How to Know that God is Real

When Billy Graham first began to preach at Youth for Christ rallies, ‘way back in the Forties, it was by no means certain that he would become as world famous as he is today. In fact there was another evangelist with YFC at the time named Charles Templeton who many people thought was a better preacher than Billy Graham. Templeton was urbane and well-read, an accomplished public speaker who preached powerful sermons and introduced many people to Christ. But then Templeton went to Princeton Seminary, a place where the Bible was not honored and the Gospel not believed. In that climate of skepticism, Templeton abandoned his faith. He turned his back on Christ and became an agnostic - a skeptic - a critic of Christianity where once he had been its champion. He was still an accomplished speaker, and he went on to great success as a radio commentator in his native Canada; sort of a northern, more sophisticated version of Paul Harvey.

Meanwhile in England, another equally brilliant man was undergoing the reverse transformation. Malcolm Muggeridge was a popular commentator in the British press, noted for his acid wit and caustic satire; a modern-day H.L. Mencken - a professional fault-finder and doom-sayer. One of Muggeridge’s favorite targets was the church and Christians. But then Malcolm Muggeridge met Jesus Christ and his life was totally transformed. He became a follower of Christ. He began to write in defense of Christianity with all the tremendous literary ability at his command.

About fifteen years ago, I had the signal privilege of attending a debate, in the city of Toronto, between these two great men - Malcolm Muggeridge and Charles Templeton - on the subject of Christianity. What an experience to watch a converted critic defend the Gospel against a prodigal preacher who attacked it!

There is one moment of that debate which is etched on my memory. Templeton ridiculed the idea that a God who was supposedly infinite could ever come in contact with finite beings like us. It was logical lunacy; a physical impossibility, he claimed. To which Malcolm Muggeridge replied “That is precisely the purpose of the Incarnation. That is why God became a man himself, so that infinite God could reach out and contact finite man.”

Muggeridge was right on the money with that statement. Today we are going to turn to a book of the Bible which tells us that God became a man; that he communicated with us, and that it makes a tremendous difference that he did. For when God became a man, eternity invaded time. When God became a man, a part of infinity became finite. Naturally, there are those, like Templeton who say that it cannot be so. But this criticism is nothing new. In fact it has been around since the very birth of Christianity.

The book of 1 John was written by the Apostle John, toward the end of the first century AD. At that time, there already were people who said that Jesus was not really God. They said that God is so transcendent, so far above us, that he couldn’t possibly come down to share this material world with us, much less become a man himself. These folks didn’t call themselves agnostics, which means one who doesn’t know. They called themselves Gnostics, which means that felt that they did know all about such things. They really knew what they were talking about. They were “in the know”. They were Gnostics.

But John wrote this letter to show that these Gnostics really didn’t know - in fact, these self-styled “know it alls” were dead wrong in what they said about God. Why could John say that? Because he was there when God became a man.

At the present time in West Germany, there is a trial going on. It is a trial of one of the terrorists who was responsible for the hijacking of TWA flight 812 in Lebanon, and the murder of U.S. Navy diver Robert Stethem. The defending attorney is claiming that the crew and passengers who lived through that two-week nightmare have since become confused; their memories of those events have become foggy and unreliable. Now if you were on that jury, would you believe that lawyer? Do you believe it is possible for people who are witnessing events that are crucial to their own lives to forget what they saw with their own eyes?

John was there. He saw with his own eyes. He points to the fact that he himself had been with Jesus, and if anyone ought to know who Jesus was, it ought to be him! Look at what he says…

1 John 1:1-2 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us.

Did you know that there are two beginnings in the Bible? The first one is in Genesis 1:1 which says…

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

The Bible begins with a statement of fact which has to be accepted by faith. God is the creator of all there is. It doesn’t tell us how He did it or when He did it. Just that He did it. If you’re not prepared to believe that, then there is not much point in reading the Bible any further! That is the first beginning in the Bible. But there is another beginning:

John 1:1-2,14 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

That’s the second beginning in the Bible, the beginning of the plan of redemption… that the One who was with God and was God in the beginning came to earth and became one of us to bring us back to God. And this is the one John talks about in his letter.

