「神の言葉はあなたに勝利を与える」 二月第四主日礼拝 宣教 2025年2月23日
ヨハネの手紙一 (1 John) 2章7〜14節 牧師 河野信一郎
Good morning. Today is the last Lord’s Day of February. Some are absent this morning for various reasons, but I welcome all of you gathered in the chapel and those who are worshipping online, and I thank God for His grace. Last week was a very cold week, but the camellias in the church have started to bloom. Other plants have started to put on small buds and seem to be eagerly waiting for spring to come, but it is not all wishful thinking. This week, cedar pollen will be in high abundance in the Kanto area, so hay fever sufferers will have a hard time breathing. Blessings and challenges will come to us daily, but let us trust in God alone and walk by listening to His Word.
I would like to share with you some of the blessings I have received from this past week. I would be happy if our prayers could unite us to send as much relief money as possible to the disaster area, and we believe that it will encourage the churches in Tohoku who are working hard to spread the gospel and form churches in the region. Please continue to pray for those churches and support them, and we will hold a “Remembering 3.11” service on March 9, two weeks from now.
Now, there is one more thing for which we are so grateful. That is that one sister is being added to the Okubo Church family today. She was baptized at the age of 14 by the first pastor of Okubo Church, Rev. Ken Hotai, nearly a half a century ago and her wedding ceremony was also performed by him. We are moved by God’s mysterious guidance.
When I was invited as a pastor of Okubo Church and came back to Japan from the U.S., someone once said to me, “Salmon have returned”. God has done something even greater than that today. God is truly wonderful. Please rejoice with us all. I am so thankful for the church family.
Now, in February, we have been listening to God speaking to us with the keyword “Word” of God, and this morning we hope to listen to verses 7-14 of 1 John 2 with the theme “The Word of God gives you victory”. By the way, next month on the 5th we will begin Lent. The Lent is the 40 days that we spend in prayer, remembering the path of Jesus Christ to the cross. It is a time to focus on the path that Jesus took to the cross.
We will begin that series tonight at the evening service, and tonight we will use Isaiah 53 as our text to hear about God’s plan of salvation and His promise to provide a Savior over 600 years ago to save us, and about His love. Then we prepare to hear in the Gospel of Luke. In the morning service, we will hear about the meaning of the cross of Jesus from various passages in the Bible. Let us pray for the Lord’s guidance and join us for the Lent from March 5 to April 19.
Now, the focus of this morning’s message will be on the second half of verse 14, but the goal of the message is to believe that the Word of God, that is, Jesus Christ, is victorious in our lives. Believing in Jesus as our Savior leads to receiving the power to move forward in our daily lives. But you may be interested in what the victory really comes from. I will share that with you at the end of the message, but before I do, I would like to remind you of last week’s message.
Last week we heard from Psalm 119:105 that the Word of God is the “lamp” we need to trust in the Lord to walk through the day before us, “today,” and that the Word of God is the “light” we walk toward God. In other words, to hear the Word of God and to walk daily with that Word is not to live in darkness, but to walk with Jesus in the light. We have heard that the accumulation of these daily steps will advance us toward the Kingdom of God. In other words, the Word of God is the power of life and clearly shows us the goal we are striving for. It is the Word of God that tells us what we are to do and how we are to live.
This morning’s Scripture passage, 1 John 2, describes exactly what it means to walk in the light. John says that to walk in the light is to know, believe, and rejoice in the truth that we are created, loved, and made alive by God, and to live in gratitude for that divine love. John then explains in great detail what it means to believe in God’s existence, to rejoice in God’s love, and to live in gratitude for God’s love.
John says that proof that you believe in God and are grateful to Him is shown by how you live by keeping God’s word. The term here is “God’s law,” which means the words of Jesus Christ, and he says that living while keeping Jesus’ words is proof of rejoicing in and being thankful for God’s love. However, I think a simple question arises as to why we have to prove such a thing in the first place. There have been cases where false teachings, human ideas that are very far removed from Jesus’ teachings, have entered the church, and the church has become awkward. I would like to put that in perspective.
Jesus’ words, God’s law, can be summed up in three things. The first is to love God with all our heart, mind, and strength. The second is to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. The third is that we love one another as Jesus loved us. The church is a group of human beings. It is an assembly of people with weaknesses. Even though we have many differences, we should respect each other, acknowledge those differences, pray for each other, support each other, serve each other, and live together. That is to love your neighbor and to love God.
See chapter 2, verse 9. ‘He who says, “I am in the light,” and yet hates his brother, is still in the darkness.” John says. If a person who believes in Jesus, the light that illuminates the world, and lives with Him, does not love and hates his brothers and sisters in the church, he is still “in darkness,” and if he is in darkness, John says, it does not prove that he knows and believes in God. Indeed, loving one another is not an easy thing to do. Therefore, it is important to have the help of Jesus and the indwelling of God’s Spirit in our hearts.
Now then, let’s listen to verses 12 through 14. There are many important things to be said here. First of all, as we read this passage, there is the call to “children, fathers, and young people”. This is a call to call Christians the family of God and the family of the church, which could be “mothers” or “sisters”. To such people, John says in verse 12, “I am writing [this letter] to you because your sins are forgiven in the name of Jesus.
What is important here is that only those who believe that their sins have been forgiven through the atonement of the cross of Jesus Christ are “those who know and believe in God. Only those who have been forgiven and purified can commune with the Holy God. To put it another way, we cannot see or commune with God while we are in darkness unless we are placed in the light by Jesus. But the light comes to us, illuminates us, and invites us to come to God.
This morning we would also like to hear from the Gospel of John, and if you have your Bible handy, please open it to the Gospel of John, chapter 1, verse 29. If you have difficulty, please see the previous screen. John the Baptist, who is not the author of this letter, says of Jesus, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world”. For the forgiveness of the sins of each one of us, Jesus went the way of the cross. When we believe in this Savior, Jesus Christ, we truly begin our journey of walking in the light and knowing God.
John 2:13 says, “For you know Him who existed from the beginning”. See 1 John 1:18. John says, “No one has ever seen God. He, the only begotten Son of God, who is in the bosom of the Father, has shown us God, that is, Jesus Christ. Through Jesus we come to know and believe in God and receive His love.
I’m going to jump around a lot, but open the Gospel of John, chapter 14, verse 6. ‘Jesus said. ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. In the same chapter 14:9, Jesus says, “He who has seen me has seen the Father. It is only through Jesus that we can encounter, commune, and become intimate with God.
Let us return to John 2:13. The second half of this verse says, “For you have overcome the evil one.” Through God’s mercy, the power of Jesus’ love, and the power of His resurrection, we are kept alive this day. Rejoice because through faith in the death of Jesus Christ on the cross and in His resurrection, we have overcome sin, we have victory over death. John encourages us by saying that this is the proof that we know and believe in God.
The second half of verse 14 says, “For you are strong, and the word of God is always in you, and you have overcome the evil one,” which is a promise that God will give us victory through Jesus. In the second half of John 16:33, we read Jesus’ words. “You will have tribulation in the world, but you will have courage. But take courage. I have already overcome the world,” Jesus said.
At this point, Jesus is still on the way to the cross. However, he declares, “I have already triumphed over the world”. He can say this because he is confident that God will give him victory. When we, too, believe in God and in our Savior Jesus Christ and receive His love, we no longer need to fear the anxieties, sickness, and death of the world. Because we have been given the accompaniment of Jesus, God’s protection, and the promise to bless us forever. Let us receive this word of promise and walk in faith, not in victory here on earth, but in victory that will last forever.