time...

todays musings.....

Life is too short, and time moves too quickly. But we act as though only the next 5 seconds exist.

As a race, we humans are incapable of grasping the passage of time, we strive for short moments of pleasure without regard for the consequences.

The same reasons that keeps the lazy person in bed 5 minutes longer only to get in trouble with his boss, is the same human instinct that causes global warming and plunder of natural resources. (I mean all of us who believe it is real, but continue to use Computers, cars etc etc even if we think it is causing harm).

If we could really appreciate the simple fact that time relentlessly moves forward
that what we do has genuine implications to our future
then just then, perhaps the world would be very different indeed.




I recall the quote, that Christians "if they really believe in such a God, and an afterlife; then surely they should be acting dramatically differently from the rest of us" [can't recall the author].

...

If you're wondering what is causing these particular ramblings, then it is because I am have just left London as I have finished my years placement. There is much more I would have liked to have done, and much I wish I hadn't.
I would like to say I now know how to be sensible and focus on long-term things and not waste time on distractions... but I'm blogging so probably not

the end of 1 John, and the end of London...

well not of London, just my job in London.

This was the last sermon I preached during my time in London just before I left.

As normal, ignore the horrible grammer etc. I use things like ';' and '-' to denote pauses to me and help me find my place whilst preaching, regardless of whether that fits the rules of english or not.

...

1 John 5:13-21

support reading: John 20:24-31

Hello and Good morning, I say Hello –

in a way goodbye as I shall soon be leaving.

I have been given the privilege to preach for you,

just before I depart – and so I have this challenge of trying to unpack the end of Johns letter.

This is not particularly easy, as this final section is packed with many points from John –

to miss one out would be to do him, and you

a dis-service, but then to try and fit them all

into 20 minutes is also a challenge

as you could probably do a whole sermon

with some of the points.

For example:

In verse 13 he starts what looks like

a reasonable conclusion

Then he goes of on a tangent talking about us having confidence in prayer,

next he moves on to mention the sin

that leads to death along with the whole

concept of praying for those who sin.

Then out of the blue he makes a statement that looks like impossibility,

that Christians don’t sin –

before going onto what looks again like the beginnings of a conclusion as he talks about the

knowledge of the assurance of our salvation –

and then abruptly ends with

“Dear Children, keep yourselves from idols.”

Still what I hope to do, is to give you an brief-ish outline, so you’ll have a good feel, of what John is saying to us at the end of the letter, and then in the last few minutes to go over in more detail the point that I feel is particularly important for us here at St Paul’s now.

Still let us begin straight away with verse 13.

(13)

John wrote his gospel –

as we learnt from our gospel reading John 20:31 -

so that people would know about Jesus,

that he was the Christ and so by this belief

have eternal life.

His letter was written for a different but related reason.

If you cast your minds back several months you’ll remember when I introduced this series

we learnt from 1:1-4

‘we write this to –make our joy complete…

so that you will also have fellowship

with us and with God’.

He wrote this letter for those who believe

in the Son of God, in Jesus Christ,

to encourage them that they have eternal life,

he wanted them to have that assurance,

so that they would live it out.

There is nothing here about being good enough.

Getting into heaven is not about what you have done, but who you know, and the one person

you have to know is Jesus.

14-15

There are many places that John could go from this statement but he chooses in 14-15 to speak about prayer. He did something similar in chapter 3.

Having reminded them of God’s love for them

he reminds them that they should have

confidence to approach God in prayer.

If we think of it that way we can perhaps see

why John speaks about prayer-

Imagine asking the Queen a question, you might be afraid to do so, or overcome by the moment. But if you knew that she accepted you,

if you were her daughter or son,

then maybe you’d feel more confident.

That is the kind of confidence we are to have, we are accepted children of God, we will be heard.

-+

(16-17)

Now onto 16-17,

these are some of the awkward verses in the bible,

but we can’t ignore it,

and we have to assume that

the original readers understood.

So let us try to make our way through this passage…

First I’m taking ‘brother’ here,

to mean a fellow child of God,

fellow Christian,

as this seems to make most sense out of the context.

Next we need to consider the two categories of sin.

That which doesn’t lead to death and that which does; what is the sin that leads to death?

Now there are a number of views,

but the one that seems most common

looks at death being the opposite of eternal life –

that is, in the context of this passage John is talking about eternal life.

