1 JOHN 5: 14-17 [LIFE, LIGHT & LOVE SERIES]
PRAYING WITH CONFIDENCE
[James 5:14-20]
It is wonderful to know that Jesus is God, and to know Him through His abiding-through His living- in our life. There is also great confidence that comes from knowing that we have eternal life right now. But what about the needs and problems of daily life? Jesus helped people when He was here on earth; does He still help them? Earthly fathers take care of their children; does the Heavenly Father respond when His children call on Him? Is He responsible for and responsive to His children?
If we will abide in Christ and live and ask according to His will, God answers and gives us our needed requests (CIT). He does this so that we can live in righteousness and walk with Jesus, learn His ways and experience His life.
I. CONFIDENCE IN GOD'S WILL, 14-15.
II. PRAY FOR SINNING BRETHREN, 16-17.
Let’s back up to read verse 13 where we encountered a life-changing result that the assurance of our eternal life gives us; which is a confidence and boldness in our permanent relationship with God. “These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, in order that you may know that you have eternal life.” Out of that assurance of our permanent relationship with God we can have boldness in prayer. Verse 14 is an astounding, an amazing, invitation to ask God for anything that lines up with His wise will. “ And this is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.”
Prayer is both a privilege and an obligation. It is the direct line of communication between the spirit of man and God. It is the means by which we lift to Him our burdens concerning both ourselves and others. As children of God we approach Him directly, without the aid of any other person or thing.
What a privilege it would be if each of us had a DIRECT HOT LINE into the Oval Office at the White House, so that when we dial the one answering would be the President of the United States himself. Every believer in Christ has such a line to the Throne of Grace, and the one who answers the call is our Heavenly Father.
The privilege of prayer is all the more precious because of the confidence which we have before Him. Confidence means freedom of speech. We can freely come before- into- the Father's presence, and freely tell Him our needs.
In what are we to have this confidence? We are to be confident or have assurance (parrçsia) that “if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.” The if refers to what we ask, not to God's answering. According to His will is the gracious limitation because God's will is always best for His children. Prayer is not for getting your will done in heaven but for getting God's will done on earth. God is willing to answer prayer if we are willing to ask according to His will.
Again the emphasis is on God's will, not our will. When we communicate with God, we don't demand what we want, rather we discuss with Him what He wants for us, for other, for our church and even for our nation. Christians, of course, discern God’s will through the Scriptures and ask accordingly. If we align our prayers to His will, He will listen, and we can be certain that if He listens, He will give us a definite answer. Pray with such confidence! Prayer is not overcoming God's reluctance. It is laying hold of God's willingness to answer us.
The secret of spiritual victory over the world and keeping God’s commands is prayer. The Christian is entitled to ask God for help not only in the circumstances of life, but in keeping God’s commands.
Knowing that the Lord hears our prayers builds assurance that He will grant our requests. Verse 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.”
The Christian who walks in confidence with God and prays according to His will knows that God has granted his requests. God impresses by His Spirit upon the spirit of man that He has heard. Now you may not see the answer to prayer immediately, but we have inner confidence that God has answered. This inner witness or faith is the evidence of things not seen (Heb. 11:1). It is God witnessing to us that He has heard and answered.
Notice John does not say that we necessarily receive the thing for which we prayed but that God responds to our requests or petitions. Through experience the Christian knows that if God does not grant the thing for which he asks, He gives something far better.
God has three answers to prayer: yes, no, and wait. He may say "yes" or "no" immediately, but more often than not He says, "Wait." We must wait until we are capable of using properly the thing granted. The old illustration is still true. If a small boy asks his father for a SHOTGUN, out of love and wisdom the father does not say "yes" or "no." He says, "Son, you are not ready to use a shotgun properly. Wait until you are, and then I will give one to you.” So our petitions are all answered at once though but are perceived in the future according to God’s wisdom.
On an ancient religious site in Rangoon, Burma seats a 326 foot high gold plated domed pagoda [temple] called the SHWEDAGON. More than 5,000 diamonds adorn the roof of this glittering center of worship. [The largest being 72 carats.] Instead of being a quiet refuge for contemplation and prayer, it is more like a combination of a circus and Disneyland. Near the Shwedagon are smaller temples painted turquoise, shocking pink, bright green, and orange.
