or eternity past,
that's pretty hard to comprehend because you can't go back in
eternity to find when the beginning of that was. And so it is with
God is God. I am, as it said, and always
was, always will be. And we measure by time and thought. And in the beginning that it
speaks about is to do with time and creation. We know that there
was a time when he spoke those things into existence, in that
beginning of time. And we know that when it speaks
of, in the beginning here was the word and is with God, always
was, and in the beginning, as I can find out, the dealing with
man is revealing himself, whether it be in creation, or when the
eternal covenant was made, it was made, it's hard to comprehend,
because God was always God, all the thoughts that God would ever
have towards things, always had. He didn't, in time, he didn't
think of, I'll create now, and then I'll see what happens, or
the ones that are, you know, the ones that, after the fall,
that I'll have some, and set out these things. It didn't happen
in time, as we conceive it. We can't wrap ourselves around
it, that God, that he didn't have, had no beginning and no
ending, and there's no beginning or ending to those thoughts he
had. I mean, it just was, And so the words in the beginning
doesn't mean at a time when God thought these things through.
It has more to do in when God was revealing himself in salvation
or creation to his people and in working with them in that
way. We compartment things down and
stuff in like the everlasting covenant. It is what it's everlasting
is Always was, always will be. It didn't come about in time
as we view it. So there's some things that I
had to contemplate that are pretty hard to separate out what it
says in word and what it means in the context of things. I would
like to hear in Genesis 1.1, where we just, we read, In their
Strong's Concordance, you'll see number 7225 is the word there. And the Hebrew word for that,
and I had to kind of put it out phonetically so I could say it,
it means nothing to me otherwise, resheth, or something like that. And that definition is used in
that word, and it means first in time, beginning, chief, or
principal, in place, order, or rank, and in parentheses a first
fruit in that way. So in God in the beginning, God
created in the beginning. He referring to that is the chief,
the beginning, the principal, in order or rank. We know that
I mean, if you're going to rank things, God is far above the
rank that you could ever place. And looking forward and thinking
towards dealing with man and creation, the point leading down
to the salvation of the church and the glorification and glory
to God of those things. Him being the first fruit, as
it said, of those raised from the dead. And I think pointing
to all that in the beginning, that was the start as we have
record of it and of those things. So those all apply to our Lord
and Savior himself and in creation and in salvation of people. In John 1-1, also if you use,
and I don't have it on my phone, I have the page version of it
that I go through. old-fashioned version of it,
but 746 is the Greek word that's used there. It's used in a number
of places that the word beginning is used with the beginning at
Ephesus or different places, but that is a Greek word. RK
is how that's how I pronounce it. I don't know how it is pronounced.
And it means to commence, to begin. Chief in order, time,
place, rank, beginning, corner, power, ruler, or principality. And I think you could take all
of those things and reply them to the Lord himself when it says
there in the beginning. And in 1 John, the same word
is used, that same word is used. In fact, that same word is used in a lot
of places, but to commence, to begin, chief
in order, time, place, or rank. And he is indeed first in rank
of all those, or first in chief in order, beginning and corner. That was very interesting to
me that that word that we saw in Zechariah and other places,
that corner is used here. And that in that beginning, that
he, as it applies to him, the strong point, or the strong one,
or the stronghold, or the covert in a time of storm. We've seen
those verses that all are similar in meaning, if not in word there. And as it says, dealing with
those and dealing with man and revealing himself, and in salvation,
that as the principal source of all things, especially to
the church. And then speaking of the eternal
covenant in John 1 and other places. And before we, we're gonna carry
that thought a little bit, then in down in 1 John once again, in the first chapter, it says
in there in verse one, that which was from the beginning, which
we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we
have looked upon, and our hands have handled of the word of life. And the word is capitalized there,
and it's our Lord himself is the word of life, as in John
one, in the beginning was the word. He himself is that, is
that, is that word of life here that they have the apostles.
