Aim a Little Higher

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Don Filcek, In the Light - 1 John; 1 John 2:12-17 Aim a Little Higher

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Welcome to Recast Church in Madawan, Michigan, where we are growing in faith, community, and service.
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This is a message from the series called, In the Light, out of the book of 1 John, by Pastor Don Filsack.
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If you'd like more information about our church, please visit us on the web at www .recastchurch
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.com Here's Pastor Don. We're going to jump into the introduction to the sermon this morning, and I've entitled my sermon,
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Aim a Little Higher. There's a metaphor. There's a metaphor for shooting that's used quite often, and it's been used down through the centuries.
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Now, if you think about it, there was a time, a time in history, when the next meal was pretty dependent upon the accuracy of the hunter, right?
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And so the quality of the meal, you know, it was whether it was going to be vegetable stew or not, was kind of the question of how accurate the hunter was.
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This is actually funny. This is a picture from the retreat that was just taken yesterday. There's some women that are up, my wife, one of them, up at Camp Barakel, and so this is a very recent picture just from yesterday.
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One of our ladies, I'm taking some shots there, and you can advance the slide to the next one. Title of the sermon was what?
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Aim a Little Higher. Do you think there's some advice for whoever was shooting those arrows? Well, they got the 15.
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Do you get 15 points for hitting the 15 in the upper right corner? I don't know. But yeah, so Aim a
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Little Higher. There's a lot more at stake with the message that I'm going to share this morning than just merely the quality of the stew, okay?
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So there's something that's a little bit more at stake. The word that is used in our text here, and it's used often in the
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Greek language for sin in the New Testament, is borrowed from the shooting range.
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So we're going to find that word. It really only occurs once, and it's not going to be a major part of the message, but verse 12 says,
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I'm writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven. The word sins there is a Greek word, hamartia, which is more than you needed to know this morning how to say that word, but it means to fall short, and it's one of the most common words for sin in the
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New Testament. It's a word picture for sin, and it's the notion that we are taking aim and shooting like an arrow, and our arrows keep falling short of the target.
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It's like we're not even hitting the target. Well, how many of you kind of are thinking, like, if my life is a picture of shooting,
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I'd like to know what the bullseye is. Does that make sense? If your life, if the actions and the behaviors and the things that you're doing are a picture of that, then what's the target?
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And there's all different kinds of targets we could borrow from the world around us, and to be honest, we do this quite frequently.
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Some of the times we're thinking primarily in terms of other people, so we make other people the target, and boy,
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I want to be like him, I want to be like her, or more often than not, I don't want to be like that,
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I don't want to be like them, I want to be better than them, and so we make that the bullseye. You understand what
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I'm talking about? I think we've all experienced that to some degree, and even to the effect of saying, I'm doing okay because I'm not missing as bad as they are.
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They're falling super short, I'm only falling five feet short, and so I'm doing okay.
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But what is the bullseye in the Christian life? It is the holiness of God, it is
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Christ -likeness. And so in that sense, is there a sense in which all of a sudden that snaps into focus, like how we fall short on a regular basis.
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We pull back the arrow with the behaviors, the actions of our lives, pull it back, and we fall short, and that's the picture of sin.
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If you're observing me shoot, you're watching me, I'm sighting in my bow. How many of you are hunters in the room or have a hunter in your family?
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And so some of you are sighting in your bows. I think, isn't there a doe season right now? It's already on, and probably there's some people that are missing this morning because doe season is on and you can hunt with a bow right now.
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People have recently been sighting in, and so you're out there, you're sighting in, I'm sighting in, and I am consistently falling short of the target, but I'm just kind of like okay with that.
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I'm like, yeah, well, that's the way I roll. Just a little short every time I pull back the arrow. Now, wouldn't the loving, kind thing to do if you were there, say, training your son or with a friend, and they keep shooting shy, that you might say something like, aim a little higher?
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Like, wouldn't that be kind of the kind thing to do when you see someone consistently shooting short?
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John is going to do just that for us this morning. He's going to encourage us and challenge us to aim a little higher towards the will of God.
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He's going to set before us that which is true of all believers. He's going to seek to encourage us.
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Wherever we're at with our walk with God, he's going to talk to those who are more mature. He's going to talk to those who are newer in the faith and haven't grown much yet.
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And then he's going to issue a challenge for us to avoid settling for short -sighted living, that is, short -sighted living in a world that is fading away, making that our target instead of the will of God.
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John calls us all this morning, in essence, to aim a little higher. So I want you to open to 1
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John 2, verses 12 through 17.
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And you'll find that on page 877 in the Bible in the seat back in front of you. So if you open to 877, and then it's going to bleed over just a little bit into 878 there, just a few words over there.
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But follow along. And if you don't own a Bible, I would encourage you to just take that one with you. We do desire for everybody to have a copy of the word of God as we seek to figure out what
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John is telling us to do here in aiming a little higher. So follow along as I read 12 through 17 of 1
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John 2. I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for His name's sake.
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I am writing to you, fathers, because you know Him who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one.
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I write to you, children, because you know the Father. I write to you, fathers, because you know Him who is from the beginning.
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I write to you, young men, because you are strong and the word of God abides in you and you have overcome the evil one.
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Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
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For all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions is not from the
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Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.
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Let's pray as the band comes to lead us in worship this morning. Father, I rejoice in this call to us.
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There's some depth of encouragement in this passage, some things that are being stated to be true that we have come to know you,
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Father, that our sins are forgiven, some really super awesome things that are giving us a foundation and a springboard to base our lives and ultimately to aim higher.
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And, Father, I pray that as we have an opportunity to worship you that we would lift our eyes up from the muck and the mire and the things that have gone on this week that would seek to push us away from you,
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Father, from the world system of desire of the flesh and desire of the eyes and pride of life,
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Father, those things that would seek to undo us and shake us free from you.
