Life in the Son (1 John 5.1-12)

Introduction

There’s a church leader in Bournemouth called Tim Matthews whose grandfather Albert served his country in D-Day. He got a finger shot off but he survived the war.

His job was to drive a truck as part of a convoy to resupply the front line with munitions, food, fuel and so on.

He would often tell stories from that conflict, including one about arriving in a village, shortly after the Normandy landings.

They had received intelligence that the village had most probably been booby trapped by the enemy in retreat and the mines had not yet been cleared. There was no viable alternative route and the front line had to be resupplied urgently, so the convoy just had to risk driving through the village.

The Commanding Officer approached Albert in the cab of his truck and said, “Albert, you’re a Christian, aren’t you?” He replied that he was.

So, the CO said, “Well, since you know where you’re going when you die, you can drive an empty truck through the village, and the rest of the convoy will follow your tyre tracks. If you get blown up, well, we’ll know to take a different route!”

There are times when you might actually wish you weren’t a Christian after all! And that might be one of them. But Albert gave a salute, said “Yes, sir,” bowed his head in prayer, then started the engine, got into gear - and set off. He drove straight through the middle of the village without incident.

That is what you call a testimony. It’s an interesting story that encourages faith and inspires confidence. Albert’s faith was not merely academic or theoretical. The man was ready for sudden death, because he was convinced from his prior experience of God that Jesus is Lord, heaven is real, and this life is not all there is.

Born of God to Overcome the World

Our reading from 1 John 5 today has quite a lot to say about testimony in v6-12 and we’ll come to that a bit later.

But that story from June or July 1944 serves also to shed some light on what John writes in v1-5. Let’s read it again:

“Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.”

That man Albert Matthews knew beyond any doubt he was a child of God. And his faith certainly overcame the world!

But how did Albert know he was a child of God? How would you know? Some people talk about God being the Father of us all. It’s a very old-fashioned way of saying it, but when I was growing up people talked about ‘the brotherhood of man’, meaning the whole human race as children of one God.

But the Bible never says that at all, and this letter, 1 John, is where God tells us most clearly that humanity is not made up of one family, but of two. As we’ve seen, John is very black and white. Ultimately, the truth is that there are children of God and children of the world - and there is nothing in between. Which family are you in? 

Furthermore, the Bible says not just that there are two families; it tells us that they don’t tend to get on that well. They never have done, and they never will do.

If you think I’m being melodramatic, just go on any secular forum online and begin your comments with the words, “As a Christian who believes the Bible, I think…” and get ready for a deluge of abuse. Children of the world are often antagonistic towards children of God.

Well, what makes all the difference between being a child of God and a child of the world? The answer in a word is “faith.”

By faith, you instantly become a loved, deeply-loved, child of God. Any parent will tell you about the overpowering emotion that fills the heart the moment one of their children is born, or even when a mother discovers she’s expecting.

But God’s love for you as your heavenly Father far exceeds that of human parents for their own offspring. Romans 5.5 says, “God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.” God… so loves you.

The moment you put your faith in Jesus Christ, v1 says you were born of God and v12 says you received eternal life.

John’s not talking about a vague kind of faith or woolly spirituality. John doesn’t say, “everyone who believes that there is some kind of god or inner light, however you like to define it.” It’s not about belief in UFOs, or ghosts, or horoscopes or mindfulness. Who can say they are a child of God? Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God (v1).

It’s about Jesus, but it’s more than thinking that Jesus was a nice man, who did good to all and was a great moral teacher. Thinking that doesn’t make you a child of God.

It’s believing that Jesus is the Christ. Notice the tense of the verb. We say Shakespeare was, Queen Victoria was. But Christians don’t say “Jesus was Lord.” Faith says, Jesus is Lord, he is the Christ because he is alive.

“The Christ” says John: not a christ. Not one of several paths up the same mountain. Not one of many roads to God. Jesus is the Christ. It means “the anointed one”, the chosen one, the special one.  

It means the only one who can save me from the eternal spiritual ruin my sin is leading me to. Nobody else can do this for me.

