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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.
| I have a question... | I want to receive Jesus Christ! | I want to confess sin... |
| I need prayer... | I want to come to church... | I want to be a prayer partner |
| I have a question... | I want to receive Jesus Christ! | I want to confess sin... |
| I need prayer... | I want to come to church... | I want to be a prayer partner! |