He calls him by two names: The Word, or the Word of life, and the eternal life. Why? Well, simply because a word is a means of communication. When we talk to each other, we use words. When God wanted to communicate with us, He sent His Son, and his son is the Word. The Word communicates to us all that God is.

And his son is the eternal life, also. The Bible has a very simple definition of eternal life. It is found in…

John 17:3 Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God

To know God is to have eternal life. But to know God, you must receive Jesus.

1 John 5:11-12 And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.

You can’t get eternal life any other way, because you can’t know God any other way. Jesus himself said

“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well.

Now John says “This Jesus who is the Word, this Jesus who is the eternal life… I have seen him. I have seen him with my own eyes. And I’ve heard him talk. I’ve heard him teach. And I’ve even touched him. When we reclined on our couches around the Passover table, I leaned on him. When he came to us in the upper room after the resurrection, we could hardly believe it was him and not a ghost. So he said

Luke 24:39 “Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones…”

So I touched him. I felt those nail prints in his flesh. John said “I know that God is real, because I have seen Jesus in the flesh, and Jesus is God.” Because Jesus himself said…

John 14:9 …Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.

Sir Edward Elgar was a great British composer. He wrote “Pomp and Circumstance” among other pieces. But in Elgar’s opinion, his greatest work was the oratorio “The Dream of Gerontius”. At the end of the original score of the work, Elgar wrote these words: “This is the best of me; for the rest, I ate and drank, and slept, and loved, and hated, like another; my life was like the vapor… But this I saw and knew; this, if anything of mine, is worth your memory.”

This is how the Apostle John felt as he wrote these words about Jesus Christ. “This I saw and knew.” Christianity is based upon the objective historical fact that God became a man. We know that God is real because He came here to earth 2000 years ago. Eye-witnesses like John saw him and knew him, talked with him and even touched him. So, like John Bunyan’s Pilgrim we can say “This thing is true, and has borne our weight.”

These historical facts are important. They provide the foundation for our faith. Christians don’t believe myths and clever fables. We have eyewitness evidence that would stand up in a court of law that Jesus Christ was here and that he was God. People saw what he did and heard what he said.

But by themselves, these great facts are not enough. John has more in mind than just demonstrating that God is real in the person of Jesus Christ. He wants us to actually know him for ourselves, to have fellowship with him.

1 John 1:3-4 We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.

You see, when you become a Christian, you are doing much more than just giving your mental assent to a set of historical facts: you are actually entering into a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. And that is a relationship which will transform your life. This is what the whole book of 1 John is about. John says “It isn’t your talk that’s important; it’s your walk.” Because your walk demonstrates whether you have really met Jesus.

1 John 1:6 If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth.

1 John 2:4 The man who says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

1 John 2:9 Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness.

You see, there are many people out there who claim to be Christians. They say that they know God. They talk the talk, and they have learned to do it very well. But when you look at their life you find that they are doing as they please. There’s been no real change. They don’t really know God, they don’t really have fellowship with Jesus Christ because their life doesn’t show it.

When you become a Christian, you enter a personal relationship with Jesus Christ which changes your life. You begin to know God. And John is going to show us in this little letter that because God is light, we will walk in the light. Because God is righteous, we will do what is right. Because God is love, we will love one another. And if we don’t do these things, we’re just demonstrating that we don’t really know God at all.

That’s what the book of 1 John is all about. It is a very practical, down-to-earth book. It is actually a book of “how to’s”. And over the next several weeks on Sunday mornings, I’d like us to discover what it teaches us about how to live the Christian life. We’re going to look at:

- How to Deal with Sin in your Life

- How to get to Know God Better

- How to Live in the World without being Worldly

- How to Tell Truth from Error

- How to get Ready for Christ’s Return

- How to Really Love People

Come along with me as together we discover more about our life in Christ.