Let's turn again to God's Word
in that short chapter that we read, the first epistle of John,
chapter 1. I want to turn to the third verse,
the first epistle of John, chapter 1, and the third verse, that
which we have seen and heard, declare we unto you, that He
also may have fellowship with us, and truly our fellowship
is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. Remember the context in this
epistle, John certainly has much to say with regards to the Lord
Jesus Christ, the doctrine of Christ, particularly the doctrine
of the person of the Lord Jesus, this is what John is careful
to bear his own testimony to, and so we see him speaking of
Christ's nature. Here in the opening words of
the book he says 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. John speaks
of Christ, of course, as the Word. In the opening verses of
the Gospel of John, this is the title that is given to the Lord
Jesus. In the beginning was the Word,
he says, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. And so here also we read of Christ
under the same title. the words of life, and he is
speaking, is he not here, of the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. The fact that Christ is truly
God, that he is divine. The opening clause, that which
was from the beginning, says John, and we are to understand
that expression in terms of an absolute beginning. that that
is before ever time was created. He goes on in verse 2 to speak
of that eternal life which was with the Father, that eternal
life. He is referring again of course
to Christ who is the eternal Son of the eternal Father. When we turn to John's second
epistle, He speaks of Christ as the Son of the Father in truth
and love. Here then, John speaks of Christ
in his person and makes mention of the fact that he is the Eternal
God, the Eternal Son of the Eternal Father. But he also, at the same
time, speaks of the fact that God was manifested in the flesh
twice there in verse 2 he uses that expression manifested the
life was manifested he says 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 how was God the Son manifested. It was, of course, by assuming
a human nature. That's the great mystery of godliness. As Paul says, great is the mystery
of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh
and John can clearly testify to that. He was one of Christ's
disciples. He was familiar with the reality
of the human nature of the Lord Jesus? Did he not see him with
his own eyes? Did he not hear him speak in
the course of his earthly ministry? Did he not on occasions handle
him? He was that favoured one who
was leaning on the Lord's breast at the Last Supper. And so we see how he speaks of
the reality of the human nature of Christ, even here in the opening
verse, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which
we have looked upon, and our hands have handled of the words
of life. And John is careful to contend
very strongly for the reality of Christ's human nature, as
we see later in the epistle in chapter 4 and verse 3 it says
every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come
in the flesh is not of God and this is that spirit of Antichrist
whereof ye have heard that he should come and even now already
is it in the world there were those who were denying the truth
of the human nature of Jesus Christ. They deny that he had
a real body, they deny that he had a real soul, and John in
his epistle will answer these heretics. As I said, John certainly
has much to say then with regards to the Lord Jesus Christ and
the two natures. how that he is God's and he is
man the two natures in that one blessed person but John also
speaks here of his own knowledge how John had such a real knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ how John was was familiar with the
Lord Jesus Christ and it wasn't an unholy familiarity it was
the fact that he had an experience of Christ. He knew that Jesus
of Nazareth was the promised Messiah. He believed in him.
