READ 1 John 1:1-4

Object of Your Faith > The Amount of Faith You Have

As I’m writing this study, we are in the middle of the Christmas season. Something you may hear this time of year at the mall or at a toy store, in the middle of a toddler’s meltdown, is a frustrated parent say, “Santa’s watching you!” Many times, instantly the toddler will stop in their tracks and begin obeying. Why? Yet in a similar scenario, I may be irritating my wife, but she would never look at me and say, “Santa’s watching you!” Why?

The truth is, many people think of Jesus as just a more respectable Santa. Not really present with them every day. Not really a thing to acknowledge except for a few times a year. But John set the premise for the entire book in the first 4 verses of 1st John. John gives personal testimony that he was there, saw Jesus, touched him, heard him, and witnessed everything he did. Including rising from the dead.

READ 1st John 1:1-4

QUESTIONS:

1. Why does Santa Clause not really have the power to change an adults life?

2. True or False. The more you realize Jesus is real, the more powerful the effect he has on your life. Explain your answer.

3. We are over 2000 years after the life of Jesus. There are Christian churches all over the world. Christianity is the world’s major religion. Christianity exists all across the world and is unbound by culture or country. Jesus’ fame is for the most part worldwide. Lastly, his birth and death split time in two - BC & AD. If he was just a man born in a small town, and a carpenter, what is the only explanation for how he changed the entire world?

If Jesus truly is real, he truly was born of a virgin, truly is fully God and fully man, truly did miracles, and truly did RAISE FROM THE DEAD, then you can’t just believe whatever you want to about him. Ben Thornton is a real person. Just because you believe I am a billionaire and will gladly you give you 1 million dollars, doesn’t mean it will happen. Your faith is only as strong as the object you’ve placed your trust in. No matter how strong your faith, if you are believing wrong things about Jesus, it doesn’t matter the level of authenticity of your beliefs. Rightly knowing the object of your belief will grow your faith in the object. If you were going to walk out on a frozen pond would you rather…have a lot of faith in ice that was 1/4 of an inch thick, or a little bit of faith in ice that was 1 foot thick? What is true of the object of your faith is what is really important. And as knowledge grows, so will your faith…just like walking on a very thick ice pond.

READ 1st John 1:1-4 again

QUESTIONS:

4. In this passage, John gives many reasons you should trust this book that he is writing about Jesus. What are some of these reasons?

5. Is it important to trust everything we read in the Bible as true? Why?

6. Are you ready for some of your preconceived ideas about Jesus to be challenged? Are you in a place that is ready to be challenged and changed or would you say you are more established in your ideas of Jesus and it will be difficult to receive something new from 1st John? Explain.

It is on the expertise and close proximity of Jesus that we trust what John has written here. In these first 4 verses he explains the answer to his own question, “How do we know if we have eternal life?” John says that he is proclaiming “eternal life” (v. 2), a phrase that is used throughout this letter.

However, for John, eternal life is not merely a thing or a concept. It is a Person. This eternal life was “with the Father and was made manifest to us” (v. 2). John is referring to Jesus Christ, the Son of God. If eternal life is knowing a person, then we should spend all our effort to rightly know the person who is key to eternal life!

QUESTIONS:

7. If eternal life is found in knowing a person, how should we think about attempts to find eternal life—whether through good works, other religions, etc.—apart from Christ?

8. Eternal life isn’t a thing to possess…it’s a person to know. Much like a dog isn’t a pet until it is rightly related to an owner. Salvation isn’t a thing to have, it is a proper relationship with a Savior. Does this challenge your idea of eternal life? If so, how?

9. According to what John says about Jesus here, what’s wrong with the idea that all religions are basically teaching the same thing?

10. Jesus has existed forever, therefore he is eternal. If eternal life is a person, how do we possess it? How do we know if we have eternal life?

11. Please rewrite the follow passage in your own words. What do you understand it to mean?

“2 the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us— 3 that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.” - 1 John 1:2-3

What is your major takeaway today?