Eternal Life Manifested

Q: What does the Bible say about eternal life?

Eternal life is the spiritual life of God, characterized by a relationship with Him through Christ. Eternal life, as described in 1 John 1, is not merely about duration but the quality of life that is in God. It refers to the spiritual life that comes from knowing the Father and Jesus Christ. This is the divine life that transcends physical existence and contrasts sharply with mere animal or human life. John asserts that this eternal life was manifested in Christ, allowing mankind to witness and partake in the life that is with the Father. Thus, eternal life is fundamentally relational and transformational, found in communion with God through faith in Jesus.

Q: How do we know Jesus is the source of eternal life?

Jesus is described as the life itself, and eternal life is found in Him alone. The sermon emphatically states that Jesus is not just alive but rather is the very embodiment of life. This understanding is crucial because it places Christ at the center of what it means to have eternal life. In Him, we find the essence of life itself; apart from Him, there is no true life. In John's declaration, eternal life cannot be understood without recognizing that Christ is the source of all creation and the sustainer of life. All things exist through Him, and thus, our relationship with Him defines our eternal standing before God.

Q: Why is understanding eternal life important for Christians?

Understanding eternal life shapes our relationship with God and impacts our joy and faith. For Christians, comprehending eternal life is vital as it frames the believer's identity and purpose. John indicates that eternal life is about fellowship—not only with one another but directly with the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. This fellowship breeds contentment and complete joy that can only be fulfilled through Christ. Without grasping this truth, Christians may find themselves lost in temporary joys rather than anchored in the fullness that lasting life with God provides. The assurance of eternal life changes how believers live, motivates them to share the Gospel, and assures them of their eternal security.

