[Matt's Messages] "The Christmas Mission"

“The Christmas Mission”
December 25, 2016
1 John 4:7-12

Here’s why I picked this passage for Christmas Sunday: It tells us why there was any Christmas in the first place.

What is “The Christmas Mission?”

What was the mission of Christmas?

If somebody asked you that question this week, why is there Christmas, how would you answer?

There are a lot of great ways to answer that question.

And we’ve sung a bunch of them already this morning.

John’s got a really good way of saying it here in 1 John 4.

John says that Jesus, the Son of God was sent on a mission.

Now, those words “sent on a mission” should sound familiar to you.  Do they?

51 weeks ago, on the first Sunday of January, I preached a sermon called “Sent on a Mission in 2016."

Being a sent on a mission from God has been our theme as a church for all of 2016.

It’s come up again and again and again.

The moms might remember our Mother’s Day message, “Mission-Minded Moms.”

“Go therefore and MOTHER disciples.” We said.

And then our youth went to a little conference in Louisville, Kentucky called “Challenge,” and what was the theme of that conference?

“Live Sent.”

Because God is Father, Son, and Spirit, we are a family of servant missionaries.

We are sent on a mission.

Do you like to be sent on a mission?

A year ago, I said that I love that sort of thing.

I love it when someone has a mission for me to fulfill.

Those times when Heather says, “Matthew, I need some groceries. Here’s the list. Head over to State College and bring back these items or die trying!”  She never says that last part. But sometimes, it’s implied.

“I’ve got a mission for you.”

Of course, not all missions are the same. When Heather says, “Would you take out this stinky compost bucket out to the compost pile?” I don’t get the same exciting feeling.

Do you like to be sent on a mission?

“I’ve got a job for you. Here’s what I want you to do...”

Well, that first Christmas was a mission.

But it wasn’t a mission, first and foremost, for you and me.

It was a mission for the God the Son.

The Second Person of the Trinity.

And here was the mission: to take on flesh.

To become a human like you and me.
To be conceived in the womb of a virgin.
To be born a baby in Bethlehem.
To become God the Son Incarnate.

That was the mission that God the Father gave God the Son.

On that night, when the angels lit up the fields and sang to the shepherds, “Glory to God in the highest,” [Rejoice!] they were announcing that the Christmas Mission had launched.

God the Son had been sent.

Luke 2:10&11, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.”

God the Son had been sent on a mission.

God the Father is a sending God and God the Son is a God that’s sent.

And why was He sent?

John tells us here in 1 John 4.

Have you already opened your presents?

I’ve only have two points this morning. There is so much here in this paragraph, but we’re not going to study it all. [We did that a few years ago.]

Some of you haven’t opened your presents yet, so you’re just waiting for me to get done so that you can go home and share a meal and some gifts.

My family is planning to drive to Ohio after this.

So, I’ll make this quick.

I’m only going to point out the two major things about the Christmas Mission.

Why Jesus was sent among us.

#1. THE SON WAS SENT THAT WE MIGHT LIVE THROUGH HIM.

In this passage, John is convincing his readers to love each other.

“Dear friends [beloved], let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”

We’re going to say more about that in just a minute.

Love comes from God because God is the epitome of love.

And verse 9 tells us that God has shown or revealed His love among us.

How, when? At that first Christmas. Verse 9. “This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.”

What other verse of scripture does that verse remind you of?

I can think of a couple, but one is the most famous verse in the Bible right?

The Gospel of John 3:16. “For God so loved the world that he gave [the most amazing Christmas present ever] his one and only Son [same term, monogenes, often translated “only begotten”], that whoever believes in him [the Son] shall not perish but have eternal life.”

The Son was sent that we might live through Him.

That baby was born in Bethlehem so that we might have life.

What kind of life?

Well, John 3:16 says, “eternal life.” Life that starts now and goes on into eternity. And John 17:3 defines eternal life as a relationship with God. “Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”

Eternal life is a life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ that starts now and goes on forever.

And it’s an abundant life.

Jesus said in John 10:10, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come [I have been sent] that they may have life, and have it to the full.”

Full life.

That’s what kind of life we get from Christmas mission.

But for us to get that life, Jesus had to experience death. V.10

“This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”

We didn’t love God. We actually hated Him.

But He loved us. God demonstrates His own love for us in this, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

V.10 “He loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”

A propitiation.

What’s this saying?

For us to have life, He had to experience death.

That baby born in Bethlehem was born to die.

The shadow of the Cross looms over the manger.

The Son of God wasn’t just sent to be sweet baby Jesus.

He was sent to give Himself as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

The Father sent His Son to His death.

Some missions are less desirable than others.

Some missions are less painful than others.

Let’s not forget in the sweetness of Christmas how painful this was.

Jesus not only emptied Himself of glory, but He took the form of a servant. Philippians 2.

“[Jesus] being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death–even death on a cross!”

That was the Christmas Mission.

A savior has been born to you, and He will die for you.

The Son was sent that we might live through Him.

Have you come to place your faith in Him?

If you have not, I invite you to do so right now.

Don’t let this Christmas go by without finding new life in the Son of God who was sent as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

And if you have put your faith in Him, rejoice and live your life in Him.

I think that also includes the idea of living your life for Him.

A life of discipleship, of obedience of doing what pleases the Lord.

He has given you a new life and wants you to live it for Him and through Him.

What did the choir sing this morning?

Peace on earth and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled!
Mild He lays His glory by, Born that man no more may die,
Born to raise the sons of earth, born to give them second birth.

New life.

The Son was sent that we might live through Him.

The second reason for the Christmas Mission:

#2. THE SON WAS SENT THAT WE MIGHT LOVE LIKE HIM.

Look at verse 11.

“Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.”

I was surprised.

I was surprised that John doesn’t say, “Dear friends since God so loved us, we also ought to love God.”

