The Beginning and the End

Gen. 1:1    "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. 3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good..."

In the beginning, God... That's all we need to know, really.  

First is a thing. I was here first.  We were here first. (We know that first is a thing because we know how we feel about line jumping...)(Sooners know about this...!)  And when it comes to everything, God was here first.  In other words, He gets dibs.

In the beginning, God... Created... Not only was He here first, He made it all.  Everything.  It's all His.  I was here first, and this is My stuff.

Deut. 10:14 “Behold, to the LORD your God belong heaven and the highest heavens, the earth and all that is in it.

1Chr. 29:11 “Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, indeed everything that is in the heavens and the earth; Yours is the dominion, O LORD, and You exalt Yourself as head over all."

In the beginning, God created.  He created it all. Everything. The heavens and the earth, and everything that is in them. It's all His - He not only owns it, He made it.

He is the Creator, the uncaused First Cause.  Every thing we see, every action, is caused by something else, some prior cause, causes caused by other causes going back all the way to the very beginning.  To the first cause, caused by this very One Who was there in the beginning, Who cranked it all up (and Who - unlike the watchmaker who winds up their watch and then just sits there watching it, letting it go with no further hands-on involvement - continues to actively and sovereignly superintend all subsequent causes towards His desired end/ends).  

-But He was also there before the beginning.  Scripture and the universe reveal to us a God Who is eternal and uncaused, infinite in His being and His perfections, all-knowing and all-powerful.  Incomparable.  Transcendent.  The Ultimate.  The great I AM.  The God Who always is, Who always was, and Who always will be.  The Beginning and the End. 

Is 41:4, "Who has performed and done this, calling the generations from the beginning?

I, the LORD, the first, and with the last; I am He."

So why did He do all this? Why this Beginning? What is the End of this Beginning, in other words?

Neh. 9:6 “You alone are the LORD. 

You have made the heavens, 

The heaven of heavens with all their host, 

The earth and all that is on it, 

The seas and all that is in them. 

You give life to all of them 

And the heavenly host bows down before You."

-Think about this. God created - and He saw.  And He saw that it was good.  He created - out of nothing - things which could be seen (5 senses), AND admired.  Just as He is to be admired for Who He is, not just what He does. Admired and praised and honored not only because of The breathtaking goodness He causes, but for His breathtaking goodness.  Because He is the uncaused Cause, the great I AM, the Almighty God and King of the universe. 

Is. 42:8 "I am the LORD; that is My name; My glory I give to no other, nor My praise to carved idols."

-And He made us in His image. We are little creators... We create things - to be admired...

And because He made it all He has a doubly vested interest in it. He cares about it. A lot. All of it. He cares about you. A lot. He has a doubly vested interest in you.  You are not simply some random cosmic accident, some by-product of billions of years of hopeful mutations.  He formed you in your mother's womb, fearfully and wonderfully fashioned your heart and your substance.  Before He even formed you He knew you, and loved you, with an everlasting love.  He has always loved you, always been there for you, always will, all the days of your life.  He designed you, every aspect of who you are and who you will be.  He knows every last hair on your head.  And He has laid out the days of your life, and laid on you a glorious purpose. To know and experience and revel in His goodness in such a way and to such an extent, to be so filled up with Him that it spills out and over to your neighbors and to the nations. And to that end He has crafted and gifted you with unique passions and abilities to somehow contribute to the spread of this knowledge and celebration of His goodness, each and every day.  Think about this.  Are we not like Him as well in this respect? Are we not wired to be admired for who we are? Special. And that we are - the apple of His eye...!

-In the beginning, God.  He started it all.  And thus we start with Him, because He is the End of all we do.  Every day. Everything we do. All things are for Him. They are all from Him, and through Him. He must have first place in everything. They all - everything - is His. It all belongs to Him.  Because He made it. We all belong to Him.  So let's make sure we have this straight. He comes first. He is the beginning - and the end - of all we do.  As individuals.  As families.  And as a church family.  In the beginning God, because, in the end God.  He is the beginning and the end.  The Alpha and the Omega.  The reason He cranked it all up in the first place was for the increase of the display and the celebration of His glory.  The admiration of His breathtaking goodness and manifold perfections.  That He would be the beginning and the end of all we do.  The great all-encompassing what-for.  First place.  Colossians 1.18 - "...so that He will come to have first place in everything...". First place in our hearts.  First place in our church.  First place in the universe.  Because, let us make no mistake, in the end, every knee WILL bow.  Every tongue WILL confess, that Jesus Christ is Lord.  To the glory of God the Father. First place.

