Hope for a Reluctant Prayer Warrior: How to Pray with Confidence, 1 John 5:13-17

Hope for a Reluctant Prayer Warrior—How to Pray with Confidence, 1 John 5:13-17; Luke 11:1-13

Intro—My issues with prayer—Let me start with a confession: I have never been what you might call a prayer warrior. In fact, my batting average at getting positive answers from God is not very high. Truth be told, I know I could do more in prayer. No doubt we all share a similar view. We are pretty sure that we don’t pray enough. Maybe when we do pray we aren’t real sure that we know what we are doing or that God will hear us. We lack confidence. Perhaps we don’t try to pray because we don’t think it will work. How can we develop confidence in prayer? Before answering that question, let’s define “prayer”.

Definition of Prayer: For many Christians prayer is a venture, an experiment. There is nothing very certain about it. We often pray because we do not know what else to do. Who of us has not at one time or another said, "Well, things have gotten so bad there's nothing else to do but pray," as though that were the final and last resort. (Ray Stedman)

Andrew Murray says, “Prayer is not monologue, but dialogue. God’s voice in response to mine is its most essential part.” Prayer is a conversation with God. For it to be a proper conversation, both sides will talk and both sides will listen. For many Christians, it is the listening that creates the problem. We do not pay enough attention to God, but we often delight in telling him what we think he should do.

Pastor E. Stanley Jones: "If I throw out a boat hook from the boat and catch hold of the shore and pull, do I pull the shore to me, or do I pull myself to the shore? Prayer is not pulling God to my will, but the aligning of my will to the will of God." Proper prayer involves lining up with God, not trying to convince God to line up with us.  So, prayer is a dialogue, it is a conversation in which we talk to and listen to God. Prayer is based on a relationship, and prayer is fueled by relationships.

Prayer reveals relationship, Relationship Fuels Prayer

How then, can we pray with Confidence? John’s letter tells us three things that will enable us to pray with confidence: 1) Start with Assurance (our relationship with God through Jesus), 2) continue with Boldness (our acceptance by God allows us to come before him with freedom), and 3) finish with restoration and life (our dialogues with God should result in life and restoration for us and for others). Let’s unpack this a bit.

1 John 5:13—John ends his letter by letting his readers know his purpose. In the Gospel of John 20:30-31, John says that he wrote so that people may believe in Jesus the Messiah/the Son of God (i.e., the Incarnation) and that by believing receive eternal life in his name. In the letter, John’s purpose is to assure those who have put faith in the Incarnation.  His purpose is to give them confidence in their salvation.  Verse 13 states this purpose clearly.

Point 1—v. 13 Start with Assurance (our relationship with God through Jesus) John begins this section with a statement of assurance. He says that faith in the name of Jesus leads to confidence in salvation. He speaks of knowing our relationship to God. John uses some form of the word “know” in his short letter over 40 times. At least 8 of those uses are found in chapter 5. John seems to be saying that our confidence begins with our salvation and our salvation is something we can know. Throughout his book, John has given us indications of how we know we belong to God.

Assurance of salvation is based primarily on what Christ has done for us. We have confidence because God has provided salvation. God manifested his love for us in Christ, and that love is our assurance. Confident prayer begins with assurance in salvation/eternal life. Has your life been transformed by the salvation that only comes through a knowledge of Jesus? If so, then you have assurance that the God who saved is the God who will hear. Our Father hears us.

Prayer reveals relationship, relationship fuels prayer

If we are in Christ, if we are God’s children, if we have salvation through the life and death of Jesus, then we may have confidence in prayer. Our relationship with God through Jesus the Messiah provides access to the Father to make our request known. Because of salvation, we can be confident that our prayers may continue with boldness.

Point 2—vv. 14-15 Continue with Boldness (our acceptance by God allows us to come before him with freedom) Ray Stedman: “There is a great and ringing note of certainty there. Prayer is not an experiment, prayer is a certainty with John, a sure thing. He knows it works, and he knows how it works. That confidence is expressed by the word he chooses, boldness.”

