August 26, 2018 Sermon - 1 John 5:13-21 - “Confident That We are His!”.
For much of my adolescence and young adulthood I struggled with how I felt about myself, with confidence. Or should I say a lack of confidence. I thought I just didn’t measure up, didn’t have much to offer, barely warranted the air I breathed.
I would compare myself unfavourably to other men my age, other people in general. In music school I felt like a fraud, that I didn’t really deserve to get in, because in my view the others there were just so much more capable than I was. I would in fact be comparing myself with the best of the best and not those who were really my peers in ability. And that comparing myself to others just further bashed away at my overall confidence.
I would look at confident people and flip between being envious of them and wishing I could be like them, and then thinking that they were just unaware of all the reasons to not have confidence. Once in a while I would meet someone who seemed to have nothing going for them but who had remarkable confidence; confidence seemingly completely undeserved. Those people blew my mind.
But shortly after I became a Christian and started for the first time ever reading Scripture and paying attention to the sermons I would hear at church, I began to see a pattern. It was a pattern that rocked my internal world. It was a pattern that suggested that I had been looking at everything in a way that was skewed. My line of sight was obscured and I wasn’t seeing very well at all.
Our passage today, the final in our series on the Epistle or the Letter of 1 John, really challenges our perspective, the way we see things. It also kind of challenges our eyesight. How well do we really see things? How accurate is our vision?
In this passage, as in all of Scripture, we are given God’s view. God’s view of life, God’s view of our walk with Him, God’s heart toward us in the midst of this very difficult and challenging thing that all of us were involuntarily tossed into called life.
Did you volunteer for this? I know I didn't. And yet here we are.
I thought it would be good to go through today’s passage a verse at a time in what’s called an expository journey.
We want a clear understanding and to get to the point quickly. That’s what expository means.
And we also want to hear and respond to the challenges that are in the text. There are many challenges, and it’s good to consider them rather than just glossing over the Scripture.
Here is verse 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 Apostle John is writing for a purpose. Who is he writing to? To those who believe in Jesus, to followers of Jesus, to followers of the Way, as the early Christians were called. This is for Christ-followers.
It is a reminder of good news that is at the heart of a Christian’s life. It is a reminder that this is not all there is.
This is life, this thing that you didn’t sign up for, and I didn’t sign up for: it’s life, but it is by no means all of life.
Now the thing about John, and the thing about all the writers of the New Testament, is that while they were writing to the church, to those who were already followers of Jesus, they knew, they knew that others were always, always listening in.
Others whose interest had been stirred by what they saw and experienced of those first Christ followers, in the marketplace, on the street, among their families.
Others were always listening in, wondering at the hope that believers in Jesus had, at the joy in the midst of suffering that their lives displayed. Christians stood out by their conduct and by their words.
Challenge # 1 How can we live in a way that sparks the interest of others to listen in, to lean in? How can I pray to ask God to help me live in a way that reflects the goodness of God?
A way that might inspire someone watching my life to wonder in a good way about Jesus.
How can I live such a life of blessing? How can I prepare myself to invite people who may enquire about my life to follow Jesus. That’s a challenge from this passage.
Here’s our next verse:
14 This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.
15 And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.
God wants us to know that we have eternal life because we have placed our trust in Jesus Christ in response to His Holy Spirit moving in us to desire God. That’s called prevenient grace.
He also wants us to know that because of Jesus, Who has made a way in for us to be part of the family of God, we can have confidence. We can have confidence in a way that really matters.
We can have confidence as we approach God. This is worth taking a moment to reflect on.
In the OT, people were afraid to approach God. They were afraid for a reason.
God is a consuming fire,,,, and that fact was even represented in the building of the temple of the people of God.
Before Jesus, this was the way to come to God. You had to be a priest. Or you had to have a priest who would represent you before God.
You had to follow an essential and elaborate set of rules and regulations in order to come into the presence of God.
And if you tried to draw near without doing it the right way, you died. Toast.
There was only fear and dread when people thought of approaching God.
And those responses were fitting because unless sin was atoned for, unless sacrifices were made in the right way, there was simply no way to God.
The sacrificial system reveals to us the seriousness of the problem of sin. Before Jesus came, we could not approach God without making a sacrifice of our own.
And as the Book of Hebrews shows us, Jesus makes it possible for us to approach God not with fear and dread but with great assurance:
14For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.
