1 John 5:14-21
In a nutshell: “It might be true for you, but it doesn’t work for me.” That’s not true! There is truth in the world, and that truth is the truth of God. We must stay true to truth and not be led astray. Our love must be tough so that we do not wander into what is false.
Where we have been
In this series on 1 John we have unpacked a number of themes. We have seen that:
The church is affected by the culture of its city. John was writing to the church in Ephesus. This was a church with a great history. It had been founded by Paul, led by Timothy, and now instructed by John, but it wasn’t immune to the pressures of the wider culture. Living as a Christian in Ephesus was not always easy. We need to understand the culture of the place where we live, and learn to handle the pressures that brings us.
The apostolic emphasis is on certainty in uncertain times. The wider cultural and religious currents in Ephesus were causing the church to wobble. John wants them rock-like not jelly-like! John preaches certainty because of his certainty in Jesus. Jesus is fully God and fully man and in him we can have confidence. There are many currents (religious, economic, political, environmental, scientific) swirling around us that could cause uncertainty, but we must find our certainty in Jesus.
Sin is our fundamental problem. It is sin that keeps us from God. It is sin that keeps us from one another. Sin is our problem, but Jesus solves the sin problem. By his death in our place Jesus has turned aside the wrath of God and enabled us to know restored relationship with God and with one another.
Jesus Confronts, Comforts, and Commands. Jesus is our Prophet who gets in our faces and confronts the sin in our lives. Jesus is our Priest who tenderly draws alongside us and comforts us in our sorrows. Jesus is our King who expects our obedience and commands us how to live.
The way of Jesus is the way of love. It is because God is love that Jesus came to save us. As people who have been rescued by the love of God we need in turn to respond to this love by loving Jesus and loving one another. There is no real obedience without love, and no real love without obedience.
Our identity needs to be in Christ. Our sense of who we are needs to be primarily grounded in our relationship with Jesus. In him we are transformed people and none of the other markers of our identity (gender, career, age, race, marital status) carry as much significance as Christ’s mark upon us. What you do is not so important as what you are, and what you are is “in Christ.”
Stand firm in the truth. As people in Christ we have overcome the world. We need to stand firm in this truth, and not allow it to be taken away from us.
Live in the experienced reality of the Spirit. The way that we are able to stay in the truth is by an experience of the Holy Spirit’s power in us. The Spirit is God’s empowering presence who gives us assurance of our salvation and enables us to live in a way that is pleasing to Jesus.
Understand the benefits of salvation. As soon as we put our trust in Jesus we enter eternal life. In this life we experience relationship with God and with his church and for all eternity we will be with Jesus in a relationship of love. We have crossed a line from death into life.
Where we are up to
John wraps his letter up with some concluding remarks that summarize all that has gone before:
Praying in his will, vv14-15
As people who are sure of eternal life we can pray with great confidence. However, there is a condition on our prayers – God only answers those prayers which are in line with his will.
There are times when we pray and God does not appear to answer. Sometimes we pray for good things, which we think must surely be in the will of God, but God doesn’t appear to answer. John doesn’t give a full explanation as to why this is the case, but he makes it clear that he wants us to be confident in our prayers. He wants us to pray! And he immediately gives an example of something we are to pray for.
Praying against sin, vv16-17
John wants us to pray for people caught in sin.
But there is an issue with these verses! The issue is this: What does John mean by saying there are some sins that lead to death and others that don’t?
In 1 John ‘life’ and ‘death’ refer to spiritual life and spiritual death, so when John says there is a sin that leads to death he must be talking about a spiritual dying, rather than God striking someone dead. In the context of the letter it makes sense that who John has in mind here are the antichrists – that group of people who have a hardened rejection of Jesus and are deliberately teaching falsehoods about him.
There is a parallel here with Jesus’ teaching in Mark 3:22-30, when Jesus says that there is such a thing as an unforgivable sin. This is something that Christians sometimes worry about; but it shouldn’t be!
