Reading: 1 John chapter 5 verses 13-21.
Ill:
• Mrs Fisher the primary school teacher was at home recovering from surgery;
• She heard the letter box bang,
• Her husband brought the post into her,
• One of the letters was a get well card from her class which 2nd year class which read;
“Dear Mrs Fisher, your class wishes you a speedy recovery by a vote of 15-14”.
The object of John’s letter:
• Is to make sure the Christians were in good spiritual health;
• And to expose and remove those people or doctrines that would cause them harm.
• In our section this morning;
• We are looking at the concluding remarks of this letter.
• The letter is finished.
• It only remains for John to sum up and conclude.
• John’s final summary actually turns into a postscript;
• As John adds new material to his summing up.
• In his postscript;
• John draws to our attention to 4 certainties that the Christian enjoys.
(1). THE CERTAINTY OF ETERNAL LIFE (vs 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”.
(The Message):
“My purpose in writing is simply this: that you who believe in God's Son will know beyond the shadow of a doubt that you have eternal life, the reality and not the illusion”.
The whole book of 1 John:
• Centres around the fact of life in the Son of God;
• And that whoever has the Son has life!
Ill:
• My foot has life because it is part of my body,
• It has no life apart from my body.
• But joined with my body,
• It has the life of the body.
• John reminds his readers that:
• Jesus Christ produces eternal life in us; and he also sustains this life for us.
• Because our ‘eternal life’ is sourced in Jesus Christ and is a gif of God:
• We cannot lose it; for it does not depend on us but on Him.
Ill:
The great Chinese leader Watchman Nee tells the story;
• Of how a new convert who came to see him in deep distress.
• He said to Watchman Nee:
“No matter how much I pray, no matter how hard I try, I simply cannot seem to be faithful to my Lord. I think I’m losing my salvation.”
Watchman Nee said,
• “Do you see this dog here? He is my dog. He is house-trained;
• He never makes a mess; he is obedient; he is a pure delight to me.
• Out in the kitchen I have a son, a baby son.
• He makes a mess, he throws his food around, he fouls his clothes, he is a total mess.
• But who is going to inherit my kingdom?
• Not my dog; but my son who is my heir.
• You are Jesus Christ’s heir because it is for you that He died.”
• We are Christ’s heirs, not through our perfection but by means of His grace.
• And what we have in Christ;
• No-one can take away.
(B). THE CERTAINTY OF ANSWERED PRAYER (vs 14-17):
“And if we know he is listening when we make our requests, we can be sure that he will give us what we ask for.
16If you see a Christian brother or sister[3] sinning in a way that does not lead to death, you should pray, and God will give that person life. But there is a sin that leads to death, and I am not saying you should pray for those who commit it. 17Every wrong is sin, but not all sin leads to death”.
• These verses repeat the words that John wrote earlier in this letter in;
• Chapter3 verses 21-22.
• Prayer of course is both essential and important to the Christian;
• No-one can do with out it!
Ill:
• In one region of Africa,
• The first converts to Christianity were very diligent about praying.
• In fact, the believers each had their own special place;
• Just outside the village where they went to pray in solitude.
• The villagers reached these “prayer spots”
• By using their own private footpaths through the brush.
• When grass began to grow over one of these trails,
• It was evident that the person to whom it belonged was not praying very much.
• Because these new Christians were concerned for each other’s spiritual welfare,
• A unique custom sprang up.
• When ever anyone noticed an overgrown “Prayer path,”
• He or she would go to the person and lovingly warn, “Friend, there’s grass on your path!”
(a). THE basis of prayer - God listens (vs 14):
“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.
• The basis of prayer is simple:
• God listens to our prayers!
Ill:
Imagine praying and hearing this response:
• “Thank you for calling My Father’s House.
• Please select one of the following four options:
• Press 1 for requests.
• Press 2 for thanksgiving.
• Press 3 for worship.
• For all other inquiries, press 4.”
What if God used the familiar excuse:
• “All of the angels are helping other customers right now. Please stay on the line.
• Your call will be answered in the order it was received.”
• Or even worse:
• “This office is closed for the weekend. Please call again Monday.”
Thank God, any Christian can speak to God anytime!
• You only need to ring once and God hears you, and he is never engaged.
