Certain Eternity – The Beginning
1 John 1:1 August 19, 2024 Park Service (No pdf slide download available above)
Introduction
Historical records show that sugar first came into use in India and southeast Asia
in the early BC time periods. After several thousands of years of growing cane
sugar, a process was created in India in the early ADs to cultivate sugar into
granules for broader distribution and sale. It soon became one of the most
popular Indian “spices” in the world, and sugar cane began to be grown wherever
it could be. Humans have always had a sweet tooth.
Eventually, the Germans invented a process to derive sugar from beets in 1747.
This made sugar even cheaper to produce and more accessible to the masses.
About 200 years later (1957) Americans developed a new sweetener derived
from corn – high fructose corn-syrup – which was even cheaper to produce, even
sweeter than natural sugar, and was more readily available since we can grow
corn like nobody else.
Pretty soon high-fructose corn syrup was the most common sweetener in our
drinks and American obesity grew and grew (pun intended). Of course, we
weren’t done there as more and more sugar substitutes have flooded the market.
Obsessed with calorie count, much of what we consume – especially our drinks –
is filled with artificial sweeteners like aspartame, monk fruit extract, saccharin,
sucralose, and stevia, among many others.
Our appetite for sweet things has grown and evolved together with our vanity to
keep our weight down, as we are constantly looking for newer and better ways to
meet our insatiable appetites – and don’t get me started on the weight loss
industry that has erupted alongside all these sweets.
o What’s the point of this story? Our world is always looking for bigger, better,
cheaper, faster, and simpler ways to have more and to have it easier. How
can we indulge ourselves more and more with as little effort as possible?
This is not a new problem, this is as old as humanity as we are selfish, lazy,
greedy, and hedonistic due to our broken sin nature.
o It is this human tendency that has, in large part, caused the issues that
John is speaking into when he writes this letter. While the readers were not
struggling with artificial sweeteners, false teachers had emerged that were
spreading lies and twisting the truth to make the pursuit of Christ more
palatable and easier to meld together with everyday Greco-Roman culture
– with all its pleasures and comforts.
John starts his writing by reminding his readers, and us, to go back to the
beginning to parse through all the garbage they were being fed. 1 John 1:1a
“That which was from the beginning…”.
John 1:1-2 “1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and
the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God.”
Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”
“from the beginning” Used 8 times in 1 John (2 times in 2 John)
o 1:1 – used in connection with “Word of Life”
o 2:7, 3:11 – referring to the command to love
o 2:13-14 (2 times) – referring to Christ himself and his incarnation
o 2:24 (2 times) – denotes the message of the gospel and eternal life as it
was heard from the first time is was preached by Christ
o 3:8 – referring to the devil, who is a sinner from the beginning
“That which”
1 John 1:1a “That which was from the beginning…”
Reference is to things relating to the “word of life” (v2) namely, the “Lord Jesus”
(v3)
“that which” is in the imperfect tense which speaks of an abiding state in past
time. Thus, John has reference to those things that were true of our Lord since
the beginning. (Wuest, K. S. Wuest’s Word Studies from the Greek New
Testament: Eerdmans)
o W E Vine adds that “the idea is “Having been preexistent He (Jesus)
became manifested. Neither in the Gospel nor in the epistle does he open
with the phrase “that which came to be,” which would imply that Christ had
a beginning . He did not begin to be, He essentially “was.” This statement
at once combats one of the great errors of the Gnostics, who regarded
Christ as impersonal, a mere emanation. On the contrary the apostles had
themselves been in intimate contact with His person. (Vine, W. Collected
writings of W. E. Vine. Nashville: Thomas Nelson)
Note this heresy is still taught by various heretical cults today, like
Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons, for example
“Was from the Beginning”
From the beginning, 1) from the beginning of eternity past, and 2) from the
incarnation of Christ and the start of the gospel message
o Both interpretations are combating gnostic thought that Jesus did not
become the “Christ” until His baptism (Cerinthus’s heresy, among others)
that Jesus was not God and was a separate entity from “the Christ”, and
that His divinity left Him on the cross.
