Don't Be Satisfied
Rev. Res Spears
Walking in Truth and Love • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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I know it’s hard to believe simply by looking at me, but I’ve never been much for exercise for the sake of exercise.
Now, when I was young, I enjoyed playing sports. I played both football and soccer (believe it or not) when I was in high school. And there was plenty of exercise involved in both.
But I’ve never understood the attraction of just .... running. Running to get away from a bear or an angry chicken? Sure. Running to catch the ice cream truck? You bet! But running, just to get a stitch in your side and your clothes drenched in sweat? Umm, not really.
Before I became old and round, I used to enjoy hiking in the mountains once in a while. Getting to the crest of the hill or the top of the mountain or the bottom of a waterfall, where I could take some great photos, was WORTH breaking a sweat.
But even then, there was always the sense that I was hiking TOWARD something.
Then, in college, I read a book called Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance — which isn’t really about either Zen or motorcycle maintenance — and the author introduced me to the idea of enjoying the JOURNEY as much as the destination.
That book changed my life in some important ways. Since I read it, I have had a greater ability to be in the moment than I’d ever been before.
I suspect that’s part of the reason I have loved convertibles for most of my life. One of my favorite things to do with my wife is to hop in the convertible, put the top down, turn up the radio and simply drive.
When we do this, I try to pick a direction or a road we’ve never traveled before, and we just go. We might have a particular restaurant in another city or an unfamiliar park we’re headed to, but the main objective is to enjoy the ride together.
Occasionally we’ll do the same thing on walks, just enjoying whatever we see along the way — and sometimes with no real destination in mind at all.
As I was studying the passage from 1 John, chapter 2, that we’ll look at this morning in our continuing series, Walking in Truth and Love, it occurred to me that the life of a Christ-follower should be marked by both kinds of walking.
The Apostle Paul put this idea into a sports metaphor in Philippians, chapter 3. In the familiar passage that begins, “Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord,” he talks about pressing on “toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
In other words, he’s looking forward to the day when his salvation will be complete in heaven — when he is finally and completely conformed to the image of Jesus.
And he says he knows that the Philippians were also eagerly awaiting the day when THEY would be raised into transformed and glorified bodies to spend eternity in His glory.
And then, in chapter 4, he gives them some instructions about what they should do UNTIL that time. And he starts this portion of that passage with the following instruction:
1 Therefore, my beloved brethren whom I long to see, my joy and crown, in this way stand firm in the Lord, my beloved.
Stand firm in the Lord. Live in harmony with the Lord. Rejoice in the Lord. Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. Be anxious for nothing. Let your requests be known to God.
Dwell on the things that are true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, of good repute, excellent, and worthy of praise. And practice those things.
Those are Paul’s instructions for the journey, and they sound a lot like what I read in that book back in college. And even though it was pretty clear that the author of that book wasn’t a Christian, there was truth in what he’d written. And all truth is God’s truth.
Yes, we DO need to be people who hope in the promise of resurrection, people who hope in the promise of eternal fellowship with God.
But the destination isn’t the journey. If we who’ve followed Jesus in faith were saved simply so we could have fellowship with God IN HEAVEN, then why weren’t we taken there immediately upon placing our faith in Him?
What I want to suggest to you this morning is that the journey is supposed to be PART of the destination. We followers of Jesus are intended to make the best thing we can out of the physical lives we live BEFORE we all get to heaven.
Yes, that will be a day of rejoicing. But so should TODAY be a day of rejoicing — and not just rejoicing, but rejoicing IN THE LORD!
And, as we pick up our study of 1 John this morning, what I’m going to suggest to you is that the Apostle John is giving us the key to living in the fullness of life in Christ.
Though he doesn’t use the words “joy” or “rejoice” in these three verses, John tells us here how we can live so there is little room in our lives for anything BUT rejoicing.
You may recall that last week we talked about John’s tests for knowing and abiding in God — in other words, his tests for being in right relationship with God, for having fellowship with Him.
And I hope you remember that this letter was written to believers. So, the tests he gave were tests of FELLOWSHIP, rather than relationship.
Remember that a relationship with God is available only through faith in His Son, Jesus Christ. This relationship is available only by repenting of your sins, by turning to Jesus in faith that only His sacrificial death and supernatural resurrection can repair the breach caused by your sins, and by turning your life over to Jesus as Master and Lord.
But we weren’t created simply for a RELATIONSHIP with God. We were created to have FELLOWSHIP with Him. Fellowship in heaven, to be sure, but ALSO fellowship here on earth, while we are on our journey toward heaven.
And, as we’ll see in verses 12-14 of chapter 2, what we DO on that journey will determine the degree to which we experience this fellowship.
Let’s look at this short passage now, and then we’ll dig into what John is telling us.
12 I am writing to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven you for His name’s sake.
13 I am writing to you, fathers, because you know Him who has been from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I have written to you, children, because you know the Father.
14 I have written to you, fathers, because you know Him who has been from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.
