Message by Pastor Maki Umakoshi
September 18, 2022
1 John 5:13-21
So the other day, I attended a pastor’s gathering in Detroit, and I was driving my car with an American friend of mine, his name is Pastor Travis, he’s the lead pastor of a local church in Michigan. That day, I happened to be the one driving and we got to this junction and I made a quick turn at the street. As soon as I made that turn, Travis called me out saying, “yo bro, you didn’t even look.” So I said, `What are you talking about that I didn’t even look, it was a “blue light”, it was a blue light so I didn’t really have to look, I glanced and I was good to go. Then, Travis gives me this grin, that cynical grin. He says.. “What do you mean by blue light? the light is called the green light bro, what do you mean blue light?” And at that moment, I felt like I was struck by lightning, because seriously I never thought why Japanese people call a green light blue. I couldn’t believe that all throughout my life, for nearly 40 years, I’ve been calling a green light a blue light
That is all to say that sometimes, we don’t really realize the obvious, we need to be told the obvious, I need to be told that green light is not actually blue. And this applies to some of the spiritual truths that we see in the Scripture. We need to be told the obvious. Today I want to open up the Scripture to 1 John 5, and in this chapter, John is explaining the reason why he wrote this letter, he says this:
1John 5:13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.
So, John is summarizing and explaining the reason why he took the time to write this letter to his people, and he says that it was so that they know that they have eternal life. Now, notice the underlined part, that he is saying this to those who already believe in Jesus — he is saying this to the believers and not to the unbelievers.
This really implies that even when we believe in Jesus Christ, we need to be reminded of this obvious truth, that is repeated over and over again throughout the Scripture, that when we believe in Jesus, God gives us eternal life.
When you hear the word eternal life, you may picture it as some kind of special gift that we get to receive in the future, but according to the Scripture, eternal life is something that we get to enjoy at the present and that is why John is speaking in the present tense, he’s saying, let me remind you the obvious once again all Christ followers, that you currently have eternal life. The question that we need to think about today is, is this eternal life being resembled in our everyday life today? Is the vigor and the power of eternal life being manifested in our life?
- A lot of times in our Christian life, even though we believe in Jesus, we often get too preoccupied with the cares and the worries of life, so that our joy of salvation simply disappears from our life.
Instead of being mindful of the purpose that Jesus gave us, we get too preoccupied with what we want out of our lives.
When we serve at our church, we feel like we are being used, we feel like we are the victim.
Now, the other day, our church did an event. One lady helped us with teaching these Japanese people how to do crafting. After the event I saw her in tears, crying… and I was like, oh maybe it was too burdensome for her. But then I found out that it was actually the opposite. She was crying because of the joy, she was crying saying that she didn’t know her crafting skills can be used for God.
Those who are filled with the eternal life of God are those who can cry out of joy for being able to serve God. Do you have this in you today. Is the joy of eternal life being manifested in your life today?
So let’s pick up the passage from v. 14.
1John 5:14 And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.
After stating the obvious that we have eternal life, John is talking about the importance of prayer. He’s saying that if we want to have the vigor and the power of eternal life, then we should be praying.
Prayer is a communication with God. Our relationship with our spouses starts to get dry when we stop talking. If you only say to your spouse, Hi. I’m home. Good night. You can’t be wondering why it’s not working out for you guys. You’re missing communication.
In the same manner, if you are not praying with God, you will gradually become distant from God. If all you do is to come to church on Sunday and from Monday to Friday, you don’t think about God and never open this Word, then you cannot expect to have the joy and the power of eternal life.
I was looking at my diary. In one of the entries I wrote, Reika lost her doll. And I told her to pray. She went hiding behind the door, and I saw her praying. And in the next moment, my wife tells Reika, ‘did you look inside of your bag?’ and Reika opens the bag, and there it is. She finds the doll. December 12, 2019. That was the day when Reika first experienced the answer to her prayer. The best way that we can teach our kids about God’s power, and his goodness, is to make them pray.
Adults are not so much different… we all need to experience the living power of God through prayer.
I want you to notice the word ‘confidence’ in verse 14.
Notice the word, “confidence.” This word confidence is not some kind of confidence you have towards your football team, or confidence about your personality or appearance, but this word ‘confidence’ (parrēsia) is mostly used in the context of speech, and it simply means to be frank when speaking to someone.
One of the things that really stood out to me when I started working a local American church is how everyone calls the pastors by their name. I wasn’t use to that as I used to work in a korean church where everyone respectfully add the title of the pastor. So when it comes to calling the name of my boss, I could not call him just by his name, I had to call him pastor Travis.
