[The following is a manuscript of my message delivered on Sunday morning, the 27th of August, 2023, at Pilgrim Reformed Church. A recording should be available on our YouTube streaming channel:
https://www.youtube.com/@pilgrimreformedchurch1992/streams.]
As we’ve seen, the emphasis of the Apostle John’s letters is on love – primarily God’s love for us and the importance of us loving others. John has stressed how much God loves us by relating that He sent His own Son to free us from our bonds to sin and offer us eternal life in heaven. And if God loves us that much, surely we should do as He asks of us and love others.
It really isn’t asking all that much, is it, to give other people the same consideration we would want for ourselves? That’s all God is asking of us, to love others as we love ourselves. Why is it so hard for us to do?
This morning we’ll begin to wrap up John’s 1st letter by looking at the opening to his closing chapter. In finishing up the 4th chapter of this letter, the apostle reminds us that no one has ever seen God, but that God dwells in those who confess that Jesus is His Son. God lives within us in the person of His Holy Spirit and while we can’t see Him, we can see His effects on us by the fruits of the Spirit.
Moreover, God is love, and whoever lives in love – whoever abides in love - lives in God, and God in him. This is how Jesus lived while He walked this earth, loving us all enough to give completely of Himself, offering up His own mortal life as a blood sacrifice for the atonement of our sin. We don’t have to sacrifice our mortal lives, but we should show our love of God by loving others.
So today we’ll continue the theme by looking at the first 12 verses of chapter 5 of John’s 1st letter to the early church, reading from the Living Bible version of our Holy Bible this morning…
1 If you believe that Jesus is the Christ — that He is God’s Son and your Savior — then you are a child of God. And all who love the Father love His children too. 2 So you can find out how much you love God’s children — your brothers and sisters in the Lord — by how much you love and obey God. 3 Loving God means doing what He tells us to do, and really, that isn’t hard at all; 4 for every child of God can obey Him, defeating sin and evil pleasure by trusting Christ to help him.5 But who could possibly fight and win this battle except by believing that Jesus is truly the Son of God? 6-8 And we know He is, because God said so with a voice from heaven when Jesus was baptized, and again as He was facing death — yes, not only at His baptism but also as He faced death. And the Holy Spirit, forever truthful, says it too. So we have these three witnesses: the voice of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, the voice from heaven at Christ’s baptism, and the voice before He died. And they all say the same thing: that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. 9 We believe men who witness in our courts, and so surely we can believe whatever God declares. And God declares that Jesus is His Son. 10 All who believe this know in their hearts that it is true. If anyone doesn’t believe this, he is actually calling God a liar because he doesn’t believe what God has said about His Son.11 And what is it that God has said? That He has given us eternal life and that this life is in His Son. 12 So whoever has God’s Son has life; whoever does not have His Son, does not have life.
--1 John 5:1-12 (TLB)
Let us pray… Almighty God, Thank You for loving us so much that You would adopt us as Your own children just because we confess that Jesus is the Christ, Your Son, our Savior. You chose us to believe, and then gave us the faith to know in our hearts that Jesus is Lord. Thank You, Father, for these wonderful blessings. Thank You for giving us life. Sadly, Father, sometimes we struggle to do the simple things You ask of us. Too often we fail to love others, even other believers, as we should. We don’t always treat them like we want to be treated, nor consider their needs and feelings like we do our own. Forgive us these times, please Father. Help us be more loving to all. Keep reminding us of how Jesus showed His love for us. And please protect us, Father. Shield us from those who serve Satan and carry out his wicked deeds here on earth. Please keep us strong in our faith, of one mind and one purpose in our love, worship, and service, and healthy and safe in the days ahead.