• And God takes each call and knows each caller personally.
No wonder John writes in verse 14:
• "This is the CONFIDENCE that we have in approaching God".
• The word confidence means ‘freedom of speech’.
• As Christians we can come in to God’s presence freely;
• Knowing he is more ready to hear us than we are to pray!
Ill:
Story is told of the man who prayed this prayer:
“Dear God,
So far today I’ve done all right. I haven’t gossiped, I haven’t lost my temper, I haven’t been greedy, grumpy, nasty, selfish or over-indulgent. I’m very thankful for that. But in a few minutes, God, I’m going to get out of bed, and from then on, I’m probably going to need a lot of help.
Amen”
All of us need daily help to handle the daily difficulties & situations of life:
• The basis of prayer is simple: God listens to our prayers!
• John now reminds us of the principle of prayer: God answers our prayers.
(b). THE Principle of prayer (vs 15):
15 And if we know that he hears us--whatever we ask--we know that we have what we asked of him”.
Ill:
• A noted brain surgeon, Dr. Bronson Ray,
• Was taking a stroll when he saw a boy on a scooter smash headfirst into a tree.
• Realizing that the boy was seriously injured,
• The doctor told a bystander to call an ambulance.
• As he proceeded to administer first aid,
• A boy not much older than the injured one;
• Nudged through the crowd that had gathered and said to Dr. Ray,
• “I’d better take over now, sir. I’m a Boy Scout and I know first aid,”
Like that boy who was full of confidence in his own ability;
• We can have absolute confidence in God!
• We can be confident that he will answer our prayers.
• Yet prayer is not a magical spell, or something to take for granted.
• Effective prayer is conditional.
Three times in Johns writings, John gives us conditions for prayer:
• e.g. 1 John chapter 3 verse 22.
• Obedience is the key “We receive whatever we ask because we keep his commandments”
• e.g. John chapter 15 verse 7.
• Remaining in Christ is the key. “If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you”.
• e.g. John chapter 14 verse 14.
• Praying in Jesus’ name. “You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it”.
In 1 John chapter 5 verse 14b; John gives us one more condition:
• We are to pray: "According to his will."
• C.E.V. “When we ask for what pleases him”.
• Praying according to God’s will:
• Is the same as “praying in Jesus name” which John talks about in his gospel.
Ill:
• Park Gate School.
• Sketch board and they asked to keep it, to go on the wall.
• Mr Brown (Head teacher) said; “We’ll put your name on it”.
• I replied; “No you won’t!”
Praying according to God’s will:
• Is the same as “praying in Jesus name”.
• Praying the type of prayer that Jesus is willing to sign as his own.
Quote C.H. Dodd:
“Prayer rightly considered is not a device for employing the resources of omnipotence to fulfil our own desires, but a means by which our desires,
but a means by which our desires may be redirected according to the mind of God, and made into channels for the forces of his will”.
Ill:
• In the 1700’s;
• The leaders of the Clapham Sect of British social reformers;
• Which contained Godly such as William Wilberforce,
• Daily gave themselves to three hours of prayer;
• And they also organized Christians throughout the country;
• To unite in special prayer meetings before critical debates in Parliament.
• William Temple replied to his critics;
• Who regarded answered prayer as no more than coincidence,
“When I pray, coincidences happen; when I don’t, they don’t.”
• We may not see the answer to a prayer immediately,
• But we have inner confidence that God answered.
(c). An illustration of prayer (vs 16-17):
“If anyone sees his brother commit a sin that does not lead to death, he should pray and God will give him life. I refer to those whose sin does not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I am not saying that he should pray about that.
17 All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin that does not lead to death”.
In this postscript John has been teaching about:
• The Christians assurance, our security in Christ;
• We have ‘eternal life’ through Jesus Christ.
• Because of this relationship with Jesus Christ;
• We can confidently pray to God, knowing that he hears us & delights to answer our prayers.
With that as a backdrop John now gives us an illustration involving prayer
• The illustration does not relate to praying for ourselves;
• But interceding, praying on behalf of others.
Verse 16: John describes two Christians for us;
• One is a Christian who sins and his sin is described as;
• A "sin which does not lead to death".
• The other Christian who also sins; but this sin is different and is described as;
• "A sin which does lead to death".
