1 John 3:2-3

What We Are and What We Will Be

Nestle-Aland Greek New Testament, 28th Edition Chapter 3

2 Ἀγαπητοί νῦν τέκνα θεοῦ ἐσμεν, καὶ οὔπω ἐφανερώθη τί ἐσόμεθα.* οἴδαμεν ⸆ ὅτι ἐὰν φανερωθῇ,* ὅμοιοι αὐτῷ ἐσόμεθα, ὅτι ὀψόμεθα αὐτὸν, καθώς ἐστιν.* 3 καὶ πᾶς ὁ ἔχων τὴν ἐλπίδα ταύτην ἐπʼ αὐτῷ ἁγνίζει ἑαυτόν, καθὼς ἐκεῖνος ἁγνός ἐστιν.

OPENING REMARKS

Since we begun studying 1 John we’ve followed the apostle as he has unpacked what being a Christian truly looks like.

He has been drawing a contrast between the hallmarks of a true Christian and that of a false Christian. He’s not doing this for some purely academic reason but because of a very real and present situation happening to this church. There is a group of false believers who have begun to teach new and strange things about Jesus and about what being a Christian looks like.

In John’s letter we see the role he played as a pastor, as a shepherd of God’s flock

Number 1; He’s clearly got a real love for these people, he keeps calling them, beloved and children. He cares. He’s not detached or aloof but he speaks to them like a father.

Number 2; He doesn’t write to them in a way they can’t understand. The language is clear, to the point and he’s addressing real issues in the church.

Number 3; He calls them back to the word that they received at first. The Gospel of Jesus Christ. Remain in Christ is the message. How do you do that? By clinging fast to His word, which we have here in the scriptures.

Todays passage is one of those that stops you in your tracks. It grabs us and causes us to consider things that really get our imaginations going!

OVERALL THEMES

John has been bringing in the theme of the return of Christ from verse 28 of the second chapter and this continues through into verses 1 and 2 of the third chapter.

Jesus’s return is something that John believes ought to be very prominent in the mind of a Christian.

In fact there are over 50 passages in the new testament that refer directly to the second coming!

No one talked about it more than Jesus Himself!

There is another verb which is repeated in these verses and that is the verb ‘we are’. It is used both in the present and the future tense, now WE ARE children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what WE WILL BE, and WE WILL BE like Him.

So the major themes here are of our IDENTITY; of what it means to be a Christian both now and in the future. And of the Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and what that will accomplish.

NOW WE ARE CHILDREN OF GOD

The late Francis Schaeffer, Christian theologian and apologist said rightfully that Christians are by definition ‘a people of the book.’ That is to say that a Christian is someone who’s worldview and self-conception are shaped firstly by the Bible.

Therefore a Christian is not free in that sense to reimagine the world, God and themselves as they please. They aren’t free to develop and change their views on what it means to be a Christian in line with the times.

A Christian is what the Bible says a Christian is. And this definition is not subject to change, just as God is not subject to change (James 1:17) Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

The Christian is NOW a child of God, says the apostle John and this by virtue of the LOVE which he has bestowed on us.

And what is this love which He has bestowed on us that makes us children of God?

The same apostle wrote about this love in John 3:16, perhaps the most famous of all the scriptures; For God so loved the world that He have His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.

But if God loves the world sooo much that He gave His only Son doesnt that mean that everyone is a child of God?

This is to entirely miss the point of John 3 :16; What the original language really conveys is this; For God has thus loved the world… Not, for God soooooo loved the world. It’s talking primarily about the singular manner in which God’s love is manifest rather than the sentimental love of God.

There is a love that God bestows on all! Theologians call this COMMON GRACE. God gives to all the ability to enjoy life, to marry, to procreate, to live and to love. But that kind of love isn’t what John is talking about in this passage.

John is talking about God’s adopting love, the love which makes you and I, who were sons and daughters of disobedience into children of God!

This adopting love of God is found through faith in Jesus Christ and faith in Him alone.

You may be a regular church goer, maybe even a minister in a church but you are not a Child of God unless you have believed and are still believing in Jesus Christ alone to save you from your sins.

A Child of God is someone who loves the cross of Jesus Christ. It’s someone who takes the cross personally! Have you taken the cross personally? Do you love the cross of Christ? Do you glory in it? That’s the position of a child of God.

The Christian is NOW a child of God because they have been born again:

john 1:12-13 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

Being born again isn’t something we can make happen ourselves as Nicodemus found out when he spoke with Jesus; it’s a work of grace, a work of the Spirit, a work of God.

Have you been born again? Is there a new life in you?

How can you know? That new life is like a new born, like a spiritual baby, it cries out for spiritual milk; for the word of God, for the scriptures, for fellowship. Do you like to hear the Bible preached, do you hunger for it? That’s a sure sign you have been born again, to the natural mind what we’re doing right here is the epitome of BOREDOM!

