August 11, 2002

Service Theme – "Our God is Hope"

1 John 5:12-21

How to Walk the Walk

  1. Introduction
    1. Illustration – from Homiletics Online: Spencer Morgan Rice, when he was rector of Trinity Church, Boston, liked to tell the story of an Episcopal mission in Alaska. Its vicar was called to another parish, so the vestry proceeded to correspond with the National Council about a new minister's being sent to this distant Alaskan village. The National Council wrote back encouragingly, but required the vestry to conduct a thorough self-study replete with myriad and intricate forms as to their congregation's goals and objectives and how they envisioned their past, present and future. Though the vestry was not happy with all of this paperwork, they nonetheless complied and sent to New York the required documents, expecting to receive a minister shortly. What they received instead was another raft of forms that requested information regarding the kind of person they were looking for. Once again they took congregational surveys, filled out the forms, sent them in and still they got no word. After this went on for 18 months, with numerous letters and forms between the New York office and the Alaskan outpost, the vestry fashioned the following letter, which they sent to the National Council. It said simply: "Forget the minister; we have found sinning is more fun!" They had a pastor in 10 days!
    2. Context – We laugh at this story, but we’re the same way. We often believe that sinning is more fun. But God has a different plan for us, one that He has outlined throughout John’s letter. And in these closing verses, we get our marching orders, ones that will enable us to walk the walk of faith God is calling us to. So let’s see what John says, starting in chapter five, verse thirteen,
  1. Scripture Passage
    1. 1 John 5:13-21 – I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. 14 This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him. 16 If anyone sees his brother commit a sin that does not lead to death, he should pray and God will give him life. I refer to those whose sin does not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I am not saying that he should pray about that. 17 All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin that does not lead to death. 18 We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the one who was born of God keeps him safe, and the evil one cannot harm him. 19 We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one. 20 We know also 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—even in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. 21 Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.
  1. Walking the Walk
    1. What an interesting way to close a letter! John gives solid reassurance, life-changing instructions, and outstanding affirmations in these last few words of his epistle. But what does it all mean? Let’s take a closer look.
    2. Verse thirteen features a reassurance similar to the one he opened his letter with. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. "I’m not writing this because I have nothing better to do. I’m not writing this because I’m trying to make myself look or feel good. I’m writing this for your benefit!" That’s what he’s trying to say. And after spending his letter defining who true Christians are, he addresses this final section to those who fit the definition. Why? So that there will be no doubts whatsoever that those who believe in the name of the Son of God have eternal life. In biblical times believing in the name of someone meant believing in the character and the personality of someone wholeheartedly. (From eSermons.com) One night a house caught fire and a young boy was forced to flee to the roof. The father stood on the ground below with outstretched arms, calling to his son, "Jump! I'll catch you." He knew the boy had to jump to save his life. All the boy could see, however, was flame, smoke, and blackness. As can be imagined, he was afraid to leave the roof. His father kept yelling: "Jump! I will catch you." But the boy protested, "Daddy, I can't see you." The father replied, "But I can see you and that's all that matters." If we buy into who Jesus is and act on that belief with all we have and all we are with the same kind of faith the son showed in jumping from the roof into his father’s arms, we’re in. We have eternal life. Definitely good news! It gets better!
    3. John writes that we can ask God for anything and he will hear us and answer us. Well, not quite. That’s the version we like to hear. This is what John really says. This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him. That little phrase "according to his will" causes us all kinds of problems, doesn’t it! We like to ask for what we want and pretend it might be God’s will, whether it is or isn’t. But John is giving us a tremendous promise: we can ask for anything that is in line with God’s will, and it absolutely will happen! That’s an awesome truth! But how do we know what God’s will is? First, God will never go against what’s written in His word, the Bible. Second, God will never go against His character. Among other things, this means He will not force anyone to do anything, because that goes against His loving choice to give us the final say in what we do with our lives. Third, there will always be things we’re just not sure how to pray about, so it’s okay to say, "God, this is how I’d like it, but You do it Your way regardless." What a promise! God will do His will when we ask Him to. Let that truth sink in and transform how you relate to God! (From Homiletics Online) In their book, The Aladdin Factor, authors Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen (best-selling authors of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series), devote their entire book to the importance of asking for what we want in life. They list five barriers to asking: 1. Ignorance; 2. Limiting and inaccurate beliefs; 3. Fear (Fear of rejection, Fear of looking stupid, Fear of being powerless, Fear of humiliation, Fear of punishment. Fear of abandonment, Fear of endless obligation); 4. Low self-esteem; 5. Pride. And John would add, not asking according to God’s will. We’ve got to overcome our hang-ups, no matter what they are, and pray for God’s will. We’re promised He will listen. So if we want to walk the walk of faith and love as God longs for us to, we’ve got to believe in the name of the Son of God and act on that belief, and we’ve got to confidently and expectantly pray for God’s will to be done in our lives, our church, and our world. That’s what John is saying.