That’s true!

But that’s not where John goes with it, is it?

He says, “Beloved, since God loved us by sending His Son on the Christmas Mission, we also ought to love ONE ANOTHER.”

He’s shown us how to do it.

Now, is that easy?

No, it’s not easy to love others.

Including Christians.

Just because we’re fellow Christians, doesn’t make us adorable.

But God’s kind of love is the kind of love that loves even enemies.

So you don’t have to be adorable for me to learn to love you.

I don’t have to be adorable for you to learn to love me.

We’ve been loved by God. So we can love one another.

Is that a line from a Christmas song?

How about “O Holy Night?”

“Truly He taught us to love one another;
His law is love and His gospel is peace.
Chains shall He break for the slave is our brother.
And in His name all oppression shall cease.”

We won’t continue to oppress each other if we know how we’ve been loved.

We love because He first loved us.

How are you doing at that?

Did you expect to come to church this morning and be told that we need to learn to love better?

The Son was sent that we might love like Him.

Not perfectly. Love is hard for finite fallen people like you and me.

But we can love truly.

We can love others.

“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.”

Is that how you’ve been treated by God?

“Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”

Where do you need to grow? What aspect of love needs some work in your life?

Who are you having trouble loving these days?

Whom do you need to show love to this week?

That’s our Christmas mission.

Because we have new life in the Son, we are called to live lives of love like He taught us.

Not lives of hate.
Not lives of fear.
Not lives of indifference.

But lives of love.

Paul said, “Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Ephesians 5:2).

That’s not easy.

But that’s our mission because the Son of God accepted His mission to seek and save us when we were lost.

Jesus said, “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you” (John 20:21).

Not exactly the same, of course. We aren’t all called to die on the Cross for other people’s sins.

But we are called to share the good news of great joy that comes from the Savior who has been born to us.

And we are called to love others in His name.

On the last Sunday of 2016, we are again reminded that we are sent on a mission of love.

But we are sent on mission of love because the Son was first sent on a mission of love for us.

And joy to the world...the Savior came!

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Commentaries on 1 John

I enjoyed preaching 1 John over the last 19 weeks, but following John's train of thought was not easy. It was more of a race-car-of-thought.

The three commentaries that helped me the most were:

1. Robert W. Yarbrough's 1-3 John in the Baker Exegetical Commentary Series.

Yarbrough was thorough, knowledgeable, and irenic yet decisive on interpretation. Very scholarly. Top scholarship.

2. John Stott's The Epistles of John in the Tyndale New Testament Commentary Series.

Stott is always judicious, thoughtful, learned, and quotable.

3. I.H. Marshall's The Epistles of John in the New International Commentary on the New Testament Series.

I've had this commentary in my possession since 1996. Marshall is a masterful commentator. I don't always agree with him, but I always profit from reading his work.

In audio, my understanding was greatly enlarged by listening to D.A. Carson's overview of 1 John.

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[Matt's Messages] "Listen Again to 1 John"

“Listen Again to 1 John”

Essential Christianity: 1 John

March 24, 2013

1 John 1:1-5:21

Surprise!

I’ll bet that you thought we were done with 1 John for a while because last week we read and talked about the last paragraph and the last verse.

18 messages in 1 John from October 14th to March 17th.

We called the series “Essential Christianity.”  We were learning together what is essential that we must be and believe to know that we are real Christians.

Remember this?  The first sermon in the Essential Christianity series was called “A Letter Arrived From John.”

And we pulled a copy of 1 John out of this envelope, and I read the whole thing to you.  Remember that?

At that point, most of us knew a lot of 1 John from familiar individual verses that we had memorized, but most of us had not studied it in-depth as a letter, connecting the verses together and trying to follow John’s argument.

Now, we’ve done that. Verse by verse through 1 John.

And today, I’d like to read the whole thing to you again.

This time with all of the lights on.

Have you ever walked through an unfamiliar house at night with the lights off?

You can make it from one side of the house to the other in the dark. You follow the walls. You can kind of sense where the big objects are.

But it’s not a lot of fun, and you bump into all kinds of things. Like your shin into a coffee table.

But how about exploring that same house, after the lights get turned on?

That’s a different story.

And that’s why I want to read 1 John to you again this morning.

Now, last time, I told you to close your Bibles and even close your eyes.

And, I remember Nathan Kristofits really enjoyed those instructions.

But today, I encourage you to follow along. Keep your finger on the text. Keep your eyes open.

The first audience probably listened to 1 John as it was read to them and didn’t have their own copies. But we do. Amazingly, we do have our own copies.

So open your copy, and follow along as I read it to you.

I’m going to read it from my printout of it that I have marked up with all kinds of notes and things that I learned along the way.

We’ve spent the last 18 messages turning on the lights in the house. Now, let’s go together from room to room.

What are we going to see?

We’re going to see that John cared deeply about the people to whom he was writing.

They are “dear friends.” Agapatoi. They are loved ones.  They are “dear children.”  His precious children in the faith.

We’re going to see John try to guide them after they have experienced the departure of some false teachers from their fellowship. Teachers who believed a false gospel, an anti-gospel making them anti-christs.

And John wants to encourage the genuine believers that were left behind that they had the Word of Life, they had the truth because the believed in the name of the Son of God (Jesus), they loved each other as brothers, and they obeyed the commands of their Lord.

John will continue to circle the doctrinal, moral, and social themes. 

Truth, obedience, and love. 

Truth, obedience, and love. 

Truth, obedience, and love. 

All three are essential, and they are all intertwined.

As we progress from room to room in this well-lit house we are going to see Who God is.

God is light.

And God is love.

God is perfectly holy and expects holiness from His people.

And God is perfectly loving and expects love from His people.

And this God of light and love sent His Son.

