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Unless indicated otherwise, all scripture is quoted from the New Living Translation of the Bible.
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I realize that it’s a little bit difficult to be thinking about baseball at this time of the year – especially when the weather is so grumpy. But the text this morning brought to mind my own short-lived, but meaningful career in little league.
And when I say short-lived I don’t mean that I dropped out after two weeks. Although I’m sure that some of my team mates wished I had. I stuck it out for the whole season -- even earning the highly coveted "most improved player" award at the banquet.
The Lancers were a great team -– although we weren’t really very good. We did win a game – once – or maybe twice. I can’t remember. There are some things that we repress because they are too painful to remember. But I do remember that there were some downright discouraging games.
We’d come trotting into the dugout after a particularly devastating inning -- not sure that we had enough confidence to even take our turn as bat. And our coach, Paul, would gather us around for a pep talk. He never yelled at us for making stupid mistakes.
He always encouraged us. "You can do it. I’ve got confidence in you -- after all you’re my team."
We’d get all pumped up and once again we were able to take the field to face the opposition with confidence!
Well, our text this morning is John’s pep talk to a struggling team. He was concerned that they not lose their faith -- that they not lose their confidence and fail to play the game.
As undoubtedly you recall, these Christians were under considerable pressure -- not because of persecution, as was often the case in the first century. No, the pressure that these believers faced was because of false teachers that were trying to destroy the unity in their ranks -- false teachers claiming that simple lives of faith and obedience were not enough -- false teachers offering a new initiation into some kind of special knowledge that they were claiming to posses -- false teachers that may have been confusing a lot of people -- undercutting their confidence.
And coach John is rallying the believers so that they might have the confidence necessary to take the field and ultimately to stand before Christ at the great awards banquet on the day of his appearing.
1 John 2:28 – "And now, dear children, continue to live in fellowship with Christ so that when he returns, you will be full of courage and not shrink back from him in shame."
Frankly, some of us here this morning are in need of a pep talk. Things aren’t going too well in your life right now. Even though you hear upbeat Christmas music everywhere you go, you don’t feel at all upbeat. Maybe you’ve been hit with some bad news recently -- about your health or your job or your friend who has been disloyal. And you’re not so sure about your faith, either. Some of this turmoil is causing you to have some real doubts.
Well, I want you to know that the apostle John is writing with you in mind. He wants you to see that in spite of the way things look – if you know Christ, if you have received him -- then you stand in a unique category in all humanity. You are on a select team. You are a person of privilege.
Look at 1 John 3:1-2 – "See how very much our heavenly Father loves us, for he allows us to be called his children, and we really are! But the people who belong to this world don’t know God, so they don’t understand that we are his children. [2] Yes, dear friends, we are already God’s children, and we can’t even imagine what we will be like when Christ returns. But we do know that when he comes we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is."
You can find confidence before God in the fact that you have been born or reborn of him. If you have given your life to Christ that you are a child of God!
All who have received him, according to the gospel of John - first chapter, have been given a place in God’s family.
John 1:12-13 – "But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. [13] They are reborn! This is not a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan — this rebirth comes from God."
You might think that, somehow you have to be perfect first or at least close to it. You might think that you have to somehow earn the privilege. But this isn’t the way that parenting works, is it?
You do not have to earn the right to become a child of your parents so there is no way that you can fail to be their child.
The term "children of God" has its roots in the Oold Testament where the Hebrews are referred to as God’s children. It is a term used to describe the special parent-like relationship that God had with the Jews. It was intended to be a source of confidence for them. For children derive their identity from their parents.
I am fortunate because I grew up with loving parents. And I’m convinced that they helped shape my identity and sense of personal confidence. For example, when I first started out in school I already knew that I was someone special – no one had to give me self-esteem lessons. I knew I was special because my father was special. I was a privileged child.
You see, my father happened to be a detective – a policeman -- which carries a lot of weight on the playground. I was somebody because he was somebody.
How much more so with our heavenly father! He has given us a title of privilege – children of God.
You may be a child of a policeman or a fireman. You may be a child of the President. But I am a child of God and that means something! What a privilege we have to be called children of God!
But it’s more than a privilege. You see, with privilege comes responsibility. You remember the uncle’s line in Spiderman: “With much power comes much responsibility.”
John is saying the same thing. "With much privilege comes much responsibility."