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But, Father, I pray that you would help us to hold fast and to raise our eyes up from the things around us that would so easily entangle us and raise our eyes up to see the cross, the beautiful, amazing salvation that we have in you.
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And, Father, that we would worship you this morning in spirit and in truth with these songs that have been selected, Father, that they would be more, again, an exercise of our hearts in worship and not just merely an exercise of our vocal cords in trying to sing beautifully but singing with hearts, totally recognizing who you are and rejoicing in you.
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I ask this in Jesus' name. Thanks a lot to the band for leading us this morning.
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Just that reminder that we stand forgiven at the cross, that's worth the price of admission right there.
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That was a joke. There wasn't really an admission price. I just said that.
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But make sure you have your Bibles open. I recognize it kind of filled in since I last stood up here.
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So some of you maybe didn't hear the passage or the text, but we're in 1 John 2, 12 through 17, and the title of the message is
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Aim a Little Higher. So have your Bibles open in front of you is beneficial. That's page 877 in that seat -back
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Bible if you need help getting there. But let me start off by setting the logical flow of the letter of 1
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John. I recognize that not all of you have been here so far during this, so just to kind of catch you up on John's discussion so far with his church.
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Now many believe that he was probably writing this to the church in Ephesus. It's a real church that he has in mind.
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We're unsure of what that church was, but historians and church tradition leads us to believe that it was
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Ephesus that he had visited. He had spent some time there, and now he's departed, and he's hearing some news of what's going on there, and he's writing back to them.
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And so there's some real -world application to the things that he's saying here. But he started off by telling us that Jesus is awesome, right?
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Jesus is awesome, and he is the message from God that we should be proclaiming. He said,
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I was an eyewitness to the word of life coming in flesh, the one, the messenger, the one who has made manifest and shows us who the
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Father is. And I saw him, and it is him that we proclaim. He is the message that we proclaim.
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Then he went on to explain that the message that he heard from Jesus, so he had heard from him, he had seen him, he had touched him, he had spent time with him and observed his life, and he says that the message that he had heard was that God is light, and sinful people, and as sinful people, we should come into the light by confessing our sins and receive cleansing and forgiveness.
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And then last week he explained that Jesus is our advocate and our propitiation, a big word that just means the turning away of the wrath of God from us.
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And so the wrath of God was just and reasonable and right, that God would be upset and angry with human rebellion, and that was
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Jesus took that wrath for us on the cross. And those who are truly with Jesus, then we found out last week, are going to be growing in obedience and love for others, they are going to love fellow
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Christians, they are going to be walking as Christ walked, they are going to be keeping his commands, keeping his word.
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So the last couple of weeks have been a little bit heavy, would you guys agree with me? It's felt heavy to me, has it felt heavy to you? Sometimes I don't know how it strikes you or how it hits you, but it's been a little bit heavy.
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I think it ought to be a little bit heavy, because John has been addressing sin to us as followers of Christ, and that ought to, in some sense,
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I don't think that's something we should take lightly, we shouldn't be able to sit around and talk about sin and be like, oh yeah, well that's just sin, it is what it is.
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I believe it is a little bit heavy. But I believe that John knows that in the context of 1
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John and in his writing, he's ready to give us a little bit of a break, he's ready to give us a little bit of encouragement.
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So verses 12 through 14 break into a section of explaining to us what is true of believers in the church, what is true of us.
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It's as if, certainly he's writing to a specific church in mind, and yet as it's the Holy Spirit revealing this to him, this applies to us.
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I mean, it's as if the Holy Spirit is writing this to Recash Church in a sense,
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I mean, that it is available to us, that it is there for encouragement and for edification and for building us up, and so we need to take it that way.
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And John is going to encourage them and us by two statements about three categories of people. And you can go ahead and put that slide up.
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First he addresses to us little children, then he's going to address fathers, and then he's going to address young men.
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Now we already know that in the book of 1 John, already he's addressed his entire church, and what term has he used of these three, do you recognize any of those?
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He's called his entire church little children already, and he's going to a couple more times in the book of 1
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John. So he uses this term for the entire church. Now I had mentioned last week that if I were to stand up and go, oh, my little children, oh, you precious, it would come across in our culture as fairly condescending, right?
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It'd just be like, who does he think he is? Well, this title that he's giving to his church was an endearing term.
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It was like, I care for you, I love you, I want what's best for you, and I'm trying to look out for you and I'm trying to help you grow.
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Okay, so it's that kind of term, but it also indicates that he took some level of responsibility for his congregation.
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He was taking a level of responsibility in that he saw it as his responsibility and duty to help raise them up into Christ, and that's one of the responsibilities of elders and pastors.
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That's one of the things that the leadership of the church takes seriously is this calling to lead and direct, and it's one of the things that's constantly in my mind is that responsibility.
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But I don't think this is a term of condescension. It does indicate the responsibility that John felt to those he is writing to.
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So what he says to the little children is meant for the entire church. It's not as though he's writing this and saying, well, could you just take this in Ephesus, could you take this down to the nursery because I wanted to talk to the little children for a minute.
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How many of you think this is a little bit heavy for little children? Do you see that what I'm trying to indicate to you is that this is a metaphor.
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He's using a metaphor for his church, and I believe that all three of these statements, little children, fathers, and young men, are metaphors.
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He's not literally saying, okay, I want everybody else to tune out. By the way, you're going to notice a lack of,
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I mean, there's not really women mentioned in there, so all of you can just kind of sit back and jab your husband with your elbow if you want while you're here.
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Or what about single ladies, are they mentioned in there? Or what about middle -aged men?
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Okay, I follow through the cracks and so good, I don't have to worry about any of this or whatever. Are you getting what I'm saying? It's a metaphor that he's using here to break the church up into chunks.
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So when he speaks to little children here, and he's going to provide some encouragement to the little children, he's speaking to everyone.