They had heard him. They've seen him with their eyes.
They've looked upon and our hands have handled of the word of life.
And they have heard in Matthew 17,
turn to Matthew chapter 17, if you would, Matthew 17. And starting with verse 1 of
Matthew 17, it says, And after six days Jesus taketh
Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into a high
mountain apart, and was transfigured before them, and his face did
shine as the sun, and his raiment as white as the light. And behold,
there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with him. Then answered Peter and said
unto Jesus, Lord, it's good for us to be here. If thou wilt,
let us make here three tabernacles, one for thee, one for Moses,
and one for Elias. While he yet spake, behold, a
bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice out of the
cloud which said, this is my beloved son in whom I am well
pleased, hear ye him. And when the disciples heard
it, they fell on their face and were sore afraid. And Jesus came
and touched them and said, arise and be not afraid. And when they
had lifted up their eyes, they saw no man save Jesus only. And it said, as they came down
from the mountain, Jesus charged him saying, tell the vision to
no man until the son of man be risen again from the dead. And
here it said, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased,
hear ye him. And we heard a message sometime
back on Jesus only that when the cloud lifted and the point
being to this, or part of the point at least, is these were,
others were messengers that God had sent to deliver the message
of someone's coming and that they knew and were well versed
in and they understood those prophets, they understood that
they were speaking of one to come, but I think they didn't
fully comprehend who was in their midst even though he told them
many times who he was and by the teachings that we have left
us, that they still saw the other guys as pretty important guys.
when it's, this is my beloved son, hear ye him. Those men were
speaking of him. He wasn't just another man coming
to tell somebody's coming. He was the Messiah himself. He was the anointed one in their
midst. And I think they needed to, as
men, they were doing, you know, these guys are pretty important
to them. They brought the message and they knew who they were.
And I don't think their heart was in the wrong place. They
just didn't, They didn't have the beginning
and the beginning. The rank was keep the main thing, the main
thing. It got aside a little bit and they saw those profits
as more important in some ways than they were. It was very important,
the message they brought, but it wasn't the messengers that
their eyes should have been on. It should have been the one that
come. when in the cloud, when it said,
this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased, hear ye him.
He wasn't saying don't, don't pay heed to what the prophet
said, but a greater than those prophets was in their midst.
And he was, he was, he was with them. And, and, uh, uh, so they, it said, hear ye him. And they, they did. have heard
him and Mike brought a message a while back in Luke and I can't
remember the exact passage but he spoke about those that were
considering some things, considering Christ. And he said it was consider
or look on as a physical look on or consider or consider what's
really being said by the prophet or by the word. And here, the
hear ye him was, this is more than just the next prophet can
come along. This is the one that they were speaking of. And we
heard quite a message more than one I'm sure over time, but quite
a message that a man brought one time on Jesus only and what
the eyes should be on. And then in the book of Luke, a couple
places here, but in Luke chapter 2, Luke chapter 2, starting with
verse 25. And remember they had brought Jesus to the temple when He was
8 days old. and to do those things that was according to the law
and bring the sacrifices for the firstborn. In verse 25, it
says, and behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon,
and the same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation
of Israel, and the Holy Ghost was upon him. So he was waiting,
he knew what the prophet spoke about. The consolation of Israel
was the coming Messiah. And it was revealed unto him
by the Holy Ghost that he should not see death before he had seen
the Lord's Christ. And he came, verse 27, by the
Spirit into the temple. And when the parents brought
in the child to do for him after the custom of the law, then took
him in his arms and blessed God and said, Lord, now let us, thou
servant, depart in peace according to thy word. For mine eyes have
seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face
of of all people, a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the
glory of thy people Israel." So he, when he, it says, mine eyes have seen thy
salvation. He saw more than just, as it
says over here, we have seen with our eyes. He saw with his
eyes. Many people saw with their eyes, but didn't see him for
who he was. Both, at this point, eight days
old, Many years later, only by the Spirit would, as he recognized
and knew who this would, would anybody be able to see him, truly
see him. And then in what were nearby
