The Father’s Gift at Christmas: An Alien Love 1 John 3:1-3
In the Advent season of the year, once again the questions arise: Who is Jesus? What is the true meaning of Christmas? This is nothing new and the debates continue even today. Before the first century was completed, within decades of the Lord Jesus Christ’s Death, Resurrection and Ascension, many were questioning the fundamentals of the Christian faith. John deals with the certainties, not speculation, of the basics of being a Christian, a “Christ-one.”
(Last week we looked the official title of the Lord Jesus as Christ, God’s Anointed One. Jesus did not have a earthly biological “father”: Jesus was Anointed by God the Father to be our High Priest, not officiating at a ceremony, but dying as the sacrifice for sin; Joseph was appointed as Jesus’ step-father or guardian while He was growing up.)
Today we look at another one of the Father’s Gifts at Christmas in 1 John 3: 1 See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. 2 Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. 3 And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.”
GREAT FOREIGN LOVE
1. God’s Love is Great. In our text, the exclamation is HOW GREAT! (Potapos)The word means “from what country, nation or tribe, of what sort or quality, what manner of”? This kind of love is foreign and an alien love. Before the birth and life of Jesus, it was LOVE UNKNOWN because sin had separated man from God’s love. That’s why when people saw the works and wonders of Jesus, who had appeared from God’s Heaven, Matthew 8:27 says: “But the men marveled, saying, ‘What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him!” What Kind of Man is this? Where did He come from?
Remember the exclamation of Paul in Romans 11:32-33: “For God has shut up all in disobedience so that He may show mercy to all (whom He would save). Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!” During the advent season, people who know Jesus as Savior and God as their Father still exclaim in utter amazement: What kind of Love is this that the Father would send His Son to die for sinners? “For God so loved the world that he gave (as a gift!) his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” (John 3:16-17) Jesus shows to what extent the Father Loves His Children, just how GREAT is His Love.
God’s LOVE is Gifted
God’s Love to us is Gifted. We GIVE gifts at Christmas because God has first given to us. He GAVE US HIS LOVE. We Love because He first loved us. When Jesus miraculously and divinely raised Lazarus, (who is a picture of every sinner: DEAD in sin, needing the call of Jesus to New Life), they exclaimed: "See how He loved him!" (John 11:36) GOD-GIVEN LOVE is not EARNED but given, not acquired but begotten: It comes into existence by an ACT OF God by His Holy Spirit, through the work of God in Christ as Jesus appeared in Flesh to reveal God’s Great Gift of Love.
(In our Midweek study we looked at when God gave the law at Mount Sinai, 3,000 received death by the sword because of disobedience to the Law. In the NT the “Sword of the Spirit” is the Word of God and in Acts 2 at Pentecost, 3,000 come ALIVE by the Preaching of the Word, the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Power of the indwelling Holy Spirit of God by the Grace and Mercy of God.)
God’s Children are CALLED
“See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, (given as a gift in Christ, not earned) that we would be CALLED children of God.” So secondly, God calls us in Christ, in Love, to be His Children. Love is always about relationship. We are called CHILDREN (teknon) of God. Not everyone is a Child of God! You certainly did not earn the right to be a Child of God: Ephesians 2:1 tells us: “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins…sons of disobedience…3 Among them we too all formerly lived …even as the rest. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, (HE!!!) made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved ), 6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”
The word for “CHILDREN” means “offspring” but also signifies the bond of love between parents and children.” We are “CALLED the children of God” doesn’t mean we WERE the children of God but were not yet called that, and then God called us “His CHILDREN”. No, it means that we were NOT the children of God, but we were like the rest of the world, absolutely DEAD and outside the family, actually enemies of God, and then God reached out and CALLED by each name to be a Child of HIS. He makes us His Children by way of a NEW BIRTH, in the same way that Jesus called Lazarus out of the death of the tomb and put new life in him. (John 11) Romans 9:26 says: "AND IT SHALL BE THAT IN THE PLACE WHERE IT WAS SAID TO THEM, 'YOU ARE NOT MY PEOPLE,' THERE THEY SHALL BE CALLED SONS OF THE LIVING GOD." From strangers to sons and daughters!
