May we look to the Lord in prayer.
Lord, as we continue together in thy presence,
we ask thee to quicken us again by
thy spirit, that we may be able to
hear thy voice through thy word.
We do praise and thank thee because thy
words are light and spirit to us.
For unless thou dost speak again through thy
written word, they will just be letters to
us.
So Lord, we ask that as we study
thy word together this morning, that we may
hear thy still small voice, that by thy
spirit we may be transformed, and we may
be led into all truth.
We would like to see thee through thy
written word.
We just commit this time into thy hands,
and trust thy Holy Spirit's word.
In the name of our Lord Jesus, amen.
In this session, we would like to study
the word of God together.
It will be a little different from probably
ordinary ministry time, because we hope that everyone
who comes to this second session of study,
that you will really do some study yourself.
It is not expected that I will do
all the study, and you will do all
the listening.
But I hope that you will do some
study yourself.
So this time we would like to use
that short letter of John, the first epistle
of John as our study.
It is short, but it is very rich,
and I do not know how far we
can go, but at least I hope that
during these few days you will read this
letter again and again and again.
And read it, meditate upon it, and ask
the Lord to speak to you through it.
And if we prepare ourselves in this way,
when we come together, I believe it will
be us studying together, instead of I do
all the study.
So I do hope that this will be
more or less our assignment, that everyone will
read 1 John as many times as possible.
I remember once three sisters asked our brother
Watchman to study the book of Revelation with
them.
And our brother gave them a requirement, and
he said, if you will read the book
of Revelation a hundred times, then you will
come back and we will study.
And these sisters did read a hundred times.
Now I will not ask you to read
a hundred times, because you will miss your
meal and your sleep.
But at least I will say without laying
down any rule as to how many times,
you will read as many times as possible.
May we just read the first four verses
of the first epistle of John.
Chapter 1 from verse 1 through verse 4.
That which was from the beginning, that which
we have heard, which we have seen with
our eyes, that which we contemplated, and our
hands handled concerning the word of life.
And the life has been manifested, and we
have seen and there witnessed and report to
you the eternal life, which was with the
Father and has been manifested to us.
That which we have seen and heard, we
report to you, that ye also may have
fellowship with us, and our fellowship is indeed
with the Father, and with his Son Jesus
Christ.
And these things write we to you, that
your joy may be full.
The gospel of John is on life.
The first letter of John is on fellowship.
You cannot have fellowship without life.
But life must be expressed and proven through
fellowship.
How do we have life?
We find in John chapter 20, the apostle
John said, he write these things to us,
that we may believe that Jesus is the
Christ, the Son of God.
And in believing, we may have eternal life
through his name.
So the way that we come to life
is by believing.
Believing that Jesus is Christ, the anointed of
God.
And he is the Son of the living
God.
And if we believe with our heart, we
shall have eternal life through his name.
But how is that life to be expressed?
How do we know that we have eternal
life?
What are the evidences that we have eternal
life?
Can we know that we have eternal life?
Are we able to have the assurance of
eternal life?
And the same apostle said we can.
And then you find in first letter of
John in chapter 5, he said, I write
these things to you, that you may know
you have eternal life.
You who believe in Jesus as the Son
of God.
So dear brothers and sisters, we receive eternal
life by believing.
And we know that we have eternal life.
We have the assurance that we have eternal
life because we have that fellowship with the
Son and with the Father.
And that fellowship with the apostles and that
fellowship with one another.
The first letter of John speaks of fellowship.
Now what is fellowship?
The very word fellowship means communion, fellowship, communication,
participation, partnership, sharing in common.
We share what we have together and thus
we possess together the same thing.
And you find the whole letter of John
is trying to help us to see what
is fellowship.
How do we practice fellowship?
What are the conditions of fellowship?
And what will happen if we have fellowship?
And all these things you'll find in this
little letter.
Of course if you take this letter up,
you'll find in one sense, why do we
call this the first letter of John?
