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Well, it’s good to see everybody out to celebrate today. It’s a wonderful day for us as a church family. We’ve been praying since we started this church in Lehi just a little over three years ago. God would give us an opportunity just to build that first freestanding church in our city, and we’re a lot closer today than we have been in the past. God’s bringing a great church family together. In addition to that fellowship that’s visiting with us today, has you guys have already already been told this, but they’ve raised a considerable amount of money for us as a church family to be able to look towards purchasing that first freestanding church. And I think they raised close to about $50,000 right now. And so this is an exciting day for us. So I want to encourage you, if you want to stick around afterwards and just show your thankfulness to them. We’re having a meal together as a church family just to show our gratitude and thanks. There’s not a lot you can do with that kind of sacrifice to pay someone back. And so I just want to encourage you to use that opportunity. And today it’s a it’s also a good ending to our series. As a church family, we’ve been studying the book of First John, first John. We’ve been focusing on together as a as a book about the next generation of Christians. If I were to just very specifically tell you or ask or maybe make a statement about what First John is about, the answer this morning would be Jesus.
If you’re here at Alpine Bible Church long enough, you’ll know that’s the right answer to everything, right? I think I told you a few weeks ago, if someone comes to our church and they’re lost, they want to know where the bathroom is. You just respond. Jesus, right. He can never go wrong with that. That’s always the answer. And first, John writes his book and he reminds us that life is about Jesus and it’s significant for us to recognize the importance of a relationship with him, because the Bible shares that we are all sinners separated from our relationship with God. But God loves us dearly, and while we run from him in sin, he’s on a rescue mission to save us as people. Jesus got off of his throne and he is pursuing you with his love, to the point that he made the ultimate sacrifice to demonstrate that love on your behalf. First, John chapter four. We saw together as one of the great love chapters of the Bible. Jesus came and died in your place so that you can have life, and in him we find the way to life. While Jesus was on earth, he chose 12 disciples that were close to him in relationship. And watching how Jesus interacted with this world in his ministry. Out of those 12 disciples that Jesus had chosen, he picked three in particular Peter, James, and John that walked closely with him.
They were referred to as his inner circle, and John was the youngest of the three. It was assumed that he was somewhere in his early 20s, when Jesus called him out to follow after him as a disciple. And throughout the Gospels, you’ll notice, as John writes the Gospel of John, he he refers to himself as the beloved from Jesus, because his relationship towards Christ was very intimate and personal beyond many of the other disciples in which Jesus interacted with. John lived ministry with Christ. He saw Jesus’s miracles and as he walked upon the earth. And when Jesus experienced his last moments on this earth as he hung on the cross, the only disciple that’s recorded there at Jesus’s cross out of his 12 was John. And John stood at the foot of the cross below Jesus, next to Jesus’s mother, Mary. And you think about how intimate the relationship must have been between Jesus and John. For Jesus to look down upon that cross to John and say, John, please take care of my mother. The Bible tells us that not only was John likely the only disciple of the 12 at the cross, he was also the first man to the empty tomb. John, after Jesus was crucified, resurrected and ascended into heaven, carried on the ministry for Christ. History tells us that John endured severe persecution for following after Jesus with his life. In fact, at one point John was thrown into a vat of boiling water and survived.
At another time, John was exiled as a prisoner to the island of Patmos. It’s estimated that John lived to be nearly 100 years old, and during that time he developed the nickname among other Christians as camel knees because they often reflected that John spent an exorbitant amount of time on his knees talking to Jesus in prayer. To the point he began to build calluses. John loved Jesus. John lived to be about 100 years old, and history records that he was ministering much of his time in the church of Ephesus, and he got so old, but still loved Jesus so much that the church family would literally run to his house and carry John to church on Sundays to be a part of the worship service, and they would sit him before the church and they would ask John the question, John, tell us what it was like to sit at the feet of Jesus and just learn from him. Because in the church of Ephesus, John was noticing a new generation of believers, a generation that he looked upon, that had never seen Jesus do ministry upon this earth, but he desired to share with them the love that Christ had for them as a new generation to pursue Christ with their life. And you see, for us as a church family, this is very applicable to us, I think, as John has passed this message on to this, that church and that church has passed that message on to future generations.
