WWUTT 441 Whoever Believes Jesus Is the Christ?

The Assurance That Jesus Is the Christ

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, meaning that you know that Jesus is the one who was prophesied in the Old Testament, who would come and take away the sin of the world when we understand the text.

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Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky. And greetings, everyone. We are up to chapter 5 in our study of the book of 1 John, verses 1 -5 is what I'll be reading today. The Apostle writes, Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of Him.

By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments, and His commandments are not burdensome. For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world, and this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith.

Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? So we come back to verse 1 here, where the Apostle says everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God.

Over the course of this letter, we've received various assurances that we might test ourselves and know that we have eternal life. In chapter 2, verse 23, John said, whoever confesses the Son has the Father also.

Chapter 3, verse 7, whoever practices righteousness is righteous as He is righteous. Chapter 3, verse 14, we know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brothers. Chapter 4, verse 2, every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God.

Chapter 4, verse 6, whoever knows God listens to us, meaning the Apostles. Whoever is not from God does not listen to the Apostles. Chapter 4, verse 15, whoever confesses Jesus is the Son of God. God abides in Him, and He in God.

And here we have another one of these assurances that are given in chapter 5, verse 1. Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ, that He is the Messiah, that He is the promised one, the one who was prophesied in the Old Testament, who was to come to take away the sin of the world.

Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. Let's go to John, chapter 4. We're in 1 John, chapter 5. Let's go to the Gospel of John, chapter 4. And this is the story where Jesus meets the Samaritan woman at the well.

Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John, although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only His disciples, He left Judea and departed again for Galilee, and He had to pass through Samaria.

So why did Jesus do that? Well, the Pharisees hated John the Baptist, and here Jesus has acquired even more disciples than John the Baptist had. So they've gotten even more hostile against Christ. And so to kind of give Him a break, He gets away from them for a little while, passes through Samaria, and that's a place where the Jews just did not go.

In fact, a real pious Jew would go around Samaria. They would take the long way around. But here it says that Jesus passed through Samaria. Jews and Samaritans, they just did not associate with one another.

But of course, we know that Jesus does not discriminate. So He came to a town of Samaria called Sychar near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was there, so Jesus, wearied as He was from His journey, was sitting beside the well, and it was about the sixth hour.

That would have been about noon in the day. A woman from Samaria came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, give me a drink. For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. The Samaritan woman said to Him, how is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?

For Jews had no dealings with Samaritans. And not only that, but Jesus is a man, and she is a woman, and women are looked down upon in this particular society, in this culture, and so she makes a reference to that.

You, a Jew, are asking a drink from me, a woman from Samaria. And Jesus answered her, if you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying to you, give me a drink, you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.

The woman said to Him, sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it Himself, as did His sons and His livestock.

So Jesus is saying that if we know who He is, if we know that He is the Son of God, we'll ask Him for a drink, and He'll give us living water. And what is that a reference to? It's a reference to the Holy Spirit, of our hearts being cleansed of our sins, the Holy Spirit dwelling within us, and whoever has the Spirit has been born of God.

And so just as Jesus is saying this to the Samaritan woman, so we need to understand this the same way. We know Him as the Christ. We know Him as the Son of God. We ask of Him for living water, and He will give it to us.

But the Samaritan woman does not understand what it is that He is saying. She thinks He's talking about literal water, so she makes a reference to the well that's right there next to them and saying, you know, are you trying to say that you're greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this well?

And Jesus said to her, verse 13, everyone who drinks of this water is going to be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I give him will become in him a spring of water, welling up to eternal life.

So the Samaritan woman is talking about worldly things, and Jesus is talking about spiritual things. And we've already read, even in 1 John, that a person who loves God will not love the things of this world, and whoever loves the things of the world has not been born of God.

And so Jesus, once again, giving a spiritual lesson here, and when this woman is born of the spirit, then she will understand the things that he is talking about. She will receive this living water in her spirit that will spring up into eternal life.

The woman said to him, though, verse 15, sir, give me this water so that I will not be thirsty or have to come up here to draw water. So see, she doesn't understand. She doesn't get that he's talking about a spiritual water in the Holy Spirit.

