New Year, New Me

ME: New Years - John summary (John 20:31)

Happy New Year!

Last week, for the last Sunday of 2019, we finished up our Down to Earth series in the Gospel of John

and the purpose of John’s Gospel was stated in , which reads;

John 20:31 ESV

but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

See, John wrote His Gospel to move His reader to believing in Jesus

so that, the reader might receive eternal life

But scholars strongly believe that John not only wrote this Gospel

but also wrote the three letters 1, 2, and 3 John

the first letter of John was written to assure believers of their salvation

This first Sunday of 2020 is focused on the theme of New Year, New Me

We are going to be in three primary passages

First will be John’s first letter, chapter 5, verses 13-15

But then as we look at this theme of New Year, New Me

we will turn our attention to

and lastly, we will look at

Now that we have an idea of what to expect this morning

I’d like to give us an idea of where we will be going this year

Next week, we have one of the missionaries we support, Timothy Faulkner, here

Then beginning the following week will be Fear Less: Faith That Endures

a 12 week study in the book of Daniel

The focus of this study will be to exhort God’s people to endure in faith and reject compromise

while keeping our eyes fixed on “Jesus, the Founder and Perfecter of our faith.”

After that we will be doing True Story: God’s Vision For His Church

A study in the Book of Revelation in three parts

The focus of this study is to revitalize God’s people toward holiness by working through the True Story that points to the future God has secured for His people

Part One will be a 3-week series in

In between part One and Part Two we will do a 14-week series in the book of Ephesians

entitled Family Letter: Addressing the Church that Lost its First Love

The focus of this series will be promoting unity in the church by reigniting our love for Jesus

Then we will return to part Two of our study in Revelation with the goal of studying before the Christmas rotation is upon us again in Decdmber

But whatever we don’t finish in Revelation will be completed in the following year

Now keep in mind, this is a flexible schedule for this upcoming year

but hopefully, it gives us an idea of where we are headed nonetheless

Before we return our attention back to the three passages before us this morning

let’s pause for a word of prayer

WE: (He Hears)

What just happened?

We just prayed together

We went before the Lord of the universe in His throne room

When we pray, we are speaking to the Living God

When we pray for others, we are speaking to the Living God on behalf of that person

and you know what?

He listens

He hears us!

It is that simple, talking to Him

Talking to God

and we trust that He hears

Look at with me, as we see that God hears;

1 John 5:13–15 ESV

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. And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. 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.

This section is the start of the closing of John’s letter

He communicates his purpose in writing his letter in vs. 13

so that those who believe might also know

You see, his letter concerns truths about both God and Christ, but also the truth of our own standing as Christians

A

And because John wants believers to know they have eternal life

He equally desires for unbelievers to understand they have not received it

If you recall, John’s Gospel was written so that unbelievers might receive eternal life

His first letter was written so that those who believed and received eternal life would know they have eternal life

John Stott presents a four-stage purpose of the Apostle’s goal in these two writings

The Apostle John wants his readers to hear, that by hearing they may believe, believing they may live, and living they may know.

Here we see a theme that has been repeated throughout this letter

the theme of assurance

In a two-fold measure, John wants to destroy false assurances while confirming genuine assurance

and assurance is an important theme of God’s Word

Some may try to claim that their is no way of having assurance this side of heaven

as if claiming this is some sort of false sense of humility

certainty in your salvation does not stand in opposition to humility

if you believe, than you know, God has given us that assurance

But specifically here, John is communicating assurance in relation to our prayers

Later in this passage, John is communicating this assurance

we see John is communicating this assurance

Regarding those believers who have fallen into to sin

The enemy wants us to feel like we are too much of a mess to talk with God and have Him hear us

But that in fact, is what makes us fitting candidates for prayer

Elsewhere in the Bible, both Peter and James remind us that God opposes the proud

why?

because the proud are the ones who don’t think they need any help

Peter and James go on to say, but God gives grace to the humble

Those are the kind of people that Jesus surrounded Himself with

humble people, who acknowledged their neediness

it didn’t matter if they were young or old, rich or poor, healthy or sick, educated or not

Jesus welcomed those who humbly acknowledged their need for Him

So don’t let the devil, or anything or anyone else keep you from talking to God

Remember, John is writing this letter so that believers would know

which implies believers lacked in understanding

John 14:13 ESV

Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

John 14:3 ESV

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.