Speak to us now, Father, that we might hear Your voice through Your Spirit within us and better understand the message You have for us this day. Show us how Your love is perfected in us. Help us show Your love to others in all our words and deeds, every day in every way. This we pray in the precious name of Your Son, Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
Someone once took the pains to calculate how a typical 70-year lifespan is spent. According to their findings, we spend 23 of the 70 years sleeping. That's 32.9% of our time on earth spent sleeping. We work for 16 years of the 70, but it sure seems like more than that. We watch TV for 8 years and eat for 6. We travel for 6 years and enjoy other leisure activities for 4-1/2 years. We are sick or ill for 4 years, and spend 2 years just getting dressed. Seems like I've left something out. Hmm… That doesn't quite add up to 70 – only 69-1/2 years. Oh yeah... Religion. According to this little exercise, the average person spends only 1/2 of one year of their 70 year lifespan worshiping their God.
Now that 70 year lifespan might be closer to 80 now, but the percentages are probably still the same. And I don’t know about you, but I think this is a very sad commentary on human life. We spend 2 years – 24 months - just getting dressed, but only 6 months worshiping our God. We sit in front of a TV – or a computer - for 8 years, but only half a year with our heavenly Father.
The study didn’t list book reading as a pastime, but it might be wrapped up in the “other leisure activities” category. One of the easiest ways to spend time with God, second only to prayer, is to read and study His word. If we’ll take the time to read romance or crime novels or adventure stories or science fiction books, why do we have so little inclination to pick up the Bible and read it? Our Bible has all of these elements, except it is fact rather than fiction. It has romance and crime, tales of love and sex, war stories and great battle scenes, treachery, high drama, with even a bit of comedy thrown in here and there.
Is it too difficult to read and understand? Well, the King James Version certainly can be, but there are many that are easy to read, such as the one we’re using this morning, the Living Bible. So let’s spend a little more time with our Bibles and in prayer, and see if we can’t bump those numbers up to at least a full year out of our 70.
Toward the end of our scripture passage this morning, John reminds us that God has given we believers eternal life and that this life is in His Son Jesus. And I say “reminds us” because he first mentioned this in the opening to his Gospel account. You may remember how he described Jesus, saying, “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.” For a slightly different take on that familiar passage, listen to the Living Bible version of the first 5 verses of the 1st chapter of John’s Gospel account...
1-2 Before anything else existed, there was Christ, with God. He has always been alive and is Himself God. 3 He created everything there is — nothing exists that He didn’t make. 4 Eternal life is in Him, and this life gives light to all mankind. 5 His life is the light that shines through the darkness — and the darkness can never extinguish it.
--John 1:1-5 (TLB)
Eternal life is in Jesus. This is what Jesus offers, this is what He freely gives to anyone who will confess Him as the Christ, believe in Him as the Son of God, accept Him as Lord. Whoever has Jesus – in their heart, in their thoughts, in their life - has eternal life.
Getting back to the beginning of our passage, as he opens the final chapter of his 1st letter, John jumps right in to the topic of love. Because we believe and confess that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, God has made us His children. And if we love our heavenly Father, then we will love all His other children, too.
Here as in other passages of his letters and Gospel account, John is speaking of our loving other believers, our brothers and sisters in the Lord. Jesus tells us to love everyone, even our enemies, those who would do us harm. I think John is saying that if we can’t find it in ourselves to love everyone as God would have us do, then at least we should love other Christians. But apparently that is too difficult for us, too. We don’t have to look very far to see believers acting in an unchristian manner toward other believers.
It isn’t always easy to love our own blood siblings, is it. Yet here we’re tasked with loving our adoptive brothers and sisters, God’s other adopted children. John admits it can be a battle for us, but that we can win the fight with the help of Jesus, by believing that He truly is the Son of God.
This part shouldn’t be too hard for those who have accepted and exercised the faith God gave us, because we have three witnesses to Jesus being God’s Son. Well, two of the witnesses are the same, just at two different times, and all three give testimony to that Father-Son relationship.
The first witness is God Himself, when His voice rang out from heaven at the event of Jesus’ baptism. This is how the Apostle Matthew recorded it, in the 3rd chapter of his Gospel account, verses 16 and 17…
16 After His baptism, as soon as Jesus came up out of the water, the heavens were opened to Him and He saw the Spirit of God coming down in the form of a dove. 17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is My beloved Son, and I am wonderfully pleased with Him.”