And here we sit today and we are a young church, a new generation seeking after Jesus. And as John shares with his people, he looks at the church and he shares with them above everything that our desire is to pursue Jesus. Because in this world there are enough counterfeits and fake people teaching a doctrine about God that is not truth. And it’s important for us to recognize our position as Jesus in Jesus. And it describes in first John four four that you have overcome, and greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. Amen. When you pick up the scriptures and you start from the beginning of the Gospels, you begin to read. You identify yourself as a person in Christ that God has called in this world on a mission for him. God’s got a plan for your life, and it’s more than just a get out of hell free card. It’s it’s about experiencing life with him. It says in first John chapter five and verse 12, if you want to look today, that’s where we’re going to be. It’s 187 in the Bibles in front of you. Page 187, it says in first John chapter five and verse 12, he that has the son has life. God wants us to experience life in him and through him. And we think about the future of our church as we just keep that one idea in our mind that we are to pursue Jesus with everything that we are as people.
That’s why God created us to experience that relationship with him. Nothing in this world can stop us from what God desires to achieve in us and through us, as we maintain that, as our focus. Had the opportunity for someone in our church family reflecting on our church and the heart that our church shares for Jesus. I’m going to tell you who this is, but someone in our church family wrote this letter. It was actually written to you guys at fellowship. Um, I just want to read a section of it. It says, lucky for me, I was at Lehi City Pioneers Day pioneer days at the local park when my kids begged me for a balloon animal from a booth. So who knows where this is going already, right? During the summer, we’re always out in booths giving balloons. We’re after your kids. Nice. It says the booth turned out to be an outreach program through ABC. I grabbed a postcard with their info. When I got home, I looked up ABC online. I read the section on what they believe and then emailed the pastor to find out a little more. I don’t remember that email, but I’m glad I did that. Since then, I have been a faithful member and I have even started helping with the children. I don’t know where I would be in my walk with Christ had I not happened upon ABC.
Amen. I am eternally grateful for Alpine Bible Church for bringing me back to him, allowing my children to learn about having a relationship with Jesus. I also come to learn how important it is to continue strengthening my own beliefs in order to share them with those of my family and my community. To you guys, this person writes, your gracious donation toward a new building will serve as a beacon for wandering Christians like me searching for a church. It will also catch those adrift. We tend to complicate what Jesus desires for us in this world. And I love the way John puts it in first John 512 he who has the son has life. It’s a very simple message to focus and pursue a relationship with your creator. As John begins to share in chapter five and verse 13, he says, these things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life. The Bible often talks about life and death. When the Bible refers to death, it doesn’t just mean a ceasing to exist. When Scripture refers to the word death, it means a separation. When it talks about we talk about loved ones, us as people and they die from from this world. They have been separated from us as people in the scriptures. When it talks about relationship with Jesus and it refers to death, it means there is a separation in their relationship between God and the individual.
But what John wants to remind us is that while there is death, while there is separation, your relationship with God, you could also experience life. When John talks about life, he’s just not simply talking about living forever. Though eternal life refers to living forever. We also refer to eternal life. It means a quality of life. So the Bible tells us that the moment we choose to place our faith in Jesus, that is when your eternal life begins. And those who live in the promise of Christ, who have put their faith in everything that Jesus has done for them on the cross, it says, His Spirit dwells in you and you begin to experience him. In Galatians five, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness as God’s Spirit works in you and through you. It’s not just a duration of life, it’s also a quality of life. In addition, it’s also an experiential life where daily you can walk hand in hand with your Savior, the one who desires to know you more intimately than anyone. The one who has loved you more deeply than anyone ever has. It starts the moment in your life that you stop running from God, and you turn to Jesus and accept him as your Savior. And so John writes for us in first John 514. Now that you have life in Jesus and you see his significance, you understand the importance of your relationship with him in this world.
