Power in the Pulpit | 1 John 2:28–3:10

Introduction: I think one of the more interesting insects is a caterpillar. Stick with me here, I promise this has a point. Think about how crazy it is that they build this cocoon as a caterpillar, and then when they bust out, they are a butterfly. In fact, I can’t prove this because I don’t know much about the emotions of butterflys, but I bet they are so ready when that day comes that they can finally bust out and become a butterfly. Now, if the cocoon is damaged or opened before the butterfly is ready, it’s not good news. I imagine it’s also easy to tell if something happened if the butterfly had it’s wings damaged somehow while in the cocoon because it’s not going to act like a butterfly. The same is true for humans. If we are truly believers in Christ, we are going to look forward to the day when we break out of this earthly shell. But if we have not truly been changed by God, this will impact both the future and the present.

Looking Towards the Future 1 John 2:28-3:3

Exposition: Once again we see John use the term, little children here. When he uses this term it is a term of endearment, but also his way of starting a new topic. He then tells his audience to abide in Him, meaning Christ, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink away in shame at his coming. The word abide can also mean to rest or remain in. Rest in him, remain in him. That is what John is saying. Why does John say we should do this? So that when Jesus comes back we can approach him in confidence.

Exposition: The fact that Jesus will one day return is one of the more common teachings of the New Testament. While we don’t know all the specifics involving his return, the New Testament is very clear about the fact that Christ will one day return. We talked about this a little bit last week, right. That when John said we were in the last hour he meant that we were in the last stage before Jesus came back to establish His kingdom here on earth. So we know for a fact that Jesus will come back.

Explanation: The words used for confidence and shrink in the Greek are actually synonyms for one another. In the Greek, it only uses one verb for the phrase “shrink from him in shame.” The word kind of means cowering over in shame.

Illustration: It’s kind of like when you were a little kid and you got caught doing something you shouldn’t have. You know that feeling of dread that came over you when your parents caught you messing with something you weren’t suppose to mess with. That’s kind of what John is getting at with his use of the word here.

Exposition: If we abide in Christ, if we remain in Him, when he appears we won’t have anything to be ashamed of. When he comes, we will know that with full certainty we are going to spend eternity with Him and we are going to rejoice that He has come. But if we don’t know Christ. What if we have not been abiding in Him. Well, probably when he comes there is going to be a dread that comes over us that words can’t even explain. We are going to know that we are not going to spend eternity with him and that it is not a good day for us. We won’t approach him with confidence because we know that our luck has finally run out. You see, our reaction to the idea of Jesus coming back probably says a lot about the status of our salvation.

Explanation:The word for appear has the connotation of suddenness in it. As I already said, we do not know when Jesus is coming back. But when he does it will be sudden.

Application: There’s a phrase I absolutely hate. A lot of times when young people are off doing sinful things, adults will excuse it by saying, “He or she just has to sow their wild oats.” This means that they are just going to have a little fun living in sin now, but they will eventually come around. How many of you have heard people your age say, “I’ll worry about Jesus stuff when I’m older.” There is no guarantee that we will live to see later. There’s no guarantee we will see it before Jesus comes back. If you know that you have not asked Christ to come into your heart, don’t just assume that’s something you can wait on. If you feel God calling you into relationship with Him, answer that call

Exposition: Verse 29 says, “If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices rigtheousness has been born of Him.” It’s not hard to tell when somebody is a Christian. The reason is, is because they tend to act like Christ. If we are born of Christ, we are going to act like Christ.

Exposition: Moving on to chapter 3, in verse 1, John writes, “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 they world does not know us is that it did not know him.’

Explanation: In our translations of scripture it always says what kind of love. But when doing the research for this message I learned something really interesting. In the Greek it actually translates, “From what country is this love...” The phrase was used when people were at ports and would see goods from other countries come in. They would see something that was unlike anything they had ever seen. The phrase to describe something so incredibly unique was, “What country is this from.”

Exposition: John is saying that the love of God is so incredible because it has allowed us to become Children of God. Paul talks a little about this in Romans 5:6-8

Romans 5:6–8 ESV

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Exposition: When John says he has made us his children, he is using a little bit different terminology than Paul uses when he says we have become God’s sons. That term refers to adoption. Here, John says that God has changed our nature and made us His children. He has called us His children and we are His children. Beloved, there’s nothing we can do to make ourselves right with God. There’s nothing we could do on our own to make ourselves right with God, It is only because of what He has done. But because we have been changed. Because he has taken us and changed us from being of the world to being of Him, the world is not going to recognize us.

Application: This may not seem like good news to some of you, but if you are faithfully following Christ, then you are going to stand out at school. You are going to be different than your classmates. They are not going to understand why you do or don’t do certain things because they don’t understand what it is like to walk with Christ. But you know what. You must endure, because as John goes on to tell us in verse 2, it will be worth it.

