1 John 2:28-3:10
The Letters of John • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Introduction
Introduction
I don’t know anyone who simply hits the lock button on there car keys once
That is a bold move and respect to anyone who does
We all hit to hear the horn 3 times just to make sure
We check doors three times after we lock it
Still gotta pull the handle
At the heart of all the quirks is something deep inside of us
A longing to know things are safe and secure
A lingering doubt that maybe once isn’t enough or we are missing it
A mistrust of ourselves after lifetimes of knowing we miss it
We do this with Jesus
I have
I have prayed prayers in the worst of times asking god if you just help me here I will follow you
I have been scared into asking god into my heart, moved emotionally by a concert to pray again because I wasn’t sure I got it right the first time
A get out of hell free card faith will always make us hit the spiritual lock button 17 times
John is here to tell us following the true Jesus is completely different then that
Christianity is a status of adoption not something we try and earn
It is praying to repent and believe in the miracle of grace no matter what we have done
It is a prayer of repentance and belief in the King who died to take back all that is his…and you are part of that ransom he has spilled his blood to take back
John is here to tell us he has been there, lived the authentic, left religion for the Gospel of Grace and has never lost His awe of the Savior
John is here to tell us once you have done that you never have to check the door of your salvation again
Once you have taken hold of the real thing you can run after it the rest of your life in assurance you are his
Behold the beauty of assurance
Behold the beauty of the simple gospel
Behold the Jesus who alone can save
Behold the thing you have always longed for is real and you can have it
We are going to focus in on one of the most powerful verses in all of the bible today
In 1 John 2:28-3:10 lies the Gem of Chapter 3:1-3
It is an anchor for an old man John he holds out to the world
We are going to see 2 things in it
Eyes to See and Hope We Can’t Imagine
Eyes to See 1 John 3:1
Eyes to See 1 John 3:1
See what great love the Father has given us that we should be called God’s children—and we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it didn’t know him.
The letter of 1 John is all about the assurance believers have in the real message in the face of competing voices
Especially false messages coming from so called Christians
It is the passion of an old man and old pastor fighting for the people he loves to never feel the message they have believed is inadequate when others tell them they have missed it
Messages of lies that shake our faith and make us feel we have to hit the lock button an extra time on our salvation
It is also a clear picture of what it looks like for our longing hearts to be satisfied in the Christian Message maybe for the first time
Only one thing matters for John to leave the people he loves before he is gone
The gospel has captivated him and he has never looked back and he longs for us to be captivated by the words of 1 John 3:1
See what great love the Father has given us that we should be called God’s children—and we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it didn’t know him.
Be hold be in awe be captivated give your life and heart and longings and hopes and fears to the great God we have
Don’t run back to the lies that destroy and never deliver on what they promise
History tells us his tenacity as this older man we have to get a picture of
Church historian Eusebius wrote in the 3rd century and recorded the explosion of christianity accross the roman empire
He records that around when John was an old man writing this letter he had led a young man to Jesus
He was discipling him and had to leave on a trip and left him to another pastor to walk with him in life
When he got back he asked the pastor how the guy was and he told John the kid was dead to God again
the kid had gone back to the streets and crime and what we would call today gang life
He had gone back to the hills where no one dared go at night because of the violence of the streets where this kid went back too
Eusebius tells that john ripped his cloak in grief and asked for a horse
He rode to the dark hills when no one in there right mind would go and was kidnapped by the kids gang
He went to where it was death to go
He asked to be taken to the kid and when he saw John he took off running even though he was armed
This old man John unafraid went after him and yelled why run from me there is still hope and life for you don’t you see i would gladly suffer dying to get you back as Jesus did for me, stop, listen trust me”
At the words of this tenacious old man the boy threw his weapon and came sobbing back to this old man who loved him and never stopped loving him
If you knew a man like John you always ask what made you that way? How are you so brave in the face of darkness?
Because John has had his world shook by the christian hope that Christ alone
It is the only thing that has mattered since the day he followed His best friend and Savior
In his other book of the bible the Gospel of John he refers to himself as the disciple Jesus loved
It sounds arrogant but its because we don’t understand the language of the greek
the word he uses is not the word for arrogant one time i was special so he loved me love
It is the word for needing continuous never running out love…he was the disciple Jesus has to keep loving time and time again…and he has been commited to where the gospel took him from that day on
So in the middle of his letter he is tenaciously exclaiming what can save us in a world that isn’t how its supposed to be
He is exclaiming how radical the war is that has made a way for us to be brought back home to be children of God…no matter who you are and what you have done
He has gone through chapter 1 how to know god,
Chapter 2 how to know you know god,
but here he explains why it is possible to know god, not a matter of trying harder or a mechanical transaction you have to be born again and adopted in the family and in the middle that reality He explodes in emotion
It is an outburst our translations miss…maybe yours has an exclaimation point but it misses the passion
See what great love the Father has given us that we should be called God’s children—and we are!
To be a christian isn’t that you get a get out of hell free card you have to always push the lock button on to make sure you’re good with him
it is about knowing God …personally…calling him father being his son or daughter…to be adopted back into the family sin has stolen
For John to realize that a way back to God has been made leaves him in awe and it should leave us in awe
We miss something in the translation from greek to english of verse one
We have what are called idioms in english - like “its really raining cats and dogs out there” if you had someone in german translate that they would have no clue what we were talking about
Verse 1 is an idiom in the original greek
What John is saying is the love of God to save us is other worldly…he is saying look at the completley other worldly love God has shown us
For John to remember what it took for God to save him makes him explode in emotionAnd it does for me when I remember
What did it take? What did God the father do for me through Jesus to breathe new life into me through the spirit when I was dead?