--Matthew 3:16-17 (TLB)
“This is My beloved Son!” God didn’t say, “This is an angel” or “This is a great prophet”. He said, “This is My Son, whom I love dearly and with whom I am wonderfully pleased.”
And the second witness is the same as the first, but this time it comes shortly before Jesus is arrested and crucified, when He is transfigured on the mountainside before Peter, James, and John. Matthew relates this in the 5th verse of the 17th chapter of his Gospel account, just after Peter offers to build three tabernacles…
5 But even as he said it, a bright cloud came over them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, and I am wonderfully pleased with him. Obey him.”
--Matthew 17:5 (TLB)
Again God proclaims that Jesus is His beloved Son. And God should be pleased, for Jesus did everything asked of Him, obeying His Father to the very end.
Oh, and did you notice that this time God adds, “Obey Him.” This wasn’t a request. There were no conditions tacked on, like, “Obey Him if you agree with what He tells you.” We are to obey Jesus, God’s beloved Son, and do what He commands. What does He command but to love God, to love others as we love ourselves, and to go out making disciples. It’s all about love.
And the third witness to Jesus being God’s Son, if we needed another witness after those two, is the voice of God’s Spirit in our hearts. The Holy Spirit always tells the truth, and He whispers to us that Jesus is the Son of God; Jesus is God.
The voice of God’s Spirit in our hearts, the voice from heaven at Christ’s baptism, and the voice before He died – all three proclaim Jesus to be the Son of God. John points out that if we are willing to believe the testimony of other humans in a court proceeding, then surely we should be able to believe what the Almighty God declares. All who believe know this to be true. Our faith tells us it is true. And those who don’t believe… well, they’re effectively calling God a liar, because they don’t believe what God Himself has said.
So we’re back to where we started. Jesus is the Son of God, and in Him is eternal life. That life, the life that is Jesus, is the light of mankind, the light that shines in the darkness, the light that can never be dimmed or extinguished.
Jesus is life, eternal life to all who believe. Believe, and live for all eternity with God in heaven. In the blessed name of Christ Jesus our Lord, who gave His all for us. Amen.
Let us pray… Almighty God, thank You for having pity on us poor sinners, for having mercy on us. Thank You for the many blessings You pour out over us. And most of all, thank You for giving us the faith to believe that Jesus is Your beloved Son. Forgive us those times, please Father, when we fail to do as Jesus commands us, when we don’t obey Him as You ordered. Forgive us when we get too caught up with the things of the world and don’t take the time to spend with You. Forgive us when we neglect the needs of others, when we can’t even show love to our fellow Christians. Please help us be more like Jesus. Help us remember how He lived, how He loved. And please, Father, shield us from Satan as he attacks our faith and tries to pull us away from You. Help us be better servants, glorifying You in all we do so that the world can see You in us, through our deeds, in how we live. And help us remain strong, faithful, and true to You in all things, no matter what the world throws at us or holds out before us.
Please hear us now, Father, as we pause for just a moment to speak to You through Your Spirit within us, promising to be more obedient to Your commands, and seeking Your help to do so…
Lord Jesus, You are our light. You show us the way out of darkness and into eternal life. Thank You, Jesus, for giving of Yourself for us. Please forgive us when we fail to give of ourselves for others. Forgive us when we don’t treat other believers the way we ourselves want to be treated. We pray, Lord, that You please help us see the times we displease You, and show us how to do better. And Jesus, please shield our minds and our hearts from Satan’s lies and empty promises. Guide us around all traps and snares he lays in our path. Help us see though his temptations.
Lord Jesus, please help us be faithful and true to You, putting all our trust in You, all our hope in You. Please heal the hurts that separate and divide us one from another. Help us keep our focus on the things of heaven and the needs of others rather than on anything this life might offer. This we pray in Your blessed name, Christ Jesus our Lord and our Savior. Amen.
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