Eternal Life Is… Fellowship with Jesus
God Offers Life Here and Now
1 John 1:1-2:2
Rev. Tim Callow
Preached Sun. April 7th, 2024
The gospel is not afterlife insurance. Sometimes the good news of Jesus Christ can come off this way.
Have you ever told a lie? Then you’re a liar. Have you ever stolen anything? Then you’re a thief? What makes you think you deserve to get into Heaven? Can say you know for certain that if you were to die today you would go to heaven? Suppose that you were to die today and stand before God and he were to say to you, "Why should I let you into my heaven?" what would you say? Ah, but despite your manifest sinfulness and stammering tongue before the almighty there is one who intercedes to your defense. One who paid the penalty you do not need to pay. And by his blood you may make it into Heaven.
There is something here that is too reductive. The gospel becomes a matter of the hereafter, not the here and now. The work of Jesus concerns where we may spend eternity but it becomes unclear what difference Jesus makes in our lives at present. The gospel as afterlife insurance, in the end, feels like a great deal. We join the spiritual multilevel marketing scheme. Avon ladies for Jesus. We accept the deal and look to pass it on. But more importantly, this is not the picture we get when we turn to the Bible. The good news is not only a matter of the hereafter, it’s a matter of the here and now.
Jesus says he came that we might have life, and have it abundantly. He says, “I am the resurrection and the life, he who believes in me though he dies yet shall he live.” And “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” He promises eternal life. But not simply as a hedge against the hereafter. Eternal life in scripture is a quality of life we may know in the here and now. A life that comes from the source of life. A life in fellowship with him.
Throughout the season of eastertide I want to focus on John’s first letter to give some description of this resurrection life, the eternal life we may experience now in Christ. John opens up saying, “We declare to you what 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— this life was revealed, and we have seen it and testify to it, and declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us— we declare to you what we have seen and heard so that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.”
John has a circular way of writing that can make one’s eyes glaze over. I know I oftentimes have difficulty reading John for this reason. What is he saying here? John says he is writing this letter to declare what he has heard, seen, and touched. The person Jesus Christ. This person who is also eternal life. The eternal life that was with the Father. The eternal life that we may receive through fellowship with Jesus.
This fellowship constitutes our eternal life as we know it here on earth. We experience that eternal life as long as we maintain fellowship with Christ in the Church. This is why John goes on to say, “If we say that we have fellowship with him while we are walking in darkness, we lie and do not do what is true; but if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.” We experience eternal life in fellowship. We show forth this fellowship through our love of one another. By walking as Christ walked. By following him.
John opens this letter with a firehose, laying out his key ideas and concepts. We will have time to dig into all of this. How it is that we maintain fellowship with Christ through our love of God and one another. How this fellowship is the means by which eternal life is experienced. And how this fellowship is first established through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus. But I want to point to something concrete that may help us.
Today is our communion Sunday. Communion is the sacrament of eternal life. In communion we ask for forgiveness. We are forgiven. We reconcile ourselves to one another. We remember the sacrifice of Jesus. We join ourselves to his sacrifice, asking to be made his body and blood for the world. We receive the bread, we drink from the cup, and we are united to Jesus.
But more than being united to Jesus, through Jesus we are united to one another. As the many grains form one loaf, as the many grapes make one cup, we are made one in Christ Jesus. The communion we know is not simply our private communion with Jesus, it is our communion with one another. It is an instantiation of the body of Christ in our midst. It is the moment at which eternity meets history. Christ makes himself present and known. And we may, for a moment, glimpse at that eternal banquet, the wedding supper of the lamb, and know that joy. We may know the hope of resurrection, that we who partake of this meal will partake of it in heaven.
Eternal life, then, is known in communion. It is experienced in fellowship. A fellowship Jesus makes possible through his example and sacrifice. A fellowship that is central to our Christian life.