Some words on prayer
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Not a tired subject
Not a tired subject
May we never get to a point that we think that prayer is a routine, no thought thing. Prayer is a vital tool, and a command given. We should not be surprised that John addresses prayer to the believers.
John is drawing to a close his Epistle and our passage this evening is going to focus on some words about prayer. Now, we will look at (vv.16-17) and those verses are difficult to interpret and will spend some time there, but the overall theme, subject is prayer tonight.
Previously by John:
Taught on value of confessing in prayer (1Jn1:9)
let me show you in scriptures briefly
9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Taught on our Advocate in prayer (1Jn2:1)
1 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous;
Taught on reason we receive what we pray for (1Jn3:22)
22 and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight.
In our passage tonight we will see he expands on prayer. Praying with confidence and with compassion. All this lines up with love for one another a great theme of the epistle and also a proof of authentic Christianity.
(Transition) So, tonight here is what we will look at.
Praying in confidence (1Jn5:14-15)
Praying with compassion (1Jn5:16)
Sinning a sin not unto death (1Jn5:16-17)
Praying in confidence
Praying in confidence
Prayer is a great theme throughout the bible and there are many teachings on it. John uses terminology “ask” just as Jesus did (Mt7:7-12). So this is asking in confidence, let’s look together at the passage.
14 This is the confidence which we have before 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 which we have asked from Him.
Gleaning from the scripture:
Where is our confidence according to (v.14)?
Before Him
What is our confidence (v.14)?
That He hears us
What is the results of the confidence (v.15)?
We have the request that we asked for
Now, John is teaching, maybe reminding the young believers, the church to pray. John tells them to “ask” but now may we look at what we are to ask and how we are to ask.
Praying with confidence requires:
Asking in accordance to God’s will (1Jn5:14-15; jn14:13-14; Mt26:39; 2Cor12:7-9)
Let me give you another version of these verses and let’s build on these verses some
14 Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15 And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.
Asking must be in accordance to God’s will.
Question: How can we know what God’s will is?
Some have drawn to a wrong conclusion regarding asking for anything, thinking they have open door because of faith to ask and God must give to them. Taking a improper conclusion of
13 “Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 “If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.
And if that were true how do you wrestle Jesus own words
39 And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will.”
Or maybe the words of Paul in (2Cor12:7-9) he asked 3 times for the throne to be removed.
I asked the question how can we know God’s will earlier, now consider the more we know His will the more likely we are to pray in accordance to His will.
Praying in accordance to His will brings a confidence we can have that they will be answered accordingly.
(Transition) So, know and pray according to His will and that leads to another point to consider.
Asking while keeping God’s commands (1Jn3:22-23; 1Pt3:22)
Keeping God’s commandments
22 and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight. 23 This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us.
According to (v.22) why do you receive whatever you ask?
You keep his commands and you do the things that are pleasing in His sight.
Think about it, can we expect God to favorably answer our prayers if we are not keeping his commandments?
Peter gives some rehashed words from the Psalmist that we can be reminded of.
12 “For the eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous, And His ears attend to their prayer, But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”
In case you were wondering that is from PS34:15.
Who are the righteous? Those who do those things that are pleasing to God (1Jn3:22); but also even more so
23 This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us.
That we believe in Jesus, and love one another.
Now there is another request I want to request you to consider.
Request you abide in Him, and He in you(Jn15:7; Jn14:13-14; 1Jn3:24)
Jesus taught on this important subject, abiding
7 “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
That goes hand in hand with the (Jn14:13-14) that we looked at earlier and now consider
24 The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. We know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.
I know, I think we used this one before too.
So, in summary
Confidence in prayer depends on knowing and praying His will
Confidence in prayer depends on keeping His commands.
So, love the Lord, love His word so you can keep His commands, keep His commands so you are abiding in Him and He is you and you can love one another which is a theme throughout this epistle. loving one another is a trait of an authentic Christian.
(Transition) we can now move to another subject within prayer, praying with compassion.
Praying with compassion
Praying with compassion
Compassion: (N) sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others. Is that not what we are to be compassionate toward one another? So should our prayers show compassion for one another.
Some words used to describe compassion are: Feeling, Empathy, Sympathy, Understanding, Care, Concern, Sensitivity, Warmth, Brotherly love, Tenderness, Gentleness, Mercy and kindness.
So, John, the apostle of love speaking of compassion in prayer is not out of his wheel house, it is in his wheel house.
