Children of Hope | 1 John 2:28-3:3

Introduction

I love a big trip. Almost more than the trip itself though is my love for, just, looking forward to the trip. I love to plan it out. Even if it’s not a big trip I love the prospect of “getting out of town”.

talk about planning Acts 29 trip

I like to look forward to a trip because of good food, good fellowship — but also just the chance to get away. Really I just love even looking forward to it through out the mundane day to day.

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It builds anticipation. Some bright glimmer I can think about when I am feeling discontent with the here and now.

Today as we walk through this passage, John is going to give us more wise instruction for how to posture ourselves in the waiting — how to look forward with great hope to a bright future. Unlike a trip I would look forward to that comes and goes, this is a future that lasts forever.

I think we will see more than just instruction. I think we will see invitation.

Let’s just try together this morning to pull our eyes up from ourselves, our circumstances, our distractions… let’s marvel together at who God is.

If we can look solely at who God is, and what He has done — if we can fix our gaze on the depth of His character; I think it will hurt our brains a bit in a good way, but more importantly we will be participating in what I believe John is inviting his readers into.

See, John is encouraging his readers with the fact that true believers, loved by God, have a hope that drives their perseverance in the faith.

This leads us to our big idea this morning.

Big Idea: God’s children have immeasurable hope.

Billy has referred to this passage throughout the week as “the biggest group hug” in the bible. He’s not far off.

See, in Christ we are God’s children as John will point out, and as we dive into this rich, deep truth this morning — what’s known in the world of theology as the doctrine of Adoption, what JI Packer calls the “highest privilege of the Gospel” — there will be application; certainly if our hope is immeasurable it should impact our daily lives as well as the trajectory of our faith.

Ultimately though, this passage is an invitation to marvel at God and enjoy His love. So if we leave a bit more excited about the fact that God has chosen to love us, then mission accomplished.

Our outline this morning is very straight forward.

We will look at three sets of verses that act as guides to how we ought to navigate our faith. We will start in verse 28 with “Abide”.

1. Abide | 28-29

[28] And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming. [29] If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.

If you remember from last week, John was warning his readers against false teaching. He wrote of the spirit of antichrist. And Billy, very helpfully, navigated that for us so I don’t have to. But thankfully John also tells us what he meant in verse 22

1 John 2:22

[22] Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. (ESV)

So at the beginning of our passage we have this phrase “and now”. As if John is saying, “now that this foolishness is out of the way, here is some instruction for how we ought to live.”

In other words, just to clarify, Jesus is God and all those who say otherwise prove they are liars and they never really believed in this stuff in the first place.

This happens today too. Over the past decade, swaths of well known supposed Christian artists or just well known people who at one time claimed faith, not only walked away from that faith but then made it their mission to “d-evangelize” as it were. They slapped a fancy name on it and made it trendy thanks to social media. They call it deconstruction.

There is healthy deconstruction, it’s called reformation and its what Paul referred to as “transformation by the renewing of your mind” Romans 12:2

[28] And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming.

Billy unpacked this so well last week. Make your home in Christ. Here John unpacks this a bit more with a reason.

He says, Abide so that when He appears we may have confidence and not shrink from Him.

At C Group this week one of the discussion questions was, “what would your life look like if you knew Christ would return today?” And someone answered “hopefully it wouldn’t look too different.”

I think that’s a great answer. So how do we get to that place in our lives?

John tells us, abide in Him. Make your home in Christ.

Ever get caught red handed for doing something you knew you weren’t supposed to be doing?

In my first three years of high school my parents let me be homeschooled. We had just moved to a new town and I did not want to be a new student anywhere.

As I got older my parents had this silly thing where they trusted their teenage son to be responsible with his work, at home — by his self. who’d they think I was Bryce?

I had this little system all worked out. I would get up, and slug my way around the house “getting ready” for the day while dad was getting ready to leave. I would get cereal out. Then the milk. All very tired and sluggish. Then I would wait on my dad to leave. He would sit in the van for so long before backing out. I have no idea to this day what took him so long other than just taunting me. Maybe he was doing his taxes, I don’t know — he would just sit there. Then finally he would back out and I would make my way to the bigger window in the living room to make sure he really left.

Then I would put the food away — milk back in the fridge — and go back to bed. It was fool proof.

One day I awoke from my slumber to someone trying to get in the house. Only this person somehow had a key. My dad and I met in the hallway between my room and the kitchen so I couldn’t even cover my tracks with a “second breakfast” story.

After that day I went with dad to his work every day to do my schooling.