Questions: But what is the ‘sin that leads to death?’
Answer:
• There are a number of interpretations as to what this sin is,
• Perhaps the most common view is;
• Is that; when John speaks of a ‘sin that leads to death’;
• He is referring to physical death and not spiritual death.
• After all he said in verse 13 and throughout this letter;
• That Christians are secure in Christ,
• Which means they cannot therefore be spiritually lost!
• Otherwise he has deliberately contradicted himself.
• And having laboured this point so much, it just would not make sense for him to do that!
• So I interpret the effects of sin here as physical not spiritual death.
So the question remains what is the ‘sin that leads to death?’
• I would suggest that the sin that leads to death is not one specific sin;
• It is not one thing that you can easily identify such as lying, idolatry or murder etc.
• Rather the ‘sin that leads to death?’
• Is a wrong attitude linked to a sinful act.
There are at least 3 illustrations in the New Testament of how ‘sin’ can lead to physical death:
• All three illustrations involve different sins;
• But notice it is the attitude of the sinner(s) which is the problem in each case!
Example number 1:
• Ananias & Sapphira in Acts chapter 5.
• In there case it was the sin of hypocrisy.
• And for a variety of reasons (time to go into it now);
• God dealt with the situation, by removing them from the early Church (they died!).
Example number 2:
• In 1 Corinthians chapter 11 verse 30;
• Suggests that certain Christians died because they misused the Lord’s supper.
(The Message):
“That's why so many of you even now are listless and sick,
and others have gone to an early grave”.
Example number 3:
• 1 Corinthians chapter 5 verses 1-5;
• Involves a man deliberately living in planned and deliberate sin.
“5hand this person over to the devil (excommunication). His body is to be destroyed (death) so his spirit may be saved on the day the Lord comes again” (resurrection day).
So John gives us an unusual illustration of God answering prayer:
• Weather it’s what we call small or large sin that is spoiling a Christian’s life;
• We need to pray for that person that they will soon overcome it.
• So that they may know victory in this life;
• And not enter the next life in defeat.
(C). THE CERTAINTY OF VICTORY (vs 18-19)
“We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the one who was born of God keeps him safe, and the evil one cannot harm him.
19 We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one”.
John once again in his postscript reminds his readers that:
• Every Christian is emancipated, liberated from the power of sin.
• That does not mean Christians never sin.
• But it does mean that a Christian;
• Does not have to be the helpless slave of sin.
Ill:
• In Thomas Costain’s history; ‘The Three Edwards’,
• He describes the life of Raynald III, a fourteenth-century duke in what is now Belgium.
• Raynald was grossly overweight,
• And was commonly called by his Latin nickname, ‘Crassus’, which means “fat.”
• After a violent quarrel,
• Raynald’s younger brother Edward led a successful revolt against him.
• Edward captured Raynald but did not kill him.
• Instead, he built a room around Raynald in the Nieuwkerk castle
• And promised him he could regain his title and property
• As soon as he was able to leave the room.
This would not have been difficult for most people:
• Since the room had several windows and a door of near-normal size,
• And none was locked or barred.
• The problem was Raynald’s size.
• To regain his freedom, he needed to lose weight.
• But Edward knew his older brother,
• And each day he sent a variety of delicious foods.
• Instead of dieting his way out of prison,
• Raynald grew fatter.
• When Duke Edward was accused of cruelty,
• He had a ready answer: “My brother is not a prisoner. He may leave when he so wills.”
• Raynald stayed in that room for ten years;
• And wasn’t released until after Edward died in battle.
• By then his health was so ruined he died within a year;
• Sadly he was a prisoner of his own appetite.
When a person becomes a Christian:
• God helps that person to break free from the prison of their sinful desires.
• He gives to that person new appetites;
• These new appetites can start replacing the bad and sinful desires and habits;
• And in their place create good and beneficial desires and habits.
• And although at times a Christian may commit individual acts of sin (ill: ch 2 vs 1-2),
• The Christian does not have to live as a slave to sin.
Ill:
• Story of a man driving along the wide roads of the U.S.A.
• He has been touring around the south of the country.