He trusted in him. He was there, as we say, at the
institution of the Holy Supper and he was leaning upon Christ's
breast. His knowledge of Christ wasn't
just something in the mind, it wasn't just an intellectual thing,
it was a real living experience that he had of the Lord Jesus. And this is the message that
he is seeking to convey in this general epistle. He's writing
not to any particular church or any particular individual,
it's a general epistle, that is addressed to the people of
God by the beloved apostle John. And so, in the words that we
read in our text, we see how John comes now to speak of what
it means to enjoy Christian fellowship. That which we have seen, he says,
and heard declare we unto you that ye also may have fellowship
with us and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his
Son Jesus Christ. What John himself had experienced
of the Lord Jesus Christ, how God had opened his eyes, how
Christ had been revealed in his soul, how he knew him in this
intimate way, this is what John wants to convey to those to whom
he's addressing this particular epistle. And so that's the theme
that I want us to take up tonight, the theme of Christian fellowship
and first of all to look at the fellowship of which John is speaking. First of all then to look at
the fellowship of which John is speaking in this particular
verse and I want us to consider some three things with regards
to the fellowship. First of all Does he not speak
of the source of it? When we look at the terminology,
the language that he is using, it's interesting, not that opening
word, that, but the second word, that. He says, that which we
have seen and heard declare we unto you that, and the word that
he uses here introduces the purpose of him writing. It's in order
that, that's the strength of the particular word that he is
using. He is declaring something to
them for a purpose, in order, in order that he also may have
fellowship with us, he says, and truly our fellowship is with
the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. The purpose then is that he wants
them to know what this fellowship is. And what are we to understand
by the word fellowship? I suppose in some ways we might
say that Christian fellowship is an expression that is much
debased in our day. People speak about having fellowship
when oftentimes what they're doing is simply socializing. They're just meeting with those
who also make a Christian profession and they imagine because the
people meeting together are all professors of the Lord Jesus
Christ therefore the time that they're spending together is
a time of fellowship. But oftentimes it is nothing
more than social chit-chat that they're engaged in. The word
has a more definite and distinctive meaning than that. It means really
to have or to make things in common. And that's how we see
it of course when we read of those early Christians in the
Acts of the Apostles. after the coming of the Holy
Ghost on the day of Pentecost, we see what the consequence was
of that gracious outpouring of the Holy Ghost. At the end of
Acts chapter 2, of course, in the former part, we read of the
Spirit's coming and Peter's preaching, and the mighty signs that followed
that preaching, how sinners were pricked in their hearts and cried
out, men and brethren, what shall we do? And Peter addresses them
and tells them that they are to repent and be baptized, every
one, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ for the remission
of sins. And we are told how with many
other words Did he testify and exhort them, saying, Save yourselves
from this untoward generation? And then at verse 31 there, Then
they that gladly received his word were baptized, and the same
day there were added unto them three thousand souls. And here
is the result. They continued steadfastly in
the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and
in prayers, and fear came upon every soul and many wonders and
signs were done by the apostles and all that believed were together
and had all things common. They were all together and they
had all things common. They knew real Christian fellowship
one with the other. The word they choose here, to
have all things common is the same root as the word fellowship
and we see it again later at the end of chapter 4 verse 32 the multitude of them
that believed were of one heart and of one soul neither said
any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was
his own but they had all things common We know that they had
common possessions, but it's more than that. They're at one,
you see, they have one heart, they have one soul. There is
that that is common about them then. Their experience of the
grace of God was what really lay at the root of that fellowship
that they had with each other. And it was so not only as Peter
is ministering the Word of God, but also in the ministry of the
Apostle Paul. When he writes to the Philippians,
he speaks of their fellowship, your fellowship in the Gospel,
he says, from the first day until now. What a blessed union there
was. Another word that we often use,
it's synonymous really with fellowship, is the word communion. In fact,
the words are often interchanged in the scripture. When we think
of the great benediction, the Trinitarian benediction, it's
the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the communion
or the fellowship of the Holy Ghost. Communion and fellowship,
that's one and the same thing. But what is the basis of real
Christian communion? There must be union. There must
be union. The hymn writer says, when is
it Christians all agree and let distinctions fall, when nothing
in themselves they see, that Christ is all in all. Here is the root then, and the
source of true Christian fellowship. We have this in common that we
see nothing in ourselves, and we see all of our salvation in
the Lord Jesus Christ. The hymn writer continues, we
have no life, no power, no faith, but what by Christ is given,
we all deserve eternal death and thus we all are even. What
we are, we are by the grace of God and when we have fellowship
with our fellow Believers, what is it we delight to talk of? We should speak of Christ. We
should commend Christ, one to the other. We all feel our very
real need of Him. And isn't that real fellowship
a source of encouragement to us? Sometimes when we're filled
with doubts and fears with regards to the reality of our Christian
profession, Is it not a comfort to read those words that we have
here in chapter 3 and verse 14? God says we know that we have
passed from death unto life because we love the brethren. He that
loveth not his brother abideth in death. We want to be where
God's people are. We want to enter into communion
with them. We want to speak of those better
things with them. We want to speak of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Not of ourselves, not of what
we are or what we've done. We feel ourselves to be such
poor things. But we see all our salvation
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so God's people, of course,
must therefore be a separated people. They don't conform to
this world. Their friends are not the worldlings.
