1 John 2:28-3:10—Live Like Children of God
Notes
Transcript
Bookmarks & Needs:
Bookmarks & Needs:
B: 1 John 2:28-3:10
N:
Welcome
Welcome
Good morning! I’m pastor Bill Connors, and it’s great to be back with my church family after a couple of weeks away. I want to thank Joe and Trevor for both faithfully preaching the truth from our series in 1 John over the last couple of Sundays, and I want to thank this church family for making my trip possible. Many have asked about it, and I will be sharing about where I’ve been for the past couple of weeks, but not until April 23, due to some scheduling things like Easter weekend.
If you’re a guest of the Eastern Hills church family this morning, I’d like to welcome you to our Family Worship service, and I’d also like to invite you to text the word “welcome” to 505-339-2004 at some point during the service. You’ll get a text back that has a link to our digital communication card, and we’d appreciate it you’d fill that out so we can drop you a note thanking you for being here today. If you’d rather fill out something more physical, you’ll find our “analog” communication card in the back of the pew in front of you. You can just drop that in the offering boxes by the doors as we leave the service later on, or you can bring it down to me afterward, because I’d really like to meet you and introduce myself personally, as well as give you small gift to thank you for being with Eastern Hills this morning.
Announcements
Announcements
I have just two announcements to make this morning:
We just watched a great video about the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering for North American Missions. I wrote about this offering in the bulletin a couple of weeks ago, and I want to remind you that this offering represents about 50% of the total support that goes to SBC missionaries, church planters, and those serving in compassion ministry roles in Canada, the U.S., and U.S. territories. Eastern Hills’ goal for this offering this year is $17,000, and as of last Sunday, we’ve received $10,272. We will be taking this offering up throughout March and April, so take some time and pray about how the Lord would have you give to help support those serving in these missionary works.
Business meeting tonight at 5:30. We need a quorum of at least 50 church members to be able to conduct business, including voting on our three deacon candidates. Thanks for being here.
Opening
Opening
We are now just over halfway done with our series through the book of 1 John, which we are calling the Letter of Life, Light, and Love. One thing that’s so great about preaching through a book, or at least a large section of a book of Scripture, is that you have to deal with difficult passages. You can’t avoid them, and so you must face them head-on. Today’s focal passage contains a couple of statements that might at first sound like John is contradicting himself from earlier in the book, but he isn’t. So let’s open up our Bibles or turn in your Bible apps to the end of 1 John 2, and let’s stand in honor of God’s Word as we read our focal passage together:
28 So now, little children, remain in him so that when he appears we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming. 29 If you know that he is righteous, you know this as well: Everyone who does what is right has been born of him. 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. 2 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. 3 And everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself just as he is pure. 4 Everyone who commits sin practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness. 5 You know that he was revealed so that he might take away sins, and there is no sin in him. 6 Everyone who remains in him does not sin; everyone who sins has not seen him or known him. 7 Little children, let no one deceive you. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. 8 The one who commits sin is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God was revealed for this purpose: to destroy the devil’s works. 9 Everyone who has been born of God does not sin, because his seed remains in him; he is not able to sin, because he has been born of God. 10 This is how God’s children and the devil’s children become obvious. Whoever does not do what is right is not of God, especially the one who does not love his brother or sister.
PRAYER (Mesa Valley Church, Pastor John)
Have you ever had guests come to stay at your house? Maybe a dear friend or a family member? You make plans for them to come, and you give some thought to what will need to be done before they arrive. There’s all of this work that goes into getting the house ready. You make sure that the guest room is prepared, fresh linens are out, towels and such are where they need to be, the fridge or the pantry have something that the guest will enjoy. You plan for the activities that you’ll do together and what you want to show them or experience with them. You rearrange your own schedule as much as possible to accommodate the guest coming to visit, so you can make sure that you can spend the appropriate time with them. In short, you work from a position of anticipation, and that anticipation provides motivation. It motivates you to do certain things and complete certain tasks for a particular reason—so that everything is ready for the arrival of your guest.
Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve looked at warning signs of the draw of the world, and then drew some hard lines around the concept of antichrists. Trevor shared last week that John is clear in chapter 2 of this little letter that antichrists—those who are opposed to the truth of Jesus—would come, and so we need to abide, or remain in Christ. Then, in verse 28 of chapter 2, John turns the tables and points out that while we can be confident of the appearance of antichrists, we can also be confident of the coming appearance of Christ Himself. This promised return of Jesus in the flesh is a sure thing, and John presents it as an another form of motivation for us to abide in, or remain in Christ.