What Jesus (and John) is talking about is those people who in some way recognize the truth about him but deliberately reject him. The reason that this sin is unforgivable is because it reflects a hardness of heart that is so complete there is no possibility of that person being turned in forgiveness towards God.
By definition Christians cannot commit this sin!
John has given quite a lot of attention in his letter to the heretics who were seeking to undermine the faith of the church. Basically what he appears to be saying here is, Don’t waste your breath praying for them. There’s too much else important to pray for! So don’t get stressed by these false teachers – just ignore them.
Who, then, should we pray for? For those whose sin is not the same hardened stance against Christ as the antichrists. John says here that we are to pray for our “Brother” – the implication being that he is talking about other believers. When we see others falling into sin we are meant to pray for them to be restored to full relationship with the church and with Jesus.
I think there is also an application here to pray for those who are not “brothers” in the sense that they are believers, but are “brothers” in the broader sense that they are our fellow men. We are meant to pray for those who don’t know Jesus. We are meant to pray with confidence for those in sin because there is power in our prayers.
Knowing confidence, v18
Those who put their faith in Jesus have victory over sin. In this letter John has repeatedly emphasised the importance of purity. We are to respond to God’s forgiveness of us by living in a way that reflects him.
Christians are people who have been “born of God” and Jesus is “he who was born of God.” John writes this to remind us of our status in Christ. Because of what Jesus has done, we now share in all that Jesus has and is. This should give us great confidence and security. Jesus is watching over us, and we are overcomers.
We know that the power of sin over us has been broken.
Crossing the line, v19
John is very clear that there is a dividing line between God’s side and Satan’s side. When we come to faith in Jesus we cross the line. We change camps. This is one of the reasons why church membership is so important. When we come into membership of a local church we are in effect making a public stand about which side of the line we are on.
We know that we are God’s.
Living in Christ, v20
How is it that we get to get faith? By Jesus! He enables us to understand what he has accomplished for us. What is the result of this faith? Confidence in who we are in God. How does this happen? By being “in Christ”. What does this do? It shapes our identity so that we know that we are in him and in him have found the truth.
We know that Jesus is God, and has rescued us.
Staying true, v21
In following Christ we are kept from idols. Whether people realize it or not, everyone has a god – an idol – in their life. Only by following Jesus can we be rescued from this idolatry. God gave the people of Israel a command “You shall have no other gods before me.” [Exodus 20:3] It is by staying true to the teaching of Jesus that we are able to fulfil this command.
Summing it all up
The Ephesian church had a lot to be uncertain about, but John wanted them to be confident. This confidence is found in relationship with God – but how can we know that we have this relationship? We can sum it up like this:
Adventure: By crossing the line from unbelief into belief about Jesus; by experiencing the power of the Spirit; and by working out our faith in action we know we are in fellowship with God.
Purity: The working out of our faith leads to victory over sin and a righteousness that doesn’t justify us but is evidence of our justification. This life of purity is not introspective but bold and gives us confidence that we are in fellowship with God.
Compassion: Our love for Jesus, for other believers, and for his church is evidence that we are in fellowship with God.
Application Questions
• How are your confidence levels?
• Who are you praying for at the moment?
• In what ways do you need to more fully find your identity in Christ?
• How are you living a life of adventure?
• How are you living a life of purity?
• How are you displaying compassion?
Sunday, 15 February 2009
Sunday, 8 February 2009
Tough Love, 12: This is Real Life
1 John 5:5-13
In a nutshell: Jesus Christ really did live real human life. In him we have the promise of real human life too, and not just for this life but for all eternity. Real life for us is not life in the world as it now is, but life forever with Jesus.
What is Christianity?
Is Christianity boring, untrue, irrelevant? Is it just a cultural artefact? buildings? a particular moral emphasis? a set of imagined beliefs?
