Sermon - All Saints' (Observed) - 1 John 3:1-3

 

The readings for All Saints day remind us, in various ways, of our identity as the people of God.  Even though we are all sinners, yet we are, indeed, all saints.  Blessed by God, as Jesus puts it, so poetically, in the Beatitudes.  We are those who have washed our robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, as John saw the picture of the church in his vision.  But that same apostle John also wrote the words of our Epistle reading today- which reminds us that we are children of God.  Let’s focus on this theme this morning.

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.

John begins with the reason we can be called children of God – and that is the love of the Father, given to us.  Some translations render it this way, “See what kind of love the Father has lavished upon us.”  See.  Take note.  Mark it well.  It is great, exceeding, over-the-top love from God the Father himself that makes us his children.

God’s love is sometimes called “grace”.  That is to say it is a love that we cannot expect by rights.  It’s a love that we haven’t earned.  In fact, if anything, just the opposite.  Sin makes us un-lovable.  It is a rebellion that separates us from God.

But like the Father welcomed back his prodigal son and lavished upon him shoes, fine clothing, a ring, and threw him a party – so does the Father give us great and undeserved love far too much to fully describe. 

It’s a love that is manifested to us in the person of his Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.  For God so loved the world, God loved the world in this way, that he sent his only Son, that whoever believes in him has eternal life.

And it is by this love that we are called children of God.  In fact, it’s more than just a moniker or a label.  We’re not just called “children of God” in an abstract or symbolic sense.  So we are!

The love of God shown to us in Jesus Christ changes our reality.  It puts us in a whole new category:  Child of God.

“Children of God” is a phrase that is thrown around these days, even by the secular world.  Sometimes it is made as an offhand remark, to claim that all people are equal, or equally valuable, that we are all created by God and ultimately part of the same human family.  That’s ok, as far as it goes, but that is not what John means here.

When he says we are called, “Children of God” he means it in contrast to those who are not children of God.  The unbelievers.  The wicked and the scoffers.  The followers of false gods or no god at all.  When you become a child of God in Jesus Christ, you are set apart from all of that, set into the very family of God by grace, through faith.  And the difference could not be any more stark.

For one, as a child of God, he regards you differently.  He hears your prayers favorably, through Christ.  There is no such assurance for an unbeliever.  He forgives your sins – he doesn’t hold them against you!  But for those who reject his grace, a reckoning is coming.  And, as one belonging to his very family, your final destiny is sure.  You’ll be with your Father, and with your Brother, Jesus Christ, in the eternal joy of his kingdom.  The unbeliever will be condemned in the final judgment, and suffer eternal punishment.

No, it’s far better to be a child of God by faith in Christ than the alternative.

And yet, even God’s children must suffer the world until he takes us from it, or until Christ comes again in glory.  John continues:

The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 

When John says, “the world”, he typically means, “the unbelieving world”.  The world does not know us, the children of God, because it did not know him, Jesus, God’s only begotten Son.  But it’s not just that the world considers us strangers – there is real enmity here.  For just as Christ was despised and rejected by the unbelieving world – both Jews and Gentiles – so we, God’s children, will also face persecution.  Jesus reminds us of that at the end of the Beatitudes.  They’ll persecute you the same as they did the prophets – but great is your reward in heaven.

In other words, don’t see the world’s persecution as a sign of the Father’s disapproval.  Don’t think for a moment that the loving Father who lavishes so much love on us will ever forget his beloved children.  And always remember that though we may suffer now for a little while, better days are coming.  God’s children have a future.

Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.

We are, in this world, even now, God’s children.  We may not always seem like it.  We certainly don’t always act like it.  But his word of declaration and the very blood of Christ have made it so.

 We are God’s children, even now.  We don’t have to wait till we die.  It’s a present reality.  We already have his love, his promises, his salvation.  And yet.  There’s more to come.

“What we will be has not yet appeared.”  What will we be?  Glorified.  Resurrected.  Changed from perishable to imperishable.  Made incorruptible.  Ready to live forever in Christ.  For when he appears, that is, when Christ comes again in glory, we shall see him as he is – and we shall be like him – and we will live with him forever.

And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

This is the hope of God’s children.  To see Christ when he comes again in glory.  To be raised from death to a glorified, eternal body, like his resurrected, glorified body.  This is our hope, and it is in him.

And it is in this hope, this faith, this lavish grace of God, that we are purified.  Our robes are washed and made clean in the blood of the lamb.  We are blessed.  And we will live in righteousness and purity forever.