Sermon 1 John 5:1-12
You most likely know I’ve just returned from holiday and have that post holiday fuzziness thing going on, I spent a great time with Terry the first week doing the whole father son catch up road trip up around Nelson and over Takaka way, we managed to walk to Harwood’s Hole and spent some time fishing, though no catching, and I got a bit of a tour of the skate parks in that part of the world. For the skaters out there don’t bother with the Murchison Park but the Neale Park, Nelson skate park was “the bomb”.
Rochelle and I then had a bit of a break away at Mount Somers the following week, once again fishing but no catching, It’s funny how these things work out, heavy rain and the fish can’t see the flies and the fishermen can’t see the fish. So everything sort of stays in a status quo. Though it was nice trying and I did manage to see a trout in the Buller River.
I was pleased to get away and those who know me, know that I get a bit of a kick out of nature, out of God’s creation. I’m the sort of person who will marvel at a view or some wee beastie that in my opinion just shows how special creation is and how the mind of God is vastly superior to my own.
The giant land snail or paraphanta is one of those things, here’s a photo I took of one! Now you may be wondering at my minds wondering and where this is all going?
This is where I will attempt to bring giant land snails, fishing and holidays into some sort of link in with a passage of scripture, and just to complicate the whole thing I saw this illustration by a bloke called Francis Chan about eternity that I found interesting, so we will try and include that in the mix as well.
Now the passage of scripture I want to tie in with this is from 1 John 5:1-12.
Just before we venture into the passage a bit about John is that he was John the son of Zebedee, he was a fisherman (who actually caught fish) and it’s thought he may have been the first cousin of Jesus, with his mum Salome being Mary’s sister. John also wrote the gospel by the same name and the book of Revelation, this letter was written around 85 AD.
So what is it that John has to say about giant land snails, fishing and holidays and Francis Chan’s illustration?
He says this! – Read Passage.
What John is pointing out is how we know we are saved and if we address the answers he gives us we find:
1) That the saved person believes Jesus is the Christ, other words for Christ are Messiah, or the chosen one of God! Verse One says it this way “everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well.” (1 John 5:1)
What follows on from this is that those who believe overcome the world, not the planet earth. This might take a little explaining, “the world” is the stuff that would keep us from God, would keep us from living a life of fellowship with God, and binds us up in sin. So who overcomes the world, who is it that is free from the things, those sins that bind, verse five tells us, “Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.
2) The reason that this occurs is that, the saved person loves and obeys God. Also that within this comes that commandment about love for one another, loving our neighbours as ourselves. As John says it, “This is how we know that we love the children of God by loving God and carrying out his commands. This is love for God: to obey his commands and his commands are not burdensome. (verses 2&3)
The truth is that God’s commands won’t weigh you down or hold you back; in fact they bring freedom. Some get caught up in the belief that God’s commands stop them from enjoying life, particularly when they set on “enjoying life”, getting to “have a bit of fun”. But as we know disobedience to what God wants leads us into traps, into ways of living that restrict our freedom, which then have us hooked into unhealthy ways of living the wages of which are death.
John also tells us that the saved person does not continue to live in the old ways of their sinful nature. I didn’t read this earlier but if we look at verses 18-21 we find, John saying, “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. We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one. We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true – even in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.
Now this brings me to where I was right at the start; giant land snails, fishing and holidays and Francis Chan’s illustration?
Lets start with this illustration of Francis Chan’s, now I was going to put my own take on this and I will a little after we watch a video clip of Francis Chan’s illustration. A bit of an intro to this man he is an author and church leader and was previously a pastor of Cornerstone Church in California. Over to him. (YouTube, Francis Chan, eternity rope illustration)
Well being an electrician by trade I thought the rope illustration was good; but what about an extension cord and plugging into the source of life the power that brings us eternal life.
What is it John says about eternal life? “God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.” Life goes on beyond the plug, past our existence here on earth!
