Topic: Eternity with God by Albert Chew. Scripture: 1 John 5:13-21.
Everlasting Joy in his presence
13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life. 14 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.
16 If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life—to those who commit sins that do not lead to death. There is sin that leads to death; I do not say that one should pray for that. 17 All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that does not lead to death.
18 We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him. 19 We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. 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. He is the true God and eternal life. 21 Little children, keep yourselves from idols.
1) THE GLORY OF HEAVEN – DRIVES US !
If you ever watch a long distance race like the marathon, the runner have only one single objective, and that is to reach the finished line. There is no other aim than that! That is no other higher reason than that! All their preparation, the groundwork, the homework, the training for years and years is just that – to reach the finishing line.
The glory of Heaven drives us !
The final outcome of our faith is really heaven. If you ever watch a farmer in the field, the farmer has only one single objective, and that is to reap the harvest. There is no other aim but that; there is no other higher reason than that! All his toil and sweat of labour as he slog through the months and years is just that – to reap the harvest at the end. The final outcome of our faith is just like that – it is heaven!
The apostle John is reminding us that the final outcome is heaven. Heaven is a wonderful place, filled with glory and grace; I want to see my saviour’s face, heaven is a wonderful place. We sing that all the time! This is our destiny, this is the future, this is the providence that God has given us. I write these things to you so that you may know that you have eternal life. It could very well be that John wrote it down for some who needed that comfort. These were terrible days for them. Christians were in disarray, most of the apostles were all but gone and killed, and John was down to the last man. He knew that he would soon be next, haunted down and killed like the rest. Christianity was expanding through the region; but so was the rise of persecutions and harassment. When Paul was beheaded under the reign of Nero, the Roman empire declared war on Christians. Many were displaced and disillusioned when persecutions became widespread, many have gone into hiding. In the midst of these hardships came also false prophets, false teachers, human wisdom, philosophies and worldliness.
The apostle John is not telling the believers something new as they were all exposed to the teaching of the apostles, it was still fresh in their minds. It is obvious that they have shifted some of their attention to the pressing issues around them, and it affected them so much that they began to worry, some began to spent more time building on their own security because their jobs were displaced by the events around them, some of them were beginning to believe that there is just too much to sacrifice; jobs were affected, family life were affected, status were affected, income were affected and the adjustments were just too drastic and now my own friends laughed at me, my girlfriend decided to have nothing to do with me, my boss demoted me and warned me about the lack of future if I carried on in my faith, my community shunned me……… etc.
The church is no longer the same because the apostles were all gone, the leaders who served under them were all in disarray, some openly doubted their faith, some were taken into prison, some left the faith and those who remained were weak and without direction. Discouragement sets in! The focus has shifted from the eternal perspective to the temporal perspective. Our desire has shifted from the heavenly to the earthly. The apostle John reminded us that heaven is the final outcome of our faith. Whatever happens on earth, heaven is just a step away.
I tell you who longs for heaven…. it is the people who served tirelessly, diligently, attentively and determinedly, That’s the comfort and satisfaction you will get if you belong to this group. Like Paul, you looked forward to heaven. You can say enthusiastically like Paul – For me to live is Christ and to die is gain. Like Paul, you would rather say that it would be better to go and be with the Lord now. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. Phil 1:23. Paul says in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labour in vain. Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith.
For Paul, it was the end of the road for him and the beginning of the road to heaven. He knew that all he ever lived for, and fight for, and struggled for has now come to this day – heaven, eternity with God, joy everlasting! One thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. I kept going and going, I kept pushing and pushing because I can see the finishing line and beyond that, my prize. Friends, are we running as if we can see the finishing line? Oh that we may see it and be stimulated by it; oh that we may see the master’s hand stretched out to receive us as we cross the finishing line! Oh that those who labour and toil now, you know who you are, that you may be comforted, that you will not give up, even though sometimes you feel like giving up; that you will strive just a little while longer. Don’t quit now, dear brother, dear sister. This message is telling us to go on believing, go on persevering.
So because heaven is the final outcome, I shall not be moved by anything, as a result I have the confidence that my father will look after my needs. Look at V14 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him. If you know that your eternity has already been secured, your home is in heaven, the prize has been won and there before us – everlasting union with The Lord in the great supper of the lamb for eternity, is there anything in this whole world that can take away from us?
That’s why it is so sad when we see some people abandoning their faith, for what? To pursue something else? What can be more glorious that to spend eternity with God? John said this is the confidence that we have toward him. John says look, I can look at my father’s face and confidently ask because all that I have and all that I am is in his. He will hear all my request and act upon my request. Isn’t this the same language that was used by Paul when at the closing moments of his life, when he knew that his life’s journey has come to an end, he knew that all his life and all that he has been, was in obedience to the will of God – he said to Timothy But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to me. Paul and John have the same confidence.
There is nothing worse than to see someone emptied of confidence. Imagine a Christian saying, “ I am not sure if I die today I will go to heaven because I feel that I have sinned so terribly last week Or I really believe that God will not answer my prayer because I have live outside of his will for such a long time Or I am not worthy to hold such a such a position in the church because you know, I am spiritually very far away from God. Or I am living in immorality or I am dishonouring him in my secular business or my testimony is bad. Trust me, there will never be a day that you can be ready. And as long as you are not ready, and you’re entangled with the all stuff of the world, you will never be ready for eternity. The Lord pleads with us with urgency; the Holy Spirit appeal us to hurry and make amends now for when eternity comes either in death or in his appearing, many would wish that they had, and many would have to hang their heads down in embarrassment.