28 So now, little children, remain in him so that when he appears we may have confidence and not be ashamed before him at his coming.
Just as the visit of a friend of family member would motivate us to take certain actions in preparation, so John suggests that the certain future arrival of our Lord and Savior should motivate us to live in a particular way. We are to look forward to His imminent return, because He’s coming back: we just don’t know when.
Jesus addresses this fact in Mark 13:
32 “Now concerning that day or hour no one knows—neither the angels in heaven nor the Son—but only the Father. 33 “Watch! Be alert! For you don’t know when the time is coming. 34 “It is like a man on a journey, who left his house, gave authority to his servants, gave each one his work, and commanded the doorkeeper to be alert. 35 Therefore be alert, since you don’t know when the master of the house is coming—whether in the evening or at midnight or at the crowing of the rooster or early in the morning. 36 Otherwise, when he comes suddenly he might find you sleeping. 37 And what I say to you, I say to everyone: Be alert!”
His command to those listening is that we are to “be alert,” or “be ready” for His coming back. Being alert or ready is a means of looking forward to His return. And since we look forward to His return, we must ask ourselves the question: how should we live in anticipation of His coming back?
Remember that the purpose of John’s letter is to deal with those who have claimed to be in Christ, but who have now proven that they are not in Christ because they have separated from the Body and Bride of Christ, the church, and have departed from the truth. Recall verse 19 from chapter 2:
19 They went out from us, but they did not belong to us; for if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us. However, they went out so that it might be made clear that none of them belongs to us.
These people have denied the truth of the Gospel—that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, and have chased after false teaching. This simply showed that they never actually believed the Gospel, since they could deny Christ (2:22). And since they denied the Son, the also have denied the Father, according to verse 23.
So in verse 28, John writes that there is a simple contrast: those who remain in Jesus will have confidence at His return, with no need of shame or fear when He comes again. As the author of Hebrews wrote:
27 And just as it is appointed for people to die once—and after this, judgment—28 so also Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.
Those who are “waiting for Him” are those who are alert, ready for His return, and those are the ones who remain or abide in Him. However, John also wrote in verse 28 that shame awaits those who do not belong to Him, and Jesus said this as well in Mark 8:
38 For whoever is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”
These are hard sayings, and as a result, they demand hard lines as Trevor shared, and dire warnings as Joe preached. We have to answer the question of how we should live as we anticipate His return.
But before we dive into the deep end, I want to make one aspect perfectly clear: what John writes here at the end of chapter 2 and into chapter 3 should by no means be read to say that our salvation is somehow earned by our performance or our works. I don’t want you to be confused by this fact. John’s message here to the church is that those who are saved are those who remain in Christ, and the fact that they remain in Christ is evidence of their salvation, not the means that they are saved. Salvation is only found through faith in Jesus as Savior and Lord, and those who are saved should have changed lives because of their relationship with Him.
Throughout this passage, we will see that John brings out for the first time in this letter the concept of a parent/child relationship between us and God, a theme that he will carry through the rest of the book. Children bear a resemblance to their parents, as Solomon wrote in Proverbs 20:11
11 Even a young man is known by his actions— by whether his behavior is pure and upright.
John Stott, in his commentary on 1 John, wrote of this family resemblance as well:
“The child exhibits the parent’s character because he shares the parent’s nature. A person’s righteousness is thus the evidence of his new birth, not the cause or condition of it.”
—John Stott, The Letters of John
So we need to keep in mind that saving faith isn’t the result of works, but saving faith will absolutely result in works. Those works will not be perfectly manifested on this side of glory (as we will see in a moment), but the life of the true believer should be bent toward these four things according to this passage: righteousness, difference from the world, purity, and sinlessness.
1: God’s children are to be righteous because Jesus is righteous.
1: God’s children are to be righteous because Jesus is righteous.
