Sermon for 5/9/21 14 Minutes
Notes
Transcript
1 John 5:1-6
1 John 5:1-6
This morning I'll be reading "1 John" chapter 5 verses 1 through 6.
And I'll be reading from the Holman Christian Standard Bible.
1 John 5:1-6
This morning we look at these verses that are from John the disciple and they were written during a time when the church was beginning to be taught some things that didn't line up with the words that Jesus had taught. And John is trying to set the record straight.
1 John 5:1–6 (HCSB) —
1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Messiah has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father also loves the one born of Him. 2 This is how we know that we love God’s children when we love God and obey His commands. 3 For this is what love for God is: to keep His commands. Now His commands are not a burden, 4 because whatever has been born of God conquers the world. This is the victory that has conquered the world: our faith. 5 And who is the one who conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? 6 Jesus Christ—He is the One who came by water and blood, not by water only, but by water and by blood. And the Spirit is the One who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.
God bless the reading and the hearing of your word this morning.
Let us pray:
Dear Lord,,, as we begin this morning,,, with everyone here today and all that are listening and watching by video,,, we ask that you open our ears to hear and our hearts and minds to receive the message that you have for us today,,, In Jesus' name I pray,,, Amen.
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Today is Mothers Day,,, so I hope you have all told your mothers happy mothers day and are planning to thank her and recognize her for how much work that she does each and every day.
The verses that we look at this morning are words that John wrote to show that it's very important that our Christian walk is cemented in sound doctrine,,, which leads to the love and obedience it produces,,, and the faith that overcomes the world.
Christian mothers are great at keeping their children focused on these qualities.
And these are very important for all of us as well.
Lets look at these verses this morning and see how they can help us in our walk with God this week.
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Verse 1 says: 1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Messiah has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father also loves the one born of Him.
If you look at verse 20 in chapter 4,,, you will see that anyone claiming to love God without a corresponding love for his brother is a liar.
My commentary says that this is strong language; but John is certain that someone could only love God with divinely given love (v. 16),,, "in other words this is possible only with the help of the Holy Spirit",,, and it says the mark of this love is compassion.
“The claim to the love of God without action” involves “falseness of character.”
John implies in verse 20 that there are visible qualities in a believing man that are godlike.
He asks,,, If a person cannot love his brother,,, how can he love God?
God identified Himself with man in Jesus; so,,, any hatred for a man for whom Christ died,,, is hatred for God.
The Gnostic claim of love for God,,, which denies fellowship with the followers of Christ,,, is absolutely false.
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The Christian has been spiritually reborn; God is his Father.
This new man is bound to love God who has created him anew.
But this birth is also into a family.
Jesus says in Mark 3:35: 35 Whoever does the will of God is My brother and sister and mother.”
So,,, since the child of God loves his heavenly Father,,, he must also love those who have been born again.
It is the same love that goes out into all directions,,, is closely interlocked,,, and can never be divided,,, nothing can come between our love for each other,,, and love of God,,, and God's love for us!
Going back to verse 1 that I read above,,, the new spiritual birth of the Christian is associated with believing that Jesus is the Son of God (5:1).
By saying this,,, John is still thinking about the Gnostics who have been changing the words of the disciples and denying that Jesus is the Son of God.
By their denial of Jesus they forfeit the life of love.
It's impossible for them to have any love for God apart from their being born of him.
With the new birth comes the command to love
1 John 4:21 (HCSB) — 21 And we have this command from Him: The one who loves God must also love his brother.
And love is something that is natural for the believer:
Romans 8:15 (HCSB) — 15 For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father!”
"The personal encounter with Christ results in love for Him,,, and for all those who are a part of the family of God."
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Verses 2 and 3 are easy to understand,,, as you see when you read them.
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Verse 2 says: 2 This is how we know that we love God’s children when we love God and obey His commands.
In this verse,,, John simply reverses the order and states that we know that we love the children of God,,, when we love God.
This means that one knows he loves God when he loves others,,, and he knows he loves others,,, when he loves God.
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Verse 3 says: 3 For this is what love for God is: to keep His commands. Now His commands are not a burden,
This verse is really self explanatory.
When we love God,,, we will obey God,,, and through the help of the Holy Spirit,,, which is the only way that we can “obey” consistently,,, it isn't a burden.
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Verses 4 and 5 say: 4 because whatever has been born of God conquers the world. This is the victory that has conquered the world: our faith. 5 And who is the one who conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
We conquer because we have faith,,, and we have faith because we know that Jesus is the Son of God,,, and we know “that” because,,, first,,, we have God’s word telling us it’s so,,, because of the testimony of many different people,,, because of written articles in history,,, and through the Holy Spirit.
My Wesleyan Commentary says that the “world” is that which is apart from God,,, opposes God,,, and tries to lead a person away from God.
It said that “the world is society organized and functioning independent of God.”
We can see that in the way that the media and leaders of many countries,,, even our own country,,, try to keep us away from God.
And it’s in this world where we have to live for the time,,, and just looking at the way that things are progressing you would think that the “world” is winning,,, but we know the rest of the story,,, and that God will overcome any thing that the “world” can do!
And through our faith in Christ,,, we overcome the “world” as well!
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Verse 6 says: 6 Jesus Christ—He is the One who came by water and blood, not by water only, but by water and by blood. And the Spirit is the One who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.
In this verse,,, the reference to water and blood,,, is apparently another way of challenging the words of the Gnostics of that day and time.
Since they taught that the Spirit of God came upon Jesus during His baptism,,, but then,,, left before He died on the cross,,, John is saying that without the connection between the water and the blood,,, or death on the cross as the Son of God,,, we would have just an ordinary man dying on the cross.
My Wesleyan Commentary says that this is why that John makes sure that we catch the connection by saying,,, not by water only, but by water and by blood.
This way we have the connection between God the Father,,, Jesus,,, and the Holy Spirit at Jesus’ baptism,,, and then we have the blood from Jesus that was shed for us as an atonement for our sins when He died upon the cross.
John is saying that we have the water and the blood,,, that way we can see that Jesus “was” the sacrifice for our sins.
Then we have the Spirit is the One who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.
Jesus declared Himself to be “the Truth” in John 14:6 when He told us “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."
So we have the Holy Spirit that testifies to us that Jesus was the Son of God and died on the cross for our sins.
And we have this personal testimony available to each of us today.
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So we can see from these verses that every thing that we stand upon depends on Jesus Christ as being the Son of God and John has given us a great explanation of the way that the Spirit,,, the water,,, and the blood,,, keep us grounded in our faith.
And as I said at the beginning,,, Christian mothers do their part by showing their children the way each and every day as well.
We as a church family must do our part also.
It is all of our responsibility to be sure that the children of the church are given Christian examples so that they have examples of the right way to live instead of the ways of the world.
And the ways of the world will do everything that it can to change their behavior if we let them.
But we can see from these verses that we have overcome the world,,, through our faith,,, in Jesus Christ!
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