Hope, Part 2 - Like Christ

1 John 3:2–3 NIV

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.

Sidebar - John here is saying, ‘this future life, we don’t know exactly what it will look like’.

But John had confidence that whatever it was, it was good enough - because Christ would be there, and we would be like Him. And that’s a good enough answer.

Trusting jesus means believing that his plan is best, even when we dont know it

If we’re honest with ourselves, how much do we really believe this? How much are we willing to say, ‘I trust that God is doing the right thing, even when I don’t know what he’s doing’? I don’t say this to our shame - I say it because we do need to be honest with ourselves in order to grow further with God.

There’s no use in saying something about us that SHOULD be right , if it ISN’T right about us. Even if we mean well.

The man with the child with the demon - I believe, help me with my unbelief!

But this is like one of those trust exercises. We don’t know WHAT it will look like, but we know WHO does, and we trust Him completely. So it’s OK.

When Christ Appears - We Shall Be Like Him

This is the ‘ending hope’ of faith, the end game

Now, if you’re not sure what John means by ‘when Christ appears’ - we believe that the book of Revelation teaches that at the end of time, Jesus will return, eliminate sin and death, and bring a new eternal kingdom on earth

This is in the future. Possibly far in the future. Maybe even outside of our lifetimes.

in this life, God moves to make us more like jesus in our character and holiness. in the next, god will miraculously make us more like jesus by giving us perfection and eternity

Now, I’m explaining this about the verse, because this context is important. When John says ‘This hope’ later in the verse, he is referring to this reality.

All Who Have This Hope Purify Themselves

This is about us preparing ourselves to be with Christ by trying to be more LIKE christ.

And don’t get me wrong - this is still all empowered and led by the Holy Spirit. We are not on our own here. But we still need to step up - God isn’t going to force us.

But this verse talks about what the ‘roots’ of hope look like in our lives when we allow them to grow.

The point: When we have biblical hope, it drives us to purity and trust in Jesus.

This is the ‘next step’ of hope. Greater trust, and greater purity. Notice how it doesn’t say ‘a more successful life’ or ‘a bigger bank account’ or ‘getting our prayers answered the way we want more’. It simply says, we trust Jesus and want to be more like Him, and we purify ourselves because He is pure.

There’s an implied other side to this coin - if we don’t or wont purify ourselves, do we really carry this hope of the resurrection? Do we look forward to it? Or, another way to look at it, if we don’t act like we believe Jesus - do we?

Now, a lot of people believe that religion is simply ‘brainwashing’. That people make drastic changes in their lives to line up with what the bible says, because some pastor at some point stood up and yelled at them and told them they had to, etc etc.

And I get that, i get that. But I’ve always told people, here’s the thing - Christianity is either true, or it isn’t. It doesn’t depend on if we believe in it or not. CS Lewis put it like this - Christianity, if it’s true, is of utmost importance, and if it’s not true, is of no importance. The thing it cannot be is moderately important.

Jesus doesn’t allow that space. He brings truth for living every day, yes, but also a future plan for us that extends into eternity. And it’s not just these everyday ‘tidbits’ that change us - it’s this eternity that we will walk into. Realizing that, we believe that there’s a God out there who has prepared a perfect place for us - that changes everything about us.

And what that means is this - the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, and the eternal life that He offers us - it’s either true, or it isn’t. And if it’s true - then it should be earth shattering. It should be the biggest, most important thing that we ever do with our lives. It’s not brainwashing to respond this way - it’s reasonable.

If a doctor came to you and say, hey, if you don’t change this thing in your life you are going to die - that’s an important thing. We’d reorient ourselves to live by that truth, even if it meant sacrifice. Isn’t God worth more of our time and focus than that?

So last week, I called us as a church to come back to a faith that hopes - that refuses to feel powerless, but rather stands tall in the power and the promises of God.

This week, we’re called to be radically changed by that hope - to reorient our lives fully and completely towards a God who has a new life for us when this one is over.