-Thus each one of us, we have our own beginning, as well as the possibility of a REbeginning. That place and time where we turn back in our hearts to our Creator, thru Jesus. Because... We all choose to go our own way and do our own thing and to put God in second place - or third. Or perhaps not at all. The Bible calls this sin, and the penalty for this wayward disobedience is death. Eternal separation from the God Who made us and so loves us. He loved us so much that He sent His only Son, Jesus, to pay the penalty for our sins, to provide a gift of forgiveness for all the ways we fall short of honoring Him as God. This was the great RE-beginning.  All of created history, from that very first beginning, was marching steadily and inexorably towards the Cross.  Towards that time when God would begin to REstore and REbuild that which was broken through the fall.  To REvive hearts which had gone astray from Him. To make possible for each one of us the Great REbirth.  Each one of us must come to this place where we begin with Jesus, where we begin to follow Him, where we begin to believe not just facts about Him but where we begin to believe IN Him, where we begin to trust that His death is the only sufficient payment for our sins. And the very moment you put your trust in Jesus, He comes into your heart and you begin a new life, life forever. 

Each day then becomes a new beginning, in fact - not starting over with Jesus but rather another day of learning what it means to put God in first place.  I put Him in first place yesterday? Wonderful! Today is a new day. I must begin again to put The Lord first today, no matter what I did yesterday. Maybe I did not put Him first yesterday? No matter - today is still a new day. It can be a new beginning of greater devotion to the Lord.  

This is the journey of faith, the pilgrimage of The People of God, if you will.  Learning to put God first in everything. This is the lesson which the Lord sought to teach and reinforce for Israel from the very beginning. Put Me first. Ex 22:29. Prov 3:9.

And if we're honest, it can be a struggle, can it not? So many competing affections, lesser loves, things to which we give our heart and our time and our treasure. We settle for making mud pies in the slum, so much cotton candy. We are like the prodigal, wandering away from home and trying to fill the hole in our hearts with something - anything other than the Father Who so loves us and Who is a party waiting to happen. He is watching and waiting for us each and every day, waiting for us to ... wait for Him (Is 40, whole chapter, esp v 31).

Ex. 20:2   “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods BEFORE Me."

Psa. 86:9  "All nations whom You have made shall come and worship BEFORE You, O Lord, And they shall glorify Your name."

There is no one greater, none higher, none better.  In the beginning, God.  In all our beginnings, God.  So that in the end He might come to have first place in everything.  In our affections.  In our relationships.  In our work and our studies and our recreation and in all our pursuits.  The Beginning and the End of all things. Beginning with me.

1John 5:14-21 - “Know Means Yes”

Thomas Jefferson was the driving force behind establishing the University of Virginia.  He wrote this: 

[T]his last establishment [a state university] will probably be within a mile of Charlottesville, and four from Monticello, if the system should be adopted at all by our legislature who meet within a week from this time. My hopes however are kept in check by the ordinary character of our state legislatures, the members of which do not generally possess information enough to perceive the important truths, that knowledge is power, that knowledge is safety, and that knowledge is happiness.

Knowledge is power.  Attributed to Francis Bacon.  Greeks have two words for knowledge.  One is experiential, day-to-day - usually of a person.  The other expresses absolute, immediate knowledge of some truth, the fact about something, knowledge which you gain in the past and which has ongoing results in the present.  Of the latter, Jesus said, you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.  Knowledge is power.  The power to be free.  Confident.  Assured.  The power to do something, it unlocks the yes - yes, you can do something.  Often it is what you know.  Sometimes it is WHO you know.  John uses this word know more frequently than any other NT writer.  And he closes out this writing with a flurry of knows:

1John 5:13   These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life. 14 AND this is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15 And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.  

