The Confidence to Ask

Introduction

Nothings is so comforting, sustainable, and stabilizing as confidence. Confidence gives you the courage to ask for that promotion, to talk to that girl or guy you like, it gives you the wilfulness to study for that test, the patience to take careful aim, and the hope to see something through to the end. However, confidence is only good if it is well founded. Confidence is a lot like faith, it is based on something that we have not seen realized and yet have the assurance to act on as if it were already ours. Confidence is well founded if we have good reason to believe that it is based in reality. I know that confidence in an airplane’s ability to get me to my destination is well founded in reality because my experience has given me believe so. However, man time travelling from the 17th century would rightfully have no confidence in that since he has no reason to believe it is, just like we would have no confidence in his time machine.

The main point that John has wanted to get across to his readers in this epistle is that those who have believed in the Gospel of Jesus Christ that was preached to them have good reason to have confidence in that Gospel and all the promises of God contained in it. Rather than a shallow sort of “Just believe” type message that adorns way too many Christian cards and ‘Precious Moments” figurines, John goes in depth in showing exactly who can have this confidence, why they have that confidence, and why it is so important to be confident in Christ.

Now John begins to close his letter by going into an even deeper and final look at why this confidence is so important, and how it not only helps our own Christian walk, but also ministers to others of the faith.

Knowing that we have Eternal life

Our text begins with John’s purpose being explicitly stated.

1 John 5:13 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.

“I write” has been repeated throughout the book, all connected to confidence in Christ. 2:1 confidence in Christ helps us to stop sinning and gives us somewhere to go when we do sin for forgiveness. 2:7 talks about the commandment to walk in the way of obedience in love because there is no confidence if we walk in the darkness rather than the light. Then look at 2:12-14

1 John 2:12–14 ESV

I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for his name’s sake. I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I write to you, children, because you know the Father. I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.

To those who believe

Who has confidence? Those who believe. This confidence cannot be for everyone, otherwise it is a weak confidence with the weight of a parent telling their child “when your grow up you can do anything.” In order for this confidence to mean anything, we need to know who it applies to. So how do we know that we are one of those who believe?

The Belief

First it is dependent on the object of the belief. It is a faith in the Son of God who came in water and blood.

The Testimony

Second it is dependent on the Testimony that we talked about last week.

The Spirit of Truth, who gives us the correct Gospel.

The Testimony of the water, the spiritual life through the work of the Spirit and in Faith.

The Testimony of the blood, the forgiveness of your sins by the blood of Christ.

“That you may know”

Confidence in eternal life, that is, knowing God the Father through faith in Christ, is the practical outworking of all theology.

Knowing that He Hears Us

If we have confidence that we know God, it stands to reason that we have confidence that God hears us. If you know someone, it means they hear you. They can know about them, and you can know about them. You can see someone and they can see you. But if you know someone, they hear you. Just as a Christian listens to God’s word in submission and obedience, God listens to his children in love and provision.

Confidence “towards” him (To approach him)

Verse 14 tells us the nature of the confidence we have. If you say you have confidence in something, you have confidence in something specific that will happen. If I say that I have confidence in my body, it is assumed that I do not mean I am confident my body can grow wings and fly to mars. Obviously, I have confidence that my body can do the specific things I expect it to do. So what is it that we are confident about in Christ?

Pros. We are confident to him, that is, we are confident we can approach him, and that approaching him will have our expected result.

If we ask according to his will, he hears us.

This result is that if we approach God and speak to him, he hears us. What a glorious confidence. It is no wonder that John has spent so much energy ensuring this confidence, since it is something that would be so far fetched if we did not have good reason to believe it.

Confidence that we have whatever we asked (according to his will)

Not only this, but we have confidence that if we ask according to God’s will, we know we have what we ask for.

We “have” means God hears us, agrees with us, and is working in his providence to an end that satisfies the heart of our prayer.

What kind of prayers is John talking about specifically?

Knowing that he Forgives

John seemingly changes the subject suddenly, but if we read this part of the text closely we see that John is still talking about asking for things in prayer. I think the mystery and debate over this text has caused many of us to easily lose what John is saying and how it is connected to what he just said about confidence in asking God. The purpose of this text is cleared up when we consider what John is commanding us to do in verse 16. If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask.” Interesting, isn’t it? John just told us that when we are in Christ, we have confidence that God hears whatever we ask. What should we ask for? According to John, we should intercede for our brother’s sins.

The Ministry of Intercession for Sins

Intercession is a way that God ministers his forgiveness and grace to us.

Intercession is a place to pray for a brother’s speck after confession our own log (Matt 7:3). We cannot rightly intercede for another believer’s sins if we think they are greater sinners than we are.

Intercession is the primary way that we should deal with other Christians sins.

Intercession is to be sought through confession (1 John 1:9)

The Will of God: Reconciliation and forgiveness for his people.

The purpose of intercession for sin is a recognition of God’s will to forgive his people and reconcile them to himself.

It aligns our motivation to God’s, giving us his heart and desire for his people. It is always his will to forgive the sins of his people, therefore this is a prayer we can always pray knowing that God will answer that prayer with a “Yes”.

It propagates the Gospel in our prayer life, remembering what it means for Christ to forgive sins.

It reminds us that we are a community of sinner saved by grace, grace that desires to move us away from both the power and guilt of sin and to the light of God in Christ.

To Pray or not to Pray

There is a lot of debate as to what the sin leading to death is. Are there certain sins which we should not intercede for? This passage has been connected with the sin of the Pharisees which Jesus said was unforgivable, the sin of denying the work of God and the signs that the Spirit was doing to show that Jesus was the Christ. When we look at this book as a whole, we can see that there certainly are those who had entered the church, professed faith in Christ, but later showed themselves to not be of the faith. They went out from us because they were never of us. They aren’t true children of God, do not have eternal life in Christ, and therefore their sins cannot be forgiven.

Sins leading to Death

The Sins of an unrepentant apostate

We may, and should, pray for their salvation, but we don’t pray for their forgiveness with the confidence that we pray for the forgiveness for Christians. They may be forgiven by God’s grace, but not in their current state. We must pray for God’s Spirit to change their heart before we can intercede for their sins. The church was not given authority to intercede for the sins of unbelievers, only for the believer.

Sins not leading to Death

The sins of a repentant Christians.

This does not put other Christian’s forgiveness in our hands, rather God gives us the authority to forgive in order to serve one another through prayer. It also stops us from hiding our sins from each other while at the same time keeping us from ungracious judgement of each other. Through this ministry of prayer, we are held accountable to each other for our sins and reminded that we are all sinners reliant upon the forgiving grace of God.

Just as God works through us to be examples of Godly life to each other, and to exhort one another against sin, so he uses us to forgive the sins of other Christians. God honours our prayers for their sin and so he is glorified in the forgiveness administered, our will aligning with his, and the answer to our prayers. Both Christians are given greater confidence in their walk with Christ and God is glorified in the prayer he is glad and willing to answer.

Conclusion

The Christian life is a series of intertwining relationships, all of which must be functional if our Christian life is to follow the plan which God gave it.

Our relationship to God is through faith in Christ.

This relationship bears the witness of the threefold testimony in us:

The Spirit of truth - correct theology

The New Life - spiritual awakening leading us to joyful obedience

The blood of Christ - forgiveness from sin and reconciliation with the Father

Our relationship with the Father brings us into relationship with his church, a relationship of love based on the love of God and fueled by our love for God. That love reveals itself in accordance to the three testimonies

Love in speaking the truth to each other

Love in kindness and affection for one another as our new siblings

Finally, love in forgiving intercession in prayer

The end is confidence, trust, and love in the community of God.