Introduction
Who first told you about Jesus? A parent, a grandparent, a coworker, a Sunday school teacher, or maybe someone in an unexpected place? And who told them? If you trace that chain back, you always end up with the disciples, and with Jesus himself. But how sure can you really be that everything you were told is true? Working from 1 John 1:1-4, Mélanie Ehrismann shows that your faith rests neither on a myth nor on a hunch, but on the eyewitness testimony of those who heard, saw, looked upon, and touched the Word of life.
Message Outline
1. God is great, and yet he made himself tangible
- God is vast, infinite, eternal: he fits into neither space nor time, and before him we are all very small.
- Yet there is in every human being a thirst for something beyond, a thirst for eternity, Ecclesiastes 3:11 says God has set eternity in the human heart.
- In the opening of his letter, John announces that this eternity has been made known: the invisible became visible, the unreachable became reachable, the abstract became concrete.
- God became flesh. John treats the incarnation as a historical fact, not an abstract idea.
2. Four verbs that prove John knows what he's talking about
- Hearing: the first moment a sound catches your attention, like a car horn that makes you turn your head, like the disciples' call to follow Jesus.
- Seeing: this is the encounter, the gaze that turns, the drawing near.
- Looking upon: the Greek word here isn't passive or mystical contemplation, but an attentive, deep, intelligent gaze, you could translate it as "scrutinizing" or "examining."
- Touching: the most physical and objective sense of all, the one that points directly to the resurrection, when Jesus tells the startled disciples: "See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me and see, for a spirit doesn't have flesh and bones."
3. Your faith rests on a historical fact, not on your feelings
- Affirming the incarnation and the resurrection is scientifically challenging, then as now, some call it myth, symbol, even illusion.
- The incarnation and the resurrection can't be proven, they're believed. We believe John and the other witnesses who say they heard, saw, looked upon, and touched.
- We're not a band of fanatics: our faith is based on a historical fact, passed down from generation to generation, confirmed by the Holy Spirit at every step.
- When your senses no longer feel God, when you no longer see him, when you no longer hear him, that changes nothing about the fact: Jesus is God and he is alive.
4. By the Spirit, you are called to live out these four verbs yourself
- Hearing Jesus through his Word (the Bible calls itself "the Word," not "the book", hence the invitation to read it aloud) and through his call in prayer.
- Seeing Jesus means letting him reveal himself in creation, in his work here and there.
- Looking upon Jesus means scrutinizing him, observing his words and deeds in his teaching and his works, staying close to him.
- Touching Jesus is an intimacy close enough to feel his heart beating for you and feel his breath in you, a joy that begins now and will be full and complete when we see him face to face.
5. A personal faith, but never a solitary one
- John doesn't say "I have heard" but "we have heard": faith has an irreducibly communal dimension.
- The foundation that unites us is one and the same: Jesus, heard, seen, looked upon, touched, dead and risen.
- This should lead you to look at other believers with curiosity, each one has their own story with Christ, and the way a brother or sister prays or lives can invite us into deeper communion with the same Lord.
- Together, we are called to proclaim in turn the message of life, speaking with confidence about what we are sure of while leaving room for mystery.
Key Takeaways
- Your faith isn't a personal hunch: it rests on the eyewitness testimony of those who heard, saw, looked upon, and touched Jesus Christ.
- Eternity has been made known within time: the incarnation is a historical fact, not a symbol.
- The resurrection can't be proven, it's believed, but it is confirmed by the Holy Spirit from generation to generation, down to you.
- When your spiritual senses go quiet, the fact remains: Jesus is God and he is alive. Your faith doesn't depend on how you feel.
- By the Spirit, you are called to hear, see, look upon, and touch Jesus yourself, in his Word, in prayer, in intimacy with him.
Personal Application
- Who first told you about Jesus? Take a moment to give thanks for that link in the chain.
- Does your faith rest more on what you feel or on what God has historically done in Christ? What would change if you leaned on the second rather than the first?
- Of the four verbs (hearing, seeing, looking upon, touching), which one are you being invited to deepen in your life with Jesus right now?
- Is there a brother or sister in the church whose way of following Christ puzzles you? How could you look at them with curiosity rather than suspicion?
- When you talk about your faith, can you tell the difference between what you're sure of (Jesus is God, he is alive) and what remains a mystery?
Scripture References
- 1 John 1:1-4
- Ecclesiastes 3:11
- Luke 24:36-43 ("Touch me and see")
- Job 42:5 ("I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you")
- John 1:1-14 (parallel to the opening of the Gospel)
Further reading
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Christian faith founded on according to 1 John 1?
According to 1 John 1:1-4, Christian faith is not founded on speculation or on a personal feeling, but on the eyewitness testimony of the first disciples. John points to four concrete verbs (hearing, seeing, looking upon, and touching), to say that he is reporting what he personally experienced of the Word of life. Faith therefore rests on a historical fact: the incarnation and resurrection of Jesus Christ, passed down from witness to witness all the way to us.
What should I do when I no longer feel God's presence?
Mélanie Ehrismann reminds us that our spiritual experience is based on the testimony of the first Christians, not on our own sensations. When your senses no longer perceive God, when you no longer see him, when you no longer hear him, that changes nothing about the historical fact: Jesus is God and he is alive. Your faith can anchor itself in that objective reality rather than in the shifting barometer of your emotions.
How do I concretely live out the four verbs of 1 John 1 today?
By the Spirit, you are called to hear Jesus through his Word, read and spoken in prayer, to see him reveal himself in creation and in his work, to look upon him by scrutinizing his works and his person, and to touch him in an intimacy deep enough to feel his heart beating for you. This experience differs from that of the first witnesses, but it is on the basis of their experience that the Spirit lets us live something similar today.
Never miss a sermon from Église Évangélique Libre
A clear summary of every new message, delivered to you.
to take notes and ask questions.