New Life in Christ (10)
Notes
Transcript
Does it matter who your Father is? Does who your Father is change your identity in any way?
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Imagine you did a DNA test and discovered that your Father was actually brilliant astrophysicist Stephen Hawking. Maybe you’d become curious about him and for the first time in your life pick up a book on black holes. You might start to wonder if you had more academic capacity than you thought and go back to school.
What if you discovered that your father was billionaire Jeff Besos. Would you consider that perhaps he ought to share some of his money with his long, lost progeny and go after him?
What if you discovered your father was Joseph Kony, leader of the LRA in Uganda accused of ordering the abduction of more than 66,0000 children to become child soldiers and sex slaves. How would that hit you?
Any of these discoveries would prompt a bit of an identity crisis? Even if we were grown, and our identity was already well established and we felt confident in who we were - a revelation like this would prompt identity questions.
Which parts of my Father are in me?
genetic capabilities - am I capable of greater good or evil too?
Do I feel proud or ashamed to own him as my Father and how does that change my identity?
Does the relationship require him to give to me or me to give to him?
Our earthly Fathers - good or bad, involved or absent, rich or poor can’t help but affect our sense of identity in some way.
In our text today we’ll discover that our relationship to God as Sons and Daughters has a transformational effect on our identity in a way no earthly father could match.
Let’s look at our text and discover more about our identity through what God has done for us.
1 John 5:1-5
1 John 5:1-5
Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him.
By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
So first, I just want to remind us that part of what 1 John is written for is to help the Church deal with some of the false teachers that have crept in and started to align the name of Jesus with their own ideas and philosophies. Some were blends of Christianity and paganism, or Christianity and Greek philosophy - and although some of the specific nuances they were trying to clarify might not be the same questions we’re asking the temptation to overlook the sufficientcy of Christ as complete for our salvation comes in many forms.
We are often tempted to add more to Jesus. Jesus + my success, Jesus + approval from others, Jesus + secular psychology, Jesus + a political idea - you get the idea.... there are infinite ways we can say that we are trusting in Jesus but we’re actually leaning into something else that we think is more likely to protect and save us.
Tullian Tchividjian (CHEW-Vi-Gen) pastor and grandson of Billy Graham wrote a book about how the gospel sustained him through a year of caretaking for his dying Father. It’s a soul journey of confronting God in pain and letting go of idols and false wishes. And finding satsfaction with Jesus. He called it Jesus + Nothing =Everything.
That’s John’s aim here. To show his flock that Jesus + Nothing = Everything
Believe & Receive
Believe & Receive
I know it’s a bit of a cliche but this simple concept of believe & recieve is at the heart of our text this morning.
So let’s talk first about what we believe:
vs. 1 - That Jesus is the Christ.
vs. 5 - That Jesus is the Son of God
vs. 23 - Believe in THE NAME of the Son of God.
So there’s three things we need to believe about Jesus that will result in all the blessing of being part of God’s family.
1 - That he is the Christ - the long awaited Messiah that the Jews held hope for forever. The Christ is the one who saves. The one who rescues his people. It’s a role that makes Jesus more than just a good teacher or philosopher. If he is the Christ we are in need of rescue and he is the rescuer.
2. That he is the son of God. As the Son of God Jesus comes with the authority of God. His salvation isn’t just earthly but eternal. He is the one that knows the heart of God and brings us into right relationship with Him again.
3. vs. 13 says “I write to these things to you who believe in the NAME of the Son of God that you may know you have eternal life.”
Believing in the NAME sounds similiar to believing jesus is the Son of God but the NAME of someone represents the power and authority they have. So, not only is John inviting you to believe that Jesus IS the Son of God but to actually put your FAITH in the power that he has which, as his child, is given to you in many ways too.
pisteuó: to believe, entrust
Original Word: πιστεύω
Transliteration: pisteuó
So let’s just take a moment to clarify “believe” here because it’s really important to making this scripture actually mean something in our lives.
The word “believe” here is: pistevo - (pron. “pi-stavo”). It means believe but also entrust or faith. To John’s readers they would say: “yeah, believe, faith, entrust - duh it’s all the same”.
If I BELIEVE the bridge is strong enough to get me across the river I will PUT MY TRUST in it and demonstrate that FAITH by walking across it. Belief /Faith/Action are one.