16   If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask and God will for him give life to those who commit sin not leading to death. There is a sin leading to death; I do not say that he should make request for this. 17 All unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin not leading to death.

18  We know that no one who is born of God sins; but He who was born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him. 19 We know that we are of God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. 20 And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.  21  Little children, guard yourselves from idols.

A few Know’s to close out this letter, and Know means YES!

We know that we have eternal life, John says.  Eternal life = Knowing the One True God, and Jesus Christ Whom He sent. (John 17.3)

So here we have, Know God means YES, eternal life.  We have it.  100%.  We die tonite, we are going to heaven!

Know God AND what He wants

• So that we may know Him.  Verse 20 - so that we may know Him.  It is a relationship, a personal relationship.  It’s not that I know Who He is - I know Him!  Even the evil one knows WHO He is.  But I KNOW Him.  He knows my name!  And He calls me his own!  So I can relate to Him, and talk to Him, anytime I want.  And for our Father, the more the better!  We can talk to Him.  We can ask Him for things!  And John here gives us the secret to answered prayer…
• So he says, if we ask anything according to what God wants, we get a yes answer.  Know means yes.  Know what He wants, and ask, and you get yes.  But the key is knowing what He wants.  It is that Greek word thelema, which is usually translated “will” when applied to God but it is the word for desire.  Wants.  Knowing God's thelema, what He wants.  So for us it’s about not about pursuing facts about the Lord, nor pursuing His gifts or what He can do for me, but pursuing His heart… I’m always glad to give good gifts to my kids, but it means so much more when they come to me not for what they can get from me but simply to be with me, to enjoy me.  You know, when we’re little, “Daddy’s home!” can elicit a pretty awesome response.  But then we grow up and we find other things to occupy our time and our thoughts.  We maybe begin to take dad for granted a little.  Oh, that’s just dad.  The luster wears off.  The shine is gone - except maybe on his receding hairline… :)  Surely the opposite should take place in our relationship with our heavenly Father.  Pursuing His heart and being increasingly thrilled with Him, thrilled with the idea of spending time with Him, filled with longing for His courts and being occupied with what He wants.  Obsessed.  Increasingly so.  Living into the reality that He is better.  Simply better.  So much better.  There’s no better place for us to be than to be smack dab in the middle of what He wants.  And it starts with knowing what He wants.
• Jesus in the garden.  He said, Father, not what I want, but what You want.  Prayer is often the means by which we discover more fully just what God does want.  Prayer in its very essence is a seeking and a searching out and a communion with the Almighty.  With our God and Maker and Savior.  We can definitely learn what He wants by spending time with Him.  Studying His Word.  Time in prayer.  Spending time with others who know Him.  The operative word here is time.  There are no shortcuts to knowing a person’s heart, including the heart of God.
• Actually there maybe could be one short cut:

Colossians 1:9   For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 

• Knowing what God wants, that impacts our prayer life, doesn't it?  Confidence, boldness - we know what to ask!
• Certainty in our relationship with God also breeds boldness.  Remember?  Confidence/boldness in judgment (like the happy dog!).  Confidence in His presence.  But this is not merely confidence THAT we have a relationship with God.  It is confidence and boldness IN that relationship - it's secure, on good footing.  Confidence to boldly approach His throne of grace.  Boldness is for speaking - that word means to utter beside.  I sidle right up to my heavenly Dad knowing that I have His ear and that He wants me to come to Him with my needs and requests and even my wants.  Think about it - what is going to happen when one of my kids who I adore crawls up into my lap and asks me for the very thing I want for them?

