“What Do You Know for Sure” Series
Jesus is God
1 John 5:20
 
This morning we come to the fifth and last certainty that John gives us in the closing of his letter. We find it in verse 20 of 1 John 5.
 
1 John 5:20-21
 
Now remember, we are looking at a summary statement of what John has been writing in this letter. And it really boils down to five things. Thirty-nine times in the letter he has spoken of the certainties of our relationship with God; what we can know.
 
And it boils down to knowing we have eternal life, knowing God answers prayer, knowing victory over sin, knowing we belong to God, and now knowing Jesus is God.
 
So what you have here are some of the bedrock certainties of the Christian faith: theologically, morally and relationally. They are revealed in history. They were witnessed by the Apostles. They are confirmed the Holy Spirit. So if you want evidence then here's the evidence, the truths of which we can be certain. 
 
Now to flesh out these summary certainties, we’ve been backtracking into the letter itself to see how they flesh out. The same is true this morning. John actually ends where he begins. The last thought he shares before closing the letter is the first thought he begins with in chapter 1, verse 1.
When John begins to write, his theme is the person and work of Jesus. John is going to tell us about Jesus and he refers to Him as The Word of Life. 
 
Verses 1-4
 
Now John starts with the theological category of certainty. And as he speaks of the Word of Life, as he addresses the living incarnate Word who is the theme of the written Word, as he addresses the person of Jesus Christ he presents to us some of the features of the certainty of the Word of Life.
 
So let me give you some words to kind of hang your thoughts on. And remember we are talking about how we can know Jesus is the True God and Eternal Life. John says, I am certain of Who Jesus is for two reasons.
 
First of all, he talks about  
 
Permanence
 
Verse 1
 
The first thing he says of the Word of Life is it was from the beginning. The Word of Life has not and never will change.
 
Now remember, John is now an old man. He is writing in the last decade of the first century. He's the last man standing among the Apostles, and now he is near the end of his life and he's saying what I'm going to tell you about the Word of Life is what was from the beginning.
 
 
This is the first thing John wants to establish that this is the message that's been given from the beginning. It's the permanent timeless and eternal message.
 
The second way you can know Jesus is God is that the Word of Life is
 
Perception
 
And I mean that in this sense, it is perceived by the senses. John wants us to know that the Word of Life is available to our senses.
 
Notice the rest of verse 1, 3
 
John is saying, "I'm not talking about some transcendental experience, I'm not talking about some mystical thing, I'm telling you this Word of Life I experienced, I heard Him, I saw Him, I looked upon Him, I touched Him."
 
We have experienced it, he says. It was manifest. The Word of Life, verse 2 He calls Him the eternal Life who was God in the flesh was manifested to us. God Himself entered time and was manifest.
 
And there are sort of four steps in John's perception that suggest a deepening degree of personal experience.
 
First, he “heard”
 
What did they hear? They heard Him speak. John was there. This old man was there when he was young, he was there with Jesus for the duration of His ministry from the beginning of it to the end of it. He was there post-resurrection for 40 days on occasion meeting with the Lord and hearing Him. We have heard.
John says,, “I was there, I heard Him. I heard the Sermon on the Mount, I heard the whole thing. I heard the parables, all of them, didn't miss any of them. I heard Him preach in synagogues and in valleys and on hillsides and in thoroughfares. I heard Him teach in houses. I heard it all. I didn't miss any of it. I heard it firsthand.” It had been sixty years ago for John, but it was still a living truth in his heart.
 
Secondly he said, "We have seen."
 
And the word is refers to the physical act of seeing. He's not saying, "I had a vision, I saw a phantom appearance of the living logos." He says, "We have seen with our eyes," not with our minds, not with some transcendental visionary kind of thought. We saw Him with our eyes.
 
Why does he add "with our eyes"? So that everybody knows that he's talking about his physical sight. I saw Him there.
 
He saw the whole perfection of the revelation of Christ for himself. He was there when Jesus cast demons out of people time and time and time again. He saw it with his own eyes. He was there when Jesus reached out a hand and helped a lame person up and that lame person walked away. He was there when Jesus touched the eyes of the blind and they saw. He was there when He put his hand over the ears of the deaf and they heard. He was there when He touched the funeral procession for the young man whose mother lived in Nain.
He was there when that young man came to life. He was there. He was there when Jesus called demons out of people and they came flying out of the people and they were delivered. He was there when Jesus walked on water. He was there when He multiplied the loaves and the fishes. He saw it with his own eyes. This is his own personal experience.
 
