1 John 5:13-17

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. 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. 16 If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life—to those who commit sins that do not lead to death. There is sin that leads to death; I do not say that one should pray for that. 17 All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that does not lead to death.

Prayer & Silenced Babies in Russia

In 2007, the BBC reported[1] that, while hospitalized in southern Russia with her own children, Elena Kuritsyna heard muffled cries from an adjacent room. She investigated and discovered it was the sound of a baby crying. She told Reuters television, "I heard that a baby was mumbling in a neighbouring room; when I looked in, I saw the baby with plaster (i.e., a medical bandage) over his mouth; he could not cry or do anything, was just mumbling.” As she investigated she discovered more infants with their mouths gagged, taped shut. All were orphans. Elena complained to the nurses and they said they were simply short-handed and too busy. The cries of the babies were disruptive and Elena was told to mind her own business.

In frustration, Elena took her cell phone out and recorded what she saw. The world news agencies ran the story. The world was appalled. The nurse was suspended and the head doctor reprimanded. A criminal investigation began and Russian prosecutors found that at this hospital, “Children in the first year of life were systematically gagged with sticking plaster (i.e., a medical bandage) to make children behave quietly….” I probably don’t need to give you a comment from a child development expert to tell you how harmful this is to the development of infants, but I am going to because sometimes we need to be reminded of the obvious.

Dr. Karyn Purvis is a Christian renowned for her research in the field of child development. She was recently in the Twin Cities for the Christian Alliance for Orphans’ conference and a recent guest on “Family Life Today.” Purvis says for infants to develop in a healthy manner they need certain things, one of which is that “they have to know that if they cry someone will come.”[2] 

Similarly, basic to our spiritual growth and development as children of God is a confidence that our heavenly Father hears our prayers. That is what this text says: “He hears us.” Thus, I can state my aim by quoting from the prayer bookmark that Pastor John wrote and we distributed at the beginning of May. My aim is to increase your confidence in prayer, such that, “Disinterest in prayer [is]…replaced by fervent intercession.” 

Assurance of Salvation—5:13

We know that verse 13 is widely acknowledged as the purpose of 1 John, “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.” What things? It seems best to understand that John has in mind the whole letter. John wants all those who believe in Christ to know you have eternal life. So, through out these sermons on 1 John (that actually began last summer), the main intended impact of the author has been that you might have assurance of salvation.

O how I want you who believe—despite seasons of doubt, temptation, anxiety, despair or even stupidity—to have a general settled joyful sense of confidence that Christ died for all of your sins, God forgives you in Christ, you have been born of God, you have been given the gift of faith, you know God and knowing him is better than anything, God loves you, God accepts you as his own child, and all God’s promises to you in the gospel—in the Bible—are yours in Christ.

If you do not have this settled sense of assurance, pursue it. It seems to me, more often than not, that I am most prone to doubt my salvation when I look at my own sin and unbelief. The Apostle John says to not deny them but confess them and look to Jesus. 1 John 2:1-2, “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 2 He is the propitiation for our sins….”

My counsel for you in the fight of faith to gain assurance is look, not to your own sin but to God. Look to Christ Jesus. It is impossible for him to lie. Believe that his gospel promises are true even for you—especially for you.

Confidence in Prayer—5:14-15

In verses 14-15, the Apostle John moves from assurance of salvation to confidence in prayer. Throughout this letter, John writes in a chiastic form. A “chiasm” is a literary form when the thoughts or ideas are placed in a symmetrical order or pattern. For instance, if we call the first thought in our writing “A,” the next thought “B,” and then “C,” then a simple chiastic structure would be reflected if I wrote thoughts A, B and C followed by similar thoughts in reverse order, C, B and A. Or better, think of a ladder with three steps. In a simple chiastic literary form, you climb up the ladder—step 1, 2 and 3—then come down the ladder on the other side on steps 3, 2 and 1. 

You can see a very simple chiasm here in verses 14 and 15. We climb up the chiastic ladder with three ideas, our confidence, our asking and God hearing us. Then we climb down the chiastic ladder with the same ideas in reverse order, God hearing us, our asking and our confidence.

Let me just walk up the ladder and then down the other side by walking through these verses.