You know when you write a letter, usually
you have someone mentioned there to receive that
letter, to address it.
And you will have the one who addressed
the letter.
You will have a place where the letter
will be sent.
But you do not find any of these
in the first letter of John.
There is no address, there is no addresser,
there is no addressee, there is no name
mentioned anywhere in this little letter.
And yet we find throughout the letter there
is such an intimate relationship between the one
who writes it and the people receiving it.
You will find there is such a flow
of life between the one who writes it
and the ones who receive it.
It gives you the impression that it is
a letter.
Even though the one who writes the letter
is not mentioned, but we know who he
is.
Because he cannot be other than the one
who writes the Gospel of John.
There are such similarities in many respects between
the Gospel of John and the first letter.
So we do believe that the writer of
this letter is the Apostle John.
The Holy Spirit used the Apostle John to
give us this very lovely letter.
As to the time of this letter, we
gather that this letter must be written in
the last decade of the first century.
It is one of the last of the
books of the New Testament.
It was written at a time when the
rest of the Twelve Apostles had passed on.
And only the last one of the Twelve,
John, was still living.
And during his last days we know that
he labored in Asia Minor, probably residing in
Ephesus.
So most probably this letter was written by
the Apostle John in the last decade of
the first century, and this letter was written
to those whom he loved in Asia Minor.
And of course not only to those in
Asia Minor, but to us today.
During the days when John wrote this letter,
Jerusalem was already destroyed.
The temple was destroyed.
The testimony of God upon this earth was
upon the shoulder of the Church, the Body
of Christ.
And the problem with them was not at
that time outside persecution.
There was no mentioning of persecution in this
letter.
The problem of the Church at that time
was from within.
You remember the Apostle Paul.
The last time he passed by, he called
the elders in Ephesus to come for my
repentance.
And there you remember how he poured out
his heart to the elders there, how he
told them that for three years he labored
in their midst with many tears.
He had not withheld anything from them, but
he told them the whole counsel of God,
and then he committed them into the grace
of God.
But he warned them that after he left,
there will be grievous woes coming into their
midst.
And there will be people even from their
very midst coming out, trying to mislead the
people, trying to draw people away from Christ
and unto themselves.
Then you remember when he wrote 2nd Timothy,
he mentioned the same thing.
He said we are in the last days,
and the last days are difficult times, when
people will be lovers of self, lovers of
money, lovers of pleasures, and not lovers of
God.
And then you find in the same letter
to Timothy, he says people will not listen
to sound teaching, but they will listen to
many teachers that will satisfy their itching ears.
So you find when John the Apostle wrote
this first letter, it was a time when
there were false teachers coming up in the
church, and they began to teach false doctrines
and false teachings, especially concerning the person and
the work of Christ.
And it was to correct, it was to
strengthen the believers against the false teachings that
came up at that time.
Then you find the background of this letter.
The danger that the church faced at that
time concerning the world is not the outside
persecution, but rather the subtle temptation of the
world.
So that formed the background of this little
letter.
But anyway you'll find the central thought of
this whole letter is very positive.
It is on this matter of fellowship.
This little letter can be roughly divided into
three parts.
The first part is chapter one from verse
one through verse four.
It is an introduction, and this introduction lays
the ground of fellowship.
It is not only introducing the subject of
fellowship, but actually in these four verses they
give us the very essence of fellowship.
And what follows in the letter is but
a development of all that has been mentioned
in these four verses.
So we may call it the ground of
fellowship.
Then from chapter one verse five through chapter
five, verse five, you find the condition or
the practice of fellowship.
Let us call it the grace of fellowship.
The grace of fellowship.
And again you'll find in this section, in
this part, there are three sections.
One is fellowship must be in life.
It is from chapter one, verse five, through
chapter two, verse 28.
Then the second section is fellowship must be
in righteousness.
From chapter two, verse 29, through chapter four,
verse six.
And then the third section is fellowship must
be in love.
