Incarnate Son

Text: 1 John 5:1-12

Thesis: Through believing in the Son, we may follow the Son.

Application: We cannot share the experience of Jesus without first believing in Him.

Reading of the Word

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves the child born of Him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and follow His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome. For whoever has been born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world: our faith.

Who is the one who overcomes the world, but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? This is the One who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ; not with the water only, but with the water and with the blood. It is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three that testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement. If we receive the testimony of people, the testimony of God is greater; for the testimony of God is this, that He has testified concerning His Son. The one who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself; the one who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has given concerning His Son. And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. The one who has the Son has the life; the one who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. (1 John 5:1-12, NASB2020)

Intro

Your Thoughts Shape Your Actions

“What we do is what we actually believe; everything else is just religious talk.” - Wendell Berry

Do you believe that Jesus is the Christ?

1 John 5:1

Define the Christ: the Anointed One, the Messianic King

If you believe Jesus is the Anointed Savior-King, do you live in submission to your King?

Do you believe that Jesus has overcome?

1 John 5:4

Jesus overcame temptation, sin, and death.

If you believe that Jesus has overcome, do you live a life seeking to overcome sin and temptation?

I am writing to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven you on account of His name. 13 I am writing to you, fathers, because you know Him who has been from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I have written to you, children, because you know the Father. 14 I have written to you, fathers, because you know Him who has been from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God remains in you, and you have overcome the evil one.

Do you believe that Jesus is eternal life?

1 John 5:11-12

Jesus’ life was not swallowed up by death, rather death was devoured by Christ’s unending life.

If you believe that Jesus is the life, do you seek to find your life in Him?

Do your actions match what you claim to believe?

Is your life marked by the waters of Christ?

Is your life marked by the blood of Christ?

Is your life marked by the Holy Ghost?

Outro - In Defense of the Incarnation

Cerinthus, the Gnostic Heretic

Many scholars believe that the works of John (the gospel and the letters) were written in opposition to a heretic of that time whose name was Cerinthus. Cerinthus was a gnostic, an ancient heresy which seems to come back every fifty years with a different coat of paint, which espoused a myriad of lies. Perhaps one of its chief deceptions was that Jesus was not fully God and fully man. This is what we mean when we say “incarnate.” Jesus is fully human, yet He is also fully God. God incarnate. Cerinthus taught that Jesus was an ordinary man; he denied the virgin birth and denied that Jesus was God in the flesh. Instead, Cerinthus taught that the Christ was a spiritual force which descended upon Jesus at His baptism and left Him at the crucifixion.

Our belief in Jesus is that He is more than just a man. Jesus is not just a hero, a teacher, a role-model, etc. While He is all these things, we believe that He is something far greater. Jesus is fully God, and we do not follow in His footsteps simply by emulating His lifestyle. We first and foremost are radically transformed by God through our belief in the Son. It is only through this salvation which we obtain by grace through faith which then enables us to keep His commandments and follow after Him.

So what do you believe about Jesus? And are your beliefs matching your actions?