John 14:3 ESV

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.

This leads to us underutilizing the most powerful tool God has given us

That is talking to God

Now, when we talk with God, there is still a lot we don’t know

we don’t know when He will answer

we don’t know how He will answer

But what we do know is of greater importance

We know nothing is impossible for God

As John Stott comments on our passage;

“There is a true Christian assurance, which is neither arrogant nor presumptuous, but is on the contrary, as these letters show, the plainly revealed will of God for his people. So John urges his readers to examine themselves.”

And this examination is outlined in the prior chapters of John’s letter

but this assurance comes in the form of what we know

Those who believe in Jesus know that we have eternal life

Those who believe in Jesus know that we have eternal life

we know He hears us

and we know that we have the requests we ask of Him

or as Jesus said in ;

John 14:13 ESV

Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

More specifically in , Jesus says;

Mark 11:24 ESV

Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

Powerful things can happen when we ask God for help

When we pray to God, the most hopeless of situations and the most shattered of relationships can be transformed by God

The most hopeless of situations and the most shattered of relationships can be transformed by God

Our assurance isn’t just in eternal life or hope for the future

our assurance is in the here and now, the present day

We have confidence, as John says it, if we ask anything according to His will He hears us

Now prayer isn’t a way to impose our will upon God

nor does it somehow twist His will to our will

But prayer is God’s way of rightly aligning our will to His

Prayer is the search, discovery, and embrace of God’s will

All of our prayers are a unique way of communicating to God ‘your will be done’

That is why no matter what we pray

That is how Jesus taught us to pray

And that is how Jesus demonstrated praying

It is in these prayers, He hears us

This confidence becomes the fuel for a fervent prayer life

GOD: (He Reconciles)

The transformation God accomplishes occurs through what the Bible calls reconciliation

earlier in his letter, in , John says about Jesus;

1 John 3:5 ESV

You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.

Turn to where we will see that God not only hears, but He reconciles;

2 Corinthians 5:16–21 ESV

From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

This passage, referred to as the ministry of reconciliation, is deeply theological

It begins by saying, from now on, therefore

This opening bridges the declaration from vs. 14 to what follows

in vs. 14, Paul writes, “One has died for all, therefore all have died.”

This declaration basically states that the judgment for our sin is settled

And because our judgment is settled

Because One died for all

therefore we regard no one according to the flesh

Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh

now what does this mean?

well the first ‘regard’ in vs. 16 uses a Greek verb that means “to be acquainted with”

This means because Christ died for all, we no longer view people from worldly (or as Paul put it, fleshly) standards

Instead we view them from the perspective of God’s great act of salvation

Even though, as Paul goes on to say, we once recognized Christ according to the flesh

What Paul is saying, is that we use to view the Messiah from a fleshly perspective

This worldly perspective is what led to mankind rejecting and crucifying Jesus

But no longer

Now we recognize Christ as the Savior, and we look at others through a lens of salvation

Which is what Paul continues to teach in vs. 17

Then again in vs. 17, Paul says therefore

We now recognize Christ and people through a lens of salvation

Therefore, as Paul says, anyone who is in Christ is a new creation!

If you remember back to , He is the vine, we are the branches

With that understanding, we abide in Christ, as Paul says here, just as the branch is in the vine

So we are looking at Christ not from a fleshly perspective

but through the lens of salvation

after He died, what happened?

He rose from the dead!

and after His resurrection, He appeared to His disciples and after His appearances what happened?

He ascended

He entered into a new heavenly life

Therefore, anyone who is in Christ

Any branch who is in the vine

enters into a new heavenly life, just as Christ did

vs. 17 says that person IS a new creation

not a newness in terms of this is the most recent standing

no, this newness implies new from anything previously existing

A couple of weeks ago you may recall Nate Culver shared about us inheriting our sin nature from our father Adam

Christ is the “last Adam”

It is in Christ, that humanity is recreated

So now, the old things

the fleshly perspective, the selfishness, the carnal living

has passed away

They are deceased, dead!

and behold! the new newness of heavenly life has come

And our spiritual union with Christ is participation in this “new creation”

So, how does one become “in Christ”?

as our 1 John passage revealed, believing, and by believing knowing that you have received the gift of eternal life

the gift of being in Christ

At this point, Paul prevents us from getting ahead of ourselves

because in vs. 18, he immediately says, all of this is from God

What does all of this include?