Again, for clarity’s sake, it is only those who are God’s children who are righteous in God’s eyes, and as a result, this practical righteousness flows out of the bestowed righteousness that has been given to the believer in Christ: the righteousness of God based on faith. John says this clearly in two different verses in our focal passage:
29 If you know that he is righteous, you know this as well: Everyone who does what is right has been born of him.
7 Little children, let no one deceive you. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous.
These verses to not mean that if someone does something “right,” then that means they belong to Jesus, or that by doing good things one canon earn the righteousness of God. The way that John wrote both of these verses is that in both places where it says, “does what is right,” it speaks to a constant, ongoing state of doing. The ESV and the NASB might capture this language a little better than the CSB, because they both read that whoever “practices righteousness” is righteous. In other words, the one who habitually practices the righteous works of God shows that he has been born of God.
But according to Scripture, what does it mean to “do what is right?”
In John chapter 6, Jesus was asked a question about doing the works of God. Just after the feeding of the 5,000, the people asked Him how they could perform miraculous works. Jesus turns the table with His answer and provides the explanation of the miraculous means of being made righteous:
28 “What can we do to perform the works of God?” they asked. 29 Jesus replied, “This is the work of God—that you believe in the one he has sent.”
It’s that simple. The first and most important “right” is to believe in Jesus, and even this one thing is a miraculous work that God draws you to by the work of His Holy Spirit, because the cross is foolishness to the world. Nothing that we can do in our strength amounts to righteousness, because true righteousness is only found in Jesus. It starts here. If you have never believed in Jesus as your Savior and Lord, then you are not, and never in your own power can be, righteous in God’s sight. The one who believes in Jesus is the one who has been made righteous because of Christ’s righteousness, and because of that, the one who has been made righteous should have a life that looks more and more like Jesus.
But the righteousness of the believer will have a result: that we will look different from the world.
2: God’s children are to be different because Jesus is different.
2: God’s children are to be different because Jesus is different.
This is one that we really struggle with. I mean, should we be weird? Should we be strange? Should we be different? Absolutely we should. First, if we live in anticipation of the return of Jesus, then the choices we make in life should not look like the “eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die” crowd of the world. We should have an eternal perspective that shifts the focus of our lives to the things of God. Second, if we have been born of God, we should have a family resemblance to God that the world just doesn’t have, and as John writes, the world just doesn’t even understand:
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.
As John reflects on this idea of being “born of Him,” it prompts him to focus on the concept of our being called God’s children. He gives us an imperative, or command, to “see” how great God’s love is that He has given to us. He wrote of this same love that comes through faith in Jesus in his prologue to his Gospel:
12 But to all who did receive him, he gave them the right to be children of God, to those who believe in his name, 13 who were born, not of natural descent, or of the will of the flesh, or of the will of man, but of God.
But he also says that the world—the corrupt system that stands in opposition to the things of God—somehow doesn’t know or understand us. We’re supposed to be different, because Christ is different.
The world does not understand us because we are literally of a different family. We have different fathers (as we will see at the end of this passage). We have different standards and different priorities. We have different directions and different destinies.
Therefore, we shouldn’t be surprised when the world hates us, because the world hated Jesus as well:
18 “If the world hates you, understand that it hated me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. However, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of it, the world hates you. 20 Remember the word I spoke to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. 21 But they will do all these things to you on account of my name, because they don’t know the one who sent me.
Christianity Today came out with a research article just this week titled “Evangelicals Are the Most Beloved US Faith Group Among Evangelicals” with the subtitle, “...and among the worst-rated by everybody else.” In this article, they write about how over a quarter of the those surveyed (27%) have an “unfavorable” view of evangelical believers, almost equal with (28%) those who hold a “favorable” view (which includes the results of what we think of ourselves). We should absolutely follow Paul’s admonition in Colossians 4 that we should:
5 Act wisely toward outsiders, making the most of the time. 6 Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you should answer each person.
However, that doesn’t mean that people aren’t going to think we’re different. We’re supposed to be. We shouldn’t be shocked if people take issue with us being different, and we certainly shouldn’t seek to accommodate their concerns about our being different because of our hope in the Gospel.
John goes on to talk about the promise of our glorification as a final reflection of just how different we are:
2 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.
In a picture of the “now & not yet” reality of our salvation, sanctification, and glorification, John says that he doesn’t really know what we are really going to look like after Jesus comes back as He said in John 14. The one thing that He does know is that we will be like Him, because we will see Him as He is, in all of His glory.
Paul agrees that we will be like Him in His glory at His return, as he wrote in Philippians 3:
20 Our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly wait for a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ. 21 He will transform the body of our humble condition into the likeness of his glorious body, by the power that enables him to subject everything to himself.