Their friends are not the empty professors all around us. who
can speak so lightly of sin and so lightly as a consequence of
the Saviour. Those words at the end of the
6th chapter in 2nd Corinthians. Be ye not unequally yoked together
with unbelievers, says the Apostle. What fellowship? What fellowship
hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion? hath light
with darkness, and what concord hath Christ with Belial, or what
part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement
hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the
living God. As God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk
in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Wherefore, come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith
the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you. and we'll be a father unto you,
and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. Having
therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves
from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness
in the fear of God. Here we see how Paul speaks in
terms of the gospel. His gospel precepts, yes, his
commandment, when he says that the Christian is to lead a separated
life, is not to conform to this world, is not to be friends with
the worldling. But here is the incentive, you
see. How God encourages his people.
I will be a father unto you, he says. Ye shall be my sons
and daughters. These are the promises. And this I say is the real source
of the believer's fellowship. It's rooted, it's grounded in
that work that God is pleased to do in the souls of his people. The source of it. But let's secondly
consider more particularly the grounds, the grounds of this
fellowship. At the end of verse 3 He says, in order that ye also
may have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship is with
the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ our Lord. The Christian's fellowship is
built upon fellowship with God. We have fellowship one with the
other But the grounds of that fellowship is the relationship
that we have with God. Truly our fellowship, he says,
is not so much with each other as believers. Our fellowship
is with the Father. Our fellowship is with His Son,
Jesus Christ, our Lord. And how these two must come together.
If we would have fellowship with the Father, we must know God's
Son, we must know the Lord Jesus Christ and we must know Him of
course as that One who has come to be the Saviour of sinners. He says at verse 6, if we say
that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we
lie and do not the truth. For those who are walking in paths of disobedience
if we are those who are guilty of sinning against God what can
we know of fellowship if we are conforming to the ways of this
sinful world and yet you see the believer is one who has such
a sense of his sinnership he is that one who feels something
of the darkness that is there because of his fallen nature,
because of what he is. How are we born into this world?
We are those who in our very natures are dead in trespasses
and in sin. We are alienated from God. We
are enemies of God. That's our condition by nature.
He goes on, does he not, to say if we say that we have no sin,
we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we say
that we have not sinned, we make Him, that is, we make God, a
liar. And His Word is not in us. Now, we need to know the Son. And we need to know the Son in
His blessed office as the Saviour. Truly, our fellowship is with
the Father, yes, and with His Son. And who is His Son? Jesus
Christ. Jesus Christ. Verse 7 he says, if we walk in
the light as he is in the light we have fellowship one with another
and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all
sin. All the only grounds whereby
we can really enjoy the fellowship of which John is speaking is
when we know Christ and the efficacy of that precious blood that cleanses
us from all the darkness and the deadness and the filth of
our sins. And those who have fellowship,
fellowship one with another, real Christian fellowship, are
those who know something of themselves. God has shown them themselves
and it's because God has shown them themselves that they need
to know himself. And we need, oftentimes, to pray
that simple prayer, show me myself, show me thyself. As we see ourselves,
we see our need of the Lord Jesus Christ. Here is the grounding. And then the means whereby this
fellowship is enjoyed. It's in and through the mediation
of the Lord Jesus Christ, is it not? It is only through Christ that
we can ever know anything of true communion with God. There is one God and one mediator
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. It is that precious
blood of Christ, it is what Christ has done. that makes a way for
us to enjoy the blessing of access and entrance, to come before
God, to pour out our hearts, to make our requests known unto
Him. We can only know God as He is
revealed to us in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. Think
of those words in Matthew 11 and 27, No man knoweth the Son,
but the Father, neither knoweth any man the father save the son
and he to whomsoever the son will reveal him. Or we can only
have fellowship with God through the Lord Jesus Christ who is
the mediator. And this is why it is so vitally
important that we have right views, a proper understanding
of Christ. We can never know God as our
Father, we can never call upon Him as our Father in Heaven,
except we know Him who is the Eternal Son of God. There in