And that is from chapter four, verse seven,
through chapter five, verse five.
So all these you'll find in the second
part, the grace of fellowship.
And then of course we have the last
part.
From chapter five, verse six, to the end,
verse 21.
And this is the conclusion.
Then we call it the glory of fellowship.
So all together you'll find in this little
letter, we find the ground of fellowship, the
grace of fellowship, and the glory of fellowship.
Now this morning we would like to begin
with the first part.
This letter is itself a form of fellowship.
The apostle John at that time was very
aged, probably in his nineties.
But there was something burning in his heart.
There was something that was very precious to
him.
And he would like to share with his
fellow believers.
He would like to share with these people
among whom he labored.
And in order that he might share what
he had in his heart with these people,
he wrote them a letter.
Remember, when he wrote this letter, he was
at his closing years.
He didn't have much time left.
But there is still much in his heart,
much that he has learned, that he wants
to pour out, he wants to share with
his fellow believers.
He cannot afford to make small talks.
What he tried to bring out in this
letter is of tremendous importance to him.
It is of tremendous value to the church.
It is not something insignificant.
It is the very center of all that
he has learned through the years.
When he followed the Lord himself for over
three years and a half, and afterwards how
he served the risen Lord until he came
to his closing days.
And that's what you will find in this
little letter.
Sometimes we talk a lot about nonsense.
Sometimes we talk a lot about trivial things,
small things, that really do not matter too
much.
But not the Apostle John at his closing
years.
Time is too precious to him.
So we would like to get into his
very heart and try to see what is
it that is so central and important and
precious to him, and that which he tries
to share with us, that we too may
have it.
Now what is it?
That which was from the beginning in the
gospel of John.
You'll find he begins the gospel of John
with, In the beginning was the Word, and
the Word was with God, and the Word
was God.
Verse four, In him was light, and the
light was the light of man.
Verse fourteen, And the Word became flesh and
tabernacle of a man, full of glory, full
of grace and truth.
That's the way he began the gospel of
John.
But when he began to write the epistle,
he said, That which was from the beginning.
Now you notice there is a difference there.
In the gospel of John he said, In
the beginning was the Word.
But in the epistle he said, That which
was from the beginning.
In the beginning, before time
began, there was the Word, the eternal Word.
The eternal Word existed before the beginning of
time, because he was the beginning.
So in the gospel of John actually you'll
find, In the beginning was the Word.
He shows us the very nature of God.
He shows us who God is.
He is the beginning of everything.
But then when he writes the epistle, he
said, That which was from the beginning.
He who is the Word already existed.
But now you'll find he began to step
into time, from the beginning.
And the very phrase, From the beginning, speaks
of the eternal purpose of God.
From the beginning, God has a purpose.
And his purpose is concerning his Son.
That his Son should be made the heir
of all things.
And it is with that in view that
you'll find it begins.
He begins to create.
Time and space have their beginning.
For that one purpose, that the Son shall
be the heir of all things.
So that which was from the beginning tells
us that our Lord Jesus is the purpose
of God.
He is from the beginning the purpose of
God concerning all things, concerning all creation, and
especially concerning the church.
And that is what he is.
That which we have heard, this means much
more than what the apostles heard directly from
Jesus.
That which we have heard goes back to
the Old Testament time.
And you'll find in Hebrews chapter 1, God,
how God has spoken in the past in
many ways and in many parts to our
fathers through the prophets.
That which we have heard, God through the
time in the Old Testament day, through the
prophets, he has spoken to us in many
parts, pieces and bits, and in many ways.
Sometimes he speaks in plain words.
Sometimes he speaks in types.
Sometimes he speaks in commandments.
Sometimes he speaks in parables.
You'll find sometimes he speaks in history.
But in many ways and in many parts,
God has spoken to us, to our fathers.
And now in the last days, he speaks
to us in his Son.
And that is what we have heard.
What have we heard?
