1 John 5:1-5
1 John - Walking in the Light of God’s Word • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 7 viewsNotes
Transcript
1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well.
“Everyone” John starts with this inclusive word - No one is excluded. God’s intention is for everyone to be provided with the opportunity to believe that Jesus is the Christ.
15 And then he told them, “Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone.
Everyone who believes, “believes” not has believed, the tense here is the present active continuous, it’s everyone who believes right now and continues to believe into the future.
Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ:
What does it mean to believe that Jesus is the Christ, Christ isn’t a surname or a swear word. Christ is the greek translation of the Hebrew word Messiah, which means Anointed One.
Jesus is the anointed one as Prophet: to reveal the way of salvation. The very Word of God as seen in John 1, whose Words bring eternal Life.
63 The Spirit alone gives eternal life. Human effort accomplishes nothing. And the very words I have spoken to you are spirit and life.
68 Simon Peter replied, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life.
2. Jesus is the anointed one as Priest: to offer up the atoning sacrifice of Himself on the cross, a perfect offering, made once for all,
27 Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself.
Jesus on the cross declared: “It is finished”, the price has been paid. It is finished: shame, guilt, fear, sin, death, separation from God, IT IS FINISHED!
14 How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!
Jesus is sufficient, He is the Way, the Truth and the Life, He is enough. You don’t have to look further, just accept Jesus and what He did for you 2k years ago when He died on the cross for you! You can’t add anything through ritual, through legalism, there is no other source of grace, to try to add anything to the already finished work of Jesus is to diminish the power of the cross and reduce who Jesus is and what He achieved for us.
5 For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus,
Jesus as our High Priest is the only mediator we need, we come direct to Him, no need for a Church leader, a priest, Mary or another Saint. Jesus loves us, He wants intimate relationship with us, for us to come to Him for ourselves, to come as we are:
15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.
Jesus knows us, He understands our weaknesses, yet He does not condemn us, He instead completely loves us.
3. Jesus is the anointed one as King:
36 Jesus looked at Pilate and said, “The royal power of my kingdom realm doesn’t come from this world. If it did, then my followers would be fighting to the end to defend me from the Jewish leaders. My kingdom realm authority is not from this realm.” 37 Then Pilate responded, “Oh, so then you are a king?” “You are right.” Jesus said, “I was born a King, and I have come into this world to prove what truth really is. And everyone who loves the truth will receive my words.”
Jesus is King. He rules and reigns. He is now seated on His throne, He has all power, authority, dominion and glory:
20 God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come.
But is Jesus King of our lives? Do we bend our knee to His rule? As servants of the King do we obey His commands?
So to believe that Jesus is the Christ, is to accept Him as the Anointed One of God, the Prophet, whose words bring us eternal life and need to be accepted, followed and obeyed. As the Priest, who made the once for all perfect sacrifice of Himself to take away our sins, who now intercedes day and night before the Father on our behalf. And as the King who is Lord of our lives who we submit our lives under, and follow His commands. When we actively believe and live in this place we are truly born again, born into a new life, born of God. It all starts with a love relationship with God through Jesus.
1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well.
To love Father God is to love Jesus:
9 Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
Father God and Jesus are united as one. To see or know or love one is to see and know and love the other. If you want to know what God is like look at Jesus. Jesus said in:
30 I and the Father are one.”
As we looked at last week 1 John 4:19
19 We love because he first loved us.
As we experience Jesus love through close relationship, He reveals to us the Father’s love, and through seeing Fathers God’s love for His children, we also grow to love His children as we see them through His eyes.
2 The reality test on whether or not we love God’s children is this: Do we love God? Do we keep his commands?
If we truly, sacrificially love God and hold and keep His commands we will automatically sacrificially love His children.
I think too often we can start trying to fulfil the endpoint rather than starting with the source of sacrificial love.
We think, if I’m a Christian I should be a nice person who loves other Christians. Then within a short time we get hurt or offended.
We may respond in one of 2 ways:
I have to try harder, I have to work harder at loving them through gritted teeth.
or
2. I’m out of here, I’m fine just me and God, and possibly a couple of Christian friends who I get on with.
Both ways are wrong. We love because He first loved us.
If I’m struggling to sacrificially love annoying hard to love Christians, I need to grow my love for God more. I need to experience for myself His love in a deeper way. To know the depth of His forgiveness in my own life. I need to do what He says, live based on His commands, not my desires. He says forgive - I choose with His strength and love to forgive. He says bless - with His love and strength working in me I bless.
Corrie Ten Boom once said: “I cannot forgive, but Christ in me can”.
3 In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome,
This is similar to John 14:15, 21, 23.
15 “If you love me, keep my commands.
Again this isn’t try try try
A better translation of this verse is probably
15 “Loving me empowers you to obey my commands.
As we fall more in love with God the more we will desire to obey what He says, what He commands. Not out of duty, but out of love and joy.
It’s a bit like my love for Jenny, I choose to do things which please her, not to prove my love for her, nor to try to earn her love for me. But simply because I love her.
And his commands are not burdensome,
Often we see God’s commands as a burden, something we just have to bear with, part of this is from a selfish place of wanting the freedom to just do what we want. But often we don’t realise we end up even more burdened when we just try to do it alone.
28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
The image is of 2 oxen being yoked together, often a bigger oxen with a smaller one. Yes the bigger oxen dictates the direction, but also gives the greater strength to the work.
Jesus says His Yoke is “easy” χρηστός means easy, better, well fitting, brings comfort/gives strength. Yes bring direction through His commands, but is better, is easier in the long term, it’s a yoke that fits well, which brings comfort and gives strength.
Q. Are you tired and weary of trying to do it alone? Trying to be a good person? Trying to love people? Maybe it’s time to fall in love with Jesus, to choose from that place of love to see His commands as life giving, as an easy yoke with God providing the strength to live His way.
4 for whatever is born of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith. 5 Who is it that conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
What does the Bible mean by the world that needs to be conquered? What do we need victory over?
16 For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world.
It’s what ends up consuming us as an alternative and distraction to God’s love:
Craving after what we don’t have - desiring physical pleasure and desiring what we see. The next experience, the next gadget, the next improvement, never content, forever unsatisfied.
or engulfed with what we do have -the pride in our achievements and possessions, our status, our image, - the Bible warns of this:
2 For people will be lovers of selfies, lovers of money, proud…
again it’s all about us apart from God.
It goes back to the original sin: of the serpent questioning Eve, questioning of God’s love, of His good, of God holding back something better. Did God really say? If you take and eat the fruit you will gain what God is holding back from you.
But rather than feeling fulfilled, Adam and Eve were left feeling empty. Rather then knowing contentment and God’s peace they experienced shame, turmoil and separation. Rather than experiencing life they experienced death.
So to finish:
5 Who is it who conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
It all starts and ends with Jesus. The only way to live a victorious life God’s way is by accepting Jesus into our lives, accepting Him as the Son of God, and as the anointed one, the Prophet who has the words of life, the High Priest who laid down His life as the one perfect sacrifice, and the King who reigns and at whose name every knee will bow.