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And when he's going to speak to fathers, he's going to be speaking to those who are more mature in the faith.
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They've been kicking it with Jesus for a while. They've been around with him. They've been hanging out with Jesus for a longer duration of time.
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Now that doesn't mean age, although sometimes it is, right? I mean, it makes sense that you've had more time to be with Jesus if you're older, and you came to faith in Christ younger.
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But how many of you know that to be spiritually mature, how many of you have met a young man or a young woman who is mature beyond their years in Christ?
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Have you encountered that? Where you're like, wow, 20 -something and putting me to shame? Okay. Like they have redeemed the time for Christ.
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They have been focused and purposeful in their growth in Christ. And it's like, wow, that's impressive.
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And then I think we've all experienced like maybe we just need to look no further than ourselves where you know somebody who ought to be further along in their spiritual walk than they are.
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Probably best for you to think of yourself in that context. But in all honesty, I mean, we could get to the point where we're 60, 70, 80 years old and go, you know what,
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I have not redeemed the time. I have been walking with Christ for 40, 50 years, and I haven't grown deeper in the things that I know
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I need to. So all that I'm saying is that this isn't necessarily age -related, but it's maturity -related in what he is trying to communicate to everyone.
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And he's, by the way, there's something that's unique here, is that he is not going to ask, he's not going to take those who are more mature and ask you to categorize yourself right now.
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He's not going to say, now you're supposed to be sitting there thinking, which of these encouragements is for me? Because he's going to say it to all of us.
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And there's something beautiful about that because he's going to get together with the church and say, hey church, all of you little children, listen, here's some encouragement for you.
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And then he's going to break that group down and say, now those of you in the group that are more mature, here's some encouragement for you, but guess who gets to listen into that?
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All of us. And then he's going to say, those of you who are younger in the faith and are newer, here's some things for you to take encouragement on.
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But we all get to listen in, and there's a beauty. Are you getting what I'm saying? We all get to listen in to the entire thing, and there's benefit in that.
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And so to his entire church, he reminds them of two things, and you can advance the slide there. He reminds them that, number one, their sins have been forgiven for his namesake.
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All of you, think this through. If you are in Christ and you are the true church, then your sins have been forgiven for his namesake.
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And two, you know the Father. Two things that John wants to communicate.
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Now there's a lot of things that John could say in an attempt to lift the faces of those who are troubled by their sins.
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Is there a lot of different things he could zero in on? Can you think of some encouragement he could provide to people who are feeling like, boy, you've just been talking with me about sin.
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He's just taking us through the ringer, telling us in no uncertain terms, remember, hey, everybody, church, you all have sin.
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And if you say you don't have sin, then you're lying. Oh, thanks, John. Appreciate that.
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I needed your help in saying that to me. And then he goes on to say earlier that your obedience is somehow tied to the process of assurance of your salvation.
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So it kind of left a little bit of a conundrum there. And John doesn't resolve the conundrum for us.
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And so you're left kind of going, now, wait a minute. You've just said we all sin. And yet you've also told us that somehow obedience to the law or keeping the law, keeping the commands is a way of telling that you're in with Christ.
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But I don't always keep the commands. And you've just gotten done saying I don't always keep the commands. So he leaves this tension in us.
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And so he didn't resolve that by telling us how much. And some of you might have left last week with a little bit of tension.
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And I can't, by the way, I can't bring myself to answer things that John doesn't. I don't want to resolve tensions that he leaves hanging.
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If he left them hanging, then he wanted to leave them hanging. And I have to. There are times when
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I feel compelled to preach to you, and you're going to feel like I left you hanging. Because the
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Spirit hasn't revealed a way for me to close the loose ends for you. Some of you would just love it if I could close a lot of loose ends for you and just tie it up and sew it up really nice and neat.
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But John refused to. He didn't tell us, did anybody walk out of here last week saying, how much must
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I love my brothers and sisters in Christ to know that I'm in? How much? Just tell me, if you could give me a line in the sand and say, if you do this, then you're all in.
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Anybody likes that kind of defined black and white thinking? Am I the only one?
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Okay, a few more hands went up. Let me ask that question again. Is there anybody here who likes things defined for you so that you know in or out?
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It's just kind of easier that way. He didn't tell us how much you have to love. He didn't tell us how much you have to obey to have assurance.
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He didn't tell us how much you must look like Jesus to feel secure in your faith. He just said, those things need to be in your life.
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You need to take a measurement and say, do I have love for my brothers and sisters in Christ? Am I growing in Christ likeness?
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Do I have a zeal for the word of God and for pleasing him, matching his desires? Do I want that?
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So when he comes in with the reminder that our sins are forgiven, that is supposed to bring a smile back to our faces.
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Oh, that's right. Okay, all of this, am I in, am I out? Your sins have been forgiven.
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If you are in Christ, they are done away with. He's seeking to restore joy in us.
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And I want to suggest to you that part of aiming higher in the Christian life is shooting for joy, not just obedience.
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Aiming for joy. Shooting for celebration and not self -loathing. Our sins have been forgiven for his name's sake, according to the text.
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And it's interesting, I do not think for a second that, I think absolutely that John was thinking the name of Jesus Christ when he penned this phrase, for his name's sake.
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Your sins are forgiven for his name. What does the name Jesus Christ mean? Jesus Christ, the name, the phrase,
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Jesus Christ is the gospel. Did you know that? If you translate the word
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Jesus and the word Christ, Christ means the anointed one of God. Jesus means who takes away sins.
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So what do you have when you say Jesus Christ? You are saying the anointed one of God who takes away our sins.
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That's the gospel, the gospel is in his name. So that we are forgiven for his name's sake ties right in with the actual meaning of the name of Jesus.
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It's like his name is fulfilled in the gospel. The one who takes away, the anointed one of God, who takes away our sins.