And eternal life to be found in Jesus.

So a sin that leads to death

–being the opposite of this eternal life,

would be a rejection of Jesus as the Son of God – - like the Gnostics – remember we’ve been saying throughout this series that John was combating a heresy that we know would call Gnosticism, and rejected Jesus’ divinity.

So John isn’t saying that there is a sin for which the cross was insufficient

to give you forgiveness. But that it is possible to reject the son, and to reject forgiveness.

So what does this mean in practise? If we see a fellow Christian who is caught up in sin,

some behaviour that is not a rejection of Christ but inappropriate for a Child of God,

selfishness or lust, or speeding, then we should pray for them.

And we know, as it says in verse 13, that they will have eternal life – its not leading to death

And for those who are rejecting Jesus?

I feel perhaps we could compare this to Jerimaih 7:16 – Jerimaih is told not to pray for those who have turned away, and yet this command appears to be temporary

for later in life in chapter 42 he intercedes for them again and receives answer to his prayers.

I feel the thing to take away from this, is NOT have I committed an unforgivable sin that will lead to death,

not that.

but IS to pray for those who are sinning, pray and just watch yourself that you don’t get too emotionally burdened by those who reject Jesus.

(18-20)

We now move onto the home straight,

18-20 John gives us 3 statements of things that we know.

Firstly in 18 John says we know that those born of God do not sin, or continue to sin.

We have in previously looked at 3:1-10 with Paul and noted the difficulty with this idea.

We know we do sin – or maybe its just me,

and of course John also knows this,

as he has just encouraged Christians

to pray for fellow Christians who are caught in sin.

Sadly I don’t have time to re-hash what Paul said then, and I definitely wouldn’t do as good a job,

but what I will say;

is firstly I feel John is trying to underline that if we are born of God,

the idea of sinning should be so alien to us –

we just don’t want to do it.

And second, that we are no longer characterised

by our sin or obedience to God,

this is not relevant to us – on a salvation stand-point,

but the one born of God; Jesus; keeps us safe, and makes us clean so that the Devil has no hold over us.

19 - We not only know that we are born of God but we are the children of God.

Rather worryingly John then says that the whole world is under control of the evil one.

Now for John the ‘world’ is a term to mean humanity opposed to God.

I suspect that John is bringing this up again

to remind them what they have been saved from,

that Jesus was sent to rescue us

from this devil dominated ‘world’.

We will not really understand the love of God

Unless we understand just how much

it has saved us and rescued us. – this is why John is reminding us

But more than that John is encouraging his readers to stay with on God’s side.

Why would you even think about returning to the world? You can either be a privileged

child of God or a slave of the devil.

The choice should be pretty simple.

We need to remember who we are.

This should give us confidence.

(20)

And then 20, we get to this final statement of “we know”.

It is about knowledge of God.

The book started with

this message which Jesus came to bring

And which the apostles witnessed in what

they heard, saw and touched.

It was a message about the nature of God.

John says that this is why Jesus came

to bring us understanding, so that we

would know the true God,

and what is true about him.

John goes on to say that Jesus can do this,

Jesus is able to teach us this,

because he himself is the true God.

Now we can see why it is so important to get Jesus right, because in getting him

wrong we get God wrong.

As John says earlier in the book if you deny the Son, you deny the Father (2:23).

This is the God that Jesus has shown us. This is true information about God.

This is not simply some ones ideas about God. This is not a set of theories, this is why

the Son of God, why Jesus came, so that we could truly know the true God.

21

And so, nearly there, we come onto verse 21, the last word John had to say

“Dear Children, keep yourselves from idols”.

Its perhaps not as out of place as it first looks,

if the whole book of John is in essence about

the true understanding of God then it makes sense

for him to end by asking us to keep away

from false views of gods,

which ultimately are idols.

I could spend years just talking about idols,

because at the end of the day

idol-worship is idle-worhsip (if you’ll excuse the pun).

Worshiping idols, is what we as humans tend to do when we find God to confusing,

or when it doesn’t seem to work.

Let me give you an example -

I think – so how do I do a spelling check, I know how to do that – I may not be very good at it - but I know how.

How do I help us get to the stage were we are overflowing with the light and love of jesus Christ– emmm.

