The Birth Certificate
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
I want to show you my birth certificate. I do that just to prove I was born.
Is that why we have a birth certificate? To prove our existence? Isn’t it something more?
If you look at it, it gives so much more than that you were born. It tells you where you were born, who your parents were and what their occupations were. It gives the address to where you will go home . It tells of numbers of siblings.
A birth certificate is not a proof of your birth but certifies who you are. A citizen of a country. A son or daughter of a mother and father. A resident of a town.
When John begins the fifth chapter of his first letter, he has a particular purpose. Those who he writes to are unsettled by false teachers who question their spiritual legitimacy. The teachers tell them their spiritual lives are a hoax, a phantom they have believed to be true. They, and they only, were God’s chosen. It was this assault on assurance, to those tottering and unsettled, confused and vulnerable that John writes.
We too find ourselves there. We are never as good as we make Christians out to be. There are those lies or words we don’t like to taste in our mouths. We expect to be spiritual, walking a foot above the floor. We think our Christian commitment should circle our heads with halos of saints. Instead, we fail and fall. We come up short on the commands. And God must be ashamed of us, isn’t he?
While the teachers of Gnosticism are buried in the sands of time, it doesn’t mean their message of “less than spiritual” is gone from our lives.
John want to tell them what makes faith and Christian life genuine. And it is not what we think. It is something else. It comes from the birth certificate of our new birth.
Discussion
Discussion
The Birth
The Birth
John loves the image of the birth. It was in his gospel that he had a candle-lit Jesus leaning in to Nicodemus saying, “unless you are born again, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.”
So, he returns to it in the letter’s fifth chapter with an emphasis.
Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well.
and
for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.
We are “born of God.” The phrase is not future but past. It has lingering results. For John, this is not the invitation discussion of “how you are born again.” Instead, it “what you have become since you have been born.”
And he brings up two different aspects of life that are different when God is the source of the spiritual birth.
Family
Family
Verse 1 brings us the family.
Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well.
Here, we gather around the family dinner table. Everyone born of God has something in common—they have this deep-seated conviction that Jesus of Nazareth is the one and only messiah, the divine Son of God. It was words formed in their mouths at baptism. It is a fire that inhabits their hearts. It is a compass rose that guides their steps.
Around the dinner table is also brothers and sisters, those who love the father who loves his children.
John says that the love of the father creates the love of his children, our brothers and sisters. There’s something about siblings. There are times you fight like mortal enemies, but we will defend to the death our brothers and sisters. Love is deeper than like.
The relation birth gives is strong. It brings us to God but it also brings us together.
Fidelity
Fidelity
Look at verses 2 and 3. John adds to the family dimension.
This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome,
One of the hallmarks of a spiritual birth from God’s hands is keeping the commandments of God. And John wants us to understand the difference between forced compliance and loving obedience.
He says God’s commands are not burdensome. It is a word that means heavy. In Greek mythology, Atlas was condemned to carry the world on his shoulders. For some, they take God’s word that way. It is a demand that crushes the life out of them. It is carried out through clenched teeth with white knuckles.
But those people confuse man’s commandments with God’s commandments.
Jesus complained about how men took God’s commandments and torqued them.
Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: “The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. So you must be careful to do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.
Did you hear that word “load?” It is the burden, the heavy weight John was thinking about. Requirements. Rituals. Precise patterns. They are the mark of man trying to make sense out of a holy God. Perfection is the word and failure is the result. For man, they make God the boogey man who is wringing his hands in glee waiting for us to fail. But it is man that makes them impossible. And the Pharisees perfected the art of looking like they were perfect while building escape hatches for themselves. That way they could be both superior and judgmental of others.
That’s why Jesus also says there is burden, but a different kind of weight.
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 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. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
He spoke to the burdened and said, “let me exchange the burdens for something light, something that can be carried.”
What does Christian obedience look like? It looks like a mother rocking a feverish child all night long. She’s tired but the love for the child is more important. It is a man who goes to a memory care everyday and sits with a wife who doesn’t remember his name. She asks, “now who are you?” But he’s there because of a vow made decades before.
