Good Senses

An excerpt from 1-3 John: Life in Fellowship 
¹What was from the beginning, 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-- " John 1:1

John here breaks his witness down to the very core level, his very senses and experience.  While he was the final remaining Apostle there may have been other disciples still alive who had seen Him.  John is also, possibly, invoking the memory of the other apostles that had passed away and saying, “We all had this experience.”

Hearing – The first sense with which John mentions having experienced the person and ministry of Jesus Christ is with his ears.  This is in the perfect tense which is “past tense completed action with results going into the present.”  There may be a sense of “we heard Him and His voice still rings in our ears.”  John heard Jesus and remembered very well what He said.

Seen – The next way in which John interacted with Jesus Christ during His earthly ministry is that he saw Jesus.  To the verb “seen” John adds “with our eyes.”  John wanted to make sure that everyone understood that this is not a metaphor for spiritually seeing Jesus.  He actually SAW Jesus.  He saw Jesus make footprints, he saw Jesus eat, He likely camped out close enough to Jesus to know that when He tossed in his sleep he upset the blankets that were draped over Him.  Then he says “we looked”, this is to look so as to gain insight.  They gazed at Jesus and studied Him!

Touch – Not just that, John touched Jesus.  He undoubtedly exchanged the traditional greeting of a holy kiss on the cheek and felt Jesus’ beard on his face.  John remembered that Peter was raised out of the water by Jesus’ own hand, and himself reclined against Jesus at the last supper.  Jesus had come fully in the flesh and it is of the utmost importance that He did.

Father and Son

As we continue in our study of our relationship with God, it seems important to remember how we received this new relationship. We must remember that it is nothing that we have done, and it is therefore nothing that we can lose. It is Christ's work on the cross that we take hold of by faith (belief, trust) in the Gospel (1 Cor. 15:3-4). Of the many ways that our relationship with God is described in Scripture, this is always an amazing amount of assurance in this truth.

The Jews would be comfortable calling God "Our Father" meaning that they corporately were the children of God, but would not presume that they could individually call God "my Father." It seemed too close, too intimate, and placed God too close to man for comfort. Seemingly, degrading God and over-elevating man. So first century Jews would avoid this altogether. Truthfully, they were wise to do so. However, a distinct change has occurred and we can call God "my Father" with confidence because of what we know through the Scripture.

Jesus referred to God as His Father in a special way (John 20:17). The eternal relationship between God the Father and God the Son justified His special and unique address to God as His individual Father. Here is the exciting thing: because we are positioned in the Son of God we have this position of sonship, and can address God as our Father and come to Him boldly, based on the work of Jesus Christ and our position in Him. Paul puts in this way: "For you did not recieve the spirit of bondage again to fear but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out 'Abba Father.'" (Romans 8:15) The word abba is an intimate term and sounds much like our English word "papa", not coincidentally! We can glean so much from this amazing revelation. God wants us to address Him as "Papa" and come to Him with the same readiness that any toddler would run to their loving Father, whether running to show a finger-painting, or to seek comfort for a skinned knee.

One final thought on this Fatherhood of God from Jesus: "If you then being evil know how to give good gifts to your childen how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!" (Matthew 7:11) A principle of your Heavenly Father is that He will care for you and delights in the moments when you trust in Him. As a father of 3 I think I can see a bit of what God is trying to tell us. Nothing is more beautiful, honoring and pleasing to me when my kids are willing to trust me, that I am looking out for their best good. This gift is amazing, don't forget the great undeserved privilege that we have each and every day to come to our "Papa" and trust in His care.