Today is Palm Sunday, when we think about the beginning of that week of Jesus “Passion.”  When Jesus suffered and died for us on the Cross.

1 John tells us why He did that.

It uses words like “blood” and “atoning sacrifice” and “laid down his life for us” and  “The one wh cam by water and blood.”

1 John is Jesus’ sacrifice for us on the Cross.

And it’s all about our enemies.

The World (don’t love it!), the Flesh (don’t trust it), and the Devil (who runs the world now but is not as great as the One who is in us).

And 1 John tells us what to expect in the future.

We know that we live right now in the Last Hour with little antichrists running around doing as much damage as they can.

But we also know that Jesus will return and when He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.

1 John calls for a response from us.

To live differently than the world.

To resist false teaching. To test the Spirits.

To love our brothers and sisters in Christ, our spiritual siblings.

To obey Jesus in all His commands.

To believe in Jesus and keep on believing so that we know that we have eternal life.

Those are some of the lights we’ve turned on.

Now, let’s go together on a tour of this glorious house.

Listen again to 1 John.

[Prayer.  Read 1 John from the NIV 1984.]

What did you hear today that was different from when you heard it in October?

What have you learned in 1 John?

What questions remain for you?  What do you need to study further?

What is God asking from you today after today’s encounter with God’s Word in 1 John?

Do you have eternal life?  That life is in God’s son. If you have the Son, you have life. If you do not have the Son of God, you do not have eternal life.

I invite you to receive the Son of God today.

Are you walking in the light, as He is in the light?

Or are you stumbling in the darkness?  Confess your sins and walk in the light.

Are you loving the world?  Or are you loving your brothers and sister in Christ?

Are you rejoicing in the great love the Father has lavished on us?

God is love.  We love because he first loved us.

Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.

Messages about Essential Christianity

1. A Letter Arrived from John
2. The Word of Life
3. God Is Light
4. Talk and Walk
5. If You Love, You Live in the Light
6. I Write To You Because
7. Do Not Love the World
8. This Is the Last Hour
9. Children of God (Part One)
10. Children of God (Part Two)
11. Love Your Brother
12. God Is Greater Than Our Hearts
13. Test the Spirits
14. God Is Love (Part One)
15. God Is Love (Part Two)
16. Overcoming the World
17. The Testimony
18. We Know
19. Listen Again to 1 John

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[Matt's Messages] Essential Christianity

Essential Christianity (Matt's Messages on 1 John)

1. A Letter Arrived from John
2. The Word of Life

3. God Is Light

4. Talk and Walk

5. If You Love, You Live in the Light

6. I Write To You Because

7. Do Not Love the World

8. This Is the Last Hour

9. Children of God (Part One)

10. Children of God (Part Two)

11. Love Your Brother

12. God Is Greater Than Our Hearts

13. Test the Spirits

14. God Is Love (Part One)

15. God Is Love (Part Two)

16. Overcoming the World

17. The Testimony

18. We Know

19. Listen Again to 1 John

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[Matt's Messages] "We Know"

“We Know”

Essential Christianity: 1 John

March 17, 2013 :: 1 John 5:14-21

Our series has been called “Essential Christianity” because we have been learning together what is essential to be and to believe to be assured that we are, in fact, real Christians.

And, hopefully, we’ve learned a lot over the last 17 messages as we’ve tried to follow the winding path of the apostle John’s thoughts and think them after him.

Last week, we ended with verse 13 of chapter 5 which summarizes the whole point of the letter: “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.”

“So that you [believers] may know that you have eternal life.”

Do you know that you have eternal life?  I hope so.  

That word “know” becomes very important for John as he brings this epistle to a close.

In fact, he keeps repeating it for emphasis again and again. He says, “We know.” “We know.” “We know.”

He emphasizes what believers in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, truly know. 

What we can know for certain and bank our lives upon.

We know.

The thing about this passage that was the most difficult for me as I studied to prepare this message was that some of the things that John says we know are not things that I always feel like I know.

There are a couple of these that after I read John say, “We know...” this, I thought, “Oh, do we?”

You might have felt the same was as I just read it to you.

So, it’s important to try to understand what John is saying and what he isn’t saying so that we truly know what it is that we are supposed to know.

And I’d like to summarize this passage with 3 points.

#1. WE KNOW THAT HE HEARS US.

We know that he hears us when we pray. V.14 again.

“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.”

That word “confidence” could even be translated “boldness.”  We, Christians, actually have the audacity, the boldness, the confidence to approach God and ask Him for things.

And you know what?  We know that he hears us.

And I think that when John says, “He hears us” that he means that He answers our prayers.

Not just that He can pick up the auditory signals from our prayers.

“What’s that? I think they’re praying.” God says from heaven.

No, God says, “I hear you.”

And John says, “We know it.”  V.15

“And if we know that he hears us–whatever we ask–we know that we have what we asked of him.”

Isn’t that a wonderful promise?

We know that God hears us and answers our prayers–whatever we ask!

I think it’s important that John emphasizes that word “whatever.” Verse 14 says, “anything.” V. 15 says “whatever.”

I think that means that God invites us to pray about whatever is on our heart and mind–no subject, no theme, no problem is off limits as a possible topic of our prayers.

Our God cares. Even about the little stuff in life. Maybe especially about the little stuff in life!

And John says that we should have the confidence to know that when we pray, God hears us.

The ears of our Good Shepherd are attuned to the cries of His sheep.

Now, I also think that it’s important that John says that our prayers are heard when we pray (v.14) in accordance to his will.

I think that means, at least, that when we pray, we need to pray for the things we think God wants. We need to want what God wants and ask for that.

And therefore it is helpful to use our Bibles when we pray because here is where we have an infallible guide to the kinds of things that God wants.

I don’t think that we should take this promise as a blank check that we are called to fill in with our selfish desires.

“And if we know that he hears us–whatever we ask–we know that we have what we asked of him.”