The moment you become a Christian, you get a new heavenly Father. He’s better than any dad on earth will ever be. But, more than that, you find you’ve been adopted into a big family.

You’ve got a whole bunch of brothers and sisters you hadn’t thought about as well. Lots of them. Take a look around you. Big ones, little ones, young ones, old ones, ones you like, ones you like a bit less - but they are family.

And as dear Donna Levin loved to say, every time she stood here, family can get messy but we still love each other because that’s what families do.

Sometimes people say to me, “Why can’t I be a Christian without going to church? I don’t really like church.” The Apostle John would say, (v1), “Everyone who loves the father loves his child as well.”

When Holly Falcus was born just before Christmas, I loved her the moment I saw her. Much more than I would love some baby I saw on the bus – because I know and love her mum and dad, Lucy and Matt. They’re friends.

What we really think about God deep down is exposed by what we think about his family, the church.

Someone might say, “Well, I love my brothers and sisters in Christ. I get a lovely warm glow whenever I walk into church and see them.”

And that’s great. To be honest, that’s how I feel when I’m with you. Well, most of the time… No, I’ll miss you when I go. But John says, “It’s got to be a bit more than feelings and nice words. It involves action - obedience to God’s commands.”

According to the Cinnamon Trust, local churches and ministries delivered 220,000 social action projects serving up to 48 million people in the UK last year. Real love is practical, not sentimental.

“This is love for God: to obey his commands” (v2-3).

The Lord’s Prayer begins with obedience – “your will be done.” Not my will, not Auntie Mabel’s or Uncle Tom Cobbley’s but, as I live my life today, may your will be done, Father.

The Ten Commandments are quite easy to understand; five are about loving God, and five are about loving others. In fact, Jesus whittled ten down to just two. Just two simple instructions, really. Love God with all your heart, mind soul and strength, and love your neighbour as yourself. That’s it.

But there’s another sense in which God’s commands are not onerous or heavy.

If you’ve ever been madly in love with someone, you think about them all the time, you spend ages combing your hair and putting on your make up, you can’t wait to see them, they make you laugh, you just love being with them…

Well, imagine the Ten Commandments being given to you by someone you are deeply in love with. You will have no other girlfriend/boyfriend but me. Not a problem. You will not turn my name into a swear word. Why would I? I keep writing your name on paper with little hearts all around it! You will spend one day in seven with me. Only one in seven! Can’t I spend more?

That’s why John says here that obeying God’s commands is not a drag if you love him.

“This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith” says John in v4. Mike Pilavachi from Soul Survivor likes to say, “Don't tell God how big the problem is; tell the problem how big God is.” Everyone born of God overcomes the world.

At New Wine two years ago, there was an amazing testimony from a North Korean Christian who escaped to the West. In their secret church, they had to sing worship songs in a whisper so as not to be overheard. Her husband was discovered and killed for being a follower of Jesus. Before she fled the country, she shared her faith at immense personal risk.

She wrote out by hand the whole Bible as an encouragement. She wept as she recited Psalm 23 from memory. It's a capital offence to own a Bible in North Korea, so they bury their Bibles in the garden and dig them up in the middle of the night to read them.

She said, "In that horrible place the Lord was in my heart, and my heart was at peace. I saw the worst of humanity but the best of Jesus Christ. While I was tortured, I heard God’s voice and remembered the suffering of Christ.”

There’s what John means when he says “everyone born of God overcomes the world.”

Three Witnesses

I said earlier that I’d get to the bit about testimonies. In v6-12, John speaks about three witnesses, each with a testimony about Jesus. This is another of those bits in 1 John where you have to work hard. It’s one of the most obscure bits in the New Testament, and I’m not going to give you all the various opinions. I’m just going to tell you what I think.

If you were not present at an event, you are dependent on those who were and what they tell you. None of us were around when Jesus walked on Earth so we rely on witnesses and testimony.

If you’ve ever been to a law court, or watched courtroom dramas like Perry Mason and Judge Judy, you know that a case will often turn on the testimony supplied by witnesses questioned under oath. Their evidence; what they saw, what they heard, often determines the outcome of the case.

