Epistles of John Pt. 12 (1 John 5: 1-5)
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1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well.
2 This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands.
3 In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome,
4 for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.
5 Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.
Have you ever heard the term?:
Like father like son
What does that mean? It means that sometimes kids look and act like their parents. Sometimes that can be a good thing, sometimes that can be a bad things. For instance, my dad is very funny. The funniest man I know. I also happen to believe that I am funny. So if you met my dad and knew him to be funny, then you may also see some resemblance because I too am funny.
But, I have this tendency to get upset with technology when it doesn’t work. Like, if my computer was acting up I would assume its broken and in frustration throw it away and buy a new one. Do you know who else is like that? My dad. I’ve seen him get mad at his cell phone and throw it across the yard.
like father, like son. Sometimes, some people may not behave like their parents but instead they are carbon copies of their parents. Or in other words, they look exactly like their mom or dad. Any of you guys here look like your parents or a family member?
You ever heard adults look at a baby and say: he or she has your eyes. or they have your mouth, nose or chin? When you look similar to someone else, people will point it out. As a matter of fact, if any of you know Savannah and have met Skylar, her youngest brother, you would think they look very very similar.
Now, this does not mean that James and Cassie aren’t similar to each other. But Sky and Savannah look so so similar. It’s crazy. Blows my mind.
well, last week while we were at North Lexington BC we had an opportunity to talk about what it looks like for us to provide evidence to the world that we are Christians. Ultimately John says: if you want others to know Jesus then you’ve got to love people.
Today John is going to reveal to us that you and I can look like Jesus as we pursue loving each other. So, why don’t we take a look at what John says and begin with a word of prayer:
1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well.
2 This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands.
3 In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome,
4 for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.
5 Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.
So, John wants you and I to have a list of things we can put into practice that will do 2 things for us and the people around us:
Show the word we are Christians.
Begin to look like Jesus.
I’m going to give you a list things that will give you an opportunity to show the world that you are a christian and will allow you to look like Jesus. So that when you do something people will say: Hey, you look like Jesus.
I want to look like Jesus, I hope you do too.
Let’s read together:
1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well.
2 This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands.
So, you want to look like Jesus huh? and you want the world to know you are a christian. Well, before you can do that, you have to believe the right things. Today, we have a big big problem. You ready for this:
So many people call themselves Christians and they don’t know what that means.
I decided to do a little of research on this issue:
According to March 2024 and the Gallup Poll: 68 percent of Americans consider themselves Christians. But about 16 percent of those Christians believe that the Bible is just a fairy tale.
Now obviously these numbers are probably a little different. It’s not like they went around every single Christians of they believe what the Bible says. But in general this number is pretty accurate. Which honestly blows my mind. I assumed that there were less Christians but that number is pretty good.
Look at this way, if there were only 10 people in this room, about 7 of them would say they were Christian. But only about 5 of them would agree that the Bible is the word of God. So out of every 7 Christians, 2 of them don’t believe in the Bible.
That is crazy, because in order to be a Christian you need to believe what the Bible says. If not, then you aren’t a Christian. now you may ask yourself, well Pastor Luis, you don’t get to pick what it means to be a Christian, that’s for each person to decide.
Well friends, that is certainly not true. You’re right on one thing, I don’t get to pick what it means to be a Christian, but if I can’t pick then neither can anyone else. For instance, let’s imagine for a second that I hop over to Truist bank after church today and steal 100k from the bank and I get caught. What is the judge going to call me?
He is going to call me a thief. I can’t look at the judge and say: You don’t get to call me a thief, I get to pick what I’m called, I want to be called someone who donates to charity. What is the judge going to say: You are still a thief and you are still going to jail.
We don’t get to change the meanings to word so that we can feel better about ourselves. We either are or we aren’t that’s how it works. But I don’t get to pick what things mean either, it works both ways. Do you know where the word Christians comes from?:
It comes from the Greek:
Christianos
Which is divided into 2 words:
“Christ” and “tian”
“Christ” means Christ
“Tian” means little
Someone who is a small Jesus. Someone who looks like and behaves like Jesus and if people walk around not behaving like little versions of Christ, then they are not Christians. It is as simple as that. So let me give you a quick word of advice. Don’t believe everyone that says they’re a Christian, ask them show you what that means. And if you claim to be a Christian, you need to show people. How do you show people?
1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well.
