Untitled Sermon (6)

Series Intro

Welcome to Journey Church. If you’re new with us today, we are in the middle of a series walking verse by verse through the little letter of 1 John.

Two words hold this whole letter together — Love and Light. John keeps pulling us deeper into both. We walk in His love. We carry His light into a dark world.

Last week Pastor Jim took us into the end of the story — what the Bible says about the days we are living in and the day Jesus comes back. He stirred something in this room. Today we are going to stand on his shoulders and ask a different question. Not just when is He coming — but who do we become when He does.

And before we go one inch further, I want to settle something so nobody hears this message wrong. Being a child of God is not a wage you earn. It is a gift you receive. Heaven is settled the moment you believe and confess Jesus as Lord. So hear me today — nothing in this message is about working your way into the family. You’re already loved. You’re already His. The whole message is about what that love is making you into.

Scripture Read

Stand with me if you are able as we read the Word of God. 1 John 3, verses 1 through 3. New King James.

1Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. 2Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. 3And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.

You can have your seat.

Title

You Are Loved, You Are His

Notes Reminder

If you take notes, I want you to be able to follow along. Text Notes to 904-503-6772 and the outline comes straight to your phone.

Prayer

[Pastor Adam prays from the heart — invite the Holy Spirit, ask for hearts to be stirred for relationship and revival.]

Opening Illustration

[Story Slot — a personal story about family resemblance. Someone stopping you and saying “you’ve got to be so-and-so’s kid — you look just like him,” or your own child starting to mirror your mannerisms without trying. The beat to land: resemblance happens by relationship, not by effort. You didn’t practice looking like your father — you just belonged to him.]

Hold that picture, because John opens this chapter standing in the same wonder.

Look again at verse 1 — “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God.”

That phrase — what manner of love — is one word in the Greek, and it is loaded.

Potapēn — it means “from what country?” — what foreign, otherworldly kind of love is this?

John is saying: this love is not from around here. It doesn’t come from earth. We don’t have a category for it. A perfect Father looked at us and didn’t just forgive us — He named us. Called us His own children. And the word He uses is

Teknon — a born child, not a hired servant. Family by birth, not staff by contract.

John 1:12 — “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God.”

Romans 8:16 — “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.”

Here is what so many people cannot do — they cannot receive it. They keep trying to earn a love that has already been handed to them. But you cannot earn a gift. You can only receive it. And a perfect Father has already given it.

And look what comes next: “Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.” Catch that. The world doesn’t recognize you because it didn’t recognize Him. You’re starting to carry the family resemblance.

The world doesn’t make sense of you because you’re starting to look like your Father — and that’s resemblance, not performance. Ⓜ

Now John does something interesting. In this passage there are two things we do NOT fully know — and one thing we absolutely do. I call them the Two Buts. And both of them are a question.

1. What Will the Church Be Like When He Is Revealed?

Verse 2 — “it has not yet been revealed what we shall be.”

So here’s the first question this verse forces on us: when Jesus is revealed, what is the Church going to be like? What does “what we shall be” actually look like?

This is where I have to be honest with you, especially after last week. Pastor Jim walked us through the timing of these things. Here’s the truth — there is a lot about the timing we love to argue about and not a lot we’re certain of.

Pastor Jim is pre-trib. I’ve got people I love and respect who are post-trib. We could go round and round on charts and timelines all day long. And honestly? John just told us — “it has not yet been revealed.” God has not shown us everything we’d like to know about the when.

But here is what He HAS shown us. He’s been crystal clear about what the Church is becoming. She’s the Bride — and she is being made ready.

And don’t rush past that word. He didn’t call us an audience. He didn’t call us employees. He didn’t even just call us the crowd that shows up on Sunday. He called His people a Bride — the one person in the room the King is coming back for.

Watch four things about her.

She IS — present tense. Right now, today, she is betrothed. She is not hoping to one day be His. She already belongs to Him.

2 Corinthians 11:2 — “I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.”

Ephesians 5:25–27 — “Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her… that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle.”

She WAITS — in anticipation. A bride who knows the wedding is coming lives leaning forward.

Titus 2:13 — “looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.”

Romans 8:19–23 — creation itself and the Church are “eagerly waiting,” groaning for what’s coming.

She is being PREPARED — and in these last days He is preparing her by pouring out His Spirit. This is the part I don’t want you to miss in an end-times conversation. The same season that holds the Lord’s return holds an outpouring.

Joel 2:28–29 / Acts 2:17 — “I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh… your sons and your daughters shall prophesy.”

And she gets to be part of a HARVEST — a revival the farmer has been waiting for through every long season.

James 5:7–8 — “the farmer waits for the precious fruit… until it receives the early and latter rain. You also be patient.”

So put the future picture in front of you:

Revelation 19:7–8 — “The marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready… arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright.”

Hear me today — she is spotless on that day because she is making herself ready in this one. Through the very outpouring we are living in right now.

And here’s what wrecks me. You don’t have to leave 1 John to find this. It’s sitting right inside the main text we’re going to open today.

Revelation 22:17 — “And the Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’… And let him who thirsts come.”

Look at everything packed into that one verse. The Spirit — that’s the outpouring. The bride — that’s the Church. Together, crying “Come!” — that’s the anticipation. And “whoever thirsts, come” — that’s the harvest. Point one is hiding right there in your passage.

[Story Slot — a moment you’ve personally watched the Spirit poured out: a service, an altar, a person you didn’t expect, where you knew you were watching the Bride get ready in real time. Land it on: we are not just waiting for revival, we are being made ready by it.]

