It’s All About Jesus

1 John 1:1-4

Introduction

I am assuming that we all want to be Christians, either by investigating the faith, by making a decision to follow Jesus, or how we continue to live as a Jesus follower. The goal is clear, how to go about it is not always as simple.

Here is the problem. Everyone has an idea of what a “real” Christian is like. I have seen this in my own denominational experience. I grew up in the Anglican Church. Our definition of a Christian was someone who was baptized, and that usually happened as a baby. A six month baby who had no idea who Jesus was, was considered a Christian because of the promises of the parents and the act of baptism. Growing up, I never questioned it until I encountered other traditions and began reading the Bible. That is not to say that event is meaningless but it may not be the best way to define who a Christian is.

As a young adult, I began to attend a very conservative evangelical church. They also had a clear idea of who was a “real” Christian. A true Christian is someone who has prayed the sinner’s prayer. The sinner’s prayer is a fairly standardized prayer where the person acknowledges they are a sinner and asks Jesus to be their Lord. This made more sense to me. This was something that made much more sense to me. While a child could do this, it usually was prayed by someone who had at least a basic understanding of what Jesus did on the cross. I also liked that it was easily defined. One who prayed the prayer was a Christian, one who didn’t wasn’t. I full subscribed to this idea. But there were some problems. Not only do we not find the sinner’s prayer in the Bible, it does not seem to appear in church history until the 19th century. It was developed during the time of professional evangelists and revivalists who needed a measurable way to examine the impact they were having in their ministry. But even this was problematic. Billy Graham believed that only 25% of the people who came forward during his crusades actually became Christians and other research suggested that only 6% of those who responded demonstrated any lasting change.

Here is the other problem I found as I spent time with a wider range of Christians. I found that there were people who were raised in the church, who never prayed a sinner’s prayer, and who demonstrated the fruit of a Jesus follower. And many of the people who prayed the prayer lacked that fruit. Things were much more messy than I would like.

While this may be frustrating for us, it is not a new issue. At the time that John was writing his letters, the church was already experiencing the same challenges. At this point we are a few decades past the death and resurrection of Jesus. The church is getting larger and more organized. People who are joining the Christian fellowship and are identifying as Christians but there are signs that things are not all as they seem. John is recognizing that not everyone who calls themselves a Christian is a Christian. But John does not see this as a hopeless problem. As someone who has been a follower of Jesus from the beginning, he is confident that there are ways to recognize a Jesus follower, and it might not be what people expect.

John lays the foundation by putting the emphasis where it belongs and that is on Jesus. I see so many people defining as holding to a variety of opinions, many of which are not even found in the Bible, when a true Christian is one who follows Jesus. Just because we may hold certain convictions does not mean that those convictions define what it means to be a Christian. When everything else gets confusing, we must put our eyes back on Jesus. So what do we need to know about this Jesus?

Jesus of History

Some people think that all that is important is that Jesus died on the cross. Anything else is a distraction. Without de-emphasizing the cross, I would want to push back on that.

The first thing that we need to understand is not that Jesus died on the cross but that he was someone who appeared in history. John begins, not by talking of a mystical image of Christ, but of describing the Jesus he knew personally. Jesus was not just a vision who appeared to certain mystics, he was a real, earthly human being. John talks about not just being able to see Jesus but be able to physically hold onto. Jesus was real enough that you could shake his hand, give him a pat on the back, or even hug him. Every thing John will say about Jesus in this letter is not based on cleverly designed myths but is about a Jesus who appeared in human history. One of my favourite Gospels is Luke, and Luke introduces us to Jesus by placing him in his historical context. Unlike the pagan god-men who are described as acting in the mythical past, Jesus is rooted in history, being born during the reign of Caesar Augustus and being crucified during the reign of Tiberius Caesar. 

If you were to talk to a Buddhist, they would tell you that is was irrelevant whether or not there was a historical Buddha. They would affirm that the four noble truths work with our without a historical foundation. Not so with Christianity. Our faith rests fully on a Jesus who appeared in history.

Revelation of the Father

So it is important that Jesus was a historical figure. But Jesus as a human being is not enough. There were many Jewish males born during the first century in Galilee and Judea. In fact, there would have been many named Jesus, or more accurately, Yeshua. Just having a Jewish man appearing in history, even one with some interesting religious ideas, is not enough.

John closely connects the appearance of Jesus with the activity of the Father. The author of Hebrews describes in more detail what John believed about Jesus:

“In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.” (Hebrews 1:1-3)

This is Jesus of history is actually the revelation of God into this world. Jesus is not just a prophet, but God in the flesh. Do you remember the song One of Us from the 1990s? It asks the question: “What if God was one of us?” While that song is not about Jesus, it should have been, because that is what God did in Jesus Christ. People often wish God would just reveal himself to humanity. God has done this in Jesus Christ.

Life and Joy

There are different levels of communication. Think about waving to a person in a car. You might wave at a stranger in a car to just be friendly. You might recognize the person in the car and wave to reflect the relationship you have. Or you might wave at a person in the car to try and get their attention, make them stop, and have a conversation with them. 

We need to ask, why did God reveal himself through Jesus Christ? Was it just to let us know that he existed? Was it a sign of judgment that reminds us we are on God’s bad side.

John speaks of it in terms of the sharing of eternal life. This is one of the most misunderstood ideas in the Bible. Many think of eternal life in the sense of being in heaven when you die. Jesus becomes a train conductor and checks your ticket to make sure you are going to the right destination. Hell-bound or heaven-bound? While eternal life includes the afterlife, it is also about the quality of life. Jesus said: “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:10) This is not a promises of earthly riches as some believe, but an experience of life that is found through fellowship with the Father and Jesus through the Spirit. This is Good News, what we often call the gospel. This is a message of joy. That doesn’t mean that John has no hard teachings, the basic message of God revealing himself in history through Jesus Christ should be one that gives us joy.

Conclusion

John is going to have much more to say about what a Christian looks like. But for now, he has started with Jesus. I remember when I was a young seeker, just coming out of atheism. I was working for some Christians and they were actively witnessing to me. The presented a long list of things that a real Christian had to believe. Looking back, I can recognize that much of what they saw as essential to real Christianity was not even found in the Bible. As I read through the New Testament, looking for material to rebut them, I found something else. I found the person of Jesus. There were many questions for which I still did not have answers for, but I was drawn to this Jesus. What if a Christian is simply a person who is in fellowship with Jesus? Is that possible? John will have much more to say, but whatever else is said about being a Christian, the foundation has to be God revealing himself in history through Jesus Christ.