And I just asked for a new Ford Mustang!

And I know that I’m going to get it because He said, “Whatever we ask–we know that we have it!”

Some people think that this verse means that God looks a lot like this:

But we know that God is not a genie in a bottle. He is the all-wise Ruler of the universe.

And we don’t always get what we WISH.

Even our Lord Jesus Christ was told “No” to His request in the Garden of Gethsemane that the cup would be taken away from Him.

Does that mean that God did not hear him?

No, the book of Hebrews in chapter 5 says, “During the days of Jesus' life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.”

We know that He hears us.

And so, we should pray.

How are you doing at being a praying Christian?

I know that I tend to pray at set times and set places and when things go badly wrong.

But I’m tempted every day to not pray.

Praying can be hard work.

Praying takes time.

My minds wanders.

I don’t always know what to pray.

I feel like I could be accomplishing something instead of just praying.

So, I need this reminder.

God hears us.

God hears us.

God hears us when we pray.

“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: 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 what we asked of him.”

We know that He hears us.

#2. WE KNOW THAT HE KEEPS US.

In verse 16, John says something more about prayer. And that is that we should pray for our brothers and sisters in Christ when we see them wandering from the path. V.16

“If anyone sees his brother commit a sin that does not lead to death, he should pray and God will give him life. I refer to those whose sin does not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I am not saying that he should pray about that. All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin that does not lead to death.”

Now, this section can be pretty confusing, and not all biblical scholars agree about what it means.

The difficult thing is to identify what are the sins that lead to death and what are the sins that don’t lead to death.

John is clear in verse 17 that “all wrongdoing is sin.” All sin is sin.

But some sins are different than others sins in that some sins are sins that don’t necessarily lead to death and some are sins that do inevitably lead to death.

Which are which?

Unfortunately, John doesn’t tell us.

My guess is that it was obvious to the original readers, perhaps because John had already taught them about this using this same terminology.

So, we have to guess and use the context of John and the rest of the New Testament to guide us.

What did Jesus say was the sin that could not be forgiven?

Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.

And by that, it seems that Jesus meant attributing the work of the Spirit in pointing to the Son of God to Satan himself.

Irrevocably saying that Jesus is not God’s Son, as the Spirit says, but that He is of the devil.

My guess is that this sin is that same sin (since it leads to death).  Perhaps it shows up here in those people who professed to be believers but then walked away from the truth, stopped pretending to love the brothers, stopped obeying the commands of Jesus, and started to deny that Jesus was the Son of God.  Remember that we said (in chapter 2 and chapter 4) that they became antichrists (small a).

My guess is that the sin that leads to death is walking the path of antichrist.

John says that if someone is doing that (v.16), “I am not saying that he should pray about that.”

Now, he doesn’t say that you can’t pray for someone in that situation. He doesn’t forbid prayers for those people. Do what the Spirit tells you to do in those cases.

But what John IS saying is that for most sins that we see our brothers and sisters in Christ stray into, we should be praying for them.

Pray for their repentance. 

Pray for them to see the consequences of their sin.

Pray for them to confess their sins because God is faithful and just and will forgive their sins and cleanse them from all unrighteousness. V.16

“If anyone sees his brother commit a sin that does not lead to death, he should pray and God will give him life.”

Because (v.18)... “We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the one who was born of God keeps him safe, and the evil one cannot harm him.”

Now that first part was one of those things that I said, “O we know that do we?” when I read it this week.

“We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin...”

King James says, “We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not.”

But we just saw in verse 16 that brothers do sin.

John has been very clear all along that Christians are still people who struggle with sin.

But he’s also been very clear all along that Christians are also people who have victory over sin.

“We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the one who was born of God keeps him safe, and the evil one cannot harm him.”

“[T]he one who was born of God keeps him safe.”

Who is that?

Well, it’s possible that it refers to the believer himself. Because we are born of God, we now have a new heart, and that leads us to say no to temptation. 

But I doubt that’s what he was saying.

I think the “one who born of God” is Jesus, the Son of God.

And He keeps us safe.

Jesus keeps us from continuing in sin.

If we belong to Him, He, through His Holy Spirit, will give us no rest until we rest in Him.

V.18 says that He keeps us safe, “and the evil one cannot harm him.”

Literally, the evil one cannot “touch” us. We are safe from Him.

Of course that doesn’t mean that Satan has no effect on us, that’s why the NIV says, “cannot harm him.”

God keeps us safe.

When Satan Tempts Me to Despair and Tells Me Of the Guilt Within

Upward I Look And See Him There Who Made An End to All My Sin

Because the Sinless Savior Died, My Sinful Soul Is Counted Free

For God the Just Is Satisfied To Look on Him and Pardon Me

Satan can’t touch me, because God keeps me safe. Isn’t that reassuring?!

But it is not safe to be outside of Christ. We know that! V.19

“We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.”

We know it. We know that we are literally “of God” and we are surrounded by a world that is under control of the evil one.

But we also know that God has invaded this world under siege and is performing a  colossal rescue mission. V.20

“We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true–even in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.”

#3. WE KNOW THAT HE GIVES US HIMSELF.

This is the verse that I shared with the church on Christmas Eve.

“We know also that the Son of God has come [that’s Christmas!] and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true.”

Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

So, when He came, He gave us Himself! V.20

“And we are in him who is true–even in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.”

Which sounds a lot like the first verse of chapter 1.

“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched–this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.”

And it sounds like verse 13 of this chapter.

“I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life.”

That you have Jesus! Because knowing Him is what eternal life is all about.

In John 17, Jesus said, “And this is eternal life to know the one true God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent.”

In the gospel, God has given us Himself by giving us Jesus.

Do you have Jesus?

If you have Jesus, you have everything.

He who has the Son has LIFE!

