Overcoming Faith
I John: Faith, Love and Obedience • Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 324 viewsEver feel overwhelmed by everything that goes on in this world? For the believer, this world can seem like it is winning the battle but when we live a life of obedience to God's Word, we can experience the love of God that enables us to have victory over the challenges of this world.
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
Introduction
Introduction
Do you ever feel overwhelmed living in the culture and society we do today? I use the terms culture and society but the Bible calls it “the world”. This is described as the way this world is set in order or arranged. Since we live in a sin cursed world, the order of our society and culture is ruled by Satan, who is called the “ruler of this age” by John himself in , and 16. As believers in Christ, we are automatically outcasts and illegal aliens living in a strange land.
The apostle John knows exactly how we feel. He experienced and knew the same types of pressures we face today. Like John, we live in world dominated by a society that nominalizes Christians - finds them irrelevant, homophobic, hypocrites, and contradictory. the believers in the churches treat the Word of God as a burden, obedience is optional, sin is excused and many believers would rather get along in this world, go with the flow or not be recognized at all. Ugh!
And maybe you find yourself in tis category but I want to tell you that we serve a living God who loves each of us and gives us a message of hope and peace and love. In , we find that we can be assured of the fact that we are saved to be different as strangers in a strange land. So let’s look at some key ideas to living out an OVERCOMING FAITH.
Key Idea #1: Loving and Obeying God Is INSEPARABLE With Loving Our Brothers and Sisters in Christ. (5:1-5)
Key Idea #1: Loving and Obeying God Is INSEPARABLE With Loving Our Brothers and Sisters in Christ. (5:1-5)
Cross-Reference: , “Then one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, perceiving that He had answered them well, asked Him, “Which is the first commandment of all?” Jesus answered him, “The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one. And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
28 Then one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, perceiving that He had answered them well, asked Him, “Which is the first commandment of all?”
29 Jesus answered him, “The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one. 30 And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. 31 And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”
Sub-Point: Obedience to God’s Word is the only Proof of Love
The amazing truth is that with the presence of the indwelling Holy Spirit, obedience, while not easy, is also not burdensome. Being obedience to the world’s standards and practices is a burden because it is based on what you do, not who you are. God never commands us or directs us in areas that He doesn’t give us the strength and capability of obeying.
The New King James Version. (1982). (). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.
Sub-Point: Victory is ours through the victory of Christ.
In His Word, we have a defense to resist the temptations of this world.
By the Spirit, we have the strength to stand up to the attacks of this world.
Through Christ, the indestructible hope of final victory is ours.
Challenge: Everything this world did to Christ failed. He had the final victory and through His victory, we have victory. Living a victorious life is not something that we have to work to achieve, it is something that is already won. We just have to claim it.
Illustration: BWRAF: Obedience to the standards for good diving results in helping our buddy. Likewise, when we are obedience to God’s word, it demonstrates our love for Him and results in our loving others.
Key Idea #2: The CERTAINTY of our Salvation is based on the Witness of God (5:6-16)
Key Idea #2: The CERTAINTY of our Salvation is based on the Witness of God (5:6-16)
Cross-Reference: (2-3 Witnesses) , “One witness shall not rise against a man concerning any iniquity or any sin that he commits; by the mouth of two or three witnesses the matter shall be established. “
Sub-Point 1: Water and Blood - the problem of Gnosticism. Gnosticism was a specific attack on the Person of Jesus Christ by denying that Christ was human, that he was only incarnated as a spirit. John battled the Gnostics continually and when we see the gospel of John, we see John using the terms water and blood to denote that humanity of Christ through the water (the human body is mostly water) and the blood of Christ, which denoted the deity of Christ through the propitiation only found through the blood of Christ.
Sub-Point 1: Water and Blood - the problem of Gnosticism. Gnosticism was a specific attack on the Person of Jesus Christ by denying that Christ was human, that he was only incarnated as a spirit. John battled the Gnostics continually and when we see the gospel of John, we see John using the terms water and blood to denote that humanity of Christ through the water (the human body is mostly water) and the blood of Christ, which denoted the deity of Christ through the propitiation only found through the blood of Christ.
The New King James Version. (1982). (). Nashville: Thomas Nelson.
Sub-Point #2: The Three-fold Witness of who Christ and and What He did.
Three Witnesses in Heaven: The Father, The Word and the Holy Spirit
Three Witnesses on earth: The Spirit, the Water and the Blood
Sub-Point #3: The Certainty of the Witness of God. There is a big difference in believing someone and believing IN someone. If we believe someone, we do no more than accept whatever statement that person may be making at the moment as true. If we believe in someone, we accept the whole person and all that that individual stands for in complete trust.
