Victory Over the World: The Gospel's Good News

Intro

Last week even though we couldn’t meet together I continued our series on 1 John. If you haven’t watched that you can go back and do so on our facebook page but in the first 11 verses of chapter 2 John continued explaining what it means to walk in the light. He reminded us that what it means to walk in the light. Put simply those who walk in the light obey the commands of God who is the source of light. and they love others who are in the light. Those things are the evidence that Jesus is our advocate with the father. This week we are only going to look at 6 verses because I believe what God has to say to us through is word is so foundational to what it means to be a follower of Christ, that it is vital that we don’t just understand it but believe it so we can live it. And what we are going to find is the good news that we all need to hear this morning

1 John 2:12–17 ESV

I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for his name’s sake. I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I write to you, children, because you know the Father. I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one. 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.

John begins this section by reminding his audience why it is that he is writing to them. He really isn’t addressing the content of the letter like he did in the first chapter when he gave his reason for writing. In chapter one he gave the what he has to say. In this section he is giving his audience the why. Why these people? He is writing to the children, the young men and the fathers. Meaning the young in the faith, the mature in the faith, and everyone in the middle because they are believers, they are in the light and how he is living out what he just talked about in verses 9-11 love others in the light, is by writing this letter to help them with the problems they are facing.

He says because your sins have been forgiven, you know Jesus, , because you are strong and the word of God lives in you, you have overcome the evil one.

Notice he doesn’t say I am writing so you would know how to get forgiveness from your sins, I am not writing so you would find God, so you might become strong, or so that you can fight to overcome the evil one. No all of those things have already happened for them as well for each and every one of us who has put our faith in Jesus for salvation and has submitted to him being Lord of our lives.

1. We Don’t Fight for Victory, We Fight from Victory.

We have already overcome the evil one. He has no power over us. John wrote to these people so they would be reminded of the victory that Jesus had already won. I want to echo John’s message to you today, your victory has already won. The war is over. Your victory over the evil one, over death, over sin, It is not dependent on your ability to perform, or appear you have it all together, or your own will power and determination. Your victory is dependent on one thing and that is Jesus. And he already won your war before you were even born.

The Gospel is one of those terms that we throw around in church and we throw it around so much that we often times don’t stop to think about what it means. and if you are new to church you most likely have no idea what it means but your afraid to ask. Like when you have known someone for a long time but you never caught their name and you’re in too deep now to ask. Been there?

When it comes to the Gospel we often say it means good news. more specifically the good news that Jesus died on the cross and rose again so we can have our sins forgiven and experience eternal life. and it means that for sure. But i don’t know about you sometimes i need something more practical than a dictionary definition to wrap my head around something and I heard the Gospel explained this way and it really unlocked the concept in my mind and heart and I hope it will for you too.

The word we translate Gospel was actually used a lot in the Old Testament. This is how it was used. Imagine with me you live in a small town in ancient Israel. You have a couple hundred people maybe in this little village. and someone comes to your village and says the Phillistines your sworn enemy is coming with thousands of soldiers and they are going to raid your village and take you as a slave or worse. So you send out a call for help to the king. and he sends an army to defend your village. the battle is on the other side of a hill so you cant see the results. you hear the roar and screams of battle for hours, and slowly it gets quieter and quieter and its clear the battle is over but you don’t know who won until finally someone appears at the top of the hill riding on a horse as fast as he can towards your village and when he gets close enough you can see that he is an Israelite. and he proclaims the good news that the battle has been won for you. You are victorious without lifting a sword. and then he rides past your village and goes throughout the whole country telling the good news that they are victorious the battle is over all glory to the king. That is the meaning of the word Gospel.

and we live our lives fighting our individual battles with sin knowing that the evil one has already been overcome. We fight our small skirmishes knowing that our king has won the war. We fight from His victory, not trying to secure victory ourselves. That is the good news. That is the Gospel.

John is writing to encourage those who believe this good news, and know that their victory is secured. and yours is too.

1 John 2:15–17 NIV

Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.

I think it is important to clarify what John means when he’s talking about the world. Cause he is pretty harsh about it. Is he saying that we cant love anything in this world that remember God created? can I not walk outside and love the beautiful mountains that we can see from the parking lot? didnt God create the world? didnt he create our flesh, didnt create our eyes? are all of these things bad now? no this use of the word world is refering to an evil organized earthly system controlled by the power of the evil one that has aligned itself against God and his kingdom. If say that we want to walk in the light then that means there has to be darkness. and that what John is referencing here when he says the world. The problem is not that God created the material things of the world. The problem is that people have made them into idols.

2. The World Tempts us to Live for Now.

“The world and its desires pass away but whoever does the will of God lives forever.” When we choose the world we choose the temporary over the eternal. John feels like a fatherly figure here pleading with those he loves saying if you choose the world over God you will regret it because in the end nothing that you are desiring and chasing after thats worldly will be here, only those who do the will of God will live forever.