We have heard all the prophets have spoken.
We have heard what our Lord Jesus himself
has spoken to us.
And that is included in that which we
have heard, that which we have seen with
our eyes.
It brings right down to the time of
the apostles.
The apostles have seen the Lord with their
eyes.
You remember one day the Lord was passing
by.
And John the Baptist said, Behold the Lamb
of God.
And two of his disciples went to follow.
And the Lord turned back and said, What
do you want?
And they said, Where do you live?
And the Lord said, Come and see.
They saw.
They saw and they knew that they had
found the Messiah.
That which we have seen.
It came down to the time of the
apostles.
That which we contemplated.
Many people saw the Lord when he was
on earth.
He traveled even though in a small area.
He traveled in Jerusalem, in Judea, in Samaria,
in Galilee.
And he was seen by many people.
Many people have seen him.
But they saw only him as the son
of a carpenter.
They saw only in him as man of
Nazareth.
But thank God there were those who contemplated.
There were those who contemplated him.
There were those who perceived in this man
of Galilee the Son of God, full of
glory.
So here you'll find in the gospel of
John, chapter 1, verse 14, it is said,
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among
men.
And then in the parenthesis, it is a
parenthesis, it says, And we have contemplated his
glory, a glory as of and only begotten
with the Father.
End of the parenthesis.
Full of grace and truth.
The Word became flesh and dwelt among men.
Many men saw him.
They realized that he was full of grace
and full of truth.
But that's all.
But thank God you'll find a parenthesis there.
There were few, there were some, whose eyes
were opened by the Father to see that
in this man they saw the glory, the
glory as of and only begotten with the
Father.
And that takes revelation.
So here you'll find the apostles.
They received such revelation.
They not only saw the outward form of
Jesus, but they saw in him God, the
very God, the Son of God.
And our hands handled.
After our Lord was raised from the dead,
the disciples were in the room, and suddenly
the Lord appeared to them.
You know they couldn't believe it.
Even though they were told that the Lord
had risen.
And yet it was hard to believe because
it had never happened before.
For then the Lord stood in their midst
and said, Handle me.
Handle me.
A spirit does not have flesh and bone,
but you can handle me, the one who
came into this world.
The one who died on the cross.
Who was buried in the tomb.
He is risen.
And he could be handled.
He is so real, so living.
And dear brothers and sisters, you'll find the
apostle John said, That which was from the
beginning, you start from the very beginning.
The purpose.
That which we have heard through the ages,
up to the time of Christ.
That which we have seen with our eyes,
the apostles.
And we contemplated him.
We have received revelation.
And that which we have handled, he is
risen from the dead.
You'll find a whole range concerning what?
Concerning the word of life.
All these descriptions are concerned with life.
With life.
With the word of life.
Well, in modern idiom you would say, concerning
the revelation of life.
This life has been revealed.
This life is the very one who is
from the beginning.
This life is that which we have seen,
we have heard throughout the ages.
This life is the one whom we have
seen.
This life is the one whom we have
contemplated.
And this life is the one whom we
handle because he is risen from the dead.
Dear brothers and sisters, what is it?
It is life.
It is a person.
A living person.
Even our Lord Jesus Christ.
Oh, what a revelation that is.
What the apostle John tried to share with
us is not a teaching.
Is not a doctrine.
Is not a system.
Is not a history only.
What the John, the apostle John tried to
share with us, what is so precious to
him, is the life.
The life is the Christ.
And that is a great revelation.
There is no revelation greater than the revelation
of life.
And this is what he tried to share
with us.
And you know, verse 2 is in parenthesis.
And the life has been manifested and we
have seen and bear witness and report to
you the eternal life which was with the
Father and has been manifested to us.
He puts that in parenthesis.
Why?
Because he wants to show us that he
has personal experience of it.
This life that he is trying to tell
us, a tremendous life, is the life that
has been manifested.
The Word has become flesh.
And we have seen it.