The plan of salvation, the redemption of mankind, all of it, is from God

It is through Christ God reconciled us to Himself

Meaning, He restored us to being in good standing by satisfying His just nature in Christ

the work of restoration did not alter God’s character

it wasn’t some sneaky, shady, back-door deal

It was a demonstration of a perfectly just God sacrificing His perfectly obedient Son, as a provision of His perfect love.

The crucifixion of Christ is a picture of reconciliation, where God’s justice and mercy find a perfect harmonious balance.

And He didn’t just give us this reconciliation to keep to ourselves

Paul goes on to say that God has given us the ministry of reconciliation

And He elaborates this teaching on reconciliation in vs. 19-21

And understanding this reveals that God’s continual purpose, from before the foundation of the world, meaning God foresaw the fall of man, and put this plan into motion to reconcile us to Himself

This message of reconciliation has been entrusted to us

Therefore, as Paul says in vs. 20, we are ambassadors for Christ

God is making an appeal to this reconciliation through us

God is reconciled to the world

God has reconciled us to Himself

now we must be ambassadors telling the world to be reconciled to God

Which really entails just letting God reconcile us to Himself

Paul ends vs. 20 imploring the people of Corinth to be reconciled to God

He is begging, pleading with them to be reconciled to God

Now if you know how an ambassador usually operates, it is not customary for an ambassador to beg or plead in this manner

Paul is revealing the significance of the need for the world to be reconciled

as ambassadors we must implore those who don’t know Christ just as Paul is demonstrating here

Paul concludes this portion of his letter with a brief, theological summary of the Gospel in vs. 21

explaining how God, as the perfect judge, imputed our sin onto Christ

assigning the responsibility for our sin onto Christ

so that He would be punished justly for our sin

and how He imputed Christ’s righteousness onto us

making His righteousness the foundation for the progressive sanctification of our character, thoughts, and deeds, until we become perfectly righteous in heaven

See Jesus never sinned

But He became sin

Why?

For our sake!

Paul says

so that we might not just become righteous

nor that we might just become righteousness

But that we might become the righteousness of God

As John also said back in his letter, in

1 John 4:7 ESV

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God.

The innocent One voluntarily took on the punishment of the guilty

so that the guilty might be rewarded as if we were innocent

That is grace

That is the ministry of reconciliation

the message that has been entrusted to us

that we are ambassadors of!

YOU: (Just Ask)

Now that we have confidence that He hears

And that He reconciles

Let’s look at where we see we need to Just Ask;

Matthew 7:7–11 ESV

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

This is the conclusion of Jesus’s multi-chapter sermon on the mount

and some of the standards He sets in this sermon are quite daunting

but also the task of being an ambassador can be rather intimidating

This is a great place to be

As I mentioned earlier, the value of recognizing our neediness

When we recognize our need for God’s help, we will go humbly before Him to ask, seek, and knock

As says;

Proverbs 8:17 ESV

I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently find me.

We tend to lack what we need for one of two reasons

Either we fail to just ask

or as says, we ask with wrong motives

Getting to talk with God is such a powerful experience

Getting to talk with God is such a powerful experience

But we don’t need to worry about saying everything just right

or acting like we have it all together

That isn’t where prayer gets its power from

hopefully you realize from what we looked at this morning that the power is in believing

believing that He listens, as states

and believing that He reconciles, as we saw in

and believing that He responds as a loving Father, which we just read here in

You see, Jesus is reassuring us that God relates to us as a father

and we can trust our heavenly father to listen and respond just as a father would listen and respond to His child

Actually, we can trust Him to respond even better

because a human father, in contrast to God, is evil because God is so righteous

Simply put, Jesus is telling us that God loves having you talk to Him because He loves you

remember said it was for our sake that Christ took our sins

So talk to Him

Talk to Him about everyday stuff

talk to Him about the big stuff

Talk to Him about what you need

Talk to Him about challenges you face

Whatever you talk to Him about, be honest with Him

He knows the truth anyway, your only fooling yourself if you try to hide something from Him

Amazing things will happen when you talk with God

He will give you good things

Things like righteousness, sincerity, purity, humility, and wisdom

Just to name a few

The greatest gift He gives is Himself

All three Persons

The Father, The Son, and The Spirit

And He knows what it’s like to live on this earth

Because, as the author of Hebrews states, Jesus is our sympathetic high priest

WE: What Just Happened?

