CHILDREN OF GOD
1 JOHN 3:1-17
#childrenofGod
RESPONSIVE READING [READ 1 John 3:1-17]
LEADER:
How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him. 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 He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.
CONGREGATION:
3 Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as He is pure. 4 Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness.
LEADER:
5 But you know that He appeared so that He might take away our sins. And in Him is no sin. 6 No one who lives in Him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen Him or known Him. 7 Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as He is righteous. 8 He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work.
CONGREGATION:
9 No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God.
LEADER:
10 This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother. 11 This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. 12 Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother's were righteous.
CONGREGATION:
13 Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you.
LEADER:
14 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death. 15 Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him. 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 our brothers. 17 If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?
CHILDREN OF GOD: OUR IDENTITY
This passage centers around one basic truth for people that believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. People that believe in God and in Jesus Christ are considered to be “children of God.” Now I know this might be different than what we normally think. Normally we think that all people all over the world are all God’s children. That simply isn’t true. While all people all over the world were certainly created by God uniquely, not all of them are God’s children.
We are children of God not because of anything we have done, but because God has adopted us by His own willful actions into His forever family. God offered Jesus Christ as payment for us. His children are those who accept Jesus in faith as Savior and Lord. John 1:12-13 reminds us, “Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in his name, He gave the right to become children of God-- 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.” We who are believers accepted God’s gift of salvation from Jesus Christ.
What marks a person as a child of God?
Mark #1: We have the Holy Spirit in us which marks us as belonging to God. All of God’s children bear the same mark. All of God’s children have the same Holy Spirit inside of us as a marker of belief. Romans 8:16 says, “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children.” Now this is not something that is physical on the outside, but is a change and a presence on the inside of a person which marks them as God’s child. The presence of that Spirit leads to the next mark.
Mark #2: As children of God, we are not only marked by the Holy Spirit, but the presence of the Spirit creates in us a desire to be obedient to our Heavenly Father. As children of God, we want to be like our Father who adopted us. We want to be like Him. We want to look like Him. We want to sound like Him. Ephesians 5:1-2 commands us, “Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children 2 and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” And 1 John 5:2 says, “This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands.”
TRANSITION
As I was thinking about the marks of the children of God, I continued to read in 1 John 3 all about the characteristics of those children. As I was reading, I was thinking about my own life and if those things John describes are part of my life. In the passage we read together this morning, there are characteristics that should mark us as believers in Jesus and as children of God:
We purify ourselves from the sin of the world in an attempt to be like God. (verse 3)
We try to stop sinning as a consistent pattern in our lives. (verses 4-9)
We pursue right teaching about God. (verse 7)
We attempt the right and good thing in all situations. (verse 10)
We love in attitude and with actions. (verses 10-12, 14-17)
We are misunderstood by the sinful world and hated. (verse 13)
CHILDREN OF GOD: PURITY
Of all the characteristics that we just talked about, verse 3 jumped out at me. Verse 3 says: “Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as He is pure.” What does verse 3 mean? Verse 3 means that all who have their hope in Jesus will be committed to keeping themselves from sin. They will put away, as much as possible, the things and people that draw them away from God. People who have their hope in Jesus will aim to be like Jesus in purity and in righteousness. You see in verse 3 Jesus is at the center of the purity that we are to desire.
Jesus Christ is our example as believers. John has already said in 1 John 2:6, “Whoever claims to live in Him must walk as Jesus did.” He says in this passage, (1 John 3:7) “He who does what is right is righteous, just as He is righteous.” 1 John 3:16 says, “Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.” 1 John 4:17 says, “In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like Him.” You see, over and over, we are to pattern our lives like Jesus Christ. He is our motivation and our aim. He is our spiritual target.
What about this purity? In verse 3, what does “purity” mean? I did a lot of thinking and praying and was trying to define exactly what purity is. What is “purity” to God? What does that look like for us as believers? To be honest, I came up with a bunch of answers all of which sound just fine.
Purity means living by the rule of God and living a life that is pleasing to Him. (pure living)
Purity means living for the purpose of God and being devoted to Him. (pure motives)
Purity means we are spiritually clean and attempt to remain so. (pure living)
Purity in its simplest form means holiness.
Purity means craving the Word of God in our lives and letting it impact us.
Purity means we bend our hearts to God’s will and we have right motives. (pure motives)
Purity also means we do not deceive ourselves about our spiritual life. (pure motives)
And then I had this thought: Purity means letting the forgiveness of God flow through us and impact us in all the ways God has designed forgiveness to change us.
I think I had that thought because of what Joey said last week in his communion meditation. He gave the same meditation twice last week and I loved it both times. To remind you, I would like to play it again because it was impactful to me. As you listen, be mindful when he speaks about the eyes of his parents.
PLAY ILLUSTRATION… Joey Tuccillo Communion Meditation from 07/03/16 (4 minutes)
[Beginning of file until “this is the time in our service” after Scripture readings]
Here is what we must realize about our God:
Our God always looks at us with piercing eyes that do look into our souls.
Our God looks at us with eyes of disappointment because we have sinned.
Our God also looks at us with eyes of love which forgive us.
I want to encourage you today that as a Child of God, we have God’s forgiveness in our lives. We have a way of purity which is available to us. This purity is not based on anything we have done, but rather totally on what Jesus has done. We sin. We make mistakes, but a child of God does not sit in the mess of their mistakes. Purity means letting the forgiveness of God flow through us and impact us in all the ways God has designed forgiveness to change us.
PERSONAL TESTIMONY
I became a Christian when I was young. I was baptized when I was in 5th grade or so if I remember correctly. Faith seemed natural for me at the time and to be honest, still does most days. In the dark corners of my mind, I remember having a conversation with my mother at bedtime. I remember telling her, “I believe in God. I believe in Jesus. I believe Jesus died for me. Why shouldn’t I be baptized?” What that means is that as far back as I can physically remember, I have been a Christian. As a young person growing up, I had the Holy Spirit as part of my being. That desire to obey God was present in my life.
This meant that I loved being in Bible bowl at a church our family attended. It was a natural fit for me and instilled in me a love of God’s Word. This meant that as I grew my natural inclinations were tempered by the Holy Spirit. I think most of the time I was a good kid. I don’t recall any rebellions against my parents or against my faith as I was growing up. Even my teenage years were marked by mostly goodness. I was a leader in my youth group when I was a Junior and Senior in high school. God called me into ministry when I was a senior and I let classmates know this was the direction of my life. My faith at times made me stick out. My faith at times made me odd as I was trying to live out my faith and be who God wanted me to be. My obedience made me different sometimes.
That also meant that as I got older, as I have said to myself a few times, all my really good sinning happened after I knew better. I knew what was wrong and yet I did it anyway. That realization in me brought much guilt into my life because I definitely knew the Godly things to do and feel, but I went the other way. I chose a path that God did not have set and I did not care. That made me a hypocrite at times. Sometimes I was a fragrant offering to God and sometimes I just stunk. None of us are perfect. None of us achieve God’s standard of behavior or attitudes all the time. This is why we need Jesus! I know exactly why Jesus died for me.
APPLICATION
Purity means letting the forgiveness of God flow through us and impact us in all the ways God has designed forgiveness to change us. I want to conclude our time today in a time of prayer. I want to lead us in prayers that let the forgiveness of God wash over us and flow through us. In doing so, we will be purifying ourselves to walk out of here pure children of God.
CONCLUSION IN PRAYER