The apostle is trying to encourage his readers so that they become confident in their position as God’s children -- not so they can walk around with noses in the sky or so they can drive the kinds of cars that elected state officials get – $40,000 Cadillacs, $50,000 Expeditions at tax-payer expense. Did you see that in the paper this week? There is no excuse – talk about privelege!
But this isn’t the kind of thing that John is talking about us doing. No he wants us to be confident so we can begin to live as children of God -- which means, according to John, with a sense of purity.
Look at verse 3 – “And all who believe this will keep themselves pure, just as Christ is pure.”
Again, you’ve got to remember the background of the passage. The apostle John was contesting a group of false teachers – Gnostics, technically speaking, who were teaching that the physical body is of little or no consequence. The only thing that really counts is spiritual. Therefore, there was no harm in indulging the lusts of the body.
William Barclay put it this way, "The truly spiritual person was so armoured with the Spirit that he could sin to his hearts content and no harm would come of it."
This is similar to the mistake that the ancient Hebrews made over and over again. They were so confident of their status as children of God that they figured there was nothing to keep them from living as lowly and crudely as they pleased.
Party time! Make sacrifices to the Canaanite gods – no problem. We’re the Children of the LORD. He has to bless us!
Marry pagan women – no problem. We’re the children of the LORD. He has to bless us!
And this is the same kind of smugness that characterizes so many Christians today. I’m saved! And I’m going to heaven so it doesn’t matter if I divorce my wife for a younger woman.
I’m saved! And I’m going to heaven so it doesn’t matter if I don’t tithe.
I’m saved! And I’m going to heaven so it doesn’t matter if I party with all the other kids.
"Sorry guys," says John. "You’re missing the point – by a long shot."
The privilege of divine childhood must be followed up with divine purity. (Key Point)
“And all who believe this will keep themselves pure,” [vs. 3] “just as Christ is pure.”
He is the standard. And because we’ve been born of him we strive to live up to his standard.
Just as we all try to please our fathers. We want them to notice us so we tend to do things that they like -- play a particular sport that they like or take up a hobby that they like – skiing or four-wheeling.
To one degree or another our parents become the standard. And this is true, as well, with our heavenly father. The privilege of divine childhood must be followed up with divine purity.
Now in case you need a little extra motivation, as occasionally we all do, John spells out three motives for living up to our status as children of God.
Just a little extra nudge and reminder to keep at it. The first motivation mentioned by John is THE PROMISE –the promise of Christ’s return – Advent.
1 John 2:28 – “And now, dear children, continue to live in fellowship with Christ so that when he returns, you will be full of courage and not shrink back from him in shame.”
I like Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase here. It really captures the feel for what John is saying. “And now children, stay with Christ. Live deeply in Christ. Then we’ll be ready for him when he appears, ready to receive him with open arms, with no cause for red-faced guilt or lame excuses when he arrives.”
I wonder what constitutes a lame excuses to the Lord. “Well Jesus, I had a Bible but my dog ate it. And I was going to get ready for your coming but there was this movie on TV and I lost track of time and it got late and I didn’t have time to be ready. It’s not my fault.”
Lame excuses never worked with your father at home and they won’t work with our heavenly father.
If you seriously believe that Jesus Christ is going to return and that you are going to be accountable for your life before him, which is true according to the scriptures, then you will live your life in light of this fact.
If you really believe that someday you will look Jesus in the eye and explain why you’ve lived your life the way you do -- it will change the way you live your life.
When we know that we’re going to have company it’s amazing how our house cleaning patterns are altered. When we know that there will actually be friends walking across our living room floor and that they will actually sit on the couch -- something happens. We’re stirred to action as at no other time.
Well, John is saying. Get your house in order the company is on the way!
1 John 3:2-3 – “Yes, dear friends, we are already God’s children, and we can’t even imagine what we will be like when Christ returns. But we do know that when he comes we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is. [3] And all who believe this will keep themselves pure, just as Christ is pure.”
A second motivation for getting our acts together is found in vss. 4-8, especially verse 8 (NRSV) -- "Everyone who commits sin is a child of the devil; for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The Son of God was revealed for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil."
The second point of motivation is THE PURPOSE.
If Christ came into the world and endured the cross for the purpose of defeating the devil – which he did -- how then can we as his children have any less purpose for our lives?
This is the general gist of John’s argument here. We have a purpose for life and that purpose is defined by the purpose of Christ! It’s a matter of family pride.
Hatfields are born to shun McCoys and McCoys are born to shun Hatfields. Children of God are born to shun the devil and children of the devil are born to shun God – very loosely translated.
