Children Of God

Introduction

Main Text

1 John 2:28–3:3 ESV

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

I have divided this next section, which runs until verse 10 into two sections. I will address this one this week and then the second one next week. Here is the two big topics that this passage covers: “Those who practice righteousness”, which we will cover today and those who “practice lawlessness” or sin, which we will cover next week.

I want to start with verse 28 because this verse is a bit of a conundrum. This is a very debatable verse, but I’m going to give you the short side of it and what I believe.

This verse says 1 John 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.” And what this verse does is introduce a topic we don’t have a lot of understanding about. The context is that John is addressing Christians in this passage and the problem is presented in the idea that maybe some Christians will shrink back and experience shame when Jesus comes back.

We don’t tend to think this way. We tend to think about the Father’s love for us, which we will dive into in just a few minutes, we also tend to think of God’s grace and mercy. We tend to think rightly that the ground is level at the foot of the Cross, meaning everyone who comes to him is on equal footing, but what we tend to ignore is that God has prepared good works for us to do and he intends to reward us for what we do.

This gets confusing to us because we have heard for so long that it’s by grace and not by works that we are saved. Works are not required for salvation, you can’t add to or take away from what God has done, but if your faith is alive it will produce in you a life that will accomplish good works.

Let me put it another way…

God Doesn’t Give Out Participation Trophies!

2 Corinthians 5:9–10 NIV

So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.

The Father Loves His Children

Father’s love is not based on your perfection or your beauty. It’s based on his perfection and his beauty. It doesn’t spring from what you are. It springs from what he is, and that’s perfect.

Timothy Keller

Seeing Jesus Brings Transformation

Our Hope Determines Our Growth

Knowing God Doesn’t Produce Complacency

Complacency is a deadly foe of all spiritual growth.

A. W. Tozer

The Answer Is To See Him

Conclusion