God's Plan
God's Plan “A” 1 John 1:1-4
From the very beginning, before creation, God had a plan. It was a plan to create, and to display His majesty, beauty, and glory. The universe was His masterpiece. From the very beginning His intention was to show the depth of His manifest perfections upon His creation. He determined to display His love, His justice, and His grace. He created everything to bring glory to Himself, and by His grace to enable His creation to fellowship with Him and worship Him. He desired that mankind would have the ability to be in personal fellowship with Him throughout eternity, so He made man in His eternal image. We were created for eternity as a trophy to His glory. This was the plan from the beginning, this was His Word of Life.
This eternal and glory centered life was revealed before us in Jesus. John writes how he personally encountered this new life that was displayed in Jesus. John writes as a personal witness to the teachings, miracles, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus. The life of John was transformed by Jesus. He became a partaker of the eternal, glory-centered life. Now John proclaims it to others in His letter. It is a declaration and an invitation to become partakers of the life God intended.
John not only shares the reality of a transformed life, but also shares the God designed benefit and purpose of this life. John shares this life with others so that we may have genuine fellowship with one another, and with the Father and the Son. John is proclaiming that Jesus is the means for us to benefit from God’s ultimate plan of fulfillment for mankind: a personal, loving, and genuinely intimate relationship with God himself!
John is passionate about sharing the eternal God-centered life with others. It is a source of personal joy to experience it himself, but his joy is made complete as he shares it with others and they too begin to experience the eternal and God-centered life. This was God’s intent from the beginning. When we partake of the life He offers in Jesus we find a level of soul satisfaction and completeness otherwise unknown. We glorify Him as we become trophies of His grace. Then when God uses us in His plan to redeem still others, our joy is complete!
Title: PLAN “A” 1 John 1:1-4
From the Beginning…
God had a plan
His plan was Jesus
He is the Word of Life
Jesus brought The God-life
Jesus was real
John had seen Jesus with His eyes
John had touched Jesus with his hands
Jesus manifested The God-Life before us
The God-Life comes from the Father
The God-Life is offered in Christ Jesus
John proclaims the God-Life
John proclaims the reality of The God-Life
Personal Testimony of John’s Experience
First hand witness to the Life of Jesus
His teaching, His miracles, His death, His resurrection, and His Ascension
John proclaims the availability of the God-Life
The God-Life Benefits
Fellowship with the Father
Joined in a personal intimate loving relationship
Fellowship with the Son, Jesus Christ
Joined in a personal intimate loving relationship
Complete joy as The God-Life is shared with others
Creating a community of personal intimate loving relationships with one another