And so he says, because we have that relationship in verse 14, this is the confidence which we have before him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the request which we have asked for him. It’s saying to us that God wants to answer your prayers. That God has given you the opportunity now in that relationship of life with him, to communicate with him in this world, to pray to him and talk to him about your needs. But I love what he says. He reminds us that he’s just not a pinata. We don’t just come to God and we start whacking them with the stick and say, God, give me the biggest house on the top of Traverse Mountain. It’s not the way it works. He tells us to pray according to his will, and that if we pray according to his will, God hears us and answers us. And I got to think as as a young man coming to know the Lord, I’m very thankful that he didn’t answer my prayers in the beginning of my relationship with Jesus, because a lot of them were very selfish. Some of the things I asked for, I don’t know what I would be doing with today. Oftentimes, we start our relationship with Jesus. We begin that sort of as a young individual, more like a teenager starting out life with freedom.
You know how that goes, right? Your daughter comes to you. Dad, dad, can I go on a date? And you say yes when you’re 47, right? Son comes to you. Dad, can I have the car keys? And you say yes when you get a job and buy your own, right? And with God, it’s similar to that in our relationship with him. That when we begin to learn about what he desires to accomplish in this world, we begin to pray that God would work in us and through us to to live in that plan that God has called us to as ministers for him. Excuse me? For him. And so he says in verse 16, recognizing the importance of us as people now that we have a relationship with the Lord, he says, if anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask and God will call for him and 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. All unrighteousness is sin and there is a sin not leading to death. You ever study the Bible and get to one of those verses where you just say, well, now why does that have to be in there? That’s one of these verses. In. In all honesty, if I could have just skipped over this. I studied and looked at this this week versus spent a lot of time just thinking through what this verse meant as God shared it with us through the Apostle John.
This is what I believe when John talks about a sin leading to death. What is referring to as a person who is absent from a relationship with Jesus? He just said in first John 512, he who has the son has life. Implying for us he that doesn’t have the son experiences death. Amen. He recognized the problem that we’ve seen in the in this book together is that the church has had people come in to its building or its worship assembly, and they begin to teach a doctrine about Jesus that isn’t biblical. And they begin to share things about the relationship with Christ that isn’t right. And John says to them in first John four one, brothers, test the spirit, whether they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into this world. Meaning, as a Christian, you have the ability to judge if something is of God or not. Judging is okay in the sense that you determine what’s right and wrong, what’s truth, and what isn’t. We never judge for the sin in the sense that we belittle someone else, or we look at their sin as worse than ours because all of us are sinners. But when it comes to right and wrong, God very much wants us to determine truth from error. And he says to us, brothers, if any of your if any of your brothers are committing a sin not leading to death, meaning if they trusted in Jesus and their sinning in this world, here’s what you need to do.
You need to begin to pray for those people. You need to go to them and lovingly say, hey, what are you doing with your life in Christ? If you don’t stop, I’m going to start praying for you, You sick God on them, right? You’ve been there. You get home one day and your kids are going crazy and you just grab and you’re like, God. Help! You sound crazy, but God knows what’s coming from your heart. Sick God on them. Is that is that godly? That is right. You’re a warrior for Jesus, right? Pray like a warrior for Christ. Sic God on them. And he goes on to say that we shouldn’t pray for the sin leading to death. And this is where the difficulty comes. I’ll give you my best understanding of this, and I’ll let you know too, as well, that many intelligent people have gotten to this portion of Scripture, and they leave with more questions than they answer. And what this could mean sin leading into death. I’ve said what I think it is is someone who hasn’t placed their faith in Jesus because he who has Jesus has life. Okay. And I think the concern that John is seeing with this church, this this church that’s experiencing this trouble, these people are coming in and they’re teaching the false doctrine is that now that these people have learned these lies from these individuals, they might have a tendency to have hatred towards them.
