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All scripture quotations are from the New Living Translation of the Bible.
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I have in front of me several types of glue – bonding agents.
Elmers household glue is the most common. Very versatile – non-toxic, too. It dries kind of slowly, has limited bonding power. Don’t try to reattach your steering wheel with this. It also cracks as it gets old.
This is Liquid Nails – another versatile glue – for small projects – “construction grade, waterproof, fast bond.” I’ve used this on household projects – glueing paneling or furniture together.
This is Super Glue – fast drying – and dangerous. Cheryl doesn’t actually let me use this glue anymore – ever since that time that I accidently glued my fingers together!
Fortunately, Super Glue will break down with nail polish remover.
Folks, these are just a few of the thousands of glues that are on the market out there. And they each have their own strengths and weaknesses. They are each designed for specific uses.
This morning we are going to be talking about a glue that isn’t marketed. It isn’t available in a bottle or a convenient squeeze tube – but which is more powerful than anything you can buy.
This is the glue that holds us together as a church – and by church I’m not talking so much in organizational terms as I am in relational terms right now.
Now, of course, there are a lot of relational types of glue out there. Ethnicity can be a glue of limited strength.
And then, there are symbolic types of glue.
Scouts wear uniforms.
Different generations have their own hair cuts and some have pierced various body parts to show they belong.
Gang members have their colors. As do sports fans.
Americans tend to fly the flag as a symbol of patriotic unity.
Sometimes the glue is experiential. Those who went on the mission trip in Mexico have a unique bond that none of the rest of us can enter into.
Bonding, community, fellowship, GLUE!
And this is what the book of 1 John is about – except that John’s message is that Christians have a glue which is more powerful – and which transcends ethnicity, symbol, or experience. A unique glue which holds us together.
Look at verse 3 in 1 John 1 -- "...We are telling you about what we ourselves have actually seen and heard, so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ."
The word that John uses here for fellowship is KOINONIA -- which was the ancient Greek word for a common bond or partnership.
If two men went into business together they had koinonia. It meant to have something in common.
And John is saying: I want to tell you about true koinonia – true bonding -- a bonding that not only draws US together as partners but also links us up with God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ!
This is powerful glue!
This isn’t just the lite version that you might experience as you discuss your business. Even the bonding that soldiers in battle experience -- as powerful as that is--is lite, compared to the koinonia that we all have together as believers united with each other and God.
As a matter of fact, says John, this is so powerful and so important that his joy hinges on our willingness to take it all in.
Verse 4 -- “We are writing these things so that our joy may be complete...”
My happiness is, at least to a degree, dependent on your bonding with God and with us. There is nothing that’s going to make my day better than knowing that we’re united in fellowship.
Which brings us to the question -- why? Why is this type of fellowship so important? What makes this bonding so unique and powerful?
The answer that John gives us is summed up in one word. JESUS.
There is nothing more basic to our faith than Jesus. We believe that it is through JESUS alone that we are reconciled to God. Thru his life, death, and resurrection we enter into the good graces of God. We get reacquainted with God and his love for us.
So, it shouldn’t surprise us that John is pointing to Jesus as the source of our common bond – the glue that holds us together.
Now, in our four short verses this week John carefully lays out two aspects of Jesus that are key to our understanding of him and this common fellowship.
The first is this: THE BASIS OF OUR FELLOWSHIP AND JOY IS THE REALITY OF JESUS IN THE FLESH.
This sounds a little esoteric – but stick with me for a few minutes and look at verse 1 – “The one who existed from the beginning is the one we have heard and seen.”
It seems that John is deliberately building a sense of continuity with the gospel of John, as he starts out here in verse 1.
And he does this by using the word "beginning." As we move along through John’s writings you’ll see that he is into these subtle word links.
Gospel of John 1:1 – “In the beginning the Word already existed. He was with God, and he was God.”
This, of course, is meant to remind us of the way that the Bible itself begins. Genesis 1:1 – “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
You see, this phrase “in the beginning” occurs at points where divine intervention into the material world occurs. And this is the case here.
“The one who existed from the beginning is the one we have heard and seen. We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands. He is Jesus Christ, the Word of life."
We saw. We touched.
We’re not talking about some divine ghost or some theological abstraction or philosophy of life! We saw and we touched.
John is stressing here in verse 1 that Jesus is really human. And it is this total and real humanity that allows us to bond.
Just as Cub Scouts wear a common blue uniform so do we wear a common flesh with God through his presence with us as Jesus.
Now, this may sound strange to us.
Who of us would deny that Jesus came in the flesh and was a real man with real human bones and real human fingers and toes?
Do you ever look at your toes and think -- they sure are funny lookin’-- mine are -- they kinda twist in goofy ways.
I wonder what Jesus’ toes looked like. I bet they were funny lookin’, too -- because he was a real man -- a man who could be heard, seen, and touched..
Even nonbelievers believe that Jesus was a real man. Few believe that he was anything more -- perhaps a unique man and a great teacher but still just a man.
Remember the line from Jesus Christ Superstar -- "He’s a man, he’s just a man..."
This is indicative of the mood of our rationally-influenced age.