And John is saying, you can be certain Jesus is God because I saw it for myself. 
 
Going a little further, not only what we heard and what we've seen with our eyes concerning the Word of Life, but what we
 
Looked Upon
 
It sounds like maybe he's repeating what he just said, "What we saw with our eyes." But “looked upon” is different. It means to look long at, not just a glance, not just a sort of objective look, but a searching gaze. It's the same word John uses in the gospel, John 1:14, where he says, "The Word became flesh and we beheld His glory." We looked closely at it. We looked deeply at it.
 
How could you keep from it? I mean, there was the reality in the travels of the Lord with His Apostles that they were seeing what was going on with their eyes. They were experiencing all of it. But there was another level in which they were looking more deeply into what it was that was happening. They were seeing and they were hearing not what was apparently superficial, but they were seeing and hearing what was behind.
 
They were looking deeply into the realities of who Christ was, His power to forgive, His power over demons, His power over disease, His power over death. So John says I not only saw the events, saw the man, but I saw the meaning. What I saw was God in human flesh.
 
And then he adds one more. "What
 
Our Hands have Handled
 
The word handled is used to describe a blind man feeling an object. A blind man takes a page of Braille and the smallest little bumps translate into meaningful words.
 
John says, "I had Him in my hands." He had three years to touch Jesus, to handle Him, to be near Him, to...as it were...grope like a blind man, to really understand who He was. This is remarkable.
 
Now listen: If I want to know if Jesus is God, then I want to hear from this man. He's an expert. He's a firsthand eyewitness. I was there, I saw and I heard and I looked deeply into and I felt all that He was. And He said, "This is my conclusion: this is the Word of Life."
 
Verse 2
 
So John is certain. He's certain that Jesus is God because of His permanence. He's certain Jesus is God because of His Perception. That leads Him to
make a
 
 
 
Proclamation
 
Verse 3
 
John so says, I am so convinced that Jesus is God that I want to tell you about Him
 
As a witness, as a one who saw Him, I am to bear witness, from the standpoint of experience. We saw it, we heard it, we proclaim it."
 
And John wants his readers to have the same glorious knowledge that he and the other Apostles had. The people to whom he wrote most likely never saw Jesus. There's nothing to indicate that anybody in the churches there had met Jesus Christ. They wouldn't be then witnesses of Christ, they wouldn't have heard and seen and looked upon and handled the Word of Life.
 
But John is there to be the eyewitness to proclaim that truth to them. He is credible because of his life and his character and his apostleship and it is known by everyone that he is the John who was with Jesus.
 
So in a very real sense, Christ manifested Himself to the Apostles to qualify them as firsthand eyewitnesses so that they could pass that on to others in the proclamation of the gospel. And when received by others, it would be again passed on to a next generation.
 
That’s why we have a Bible. All of the books of the New Testament written by Apostles or those who were associated with the Apostles give us eyewitness accounts. Christ manifested Himself to them, had them as eyewitnesses write down the record. Matthew wrote it down, Mark wrote it down, Luke wrote it down and John wrote it down. And they are the eyewitnesses who have given us their account.
 
There's another thing John has in mind. Since Jesus is God, I want you to be a
 
Partaker
 
of what He has to offer.
 
end of verse 3
 
In order that you also may have fellowship with us." We’ve kind of distorted the meaning of “fellowship”. We bring Doritos and Pepsi because we’re going to “Have a fellowship”. 
 
But when we talk biblically about fellowship, it's something very different. Fellowship basically means partnership. It's more than just socializing, it's being linked together in a common life.
 
John is not saying, "You know, I want you to have some social interaction with us." That was almost an impossibility. John would very soon would be in exile. And certainly it wouldn't relate to us as we read it, how am I going to have social interaction with John? He's in heaven. It is not a reference to some mystical companionship either. It is a real partnership.
 
So the way to understand this is that the preaching of the gospel produces faith and a person who puts their faith in Christ enters into a real partnership with other believers. It is a real sharing of life.
 