Jesus said in John 6:44: "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws (drags) him...” In John 14:6 Jesus claimed: "I AM the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” Here we see the Father and Son working perfectly to bring His children into God’s Kingdom. Enemies of God become CHILDREN OF God as the Father drags them to Jesus, and Jesus brings us to the Father: you could say it’s a Christmas miracle of God’s Grace… Jesus’ appearance BRINGS DEAD people to Life!
CHILDREN OF God…NOW
And we become children of God: “See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are.” God’s Love is a present possession; It is NOW. Jesus sent out His Disciples to preach that the Kingdom of God is Near, Now, and Coming. (Matthew 10:7) In Romans 8:16 we saw that, “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit (in the present!) that we are children of God.” In John 1:12 it says: “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name.” Our text says: “AND SUCH WE ARE! For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.” Some are children, some are not. Some recognize the Savior and know Him, some do not, but those who have received Him and believe in Jesus as Lord and Savior, His Spirit testifies with ours that we are His Children.
There is not a trial period for people to enter God’s Kingdom as His Children; Jesus’ appearance led to immediate possession, to everyone who truly believes and exercises genuine saving faith. 1 Peter 1:24 says: “He (Jesus) Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross,(that was the prerequisite) so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.” If you haven’t died to sin and you aren’t living to righteousness, you must not be a child of God. (What separates people in general from being Heavenly-FATHER-Children is sin and unbelief (lawlessness), which we will look at next week.) Our lives NOW should be to the praise of His Glory and grace: "In love [God] destined us to adoption ... to the praise of the glory of His grace" (Ephesians 1:4-6).
Future SECURITY
1 John 3:2-3 reads: “Beloved, NOW we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we WILL BE. We know that WHEN He appears, WE WILL BE LIKE Him, because we will see Him just as He IS.” God’s Kingdom WILL one day come on earth as it is in Heaven in fulfillment; Because of God’s Great Love in Christ, we possess a future security of final PERFECTION in Him.
People, as Children of God, we should live in keen expectancy, not for Christmas Day, but far more important for us, as we wait for Jesus’ SECOND appearance, because we KNOW that when we finally see Him, we will be LIKE HIM. Our faith will finally become sight. We will become as much like Christ as we can be, without becoming deity!
Verse 3 says: “And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.” The root word for “purifies” and “pure” is the word HOLY. The Love of God to those who believe is a cleansing love because God’s desire first of all for His Children IS NOT that they be happy, but Holy. “Everyone who has this ETERNAL HOPE AND SECURITY in God’s Love in Christ purifies himself, just as Christ is pure.”
The perfection of our “Sonship” is coming, but we are admonished to live Holy Lives until Jesus comes again. Another Second Advent exhortation for believers is Jude 1: 20-21: “But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, 21 keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life.” Encourage one another with these words, not as we wait for “Christmas”, but for the return of our Christ.
OUTLINE
1. God’s Love is GREAT. (ALIEN LOVE)
(Matt. 8:27, John 3:16-17, 11:36, Rom. 11:32-33)
Jesus’ appearance demonstrates: How GREAT is the Father’s Love!
2. God’s Love is GIFTED: It is given.
Jesus’ appearance in Flesh reveals God’s Great Gift of Love.
3. Our Great God CALLS us to be His Gifted Children.
(Eph 2:1-6, Rom 9:26, John 6:44, 14:6)
Jesus’ appearance calls dead people to Life.
4. God’s Love is a present possession. (NOW)
(John 1:12, Rom. 8:16, 1 Peter 1:24, Eph 1:4-6)
Jesus’ appearance led to immediate possession.
5. God’s Love is a future security of final PERFECTION. (the coming kingdom)
Jesus’ second appearance: We will be LIKE HIM