Now, I’ll tell you that I’ve been kind of dreading this message, because it’s a hard passage to understand. What’s with all the repetition? How does this all fit with what John has already written and what is still to come in the next part of the letter? It seems out of place.
And I’ll tell you that I’m not the only one who has been vexed by these questions. In fact, my two most trusted commentaries on this letter completely disagree with one another about the answers to those questions.
But as I was studying, some things became clear that I believe are helpful in discerning John’s Holy Spirit-inspired message here.
First of all, let’s briefly address the matter of repetition. Notice that John addresses “little children,” “fathers” and “young men” twice each and that he does so in the same order both times.
What’s going on here is this:
“In the first series of three (vv. 12–13b) we have the minimal spiritual experience for each stage of spiritual growth. In the second series of three (vv. 13c-14), we have the more advanced spiritual experience for each stage.” [Tom Constable, Tom Constable’s Expository Notes on the Bible (Galaxie Software, 2003), 1 Jn 2:13.]
We’ll come back to this in a moment, but first it’s necessary for us to understand how many groups of people John is talking about here. He refers to “little children,” to “fathers” and to “young men.”
Now, that doesn’t mean he’s ignoring female believers. It was simply a fact within the cultural context of that time and place that an author would address the audience as males.
Certainly, there were female believers among the group to whom John wrote here. And his instruction was intended for them, too — as well as female believers in our time — even if he didn’t address them directly.
But are there three groups?
I think not. I think the references to “little children” and “children” are references to all of the members of the gathered church.
We who have followed Jesus in faith are all children of God, adopted into His family as sons and daughters. And our first experience as new believers is usually a joyful recognition that our sins have been forgiven.
So, in verse 12, John says he’s writing to people who know their sins have been forgiven because of their faith in the finished work of Jesus at the cross.
They are all “little children” — the Greek word here means “little born ones” — because they have been born again through faith in Jesus.
And then, at the end of verse 13, John calls them “children” again, but this time, he uses a different Greek word for children. This time, the word includes the idea of a child who has been taught something.
And he says that these “taught ones” know the Father. Remember that John uses knowing the Father in this letter as a figure of speech for having fellowship and a right relationship with God.
So, his suggestion here is that these children of God have progressed spiritually from simply understanding that their sins have been forgiven in Christ to having fellowship with God in Christ. They have learned that salvation is about MORE than forgiveness of sins.
And again, I think John is applying this classification to everyone in the church, to all who have been saved by faith in Jesus.
But there are degrees of fellowship with God, just as surely as there are degrees of friendship with one another. Not every friend is one you’d share your deepest secrets with. Not every friend is on your speed dial.
And so, here is where John makes distinctions between different sets of believers who would hear or read this letter.
And the two classifications he makes are “fathers” and “young men.” What’s interesting to me is that he names these two groups out of the order that we might expect.
Whether the fathers represent the older men and women in the church or simply those who are more spiritually mature, we would expect them to be named last in these lists of three.
But I believe that in placing them in the middle — between children and young men — John is drawing attention to this group. They have achieved something special in their spiritual journey: They KNOW Him who has been from the beginning.
And that phrase should remind us of the introduction to John’s Gospel, where he wrote:
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 He was in the beginning with God.
The fathers know “Him who has been from the beginning.” They know Jesus. In other words, they have deep fellowship with Jesus, and therefore they have deep fellowship with God.
Notice that what John says about the fathers doesn’t change from one cycle to the next. In both places, he says the same thing: they “know Him who has been from the beginning.”
“Both statements about fathers are identical, because there can be no variation here. When one knows Christ, the only thing that one can do in order to advance is to get to know Him better.” [Tom Constable, Tom Constable’s Expository Notes on the Bible (Galaxie Software, 2003), 1 Jn 2:13.]
I’m reminded here of the old hymn, In the Garden.
I come to the garden alone
While the dew is still on the roses
And the voice I hear falling on my ear
The Son of God discloses.
And He walks with me, and He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own;
And the joy we share as we tarry there,
None other has ever known.
He speaks, and the sound of His voice,
Is so sweet the birds hush their singing,
And the melody that He gave to me
Within my heart is ringing.
And He walks with me, and He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own;
And the joy we share as we tarry there,
None other has ever known.
This is what it sounds like to know Jesus. This is what it sounds like to have fellowship with Him.
Each time we’re in His presence, we come to know Him better than the last time. And as we learn more about Him, we find that we want to know Him even better.
And knowing Jesus is a powerful thing. Knowing Jesus, as we see in that first cycle in verse 13, enables us to be young men and women who have overcome the evil one.
Now, let’s be real for a minute. I think we tend to overestimate our own ability to fight temptation.
I was watching a video this week, where a man made a great observation about the disciples at the Last Supper.
Remember that Jesus told them one of them would betray Him that night? What was their response? “Lord, is it me?”
“Lord, is it me?!” What each of them recognized in those moments of self-reflection after Jesus said one of them would betray Him was that every one of them had it in himself to betray their Lord and Savior.
