This song always takes me to a place of worship – Christ, won’t you be our Light, and please, please, I think to myself, don’t let it all depend on me!
This Sunday, July 1, we begin four weeks of study/sermons on the First Epistle of John. It’s all about light, it’s all about illuination
What do we know about this book, usually referred to as 1 John, (first John)? People ask me, did John the disciple write this? And was he really the guy who wrote the Gospel of John, and how about the Revelation of John? Who wrote that? Well, the answer is – I don’t know, and actually no one really does. We have good guesses, and better guesses, but that’s it. Because the new testament came together in ‘snippets’ and nobody’s signature was on them. Here’s what I think – the theme of Love is so great in the Gospel of John, and in the Epistles of John ( first, second and third John) that if it wasn’t the same guy, it was two guys who both focused on Love – maybe the epistles were signed John as a kind of ‘homage’ to John the disciple. If the epistles were written by John, it seems clear that he really was very young in his time as a disciple, and wrote the epistles when a very old man. Certainly possible. The Revelation of John – well, its very much later too, and it isn’t very tied into the Love theme so I am more skeptical about the same person writing Revelation as wrote the gospel. But, the point is LOVE, oh, yeah, and LIGHT, and COMMUNITY – those are the themes of 1 John.
As it was in the beginning – John starts there in his epistle. It sure makes you think the person who wrote this was an eyewitness. “what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life -— 2 this life was revealed, and we have seen it and testify to it, and declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us -— 3 we declare to you what we have seen and heard so that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.”
You are there. When John writes about This Life Was Revealed – I feel like I am there, too, with the disciples, seeing the actions of the son of God, as he lived and moved and breathed here on earth, in order that we might understand, draw near, and want to know more.
See you in church on sunday, friends, as we draw nearer to this light of Christ, and the depth of His love is revealed. – Pastor P