Prepared and Ready

We have fellowship through the recognition and acceptance of the person and work of the Son. In so doing, we have fellowship not only with the Son but with the the Father and with one another.

This fellowship bring with it joy. This is the sort of joy that can only be experience when we have this deep abiding fellowship.

Our sin has a way of robbing us of the joy that God would have us experience in our lives. While it does not remove the fellowship we have with God it become a hindrance to it. It interferes with the true joy of fellowship we can have with the Father and Son. It gets us to believe a lie. It tells us there is a better joy out there than the one that comes from God. It tells us that loving the things of this world will bring us fulfillment. It tells us if I can just get that one more thing, or experience this one thing I desire to experience, or if this situation in my life were different, than I would experience true joy. Then I would be content.

However, when we come to our senses and remember that joy only come from loving God not the world and we confess our sins, we have a God who is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.

We have a Savior who not only paid the penalty of our sins but stand in the presence of the Father and fights for us against the accusation of the Devil.

It is this fellowship with God that drives us to know him further through his Word. This desire to know him through his Word also become an evidence we belong to Him.

If however, we are failing to in our desire to know him, or we are not loving our brothers and sisters in Christ as we should, then we might need to back up and ask, what is the unconfessed sin in my life that is hindering me. We know from John’s epistle the one who is walking in the light is demonstrating evidences of the joy of fellowship with the Son, the Father, and one another.

This is only may possible through the abiding ministry of the Holy Spirit (2:20,27) and as we abide in God.

Abiding is meant to be a divine and human cooperative. John goes on to tell us in 2:28 that the abiding christian anticipates with confidence the appearing of Christ without feeling ashamed at his coming

The Abiding Christian anticipates with confidence the Appearing of Christ without feeling Ashamed at his coming.

READ 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.”

Abiding is a theme in the first 2 chapters of 1 John

Abiding - through believing the truth (1 John 1:1-3)

Abiding - through obeying the truth (1 John 2:3-6)

Abiding - through loving other Christians 1 John 2:9-11)

Sin hinders the abiding fellowship we have with God.

This broken fellowship is the result of direct disobedience to God Word, lack of love for brothers and sisters in Christ, or believing falsehoods.

1, 2, 3 John (2) Beware of the Antichrists (2:18–28)

Abiding in him prepares believers for his appearing: abiding is our confidence; his appearing is our motivation.

Appearing - We can live with an anticipation and a growing confidence that Jesus is coming back for his church. Though there are mocker, and will be mockers, we can have a confidence because know God, and we have a fellowship with him.

2 Peter 3:8-10 “But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.”

How we view it may be an indication or our spiritually maturity and priorities. In other words, if we are not looking forward to his coming there may be some things we need to sort out in our own mind.

I have things unfinished (or I want to see my daughter grow up) or will there be this in heaven. (video games)

Priority on the things of the earth

Heavens not going to be that great. (boring)

I may be a failure to understand who our God is, the wonder of his promise.

Bringing pavement (joke)

Our abiding and his appearing work together. As we abide in Him through his word, prayer, fellowship with the saints and ministry we grow in our confidence in his promises, specifically here... his coming. As we become more confident of his coming and it become the focus of our attention, it then become a stronger motivation for us to continue our abiding in Him.

The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Five: Truth or Consequences (1 John 2:18–29)

The fact that Jesus Christ may return at any moment ought to be an incentive for us to live in fellowship with Him and be obedient to His Word. For this reason, John uses a third word:

Ashamed - God has given us everything we need to live for him. He has taken away our sins, He has given us the indwelling ministry of the Holy Spirit. 2 Peter 1:3-4 “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.”

As those born of God we are to be living is such a way now that joy fills our heart when you consider the coming of the Lord.

We don’t want to the in a place spiritual, right now, where when we consider the coming of Christ our first though would be to shrink away in shame. (Adam and Eve felt shame at the coming of Christ). If this is where you are, I encouraging, it is not where you need to stay. John, in fact tells us it is not where we need to be. We can, through an abiding fellowship with him, have a real sense of joy at this thought instead of shame.

The feeling of shame is an emotion. Sometimes we feel shame for another or for something that is not our fault. What we are talking about here is when a person feel appropriate shame because of a clear failure to glorify the Lord. This feeling of shame than is an opportunity to make a change.

