Introduction
One of the
things I love about church is watching the little ones bounce off to their
groups in the centre, eager to get there, like it’s some wondrous adventure. The
look on their faces and their body language says they’re excited and raring to
go, which is a testament to our fabulous children’s ministry team.
People often say how blessed we are when we
see, week by week, such happiness on the faces of our little ones. Children are
a delight. Yes, they can be hard work at times, let’s not be idealistic, but
you can’t help but love them, can you?
When our heavenly Father looks at us, Christians
who have a relationship with God, I think he sees us like that; his little
children – yes, we can be difficult and he sometimes has to discipline us, but
overwhelmingly his heart swells with warmth and affection for us.
Verse 1 of our reading says; “See what great
love [not half-hearted, not dutiful love] the Father has lavished on us. [He
extravagantly and excessively pours and pours love into us] that we should be
called children of God!” Exclamation mark.
I love that word ‘lavish’. God just heaps his
love on you in a quite undignified way. He really is fond of you. If God keeps
a photo in his wallet, it’s of you.
God says, “You are my child, precious to me. I’m
proud of you. I love you. I care about you. I’m devoted to you. I want to be
there for you. Never forget that.”
Psalm 119 says that God’s word gives light. It
does.
Some passages of Scripture are like turning
on a torch. You can get the light to shine quite easily. God so loved the world…,
the prodigal son, I have plans to give you a future and a hope.
Other parts of God’s word are like diamonds you
have to dig for and clean up before they sparkle and shine. 1 John is a letter
you have to work quite hard to see the light in it. But it’s worth the effort.
This is the sort of sermon where you have to
work with me. It’s not a sit back and listen kind of talk.
What is our section of this book (2.28 -
3.10) about? Some would say it seems to be all about Christ’s appearing. 4
times John mentions it.
Others would say, no; what’s really important
here is the whole idea of being born of God, being a child of God. That is
mentioned twice as often; 8 times.
Then others might say, “Yes, but the verb ‘to
know’ appears 9 times. This is basically about knowing, how we know the
truth about God and about ourselves.
Still others would say, “You’re all wrong.
It’s essentially about sin. There’s so much here about sin; in fact, the word
occurs 10 times, more than any other.
Actually, they’d all be right. But taking the
themes in turn and treating them separately is a bit like trying to get the
eggs, the butter, the sugar and the flour out of a cake.
But that, my friends, is what I’m going to
try and do this morning…
1. Appearing
Four times in
this little passage, as I said, John mentions Christ’s appearing. You can see it
on the screen, highlighted in blue, though it’s too small to read, you need to
open a church Bible to do that. Here are the four statements.
V8: The reason the
Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.
V5: He appeared so
that he might take away our sins.
V28: When
he appears, we may be confident and unashamed before him.
V2: When Christ appears, we shall
be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
Did you notice? Twice
it says that Jesus has appeared already. And twice it says he will appear one
day. Both are true.
Jesus has already
come, as a small baby in Bethlehem, born in obscurity, raised in poverty, he
lived in humility.
He touched the
world with grace. His was the most beautiful life ever lived. But his world
rejected him; he suffered appallingly and died young, giving his innocent life
to take away sins before rising again on the third day.
John says, (v5)
that he appeared to take away our sins; not just to forgive them, but to
actually remove them.
Imagine you have rats running around your
house. It’s not really what you want, so what do you do? You call the pest
control people. The Rentokil van pulls up, and thank God, out gets a guy with a
death ray blaster. His job is to get rid of your rats.
As far as you’re concerned, you just need
those rats out of your kitchen, out of your bed, and away from the house
altogether. Who among us would say, “Actually, on second thoughts, I feel sorry
for them. I forgive these rats. Why don’t we just keep them here after all?”
Sin is like rats. The only solution is to get rid.
The devil wants to fill your body with sickness,
your mind with error, and your soul with sin. Jesus came to get rid altogether of the utter misery sin makes in our
lives. He came (says v8) to destroy the devil’s work in what will one day be
confirmed and concluded and completed as a crushing defeat.
But twice here it
talks of Christ’s appearing as a future event. That’s because Jesus is coming
again.
One of my earliest memories as a child of
about 4, is getting caught by my dad doing something that I knew was expressly
forbidden.
There was this high shelf in the kitchen (to
me, it was like scaling Everest) with breakfast cereals and biscuits on it. But
I had learned to climb and I was determined to scale the sheer face of the
kitchen cupboards and plant my flag.