1 John 5:1 reminds us that faith in Christ has resulted in our becoming children of God. This means that we have a family and a familiar relationship with God. As a child has special privileges with his or her parent, so we have the privilege of confidence as children of God. “Confidence”—this word means in some sense “freedom of speech” (cf. 1 John 2:28; 4:17 both regarding judgment). John is saying that because of our relationship with God as children, we can come into his presence to make our requests with boldness—we have confidence and freedom to speak directly to our Father.

Ray Stedman says that God delights in bold praying and in bold people—our prayer to God should be confident, bold, and certain because he loves us.

This confidence arises from two principles given in these verses:  the certainty of being heard (a promise) and the certainty of receiving (a qualification). The promise:  When we pray, God hears us and responds. We ask confidently (Hebrews 4:16). We come into his presence (the words “in him” in verse 14 could be rendered “before him”).  We come confidently into our Father’s presence to speak freely with him. We must ask him to respond. We have an audience, so we must talk to our Father and we must listen for and anticipate his response. Notice that several times in these two verses he talks about prayer in the context of asking and receiving. That’s the simplest and probably the best definition of prayer.

Prayer isn’t a magic lamp or a secret code by which we obtain all our wishes, but rather as Ray Stedman says, “Prayer is a means of obtaining the will of God, and is limited always by the will and purpose of God.”

That brings us to the Qualification—we must ask according to God’s will (cf. Matthew 6:10; John 14:13). John is not saying that we can get God to do whatever we want by adding the magic words “in Jesus’ name”. Prayer is not asking God to move towards us, but for God to move us towards him. Pastor E. Stanley Jones: "If I throw out a boat hook from the boat and catch hold of the shore and pull, do I pull the shore to me, or do I pull myself to the shore? Prayer is not pulling God to my will, but the aligning of my will to the will of God." Remember, James 4:3 reminds us that we can pray and ask improperly. In fact, James acknowledges that we often fail to receive answers to our prayers because we ask for selfish reasons.

John says that if we know we have eternal life through our relationship with God by faith in Christ, then we can be confident that our Father God will hear us when we pray. If God hears us, it then follows that like a good Father he will respond to us. But John goes a step further—not only does God hear us, but “we know that we have obtained the request made of him”. This sounds like we can be assured of a favorable response.

So, does God answer all your prayers with “Yes”? Yeah, me neither!

The problem goes back to that little phrase:  “according to his will”. This means we must line up with God—like Jesus in Gethsemane, we must make sure our hearts cry out “Not my will, God, but yours”—our focus must be on the best interests of God and his kingdom and not our selfish desires. We must not harbor un-confessed or habitual sin (Psalm 66:13). We must trust God for the answer (Matthew 21:22)—he will respond, but not always in the way we desire or expect! We must be sure to seek what God wants, for in doing so we will pray for what he longs to accomplish—we can only do this by spending time with God in his Word and in prayer. (Ray Stedman regarding the Sears catalog—“We could order anything we had the money to pay for, but it would have been utterly futile to have sent in an order for something that was not in the catalog. There was plenty we could order, but it was useless to ask for something they did not have. And so it is with prayer.”)

Prayer reveals relationship, relationship fuels prayer. Confident prayer keeps a relationship with God fresh. This kind of prayer may also have amazing results. A prayer life that is confident in one’s relationship with God and comes into God’s presence with boldness can result in restoration and life.

Point 3—vv. 16-17 Finish with Restoration and Life (our dialogues with God should result in life and restoration for us and for others) John now gives application to his lesson on praying according to God’s will by giving an example to his readers. Praying isn’t just about us, praying is for our brothers and sisters. We should pray confidently for each other. We should pray for restoration and life. Again, John gives a promise and a qualification here.

The promise—if we pray for a brother or sister who is not committing a sin unto death, then God will give them life. The qualification—the promise does not apply to the one committing a sin unto death.

