Wednesday May 7th, 2014 We are God's Children

PLEASE PRAY FOR NIGERIA AND THE GIRLS WHO HAVE BEEN KIDNAPPED THERE.  MAY GOD PROTECT THEM AND RETURN THEM HOME SAFELY.

WEDNESDAY MAY 7th, 2014

1 JOHN CHAPTER 3

We are God's children

What is your relationship with your parents?  Even as adults, our relationship with our parents has a strong impact on our lives - whether we are close to our parents, estranged from our parents, have lost our parents, whatever the situation may be - it does affect our emotional sense of self.  Exodus 20:12 says Honor your mother and father.  

As a parent now myself, I appreciate my parents even more, and I acknowledge that I probably was not the easiest kid to raise. I was strong-willed, and had many a teenage moment.  

But I think about all the things that my parents did for us when we were growing up, and I'm grateful, and I delight in showing them gratitude or doing special things for them. Whether it be mother's/father's day or a birthday or just a phone call.  

Isn't that how it is with our father in heaven.  We delight in showing him that we love him, we delight in honoring him. One of the ways we can do that is by honoring him with our actions, and that is what John is talking about in Chapter 3. We have seen God's work in our lives - think of all the devotionals shared in our group - and we KNOW he is our protector! We delight in obeying his commands and honoring him with our lives.

Today I'd like to focus on the first paragraph of Chapter 3 because I believe the essence of the chapter lies there within.

Three main points!!

1. Marvel at our salvation (verse 1)

2. Be confident in our glorification (verse 2)

3. Activate our purification (verse 3)

This chapter begins with SEE or BEHOLD! In other words, check this out - take a moment to MARVEL.

That we are called his children.

Our relationships with our earthly parents may not be perfect, but our relationship with our heavenly father is perfect - there is no 'baggage'.  He doesn't care about our past....our wrongs, our mistakes.

Now look at part 2 of verse 1 "The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him."

Non-believers don't get this - they think we are a little weird - yes you go ahead and go to your bible study - sure you can go ahead and pray - but they don't believe this stuff....

Now moving on to verse 2 - "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."
How can I be like Christ???   We cannot be identical to Christ, but we can be similar to him, be like him, seeing him as he is! In this life, we should not seek perfection but take God's direction.

Remember!

Verse 1 - marvel at our salvation

Verse 2 - be confident of your glorification

Verse 3 - be active in your purification

Verse 3:   "All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure." 

Everyone who has the hope in Christ - HOPE is not like hoping that my sports team will win or my child will get a good grade on their exams or hope that my presentation will go well at work etc...

this HOPE - is a confident expectation.  You KNOW - through Christ - that we can seek purification...

When I marvel at my salvation and I am confident of my glorification, I will participate and be intentional in my purification.  I will turn away from sin.  My sin will become more and more evident the more I draw near to God.  I don't sit around and wait for God to change my life.  I seek out ways to serve him - to sacrifice things in my life - to be generous to others - all through God's grace.  We are motivated by the fact that we MARVEL at our salvation.  The more gratitude and awe we have of the cross the more we want to be more like Christ.  If it's no big deal, we probably won't be very motivated to be active in our purification..

A few other key verses from this chapter:

verse 7 "Do not let anyone lead you astray" - keep the faith - stay on the path! a long obedience in the same direction!

verse 11 "This is the message we have heard from the beginning: we should love one another" - love is not just something, it is everything!

verse 16 "this is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us...and we ought to lay down our lives for one another."

verse 18 "let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth"

This last verse makes me think of St Francis of Assisi.  He is the one many people accredit the phrase "Preach the gospel at all times, and if necessary, use words"

He lived between 1180s and 1220s, born into a wealthy family, he rejected that wealth, and his earthly family, to go on to live a life exemplary of Christ - he lived among the poor and did all he could to help those in need.  He founded the Franciscan order after hearing a sermon on Matthew 10:9.  And he is accredited with being the first person to set up a nativity scene. You can go see several famous paintings of him in the National Gallery rooms 54 and 58.

So as we close today and think of what it means to be Children of God, and we see this beautiful example in St Francis of Assisi, let us each leave here with a sense of awe of our salvation, a confidence in our glorification, and a renewed motivation to seek our purification.

Let us preach the gospel at all times, and if necessary, use words!