But He who does not have the Son of God does not have life.

I so much want life for you. That you would know that you have eternal life.

That life is in God’s Son.

I invite you to put your faith in Him.

Because God has given us Himself in giving us Jesus.

He is the true God and eternal life.

So we should accept no substitutes!

I think that’s why John ends his letter what that enigmatic sentence. It’s one of the strangest endings for any of the New Testament letters.

He doesn’t say goodbye. 

He just signs off (v.21), “Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.”

If Jesus is the true God and eternal life, why would we let ourselves worship anybody or anything else?

“Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.”

If God has given us HIMSELF, why would we settle for anything less?

“Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.”

Don’t pray to them.

The Bible makes it clear that idols can’t hear us.

But God hears us!

Don’t trust in them.

The Bible says that idols are empty hope.

But God keeps us!

“Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.”

That, of course, means physical idols set up in your home.

But it also means spirituals idols that we can set up in our hearts.

Money, Fame, Popularity, Pleasure, Security, Comfort.

Anything that promises to take God’s place if you will just bow down can be an idol.

“Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.”

Because you have something better. God has given you Himself.

We know it.

***

Messages about Essential Christianity

1. A Letter Arrived from John
2. The Word of Life
3. God Is Light
4. Talk and Walk
5. If You Love, You Live in the Light
6. I Write To You Because
7. Do Not Love the World
8. This Is the Last Hour
9. Children of God (Part One)
10. Children of God (Part Two)
11. Love Your Brother
12. God Is Greater Than Our Hearts
13. Test the Spirits
14. God Is Love (Part One)
15. God Is Love (Part Two)
16. Overcoming the World
17. The Testimony
18. We Know
19. Listen Again to 1 John

Read More

[Matt's Messages] "The Testimony"

“The Testimony”
Essential Christianity: 1 John
March 10, 2013 :: 1 John 5:6-13

We are in the homestretch now of our study of 1 John which we have been calling “Essential Christianity.”  What is essential to be and to believe to be a real Christian, a true Christian, a biblical Christian.

Last week, we learned that it is essential to have to faith.  That we are victorious world-overcomers if we have faith in Jesus, the Son of God.

That’s essential. Among the other things that we have seen are essential such as loving our brothers and obeying God, we know that it is essential that we have faith in Jesus Christ. Chapter 5, verse 5.

“Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.”

And our passage for today takes off right there explaining Who is this Jesus.

And then it tells us who testifies to this identity of Jesus and how we should believe their testimony.

And then it tells us exactly what the testimony is.  “The Testimony.”

So that’s what we’re going to call this message, “The Testimony.”

(Sounds like a John Grisham novel.)

“The Testimony.”

This testimony is so much more important than any testimony given in any court in our land.

To believe or disbelieve this testimony means the difference between life and death.

Eternal life and eternal death. It’s that important!

This is one of my all time favorite passages of Scripture, especially verses 11-13.

Because those were some of key verses God showed me many years ago that I had essential Christianity, that I was a real Christian.

And more than that, God used this passage as part of my own call into a ministry of preaching.

I’ll tell you more about that when we get down to verses 11-13.

But I have to say right now that I will forever love this passage of scripture.

And it’s all about testimony, isn’t it?

How many times did you hear that word or a form of that word as I read the passage to you? Testimony.

The basic Greek word is martureo.  Testimony.  Or the King James Version has “witness” or “record.” “Going on record” is another way of saying “testimony.”

If you remember, last week was all about faith. Trust. Believing.

The importance of faith.

And question is believing...what...exactly?

Verse 5 said that we are to believe in Jesus as the Son of God. God’s own Son. That’s Whom we put our faith in.

And verse 6 tells us more about Him.  V.6

“This is the one who came by water and blood–Jesus Christ. He did not come by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.”

Verse 7.

“For there are three that testify: the Spirit, the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement.”

Point #1 of 3 this morning.

#1. BELIEVE THE TESTIFIERS.

That’s a real word, by the way, I looked it up.

But if you don’t like it, put the word “witnesses” in there on the back of you bulletin

Believe the Witnesses.

Now, John talks differently than we do, but his basic message is clear.

Verse 7 says that there are “three that testify,” two things personified and one person. V.8

“The Spirit, the Water, and the Blood.”

And all three of them agree. They literally, “into the one are.” They are in agreement.

The Spirit, the Water, and the Blood.

Now, before we talk about who they are and how they talk and what they say and how they are in agreement, there are few of you who are scratching your heads right now because your copy of the Bible says something different here.

The King James Version actually says in verse 7 and 8, “For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.”

Now, as true as that statement is, I do not believe (and neither do most Bible scholars) that the statement about the three witnesses in heaven is actually what John wrote when he wrote 1 John.

It does not appear in any of the Greek manuscripts until many centuries after the New Testament was compiled.

It was probably something that a well-meaning scribe scribbled in his margin as he copied the Latin text, perhaps a devotional thought about the Trinity, and then someone when they copied his copy thought that it belonged in the paragraph itself.

Now, that might be a little unsettling for you to think that something might have crept into the copying process so that the Bibles we have today might have something that God didn’t intend for us.

But opposite is actually true, we have so many copies that scholars can accurately determine what was original and what wasn’t.  And there is widespread agreement about it, as well. And more than that, the places where those kind of determinations need to be made are for the most part insignificant and do not change one major point of biblical teaching.  Isn’t that amazing?!

God has faithfully preserved His word for us.

Even here, though very few Bibles would include these words, they do not change what the Bible teaches because–even though I do not think they are original, and therefore are not scriptural–I believe they teach the truth.

God has faithfully preserved His word for us.

He has faithfully preserved His testimony about His Son.

And here we have 3 testifiers who give testimony about His Son. V.7&8 again.

“For there are three that testify: the Spirit, the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement.”

Now, who are these 3 testifiers?