Ephesians 5:17 …do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

• What John is referring to here is that flowing together of what I want with what God wants.  And knowing what He wants allows us to ask accordingly.  When we ask Him for something which we know He wants, we can be sure that He both hears us and gives us what we’ve asked from Him. That's what John is saying in vv 14-15.
• I do think what John is emphasizing here, particularly on the heels of v 13, is the certainty of relationship.  Having a relationship with God through Christ, being connected to Him - this opens up the possibility for conversation as well as for answered prayer.  In the Greek verse 13 and 14 are connected by the word, and.  The two thoughts are connected, they go hand in hand.  Know Me, including My heart/what I want, AND ask.  Know you have eternal life AND whatever you ask.  It's prayer which is limitless in its invitation.  Whatever you ask.  Ask Me anything.  Ask and you will receive.  Seek and you will find.  Knock and the door will be opened.  You do not have because you do not ask.  A limitless invitation - because you know Him (and hopefully are getting to know what He wants).
• Speaking of a limitless invitation - there's a standing invitation to join the church family for Sunday morning prayer.  Midweek evening prayer.  And the prayer room…
• So we have, Know means yes.  Know (and asking for) what He wants means YES, answer to prayer.

•Know who we are

• Born of Him, John says.  Children of God.  Born of Him.  Born unto life eternal.  We are His children.  We are in.  We are in Him, in Him Who is True, in His Son Jesus Christ.  This is eternal life.  We know that we have it - assurance, confidence, boldness even.
• In this sense, Know(ing) that we are His child means, YES, we can approach Him. Know means yes. We are a child of the King, and He loves us.  It is not like kings of old, where you had to tiptoe around and watch your every facial expression and even if you were the queen you had to wait to be summoned.  That was, no, no, no.  We can go straight up to Him, straight up to His throne of grace.  He is Abba Father.  Daddy. Yes, yes, yes.
• Saints.  Because we are born of Him, we are also saints, not sinners.  No one born of God, no child of His sins.  God does not make sinners - He makes saints.  Holy ones.  Ones like Jesus, always doing the things which are pleasing to the Father.  Because of Jesus, when we put our faith in Him, we are declared righteous.  Know God means YES, we are righteous.  Yes, in His eyes we’ve done everything right.  Sins are gone as far as the east is from the west.  Yes, we are completely forgiven.  And yes, we are free from the guilt of sin and the power of sin and we are free to live as completely new creations.  Yes, I can rest in Jesus.  Know Him, and YES rest.
• The verb for sin here is present tense, it refers to an ongoing action, to go on sinning.  Yes, we mess up, but God’s true children do not go on sinning, continuing in it, wallowing in it.  Yes, we do struggle with it, but we struggle and strive against it.

-”If any should see his brother sinning sin not toward death, he will ask and He will give to him life, to the [ones] sinning not toward death.  There is sin toward death.  Not about that one I am saying in order that he should ask.”

• Who is the brother referred to here?  
• A saved believer possessing forgiveness and eternal life?
• A member of our assembly who has not yet fully trusted in Christ?
• A "brotherhood-of-man"/unbelieving neighbor?
• What is the sin unto death? The mortal sin?  The unpardonable sin?
• Lying to the Spirit (a la Ananias and Sapphira) - physical death
• Resisting the Holy Spirit - eternal death
• What is the life God will give here?
• experiential assurance of life and forgiveness for the believer
• Eternal life to the unbeliever

-Not surprisingly, there are many suggestions as to what might be this “sin-toward-death”.  So-called mortal sin.  There is even an ancient (albeit non-Scriptural) list of seven of them - the “seven deadly sins”: pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath and sloth.  All of these happen to be forgivable, and none would appear to result in direct loss of life (note - forgivable by no means implies permissible).  Some suggest John has in mind sin against the Holy Spirit (i.e. the unpardonable sin referred to in Mk 3.29, Mt 12.31-32)(this sin is typically assigned to and reserved for unbelievers, who are resisting the convicting activity of God’s Spirit in the soul, and who ultimately in rejecting the truth about God will keep Him and His gift of eternal life thru Jesus at arm’s distance all the way to the grave and into eternity - the one thing which God can’t forgive)(adopting this view would then require one to make the “brother” mentioned here to be an unbeliever - which is not at all how John uses the term in the rest of the letter).  Or perhaps it is some great and enormous sin (such as murder or idolatry), a sin which which was punishable by death in the law of Moses.  Possibly some spiritual sin which brought about the untimely death of the offender (as in the case of Ananias and Sapphira in Act 5.1-10 and the abuse of the Lord’s Supper in 1Cor 11.30), or perhaps some capital crime committed against the state for which there was no hope of pardon.