2 This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands.
Remember I told you I was going to give you a list that would help you practice being a Christian or to look like Jesus: I’m about to give you the first thing on that list. But before, we gotta name the list. Let’s name it:
The Real Christian’s List
Believe that Jesus is the Messiah
You’ve probably head me say this before. Or maybe you have heard me say something to this effect, but essentially John is saying if you are a real Christian, then you must believe that Jesus himself is God. If you don’t believe Jesus is God, then you aren’t a Christian yet. But you can be.
Now, for those of you who have learned everything you know about Jesus here this is not a hard thing to believe. We talk about it all of the time. Has anyone here ever heard me say that Jesus is God? You probably have because that’s what we believe here at this church.
But guys, there are so many people out there that say they are Christian but do not believe that Jesus is God. They believe He’s some angel or a prophet. There even other religions that write down in their own bibles that Jesus is not God, He’s just some good guy.
Guys, if you run into someone who claims to be a Christian, but they don’t believe Jesus is God, then they are not Christians yet. They aren’t.
Why is it so important for us to believe that Jesus is God:
13 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”
14 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
15 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”
18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.
Jesus is having a conversation with His disciples one day and He asked them: Who do people say I am? And the conversation probably went something like: I heard someone call you a prophet, or a magician or something. I heard someone say you were your cousin John the Baptist.
And I bet the disciples were all sitting together with Jesus laughing at what other people were thinking. Because when people don’t know who Jesus is, there is this giant space of confusion that allows people to think whatever they want and sometimes when people say the first thing that comes to their mind it is something from out of this world.
Consider this: Have you ever heard anyone say something about Jesus and they don’t even go to church? People will blame God or Jesus and they’ve never been to church or even said a prayer. And people will claim to be experts on the Bible when they’ve only read a few verses out of context.
But then Jesus turns to His disciples and asks: Who do YOU say I am? And Peter says: You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.
Peter says you are God, you are the person they talked about in the old testament, you are the King of the Jews, and everything we see here today was created by you. You are God Himself.
And Jesus says: Peter. I’m going to build my church on what you just said. It is so important for us to recognize that Jesus is God because that is what the church is built on.
The church would fall apart if Jesus was not God.
But the list doesn’t stop there:
Believe Jesus is the Messiah
Love His children
See, John automatically repeats everything we just said last week. Love God, love His children. That’s what a real christian does. But He follows up with something super important in verse 2:
2 This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands.
You can love God’s children, by following God’s commands. God has a lot of different things for us to follow in the Bible, but everything that we read, learn and see in the bible played out, is summed up into this one verse right here:
37 Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’
38 This is the first and greatest commandment.
39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
God’s commands point to 2 things:
Loving God
Loving people
And Matthew was not the first to say this:
3 In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome,
I think sometimes we view God’s expectations as some sort of awful or difficult task, and I’m sure that in some moments in our lives they are kind of hard to carry out. But, if we practice and practice and practice these things, it will become easier to do what God says.
As a matter of fact, this is the 3rd thing on our REAL CHRISTIAN’S LIST:
Believe Jesus is the Messiah
Love His children
Follow God’s commands
A real Christians, follows God’s commands. God’s commands has a way of setting people free. Our sin sties us down to our emotions, and the way we want to do things and before you know it, sin has trapped you in this confined space that only gives room for you to do what your emotions dictate. And the worst part of it all is that it separates you from God, but following God’s commands provides freedom from sin, and a space to walk around in confidence because you begin to look like Jesus.
Following God’s commands gives us victory:
4 for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.
What does it mean to overcome the world? to have victory over the world? Well, what is this worlds biggest problem? It’s sin. Sin completely drowns the world we live in with sin. The world is covered with it and it suffers from the symptoms that come from sin. But if we follow Jesus and His commands, if you are born of God like verse 4 says, you will overcome the world. You will overcome the sin that is in this world.
But, can we do it on our own? absolutely not:
5 Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.
We can only overcome the world and the sin that’s in it if you believe that Jesus is the son of God. I want to recap our list:
Believe Jesus is the Messiah
Love His children
Follow God’s commands
it is so vitally important for us to recognize these things in our lives. If you don’t do these things then we have to be honest and recognize that you are not a christian. But that does not mean you are not loved by God, and it does mean that you are not loved by this church. As a matter of fact, if you haven’t asked Jesus to be the Lord of your life, it opens up the door today for the opportunity to do it. If you would like to know what it means to follow Jesus, talk to me or an adult.