John doesn’t even ask the question! The question he is more interested in is, What is real life? To which he gives a resounding one word answer: JESUS!
This, says John, is real life: knowing Jesus; believing Jesus; experiencing Jesus; confessing Jesus. The whole focus of John’s letter is Jesus. There is no real life outside Jesus. He is the absolute dividing line.
One side of the line is the world. This side of the line says that life is found in survival, ambition, recreation, work, family, money. The other side of the line is the Jesus side, which says, This is life – JESUS!
Crossing the line
John says that those who have faith in Jesus “Overcome the world.” But why do we need to overcome it? We want to overcome things like cancer, poverty, injustice – yes – but why “the world”?
“The world” represents all that is opposed to God – every other god. The world’s claim to life is very powerful – and false. A line is drawn – with the world on one side and Jesus on the other. The only way we are going to overcome the world is by Jesus. We’re not going to overcome it by religion. We’re not going to overcome it by seeking to live according to some arbitrary moral standard.
Christianity has got to be more than a cultural artefact. It has got to be transforming.
You can go to church, say your prayers, and not be transformed. You’ve got to cross the line, so you can know transformation – real life, life in Jesus, life eternal.
Cross the line!
Jesus: a line-crossing saviour
How can we know that Jesus crossed the line?
John lists three witnesses to the reality of Jesus: Water, Blood, Spirit.
Water and blood refer to the baptism and crucifixion of Jesus. Some in John’s day were claiming that the Christ descended on Jesus at his baptism, and departed from him at his crucifixion. John wants to make it very clear that Jesus was always the Christ!
At Jesus’ baptism [Mt 3:16-17], the Spirit descended, and the Father spoke affirming his Son. It really was God in the water. At the cross Jesus really did die. But the testimony of baptism and death are only stories unless the Spirit also testifies.
The testimony of men is important – John and the other Apostles had seen Jesus – but God’s testimony is greater. This testimony of God is not something that can be analyzed factually. It has to be known; it has to be experienced.
This is a transforming experience – it is Justification. Justification isn’t just “my sins are forgiven” but an assurance that all that is Christ’s is also mine. Just as he is alive we have life!
We are like Lazarus – summoned to life and knowing its true, even while not knowing how it has happened.
John Calvin expressed it like this:
Have you experienced this?! This knowing, this certainty, this life, this line crossing?
Eternal Life
This transforming experience of Jesus, by the Spirit, gives us eternal life. Jesus claims to be the life (John 11:25; 14:6; 17:1-2) and in 1 John ‘eternal life’ refers to a present experience – an experience of Jesus.
We are mistaken when we say eternal life is what happens when we die. Our hope is that when we die we go to be with Jesus, but eternal life is so much more than this. You have only been told half the truth if you have been told that eternal life is ‘heaven’.
John is very clear: eternal life begins now. It is with this claim that he begins his letter (1:1-2); and with this claim that he ends it (5:20). If you have Christ you have eternal life – NOW!
Eternity has been opened to you, a line has been crossed, and life changes. When we come to Jesus we experience a sense of coming home. The longings of the human heart find their answer in Jesus. This begins now and continues for all time. Life after death is true; but it is not all! We enter into eternal life in Jesus now, we have confidence of being with him when we die, but beyond that we look for the day when he makes all things new, and heaven touches earth. We look towards not only ‘being in heaven’ but the resurrection from the dead when we will be clothed in imperishable bodies, like Jesus’, and forever will stand before him, in a perfected world.
Application Questions
• Have you crossed the line?
• John writes that he wants the believers to know they have eternal life – how do you know it?
• Why is it important to understand that eternal life begins now, and not only once we die?
• How does this understanding affect how we live now?
In a nutshell: Jesus Christ really did live real human life. In him we have the promise of real human life too, and not just for this life but for all eternity. Real life for us is not life in the world as it now is, but life forever with Jesus.
What is Christianity?