What has left this tenacious old man on fire for 40 years in the face of death and loss
I can put it in a story to paint the picture of the other worldly things God has done to save a sinner like me and adopt me as His son
Baker needed a procedure when he was a baby
I was able to go back into the room with him for it
They crossed his arms and strapped him down and he was scared just a one month old baby…and the first shot to numb him hit and he screamed for 30 minutes he just screamed and i had my face pressed up to his from the first second telling him daddy is here its ok daddy is here its ok unit sweat was pouring off my head
I cannot imagine what it would have taken to get me out of that room away from my baby boy
How many men it would have taken to move me?
In the room after i had a puddle of tears under my face as i hung my head in my hands
And it hit me later on
To save me God did the other worldly
Jesus was strapped down in terror and horrific pain
Alone on a tree outside Jerusalem
He cried out for his dad
To save me the father looked at his son as i did baker but the Father turned and walked out of the room
What my sin deserves my being on the cross for rejecting God Jesus took my place
The father who has every right to turn his back on me chose to turn his back on the Son so he would never have to turn his back on me
Many say see what kind of mean god you have that would do that to his son i can’t believe in a god like that
But they miss the otherworldly love of the Father …to save you he had to pour out what we deserve on the son
They miss the otherworldly love of the Son…to save you he had to take your place
it is not anger it is love that saves us
This is why Stuart Townend wrote the powerful words of the song How Deep the Fathers Love for Us
How deep the Father's love for us
How vast beyond all measure
That He should give His only Son
To make a wretch His treasure
How great the pain of searing loss
The Father turns His face away
As wounds which mar the Chosen One
Bring many sons to glory
Behold the man upon a cross
My sin upon His shoulders
Ashamed, I hear my mocking voice
Call out among the scoffers
It was my sin that held Him there
Until it was accomplished
His dying breath has brought me life
I know that it is finished
What John has laid out is the true picture of God
It is the true message of the only message that can save
It needs no add ons it is simply this message of the real Jesus and the real Gospel
Can you see why this old man is an absolute tenacious pit bull about the gospel
he hates when it is twisted he is broken hearted when people reject it and he exists to see it take root in our hearts so we never look to anything else to save us
Because this message alone gives Hope We Can’t Imagine
Hope We Can’t Imagine 1 John 3:2-3
Hope We Can’t Imagine 1 John 3:2-3
Dear friends, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when he appears, we will be like him because we will see him as he is. And everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself just as he is pure.
All i could hear in my head as I hit these verses was that late night info-mercial voice saying .....”But Wait There’s More!!!”
As if what we just heard wasn’t other worldly enough the hope for the unbelievable is even more
The otherworldly saving and adoption into His family is mine
Legally adopted unchanging by faith how miraculous is that
I don’t have to hit the lock button 15 times on my salvation
Thats what I am now
But wait theres more
Verse 2: what we will be has not yet been revealed
There is more in this then i could ever get to in 5 minutes but heres the unimaginable of seeing hIm
A day is coming when I will see my king face to face and what will happen then is an explosion we can’t imagine
In Romans 8:22 , Paul said that “the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now.” He's attributing faith-fueled and hope-shaped groans to nonhuman creation.
If we are honest those are the groans from the deepest parts of us in the dark nights we all know
As children apopted by God they are longings for all that is sad to come untrue
What Paul is saying is that when we see jesus it will be so unimaginable that the by product will be that all of creation will be made right
When we are with him finally everything in creation that is broken will explode back to what it was always meant to be
That is unimaginable…but wait theres more
We are part of what is made right
We get a new body as physical as we are now but perfect
No more cancer or blindness no more wheelchairs or surgeries no more sickness heart failure and funerals and fear
Our greatest enemy death will be slaughtered by our King
To hold our Jesus will explode new life in all of creation including our broken bodies
But wait theres more
We will never know the regret and what ifs
We will never know the loneliness and pain of a spouse who has hurt us or the fears of singleness
I carry the weight of regrets I will never forget this side of heaven
Mistakes I’ve made and lies I have believed about life and God and myself Expectations not met by life and other people
Maybe you know what that feels
Let this sink in
What awaits those adopted into God’s family through faith in Jesus is unimagineable
In that day—
this is the Lord’s declaration—
you will call me, “My husband,”
and no longer call me, “My Baal.”
For I will remove the names of the Baals
from her mouth;
they will no longer be remembered by their names.
God is calling out to his people who have ran to other loves and left Him
We all have
He calls it adultery against Him and it breaks His heart
He promises he will always be there to draw us back no matter how much it has cost us or how much it will cost Him
It is His mercy that lures the adultrous people back to love Him and here is the one day coming promise
On that day when we are face to face with Him He promises He will remove the names of all that has broken us from our mouths
That great pain from life you won’t even remember its name
That great regret you will not even remember its name
That what if won’t haunt you you won’t even remember its name
The misplaced loves that leave us empty won;t exist for us to run too anymore
We will be His and He will be ours forever
What else offers hope like the Gospel?
Do you see why the tenacious Old Pastor John is exploding in emotion when the other worldly love of God comes to his mind
When he remembers the mercy shown Him by His best friend and Savior
When he remembers he is the one Jesus loves and has to keep loving
When he saw and touched the risen Jesus and knows what is coming
Have you ever known that emotion in response to the Gospel
This passage is for all of us
If you are His remember with John and be in awe
Run after the Gospel with all you have
And if you are here and you have never been adopted as God’s own you can today in repentance and belief
You never have to hit that lock button on your hope again