A quick disclaimer: We tend to get tangled up in a discussion of what a “sin unto death” may be, but John assumes his readers know this already.  The point John seems to make here is that praying according to the will of God means that we should pray for each other, that we should pray for restoration and life for those committing sin. We have a responsibility to each other. Part of loving God is loving God’s children and praying for them. John doesn’t say, “If you see your brother or sister sinning, quickly get on the phone and talk to others about it!”  He doesn’t say, “Let the pastor know so that he can deal with it!”  No! John says, “Pray for your brothers and sisters and God will give them life.” We are brothers and sisters, not competitors. All sin is serious. You can’t be indifferent to sin if you love others.

If our prayers are for children of God who sin, then in what sense do they need “life”?  John says our prayers will result in life from God for those who commit sins not unto death. To answer that question is to continue on to the qualification—What is the sin unto death?

There are typically three responses to what the “sin unto death” may be: 1) Some specific sin that causes the person to die physically (cf. Moses, Achan, Uzzah, Ananias and Sapphira, the folks in 1 Corinthians 11); 2) The unpardonable sin, blasphemy of the Holy Spirit or rejecting Jesus; 3) The sin of the false teachers who denied the Incarnation and lived immoral and unloving lives.

It seems likely that the background for John’s comments here is to be found in 1 John 3:11-18 and the contrast between the children of God and the children of the devil. 1 John 3:14—”We know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brothers.  He who does not love abides in death.” The sin unto death, at least in part, seems to be a persistent and intentional disobedience of Jesus’ command to love one another.  It is denying the love of Jesus and following the unloving example of the false teachers. 1 John 3:23—disregarding this command leads to death.

Regardless of the view one takes on this issue, John expects his readers to pray for one another especially when they fall into sin. So, when should we not pray? That is difficult to say, isn’t it?

Apparently there is a time in which prayer is no longer useful—note that John does not command us not to pray, but he seems to suggest that when a person reaches the point of “sin unto death” prayer will not help. We should respond, then, by continuing to pray unless we get some indication from the Spirit to cease praying. If all wrongdoing is sin, then praying for restoration of our brothers and sisters is the best starting point.

Prayer reveals relationships (with others) and relationships fuel prayer—how we relate to others can cause us to pray rightly or wrongly or it can cause us to pray with confidence as we show God’s love for others. Confident prayer results in restoration and life for those who sin. We cannot ignore the sin of others. We should pray for God to work in their lives.

Conclusion

How do we respond to this difficult passage? There seems to me to be only one response, we must become a people of prayer, and not just any prayer, but a confident prayer that comes from an assurance of our relationship with our Father through his Son, Jesus Christ. As E. M. Bounds says, “"What the Church needs to-day is not more machinery or better, not new organizations or more and novel methods, but people whom the Holy Ghost can use – people of prayer, people mighty in prayer. The Holy Ghost does not flow through methods, but through people. He does not come on machinery, but on people. He does not anoint plans, but people, people of prayer."

How does this look in everyday life?

Luke 1:1-13 could be a starting point—start with God, be specific with needs, pray for reconciliation and forgiveness, be persistent (Ask, Seek, Knock), and trust in the goodness and faithfulness of God. 

In other words:

First, we must be diligent in keeping our relationship with God current.  That requires time with God, with his Word, and with his people.

Second, we must pray.  We need to carve out time to meet with God in prayer.  This week set aside at least 10 minutes a day where you simply get with God to pray for others. 

Finally, we must avoid sin.  We need to live accountable lives with each other so that we can honor God.  Remember, everything we do reflects on the character of God.  Our lives are the best (or worst) witness for the grace of God in Jesus Christ.  How are we doing?

So, our batting average may be low. We may not see as many miracles or positively answered prayers as we’d like, but that doesn’t mean we can’t still pray with confidence. Following John’s lead, we know that Confident prayer begins with salvation, continues with a confident relationship, and results in restoration and life. Act on God’s promises and watch God work. He is responsible for completing it, we are responsible for joining him in it.