that second epistle of John, in verse 9, Whosoever transgresseth
and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God. We need to abide in the doctrine
of Christ. He that abideth in the doctrine
of Christ He hath both the Father and the Son. Truly, our fellowship
is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. But then, in the second place,
we see how John here speaks of the fullness of joy that comes
with this blessed fellowship. He says at verse 4, These things
write we unto you, that your joy may be full. That your joy may be full. It's as we know Christ, Christ
in his person and Christ in his work, that we can enter into
these things and enter thus into the enjoyment of real communion
with God. In writing to the Colossians,
what does Paul say concerning that work of Christ? He pleased
the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell. All fullness,
all the fullness of joy is in the Lord Jesus Christ. And we
can find fullness nowhere else. It pleased the Father that in
him should all fullness dwell, and having made peace through
the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto
himself. By him I say, whether they be
things in earth or things in heaven, and you that were sometime
alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now
hath he reconciled. in the body of his flesh through
death to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable
in his sight. Once you were far off from God,
this is what Paul is saying, sometime you were alienated and
enemies. Now the natural mind, the carnal
mind, the mind with which we're born into this world is enmity
against God. It is not subject to the law
of God, says Paul, neither indeed can be. We were not in fellowship
with God, we were alienated from God. But what has the Lord Jesus
Christ done? He has come and He has reconciled
the sinner to God. He has made peace through the
blood of His cross. This is that blessed fullness
that God has laid up for the sinner in Christ, not only in
His person, His person as God-man, as mediator, but also that great
work that the Lord has accomplished. We know, with regards to His
person, that He is God manifest in the flesh. And so He says
here in Colossians chapter 2 and verse 9, in Him dwelleth all
the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and ye are complete in Him. It's
the person of Christ, yes, but it's also what we have there
in the first chapter. It's that way, that great work
that the Lord Jesus Christ has accomplished. And it is made over to the sinner. That's the great thing. Of His
fullness have all we received, says John, and grace for grace. All that fullness of grace which
is laid up in the Lord Jesus Christ, laid up in His person,
laid up in His work, all that fullness of salvation is ministered
to the sinner. And how is it ministered to the
sinner? That is the blessed work of the Holy Ghost. Or it is the
Spirit of God, you see, who must minister of this fellowship to
us. We're told At the end of the
13th chapter in the Acts, the disciples were filled with joy
and with the Holy Ghost. He comes as that spirit of joy
when he comes to reveal the things of Christ. These things, John
says, write we unto you that your joy may be full. That your
joy may be full. This joy, of course, is the fruit
of the Spirit, as we see in Galatians chapter 5, where Paul speaks
of the blessed fruit of the Spirit, and amongst that fruit we have
mention of joy. There is a ministry of the Holy
Ghost. Yes, it speaks of fellowship with the Father and with His
Son, Jesus Christ, but we're not to lose sight of the ministry
of the Holy Spirit, that self-effacing ministry. and he doesn't draw
attention to himself. It's the Spirit, of course, who
inspired John to write these things. And even as the Spirit
is inspiring John, oh, the Spirit, though he be God, yet he conceals himself in a sense.
We read of fellowship with the Father and with his Son, Jesus
Christ. The Spirit, you see, comes as
the Spirit of Christ. When the Comforter is come, whom
I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of Truth,
which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me, says
Christ. He shall testify of me. He shall
not speak of himself. He shall take of mine and shall
show it unto you. That's his ministry. Christ speaks
of him as that one who comes to glorify the Son. He shall
glorify me. but how we need to recognise
the importance and the blessed necessity of that ministry. Remember what we said just now
concerning that Trinitarian benediction, it's the grace of Christ, it's
the love of the Father, it's the communion or the fellowship
of the Holy Spirit that's spoken of there at the end of 2 Corinthians
chapter 13. And so as we come to God and
as we pray, how we need that ministry of the Spirit. How we
need to ask God to grant that we might have the Spirit. And
the Lord Jesus encourages us to make such a request. How much
more, says Christ, shall your Heavenly Father give
the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him. We need the Spirit to
come to open our understandings. He must open our eyes, of course,
to see these things, our ears to hear these things. He must
open our minds to understand these things, our hearts to receive
these things. That which we have seen and heard,
declare we unto you, says John. in order that He also may have
fellowship with us. And truly, our fellowship is
with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ, and these
things right unto you, that your joy may be full. The Lord bless these few thoughts
to us for our good and for His glory.