Exposition:He says, “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.” A part of being a Christian is living in this state of already not yet. What I mean by that, is that we are already children of God. We are already living with a hope that can only come from Jesus. But we have not yet received the inheritance we have been promised. You see,These bodies eventually break down. Y’all are young, so you don’t understand this quite as well yet, but you know that these bodies aren’t perfect. And when we die, we leave these bodies behind. When we die right now before Jesus has returned, we leave our bodies behind. But when Christ returns, we are going to rise again as Christ rose from the tomb and we will have spiritual bodies like Christ had. Paul writes in Philippians 3:21

Philippians 3:21 ESV

who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.

Explanation: We will get glorified bodies that are not subject to the pain and sufferings of this sinful world.

Exposition: We will also get to see God face to face. We will not be separated by sin, because like Him, we will be sinless.

Exposition :This only happens through a relationship with Jesus. John writes in verse 3, “And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.” The only way to receive this promise is by confessing our sins and placing our hope in Jesus. Once again, we see it’s no work of our own, but instead is the work of Jesus Christ. By placing our hope in him we are purified.

Transition: We see John talk of what we can look forward to, but what does that mean for now. As we have seen John say already, we need to examine our lives to see if we have truly been born of God.

What It Means for Now 1 John 3:4-10

Exposition: When John speaks of the practice of sinning in verse 4, he is not speaking of perfectionism. The Greek grammar does not support that. What he is referring to habitual sin. It is the idea that we have chosen to continue in sin and not left it behind. He then goes on to refer to sinfulness as lawlessness. This seems extreme, doesn’t it. When we think of lawlessness we think of like cowboy movies where everyone is shooting one another while riding around on horses. But sin is lawlessness because of what we are saying when we chose to sin. We are saying that we are choosing to ignore the commands of the creator of the universe and do what we want to do. We are telling the one true God that we are going to disobey him and do things our way. That is what sin ultimately is.

ExpositionL John supports is claim by saying that Christ appeared to take away sin and in Him there is no sin. The situation we were put in by sin, was so great that we needed Jesus to come and rescue us. The only way to escape the punishment we were due for sin was for the sinless Son of God to come and die on the cross for our sins and then rise again. That was the only way it was possible.

Exposition: John then gives us a a way of knowing whether or not somebody has given their life to Christ. There are lots of voices in your head telling you that you can live a lifestyle contrary to scripture and still be within God’s will. If we are saved by faith in Jesus Christ we will know this is not true because the new person we are is more aligned with Christ. We know that a part of the call to follow Christ is to leave those things behind.

ExpositionL We also see that sin is the exact opposite of God. It’s of the devil. Satan is real and he does not want you to have life in Christ. Sin is of the devil who himself is a fallen angel because of sin. John says that the reason Christ came was to destroy the works of the devil.

Application: I think most of us in here already knew that sin was from the devil, right. Christ came to free us from the curse of sin which is the work of the devil. When we allow sin to gain a foothold in our lives, we are allowing ourselves to become trapped by the things that Christ acme to destroy.

Illustration: When we fall into a habit of sin, it’s like trying to put chains back on that Christ already freed us from. When we chose to stay in our sins instead it’s like we are telling the person with the keys, no thank you. I would rather stay chained up. Christ came to free us from the darkness of sin and we need to embrace that.

Exposition: John goes on in verse 9 to say No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God.”

Again, this is not talking about perfectionism, but about what our habits are. Those of us that are in Christ Jesus know exactly what John is talking about. You know that feeling of regret that comes with sin. We know that force that pulls us back to repentance when we are in sin. This is the effect of the Holy Spirit within us. God has planted His Spirit in us to convict us of sin. This is why we cannot keep sinning if we are born of God.

Exposition:Verse 10 says this, “By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.” This is a pretty good indicator of who is a Christian and who isn’t. There’s behavior which is certainly part of it. But there is also the attitude towards sin. Is there repentance or not. But it isn’t just an internal righteousness. It’s behaviorial. It’s how we treat others. Being born of God means learning to live like Christ. This is shown in the great commandment.

Conclusion: The most famous verse in the Bible is John 3:16. You know it, say it with me. “For God so loved the world that he sent is only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. That verse comes within the story of Nicodemus. Nicodemus was a pharisee, a leader of a certain sect of Judaism. NIcodemus is asking Jesus how he does everything he does. Jesus tells him that unless he is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus is obviously confused. He asks if a man can enter back into a mother’s womb, which probably seemed like his worst nightmare. But Jesus told that he had to be born of the Spirit. What Jesus was telling Nicodemus is that you have to be changed from being something of this earth, to something of heaven. In fact, this is why he came. So that we could be reborn. Have you been reborn? Have you believed in Jesus as the Son of God and asked him to forgive your sins. If not, don’t wait. Talk to me or another adult in here. Allow yourself to be reborn so that you can live the life God has for you and look forward to the day that we are with Christ for eternity.