Step 1: Our Confidence

Assurance of faith breeds a confidence to approach God in prayer. We approach God in prayer with a confidence because we have assurance. The gospel is true. We believe God’s promises to us in Christ. We have a settled sense that we have received the gift of eternal life. We have been born of God. His spirit is within us. God is our Father, and we are his children. We live in the context of his fatherly compassion, his mercy and grace to us in Christ. Therefore our assurance of faith gives us confidence to approach God in prayer.

Step 2: Our Asking

What do we ask? We ask anything according to his will. This is not a crimping down on our prayers but an expanding of them. It is an invitation to pray for anything in the universe that falls within the will, plan and purposes of God. God reigns for the glory of his name in the whole universe and for the good of his people. This means at least three things.

1. He does not hear us in the sense that we are his advisor or peer (Romans 11:34), but he hears us as a Father compassionately hears the cries of his children.
2. We can feel free to ask God anything, but let us make sure that we make our request subordinate to his will. This is exactly how Jesus prayed in the garden the night before he was crucified. Remember? He prayed, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will” (Mark 14:36).
3. We do well to pray God’s will revealed to us in his Word. This is just what Jesus said in 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.” That is one of the reasons we memorize Scripture at Bethlehem, in order that our prayers are shaped by the will of God revealed in his word.

Step 3: God Hearing Us

Let’s stop at the top of the ladder and let it sink in. God hears us. As children of God, none of us are like those unadopted infant orphans whose mouths are taped shut, whose guardian is short on time, resources and love. God the Father hears us. This is a stunning statement. God Almighty hears us.

He hears us when we cry, “Abba, Father!” (Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:6). He hears us in the morning, as David says in Psalm 5, “O LORD, in the morning you hear my voice.” He hears our cries for salvation, “In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you” (2 Corinthians 6:2). He hears our cries when we are afflicted, “O LORD, you hear the desire of the afflicted; you will strengthen their heart; you will incline your ear” (Psalm 10:17). We share the confidence of the psalmist in Psalm 77:1, “I cry aloud to God, aloud to God, and he will hear me.” He hears us when we are in trouble, as David says, “I waited patiently for the LORD; he inclined to me and heard my cry. 2 He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure” (Psalm 40:1-2). God is inclined to hear our prayers, “For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous; and his ears are open to their prayer” (1Peter 3:12).

It is an aspect of God's glory that he hears our cries, listens to our prayers and engages himself to help us and save us from our sins and show mercy to us in our sufferings.

Verse 15 begins the flow of thought down the ladder, returning in reverse order to the themes of verse 14. Step 3: “And if we know that he hears us” (1 John 5:15a). Step 2: “…in whatever we ask…” (1John 5:15b). Step 1: “…we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.” (1 John 5:15c)

What does that look like to “know that we have the requests we have asked from him”? Here are two contrasting pictures. I mentioned one already.

The first would be when God says “no” because his will is better than our request. After his prayer, Jesus stops praying. He does not keep asking “let this cup pass me by,” but has a settled sense of confidence that the cup is for him to drink. God has answered. In faith, he goes to the cross with a settled sense that this is the will of God. Thy will be done. He lays down his life for his people with a settled sense of God’s answer to his prayer.

The other picture of what it looks like to “know that we have the requests we have asked from him” is Hannah. Remember Hannah from 1 Samuel? She is barren. She has no children. She is praying for children at the temple. Eli the high priest comes to her. “Then Eli answered, ‘Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant your petition that you have made to him.’ And she said, ‘Let your servant find favor in your eyes.’ Then the woman went her way and ate, and her face was no longer sad” (1 Samuel 1:17-18).

One example is of when we don’t get what we ask for and the other is of when we get what we ask for—both are under the sovereign will and purpose of God.

Confidence Applied to a Sinning Believer

Having connected our sense of assurance of salvation to our confidence in prayer, John goes one step further and applies that confidence in prayer to one of the most troubling things to pray about, fellow believers who are presently sinning. Verses 16 and 17, “If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life—to those who commit sins that do not lead to death. There is sin that leads to death; I do not say that one should pray for that. 17 All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that does not lead to death.” In other words, he says we should pray for fellow believers who are “committing a sin not leading to death.” But then he tells us that he is not telling us to pray for one whose “sin leads to death.”