in the book of John, in chapter one again of John,
in verse Verse 29 of John chapter 1. It says, The next day John seeth
Jesus coming unto him and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which
taketh away the sin of the world. This is he of whom I said, After
me cometh a man which is preferred before me, for he was before
me. And I knew him not, but that
he should be made manifest to Israel. Therefore I am come baptizing
with water. And John bear record saying,
I saw the Spirit, descending from heaven like a dove, and
it abode upon him. And I knew him not, but he that
sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, upon whom
thou shalt see the Spirit descending and remain on him, the same is
he which baptizes with the Holy Ghost. And I saw and bear record
that this is the Son of God. And here, it says here in a couple
of places that he seeth and he saw, but he seeth Jesus coming
unto him and said, behold, the lamb of God, which taketh away
the sin of the world. And he saw him in, again, in
physical eyes, he saw that him, he seeth him and, uh, knew who he was, but he knew
who he was more than just by sight, by the look of him, and
that's Jesus, I know him. This here when it says, behold
the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world, that
was revealed unto him. God revealed that unto him. And
it wasn't just that he was reciting a label of that's Jesus the Lamb,
but he understood what that picture was of, and he understood and
saw with spiritual eyes, with eyes that were giving him the
sight that was given to him. Because there were, we know,
many, many, many, many, how many people physically saw Jesus over
the years that he was in his public ministry? Many people,
but how many of them Saw him with with up to who he was spiritually
as far as that goes and that can only be done By the spirit that's the same
as the one is in Asked him who he was he said the art the son
of God the living the son of God and and he told him he said
Flesh and blood didn't teach you that the Holy Spirit is the
only one that can reveal those things to to his people yet Thank
God. He does do that In John, in John
chapter one, where we also, where we are in verse 35, he says the
same thing. Verse 35, chapter one of John,
it says, again, the next day after John stood and two of his
disciples, and looking upon Jesus as he walked, he said, behold,
the Lamb of God. And the two disciples heard him
speaking and they followed Jesus. And Jesus turned and saw them
falling, and saith unto him, What seek ye? And they said unto
him, Rabbi, which is to be interpreted, Master, where dwelt thou? And
he said, Come and see. And they came and saw where he
dwelt, and abode with him that day, for it was about the tenth
hour." But here it says, Verse 36, and looking upon Jesus as
he walked, he saith, behold the Lamb of God. And again, the same
thing, seeing him physically coming, but he saw him as the
Savior coming and not just that. And he did reveal himself to
his disciples and many others that we know. And then our hands
have handled, in Luke chapter 24, We know that this chapter with quite a few things
it has to say to us, Luke chapter 24, and down towards the end
of it it says, let me turn the page here. And remember just before, This
aways the two on the road to Emmaus and the Lord coming up
to them and speaking to them, reveal himself to them, and tell them who the prophet
spoke of and that these things that Jesus must go to the cross,
those things must take place for the salvation of his people.
And then verse 36, it says, as they thus spake, and they were
gathered together, As they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in
the midst of them and saith unto them, because they didn't believe
he had been seen, stood in the midst of them, saying unto them,
peace be unto you. But they were terrified and affrighted,
and supposed that they had seen a spirit. And he said unto them,
why are ye troubled, and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet,
that it is I myself, handle me and see. for a spirit hath not
flesh and bones as ye see me have. And when he had thus spoken,
he showed them his hands and his feet. And while they yet
believed not for joy and wondered, he said unto them, have ye any
meat? And he gave him a piece of broiled fish and a honeycomb
and took it and did eat before them." And he said to them, these, verse
44, these are the words, which I speak unto you while I was
yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were
written in the law of Moses and in the prophets and in the Psalms
concerning me. And he opened their understanding
that they might understand the scriptures. Up here, particularly
that he, when he said, Verse 39, the Lord speaking to them,
behold my hands and my feet that it's I myself, handle me and
see for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as you see me have,
showed him his hands and his feet. It wasn't, they knew who he was. They didn't, they had a little
issue with him just appearing there and I can understand, I
mean, they were seeing things they'd never seen before. But
he was saying, behold, my hands and my feet, it is I myself. And he had been with them for
some time, and they had handled him. They had been with him.