But then, I felt like there was a barrier between us, because I was the only one calling Travis, Pastor Travis. At one time, I asked him, hey can I call you Travis.
John is saying that, that’s the type of confidence that you can have towards God, when you speak with God. When you pray, you don’t have to comb your hair straight, and elaborate your prayers with a nice respectful words, oh, my holy and almighty righteous God, I ask for permission to approach your holy throne, and I beseech you that you take heed to my request and let it be known throughout the whole world that you…
This week, I re-read this book of 1 John from beginning to the end. I wanted to take a step back a little bit and try to understand what John is saying here as a whole. I noticed that the expression that John repeats over and over again, is this phrase that you’re God’s child, that you’re born of God. God is your father, you are his child. When you speak to God, you can just run to him and say, Father, I’m messed up, and I just don’t know what I’m doing. That is the kind of confidence, frankness that you can have towards God when you pray.
So are you praying to God with confidence, frankness, is there intimacy when you speak with God. One of the reasons why there is no vigor of eternal life in you is because you are not praying.
John is also saying one more thing in verse 14.
He’s saying that when you pray, you need to pray according to God’s will. When we feel like God is not answering our prayer, we tend to say, oh why is God not listening to me. God are you deaf. Are you there? Have you fallen asleep? And you lose confidence in God, you forget His promise of eternal life, because it seems like God is not answering your prayers. But John is saying, well, perhaps, the reason why God doesn’t seem to be hearing your prayer is because you’re not praying in the right way, you’re not praying according to God’s will.
James says, “When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures” (James 4:3). If you’re only praying selfishly, then God will not answer your prayer.
But praying according to God’s will doesn’t mean that you need to be playing a guessing game with God, as if you’re trying to read God’s mind as if you’re playing poker with God, is this what you want… or no… is this it, is He bluffing. No, the only way in which we can pray according to God’s will is when you spend time with God, you know what God likes, what hates, and you begin to discern the will of God, how you should pray.
Early in our marriage, I once bought my wife a perfume at an airport as I was coming back from my business trip. And as soon as my wife opened the box, she was like… ummm okay. She wasn’t too excited with the gift, because I later realized that she doesn’t usually wear a perfume. And as time passed by, I began to learn what she likes and what doesnt like. … And I eventually came to this conclusion that I can just get her a gift card.
So as you spend time with God, you begin to become more effective in how you pray, your prayer becomes bold, your prayers become not about yourself only, but more about other people, you pray for the lost, you pray for the needy, you pray for the glory of God.
So when Jesus encouraged us to pray, he said: John 15:7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
You need to abide in Jesus, the reason why we are not experiencing the vigor of eternal life in our life is because we are not abiding in Jesus and we don’t know how to pray.
I don’t know about you, but there was a time in my Christian life where I felt like I had to prove my worth at a church by doing stuff. I can cook! I can sing for Jesus. But before we start thinking about how we can serve God, we should be be thinking about connecting with God, abiding in Jesus.
Our most important calling is not to preach from this stage. It is not to be part of the praise team. It is not to help the poor or the needy. It is also not about reading a lot of theological books so that you can have smart conversations. But our first and foremost calling is to abide in Jesus.
But today we wanted to be reminded of the obvious — that those who believe in the name of Jesus have eternal life. And remember John is not saying, you will have eternal life sometimes in the future, but he’s saying you have eternal life right now, you have eternal life.
The question is, are you living as if you have eternal life? Is there a joy of eternal life in you? Is there vigor of eternal life in you? Are you being the light in your workplace, are you being the source of joy in your neighborhood, is there laughter in your household, is there joy of salvation in your heart today. If not, check your heart, and start living a life with Jesus, church is not a ritual, it’s not a place you go on Sunday, you are the church! Let’s start abiding in Jesus so that we can live an abundant life, knowing that we are forgiven, saved, washed, we are white as snow.
Maybe some of you who are listening to this today, have never really gave a serious thought about having an eternal life. Now… biblically speaking, eternal life is also given to those who do not believe in Jesus Christ. Even if you don’t believe in Jesus, you will be resurrected and be given a life eternal. But the eternal life that is given to those who don’t trust in Jesus is a life that you must spend where there is no God.
And that is a life without joy. A life without peace. Eternal destruction. And God doesn’t want you to go there. He’s calling out for you! He’s calling out for you to turn around.
If you think God spoke to you today… pray with me.