I want you to open your Bibles
with me to the book of 1 John. That's the epistle of John. 1
John, back near the book of Revelation. 1 John chapter 1. I'm going to
read four verses. Verse 1, 2, 3, and 4. 1 John
chapter 1, verse 1 through 4. Now here's the subject today.
Eternal life manifested. eternal life manifested. Now, eternal life is not talking
about how long it lasts. It is eternal. It lasts forever. But that's not what we mean when
the Scripture says eternal life. It's talking about not the quantity
of it, the quality of it. Eternal life is the life of God. Eternal life is spiritual life.
Eternal life is that life opposed to natural life. It's spiritual
life. All right. Now here, I John chapter
1, verse 1, now listen to it. That which was from the beginning,
which we have heard, which we have seen, which we have looked
upon, and our hands have handled of the word of life, for the
life was manifested. The life was manifested. There
was life all over this earth when John wrote this. But THE
life was manifested. L-I-F-E. Life. THE life was manifested. And we've seen it. Something
different from animal life and plant life and human life. THE
life was manifested. We've seen it. And we bear witness
and show you that eternal life. That spiritual life, that divine
life, that life that never ends, which was with the Father. That
eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to
us. And that which we have seen and
heard, declare we unto you, that you may have eternal life. that you also may have fellowship
with us. And truly our fellowship, our
life is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. And these
things write we unto you that your joy may be full." And my
friends, there's a lot here. There's a tremendous lesson here,
something we need to hear, to see ourselves and hear ourselves
and experience ourselves. Now, who is John writing about?
Of whom does the prophet speak? That's what the Ethiopian asked
Philip when he read some scripture one time from the book of Isaiah.
He said, of whom does he speak, himself or some other person?
Who's John preaching about, writing about, talking about? Well, he's
speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ. That which was from the beginning,
that's Christ Jesus. The Word of Life, the Word in
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was God, and the Word was made flesh, and the Word dwelt
amongst us. That Word is Christ, the Word
of Life. That eternal life which was with
the Father, that's Christ Jesus, which was manifested to us, God
was manifest in the flesh, and the Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. The subject of John's preaching
was always Christ. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
Matthew presents Christ Jesus as the King of the Jews. Mark
presents Christ Jesus as the servant. Luke presents Christ
Jesus as the Son of Man. John, the Son of God. Christ was always his subject.
Christ was the subject of all the prophets, to Him give all
the prophets witness. He was the subject of all the
apostles. It says, when Isaiah saw His glory, he spake of Him.
Philip began at the same scripture and preached Jesus. Paul said,
we preach Christ and Him crucified. In fact, I'm determined not to
know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
And now John says, that which I've seen and that which I've
heard, and that which my hands have handled." He laid his head
on the breast of the master at the last table. He was called
the beloved disciple. He said, that which I've seen
and heard and my hands have handled, declare unto you I'm a witness. A witness tells what he's seen
and what he's heard. In fact, that's all a witness
can tell. And if anything more, if he tells
anything more than what he's seen and heard, He puts a question
mark on what he's saying, and the judge will throw it out of
court. If he tells any more than what he's seen and what he's
heard, they'll throw out all of his testimony because he'll
put a question mark on all of it. So John says, I'm a witness,
and I'm a witness of what I've seen and what I've heard and
what these hands have actually handled and touched. All right,
let's start with verse 1. Let's look at these verses. Let's
look at them carefully. Remember what I said to you recently,
he that hath ears to hear, let him hear. All right, verse 1
says, that which was from the beginning. Our Lord Jesus Christ
has no beginning of days or end of days. He is not I was or I
will be. He's I am. I am. Now John heard him speak often. OF HIS ETERNALITY. HE SAID, BEFORE
ABRAHAM WAS, I AM. I AM. HE PRAYED IN THE GARDEN,
FATHER, GLORIFY THOU ME WITH THE GLORY WHICH I HAD WITH THEE
BEFORE THE WORLD WAS. HERE'S A MAN IN HUMAN FLESH,
BORN OF A WOMAN WHO WALKED ON THIS EARTH. HIS NAME IS JESUS
OF NAZARETH. They call Him Jesus the Christ.
And here He is praying to the Heavenly Father and He's saying,
I had glory with you before the world was. For you loved Me before
the foundation of the world. He's called the Lamb crucified
or slain before the foundation of the world. He has no beginning.
That's the reason John begins his, not only his gospel within
the beginning was the Word, But he begins this epistle with that
which was from the beginning, which we apostles saw. That which
was from the beginning we saw. And we heard him speak and we
touched him. You know, Thomas said of our
Lord after the resurrection, he said, I don't believe he's
risen. And I don't intend to believe
till I take my hand and put it into the nail prints and into
the spear mark in his side. I won't believe. And then our
Lord appeared to the disciples and he said, Thomas, reach hither
thy hand and touch my side and be not faithless, but believe. And John said, I saw him and
I heard him and I touched him. Now, listen and learn three things
here. three very important things.
John goes on. He says, Now that which was from
the beginning, for the life was manifested, and we've seen it
and heard it and handled it with our own hands. Now look at verse
three. That eternal life, that eternal life which was with the
Father was literally actually manifested to us. That eternal
life. that divine life, that spiritual
life, that life of God, that life that has no beginning or
end. I hear people say, well, Jesus is alive. No, Jesus is
not alive. Now listen to me. Listen, don't
turn me off now. Jesus is life. You're alive. I'm alive. Your dog's alive. But Jesus Christ is not alive. as if he's meeting some standard
laid down for life. He is life. Life is in Him. And apart from Him, there is
no life. He is life. As the Father hath
