Exploring 1 John Session 17: 1 John 3:1-2

Exploring 1 John Session 17: 1 John 3:1-2

 

We are moving into chapter 3 of 1 John. This is session 17. Previous sessions can be found online at www.hbcc.life and YouTube channel hbcc life.  You can promote this teaching by clicking the Share button on Facebook and the subscribe button on YouTube

 

If you have ever wondered how it is possible to be a prisoner in the darkness and turn towards the light, you’ll have your answer in this session.  We’re going to consider how spiritually blinded eyes get opened. We will also explore what it means to be a child of God and the incredible transformation that we will undergo when Jesus returns.

 

1 John 3:1-3 (MSG)

What marvelous love the Father has extended to us! Just look at it—we're called children of God! That's who we are. But that's also why the world doesn't recognize us or take us seriously because it has no idea who he is or what he's up to.

 

But friends, that's exactly who we are: children of God. And that's only the beginning. Who knows how we'll end up! What we know is that when Christ is openly revealed, we'll see him—and in seeing him, become like him. All of us who look forward to his Coming stay ready, with the glistening purity of Jesus' life as a model for our own.

 

The Bible reveals that estranged from God because of Adam’s sin and subsequently the things we have done that have deterred, damaged, and/or destroyed righteous relationships that people are prisoners of their desires, blinded by the god of this age (Psalm 107:10, 2 Corinthians 4:4)  For them it is impossible to understand the gospel, it is impossible to enter into the light on their own.

 

2 Corinthians 4:3-4 (MSG)

If our Message is obscure to anyone, it's not because we're holding back in any way. No, it's because these other people are looking or going the wrong way and refuse to give it serious attention. All they have eyes for is the fashionable god of darkness. They think he can give them what they want, and that they won't have to bother believing a Truth they can't see. They're stone-blind to the dayspring brightness of the Message that shines with Christ, who gives us the best picture of God we'll ever get.

 

 

The message is this: Every human being is under Adam’s curse.  Jesus is the curse remover, who reconciles the relationship between the Creator and the Creation.  Acknowledging that you are under the curse, believing the Jesus has removed the curse, committing to live a curse free life, you ask God to accept your faith.  Is it time for you to break the curse that plagues humanity with sin?  If so, right now is the time to make that decision (2 Corinthians 6:2).  Let me know if you do.  Get out of the curse and into the light.  I want you in the light.

 

If you have ever wondered how you could have possibly come to the place in your life where you realize that you were held captive by sin’s curse and wanted to be liberated from a dead-end way of life (Colossians 1:13-23) the answer is God’s love. 

 

John 3:16 (MSG)

"This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life.

 

In His sacrificial death, Jesus made atonement for everyone.  This makes it possible for the Holy Spirit to do His work in everyone.  Jesus revealed this to His disciples about the Spirit:

 

John 16:8-10 (MSG)

"When he comes, he'll expose the error of the godless world's view of sin, righteousness, and judgment: He'll show them that their refusal to believe in me is their basic sin; that righteousness comes from above, where I am with the Father, out of their sight and control…”

 

This work of the Spirit in the lives of every human being is called prevenient grace.  Grace is God's unmerited gift of the desire to do God’s will and the power to execute God’s will, thought and action, awareness and doing.  The word prevenient simply means “comes before.”  Prevenient grace comes before saving grace (justifying grace).  This saving grace is yours when your faith is expressed by acknowledging, believing, committing, and asking for salvation.  Prevenient grace is the Spirit’s work awakening you to the darkness, to the prison, to the mess you are in.  Prevenient grace is the Spirit’s work serendipitously revealing the good news of the gospel to you.  Prevenient grace is the Spirit’s work that motivates you to acknowledge, believe, commit, and ask. Prevenient grace is the Spirit’s work that calls you into a right relationship with God.  Prevenient grace is God’s love calling you to Himself.  It is prevenient grace that makes it possible for the person imprisoned in darkness to escape into the light, for spiritually blinded eyes to see.  

 

Maybe even right now you feel the call of God tugging on your heart.  What didn’t make sense before, what wasn’t attractive before, has now got your interest.  You are starting to see the direction you are headed.  This is Prevenient Grace, that work of the Holy Spirit that calls you out of the darkness and into the light, out of ignorance and into knowing God.