She is spotless on that day because she is making herself ready in this one. Ⓜ

TS: We don’t fully know the what of that day. But there’s a second question — and this one moves from the Church to you.

2. What Will It Be Like to See Him as He Really Is?

Verse 2 again — “but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.”

So the second question: what will it actually be like to see Jesus — not in a verse, not in a worship song, not through the glass — but face to face, as He really is?

Here’s the pivot of the whole message. We don’t know the full WHAT. But we know the WHO. And John says seeing Him is the very thing that changes us. “We shall be like Him, FOR we shall see Him.” The seeing does the transforming.

Seeing Him is the moment the dim becomes clear. Seeing Him is the moment the faith you’ve walked by becomes the face you’ve longed for. Seeing Him is the moment every sermon, every song, every quiet answered prayer turns into the real thing standing in front of you. We have been seeing Him through a window our whole lives. One day the window comes down.

1 Corinthians 13:12 — “For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face.”

2 Corinthians 3:18 — “beholding… the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory.”

Did you hear that? You become what you behold. You are right now being transformed by the Jesus you’re only seeing dimly. Imagine what one unfiltered look at His face will do.

Romans 8:29 — “conformed to the image of His Son.”

Philippians 3:21 — He “will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body.”

Colossians 3:4 — “When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.”

Now let me open the room where it actually happens. Turn with me to Revelation 22 — the last chapter in your Bible, the place where all of this lands.

And before we read it, I want you to feel where you’re standing. Revelation 22 is the floor where the entire Bible is going. Genesis 2 opened with a garden, a tree of life, and a river. Genesis 3 lost it — the curse came in, and an angel with a flaming sword shut the gate to that tree. Now flip to the very last page. There’s the river again — flowing from the throne. There’s the tree of life again — and this time the leaves are for healing. And the curse? Verse 3 — “there shall be no more curse.” The Bible opens in a garden and closes in a city, and everything we lost in chapter three of Genesis is handed back in chapter twenty-two of Revelation. That’s the room you’re walking into.

1And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. 2In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life… and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 3And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him. 4They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads. 5There shall be no night there: They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever.

The river of life from the throne. The tree. The leaves for healing. No more curse. And then verse 4 — “They shall see His face.”

Church, that is verse 2 of 1 John made visible. “We shall see Him as He is.” Here it is — they shall see His face.

And watch — in this one vision you get all three at once. Love, Glory, and Judgment.

Love — verse 17, “whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.”

Glory — verses 4–5, the face, no night, and they reign forever and ever.

Judgment — verses 11 and 15, “he who is filthy, let him be filthy still… outside are the dogs.”

The same vision that shows you the river also shows you the line. The face is offered freely — and there is an outside. I’m not going to soften that. Love and judgment are standing in the same room.

So look at the two altitudes of the very same promise. Question one — the Church, made like Him, the spotless Bride. Question two — you, personally, made like Him because one day you will see His face. The corporate and the personal both finish in the exact same place: like Him.

[Story Slot — a story about longing to see someone’s face again: a deployment homecoming, a loved one you lost, the difference between a photo and the actual face. Bridge it to: a photo changes nothing, but the face changes everything. We don’t worship a photo of Jesus — we are headed for His face.]

You don’t know the full what of that day. But you know the Who — and seeing His face is what makes you like Him. Ⓜ

TS: If that’s really where we’re headed, it changes how we live in the meantime. Verse 3 lands the plane.

Conclusion — So Keep Yourself Pure

Verse 3 — “And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.”

The hope does something. It’s not passive. People who really believe they are going to see that face start to live a certain way right now. You don’t purify yourself to earn the face — you purify yourself because you can’t wait to see it.

Think about it the way a bride thinks about a wedding day. Nobody who is truly expecting the groom stops getting ready. The closer the day, the more the getting-ready intensifies. Purity here is not a rulebook — it’s a bride who hears the footsteps in the hallway and stands up.

Matthew 5:8 — “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”

Look how tight that is. Purity and seeing Him are wired together. Pure in heart — they shall see God. It’s the same wire running through 1 John 3.

2 Corinthians 7:1 — “let us cleanse ourselves… perfecting holiness in the fear of God.”

And don’t miss the echo. That “hope” in verse 3 — that eager expectation — is the same leaning-forward the Bride was doing back in question one. And “keep yourself pure” is just the personal version of “without spot or wrinkle” from Ephesians 5. The whole message ties off right here — the Bride making herself ready and you keeping yourself pure are the same thing, said two ways.

People who really believe they’ll see His face don’t live the same. Hope purifies. Ⓜ

Response

Stand with me if you are able. Close your eyes. This is between you and God.

Revelation 22:4 over this room — “They shall see His face.”

Some of you have never been able to receive it. You’ve spent your whole life trying to earn a love that was already a gift. Today you can stop earning and just receive. You can become a child of God right now — not by cleaning yourself up first, but by believing and receiving.

Some of you are His, but you’ve been discouraged. You’ve been arguing about the when and you forgot the Who. Tonight is an invitation to lift your eyes off the timeline and back onto His face.

And some of you feel the Spirit stirring you toward readiness — toward purity, toward revival, toward being part of this harvest. Don’t resist Him. The Spirit and the Bride are saying come.

Revelation 22:17 over all of us — “The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’… And let him who thirsts come.”

Come and be made ready.

[Pray from the heart — layer the calls: for the one receiving the gift of salvation, for the discouraged believer, for the one being stirred toward purity and revival. Then turn it loose for ministry / the Holy Spirit to move.]