What is this sin leading to death? In our text, when the Apostle John speaks of a “sin leading to death,” I take it that he is talking about the same thing Jesus is talking about in Mark 3, blasphemy of the Holy Spirit. In Mark 3:20-35, Jesus warned the Pharisees, “28 ‘Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man, and whatever blasphemies they utter, 29 but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin’— 30 for they had said, ‘He has an unclean spirit.’” In Luke 12:10 Jesus likewise says, “And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.”

“Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit”?

What is “blasphemy of the Holy Spirit”? Why is that the one sin that is unforgivable? I think it is a state of being outside the work of the Holy Spirit. It’s the opposite of being under the influence of the Holy Spirit. God does not give repentance to those without the Holy Spirit. God does not give faith to those who do not have the Holy Spirit. It is to be void of the influence and indwelling of Holy Spirit, and, therefore, unable to repent and believe.

Those who do not have the Holy Spirit are not saved. So lets not pray that people be saved apart from the Holy Spirit. Lets not pray that God give the gift of repentance or faith apart from the Holy Spirit. And to be beyond the gift of faith is to be beyond forgiveness. The Spirit is the means by which we receive the grace to believe and receive the forgiveness. Jesus says I am warning you that there is this state in which you may die apart from the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus says, “All sins will be forgiven, except that one.”

Pastorally, it seems to me that those who should fear that they have blasphemed the Holy Spirit don’t exhibit any concern at all. The Spirit has left them—they are not troubled by their lack of repentance nor their unbelief. On the other hand, pastorally it seems to me that those who should not fear are the most concerned that they may have committed this “sin leading to death.” That is not surprising because I take that the reason they are concerned is because the Spirit is active within them, convicting them of sin and drawing them out of sin and unbelief and back to repentance and faith in Christ.

Back to our text in 1 John 5:16, how do we apply this call to pray for sinning believers? Perhaps it is best to take John as saying, “My point is not to call for prayer for life for those who don’t have the Holy Spirit.” Spiritual life does not come that way. Rather John’s emphasis is on praying for sinning believers—indwelt by the Holy Spirit. 1 John 5:16, “If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life—to those who commit sins that do not lead to death.”

In one such instance, one believer described how God answered the prayers of fellow believers to bring him back to a steady faith in Christ. Luther wrote,

For more than a week I have been thrown back and forth in death and Hell; my whole body feels beaten, my limbs are still trembling. I almost lost Christ completely, driven about on the waves and storms of despair and blasphemy against God. But because of the intercession of the faithful, God began to take mercy on me and tore my soul from the depths of Hell. (Heiko A. Oberman, Luther: Man Between God and the Devil, p. 323)

The man who wrote this statement in 1527 was Martin Luther, the great reformer.

Conclusion

I mentioned that one of our prayers for this season of our church is that God would pour out his spirit upon us with power in such a manner that “disinterest in prayer [is] being replaced by fervent intercession.” If you do not have a settled sense of assurance of your salvation, get assurance by resting in the truth of God’s promises. Christ died for our sins to reconcile us to God. Also, pray confidently. Out of your sense of assurance of salvation—your sense of belonging to God through Christ—pray! Pray confidently. If we ask anything according to his will, he hears us! 

We should not be surprised at all that the answers to our “printed prayer handout” come when we actually pray. Therefore, pray with confidence that hundreds of people will come to Christ, old animosities be removed, marriages be reconciled and renewed, wayward children come home, long-standing slavery to sin be conquered, spiritual dullness be replaced by vibrant joy, weak faith be replaced by bold witness, disinterest in prayer be replaced by fervent intercession, boring Bible reading be replaced by passion for the Word, disinterest in global missions be replaced by energy for Christ’s name among the nations, and lukewarm worship be replaced by zeal for the greatness of God’s glory.

Specifically, pray that God give life and repentance to sinning brothers and sisters in Christ. Pray for unbelievers who seem to be dead to the work of the Holy Spirit as of yet. Pray that God would awaken them and that he would overcome their resistance by the work of the Spirit to receive the gift of saving faith.

[1] Russian shock at 'gagged' babies: Mobile phone footage Russian prosecutors are investigating allegations that hospital staff in Yekaterinburg gagged babies because they did not want to hear them crying. [Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/europe/6319439.stm, Published: 2007/02/01 11:13:16 GMT].

[2] O'Neill,
 Heather, Stars Of Higher Education: Dr. Karyn Purvis, Renowned Child Development Researcher (December 9, 2009), http://www.citytowninfo.com/career-and-education-news/articles/stars-of-....