So we are to be righteous because Jesus is righteous, and different because Jesus is different. John then writes that we should also be pure as Jesus is pure.
3: God’s children are to be pure because Jesus is pure.
3: God’s children are to be pure because Jesus is pure.
Just as Jesus is the Righteous One and the Different One, so also Jesus is the Pure One. And because He is the Pure One, so if we have put our hope in Him, we should also be in a process of becoming pure like Him:
3 And everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself just as he is pure.
Again, this picture of purification is in the same sense: that it’s a constant, ongoing process that we are in because we have been born of God through faith in Christ. This purity means to be completely clean and innocent of any and all sin. Since it’s a process, it’s not something that is going to happen overnight. It’s also something that we are a part of if we remain in Christ, not something that we are merely passive observers in. As we abide in Jesus, we should take on more and more of His aspect and likeness, as we grow in our obedience to Him.
1 So then, dear friends, since we have these promises, let us cleanse ourselves from every impurity of the flesh and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.
And from Peter:
22 Since you have purified yourselves by your obedience to the truth, so that you show sincere brotherly love for each other, from a pure heart love one another constantly,
Our purity should present itself in a love for one another in the body of Christ, something that John brings out at the end of our focal passage today as well.
Closely connected to this concept of purity is the concept of sinlessness, which is perhaps the most difficult part of this passage for us to grapple with.
4: God’s children are to be sinless because Jesus is sinless.
4: God’s children are to be sinless because Jesus is sinless.
To state this point in this way was a little bit difficult, because it seems like if this is the bar, then none of us are God’s children. I mean, sinlessness is such a high standard! But this is exactly the reason that John wrote the way he did in his letter:
4 Everyone who commits sin practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness. 5 You know that he was revealed so that he might take away sins, and there is no sin in him. 6 Everyone who remains in him does not sin; everyone who sins has not seen him or known him.
9 Everyone who has been born of God does not sin, because his seed remains in him; he is not able to sin, because he has been born of God.
Again, this is a hard passage, because in our English language it comes across as so “all or nothing,” and I know that I still sin, that I’m not completely perfect in a practical sense, even if I’ve been declared to be sinless because of Christ’s atonement.
So these verses also strikes us as being contradictory to something that John said back in chapter 1 of this letter:
8 If we say, “We have no sin,” we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say, “We have not sinned,” we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
When we looked at this passage, we admitted that Christians can still commit sins. If we didn’t, then we would not be deceiving ourselves or calling Him a liar if we said these things. Not only that, but we would have no need of confession or forgiveness (v. 9).
So when we come to this passage, we have to ask: which is it? Can those born of God, believers in Jesus Christ, sin or not? We must still keep in mind what John is doing in this letter: he’s arguing against those who are “antichrists:” those who have denied that Jesus is the Christ, those who have denied that Jesus is the only way to be saved. These deceivers believed that sin didn’t really matter—that salvation was from some secret special knowledge and not through Christ, and so they could just live however they wanted to because they had that special knowledge. These were the ones he was likely quoting in verses 8 and 10 of chapter 1.
So when John writes in chapter 3 about “Everyone who commits sin,” and “Everyone who remains in Him does not sin,” he is again talking about the ongoing, habitual practice of someone’s life.
The one whose life is defined by sin practices lawlessness, specifically being in rebellion against God’s character and will as a way of life. It is denying His place of power, control, and sovereignty, and denying the atoning work of Christ.
The one who “does not sin” has his life defined by the practice of holiness—it is not that we will never stumble into sin, but we will never be comfortable to remain in it. The life of the believer will not be characterized by sinful rebellion against God, because according to verse 9, “His seed remains in [the believer.]” The seed of Gospel, which Jesus spoke of in the parable of the sower in Matthew 13, grows and produces fruit in the good soil of the heart of the believer.
When we are in Christ, sin no longer is a practice that we want to remain in, because we know that we abide with Christ. So even though we might give into temptation and succumb to sin occasionally, we constantly cling to Jesus to pull us back out of the muck and the mire.
This is again because of what John said: that we are becoming like Jesus, and He came to take away sins, and there is no sin in Him. As John the Baptist declared about Jesus in the wilderness:
29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
Those who are in Christ have been set free from the power and punishment of sin. While we still stumble in it, there will come a time, when Jesus returns, that sin will no longer have any sway in our lives, and we will no longer stumble.