And therefore we bear witness and report to
you the eternal life.
That which was with the Father and has
been manifested to us.
This life was with the Father.
You find a distinct person in the Godhead.
And yet you find the unity of the
Godhead.
This life was with the Father.
They are one.
And yet this life has been manifested to
us.
And because it has been manifested and we
have seen, we have borne witness to, therefore
we can report to you.
And then in verse 3 he continues.
That which we have seen and heard we
report.
Now dear brothers and sisters, you cannot report
something that you haven't seen and haven't heard.
But I do believe that when John says
that what we have heard and seen is
more than what they have seen and heard
with their naked eyes and ears.
I believe there is a development here.
You may see something.
You may hear something.
And yet if there is no revelation, if
you do not see with your inner eye,
if you do not see with your inner
ear, hear with your inner ear, no matter
how accurately you report, it cannot bring in
fellowship.
It is death.
It is just letter.
And the letter kills.
But the spirit quickens.
I believe that these apostles, they said we
have seen and heard.
What they mean is we have not only
seen and heard with our naked eyes and
ears, but we have seen with our inner
eyes and we have heard with our inner
ears.
The Father has revealed the Son in us.
And because we have seen and heard in
such a way, therefore we can report to
you and our report is living and real.
And of course, those who hear the report
must hear it not only with their ears,
not only try to see it with their
eyes, but they need to look to the
Spirit of God to reveal the Son to
them.
And then you will find there is a
consequence.
Something will happen.
If the reporting is by revelation and if
the hearing is by the Spirit, you know
what will happen.
But what happens is that we may have
fellowship if the Apostle John
will hold back what he has seen and
heard and will not report to us.
He will be enjoying life in such abundance,
but we will be poor.
He will deprive us of having that life.
But thank God, freely received, freely given.
You will find these apostles, and especially here
the Apostle John, you will find in his
heart he is just filled with this life.
And here he tries to pour it out
to us.
And in reporting without withholding it, reporting to
us that we may have fellowship.
I think there is a principle we need
to learn.
If you have seen and heard, and in
the Spirit, do not hold back.
You should report it.
You should share it with your brothers and
sisters.
That we may have fellowship one with another.
So here you come, here you find that
Apostle John said in the very reporting of
what he has seen and heard, fellowship comes
into being.
And that is our fellowship.
We also mentioned this matter of our fellowship.
Now what do you mean by fellowship?
Well fellowship simply means that you report what
you have seen and heard to me, and
I report what I have seen and heard
to you.
And you receive my report, and I receive
your report.
And as we do that, you find we
share in common.
And that is fellowship.
But the point is, what do we report?
What do we receive?
What the apostle reports is the life, is
Christ as our life.
And what do we report?
When we share with one another, what is
it that we share?
Do we share ourselves?
Do we share a teaching?
Do we share a doctrine?
Do we share an experience?
Or is it that we share life?
We share the life of Christ, the life
of Christ that we have seen and heard
and have experienced.
And dear brothers and sisters, if we learn
to share the life, oh what a rich
fellowship it will be.
And that is the only fellowship that you
find in the Bible.
And this is the fellowship.
This is the fellowship of the apostles.
In Acts chapter 2 verse 42, On the
day of Pentecost, you remember how the Spirit
of God came down upon the hundred and
twenty, and they were in spirit, one spirit
baptized into one body.
Oh what a fellowship.
And there you will find three thousand were
saved and were baptized.
And in verse 42 we are told that
they persevered, they continued in the teaching and
the fellowship of the apostles in prayers and
in breaking of bread.
Here you find a hundred and twenty.
You find three thousand people.
They continued in the teaching and the fellowship
of the apostles.
The apostles having fellowship with all these other
people.
Why?
Because the apostles told these people Christ the
life.
And as they report Christ to these people,
they receive Christ.
And there you will find they were having
the fellowship of the apostles.
But the fellowship of the apostles that they
try to draw us into is nothing but
the outflow of their fellowship with the Father
and with the Son.