They had laid on him, and rested with him, and ate with him, and
did all the things that one would do in company with each other,
and traveling along, and doing different things. And they had
handled him, but here, as we see, in 1 John in that first
verse where it says, we have heard him, we have seen him with
our eyes, we have looked upon and our hands have handled. of
the Word of Life, and that gets down to what he's speaking about
here. That which was from the beginning, the Word of Life,
and that's the one that they're concerned with and that the concern
is with here. It's not just one that they've
seen, but the Word of Life. They handled and were in presence
of many people, but only one, the Word of Life. in parenthesis just for, I mean
it kind of explains it somewhat, in verse 2 is a parenthesis but
it says, for the life was manifested and we have seen it and bear
witness and show unto you that eternal life which was with the
Father and was manifested unto us. They're showing you that eternal
life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us. There
was some understanding that the Spirit gave to these men. And this speaking there, it wasn't
just the Lord himself. Yeah, we know who he is, we handled
him and we saw him and stuff. But here it gets down to it,
he's the word of life. And the rest of the book of 1
John in the scriptures is about describing to his people the
word of life and what all that entails. And so that, clear up
in the first word in 1 John, first chapter, that is speaking
of the word of life. And that's what, he's concerned
with. And as it said, it's gonna show
that the Father's love, the Son's grace, and the Holy Spirit fellowship,
how it all ties up with the Lord himself, the word of life. And
again, that word, the beginning, there was a lot more to it than
I thought beginning, you know, not the word beginning means.
Well, there's a lot more to it that's not our word beginning,
You unpack their word and it has an awful lot more and it
makes a lot more sense, I guess it was, or things that we can
relate to when it shows in that beginning, the one that's speaking
about the word of life. But when it's talking about here,
that chief in order of time, place, rank, beginning, corner. And I want to look at a couple
of other verses here that deal with the same thing, and we'll
see how it ties into this first couple verses of 1 John. In Isaiah
chapter 28, I've got so many brackets, stars, and lines in
Isaiah and places, Isaiah chapter 28 verses 15 and 16. Let me get in verse 28 or chapter
28. It says start with verse 14 of
Isaiah 28. It says wherefore hear the word
of the Lord ye scornful men that rule this people which is in
Jerusalem. Because ye have said, we have made a covenant with
death, and with hell are we at agreement. When the overflowing
scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us. For we
have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves. Therefore thus saith the Lord,
the Lord God, behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation, a stone,
a tried stone. a precious cornerstone, a sure
foundation. He that believeth shall not make
haste. Judgment also will I lay to the
line, and righteousness to the plummet. And the hail shall sweep
away over all the refuge of lies, and the water shall overflow
the hiding place." We're doing okay, and they say
here, you have said we've made a covenant with death and lies.
We're hiding in these things. And he says, therefore, saith
the Lord God, I lay in Zion a foundation, a tridestone, a precious cornerstone. And as that ties back to 1 John
again in the beginning, speaking of this one here, precious cornerstone
that was laid. That is the beginning of our
salvation is that foundation, that tridestone, that cornerstone,
keystone. In Matthew 21, and these are
going to have similar thoughts to them. We are going to see how they relate to that. And
then in Matthew 21, verse 42 of Matthew 21 and following, Jesus saith unto them, Did you never read in the scriptures,
the stone which the builders rejected, the same has become
the head of the corner? This is the Lord's doing, and
it is marvelous in our eyes. Therefore say I unto you, the
kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation,
bringing forth the fruits of it. And whosoever shall fall
on this stone shall be broken, but on whomever soever it shall
fall, it will grind him to powder. And when the chief priests and
Pharisees had heard this parable, they perceived he spoke of them.