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And our sins have been forgiven for his name's sake.
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John is confident that his readers have come to know the Father. That's an amazing thing when we really break it down.
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Jesus reveals the Father to us, and we know Jesus, and if we know Jesus, then we know the
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Father. In no uncertain terms, John is here telling us that the Christian faith is one of relationship and not merely religious duty or religious action.
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Those of you, all of you little children, those of you who are in Christ, John is writing and saying, you have come to know, is that a relational word?
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To know someone? You have come into a relationship with the
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Father. Now, people will tell you, and I think it's kind of popular on the internet, and some young churches and young pastors are kind of going around saying, it's not about religion, it's not about religion, it's not about religion.
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And I'm one of them. You're going to hear me say that a lot. It is not about religion. If you define religion as a man -made way of appeasing
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God or trying to accomplish His will and make it so that He likes you better, that is not the
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Christian message. That is not the message of this book. The message of this book is that you couldn't appease
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Him. Religion couldn't accomplish it. And what you needed was you needed a Savior and you needed a relationship with God through His Son, Jesus Christ.
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At the heart of our faith is a relationship of knowing the God of the universe.
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God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, in a reconciled relationship with you and me.
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That's an awesome thing. If you can wrap your mind around the idea that the one who made it all, the one who sustains it all, is the one who wants a relationship with you and me and has set forth the plan to reconcile us to Him through His Son, it's an amazing, glorious thing.
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I can't imagine anything more amazing than that. If you know Jesus, then you have come to know the
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Father, the Creator of all. But now to those more mature in the faith,
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John says, you know or you have come to know Jesus who is from the beginning.
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You can go ahead and bring that next one up. Fathers, you have come to know
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Jesus. Fathers, you have come to know Jesus. Do you see that in the text that He actually says it twice?
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Verse 13, beginning, I am writing to you, fathers, because you know Him who is from the beginning. Verse 14,
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I write to you, fathers, because you know Him who is from the beginning. Is He a broken record? Is He skipping? What's going on here?
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Well, first let me just start off by saying the phrase have come to know implies a deeper time -tested growth in the
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Greek language. It's not just, how many of you would say, I've come to know Jesus? Just raise your hand if you'd testify.
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I've come to know Jesus. But this is a way of saying in Greek, I have come to know
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Him in a further down the road kind of way. There's been an initial introduction, and most of us who raised our hand, we are acknowledging that I've been introduced to Jesus.
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But have you come to know Him? Have you been using the time in your life since you came to first meet
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Him to get to know Him? How many of you know the difference between an acquaintance and a friend? It's a good distinction.
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You need to know that. If you don't know the difference, then there's going to be a life issue for you.
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But we know the difference. I've met them once. Yeah, I shook hands with them at a party one time or something or whatever, versus I've come to know them.
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And that's what the Greek implies here is that I've got an ongoing friendship and relationship with Jesus.
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It's a relationship. It's not just academic study. It's not that these who are more mature have necessarily read more and therefore have more academic head knowledge of Him, but they've experienced life with Him.
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John is basically commending them for growth in the knowledge and the relationship with Him who is from the beginning, who throughout the book of 1
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John has always been Jesus. John states this twice, as I mentioned, verses 13 and 14.
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And I believe he does so to emphasize the centrality of growth in Jesus. It's not like he's stuttering.
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It's not like he's skipping. He's like, oh, I forgot I said that in 13, so I said it in 14 again.
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But it is very, very central. By commending the more mature in a letter to the entire church, he shows their growth as something to strive for.
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So it's not that I want you to sit here and that the logical outflow of this message right now is for you to sit there and go, am
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I mature or am I not mature? The thing is, how well do I know Jesus and am I buying back the time to grow in relationship with Him?
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Now, granted, there are people in this church who are at various stages of spiritual maturity, and we know that. And so our tendency is going to be to want to define ourselves, and that's not an altogether bad thing to be introspective, but ultimately, all of us need to ask ourselves, it's not about crossing a line.
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Spiritual maturity is not about a time when I go, okay, now I know Jesus and I'm good. Every single person in growth, in faith, community, and service is the goal here at Recast Church.
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That's our stated growth map, that wherever you come to us from, that there is something you can be growing in.
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You can be growing in faith, growing in community, growing in service, expanding those things out. It's actually hard to diagram, and Kyle and I have talked about that before.
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How do we diagram our growth map here? Some churches have the bases, the ball diamond, and you grow in faith first, and then you grow in community, and then you grow in service, and now you've got home.
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But the problem is, it's a cycle where I want everybody, I can't even visualize that. I want first base to be growing.
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I want second base to be growing. I want third base to be growing, and I want us all to be on all three at the same time.
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So that linear progression, I mean, everybody wants linear progression, right? That's the way the modern mind thinks, and it's the way the
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American mind thinks is, well, what's my next step? Well, your next step is, listen to the
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Spirit and have Him tell you what that next step is, but it's gonna be pertaining to one of those three areas, faith, community, or service, and constantly ever, those are integrated, right?
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There's overlap between them, and they're constantly to be growing in our lives. That was a little bit extra there.
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John is saying here in our text, you want to grow? Those of you who are just kind of sensing, maybe I'm a little bit younger in my faith, maybe some of you in this room,
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I recognize, I haven't been with Christ for very long. You've given your life to Him within the last year or two.
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And so John is saying, you want to grow into a mature believer? Grow in your relationship to Jesus Christ.
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Grow in your knowledge of Jesus Christ. There are no shortcuts to maturity.
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There's no seven -step program. There's no pill you can take. But the hard work of a sometimes hard -to -define relationship with Jesus Christ is the answer.
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That's the pathway forward. And I say that because it is. If you are in a relationship with Jesus Christ, it's much like a relationship that you have with other people in your life.
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How many of you know that relationships get messy? They get difficult to define. And there's ins and outs of relationship, right?
