Birthmarks of a Believer
July 9, 2006
1 John 5:1-12
Were I to ask you if you are sure that you have been born physically you would think it a foolish question.
"Of course - I have been born physically.
Shake my hand.
Touch my hair.
Smell my feet.
I have a physical presence." You might say
"Why are you asking me a question to which you know the answer, of course I have been born physically."
Yet if I asked you if you are sure that you have been born spiritually, would it be as obvious?
There are certain characteristics that mark those that are of the same family.
There are physical similarities like eye color - "she has her mama’s eyes."
Hair quantity - "he has his father’s lack of hair."
Walking stride
Hands
Feet
Sometimes these characteristics are obvious and quite detectable.
This is also to be true of the people who find themselves in the family of God. Though the characteristics of similarity are not physical but have to do with beliefs, behavior and attitude.
Just as you could perhaps be identified as your Mama’s son or daughter by how you look, talk, walk, etc. So too are there qualities present in a follower of Jesus that clearly identify one as His.
I’m calling these birthmarks, the Birthmarks of a Believer. John gives us 3 of these in his short little letter called 1st John.
The first one I want to point out is in 1 John 5:1, "Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God."
A birthmark of a follower of God is that they believe that Jesus is the Christ.
Throughout Jesus’ life he was inviting people to believe in him and in his Kingdom way that he was living out and seeking to establish among the people.
When a man named Nicodemus, who by all appearances was a very religious man, approached Jesus being intrigued by him, Jesus told him he had to be born again.
"How can a man be born again when he is old. Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb to be born." (And all the women said Amen.)
And part of Jesus’ reply is that well loved verse John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."
Belief in Jesus as the Christ
marks
distinguishes
identifies and initiates one into God’s family.
And belief is open to all. In our text the word "everyone" is used and in John 3:16, "whoever" believes - God does not permit only some, nor does he identify and invite only a certain type of person to believe. No "whoever believes" and "everyone" who believes becomes part of God’s family
Let me go out on a limb here. When it comes to faith, everybody has it. The idea that some people have faith and others don’t is a popular one. But it is not a true one. Everybody has faith. Everybody is following somebody. (Rob Bell, Velvet Elvis)
We can talk about evolution and creationism
homosexuality and heterosexuality
finances
kids
the existence of God
and people will have a reaction - a response. They will have a belief on these matters.
But we need to take another step and ask what has formed that belief. Is it Jesus the Christ, the Son of God or is it a teacher, a personality, a textbook that has taught that belief.
All people have faith, but the reality of those who have been born of God is that their beliefs, their decisions are formed and influenced by Jesus.
The 1st birthmark of a believer is belief in Jesus Christ.
1 John 5:1, "Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God."
On the radio this week, I heard a story about immigrants to America who desires to have their children join them. These legal immigrants want to sponsor a child or children to join them. Part of the process is for them to submit the necessary paperwork and a birth certificate.
But our immigration service has learned that many of these birth certificates are false. So they are using DNA test to get a definitive answer on if the child they claim as their own really is.
I tell you this, because many people claim belief in Jesus Christ. They claim they have the proper "paper work" but when watching more closely the truth is learned. Their true DNA is revealed.
That’s why John doesn’t just say that belief is the only birthmark of a believer.
A second birthmark of a believer in John’s writing is found in 1 John 4:7b, "Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God." While the first birthmark - belief is an inner reality, a mental exercise. This 2nd birthmark is outer. Is demonstrable. A person is born of God’s family when they love. Because love comes from God. Because love belongs and originates with God, it follows that anyone who loves must belong to that sphere - he has been born of God." (Marshall, p. 211)
But you are thinking, wait a minute, I knew people who don’t believe in God and seem to love well. In fact they might even love better than many Christians.
A theological answer to this would be. Yes everyone has the capacity to love because each person is born in the image of God. But human love - that is love apart from knowing Christ ultimately fails or falls short. For love to become what it fully is, a relationship with its source is necessary.
(There is love outside the Christian church, and sometimes non-Christians seem to love one another better than Christians do. How is the existence of such love to be explained, and what does its presence indicate regarding the status before God of those who show it? Has John been shutting his eyes to the facts of life? A theological answer to the question would be phrased in terms of the doctrines of creation and common grace. It is because men are created in the image of God, an image which has been defaced but not destroyed by the Fall, that they still have the capacity to love. Moreover, through the preaching of the gospel men are well aware of the obligation to love one another, and they may be influenced by this preaching even though they fail to respond to the call to believe in Jesus Christ. Yet ultimately it is belief in Jesus Christ and love for God which matters. Human love, however noble and however highly motivated, falls short if it refuses to include the Father and Son as the supreme objects of its affection. It falls short of the divine pattern, and by itself it cannot save a man; it cannot be put into the balance to compensate for the sin of rejecting God. Love alone, therefore, is not a sign of being born of God. (Marshall, p. 212)
Do you remember Jesus approaching Peter after he has been killed on the cross and resurrected from the grave? Jesus approaches this one who does believe in him and asks him a question.