-Here’s truth - ALL sin leads toward eternal death - if unforgiven (Rom 6.23).  John here refers to “sin not toward death”, so he can’t be talking about eternal death.

-Let’s revisit this question - if the sin in mind is NOT toward death, why would the offender need prayer for life?  Seems like the one sinning toward death is the one who stands in need of life, and of prayer toward that end.  And why would John say we don’t need to pray for that someone?  For anyone?

-One easy way out is to allow that John actually IS referring to a brotherhood-of-man brother, one who doesn’t have spiritual life, one who still has the possibility of being forgiven and receiving eternal life.  Such a "brother", one who ostensibly is not sinning (blaspheming/resisting) against the Holy Spirit, is someone for whom we can indeed intercede.  We can pray for them and ask God to open their hearts to repent and believe in Jesus so that they can indeed be forgiven and receive eternal life.  The language vis a vis praying here is future indicative, by the way.  Future fact.  Bankable promise from God.  John says “he WILL ask” and “He WILL give” life.  Now the text does not say “God will give”, but of course we understand that only God can give life.  And so there is potentially a strengthened admonition here to pray for unbelievers, tied to an amazing promise.  Problem is, it requires a different use of brother.  And it requires us to say that all of this sin short of Holy Spirit blasphemy is not unto death, which it technically is.

-One thing we do have here is an immediate application of the truth about asking, that God hears us when we ask according to what He wants.  And He clearly wants us to be praying for people who are struggling with sin and disobedience and unbelief.

-What we may have here is the corporate side of 1Jn 1.9.  There John tells the reader that “if we confess our sins God is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness”.  He uses the same phrase here in v. 17.  “All unrighteousness is sin”.  We understand that a believing brother doesn’t technically NEED to be forgiven or cleansed per se (not in a legal/positional sense before God at least).  Nor does he NEED life (eternal), inasmuch as the believer already has it.  So what John could be talking about here is an experiential assurance of life and forgiveness for a truly saved brother.  And the sin towards a physical death would be some egregious lying to the Holy Spirit (a la Ananias and Sapphira).  OR, we could be looking at the playing out of a process of entering into eternal life for someone who is associating themselves with the family of God.  They are aligning themselves with God’s children - but the process of salvation is playing out in their life.  They are in our assembly, and are showing signs of following Jesus, which means we love them and lay our life down for them, but there is this possibility that their as-yet-not-fully-formed faith could fizzle before the finish (which could be true for any one of us - Hebrews 3.12 warns us to be careful that we don’t find ourselves with what is an unbelieving heart).  In which case it would have been faulty from the first.  But so we can be praying for "members" of our assembly, knowing that just because they assemble with us that they may not have truly trusted in Christ yet, knowing that all unrighteousness is sin and that all of it can be forgiven (unless what they are doing ultimately is resisting the Holy Spirit, i.e. sin unto death)(and note that John doesn’t say NOT to pray for those).  We can pray for this person with the utmost confidence that God wants them to repent and enter in to eternal life.  In this latter instance, we put “brother” in quotes.  In the case of the former, we put “give life” in quotes, since a truly saved brother while he may struggle with sin for a season already has life and forgiveness - he just needs to experience that reality in a deeper way.  So which do you think it is - experiential assurance of life and forgiveness for a truly saved brother, or actual repentance for an unsaved attender of our assembly?

We know Whose we are

• The wonderful promise attached to the truth of the divine birth is that of divine protection.  We are born of God, and bought with the price of the priceless blood of His Son.  We belong to Him.  We are His.  We are His precious possession.  And so He keeps us.  He guards us.  We are His.
• And the evil one can’t touch this… Not ever.  He is called the prince of the power of the air.  The commander of the powers of the unseen world.  The ruler of this world.  The whole world lies in his power and is walking in his path - but he can’t touch us.  Even tho we are living in this world, he can’t touch us.  Nope.  He can’t hit, he can’t hit, suh-wing batter.  He can try to tempt and deceive and discourage us, but he can’t touch us.  Truth be told he would probably like to kill us.  He comes to do what?  Steal, kill and destroy.  But he can’t touch us.
• In Christ we are uber-victorious!
• We are of God vs the whole world lying down in the evil one
• Know God, and YES, we have victory!  Victory over the world, victory over the evil one.  There is no power which can ever separate us from the love of Christ.  God is for us - who can be against us?!?  No one.  Nobody.