Matter of fact, they could go to even the extreme to start praying that they would experience death the way that individual would get out of their face. And the church can focus on life. And I think what John is saying to us is that’s not your job to judge that. When it comes to the sin leading unto death, we leave it into God’s hands. Our opportunity as people is to pray that people receive life. Amen. Amen. When we see someone walking in sin, we begin to pray for their needs. Not that they stop sinning, but that they come to know Jesus. If we just come to know Jesus, God takes care of the rest. Amen. Some of us obsess with sin in our lives, and we just try to stop sinning. And that’s not the answer. Stopping a sin won’t help because the minute you stop sinning, then all of a sudden you’ll become prideful and you’re sinning again, that you stop that sin. The answer is to seek Jesus. And John is saying to us in this passage of Scripture, if you see anyone living in sin that your prayer as people become Lord, please let them come to know you. God, please let them see the importance of that relationship of walking hand in hand with you.
That he would look at a new generation of Christians and they would recognize in their life just how powerful God’s prayer is. And so when God says to us that we pray according to his will, he identified for us in these passages of Scripture, well, what is his will? People? God desires to pursue people with love, and he uses you as his people to go passionately after them, loving them and praying for them and their needs in this world. That’s beautiful. Amen. Just as Jesus has demonstrated the extent of his love in this world, he has called you as people to do the same, to mimic his behavior and love others to him. To seek God on them. And so he says a very sobering statement. I just want to say, before I read this next verse, um, it’s kind of it sounds scary because it is a lie, but but it’s not intended to scare us as people. It’s intended to sober us. We’ve learned that together. Just because you’re spiritual isn’t necessarily a good thing. After all, all of us are born with a spirit, so everyone in this world is spiritual. You don’t have to say that you’re spiritual. But the Bible has also taught us that one third of every spirit is demonic. One third of the angels fell from heaven and pursued after Satan. And so just because you’re being influenced spiritually doesn’t necessarily mean it’s godly. In fact, the Bible continues to warn us that we battle not against flesh and blood, not against each other, but against principalities and powers.
There are spiritual forces in this world. We are living in a physical world, fighting a spiritual battle on behalf of other people and even in our own lives. So he says in verse 18, we know that no one is born of God sins. Now don’t worry, some of you Christians would stop here and think, oh my gosh, I just I sinned this morning, right? What does that mean? I’m lost. I’m not with God. The Bible tells us in first John chapter one and verse eight that if you say that you have no sin, you lie and deceive yourselves. But in verse nine it says, if we confess our sins, he’s faithful and just to forgive us. So he recognizes that as a Christian it’s impossible to live perfectly. But in first John three nine, he he reminds us that no one who was born of God will continue to sin. Meaning, God has put a new desire in our hearts and we may mess up, but the ultimate pursuit of our life will be to go after Jesus. In fact, John, when he labels this book, gives us three indicators for us as people of whether or not we’re pursuing Jesus. He says, one who do you say Jesus is? Is Jesus God? Two he he says to us, his people, are you wanting to move from darkness into light because God abides in darkness? If you want to walk with him, you’ve got to move to that light to experience him.
And third, he says, are you loving others? And so John says here in this passage of Scripture that whoever is born of God, he’s not going to continue to sin. He wants to pursue God in that relationship. And so he says, but he who was born of God keeps him. God holds you in his hand. God is protecting you right now. And it says, and the evil one does not touch him. And we know that we are of God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. Greek kind of gives an illustration of Satan wandering this world as a predator. You think his parents may be one of the worst fears that you have for your children is that someone might take them and harm them. God is looking over you in this world, and he holds you in his hand of protection, lovingly securing you from the enemy who desires to devour you. But he’s saying to us, his people, that Satan is ripping lives apart. He asked the question, what will Satan use to destroy our lives and distract us from a relationship with Jesus? And I think the answer is anything it takes. Maybe he can busy your life to keep you from God. Maybe he can tempt you from sin to keep you from God. But whatever it takes, Satan wants to rip your life apart.
