V-V-V 4 VICTORY! (1 JOHN 5:1-5)

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1 Sixth Sunday of Easter May 10, 2015 V-V-V 4 VICTORY! (1 JOHN 5:1-5) 1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. 2 This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. 3 This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, 4 for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. 5 Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. Introduction: Recently we celebrated the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. The tragedy of the cross was swallowed up in VICTORY with the empty tomb! You may say, Yes, Pastor Steve, there was victory two thousand years ago with Christ, but what about victory for us Christians here in the twenty-first century? Do we have victory? If so, how so? Let s deal with these questions as we go through our New Testament reading. I think you will find some pleasant surprises in 1 John 5:1-5. I. Belief Born of God (5:1a) 5:1a The phrase who believes (pisteuō) is a present participle which indicates an ongoing pattern of belief. This phrase is also used in verse 5. Jesus as the Christ has been mentioned earlier in 4:2-3: This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God.

2 Being born of God has been dealt with earlier in 2:29; 3:9; 4:7. Born (gennaō) in these verses is in the perfect tense, which signifies a past birth with continuing effects/results. - If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone also who practices righteousness is born of Him. 1 John 2:29 - No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. 1 John 3:9 - Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 1 John 4:7 Being born of God or born again (see John 3:3) relates to the doctrine of regeneration, that is, being regenerated or made a new person by God. An excellent verse on this subject is 2 Corinthians 5:17: Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! Sometimes we can take our own efforts so seriously that we miss our utmost priority in seeing all that God has done (and will continue to do!) for us, His children, as this statement by Arthur Brisbane brings out: We may sweep the world clean of militarism, we may scrub the world white of totalitarianism, we may carpet it with democracy and drape it with the flag of republicanism. We may hang on the walls the thrilling pictures of freedom: here, the signing of America s Independence; there, the thrilling portrait of Joan of Arc; yonder, the Magna Carta; and on this side, the inspiring picture of Garibaldi (an Italian patriot in the 1800 s). We may spend energy and effort to make the world a paradise itself where the lion of wealth and power can lie down with the lamb of weakness and poverty. But if we turn into that splendid room mankind with the same old heart, deceitful and desperately wicked, we may expect to clean house again not many days hence. What we need is a peace conference with the Prince of Peace. [Taken from 1500 Illustrations, pp ] Let s not put the cart before the horse in trying to change society s external structure without first seeking to let people s hearts be changed by the love and grace of the Almighty God. There is nothing so wonderful, so powerful, so inspiring, as a new child in Christ, the Prince of Peace.

3 II. Family Fellowship (5:1b) 5:1b Everyone who loves the father loves his child as well is more literally translated as everyone who loves the one who has given birth also loves the one who has been born by Him. The One who has given birth obviously refers to God the Father having made His children born again. In other words, those who are born of God, His sons and daughters, obviously love such a wonderful Father. As a result, they love their brothers and sisters who also have a love relationship with the Heavenly Father. Because we belong to the same family with such a magnificent Parent, we have genuine fellowship with one another. This is utterly a work of God to save us individually and bring us together as family members, as this quote by Lord Houghton affirms: The Christian family is the Master s workshop where the processes of character molding are silently, lovingly, faithfully, and successfully carried on. [Taken from 1001 Quotes, p. 68] May we truly have a childlike love, respect, and appreciation for our Heavenly Father as these kids do with their own Daddy : The father of five children had won a toy at a raffle. He called his kids together to ask which one should have the present. Who is the most obedient? he asked. Who never talks back to Mother? Who does everything she says? Five small voices answered in unison, You play with it, Daddy! [Taken from 1002 Humorous Illustrations, p. 131] III. Commitment Commands (5:2-3) 5:2 Loving (agapaō) and carrying (poieō) are in the Greek present tense, which indicates a repeated action or a continual pattern.