When I worked in close proximity to my dad I didn’t get caught trying to go back to bed. He knew where I was. I knew where He was.

Some of my favorite memories.

John is saying abide. Draw near in proximity to God the Father through His son Jesus. He is coming back one day and what a joyous day that will be. If we stay close to Him we will not experience shame but welcome.

When was studying this passage this week I couldn’t help but think of hanging out at the Glosson home and the famous parenting quote came out of Hannah’s mouth. “He’s being too quiet.” Sure enough Sammy got in trouble for doing something He knew he wasn’t supposed to.

I thought a lot about the difference between when He is close in proximity to His parents versus when he is caught. He might get into trouble when he is with them but here’s what happens. They scoop him up, they calm him down — any shame or fear he has dissipates so quickly.

So there is safety and welcome in proximity to his parents just as there is with us and our Heavenly Father.

Something else happens when we abide though. Look at verse 29

[29] If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.

If you want to know if you are saved or not, one question you can ask is have you ever done something righteous?

But let’s really dial this in. It isn’t as simple as doing some good act. I am talking about finding yourself in everyday life and not only is what you are doing a good thing but it’s something that you might not normally find yourself doing. If you were to go back a year or two or more, there is no way you would do that thing.

Even more so you do this thing and no one knows you did. Just God. And when you look back you see a pattern of this happening more and more…

Do you see fruit in your own life?

I have pushed this and I will again, ask a loved one or someone in your discipleship group if they see fruit and growth in your life. It will either challenge you or encourage you. Either way it should push you to draw all the more near to God and abide in Him.

We tend to imitate who we spend the most time with. I’m sure there is profound research to back this up. Also, scripture seems to make this pretty clear.

How do we imitate Christ? We will never be able to take all He did, study it, learn it and then go off on our own and do it.

In fact I would say John is reiterating a profoundly difficult biblical truth here. True acts of pure righteousness are only possible for those united with Jesus.

What does this mean? I see non Christians do good things all the time.

Well two things should be noted here. First John says “practices” indicating this is a consistent thing. Secondly he isn’t just talking about good acts. He is talking about complete righteousness in practical every day life. John says, this only happens when one is born of God — born again. This only happens when you abide. John is not the first person to say this though.

John 15:4–5

[4] Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. [5] I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. (ESV)

you can do — nothing.

Every Christian has experienced this.

You started your day in the word, and in prayer. You spent slow time in gratitude. You abide. Someone interrupts your day — they crash into your schedule in the most inconvenient way — yet for some strange reason you delight in this and invite the interruption because you remember that the God of the Universe who is sustaining all life at every moment — invites you to pray without ceasing.

And every Christian (and non Christian for that matter) has experienced this. It’s been what you might call a dry season. You can’t remember the last time you were in the word. You know you ought to do so but it’s been so long and you feel far from God. This all comes to a crash when you are serving someone in some capacity and you aren’t thanked — it crushes you.

It crushes you because you forget who you are.

Abide with Him. Apart from him you can do nothing. We Abide so that we can await his return with great hope. Next John directs us to behold. Look at chapter 3 verse 1.

2. Behold | 3:1

[1] 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.

As a huge fan of the ESV I have to say this verse stands out a little better in other translations. The word used for “See” can also be translated, “Behold”. John isn’t just lightly saying, “isn’t that neat?”.

The language is more decisive than that. To behold, to see clearly, to see distinctly, to see a vision; these are the ways this would be used in other areas of scripture.

I have never seen the northern lights in person. Friday night I am laying in bed. And without details as to what I am wearing just know I was ready for bed. I hop on the ol phone for one last scroll and I see friends in Missouri posting pictures of the sky.

A quick google search reveals the geomagnetic storm. I jump out of bed and put more clothes on — Thank God I had the wherewithal to do this! I have longed to travel to Iceland to see this miracle in the sky. And to think it was right above me. I rushed outside to my driveway after shutting the outside lights off. I could barely see this pinkish hue but decided to try and take a pic with my phone.

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I just stood out there beholding the beauty.

This is what John is saying. Stop what you’re doing and Look at who God is!

John wants us to be theologians!

Do you think about God? Do you slow down the hurry of your life, whether productive or leisure, do you spend consistent time in the study of God?

We for far too long have been ok with a very surface level relationship and understanding of God

Have you searched to know God and run out of things to search for? Well I know that answer is no. Take notice, see distinctly, perceive, behold!

So think about God.

Be still and consider this Holy God of the universe who sustains life.