But, in the first century, early believers struggled with the opposite. They lived in a world which drew a sharp distinction between the spiritual and the material. And never shall the twain meet! By definition.
Our era doubts the legitimacy of the spiritual but the dominate world view of the first century doubted the legitimacy or the value of the physical.
So, most Gentiles (non-Jewish people) or Greeks who really investigated Jesus didn’t have trouble believing that he was a spiritual being – someone from God. Perhaps not God himself, but he was definitely a spiritual being. And because he was a spiritual being he couldn’t have really been human. Maybe he appeared human but his appearance was a mask or an illusion. For no one who did the things that Jesus did could really be of the same flesh and blood that we humans have.
Are you beginning to see the implications for bonding or fellowship here?
If Jesus isn’t really human then we can’t really have solid fellowship with him. We can’t really know him! And we can’t really identify with him and really enter into a close relationship with him. The glue is weak.
So John is saying, from the outset, I want to lay out the basis of our fellowship or community – the glue that keeps us stuck to God the Father – and each other.
I want to make it perfectly clear that we are declaring to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard... what we have seen with our eyes, and what we have looked at and touched with our hands!
In verse 2 he goes over the same ground – “This one who is life from God was shown to us, and we have seen him. And now we testify and announce to you that he is the one who is eternal life. He was with the Father, and then he was shown to us.”
Verse 3 – “We are telling you about what we ourselves have actually seen and heard, so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.”
John wants to make sure that we see just how thoroughly human Jesus is in order that we might see how very much he relates to us and our situation.
Are you tired of people not taking you seriously? Hey, that happened to Jesus, too.
Have you had excruciating pain in your life? That happened to Jesus, too.
Have you had someone close to you die? That happened to Jesus, too.
Have you experienced rejection not only from your enemies but also your friends? Hey, that happened to Jesus, too.
Have you had family problems? That happened to Jesus, too.
John wants us to see just how very human Jesus is and thus how thoroughly he identified with us so that we can identify with him. Powerful glue.
And this is all packed into the idea of having a Savior who can been seen and touched.
But wait! There’s more!
The basis of our fellowship and joy is first of all the reality of Jesus in the flesh and secondly, the reality of Jesus the eternal life.
#2 -- THE BASIS OF OUR FELLOWSHIP AND JOY IS THE REALITY OF JESUS THE ETERNAL LIFE.
Look at verse 2 – “This one who is life from God was shown to us, and we have seen him. And now we testify and announce to you that he is the one who is eternal life. He was with the Father, and then he was shown to us.”
Jesus is the personal manifestation of the eternal life of the Father.
I know that this is kind of mind stretching here -- but hang with me.
You see, we are again, drawn back to the first chapter of the gospel of John. John 1:1-2 -- "In the beginning (there’s that word again) the Word already existed. He was with God, and he was God. He was in the beginning with God."
Jesus isn’t just an outstanding man with whom we identify but he is also the eternal life of God in the flesh.
Historically, the church has chosen to say that Jesus is fully and completely human just as he is fully and completely divine.
This is the mystery of the incarnation.
That in Jesus, God has chosen to identify with us – to bond with us and have fellowship (Koinonia) with us!
And he did so without ceasing to be God!
Again this is a mystery. We don’t really have any categories in our thought patterns to completely deal with this concept. It’s bigger than we are – which is not surprising if, indeed, God is bigger than we are.
It is this mystery that was revealed to us, says John in verse 2, and which we announce – and of which we testify. Legalese.
We are witnesses – not just of what the gospel has done in our lives -- but of the very nature of the gospel itself – this powerful mystery thru which we all have divine fellowship.
This is the glue that we’re going to be talking about as we start to move deeper in the book of 1 John.
And frankly, this isn’t just about storing up a little more biblical knowledge. I chose this book because I believe that we need to be developing in this area of glue or fellowship.
Let’s begin to grow in our fellowship.
Let’s begin to explore what it means to have true fellowship -- or bonding.
This is what the letter of 1 John is about -- fleshing out what it means to have fellowship with God and each other – the nature of the glue which holds us together.
Occasionally the tendency is to think that the glue is just a matter of sociology or a matter of personal preference.
I mean, don’t most of us choose a church based on whether we like the people or whether they are like us.
All of us Hittites form a church so that we can be around other Hittites.
Or all the people who like singing old songs gravitate together – or maybe it’s new songs – or songs with the energy of drums or without the noise of drums.
Lots of congregations try to build themselves on a particular musical style – that’s the glue.
But John is throwing a monkey wrench into this whole method of operation – this whole mind set that we’ve too easily bought into.
For he is insisting that the glue which really holds us together isn’t a type of music. It’s not ethnicity. It’s not whether the people are like us or whether we like them. Not at all!
The glue – and this is radical – completely contrary to how our world looks at things. The glue is Jesus himself – and we’re not just talking about Jesus as a philosophy of life but Jesus as a fleshy reality and Jesus as eternal life.
“Okay,” you say. “Pray tell, what does this all mean? It sounds a little strange.”
It is. Something totally different. Something totally strange.
So stay tuned! Over the next several months we’re going to do a chemical analysis – and some field-testing – on this unusual glue.