I reached base camp (which was a chair), made
it to stage 1 (the kitchen worktop), got to stage 2 (the toaster), then went up
on tiptoes reaching for this bounty at the summit. Unfortunately, it was all a
little out of reach and, as I stretched for the cookie jar, I knocked an open
pack of Rice Krispies all over the floor.
I got down and tried desperately to scoop all
this cereal back into the box. And as I did, I heard my dad approaching and
entering the kitchen. He looked down, I looked up… “What are you doing?” he
said. “Nothing,” I replied.
I felt embarrassed and humiliated to be
caught so red handed. Guilt was written all over my face. There was nowhere to
hide…
If we’re alive when Jesus returns to Earth, and
our faith is intact, we won’t be ashamed and cringing when he looks at us. All
our sins were forgiven and removed on the cross – and, if we continue in him as
John says in v28, we will have nothing to hide…
In fact, v2 says, “When
Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” Not as he
was, but as he is.
Revelation 1 speaks
of his present glory; his eyes are like blazing fire. His feet are like liquid bronze
glowing in a heated furnace, his voice is deafening - like the thunder of
rushing waters. His face is like the sun in all its brilliance.
When Jesus comes
again, this is what he’ll be like. It’ll be shock and awe. His appearance will
be utterly overwhelming.
And we will be like
him. We talk of radiant brides and of people so happy their faces are beaming. This
is what our faces will look like when Jesus returns.
Not everyone though.
Zechariah 12 says that those of God’s chosen people who rejected him as their Messiah
“will look on the one they pierced, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves
for a firstborn son.” Many will be dismayed to see him.
Those who will be changed at his second
coming are those who have already been changed by his first coming.
2. Knowing
The next key
word is the verb to know.
How do we know if we really belong to God?
How do we know if God loves us? How do we know if we’re on the right track?
It’s
fashionable in some circles to say we’re unsure about our standing with God. It
sounds modest and self-effacing to say, “I’m not sure if I’m a Christian or
not. I hope so.” I’m trying to be.” Do you ever think or talk like that?
Brian/Sola is going to speak on “this is how
we know” next week so I won’t say much about that now, but this is a key reason
this letter was written. These Gnostics (we’d maybe call them know-alls) were
coming into the church and unsettling people with strange ideas.
God
wants you, as his child, to know beyond any shadow of doubt that he loves you,
that you are secure, that he won’t change his mind about you, and that because
of Jesus you can have certainty of eternal life.
I want to highlight one verse here which doesn’t
trespass on next week’s reading – it’s the end of v1 and it says this; “The
reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.”
Fashions change but the spirit of the age,
the spirit of this world, generally wears the same outfit; it is always hostile
to the kingdom of God.
In some countries, notably North Korea, China
and Nigeria, people are targeted for execution because they are Christians.
Jesus said we should expect this in many parts of the world - until he returns,
when it will stop. “Keep in mind” he said, “that if the world hates you, it
hated me first.”
Thank God, we don’t suffer that kind of
ill-treatment here in the UK. But I do think Christians are treated with a lack
of sympathy in our culture. The world doesn’t think we’re anything special - but
it didn’t think Jesus was anything special either. And they were spectacularly
wrong about him.
3. Children / Born of God
The third key
phrase here is ‘child of God’ or ‘born of God’.
Even if you are blessed with the most
wonderful Christian parents and are fortunate enough to grow up in a good
church, you were born separated from God. We are all were.
Everybody here today in fact was born
physically alive, but spiritually dead. From day 1, all of us need to be born
again, and made spiritually alive, in order to get right with God. That’s how
we become his children. And once you’re spiritually alive you stay that way
forever – even when you’re physically dead.
I mentioned at the beginning about our
heavenly Father lavishing us with love as his children. But how do we know if we
are children of God? Can we be sure? Is there a way of knowing?
As we saw a few weeks ago, John is very black
and white. He doesn’t do subtle. John doesn’t mind that much if you feel
offended, he just says it.
Here, he makes one of his stark binary
statements; you’re either a child of God, or you’re a child of the devil. It
would be really good to know which, wouldn’t it? If I wasn’t sure, I would want
to find out. Who’s the daddy? Is there a paternity test?
