1 John 3
Letters of John • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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I have this memory of early childhood when my parents, sister and I were at a party at someone elses house. I was maybe 5 or so and I remember that there were a whole bunch of adults standing around a living room. It was the 1980s and to a five year old it was a forest of Jordache jeans. I walked up to a pair of jeans and clung onto the leg, as a kid is wont to do. I looked up and lo and behold it wasn’t my dad. I had misread the acid wash. I had misidentified my dad. It is a strange thing to look up thinking that you will see a very familiar face and end up seeing a stranger. It is disorienting.
And I think we can easily lose that same disorientation as well. We often find ourselves in a world, or situation or conversation that is disorienting. You thought something was going to happen one way, and once you look up, it’s something entirely unfamiliar.
When we become disoriented, we often ask two questions:
What did I do to get here?
What do I need to do to move on from here?
These are the ultimate questions that the culture asks when faced with any kind of situation. How did I get here, What do I need to do now?
Because of our common disorientation to people and things in the world, we do not percieve the world aroudn us as inviting. It is an unfamiliar pair of jeans.
We feel we have to fight and compete and vy for positions to be seen. Look at any celebrity or influencer today. All they want is to be seen. They want to know that someone is connected to them.
Same with us. Any vying for attention is a claim to be seen, to be known.
In that struggle we have forgotten one important question. We always ask, what did I do to get here and what do I need to do to go from here.
What we don’t ask is, “where am I?”
This morning we are going to look at a passage that opens with God’s position as the Father. And we are going to understand that God, as Father, has made claims on those He calls His children.
When we understand The family relationship of God as Father we can begin to answer the important initial question of “where am I?”
We move in very fast directions, we have an overwhelming amount of information and stimulation. What we don’t always have is orientation. We have to begin with where we are. God’s claim on us as Father will locate us to Him.
So If you have ever been disoriented, or are running from pant leg to pant let, trying to find something familiar, then looking at this passage can help us to settle into God’s claims on us as His children.
God’s claim on us as children shows us what love is and how we experience it
God’s claim on us as children shows us what love is and how we experience it
If God calls us our Father, then there are certain things we can understand to be true about Him and about us.
Let’s look at this statement, that God forms us to Himself for others.
See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 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 shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.
God loves us in such a way that He has not chosen to call us a group, or a collective, or a system, or a membership. God doesn’t say, welcome to the club.
God says, welcome to the family.
We know who(se) we are
We know who(se) we are
Family orients us like nothing else. For better or worse, family is the most important indicator for how we find ourselves in the world.
And God is telling us this morning that He is not relating to us as a boss or judge or manager, but as a Father.
Anything less than a parent and we would continually ask,
what did i do to get here. Where do I need to go from here?
But to know God as Father shows us where we are by showing us whose we are.
John says, and so we are.
Maybe we need to remind ourselves of this truth. How incredible it is that God would love us enough, not to be called His minions or employees, but His children.
That is an incredible enough truth that we sometimes just have to remind ourselves of it.
“And so we are.”
Maybe through the rest of this morning, you may need to just either say or whisper or think, “and se we are.” Let the truth that God is our Father and if you have trusted Christ this morning then we are His children.
And so we are.
Maybe you still haven’t figured out what to do with Christ. You are thinking, wrestling, wondering, disagreeing with this idea of God. And I can understand that maybe the image of a father isn’t a great one. But the fatherhood of God reflects everything a good father should be. And God is inviting you to understand Him as a good father. As a reflection of all that is good in life. The call is to orient yourself to Him.
And when we orient ourselves to Him, we end up being able to understand much more about how to operate and live in the world. We understand what it means to be formed to be like Him.
Until we understand where we are can we understand what to do.
The passage states that we are God’s children now, through faith, but it is already and not yet. We trust God is making us like Christ, but we have not yet seen Him like He is. But we hope. And it is that hope in Him that leads John to a helpful statement about becoming like God in Christ. To be formed and become like Christ.
And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.
We are purified, in fact we purify ourselves. That means we look more and more to where we are in Him and make choices from that.
The Scripture states that as we hope in Him. God is our hope as Father and Savior, as we Hope in Him, we purify ourselves as He is pure.
