Hi everyone, it’s Mick here and welcome to Monday’s Podcast. Last Friday, Tom brought us to the third chapter of 1 John and today we skip onto the final verses of chapter 5 and then into John’s second and third letter. Our theme for this week is ‘Godly Purpose’ – our reading today is 1John5:13-21 with a focus on vv13-14 as we consider the topic of ‘confidence.

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. This is the confidence we have in approaching God.

REFLECTION:

Tricia and I have three children, all now grown up with children of their own. We love our children and their partners and our six grandchildren – we have need been so blessed! We have tried to show that love in various ways over the years but primarily by our prayers and actions to help our children know they are loved, be confident in who they are and excited about their future lives. John is saying here in today’s reading that God, as our Heavenly Father wants us to be confident about our lives and our future. Three brief truths about confidence to reflect on as we begin this week.

Confidence …. in our faith. Can you remember the day you became a Christian? The day you decided to  put your faith in Jesus Christ? In that very moment you were ‘born of God’ (v.1) and received ‘eternal life’ (v.12). We can be absolutely confident of this. John tells us that this is the purpose of his letter: ‘I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life’ (v.13). Hallelujah!

Alpha is an introduction to the truths of the Christian faith and over 24 million people have experienced Alpha worldwide. A key moment on Alpha is when guests receive the Holy Spirit and experience the reality of a new relationship with God and an  assurance of his love for them. In that moment their faith is confirmed and they receive a new confidence in life. This was my experience many years ago when I invited Jesus into my life – in that moment I knew he was real, this faith was real and his Holy Spirit would be with me always to guide me through life.

Confidence … in our future. John talks about the ‘true God’ in these verses and Christians believe that Jesus is the ‘true God’ – to deny this is to deny God himself. When John talks about ‘eternal life’ he talks not about some ethereal spiritual existence – sitting on clouds playing harps as the often popular image goes – but a new reality in the here and now. Jesus brings a heavenly future into our earthly present and offers a new Godly purpose to our lives, a purpose that makes a difference and changes society for the better one kindness, one generous act at a time.

There was conflict in John’s time between those who embraced this new radical reality brought by Jesus and those wanting to keep the old reality of religion – the same conflict exists today. Jesus said you cannot put new wine, his new reality, into the old wine skins of irrelevant religion – it just doesn’t work, unfortunately the church still tries to do this. A fresh coat of ‘religious paint’ or a ‘church planting’ rebrand doesn’t really change things – what is needed is a radical inner change. We have gone beyond church doing things ‘better’, we need to do things ‘differently’.  The Hillsong music worship song ‘New Wine’ has had such an impact since its release a few years ago and we love singing it in our Sunday Gatherings here at STC! – I love the truth in the refrain which says ‘Jesus bring new wine out of me’. Why not listen to it this week?

Confidence… in our Father. We need this confidence in today’s often topsy-turvey world and particularly in the crazy days we are living through at the moment … knowing that my relationship with God will grow as I worship him, read about him in the Bible and pray to him ̵...