So you find we have to go back
to the origin of fellowship.
The apostles do not originate the fellowship.
The apostles in reporting the life to us,
they draw us into their fellowship.
But they do not originate the fellowship.
Why?
Because their fellowship is the outflow of their
fellowship with the Father and with the Son.
They have fellowship with the Father through the
Son.
They have fellowship with the Son by the
Father.
You remember the Lord Jesus says, no one
knows the Father but me.
And to whomsoever I reveal to them.
No one knows the Son but the Father.
So here you find the apostles, they are
having fellowship with the Father through the Son.
And they are having fellowship with the Son
by the Father.
How the Father revealed the Son to the
apostles?
So that they may have fellowship with the
Son.
And how does the Son lead them to
the Father?
So that they may have fellowship with the
Father.
Here you find the apostles, they have fellowship
with the Father and with the Son.
And out of their fellowship with the Father
and with the Son, they bring that fellowship
to us.
That we may have fellowship with them and
we may have fellowship with the Father and
with the Son.
Now remember, the fellowship they bring to us
does not stop in them.
They are just a candle.
The fellowship they bring to us actually is
the fellowship with the Father and with the
Son.
How tragic it will be if our fellowship
just stopped with the apostles and do not
go further.
What is fellowship?
When and where do fellowship begin?
The apostles said, we have fellowship with the
Father and with the Son.
O dear brothers and sisters, in 1 Corinthians
1 verse 9 we are told God is
faithful.
He calls us into the fellowship of His
Son, our Lord Jesus.
Here you'll find an eternity past.
Before there were time and space, there you'll
find an eternity past.
The Father and the Son, they were having
fellowship in the Spirit.
There was a fellowship that was the beginning
of the fellowship.
The fellowship was between the Son and the
Father, in the Spirit.
Oh, that fellowship, that oneness, that perfection, that
harmony.
There was no distance between the Father and
the Son.
There was no shame.
There was no shadow.
They were in perfect agreement.
They were in one, in love, in heart,
in soul, in purpose, in everything.
Here you'll find in eternity the Father and
the Son enjoy their fellowship one with the
other in the Spirit.
Oh, how the Father enjoyed the Son.
How the Son enjoyed the Father.
There was never a quarrel between them.
There was never any controversy between them.
There was perfect harmony.
Whatever the Father desires, the Son desires.
When the Son thinks of anything, the Father
thinks of the same thing.
You don't need to talk.
And there in the Spirit you'll find there
is perfect oneness, perfect harmony.
And what life, what love, what pleasure, what
joy.
Oh, that fellowship in the Godhead.
In the Godhead, what satisfaction, what glory.
We cannot imagine because that is the origin
of the fellowship.
It is called the fellowship of God's Son,
Jesus Christ.
It is the fellowship that our Lord as
the Son enjoys with His Father.
It is the fellowship that the Father enjoys
with His Son.
Oh, they are inseparable.
They are together.
They are one.
That is the fellowship, the beginning of fellowship.
It is the most exclusive fellowship in the
whole universe.
And yet the Father, because He loves the
Son so much, He says it is not
good for man to be alone.
I want to give Him a helping.
I'm going to create man.
I want to give man to my Son
to be His helping.
He is to be the bridegroom and He
will have a bride composed of the man
that I've created, that He may not be
lonely.
Oh, the Father says, I want to give
you, give you something.
And the Son says, Father, I'm willing in
order that your love towards me may be
fulfilled, your purpose of giving me a bride
may be fulfilled, I'm willing to be that
lamb to be slain from the foundation of
the world.
I'm willing to die for these men to
redeem them, that thy purpose may be fulfilled.
Oh, dear brothers and sisters here, you'll find
in eternity, because the Father and the Son
have that heart-to-heart talk in the
Spirit.
And they are in perfect agreement.
And that's how it begins.
From the beginning.
What fellowship the Father and the Son enjoy
one with the other?