• Suddenly as he approaches some mountains the road starts to drastically narrow;
• And the driver begins to panic,
• Up ahead he sees a narrow tunnel in the rock passing through the mountain;
• He looks at the size of his American car and the narrowness of the tunnel and thinks;
• “I’m not going to make it!”
• But as you get closer to the tunnel.
• Someone has carved out this words in the side of the rock;
• “Yes you can, 1,000’s of others have already done it!”
As Christians we can be confident that God can set us free from slavery to sin:
• And 1,000’s of other Christians encourage us on with those words;
• “Yes you can” or as Paul put it in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 13:
“He will not let us be tempted beyond what we can bear”
Notice the second half of this verse:
“The one who was born of God keeps him safe, and the evil one cannot harm him”.
• Quote: The commentator Westcott:
• “The Christian has an active enemy, but he also has a watchful guardian”.
Ill:
• The early American Indians had a unique practice of training young braves.
• On the night of a boy’s thirteenth birthday,
• After learning hunting, scouting, and fishing skills, he was put to one final test.
• He was placed in a dense forest to spend the entire night alone.
• Until then, he had never been away from the security of the family and the tribe.
• But on this night, he was blindfolded and taken several miles away.
• When he took off the blindfold, he was in the middle of a thick woods and he was terrified! Every time a twig snapped, he visualized a wild animal ready to pounce.
• After what seemed like an eternity,
• Dawn broke and the first rays of sunlight entered the interior of the forest.
• Looking around, the boy saw flowers, trees, and the outline of the path.
• Then, to his utter astonishment,
• He beheld the figure of a man standing just a few feet away, armed with a bow & arrow.
• It was his father. He had been there all night long.
John reminds his readers:
• Weather we realise it or not;
• God is always with us and we are safe in him!
(E). THE CERTAINTY OF THE INCARNATION (vs 20)
“We know also that the Son of God HAS COME and has given us UNDERSTANDING, so that we may know him who is true. And we are IN HIM who is true--even in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life”.
The final statement of certainty:
• Reflects the main reason John wrote this letter in the first place.
• To deny the false teaching of the Gnostics.
• Quote: Rev. Sidney Smith, quoted in The Book of Insults, Ancient and Modern:
• “He not only overflowed with learning, but stood in the slop”.
• The apostle John might feel that way about the Gnostics;
• They were polluting these Christians and teaching a spiritual error among God’s people.
• Ill: An Agnostic is someone who says they do not know.
• A Gnostic is someone who says they do know (special insight & knowledge)
Remember from your other studies of this letter:
• Gnosticism denied that God's Son became incarnate;
• That is he became flesh & blood, a real human being.
• Having sorted out this false teaching;
• John asserts in this postscript, "We know that the Son of God is come"
• The Gnostics claimed to possess special knowledge (gnosis),
• But John says actually it’s the Christians who have the special knowledge.
• We have been given "an understanding" imparted to us by the Son of God,
• And this knowledge enables us to know the true God.
• The knowledge which we have received is not speculative nor theoretical,
• For we "know him' and not merely about Him.
CONCLUDING EXHORTATION (vs 21)
• John concludes his letter with a parental reminder to his "little children"
• To keep themselves "from idols."
Remember:
• John was probably writing to believers in the city of Ephesus.
• Ephesus was a city full of idol worship.
• It contained The Temple of Diana;
• One of the wonders of the ancient world.
• One of the main trades in the city was making and selling idols.
• (Acts chapter 19 verses 21-41).
• Therefore the Christians who lived there;
• Were made up mostly of converted Gentiles and were under great pressure to conform:
• So John reminds them that since they have intimate knowledge of the true God,
• Any worship of a dead idol is totally unreasonable.
Ill:
• Mum’s house ‘plastic fruit’;
• Rather have the real thing!
• As Christians let us not allow the false idols of our culture;
• Spoil our relationship with the Lord:
Quote:
“Though we do not face a pantheon of false gods like the Israelites did, we face pressures from a pantheon of false values—materialism, love of leisure, sensuality, worship of self, security, and many others. The second commandment deals with idols. This may be something that most of us can’t relate to—unless we include life goals that revolve around something other than God Himself. What is the object of our affections, our efforts, and our attention? Where does the majority of our time go? On what do we spend the greatest amount of our resources”
Today’s idols are more in the self than on the shelf
