1 John 5:13-15
1 John - Walking in the Light of God’s Word • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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13 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. 14 This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.
Do you ever have doubts about God? Do you ever question if God is real, and even if knowing He is real, question if God notices you or is for you? Have doubts when you pray that your words are heard, let alone answered?
What I find great is that the Bible is full of normal people like us, who go through mountain top experiences where they are basking in the intimate experience of God then next minute going through the depths of of the valley, the difficult times questioning God.
I love Jesus’ response to Simon Peter knowing that Simon would fall away and desert him:
31 “Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat. 32 But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”
Even when Jesus appeared to the disciples after rising from the dead there were still some disciples with doubts
17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.
Some of the disciples "doubted" after seeing the risen Jesus, even though they also worshipped Him
διστάζω - distazō, to doubt, waver, be of 2 minds, be double minded, believe one thing yet at same time be swayed by another.
This same word is used in Matthew 14 when Jesus walks on water and calls to Peter to step out in faith and walk on water himself towards Jesus
29 “Come,” he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!” 31 Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”
This is not about Peter not believing in Jesus at all. Peter stepped out of the boat believing in Jesus - no other disciple did that. It is about his faith wavering because his fear of the storm overcame his focus on Jesus. The doubt was a momentary hesitation that caused him to sink.
distazō, used in both passages, signifies wavering or hesitation rather than a complete refusal to believe
Even in moments of worship, doubt can exist, showing that faith is an ongoing journey, not a one-time event.
In 1 John the apostle John’s purpose in writing this book was to help the readers to overcome doubts and have an assurance in who they are, whose they are and where they are going.
If we look at each key phrase where he says “I write this so that…
4 We write this to make our joy complete.
The joy of their assurance will be his joy. And he wants it. It is good to want that kind of joy.
1 My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.
He hopes his book will give them fresh power to overcome sin. And part of his method in helping them overcome sin is to assure them that failures do not have to prove fatal to your eternal life.
12 I am writing to you who are God’s children because your sins have been forgiven through Jesus. 13 I am writing to you who are mature in the faith because you know Christ, who existed from the beginning. I am writing to you who are young in the faith because you have won your battle with the evil one.
In other words, he is filled with hope that the ones he is writing to are truly believers. They are forgiven. They do know God. They have triumphed over the evil one.
21 I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth.
Same thing: My letter is not to get you started in the Christian life, but to confirm you in it.
26 I am writing these things to warn you about those who want to lead you astray.
He is concerned with false teaching. This letter is meant to protect them from those who would lead them astray. In other words, the fact that we are born again does not mean we no longer need warnings.
Finally:
13 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 one that dominates in this letter. Most of what is here is designed to provide tests of life: “I write these things … that you may know that you have eternal life.” That is, that you may know you are born again from death to life.
John Piper says:
Summing up all these reasons for writing 1 John goes like this: I am writing because you are true believers, but there are deceivers in your midst, and I want you to be rock-solid confident in your present possession of eternal life as regenerate children of God, so that you are not drawn away after sin. And if this letter has that effect my joy will be complete. So at the heart of his reason for writing is the desire to help them know they are born again—that they now have new spiritual life. Eternal life. - John Piper
So John’s purpose is to build our confidence.
So how do we overcome doubt?
It starts from a place of relationship and finding out from God what His will is
Alignment with will of God:
14 This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.
Confidence to approach God to find His will comes out from our relationship with Jesus.
12 In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.
Q. Do you have freedom and confidence to approach God, to enjoy close personal relationship with him?
21 Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God 22 and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him.
This shows us that God answers our prayers when we are:
(1) keeping His commands
(2) doing those things that please Him.
And in 1 John 5:14 John now adds a third requirement:
(3) we must ask “according to his will”
14 This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.
So how do we know the will of God?
2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
It starts with holding firmly to God’s truth, the Bible, not allowing ourselves to be swayed by the culture or any teaching which sets itself up against the knowledge of God:
5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
It is being transformed by the renewing of our minds
Our minds as do our hearts and spirits need to be made new, as we receive Jesus we receive a new life - His life in us.
With Jesus living in us through the power of the Holy Spirit we now have the same mind of Christ
5 Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, 7 but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, 8 he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death— even death on a cross.
If we have the mind of Christ and allow Him to rule in our lives we will be willing to humble ourselves, to take the form of a slave, to become obedient to Father God to the point of dying to self?
“You cannot stay where you are and go with God. You cannot continue doing things your way and accomplish God’s purpose in His ways. Your thinking cannot come close to God’s thoughts. For you to do the will of God, you must adjust your life to Him, His purposes, and His ways.” — Henry Blackaby
Henry Blackaby continues by saying:
“Our difficulty is not that we don’t know God’s will. Our discomfort comes from the fact that we do know His will, but we do not want to do it.” — Henry Blackaby
There is a fight going on, our old self, with old desires and our new life in Christ, what will live and get stronger is the one we feed the one which dies is the one we starve.
With these three keys in place of: 1. Keeping God’s commands, 2. doing the things that please Him and 3. ask “according to his will”, John says we can be confident toward God as we pray. Indeed we can know He hears us as we ask, and we can “know that we have what we have asked Him for” (vv. 14–15).
Therefore nothing we ask for lies beyond the power of God except that which lies beyond His will, His purpose, His plan.
Assurance of answer:
15 And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.
I love the story of the Centurion, just how pragmatic he is:
5 When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. 6 “Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed, suffering terribly.” 7 Jesus said to him, “Shall I come and heal him?” 8 The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. 9 For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” 10 When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, “Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.
13 Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go! Let it be done just as you believed it would.” And his servant was healed at that moment.
Jesus said: “shall I come and heal him?”. That was enough for the Centurion. If Jesus says he will heal the Centurion believed his servant would be healed. He didn’t need Jesus to prove it in any way, didn’t need him to come just to make sure it happened. The Centurion believed Jesus had the power and the authority to heal, so could be fully trusted at his word. So why bother Jesus any longer.
When we come to Jesus in prayer, in conversation, to speak to Jesus and hear what he says, do we really have the faith to believe Him? That if Jesus says something will happen we just take Him at his word?
“Faith is taking God at His Word.” — Leonard Ravenhill
Is God faithful? To believe in God is not just a cerebral acceptance of his existence but a belief which leads to action, to stepping out and trusting ourselves to God with no backup plans.
Prayer without faith! What sort of prayer is it? It is the prayer of a man who does not believe in God. - Charles Spurgeon
Story of Zimbabwe train journey - blessed are the feet!
24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
End the story.
So to finish, God wants to grow our faith, for us to step out onto the water, to not doubt and be double minded,
6 But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7 That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8 Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.
God wants us to grow and learn to be single minded with our focus firmly fixed on Jesus, trusting Him. That once we hear and know His will to not hold back, to not look down at our own inabilities, to not look around in fear at the storm of the circumstances around us. But to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus and to step out in faith based on knowing His will.
“Faith does not operate in the realm of the possible. There is no glory for God in that which is humanly possible. Faith begins where man's power ends.” George Muller