Verse 6 says, “This is the one who came by water and blood–Jesus Christ.”

What does he mean by “water and blood?”

Well, it’s not obvious and a lot of different interpretations have been offered over the years, but I’ll tell you which one makes the most sense to me.

Water here is Jesus’ baptism.  “This is the one who came by baptism.”

And “blood” here is Jesus’ crucifixion.  “This is the one who came by baptism and crucifixion. Death. Sacrifice. Blood.”

I think “water” stands for baptism because that’s the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry when He stands before John the Baptist and says, “I’ve come to be baptized.”

And John says, “You should baptize me!”

But Jesus says, “This is necessary to fulfill all righteousness.”

And when Jesus went down into the water, He was just as surely identifying with us as when we got down into the water to identify with Him.

In just three weeks, we’re going to have some baptisms up here on Resurrection Sunday.

And those who go down into the water will be publically identifying themselves with Jesus.  When Jesus was baptized, He was publically identifying with us.

And the Spirit showed up?  Remember? Like a dove.

And His Father showed up, too. And He said, “This is my beloved Son. With Him I am well-pleased.”

How’s that for testimony?

That was the beginning. And the Cross was (in some ways) the end.

At the Cross, Jesus’ identification with us reached its climax.

And what was the testimony there?  The centurion said, “Surely this man was the Son of God.”

Water and Blood.

Notice that John says it wasn’t just by water. V.6

“He did not come by water only, but by water and blood.”

The false teachers who had left this church probably put great stock in Jesus’ baptism but didn’t like His blood.  They didn’t want a God in the flesh that bled.

But John would agree with our singing today, “Nothing but the blood of Jesus” and “Jesus’ Precious Blood.”

What stream can sweep away My sins just like a flood, 
Nor lets one guilty blemish stay? ‘Tis Jesus’ precious blood.

“He did not come by water only, but by water and blood.”

And there is a third testifier who is even more important. V.6 again.

“And it is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth.”

The Holy Spirit.

He is the third witness.

This testimony is not something that John made up. It comes from the Holy Spirit Himself. V.9

“We accept man's testimony, but God's testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God, which he has given about his Son.”

“This is my beloved Son. With Him I am well pleased. Listen to Him.  He comes by water and by blood.”

So says God the Father through God the Spirit about God the Son.

Believe the Testifiers.

Because God’s testimony is greater. V.10

“Anyone who believes in the Son of God has this testimony in his heart. Anyone who does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because he has not believed the testimony God has given about his Son.”

Do you see how high the stakes are here?

If you believe the testifiers, then you have the testimony in your heart.

But if you don’t believe the testifiers, then you don’t believe God!

And you are calling Him a liar.

That’s what all unbelievers are doing. Those who reject Jesus are calling God a liar.

You don’t want to call God a liar.

God said that Jesus was His Son come by water and blood.

If you don’t believe that, then you are thumbing your nose at the testimony of God.

That’s dangerous.

But if you believe in the Son of God, then you have this testimony in your heart.

#2. BELIEVE THE TESTIMONY.  V.11

“And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.”


Believe the testimony.

1 John 5:11 and 12 were some of the first verses that I had to memorize as a student at Moody Bible Institute.

If you don’t have them memorized already, I can’t recommend it enough.

I remember saying them out loud in my dorm room and stringing the words together.

And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life,
And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life,
And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life!

and this life is in his Son.
and this life is in his Son.

And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life;

He who has the Son has life;
He who has the Son has life;
He who has the Son has life;

He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.

If you get that, then that’s everything!

God has given us eternal life. Free gift. No strings attached. Not something we earn.

Eternal life. Starts now and goes forever.
Eternal life. Life to fullest and life with God forever and ever and ever and ever.

Eternal life.

And that life is in Someone.

That life is in God’s Son. He is what all of the fuss is all about!

Because there are only two options, two paths.

He who has the Son has life.  (Because life is in the Son!)

And He who does not have the Son of God does not have life.

Tragic!

“He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.”

That’s everything!

Do you have the Son?

Then you have life. Eternal life.

But if you do not have the Son of God then you do not have eternal life.

It’s that simple.

Believe the Testimony and be saved.

This is essential Christianity.

Essential Christianity says that you either have Jesus or don’t have Jesus and that makes all of the difference.

Again, you can’t sit on the fence.

There is no fence!

You either have the Son or you don’t have the Son of God.

Do you have the Son?

This is my journal from my days at Moody Bible Institute.

On February 4th, 1999, I listened to a message by Pastor Ben Haden on 1 John 5:11-13.  I marked it right here.

And afterwards, I went for a long walk beside Lake Michigan, I just re-preached this message to the air.

It was a fire in my bones, something I couldn’t keep to myself, I had to preach it, to herald it, to say it to the world!

I don’t know that I ever really felt like preaching before that. But I’ve never really wanted to stop ever since.

“And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.”

That is the testimony.

And we need to not only believe it, but to share it with others.

Because everything is on the line.

“He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.”

And if nobody ever tells you that, then you probably won’t have eternal life.

So, we need to get out there and testify like the water, the blood, and the Spirit.

When was the last time you told someone about Jesus?

To whom in your life do you need to explain essential Christianity?

What can wash away my sins?  Nothing but the blood of Jesus!

That’s not something that we can keep to ourselves!

We’ve got tell others the testimony we believe.

#3. KNOW THAT YOU HAVE ETERNAL LIFE.

I’m going one more verse than I told Marilynn to put on the back of bulletin. V.13

“I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.”

The “these things” are everything he’s been writing in the whole book.

We’ll come back to this verse again next week as it drives us to confidence in prayer.

But the “these things” surely also include the testimony that those who have the Son have eternal life.

And having the Son means having put your faith in the Son of God.

If you have done that, if you are trusting Him, then you can KNOW that you have eternal life.