life in Himself, so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself. Christ is life. It says in Colossians,
all things were made by Him. And without him was not anything
made that was made. Now who made a man? Christ did. Are you listening to me? In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word
was God, and all things were made by him. And without him
was not anything made that was made. And he made the animals
and gave them life. He made a man and gave him life. He made the birds that fly, everything
that breathes, every breast, beast of the forest, every bird
on the wing lives by Him because He's life. By Him all things
consist. He's not alive. He's life. He raised the ruler's daughter. She was dead and the master came
to the house and the people said, don't trouble the master, she's
dead. Well, now, you needn't trouble anybody else because
nobody else can do anything about it. But the master can. He is life. And he came in and
touched her and she arose. Lazarus is dead. And his sister
said to the Lord, said, Don't roll away the stone. Isn't that
amazing how unbelieving we are? The Lord Jesus said, Roll away
the stone. She said, Don't do that. Don't
do that. He's dead. He's been dead four
days and he stinks. What? He said, Martha, I'm the
resurrection, I'm the life. Oh, she says, I believe he'll
be raised from the dead. He said, but I'm life. Don't
you believe that? I kill, I make alive. And when
John talks here about that life, the life, we have seen the life. Well, John had seen a lot of
living things. But when he saw Christ, he saw
the source of life, the fountain of life. He saw eternal life. He saw the life of God. And John's
not speaking here of natural life. He's talking about eternal
life, spiritual life. Jesus Christ is eternal life
too. He says, I'm come that they might
have life. That they might have life? They've got life. They've got fleshly life and
carnal life that'll die and keep dying and die eternally. I'm
come that they might have life and have it more abundantly.
You see, eternal life is to know the Father and Jesus Christ whom
He has sent. And John wrote again and he said,
he said, the Son of God has come and given us an understanding
that we may know Him that is true. This is the true God, and
this is eternal life. You see, eternal life and physical
life are different. Christ is life. That morning
that John sat in the boat mending nets with his father and with
his brother, and this man Jesus Christ came by, and he looked
at John, and he said, You follow me. I'll make you a fisher of
men." And something happened. John laid down the nets, left
his father, left his job, left his income, his profession, and
followed Christ. And followed Him all the days
of his life till he died in exile, 90-some-odd years old on a deserted
island. having God reveal to him the
future. Oh, I tell you, verily I say
unto you, he that heareth my word, and believeth on him that
sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall never come into condemnation,
but is passed from death to life. And John heard him that day,
and John believed him, and John lived. Have you heard him? He said, I'm the way, I'm the
truth, I'm the life. And that eternal life, that's
what this is all about. Read it for yourself. Sit there
and read it till God gives you an understanding. John says,
the life was manifested, the life, the life, the true life,
the life of God was actually revealed and manifested. And
that eternal life, now look at the next line, that eternal life
which was with the Father, Jesus Christ is indeed a man, but he's
more than a man. More than a man. He's a God-man. Paul wrote in 1 Timothy 3, great
is the mystery. The mystery of godliness. God
was manifested. You know what John said? That
eternal life, which was with the Father, was manifested unto
us. And we've seen it. and heard
Him and touched Him. And that life which was with
the Father, God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the
Spirit, seen of the angels, believed on in the world, preached unto
the Gentiles, received up into glory. You know, I could give
you so many scriptures teaching this. Jesus Christ is God. Now
you sit there and listen to me a moment. He's God. I know He's
a man born of a woman. But He's God. He's God in human
flesh. God was in Christ. Now listen
to these scriptures. Listen to them. Isaiah 7, 14,
Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and thou shalt call his name
Immanuel. God with us. God with us. Isaiah 9, 6, listen, Unto us
a child is born, unto us a son is given, And the government
shall be on his shoulders, and his name shall be called Wonderful
Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince
of Peace. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten
of God. He's the express image of God,
the exact likeness of God. He was with God and He was God.
John 10, 30, I and my Father are one. John 14, He that has
seen me has seen the Father. Acts 20, Paul said, Feed the
church of God which He purchased with His own blood, which God
purchased. In Hebrews 1, 8, To the Son the
Father said, Thy throne, O God, is forever. Let all the angels
of God worship Him. that eternal life which was with
the Father. With the Father. There's one
God. In three persons, Father, Son,
Holy Spirit, there's only one God. And you'll never see but
one God, even in glory, there's one God. And that's Christ. He that has seen me has seen
the Father. That life was manifested to us. He dwelt among us and
we beheld His glory, actually saw His glory. Now, my friends,
if Christ had not come into this world, we would never have known
God. Because no man knoweth the Father
but the Son, and He to whom the Son will reveal Him. If Christ
had not come, we would never have known God. If Christ had
not come, we would never have known the love of God. Or we'd
know the justice and the holiness, because that's revealed by our
conscience. And the power of God, that's
revealed by the heavens. But the love of God is in Christ
Jesus. That's what Romans 8, 39 says,
the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. If Christ did not come,
we would still be under the curse. Because cursed is everyone that
continueth not in everything written in the law to do it.
But Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made
a curse for us. If Christ did not come, we would
have no way to God. No way. Now the whole Bible,
don't you listen to me a minute. The whole Bible bears witness
to this. That there's no way to God for
any human being. except through Christ. You see,
when Adam fell, now listen to me, God taught this to Adam right
from the outset. When Adam fell, sin came upon