We obey God because we shift from God the taskmaster to God the father. He gives power to do and love to forgive when we fall short. We love a father who knows us and what we can do.
for he knows how we are formed,
he remembers that we are dust.
It is not a burden to serve God but it is to bow to a tyrant. We are not compelled by God but born of God.
And his power gives us something important.
We Overcome the World
We Overcome the World
for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.
We overcome the world.
What is this “world?” It’s not terra firma but the draw of unredeemed human nature.
Peter knew the world. He told his readers:
For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do—living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry.
The list gets men painted with dark paint. It is animalistic and primal. It doesn’t reflect God but man left on his own.The pagan world had its vices and we haven’t improved on them. They are still here. We find ourselves surrounded by them.
When I was in high school, I went to a speech tournament at another high school in the area. Since it was about 15 minutes before I had to report to my next event, I decided to go to the restroom. I opened the door and it was filled with guys who decided that it needed a little cigarette smoke to improve the ambiance. The truth is it was so blue with cigarette haze you could not see. It didn’t take long to realize, I was in the wrong place.
That’s how Christians feel in the world. It’s standards may be settled but we are out of place and don’t participate.
John also says, “we overcome” the world.
It was a word you have heard as the name for a popular athletic shoe company. Nike. But Nike was the Greek goddess of victory. She always appeared winged, which is why modern trophies feature a winged figure so often.
John says in this war of the worlds, the Christians have sealed a victory over those things. They live to a different plain and for a different reason. They did not slide back into old lives. They lived a distinctive lifestyle curiously out-of-step with the standards of friends and neighbors. They kept the cadence of God.
John talks of the birth and its results. The New Testament portrays it as a new life or a resurrection to iife. The birth creates a new life that reflects resurrection. Behavior betrays your birth.
Testimony
Testimony
The rest of today’s lesson has a string that holds it together.
This is the one who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ. He did not come by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three that testify: the Spirit, the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement. We accept human testimony, but God’s testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God, which he has given about his Son. Whoever believes in the Son of God accepts this testimony. Whoever does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because they have not believed the testimony God has given about his Son. And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.
Nine times, John uses the word “testimony.” It is a term that translates “martyr” or someone who states clearly “here is what I have experienced.”
For John, the testimony is the restraining wall holding up our faith.
The first is the reality of Jesus.
This is the one who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ. He did not come by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. For there are three that testify:
This may be one of the more confusing texts of the Bible. The difficulty comes from the terms ‘water and blood.”
To understand it, we must remember the falsehood the teachers were pushing.
The false teacher Cerinthus taught that Jesus of Nazareth was only a man. But at his baptism, the divinity known at “the Christ’ descended on him. It allowed the man to do divine things. And then, because God could never touch the fleshly experiences of men, it was withdrawn at the cross. Jesus the man died on that cross.
While we might advise someone with this kind of dichotomous thinking to see the help of a therapist, it as the up-and-coming teaching of the day. It is what John had to battle.
It is not an accident that in verse 6, John refers to Jesus as he does: Jesus Christ. He puts them together as inseparable. So the water and the blood are thrown against this backdrop.
Jesus began his ministry at his baptism and ended at the cross. At the baptism, at the water, the testimony of God comes through. This is my beloved son in whom I am well-pleased. Then, at the end comes the cross.
Instead, one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden flow of blood and water. The man who saw it has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe.
The guard gives the testimony of blood and water in order that we believe.
The events, as spoken by the Holy Spirit, testifies that the faith the Christians have is based on the truth. And it is proved by both the water and the blood.
But then John adds God’s testimony to the mix.
We accept human testimony, but God’s testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God, which he has given about his Son.
John started the letter by saying he was an eyewitness. And they believed him. But God’s testimony is a step beyond even the eyewitnesses. For man says what is seen and God says what is true.
Throughout the letter John has emphasized the “confession that Jesus has come in the flesh.” He is the Son of God in its complete meaning. It is this that God says is true and stands up to the false teachers who have denied the truth.