    4. Next, after reassuring us and giving us this promise, John turns to some more difficult instruction. Verse sixteen: If anyone sees his brother commit a sin that does not lead to death, he should pray and God will give him life. I refer to those whose sin does not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I am not saying that he should pray about that. 17 All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin that does not lead to death. Lots of discussion has gone on over the years about what a sin that leads to death and a sin that does not lead to death really are. Certainly there are sins that lead to physical death, like suicide, abortion, first-degree murder in some states, even drug abuse. But I don’t believe physical death is what John is talking about. Matthew Henry comments, There are sins which, by divine constitution, are unto death spiritual and evangelical, that is, are inconsistent with spiritual and evangelical life, with spiritual life in the soul and with an evangelical right to life above. Such are total impenitence and unbelief for the present. Final impenitence and unbelief are infallibly to death eternal, as also a blaspheming of the Spirit of God in the testimony he has given to Christ and his gospel, and a total apostasy from the light and convictive evidence of the truth of the Christian religion. These are the sins involving the guilt of everlasting death. Basically what Henry is saying is that dying while refusing to repent, dying while refusing to believe in the name of the Son of God, dying while lying about Who the Holy Spirit says Jesus is, dying while denying all the evidence there is that Jesus is the Savior: this is all sin that leads to death. Once someone dies in such a condition, there is no point in praying for them because their hope for eternal life is gone forever. The only thing their future holds is eternal death – spending forever in punishment away from God. What could be worse? On the other hand, if someone we know sins, we can pray to God that His Spirit will convict, leading to repentance and a return to spiritual life through relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Our prayers can help accomplish God’s desire that all men repent and come to loving relationship with Himself through His Son. So walking the walk involves praying for all those we know who need Jesus. Sin is real and it kills eternally. (From Homiletics Online) British writer Baroness Mary Stocks said, "We don't call it sin today, we call it self-expression." Will we buy into the world’s definitions and give spiritual death, or will we stand up for truth and pray and so give spiritual life? Walking the walk means being a spiritual life giver through prayer, for as long as anyone draws breath there is still hope.
    5. So John has told us to walk the walk by believing in the name of the Son of God and acting on that belief, and by confidently and expectantly praying for God’s will to be done in our lives, our church, and our world, and by being spiritual life-givers through praying for those who are still physically alive but spiritually dead. Now he give us three truths to anchor our walk on, three great "we know" statements. Verse eighteen - We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the one who was born of God keeps him safe, and the evil one cannot harm him. 19 We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one. 20 We know also 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—even in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. We know that our calling is to walk in victory over sin – God is greater than our tempter. We know that we as children of God are called to live in sharp contrast to the children of the evil one, those who are spiritually dead. We know that we are enabled by the Holy Spirit to know our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ, when we have loving, personal relationship with Him. Three great truths, but they are more than just assurance and affirmation. They are three great callings to live up to if we’re going to walk the walk. (From Sermoncentral.com) Owen Bourgaize writes, During Gladys Aylward’s harrowing journey out of war-torn Yang Chen during the Communist take-over, she faced one morning with no apparent hope of reaching safety. A 13-year old girl tried to comfort her by saying, "Don’t forget what you told us about Moses in the wilderness," to which Gladys Aylward replied, "Yes, my dear, but I am not Moses." The young girl replied, "Yes, but God is still God." God is more than able and willing to enable us to live up to the high calling of these three great truths. Walking the walk means walking in victory over sin, walking as spiritually alive people, and walking in relationship with Jesus Christ.