Remember, as Charles Spurgeon reminds us: "If they will not hear you speak, they cannot prevent your praying. Do they jest at your exhortations? They cannot disturb you at your prayers. Are they far away so that you cannot reach them? Your prayers can reach them. Have they declared that they will never listen to you again, nor see your face? Never mind, God has a voice which they must hear. Speak to Him, and He will make them feel. Though they now treat you despitefully, rendering evil for your good, follow them with your prayers. Never let them perish for lack of your supplications." (Metropolitan Pulpit, vol. 18, 263-264)

Where do we need Help? Romans 8:26-39

In July I had the privilege of preaching at Woodlawn Baptist Church. My text was Romans 8:26-39 (and Psalm 121), and my title was "Where do we need Help?" Below are the notes from that sermon.

Where do we need help? Romans 8:26-39 (Psalm 121)

Intro—Help. Anybody here ever need help? We all need it. Maybe we need help with our computers. Maybe we need help with security. Maybe we need help getting up (I’ve fallen . . . ). Maybe we just need help getting something off of a tall shelf, or getting groceries to the care, or taking care of the yard, or with our homework, or with a project. 

Songs about “help” are everywhere. The Beatles had two: “Help!” and “With a little help from my friends”. The Beach Boys wanted help from Rhonda. The Four Tops couldn’t help themselves. Elvis couldn’t help falling in love. Billy Swan said, “I can help.” And even Stevie Wonder crooned “Heaven Help Us All.” Where do we need help?

Help is a very scriptural idea. Adam needed help and received from God a helper suitable to him named Eve. The Jews cried out to God in their captivity in Egypt and received help in the form of Moses. God sent Joshua to help the Jews to conquer the promised land. The Judges helped the people against oppression. God sent David to help the people defeat their enemies. Job cried out for God’s help. The Psalms are full of such hope (read 46 and 121). The prophets encouraged the people to turn to God for help and to avoid relying on the support of others or horses and chariots or governments etc. Where do we need help?

Luke 1:54—Mary sees Jesus as the “help” of Israel, and the Holy Spirit is described as Helper in John 14-16. Our passage today from Paul’s letter to the Romans offers us some “help” as well. Read Romans 8:26-39.

“Nearly every sentence is a new way of stating the promise that God has not abandoned ‘us,’ and is in fact working--across the past, present, and future--on our behalf. (While the first person plural verbs originally referred to Paul and those he calls "brothers and sisters" in 8:12, succeeding generations of Christians have of course understood themselves, also, to be directly addressed by the words.) The text has three units, and any one of them could be the basis of a sermon. Together, they offer a look into the way God's love bursts forth into help for us over time.” Commentary on Romans

Here we see three areas God offers us help: 1) words, 2) witness, and 3) warfare. Where do we need help? 

We Need Help With Words/Prayer vv. 26-27—"In the same way the Spirit also joins to help in our weakness," Paul begins in Romans 8:26-27. The language of these first two verses has more in common with the earlier verses of chapter 8 than those that follow them. As the Spirit had helped us to cry, "Abba, Father," (Romans 8:16), so also the Spirit helps us pray when we do not know what to pray.

William Willimon tells the following story about a hospital visit to a man who was diagnosed with cancer:  

Willimon admits that he entered the hospital room with apprehension. His friend George had gotten a bad diagnosis the day before. Cancer. Things didn’t look good. 

“George, how’s it going?”

“Preacher, I am glad that you are here. I need some help.”

“What kind of help?”

“I can’t figure out what to pray for. I mean, do I pray for healing? Surely God knows that I want to be healed. But why should I be healed, and not everybody else in this hospital? What makes me so special? A lot of people my age get cancer. Why should I think that my cancer is any different from their’s and why should God give me some special dispensation?

“On the other hand, I really do want to be healed. If I am healed, think of all the good things I could do. I could continue the work that I’m doing in the church, the work for others. But maybe I’m just being self-deceptive. Just like a frightened kid, who’ll promise God anything. 

"And who am I not to be coming to God asking for all of this? I have a lousy prayer life, don't give God the time of day on most days. So here I've come like a blathering idiot, begging, wheeling and dealing, who am I to be making such prayers?"