Is Christianity boring, untrue, irrelevant? Is it just a cultural artefact? buildings? a particular moral emphasis? a set of imagined beliefs?
John doesn’t even ask the question! The question he is more interested in is, What is real life? To which he gives a resounding one word answer: JESUS!
This, says John, is real life: knowing Jesus; believing Jesus; experiencing Jesus; confessing Jesus. The whole focus of John’s letter is Jesus. There is no real life outside Jesus. He is the absolute dividing line.
One side of the line is the world. This side of the line says that life is found in survival, ambition, recreation, work, family, money. The other side of the line is the Jesus side, which says, This is life – JESUS!
Crossing the line
John says that those who have faith in Jesus “Overcome the world.” But why do we need to overcome it? We want to overcome things like cancer, poverty, injustice – yes – but why “the world”?
“The world” represents all that is opposed to God – every other god. The world’s claim to life is very powerful – and false. A line is drawn – with the world on one side and Jesus on the other. The only way we are going to overcome the world is by Jesus. We’re not going to overcome it by religion. We’re not going to overcome it by seeking to live according to some arbitrary moral standard.
Christianity has got to be more than a cultural artefact. It has got to be transforming.
You can go to church, say your prayers, and not be transformed. You’ve got to cross the line, so you can know transformation – real life, life in Jesus, life eternal.
Cross the line!
Jesus: a line-crossing saviour
How can we know that Jesus crossed the line?
John lists three witnesses to the reality of Jesus: Water, Blood, Spirit.
Water and blood refer to the baptism and crucifixion of Jesus. Some in John’s day were claiming that the Christ descended on Jesus at his baptism, and departed from him at his crucifixion. John wants to make it very clear that Jesus was always the Christ!
At Jesus’ baptism [Mt 3:16-17], the Spirit descended, and the Father spoke affirming his Son. It really was God in the water. At the cross Jesus really did die. But the testimony of baptism and death are only stories unless the Spirit also testifies.
The testimony of men is important – John and the other Apostles had seen Jesus – but God’s testimony is greater. This testimony of God is not something that can be analyzed factually. It has to be known; it has to be experienced.
This is a transforming experience – it is Justification. Justification isn’t just “my sins are forgiven” but an assurance that all that is Christ’s is also mine. Just as he is alive we have life!
We are like Lazarus – summoned to life and knowing its true, even while not knowing how it has happened.
John Calvin expressed it like this:
Therefore illumined by [the Spirit's] power, we believe neither by our own nor by anyone else's judgment that Scripture is from God; but above human judgment we affirm with utter certainty (just as if we were gazing upon the majesty of God himself) that it has flowed to us from the very mouth of God by the ministry of men.
Have you experienced this?! This knowing, this certainty, this life, this line crossing?
Eternal Life
This transforming experience of Jesus, by the Spirit, gives us eternal life. Jesus claims to be the life (John 11:25; 14:6; 17:1-2) and in 1 John ‘eternal life’ refers to a present experience – an experience of Jesus.
We are mistaken when we say eternal life is what happens when we die. Our hope is that when we die we go to be with Jesus, but eternal life is so much more than this. You have only been told half the truth if you have been told that eternal life is ‘heaven’.
John is very clear: eternal life begins now. It is with this claim that he begins his letter (1:1-2); and with this claim that he ends it (5:20). If you have Christ you have eternal life – NOW!
Eternity has been opened to you, a line has been crossed, and life changes. When we come to Jesus we experience a sense of coming home. The longings of the human heart find their answer in Jesus. This begins now and continues for all time. Life after death is true; but it is not all! We enter into eternal life in Jesus now, we have confidence of being with him when we die, but beyond that we look for the day when he makes all things new, and heaven touches earth. We look towards not only ‘being in heaven’ but the resurrection from the dead when we will be clothed in imperishable bodies, like Jesus’, and forever will stand before him, in a perfected world.
Application Questions
• Have you crossed the line?