4 5:3 The first word in the Greek text of this verse is for (gar), which is omitted by the NIV due to style of smoothness in reading. This word indicates a reason. One way that believers show their love for God is by loving the children of God, which ties in nicely with loving the Father in verse 1. Burdensome (baros) suggests the idea of a heavy, oppressive burden that is difficult to fulfill, as well as being weighty and troublesome. QUESTION: The Apostle John claims in 5:3 that God s commands are not burdensome. How is this so, since the Christian life is in one sense a very hard road to follow? ANSWER: Following God s commands is hard at times, but this is not an impossibly difficult thing to do because God is doing the work! This is indicated by the divine initiative of the new birth in 5:1, as well the person and work of Jesus Christ and the testimony of the Holy Spirit (5:6). Also, the nature of the Christian s victory is faith, which is unique in that it looks to, trusts in, and relies upon the resources of Another for its source of strength. A college friend of mine was a fanatical runner; he loves to run long distances as frequently as his schedule allowed. It was not just a hobby with him or even merely a way of getting in good physical condition it was his passion. Did he get tired? Yes. Did his feet get sore? Yes. Did it take a lot of time? Yes. Did he have to keep spending a lot of money on new sneakers? Yes. For the life of me I could not understand why he was so gung-ho about something that seemed so demanding and draining. He replied, It doesn t feel demanding and draining to me, Steve, because I love doing it. Then he went on to talk about beautiful scenery, endorphins, and other stuff that intense runners like so much. I confess that I have never been a big fan of running, though I now enjoy walking long distances. (I try to get in at least thirty miles each week.) However, I do know that the seeming sacrifices that I have made as a Christian are nothing compared to the wonder, the joy, the peace, of knowing the Heavenly Father through His Son Jesus. In fact, those sacrifices are as nothing compared to the eternal happiness and fulfillment that God so freely offers us in Christ. Our hearts ring with this confession that was made hundreds of years ago in Psalm 16:11:

5 You have made known to me the path of life; You will fill me with joy in Your presence, with eternal pleasures at Your right hand. IV. Trust Triumph (5:4-5) 5:4 For (hoti) indicates a reason for why God s commands are not burdensome (5:3). Everyone (pas) is unusual in that it is in the neuter gender (literally everything ) rather than the expected masculine gender. The neuter here points to God s sovereign choice and authority and His people s submission to His will and utter dependence upon Him. This similar concept is brought out vividly in John 1:11: He [Jesus] came to His own things [neuter] and His own people [masculine] did not receive Him. World (kosmon) in this context clearly has a negative connotation of a system and realm of evil that is in rebellion against God and His ways. It does not refer to the physical planet or fellow human beings. Overcomes (nikaō) is a verb in the present tense. This may refer to overcoming the world as a continual daily event (the typical usage of the present tense) or it may be a one-time lasting victory (a specialized use of the present tense known a gnomic present). It is probably the latter, since in the next phrase the aorist active participle ( has overcome ) is used. This means that the lasting victory is a one-time event in each believer s life. In other words, the believer s faith enables him or her to share in the victory over the world that has already been won. The victory that has overcome is emphatic, since both the noun and the verb are from the same root (nikē nikaō; this is the victory that has victory ). The verb has overcome is in the aorist tense, which points to finality in the sense of having been accomplished. By the way, the popular Nike brand of shoe gets its name from this Greek word for victory (nikē). 5:5 The New American Standard Bible translates this verse as one long rhetorical question: Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? Practical Application What is the victory that overcomes the world? First John 5:4 says our faith. Yet what is so remarkable about faith is not the one doing the believing, but rather the object of our faith. In other words, we can t pat ourselves on the back for being such great believers. Rather, all the glory

6 goes to the Heavenly Father, His dear Son, and the Holy Spirit for all that has been done in, for, and through us. Our faith recognizes that it is all God s work through and through. As a result we have joy in Him and love for one another. This does not mean that living the Christian life is a piece of cake, a life of ease where everything runs smoothly without complication. But this is true the Father has sent His Son to die/rise for us and give us new life. This is precious to all of us His children, and may His love be ever more real to all of us, as in this true story: When she turned twenty-one, Tammy Harris from Roanoke, Virginia, began searching for her biological mother. After a year, she had not succeeded. What she didn t know was that her mother, Joyce Schultz, had been trying to locate her for twenty years. According to a recent Associated Press story, there was one more thing Tammy didn t know: Her mother was one of her coworkers at the convenience store where she worked! One day Joyce overheard Tammy talking with another coworker about trying to find her mother. Soon they were comparing birth certificates. When Tammy realized that the coworker she had known was, in fact, her mother, she fell into her arms. We held on for the longest time, Tammy said. It was the best day of my life. Each week we rub shoulders with people whom we may barely notice. But if they share a birth in Christ, they are our dearest relatives. How precious is the family of God! [Taken from 1001 Quotes, p. 254] Born again to victory in Christ as part of God s family, Pastor Steve Waterman

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