Paul reminds us that we do not know how to pray, and he includes himself in that! The spiritual giant who wrote 13 of the NT books admits here that he is with us in not always knowing what to pray. Maybe he is referring to times when we are overwhelmed beyond words (like the man in the story above). 

James Dunn points out that Paul's syntax in verse 26 defines the problem differently than we sometimes think of it. The problem is not that we know what we need and merely lack the right words for requesting it. As Dunn puts it, we "do not know what to want," let alone how to ask for it. In the midst of this confusion, the Spirit intercedes, aligning prayer on our behalf to the will of God for us. The Spirit intercedes for us with unspoken groanings or groanings too deep for words. God helps us pray by praying for and through us with words we just can’t “get out”.

No matter how we read this section, we have to see it in the context of the rest of Romans 8. Paul reminds us in verses 21-23 that creation “groans” in anticipation of God revealing his work in his people. Creation groans in the pain of childbirth until God gives it freedom by finally and decisively making his children the free heirs of all his promises. In the meantime, the church remains puzzled about how to pray, thus the need for the Spirit's assistance. 

Paul challenges us to enter into deeper wrestling with the pain of the world. From the environmental to rundown communities to the devastation of humankind, all of God's creation groans in pain. We need help in our words, we need help praying. We need God’s help to groan with creation over its present state of decay. We need the Spirit’s help to groan with God over the present state of fallen humanity. We need Jesus’ help to groan with the church as it longs for God's ultimate redemption. We need help to pray as we ought.

Just think of it. According to Paul, God’s Spirit is praying through us! Prayer is one vehicle for spiritual maturity, yet prayer as a spiritual discipline remains grossly underused even though we have access to the greatest prayer teacher, the Holy Spirit. Interestingly, the best prayer instruction generally occurs in the midst of severe hardship and suffering that can leave us floundering and overwhelmed. It is then that the Spirit prays in and through us with groans that are too deep for words. We need the Spirit’s help to learn to pray—especially when words fail us. Where do we need the Spirit’s help with words today? Where are we incapable of finding the right words to even ask for God’s help? That is where we need help!

But prayer is usually a private thing, and we need help not only privately but publicly. Here Paul reminds us that God provides help with our witness.

We Need Help With Our Witness/Being Like Jesus vv. 28-30—this section contains a favorite verse for many people, but it also contains some theologically charged words that cause tons of discussion and controversy. Reading some of the discussions of these verses may make us cry out for help from theologians! 

At any rate, I want to focus on one main aspect here tucked away in these verses— In verses 28-30, Paul continues his discussion of salvation and our need for help. It is not just that we need the Spirit to help us by interceding for us in the present. The past tells the same story of God's intention for Christ to be "firstborn within a large family" (8:29), a family that includes us. God’s desire is to include a variety of people (not only Jews) in this plan. It is not an ethnic plan, it is a spiritual plan addressing a very spiritual need. 

Adam and Eve were created in God’s image, but their sin resulting in their fall created a problem for all humans. We still bear something of God’s image, but it is marred, blurred, or in some sense unclear. What Adam and Eve were supposed to be was damaged by their disobedience, and every human is affected by that fall. We need God’s help to be the people he intended us to be. We need Jesus to be the image of God as God originally intended. We need help!

Paul here points to God always having had something beyond wrath in mind for sinners and the decaying creation of which we are all a part. With Jesus’ help, we are brought into a family with brothers and sisters and obligations: we're to love one another and serve one another. Romans 8:29 seems to echo the creation story again when it speaks of recipients of God's call being "conformed to the image of his Son." 

Humans had been made "in the image of God" (Genesis 1:27), so now God is working out the plan by which humans are recreated in that image which has been perfectly reflected in God's Son, Jesus. All the doctrinal words here may be summed up in the work of redemption brought about by the blood of Jesus. The goal towards which “all things work together” for God’s people is to make them like Jesus. Where do we need to be like Jesus? Do we need help in living a holy life? How are we doing in obeying God’s command? Do we need help to represent Jesus properly to the world around us? Paul reminds us that we have the Spirit’s help to be all that God intended. We have the help we need to be conformed to the image of Christ—we can serve in humility, we can live sacrificially, and we can be a help to point others to the One who can help them! And we need help to do it!