What happens when you are saved? You are immediately placed into a relationship, an eternal partnership with God and with Christ. The partnership is so intimate that you become the temple of God. You become the place where God dwells, the whole trinity takes up residence in your life. You now possess the life of God in your soul You have eternal life; God’s very life. 
 
So John says....Look, this is where the foundation is, this is the basics. The old gospel message that was preached from the beginning concerning the Word of Life, Jesus Christ, the eternal Life, the One who was with the Father and was manifested to us, that's the message I preach. It's a true message, I was there. I heard, I saw, I studied, I handled that truth. I know whereof I speak. It is that message which I proclaim and I proclaim it in order that those who hear may enter into this fellowship.
 
So, John says here's what I'm certain about: I’m certain Jesus is God for two reasons. Number 1, its permanence, and number two my perception. And I am so certain, I’m willing to do two thing: Number one, I’ll proclaim Him as God, and number two, I’ll invite you to get in on what He offers you. 
 
And so, we end where he began.
 
1 John 5;20
 
This is the final and ultimate certainty. Jesus is God. Therefore, verses 21
 
Don't get sucked off toward any other supposed god. Don't worship at any other shrine than the Son of God." We know that the Son of God has come.
God in the form of man, God the Son is come, present tense.
 
Our faith is based on an abiding reality, the Son of God has come. Born of a virgin. Lived a sinless life. Died a substitutionary death. Rose literally from the grave. Ascended to the right hand of the Father interceding for us and some day will come again. And we not only know the Son of God has come but we know that He has given us understanding so that we might know Him who is true.
 
And not only know Him but we are in Him who is true in His Son Jesus Christ. This is just the essence of what it means to be a Christian, to have understanding, to know Him who is true, the true and living God as revealed in Jesus Christ. And not just to know Him but to be in Him who is true. And who is it?
 
It is the true God and eternal life. All other gods are imposters and no one else possesses eternal life.
 
When Napoleon was exiled on the rock of St. Helena, he, the conqueror of civilized Europe, had time to reflect on the measure of his accomplishments. On one occasion he called Count Montholon to his side and asked him, “Can you tell me who Jesus Christ was?” The count declined to respond, but Napoleon had something to say.
 
“Well then, I will tell you. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne and I myself have founded great empires; but upon what did these creations of our genius depend? Upon force.
 
Jesus alone founded His empire upon love, and to this very day millions will die for Him…. I think I understand something of human nature; and I tell you, Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I, are but men: none else is like Him.
 
Jesus Christ was more than a man…. I have inspired multitudes with such an enthusiastic devotion that they would have died for me…. But to do this it was necessary that I should be visibly present with the electric influence of my looks, my words, of my voice. When I saw men and spoke them, I lighted up the flame of self devotion in their hearts…. Christ alone has succeeded in so raising the mind of man toward the unseen, that it becomes insensible to the barriers of time and space. Across of chasm of 1800 years, Jesus Christ makes a demand which is beyond all others difficult to satisfy.
 
He asks for that which a philosopher may often seek in vain at the hands of his friends, or a father of his children, or a bride of her spouse, or a man of his brother. He asks for the human heart; He will have it entirely to Himself. He demands it unconditionally; and forthwith His demand is granted.
 
Wonderful! In defiance of time and space, the soul of man, with all its powers and faculties, becomes an annexation to the empire of Christ. All who sincerely believe in Him, experience that remarkable, supernatural love toward Him. This phenomenon is unaccountable; it is altogether beyond the scope of man’s creative powers.
 
Time, the great destroyer, is powerless to extinguish this sacred flame; time can neither exhaust its strength nor put a limit to its range.
This is it, which strikes me most; I have often thought of it. This it is which proves to me quite convincingly the Divinity of Jesus Christ.”
 
It seems to be beyond all doubt that Napoleon was convinced that Jesus was God, not just a god, but the true and only God.
 
I don’t know whether Napoleon was a believer or not. Perhaps his conviction that Jesus was Lord came from a believing heart or perhaps his conclusion was merely an intellectual and logical one. I do not know.
 
What we do know is this: the Christian faith hangs upon 2 great declarations: Jesus is Lord and Jesus rose from the dead on the third day.
 
(Plan of Salvation)
 
And today, you can leave this place with certainty in your life:
 
We Can Know
-      We have eternal life
-      God answers prayers
-      We have victory over sin
-      We belong to God
-      Jesus is God
 
Let’s pray.