What Side are You on?

Intro

We have made it to the final week of our series in 1 John. It is my prayer that if you have been with us just a week or two or all 10 weeks of this series, you have gotten an even more beautiful picture of who Jesus is and how you can walk in His light. Today in the last 8 verses of the book. We are going to see the true purpose of prayer, spoiler alert it isn’t so you can pray that a rich relative you never met is going to leave you a billion dollars, John also is not going to miss out on one final opportunity to affirm that Jesus is God and to show us what that means for us to be in a relationship with Him.

1 John 5:13–17 NIV

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him. If you see any brother or sister commit a sin that does not lead to death, you should pray and God will give them life. I refer to those whose sin does not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I am not saying that you should pray about that. All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin that does not lead to death.

In this last section we see John landing the plane on many things that he as introduced us to throughout the letter. He starts this concluding section by reminding them again that he is writing that to reassure them that they have recieved eternal life if the believe the testimony of who God says Jesus is.

Here John is taking it a step further. He says now that you have been reassured, which he has done several times in this book. The confidence that you have in your salvation should also lead to confidence in your prayers. We can confidently approach God.

Think about that for a second Jesus made it possible for you to confidently approach God. and we can be confident not just that he will hear us but he will truly listen to his children.

There is a big difference between hearing and listening. Have you guys ever finished a conversation with someone and you walk away, and you get the feeling I think they heard what I said but it doesn’t feel like they really listened. It hurts, you feel like you wasted your time, and if you are sharing something that was hard for you to share and they don’t really listen it can leave you feeling unseen and unvalued.

God listens to his children. Believers have special access to God the father. It doesnt matter if my dad the CEO of the biggest company in the world, or president of the United States I would have special access to him that no one else has because I am his son.

You have access to God not because you are so important but because He loved you enough to be brought into his family and be given special access for him to hear you.

We can have confidence in approaching God. and it says here a confidence that if we ask for anything he’s going to hear us and whatever we ask we know that we have what we ask for. My human nature wants to pull just those parts out of this passage, lock myself in my office and make a list and bring it to God.

God get me that nicer car, get me that nicer house, give me that nicer job, give me what I want. But if we look closer. John puts a condition on it. He says if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.

1. Prayer isn’t about Getting Our Way, but Surrendering to God’s Way.

If you think prayer is how you force God to do your will. I got bad news for you. God is not a genie or vending machine. Prayer is not a convenient way for us to impose our way on God or bending his will to ours. It is the prescribed way that we surrender our will to his. Through prayer we seek God’s will, embrace it, and align ourselves with it. Every true prayer is a variation how Jesus taught us to pray in the Lord’s prayer. Your will be done.

Asking God to put his seal of approval on your will is not how we are to operate as followers of Jesus who are walking in the light. As we spend more time walking the light as believers our will gets shaped to align more with his will and our prayers of intercession coincide with God’s will.

To do that we have to have a faith that God’s will is truly best, and trust that his plan are purpose are better than our plan or purpose, even if we don’t see it.

And what is a prayer that is always in the will of God. When we pray for our brothers and sisters who have sinned, like points out in verse 16. When we see a brother or sister fall. Our first response should be prayer not pointing fingers. The will of the father is always that his children come closer to him. That should be our response when a brother or sister falls. praying for restoration and not gossiping about them or kicking them out. We earnestly pray that God’s will would be done in the heart of believers who sin so they would come back to him, and continue walking in the light.

Now the rest of verses 16-19. I wrestled with these verses this week more than I have any other verses in this book. Cause at first glance it seems like John is saying theres a sin that cant be forgiven and you shouldn’t bother praying for people who have committed this sin.

The truth is from what I have studied this is one of those passages that we dont truly know the meaning of. There are theories but no consensus.

What I believe this passage is saying is that the sin that leads to death is the complete and total rejection and opposition of Jesus Christ. This is someone like the people who had come against the church John was writing to. People who have heard the word and completely rejected Jesus and their hearts have hardened and are completely against Him. We see multiple places in scripture where people close their hearts off to God for so long that God then hardens their hearts. They made their choice. John isn’t saying you cant pray for those people but our efforts are best spent aligning our prayers with God’s will.

1 John 5:18–19 NIV

We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the One who was born of God keeps them safe, and the evil one cannot harm them. We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.

in these verses as we get two verses away from the end of the book. John reminds and reassures them of things he has pointed to throughout this whole letter. We see him again say that evidence someone is a child of God is that they do not continue to live in sin.