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And so that's the nature. And when I say a difficult -to -define relationship, all of us, I think there's a part of each one of us that likes things well -defined.
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Just give me a list. Say to my wife, just give me a list of when to get you flowers and I'll buy them for you. Could you select them maybe?
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You could just pick them out online and I'll pay for them or something. How many of you know that doesn't work? It doesn't work that way.
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The women are like, dude, for real? That's not the way it works, but relationships can get kind of confusing and difficult and it's like that with God, right?
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Sometimes I put my head on the pillow at night, close my eyes and pray and talk with God and I'm like, don't feel really close to you tonight.
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I don't feel like I walked with you very well today. How are we? Are we kind of on the outs right now?
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Are we okay? Are you relating with what I'm talking about? But that's the pathway forward is a relationship where you're actually putting your head on the pillow and praying and talking with him through it.
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That's part of the relationship. That's what's growing you. That's what's building you. Prayer, spending time in his word to know what delights him.
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Not spending time in the word just because you got a checkbox and got to get through the Bible in a year. I'd actually rather you get a little bit behind in your
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Bible reading but spend some time getting to know God, right? And I mean, you're getting to know him through there but don't get so wrapped up in this that boy,
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I just have to read this next day and you're not connecting with him through that because you're so far behind that you're trying to get caught up and I think we've all been there or at least a lot of us have been there.
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Go ahead and spend time getting to know him. Walk with him. Interesting thing is here in the text, he will not commend those who are spiritually mature for two things he refuses to.
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He says, I'm not gonna pick two because there's one thing that matters most. It is your connection with Jesus Christ.
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That's what matters most and the more mature in the church that John is writing to, we're getting that and he was satisfied and happy with that and he said, just roll with that.
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I commend you because you have come to know Jesus and you are walking in relationship with him.
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And now he goes on to give encouragement to those newer in their faith. So that kind of the last subset here. He repeats to them twice that they have overcome the evil one.
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He says that twice and then he tacks on at the end. I think it's at the end of verse, is it 14? Yeah. He tacks on.
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You have overcome the evil one and you are strong and the word of God abides. The word abides in you.
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Is it word of God? Yeah, word of God abides in you there. Those who have come to faith recently are often still very close to the world.
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You know what I'm talking about? I mean they're still, I mean they don't have to go far back in their past to connect with the darkness, right?
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They don't have to go very far back in their past to kind of recognize and see sin for exactly what it is.
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They still have a lot of associations and connections in the world of darkness and in worldliness.
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The worldliness that John is about to address. They're not too far removed from that darkness. And so John reminds these young Christians that the power of the evil one is defeated in their lives.
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Can you see why that might apply to a new believer in a fresh way? Somebody who's younger in the faith and hasn't been connected with Jesus for very long and he's like,
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I just want to remind you of something. The enemy has been defeated in your life. Who's the evil one, by the way? It's an actual masculine male
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Greek word here. Any guesses of who the evil one is? Satan, yep.
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A couple people were really celebrating because they got that one right. Awesome. Really good, good job.
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Yep, the evil one is Satan. And John reminds them, reminds these young Christians that the power of Satan is defeated and it's by their faith that they've overcome.
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You kind of say, how have they overcome? How have they defeated the evil one? Didn't Jesus defeat the evil one?
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And what's that about? Well, John is going to later state directly in 1 John 4 -5, and Gavin, if you can throw that verse up there for everybody to see so people don't need to turn there.
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1 John 4 -5, of course we're going to get there eventually in the text and I'm going to preach on this later.
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But this is a little bit of a different context. He's talking about the world in 1
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John 5, which he's going to talk about here in just a minute. But we're talking about the defeat of Satan, but I think the two match up pretty well.
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For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world.
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What? Our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Except the one who believes that Jesus is the
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Son of God. On what basis do we defeat the evil one? On what basis do we overcome the world?
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Faith in Jesus. Faith in Jesus is that which overcomes. And so it's by faith, again growing in faith, that we are basically taking back ground that belonged to Satan.
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So the young in faith are a great reminder to the rest of the church, right? That the power of Satan has been thrown down by the cross.
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And I'd suggest to you that one of the highlights of my experience as a pastor has been seeing new believers whose lives have demonstrated that the power of Satan has been defeated.
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It's been a glorious thing. I want to just tell you guys that, you know, I'm 40. So get that out on the table.
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And that's all I want to do. I'm 40, and the church has been going for four and a half years.
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And I would tell you that I have seen the glory of God and the power of God to overcome evil more in the last four and a half years here at Recast than I've experienced in the rest of my life.
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I mean, that's to the glory of God. That's not to the glory of the leadership of this church. That's not even to your glory.
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It's just the power of the Holy Spirit working in people's lives to transform and change and to pull people out of the darkness into the light, exposing their sin, walking in the light, and then confessing those things and moving on in their life and growth.
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And it's been a glorious and a beautiful thing. And how many of you are encouraged by new believers? Are you encouraged when you see somebody whose life has just been pulled out of the muck and the mire and they are walking in it?
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Now, I'm just as delighted when I see a follower of Jesus Christ who's been established for a while begin to really click in their relationship with God and begin to really grow.
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And that's a beautiful thing, too. And that's what John is getting at here. He's saying, take delight in those who you see getting it and connecting with Jesus, those that are more mature.
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And we know that they're here in the church. I mean, there are some of you who are really getting it and you're connected, and that's regardless of age.
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There are some of you that are young that are really redeeming the time in relationship and in prayer and in the
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Word. And then there are some who are just fresh and new and they're a reminder to us of the power of God over evil.
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Those older in the faith gain great encouragement by those who are new in the faith. We watch the strength of God displayed in new believers.
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We see the Word living through them as they overcome, and it's an awesome thing to behold. It's glorious.