Today, many still deny the divinity of Jesus. He was a moral teacher. He amazed crowds with his teaching. His is one of the great ethical minds of history. But God says that is weak tea to drink. He is the Son of God. You can believe men or God but God’s testimony is true.
Eternal Life
Eternal Life
But the final idea that John provides as a result of being “born of God” is life itself.
And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
Another proof of God’s birth is eternal life which is in the Son. Listen carefully to John. He has given eternal life. It is a gift in the past not one in the future.
What exactly is this eternal life?
We tend to focus on the time factor when we discuss that word. When life here is over, we go to heaven where we have “eternal life” and we live forever. For a time-bound people, that’s a hard concept to wrap our minds around.
Is it just “living forever?” Stop and think. People in hell live forever. But that doesn’t sound like a gift? Who looks forward to an eternity over a roasting spit? It is apparent from what John says that he has something more than just unending time in his mind.
Instead of length of time, it is a quality of life.
Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.
If you have the son, you have life, this eternal life. It is in the here-and-now. It is not someday, it is now.
We have pictured eternal life as having an eternity in the presence of God. We’ve misconstrued God. He says you have me now, not just later. We enjoy fellowship with the father in this life. And it is because of Jesus the Son. If we have or possess the Son, we possess this life. And if you don’t, you don’t have this life.
One of the most important points of Christianity is not eternity some day but fellowship with God now. Don’t look forward to the future. Start enjoying God now.
Conclusion
Conclusion
The Christian’s life and birth is established every day.
It is not determined by:
what people say either way. Others cannot take away what God’s birth gave us, regardless of credentials, education, or status.
how we feel. Feelings are fickle and can fool us. Born of God doesn’t change because you have a bad day.
Like the birth certificate that certifies birth, being born of God certifies something magnificient that God and only God can give.
He gives us a life and spiritual existence beyond just a better human being. We become part of a family.
He provides the proofs both in history and in life. We don’t guess about Jesus’s identity. God shows us what it is.
He provides a quality of life unheard by any philosopher. We have communion with God today and forever. Do we take advantage of that?
What does it take to keep our own birth certificate in front of us?
First, we need to remember. Too often, we divorce the past from the present. We wallow in the current circumstances. Yet, go back. Remember what God gave you at your brith. Remember the family you were born into.
Second, we need to listen. Listen to the voices of scripture. It’s not good advice. Instead it is the testimony of God. It provides not just facts but insights. Too often we listen to the wrong voices. Yet, if you let the signal of God pierce the noise of our world, you can navigate through life.
Finally, we need to look. Look at the quality of life God gives you. How much better is life? We tend to get caught in the riptide of tough times and don’t back off to get perspective. God is here. God is loving us. God has given power to overcome. See the life God gives.
Something happens when we finally get it. When John wrote his gospel, he included a story untold by the trio of the synoptics. It comes at the end. The resurrection is in the rearview mirror and Jesus’ time on earth is ticking away. The disciples come together and Jesus is there. But according to John 20, there’s an empty seat at the table. It is a man who seems pessimistic. He doesn’t want to believe what he can’t see. He’s stubborn.
Finally, all of the disciples, including this missing man, gather in the room. And as the candle flickers another appears before them. Jesus moves toward this man whose name become synonomous with doubting, Thomas. He reaches out his hands and says, “see, touch, feel.
He pulls up his robe and says “see, touch, feel.” Overwhelming emotion floods Thomas as he cries, “My Lord and My God!” Then Jesus says:
Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
And we lose Thomas to the silence of scripture. What happens when the doubter comes to faith?
Tradition details that Thomas went to the ends of the earth to tell the story of a Christ whose hands bore nail-prints and whose blood gives birth to men. He passed through Iraq preaching. He made his way to India when India was basically unknown. There he spoke of the love of Christ. But it was so foreign men could not listen. He was killed and supposed buried.
Something can happen when you finally can say My Lord and My God. Make that the statement of each day you live.