The suddenness of such an event reminds me of Elijah who was talking to Elisha in 2 Kings 2 and then suddenly chariots and horses of fire appeared and scripture records that Elijah went up like a whirlwind into heaven, and Elisha could only say “my father, my father”, The chariots of Israel and its horsemen!” And he saw him no more. Eternity may come to some of us like a whirlwind, we have no time to even say goodbye. Elijah went off but let me share with you that he is ever ready to go. Such is the confidence of the man of God. Confidence comes when you have done all the preparation; confidence comes when you make amends with God and when you made the decision to come into his will. So what drives us today is to see Christ in glory. The glory of heaven drives us. Secondly -
2) THE MESSAGE OF HEAVEN – DIVIDES US !
God's truth about heaven divides us!
V18 – We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him. 19 We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.
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. He is the true God and eternal life. 21 Little children, keep yourselves from idols.
We have come to understand that the world is going to be divided into two, two dominions that struggle within us. That which belongs to God, and that which belongs to Satan! True believers who are in him, of him and belongs to him, while the rest of the world, and largely the majority are in the power of the satan because they obey him, and do all his works and support all his causes. They represent all the masses of people who may not openly say they support satan but whoever they are, and whatever their profession, they reject the cross of Jesus Christ openly and silently with the full understanding of its consequences.
The message of heaven; the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is going to divide us, to stand on his side which leads to eternity with him in glory or stand on the other side, which leads to eternity with Satan, and in the lake of fire. Beloved this is not something new. This is what is going to be at the end. Here lies the all important assessment. John says V18 – We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him. A true genuine born again believer no longer lives in the fullness of sin and dominated by our heart’s desire as those who are unregenerate. What our hearts use to love and desire no longer appeals to us, the old is gone, the new has come, it is a spiritual transformation from the inside to the outside. God who indwells in us through the HS prevents us from falling again under the influence of sin. That’s why the word protect is important. God is protecting our relationship with him because he knows what satan is going to do to that relationship. Satan is going to try his best to dominate out thinking and influence our behaviour; so that we will keep on sinning, God through his spirit is going to prevent that from happening.
You see how this division is taking place. They both had nothing in common. One is white the other is black; one is light and the other darkness; one goes left, the other goes right. The message of eternal life is going to divide the rights from the wrongs. Both eternities are bound towards an opposite direction. You cannot cooperate with the enemy and please God at the same time. You got to know who we are and who your enemies are. It is a repetition by John earlier in 1 John 3:6 – whoever abides in him does not sin. The idea that John is conveying here is there are some people who are settled in, in their habitual sin, continued in the lifestyle of sin; almost like a continued sequence of uninterrupted sins. Whoever is born of God cannot be doing this. And the protection of God will not fall on people who are unrepentant. If we are born of God, we have a protection against satan, it is unique only to those who are born of God, and by understanding this protection, we have confidence. John says that the evil one does not touch him. You know as believers in Jesus Christ, we can go anywhere with this confidence that we are bearing a seal; I believe sometimes the devil respect this seal because it is a protected seal. He will not touch one bit of it, instead he will go away quietly and harass your neighbour or your next door friend or others who are unprotected. This is really a blessing. He knows that your eternity is sealed forever by the blood of Christ.
In conclusion John goes back to the theme of fellowship
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. He is the true God and eternal life.
John uses the word KNOW twice…. We know that the son of God has come; and we are to KNOW him who is true. John is telling us – don’t just know him, know him by experience. This is how God wants us to know him. This morning, if we can’t understanding whole business about eternity with God, at least get this point in – Jesus wants us to know him and know him by experience. When we say we know Jesus, do we know him as the historical Jesus from the commentaries; or do we really know him as the living one who is the king of our lives. . Beloved, it is life of fellowship with God, and he is preparing us now for the eternal fellowship with God. John tells us in V20 that he has given us understanding. He has given us the ability to know him and to be in him, In other words, it is an invitation to a life of knowing Christ, granted to us, not by our own ability and our strength because we can never attained it by our own; if God did not chose to reveal it to us, we will never find it. We know him, and can know him because he chooses to reveal himself to us. He has given us the ability to know him, and to be in him who is true – the focus and the key for the rest of lives is to know Jesus in the present, the future and for eternity. The gospel is Jesus Christ, the bible is about Jesus Christ, salvation is in Jesus Christ, eternity is through Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life, even Jesus Christ.
Finally, keep yourself from idol. This may seem like a strange way to end John’s letter, but it fits in with the theme of a real, living relationship with God. The greatest enemy of this fellowship is going to be idolatry. The idea that God is not really your no 1 person in your life, there is actually someone else. Can we do some soul searching today? How do we view God in our relationship today? Do we have eternity in perspective? Do our view of heaven’s glory driving us harder? Are we going to divide our priorities in preparation for our eternity? May the Lord help us as we await his glorious coming – our eternity with Him forever!
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