19 Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings”.
So we might think that we cannot approach God with confidence, but when we realize that we come to God not at all on our merits, not on the basis of any good, or bad for that matter, that we have done, but completely and only on the merits of Jesus.
When we see this truth, we can come to God confidently, knowing we come to the One Who loves us with an everlasting love.
And what else do we learn from this verse? Well, if we ask anything according to His will, He absolutely hears us.
Does that mean I’m guaranteed the 1969 Mustang Convertible that I want? Well, if you don’t pay attention to this verse you might think: Yes, that’s what it means.
It you do pay attention to this verse and elsewhere in the Gospels where Jesus says that you can ask God for anything and fully expect to receive it,
He’s always telling us first to be thinking about the Kingdom of God, the reign of God, the will of God.
To seek first the will of God and then all necessary things will be added for us. That’s what a Jesus follower does. She or he follows Jesus who always put the will of God first before any other need.
So as we ask, aligned with God’s will, asking according to his will, God hears us.
And we can live knowing that God has our back, that He we have what we’ve asked of him.
If it’s not in our hands now, it’s on it’s way. And we do well to remember that God’s answers to our prayer are always yes or no. And when it’s no, it’s actually because He has something better in mind.
16 If you see any brother or sister commit a sin that does not lead to death, you should pray and God will give them 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 you should pray about that.
17 All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin that does not lead to death.
18 We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the One who was born of God keeps them safe, and the evil one cannot harm them.
So what does this tell us? If you see someone in this church doing something wrong, you should tell others?
You should gossip about them? You should spread the word so that everyone knows just how bad bad can get?
Not if we’re listening and not if our hearts are attuned to God’s heart. We should pray for them. We should pause and ask God to love them, to embrace them, to bring them to a conviction of their sin, to restore them to Himself.
What is the promise of this passage? If we pray for those who are struggling, those who are sinning, God will ‘give them life’.
Why does God ‘give them life’? Why not ‘judge’ at worst or ‘forgive’ at best? Well, all sin - the wages of sin is death, as it says in Romans 6:23.
The pathway, the direction, the trajectory of sin, if we don’t stop doing it and come to our senses, is death, spiritual death.
That is a way of saying that we put our walk with God at risk, our fellowship with Him, our intimacy with Him.
Some say we put our salvation at risk, because by continuing in sin without repenting, we demonstrate that we, when it comes down to it, don't care what God wants.
We put our own wants, however destructive they are to us, ahead of God. And not just once. It becomes our lifestyle. This is not good.
Let’s look for a moment at this: The ‘sin that leads to death’. That’s a challenging passage and not one that is easy to sort through.
It’s possible John had in mind those who consciously chose to reject God, suggesting that even prayer is unhelpful for such a person.
Some have thought that ‘sin leading to death’ may refer to blaspheming the Holy Spirit or rejecting Christ as Savior, or a life of habitual sin.
Some connect this sin with the unforgivable sin mentioned in Matt. 12:31, 32; Mark 3:28–30; Luke 12:8–10. More likely, I believe, John is referring to a stubborn refusal to accept the message of the gospel.
Anyway, it’s a strong and uncomfortable passage that gives us a good idea of the seriousness of sin, but more importantly it makes it even clearer just how much we need a Saviour, how much we need Jesus. Amen? Amen.
18 We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the One who was born of God keeps them safe, and the evil one cannot harm them.
When I was fairly new in the Lord I would read this passage, take a short inventory of my life, and realize that I had a problem with this passage.
Whenever you have a problem with a passage of Scripture, a good question to ask is: what’s is it’s main encouragement. God is interested in life and reconciliation and healing and restoration.
Any brief look at the life of Jesus shows that He is not a fan of condemnation. He’s all about love. He IS love, and He wants to restore us and align us with the will of God.
He wants this both for our own well-being, our own peace; and He wants this so that we live as agents of His Kingdom, ministers of reconciliation (All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. 2 Cor 5:18) as he calls us to be.
So the issue here is continuing in sin. That would be adopting a lifestyle of sin, a way of life that is an offence to God. Calling what God calls evil, good... and choosing to live in sin.
So this isn’t me as a young person struggling with lust, failing at times but then seeking God’s forgiveness and His power to overcome my sin.