Jesus asks not - are you sorry for denying/betraying me?
not did you learn your lesson
but do you love me? He asks it 3x.
It is in the heart of God that we know that no sin, selfish act, misdeed or misbehavior will ever separate his love for us. It was Jesus’ desire for Peter to know that it would be only his own choice and decision that would prevent him from being forgiven.
And Peter responds by saying, "Yes Lord I love you." He wants to live I the love, the deep love of the Father and he leaves that conversation changed. Able to love others well with that love that he has received.
This week is our Vacation Bible School, a week in which we invite children into the church to share with them what we believe. We will fail if we only tell them of our 1st birthmark - belief. We will fail. We must add love. We must love on the children and their parents. The love of God will communicate more than any of our words of belief ever will.
The 1st birthmark - everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God.
The second - everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
And the third - 1 John 2:29b - "everyone who does what is right has been born of him."
If the first birthmark-belief was an inner reality.
The second birthmark - love an outward reality.
This third birthmark - doing what is right is an ongoing one.
This third birthmark "doing what is right" in the Greek is the word diakosunai,
Righteousness - a translation could be everyone who does/pursues righteousness is born of God.
Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount recorded for us in Matthew 5, 6, 7 invites us into this ongoing reality when he says, "seek first his Kingdom and his righteousness."
The word seek means, not a one-time event.
not a momentary decision.
not a temporary activity.
But a continual.
ongoing
movement towards God’s holiness.
It is the opposite of instant.
overnight
But instead speaks of
persistence
determination
Those born of God have the birthmark of continual - a non-retirement activity - of pursuing God’s right ways.
The question is never "have I arrived?" or "am I there yet?"
But "Is becoming older bringing me closer to Christ?"
If there isn’t within us a continually growth in the ways of our God.
If there isn’t within us a continual surrender to him.
There isn’t a growth toward his righteousness.
Many of us are content when it comes to our faith to let it be. We do little to tend to it. For many there is no difference in their spiritual life at age 55 than there was when they were 16. They’re plateaud. But do you do anything the same way now that you did at age 16? Not a chance.
Do you wear the same clothes?
live in the same house?
have the same friends?
speak the same words?
have the same job?
do the same activities?
love the same mate?
No - then why is it that often the faith is the one thing that does stay the same."
Friends, my fellow pilgrims on the journey, let us continually seek and pursue the doing of God’s right ways for as we do we identify ourselves as his.
Now for those that have
the inner birthmark of belief.
The outer birthmark of love
and the ongoing birthmark of doing what is right.
Our text promises us this.
v. 4 "everyone born of God overcomes the world."
Eugene Peterson paraphrases verse 4 this way,
"Every God-begotten person conquers the worlds ways . . .
The person who wins out over the world’s ways is simply the one who believes Jesus is the Son of God."
The world’s ways is conformity to a path that in the end leads to destruction. It is a way of enslavement to whatever is popular, powerful or pretty. But those born of God don’t find their identity there. God is our Father and by believing, loving and doing what is right the world loses its grip. And the person born of God begins to live the life God intentioned for them.
There is a last reality as well. For those born of God there is promised life with the Son. 1 John 5:11, 12, "And this is the testimony, God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life."
Let me close with this.
On Friday afternoon, Deb and I were privileged to attend a wedding. The wedding of Denise Houtsma and Stuart Shelton. And it was awesome. It was beautiful. Every word spoken, each spoken blessing, each note played testified to the fact that God was at the center of Denise’s life, Stuart’s life- they now were asking that He now be at the center of their married lives.
What I was so struck by was how unforced it was. It was real.
This wasn’t an act on Denise and Stuart’s part. This was who they were.
They have and pursue the inner birthmark of belief.
They have and share the outward birthmark of love.
They committed to seeking after, striving for and being persistent in the ongoing journey of God’s righteousness.
And there wasn’t a dry eye at the service. It was awesome!
This was who they are and they lived it out before their friends, both believers and unbelievers.
I am becoming more and more convinced that the flashy, the loud, the entertaining side of the church and its people is not what people outside the church desire. No - they are looking for authentic people who have been born of God.
Who believe.
Who love.
Who are pursuing the righteousness of God.
Amen
Pray
Note: The title for this message and the opening question were taken from "Birthmarks of a Believer" by Ed Wood. Sermoncentral.com
