Grace Christian Fellowship: Christian Teachings from 1 John

1 John 5 "A Life of Victory"

Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves Him who is begotten of Him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome. For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world – our faith. Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? (1 John 5:1-5)

Today, we will finish the first letter of John. The high point of this letter were the words that we studied last week, "God is love". We learned that the love of God is very different than the love of this world. We know that it is different because we have seen God’s love in Jesus Christ who sacrificed Himself for our sins on the cross. We learned that real love does not start with us but shines forth from God. We simply reflect that love that was first given to us. How do we reflect God’s love? How do we respond to the love that we have received? John tells us, "For this is the love of God (the way to love God), that we keep His commandments."

If you know the love of God. If you have been forgiven by Jesus Christ and set free from sin and death. If you have been born again and are a new creation in Christ, then you will have a great desire in your heart to follow Him. You will want to know what Jesus taught. You will want to love as Jesus loves. This is the reflection of God’s love to you. Last year I bought a set of glow in the dark dolphins for my son’s bedroom. We stuck them on the ceiling and when you turn off the lights they glow. It is a cool way to have a nightlight. These dolphins only glow though if they are exposed first to light. We are the same way. When we are exposed to the light of God’s love we will also start to shine. Jesus said, "Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven."

John writes, "And His commandments are not burdensome." They are not heavy. In our modern times we take light for granted. It is as easy as flipping on a switch and we sometimes forget that the electricity that powers our light bulbs had to be generated somewhere. Usually it is generated with huge turbines that are turned by the burning of large amounts of fuel. You cannot get light without some heavy lifting. In my home state of Oregon we get most of our power from the Bonneville Dam. It is a huge dam on the Columbia River that uses the force of that great river to turn the turbines. Here in Japan much of the electricity is generated by nuclear reactors, but even though it sounds high tech, it still boils down to steam turning the turbines. We have used many different kinds of fuel and have even experimented with wind but each requires the turbines to be moved. Heavy lifting. The only exception to this rule is solar power. Solar cells simply soak up the energy of the sun and convert it to electricity. There are no moving parts. This should be a spiritual model for us. Jesus said "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light." (Matthew 11:28) We are working so hard here on this earth burning up precious resources when all the while we are orbiting an energy source that is more than enough for all our needs. Dear Christian, Jesus is the star that you should be in orbit around. Jesus is more than sufficient for all of your needs. Jesus shines much more brightly than any artificial light that you might create. Some day we will run out of things to burn and the lights will go out here on earth. Maybe then we will realize how foolish we have been. Don’t burn out in your spiritual life. Don’t grow weary of doing good. Learn from Jesus. There is a better way to overcome the world. There is a victory that is gentle and lowly in heart. This victory does not come from our work. It does not come from us battling the enemy. It does not come from us at all. It comes from faith. Faith that Jesus is the Son of God. Every victory in your Christian life will ultimately come down to whether or not you truly believe that He is the Son of God. The world has a vested interest in convincing you that He is not. If you believe that Jesus is more than sufficient for all your needs then you are no longer dependant on this world and the world can no longer push you around. That is why the world tries so hard to tell you that Jesus is not really God’s Son.

This is He who came by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not only by water, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who bears witness, because the Spirit is truth. For there are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness on earth: the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three agree as one. If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater; for this is the witness of God which He has testified of His Son. He who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself; he who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed the testimony that God has given of His Son. And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who does not have the Son of God does not have life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God. (1 John 5:6-13)

John wrote his letter so that we who believe in Jesus Christ would know that we have eternal life in Him and that we would keep on believing no matter what the world might do or say. The facts are very clear. Jesus Christ is not a mythical figure or a legend that someone made up. He was born into history and became the most influential person who ever lived. However the dictionaries and encyclopedias list Him simply as a 1st century Jewish prophet. They go on to say that Christians believe that He is both God and man but they don’t state it as a fact. In our age this is the most common explanation of Jesus; That He was a great teacher who lived an exemplary life. Other times have gone the other direction, saying that Jesus was actually a god, an avatar, or perhaps even God Himself, but only in the appearance of a man. But John makes it very clear that Jesus came not only by water, not only in a spiritual way, but also by blood. He was a man who bled on the cross when they pierced Him and died a physical death. The truth about Jesus is that He is the Son of God, who became a man so that He could save us.

Modern science is very demanding about proof of its discoveries. One of the recent major breakthroughs of astronomy has been the discovery of planets outside of our own solar system. This might not seem that difficult until you realize that a planet does not shine with the intensity of a star but only reflects light. It is impossible to "see" a planet that is that far away. But astronomers have been able to prove their existence by measuring the slight wobble in a visible star caused by the planet’s gravity and then predicting when it will happen again. So even though they can’t actually see the planet they know it is there by the effects. These discoveries first took place a few years ago, but before they could announce them publicly they had to make sure that they could confirm it. Other astronomers duplicated their experiments and came to the same conclusions. When two or three different researchers all came up with the same data, it was decided that it was real and they made the exciting announcement. The same principle of checking and rechecking the facts applies in other fields of knowledge as well. Every court case depends on the testimony of more than one witness.

