1 John 5:13-21 - Sermon 2

I have something controversial to say: every sports movie has the same plot. And this is the plot: a rag-tag team of miscreants who collectively amounted to little encounter some reason to believe that they can be more and do more. Suddenly, they start believe in themselves, and they start finding success and win the big sports game. The skills and talent were always there, they just needed a little bit of confidence.

Playing with confidence is more than just a sports metaphor. We need confidence when it comes to relationships, too. Relationships where you don’t know where you stand, don’t know how the other really feels about you, where you’re constantly taking the temperature of the relationship - those are not relationships that are working properly. The ones where you know the other is there for you, that they care about you, that you can mess up and even hurt them and they’ll still love you - those are the ones that are really functioning on all cylinders. Confidence and assurance are important for healthy, functioning relationships.

Confidence and assurance are important

Well, it’s the same in our life with Jesus: we’ve got to play with confidence, we’ve got to have true assurance if we’re going to have a properly functioning faith. I came across a quote from Brennan Manning the other day where he said that, “Christianity happens when men and women experience the reckless, raging confidence of knowing the God of Jesus Christ.” I think he’s spot on. I think if we are going to properly follow Jesus, we’ve got to do so experiencing the confidence that comes from knowing Christ.

And listen, I think Jesus agrees! Throughout his ministry with his disciples, and especially the closer he got to his crucifixion, Jesus desires for his followers to have confidence in him, we hear him reassuring his disciples that he is with them, that he’ll never leave them, that he’ll continue to support them even when he’s gone. If you read through , what is known as Christ’s Farewell Discourse, you’ll see that Jesus finds confidence and assurance to be significantly important for his followers. In fact, some of his last recorded words is an encouragement to be confident: , “All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age.” These words are not just words of commissioning, they are words meant to spark confidence in the hearts of those that are commissioned. The one who has all authority in heaven and earth is with you, always and forever. So now, go. Evidently, Jesus believes that his followers need assurance to do the work he has given us to do.

And so John concludes his letter by urging us to be confident as we are sent out by Christ.

English Standard Version Chapter 5

13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.

Remember that eternal life for John is not life in the clouds singing worship songs for eternity. Eternal life is knowing and living with the Father, Son, and Spirit. It’s shorthand for the breadth and depth of grace that Christ gives those who trust and follow him - meaning we’ve already entered into it if we’ve received this gift of life from Jesus. And to close out his letter, John says that confidence of this life is the only way to properly function in this life.

And he gives us three areas where we need to experience the confidence we have in Christ. In prayer, in our interactions with the world, and in our spiritual growth. First, is prayer.

English Standard Version Chapter 5

14 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.

Melanie and I both think the movie “Up” is one of the greatest of all times. In the movie we meet Russell, the sweetest boy scout you’ll ever meet. Over the course of the film you learn bits and pieces of Russell’s story, and in particular about his relationship with his dad. His dad just isn’t around anymore. We learn that Russell has been trying to earn his merit badges in the hopes of getting his dad’s attention, getting him to notice Russell, and spend time with him. What a heartbreaking way to approach your father.

This is not how we are to approach our Father in heaven! We don’t have to be timid or unsure or hesitant when we come before God. John tells us that we’re to have confidence when we come before him - literally he says, we’re to have “freedom of speech.” We’re to speak freely. Our conversation with God should be open and relaxed, uninhibited even - why? Because we are his deeply loved children, and he loves being with us, he loves when we come to him in prayer.

Too often we think that we have no right to come to him in prayer. We’re feel like Russell - we need more merit badges if we want to spend time with our Father. And honestly, that would be true if it were not for one thing. We symbolize this one thing every Sunday morning, when our service begins with the procession, when cross comes down the isle. How is it possible that a bunch of messy, broken people can possibly approach the Father who dwells in blinding light? Because Jesus goes before us and cleanses us from all of our messy brokenness. Jesus goes before us, and as John said at the start of his letter, he is sitting at God’s right hand advocating on our behalf. So we can draw near to the throne of grace, near to God in prayer with confidence - a confidence that is not dependent on our merits, but that is secured in Christ’s work on the cross. Do not ever let go of that confidence.

So we pray with confidence; but we have to remember what John says here, our confidence is this:

English Standard Version Chapter 5

if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.

Confidence in prayer comes from the fact that our prayers are answered according to God’s will and not our own. If you ask a young child what they want for their birthday, there’s often no telling what their going to say. The cliche answer is of course, that they would want a pony. But realistically, if they were to get a pony, it would not be nearly as sweet as they imagine. And so their parents, with fully functioning frontal lobes, get their kid a stuffed animal pony, or something else that they’d actually enjoy.

We can pray confidently because our prayers will only ever be answered in accordance with God’s will. We pray in the Lord’s Prayer, “Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, one earth as it is in heaven.” We pray this because when we’re thinking clearly, we know God’s will for creation is what’s best for creation - so God’s will for us is what’s best for us. So we pray with the assurance that our Father hears us and gives us what’s best.

Prayer isn’t about coming to God with our desires, hoping to bend his will to our’s. Prayer is about coming to God for his desires, finding our deepest satisfaction in what he wills for us, and asking for it, and being confident that he’ll never withhold from us. So we can pray with confidence.