God is already complete. He is actual. He is pure. And to know Him is to become like Him. If He is pure and we belong to Him and orient our lives to Him, we know what He is like and become like Him. We choose to be like the GOd who calls us children.
And so we are.
We know where we are
We know where we are
We can be purified and formed by Him, becoming who He has called us to be because He has called us His Children.
A good father loves thier child completely where they are at. And wants them to become everything they can as they grow.
God orients us to Himself, loving us entirely where we are at. And because we are His, calls us to become everything we are called to in Him.
So if John says that Those who hope in him purify themselves because He is pure, it means that because God is who He is, we reflect that reality. Whoever God is, as we orient to Him, we become like Him.
And once we know where we are, we know whose we are and who we belong to, we are free to serve others. We don’t need to chase after security or love, we are invited into it. We are inaugurated into it. And when we are, we are free to serve others. We we have what we need, we can offer ourselves to others.
We are free to love others and free to serve others when we are no longer disoriented and are oriented by the heart of God for His kids.
If we understand that we are completely loved by God, we are free to be who God has created us to be, to be in relationship with one another in such a way that invites us to find ourselves in Him.
Where are you at this morning?
Do you need to know that you are loved by God? That He has invited you in?
are you disoriented, without a point of reference?
I was in Florida last week, in Deltona, just outside of Orlando. I was part of a team putting on a peacemaking seminar for the FLorida District of our denomination. So there were about 50 people in the room and out of those 50 people 45 of them were from Florida. I was the lone New Englander.
And I would talk to people and ask them where they were from and they would tell me a city name. Great, I would reply! Where is that. 2.5 hours from here. Great, I would reply! Which direction? That way, they would point. GReat! what direction is that?
Because I don’t live there and don’t know Florida geography, they were telling me things and I had no concept of where I was in reference to them. Because I was disoriented, I had no way of knowing where anything was in connection to anything else.
IF you know where you are you can figure out where you are going.
If I knew where I was in Florida I could tell you where these other places were. Knowing where to go means you need to orient yourself. Knowing where you are means knowing where you need to go.
If I understood where Deltona was, I could understad where Dayton or Tampa was.
We need to know where we are.
Begin there. Even if you have gotten turned around, Go back to Deltona.
And So we are.
Maybe you are a Christ follower and you have something big going on in your life, and maybe that big thing has overshadowed the Father.
His love cannot be folded over. It cannot be hidden. Take a moment and ask Him to remind you of His love.
Or maybe you need to know His love, that He is calling you as a son or daughter, to reflect Him and be formed in Him
Or maybe you need to know His love because loving others is difficult work. And the reality is is that if you belong to Christ this is the command. It is not love if you feel like it.
But we need to know the love of God to know how to love people. We need to be oriented to God in such a way that love for others is the spillover.
But maybe it has been hard to love others and you need to turn back to Christ and be formed in Him again.
John says
for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.
If we feel condemned, if we feel like it is too much, too far, too hard. If loving people feels like an impossibility, then God wants you to know that He is greater than that burden. He is inviting you into sonship and daughtership.
Knowing your place in God’s kingdom, His heart and mind frees us to love others, it frees us to look out for the Other. It is often when we don’t know where we are that we get anxious and lonely.
If you are a Christian this morning you know where you are. You belong to Christ.
And So we are
You are free, in His love, to love others. Free, in His love, to care for others.
But that can be easier said than done.
I want you to know the “and so we are” in your life. Orient yourself to God’s love as His children.
I have been using this image of spinning or disorientation the last couple weeks but I think this is one of our biggest issues. We are a culture without a floor. we walk around in quicksand trying to gain any sense of purchase
and so we feel like we have been given no other choice than to flail and choose and hope we made the best decision. We have to build the plane while flying so to speak.
except we don’t. What Gods word tells us is that we have been brought in and given what we need to live well for the sake of another. You are oriented. You can know where you are.
Once you know His great love, John says, everything else, the love of others, freedom from sin, is possible.
When you can answer whose you are and where you are.
You can begin to look at what you need to do.
Do you know whose you are?
And where you are?
John Reminds us.
And so we are.
Benediction
Despite all this, you belong to God.