His desire is to pull, as any predator, a young child, aside and make them feel secure. And when he’s got you safely in his arms, he then takes advantage of you. Satan desires to destroy your quality of life with God, your eternal living with God, your experiential living with God. This isn’t a place in our lives where we sit and we get all freaky about Satan, okay? We don’t roll our eyes back right? In demon possession, voices don’t come out. Satan is very subtle in the way that he does things. He’s very clever. The Bible tells us. Even Adam and Eve, in a perfect state, couldn’t outsmart Satan. That’s why the answer for us is not do it on your own. It’s always seek Jesus because we can’t do it on our own. Amen. And the statement comes to us, as people in this passage of Scripture, to sober us up, to recognize, as we conclude this book together, how important your position in Jesus is in this world and in this city. And as we look to our future in Christ, as we build that first freestanding church here in our town, it’s important that you see how important you are in Christ and to your church family. And so he begins to share in verse 21. He says, excuse me in 20. And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true, and we are in him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ.
And look what he says right here. This is the true God and eternal life. Little children, guard yourself from idols. In verse 20, he shares with us a very illuminating passage. He says, because of your relationship with God, now you have understanding. Meaning the rest of the world was tempted. I personally love to fish. I don’t know how many of you guys like to fish, especially now that I live in Utah. I’m addicted to fly fishing, right? It’s a horrible thing having an addiction to fly fishing, right? Um, but but the great thing about fly fishing is that as soon as you get that right lure, man, you win. You get all the fish in the world with that right lure. And Satan operates the same thing with same way. With that temptation, you pray that the the fish are just dumb enough not to see the hook hiding behind it. Right? And that lure attracts them in and they snatch it up and they’re caught with us as people. God is saying in this passage of Scripture that now that you have understanding in Jesus, that not only are you just seeing the lure of Satan anymore, but you also see the hook that’s hiding beneath the lure. And you don’t just see the hook, you also see the line that runs up to the boat attached to a man who wants to bring you into captivity.
And God has given you this understanding so that we may know him who is true, that we we may experience him and walk with him and understand him. To grow in that relationship with him. And so he says something very important to us, that we as people are to live our spiritual lives with our eyes wide open. John identified that Jesus is that true God. Jesus is the one that we seek after. And so he challenges us at the very end. He says, as we are pursuing Christ with our lives, children, you are to keep yourself from idols. So the answer from John is what’s going to rip us away from Jesus? It’s anything in this world that might be considered idolatry in the Old Testament. Maybe it would have been carved out images of wood. But for us today, it’s it’s gotten more sophisticated than carved images, right? Maybe it’s the internet, maybe it’s money, maybe it’s fame, maybe it’s possessions. Maybe it’s related to something sexual. Whatever it takes to pull you out of the light and into the darkness. That is Satan’s desire told a story once of idolatry. It was about a man who he went to the country of India, and he walks into a home. And in the living room of this home there’s this pillar established of the statue in the living room, and all the furniture is directed towards this statue that the people and the family worship, because it was it was their idol.
It’s what they loved. It’s what they sacrificed for. It’s what they devoted time towards. There was incense burning. He walked in the room. He thought how ridiculous this family that they worshipped such a carved out image and think that that’s their God. And then he returned home. He walked into his living room and he saw his furniture all directed towards the television screen. We all have idols. It’s just that the context sometimes changes. God’s desire and John’s desire is that we not rob ourselves from the joy of the life, of understanding our relationship with Jesus by replacing him with things that were never intended to be there. God’s desire for us is to understand the importance of our relationship, that we as people, begin to pray for those in need because we recognize how important our own relationship with God is, and we desire for others to experience it. And we walk in such a way in this world that we we know that there is a spiritual battle in existence, and that we don’t settle for something less than what God desires for our lives and that we live protected from the enemy who wants to pillage us and destroy us and keep us from experiencing that relationship. And we live life in Jesus. Our goal is not to stop sinning. Our goal is to look to Jesus and to start living and buy. This sin will no longer be our master. Amen. Amen.