[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

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Mossy Rock in Black Moshannon State Park

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Bruce & Donna Weatherly on "Resisting Gossip"

We've been friends with Bruce and Donna Weatherly for 15 years. They were church leaders when we started in ministry here at Lanse Free Church.  Then the Lord led them all over the world in an international ministry.  And now, the Lord has them back in Pennsylvania with Safe Harbor Christian Counseling.

Between the two of them, Bruce and Donna possess several boatloads of wisdom so it was a no-brainer to ask them to serve as "critical readers" for Resisting Gossip during the the early stages of its development. They both read the manuscript and offered many helpful critiques that shaped the first major revision.

I was pleased that they were both were willing to offer these endorsements:

“Matthew Mitchell’s book is personal and loving instead of simply academic and informational.  I appreciated the open, honest self-disclosure.  I really liked the simple definitions, especially of gossip and of judging.  Matt makes it clear that the heart is the core issue as well as the place where change happens through confession, repentance, grace and the work of the Spirit.  This book will be extremely helpful in clarifying, diagnosing, and ‘healing’ the sin of gossip in individuals and in churches. It is simple, deep, packed, and easy reading all at the same time.”  – Bruce Weatherly, Director of Safe Harbor Christian Counseling of Mid Pennsylvania

“Thanks so much for your work, prayer, study, and diligence in writing this book. I believe it will be very helpful, useful, appreciated. Practical as I am, I enjoyed the suggestions, illustrations, and grace that you have included throughout. You made it much easier to apply by your suggestions, illustrations and clarifications.” – Donna Weatherly, Office Administrator of Safe Harbor Christian Counseling of Mid Pennsylvania” Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

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Making Procrastination Bars

Recipe for Procrastination Bars* 

(AKA Chocolate Chip Cookie Squares)

For that couch date in your near future.

INGREDIENTS

1/2 c. butter

1/2 c. brown sugar, packed

1/4 c. sugar

1 egg

1 t. vanilla

1 c. flour

1/2 t. baking soda

1/2 t. salt

1 c. chocolate chips

1/2 c. chopped walnuts

DIRECTIONS

1. In a medium sized bowl, cream butter with brown sugar.

2. Add white sugar and cream again.

3. Add egg and vanilla and beat well.

4. Measure in flour, sod, and salt. Stir until well blended.

5. Add chips and nuts, stirring to combine.

6. Scrape into greased 9x9" pan.

7. Bake in 350° oven for 25-30 minutes until set and a nice brown color.

8. When cool cut into squares.

*When we were college, I always made these when I should have been studying. Hence the name "Procrastination Bars."  When the kids were smaller, I made them same "Pro-Cras-Tin-Ation" if they wanted to eat one.

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False Hope for Homosexuals

In our ongoing series on Hope for Holy Sexuality, I’ve been trying to highlight testimonies and resources that give hope for change to those who struggle with same-sex attraction.

One danger in doing that is to make it seem like there is a simple 3 (or even 12) step plan for attaining complete victory over homosexuality, easily changing all of your sexual desires to heterosexual, and one day being happily married to a opposite-sex spouse.  (Many of the “ex-gay” ministries have made claims like these that they can’t back up.)

The truth is that it is seldom simple or easy, and not everyone gets there (or they don't stay there consistently).

At the EFCA Theology Conference on sexuality, Wesley Hill gave his personal testimony and reflections on living a celibate life while still living with same sex attraction.

Over at Harvest USA, John Freeman wrote a multi-part series on why men fall back into homosexuality. That's part of the reality we live with in this battle.

But shouldn't that be obvious for Christians who have been saved, are still being saved, and look forward to the day when we are finally saved?

It’s important that at the same time as we promise Christians that they can have victory over sin (whatever that sin might be)--and they can!, that we remember that our battle with sin is ongoing and life-long. The battle is worth it and winable, but the victory may not always come when or look like we expected.

Let us offer hope, but not false hope for holy sexuality.

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Who says there is no good news in the media today?

This brief article thrilled me:  Church Repents of 'Mistreating' Pastors over Past Three Decades

"An Assemblies of God church in Indiana recently invited four of its former pastors to return so that the congregation could repent of gossip and other mistreatment that drove the leaders away."

I'd love to hear more about how this event came about and how it is affecting those who took part.

"Reckless words pierce like a sword, but the tongue of the wise brings healing."  - Proverbs 12:18

Read the whole thing.

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Guys, Plan a Couch-Date

Here’s some good advice for the husbands who read this blog: Plan a Couch-Date.

No, that’s not a time when you take your couch out for dinner and movie.  It’s a time when you and your wife stay in and spend time together.

Ever since the kids came along, we’ve found that it’s both harder to find time and means to go out on dates and more important than ever that we get that time together.

So, Heather and I have “stay-in” dates that normally revolve around a book and a snack.

Yes, you can watch a movie or play a game together (we do those kind, too), but for us, the best couch dates are some hot chocolate, some procrastination bars* and a good book.  

Our current book is Have His Carcase by Dorothy Sayers. Sayers’ books about her fictional sleuth Lord Peter Wimsey have been our best couch-date books over the last thirteen years. We’ve gone through the entire canon more than twice.  Last week, when we finished Strong Poison, we were almost crying we were laughing so hard–what a hoot!–and we already knew whodunit and how!

Here are some things that make couch dates good for us (and probably will for you, too):

- Put the kids to bed. Tell them Mommy & Daddy are having a date.

- Turn off all electronic devices.

- Let the phone go to voicemail.

- Stop periodically and talk about what you are reading. Listen to each other. Laugh. Joke. Share.

- Don’t use the time to plan things or make decisions. Just enjoy each other’s company.

- Guys, lead on this. It doesn’t really take that much planning, but she’ll really enjoy that you took the initiative.

Ok, guys, it's Monday--what day this week will your couch date be?

* The Story Behind "Procrastination Bars." If you ask nicely, I’ll post the recipe for those delicacies later this week.

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[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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