No matter what come to mind, take comfort in the truth that God is not surprised by it, therefore He is not ashamed or disappointed in you. This is not to say that he agrees with the short coming, quite the opposite is true. It just means that wherever you are in your spiritual walk.... is where He knew you would be. Whatever struggle you are having God knew it before you struggle with it. He simply want to lovingly take you from where you are into a deeper abiding relationship with himself. Phil. 2:13 “for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”

The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Five: Truth or Consequences (1 John 2:18–29)

No matter in which direction a Christian looks, he finds reason to obey God. If he looks back, he sees Calvary, where Christ died for him. If he looks within, he sees the Holy Spirit who lives within and teaches him the truth. If he looks around, he sees his Christian brethren whom he loves; he also sees a world lost in sin, desperately needing his godly witness. And if he looks ahead, he sees the return of Christ! “And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as He is pure” (1 John 3:3). The return of Christ is a great inspiration for godly living.

Not only does God tell us that the abiding christian anticipates with confidence the appearing of Christ without feeling ashamed at his coming. He also tells us Those born of God bear an identity as well as a responsibility.

Those born of God bear an identity as well as a responsibility.

John concludes here in this verses, giving all the earlier topics of light vs. darkness, love vs. hatred, truth vs. error, that Since we know Christ, that he is righteous, there is an expectation of appropriate behavior.

If indeed we truly know Christ and His righteousness, it is that righteousness that will be reveals through us. This then becomes the evidence of our being born again.

Jesus’s conversation with Nicodemus

It begin’s with knowing Christ and entering into Fellowship with God through his grace by faith.

It is his righteousness that is expressed then through us because our being born of God. This right living is then the evidence of our salvation. This righteousness is based then on the character of who God is not our own righteousness. Certainly it is not the world’s definition of righteousness.

It is this right living that become that which reflect not us by our God. For this is why we were made. To reflect Him.

This is our responsibility in that divine and human cooperative.

Matthew 7:21 ““Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”

James 2 “My brothers, show no partiality as you hold the faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory. For if a man wearing a gold ring and fine clothing comes into your assembly, and a poor man in shabby clothing also comes in, and if you pay attention to the one who wears the fine clothing and say, “You sit here in a good place,” while you say to the poor man, “You stand over there,” or, “Sit down at my feet,” have you not then made distinctions among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved brothers, has not God chosen those who are poor in the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom, which he has promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor man. Are not the rich the ones who oppress you, and the ones who drag you into court? Are they not the ones who blaspheme the honorable name by which you were called? If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well…”

The Bible Exposition Commentary Chapter Five: Truth or Consequences (1 John 2:18–29)

A person who professes to be a Christian, but who does not live in obedience, love, and truth, is either deceived or a deceiver. A child bears the nature of his father, and a person who has been “born of God” will reveal the characteristics of the Heavenly Father. “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children” (Eph. 5:1, NASB). “As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance; but as He which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy” (1 Peter 1:14–15).

As a Child of God, you are Deeply Loved

Read 3:1

Instead of going any deeper into this portion of the passage I want to pause, especially on this day before Valentine’s Day, and just consider the depth of God’s love for us. We will by no means exhaust this topic, but let consider a few passages as we end today.

Jesus laid how his live for us.

John 15:12-17 ““This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another.”

John 3:16-17 ““For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

God’s love is unconditional

Romans 5:8 “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

1 John 4:9-10 “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

He brought us from death to life, raised and seated with Christ

Ephesians 2:1-10 “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, …”

God has secured salvation

Romans 8:31-39 “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus …”

He exercises love toward us

1 Corinthians 13:1-7 “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”

If indeed we know and have experienced God love then we can say along with the Palmists

Ps 36:7 “How precious is your steadfast love, O God! The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings.”

Ps 109:26 “Help me, O Lord my God! Save me according to your steadfast love!”

The abiding christian anticipates with confidence the appearing of Christ without feeling ashamed at his coming

Why don’t we need to feel shame?The answer is found in our abiding relationship.

Those born of God bear an identity as well as a responsibility.

That abiding relationship along with our righteous behavior is evidence of our being born of God

As a Child of God, you are Deeply Loved

Wherever you are in your spiritual journey,God wants to bring you closer to himself.He loves you in wants to have the biting relationship with you.For the one who has not yet placed their faith and trust in Jesus Christ, he wants to begin that journey with you.For the one who has placed their faith already in Christ,he wants to deepen that abiding relationship with you.