1 John Chapter 3

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Introduction:

Well good morning New Life. Another day in the house of the Lord Amen? No place we’d rather be, there is no place we’d rather be. With that being said most of you know that I have been working through a sermon series on the book of 1 John. For those of you who are new and are not aware, Pastor Love has tasked me with doing a sermon series on the book of 1 John. With that being said I am very grateful for this opportunity because it is rare that new preachers such as Jeremiah and I get chances to preach. Yet, Pastor Love allow’s us to come up here every month and preach, even though he doesn’t have too. So today we are continuing on in our series through 1 John, today we begin a brand new chapter, chapter 3. Chapter 3 is all about the rights and privilege of being called children of God. The question is what does a Child of God look like or what does it mean to be called children of God. Before we dive into 1 John chapter 3 let us take a look at John 1:12-13 “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.” We can see here that John declares that everyone who believes in the name of Jesus has the God given right to call themselves children of God. This doesn’t come from just being born rather this comes from being born by the will of God. Therefore if God has indeed revealed himself to you and you have placed faith in Jesus you have the right to call yourself a child of God. John pick’s this same idea up again many years later when he is writing to the church of Ephasis. And chapter 3 is a direct run off of chapter 2. You remember last month when we went through chapter 2 and I laid out what a believer’s life should look like? It may seem like John is trying to create a whole new unit of discourse but in reality he is using a circular motion coming back to things he has already said. John is still concerned with the things he wrote about in chapter 2 but in chapter 3 we see how God’s is eternal therefore his children have eternal life. Because God is righteous his children live righteously, and because God loves his children must love. Thats how Pastor Love outlined this passage so in other words that the way I outlined this passage this morning. Im joking about that by the way… well not really but anyway. The main point of what John is doing in chapter 3, he’s giving us a model of what God’s children should look like. which brings me to this mornings 3 observations from this text. 1.) God is eternal, 2.) God is righteous and 3.) God is love. For anyone taking notes or jotting stuff down ill repeat them again. God is eternal, God is righteous, God is love. With all that being said please grab your Bibles and turn to 1 John 3 “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. Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God makes a…” let us pray!

1.) God is eternal

Remember in my introduction when I said that in the Gospel of John chapter 1:12-13, that God has given his children the right to be called children of God? Well that is on full display right here, keep in mind John is writing to people who believe in Jesus he’s not writing to unbelievers. He made that clear in the previous chapter in verse 21. Now in chapter 3 he invites us to see just what sort of privilege that those who belong to God by way of Christ truly have. John doesn’t hesitate to call us children he straight up tells his audience that they are. John doesn’t scan the room to look at what external qualities before calling them God’ children. He call’s them God’s children for believing in Jesus, because remember from chapter 2 that Jesus is our atoning sacrifice and advocate, we also went over how God is the one who gives us victory. We also said that according to John this victory that God gives us should result in us being separated from the ways of the world because Christians should live righteously after believing in Jesus. Right you guys remember when we went over that in chapter 2. Well in verses 1-3 John basically gives us a recap of chapter 2, because you know that when you begin a new episode in your favorite tv show and just before the opening credits happen usually they play a recap of the events that happened in the previous episode. Well thats what John did in verses 1-3 mainly in verse 1. Now in verses 2-3 he lets us know that because we are God’ children what we will be has yet to be revealed. That is simply because we are still on this side of eternity, and what John eludes to here is the fact that God is eternal. And because God is eternal we know his children will one day see him as he his making us into eternal being as well with the promise that we will be resurrected with Jesus. And this is our hope! This is basically the victory that John talked about previously in chapter 2. Its the hope that though we are in this fallen state, wrestling with sin and temptation we now have a new hope that despite our mess God has promised to purify us to present us spotless and blameless in sight. This hope in verse 3 gives us a look into the future that God has promised a eternal future one in which we will see Christ as he his, and one where we will be without fault nor have any stain of sins. Because God gave us victory and because he has given us a new hope we can be sure that one day will be like him. We will never be equal to God but we will one day reflect his image in a spotless way. That is why our first observation is God being eternal because he his, and because he is eternal we can be sure that as his children we will see him in eternity as well.

