P a g e 1 Sermon Outline for September 24, 2014 Preached at Grupo Nueva Vida, Austin TX by Mike Sackmary Text: 1st John 5:1-5 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of Him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome. For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world our faith. Who is that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? NASB Central Idea of the Text: Christians believe that Jesus is Messiah, love and obey God, love all believers and overcome the world through faith. Major Objective of the Text: Doctrinal. This passage follows 4:12-21 wherein Christians are told of the depths of God s love. It is a love without fear of what will happen to us on Judgment Day. Part of holy love is that we cannot hate our fellow believers (Old Testament believers and New Testament Christians). Major Objective of the Sermon: Call to action. Convince the hearers to chase after obedience to God, and give practical ideas for so doing.
P a g e 2 Introduction: 1st John 5:1-5 NASB 1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of Him. 2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey His commandments. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome. 4 For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world our faith. 5 Who is that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? The text has a progression of Love Obedience Faith John continues his epistle with this description of the characteristics of God s adopted children. Love, faith and obedience are like birthmarks. We have human birthmarks from our ancestors. These include attributes such as height, bone structure and hair color. These features reveal information about our genetic heritage. According to the Bible, our common genetic heritage goes all the way back to Adam and Eve, our first parents. In addition to physical characteristics, we inherited spiritual birthmarks from Adam. One of these birthmarks is our natural desire for sin. We also inherited from Adam the ability to choose to follow God. When we became Christians we inherited the spiritual birthmarks of love, obedience and faith. John is showing us that love, obedience and faith mark us as being true Christians, and not people who only claim to belong to Christ. The word translated 'born in verse 1 is gegennetai (ge-gen-ehtai), which means he/she has been born. This is a perfect passive indicative third person singular verb. This means that the action (birth) was done to the recipient (the Christian) and that the action has been completed. It cannot be undone or redone. Just as we cannot reenter our mother's womb and be born physically a second time, so too the spiritual
P a g e 3 birth into the New Covenant cannot be undone or redone. In other words, once you become a Christian, you are a Christian forever. What about those who use this idea, sometimes called 'eternal security', as an excuse for doing whatever they want? Can t a Christian just be saved and then commit all they sins they wish and still go to heaven? John says a real Christian will not act in such a manner. Yes we all sin, but a real Christian's life will be marked by love for God and for other people, by obedience to God and by faith in God. Other passages which discuss the behavior of true Christians include chapters 5 through 8 of Romans and 1st Peter, as well as 1st, 2nd and 3rd John. How do you if you are saved? Ask yourself, 'Do I you believe that Jesus is the Christ? If the answer is yes then John saysyou are born of God. Opposite to this is the person who denies that Jesus is the Messiah. Remember what John says in chapter two of 1st John. Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father; the one who confesses the Son has the Father also. 1st John 2:23. LOVE The first spiritual birthmark John mentions is love. This is love for God first then love for everyone who has been born of Him. That includes all the Old Testament believers and all the New Testament believers. You, Christian man or woman, are supposed to love all your fellow Christians. We all have the same Father. Romans 8:14-15 says For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out Abba! Father! NASB. It s easy to love God because He is the perfect Father. But how are we doing at loving our brothers and sisters? Do you love the Father? Then you must love all other believers. 1st John 2:9-11 The one who says he is in the Light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness until now. The one who loves his brother abides in the Light and there is no cause for
P a g e 4 stumbling in him. But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes. NASB Why are commanded to love other Christians? It is because we cannot see clearly when we indulge in hatred. The only reason that we are capable of loving anyone is that God gave us the ability. We love because He is love. 1st John 4:8 says "The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love." NASB. We are supposed to have a holy, unselfish platonic love for all other Christians. God gave us this ability and He commands us to use it. Our proper response is to develop the habit of thinking of, and treating other believers properly. We are all of the same family. What are some practical ways to show love? I like to think of six categories that are useful for all Christians no matter your culture or situation. These are: o Equipping. Allow other less experienced Christians to walk alongside you and learn from you. o Delegation. Whenever possible give a fellow Christian the opportunity to do something on their own, with your oversight. Help them improve the plan if they make a mistake. o Prayer. Pray for and with other Christians. o Show respect for their time. The world is full of pointless meetings. Do not bring this mind-numbing practice into the church. o Bury past mistakes if the person asks forgiveness. There is no benefit to bringing up past errors.