    6. John has given us some pretty clear directions in how to walk the walk. He’s been doing it throughout his whole letter. But then he sums up the truths that he’s taught throughout his letter in the closing verse. Dear children, keep yourselves from idols. At first glance, it seems like a statement that was just tacked on as a "oh, yeah, I almost forgot to tell you this." But this statement is more than that. It is the foundational truth of the whole letter. John’s original readers would have understood this, because they dealt with idols in their everyday lives. You see, an idol is anyone or anything that takes the place of God in your life. If you love money more that God, it’s an idol. Our culture has many idols: physical beauty, sexuality, money, cars, homes, power, greed, selfishness, pride, the list could go on. And there are as many lists as there are people, because all of us have idols we are tempted to follow. John understood the danger of idols. When we love idols, we can’t love God and each other with God’s love. When we love idols, we don’t care about those in our world who are spiritually dead. When we love idols, we don’t care about relationship with God. When we love idols, we don’t care about sin. And the more we follow our idols, the farther they lead us from God. John says, "You’re children of God, so stay away from idols if you want to remain children of God!!!" It’s kind of like that robot on Lost in Space, crying out, "Warning! Warning! Danger, Will Robinson! Danger!" (From SermonCentral.com) Owen Bourgaize wrote, I read that the Eskimos of Canada and Greenland have an interesting, if rather cruel, way of hunting bear. They will take a bone, preferably a wolf bone, and they will sharpen it at both ends. Then they will coil it through a process, freeze it in blubber and lay it across one of the paths the bears travel. As the bear comes along he smells the blubber and in one gulp he takes it and swallows it, not knowing that it’s just blubber on the outside, but on the inside there’s this twisted, sharpened bone. And the minute he swallows it he’s dead. He doesn’t drop down just yet, but every move he makes, every step he takes, causes that bone to twist and to slash and to tear and the internal bleeding starts and the Eskimos just follow the tracks of that bear until it dies. It’s the same way as a person who says, "I’m going to save my life, I’m going to keep my life for myself, I’m going to do what I want to do." The minute you do that you are already in the process of dying and destroying your life. That’s what idols do to us, and if we want to walk the walk of faith, we’ve got to stay away from those idols. No excuses.
    7. John has communicated very clearly in these closing verses what we’re supposed to do if we want to walk the walk. We’ve got to believe in the name of the Son of God and act on that belief, and we’ve got to confidently and expectantly pray for God’s will to be done in our lives, our church, and our world. We’ve got to be spiritual life-givers through praying for those who are still physically alive but spiritually dead. We’ve got to walk in victory over sin, walk as spiritually alive people, and walk in relationship with Jesus Christ. We’ve got to stay totally away from idols. All if we want to walk the walk of faith God is calling us to. We each have a choice. What will we choose?
    8. Illustration – from Homiletics Online: Eugene Kennedy, quoted by Martin Marty in Context (January 1, 1999, 2), said, Enjoying "spiritual feelings" without "spiritual ideas," of course, is what tacks the foam rubber onto the cross. Spirituality, under the modern template, does not brace one for suffering that leads to inner growth. Instead, it obliterates suffering by providing the musical equivalent of an injection from Dr. Feelgood. The New Age movement survives by ignoring or distracting us from the staples of any profound spirituality: a sense of sin, an acceptance of the tragic, and love conquering suffering and death to lead us to resurrection, or life, as Saint John wrote, "to the full." Will we choose soft "spiritual feelings" and eternal death or will we choose spiritual truth, walk the walk of faith, and receive eternal life? Walking the walk is tough, there’s no doubt about it. But there is life and peace and joy and hope when we walk the walk of faith. What will we choose?
  1. Conclusion
    1. Please bow your heads and close your eyes. God has given us some great affirmations and truths this morning, and also some tremendous challenges. The bottom line question is: will we choose to walk the walk of faith as God has revealed it? Or will we choose to walk our own way?
    2. If you’re choosing this day to walk the walk of faith, as a demonstration of that commitment before God, I’m asking you to stand where you are. By standing you’re saying, "God, I will walk the walk of faith that You’ve revealed to me in Your word through Your servant John. I will do whatever it takes to walk this walk with You." If that’s what you’re saying, please stand now.
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