1 John 5
There is no class on Wednesday May 28th due to half-term holidays for most UK schools.
Enjoy the week!!
We have two remaining classes for this year: June 4th and June 11th.
DO NOT MISS OUT!!
These will be amazing gatherings as we reflect upon God's goodness this past year in CBSi and see the fruits of studying this, God's Amazing Book, the Bible!
1 John Chapter 5
Faith and its Certainties
OVERVIEW:
Jesus helps us to overcome the world (v 1-5)
Jesus gives us life (6-12)
Jesus gives us confidence (13-21)
Our faith helps us to live in a broken world, with hope and power to overcome the world! What a mighty power that is!!
v. 2 This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands.
Keeping God’s commands is “not burdensome”, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. v 3-4
You know what is burdensome? The world - the deception that we suffer when we buy into materialism, busy-ness, lust, greed, jealousy, indulgences. What is burdensome - ME, when I try to plan my day, my activities, and I am SO BUSY. Are any of you others SO BUSY….this is another lie of the world that we buy in to. If we are busy then we must be really important right? we must be needed, we must be doing all the things we need to do….busy busy busy...doing what? I really don’t know sometimes.
Keeping God’s commands is not burdensome. It is simple - loving God and loving each other.
Faith gives us life 1 John 5:6-12
Believing in Jesus gives us life
v. 11 God has given us eternal life and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the son has life.
This section is about believing Jesus...this is our faith. John is telling us about his dear friend, Jesus. He was with him, and now wants to tell us about him. We have faith in his word.
v 10 those who do not believe God have made him out to be a liar.
Flying a kite requires some faith, and some wind!
Have you ever flown a kite? Parliament hill is a great place to fly a kite...
There is a story of a boy who was flying a kite….maybe it was on Hampstead Heath.
The kite was flying so high that it had disappeared into the clouds. A man came by and asked the boy, 'What are you doing, son, holding on to that string?' The boy smiled and replied, 'Sir, I am flying a kite!' The man looked up once, then looked again, and said, 'I don't see it up there.' The boy quickly replied, 'Well, Sir, I know it's up there because I can feel the tug.
This is like the witness of the Holy Spirit within us. We may not be able to see it, or always see the evidence of it, but we can feel the tug in our hearts constantly, letting us know that we are in touch with God.
CAN YOU FEEL THE TUG?
Our faith is like that. We feel the tug. We know God is there. We cannot SEE God, we cannot touch Jesus. But we know that HE IS there. We read about the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, we share stories of how they are powerfully working in our lives and the lives of people everywhere. We feel the tug. And when we follow that tug, and keep flying that kite, and believe in Jesus, we have LIFE (v. 12)
Faith gives us confidence (v 13-21)
v 13 John explains again why he is writing
v 14 John encourages us with the confidence we have in Christ
v 18, 19, 20 We KNOW…so many assurances!!
Finally, last verse….
verse 21: Dear Children, keep yourselves from idols.
Whoa.... where does this come from? Isn’t it an odd way to end the letter?!
Well most agree it is unusual, but it makes sense here for a lot of reasons:
--John is very elderly, he is looking at all of us believers as “dear children”
--he knows we are like children in the sense that we learn slowly, making the same mistakes over and over. He is patient and kind with us. Idols are a real picture of disobedience, the world, falling away, not loving God….much of what he is talking about in this book.
this is a powerful chapter - big stuff!!
Reassurance of all the things "we know"!
---loving God means keeping his commands (v 2&3)
---we can overcome the world (4-5)
---we have eternal life through the son (9-13)
--we can have confidence to approach God (v14)
--Christ gives us understanding (v20)
We all have a great deal of uncertainties in life. In fact, one of the biggest certainties of life is that life is uncertain! Yet here, in the words of the Bible, in the loving arms of our Father, we have so many certainties. We each have so many questions and worries in our minds, and they creep into my thoughts throughout the day. What is important is that:
verse 18 WE KNOW that God will keep us safe; the evil one cannot harm us
verse 19 WE know that we are children of God.
verse 20 WE know that the son of God has come and has given us understanding.
This little book of 1 John is full of God’s promises!! It is packed with re-assurances for believers. I need to rest and dwell in those beautiful promises and assurance!
John knew life is busy, chaotic, and that we are heavy with worry…..he writes the conclusion of Chapter 5 to help us to rest in the peace and understanding of Jesus.
FEEL THE TUG!!!