Wanted: Christians who Look Like Jesus

There is a road that runs along the shoreline at the eastern end of Long Island. It’s called Dune Road, but maybe a better name for it would be Doom Road. It is located on a barrier beach where a lot of wealthy people have built beautiful beach houses.

But as any student of geography will tell you, a barrier beach is no place to build a house. The sands are always shifting, and the ocean can move immense amounts of material in a very short time.

Like on December 13, 1992, for instance. On that day, a huge Nor’easter blew in off the Atlantic and wreaked havoc on Dune Road. Many houses were simply washed out to sea. The road was cut in several places as the ocean surged inland. The coastline changed overnight, and millions of dollars of property were lost.

Meanwhile, just a few miles away from Dune Road, there stands a lighthouse. It is called Montauk Light and it stands right next to the sea. Like those expensive beach houses on Dune Road, it is exposed to all the fury of the Atlantic Ocean. But unlike them, it has stood for over a hundred years.

What’s the difference? Very simple. The beach houses are built on sand. The lighthouse is built on a rock.

We live in a day when most people are building their lives on sand. They are groping for answers, spiritually and morally. The predominant view of our culture is that truth is relative. That means that what is true for me may not be true for you. So truth ends up being whatever we make it to be. That’s not a very sure foundation on which to build.

And when the storms of life come crashing in, people’s lives simply fall apart. But the first four verses of the book of 1 John give us a far better alternative. They give us a solid foundation on which to build. Let’s turn to that passage now.

It’s not very often that you can remember exactly where you were and exactly what you were doing at a certain time on a certain day several years ago. But I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing nine years ago at 3:00 p.m. on Saturday, July 20, 1985.

I was standing on the tarmac of the Niagara Falls Air Force Base watching the U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels flight demonstration team. It was a blistering hot summer day and some of the thousands of people who were at the air show had taken shelter in the shade under the wings of the aircraft that were on static display.

But not me. I was as close to the action as I could get. I had a 200 mm. lens hanging from the front of my Canon A-1, and I followed the blue and yellow jets through their paces, eating up lots of film along the way.

About halfway through the program, they did a maneuver that called for the lead and opposing solo jets to make a high speed inverted pass. The two A-4 Skyhawks approached each other at a closing speed of 800 mph, flying upside down just 100 feet off the ground. They flashed past each other, then pulled negative G’s into a high outside loop, over the top and into a 45 degree dive, where they would pass each other again.

Except that, when they got to the top of the loop, they didn’t pass each other. They collided. I watched it all happen through the viewfinder of my camera. The nose of one jet sliced through the tail of the other, cutting it off cleanly. The pilot of the tailless airplane immediately ejected, and his parachute opened safely. His crippled aircraft flipped over onto its back and fell to the ground like a giant leaf, impacting in a ball of orange flame.

Meanwhile, the other jet continued in a shallow dive toward the ground. The landing gear and the tailhook had been jarred down by the impact. It looked like the pilot was trying to land, but he was already dead at the controls. He had been killed instantly by the midair collision with the other plane. His jet slammed into the ground. Another ball of fire. It all took just a few seconds, but I will never forget what I saw on that day for as long as I live.

There are some memories that are indelible. I’m sure that many of you can remember exactly where you were and what you were doing the moment you heard that John F. Kennedy had been shot. Perhaps you felt the same thing again on the day that the Challenger exploded.

Those are the kinds of memories that are etched in stone. They are unforgettable. That comes close to the quality of the Apostle John’s memory of Jesus. For two and a half years this man named John walked side by side with the Son of God.

He heard Jesus speak the greatest words ever spoken. He saw him do thing that no one had ever done. Through eyes blurred with tears, he watched him hang on a cross and die. And with trembling hands, he touched the nailprints of his risen Lord. Those experiences made an indelible impact on him.

But now he was an old man. He was the last of that intrepid band of apostles who walked with Jesus. All the others were dead now. Only John was left. Out of respect for his age, they called him, simply, the Elder.

