Monday Morning Mail, 25th November 2013

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Loving God | Loving Each Other | Loving our Community

Good Morning!

Yesterday morning, we came to the end of our series in 1 John, though due to issues with recording (we're still using technology from last century and I forgot to use my pocket voice recorder) the sermon may not have been recorded, so here's roughly what I remember saying from 1 John 5...

When we are faced with all the uncertainty of life, how can we know that we will keep going as Christians – how can we know that when Christ comes again in glory to judge the living and the dead he will welcome us into his kingdom? John says that it is all down to whether we have been "born of God" - whether we have been born again and given a new life that can never die. How can we tell is that is us? John's three tests come out again...

  • Do we trust that Jesus is the Christ? – Christ isn't a name it's a title meaning something like "God's chosen and rightful king over everything"

  • Do we love God our Father more and more and love his other children too, even the ones who annoy us?

  • Do we seek to obey God more and more and come to him in repentance when we mess up?

If we do, says John, then we have really been born of God, and so we will overcome everything that the world can throw at us.

Why should we believe (v6-12)? Believing in Jesus isn't trusting something we know ain't true – it is trusting him on the basis of the evidence. In particular, there's the historical evidence of who Jesus was, the evidence of the early church and the transformation in their lives, the witness of the Holy Spirit living in our hearts if we trust in Jesus and the ongoing change we see in our own lives as we trust in Jesus. Faced with the evidence, we have a choice. Either we trust God, or we make him out to be a liar. If we trust God, then we have eternal life in his Son, Jesus Christ.

This life that we have in God and our status as his children means that we can approach him with great confidence. God won't always give us what we want, because he is a good father. But when we ask according to his will and his priorities, he will always give us what we ask for. We see some of God's plans and his priorities through the promises he gives us in the Bible. And God wants to have the sort of relationship with us where we are like a little child, excitedly claiming his promises and trusting in them, which Ade picked up on in the sermon yesterday evening.

John ends his letter with a plea to his readers - "dear children, keep yourselves from idols." Jesus is so great and so wonderful that we need to beware of anything that would lead us away from him; we need to beware of finding our security and our significance anywhere except in Jesus, because he is God's chosen king. To him be the glory for ever!

God bless,

John

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