Every one of them was still a sinner, even though they’d put their faith in Jesus. Apart from Him, they could do nothing. Indeed, as the night went on, they ALL deserted Him and turned away from Him, even if only Judas actually betrayed Him.
And the same thing is true of each one of us, even if we’ve placed our faith in Jesus. Every one of us has it within us to betray Him in our sins.
And to the extent that we live our lives outside of fellowship with Him who has been from the beginning, we will tend to do just that. We will tend to fall back into our sins.
But John says here that the young men have OVERCOME the evil one. So what gives?
Well, Jesus said, “Take courage! I have overcome the world.”
And so, we who are IN Christ have also overcome the world. In HIM, we have overcome the sin-broken and -twisted power of a world currently under Satan’s rule.
Jesus overcame the power of sin at the cross, and He overcame the power of death at the empty tomb. And IN HIM, we, too, are overcomers.
As spiritual children who have been forgiven their sins through faith in Him and as spiritual fathers who live in fellowship with Him, we can be spiritual young men who overcome the evil one.
So, then, what is the advanced spiritual condition John calls us to as “young men”? Look at verse 14.
He calls us to be strong as people in whom the word of God abides. And the only way for us to be strong people in whom the word of God abides is for us to be people who abide in God’s word.
When Jesus was tempted by Satan in the wilderness, He didn’t call for backup from legions of angels. What He did was to answer the temptations with the word of God.
And, using His experience as an example, we see once again that we do not overcome the devil in our own strength but in Jesus — in Him who IS the incarnated Word of God.
If you are a follower of Jesus, then you certainly SHOULD be looking with hope and joy toward the fulfillment of Jesus’ promise to come again and take you home.
But the journey is PART of the destination. For followers of Jesus, eternal life has already begun. The question is what you will do with it now.
Are you content to be a little child? Or will you strive to be a strong overcomer, focused on knowing Jesus better by studying what He’s revealed about Himself in His Word?
Jesus said He came to give life and that in abundance. Knowing Him through faith is the key to life. Knowing Him through fellowship with Him in prayer and study of His Word is the key to ABUNDANT life.
It’s the key to keeping His commandments. It’s the key to loving God and loving one another. It’s the key to loving HIM more than you love the world.
If you’d been meant to enter heaven as little children, God would have taken you there the moment you were saved.
Instead, He set you on a journey of faith, a journey in which you’re meant to come to KNOW Him in an intimate way. A journey in which you’re meant to come to depend upon Him and trust Him more and more.
A journey in which you’re meant to come to recognize His voice, to listen for it in everything you do. A journey in which you’re meant to learn to love Him more deeply every day.
You were meant to grow in Christ as you complete this journey. Don’t be satisfied with being a little child.
Now, today is Lord’s Supper Sunday. Unfortunately, we skipped it for a couple of months for reasons that were entirely my own fault. I’m sorry for that, and I’ve missed sharing this ceremonial meal with you.
I’ve missed it, because it’s an important reminder to us all of the price that Jesus paid so that we who follow Him in faith can have a relationship with God, not to mention fellowship.
But I’ve also missed it because it’s so important to the fellowship of the church. This observance brings us together in a unique way and reminds us that we belong to one another in Christ Jesus.
Jesus commanded that we observe the Lord’s Supper as an act of obedience to Him, as a way of proclaiming that we who follow Him in faith belong to Him, and as a way of reminding us of what He did for us.
The Lord’s Supper reminds us that our hope for salvation rests entirely on the sacrifice that He made on our behalf at the cross. It reminds us that our life is in Him.
And the fact that we share bread from one loaf reminds us that we are, together, the body of Christ. It reminds us that we are called to unity of faith, unity of purpose, and unity of love.
And it reminds us that just as He gave up the glory that He had in heaven to come and live a sinless life as a man and give Himself as a substitute for us at the cross, we who have followed Him in faith are called to give up any claims we might think we have to our own lives and follow Him.
If you are a baptized believer who is walking in obedience to Christ, I would like to invite you to join us today as we celebrate the Lord’s Supper.
Now, this sacred meal dates all the way back to when Jesus shared it with His disciples at the Last Supper on the night before He was crucified.
The conditions during the Last Supper were different than the conditions we have here today, but the significance was the same as it is today.
Jesus told His disciples that the bread represented His body, which would be broken for our transgressions.
Let us pray.
26 While they were eating, Jesus took some bread, and after a blessing, He broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.”
As Jesus suffered and died on that cross, his blood poured out with His life. This was always God’s plan to reconcile mankind to Himself.
“In [Jesus] we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us.”
Let us pray.
27 And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you;
28 for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins.
Take and drink.
“Now, as often as we eat this bread and drink the cup, we proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.”
Maranatha! Lord, come!
Here at Liberty Spring, we have a tradition following our commemoration of the Lord’s Supper.
Please gather around in a circle, and let us sing together “Blest Be the Tie that Binds.”