The Christian is someone who has a personal relationship with God as Father:

John 14:16-18 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.

Romans 8:14-17 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 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.

The Christian is someone who can legitimately call God, Father. They can come to Him with their most trivial issues in prayer and He will hear them out and answer them like a Father would a child. There’s nothing too insignificant or small to Him, you’re His child now, your cares are His cares.

The reality of our adoption as children of God is a present one. We now have a Father in Heaven! He knows us better than we know ourselves. There is nothing in us that’s hidden from Him but He still loves us!

And as Romans 8 says there is nothing that can separate us from His love.

IT HAS NOT YET BEEN REVEALED WHAT WE WILL BE...

Christian theologians talk about ‘the now and the not yet’ with respects to the Kingdom of God. It’s also legitimate to talk about the now and the not yet with regards to ourselves as Christians.

In recent times it has been THE NOW that many preachers have focussed on in their teaching;

Your identity as a child of God

The anointing of the Holy Spirit

The love of the Father

The Great Commission, reaching the lost.

However, the early church had a far greater focus on the NOT YET than we currently do.

There is a well known phrase that goes something like ‘Don’t be so heavenly minded that you’re of no earthly good!’ We know what is meant by this, and I’m sure we know of the sort of person that this comment refers to!

However, Jesus and the apostles regularly spoke of heaven, of the mind blowing things that are to come at the end of this age.

Can it really be that they wanted for us to put these realities to the back of our mind and get on with the practical stuff?

My concern is that the modern preacher has missed something here; the early church were far more focussed on heaven, and the future coming of Christ than we are and yet they got the practical stuff done better than us too.

SO LET’S ALLOW OURSELVES TO WONDER

“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.’ John 14:1-3

Philippians 3:20–21 ESV

But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.

Luke 21:25–28 ESV

“And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress of nations in perplexity because of the roaring of the sea and the waves, people fainting with fear and with foreboding of what is coming on the world. For the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

Matthew 24:27 ESV

For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.

Matthew 24:29–31 ESV

“Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

Revelation 1:7 ESV

Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen.

When Jesus is revealed at His second coming our new identity in the coming age will be revealed. That’s what John is saying. We will receive a new body!

A body which unlike this one will be incorruptible; it won’t get sick, it won’t age, it won’t know pain, it won’t know disability. Imagine that? Imagine what hope that brings for someone suffering physically in this life. No more wheelchairs, no more medication.

This new body will be immortal; we won’t age! We will live for eternity with Him!

Judging by Jesus’s resurrection body our new bodies won’t be limited in the same ways as they are now.

What will life be like in the New Jerusalem?

English Standard Version Chapter 21

10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, 11 having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. 12 It had a great, high wall, with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and on the gates the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel were inscribed— 13 on the east three gates, on the north three gates, on the south three gates, and on the west three gates. 14 And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

15 And the one who spoke with me had a measuring rod of gold to measure the city and its gates and walls. 16 The city lies foursquare, its length the same as its width. And he measured the city with his rod, 12,000 stadia. Its length and width and height are equal. 17 He also measured its wall, 144 cubits by human measurement, which is also an angel’s measurement. 18 The wall was built of jasper, while the city was pure gold, like clear glass. 19 The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every kind of jewel. The first was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, 20 the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst. 21 And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, each of the gates made of a single pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.

22 And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. 23 And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. 24 By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, 25 and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. 26 They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. 27 But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

The River of Life

22 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 3 No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. 4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5 And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.

WHEN HE IS REVEALED WE SHALL BE LIKE HIM FOR WE SHALL SEE HIM AS HE IS.

We know that Paul taught in Corinthians that as we behold Christ we are being transformed into His likeness from glory to glory.

But on that day when He returns we won’t have to use the eyes of faith to see Him, we will see Him as He is, with our natural eyes!

No longer the Nazarene Carpenter but the Lord of Glory reigning in Power with all of His retinue. Wow!

As we look at Him, we are transformed into His likeness.

ALL THOSE HAVING THIS HOPE IN HIM PURIFY THEMSELVES JUST AS HE IS PURE

What is this hope? It’s the hope of future glory in Jesus! We are allowed to get excited about heaven. We’re supposed to be thinking about Jesus coming back! We are the people of advent! Looking forward to His return.

John says that all those who have this hope purify themselves, they get rid of every filthy sin that mars them, they can’t stand to live in immorality.

Do you find purity to be a real battle? Well it is! It’s a battleground! But John says that the secret to victory in this area isn’t merely to hunker down and fight harder but that the secret to victory is in where your gaze is.

There’s a story about the world cup winning england rugby team of 2003. Whenever they conceded a try Clive Woodward would have his team immediately turn and focus their gaze on the opposition’s cross bar.

Whenever we fall we have to refix our gaze on this hope, this hope that we have in Jesus!