The Book of 1 John is really a letter; a letter that John wrote to young Christians. To the best of our knowledge, it was written somewhere between the years 85 and 95 AD - sixty years after John had been with Jesus. But those memories burned as brightly as ever. You can tell that as you read the first few verses of this letter…

1 John 1:1-4 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. 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. We write this to make our joy complete.

Every two years, we celebrate the Olympic games. This year, the winter games will be in Lillehammer, Norway. In 1996, the summer games will be held in Atlanta, Georgia.

In the days leading up to the Olympics, one of the traditions is to light the Olympic torch at Mount Olympus in Greece, and then carry the flame to the site of the Olympic games. A runner will carry the torch for a mile or so, and then pass it on to another runner, who will carry it further. It is a great honor to be chosen to carry the torch.

What we are seeing in these four verses is the passing of the torch. We’re seeing the good news of Jesus Christ crossing a generation gap, from first generation to second generation. John was the last of the men who had actually walked with Jesus, and seen Jesus, and talked with Jesus. From here on in, Christians were going to be people who got the story by word of mouth. They were going to learn about Jesus from somebody else. And that raises a very important question.

Have you ever played that party game where one person starts a story going round the circle, and each person whispers the story in the ear of the next person, and so on? By the time the story goes completely around the circle, you find that it has changed a lot along the way. Important details are left out. New details are added. In many cases, the story you end up with barely even resembles the original.

The question is this: Might that not have happened with Christianity? Indeed, the critics of Christianity say that that is precisely what happened: the story got changed along the way.

Whether by devious design, or just plain wishful thinking, Christians down through the ages turned Jesus into somebody he never was. They changed the story. They turned him into a legend. And a legend isn’t a very sure foundation on which to build your life, is it?

But then you go back to 1 John, which was written by a man who actually knew Jesus personally, and he says “Wait a minute. I was there. I saw him do those things with my own eyes. I heard him say those things with my own ears.”

Look at the language he uses in those verses. See the words: “heard, seen, looked at, touched”. These are the words of experience. John is saying to us: “I am an eyewitness to these things. And that is why I am writing to you about them. So that there can be no question about whether it really happened or not. It did happen! I saw it happen.”

John says that with all the certainty that I have when I tell you that the Blue Angels crashed at Niagara Falls in 1985. I know it happened; I was there. John knew Jesus happened; he was there.

But John makes an important statement in v.1. He says “The story of Jesus didn’t all begin with me. We disciples really weren’t in on the ground floor of this thing. When Jesus came here to earth, that wasn’t the beginning of the story.”

When you talk about Jesus, you’re talking about a Person who has been around from the very beginning. The beginning of time. We’re talking pre-Genesis. Pre-history. Pre-creation. Pre-human race. Pre-life on earth. Pre-universe. Pre-Big Bang. Pre-time. Pre-everything.

Flip back to the Gospel of John, chapter 1. There are a lot of similarities between John 1 and 1 John 1. That shouldn’t be surprising, since they were written by the same man about the same subject.

John 1:1-3 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

Now a lot of people have trouble understanding what John is talking about when he talks about the Word here. When John refers to the Word, he’s using a concept that meant something very unique to the Jews and to the Greeks of his day.

To the Jews, the Word signified God’s personal authority. In the OT, whenever God spoke in power and authority to accomplish His will, that was the Word of God. For example, in Genesis 1 you have the account of creation. Over and over you read “And God said…And God said…And God said…” That’s the Word.

To a Jew, God’s Word was the expression of His will. God’s word communicates His character to us. It tells us all that he is and all that he wants to do. You might even say that the entire personality of God is tied up in his Word.

We use the expression that way today. When you give someone your word, you are literally putting your whole reputation, your whole character, behind what you say.

So when John talks about the Word, to the Jews, he was really talking about the person of God Himself. That’s how they understood it.