Further, John is reinforcing that the apostolic message they have
heard “from the beginning” has not changed – again to combat the
significant changes to the gospel that the various gnostic teachers
were making.
o Instead, John asserts the same thing he did in his gospel: Jesus is God
and was with the Father from the beginning, and that from the time of His
incarnation as a man, Jesus was God and is the only way to life with the
Father in eternity future by grace through faith filled repentance and
submission to Him as King. This is the same message that Christ taught
and that all the apostles taught – and now that John is the last one alive,
that message has not changed.
Beginning = (Gk- Archē (pronounced ar-kay) the origin or the active cause, the
person or thing that commences; the first person or thing in a series, the leader
o “In the beginning” of Genesis 1:1 (Heb. rē’šîṯ (pronounced ray-sheeth) and
has similar meaning to the Greek, with the added connotation of being the
best, first, chief, or choice part
Isaiah 41:4 – “Who has performed and done this, calling the
generations from the beginning? I, the Lord, the first, and with the
last; I am he.”
Names of God = “Ancient of Days” in Daniel 7:9, 13
o Revelation 1:8 (says Lord God) “I am the Alpha and the
Omega”
o Revelation 1:17-18 (says Jesus) “17 When I saw him, I
fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand
on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, 18
and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive
forevermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades.”
o Revelation 22:13 (says Jesus) “I am the Alpha and the
Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”
o Revelation 2:8 “And to the angel of the church in Smyrna
write: ‘The words of the first and the last, who died and
came to life.”
o John 8:58 “Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly I say to you,
before Abraham was, I am.”
Two key Christological points John is reinforcing with these words:
o Preeminence
Christ’s preeminence means that he is first and primary in everything.
First in importance, first in honor, first in exaltation. He existed with
the Father before time and will remain first or preeminent into eternity
future.
Colossians 1:15-19 “15 He is the image of the invisible God, the
firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in
heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or
dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through
him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things
hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is
the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might
be preeminent. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to
dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether
on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.”
Greg Stiekes – The Uncomfortable Implications of the
Preeminence of Christ | BJU Seminary – a NT theologian, puts
it this way, “It means that our salvation is not about us; it is
about Christ. “For” him, “through” him, and “to” him (Col
1:19–20). Do we really believe that? Do we live like that? Is
Jesus really the Preeminent One in our lives? Yes, he is very,
very important to us. We invest much time serving him and
praying to him and showing love to him. But it is not enough
that Jesus have prominence in our lives. He must have
preeminence in our lives. Jesus cannot simply be on our top-
ten list. He must be everything…. Do we want to be called a
Christian? Or do we want to be a Christian. Do we want to be
thought of as yielded to God’s will? Or do we want to yield to
God’s will? Do we want to appear that what matters most to us
is Christ? Or do we want Christ to matter most? Are we
satisfied with the veneer of Christ-likeness because it is good
enough for others, or do we want to be like Christ? Do we want
to do and say the kinds of things we would say and do if we
were seeking to honor Christ above all others, or do we want to
honor Christ above all others?”
o Immutability
God (including Christ) does not change. He is perfect and holy and
therefore, no change is necessary as He is infinitely good, loving,
just, kind, gracious, merciful, faithful, righteous, etc.
Malachi 3:6 “For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children
of Jacob, are not consumed.”
James 1:17 “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above,
coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no
variation or shadow due to change.”
Conclusion
This brings us back to the evolving world of sweeteners. Studies that have been
emerging show that these chemical sweeteners are even worse for your health
than high-fructose corn syrup (though without the calories) – and certainly worse
for your health than cane sugar.
Are we allowing our view of Christ to be changed so that we can indulge in the
artificial sweeteners of the world? This is what John was contending against
then, and it is what we must continue to contend against now.
o Jesus is first – are we living like that. Jesus was from the beginning, He has
not changed, the message has not changed – we must not listen to anyone
who would change it. There is no substitute. Let us ask the Holy Spirit to
live with Christ of first importance in our lives; that He would be our first
love, that He would be our Alpha and Omega from now and until forever.
Amen. Amen.