He created and upholds the universe with his word! He is ultimate. He is absolutely righteous. He is completely and solely worthy of praise and honor and glory and every ounce of worship. He is the Alpha and Omega. He is all powerful. All sovereign. There is no molecule outside of his control! He speaks and things happen because He told them to happen. There is no one like Him. There is no power in his category. He is beyond description great.

Behold this God — behold what about Him? Behold the type of love that He would give us, grant us, lavish on us — well what sort of love is that?

That we could ever dream of or even perceive with the full and proper depth and magnitude — that we should be called children of God; and so we are.

Do you believe this? Do you believe that He loves you?

See it’s here we are tempted to look inward. It’s here the devil would just ever so gently tilt our head down and away from God to our circumstance, to our sin, to our shame.

Eph 2:4–7

4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

And in

1 Pe 1:3

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

Luther was once asked, “Do you feel that you are a child of God this morning?” and he answered, “I cannot say that I do, but I know that I am.”

Martin Luther

Dear ones, we are not the basis for God’s love.

God is the basis for God’s love.

He gave us Himself in Jesus! According to His great mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us. so that “in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”

This is Jesus, the Son of God who came to earth humbly. Lived a perfect life. Did what we could not and would not. Always in step with His Father. Always submitting to His will. Only ever doing what He saw His Father doing. the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature!

(Hebrews 1:3 “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,” )

This Jesus gave himself willingly. He laid down His life. He was betrayed, mocked, denied, beaten beyond recognition, and even still he pressed on toward the goal with joy set before him — what Joy?

Bringing many sons and daughters to glory! That joy!

He died on the cross of Calvary — taking on every sin - past, present, and future - of your life. Receiving the punishment and wrath you and I deserved and He put it in the grave and left it there when I got up from death and walked away with the keys!

Now you and I Christian - in right standing with God. You could now be in His presence without fear but He goes further.

John 1:12-13

12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,

13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

See?! See what kind of love the Father has given to us?! Not what kind of love we earned, not what kind of love we bought no - He gave it to us, He lavished it on us. Freely out of the very nature of His own character.

That we should be called Children of God — and - so - we - are!

look back at verse 1.

The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

The watching world — your non believing family members, friends, co workers — will be more impacted and curious by seeing God’s children walking in hope than righteously indignant people on a high horse.

We need not spend so much energy trying to convince people in the world that they are wrong. We need to stop being surprised that the world around us — our “once Christian nation” — is less and less welcoming to those who claim Christ. When you experience this don’t fear. What scripture says will happen is happening. That just proves God faithful all the more!

John is saying to his readers, in the midst of gnostics, in the midst of the spirit of antichrist, in the midst of everything you face —

and hear this for us today, in the midst of a post truth world, in the midst of political strife, in the midst of online influencers, in the midst of a culture that is increasingly less friendly to Christianity, in the midst of the sexual revolution and a world gone sideways and upside down in its morality —

Remember who you are!

In Andrew Peterson’s The Wingfeather Saga there is a boy named Janner who finds out He is actually the son of a King. In part of the adventure of this tale, Janner gets captured by an evil overseer and is forced to go to work in the fork factory. The overseer asks his name, and just as he opens his mouth to answer the overseer shouts at him “you’re a tool, tools don’t speak and they don’t have names”.

But Janner refuses to accept this. He remembers even in the darkest of times trapped in this fork factory with other kids — he is not a tool, he is a son of the King! It’s this hope that preserved him and ultimately led him back to his family.

Remember who you are.

To remember that you are God’s child is to remember how you became God’s child.

We abide in Him. We behold God and His great love and this leads us lastly to Hope.

God’s children have immeasurable hope.

Look at verses 2 and 3

3. Hope | 3:2-3

[2] 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. [3] And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. (ESV)

We don’t have to wait to be God’s child. We are God’s children now. And our future is incredibly bright. He is not done redeeming us.

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Creation is to be redeemed; that is, space is to be redeemed, time is to be redeemed, and matter is to be redeemed. God said “very good” over his space-time-and-matter creation, and though the redeeming of this world from its present corruption and decay will mean transformations we cannot imagine, the one thing we can be sure of is that this redeeming of creation will not mean that God will say, of space, time and matter, “Oh, well, nice try, good while it lasted but obviously gone bad, so let’s drop it and go for a nonspatiotemporal, nonmaterial world instead.”1084

N. T. Wright, Surprised by Hope

N. T. Wright

He will redeem every aspect of creation. There is nothing He will leave undone.