We all have desires and things that we want, things that we long for. Many of those were given to us by God. having desires is not what gets us in trouble, what gets us in trouble is when we try to fulfill our natural desires in ways that are contrary to God’s will. We naturally try to do this because of our sinful nature, We are not sinful because we sin, We sin because we are sinful. The natural way of man is to fulfill our natural desires with sin because its easier and offers temporary satisfaction. The only remedy for our condition is the good news of the Gospel.

John gives three examples of wordly things. These aren’t meant to be the only worldly things but is three examples he chose to give us. and each represent humans fulfilling natural desires with things outside of God’s will

First he says the lust of the flesh. Obviously when we hear that we think of being overcome with sexual desire to the point that you throw out God’s plan for sex and marriage and instead look for that temporary satisfaction. It does mean that but also anything we do to improperly fulfill our fleshly desires like numbing pain by getting drunk or abusing substances, or overeating. The world tempts us to live for the now at the expense of the future.

He then goes on to talk about the lust of the eyes. Or our cravings as sinful people. Our eyes are a gift from but often we misuse them and they are the means by which sinful desires are introduced into our minds. Dodd explains it this way “ The desire of the eyes can be understood as the tendency to be captivated by the outward show of things without enquiring to their real values.” The world tempts us to live for the now at the expense of the future.

Lastly he talks about the pride of life. This is boasting about what you have and what you’ve done. God is not impressed by you thinking you are special because a wordly accomplishment, title, amount of money or possession. Because all of things come from him.

We haven’t really had to start paying our daughters to do chores, but it would be like if I asked my daughters to empty the dishwasher and if they do I tell them that they will get a dollar. so they do it but they cant reach everything so I have to help them but still at the end I give them each a dollar. Now imagine that they are so proud of that dollar and they go around telling all their friends how great they are because they got this dollar then they tell me how they know better than me because I got this dollar. In the mean time I am sitting here like child. I gave you the job to do in my house, putting away my plates, out of my dishwasher, and then I gave you my dollar, a dollar that is minuscule compared to even all my humble assets put together. You think I am impressed by that. And yet many of us hold up our worldly possessions and positions thinking it elevates us to God somehow. God look at my dollar arent you impressed. The value system of this world is turned upside down when its God providing the evaluation. Our pride in what we have causes us to hold on to it with a death grip working to make it better for right now. When our dollars wont matter in the end. “The world tempts us to live for the now at the expense of the future.”

3. Cling to the Victor, abandon what’s been conquered

You cant love the world and father at the same time. You cant love light and darkness at the same time. The two are enemies, They are fundementally opposite. To pledge allegiance to one side is to declare opposition to the other. You ever met an Alabama and Tennessee fan, a Lakers and Celtics fan, going back into history a patriot and loyalist. Some things are so fundamentally opposite that it is impossible to love both. and God and his light and the forces of darkness in the world are as opposed as two things can possible be. You wouldn’t wear an Alabama Jersey if you are a Tennessee fan unless you lost a bet. and you wont walk in darkness if you actually love the father.

Humans were made to love. We cant help that. But When we love the world we are misapplying the human emotion in a way that is going to lead to our demise. Love is neutral. The object of our love is decisive. We decide where our love is directed. John is begging us to not direct our love at the world in general or specific things in the world. Our allegiance must not be divided our affection must be directed and specific.

If we get to choose where to pledge our allegiance and choose where our love is going to be directed. Why would we choose the side that has already been defeated, that offers no long term benefit? When we have the opportunity to follow the king who has already secured the victory. and we get to move forward from that victory into a bright and eternal future with him.

Cling to the victor. abandon what’s been conquered.

“The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever”

One side leads to death, the other leads to a more abundant life on earth and eternal life in heaven.

Choose the side of life. Choose to walk in the light.

Conclusion

As we close today I want to give you a chance to respond to what God has said to you through your word. If you are here today and you’ve been trying to fight for victory, and it has exhausted you. When the music starts come forward and dwell on the truth that Jesus has already won your victory. And every single circumstance that is challenging that we come up against we face it with the knowledge that he has already won. Leave today living in victory not fighting for for victory.

Maybe you are hear today and you have become convicted of giving into the temptation to live for now at the cost of eternity. You’re giving into temptations that are stealing your joy, your resources, your relationships, your focus. and you’re sick and tired of being sick and tired. Come confess to God, redirect your love from the temporary things of this world to the eternal things of God, and leave here resolved through the power of the Holy Spirit to make the everyday changes in your life to enable you to keep choosing God over the world every day.

Lastly If you have not clung to the victor. and you are still living in the sin death that has been defeated. I am here to tell you today the good news. The war is over. come to the winning side. his invitation is open. Come place your faith in Jesus to save you from the sin a death that he has already defeated so you can live your life for the glory of our great victorious savior.