But something happened in the West in the 17th and 18th century called the Enlightenment that shifted the way we perceive ourselves as human and crept into the way we read scripture. from a very wholebody experience of the self to a very brain centered experience of the self - “I think therefore I am” says philosopher Descartes. The brain and ideas became a little more seperate from our behaviour. So now we look at the bridge and say: “Oh sure, I BELIEVE it’s a great bridge, a strong bridge. I see the wooden planks - no rot. I see the sound engineering. Whether I believe in the bridge has almost nothing to do with whether I’m willing to cross it.
Perhaps the illustration is messy - but I think you see the implications for faith.
Many of us, when we use the words “I believe in Jesus” mean that we agree with certain truth statements about him. Certain doctrines and ideas. We could quote the right beliefs easily and be perfectly orthodox.
But - honestly - sometimes the way we live belies that we don’t actually believe him - that we are risk adverse in obediance and prefer to put our faith in something we deem more sure than in the gospel. Like a pension plan - or our family…or..who knows what else.
My theological themes resource, under the category of “Faith and the Blessings of God: defines faith as:
“Confidence in the ability and willingness of God to act in supernatural power to advance his kingdom, and a commitment, expressed in prayer and action, to being the means by which he does so.”
So, what are we believing for according to 1 John?
Vs. 1 “Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him.
We are reborn as children of God - with the priviledge and status of children and heirs.
But so are many others - and God’s seed in us generates love among us. This is a sign that the gospel is at work honestly.
In Galatians 5:20 “enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions,” are identified as foreign to the nature of those who walk in the Spirit. Where they are present - CAUTION. That is not how a child of God interacts with brothers and sisters.
vs. 2 “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world.”
God’s commandments all exist to cultivate right relationships - both with God and others. Think of the big 10 - honoring God, resting - a commandment to reorient us both to God and prevent us from enslaving ourselves or others with our drive for accomplishment, honoring parents, honoring life (do not murder), honoring marriage, living collaboratively (no, stealing, lying, coveting).
John says the commands are NOT burdensome because they are designed to bring blessing. When we BELIEVE what God says we will BEHAVE in alignment with his desire to bring goodness to us. This is part of the regeneration work in a child of God.
Finally, John concludes the sentence with a statement that everyone who is born of God overcomes the world. By world he means - the systems and philosophies in opposition to Christ. The world in rebellion that Jesus came to seek and save.
John has already described this in chapter 2 when he says:
1 John 2:15–17 (ESV)
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.
Jesus +Nothing = everything
The salvation equation only works if we’re willing to bring the Nothing part. Which means leaving behind desires of flesh, eyes, and our pride that could convince us of the lie that there is something better than God.
He already wants to give us everything! Forever! Believe! and trust him.
Whoever has the Son has Life
Whoever has the Son has Life
1 John 5:6–12 (ESV)
This is he who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not by the water only but by the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three that testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood; and these three agree.
If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater, for this is the testimony of God that he has borne concerning his Son. Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself.
Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning his Son.
And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.
So....this confusing coversation about the water and the blood has to do with a popular heresy at the time John is writing - that Jesus was an ordinary man prior to baptism at which point the Spirit entered him and then left immediately before his death. There’s a bigger discussion there but it’s not important for us today.
What we need to see is that John is adamant that the Church know that Jesus was fully God and fully man throughout his life and that what they (the apostles) are teaching about Jesus (the testimony of man) is verified by God himself. The Spirit of God communicates within the believer not only that through the saving work of Jesus - God-man intervening for us on the cross they have salvation but it also testifies that they have eternal life - not WILL have eternal life - but that they, as children born of God are currently in possession of the life that will go on forever.
This is a bit mind blowing. In some way if we are in Christ we are already living the life we will continue for the next million years. At least it’s the beginning of it. We are infants in eternity still. But it will only get better. Not in the sense of worldly goodness (because we’ve already seen that John says we have overcome the need for what the world has to offer) but first, through suffering as Jesus teaches us to leave the world behind day by day unti the day our bodies fail and we’ll step into total freedom in the presence of God.
And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.
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This is not unfamiliar territory to John - he wrote something similar in his gospel.
John 1:1–4 (ESV)
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
So where Jesus is there is life. When you are in Him - you have life. Outside of him… you’re in the place where life isn’t.
Eternal life that is. The kind that allows us to be in the presence of God forever.
What a gift a child of God has!
1 John 5:13–15 (ESV)
I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.