And you and I will be with Jesus with new and perfect bodies inside and out!. What hope for chronic illness! What hope for the anxious soul! What hope for the depressed!

Everything sad will come untrue!

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Maybe you are here today and you have not yet trusted in Jesus as your savior. It’s been said many times and I will echo it. If he can save a sinner like me He can save a sinner like you. If you think He is after you with His love, He is. If you feel any tug on your heart any push in your soul to surrender to Jesus — this family is huge and there is always room for one more! Meet Jesus today.

pivot back to believers - just pause don’t necessarily say this

We have great hope in the here and now as God’s children but this is only the beginning.

So let’s recap quickly to see how we got here and where we are going.

John says Abide in Him because He is coming back and that is how to be ready for His return.

He says as you abide, to marvel at God’s love for you that you are not just right with him but you have been adopted into His family.

You are His child now.

In my adult years I have uttered phrases I never ever thought I would. In fact I made resolutions in my heart that I wouldn’t say such things — but there I am in the heat of summer standing next to a complete stranger and it comes out of my mouth as if I had no control over it: “I tried to tell them to turn the AC on out here but they just looked at me funny”.

Unfortunately for myself, and thousands upon thousands like me, every day my humor sounds more and more like my dad.

It’s quite tragic.

Rachel and I will be in the car and these utterances come out and after a pause we both say in unison “Ran-dy”.

Here’s your hope Christian.

You were an enemy of God. Dead in your sin. No hope. Jesus saved you, The Father adopts you and over the span of your life from now until its end, or Lord Willing, Jesus’ return, you will begin to take on the family resemblance.

He has saved us.

He is saving us.

We will be saved! J.I. Packer puts it this way

“Adoption is the highest privilege of the gospel. The traitor is forgiven, brought in for supper, and given the family name. To be right with God the Judge is a great thing, but to be loved and cared for by God the Father is greater.” J.I. Packer

The theological term scripture uses for this is sanctification.

Each passing year and season, He is making us more like His son.

John says

we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.

We don’t know what awaits us. We do know that Christ died and rose again to make us like Him and it’s going to be better than we could dare to hope or dream.

1 Corinthians 2:8–10 (ESV)

… no eye has seen, nor ear heard,

nor the heart of man imagined,

what God has prepared for those who love him”—

these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.

God’s children have immeasurable hope!

We are sons and daughters of the most high!

Can you believe it?

Do you?

Romans 8:15–18 ESV

For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

Everything Jesus, God the Son, has — we are now heirs to.

Jesus took everything you deserve to give you everything He deserves.

[3] And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. (ESV)

-it says in verse 3.

Having hope like this changes how you live. My story at this morning about my joy in planning trips is such a poor comparison. It’s just my attempt to show this connection between the bright future and the here and now.

John says -

Abide in Him. He is returning. Stay close to Him to eliminate fear and shame.

Behold His love - think deeply on your Adoption and let it fill you with great hope .

With this immeasurable hope go into the lives He has placed you in purifying yourself as He is pure.

Walk in obedience that springs from this hope. Your place in the family is secure. You are a son or a daughter of God. You don’t obey to keep your spot. You obey as His Spirit testifies to you that He is your Father and children naturally want to please their Father.

Hebrews 12:1 ESV

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,

Conclusion

Singer Songwriter Jess Ray recently released her second special series called Matin - which is an early morning type of prayer service. She recorded these quiet songs for the morning and they are a treasure. Many of my morning quiet hours have been accompanied by these.

The first one was called Rest. The second one: Love. Recorded right here in NC

One of the songs is called DYBTHLY

You believe in His power You believe in His knowledge You believe in His presence But do you believe that He loves you? _Jess Ray

Come to find out this song is influenced by the late Brennan Manning from this quote:

Do you believe that the God of Jesus loves you beyond worthiness and unworthiness, beyond fidelity and infidelity — that He loves you in the morning sun and in the evening rain — that He loves you when your intellect denies it, your emotions refuse it, your whole being rejects it? Do you believe that God loves without condition or reservation and loves you this moment as you are and not as you should be? _ Brennan Manning.

God’s Children have immeasurable hope.

Application Questions

1. Do I believe He loves me solely because He chooses to? How might this change my life if I truly believed it?

2. What are the ways my community group and discipleship group can spur me on into deeper faith and understanding? How can I grow in my knowledge of God?

3. What are the things in my life — good or bad — that need to be pruned or eliminated altogether so I can properly abide with Lord Jesus?

4. Do I see a pattern or practice of righteousness in my life? What would others say about this?