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This sermon – That You May Know You Have Eternal Life – was originally preached 2013.03.17 by Dan Freed.
This is also part of a series of messages preached at the 2013 Bethel Mennonite Church Youth Rally.
- Jesus The Light
- Jesus Our Lawyer
- God’s Love and Our Love
- The One Who is in You
- That You May Know that You Have Eternal Life
Passages used: 1 John 5, Romans 8:15-16, Hebrews 9, 1 John 3:20, Titus 3:5, Romans 8:28, John 16:32.
Quotable Quotes
There are a number of assurances of salvation given here in this last chapter of 1 John. The Holy Spirit also helps us have confidence that we are God’s children that we are born of God. Verse 13 tells us that we “may know that we have eternal life.”
John is telling us here that we can know that we can know that we are saved. John is very clear that our salvation is only through the change that comes because of Jesus’s work on the cross. It is the basis also of our assurance.
One of our biggest fears is usually death and what happens after death. So assurance of salvation is important and John tells us here that we can know so that we don’t have to fear the outcome of these things that we fear.
Some things that our Salvation is not based on.
Our assurance of salvation is not based on our feelings. God is greater than our hearts and He knows where we are with Him.
Our assurance of salvation is also not based on our good works. Good works will follow conversion but this is not a basis for our salvation – neither for our assurance of salvation.
Our assurance is also not based on our circumstances. There are times when our circumstances will be very bad. We need to learn to look past our circumstances to God and enjoy the peace that He gives.
Some Results or Fruits of Assurance
When we have assurance that we are saved and that we are right with God we can have confidence in our personal prayer life. Sometimes we need to just trust God with where we are and wait for his leading. God hears our prayers and He will give us grace for today and He will help us know where to go from here.
We can also have confidence in the prayers of our fellow Saints. A Christian praying for someone else will lead to movement on God’s side.
When we see someone else sin, we need to pray – before we go and tell a bunch of other people about it. There is probably a time to talk to others, their parents, the pastor etc… but it is always right to talk to God about it.
We can have confidence in Him who keeps us safe. Jesus keeps us safe. As we walk with Jesus we experience increased freedom from Satan’s control.
John ends with an encouragement to his readers to keep themselves from idols. John wants to remind us to keep our focus and our eyes on Jesus. An idol can be anything that takes our eyes off of Jesus. The world and all that is in the world are of Satan. God is worthy of our love and all of these things get in the way of that love.