An Incarnational, Missional People
“Becoming Full of Faith”
1 John 5:1-21
This past week I heard a pastor describe an experience that I think many pastors have experienced. The pastor had a 90 year old church member who was a godly man, lying in a hospital bed dying. This old saint had lived a life as one full of faith. He had been used by God to lead others to faith in Jesus. He loved and served others well. Now his pastor was sitting at his bedside praying and asking the Heavenly Father to graciously take His faithful servant home to a place that has been especially prepared for him.
We live in a place and time that can become preoccupied with the here and now. All around us are people who are giving their lives for the accumulation of wealth and the acquisition of recognition. This old man had given himself away in virtual obscurity.
All around us are people who obsess about having tanned and shapely and young looking bodies. The dying Christian was mostly bones with a thin covering of skin and looked like he was spent.
Yet the old man’s pastor knew that this man would soon hear those words that all true Christians long to hear some day, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter and receive your reward.”
This man had eternal life. This man was saved from the penalty and destruction that comes from sin. This man had stored up treasure in heaven as he allowed God to spend his life in this world.
It was of this type of man that the Apostle John declared in 1 John 5:13--
“I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.”
Life in this world is filled with uncertainties. Will you pass the course? Will you graduate with the degree? Will you secure a job that provides a living? Will you marry someone for a lifetime? Will you have to suffer with a disease or difficulties and disappointments?
In a world of uncertainties John writes to Christ followers and declares, “You can be certain of this--you have eternal life!”
That verse (5:13) is the purpose statement to the entire letter. John wanted those in his church who had been confused by Gnosticism and hurt by former members of their community who had forsaken them for the heresy to know that they had eternal life.
Chapter 5 then paints one more portrait of what it looks like to be an authentic, saved, child of God. I’ve outlined the contents of John’s words with the acrostic “CHRISTIAN”.
C Confirmed love (5:1-2)
A Christian is someone who has been born of God and that birth and connection with God is seen or evidenced by loving other Christians. Love is not simply a feeling but a way of being and acting. John says it is a love that obeys God.
What does obeying God have to do with loving other Christians? God is prompting or moving us to do loving things for others every day. God may prompt us to give to meet a need; to serve to meet a need; to care or act with compassion; or to forgive a wrong. Our obedience to God’s promptings both loves God and loves the other person well and thereby confirms our love.
H Hearty obedience (5:3)
John says that a true believer doesn’t find God’s commands to be burdensome. Sometimes God’s commands can be challenging or difficult or even seemingly impossible. But a person born of God has a heart to obey.
The Psalms describe such a “hearty” person as one who loves the law of God and meditates on it day and night.
I know some people that love to work in their garden or in their yard. They read journals about fertilizer and climate. They weed and prune. They spend hours tending to their yard and are glad. It is not a burden because they are “saved” to gardening. It is in their heart. I’m not one of them. I’m “lost” when it comes to gardening. Cutting my grass is burdensome to me.
R Rescuing faith (5:4-5)
When the “world” is spoken of in this context it is a reference to the “ways of the world” or the “systems of the world” that oppose God. As such, the world is warring with God over your soul. God wants you to know Him, love Him and live with Him forever. The world wants you to stay separated from God forever. The world will seek to entice you away from God with either--
Pleasures; who needs God when life feels this good? Or-
Pains; there can’t be a God when life is this hard.
If you have lived in this world and contended with the world’s distractions and disappointments and have still chosen to believe in God through faith in Jesus Christ, then you have overcome the world!
I Internalized Jesus’ Presence (5:6-12)
John continues his effort to assure us of our eternal life by taking us into the courtroom. The trial of the ages is underway. The life and ministry of Jesus is on trial. Was He truly who He claimed to be (the Incarnated presence of God) and did He accomplish what He came to do (mission), namely to seek and save those who are lost from God?
Witnesses are called to give testimony. In the ancient way anything that was contended to be true had to be validated by the testimony of 2-3 witnesses. John presents the testimony of water (Jesus was born of a woman), blood (Jesus died an atoning death) and the Spirit (God Himself) who all three agree about the life and ministry of Jesus.
Once again John is striking a blow against the contemporary heresies.
But John takes the courtroom scene a step further and says, “Anyone who believes in the Son of God has this testimony in his heart.” In other words, the truth is realized by one who is full of faith no matter the verdicts of the “juries” of this world.
I’m reminded of the dynamic that happens in a small child who struggles with separation anxiety whenever his parents leave him in the nursery or with a sitter. The child has a fear about the absence of the parents and wonders if they will return and if he will be okay. Once a child arrives at a developmental stage where he has internalized the parent, then he has confidence or believes that the parents are still vitally in his life even when they are not in the same room him.
Believers have accepted the evidence about Jesus and have internalized His presence.
S Sure of Eternal Life (5:13)
The state of being sure or being secure about eternal life is not something just about “then and there” but rather “here and now”. Eternal life is not just about time. “Eternal” is sometimes rendered as “forever” but something that is forever painful or forever regretful would be terrible.