There is. It’s right here. In v10, John says,
“This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the
devil are: anyone who does not do what is right is not God’s child, nor is
anyone who does not love their brother and sister.”
In other words, there’s a family resemblance.
God is our Father and Jesus is our big brother. In character and values, children
of God become more like Jesus.
Did you notice when you became a Christian,
or when your childhood faith became personal, that one day you said to yourself,
·
I used to think like that, but now I think
like this
·
those things that used to be important to me
aren’t any longer
·
I want to bring my life into line with what God
says is right
·
I may not always manage, but that’s the path
I’m on
Did you notice when you became a Christian,
or when your childhood faith became personal, that you began to enjoy and
appreciate the company of other Christians?
·
it is great to worship God together
·
it is helpful to hear insights they had from reading
God’s word
·
it is good to be around people who understand
you, who get it
·
it feels that this is, somehow, family
These are the evidences that we are children
of God.
4. Sin
The final key
word is sin. John says in v4, “sin is lawlessness.” Sin is to say “there is no
authority above me. Imagine there’s no heaven. I’m in charge.”
I’m going to put 7 statements up on the
screen and I want you to raise a hand if you agree with the statement. No
sitting on the fence now…
Sin is:
·
indisputable - Christians do sin (1.8)
·
inevitable - Christians
will sin (1.10)
·
incompatible -
Christians should not sin (3.4)
·
intolerable - Christians
must not sin (3.8)
·
inexcusable - Christians
need not sin (3.6)
·
inapplicable -
Christians do not sin (5.18)
·
inconceivable
- Christians cannot sin (3.9)
Some of these statements seem to contradict each
other. Christians do sin, or Christians do not sin. Christians will sin, or
Christians cannot sin.
All these
statements are in 1 John and there are the references on the screen now. No
wonder people sometimes get confused. Four of them come in our reading; in v4,
6, 8 and 9 and I’ve highlighted them for you to see.
There is a difference between committing sin
and continuing in sin. Even the strongest, most faithful Christians fall into
sin but they do not boast about it and revel in it; they are sorry, come back
to God and seek forgiveness and restoration. 1 John 1.8 speaks about that very
thing:
“If we confess our sins, [God] is faithful
and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
In other words, under conviction of sin, we come
to our senses and come back to God.
By contrast, someone who continues in sin, is
not at all sorry for what they do. They ignore the conviction of the Holy
Spirit. They avoid repentance and show no intention of getting right with God. This
is a whole different thing. 1 John 3.9 speaks about it:
“No one who is born of God will continue to
sin, because God’s seed remains in them; they cannot go on sinning, because
they have been born of God.”
This is talking about people who make a
practice of sin and don’t care because they are hardened and indifferent to
God’s moral law.
Let me tell you about two people, real
people, that I heard about in preparation for this talk.
The first is a young woman, a new Christian
called Marie, who is constantly worried that she has lost her salvation by
falling into sin; a wrong thought, an unkind word, not praying for an hour
first thing in the morning. Pretty well everything sends her into a spin of self-doubt;
“how can God ever forgive me? I’ve really blown it now.”
The second is a middle-aged man who introduces
himself to his megachurch pastor. “Hi” he says. “I’m Mike. This is my wife Amy.
And this is my girlfriend Carlie.” The pastor meets him for coffee later that
week and explains to Mike why this is not OK.
But Mike disagrees. “I’ll do what I like. Who
are you to tell me what to do? You don’t have the right to judge me.”
I would sit Marie
down and say, “Marie, you are a child of God. He is faithful and just and will
forgive every sin and totally cleanse you from all unrighteousness. That’s why
Jesus came. The assurance you need to receive is found in 1 John 1.8-10.”
I would sit Mike
down and say, “Mike, it’s not enough to make religious noises; your lifestyle choices
and unwillingness to change display no evidence that you are a child of God. No
one who is truly born of God can continue to go on sinning like this. The
warning you need to heed is in 1 John 3.9.”
Ending
We’d better
end it there. What is God saying to you this morning?
·
Is this the day you respond for the first
time to what Jesus did for you on his first visit, so you’re prepared for his
second?
·
Is it time to get back on track with God
today?
·
Do you need the comfort of the Holy Spirit because
you’re paying the price of rejection and ridicule for following Jesus?
·
Do you need a new revelation of just how
precious you are as the apple of God’s eye, his loved and treasured child?
Let’s pray…
Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 26 January 2020
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