God is no less demanding than science or the courts when it comes to confirming that Jesus Christ is His Son. God does not simply leave it to Jesus to say that He is the Son of God. There are people walking the streets of every major city of the world that will swear to you that they are God. God has confirmed it and He confirms it today. First of all when we believe in Jesus, God sends His Spirit to bear witness of it in our hearts. Millions of Christians around the world, and millions more throughout history have testified that Jesus Christ is the Son of God with only the presence of the Holy Spirit in their hearts as proof. Many of those have been so convinced by this that they have died for their faith. Thousands of Japanese Christians believed so strongly that Jesus was the Son of God that they refused to deny it even though they were tortured and killed by the Shoguns.

The second witness that Jesus is the Son of God occurred at His baptism. When Jesus went to the river to make a public confession of His total submission to God the Father, God spoke out loud so that everyone could hear, "You are My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." This was not a private thing in front of only a few people but was performed in public in front of a huge crowd of people that had gathered to watch John the Baptist. We could say that Jesus’ whole life was a testimony to who He was. Every action and every word showed clearly that He was no ordinary man. The water of baptism symbolizes a life that is committed to God. When we believe in Jesus we receive the free gift of grace, but when we are baptized we are saying to God and the world that we want to give our lives to Him. Our old life is through and Jesus can do whatever He wants with the new life that He has given to us. Jesus, Himself lived a life that was 100% submitted to the Father, doing only what the Father would have Him do.

The third witness occurred at Jesus’ death. Jesus Christ, the only one who ever lived a life that was completely in harmony with God, took all of our sins, all of that discordant and strident noise upon Himself and bled and suffered and died. The Bible tells us that by His blood our sins are forgiven. By His blood we are redeemed, bought back from the enemy. By His blood we who were far off from God have been brought near. By His blood we have been cleansed. And by His blood we have eternal life. God confirmed all of this and that Jesus Christ is His Son when three days after Jesus bled and died for us, God raised Him from the dead. Again this was not a private thing. In the time between Jesus’ resurrection and when He went up to the Father more than 500 people saw Him alive. The world can say that Jesus was just a Jewish prophet. The world might say that there is no proof. But if we can accept the existence of planets in far-off galaxies because they have been confirmed by two or three astronomers. Surely we can accept the threefold testimony of God about His Son Jesus.

Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him. If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to death, he will ask, and He will give him life for those who commit sin not leading to death. There is sin leading to death. I do not say that he should pray about that. All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin not leading to death. We know that whoever is born of God does not sin; but he who has been born of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him. We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one. And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true; in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen. (1 John 5:14-21)

The key to a victorious life is faith that Jesus is the Son of God. If you are confident of that then you can also be confident when you pray. Remember that Jesus should be the star that you orbit around, more than sufficient to supply all that you need. The way that we love God is simply to reflect that greater love that He has for us. However, there is so much sin in this world that sometimes it is quite difficult to love. We get busy, frustrated, irritated and short-tempered. We say things that we should not say and do things that are not loving or gentle or lowly in heart. Not only do we do these things but other people do them to us. We get hurt even by other Christians. All of this is just part of life in this world. It is not perfect and we are not perfect. If this is all you see then pretty soon you will become very disillusioned about Christianity and church. It is really a strategy of the enemy to bring Christians down.

But if we believe that Jesus is really the Son of God then we have confidence to ask anything according to His will and we know that whatever we ask we get. John gives us a wonderful example that is so appropriate. He says that if anyone sees a brother, another Christian sinning, he will pray for that brother and God will give him life. He doesn’t mean that we can simply pray people into being Christians. God doesn’t force anybody to believe in Christ. The only sin that cannot be forgiven is to reject Jesus who is the source of forgiveness. The only sin that cannot be overcome by life is the sin of rejecting the One who is life. But back to John’s example, usually we get it so backward. When we see another Christian in sin we want to point the finger, or gossip, or take them aside and rebuke them. But if we really believe that Jesus is God, then it makes so much more sense to ask Him to change them. Instead of taking matters into our own hands we should place them confidently into His hands. And then knowing that He will answer our prayers, we can then act accordingly. We are free not to point the finger, not to speak harsh words, because we know that God will do the difficult part for us. We can continue loving that person because we know that God loves them even more than we do and He will not allow them to continue in sin. This is the key to victory over the world. Take each thing in your life and place it confidently into the hands of Jesus. Learn His will, keep His commandments and whatever you ask will be given to you. We know its true because He is the Son of God. There is nothing too big for Him to handle. And we also know that Jesus loves us and He wants the very best for us.

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