The point is that Christ came to destroy the works of the devil. How then could you as children of God do anything that would put you in alliance with the one Christ came to destroy?
By definition you cannot.
Verse 6 – “So if we continue to live in him, we won’t sin either. But those who keep on sinning have never known him or understood who he is.”
Verse 8 – “But when people keep on sinning, it shows they belong to the Devil, who has been sinning since the beginning.”
Verse 9 – “Those who have been born into God’s family do not sin, because God’s life is in them. So they can’t keep on sinning, because they have been born of God.”
Pretty strong words -- words that would seem to preclude any of us from being children of God. For we all sin.
Hey, isn’t that what John himself said back in 1 John 1:8? “If we say we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and refusing to accept the truth.”
This is one of those few instances where the English language can’t quite capture the nuances of the Greek in which John writes. The gramatical construct of these verses in chapter 3 -- verses which seem to indicate that true children of God do not sin -- the construct is such that it is saying that "true children of God do not and cannot maintain a pattern of sin."
The NLT, in this instance seems to have a good rendering of the passage. For example, verse 6 -- "But those who keep on sinning have never known him or understood who he is.”
Verse 9 – “No one who lives deeply in Christ makes a practice of sin. John is talking about the pattern that characterizes our lives. He is saying that because of the purposes of God – our family heritage -- no one in our heavenly family goes into the practice of sin.
You may practice law -- You may practice medicine -- Or a zillion other things -- but you cannot make a practice of sin.
First century people would have had a clearer picture of this than we. Remember that generally speaking a son would take on the practice of his father.
If your father was a carpenter you were a carpenter. If your father was a blacksmith you were a blacksmith. It was a family profession or practice.
And as children of God we have been born into the family practice of defeating the devil. That’s what we’re all about! That’s who we are! And if we’re true children we can do no less! It’s the family purpose.
The third motivator for purifying ourselves is THE PRESENCE -- the presence of God and his new nature in us.
Look at verse 9 (ESV) – “No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed [Greek: sperma] abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God.”
NLT – “Those who have been born into God’s family do not sin, because God’s life is in them. So they can’t keep on sinning, because they have been born of God.”
John Stott sums this verse up a lot more concisely than I could, so let me quote him here -- "The implication will then be this: the new birth involves the aquisition of a new nature through the implanting within us of the very seed or lifegiving power of God. Birth of God is a deep, radical, inward transformation. Moreover, the new nature received at the new birth remians. It exerts a strong internal pressure towards holiness."
Just as our children tend to more or less look like us because they are born of the same gene pool -- so do we more or less look like God for we are born from his gene pool -- figuratively speaking.
Why, then, do we strive to live pure lives if we are truly children of God? Because of the presence of the new nature that has been implanted in us at new birth -- a new nature accompanied by the Holy Spirit power pack which keeps it working.
When I was in college I worked part-time as an instructional aide in a junior high school in San Jose. One day I was walking across campus and I noticed
a couple of books drop out the window of a second story classroom. Then I noticed that there were students literally hanging out the window.
So I quickly climbed the stairs and found the room. It wasn’t hard. There was screaming and yelling. Paper airplanes were flying and students were standing on top of desks. It looked like it was right out of a movie.
Cowering at the teacher’s desk, with a panicked look on her face, was an older somewhat timid woman -- the substitute teacher. I figure that she had lost control sometimes during the first two minutes of class and she was just trying to survive until the bell rang.
Well, even though it wasn’t within the parameters of my job description I took over and established military rule until we could get an administrator in there – which I could do because I knew who the kids were – and they knew that I knew.
The point being -- none of this would have happened if the real teacher had been present. If she had been with them, the students would have adjusted their behavior accordingly. She was a defining presence.
Moreover, if the regular teacher had won a place in the hearts of her students before she had to be absent – none of the chaos would have happened because the students would be operating as though she were there with them. They wouldn’t have taken advantage of this obviously untrained substitute.
Presence in whatever form, physically or in the heart, makes a difference. We’re motivated to live pure lives because of the abiding presence of Christ in our lives.
We have been reborn with a new nature and a new presence in our hearts. And so we want to live sinfree lives. It’s not just another expectation in life which we try to live up to.
It’s an important objective for us. It is a passion. Holiness or purity is a passion for us! That is, for all who are truly children of God.
And John the coach is standing in the dug out – yelling out to us – You can do it! I’m confident in you! Remember who you are! You’re truly the children of God.