the whole race and Adam died dead in trespasses of sin, spiritual
death. God put him out of the garden
and he put a flaming sword to guard the tree of life and that
flaming sword pointed every way The Scripture says, every way. That flaming sword pointed every
way. There was no way back that wasn't
defended by a flaming sword. Adam couldn't get back to God.
Well, when Christ Jesus came, what did He do? Did He, by His
sovereignty, do away with the sword? No. Did He find a way
around the sword? No. Then how did he deliver us
from the sword of God's wrath and justice? He took it in his
own heart. He took our place. And the sword
of God's wrath and anger and justice destroyed him, killed
him in our place. And now he said, I'm the way,
I'm the truth, I'm the light. No man cometh to the Father but
by me. I go to the Father in Christ.
and through Christ because he's taken all of the penalty and
the punishment and the curse and the condemnation and the
wrath of God and there's no sword in my way. And then in the book
of Exodus and Leviticus and Numbers, God taught this to Israel. He
had them build a tabernacle. And that tabernacle was divided
in two parts. It was the holy place and there
was the Holy of Holies. And in the Holy of Holies was
the Ark of the Covenant and the Shekinah glory of God overshadowing
the mercy seat. No human being was allowed in
that Holy of Holies. Bar none. No human being. Men tried it and were killed
and were destroyed. But no human being was allowed
in God's presence except one. The high priest, he was an emblem. He was a symbol. He was not allowed
in there without blood. He could only come once a year
into that Holy of Holies, into the Shekinah glory, into the
presence of God once a year. Just one man, the high priest
appointed of God. And he couldn't come without
blood. And when he came with the blood, he sprinkled it on
the mercy seat, waving the incense and got out of there. It was
separated by a great four inch thick veil. God said, don't anybody
come in my presence but the high priest once a year on the day
of atonement. Christ came. Our high priest,
we have a high priest. He came and he went to Calvary
and shed his blood and he went not into the holy place made
with hands, which is a figure, he went into heaven itself. into
the Shekinah glory, into the very presence of God, into the
throne room and put His blood, His blood, not the blood of an
animal, His blood, His perfect holy blood on the mercy seat
of glory and obtained eternal redemption for us. And when that
was done, the scripture said, the veil in the temple was torn
in two from top to bottom. And now the scripture says, seeing
we have a high priest over the house of God, which is Jesus
Christ the righteous, let us come. boldly to God's very throne
of grace that we may find mercy and grace to help us in our time
of need. John is so insistent upon these
three things. That eternal life, which we've
seen and heard, which was with the Father, was manifested to
us. He was born of a woman. He was
made under the law. He was obedient in life. He suffered
a vicarious death. You know what vicarious means?
In the stead of, substitution, vicarious. That's the reason
it's wrong to call any man on earth a vicar, a vicar of Christ.
There's no substitutes for Christ. There's nobody that stands in
Christ's place and stead. Christ Jesus suffered vicariously
in our place instead. He became what we're not that
we might become what He is. He arose and ascended to glory.
And the good news is by believing on Him, trusting in Him, resting
in Him, looking to Him, you and I can have life. Look unto Christ. Look unto me, He said, and be
ye saved. All the ends of the earth. I'm
God. There's none else. There's no other way. You look
to me. Don't look to the law of works.
People talk all the time about, well, I wonder if I've done enough.
No, if you could do all that everybody's ever done, you wouldn't
do enough. Your work's attainted with sin.
Don't look to the law of works. Don't look to your experience.
Well, I just don't know about my experience. I don't know about
it either. But it doesn't matter. Feelings
come and feelings go and feelings are deceitful. Trust the ever-living
Word of God. There's nothing else worth believing.
It's not experience. It's not feelings. It's not look
to your religious leaders. Well, I just lost all confidence
in me, and that's good. That's fine. Don't have any in
yourself either. Don't look to religious organizations.
Look to Him. That eternal life, which was
with the Father, was manifested unto us. Now, John had a threefold
reason for telling them about Christ. He gives it here in verse
three and four. He says, now what we've seen
and heard declare we unto you, number one, that you may have
fellowship with us, that you might be a part of the family
of God. It's a special family in which its members have so
much in common, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one body,
one faith, one hope of your calling, one Father, that you might have
fellowship with us, that you might have fellowship with the
Father. and with His Son, and that your joy may be full." You
know, my friends, on this earth, there's no joy that's full. And
we have some joy. I've had plenty of joy in these
years, but it's all temporary. It's all fleeting. It doesn't
last. It can't be called fullness of
joy. But John says in Christ, your
joy will be full. You see, swift to its close ebbs
out life's little day. Its joys grow dim, its glories
fade away. Change and decay in all around
me I see. Oh, thou that changest not, abide
with me. I've got lasting joy. It'll never fade, it's just got
to get better. Because David said, I'll be satisfied
when I awake with His likeness." Now, here's the message. Eternal
life manifested. Get this tape, listen to it again,
give it to someone else, study it, think about it. And on the
other side of this tape is another message entitled, Where Comfort
is Found. Two messages, Where Comfort is
Found and Eternal Life Manifested. Send us two dollars, we'll send
you the tape. Here's the address. Till next
week, God bless you.

Eternal Life Manifested

What does the Bible say about eternal life?

How do we know Jesus is the source of eternal life?

Why is understanding eternal life important for Christians?

Sermon Transcript

About Henry Mahan

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Eternal Life Manifested

What does the Bible say about eternal life?

How do we know Jesus is the source of eternal life?

Why is understanding eternal life important for Christians?

Sermon Transcript

About Henry Mahan

Comments

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