She still thinks he's talking about well water. So Jesus said to her, go call your husband and come here. And the woman answered him, I have no husband. And Jesus said to her, you are right in saying that I have no husband, for you have had five husbands and the one that you now have is not your husband.

So what you have said is quite true. He's showing this woman her sin, that she does not follow the law, and she has not been obedient to God. The woman said to him, sir, I perceive that you're a prophet.

Our fathers worshipped on this mountain. But you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship. So here she's poking at their differences because he's a Jew and she's a Samaritan. The mountain that they are on is Mount Gerizim, and that's the place where the Samaritan said that true worship was supposed to be performed.

The temple is built on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem. So here is one of the differences between Samaritans and Jews. It's not just an ethnic difference, although there was that difference because the Samaritans were kind of a hodgepodge of different ethnicities.

The Israelites that were exiled into that area intermarried with the Mesopotamians. And so they weren't pure blood Israelites anymore, hence why they are called Samaritans. And so there is that ethnic difference.

But then there is also the difference in beliefs. Samaritans had the Pentateuch, so the first five books of the Bible, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. But they did not accept the writings of the other prophets.

And so that comes into into what the Samaritan woman and Jesus are talking about here. She says that that you say that we're supposed to worship in Jerusalem. We say that we're supposed to worship here on this particular mountain.

And Jesus said to her in verse 21, Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the father. You worship what you do not know. We worship what we do know for salvation is from the Jews.

But the hour is coming and is now here when the true worshipers will worship the father in spirit and truth for the father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.

The things that Jesus has been saying to this woman are spiritual truths, and she doesn't understand that. And so Jesus is saying the hour has come when those who worship God will worship him in spirit and truth.

And this kind of worship is going to be going on everywhere. And of course, it's in reference to himself. He is the promised Messiah has come. And so, therefore, the worship that will be done will happen everywhere because it will be done in the spirit of God that dwells in the heart of every believer who follows Jesus.

The location of worship is now not going to matter because God dwells with us. He is tabernacling with us is what that word means. And so it's not at the temple. It's not on a mountain. That's not where God is worshiped.

It's everywhere by the spirit that dwells within every believer. So he says in verse 21, woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the father.

You worship what you do not know. We worship what we know for salvation is from the Jews. So he's saying to the woman, you don't you don't even really know this Messiah because you only accept the first five books that were written by the prophets of the book, the books of Moses.

That's all that you accept. And there is more that has been told in this story concerning the coming Messiah that you don't want to accept is true. And because you have not listened to those prophets that you don't understand that that Messiah has come and I am him.

That's that's essentially what he's saying to that woman. Of course, he hasn't identified himself as that yet, but that's coming up. So he says we worship what we know for salvation is from the Jews, as it has been prophesied by those prophets that the woman has not wanted to accept is true.

The Samaritans don't accept is true. It mentions that the savior is coming through the Jewish people, but the hour is coming and is now here when the true worshippers will worship the father in spirit and in truth.

So as he's presenting these things to the to the woman, she just continually argues with with the the the lessons that Jesus is giving to her and will not accept the things that he is saying to her. Verse 25, the woman said to him, I know that Messiah is coming.

He who is called Christ and when he comes, he will tell us all things. This is basically the woman saying, you know what? You believe what you want to believe is a Jew. I'll believe what I want to believe is a Samaritan.

When Christ shows up, he'll tell us which one of us is correct. This is this is almost a sort of a moral relativistic response that a lot of our culture has. You have your own truth. I have my own truth.

Which one of us can really know which one is is really true? You know, there is no such thing as truth, which, of course, that statement, if it's true, defeats itself. So so this is the way this woman is arguing with Jesus.

And then Jesus drops the hammer. So she's saying the Messiah is going to tell us who's right and who's wrong here. And Jesus says, verse 26, I who speak to you and he. I am the one that will tell you what whether what you believe is true or false and what I'm saying to you is you as a Samaritan do not believe the truth.

