Our Sermons

Bible Passage: 1 John 5:1-5
Pastor: Pastor Berg
Sermon Date:  April 11, 2021

Jesus Lives! The Victory’s Won! That’s pretty much the Bible in a nutshell, isn’t it? Whether you’re reading from Genesis 3, “I will put hostility between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He will crush your head, and you will crush his heel.” or from John 16, “But be courageous! I have overcome the world.” or from Revelation 12, “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ, because the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, the one who accuses them before our God day and night. They overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony.” The message of the Bible is that Jesus wins! Easter is the celebration of that victory. And Easter is more than just a one day celebration. It’s a 40-day-long celebration! For the next six weeks, we will be remembering the enormity of Christ’s resurrection and what it means for us. Throughout these six weeks we are going to see that Easter Overcomes. When Jesus rose from the dead, he proclaimed his victory over sin, death, and the devil. He overcame the world and all of its vices. But what is more, is today we see that he has given us this victory through the gift of faith. And that’s what we’re going to focus on today in 1 John 5. God’s Gift of Faith Overcomes the World.

The apostle John is writing to a group of believers who were struggling with Gnosticism. Gnosticism is a false teaching that said you needed a special knowledge, a special revelation outside of the Bible. The sad result is that these believers were starting to lose confidence in the Bible. They were starting to doubt the certainty of their salvation and were falling into unrepentant sinful lifestyles. And so John is writing to them in love. He’s speaking the truth in love to help them see that Christians combine right thinking with right living. The Christian mind, heart, and life cannot be cut apart. You can’t have one without the other. 

Keep that in mind as we look at chapter 5. “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the God who has given birth also loves the one who has been born of him.” Anyone who believes that the man, Jesus of Nazareth, is the Christ, is the Messiah, is the One whom God first promised to Adam and Eve; anyone who believes this had to be reborn by God’s initiative and power. That’s the only way this works. We are by nature dead and unable to do anything. We are natural born enemies of God. But those who believe in Jesus have had a drastic change to their situation. Someone has intervened from the outside. That someone is God. Through the Holy Spirit, God has called us to faith by the Gospel. Through the waters of Baptism, he has washed away the filth of our sins, he has made us born again, not of our mother’s womb, not of our own conscious decision. Through the faith that he has created, he has spawned a love for him, a love for the one who has given us this new birth. 

That love that we show is motivated and empowered by God’s love. We don’t love because one day we decided to hand our life over to Jesus. We love because God loved us first. He loved us by sending Jesus to suffer, die, and rise from the dead. We love because God has given us the victory over the world through his gift of faith. Through faith we are joined to Christ and everything he accomplished. Paul says in Romans 6, “Or do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him by this baptism into his death, so that just as he was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too would also walk in a new life.” That new life is a life of love. John continues, “This is how we know that we love the children of God: when we love God and keep his commands. In fact, this is love for God: that we keep his commands.” How did God show his love for us? He gave us a rebirth. Therefore, we  can now love God. And we demonstrate that love by keeping his commands. And even more, since we love God, we will automatically love people. That’s how this works! Real faith and real love are inseparable! They are like heads and tails on a coin–two faces of the same power, the power we receive from God through faith. This power overcomes the world. 

I think we all realize that our world is not a loving world! Our world is full of hate, anger, and revenge. Our world is only concerned about pleasing themselves no matter who they hurt along the way. And we were once part of that world. And sometimes, unfortunately, it’s hard to tell that we’re not part of the world anymore. Unfortunately we sometimes fall back into the world’s way of thinking. We don’t keep God’s commands. We don’t love God’s children in the way we treat them. And for that we need to repent. But Easter reminds us that Jesus has dealt with our sins. He lived and died and rose for us so that we can overcome temptation, so that we can overcome the world. And it’s Jesus’ victory that allows us to look at God’s commands differently. 

The world looks at God’s commands and sees restrictions and burdens. I can still remember as a kid hearing from others that the Ten Commandments take the fun out of life. And that’s the only way they can see them. God’s Word tells us, “Without faith it is impossible to please God.” However, for the Christian, God’s commands are an opportunity to love. God has forever forgiven the guilt of our past way of life. He has exchanged our sin-stained rags for righteous robes. He has freed us from sin’s control He has given us to the power to love.  Listen again: “In fact, this is love for God: that we keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, because everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world.” Love is the one word that completely summarizes God’s commands. God’s commands are an opportunity to show God love and show our neighbor love. We don’t see burdens, we see opportunities. Faith overcomes the temptation to see God’s commands as burdensome. Doing what God wants is now something we love to hear and want to do! Word and Sacrament really do have that power! Through Word and Sacrament, we are empowered to please God, to love God by keeping his commands. This is who we are. What is impossible for the unbeliever is not only possible for the believer, but essential!

Friends, it’s very easy to be misled into thinking that our faith isn’t enough. There are many prevailing thoughts that say that we have to do more, we have to be more than what God has made us to be. There’s all sorts of lists of prescribed good works that claim to make someone a better Christian. But that’s just Gnosticism wearing different clothes. We don’t need those lists to overcome the world. Jesus has already overcome the world by living perfectly in our place. He’s already overcome the world by dying to take away every failure, every mistake, every sin. He’s already overcome the world by rising from the dead to prove that his work was complete and perfect. And now we overcome the world as he gives us this gift of faith. It’s that simple. It’s that easy. It’s that much grace. John puts it plainly: “Who is the one who overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.” 

That faith, which connects us to Jesus, allows us to share in his triumphs! We have overcome the world! And what does that look like? We see ourselves and our fellow believers rejoicing each day in life, hope, and forgiveness we have in Christ. We see believers keeping their eyes fixed on Jesus, despite all of Satan’s attempts to lure us away. We see ourselves in God’s Word, following what it says instead of buying into the philosophies of this world. We see ourselves using and enjoying the gifts that God has given us without letting them become more important than God himself. In every way, we are different from the world, we triumph over it by the cross of Christ through our God given, God nurtured faith.

Easter overcomes! What a blessing to be able to celebrate this truth! This is the story of our life. This is the story of our faith. Because of Christ’s resurrection, because of Easter triumph, we have the victory that overcomes the world. May this truth motivate our love, love that now naturally flows from our faith. May that love be evident in our lives as we joyfully keep God’s commands. May that love be seen in the lives of our neighbors as we joyfully serve them! And may we never doubt whom God has made us to be, his children, who have overcome the world! Amen.