Now, in the spirit of asking

I want to present a vision for our church in 2020

We want to see clearly to 20 in 2020

What exactly does that mean?

we want to see at least 20 people come to believe in Christ as their Savior in 2020

And if that is our goal, that is our vision

We have to continually ask, what are we doing to see that happen?

In your bulletin is a little booklet titled, “what just happened?”

To start our commitment to this vision

every one of us needs to think of at least one person that we personally know who does not believe in Christ as their Savior

And we will commit to being an ambassador for Christ to that person

to implore on behalf of Christ that they be reconciled to God

If God makes His appeal through every one of us, we will blow past that vision of 20 people

Our commitment will begin with asking

Commit to praying for that person, by name, at least once a day, every day this year

and this booklet can be a great tool to help you be an ambassador

If you open up and look at how the first line starts;

“Whether you know it or not, you were just prayed for.”

So as you are praying for this person, you can give them this booklet, mail it to them if you have to, take a snapchat of it and send it to them, fax it, attach it to a carrier pigeon

Whatever you have to do to get this booklet in that person’s hand, do it

And make sure you follow through on your commitment to pray for them before and after getting this booklet to them

and don’t feel like you have to stop there

As you are praying for them, continue to ask for specific ways you can be praying for them

Check in on things they asked you to pray about

Continue to implore and be an ambassador other ways, but this is a great start

We need to just ask God to reconcile a lost world to Himself

“If we ask anything according to His will, He hears, and He reconciles through Christ, so just ask!”

“If we ask anything according to His will, He hears, and He reconciles through Christ, so just ask!”

“If we ask anything according to His will, He hears, and He reconciles through Christ, so just ask!”

The Lord’s Table

Jesus knows you

He loves you

He loves the world

He made us to have a relationship with Him

He desires that we have a relationship with Him

We were made to know Him and to be known by Him

For God to reconcile us back to Him

He would have to sacrifice His Son, Jesus Christ

The night before Jesus paid for our sins with His life

He was gathered together with His disciples

As Jesus and the disci

As they were all eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, ‘Take, eat; this my body, broken for you.”

Likewise, he took a cup, and when He had given thanks He gave it to the disciples, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.”

That night, Jesus instituted what we call the Lord’s Supper

He gave the bread and the cup to serve as a visceral reminder of His body breaking and His blood pouring out for the forgiveness of our sins

And He told the disciples to continue to take the bread and the cup to continue to serve as a visceral reminder for generations

So today, we continue in obedience to Jesus’s command

We have the bread and the cup at these three tables in the front

And if you have been reconciled to God by believing in Christ as your Savior

believe in Christ as your Savior

Then you are invited to come to the table

If you do not believe then the bread and the cup are nothing more than a terrible snack

They do not serve as a reminder that your sins have been forgiven

because your sins have not yet been forgiven

The moment you believe that Jesus is Savior, then your sins are forgiven and the table becomes both a reminder and a celebration of worship to God who has reconciled you to Himself

And if that is you

You can believe right now, at this very moment

The only thing that has to happen is you believe this in your heart

then confess that Jesus is your Lord and Savior

acknowledging that only Jesus reconciles you back to God

I am going to lead us in a word of prayer and after I do you are welcome to come to the table and take the bread and the cup and return to your seat

Before you eat and drink though, take a moment to contemplate what was discussed this morning

Especially the message that has been communicated to us in

We will also have some trays coming around if you are unable to come to the table

They will bring you the bread and the cup

After you have had some time to reflect with the Lord, we will close with a song and a benediction verse

Will you join me in prayer