ALL SAINTS SUNDAY – Nov. 3, 2019 – 1 John 3:1-3
Introduction: Grace be to you and peace, from God our Father, and from our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ. Our text is the Epistle Lesson just read, from 1 John 3. We begin with prayer.
Dear fellow disciples of our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ:
- One of the things that we are going to need to “retrain” ourselves on is our relationship to the world around us. When I was growing up as a child our parents, teachers, pastors, law enforcement officers, all had a relatively easy job teaching “right and wrong.” Our culture was much more closely “attuned” to Christianity.
- If we had been a bit wiser and more observant, we likely would not have had such a relaxed and easy feeling about our culture. Under the surface there were many things that were not right – and these are the things that have been coming out into the open for the past 50 or so years.
- We assumed many things that were not true of the world around us. We have continued to assume many of them. One of these assumptions is burst by this text from the Holy Spirit through the apostle John. “The world does not know us, because it did not know God!” The world, of course, refers to “unbelievers,” those who do not know about or who have rejected Jesus and God’s free gift of salvation.
- Unbelievers do not know you. They do not know what you believe at the heart and core of your being, God’s love for you. They do not know God – although many important things about Him are evident from His creation.
- It is true that we are to make disciples of all nations, and that we are to love all people. But we must keep distinctions clear, and take great care not to become infatuated with the unbelieving world around us, or conform to their values, ways, and behaviors.
- In our text John directs our attention elsewhere, to the fact that “WE ARE GOD’S CHILDREN. Even now, he says, we are truly God’s children, and:
I. We Are Children Of God Because Of His Love – Which He Has Enabled Us To See In Christ Jesus
A. We Are Redeemed By Jesus
1 John 2:2 “He is the blood atonement for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.”
B. We Are Now Reclaimed By God As His Dear Children, When He Brought Us To Faith And Back To Spiritual Life
Eph. 2:1-6 “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience – among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved – and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”
1 Peter 1:23 “You have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding Word of God.”
Statement: This is the critical thing, what makes all the difference. Those who know God’s love in Christ Jesus know Him. Unbelievers do not know God. Therefore, unbelievers cannot know us – who we are, that we have been “made alive together with Christ . . . raised up with Him.” And this is salvation, and it is all by God’s gracious love!
Application: So, whereas unbelievers cannot know us, we surely ought to be able to know our fellow Christians. They repent with us. They confess their sins with us. They receive and rejoice in God’s gracious forgiveness and mercy with us. They share the hope of eternal life and salvation with us! Together, we all acknowledge humbly and give eternal thanks and praise for this wondrous love that the Father has lavished upon us!
Transition: And all of this has consequence for our lives, as John instructs us! We are not looking at the world, or trying to “succeed” in being worldly, or hoping to not stick out too much from the world. Rather:
II. We Know That If We Are God’s Children Now, We Are Glorious, But Also That We Will Be Even More Glorious
A. This Occurs When We See Jesus As He Is – Either At The Moment Of Our Death, Or When He Returns In Glory On The Last Day
Text: “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when He appears we shall be like Him, because we will see Him as He is.”
John 14:2,3 “In My Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to Myself, that where I am you may be also.”
Romans 14:8 “For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s.”
B. When We See Him We Will Be Like Him, Glorious And Immortal
Text: “We know that when He appears we shall be like Him.”
Phil. 3:21 “Jesus Christ will transform our lowly body to be like His glorious body, by the power that enables Him even to subject all things to Himself.”
1 Cor. 15:51-53 “Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality.”
C. Because We Thus Hope In Him, We Purify Ourselves – For We Know That He Is Pure
Statement: We will not learn purity by studying the ways of the world. Just the opposite! So our attention must be focused on Jesus, on His glorious and pure love for us. Our attention must be focused on removing the impurities that are in our sinful nature – and this is an immense task. We do so by “daily contrition and repentance,” by seeing the love of God, that “the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.” Thus beholding His glorious love, the apostle Paul assures us that “we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.” This is precisely how we participate in “purifying ourselves.”
Application: Thus the process is a precious blessing and a challenge, which yields even greater blessings. First, we are strengthened and renewed by the knowledge of God’s love and salvation. Then we engage in the process of transformation – by contrition, sorrow for sin, and then joyous faith. The result is that we are transformed into the very image of the glorious Lord Himself. And the process culminates in perfection the moment we “see Him as He is.”
Conclusion: This is to be the primary ambition of every child of God. It is not the world’s ambition. They have absolutely no clue about these things. But God has blessed us, made us His dear children, provided us with new life, enabled us to see His love and be transformed by it, and promised us a glorious and eternal future.
This is our focus – to live our destiny even here and now, purifying ourselves even as God is pure! May God grant that we realize and understand the blessedness He has bestowed upon us, making us His dear children, so that we lose any affection we might have for this fallen world! Amen.
Votum: And the peace of God, which surpasses all human understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds in the true faith, which is in Christ Jesus, even unto life everlasting, Amen.