Not only in eternity past, not only in
the purpose.
Oh, when God created the world, you'll find
the Bible says, when God created the world,
the Son was there.
Oh, how He rejoiced, how He rejoiced in
God's creation.
He says, delight is with the Son of
Man.
He was actually the one who created all
these things.
They were one in creation.
And how in Old Testament times, even though
before He came into this world to be
man, He appeared again and again as the
angel of the Lord to perform the prophetic
errand concerning man.
And then how He came at the end
of time to be born as a babe
in Bethlehem.
He was willing to empty Himself and to
take upon Himself the form of a slave.
And He became obedient to death, even the
death of the cross.
Perfect harmony with the Father.
And now again and again you'll find the
heaven open.
God smiled and said, this is my beloved
Son in whom is my delight.
Perfect harmony.
Dear brothers and sisters, God opened that fellowship
to the Apostles.
Our Lord Jesus came into this world to
open the way that man may be drawn
into His fellowship with the Father.
And He paid such a tremendous price for
it.
In order that we may be drawn into
His fellowship with the Father, He opened the
door of that fellowship to the Apostles.
And the Apostles were drawn in.
They began to enjoy the fellowship with the
Son and with the Father.
And they were so overjoyed.
And they said, we cannot hold back the
good news.
We have to go out and tell others
that others may too come in and join
in with us in this fellowship.
And that's how the gospel is preached.
So dear brothers and sisters, what is the
fellowship?
The fellowship is not only with the Apostles,
but the fellowship is with the Father and
with the Son.
Dear brothers and sisters, we are called into
such.
You know, sometimes we say, I belong to
this fellowship.
I belong to that fellowship.
It's too small.
There is only one fellowship.
The fellowship of the Apostles.
The fellowship with the Father and with the
Son.
That is the only fellowship.
And dear brothers and sisters, you know, we
are in the most exclusive club, however low
in social status we may be, because we
have joined the fellowship of God's Son, our
Lord Jesus Christ.
And that is the fellowship we have.
Tremendous.
This is our calling.
And then we have to just finish it
in verse 4.
What is the result of such fellowship?
The result of such fellowship is joy may
be full.
Joy may be full.
You know, our Lord Jesus, His fellowship with
the Father is of such nature that His
joy is always full, full to the overflowing.
Even when on the night of His betrayal,
He knew that He was to be betrayed,
to be crucified.
And His disciples didn't really understand the full
meaning of it.
But the disciples were overwhelmed with sorrow already.
And there you find our Lord Jesus saying,
I leave my joy with you.
I give my joy to you.
Don't be so sorrowful.
I'm so joyful.
Now brothers and sisters, we must remember that
joy is the fruit of the Spirit.
It is not just an emotion.
It includes emotion, but it is more than
that.
It is the fruit of the Spirit.
Now what is the joy of the Son?
The joy of the Son is the Father.
The Father and His will.
That is the joy of the Son.
So long as the Father and His will
is done, no matter what happens to the
Son, He is full of joy.
This is the joy that is before Him.
Dear brothers and sisters, if we really are
drawn into that fellowship, no matter what happens
to us, oh, that fellowship will fill us
with joy.
The joy of knowing the Father and the
Son.
The joy of being with our brothers and
sisters, to be the bride.
That's our joy.
Our joy will be filled, full.
And that is the result of fellowship.
So here in these four verses you'll find
the essence of the whole letter is there.
And what you'll find following is the development.
Our Heavenly Father, we do praise and thank
Thee that Thou hast called us with a
high calling, even calling us into the fellowship
of Thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.
That which He has with me, oh, what
a privilege that we who are outcasts, rebels,
sinners, enemies, and yet by Thy grace, through
Thy Son, through the Gospel, we are called
into such a fellowship.
Oh, that we may know this fellowship, we
may experience this fellowship, that our days on
earth may be like as heaven.
We ask in Thy precious name.
Amen.