How’s that for assurance?

“I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.”

No worries. No wondering. No wandering.

You may know that you have eternal life because you have the Son of God. You believe in the name (the person, the testimony) of the Son of God.

And that means that you have eternal life.

Draw great assurance from that.

Relish in. Revel in. Make it your heartbeat and your confidence.

Make it your song.

     I Know Whom I Have Believed and Am Persuaded That He Is Able
     To Keep That Which I’ve Committed Unto Him Against that Day

“I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.”

That doesn’t mean that your heart won’t sometimes rise up and condemn you.

Our hearts do that sometimes. But remember that God is greater than our hearts.

And we need to listen to God.

And believe His testimony.

And when we do, we know that we have eternal life.


***

Messages about Essential Christianity

1. A Letter Arrived from John
2. The Word of Life
3. God Is Light
4. Talk and Walk
5. If You Love, You Live in the Light
6. I Write To You Because
7. Do Not Love the World
8. This Is the Last Hour
9. Children of God (Part One)
10. Children of God (Part Two)
11. Love Your Brother
12. God Is Greater Than Our Hearts
13. Test the Spirits
14. God Is Love (Part One)
15. God Is Love (Part Two)
16. Overcoming the World
17. The Testimony
18. We Know
19. Listen Again to 1 John

Read More

[Matt's Messages] "Overcoming the World"

“Overcoming the World”

Essential Christianity: 1 John

March 3, 2013 :: 1 John 5:1-5

I thought a couple of weeks ago that I had studied the hardest passage to understand in 1 John.  Remember I said that it was like trying to follow John in a down-hill ski through the woods in the dark?

Well, that one was easy compared to this passage–1 John 5:1-5!

It’s not that this passage is full of hard things to believe or even to understand individual phrases or sentences. But it is very difficult for me to follow John’s argument. To know why he was saying what and when and where he wants us to come out.

It’s full of important truths, but it was hard for me to untangle them.

Imagine with me a big ball of multicolored yarn.  (Now my wife is paying attention.)

And this ball has got lots of threads poking out of it.  Lots of ends. So there are different threads in here.

And we modern Americans want to pull out each thread and lay them down in order.

But John doesn’t like that. Not here. John wants us to examine the ball all together and see how all of these threads are intertwined.

Even if we started to pull out a thread, we’re going to find that it leads to another thread and back again in unexpected ways.

Do you remember this list?

I’ve showed a few times over the last several months:

Moral

Social

Doctrinal

Or we could put it this way:

Moral = Obey

Social = Love

Doctrinal = Belief

What we’ve seen so far is that John keeps circling around these three areas of essential Christianity.

It’s essential to obey the commands of Christ.

It’s essential to love Christ and to love other Christians.  (God is love.)

And it’s essential to believe in Christ.  (God is light.)

That’s what we’ve been learning.

Well, we’re turning the corner into the last stretch of 1 John, the last chapter of the book.

And in the first 5 verses, John ties all three of these areas together once again.

I have a pastor friend who said to me this week that 1 John is like an airplane buzzing over the same airstrip again and again but from different directions.

Nearom. ... Nearom. ... Nearom.

Well, in this passage for today, he comes at that airstrip like lightning.

Nearom. Nearom. Nearom. Nearom!

But it’s the same three areas.

And the bottom line promise is that those who believe in Christ are “Overcoming the World.”

Again, there are three main threads that are intertwined in these five short verses.

And, together, they add up to “Overcoming the World.”

Now, whatever else we see today, I want us to learn about overcoming the world.

Doesn’t that sound good?

The World is our enemy. Bible talks about the World as one of our 3 major enemies: the World, the Flesh, and the Devil.

In the Bible, the World is human society organized in rebellion against God.

John has already told us about the world. He told us, in fact, not to love the world.  Remember that in chapter 2?

“Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world–the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does–comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.”

Well, it sounds pretty important to defeat that, doesn’t it?

It’s very important to overcome the world with all of its temptations and its troubles.

And we’ve just read that John tells us that we, who are followers of Christ, have overcome the world.

But I’m getting ahead of the text.

Let’s start in verse 1 and begin to examine thread #1. BELIEVE.  V.1

“Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well.”

Notice how we don’t get through even one verse before we get to the second thread?

Let’s just take the first part of the verse to start with.

“Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God...”

Believe.

This truth goes both ways, I think.

If you believe that Jesus is the Christ, you will be born of God.

John 1:12. “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God...”

But it’s true the other way, too, and I think that’s what is being emphasized here.

If you are born of God, then you will believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah.

No exceptions.

“Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God...”

Now, that word “Believe” is going to be very important in this last chapter.

John is going to say it again and again again.

Believe. Believe. Faith. Believe.

But it’s not just “have faith” or “believe” with no object.

This is belief in someone and something in particular.

There are lot of people out there who encourage faith.  But when you start to put specifics on the table for what to believe, and you start to say what not to believe, then people start to fidget around. They don’t want doctrinal content, they just want faith.

Believe!

Well, believe what, exactly?

Verse 1 says, “Believe that Jesus is the Christ.”

Verse 5 is going to tell us to believe that Jesus is the Son of God.

That’s not just believing in some God somewhere.

That’s believing in a specific God and saying that the other so-called-gods are not God at all.

And it takes the Spirit of God giving us new life in our hearts for us to be able to believe like that.

“Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God...”

Now, we’ll come back to that thread. It won’t be long, because John says that our faith (our believing) is actually the victory that overcomes the world.

So, we’ll get back to “believe,” but John quickly moves to thread #2. LOVE.

V.1 again.

“Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well.”

Now, every time I read that this week, I went, “Huh?”

And, honestly, I’m still feeling the “Huh?”

Where is John going with this?

Listen to it in the King James Version. I think that the KJV brings out the flavor of the Greek a little bit more than the NIV does: “Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: and every one that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him.”