16 If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask and God will for him give life to those who commit sin not leading to death. There is a sin leading to death; I do not say that he should make request for this.
Focus for a moment, what is the prayer for in this verse?
God would give life to the one committing sin.
We are to pray for the sinning brother and help one another to be restored (Gal6:1-2)
1 Brethren, even if anyone is caught in any trespass, you who are spiritual, restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness; each one looking to yourself, so that you too will not be tempted. 2 Bear one another’s burdens, and thereby fulfill the law of Christ.
We are to lay down our lives for one another (1Jn3:16). That can be done in compassionate prayer
16 We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
Now you can loosely add in the very next verse
17 But whoever has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him?
Forget the worlds goods, but how about the spiritual goods, spiritual needs. Compassionate prayer for the sinful heart that does not lead to death.
I would like to now look at our next part of the verse with the following verse which is baffled many and has many scholars drawing several conclusions that we will look at and hopefully draw a simple conclusion.
Sinning a sin not unto death
Sinning a sin not unto death
This is a difficult passage that can raise some questions. Let’s look at the passage, some views and draw a simple conclusion.
16 If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask and God will for him give life to those who commit sin not leading to death. There is a sin leading to death; I do not say that he should make request for this. 17 All unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin not leading to death.
Maybe it is obvious, but to be safe, what is the topic (beyond prayer) that is being addressed here in these verses?
Sin not leading to death
We are to pray for a brother who commits sin that is not leading to death. But not for the brother whose sin leads to death? Huh, that sounds confusing doesn’t it?
This has baffled many interpreters through the centuries.
one commentator F.F. Bruce said
“I suggest that it is, quite literally, a sin which has death as it’s consequence . . . What John is doing, in that case, is to make it plain that he does not advocated praying for the dead.”
(F.F. Bruce answers questions; Zondervan press 1972)
F.F. Bruce offers one opinion, let me give you a few others.
A few opinions on this “sin unto death:”
A particularly bad sin which God will not pardon. (Consider 1Jn3:9)
We cannot find in the N.T. sin that is so bad that it cannot be forgiven. Peter cursed and denied Jesus and what happened? Jesus fixed him breakfast and restored him.
One born of God does not live, dwell, practice sin: look at this verse
9 No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.
This “sin to death” is identified by some as apostasy - to deliberately repudiate the Christian faith, after supposedly embracing it. (Consider 1Jn2:19; 2Tim4:10)
An authentic Christian cannot fall away from his faith or he was not a true Christian in the first place
He may have been as John described (Not on slide)
19 They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us.
c. Or like Demas in 2Tim4:10 (not on slide)
10 for Demas, having loved this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica; Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia.
This is not saying once saved always saved. This is looking at a professing believer that was never saved in the first place - or- one who was a Christian who then denied his faith and went back to the world like Demas.
3. To others, this “sin to death” was blaspheming the Holy Spirit, a sin that will not be forgiven (Mt12:31-32)
31 “Therefore I say to you, any sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven people, but blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven. 32 “Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.
(expand briefly on blasphemy)
4. And others, line up with F.F. Bruce stating this is physical death, sin that was so bad that God took their lives (Act5:1-11)
In Acts it is the story of Ananias and Sapphira whose sin cost them their very lives for they lied to Holy Spirit (Act5:3)
Now coming back to our passage, what is the theme of this entire passage we are looking at? - - - - - - PRAYER
Now to get a better understanding so to draw a conclusion look ahead one verse
17 All unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin not leading to death.
So, sin cannot, should not be taken lightly for we know the wages of sin is death (Rom6:23) and we all sin (1Jn1:8; Rom3:23), but sin that leads not to death is sin not fully matured or full grown (Jm1:15)
15 Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.
Is this Spiritual death, is this physical death? If spiritual should we not pray for repentance and restoration so there can be a return before physical death.
We are to pray for God to give them life
9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
that if he confesses there is forgiveness and in forgiveness there is life. Prayer matters according to
16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.
So, drawing a conclusion on sin not leading to death, the person needs our prayers, with compassion for we all fall short (Rom3:23) we want there to be a restoration.
Now to sum up tonight
Pray confidently, pray with compassion. We can do those things when we
Pray knowing His will, wanting his will as we keep his commandments knowing then He abides in us and we in Him.
Praying for the brother sinning not leading to death to return so not to lead to death.
(Encourage) (Pray) (Exit)