But the Greeks understood it differently. To them, the word was not so much a person as it was a principle. The Greeks, as you know, were very analytical and philosophical. And they believed that there was an organizing, unifying principle behind the universe. They called that principle the “logos” - the Word.

So when a man like Pythagoras studied math, or Hippocrates practiced medicine, or Archimedes studied mechanical engineering, they were tapping into the logos, the truth about how the universe worked.

They thought of the logos as wisdom, as truth, as understanding. It was what life itself was made of. It was the energizing power behind everything.

You’ve all seen the movie Star Wars. Luke Skywalker becomes a Jedi Knight by tapping into something called the Force. His mentor Obi wan Kenobe says to him “Feel the Force, Luke. Use the Force.” That’s somewhat similar to how the Greeks thought of the “logos”, the Word.

So who was right? The Jews, who thought of the Word as the expression of God’s character, or the Greeks, who thought of the Word as the underlying truth about the Universe.

John says “You’re both right. You Greeks are right when you say that the Word is the force behind everything; the “logos” is the power through which everything is made. And you Jews are right when you say that that force is actually a person. It is God Himself.”

But look at what John says in v.14. “Here’s something new about the Word that none of you has considered.”

“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.”

The Word became a man; a living, breathing, flesh and blood human being. He lived here among us, and we have seen him. He came from God the Father. He came as God the Son. We beheld his glory. And that man is Jesus of Nazareth.

Now let’s go back to 1 John 1. What John is telling us is that the most extraordinary, unbelievable event in all of human history has taken place. We have been visited by God, the Author of the Universe, the Giver of Life, the Force behind everything that exists. He actually came here, in Person, to earth. And I saw him do it. I knew him. I talked with him. I heard him speak. I even touched him. And, John says, I am writing to you so that you can know him as I did.

But how is that possible? How is it possible for a second, or third, or fourth generation Christian to know Jesus in the way that John and the other disciples knew him? We cannot possibly know him through our senses as John did. We will never be able to say “I heard, I saw with my eyes, I handled, I touched.”

But we can know him through a sixth sense that we all have - the spiritual sense of faith. Because Jesus is still alive. He is not here on earth in a physical body as he once was for a brief time, but he is present nonetheless. And you can know him by faith. In fact, when Jesus was here physically, he said that knowing him by faith is actually preferable to knowing him in a physical, sensory way.

Remember when Thomas, the skeptic, refused to believe the other disciples’ report that Jesus had risen from the dead? He said, “I won’t believe it unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side.”

A week later, Jesus came to his disciples and invited Thomas to do just that, at which point, Thomas was convinced. But Jesus said to him “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

Christianity is unlike any other religion. It is not a catechism to be memorized. It is not a system of doctrines to digest. It is not a set of rules to try to live by.

Christianity is simply a Person to know. That person is Jesus. And unless you know him, you are not a Christian. You may know all about Jesus. You may understand a great deal about his teaching, and know all of the details of his life. But unless you know him personally, by faith, you are not one of his followers.

This is what old John the Elder is talking about here in his letter to these young Christians. He’s talking about knowing Jesus. He’s talking about having fellowship with God through His Son, Jesus Christ - a fellowship that brings with it deep joy.

1 John 1:3 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.

Now the facts about Jesus are rock-solid. They are historical facts, not legends. They are attested to by eyewitnesses like John. Jesus really did come here and say the things he said and do the things he did. Jesus isn’t a legendary character. Christianity is not built on sand.

But the facts about Jesus, as solid and concrete as they are, will do you no good unless they lead you into a personal relationship with Him. And a personal relationship with Jesus is the only sure foundation on which to build your life.

I don’t know where you are at in your spiritual life today. It may be that you are acquainted with the facts about Jesus, but you have never really entered into fellowship with him.

If that is the case, you need to receive him as your Savior today.

John 1:12 …to all who receive him, to those who believe in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.

Unless you do that, you are building your life on sand.