So those who are born of God are to be righteous, different, pure, and sinless not in order to BE saved, but because we ARE saved, and these qualities should be seen as the path our lives are on. John ends this passage with a contrast that we can put in the form of a question, one that each of us should step back for a moment and ask of ourselves:
Closing Question: Who is your Father?
Closing Question: Who is your Father?
This question is vital for all of us to consider, because as we take stock of our lives, we should see a pattern emerging that points to who we actually belong to. It makes sense to make this question a parental one, because John uses paternal terminology to build his case both for those who are “born of God” and now those who are the “devil’s children”:
8 The one who commits sin is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God was revealed for this purpose: to destroy the devil’s works.
10 This is how God’s children and the devil’s children become obvious. Whoever does not do what is right is not of God, especially the one who does not love his brother or sister.
It doesn’t matter if you’re a “nice person,” but don’t believe in Jesus. You still belong to the devil, because the work of the devil is to snatch away the truth so that you won’t believe it, so you will be eternally condemned just as he is. We’ve already seen that the first thing that God says is right to do is to believe in Jesus. In John 8, Jesus spoke about what it would look like for someone to have God as their Father: that they would love Jesus and listen to His words (which means to believe them):
42 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, because I came from God and I am here. For I didn’t come on my own, but he sent me. 43 Why don’t you understand what I say? Because you cannot listen to my word. 44 You are of your father the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he tells a lie, he speaks from his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of lies.
Jesus came to “destroy the devil’s works,” to rescue us from the domain of darkness and eternal death. But the devil is a liar and tells us that we can get there on our own. We just have to work hard enough, be good enough, act right enough, and be strong enough, and we’ll save ourselves. But we can’t ever be enough on our own. Even if we are extremely religious, following all the rules, even doing “good” things, those works don’t save us. Only faith in the Lord Jesus Christ can save us.
21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in your name, drive out demons in your name, and do many miracles in your name?’ 23 Then I will announce to them, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you lawbreakers!’
These are “good” things, “religious” things… but these people don’t know Jesus. They may claim to know Jesus, but they simply don’t, and so they are have not done the “will of [His] Father in heaven.”
And what is the will of the Father? It is that those who believe in Jesus would have eternal life.
40 For this is the will of my Father: that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him will have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”
So who is your Father? Does the overall direction of your life show that you belong to God, or to the devil? Is your life characterized by the evidence of the growth of righteousness, difference, purity, and sinlessness? There was a time that I probably would have been afraid to couch this question like this for fear of making someone question their faith. But if your faith needs questioned because of how you’re living, then it makes no sense for me to be afraid. If your life doesn’t match up to what it should be evidencing, there’s only one right response: repent and surrender to Jesus in faith.
We opened with the question of, “How should we live in anticipation of Christ’s return?” If you are not in Christ, you cannot accomplish true righteousness, difference from the world, purity, and sinlessness in your own strength. So this message isn’t “do better.” This message is “surrender to Jesus, because He’s the only way you can be saved.”
Do you need Jesus? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Believe that He died to take away your sin, and turn from that sin as you trust Him. Believe that He is the only way to be saved, and surrender to Him. You can do that right where you are right now. It’s Jesus who saves you, as you trust in Him and what He has done instead of in yourself. If you believe in Jesus as Lord and Savior today, come and tell us. I’ll be here, as will Rich and Kerry. Come and share with us that Jesus has saved you today. If you’re online, and you are believing in Jesus today, let us know so that we can help you on your spiritual journey. Email me.
Joining the church family.
Prayer
Offerings
PRAYER
Closing Remarks
Closing Remarks
Bible reading (Jer 11)
Business meeting tonight at 5:30, no Pastor’s Study
Prayer Meeting
Instructions for guests
Benediction
Benediction
15 “Be on your guard against false prophets who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravaging wolves. 16 You’ll recognize them by their fruit. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes or figs from thistles? 17 In the same way, every good tree produces good fruit, but a bad tree produces bad fruit. 18 A good tree can’t produce bad fruit; neither can a bad tree produce good fruit. 19 Every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 So you’ll recognize them by their fruit.
CT Article Link:
https://christianitytoday.com/news/2023/march/evangelical-reputation-negative-us-survey-religious-groups-.html