But when they sought to lay hands on him, they feared the multitude
because they took him for a prophet. And here again, and we've looked
at this in Zechariah. In fact, we're going to look
at one verse in Zechariah in a minute here about the cornerstone and
the head of the corner and being that beginning place. And as
we said in Genesis 1 where it says, in the beginning, couldn't
have been more fitting. God is pretty wise in those things.
Couldn't have been more fitting to have the first first words
being in the beginning God. It not just the beginning of
this book, but all things have to stem and begin with him to
get a right understanding of what whatsoever we're we're looking
at. And it's and especially in the
the saving and delivering of his people of the church. He's
there's no other place to start and of here the head of the corner. This is the Lord's doing. And
it is marvelous in our eyes. And then in Acts chapter 4, in Acts chapter 4, again the same thought, just previously in here, in the
beginning of this, He had healed an infinite man,
and it says in verse 10 of Acts 4, it says,
Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel,
that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom he crucified,
whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand
here before you whole. This is the stone which was said
it not of you builders, which has become the head of the corner.
Neither is there salvation in any other, for there's none other
name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved."
And here again, the stone which was said it not, which has become
the head of the corner. Him that was said it not by the
religion of the day and They had no eyes to see him,
no understanding by and large of that. And he indeed was the
pinnacle, the beginning, the keystone, the cornerstone of
all hope of any man reconciling to God or being reconciled to
God. And then Ephesians chapter two, and then
we're gonna, Ephesians chapter 2 and verse... Let me see where I want to begin
for just a second here. This is... Okay, verse 19 of Ephesians chapter
2. Now therefore you are no more
strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints
and of the household of God, and are built upon the foundation
of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the
chief cornerstone in whom all the building fitly framed together
groweth into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom ye are also
built together for the habitation of God through the Spirit." And
here, built upon the foundation of
the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief
cornerstone. Him being, again, as we tie that
to the beginning there, Himself being the beginning and the foundation,
the corner of our faith. And here, as it says, built upon
the foundation of the apostles and prophets who foretold of
Him, the one that was coming. And that was the, the foundation
they were laying was Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Um, and then
there's a, there's a, um, in revelation, we're going to one
more, one verse more that we're going to look at. We're like
revelation first, excuse me, the first chapter of revelation, chapter one, verse four. It says in verse one of chapter
one up there, it says, the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave
unto him. And then starting with verse
four and reading a couple of verses, John to the seven churches,
which are in Asia, grace be unto you and peace from him, which
is and which was, and which is to come. and from the seven spirits
which are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, who is
the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and
the prince of the kings of the earth, unto him that loved us,
and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made
us kings and priests unto God and his Father. To him be glory
and dominion forever and ever. Amen. Behold, he cometh with
clouds, and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced
him, and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him.
Even so, amen. Verse 8. The Lord said, I am
Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord,
which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty. fitting under this here that
the one that loved us and washes from our sins his own blood it
said and down here that I am Alpha and Omega the beginning
and the ending that which is and which was and which is to
come the Almighty and referring to the same things we've talked
about he is Alpha Omega not only if first and last in every every
area of everything but both the physical creation and physical
things that we know and see, but spiritual also. He is the
beginning and the ending of that. Everything is within Him, His
timeframe, and it's not a time as we see it. It doesn't end
on either ends. And our salvation and redemption
is built on Him, by Him. He's both the beginning and the
chief foundation and the surety of the church. And as it says
here in 1 John, that which was from the beginning, which they
heard, seen with eyes, looked upon, hands of have, handled
of the Word of Life. And it's going to go on in this
book of 1 John and reveal more things of that. And there's a
lot of love talked about in this book. God's love towards His
church and His people. And with that, as Mike says a lot of times in his
messages, be free. Thank you.