Even Our Faith: Part 1
This is a transcript of the message given 5/7/23. While slight editing for clarity has been done, these notes are not intended to be word-for-word what was spoken.
Tonight we’re going to start a new series that came up kind of accidentally… during the last few weeks as we’ve been talking about being baptized in the Holy Spirit… one particular scripture kept coming to mind as I was teaching and we even mentioned it last week. So tonight instead of beginning with a recap of earlier messages, we’re jumping right into scripture and we’re really going to dive in & study this in depth over the next few weeks…
:: 1 John 5:1-4 (NIV) :: 1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. 2 This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. PPT 3 In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, 4 for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. 5 Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. ::
Just for the sake of clarity… let’s repeat the last part of verse 4 together: This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.
Our new series is called, “EVEN OUR FAITH”
IF there was EVER a time when we needed overcoming victory… It is now. If you pay any attention to social media or any news on television, it would be very easy to get discouraged at the state of the world & want to give up. Very few people would blame you if you looked at everything that’s going on and were tempted to admit defeat. It seems like, as Christians sometimes that we’ve lost the battle when it comes to so many issues that we see in the world today: racial issues, gender & sexuality issues, government overreach, family values, financial issues… it seems like it’s never-ending! And it seems like the church is finding itself ALIENATED and SIDELINED… considered OUT OF TOUCH & IRRELEVANT on pretty much every issue…
Sometimes, as a believer or as part of the Church. it feels like if you DON’T say something, you’re going to be alienated/sidelined for NOT being woke enough and if you DO say something you’re alienated & sidelined for being too liberal & being TOO woke. But frankly, NEITHER ONE OF THOSE SOUND LIKE VICTORY.
BUT I WANT VICTORY!! I want to LIVE in OVERCOMING VICTORY… I want to BE victorious! And this passage in 1 John says I can!
The interesting thing about the passage we’re reading today in 1 John is EXACTLY the same kind of world that John was writing his letters in!
The books of 1, 2 & 3 John are all LETTERS written to younger disciples and they’re FULL of instructions on how to live in such a dualistic world (mundo dualista) or…“dualism” (“dualismo”) means “two opposing forces” … good v. evil, true v. false, love v. hate, Rep v. Dem, the scrappy Rebels v. the evil Empire … What we’re living in today is EXACTLY the kind of world John was writing to! A world full of government vs. the people… evil being celebrated openly… a world where the early church and early disciples were considered strange & out of touch by those OUTSIDE of religious circles and considered heretics & fanatical zealots by people INSIDE the religious circles.
If you’ve read very much of Paul’s writings, he often talks about this mundo dualista as “The Spirit” and “the flesh”...
But in pretty much all of John’s writing, he describes this mundo dualista as “disciples” v. “the world”... or “children of the world” vs. “Children of God” or “Those who Believe”... and we need to really pay attention to this because it’s THIS dualism that John is talking about when he says, in 1 John 5:4, John tells them that everyone born of God overcomes the world.
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Now we’re going to look directly at this mundo dualista in several different ways…but as we do that, we need to see that John is using some ‘trigger words’ to clue the young disciples in on what he’s talking about… and we’re going to point out a bunch of PARALLELS in John’s writing that he keeps coming back to… and he’s definitely referencing here…
Look at 1 John 5 again and notice how he keeps using this word “everyone”... 1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. … 4 for everyone born of God overcomes the world. ::
If you want to know the greek, this is the word “pas” or sometimes “ho”... in scripture it’s translated as everyone … anyone … all …
And whenever John uses this phrase, he’s absolutely drawing a line and pointing out the dualism… saying “pas”…everyone who does THIS is a disciple or loves God or is a Child of God… while pas…everyone who does THAT is of the world.” He often contrasts the “pas…anyone” with “ou pas…NO one”. Let’s look…
:: 1 John 3:4 - 4 Everyone “pas” who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. 5 But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. 6 No one “ou pas”who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one “ou pas” who continues to sin has either seen him or known him. ::
:: 1 John 3:10 - 10 This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone “ho”who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is anyone “ho”who does not love their brother and sister. ::
:: 1 John 4:7 - 7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone “pas”who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever “ho” does not love does not know God, because God is love. ::
And maybe we even go back to some other parts of John’s writing… the Gospel of John and we’ll see this same mundo dualista there too…
:: John 3:16 - 16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever “pas” believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever “ho” believes in him is not condemned, but whoever “ho” does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. [notice here the ‘mudo dualista’ of light & dark!] 20 Everyone “pas”who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever “ho” lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God. ::
This passage here REALLY highlights the “mundo dualista” because he directly says
:: 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already ::
:: 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light… 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light ::
So there’s DEFINITELY a dual world… light vs dark, believe vs. not believe.
So Back to our passage in 1 John 5 we can see this mundo dualista… very clearly… 1 John 5:1-4 (NIV) :: 1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. 2 This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. …4 for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. ::
And he says very clearly… if you want to be part of the “pas”...the “everyone” or the “whoever” that overcome… you have to be born of God… a Child of God.
Let’s go back to 1 John 3:1-3 - and see MORE about this “child of God” thing… 1 See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 3 All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.
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If you want to OVERCOME, you have to be a CHILD OF GOD… if you want to be a CHILD OF GOD… you have to desire to KNOW HIM and become LIKE HIM.
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In 1 John 5 John says that in order to be a BORN of God, you have to BELIEVE that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah 1 John 5:1-4 (NIV) :: 1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God,
Once you’re BORN OF GOD (you ‘love the Father’), vs 2 & 3 say there’s a relationship between love & obedience…2 This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. 3 In fact, this is love for God: to keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome,4 for everyone born of God overcomes the world. ::
This LOVE & OBEDIENCE is something that John is literally REPEATING that JESUS said: John 14:15 15 “If you love me, keep my commands. Then in the next verse we see the passage we’ve been talking about the last couple of weeks…
16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.
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So unless I’m completely off my rocker…there’s this logic that goes like this…
If you BELIEVE that Jesus is the Christ, you’re BORN of God…
We know we’re BORN OF GOD when we want to KNOW Him and BE LIKE Him…
This sounds like LOVE but the way we LOVE Him is to OBEY His commandments…
And in order to OBEY Him, we need the power of the Holy Spirit.
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IT IS NOT impossible to obey because not only has He given us the Holy Spirit but in 1 John 5:1-4 John tells us that “his commands are not burdensome,”
John finishes up all this logic by telling us, “This is how you overcome this mundo dualista… BE LIKE THIS… BE BORN OF GOD… THIS IS YOUR VICTORY.