I think today is the day that we all need to get our eyes checked. If I look a little overweight you need to get your eyes checked because I am in shape; that shape just happens to be round. Optometrists say that you should get them checked once a year as general maintenance and even more so the more you age. You only have one set of eyes, so caring for them is very important if you prefer to see the world around you instead of going blind. Our eyesight is one of a kind and irreplaceable with today’s technology. However, now we have the technology to help those blind from birth. They found something very interesting when replacing the cornea of people blind from birth. We all know that most motor and sensory skills are learned in the very early years of life. We learn to reach, grab, walk, and even see when we are very young. One professor wrote about his studies into these transplants. “Thanks to cornea transplants, people who had been blind from birth would suddenly have functional use of their eyes. Nevertheless, success was rare. Referring to one young boy, "the world does not appear to the patient as filled with the gifts of intelligible light, color, and shape upon awakening from surgery," Zajoc observes. Light and eyes were not enough to grant the patient sight. "The light of day beckoned, but no light of mind replied within the boy’s anxious, open eyes."”
Another man, Dr. Moreau explains what Zajoc means. Moreau says, “While surgery gave the patient the “power to see,” “the employment of this power, which as a whole constitutes the act of seeing, still has to be acquired from the beginning.” What he means is that just giving them the physical capability to see doesn’t give them eye sight; they also need to understand how to use that eyesight. We need two pieces in our bodies to be able to see; our eyes to bring in light and our brain to interpret it. Since a blind person’s brain has never had to interpret the sight of the eyes, they must learn from scratch how to see. This is very similar to our spiritual eye sight; our ability to see things the way God sees them. Most, if not all of us, understand what it means to be able to see the world around us with our physical eyes but many of us do not apply our spiritual sight at all. When we have accepted Christ and been baptized in His name, our soul is cleaned up from the sin it has wallowed in and it is restored to new. Once restored, the way we see the world and sin changes. It becomes painfully obvious to us how bad off we really were and how much sin was in our lives. We can now see the destructive nature of sin. Yet, we do not see these instantly. Our spiritual eyes have yet to function up to this point. Just like those born blind, we must learn to use our spiritual eyesight from scratch.
When we accept Christ, we aim to take on His attributes of love and peace. We must also aim to see the world around us and even people the way He sees them. 1 John 5:1-12 speaks about this very subject. John doesn’t speak about eyesight in these verses and yet he does speak about the way we view different parts of our relationship with Christ. Specifically, John comments on the commands of God, our faith, and the evidence proving who Christ said he was. John let’s us know that it is time we opened our spiritual eyes and saw the world around us for what it is. Today is that day you see the right way to view life. The first category is how we feel about God’s commands.
Burdensome Commands – Needing a Right Heart
I am not sure whether John had felt this way or maybe the people he wrote to needed to hear this but He says something out of the blue that strikes me as incredibly important. “Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome.” Did you catch that last little piece? We have already covered the living with God makes us a child of God part. We have already covered the idea that we have to obey His commands. John then states that God’s commands are not burdensome. John makes a specific point to note that God’s commands may seem tough to swallow but they are not. How? Most likely He is referring to the demands of God’s commands verses the demands of sin. These two are opposed and if we aren’t living in one, we are living in the other. Sin continually wants and needs. It always desires more than anyone wants to give and once down that path it is unforgiving in its penalties. God’s commands however are actually much nicer. Although sometimes hard to obey, they are forgiving and God gives grace to cover up our failures.
One man explained it very well when he said, “It is a great deal easier to do that which God gives us to do, no matter how hard it is, than to face the responsibilities of not doing it." That sums up the difference between the burdensomeness of commands versus the burdensomeness of refusing to obey. It is always much easier to obey. Which is easier, taking out the trash when told or dealing with the consequences of not doing it? Which is easier, loving your wife now, or facing divorce later? Which is easier, respecting your husband now, or watching Him run off with another woman? Obedience is so much easier than sin. God’s commands really aren’t that burdensome compared to the problems of sin.
Yet, how often do we have this type of attitude towards God’s commands? How often do we grumble and ignore His commands? We know we should read the Bible but it will take up fifteen minutes of our time. I don’t have time. My schedules too packed. I pray every day. Really? What do you pray and to whom? Have you just sat down and talked to God? Do you praise Him and thank Him? We are in a relationship with Christ. This isn’t a one way relationship either; we must participate in it by getting to know Him better. We need to get our hearts right. We look at God’s commands as some sort of burden but they are put there to protect us from the ravages of sin. They are there to ensure happy marriages, to help raise our children, and most importantly to help us know God Almighty. Do you see the difference in the attitudes? We should be glad God gave us boundaries and commands to follow. He is protecting us. Yet, we gruff and hem-haw about how much trouble it is. The closer you get to Christ, the more obvious it becomes that His commands aren’t a burden but a blessing. Our spiritual eyesight needs to be checked so that we can have a right heart.
Faith that Overcomes – Needing a Right Mindset
First John makes a specific statement about how we view God’s commands, a burden or a blessing, and now John makes another potent statement about our relationship with Christ. “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world--our faith. Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?” Let’s take this apart piece by piece. It says that the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God will overcome. This word “believe” has a lot of force behind it that we don’t commonly look at. This “believe” means to have an absolute confidence in something. This isn’t just a mental agreement with what has been stated but a confidence on which you would be your life. How many things would you bet your life on? So if someone has absolute confidence in Christ they can overcome the world. John was speaking to a group of people who had seen and heard about the horrible persecution of Nero around 68 A.D. This is when Peter and Paul both died. Soon enough, the emperor Domitian would take over Rome and initiate another terrible persecution. Since they knew that they couldn’t get certain men to give up their faith, the Romans would grab these men’s wives and children and torture and ravage their bodies. This is the world they would have to overcome. If they truly believed in Christ, they could overcome such terrible persecution.