 

When you respond in faith to His call, God lavishes His love upon you.  The curse is removed, your actual sins are forgiven, the estrangement of original sin is reconciled.  God adopts you as His child.  Your new relationship is Father-Child.  This adoption is sealed with the Holy Spirit coming into you, residing within you.  That makes the adoption not only a positional change of your relationship with God, it is an actual change in which you have access to the mind of Christ making it possible for you to obey the Christian mandate: Love God, Love Others. 

 

2 Corinthians 5:17 (NLT)

This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!

 

You now have a great name.  Child of God: son or daughter of God--Michael ben Yahweh, Sherri bat Yahweh.  Back when your heritage meant so much more than it does today, you might have heard a parent tell their child: “Don’t tarnish the family name.”  “Carry that name with honor as your forebears did.”  With a great name comes the great privilege of knowing God and being set apart for God to work His purposes through you. 

 

Romans 8:16-17 (MSG)

God's Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are. We know who he is, and we know who we are: Father and children. And we know we are going to get what's coming to us—an unbelievable inheritance! We go through exactly what Christ goes through. If we go through the hard times with him, then we're certainly going to go through the good times with him!

 

Bearing the family name you also have been made His ambassador (2 Corinthians 5:20).  God has appointed you to represent Him.  As a disciple, you have a family name to live up to.  You bear that name well by loving God and loving others. Love is an action, love is something done, you have been empowered for action. 

 

1 John 3:2 (MSG)

“…that's exactly who we are: children of God. And that's only the beginning. Who knows how we'll end up!

 

Being adopted into God’s family is “only the beginning’ of an “unbelievable inheritance.”  Part of that inheritance is transformation into the person that God always intended for you to be.  Part of that inheritance is you living your life to the full.  Part of that inheritance is the strength and love of the congregation.  Part of that inheritance is being used by God to make a difference in this world right now.  Part of that inheritance is a resurrection from the grave.  Part of that inheritance is life eternal.  Part of that inheritance is being like Jesus. 

 

1 Corinthians 2:9 (MSG)

No one's ever seen or heard anything like this, Never so much as imagined anything quite like it—What God has arranged for those who love him.

 

But now you know.  And this is only the beginning.  In the Revelation of Jesus, the last writing in your Bible, there are glimpses of this world restored to its original righteousness (Revelation 21:5).  Back to the Garden, the end revealed from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10).  In the Garden that was planted in Eden, there was no death.  So we read:

 

1 Thessalonians 4:16 (MSG)

He'll come down from heaven and the dead in Christ will rise—they'll go first.

 

“No one’s ever seen or heard anything like this:” resurrection from the grave; the rising of the faithful from physical death to physical life.  Bodily life in the material world made fresh is what is coming.  For the Gnostics of John’s day, this was a repulsive idea.  Their idea of salvation was to be free of the material.

 

1 Thessalonians 4:17 (MSG)

Then the rest of us who are still alive at the time will be caught up with them into the clouds to meet the Master.

 

No death, no crying, no mourning, no pain, every tear wiped away, every wrong made right.  (Revelation 21:4).  This is part of your inheritance that comes from the lavish love of God adopting you as His very own son or daughter. Jesus is coming again to bring all this to fruition.  What was started so long ago culminates in Jesus second coming. 

 

Philippians 3:20-21 (MSG)

We're waiting the arrival of the Savior, the Master, Jesus Christ, who will transform our earthy bodies into glorious bodies like his own. He'll make us beautiful and whole with the same powerful skill by which he is putting everything as it should be, under and around him.

 

This is part of the inheritance for all who are children of God.  This is the hope that empowers us to serve and to suffer, to trust and endure, to count the cost and decide what a bargain even martyrdom is.  This is why I want you in the light. This is why I want you to walk in the light. I want you to be a partaker of this inheritance.

 

There is so much deception in this world.  Jesus said that in the last days many will fall from faith.

Matthew 24:10-13 (NIV)

At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.

 

Walk in the light, keep practicing the basics. Keep your love light burning bright.  Make your highest priority loving God and loving others.  If you have a sin, a transgression, or an iniquity; some disobedience in your life, repent of it and 1 John 1:9 it. Don’t forsake the congregation, you need the encouragement and watch care of a faith family.  Wear your new name well. Be a difference-maker, put feet to your prayers. Use the gifts and talents you’ve been given for the Kingdom.  Tell others about the second coming. Tell others about your great inheritance.  Tell others who your daddy is.  Right belief, right action, right words.  Don’t be afraid.  Fight the good fight.  Get into the light, walk in the light, shine in the light.  I want you in the light.