1 John 5_16-17 fragile fellowship

1 John 5:16-17 “Fragile Fellowship”

Intro: Christmas Story – Fragile “Major Award” plastic leg lamp which breaks (“I don’t know what happened, I was watering my plants”) Dad… “Get the glue” Mom… “We are out of glue” Dad… “You used up all the glue on purpose.” The glue couldn’t hold the shattered lamp together.

If you follow the themes in 1st John you find the reoccurring themes are sonship and fellowship. Sonship means by grace through faith we are a Child of God… Fellowship means that we are constantly walking in an unhindered and unbroken relationship with God.

The Bible teaches that our union with Christ is so strong that nothing can break it; but our communion is so fragile that the slightest sin shatters it.

Last week we spoke of prayer and how to have a powerful prayer life. 1) We pray according to our position 2) We pray according to God’s will 3) we pray according to faith. Here in this text John continues to write about prayer but shifts focus to praying for your brother/sisters in Christ, when to pray, what to pray, and when not to pray.

CPS: The Bible teaches that God hears our prayers and will answer our prayers. The Bible teaches we are to pray for our brethren in intercessory prayer, but is there a time when we are not to pray? Or perhaps a time when our prayers will do no good? Today we will touch on this difficult subject.

The intercessory prayer God responds to 5:16A

It is possible for a true believer to fall into sin, (16a). If and when this happens, fellow believer is to pray for him, (16b). As a result God will give the sinning Christian preservation of physical life (not eternal life, for this life is unforfeitable). However, this intercession is effective only in the case of sin not unto physical death, (16c).

Can a true believer sin? Sins (3X)[define] Death [Physical life]

Moses (Rock of Meribah)

Peter (Denial – but go tell Peter)

What do you do when a true believer sins?Sees (appears) we must be watchful

Pray for them

Restore them Gently (Gal. 6:1) (correction)

Can the true believer be restored to fellowship?Give him life {zoe} out of place… Forgiveness/ Continued life

Moses (continued to meet face to face with God, but life was cut short)

Peter (5,000 saved at Pentecost, his shadow healed, inspired writer of Scripture)

App: It should be just as natural to pray for the cure of the soul as it is to pray for the cure of the body. It may be that there is nothing greater that we can do for those who are straying away and who are in danger of heading for disaster in their lives than to commit them to the grace of God.

The intercessory prayer God does not respond to5:16b-17

There is a sin unto death, (16d). This is persistent, willful sinning in a believer in which the flesh is destroyed (physical death) so that the spirit might be saved (1 Cor. 5:1-5; Acts 5:1-11; 1 Cor. 11:30). Both Saul and Samson are types of this very severe chastening in the Old Testament. This sin is not to be prayed for because it involves the execution of an immutable law of God unaltered by prayer, (16e). All unrighteousness is sin, but there is a sin not unto physical death (involving lesser chastisement, 1 Cor. 11:30).

The fragileness of fellowship sin separates

ILL: One Halloween and man turns to his friend as they have been carving pumpkins. He say “will you please keep an eye on my fragile pumpkin?” His friend replied, “I will gourd it with my life.”

The forfeiting of fellowship

Achan’s sin (Josh 7:21)

Samson’s breaking of Nazerite vow (Judges 16:17)

Ananias/Sapphira (Acts 5:1-16)

Unnamed man of Corinth (1 Cor. 5:1-5

The Finality of forfeited fellowship

God will not hear this prayer(Jer. 7:16)

God will not respond to this prayer(Jer. 15:1-2)

The cause of this forfeited fellowship

How can one get so severely wrapped up in sin that God takes his life? Persistent/willful/continuation

We all know that the first time we do something wrong, we do it with some degree of horror and with fear; and, after we have done it, we feel grief and remorse and regret. But, if we allow ourselves again and again to flirt with temptation and to fall, on each occasion the sin becomes easier; and, if we think we can escape the consequences, on each occasion the self-disgust and the remorse and the regret become less and less; and in the end we reach a state when we can sin without any qualms at all. It is precisely that which is the sin that is leading to death.

As long as people in their heart of hearts hate sin and hate themselves for sinning—as long as they know that they are sinning—they are never beyond repentance and, therefore, never beyond forgiveness; but, once they begin to revel in sin and to make it the deliberate policy of their lives, they are on the way to death, for they are on the way to a state where the idea of repentance will not, and cannot, enter their heads.

Those who have listened to sin and refused to listen to God so often that they love sin and regard it as the most profitable thing in the world, GUARD YOURSELVES AGAINST SIN!