And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.
John is writing to assure us that we can lean into the name (the power, authority) of the Son of God and have assurance that we have eternal life.
He goes one step further - as a by product of this new life John wants us to test its boundaries and priviledges…in prayer.
If we ask anything ACCORDING TO HIS WILL… what is God’s will?
The Shalom of his world - where each part is functioning in right relationship to God and one another.
Jesus calls this the Kingdom of God and annouces that it is coming…and he is bringing it. And through our prayers we are participants in His Kingdom - so you are invited to seek out prayers that align with the will of God and, because you are in Christ and have life in Christ your prayers speak the life of Christ into the world.
So what are some prayers God invites us to pray? Here are a few:
It’s God’s will that we should love our enemies
But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
It’s God’s will that we should pray for more people to engage in sharing the work of the gospel.
And he said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.
It’s God’s will that his word would be honored:
Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored, as happened among you,
It’s God’s will that we should have wisdom
If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.
It’s God’s will that none shall perish - so we can pray for salvation for anyone and everyone.
The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
It’s worth noting here - much of our frustration with what we think are “unanswered prayers” have more to do with impatience and perseverance. We tend to pray once or twice and wonder why the thing isn’t accomplished. God’s work - especially in people - tends to be a long, slow path as He works with our stubborn and often resistant wills to mold us into a place where we can trust him.
Certainly there are miracles - beautiful and quick - ask for them it’s wonderful when it happens!
But just don’t give up on God’s faithfullness to your prayers because it is taking a while. John says here: if we are asking in his will - we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.”
BUT....BUT…BUT....
I know - faith is hard to sustain after disappointment…but hang on anyway. You have what you have asked of him (whether that’s how you thought it would look or not - God will reveal that in His time - but he will not let you down in the end.
FAITH IS HARD.
So the Spirit of Jesus in us assists us in praying prayers that God hears and responds to.
Romans 8:26–27 (ESV)
Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.
And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
We have what we ask in prayer…and he will help us ask. God is inviting us to trust that He will do all that is needed for us to live out the fullness of that faith life.
1 John 5:16–17 (ESV)
If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life—to those who commit sins that do not lead to death.
There is sin that leads to death; I do not say that one should pray for that. All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that does not lead to death.
Here John exhorts us to pray for our brothers and sisters when they sin. That when we see that insensitive post, or when someone treats us rudely, or is angry with us, or we know they are making a choice that’s going to lead them into trouble instead of offense, critique, rebuttal, or gossip we should pray for them.
How would it change our church if this was our go to. How would our relationships thrive?
We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him.
At first this seems out of touch because of course Christians sin sometimes - we are in the process of being perfected like Christ but no where near close on this side of Glory . John has already told us in the first chapter of this letter
1 John 1:8 (ESV)
If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
So what’s happening?
I think - similar to vs 2-3 of this chapter John is reminding us that when we see our brother and sister in sin and we are praying for them we do so with a recognition that whatever sinful behaviour they may be manifesting IT IS NOT WHO THEY ARE.
And perhaps this helps us pray with compassion.
It’s almost like, if you’ve cared for someone with demensia, and on the good days you can share easily, talk about life and shared memories etc. But on bad days - they forget who you are, they might respond to you in ways that are hurtful and that don’t represent who you know them to really be.
Sin in a Christian is a little like soul demensia - we forgot who we really are in Christ for a moment and sometimes as a result cause pain for others. But as they pray for us, God uses their prayers to work in us and remind us who we are and restore right relationship with Him & each other.
And most reassuring is vs 18 that “he won’t keep sinning because he who was born of God (begotton one) Jesus our big brother protects him, and the evil one does not touch him.
If you feel trapped in sin - Jesus is contending for you and, if you’re willing to share - we’ll pray for you too.
This part of how everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world.
1 John 5:19–21 (ESV)
We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.
And we know 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, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols.
John’s wrapping us up - repeating some of the themes of having assurance of salvation - as well as wisdom and intimacy with God through Jesus. He reminds us that Jesus is God and in him we have this new and eternal life....such security, and love, and provision from a Father who will see us through this life and on forever with Him. How much more complete could this letter be?
and then this little mic drop....
“Little children, keep yourselves from idols.
Because of all the provisions God has made for us in Christ - the one thing that could keep us from living forever in this amazing love and fullness is......whatever it is you want more than God.
What do you want more than God?