And what is we look at the plug end of the extension cord being the physical existence we have here as Francis Chan pointed out would you become so focused on this bit, that you would blow all of this, with God in eternity? (Pulling out the rest of the extension cord.)
But, beyond this; back to the Giant Land Snails and the Fishing and the holiday?
Point A) These giant land snails are great, they are only found in New Zealand and a few Islands in the world, they are mainly nocturnal, they are carnivorous, and they are rare due to the introduction of mammals into New Zealand. They are hard to find even where they live, empty shells can be found reasonably easily but an empty shell is of little consequence – there’s no one home, it void, of no use in nature it contains no life.
People are sometimes like that and within the church there are those who believe all there is about Jesus, some even make up their own interesting theories – what can sometimes happen is that people sometimes end up in this place of not loving God.
Some people come out with all the stuff about God loving them, but still live in disobedience to his word, not loving him, for they don’t obey his commands, for what is it John says ‘if they loved God they would obey his commands’, and they don’t. They are lost, they are not alive.
John in his letter points out something about Jesus, and who he is he says this” for there are three that testify the Spirit, the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement.” (verses 7&8).
The Spirit mentioned is The Holy Spirit, the water, the water of Jesus baptism and the blood, the blood spilt at Jesus death. As we know the Holy Spirit is God, undivided in essence and co-equal in power and glory with the Father and the Son. He is witness to Jesus sonship and his divine nature, the witness of Jesus baptism was that Jesus was declared the son of God by the Father and in his death and the shedding of his blood Jesus made a new covenant in his blood for the forgiveness of sins.
Paul in his letter to the Romans puts it this way, “You see, just at the right time, when we were powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.” (Romans 5:6)
Back to the Giant land snails, some people have an approach that is a bit like those empty snail shells, there is no movement, the life is not in them – they are not obedient to God, saying that they love God but not exhibiting love through obedience. We can sing all the love songs to Jesus just like we can sing love songs to one another but the truth is if love is not shown to be genuine, it’s not genuine.
But he who has the Son has life!
Well that’s the snails.
Point B) Now the fishing, that’s another story. I really enjoy fishing, and there’s quite a number of ways to catch a fish. Name a few! What no tuna bombs, plugs of gelignite, eel spears, I guess that some fish in different ways.
It’s alright I have a fishing licence and a fly rod but this is my first fresh water fishing season. Interestingly I want to get it right so I’ve even read a few books on the subject and I’ve talked it over with a few trout fishermen.
Well if we look at the passage by John about this love of God and love for the children of God we find a bit in there that says, “anyone who believes in the Son of God has this testimony in his heart.” (verse 10)
As we have this testimony, about Jesus being Lord of our lives and about the eternal life he has given us in our heart’s, which means our whole being from the Greek, not the organ that pumps the blood, is that it should be evident in our lives our whole being, we should exude this testimony, it should flow out of every part of our being!
If our testimony is about Jesus Lordship, we will be telling others, we will be obviously Christian by the way be act, so that others can move on from this ‘plug in’ existence and also have an amazing eternal life. Jesus said to his fisherman friends was, “that he would make them fishers of men.” This is what witnessing is, if we love God and we love our fellow humans we will introduce them to one another. By that I mean we will introduce our friends, neighbours etc to God. Life can be a little like the muddy water I referred to before, people don’t always see God, that’s our role to show them the way to him, sensitively and wisely showing them the way to am relationship with God and as a consequence eternity.
For he who has the Son has life!
That’s the fishing.
The only other thing about this passage I said I was going to try and link in was holidays, this really takes me back to John’s letter, and the illustration about the rope or the extension cord and that if we have a relationship with God, if we are focused on our love for God and our fellow human beings, our neighbours, those around us, we will want them to share eternity with us. There is no reference to holidays and I’m not able to think of one, the truth that comes from this passage is that if we truly love God we will do as he commands, we will share him with others and as a result they will be able to share eternity with both God and us.
Remember “He who has the Son has life.”
Benediction:
May you continue to walk in love with God,
Being obedient to his will,
In Jesus name!
Amen.
