11.5.23 1 John 3:2–3 (EHV)
2 Dear friends, we are children of God now, but what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when he is revealed we will be like him, and we will see him as he really is. 3 Everyone who has this hope purifies himself just as Jesus is pure.
Keep Your Hope in the Final Revelation
When our children were first born I couldn’t help but wonder what they would be like when they’d grow up. What would their voices sound like? Would they be athletic? Fun? Musical? When you see a certain trait in your child, and you notice it is a strength, a beauty, a parent will try to build on that strength and use it to their fullest potential. You want your child to succeed and do well. You pray for them. You take them to worship. You want them to know Jesus. You hope for the best. It doesn’t always turn out that way, but as a good parent you do your best to help make it happen.
As we look at our children with hope, John speaks with that same type of hope when he talks about us, God’s children. He speaks with eager expectation and says, What we will be has not yet been revealed. God’s going to reveal a whole new you on Judgment Day. Paul spoke the same way in Romans. He writes in Romans 8, We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. I honestly don’t think this way too often. I’m more often worried about how I look right now, all my blemishes and faults. But I should look forward to Judgment Day and say, “I can’t wait to see what God is going to do with me in the end, how God is going to recreate me.” Each one of us will be unique, special, and perfect in our own way: Saints Triumphant.
We will be unique, but we will also be very similar in some senses. John writes, We know that when he is revealed we will be like him, and we will see him as he really is. When Moses was on the top of Mt. Sinai receiving the Ten Commandments, his face shone like the sun. (Exodus 3, 2 Corinthians 3) It was so bright that he had to cover his face when he came down the mountain. It wasn’t really his own glory, but a reflection of the glory of God that was beaming on him and in him. When Jesus was on the top of the Mount of Transfiguration, he too shone like the sun. So what does it mean that we will be like him? Jesus Himself said that at the resurrection “the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.” (Mt 13:43) This is what we hope for. This is what we can’t wait for, to be rid of our sinful blemishes and faults, to actually look like God wants us to look, holy and blameless, without makeup or some sort of phone app to distort our appearance.
The second part of heaven is also interesting to think about as we wait for heaven. We will see him as he really is. One of the greatest beauties of heaven is when we get to see Jesus as he REALLY is. That little concept is really kind of a neat thing to dig into. About five years ago a movie came out called, “A Star is Born.” Brad Cooper directed it, and he wanted Lady Gaga to play a major role in it. If you don’t know who Lady Gaga is, she is known for her outrageous costumes and makeup. She really lays it on thick. She played a similar part at the beginning of the movie as she sang at a drag bar with a ton of makeup and face paint on. Brad Cooper, as the country star, saw her sing, and went back in the makeup room to meet her. He then proceeded to take off her fake eyebrow, because he wanted to see what she really looked like. She was embarrassed. Later on, as they sat at the bar and she had her makeup off, she explained that she put all the makeup on because she was embarrassed at the size of her nose. But in a very romantic and heartfelt scene Brad Cooper told her how attractive he felt her nose was and actually touched her nose. The point I’m getting at is the idea of how he looked at her and saw her for who she was without the makeup. As is. Face to face. That’s how John talked about seeing God, that’s how we want to see Him.
There’s a beautiful story in Exodus, as the Israelites are traveling through the wilderness. They’ve been banished from the Promised Land for 40 years, and they stop at Mt. Sinai in order for God to give them the Ten Commandments. Moses goes up into the mountain. There’s fire and lightning and billows of smoke. It’s really a scary sight. Yet he stays up there for days on end, and the people sit there, and sit there, and sit there some more. They start to wonder if Moses is ever going to come down. So they coerce Aaron into making them a golden calf at the bottom of the mountain, and worshiping this golden calf through sexual acts. Well, as Moses goes down the mountain finally and sees what happened, he is irate and so is God. God was so angry that He was going to wipe the Israelites from the face of the earth and start over with Moses, the last Israelite. But Moses prayed for the Israelites. So God decided not to destroy them, but He still said He wasn’t going to go with them into the Promised Land. So Moses prayed again, and the Lord relented from that as well. Moses was so overjoyed at the Lord’s mercy, that the LORD answered His prayers, that he burst out, “Now show me your glory.” For a moment Moses forgot who he was and what he was asking.
So how did the LORD respond?
19 And the LORD said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. 20 But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.” (Ex 33:19–20)
The best the LORD could do for Moses at the time was to describe who He was and show him only a covered glimpse of his glory, describing who He is, “The COMPASSIONATE and GRACIOUS God, slow to anger, abounding in love.” It was such a beautiful description of God that it became the most repeated phrase throughout the Old Testament. It was the best God could do at the time, in a sinful world with sinful people. But we want more. We need more.
David wrote about this so beautifully in Psalm 27.
4 One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple. . . . My heart says of you, “Seek his face!” Your face, LORD, I will seek. 9 Do not hide your face from me, do not turn your servant away in anger; you have been my helper. Do not reject me or forsake me, O God my Savior. 10 Though my father and mother forsake me, the LORD will receive me. . . . 13 I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.
He wanted to SEE the Lord’s face in the land of the living, in heaven. Job said the same thing in the midst of pain and suffering. “I myself will see him with my own eyes. How my heart yearns within me.”
