Resurrection is real life, come fully share our Joy (1 John 1:1-4)

Reading Wiersbe, Be Real (1 John): Turning from Hypocrisy to Truth (The BE Series Commentary).
Big Idea: Assurance that we are in God's family - that we have been "born of God" is vitally important to all of us. If your not a child or God, your a child of wrath (Eph 2:1-3) and may become a child of the devil (1 John 3:10, Matt 13:24-30,36-43). A child of the devil is a counterfeit Christian who acts "saved" but has not been born again. Jesus called Pharisees "children of the devil (John 8:44)" and they were very religious.
Proof:

• Righteous life (1 John 2:29), 
• Not practicing/working at/committing sin (1 John 2:29)
• Love one another and God (1 John 4:7,5:1), not the world/godlessness (1 John 3:13)
• Overcomer of the world/godlessness (1 John 5:4)

1 John 1:1-4
 - existed from the beginning, yet seen and heard in person
 - He is the Word of life (God-breathed, Wisdom personified, life-changing)
 - He is life itself, revealed, eye witness, eternal life
 - Was with Father, then revealed to us (Post-resurrection). Proclaim what we've seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us.
 - Fellowship with Father and Son, Jesus Christ
 - writing so that you may fully share our joy

Great line: Like a child eating cotton candy at the circus, many people who expect to bite into something real end up with a mouthful of nothing. They waste priceless years on empty substitutes for reality.
 - Satisfying reality is not in thrills but in a Person - Jesus Christ the Son of God
 - God revealed himself in Jesus (1 John 1:1, John 14:9, 1:1), In creation (Rom 1:20)
Word of Life: our words reveal to others what we think and how we feel, Christ reveals the mind and heart of God. He is the living means of communication between God and men

 Trinity is a combination of "tri" meaning "three" and "unity" meaning "one"
 - Matt 28:19-20; John 14:16-17,26; 2 cor 13:14; Eph 4:4-6
 - Not three Gods, Not three ways God reveals (John 14:7)

We don't imitate Jesus to share in life, The Life is experienced (1 John 1:2). Not physical nearness but spiritual nearness committed themselves to Him as their Savior and Lord.
Jesus was real and exciting to John and his colleagues because they had trusted Him, in trusting experienced eternal life!
 - John uses "born of God" six times, Jesus said "except a man be born again...he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3,6-7)
 - whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God (1 John 5:1)
 - John wrote his gospel to tell people how to receive this wonderful life (John 20:31)
 - He wrote his first letter to tell people how to be sure they have really been born of God (1 John 5:9-13)
On Counterfeit Christianity, Wiersbe says,

       Suppose you have a counterfeit bill and actually think it is genuine. You use it to pay for a tank of gas. The gas station manager uses the bill to buy supplies. the supplier uses the bill to pay the grocer. The grocer bundles the bill to pay the grocer. The grocer bundles the bill up with forty-nine other ten-dollar bills and takes it to the bank. And the teller says, "I'm sorry, but this bill is a counterfeit."
       That ten-dollar bill may have done a lot of good while it was in circulations, but when it arrived at the bank, it was exposed for what it really was and pulled out of circulation.
        So with a counterfeit Christian. He may do many good things in this life, but when he faces the final judgement he will be rejected. (Lord, Lord..but I never knew you Matt 7:22-23)

So how can we know? Read 1 John 5:9-15 carefully. God has "gone on record" in His Word. Believe His promise and ask Him for His gift. whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved Romans 10:13

This Life is Shared (1 John 1:3-4)
Not "changing religion", wrangling over the differences in religious beliefs or sitting down and comparing churches
 - witnessing is sharing our spiritual experiences with others, by the lives we live and the words that we speak

John's purposes for sharing: 
1) Fellowship
so we'll have fellowship (to have in common 1 Peter 2:24), partakers of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4, same root as "fellowship" in 1 John 1:3. Jesus will be with us to the end of the age (Matt 28:20)
2) Joy
Fellowship is Christ's answer to loneliness, joy is His answer to emptiness, the hollowness of life. Sin promises joy but only produces sorrow.
3) That we may not sin (1 John 3:4-9, 2:1). 
Jesus pleads for us, Satan accuser of brethren (Zech 3, Reve 12:10). Matu
4) don't be deceived (1 John 2:26)
Only epistle with "antichrist" meaning instead of or against (1 John 2:18,22,4:3; 2 John 7)
 - substitute Christ, salvation, Bible
5) that may know we are saved (1 John 5:13)
 - John 8:32, know the truth, the truth shall make you free
 - not following cunningly fables (2 Peter 1:16)

Sonship is revealed by obedience (1 John 3), love (1 John 4) and truth (1 John 5)
 - The spirit-controlled mind knows and understands the truth, the heart feels love, inclined toward obedience
Begin with sonship, continue with fellowship