Deo Gloria
Sermon for May 12, 2024
Pastor Martin Bentz
Text: 1 John 5:1-6
Theme: Celebrate the Victory!
- Possessed by faith
- Expressed in love
It was an exciting day on the MSU campus back on April 1st. Fans were yelling and cheering, waving banners and blowing horns—and for good reason. Their basketball teams had just won not one, but two national championships. Yes, the Mavericks were the first NCAA Division II program in four decades to win both the men’s and women’s basketball championships in the same season. It was a tremendous victory for their teams, a victory they and their fans celebrated that day and I’m sure will savor for quite some time.
You and I can relate to the Maverick basketball fans, because we too have something to celebrate, a tremendous victory won by our Savior, Jesus Christ. The celebration began many years ago with Jesus’ resurrection on that first Easter Sunday, but it continues today as Christians like you and me rejoice in his victory and what it means for us. This morning in the verses of our text we learn that Jesus’ victory is our victory, that we too are victorious through faith in Christ our Savior, and that this victory we have in Christ leads to an ongoing celebration in our lives: a life of love. Celebrate the victory!
Easter is one of the great holidays in the Christian Church, one of the high points of the year—and for good reason. We celebrate the resurrection of our Savior, Jesus Christ. His life did not end in death and defeat on Calvary. We don’t have to review his life and his message every year and think about what could have been. Our Lord is alive. He rose again on the third day, just as he said he would. He rose triumphant over sin, death and the devil, which gives us obvious reason to celebrate; but we’re not just cheering for Jesus.
We’re also cheering for ourselves, because his victory is our victory. Listen again to what John says in our text: “For everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God”(vv. 4+5). In a way I suppose you could say we’re like the players on the bench. They didn’t actually play in the game. They didn’t actually have a hand in winning the victory, but their team won, so they won too. They get their picture in the paper along with everyone else. They get to ride on the fire truck in the parade down main street like everyone else. They get a championship ring or medal just like everyone else. They are part of the winning team.
So are we. We didn’t play in the game. We didn’t fight in the showdown with Satan and sin and death. Jesus did. He fought the battle for us, and he won. He defeated our enemies and broke their power over us. But you and I are on the winning team. We are disciples of Christ, members of his body, connected to Jesus through faith. And because we are connected to him, we are victorious too. His victory over Satan is our victory over Satan. His victory over death is our victory over death. His victory over sin and this sinful world is our victory over sin and this sinful world. “Everyone [who is] born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith”(v. 4).
Back in John’s day there were people who did not believe that Jesus is the Son of God. There was one man in particular, a man by the name of Cerinthus, who was causing a lot of problems in the Christian Church. According to Cerinthus, Jesus was true man. He was the son of Mary, but he was not true God. He was not the Son of God.
Sadly, there are also people like that today. There are still many people who believe that Jesus was only Mary’s son, that he was only a man—a good teacher, an outstanding preacher, but not the Son of God. And that story about his resurrection—well, that’s all it is: just a story made up by his disciples. What’s really sad is that there are even some Lutheran churches that are teaching that now days. Such people are lost. They have been deceived by Satan and have forfeited the victory won for them by Christ because they have lost their faith in Christ.
But not you and me. By the grace of God we believe. We believe that Jesus is the Son of God, the one who, as John says, came by water and blood. By the waters of the Jordan River at the time of his baptism, God revealed who Jesus really was. “This is my Son,” he said, “whom I love; with him I am well pleased”(Mt 3:17). And yet more than just the Son of God, Jesus is also the Son of Man, the one who took on human flesh and blood, the one who shed his blood on Calvary’s cross that he might pay the penalty for all our sins. He came not by water only, but by water and blood.
Of course, you and I weren’t there to see those things. We weren’t there at Jesus’ baptism to see the Holy Spirit descend on him in the form of a dove or to hear the Father’s voice from heaven. Likewise, you and I weren’t there on that hill outside of Jerusalem to see Jesus suffer and die on the cross. But John was. And he recorded these things for us in both his gospel and his letters so that we might believe. Remember what John said in the last chapter of his Gospel? “These [things] are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name”(20:31). Yes, through the testimony of John and the other apostles, you and I believe in Jesus as our Savior and through faith you and I are victorious.
Sometimes it doesn’t look that way, though, does it? Sometimes as we live our lives in this world, it doesn’t seem like we’re very victorious. In fact, sometimes it seems like just the opposite: that we’re fighting a losing battle and that the world is winning. I mean, look at all of the godlessness and wickedness in the world. Would you say it’s gotten better in the last 20 years or gotten worse? Or look at your own life, how you still struggle with sin day after day. Or what about that fellow Christian who is lying in a hospital bed, suffering with illness and pain? Or what about the Christian man in Thailand who was arrested and beaten because of his Christian faith and whose home was burned to the ground? Or what about when you’re standing beside the grave of a Christian family member or friend, who lost their battle with cancer? At times like that it may be difficult to see how you and I are victorious, how we have overcome the world.
