Name Dropper Extraordinaire

“That which as 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.” I John 1:1,2

Find any gathering of people that lasts more than a few minutes and you are sure to hear someone name drop. That is the phrase we use to accuse someone of boasting that they know or have been with someone of importance. The value of the name is determined by the topic of discussion and those participating in it. I think most of us are guilty of doing this in order to validate a point we are making or to make ourselves feel a little more significant.

John, now writing over 60 years after the death of Jesus, the last of the original twelve, drops the ultimate name. What was his motivation? Remember, all letters and emails have a purpose and John’s purpose was to correct and encourage. John was writing to refute those who said that Jesus was not divine; a heresy that has never gone away. He is making clear the incarnation of Jesus Christ in the first couple of sentences that he writes. His words sound much like the beginning of the Gospel which also bears his name.

In order to validate this doctrine, John reminds his audience that he heard Jesus, saw Jesus, and touched Jesus. He is basically saying, “Hey, I was with him and saw those things that you have heard and read about. I saw the miracles and heard His teaching. I saw Him die and I saw His resurrected body. I was there and I am telling you that this is how it was.” Yes, John could truthfully say, “I walked with Jesus and knew Him well.”

In my Bible, which I have had for some twenty plus years now, I have underlined the words, heard, seen and touched in the opening paragraph of I John. For some reason those three words have been important to me through the years. To me, those words represent the senses that God in His goodness has given to us to interact with our world. We enjoy sight, smell, touch, taste, and hearing; and for the most part, we take them for granted on most days.

We can also be assured that God has given to us those senses to interact with Him. God placed us in a physical world; He placed His Son in a physical body so we know that God works through the physical, not just the spiritual. I have said it before that cathedrals move me towards prayer as I see the beauty of the stories told by colored glass, the sounds of chants that remind me to be still, the smell of candles that tell me this should be a sacred place, and even the taste of wine during communion that brings me right to Christ Himself. Our senses help us acquire a readiness for God. Music, communion, flowers, the cross, the candles, and the water of the baptismal; all physical realities that help us cross into the realm of the spiritual.

Even though John is very old, you can almost hear his excitement when he writes, “which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched.” To John, Christ was a physical reality and he held on to those memories and shared them with anyone who would listen. It was this reality that propelled him to share God’s plan of salvation with others. John said that “we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us”.

The church grew as people heard the message and experienced the reality of knowing God through His Son. The eyewitness accounts, the proof of the resurrection, the power of the Holy Spirit, and the oneness of the church stirred thousands to become followers of Jesus. The most effective evangelism today is still the same as it was in John’s time – the telling of our story!

Thomas Aquinas wrote, “To teach in order to lead others to faith is the task of every preacher and of each believer”. We are preparing to take 29 people with us to Rwanda this fall to proclaim Christ. It my prayer that those people are already proclaiming Christ in their daily lives just as the Apostle John did.

We are so quick to tell people of a celebrity that we have met. My wife Deb loves to tell the story of meeting Clint Eastwood years ago when we were in a restaurant in California. I pride myself in telling people that I had dinner with the late coach of the Dallas Cowboys, Tom Landry. Oh how fun it is to be a namedropper, but when was the last time we “dropped” the name of Jesus? Are we following in the footsteps of John, proclaiming eternal life to those who will listen?

Peace to you,

Dan

Copyright 2009 Eternity Minded Ministries