And

And this is true when we pray for ourselves and when we prayer for others. Look at verse 16.

English Standard Version Chapter 5

16 If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life—to those who commit sins that do not lead to death. There is sin that leads to death; I do not say that one should pray for that. 17 All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that does not lead to death.

Jesus showed us this in action when we prayed for Peter on the eve of Peter’s betrayal. After telling Peter that he would indeed abandon Jesus in his time of need, Jesus said that he had prayed that Peter’s faith not fail - and trusting the Father - told Peter that after he turned back to Christ, he will need to strengthen the faith of the other disciples.

You see, not only is it true that if we ourselves confess our sins, God is faithful to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness, but it is also true that if you see a brother or sister in Christ who is enmeshed in some sin that is sucking Christ’s gift of life out of them, we can pray for them with confidence that the Father hears our prayer and will restore them.

Now what about this sin that leads to death? As with elsewhere in Scripture, the only unforgiveable sin is the sin of persistent unbelief from which one never repents. The sin that leads to death does so because it rejects the only means by which sin may be forgiven at all. It is not so much that there is a sin that is unforgiveable, so much that it merely remains unforgiven because they’ve never turned to the one who can and does forgive. The result of every sin is death - but for those who believe in the Son of God, that death has been experienced by Christ in your place, and the life that is his is now yours. John does not tell us to refrain from praying for those who’s hearts have hardened towards Christ, he simply says that he’s not discussing it in this letter. But since you and I can not see the heart as God does, let us pray with confidence for all of those in our life who do not know Jesus daily, so that God may give them true life.

So that’s the first area where we need to experience the confidence that is our’s in Jesus. The second is found in verse 18.

English Standard Version Chapter 5

18 We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him.

English Standard Version Chapter 5

18 We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him.

19 We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.

If the 24 hours news cycle has taught us anything as a species, it’s that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. From individual decisions to hurt others to whole systems of society that oppress and marginalize, the world that we live in is held in the grip of open rebellion to God and his desires to see his creation flourish with abundant life. And listen, I haven’t always been a pastor, I’ve worked in offices where the air felt thick with disappointment and brokenness. I worked in a bank during seminary and daily saw co-workers and supervisors taking advantage of people in financial disarray for personal gain. I’d come home with this heavy burden in my heart - Melanie can attest to the weight that I carried while working there.

But followers of Christ can interact with this dark world with confidence, because we are protected by our Redeemer. And our Protector is far stronger than our enemy. While the whole world is under the grip of the evil one, he can not cling to the Church, he cannot fasten himself to the believer; this is what the word “touch” means. Sure, we are still affected by the forces of evil, and we certainly are still affected by sin in our lives and in the lives of those around us; but live not in despair because of this; rather, we live in confidence because Jesus keeps us safely in his fold as the Good Shepherd, and no one can snatch us out of his hand.

And because of this, we can interact with the world, we can engage the darkness, we can get in the trenches in the war against the effects of sin on the world, and we can do so with confidence. Speaking to Peter about the future church community, Jesus foretells that not even the gates of Hell itself can stand against the people of God working for purposes of God. That’s bold talk right there, but that’s the confidence that we have!

So take that confidence with you into your workplaces and schools. Yes, there is grave darkness and powerful forces at hand, but your Protector is so much stronger; so you can have confidence as you dream up ways to bring life and light and love into the world that needs it. You can have confidence that your work for the Lord will never be in vain.

So pray with confidence, interact with the world with confidence, and finally, grow in your faith with confidence. Look at verse 20:

English Standard Version Chapter 5

20 And we know 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, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. 21 Little children, keep yourselves from idols.

English Standard Version Chapter 5

20 And we know 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, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.

I remember there was a moment in seminary when I thought, “I know absolutely nothing about following Jesus.” Which was ludicrous because I had been learning more than I ever thought possible about God and the Bible and Jesus and Church History and apologetics and Christian ethics, but the more I learned the more I came to realize that there is so much to know. And it is easy to feel overwhelmed by it all and begin to think that you have to know it all to truly believe and truly follow Jesus. Are you overwhelmed when you’re around believers who know more than you? Do you feel the pangs of shame and want to withdraw when you’re in that environment?

If that is you, than please listen to John as he ends his letter: “And we know that the Son of God has come...” Again, we symbolize this every Sunday during our gospel reading. The cross comes out to the middle of the community, because God did not wait for us to know enough or do enough. God didn’t wait, he took the initiative in love, and he came to us.

And he brought with him understanding so that we may know God. We can have confidence as we grow in our faith because it is Jesus who gives us the understanding. Following Jesus is not like an easter egg hunt. We’re not told to go out and find all the different eggs, hidden in all sorts of different places - you gotta find your atonement theories, your systems of church governance, your doctrines of baptism, your information on Ancient Near Eastern sacrificial systems. No, following Jesus would be the worst easter egg hunt ever, because the only egg you need is handed to you from the start - “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, if we are in his Son Jesus Christ.”

So have confidence as you grow in your faith. There is nothing wrong in the least in learning about Church history and biblical theology - in fact, I encourage everyone to learn as much as they possibly can about this amazing God that we have - but to do so not as an avenue of salvation or justification: because that is already yours by virtue of being in Christ. So pursue Christ in confidence and joy, not in shame or guilt.