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So after a couple of weeks of serious talk about the tension of sin, John encourages us to aim a little higher by reflecting on the amazing reality of the
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Christian life. For all Christians, we need to remember our sins have been forgiven and we now know the
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Father. For those mature in their faith, they have grown in knowing
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Jesus as an example to us all. For those new in their faith, they have overcome the enemy, they are strong, and the living
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Word is abiding in them. And having given us encouragement, now John encourages us once again to aim higher.
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He's saying, aim high for joy, but now there's something else that he wants us to aim high in as followers of Jesus.
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We've just been told what a great foundation we have in our faith, what a great ground we are standing on, but from that ground we are to spring forward in this next command that John gives us, and it's a very direct command.
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He says, do not love the world or the things in the world. And some of us, it just feels like the wind gets knocked out of us when we read that.
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We recognize where our lives are at, and immediately we jump to conclusions about that, and we immediately feel a little bit discouraged when we hear that.
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Do not love the world or the things of the world. If you love the world, John says,
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God's love isn't really in you. Anybody concerned? All of a sudden? Don, can we move on and explain this, and can you hurry up and explain this away for just a minute, because we're
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Americans, and there's a lot of things I love about this world. I'd be satisfied with a really long life, like 300 or 400 years.
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Just give me some years here, and some of you are like, what? No, not 300 or 400 years, unless I could stay healthy and in a good mind, and then that would be kind of cool.
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That would be kind of cool, wouldn't it? Anyways. I'm having a conversation with myself up here for a second.
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You guys just listen in. This command requires a lot of explanation.
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A significant level of explanation, because the same guy who just wrote this to us, do not love the world or the things in the world, is the same guy who wrote
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John 3 .16, which says what? God loved the world this way. He gave his only unique son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish, but will have life eternal.
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Life everlasting. Eternal life. God, wait, wait, you're going to tell me,
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God loves the world, and is going to turn around and tell us to not love the world? Anybody see a little bit of a conflict there?
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A little bit of a conundrum that we need to explain? Either John means two different things by the word world, or he means something different about the word love.
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Because God loved the world, and are we not supposed to be seeking to be like God, and to love the things that God loves, and to hate the things that God hates?
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If God loved the world so much that he surrendered and sacrificed for it, then shouldn't we love the world too?
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Are you getting at what I'm saying by this? Anybody? Okay, so I'm connected with you on that. I think the solution here is to better understand the word world in this text.
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To understand what it is. Now we could get into the Greek and define the word cosmos, which is the word that's used here.
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We get cosmos from it. We could define that and break that down and figure out what does the Greek word mean.
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But why do that when the next two verses in John are going to just explain to us exactly what it is that he doesn't want us to love?
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So often, we miss the forest for the trees, we miss the context, and we take one verse and we read it and we go, oh,
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I know what that means. So it says, we're not to love the world or the things in the world, and we go,
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I know what the things of the world are. Cars, computers, iPads, the new iPhone 5S and 5C, and some people are buying both, you know.
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And you go, I know what that is. When it says things of the world,
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I got that. I figured that out. So we think we know it.
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That's not it. It's not the stuff that is the problem. John defines all that is in the world for us in verse 16.
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Go ahead and look at verse 16. He's going to tell us what to not love here. And he's not going to give us a specific listing of things, but he says, for all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and pride and possessions is not from the
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Father, but is from the world. The desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life, or pride of possessions, as the
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ESV has it. These things are all of the world and are not of the Father. They are things that are evil and dark.
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And these are things that he wants us to stop loving. Desires of the flesh, desires of the eyes, and pride of life, as I'm going to choose to call it.
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I like that translation better because it's actually the word bios in Greek, which means biology.
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It's the word for life. So pride of life. So we ought to define these things that we are being told not to love, but let me just start off by saying that all of these things represent a picture of a world system that is actually opposed to the will of God, that is opposed to the way.
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And I want to suggest to you that it's not like it's not like there's one conglomeration of like, say there's like a committee of seven people who get together globally and decide how the world is going to go.
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What direction is American culture going to go this next year? And so they pick and choose, you know, the marketing schemes and the plans and all of that stuff.
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Are you getting what I'm saying? When we talk about a world system, how many of you know that what we're talking about is just the way that humanity rolls together in mass in opposition to God.
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So have you ever noticed that there's some themes to our opposition to God that cross cultures? John is going to identify some of those things.
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These things are not confined, although America is doing a work in perfecting these sinful things and is exporting them to others.
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They already have it there. We don't have the corner on the market of these things. But are you getting what
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I'm saying by it being a system? It's not like somebody in a committee meeting is like planning and plotting the world's system against Christianity.
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Are you getting what I'm saying? It's the way that humanity rolls against God. And it's, I mean, that John is able to identify these three things that sound like he has walked in our shoes, sound like he has lived in America, are indicators that we didn't start this thing.
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This thing has been going, and it's a system that's perpetuated generation to generation. Things like the desire of the flesh.
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What is the desire of the flesh? Well, it's often described as the voracious sinful appetite for more and more and more.
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Anybody relate to that? Anybody kind of go, that strikes kind of close to home, John. It is a dissatisfaction with what we have.
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It is a hunger to always have more and more and more. It's not so much the picture of a starving person who is hungry for food, but it's the picture of a glutted person going back to the buffet for more.
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Are you getting what I'm saying? That's the picture of this desire of the flesh. It is not appetite, but it is out -of -control appetite.
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It is an appetite that is never satisfied, never happy with what it has, always wanting more.
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The human appetite for material wealth, for pleasure, for entertainment, for fame is never satisfied.
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It is not, it's like we can get and get and get and obtain and obtain and obtain, and it's never enough.
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Well, there's a reason for that. We have an eternal longing that God has placed inside of us. And to seek fulfillment of the eternal in this temporary, finite place is the definition of futility.
