You Are (1 John 5:13–21)

blog, sermons

MPS: You are God’s child, a prayer warrior, free from sin’s power, and a Christ worshiper..

You are God’s. (13-15)

13 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. 14 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him. 

• John’ intent in writing this letter is to give confidence to the church that they have eternal life and the Father, through the Son.
• God is the giver of eternal life and eternal life is our relationship with God accomplished by the work of Christ. (13)
  • “And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” (Jn. 17:3)
• Prayer to God conforms us to His will. (14-15)
  • “and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.” (1 John 3:22)
  • “Prayer is not a convenient device for imposing our will upon God, or for bending his will to ours, but the prescribed way of subordinating our will to his.” (John Stott)
    • God is not a genie or fairy god-mother and you aren’t Aladdin or Cinderella. Instead, God uses our time with Him in prayer to form and shape us in righteousness. Then we begin to pray according to His will. We ask for His divine will to be done and not our fallible and fickle desires to shape our paths.
• So, how do we ask things in accordance with God’s will?*
  • God has a will we can know and a will we cannot. This is called His revealed and secret wills.
  • We can know His revealed will by reading it in the Scriptures.
    • “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” (2 Tim. 3:16-17)
    • His will is for you to know, obey, and worship Him. This is found in His Word and aid is found in prayer.

You are a prayer warrior. (16-17)

16 If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life—to those who commit sins that do not lead to death. There is sin that leads to death; I do not say that one should pray for that. 17 All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that does not lead to death. 

• We are to pray for Christians struggling in sin. (16)
  • “16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.” (James 5:16)
• Don’t be afraid to call sin what it is for the purpose of prayer and restoration. (17)
  • “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted. 2 Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” (Gal. 6:1-2)

You are free from sin’s power. (18-20)

18 We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him. 

19 We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. 

20 And we know 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, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.

• Christians no longer live lives characterized by sin because their relationship to sin has changed. (18)
  • We are only able to keep God’s commands, which keeps us from sinning, because Christ kept them.
• Christians are not under Satan’s power because Christ has freed us! While the world continues to walk in bondage. (19)
  • Everyone is either of God or under Satan’s control. There is no middle ground.
• Christians have Christ in them so we are no longer slaves to sin. (20)
  • We can know Him who is true because of the Holy Spirit who leads and guides us.
  • We are free from sin and death according to Paul, “57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Cor. 15:57)

You are a Christ worshiper. (21)

 21 Little children, keep yourselves from idols.

• Idols are those things that get in the way of your worshipping God.
  • They can be anything from activities to people. Idols can also include aspects of our worship services that distract you from God and cause you to focus your worship on it. It can be a style of music, pieces of furniture, even architecture.
    • “anything which occupies the place due to God”” (Daniel Akin)
    • During the Reformation they discovered stained glass windows and portraits of saints, Mary, and Jesus were all idols of the people. So what did they do? Destroyed them!
    • “The Apostle not only condemns idolatry, but commands us to beware of all images and idols; by which he intimates, that the worship of God cannot continue uncorrupted and pure whenever men begin to be in love with idols or images. For so innate in us is superstition, that the least occasion will infect us with its contagion.” (John Calvin)
    • For the Roman Catholics this is their Mass and the veneration of Saints and Mary. For the Eastern Orthodox it is their use of graven images and burnt incense. What is it for us?
• Your idols are those things you can’t live without.
  • Maybe your idols aren’t found in the worship service but distract you from your daily worship of God. What’s drawing your attention away from your chief end, which is to know God and glorify Him? Could it be your job, electronics, family, extra curricular activities, politics, etc? 
• Go on the hunt for these idols and then destroy them. Don’t set them aside to come to later. Take them outback and shoot em.

Next Steps

• Confess your sins to one another.
• Pray for one another.
• Get rid of your idols and worship Christ!