1 John 3:1-3

Introduction

When we think about what God did for us, it should change everything about us. When we think about how if we are saved we were once slaves of sin and now we are Son’s of God we should get excited.

God loved us so much He sent His Son so that we can become sons, now we should reciprocate that love by living like a son, not out of fear, but out of our love for him

Vs 1

Behold - To fix the eyes upon; to see with attention; to observe with care.

John starts of this thought by arresting their attention.

Is there anyone like me who has a hard time focusing? I have a million things going on in my brain and sometimes I just have to stop and while I would use the word behold in my every day language the definition fits of what I have to stop and fix my attention on the thing thats most important at that moment.

What manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us -

Manner - Form; method; way of performing or executing

Love - The love that God bestowed upon us is beyond what our finite minds can understand.

One commentator put it this way “Love is not mere emotion that God feels, nor is it simply something that God thinks about and does. Love is what God is.

1 John 4:8 “He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.”

the father

God as a father was a new way to think about God compared to the old testament

In the old testament they knew God as Elohim, as Jehovah, as Adonai. They knew him as the most high God, as El Shaddai, They knew Him as Jehovah Jireh, Jehovah Nissi, Jehovah Shalom, and many other names, but Jesus taught his disciples to pray “Our father which art in heaven…” God is still all those things, but because of Jesus he is our father!

hath bestowed - Given gratuitously; conferred; laid out; applied

Think about that God graciously gave his Love so we can be called the sons of God

Think about the form of love that God graciously gave us when He sent his son to a cross to die for the sins of the whole world.

That we should be called the sons of God:

we can be called the sons of god because

we have been created in Christ Jesus

Ephesians 2:10 “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”

We are new creatures in him

2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”

Henry Morris said this “Only those specially created by God can properly be called sons of God.

John 1:12 “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:”

Galatians 4:1–7 “Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father. Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world: But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.”

We are no longer servants, but rather sons!

Therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not

John 15:18–21 “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake, because they know not him that sent me.”

John 1:11 “He came unto his own, and his own received him not.”

When Jesus came to the earth he had a mission and it wasn’t the mission that the jews wanted him on, his mission was to seek and to save the lost, and they wanted his mission to be to set up his kingdom, and because he claimed to be messiah and wouldn’t do, but rather called them on their sin, that they hated him.

If the world didn’t know him there is no way they know us.

Verse 2

Beloved, now that we are sons of God, and it doth not appear what we shall be

Romans 8:15–16 “For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:”

The amazing thing about God is that he is in the past, present and future. While we can’t see the future, God is already there.

no need to worry about tomorrow, God’s already there

John tells them hey I don’t know what the future hold but i do know one thing…

But we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like Him

Philippians 3:21 “Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.”

Our new body will be incorruptible, immortal, invincible, just like the resurrected body of Jesus Christ.

Our new body will never grow old, never get sick, never know the destruction of sin!

“We shall be like him in absolute holiness, able to dwell where he dwells, living in the light of Gods righteousness, holiness and perfection.

We might not know what could happen tomorrow but we can be confident that one day we shall be like him

for we shall see him as he is

John had seen Jesus as he is on top of the mount of transfiguration, if you put the other accounts from the gospels together you can get what they saw

they had seen his face shining like the sun, the very garments aglow with the light of another world.

John had seen him as he is and one day we will see him as he is as well

The hymn writer Jim Hill had it write when he penned these words “What a day that will be when my Jesus I shall see, when I look upon his face the one who saved me by his grace, when he takes me by the hand and leads me through the promise land, what a day glorious day that will be

Verse 3

And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure

The bible speaks a lot about the second coming of Christ

The second coming of Christ is not a dead hope, but a lively hope

1 Peter 1:3 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,”

Not a frightening dread, but a blessed hope

Titus 2:13 “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;”

Its a joyful hope

1 Thessalonians 2:19 “For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming?”

It is a comforting hope

1 Thessalonians 4:13–18 “But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”

In our text the return of Christ is a purifying hope, as jesus will purify us at his coming

Conclusion

When is the last time we stopped and just thought about the love of God?