But witness is only one aspect of public life for Christ. As we pursue Christ-likeness we will find ourselves sometime facing hard times. When we face hardship, Paul reminds us that God provides help in our warfare.

We Need Help With Warfare/Persevering in trials vv. 31-39—Our passage ends with a divine hymn that boasts of God's incredible and invincible love. Nothing can separate us from the love of God found in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Paul begins this section with some questions about the situation of Christians. In verses 31-34, Paul essentially claims that the people who put their faith in Christ have found their need for acceptance met. The need for belonging is met in the body of Christ. In fact, the answer to the questions Paul asks is “No one but Jesus!” Paul seems to be saying that what we need is found in the redeeming love of Christ, in his death and resurrection. By giving us Jesus, God has provided all we need, and Jesus (like the Spirit) even helps us in prayer. Paul reminds us that the world may be a scary place, but God has us in his hand and has provided a place of refuge and rest. We need help, and that help is found in Christ.

In biblical times, people feared many apparent "powers," including angels and astrology. Paul addresses some of these things in this hymn, but the specifics aren’t as important as the conclusion—we need help to win in spiritual warfare. God has provided us that help in Jesus. Jesus’ death on the cross and resurrection from the dead is the means by which we overcome the stuff the world throws at us. In fact, Paul says that nothing the world throws at us can separate us from God’s great grace. Paul says that we are "more than conquerors." 

Suffering is not something to be feared. Rather, as Gorman reminds us, "Believers do not ignore suffering because it has no effect on the true self, but rather they see in the suffering of Christ the full involvement of the self of God and of Christ in and for the world" (Cruciformity, 329). In other words, God and Christ are fully involved in suffering and involved in it "in and for the world."

What's more, because of God's faithfulness in raising Jesus from the dead, both the present experience of suffering and what we can expect of the future are transformed. We not only know God's solidarity with us now but also anticipate a time when even the worst that the powers of Sin and Death have to offer will be shown to be a "slight momentary affliction" (cf. 2 Corinthians 4:17) when compared with the "glory about to be revealed to us" (Romans 8:18). What do we need? Why are we afraid?

What stands in the way of us enjoying God's love? Paul offers a laundry list of challenges resident in his time. What challenges do we face in which we need God’s help? Are we allowing something to separate us from God's love today? If so, what is it? Fear of sex offenders in the neighborhood? Concern over violent crimes? Alarm over terrorism? The inability to control one's life and circumstances? Fear of the future? What might happen if we fully commit? What do we need? 

We need God’s help to recognize that NONE of these things can separate us from his great love. Many distractions attempt to sever our attention from God. Each distraction claims to be more powerful, important, or influential than God. But God’s love and God’s grace are ours in Christ. There is one word that describes the relationship between God's love for God's redeemed: inseparable. We need that kind of relationship!

Conclusion—Now what?

How do we respond to this word?

Pray—even when we don’t have words—pray. This week identify specific areas where we need the Spirit’s help, and then let him help. Groan before him. Groan for the state of the world. Groan for the lost who do not know the love of Christ. Groan for the state of the church and its lack of love. Groan for those areas where we are not yet free but long for liberty. Spend at least 5 minutes a day in God’s presence this week, and just groan for the needs around you.  

Witness—seek opportunities to share and to discuss the great kindness that God has shown us. Look for broken people and help them. Look for lost people and share the good news with them. Look for places where there is a need, and ask God to help you meet that need. Seek opportunity to be conformed to the image of Jesus!

Warfare—recognize that Satan wants to distract us from the goal of being like Jesus. Focus most importantly on the fact that no matter how hard Satan tries, he CANNOT separate us from God’s love. If we are God’s children, then we have God’s grace. Look for places that distract or that try to keep us from the focus on God’s invincible love. Address those issues specifically. Bring them into proper focus to see how small they are compared to Jesus.