• John writes that he wants the believers to know they have eternal life – how do you know it?
• Why is it important to understand that eternal life begins now, and not only once we die?
• How does this understanding affect how we live now?
Sunday, 1 February 2009
Tough Love 11: Confidence to Confess; Confidence to Obey
1 John 4:13-5:4
In a nutshell: The love of God makes us bold. Love-filled, Spirit-soaked people are confident in their God and quick to obey him. God’s love creates adventurous disciples, ready to take his message to a fearful world.
Whether or not we have confidence makes a huge difference to how we approach life and the levels of success we enjoy. Confidence, like truth and love (which we looked at last week) is intangible but important. You can’t buy it in bottles, but we all know it exists. The prime example of this at the moment is in the economy. A couple of years back confidence was sky high; now it has plummeted.
In this passage John says that confidence is available to us all – but this is a confidence not in ourselves, but from the Spirit; God’s empowering presence.
1. The experience of God’s empowering presence is an experience
John says that “We know” that God abides in us because of the Spirit at work in us. This is something we experience.
In Acts 19:2-6 Paul asks the Ephesians, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” They answer, “No.” Paul prays for them and they begin to speak in tongues and prophesy.
Jesus promised the Samaritan woman, “The water I give… is a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:14). A spring bubbles up – it always finds a way out. It makes the ground wet.
The Holy Spirit is meant to be experienced!
2. The experience of God’s empowering presence is rooted in historical facts
John’s repeated assertion is that “We have seen and testify…” The story of Jesus isn’t just imagination – it really happened.
Jesus came in order that the Spirit might be poured out. This was the fulfilment of what had been promised to Abraham and the Prophets (E.g., Galatians 3:14). It has now happened because of Jesus!
3. The experience of God’s empowering presence flows from confessed faith
John says that our confidence in God is directly linked to our confession of Christ (1 John 4:15). The Holy Spirit comes in response to faith. Jesus promised the Spirit to those who believe (John 7:37-39a). Peter said that the Holy Spirit is given in response to believers being baptised (Acts 2:38) and to those who believe Jesus (Acts 5:32).
But the only way that we can confess this faith is in response to faith the Holy Spirit works in us. It is the Spirit who enables us to believe. As John Stott puts it: “Believing is the consequence, not the cause, of the new birth.”
So the Holy Spirit works faith in us and our faith brings the Holy Spirit. This is a divine circle of faith-filled experience. As Paul puts it (Eph 1:13-14), the Holy Spirit is the guarantee of our salvation, and we need to confess this!
4. The experience of God’s empowering presence brings great confidence
The Spirit fills us with a sense of God’s love, a love that removes fear.
It is the fear of punishment that makes us unloving. When we fear being disliked, or rejected, or criticized we are fearing punishment and we tend to put up defensive barriers which actually make it harder to love others.
Love throws out fear. Loved people are confident. We can be confident because of the love of God – he will not dislike, reject or criticize us. This means that churches should be confident places, where we are able to give and receive love.
5. The experience of God’s empowering presence makes us adventurous
Times of pressure always test faith and love. When we are in difficulty we always have to answer the question, “Do I keep faith in God or try to fix this myself?” The temptation is always to try and fix things ourselves, but this is the wrong approach!
When we are under pressure do we continue to display love or do we become angry?
Faith and love lead to spiritual adventure because our faith is the victory that overcomes the world. Trusting God, loving him and his people, and feeling the confidence this brings, we are able to pursue adventures of faith.
6. The experience of God’s empowering presence makes us pure
The Holy Spirit enables us to keep the commands of God. A lived experience of the Spirit keeps us clean. When we are aware of the presence of God with us we are less likely to act in ways that offend his presence.
7. The experience of God’s empowering presence makes us compassionate
‘Love for our brothers’ has to be worked out on action – it cannot be mere words. This is a repeated emphasis of the epistle – love must be made tangible. It is the Holy Spirit who empowers us to act with love and compassion towards others.