Within the temple itself are merchants selling images of Buddha, gold leaf, flowers, and incense. Bells tinkle incessantly, and the smell of incense fills the air. The worshipers chant, pray, and give their offerings. Some of them stop at sacred "wishing spots" where they can make their desires known to the gods. They come to these wishing spots day after day in the hopes that their dreams will finally become reality.
How different is our approach to the God of the Bible! We as Christians have confidence that God’s ear is tuned to our every request. We know that when we express our desires and make our needs known in prayer, we direct them to a living God who hears and answers. We pray with confidence because God's goodness is unending, and He will always do what is best for us.
Yes, for the Christian, prayers are so much more than just a wish. For God not only prompts the asking He also provides the answer.
II. PRAY FOR THE SINNING BRETHREN, 16-17.
If a Christian’s own needs may be met by prayerful reliance on the name of Jesus, what about the needs of other Christians? So now John extends his discussion on the power of prayer to brothers and sisters in the faith. A Christian who truly loves his brother and sister cannot be indifferent to their spiritual needs. [Walvoord, John & Zuck, Roy.The Bible Knowledge Commentary. Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1983, S. 902]
Verse 16 teaches that if we see a brother sinning, pray for him that the Lord will convict him and that he will choose to do what is right. “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.”
So following the assurance that God hears and grants prayers according to His will, John proceeds to tell them of a type of intercessory pray that is in God's will. When you see a brother sinning a sin rather than gossiping to others about it, you are to go to God and ask God to forgive the brother and give him strength to quit it. God will answer this prayer. Then the restoration of a brother may secure a prolonging of his spiritual usefulness and his physical life.
If we are not heedful of the way the Spirit of God works in us, we will become spiritual hypocrites. We see where other folks are failing, and we can turn our discernment into the barb of criticism instead of into intercession on their behalf. The revelation of their condition is made to us not through the acuteness of our minds, but by the direct penetration of the Spirit of God, and if we are not heedful of the source of the revelation, we will become criticizing centers and forget that God says, “...he shall ask, and He shall give him life for them that sin not unto death." [Take care though not spending your life trying to get others right instead of worship God and asking Him to get you right.]
One of the most difficult insights God ever puts on us as saints is the discernment concerning other souls. He reveals things in order that we may take the burden of these souls before Him in the love of Christ for them. If we intercede for them according to God’s will, He will convict them and give them opportunities for restoration. [We are to rouse ourselves in intercession for them until God is able to convey His mind to us about the one for whom we intercede.]
Is Jesus Christ seeing this travail of His soul in us? He cannot unless we are so identified with His mercy and grace that we are willing to take hold of Him and pray for the sinfulness of others. May we learn to intercede so whole-heartedly that Jesus Christ will be abundantly satisfied with us as intercessors.
Now that brother will need to personally confess and repent in order to restore his fellowship with God, but if you pray you bring God’s work upon the brother's heart. We have seen that Christians cannot continue habitually in sin. If someone continues in that sin it probably indicates that they are not a brother.
The promise to restore is based on the assumption that the sin is not leading to death. All sin ultimately leads to death, but the expression “that does not lead to death”(mç pros thanaton) should be understood in the sense, “not punished by death.” The distinction is between sins for which death is a consequence and sins for which it is not [Walvoord & Zuck. p. 903]. There is a mortal or deadly sin, but what it is, is uncertain. [“A deadly sin” is a sin which has death as its consequence. Believers can sin to the point where physical death results from the judgment of God.]
The Bible mentions people who DIED BECAUSE OF their sin. Nadab and Abibu, the two sons of Aaron the priest, died because they deliberately disobeyed God (Lev. 10:1-7). Korah and his clan opposed God and died (Num. 16). Achan was stoned because he disobeyed Joshua's orders from God at Jericho (Josh. 6-7). The two sons of Eli abused their ministry died (1 Sam. 3:13; 4:11). A man named Uzzah touched the ark and God killed him, because he was not a priest (2 Sam. 6).