Where do we need help? Do we need a little help from your friends? Do we need someone to help? This week, remember that God doesn’t help those who help themselves, rather God helps those who are broken and who ask for help. We need to humble ourselves and receive help. 

Thank you for reading! 

ETS Paper: Print and Recording

Hello all:

I finally put the finishing touches on the paper I read at the annual Evangelical Theological Society meeting in San Francisco in November 2011. The paper's title is "Confidence in Christ and the Sin Unto Death: When Should a Christian Not Pray" and deals with 1 John 5:13-21. Here is a link to see the pdf file: Paper. For those who want to hear a recording of it, here is that link: Recording. Your comments are welcome! Thanks for reading and listening!

Confidence Before God: How Our Hearts are Reassured, 1 John 3:19-24, Theology Matters Series

Hello all:

I teach an Adult Bible Community at Thomas Road Baptist Church called the G.A.P. (for Graduates and Professionals), and each week I post the outlines and discussion questions from my lessons on the G.A.P. page on Facebook. A while back I started posting these notes on the blog too. So, here is the outline for our meetings on February 20-27, 2011. A while back we started a new series on 1 John entitled "Theology Matters." This lesson looks at 1 John 3:19-24 and discusses the idea that our hearts can have confidence before God because of God's character and the things his Spirit has done in and through us. When we think rightly about God and love others as he commands, we find assurance for our hearts and minds. If you have any questions or would like to add a comment or two, that would be great!

Confidence Before God
How Our Hearts Are Reassured
1 John 3:19-24
Theology Matters Series

Introduction
Questions
1. What comes to mind when you think of the terms “assurance” or “confidence”?
2. Describe what you think a confident person is like
3. When do you lack confidence?
4. When do you feel confident?

Contrary to appearances, I am not a very self-confident person
I constantly ask my wife (and others) for reassurance
I seem to think I am continually lacking confidence

Many of you can identify with my personal struggles, while others think that these things are a bit strange

Our passage today focuses on the issue of the confidence a Christian can have before God

In 1 John 3:19-24, John lists three ways we can be confident before God
1. Our knowledge gives us confidence/assurance
2. Our kinship with God gives us confidence/assurance
3. God’s commandments are a source of confidence/assurance

God’s character is our confidence

1. Knowledge
1 John 3:19-20, 24b

When I read this passage, I was struck by the repetition of the phrase “by this we . . . know” in verses 19 and 24.

Verse 19—”By this” refers to the information just above this verse—1 John 3:18
John is saying here that we will know (it is future) that we are in the truth (i.e., children of God) if we love in deed and in truth (i.e., we practice the kind of selfless love Jesus exhibited)

Verse 24b—”By this” refers back to the verses just before (vv. 23-24a) and to the end of verse 24

John is saying here that we know (it is present tense) that we abide in Christ if we keep his commandments—the command is to believe in Christ and to love one another (more on these later)

John is also saying that we know we abide in Christ by the Spirit he gave us
The reference to the Spirit here is not necessarily only a reference to the inner witness of the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:15-17), but may also refer to the presence of the Spirit in our lives as the One who empowers us to believe in Christ and to love one another

The Spirit here is a reference to God’s character and God’s presence as a means to obey God’s commands

2 Peter 1:3-4

John seems to be saying that our changed behavior is evidence (i.e., something we can know) that should give us confidence

The knowledge that God has changed us is a source of assurance/confidence
But our actions are not based on our own abilities, our changed lives flow from the character of God

In verses 19-20, John brings up the idea of our hearts (or consciences) and the possibility of condemnation

“Whenever our hearts condemn us” speaks to those times when we feel condemned or less than confident in our relationship to God

John assumes that the people to whom he writes have struggled with their confidence, they have felt condemned

Perhaps your heart/conscience has condemned you in the past
a. You aren’t good enough, you can’t live up to God’s standard
b. You don’t do the things you should
c. Why would God choose you?

John responds by noting that we can “reassure” our hearts before God because “God is greater than our hearts and knows everything”

What does John mean by this reference?