We know Whose we are.  We know who we are.  And...

WE know Him Whose we are

• Again, this is not about dry, detached knowledge.  This is about intimate friendship - and identity.

We know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding in order that we may be knowing the (One Who is) True.  This is a great prayer - Lord, give them understanding so that they may be knowing the True, knowing You, the one True God.

Know the True.  In order that we me be knowing the True.  The True God.

Hear O Israel.  People of God, listen to me.  The Lord, the Great I AM, He is God.  He alone is God.  The one God.  The one TRUE God.  He alone.  He is… The True.  Knowing Him means saying yes to the truth that He alone is God.  Know means yes.

Which ties to the very last thing John writes - guard yourselves from the idols.  In other words - from The False, from all those false gods, those pretenders.  Guard yourselves, keep yourselves away from them.  It is in the aorist tense.  You’d think it would be in the present tense - keep on guarding yourselves and keeping yourselves from idols.  But John uses the aorist here.  It is a dot action instead of a line.  Simple action.  Just do it.  As in once and for all.  Resolve to make nothing else ultimate, to give nothing else first place in your heart or life or affections.   Not a career.  Not a resume.  Not a house.  Not a team.  Not a car.  Not a show.  Not some destination.  Not a person - not my spouse (present or future), not a child, not a parent.  Not any created thing.  To what do we give our hearts, our time, our treasure?  We put God first.  Stiffarm the False and embrace the True.  We say yes to He Who is True and make Him the ultimate destination of our hearts.  Know the True.  Know means yes.

John calls us little children one last time.  For the SEVENTH time.  He obviously cares - a lot.  Our fatherly bestest big brother.  John just told us that Jesus is guarding us, keeping us from the evil one.  Why on earth then does John close by telling US to guard ourselves?  I thought Jesus was doing it.  The truth is, nothing can touch us from without.  While the entire world is lying down in the evil one, lying in His power, he has no power over us.  He can’t touch us.  He can’t touch this.  Can’t touch this.  No, John cares enough here in closing, to remind us that the battle, the struggle for us now as children of the True is on the INSIDE.  What are you and I putting/going to put in God’s place that is false?  Do you and I know Him Who is True?  Are we getting to know Him, knowing what He wants, how awesome He is?  Knowing how great His love and protection and power is for us, that we are His children and that nothing can ever separate us from Him?  Know means yes.  May the Lord give us the grace to say yes to Him, every day, throughout the day...

1John 4:20-5:13 - “The Nike-ing Nike-er”

Victory.  Nike means victory.  Who here wants some of that?  Who here this morning likes to win?  Who doesn’t want victory? 

[think of the top 5 buzzer beaters...]

Today we’re talking about victory… Let’s take a look.

1John 4:20 If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.

1  Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him. 2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandments. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome. 4 For everyone born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world — our faith.

5 Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? 6 This is the One who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ; not with the water only, but with the water and with the blood. It is the Spirit who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. 7 For there are three that testify: 8 the Spirit and the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement. 9 If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater; for the testimony of God is this, that He has testified concerning His Son. 10 The one who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself; the one who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has given concerning His Son. 11 And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. 12 He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. 13 These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.