At times like that we need to remember the words that Jesus spoke to his disciples: “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world”(John 16:33). “In this world you will have trouble….” Boy, isn’t that the truth? But in Christ we are victorious. No, we may not always see that now, but one day we will. When all the graves have been opened and all God’s people have come out; when death has been destroyed; and sin has been destroyed; and sickness and sorrow and pain are all a thing of the past; and Jesus rules in glory as Lord and King of all; then we will see the victory. And we will share in his victory, because his victory is ours through faith. Celebrate the victory.
But what would be a fitting way to do so? What would be a fitting way to celebrate this tremendous victory? A service filled with worship and praise? Sure. Publishing the news on the internet or broadcasting it over the airwaves? Sure. And yet, in these verses John tells us about another way we can celebrate this victory and express our gratitude: by living a life of love. “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well”(v. 1). Do you ever wonder if you really are a child of God, if you really have been reborn spiritually and are a member of God’s family? If you believe in Jesus, that he is the Christ, that he is your Savior, then you have been reborn. There’s nothing more to it. You don’t have to make some kind of decision or have some kind of dramatic, life-changing experience. If you believe, you are reborn. God has given you a new birth through the working of his Holy Spirit and has adopted you into his family as one of his children. You can set your doubts aside.
But then notice how John says that faith in Christ expresses itself: “Everyone who loves the father loves his child as well.” Those who have faith in Jesus love the Father. They don’t have to love him. They just do. They can’t help it. They love the Father because he loved them first. He sent his own Son to suffer and die for them. He washed away their sins, planted faith in their hearts and adopted them into his family. They can’t help but love the Father.
And they also love his children. The two go hand in hand. You can’t love God and hate his children, your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. To love God means to love them too. As John says in the verses right before our text, “Anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen”(4:20).
And in case we weren’t exactly sure what it means to love God and to love our fellow Christians, John spells it out for us in the next two verses: “This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome.” Loving God does not mean having this warm, fuzzy feeling inside for God. Loving God does not mean being infatuated with God, that he’s the only one we think about 24 hours a day. No, just as God showed his love for us in what he did for us, we show our love for God in what we do for God. And what would God have us do? Obey his commands: to love him more than anything else; to not misuse his name; to make time for him and his Word in our lives; to honor and obey our parents; to not hurt or harm our neighbor; to not misuse his gifts of sex and marriage; to not tell lies about other people or gossip about them; to not covet what others have but to be satisfied with what God has given us. That’s what it means to love God. That’s what it means to love our neighbor as ourselves.
If only that’s the way we always lived our lives; but it isn’t, is it? All too often we have not loved God first and put him before anyone or anything else. All too often we have not been kind and respectful and helpful to our neighbor. In fact, some of the things we said and did were pretty mean and hurtful. Those are sins you and I need to confess before our Lord and find forgiveness in the blood he shed for us on the cross.
And yet, in light of his overwhelming victory and in gratitude to him for what he has done, this is what we strive for: to obey his commands, to love him with all our heart and all our soul and all our mind, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. It isn’t a drag. It isn’t a burden to obey God’s commands. “Oh, man, do I have to love God? Do I have to be kind and helpful to my fellow Christians?” No, obeying God’s commands is what we want to do, what we enjoy doing out of thanks and love for him.
And do you know something else? God helps us do it. We’re kind of like the little boy or little girl helping dad pull a load of wood in a little, red wagon. The little guy is grunting and straining and pulling with all of his might, but the fact is dad is doing most of the pulling. The same is true with us. In and of ourselves, you and I have neither the desire nor the ability to obey God’s commands. But the Holy Spirit works in our hearts and renews our minds. He gives us the desire and the ability and the motivation and the strength to do what’s right and obey God’s commands. So obeying them isn’t a drag or a burden for us. It’s a joy, something we love to do, and an important part of our victory celebration.
A little over a month has passed now and things have pretty much quieted down on the MSU campus. I would guess the players are done signing autographs and the celebrations are all wrapped up. But I hope the same cannot be said of you. I hope the joy and excitement over the tremendous victory our Savior won is still ringing in your heart. After all, you are victorious too. Through faith his victory is your victory. And I hope you will continue to celebrate that victory not just for another week or two, but throughout your life, that you celebrate it in a life of love. Amen.