1 John 1:1-4 Follow-Up

I thought it might be helpful to supplement the Sunday sermon with a blog that follows up on some key concepts or themes from the passage in focus. And this passage focused on the physical and the spiritual foundation of the witness of the apostles to Christ and His message. In the Bible, the physical and spiritual go hand in hand, and it is crucial for Christ-followers and students of the Bible to understand this. Moses wrote to the people in Deuteronomy 28, just before they went in under Joshua to conquer the Promised Land, that their existence in that land would depend on their relationship with their God. If they followed the covenant, they would have rain for their crops and shelter from their enemies. If they ran after foreign gods and worshiped them, they would languish in famine and taste the sword of their foes. And so every time you see famine or aggressive enemies attacking Israel in the generations to come, you can count on the fact that the physical, historical experience has a spiritual basis. Reality is a combination of both.

For John, it was important that he reminded the people that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, their Messiah and Savior, really did walk this earth and our connection with God is not based on some abstract spiritual experience we drum up inside of ourselves, but on the historical and current reality of Christ’s Person and work. Likewise, the choices we make in the physical world — what we listen to, what we look at, who we hang with, how we go about our business — these all have impact on the relationship with God at the spiritual level. On Sunday, I gave a run down of how the apostles, friends and foes of Jesus heard, saw and touched Him in real time with great spiritual consequences surrounding these experiences. Let me give you some of the references for those for your own study.

They heard Him …

• Speak parables (Read some of His most famous parables in Matthew 18:21-35; Matthew 22:1-14; Matthew 25; Mark 4; Luke 10:25-37; Luke 15; Luke 18:1-14)
• Rebuke Pharisees (Matthew 23:13-36)
• Command the wind and waves (Mark 4:35-41)
• Curse towns (Matthew 11:20-24)
• Bless centurions (Matthew 8:5-13)
• Confound the intelligent (Mark 12:13-17)
• Silence demons (Luke 4:31-37)
• Stymie accusers (John 8:2-11)
• Rail against temple defilers (Matthew 21:12-13)
• Prophesy the future (Mark 13:1-37)
• Offer forgiveness (Mark 2:1-12; Luke 23:32-34)
• Preach righteousness (Matthew 5-7)
• Declare hope (John 14:1-3; Matthew 28:20)
• And cry in anguish (Mark 15:37)

They saw Him …

• Receive the Holy Spirit (Matthew 3:16; John 1:32-34)
• Eat and drink with sinners (Mark 2:15-17; Luke 191-10)
• Multiply bread and wine (Mark 6:30-44; John 2:1-12)
• Shed tears of grief (Luke 19:41-44; John 11:35; Luke 22:39-46)
• Go hungry (John 4:31-38; Matthew 4:1-2)
• Pray to the Father (John 17; Matthew 6:9-13; Mark 1:35)
• Become exhausted (John 4:6; Needed alone time w/ the Father – Luke 5:15-16)
• Ride a donkey (Mark 11:4-10)
• Comfort the heartbroken (Mark 5:24-35; John 11:21-27)
• Heal the sick (Matthew 9:35)
• Raise the dead (Luke 7:11-17; John 11)
• Become angry with the self-righteous (Mark 3:5)
• Draw the spiritually bankrupt into the kingdom of God (Matthew 5:3; John 4:1-26)
• Take on full glory (Matthew 17:1-9)
• Die on the cross (John 19:25-30)
• Live after death (Luke 24:13-43)
• And ascend into heaven (Luke 24:50-52; Acts 1:9-11)

He touched and was touched:

• He smeared mud on a blind man’s eyes and healed him (John 9:1-11)
• He placed His hands on children and blessed them (Mark 10:13-16)
• He took the hand of dead girl and raised her to life (Mark 5:35-43)
• A desperate woman touched His robe and was delivered (Mark 5:24-34)
• Another woman wiped His feet with her hair (Luke 7:36-50)
• The crowds pressed in on Him (Mark 5:24)
• Judas kissed Him (Luke 22:47-48)
• They seized Him and struck Him (Luke 22:63-65)
• They flogged Him (John 19:1-3)
• They nailed Him to a cross (Mark 15:24; Acts 2:23)
• They anointed His dead body (Luke 23:50-56)
• He offered His nail marks to the touch (John 20:24-29)
• He breathed on the disciples and promised the Spirit (John 20:22)

These references are not comprehensive. When you read the four Gospels you are forced to conclude that Jesus was fully human even as He did extraordinary things and remained fully God. And His teachings show that the spiritual and the physical are connected and what we do in faith has ramifications in the heavenlies. And what God does in the heavenlies has impact on earth and in our hearts and lives. And so we pray that one day the Father’s will will be done in earth as it is in heaven.

May we all be encouraged to remember that our faith has deep roots in history and must influence our current actions and decisions.