There are also cases in the New Testament where believers lost their lives because they disobeyed God. Ananias and Sapphira coveted and lied to God about their offering, and they both died (Acts 5:1-11). Some believers at Corinth died because of the way they had acted at the Lord's Supper (1 Cor. 11:30). And 1 Corinthians 5:1-5 suggests that a certain offender would have died had he not repented and confessed his immorality (2 Cor. 2:6-8). Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit results in spiritual death (Mk 3:29). Spiritual death also occurs when someone turns against Christ (Heb. 6:4-6).
If a believer does not judge, confess, and forsake sin, God will chasten him. This process is described in Hebrews 12:1-13. It also suggests that a person who does not subject himself to the Father will not live (Heb. 12:9). In other words, first God "spanks" His rebellious children, and if they do not yield to His will, He may remove them from the world lest their disobedience lead others astray and bring further disgrace to His name.
"The sin unto death" is not some one specific sin. Rather, it is a kind of sin--it is a obstinate hardness and turning away in sin that leads to death.
God does not regard broken fellowship lightly. To live with unconfessed sin is to invite discipline (Heb. 12:10 ff). God will use whatever means necessary to restore us to fellowship. If His discipline is resisted, God's hand will become heavier and heavier until we are brought to confession. Should we fail to confess, God might remove us by physical death (Lev. 10; Num. 16; Acts 5:1-11; 1 Cor. 5:5; 1 Cor. 11:30) to bring us into that fellowship for which we were born again.
So unless there is serious obstinate, blatant type of sin, pray that God would forgive them and convict them of their sin and bring them back close into renewed fellowship. If you don't sense that you are asking in God's will you are released from your responsibility to pray for them (Jer. 7:16).
Verse 17 completes the topic of prayer for those caught up in sin with a reminder that all sin is serious. “All unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin not leading to death.”
“All unrighteousness” or wrong doing is sin, but some sin is worse than other sin. All sin is hateful to God and should be hateful to the believer but only some sin is punishable by death.
The believer should take hold of this warning about breaches of duty whether in ourselves or in others. Sin needs the cleansing of the blood of Christ. Do not despair if you think you have committed a sin leading to death. You’re here today. Soften your heart, turn to Jesus. Ask for forgiveness, claim the blood of Jesus, seek God's face and repent and wait on Him to see if He restores fellowship.
God is in the sin forgiving and restoration business, but we need to acknowledge our sin before Him. That is something that most will not do. [SIN-ONYMS] Several years ago, a broadcasting company in Finland conducted a contest to find how many synonyms people could think of. (A synonym is a word having a similar meaning to another word in the same language.) First place went to a contestant who came up with 747 synonyms for drunkenness. A man in prison was awarded second place for sending in 678 words for the same thing. He also won a prize for thinking of 170 synonyms for stealing. Another man knew 203 words for lying. It was an interesting contest indeed.
Now, there is nothing wrong with using synonyms. Writers have books of synonyms and refer to them all the time. But we run into a problem when we begin to call sin by other, more polite words. People sometimes do that by labeling it as a mistake, a blunder, a weakness, the result of conditioning or environment, or even a disease. However, transgressing God's holy law is sin--no matter what we call it--and sin destroys our walk with God. Sin causes us to "walk in darkness" instead of walking "in the light" (1 John 1:6,7).
It is only when we acknowledge sin for exactly what it is--unrighteousness--that we can avail ourselves of God's provision of cleansing and forgiveness. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us of all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). As Christians, we need to stop using synonyms for sin and call it what God calls it. When we do, our fellowship with Him can be restored.
[III. GOD’S KEEPING POWER, 18-21.]
CONCLUSION
Prayer is the natural breath of a genuine relationship with God. We can have confidence in prayer. The more we know the will of God, as reveal in the Word of God, the greater will be our confidence in our prayer. The emphasis of prayer is to be God’s will not our will. We are to align our prayer with His will, for us and for others.
One area where it is God’s will for us to pray is for sinning believers. Which begs the question, “Have we become so unconcerned about the sins of our fellow Christians that we rarely even think to pray about them?” John’s words challenge us to pray for struggling Christians. It may be out of place to pray for them publically, but in our private prayer we should intercede for people’s spiritual welfare. And as we pray may we remember that what is impossible for man, is possible with God.
Come join with us today. Let us intercede for one another so that we do not harden ourselves and get so far from God that we would commit a sin that separates us from Him and His fellowship.