When John says that God is greater than our hearts/consciences, he seems to be referring to God’s character –a source of confidence for us is the knowledge of God’s character

God’s character is greater than our conscience—he is the one who redeems us (and as shown in v. 24) who puts his Spirit in us

James Boice states “… whatever our hearts may say, God knows us better than even we ourselves do and, nevertheless, has acquitted us. Therefore, we should reassure ourselves by His judgment, which alone is trustworthy, and refuse to trust our own.”

God knows the change he has made in us if we have indeed come to know him through Christ

God judges us not by our conscience but by his justification of us in Christ (Rom. 8:31-39)

When we face condemnation, we can look at two things to reassure ourselves—God’s enduring love and character, and the actions his Spirit has worked out of our changed lives as we obey his command to love

God’s character is our confidence

2. Kinship
1 John 3:21-22—in the previous section, John told us that we can “know” confidence by knowing how we love others and by knowing God’s character. In these verses he introduces the idea that we can be confident before God because we have relationship with him—we are God’s kin

This relationship is shown by two things—answered prayer and God’s abiding Spirit (vv. 23-24)

B. F. Westcott states, “The thought here is of the boldness with which the son appears before the Father, and not of that with which the accused appears before the Judge.”

The Christian has boldness in God’s presence because he or she is a child of God—the child of the emperor has privileges with the king that simple subjects do not have (Rom. 8:16-17; Gal. 4:31-5:1; John 1:9-13)

This family relationship should produce confidence and assurance

John continues this idea by talking about the blessing of answered prayer

What John does NOT mean
a. God is not a cosmic Santa Claus who simply gives you whatever you ask
b. God will not answer all of your requests with “Yes”

What John means
a. God loves to respond to his children
b. God’s children love to respond to their Father
c. When we obey God, we have freedom to come into his presence
d. Of course, when we obey God, we will ask primarily for those things that will give God the most pleasure (i.e., our praying will not be selfish but will be “according to his will”)

God’s character is our confidence

3. Commandment
1 John 3:23-24—John now returns to the idea that our confidence/assurance before God is evidenced by what we believe and by how we live

What “pleases God” (v. 23) is two fold
a. My theology—what I believe about God and Jesus Christ
b. My ethical practice—how I act in response to theology

In fact, theology should drive ethics—right living should flow from right doctrine

John gets very specific here about the commandment
a. We must believe in the name of God’s Son Jesus
b. We must love one another

This commandment is similar to Jesus’ response in Matthew 22:37-40
The call of every Christ follower is to love God and to love others

Believing in the name of Christ refers to the ground of our salvation—it is only in what Christ has accomplished that we can be saved or brought into proper relationship with God

We cannot love God without Christ’s sacrificial love

Our confidence is grounded on what God has done in Jesus

Loving one another is the practical result of our salvation—we show the love God gave in Christ by loving others

This action is not the foundation of our confidence, it is the evidence of it

The gauge of our relationship with God is how we love others

Obedience to God’s command is the manifestation of God’s love poured into our lives (1 John 4:12-17)

Abiding in Jesus is shown by obedience to Jesus

God’s character is our confidence
Our obedient response is the evidence that we have come to know him

Application
The foundation of our assurance or confidence before God is always and only faith in the person and work of Jesus—Jesus is our Rock, our Cornerstone, and our Foundation
Any attempt to have boldness before God without faith in Christ will end in shame
Faith alone in Christ alone is the only means of security before God

Once we have that settled, however, there is room for obedience, and that obedience is also a source of assurance

This week, find ways to obey the word John gives
1. Spend time cultivating your relationship with God—this week set aside an extra 10 minutes a day to get into God’s presence, to pray, to read his Scripture—your confidence is in that relationship

2. Spend time cultivating your relationships with others—this week make time to love one another—be creative, but be purposeful—make a plan to show Christ’s love and follow through—where can you serve this week in a way that would make Christ’s love know?

God’s character is our confidence
What can we do this week that will reveal God’s character to others?

Thanks for reading!