And I’m just reading from the the vision statement this church has if you’re wondering.

I don’t know how to do that, but checking punctuation on the powerpoint, I know how to do that – that’s what I’ll spend my time on, checking the spelling on these documents yes that’s what I’ll do, Jesus came into this world to set us free of bad spelling and grammer right?

Please don’t mis-understand me, some of you may have been put here by God specifically to do one task similar to the spelling – so its right to do that.

- and I’m not trying to get at anyone – I just picked that example because its easy to describe,

and I say this as an idol-worshipper myself who has to keep reminding myself, is this really God? Is this really glorifying God?

The point is, we can very easily slip into doing what we can do, simply because we can – and then rationalising that it is very important without ever asking is this really what God is asking us as a church to focus on?

and another problem – I said how do ‘I’ bring the Holy Spirit to do whatever… I can’t do that, I’m only human – it should be about what God can do, not me.

So John ends his letter here, with a simple plea, a plea I echo to yourselves and to me

Dear Children, Keep youselves from idols.

Love god, Know you are his children,

Don’t get distracted by what looks good, but isn’t God.

Now I just want to go back onto verses 14-15, because something very important happens here, something that I want to leave you with.

John after telling us we have confidence to pray, tells us that whatever we ask we will receive.

I recall a not long ago I was in HTB listening to Bishop Sandy Millar say “When I was young I had a very simplistic view, and when the bible told me to ask and I would receive, I believed it”.

Let me tell you, briefly, about my legs, I was born with a condition known as bilateral talipes, the muscles around my ankles are severally under-developed, there are times when it is really painful to walk, sometimes when I sleep pain just starts. This is something I have prayed for and seeked prayer for many times, and yet the evidence appears to tell me I have not recieved.

But,

I had a friend who had a disorder from birth that meant one of her legs was shorter than the other which caused her sever back pain. She also asked for prayer, I was standing next to her as a group of us prayed, and I saw her leg grow – no really [hold up hands for distance].

And believe me I checked very carefully.

And so I am living in this world where I see that when you ask you do receive,

and when you ask – you don’t always recieve.

Believe me I would like to explain the theological understanding for why this is. I don’t think there is a theological issue I have studied more than healing – why healing happens sometimes and not others,

And after all of this intensive study I can conclusively say:

I don’t know.

What I get from this, and from other passages like this, is a call to persevere in prayer – not to dismiss reality and pretend it’s not there,

but to pray to God in all circumstances.

Bishop Sandy Millar said that when he was young he used to believe ask and you will receive. He then turned round and said “I still do…. Have the faith to believe you have received what you have asked for.”

Last time we had the spirit in action slot I gave a story of praying for a friend who’d been in hospital with a bad back, and she was healed.

How many stories do you think I have over the years of that not happening? – I’m not going to pretend

But I do know that over the years I am seeing more and more prayers answered.

If you take anything away from today, anything from my time here, let it be this:

I don’t know what you’ve gone through, what you’ve asked God for and not received,

I do know it hurts, not just here [foot] but here [heart].

I know its not easy,

But my friends pray, Pray with confidence, pray as if you expect God to answer, never allow yourself to be discouraged. Pray about anything and everything.

That more you pray the more you will see God move.

Now I’m finding more and more of my prayers answered – I’m not going to try and explain why God does that, why some not others, I still don’t know.

But my friends , if we really want to see Jesus come in this place and move with power, we need to ask.

---

nb: the end actually went different,

I was interuppted around "And so I am living in this world where I see that when you ask you do receive,

and when you ask – you don’t always recieve."

by a lady saying "but God does answer you, just not how you expect".

I responded, "yes, yes he does".

There is a lot I could have said regarding, praying in the will of God, or how God answers in ways that we didn't expect.

But the point I was trying to get across, is the difficulty we face when God does seem to answer in one way (i.e. a healing) sometimes, and not others. Why does God answer us in one way sometimes but not other times?

This is really the crux of the pain I was trying to get across.

I then ommitted the paragraph "That more you pray the more you will see God move.

Now I’m finding more and more of my prayers answered – I’m not going to try and explain why God does that, why some not others, I still don’t know." and did the 'if you take anything away from this sermon' right at the very end... saying "...remember. [pause] pray [pause] always".

as the last words.

Then after putting the stand/lectern away etc, I prayed for the congregation.