I am telling you what the truth is and the true worshippers of worshippers of God will worship the father in spirit and in truth. In verse 27, just then his disciples came back and they marveled that he was talking with a woman, but no one said, what do you seek or or why are you talking with her?

So the woman left her water jar and went away into town and said to the people, come see a man who told me everything that I have that I ever did. Can this be the Christ? And they went out of the town and were coming to him.

Meanwhile, the disciples were urging him, saying, Rabbi, eat. But he said to them, I have food to eat that you do not yet know about. So the disciples said to one another, has anyone brought him something to eat?

See, their response was just like the Samaritan woman's was when Jesus was talking about living water and she thought he was talking about well water. So here he says to his disciples, I have food that you do not know about.

And they think somebody has brought him something to eat when he's talking about spiritual food. Jesus said to them, my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. Do you not say there are yet four months and then comes the harvest?

Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes and see that the fields are white for harvest. Already the one who reaps is receiving wages and gathering fruit for eternal life so that sower and reaper may rejoice together.

For here the saying holds true. One sows and another reaps. I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored and you have entered into their labor. One of the things that we should recognize here is that the disciples just came back from the same town that the Samaritan woman ran to and told people that this this could be the Christ and brought a bunch of them back with her to be able to listen to Jesus's teaching.

How many people did the disciples bring back with them? None. And Jesus is saying, I'm saying to you that the the fields are ripe for harvest. My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.

That's essentially Jesus saying, is that your food? Is that what you want to have happen? And why is this woman bringing all of these people back to hear from me instead of you who came from that same town?

You are entering into a labor that has already been started. So the credit is not yours. It is not for yours to be able to claim. But that sower and reaper will receive the same reward from God. Verse 39, many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman's testimony.

He told me all that I ever did. So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them. And he stayed there two days and many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, it is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and we know that this is indeed the savior of the world.

Jesus revealed himself to this woman, I who speak to you, am he, I am that promised Messiah. She believed so much that she brought other people back with her. And then they believed by the testimony that was shared by Jesus Christ.

And so we come back again to first John, chapter five, verse one, everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God and everyone who loves the father loves whoever has been born of him.

That's where we're going to pick it up tomorrow. So we've really only covered half of this first verse. And then we're going to cover the second half of the verse tomorrow. Everyone who loves the father loves whoever has been born of him.

But we know that we have salvation. We know that we have eternal life in Jesus Christ, our Lord, when we believe that he is the Messiah and therefore we have been born of God. I go back again also to first John three, one, see what kind of love the father has given to us, that we should be called the children of God.

And so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God's children now and what we will be has not yet appeared, but we know that when he appears, we shall be like him because we shall see him as he is.

And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. We have been adopted into the family of God through the blood of Jesus Christ. And so, therefore, those who have been born of God loves the others who have been born of God.

And this brings us back to one of our other assurances that we read previously in chapter three, verse 14. We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death.

Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer. And you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. And what we read last week, closing up chapter four, we love because he first loved us, loved us.

If anyone says, I love God and hates his brother, he's a liar for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him, whoever loves God must also love his brother.

And so when we talk about spiritual things, we talk about those things that are not seen. Hebrews 11, 1, faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. But there will still be seen a manifest evidence of that faith that we have, the spirit that lives within us, this living water that has sprung up into eternal life.

Though we're talking about a spiritual thing that is not seen, there will still be an evidence of it that we will be able to see with our own eyes. If a person says that he loves God, there are things to be looking for.

In chapter one, we read that if we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus, his son, cleanses us from all sin.

So there should be an evidence in our lives that we truly love God, that we have the spirit dwelling within us when we have turned from sin and we obey Christ and love the people of God. Let us pray. Our wonderful God, we thank you so much for this word that gives us these assurances that we may know that we have eternal life.

Help us to turn from sin and no longer walk in these sinful ways. But when we ask forgiveness for our sins, we know that God is faithful and just to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. You are just to cleanse us because Christ has died for those sins, for the sins of his people, so that all who believe in him will have eternal life.

Teach us what it means to worship the father in spirit and in truth, for these are the worshipers that you desire. And we ask these things in Jesus name. Amen.

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