Eternal life is about a quality of life or we could say a God-type of life. Not that we become a god but we get to enjoy the type of life He enjoys. So it certainly has reference to living in the afterlife or heaven, but it also references the quality of life we begin to live now. The moment one begins to follow Christ and live full of faith that man or woman begins to live a quality of life that loves well, obeys well, overcomes the world, and internalizes God’s presence well. That’s eternal life.
And there’s more. John says that the person with eternal life prays well.
T Trust God (5:14-17)
Trust in the evidence and reality about Jesus results in a tremendous confidence that is reflected in our praying because we believe that we have His ear. We believe that He is listening to us and is responsive to us.
Now this is not some kind of selfish exercise of prayer (give me stuff) but rather a selfless expression of the desires of God in prayer. In other words, God prompts us about what to pray and how to pray, and then we pray that with great confidence knowing that He wants to answer that prayer.
All legitimate prayer originates with God. He stirs His son or daughter about a matter and we cooperate with God’s will by praying His will be done.
I began today’s talk with the story about a pastor praying for the death or passing on of his sick 90 year old church member. You don’t go around praying for people to pass on, no matter how sick they are, unless you have a prompting from God that is what He wants you to pray.
John illustrates the matter of praying with an example of praying for someone who commits sin. In 1 John 1:9 we were already taught that if someone trips and falls into a sin that he should confess his sin to God and God is faithful and just to forgive the sin and to cleanse the person of unrighteousness. For such a person or situation we are to join in praying for forgiveness and cleansing.
However, the person who sins and it is a lifestyle and the person is unrepentant and will not confess sin, John teaches that we don’t pray for God to forgive that sin. Why? Because that would not be God’s will. God’s will is to forgive those who confess or agree with Him about sin. To forgive someone who doesn’t agree with Him about sin would be to go against God’s own character.
It would be appropriate for us to pray that the sinning friend would become convicted of his sin, disgusted with his sin and lose his appetite for his sin. We can pray that our friend would become repentant and seek God’s forgiveness.
I Insulated by Christ (5:18-19)
John says that Jesus keeps Christians safe from the evil one. The word “keeps” means (gk: tereo) that Jesus watches after, preserves, guards, holds on to believers so that the evil one cannot “touch” (gk: perihapto, to fasten fire to, kindle) believers.
Because the word “touch” has a connotation of kindling or setting aflame I use the word “insulate” to describe how Christ keeps us safe or guards us. It’s like the story of the Hebrew young men in the book of Daniel who have been apprehended by king Nebuchadnezzar. Because the Hebrews wouldn’t worship him, Nebuchadnezzar threw them into a fiery furnace in order to kill them. However, God’s presence was so great around them they were not burned nor did they have the smell of smoke upon them.
I’m not suggesting that we won’t ever get “burned” in this life. The Hebrews in Daniel has testified before they were sentenced to the fiery furnace, “Our God is well able to deliver us from this fire, but even if He doesn’t we won’t bow to you in worship.”
To be insulated by Christ means that His protection will either provide us with an immediate deliverance from the workings of the devil or an ultimate deliverance on the other side of death as we enjoy eternal life in heaven.
A Awareness of Truth (5:20)
Jesus has given believers “understanding” (gk: dianoia, a mind, a way of thinking and feeling) so that we know what is “true” (gk: alethinos, the opposite of counterfeit, fiction or pretense).
In John’s context, being able to recognize truth and having awareness of that which is nearly true but counterfeit, was crucial. Again, the heresies of John’s day were a serious danger to the well being of the church.
Like never before our world has the capacity to broadcast a message in a package that is winsome and convincing. I’m not just talking about radio and television “ministries” that skew the truth and lead people astray. That is a real danger for which we need a God given awareness. But more so we have books published and marketed by “Christian celebrities” about which we must be discerning. Just because something is published and sells a lot of copies doesn’t mean it is trustworthy and true.
And what’s more, the inspirational emails or Internet stories are spreading a lot of warm sentimentality but not necessarily the truth. Bloggers and web sites must be approached with awareness.
N Nurture Christ’s Preeminence (5:20)
Christ is to be first and foremost in our lives. An idol is anything that we make more important than Christ. It can be a spouse, a child, a possession, a career, or a dream.
One way to guard against idols would be to focus on the idol and determine, “I won’t go after that idol.” Another way to guard against idols would be to focus on Jesus and see Him in all of His glory and preeminence. Allow your heart to be warmed and captured by Christ.
Meditating on Christ, praying to Christ, worshiping Christ, and serving Christ are just some of the ways that you nurture and develop a heart that keeps Christ first and foremost.
Conclusion:
Most of you know that my wife is a nurse. She has an awareness of health symptoms. She has internalized being a nurse and being a nurse finds expression out of her toward others every day. She has a heart for nursing and a confidence for nursing. She is certain she is a nurse.
John says that the same thing is true for Christians. A Christian has been born of God and internalized things of God that find expression in everyday living. Christians are confident and certain of their eternal life.
Are you? Do you know God? Is there a confidence and certainty in your life?