2.) God is righteous

The second observation is this, that is that God is righteous. God is righteous. Therefore because God is righteous his children should live righteously as well. This is how we model after a Christlike character, and this is what a Christian should look and act like. So if God is righteous and we know that as his children we should be striving to reflect his image, what does that tell us about how we should live? In case you missed it well, as God children we should be living righteously. Again another run off from chapter 2 in where we said that “what one believes is never separate from the way one lives”. Thats what verses 4-10 are about, its all about living the way God intends for his children to live. Now what John is not talking about here is sinless perfectionism because if that were the case the we would have no shot at eternity. As someone said before “being a Christian does not mean being sinless, but it means that as you go on you should be sinning less and less and less”. There’s another quote that goes like this “God didn’t make it so that you’ll never sin again but he made it so that when you do sins you will never feel right about it ever again”. that quote is made clear towards the end of the chapter in verse 20. What John is making not of here is not a Christian who falls or who battles sin, but instead someone who just doesn’t care about their own sin. As he say’s in verse 10 it’s how we tell who is truly following God and who is just putting on a show. There are two reasons in verses 4-10 that show us why a genuine believer cannot live in constant willful sin. look at verse 5 and 8 “You know that he was revealed so that he might take away sins”, “the one who commits sin is of the devil, for the devil has sinned since the beginning. The Son of God was revealed for this purpose: to destroy the devils works”. You see if Jesus came to set us free from sin and the way’s of the devil how then can those who claim to be Christians continue on in something that Jesus intended to destroy in their lives? The second reason a Christian cannot live in sin is found in verse 9, that is that God seed i.e. God’s essence lives inside of child of God. Furthermore God’s spirit within us is alway’s convicting us, challenging us, and moving us away from sin and into righteousness. So if God’s spirit is within us how then can we live in something that the spirit within us is actively against? This is is why a Child of God cannot live in sin or make sin their practice because its not their character. This is how we should model ourselves after God and us living in practical righteousness. Since God is righteous and since we model him then us as his children should also model his righteousness. We won’t be able to do that perfectly but it is what we should strive for. God is righteous therefore his children live righteous.

3.) God is love

The third and final observation is this, that God is love. Now that observation I didn’t make that up I picked that up directly out of John’s letter here. Im jumping a little bit ahead but this comes straight out of the next chapter over in verse 8 when John says “God is love” And we are going to discuss more of that when we go over chapter 4 next month. But in verses 10b-18 we draw our last observation that God is love, so his children must also love. Love is arguably the most important aspect of Christianity, and as a cross reference look at what the apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.” And we know all know the story of Cain and Abel found in Genesis 4. Where we know from that story Cain murdered his own brother Abel because of jealousy over him, which resulted in murder. I love what John does here, he takes that and compares it to how we should live today. See what he says in verse 15 that everyone who hates their brother and sister is a murderer. And John is not calling back to Genesis 4 just to tell stories, he is doing that in order to contrast how hating and not loving someone today is the same as murdering someone yesterday. So in a unique way John in these verses (10-18) say’s that if you hate someone not only cannot you not have eternal life within you, but also you’re a killer just like Cain! And point of it all is this, that because we know Jesus Christ laid down his life for us we also should lay down our lives for others as well. And when we love like this we will know that we have gone from death and murdering into life according to verse 14. This doesn’t have to just be in the physical sense, maybe John is also referring to laying down our lives in servanthood to one another, by not withholding compassion from each other found in verse 17. Because you know the truth about love is this, that love is a lot like Heaven everyone is talking about it but everyone ain’t going. Finally this is the ultimate command that we should love each other not in words, or phrases but love each other in action. That command is also found in verse 23. We know God is love because he sent his son to pay a debt that we owe, Jesus Christ his death burial and resurrection was God’s love on full and complete display. By this we know God is love, and because he his love his children should also embody that same love as well.

Conclusion:

Remember what I said about tv show’s having a good recap at the start of a new episode? Well every tv episode also has a end credits sequence showing all the work that went into the episode. So I am concluding with this, that while yes we went over how we should model ourselves after God image. That because God is eternal we will be eternal, because God is righteous we should be righteous, and because God is love we should abide in love. But these credits do not belong to ourselves, they belong to Christ. Jesus is the one who helps us model after God by way of his atoning sacrifice on the cross and him becoming our advocate. Maybe you’re struggling with living righteously or maybe you’re having a hard time loving a neighbor, that boss, that coworker, that annoying friend, or that messy family member. Well let this be your opportunity to run to Jesus, because he invites you to model after him. Just like we learned today that once you start believing in Jesus you have the God given right to call yourself a child of God. Let that be apart of your weekly recap this morning Amen.
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