Children of light are not comfortable in darkness. If you have been born into the family of God and are walking in his light, you may stumble and fall into the darkness, but you aren’t comfortable there. if you are a child of God you can’t wait to get back to the light.

On the other hand we see verse 19 end with the statement the world is under the control of the evil one. The picture here painted is two opposing sides. something that has come up throughout this book. We have seen John contrast light vs dark, truth vs lies, love vs hate, children of God vs children of the devil, righteousness vs sin, Christ vs the anti Christ, fear vs love, life vs death. throughout all these comparisons including the last one here where we see God vs the evil one with his children in the middle one thing is clear.

2. You’re Either Standing with Jesus or Standing Against Him.

Neutrality is not possible. We don’t get to be Switzerland when it comes to the sides of light and dark. We stand with Jesus or we stand against him. You pick the side of darkness, lies, hate, sin, fear, and death, or you pick the side of light, truth, love, righteousness, and life. When it’s put like that the choice is clear we are to pick the side of Jesus.

As John has said through this book picking the side of Jesus doesn’t mean we are spectators, we are to believe who He says he is, walk in the light, and follow his commands. You can’t walk in darkness and light at the same time. You cant love and hate at the same time, you cant fear and love at the same time, you cant lie and tell the truth at the same time, you cant sin without repentance and be righteous at the same time, you cant be a child of God and a child of the devil at the same time, you cant be dead and alive at the same time.

This morning I am asking you to do the same thing John asked his readers 2000 years ago, choose the side of life. Choose Jesus. This living in darkness 6 days a week and dipping your toe in the light for an hour on Sunday mornings thing you’ve been doing. If thats what you’ve been doing. the evidence that John lays out tells me you aren’t standing with Jesus, and if you aren’t standing with Jesus. You are against him because their is no middle ground.

Stand with Jesus and be made alive, be brought into God’s family and receive the protection from the evil one that he promises us here.

That is how John finishes this book telling his readers and us what this whole thing has been about Jesus.

1 John 5:20–21 NIV

We know also 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 by being in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.

John’s Gospel begins with a declaration of who Jesus is.

John 1:1 ESV

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

The climax of his Gospel is when Thomas declares to Jesus when he realizes who he is. My Lord and My God. and now at the end of this letter he does the same thing he declares Jesus as the son of God. Full deity, full honor, full light, full glory, full truth, full eternal life, because of one name Jesus.

Then we get a kinda weird and abrupt ending in verse 21. Dear children keep yourselves from idols. I think im going to start ending text messages like this. Hey Alysa on your way home will grab some will and keep yourself from idols. Its a very odd way to end a message to someone at first glance but it does make sense.

John is saying in light of all i’ve told you in this letter

3.Reject the False and Embrace the Real.

a lot of times in the Bible when we read the term idol in the Bible we think worshiping little statues. But in this case John is using it like we would today. Anything that occupies the place due to God.

John has emphasized that Jesus is the true God for 5 chapters and now he warns us about getting misled into putting anything but Jesus in that spot.

As children of God walking in the light we have to be on guard against anything that could become a God subsititue to us, weather it be a political idea, any other religion, relationships, personal dreams and goals, whatever it is John is telling us and I am telling you none of that is worth being the Lord of your life.

Jesus is the Son of God. He provides eternal life to anyone who comes to him in faith. He is the true revelation of God, He is the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end, He is how we are brought into the family of God.

Anything else is counterfeit. It is a fake substitute. We can be certain that he is the true God. If you believe that, and I know many you in here do. Do not settle some counterfeit god, do not settle for what will over promise and leave you worse than when you started. You don’t have to settle for what is fake, when what is real is right there in front of you. Reject the false, embrace what is real.

Conclusion

As we close today and close this series. I want you to do what John asked his reader to do. Consider what side are you on? Are you a child of God because you have placed your faith in Jesus and are firmly walking in his light? or are you against him? There is no middle ground. You are in the family or you aren’t. You’re spending eternity with Him or you aren’t.

If you are apart of the family I want to invite you to examine yourself and if your prayers and your actions show that your will be done Lord is what matters most for you? or is it secondary to my will be done. Maybe you need to repent of that this morning. The alter is open for you to do that this morning.

If this morning you have realized that you’ve been settling for what is fake and you want to embrace what is real. You want to embrace Jesus this morning. Make him the Lord and savior of your life. Don’t let a second waste as soon as we start this song come straight down here to me so I can help you give your life to the one who gave his life for you.