You Are a Child of God

I was at a conference a couple weeks ago. The speaker made us discuss stuff at our tables. It was in Michigan, so Robin & I didn’t know many people. You’ve got to break the ice.

Have you done these icebreakers? Say your name and one interesting thing about yourself.

I have fun with this at pastor-y events. Some pastors are boring. I’m Bob and I pastor wherever it is. I do it differently : I’m Harold and my other vehicle is a skid steer. I’m Harold. As a pastor, I don’t just shepherd of people; my family keeps sheep. It gets a reaction. It was weird, not one person sat with us the next day: all went and sat at different tables.

How do you introduce yourself? What gives you your identity?

Identity matters. If you’re a Christian, John is talking about your identity as much as the Christians in and around Ephesus 50-60 years after Jesus’ resurrection. His message: your relationship with God makes all the difference in the world.

It’s true. Last week, I talked with a friend from high school and university. He was feeling down. His 9-year-old nephew has cancer. He recently moved into palliative care.

“It doesn’t seem fair,” he said. When this boy was adopted, they celebrated. He was adopted into his “forever family.” Now he has a mom & dad to love him, raise him, celebrate all the milestones of life together: Gr. 8 grad, learning to drive… If it’s all over at age 9, is his “forever family” really forever?

Then my friend got a-hold of himself. He’s a pastor too. He’s been around the block with death and dying before. It dawned on us: In baptism his nephew HAS a forever family. Our heavenly Father adopted him! Now that’s a forever family!

The words of I John 3 are for a 9-year-old boy with cancer, for Carson, and for everyone who have been baptized:

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! I John 3:1 (NIV)

That’s what we are: Children of God!

Stop and think about it. God the Father has lavished his great love on us. He made you his child. Lavished great love ... If God is lavishing it, that’s not just a little bit of love.

Anybody here like Nutella – the hazelnut/chocolate spread?

When you put Nutella on your sandwich, do you smear a little bit of chocolate on? Do you spread it on? Or do you lavish your bread with a thick layer of chocolate? Depends if your parents are watching ...

God lavishes his great love on you: He calls you, his child!

How?

John goes to the heart of the obstacle between humanity and God. John talks about sin. “Everyone who sins breaks the law.”

John was raised in a Jewish context. He knows the OT law. As one of Jesus’ inner circle of disciples, John listened closely to Jesus’ teaching on God’s instructions for holy living. He knows how hard it is to live up to God’s standards of righteousness.

But John doesn’t leave us wallowing in shame and guilt. Verse 5: “He (Jesus) appeared so that he might take away our sins.”

Jesus is able to take my sin and your sin: He’s 100% God; 100% human, yet John writes “in him is no sin.”

Jesus allowed himself to be arrested, convicted, crucified.

At the cross, God the Father put all the punishment for human sin on Jesus and he died in our place.

That’s the beautiful imagery of baptism: the blood Jesus shed on the cross washes all our sin and impurity away.

In Jesus’ resurrection, we gain new birth, new life: eternal life.

That’s what John invites his readers to remember and celebrate. They are in God’s family. It’s literally a forever family.

Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.

I John 3:2–3 (NIV)

Already now we have been purified. But what we will be has not yet been made known

There’s a glory that will be revealed in us. We’re still in the caterpillar stage, you can’t see, can’t even imagine what we will be. By the work of God, our transformation is underway. It’ll be amazing. When Christ returns, we’ll be like butterflies emerging from a cocoon! Talk about glorious transformation!

We have a taste of what we will look like, sound like, and be like: “when Christ appears, we shall be like him.”

Friday and yesterday, I was on retreat with the elders and deacons. The main goal of our retreat was to talk about what we can put into place to help people grow in faith:

People like Carson will grow up in our congregation. And Haven, who will be baptized next week. How can we keep the vows we made to Carson, André & Karena, and God Almighty, when we said we would teach the gospel and be examples of Christian faith and character?

André is one of 12 people who publicly professed his faith among us in the past 3 years. Karena was part of that new members’ class too. As a congregation, how can we help all our new members grow in their faith?

Some people here have been going to church all their lives, they’ve been growing in faith for 30, 50, 70 years. How are we going to help the most mature believers in our church family take the next steps to keep growing in faith?

This isn’t just a goal at Crosspoint, it’s something John wrote to his congregation in Ephesus:

Dear children, continue in him (Jesus), so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming. I John 2:28 (NIV)

Already now we have the opportunity to live up to salvation Jesus has won for us.

At the outset of the Council retreat, we recognized that the end goal is not just in this life. It’s a long-term goal:

We know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. I John 3: 2b (NIV)

Our goal is to help each other in the transformation.

Already now, we get a foretaste of what we will be in the coming Kingdom. Already now, the goal is to be like Jesus Christ: a dearly loved child of God.

Talking about my sermon plans this week, I found someone who lists it on his resume: “I’m a child of God.” What about you? Is being a child of God at the heart of your identity? the core of your being?

I know, it might sound awkward as an icebreaker at a conference: “I’m Harold and I’m a child of God.” But you’re invited to identify that way.

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! I John 3:1a (NIV)

Baptism is a sign and seal that you have been adopted through the death and resurrection of Jesus. Jesus is the Son of God. By faith in Jesus, we have the privilege of calling his Father, “our Father.” Because God has lavished his great love on us, we are children of God! We’re part of God’s forever family!

Reading through the gospels and the book of Revelation, we look up to our big brother Jesus and say, “that’s what I want to be like when I grow up!”