These verses are a bit like a case before a judge and jury. And the counsel for the prosecution is arguing that our faith is little more than fantasy. It’s just a feeling based on nothing.

What is the basis of our faith? John was Jesus’ best friend and closest companion; he ate with him, he saw him sweat, he leaned against him and heard his beating heart. He says here that our faith in Jesus is based on valid and verifiable facts.

It is based on a real life – Jesus of Nazareth, born of Mary. We sing in The Creed song “I believe in Christ the Son, in the virgin birth, suffered and crucified, descended into darkness, but rose in glorious life.

How can you be sure that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God? There are three witnesses.

Firstly, water. There is a place just north of the Dead Sea, east of Jericho, on the River Jordan, called Qasr el Yahud, where John the Baptist did his baptizing. You can go there and see where it took place. It really happened.  

And at Jesus’ baptism, the heavens opened and God said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” Crowds saw it. That’s the first testimony, near the start of Jesus’ earthly ministry.

Secondly, blood. The second testimony is near the end of Jesus’ earthly ministry. “Jesus ‘came by water and blood... he did not come by water only, but by water and blood” says John in v6. In other words, he didn’t just come to live like us as the Son of Man, he came to die for us as the Son of God.

He sweated blood under the exceptional anxiety and distress of just thinking about it. John was there, and saw it. He endured a flogging, a crown of thorns, nails in his hands and feet, a spear in his side; he was marred, Isaiah says, beyond human likeness. He was like butchered meat. John actually watched blood trickle down Jesus’ body and drip on the ground.

John’s testimony would have been impressive in itself but he says in v9 it is a testimony of God which is greater. And there was a heavenly testimony, five days before the cross. John 12.28 says that a voice came from heaven where God said, “I have glorified my name and I will glorify it again.”

The crowd that was there heard it, some said it thundered, and Jesus said, “This voice was for your benefit, not mine.” In other words, it was a testimony.

Thirdly, the Spirit. The Holy Spirit witnesses to our inner self. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth and he always speaks the truth.

When someone becomes a child of God, they often say, “I just know in my heart, I just know I have eternal life.” We may doubt it at times afterwards, but when you are filled with the Holy Spirit, he gives you an inner assurance that you are loved and belong to him; Jesus is real.

At All Saints’ we think it’s important to make room for people to be prayed for, every week. We encourage everyone to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Have you ever asked God to fill you to overflowing with the Spirit? You really should.

For many people this is a key experience in their spiritual journey where God strengthens their faith and confirms it as real.

Most of us would tend to accept the testimony of three witnesses saying the same thing in court. Why would we not accept these three testimonies about Jesus?

If we rejected it, we’d be calling God a false witness – in fact, John says exactly that in v10. Whoever does not believe God [who spoke from heaven twice about his Son] is basically calling him a liar.

Ending

I want to end with my testimony. I grew up in a quite formal, traditional church. I was baptized as a baby, went to a primary school run by nuns, took my first communion at 7, got confirmed at 10, went to confession once a month and went to secondary school run by monks … the whole kit and kaboodle.

I knew a lot about Jesus, but I didn’t know Jesus, not personally. About the age of 11 or 12, I drifted from church and I didn’t miss it. I didn’t love God’s family because I didn’t really love God. Exactly what 1 John says.

But something supernatural happened to me when I was 17. It was life-changing. There was emotion. There were tears. There was joy.

I started to like being around Christians. I was passionate to know more. I bought a Bible and read it. I became uncomfortable about some things in my life – my dishonesty, my bad language, my attitude towards the opposite sex…

I don’t know what I would have become if hadn’t become a Christian. I dread to think. But something happened and it changed the course of my life forever. That’s my testimony.

To close; v12; “Whoever has the Son has life.” It’s not just when you die. Heaven starts here.

If you don’t call Jesus the Christ, you are not yet a child of God and you don’t have eternal life. But you can put that right today. You can do it now. Why put it off?

If that’s you, ask someone to pray with you before you leave to be born of God. And I think you will look back at 23 February 2020 as the most beautiful day of your life.

Let’s stand …

Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 23 February 2020