Have you ever been jealous of the original disciples? Ever wish that you could have seen the sea stilled, the 5,000 fed, the dead rise, the lame walk, and the blind see? Ever wish you could have heard (from Jesus own mouth and with His own voice) the Sermon on the Mount, or been a fly on the wall during His high priestly prayer? Ever wish you were the one who had stayed up all night with the Savior in prayer or shared a meal with Him on the shore after a night of fishing? Ever wish you had that type of fellowship with God?
In our world, much of the time we feel disconnected from God. Since we cannot see God, our relationship with Him can sometimes be out of sight out of mind. When we read the Scriptures, specifically the Gospels, we oftentimes wish we could have been there with Him in the flesh, believing it would be more difficult to neglect our relationship with Him face to face than across the invisible barriers we feel between this world and our heavenly home. If only we could have the intimacy in our relationship with Christ that the disciples had . . .
If this is your desire, I have news for you . . . it was also the desire of one of the one of the original disciples, the Apostle John! John wrote a letter to second generation Christians around 90 AD expressing His desire that their relationship with Christ be as intimate as His. John spent lots of time with Jesus on the earth, and He believed that level of fellowship was still accessible for himself and others who had not seen Jesus face to face. John wrote this in the first four verses of his letter we know as 1 John:
“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. 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. 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. We are writing these things so that our joy will be complete.” NLT
John’s joy would be complete if we had the fellowship with Jesus that he had, and the book of 1 John lays out his argument for how we (who have not seen Christ face to face) can have intimate fellowship with Him right now in our lives. We will take a look at this argument over the next several weeks in a new sermon series at Wildwood Community Church entitled “In the Light.” By looking at the truth of 1 John, we will see what an intimate relationship with Christ looks like. I hope you can join us this Sunday as we begin our study by looking at 1 John 1:5-2:6. Hope to see you there in either our 9:30 or 10:50 service.