I think what he’s saying is that Christians have been born of God, given life by God Himself and will therefore naturally love their father.

“Thank you for giving me life, Father!”

And if you love the one that begat you, then you will also love those others are begotten of him.

Now, that could be loving God the Son, and that’s true. If you love God the Father, you will love Jesus, too.

But that hasn’t been the theme of the last two chapters, has it?

How many times in chapters 3 and 4 did we get the message–love your brother?

Love your brother!

I think that’s where he’s going here.  So the thread so far is faith, birth, love for the Father, and love for other Christians.

How are you doing at that?

I was struck this week at how many times John has told us to love our brothers and sisters in Christ in this short little letter.

Do you think that John knows that it’s hard to love other Christians?

It’s not easy to love other Christians.

It’s easy to say that love is patient, but it’s not always easy to be patient.

It’s easy to say that love is kind, but it’s not always easy to be kind.

It’s easy to say that love keeps no record of wrongs, but it’s not always easy to keep no record of wrongs.  Is it?

How are you doing at loving your spiritual siblings?

The world makes it even harder to love them.

Because the world says that it’s not worth it to love others and that they are not worth it.

But God says, “Everyone who loves the father loves his child as well.”

V.2

“This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands.”

Now, that one threw me, too!

“This is how we know that we love the children of God...”

How would you have finished that sentence?

“I know by how I treat them?”

“I know by living out 1 Corinthians 13?”

Something like that.

But that’s not where John goes.  He heads right into thread #3. OBEY.

“This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands.”

I’m not sure how that works. I know that I love the children of God by loving God and carrying out his commands.

Maybe the commands we’re talking about here are those commands that get specific about how to love other Christians. I’m not sure.

It’s all tied in close and tight to John.

“This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands.”

However that works, it works!

So, we should count on it. We should love God and obey God, and we’ll know that we love the children of God.

I think that this is a good word for those who think that we can be good Christians simply by loving people but ignoring God.

There are plenty of people who call themselves Christians who give very little thought to Christ, though they try to be “nice people.”

But Christians are not “nice people.” They are people who love Jesus and love His other children.

And they obey Jesus! In fact, it’s part of what it means to love God. V.3

“This is love for God: to obey his commands.”

Now, that’s not saying that love is just obedience, but love for God is not less than obedience to our Lord and Master.

It is obedience to our Lord.

“This is love for God: to obey his commands.”

How are you doing at that one?

How are you doing at obeying God’s commands?

Do you love God?

Here’s one way to tell. Do you do what He says?

Are you changing?

Are you submitting?

Are you taking what God says and applying it to your life even if it hurts?

Or are you going your own way?

If you are going your own way, then you are not loving God.

“This is love for God: to obey his commands.”

“But!” we say, “It’s so hard. It’s so heavy. I can’t do it.”  V.3

“This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world.”

I think what that’s saying is that Christians have a new power to obey.

The commands of God become blessings for us, not burdens, and because we are born of God, we can obey His commands.

Now, for example, I have had a lot of things on my mind recently.

And I have allowed worry and anxiety to crowd into my heart.

Enough worry and anxiety and “stress” that I think my weak and tired feeling in the pulpit last Sunday was a physical reaction to the stress in my life.  I just felt like I could lay down right in the pulpit and fall asleep.

I proved last week that this new pulpit is really sturdy, because it held me up through the sermon last week.

What is the command of God for me?

“Fear not, for I am with you.”

“Matt, be anxious for nothing.”

“Trust in the Lord with all of your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.”

But I say, “Oh, Father, I love you, but I can’t keep those commands! That’s burdensome. I’ve got to worry. It’s my super-power! I’m awesome at worrying!”

And God says, “Matt if you love me, you will obey my commands. And they are NOT burdensome.”

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

God says, “Matt, everyone born of God overcomes the world.”

The world says that God’s commands are impossible to keep.

The world says that God’s commands are bad for you.

The world says that God’s commands are burdensome, grievous, too difficult.

But God says, “This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.”

And now, all of a sudden, we’re back to thread #1!

BELIEVE.

Our faith is the victory that is victorious.

The Greek word here for “overcome” or “victory” is that same word we encountered in chapter 2 and chapter 4.

Nikao. To conquer. To be victorious. To overcome. To win!

This is how we win over the world–we trust God!

We believe.

We have faith. V.10

“Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.”

Now, that means, at least, that we are converted. That we trust Christ for the first time.  We come to believe that Jesus is the Son of God.

And if you never have, we invite you to do so today!

But I think it’s more than that.

I think this overcoming is not just coming to faith for the first time, but also trusting God for the power to say NO to the world’s temptations and to not get dragged under when the world brings us trouble.

Faith is the way that we say no to the “everything in the world–the cravings of sinful man, the lust of [our] eyes and the boasting of what [we have and do].”

Faith is the way that we take heart when troubles come.

Because our Lord Jesus said (John 16:33), "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome [there’s our word again] the world."

And if He’s overcome it, all we have to do is trust Him, and we will overcome it, too.

John believes this so strongly, that he sees it already done.

“This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.”

Believe!

Believe that Jesus is the Son of God.

And believe that Jesus has conquered the world.

And you will conquer, too.

***

Messages about Essential Christianity

1. A Letter Arrived from John
2. The Word of Life
3. God Is Light
4. Talk and Walk
5. If You Love, You Live in the Light
6. I Write To You Because
7. Do Not Love the World
8. This Is the Last Hour
9. Children of God (Part One)
10. Children of God (Part Two)
11. Love Your Brother
12. God Is Greater Than Our Hearts
13. Test the Spirits
14. God Is Love (Part One)
15. God Is Love (Part Two)
16. Overcoming the World
17. The Testimony
18. We Know
19. Listen Again to 1 John

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