The World is Watching

Intro

On Friday I happened to get home from work as Katelyn and the boys were pulling in from going to get icecream in celebration of Parker’s last day of school.

And as we were walking into the house together Parker made a comment about Katelyn and I being old.

Well, Katelyn chimed in and said “Parker, 37 is not old. You act like we are almost dead”.

Parker without missing a beat goes “I don’t know mom, I hear a lot of ‘oh my back, oh my feet, oh my body hurts’ for two people that aren’t old then”.

And that was just another reminder as if we needed one that our kids are watching and listening to everything we do and say.

And we know this don’t we? We know that our kids are watching us. They are like sponges soaking up everything.

They are watching how we talk

how we react to things

what we prioritize

how consistent we are between what we say and what we do.

They are constantly watching.

And unfortunately, sometimes we don’t do a very good job at being the parents we would want them to be watching and listening to.

Did you know though, that as followers of Jesus, it isn’t just our children who are watching us, rather we have an entire world watching us.

The truth is, we are living in a world that as a whole, because of sin, does not know God. This is why Jesus came. To make a way for the world to know God the Father through him.

That by dying on a cross, Jesus would bridge the chasm created by sin between a lost and dying world and a Holy God.

He also came to establish his Church. To create a body of people who would be his hands and feet and take the gospel to the four corners of the Earth.

To be his representatives and continue the work he started on the cross and expand his kingdom.

And ever since then the world has been watching us. Watching and listening to believers share and live out the gospel for the last 2,000 years.

And it has changed the world and continues to change the world.

But like our kids, the world is watching us and examining the things we say we believe and the lives we claim to live.

And unfortunately, sometimes we have failed to be good representatives of God’s kingdom haven’t we?

Sometimes we have said things we shouldn’t have and done things we know don’t represent Jesus well.

And the world has seen it.

There are many Christians today who will tell you that they came to faith in Christ because of the relationship they had with another believer who faithfully showed them what it meant to be a follower of Jesus.

And unfortunately the opposite is also true. There are many who will tell you that the reason they aren’t a Christian is because of the inconsistent behavior of others who claimed to be followers of Jesus yet acted otherwise.

The apostle John in his first letter addresses this inconsistancy and the danger it poses.

Power in the Text

1 John 1:5-8 NLT 5 This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. 6 So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth.

7 But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth.

Here John speaks to the priority of living our lives in concert with the status we hold.

It’s clear that the world—and other believers—are affected by the way we live. Sin can impact our lives in ways we cannot begin to fathom.

Therefore, we must own up to our sin and then allow God to cleanse us.

One commentary I read said that “The sinner who refuses to set his life in harmony with God’s will cannot claim to have fellowship with God. … John is all-inclusive in his description of people who live in darkness. He does not say ‘they’ but ‘we.’ If we say that we are God’s people but continue to live in sin, ‘we lie and do not live by the truth.’ If we lie, we sin with our mouths but also with our entire beings. Our lives are set against God because of a heart filled with hatred and a will inclined to disobedience”.

You have to understand that when John wrote this letter, he was battling a worldview popular in his day called gnosticism.

One of the beliefs within gnosticism was the idea that what happened in the physical body had no connection to the soul or spiritual self.

So understandably those early Christians had this twisted idea that sin in the body had no effect on their relationship with Jesus.

That communion through the Holy Spirit with God was independant of the morality of our lives.

John here is saying hold on a minute. This isn’t true. How we live is a direct reflection of what we claim to believe.

In fact he says that if a person claims to be a follower of Jesus and yet continues to live in darkness or sin then that person is a liar and cannot be trust.

Theologian John Stott said it this way.

“We are right to be suspicious of people who claim some sort of mystical intimacy with God and yet walk in the darkness of error and sin, paying no regard to the self-revelation of an all-holy God. Since God is light, such claims are ludicrous. Religion without morality is an illusion”

Look at what John says next...

1 John 1:9-10 NLT 9 But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. 10 If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts.

John reminds us that the forgiveness of sins and a right standing with God impacts our lives.

Without this knowledge, and the humility that comes from it, we fail to honor God and testify to his goodness.

However, knowing that we are set free to both live and share that experience with others changes everything.

As followers of Christ we are each responsible for confessing, which means acknowledging our sin.

And when we do that, we are completely cleansed and forgiven.

John knew though that there would be some who would read this letter and think, that sounds easy. Just confess what I have done wrong and I don’t have anything to worry about.

1 John 2:1-2 NLT My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous. 2 He himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins—and not only our sins but the sins of all the world.

Big Idea/Why it Matters

Here we see that Jesus being our advocate is pleading and interceding on our behalf even as I am preaching this message.

Hear me when I say this, all of us are guilty of sin. We all mess up and need God’s grace and forgiveness.

John wrote these things so we would not sin, but knew that we would and when we did we would know that we have an advocate who if we come him and confess our sin he will forgive us.

But that does not mean as followers of this great advocate that we can then live however we want. Because if we do then God’s word says we are liars and the truth of God’s word has no place in our hearts.

Johns says this about the world.

1 John 2:15-16 NLT 15 Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. 16 For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world.

Friends what do the choices you make communicate to the world?

That you are one of them?

Or that you belong to a different world?

Make no mistake, we are communicating something. Our lives even more than our words are communicating something to the world around us.

The follower of Christ is to live a life of transformation before the world, therefore it is imperative that we be attentive to our choices and what they communicate.

As John continues his letter we see him really get to the heart of this issue of claiming to believe one thing but living as if we don’t.

1 John 3:4-10 NLT 4 Everyone who sins is breaking God’s law, for all sin is contrary to the law of God. 5 And you know that Jesus came to take away our sins, and there is no sin in him. 6 Anyone who continues to live in him will not sin. But anyone who keeps on sinning does not know him or understand who he is.

7 Dear children, don’t let anyone deceive you about this: When people do what is right, it shows that they are righteous, even as Christ is righteous. 8 But when people keep on sinning, it shows that they belong to the devil, who has been sinning since the beginning. But the Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil.

9 Those who have been born into God’s family do not make a practice of sinning, because God’s life is in them. So they can’t keep on sinning, because they are children of God.

10 So now we can tell who are children of God and who are children of the devil. Anyone who does not live righteously and does not love other believers does not belong to God.

Application/Closing

The world is watching, what are you showing them?

Do they see someone who claims one thing but does another?

Do they see someone who goes to Church on Sunday but lives like they do the rest of the week?

Do they see someone who in an effort to be liked and accepted, compromises what they know to be true so as not to offend.

The gospel is offensive.

The gospel is offensive because it exposes our sin and tells us we are messed up.

It reveals our brokenness and hypocrisy.

It shines a light on our wickedness and tells us that we are enemies of God.

It is offensive, but it is also beautiful because it tells us that in spite of all of that God loved us enough to make a way for us to be forgiven and set free.

The gospel is alway going to offend because it is a spotlight exposing the darkness around us and no one wants to be exposed

But it is only when our sin is exposed that it can be dealt with and transformation becomes possible.

The world is watching us. Does it see people who’s lives are so transformed by the gospel that they crave the same thing.

Because what good is going to Church and reading the Bible and praying if it doesn’t actually do something to make a difference in our lives?

Living as a follower of Christ requires honest, careful introspection.

We must ask the same hard questions of ourselves that we would ask of those who are considering following Christ for the first time.

When we examine ourselves, we must own what remains in darkness and needs transformation into light.

The world is watching, and so we should heed John’s words and follow through with abandoning all matter of darkness (sin), submitting ourselves totally under the authority of Jesus.