Don't miss another Trinity sighting! [vv5-6]

Believing in Jesus = Born of God = eternal life = loving God = loving His children/one another = doing/keeping His commands = abiding/remaining in Him

Seeing = loving (or should).  When you see your brother - if Christ, God’s love seed, is in you, if you have been born of God, then when you see your brother or sister, you should love them.  You should have compassion on them.  God’s seed of love and compassion in you, the compassion of Christ in you, should come bubbling to the surface and spilling out and over in the direction of your brother/sister.  John is saying, it doesn’t make sense that - if you have born of God - that you can claim to love God Whom you haven’t even seen and NOT be loving the brother or sister you do see, who is physically present.  Because love is a verb.  It manifests itself physically, it demonstrates.  And the way we demonstrate love for the invisible God is to love the visible brother or sister who is physically present in the proximity.  That’s the whole point of this writing.  Professing to love God yet failing to love my brother makes me a liar.  Liar #1 (there are two liars in this passage).  God’s love is NOT in me if it fails to be directed towards my brother or sister.  That’s what John has been saying this whole time.  We looked last week at what Seth Godin says.  I’m not here just to learn.  I’m not just here to occupy 18 inches of pew (or chair) once a week.  Yes, I’m learning how to love God and how to observe His commandments, but I’m also here to love.  Because Christ gave us this new command - to love one another as He has loved us.  And then He put a new nature of love right down inside us.  So I’m here to send out love, to serve you, and we one another, just as He served us.  That’s how Jesus rolled, and that’s how He wants to roll in and out of each of us…

This is the outcome of what has gone in.  God’s seed.  The seed of faith, of believing and trusting in Jesus the Son of God and following Him.  And John tells us today, this belief in Jesus as the Son of God is the victory that overcomes the world.

This idea of following Jesus and doing what He wants, of obeying Him, of keeping and doing His commands - the world opposes this.  It resists.  It chafes against this bit.  Some unseen Lord?  That’s a drag.  These commands, they’re cumbersome.  Too heavy.  Inconvenient.  Get in the way.  They’re too heavy and slow me down.  Like an iron ball and chain.

But John here is saying, no.  No way.  His commands are not heavy at all.  Jesus Himself said, My burden is light.  My yoke is easy.  We just need to remember to keep the horse in front of the cart.  If we’re trying to EARN God’s acceptance and favor, if we’re trying to work our way into the heavenly realms, then yes, keeping God’s commands is an unbearable burden.  If our heart is in rebellion, then yes, the very idea of God is a drag.  But on the wings of faith, by simply believing in the Son Whom He has sent and abiding in His Spirit Whom He has sent, God’s commands are transformed.  We mount up on wings and soar above the morass of works-based religion.  It is no longer doing to EARN a blessing, it is doing BECAUSE we have received.  Every spiritual blessing in Christ.  That’s not saying that the journey of faith is easy.  There are challenges, to be sure.  But they do not originate in heaven.  God’s commands, Christ’s burden is not heavy.  In Him, we find rest for our souls.  Soul rest.  And so, what John is saying here, is that the first thing you can do for the children of God, the family of God, for your brothers and sisters, is to put God first.  Put Him first in your heart, and yes, learn with all your might to keep His commands, to do what He wants.  Work out your salvation with fear and trembling, work out what God worked in.  Remembering that God is at work in you to work and to will for His good pleasure.  He always leads us in triumph in Christ!  On to Nike!  Victory!  

But so, what John is saying today, is that the heavy challenges we face in the journey of faith tend to come from the world.  Life in the world actually is full of challenges.  It is full of fails.  Some are more specular than other.  Epic fails.  Used to be there was one iconic fail.  Some of us might remember a guy named Vinko Bogataj?  Do you know who he was?  He was the agony of defeat…

[agony of defeat - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKEDD1i4oGk]

The thrill of victory - and the agony of defeat.  And “the difference between the two can be very slight…”  In athletic competition, the slight difference can depend on so many different variables, it can be attributed to the conditions of the venue, the weather, equipment functioning, the performance of my competitors, factors of health, my mental state, how I slept last night, what I ate for dinner, am I getting enough gatorade - so many different factors.  The difference between victory and defeat in athletics can be quite difficult to figure out.

But for us, John says, for us it is actually quite simple.  The difference between victory and defeat in life?  Simple - what do you say about Jesus?  About Him being God’s Son?