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The notion that that which is in us and meant for God would be satisfied by the temporary things of material possessions is crazy.
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And yet all of us to some degree have bought into that system, right? It's in us from birth.
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Did your parents sit down and train you to say, want, want, want, when you are in the checkout line?
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No, they tried to get it out of you, right? And yet, it's still there.
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And we'd like to think we've grown up from the time that we were four years old, tugging on our mom, saying, buy me that, buy me that.
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But have we? The desires of the flesh, this voracious appetite.
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The second system in the world that is against us is the desires of the eyes. It refines the more broad category of this general desire of the flesh, and it brings it down a little bit to that which we can take in with our eyes, and we all know what it means to sin and be enticed by our eyes, whether that's coveting or lust or greed.
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The way of the world's system is to feed lust and greed. Have you noticed that? You can be relatively passive in this area of your life, and you are going to receive temptation to lust and greed.
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And you can be fairly passive in that and still encounter temptations on a regular basis, whether that's commercials on TV, or you could sell your
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TV and still be enticed by billboards or by things that other people say to you. There is a system that is out there that is all about the visual that is trying to communicate to us, and I think that the evil one is partly behind that, and there is this system of fallen humanity that is in opposition to God.
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But most commercials, I mean, commercials are really powerful visually, aren't they?
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They're powerful auditorily. Have you noticed how the volume goes up at a commercial break?
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Have you noticed that? So they're very powerful, but they're very visual. And most commercials visually promise something that's very appealing to you if you buy their product.
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You will look like this, you will get somebody who looks like this, you will have fun that looks like this, you know, if you buy our deodorant.
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If you buy our beer. If you buy our cat food. I mean, isn't it almost that bizarre that it's like, you're going to have the high life, everything's going to be super awesome in your life if you buy our cat food.
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It's going to be like, yeah! I mean, you guys can all smell that deodorant, right? You smell that?
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I mean, isn't that just, you know, you guys are all like, I want to party with Don because his deodorant is super cool.
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I think it's failing right now. But do you think through these things?
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Are you attentive to what you're taking in? And I think all of us, I think this way, I'm above the commercials.
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I can see through their plots and their schemes and I know what they're trying to do. It doesn't affect me.
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And the next thing I know, I'm driving down and I've got a Whopper in my hand and I'm like, where did that come from? You know?
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I deserved a break today. I mean, is it affecting us?
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It does. It really does. It's having an impact. And did you know that they're, now on that front, are there committees?
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Are there people in boardrooms figuring out what you will and won't do and what will and won't sell to you?
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And they're figuring it out. And there is a system, but they are just tying into an ancient system of fallenness.
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Isn't it? They're tying into the planned schemes of Satan as well as this world system that says,
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I've got this voracious appetite that I just want more and more. And they've got something going. Apple's figured it out. Apple's figured out how to entice us every six months to a year to buy a new product.
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Right? And they've got it figured out to like, down to like, boy, this is pushing it. If we introduce a new product a month earlier, people are going to be like, too tied to the amount of money they spent on the last one, but boy, if we get it a month and a half later, boom, we're going to get everybody to ditch their old product and come over to ours.
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Right? Or whatever. And so they've got people in committees just working full time figuring that out.
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The desire of the eyes. And then the pride of life is a byproduct of fulfilling the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes.
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So a byproduct. If you're buying into this and you're loving this world system and you're loving the desires of the flesh and you're fulfilling the desires of the eyes and you're giving yourselves over to the coveting and the lust and greed for more and more, then the natural byproduct of that is a pride of life or a pride of possessions.
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Pride of life is what happens when we try to make it look like we have it all. Okay? There's a sense of pride about our possessions or the things that we have or a pride about our lives that's kind of like,
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I am self -sufficient. Pride of life is a way of acting self -sufficient, self -made, fully competent, and at its ugliest, it looks like an outright statement.
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I don't need you, God. I have all of this figured out. I've got all the stuff that I need.
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I mean, in all honesty, in America, is it true that most of us have everything that we need? Almost everybody in this room has everything that they need and a significant level of your want list.
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Right? And then sometimes we're out looking for things to add to the want list. We're browsing the internet or we're looking for things to add to it or we're window shopping or whatever.
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So we look at it and we kind of go, do we need God? Pride of life.
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I refer to this, by the way, as acting. I said we act like we have it all because, go back and see point one, the desires of the flesh.
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There's a desire for more. There's still a desire for more. I also think that only the most narcissistic minority of people, almost kind of with a psychosis on the planet, who honestly believe that they have it all and would be like,
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I've got everything here. Most people are acting like they have it all and they know they are acting like they have it all.
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Most people, when push comes to shove, really know that they have no room for pride in their lives. They know that they haven't achieved it.
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A lot of it has been circumstantial. A lot of it has been blessings out of their control that they didn't really have charge over.
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But either way, pride of life is a sign of rebellion against our creator and the irony is that now we are at a point really in this world system and in our particular culture where some people don't even have to act like they have it all together but we as a culture will tell them that they do.
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We'll hold them up on a pedestal and not let them off the pedestal and we will say you have it all together and they can do their best to tell us they don't.
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We prop up young ladies like Miley Cyrus and Britney and tell them they are living the good life and we won't let them tell us that they're broken because we insist on telling them that you are living the dream and they're broken and they're trying to tell us that they're broken and we won't have any of it.
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You've got everything you want. You've got fame. You've got money. You've got a billion people following you on Facebook.
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You've got everything that everybody wants. You are living the dream. But the world system is so convoluted that sometimes success becomes a chain holding people in its prison and we say oh if I could just have a little bit of that.
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If I could just have a little bit of that fame. If I could have a little bit of their money. If I could have a little bit of their status. A few more friends on Facebook.
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A few more Twitter followers. Whatever. Pride of life.
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But now in verse 17 John gives us his final aim a little higher by telling us that everything that falls short.