Sub-Point #3: The Sin leading to death (Unpardonable sin). When we do that, the Holy Spirit within us testifies that we are spiritually and positionally right. It is the Holy Spirit who gives us the conviction of the ultimate value of Jesus Christ and assures us that we are right to make this act of commitment to Him. Those who refuse to do that are refusing the promptings of the Holy Spirit within their hearts. If people refuse to accept the evidence of those who have experienced what Christ can do, the evidence of the actions of Christ, the evidence of the Scriptures, the evidence of God’s Holy Spirit, the evidence of God himself, in effect, they are calling God a liar—and that is the sin of unbelieving blasphemy.
If people refuse to accept the evidence of those who have experienced what Christ can do, the evidence of the actions of Christ, the evidence of the Scriptures, the evidence of God’s Holy Spirit, the evidence of God himself, in effect, they are calling God a liar—and that is the very limit of blasphemy.
Sub-Point #4: The basis and principles of prayer. The basis of our prayers is the simple reality that God listens to our prayers. The term for confidence in vs 14 literally means “freedom of speech” This is the historical basis for the democratic idea of freedom of speech. God always picks up his cell phone, you never get voicemail. The principle of prayer is that, to be answered, it must be in accordance with the will of God. Three times in his writings, John lays down what might be called the conditions of prayer. (a) He says that obedience is a condition of prayer. We receive whatever we ask because we keep his commandments (). (b) He says that remaining in Christ is a condition of prayer. If we abide in him and his words abide in us, we will ask for anything and it will be done for us (). The closer we live to Christ, the more we shall pray aright; and the more we pray aright, the greater the answer we receive. (c) He says that to pray in his name is a condition of prayer.
Barclay, W. (2002). The Letters of John and Jude (3rd ed., p. 127). Louisville, KY; London: Westminster John Knox Press.
Challenge: The assurance of our faith is based on the reality that God Himself bears witness of Who Christ is and What He did on the Cross for us. That our faith is just a simple trust in the reality of Christ and His Work.
Key Idea #3: We KNOW that we are of God (5:18-21)
Key Idea #3: We KNOW that we are of God (5:18-21)
Barclay, W. (2002). The Letters of John and Jude (3rd ed., p. 130). Louisville, KY; London: Westminster John Knox Press.
Sub-Point #1: 3 Fold Certainty (We KNOW)
Barclay, W. (2002). The Letters of John and Jude (3rd ed., p. 127). Louisville, KY; London: Westminster John Knox Press.
The Letters of John and Jude The Threefold Certainty (1 John 5:18–20)
Christians are set free from the power of sin. We must be careful to see what this means. It does not mean that Christians never sin; but it does mean that they are not the helpless slaves of sin.
The Letters of John and Jude The Threefold Certainty (1 John 5:18–20)
Christians are set free from the power of sin. We must be careful to see what this means. It does not mean that Christians never sin; but it does mean that they are not the helpless slaves of sin
Certainty #1: We are set free from the power of sin. We have to be careful here to know what this verse does NOT mean. Remember that in understanding Scripture, context determine meaning. So if we note verse 16-17 and understand vs 18 in light of the previous verses, we see that because we are human, we will sin; but because as believers, we cannot commit the sin of unbelieving blasphemy, we can never experience the absolute moral defeat felt by non-Christians who do.
The Letters of John and Jude The Threefold Certainty (1 John 5:18–20)
Christians are set free from the power of sin. We must be careful to see what this means. It does not mean that Christians never sin; but it does mean that they are not the helpless slaves of sin.
Certainty #2: We are on God’s possession while the world is Satan’s.
Certainty #3: The truth of God has been revealed to us by the one True God.
Barclay, W. (2002). The Letters of John and Jude (3rd ed., p. 137). Louisville, KY; London: Westminster John Knox Press.
The Letters of John and Jude The Threefold Certainty (1 John 5:18–20)
Who am I? What is life? What is God? Where did I come from? Where am I going? What is truth and where is duty? These are the questions to which we can reply only in guesses apart from Jesus Christ.
Challenge: We can know that our relationship with God is True and based ont he reality of Who God is. This world can never know that luxury.
Summary:
Summary:
Key Idea #1: Loving and Obeying God Is INSEPARABLE With Loving Our Brothers and Sisters in Christ. (5:1-5)
Key Idea #1: Loving and Obeying God Is INSEPARABLE With Loving Our Brothers and Sisters in Christ. (5:1-5)
Key Idea #2: The CERTAINTY of our Salvation is based on the Witness of God (5:6-16)
Key Idea #2: The CERTAINTY of our Salvation is based on the Witness of God (5:6-16)
Key Idea #3: We KNOW that we are of God (5:18-21)
Key Idea #3: We KNOW that we are of God (5:18-21)