He is the Victorious Victor.  And so are we, when we are in Him.  Vanquishing vanquishers.  Conquering conquerors.  World conquerors.  We conquer the world - in Jesus.  No, we’re not talking about the game of Risk here.  Any Risk players here?  What do you play?  Catan?  Anyone here play Pandemic?  I guess that’s more about preventing global annihilation (which certainly ties in to the nature of our mission).  But John says that the vanquished here is the world.  The world is at war, in fact - at war against God.  The REAL world war.  World War Zero.  Rebelling against God and what He wants.  From the very beginning.  Fast-forward and we’re talking about an entire value system which opposes this very idea of God.  Opposes the existence of this unseen eternal Being.  Opposes this idea of Him as Creator and that I am accountable to Him.  Opposes the idea that He has spoken and that His Words are binding on me.  Opposes the notion that He is holy and that I fall way short of that.  Opposing the idea that He carefully and deliberately designed each of us and all of creation with wonder and distinct and glorious purpose.  Definitely opposes the idea that Jesus is God’s Son and died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins.  Opposes any hint of surrendering what I want to do in favor of doing what He wants to do.  And it opposes anyone who aligns themselves with any of this.

So, Victory.  With a capital V.  Overcoming the world.  Remember, John said, do not love the world.   The world and its desires is passing away - these desires which are dead set against what God desires.  The world does its darnedest to try and pull us away from Christ, away from God and what He wants.  The spirit of antichrist - that which is against Christ - is already in the world.  Opposing the Word and work of God.  Opposing the truth.  The truth about Christ.  World War Zero.  Still being waged in a heart and a life near you...

The irony at this point is who exactly is triumphing here.  Baby sheep.  Children.  Defenseless creatures.  Totally defenseless - and no chance of going on the offensive either.  The only way baby sheep stand a chance of surviving - much less walking in victory - is the Good Shepherd.  Walking by faith with/IN Him.

Victory over the world (& flesh & devil/antichrist) = faith in the Good Shepherd [believing Jesus is Son of God]

Believing that Jesus is the Son of God - THAT is the key to victory.  What do you say about Jesus?  What do you testify about Jesus?  Your testimony.  Testimony is what you say before the court and before the judge.  It is the words of a witness.  And that is the word here in the Greek - witness.  God's Spirit testifies, witnesses to our spirit that Jesus is God’s Son and Savior.  The water also testifies - Jesus, coming in the flesh, born out of a human womb, one whose water broke just like every other childbearing womb ever.  And the blood testifies, Jesus, pouring out His blood for us on the cross.  Three witnesses - in a Jewish court they only needed two or three witness to verify the truth.  The witness, or testimony of two or three men.  And that’s what we have here, three witnesses who testify that Jesus is the One Whom God sent.  And more than this - we have the testimony of God.  God Himself has set His seal to this, that Jesus Christ is God’s Son.  He is the Chosen One, the Promised Messiah, the Savior of the world.  And Nike/Victory is found in Him.

But wait - there’s more.  Some of us know that the actual Greek word for witness is martyr.  As in one who gives up their life for the truth of something.  I.e. you stake your life on it.  You stake your life and reputation and everything you have on it.  You would go to the ends of the earth for it - which is precisely the point.  You will be My witnesses, Jesus said, My martyrs, in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.  You will testify about Me, the truth about Me.

John says, the witness is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.  He who has the Son has the life - and the love - which is all meant to be shared.  He who does not have the Son does not have eternal life.  This is Liar #2 - the one who says that Jesus is not Who He says He is.  It all comes down to Jesus.  These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, in order that you may KNOW, 100%, that you have eternal life.  100%.  Not based on anything you have done, are doing.  Based on what Jesus DID.  In Him, it really is DONE.  No more doing, no more doing to be blessed.  Only believing.  Total trust in Jesus.

D. James Kennedy formulated two questions to help clarify where a person stands in relation to the truth about Jesus.  I’m sure many of us have heard these before:

• If you were to die tonight, how sure are you that you would go to heaven?
• If God were to ask you, “Why should I let you into heaven?”, what would you say?

Your answers to these give a clear indication of where your trust is for eternal life…

Victory - in this life and in the next - is found only in Jesus.  The Victorious Victor.  The Nike-ing Nike-er.  Have you put your trust in Jesus?  Do you need to circle back to Him this morning?