P a g e 5 OBEDIENCE Our second spiritual birthmark is obedience to the Lord. 1st John 5:3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome. NASB The world loves to give us heavy commandments. Political and social rules and ever-changing theology can never give rest to the mind. The world operates without consistent logic. This produces a muddled fog of cognition. What is acceptable one moment is condemned the next. Being unsure is a very heavy weight to the heart and mind. The true God gives us light commandments. They are light because He does most of the work and because He never changes. Some of His commands are given for a specific time and place, and others are for all people in all cultures. Obedience to God s commandments helps produce a joyful heart in us. Proverbs 17:22 says "A joyful heart is good medicine but a broken spirit dries up the bones." Obedience proves that we love our Lord. Willing and joyful obedience makes life exciting, and sometimes fun. The phrase not burdensome does not mean easy. It means that God will provide the strength we need to obey. Sometimes that strength comes through our fellow Christians. None of us can do everything by ourselves. We all need a day of rest. If we do not take that day of rest, it can give pride a foothold. We must always make room for God to bring other believers alongside us. Who can we trust? Those who have the Holy Spirit. How do we know if someone is a true Christian? By testing every spirit as we are told in 1st John 4:1 Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.. If someone offers to help in the church, ask them what they believe about Jesus Christ. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus has come in the flesh is from God 1st John 4:2.
P a g e 6 Our obedience demonstrates our love for God. John has also told us something about disobedience in 1st John 2:3 By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. The verb translated 'if we keep' is thrwmen (ter-o-men). The verb tense is present active subjunctive first person singular. This means the subject (we) is doing the action (keep). The subjunctive mood means there is an if. IF we keep His commandments, THEN we know that we know God. This is the opposite of the person described in 1st John 2:4 He who says, I know Him, and does not keep His commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him. Obedience to God shows that we know and love God. Obedience is not just our loving response to the Lord, it also builds our faith. The more often we obey God, the stronger our faith becomes. If we sin, we confess and repent. That is to say, we agree that it was wrong and we change our behavior. As we develop the habit of obedience we learn to see God s grace more and more. Consider the obedience of Jesus the Son to God the Father. This sacrifice was willingly made by Jesus to obtain a salvation which was willingly given by the Father. Jesus, being one of the Trinity (God the Father, God the Son and the Holy Spirit) was and is God. He did not need salvation. We did. He shed His innocent blood for us. As it has been put by the church "The Father did not lay on the Son a cross He was reluctant to bear. The Son did not extract from the Father a salvation He was reluctant to bestow." Obedience to the Father cost the Son more pain than we can imagine. Jesus suffered that pain for us because He loves us. He showed us how to obey the Father. Can we do any less than chase after becoming willing servants of our Savior? FAITH The third spiritual birthmark that John describes is our faith. 1st John 5:4 For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world our faith.
P a g e 7 The word translated for is the Koine Greek oti (ho-tee). It is used here in the sense of a cause and effect relationship. A better translation of 1st John 5:3-4 is to say Because we have been born of God we overcome the world through our faith.' What does that mean? How has our faith conquered the world? The Greek for the phrase 'And this is the victory that has overcome the world our faith' is estin h nikh h nikhsasa tov kosmon, h pistij hmwn (This is the victory which victories over the world, our faith). The verb nikhsasa is present active indicative. This is the idea that the overcoming is ongoing. It is always happening. Our faith is always in the process of winning. Our position a victors began the moment we accepted Jesus as our Messiah. Faith is required for the new birth as is stated in the Gospel of John. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His Name, who were born, not of blood not of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. John 1:12-13. And again in Ephesians It is by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this is not of yourselves it is the gift of God so that no one may boast. Ephesians 2:8 Having been saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, the question remains. How can we overcome the world in our daily lives? One way is to be so rich that we can insulate ourselves from all the fuss and bother. This approach never works for long because the world is not just outside of us, it is also inside us. The battle is spiritual and so the fight is over our minds and hearts. How does our faith overcome the world? Here are six ways. First, Christians have no fear of death. We may fear pain and torture but death itself is only a transition for us. Second, we have no fear of what happens to us after death. Jesus is the propitiation for our sins and He guarantees us entry into heaven because we belong to Him.
P a g e 8 Third, we are not in bondage to sin. We can confess our sins to the Lord and repent. We are forever freed from our unsaved condition when we had to continually bear the weight of our sins. We still live with the temporal consequences of our sins, but we do not have to carry the guilt which used to weigh upon our souls. Fourth, we need never take revenge. God says that vengeance belongs to Him. Romans 12:19 says Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay," says the Lord. Fifth, God gives us real brothers and sisters. How much easier it is to travel through our time in this world knowing that we are alongside men and women who we will know for eternity. Our Christian friends now will also be our Christian friends in heaven. A sixth way in which our faith overcomes the world is by the transformation of our minds. We learn to think more like God thinks. The values of the Bible become our values. The attractions of the world, and the attractiveness of sin, become less enticing to us. Summary As Christians we want to practice righteousness (1st John 2:29). We do not want to practice sin. We want to practice holy love toward all other Christians. We want to live out the fact that our faith has already overcome the worst that the world can throw at us. We want to keep ourselves from listening to Satan. Closing Prayer