If someone won’t look at you it may be for any number of reasons. Perhaps they are angry at you. Sometimes people say, “I can’t even bear to LOOK at you.” Sometimes it is out of fear. They say not to look at an angry dog, or they may take it to be a sign of aggression or an attempt at dominance. When Peter and John were walking to the temple in the afternoon, a lame man was begging on the side of the road, but he wasn’t looking at them. He was too beaten down to look up. In Psalm 27 David asked God not to hide his face from David in shame over David’s sin or rejection over David’s needs. . . when you want to ignore someone who is begging you for food or money, you never want to look them in the eye.
But if we can see God face to face and God looks at us, it means He is paying attention to us. It means we aren’t repulsive to Him, and also that we don’t have to hang our heads in shame. It insinuates a very close relationship when you look them in the eye, face to face.
We all long to see God face to face. No more shadows. No more pictures. Give me the reality. Online relationships might seem very promising. You see pictures of the other person and you are enamored with their beauty. They are good and talking with you - in texts. But then you want it to progress. Let’s talk on the phone. Then let’s meet. Sooner or later, the transition needs to happen. Online and two dimensional isn’t enough. You want to see them face to face. You need this. Eat a meal with them. This is what we want with God! We want to see Him in all His glory. But it’s our sins that keep Him from coming out and make us run too, like Adam and Eve behind the trees.
And God wants us to see Him. So how did God answer this prayer? It had to be more than hidden behind fire and clouds. He took it a step further, by actually taking on human flesh and hiding His glory in the humility of Jesus. In a veiled version of His glory He could actually smile at humanity face to face. We could see Him with human eyes and a human smile and feel His human touch. He touched our sick and our lepers. He freed our demon possessed. He went further than this. He went to the cross to suffer our death and hell, specifically so that we could be His bride. He spoke to us tenderly and said, “It is finished.” He felt it all, for us, and He came out alive. He made all the sacrifice in order to establish a relationship with us. In order to reveal His grace and mercy to us, God had to hide Himself from us.
Then He ascended into heaven, and hid himself again - in glory. But He promised to come back, no longer hidden in weakness and death, but in full glory. So what do we do? We wait for Him to come again, and change everything, raising us from the dead. Changing our bodies. Making us new, so that we can see Him as He is, as Saints Triumphant.
But we don’t just wait. There’s something else that happens while we wait. Everyone who has this hope purifies himself just as Jesus is pure. When you meet the person of your dreams and you set the wedding date, you are focused in. You can’t wait to get married, move in, have sexual relations, spend life together. Perhaps you try to get yourself in tip top shape for the pictures. You save up and pay for the wedding hall. You buy the dresses and the gowns. You plan together. You focus so much on that day. Your life revolves around it. So also, when we are adopted by Jesus. He becomes the center and focus of our lives. We want to look good for Him when He comes. We want to be pure for Him. We want to stay focused on Him.
But how do we purify ourselves? We use the tools that God gives us. We baptize our children into Jesus, purifying them of their sins and adopting them into God’s family. We continue to live in our own baptisms as we continue to confess our sins and receive absolution to hear those wonderful words, “I forgive you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” Yes, we are still forgiven, still pure. We pray to Him for strength in times of weakness. We come to receive His body and blood for the same forgiveness of sins time and again, washed from the inside out, by faith. We go back to the cross with another day’s sin. “Have mercy Lord. Forgive me.” This is what maintains our hope that Jesus will accept on that Final Day, when Jesus is finally revealed, and so are we.
If I could go back to that movie “A Star is Born” one more time. When Bradley Cooper found Lady Gaga in that seedy little bar, he treated her as if she was the most beautiful and most gifted girl in the world. He kept looking at her, but she wouldn’t look at him. Since he was a well known country star, he later on took her up on stage with him to sing at a concert. It was his encouragement and love that enabled her to come out of her shell, and propelled her to start using her talents in bigger venues. He brought out the best in her with his love and encouragement.
When Jesus pays attention to us, adopts us, cleans us up, and purifies us, it completely changes us. He gives us hope. He gives us a sense of belonging, a sense of purpose, a sense of joy in being loved and forgiven. We know we aren’t worthy of His love, but nonetheless we know we belong to Him. Only because of His grace, we know and believe He is coming to take us home. We are going to be brand new someday at the Resurrection. It makes us want to be like Him right now. It makes us want to listen to Him, pray to Him, worship Him, be the best version of ourselves that we can be. And even as we grow old and fall apart on the outside, get weaker and weaker, more and more frail, feel more and more useless, the wonderful thing is that God loves us all the more. He sees us as all the more beautiful as we rely more and more on Him. Then finally, that’s it. He calls us home, and then we get to see him, with our own eyes.
Every service we end is with the Aaronic blessing. Through these words God wanted to bless His people, and He also blesses us. It pictures the face of the Lord, the beautiful face of God. The Lord make his face shine on you and bless you. When a face shines, it is beaming with joy. The Lord look on you with favor, and give you peace. Think of it. In our baptism, the beautiful God smiles at us. In the Lord’s Supper, God invites us to dine of Him and feed on His grace, in preparation for the wedding banquet of heaven. It doesn’t matter the size of your nose, the number on the scale, the successes or the failures. Jesus has covered all that. God is looking at you now, and smiling at you with His grace. It gives us peace and hope to know that we will get to be in the presence of God, with our fellow saints. We will all then be completely changed, brand new. Face to face with God. That’s heaven. Keep hoping for that Triumphant Day with all the saints. Amen.