This isn’t someone cheating on their taxes, realizing that this is wrong, wanting to honour God, and then stopping that practice, even making restitution where possible.
Those are quite different matters from adopting as my way of life something that God doesn’t accept. If I do that, I’m at risk.
At the very least I’m at risk, and I need to turn to God in sorrow and repentance. Scripture says: Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death”. (2 Cor 7:10)
So when we come clean, when we give up fighting, when we turn to God with all that we are and seek His forgiveness, then he will forgive. And not only forgive.
Because He is pure graciousness, He will cleanse me from ALL unrighteousness. Which is mind boggling, and beautiful.
And then my attention goes where it belongs - on the God Who loves, Who loves me, Who is so, so good that my life needs to be about worshipping and honouring and pleasing Him with every fibre of my being.
We’re running out of time, so let’s take a quick gander at the last few verses of 1st John. The last one first. The Apostle John ends his letter with this verse:
21 Dear children, keep yourselves from idols
That’s it. That’s the last thing he says. Keep yourself from idols. Watch out for idols! What is an idol? It’s a falsehood about God, about the spiritual life. It’s a lie that can take you away from God.
It’s something a person can give themself to instead of God, thinking that that thing is God or is a part of God.
It starts with wandering from God. Not paying close attention to Jesus, to your walk with God. Then it goes down to wondering about God. Wondering if things not revealed in Scripture about God might BE God.
Before I was saved I never noticed those astrology and spiritual advice stores that pop up now and again in neighbourhoods.
As soon as I was saved I started noticing them. I noticed them because I became aware that they were offering or pretending to offer something to people that was not of God.
I had friends, even some Christian friends, who spoke with interest about checking them out. But I was totally not interested. One of my reasons was that I was aware that I had some fragility in me.
I wasn't beyond being led astray, being deceived. And so I resolved that I would never go anywh5ere near one of those places.
I would pray for the people I saw sometimes going into those places, but I resolved to never darken their doorway.
Idols are everywhere. This phone can be an idol, a distraction. TV, Netflix can be the same. Things not bad in themselves can become a landline for us, an obstacle that can threaten our walk with God.
So let’s keep away from idols. And let’s keep aware that anything that is not God is not God. And that means it doesn't deserve our energy and attention anywhere near what God does.
Now jumping back a few verses:
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 by being in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.
Jesus gives us understanding. And the understanding He gives is precious. What understanding does Jesus give us?
He shows us the Father. He reveals just how beautiful He is. In His attitude, character and behaviour Jesus reveals God to us, so much that the Apostle Paul says in Colossians 2:9
For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form. NIV
For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. KJV
Why does Jesus give us this understanding? So that we can know the Father. Know God. You can know God. If you are a follower of Jesus, you already know God.
And the first thing you learn when you are getting to know God is that He is too amazing to comprehend, to beautiful for our minds to grasp, too great and too astounding to be fully known by our teeny, in comparison to His, brains.
But still we know him. We are friends of God. Servants of the Most High. And because Jesus has revealed Who God is to us, in His very self, our life is in God.
And if you’re here today and you don’t know Jesus as your Saviour, as the Lover of your soul, as the Way to God, I invite you to get to know Him.
To come to Him, arms open wide. Come to Him who is true. Come with your burdens.
Come with your pain. Come with your sin. And ask him to come into your life. Trust that Jesus died on the cross for your sins.
Believe that He loves you enough to prove His love on the cross. Repent of your sin.
Turn to Him in faith and receive Him as your Lord and Saviour. Ask Him to come into your life and reveal the heart of the Father to you.
He loves you. You can do that now. You can do that later on your own. You can come up to me or Pastor Arleen or any one of the elders and ask them to lead you to Jesus.
Christians, you are in the Father Who is true because you are in Jesus, as the Scripture says. Live that reality.
Be encouraged. Be encouraged but then also be emboldened to serve him. Step out and bless others in His name. Be prepared to invite those God sends your way to follow Him.
Because of Jesus Christ, His sacrifice for our sins and His ongoing work as our advocate with the Father, interceding for us before the throne of God, we have confidence.
Confidence that empowers us to step out beyond only that which is familiar. Confidence that in Jesus we can live the abundant life of joyful service to God that we were created for.
May we embrace these truths and then live and love daily as we continue along the path of following Jesus Christ. Amen? Amen.
