“FELLOWSHIP IN THE TRUTH”
Saint John, Apostle and Evangelist
December 27, 2015
Bethel Evangelical Lutheran Church
Glenshaw, Pennsylvania
TEXT:
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have
seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our
hands, concerning the Word of Life--the Life was made manifest, and we
have seen It, and testify to It and proclaim to you the Eternal Life,
which was with the Father and was made manifest to us--that which we
have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have
fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and
with His Son Jesus Christ.
1 John 1:1-3 (ESV)
The proverbial “twelve days of Christmas” are filled with uniquely
Christian commemorations: “the feast of Stephen,” the Holy Innocents,
and the Circumcision of our Lord, to name just a few. Today, on this
“third day of Christmas” the Church remembers Saint John, one of the
Lord’s twelve apostles and the author of five New Testament books.
John hardly ever refers to himself by name in his writings; most often
he simply describes himself as “the disciple whom Jesus loved” (John
21:20). And he loved Jesus as well. When the Savior was arrested and
His disciples scattered in fear and went into hiding, John alone
stayed with his Master to the end, standing at the foot of the cross
with Jesus’ mother. And, according to tradition, this one disciple,
who stayed with Jesus and was not afraid of being killed, was the only
one of them who did not meet a martyr’s death. John lived to an old
age (probably near the age of one hundred years). It is said that
even when old age had made him infirm, he would struggle to his feet
when the early believers met and simply say to the assembled
congregation: “Little children, love one another.”
It is no wonder, then, that the subject of love would dominate John’s
writings. In the passage before us this morning--the opening verses
of his first letter--the apostle speaks of what he and the other
apostles have witnessed about Jesus and have passed on to us. He
speaks in detail of how they experienced the God who “became flesh and
dwelt among” them (John 1:14) with their own senses and of how that
Life, lived in this world, has brought all of us into fellowship with
God Himself as well as with the apostles and with one another. As we
continue to bask in the glow of Bethlehem’s manger, we will reflect
this morning on what John has to tell us about our fellowship in the
truth.
In the closing words of this text the beloved disciple tells us that
the fellowship to which he is inviting us is, above all else, a
fellowship with God Himself. He writes: “indeed our fellowship is
with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.” The Christ who the
Holy Spirit inspired John to write about has established this
fellowship by becoming One of us. John writes about this in his
Gospel as well: “In the beginning was the Word,” he writes, “and the
Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with
God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not
anything made that was made” (John 1:1-3). And then he goes on to
tell us: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen
His glory” (John 1:14). The eternal God who made and rules heaven and
earth and everything in them has united Himself with us in the most
intimate way possible: He has become One of us and one with us.
Later in this letter John says that “every spirit that confesses that
Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God” (1 John 4:2). What he
says there about angels and demons is true of humans as well. He
makes the confession of the incarnation of Christ the defining
characteristic of those who are in fellowship with God, the apostles,
and one another. And his words are prophetic in a sense, because all
three of the ecumenical creeds of Christendom center on this fact.
God has become Man in Christ. He has bridged the gap between the
human and the Divine--between the guilty and the Righteous--between
the condemned and the Judge. Where there was hostility between God
and us, there is now peace, and that peace with God is what gives
birth to peace with one another. We who were united in sin and guilt
are now united in forgiveness and fellowship, as Martin Franzmann’s
hymn proclaims:
“In Adam we have all been one, one huge rebellious man;
We all have fled that evening Voice that sought us as we ran.
O Thou who, when we loved Thee not, didst love and save us all
Thou great Good Shepherd of mankind, O hear us when we call.
Then shall our song united rise to Thine eternal throne,
Where with the Father evermore and Spirit Thou art One”
(Lutheran Service Book #569, stanzas 1, 4,6).
But the oneness that John encourages is more than the “can’t we all
just get along” kind of coalition that the world seeks to promote; it
is a oneness that is rooted in the truth. It is rooted in the truth
because the truth matters. The sad divisions within Christendom are
not trivial. They are the result of Christians fighting for the
truth. The attempts to bring about external unity based on
compromise, no matter how well-intended they may be, only result in an
empty union that drags the participants down to their lowest common
denominator. The unity of the Church is rooted in the One who said:
“I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the
Father except through Me” (John 14:6). But there is disunity in the
Church because Christians (sinners living in a fallen and broken
world) misunderstand the truth, mix the truth with falsehood, and
compromise the truth. Unity in the Church is something that we all
must pray for and work toward, but that prayer and work must be rooted
in the truth.
The ultimate Truth is Jesus Himself, as He is revealed to us by the
power of the Holy Spirit, working through the Word and testimony of
John and the apostles, who were eyewitnesses to His life, death, and
resurrection. The Spirit moved them to put their testimony into
writing so that you and I, living many centuries later, might have the
same Truth that they saw and heard and smelled and touched and tasted.
Solely by the mercy and grace of God we are in fellowship with God,
with one another, and with the whole Christian Church in heaven and on
earth. But this fellowship has nothing at all to do with our
personalities, our interests, or anything else that draws people
together here on earth. It is fellowship in the Truth, that Truth
being the incarnate Son of God Himself, who humbled Himself to come
into our messy world and into our messy lives by means of His Gospel,
given to us by the Spirit of God Himself through His chosen apostles,
who experienced firsthand who Jesus is and what He has done and have,
by the power of that same Spirit, passed it on to us, so that we “may
have fellowship with [them]; and indeed our fellowship is with the
Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.”
Amen.
May the true Light which enlightens everyone, which has come into the
world, shining brightly in the darkness, be your very life. And may
the Word become flesh, Jesus Christ Himself, continue to make known to
you His redeeming grace and truth now and always. He who calls you is
faithful, and He will do it. Amen.