“During China’s Boxer Rebellion of 1900, insurgents captured a mission station, blocked all the gates but one, and in front of that one gate placed a cross flat on the ground. Then the word was passed to those inside that any who trampled the cross underfoot would be permitted their freedom and life, but that any refusing would be shot. Terribly frightened, the first seven students trampled the cross under their feet and were allowed to go free. But the eighth student, a young girl, refused to commit the sacrilegious act. Kneeling beside the cross in prayer for strength, she arose and moved carefully around the cross, and went out to face the firing squad. Strengthened by her example, every one of the remaining ninety-two students followed her to the firing squad.”
How many of us value our faith this much? For some of you, your faith is just a liability and you treat it as such. When you have the chance to speak out for Christ, nothing happens because you don’t speak. For some, your faith is just a side note on a much busier life. It helps me survive you might say. Your faith is just a crutch in the bad times. The faith we have can move mountains and overcome any obstacle as long as we stick to what we truly believe. We must have absolute confidence in Christ and His work or we have no chance of surviving. Who can overcome? The one who believes that Jesus Christ is the Son of God can overcome. How is your faith? How strong is it? I did some reading about well how I was feeling when I wrote this sermon. I was feeling frustrated, stressed, and as though I had no purpose because I couldn’t see how I really fit in God’s plan for this church. Satan pushed me to feel that I could not do this church good and it would be better to be replaced by someone more experienced. I felt this way but God’s word says different. God took fishermen and made them some of the greatest preachers ever. He took all kinds of broken people and made them useful for the kingdom of God. I felt as though I wasn’t any good but God’s word tells me that in Him I have value. I chose to believe God and have faith in Him instead of listening to my emotions. My faith in God is stronger than my feelings. How about you? How’s your faith? If it is weak, then you need to get your head on straight and develop a proper mindset. You see we make a choice here too on how we see our faith. We can see it as a side note or we can see it as a life source.
Evidence for Faith – Needing the Right Evidence
“For there are three that testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement. If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater; for the testimony of God is this, that He has testified concerning His Son. The one who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself; the one who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has given concerning His Son. And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.”
We definitely need our spiritual eyes checked. Do we view God’s commands as burdens or blessings? Do we see our faith as our life source or a side-note to the rest of our life? There is just one more area we should look at when getting our eyes checked; the evidence we need to believe in Christ. Did you hear all the times the words testify and testimony came up in those verses? The word “testify” is a court term meaning “to affirm as true.” This word carries with it the idea of having absolutely irrefutable evidence. They will call a witness to the stand and that witness will testify about certain facts in a case. I doctor might affirm that a certain type of death occurred. They would be testifying to the truth of the type of death. These verses describe God’s witnesses and the evidence He uses to prove who He is and that He sent His Son to die for our sins. He says there are three that testify: the Holy Spirit, the water and the blood. The Holy Spirit confirms that Jesus came, died, and rose again. The Holy Spirit that lives in every Christian can confirm that Christ died. The water reference seems to be the baptism of Christ by John the Baptizer. This was the beginning of Jesus’ ministry on earth. The blood would then symbolize the death of Christ on the cross and the end of His earthly ministry. These three are given as evidence.
What do we normally look for when we want evidence? We want solid physical evidence which we can touch, feel, and smell. Critics of Christianity cry out for archaeological evidence such as bones or a coffin. They want solid irrefutable evidence that Jesus lived on this earth and yet was the Son of God. They scramble to find the tomb where Christ was laid so they can find the body that has to be there. They are always scrambling to find something and yet God doesn’t give them a single source in the evidence He provides. He gives spiritual evidence instead of physical evidence. Here is the problem we face; we will want to trust in the physical proof found more than we will want to trust God. We as humans like to look to the world around us for comfort and security.
You may trust your money to keep you going. I have money in the account so we
will be okay. What happens if that money disappears or is stolen? You have food in your refrigerator and your freezer. We have food and if we don’t we can buy some with money. What happens when they all break down or the electricity goes out for an extended period of time? If the human race had absolute physical proof of Christ’s death and resurrection, it would be absolutely hooked on trusting in it. So God gives spiritual reasons. God has reasons for what He does, even if we don’t understand. When our faith gets weak, we begin to reach out and grab at anything to help us get a grip and soon find that we are just grabbing at straws. God has given us proof of His existence and of the death and resurrection of His Son for our sins and we need to open our eyes to see it. The evidence we need so that we believe Jesus died and rose again isn’t some board people claim was his cross and it isn’t some crazy tomb where a church has been built. The evidence we need is spiritual; the Holy Spirit confirms the truth we find about Christ.
Spiritual eyes are different. They give us the power to see everything in a totally different light than we did before we had Christ. However, we need to learn to use this new set of eyes and train our minds to do so. Remember those transplant patients; even though they had new eyeballs they still could not see because their brain had never learned how. When we accept Christ, we get spiritual eye transplants and our ability to use them must grow. We must learn to see things the way God does. God’s commands are not burdensome; they are a blessing. Our faith is our lifeline connection to God; it is the very source of life, not just a side note that we add to our daily routine. Faith, absolute confidence in God, is the routine if we want to have a relationship with Him. The evidence we need so that we can believe in Christ isn’t physical; it’s spiritual evidence. Our relationship with God is spiritual in nature and if we ever hope to deepen our relationship with Him, we will have to learn better how to see with spiritual eyes. Every situation and circumstance seems so different when viewed with faith in God.