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We talked about shooting arrows. And the picture is that there is the will of God there.
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It's the center of the bull's eye. And every time that we pull back an arrow and it falls short into one of these categories of the desires of the flesh.
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The desire of the eyes. The pride of life. And when we pull back we are being called to aim a little higher.
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If we set our sights on this world system that promotes fleshly desire that promotes lust, that promotes greed and covetousness.
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If we buy into the pride of self -made success and glamour. We have built our life on that which is destined to pass away.
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This world system is going bye -bye. It's going to be done away with. It's like we've put all our eggs into a basket that is burning.
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And that's what it's like to feed and love and nurture the things of this world.
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The things of the world that John is talking about here. This world system is going to be done. One amazing glorious joy -filled day.
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Lust, greed, pride and out of control human appetite will be done away with. Now I want to point this out.
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One could go over to another extreme and go almost Buddhist on this and say you know what?
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You don't need desire. You don't need passion. That's just dangerous to have passion.
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It's dangerous to have desire. It's dangerous to get enthusiastic about things. But it's very important that you understand that what
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John is saying here in verse 17. And the world is passing away along with its desires.
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There's a specific brand of desires that is worldly. Namely those desires of the flesh, desires of the eyes, pride of life.
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Those are the things that he's saying are passing away and they will be done with. But whoever does
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God's will. According to the end of this text. Whoever does
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God's will abides forever. We have a choice to live for that which is passing away.
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This world system. Or we can live for that which will last forever. The will of God.
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Augustine who lived around 300 A .D. It's interesting to think that he had access to the same bible that you and I do.
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So we're talking 1700 years ago. This dude Augustine was reading 1 John and he penned this phrase.
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Reading our verse here in 300 A .D. He said, hold fast to Christ. For you he became temporal so that you may partake of eternity.
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And so in this call to aim a little higher the question is what is in your sights? Do you have in sight the reality of what
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Christ has done for you that we talked about earlier in this message? That should be the starting place. Our motivation is to aim higher and that comes out of what
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God declares to be true of us. Our sins are forgiven. We know the father. We are growing in our knowledge of Jesus.
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We have overcome the enemy by faith. And now from that vantage point let's launch out to live a life of obedience to the will of our savior and not just return to a love for the world system.
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Some questions. How much of the passion and desire of the world do we have in us?
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How much have we let in? How different are we called to be? How well versed in the
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VMA's should we be? How connected should we be with the most recent TV shows?
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How much time is too much to the pursuit of our favorite sports teams or athletes or games or whatever?
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Who do we give credit to for the good things that we have in life? When have we crossed the line into pride and unhealthy desires of the world?
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Let me warn you that what I see from my vantage point as a pastor from the research that I'm doing, from just seeing things out in our culture and our community and reading articles and things,
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I'm confident that a new idol is gaining supremacy in America. I think there's a new God in America.
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He's not brand new but he's new in his rise to the top. It's stronger than money.
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It's more compelling than fame. More pervasive than materialism and consumerism. Although it's tied to all of those things and it is the
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God of entertainment. We are a culture that values entertainment more than money now.
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We're now a culture that just wants to have fun. Just have fun.
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John refuses to give us what many of us want. Some of you are like, I'm asking those questions.
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You got a pen in your hand. You're ready. Don, can you show me? Give me the line. Tell me how much
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TV is too much and I'll just kind of pare it back and I'll get as close to that line as I can but boy,
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I'll just cut it off when that happens. How much dedication to a sports team is how do
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I know when it's gone crazy and it's too much? Right, Nebraska fans? Or I should have said
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Lions fans because that's just crazy from the get -go. If you're still cheering for the Lions...
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Sorry, I just insulted a couple people in the room. I'm sorry. I could do that a lot. You're kind of asking yourself, when have
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I crossed the line? When is it enough? When is it too much? Wherever you're at,
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John's encouragement is to aim higher. Aim higher. I think the reality is that many in America are slouching our way towards heaven with a remote control in one hand and a
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Twinkie in the other and it's not to say that remote controls are evil and it's not to say that Twinkies are evil but they did make a comeback.
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That's pretty awesome. But have we come to know the
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Father? That will impact what we allow to entertain us, will it?
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Or will it not? Have our sins been forgiven at the cross? Then that will impact our selfishness and our greed.
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Have we overcome the evil one? Then that's going to inform whether or not we read Fifty Shades of Grey or watch the up and coming movies.
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Have we given up on pride of life? If we have indeed given up the love of the pride of life, then that will turn all of our successes into glory for our
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Heavenly Father. And in the process of aiming higher, we will find the cross is where our gaze is going to regularly fall.
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When we lift up our eyes from the muck and mire of this world system that wants to slog us down into lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and pride, when we lift up our eyes, there is the cross where Jesus showed us the great price of our sins, showed us our great worth to Him, and also showed us what sacrificial love really looks like.
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And so as we come to communion, I welcome anyone who belongs to Jesus to take the cracker and the juice to remember His sacrifice on the cross.
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And let me encourage you that we go out from this place aiming a little higher. Let's pray.
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Father, I thank You so much for the opportunity just to go through Your Word this morning. And Father, I pray that as this message has an opportunity to settle in our hearts, that by Your Spirit, You would be applying it to people's lives.
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I know that I can't apply it to each person here, but You can. You're with them, and You're in them if they are
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Your children. So Father, I pray that You would help us to walk out of here identifying where we need to aim higher, where we have bought into this world system, and we've allowed it to own us.
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And whether that's through gadgets, or TV, or internet, or sports events, or whatever, where we're not buying back the time to grow in the knowledge of You, because we're so busy with this world.
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Father, I pray that You would open our eyes, and as we have an opportunity to reflect on the cross, to rejoice that salvation has been purchased for us, but also to then be motivated to aim higher because we recognize the great sacrifice that it cost