Application Questions
• What is your experience of God’s empowering presence?
• Are you confident?
In a nutshell: The love of God makes us bold. Love-filled, Spirit-soaked people are confident in their God and quick to obey him. God’s love creates adventurous disciples, ready to take his message to a fearful world.
Whether or not we have confidence makes a huge difference to how we approach life and the levels of success we enjoy. Confidence, like truth and love (which we looked at last week) is intangible but important. You can’t buy it in bottles, but we all know it exists. The prime example of this at the moment is in the economy. A couple of years back confidence was sky high; now it has plummeted.
In this passage John says that confidence is available to us all – but this is a confidence not in ourselves, but from the Spirit; God’s empowering presence.
1. The experience of God’s empowering presence is an experience
John says that “We know” that God abides in us because of the Spirit at work in us. This is something we experience.
In Acts 19:2-6 Paul asks the Ephesians, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” They answer, “No.” Paul prays for them and they begin to speak in tongues and prophesy.
Jesus promised the Samaritan woman, “The water I give… is a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:14). A spring bubbles up – it always finds a way out. It makes the ground wet.
The Holy Spirit is meant to be experienced!
2. The experience of God’s empowering presence is rooted in historical facts
John’s repeated assertion is that “We have seen and testify…” The story of Jesus isn’t just imagination – it really happened.
Jesus came in order that the Spirit might be poured out. This was the fulfilment of what had been promised to Abraham and the Prophets (E.g., Galatians 3:14). It has now happened because of Jesus!
3. The experience of God’s empowering presence flows from confessed faith
John says that our confidence in God is directly linked to our confession of Christ (1 John 4:15). The Holy Spirit comes in response to faith. Jesus promised the Spirit to those who believe (John 7:37-39a). Peter said that the Holy Spirit is given in response to believers being baptised (Acts 2:38) and to those who believe Jesus (Acts 5:32).
But the only way that we can confess this faith is in response to faith the Holy Spirit works in us. It is the Spirit who enables us to believe. As John Stott puts it: “Believing is the consequence, not the cause, of the new birth.”
So the Holy Spirit works faith in us and our faith brings the Holy Spirit. This is a divine circle of faith-filled experience. As Paul puts it (Eph 1:13-14), the Holy Spirit is the guarantee of our salvation, and we need to confess this!
4. The experience of God’s empowering presence brings great confidence
The Spirit fills us with a sense of God’s love, a love that removes fear.
It is the fear of punishment that makes us unloving. When we fear being disliked, or rejected, or criticized we are fearing punishment and we tend to put up defensive barriers which actually make it harder to love others.
Love throws out fear. Loved people are confident. We can be confident because of the love of God – he will not dislike, reject or criticize us. This means that churches should be confident places, where we are able to give and receive love.
5. The experience of God’s empowering presence makes us adventurous
Times of pressure always test faith and love. When we are in difficulty we always have to answer the question, “Do I keep faith in God or try to fix this myself?” The temptation is always to try and fix things ourselves, but this is the wrong approach!
When we are under pressure do we continue to display love or do we become angry?
Faith and love lead to spiritual adventure because our faith is the victory that overcomes the world. Trusting God, loving him and his people, and feeling the confidence this brings, we are able to pursue adventures of faith.
6. The experience of God’s empowering presence makes us pure
The Holy Spirit enables us to keep the commands of God. A lived experience of the Spirit keeps us clean. When we are aware of the presence of God with us we are less likely to act in ways that offend his presence.
7. The experience of God’s empowering presence makes us compassionate
‘Love for our brothers’ has to be worked out on action – it cannot be mere words. This is a repeated emphasis of the epistle – love must be made tangible. It is the Holy Spirit who empowers us to act with love and compassion towards others.
Application Questions
• What is your experience of God’s empowering presence?
• Are you confident?
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