Transforming Love

1 John 3:1–3 | Pastor Christopher Powers

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Christopher: 00:00

You're his child because he loves you. The love is the deepest thing. Dig all the way down, Christian, to the very foundation of your being. Pull back all the layers of shame and regret and sorrow and why didn't I do this and why aren't I like this and push down, dig down, dig down to the very root. And what is there?

Christopher: 00:22

The love of God. The love of God for you. That's the foundation. And if that's the foundation, it ought to transform our understanding of ourselves all the way up.

Caleb: 00:35

The following message was recorded at King's Tree Church. May the spirit use it to help you see, savor, and sing the beauty of God in the crucified and risen Jesus Christ.

Christopher: 00:50

We are returning to first John. It has been, quite a bit of time since we've been in first John. Two weeks two weeks ago pastor Chad preached for us from the gospel of John and last week pastor Sean was continuing in the series on first Corinthians. But this week I wanted to return us to the epistle to first John itself. Now we're only gonna be here for one week because next week and the week after I'm going to be taking the Sundays off preaching to focus on my dissertation that I've been writing for the last five years and is getting close to being done.

Christopher: 01:37

So I need to take a few weeks to give particular emphasis to that. So for these next two weeks, I will not be preaching and then we'll return. So this is a bit of a strange season we're in, but I wanted to get us back into first John at least for this week so that we could begin chapter three and see the establishing verses of this chapter. Because from chapter two to three is a bit of a transition point for John as he's moving his emphases to begin really explaining to the people what he's calling of them and what what their faith is implying the implications of their faith for their lives. So as a bit of an overview, we've seen so far in this epistle to be very general, we've seen John working to re stabilize his audience.

Christopher: 02:29

They've been destabilized because of divisions within the church and because of opposition coming from outside of the church. So they've experienced this kind of destabilization and John's writing to shore up their faith, to get them on a solid footing and largely what he's saying to them boils down to this concept of abiding. He says, abide. Abide in Christ. Remain in Christ and let him abide in you by the spirit.

Christopher: 03:02

Here's where your stability is. Here's where your anchor is to be found. Abiding in Christ and him abiding in you. And then the last time we were in first John, if you can recall, we saw a transition from abiding language to language of childhood. Those who are abiding in Christ are those who are the children of God, and the children of God are those who are abiding in Christ.

Christopher: 03:31

So John made this transition from abiding language to child language. And at least one of the reasons he does that or a few of the reasons he does that. One is there's a relational emphasis. Children are in relationship with a father and John wants to emphasize that point. But a second one, which is what we're gonna go into deeper today, is that children by and large are like their parents.

Christopher: 03:57

There's a similarity between a child and a parent. So branches look like the vine they're a part of. Children look like, more or less, their parents. And so too, John's point is, those who are abiding in Christ, those who are children of God through Christ, they look like God in Christ. There's a necessary moral element to belonging to Christ, which is that one begins to look like him.

Christopher: 04:31

One's life begins to look like him. And that's what we're going that's where he's going to begin really pressing into beginning in chapter three. That's why chapter three is something of a transition. He's going to be going deeper into this concept that being children of God means practical, not just I think differently up here, practical lifestyle level change takes place when one becomes a child of God through Christ. If we're his children, it will show itself in our lives.

Christopher: 05:05

That's that's the simple dynamic at play here. So let me show you. Look with me at first John chapter three. We're gonna be looking at verses one through three this morning and we already saying this today which is pretty neat to be able to do together. See what kind of love or behold what manner of love the father has given to us that we should be called children of God.

Christopher: 05:33

And so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 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. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

Christopher: 06:04

So that's our text for this morning. Let me pray for us and then we'll look at these things together. Father, we thank you for just the ability to call you father. Lord that something of the glory of that, something of the wonder of that would would come upon us today. We thank you for your word that teaches us how we are to live, who we are, who you are, and what it means for us.

Christopher: 06:37

And ultimately, father, in every line of this word, we thank you for Jesus Christ, crucified and raised up again. Not merely as one who saves but as the one who is the foundation and the goal of all reality and of every moment and every experience of his people's life. So father we pray that Jesus Christ would be glorified this morning, something I can't do. No matter how much I try or want it to happen, I I can't make Christ exalted. I can't make lives change eternally.

Christopher: 07:14

That's the work of your spirit and your grace and father we together ask that in your mercy and in your love for your people you would grant your word to be effective unto the transformation of lives, the freeing of captives, the the the working of salvation, and the quickening of our hearts to treasure Christ as our great and final hope set before us in all things. Father I ask for this, we ask for this to the glory of your name in Jesus name. Amen. So we're entering into a section where John is going to place some pretty heavy weights, some pretty heavy calls upon the shoulders of those who are Christians. He's going to say, look, this means some things.

Christopher: 08:07

This means your life changes. This means we need to be living in a particular way. He's going to be calling us to some pretty significant things, but the whole section begins with him pointing us to something saying, want you, as we're beginning, I want you to behold something. I want you to see something. I want you to be aware of something and what is that?

Christopher: 08:30

Look at verse one. See, that's a command, behold what kind of love the father has given to us that we should be called children of God. So before there's any command given, before any implications of what it means to Christian are unfolded for us, the bedrock of all of this is look at the love that is yours. Look at the love that has been given to you. So that word see or your translation might say behold is a command.

Christopher: 09:06

It's a command from God. Behold something. So we come to this text this morning and God himself is saying, I want you to think about something and he's saying it to you too because this is this when this book was inspired, this moment was in the mind of the Holy Spirit. You right now with all that you're bearing were in the mind of the Holy Spirit when these words were inspired some two thousand years ago and so this is a command directly to you. Behold, in the midst of all your facing, look at something.

Christopher: 09:41

What? What are we to look at? Consider something. Set your mind on something. Pay attention to this.

Christopher: 09:46

Be gripped by this. What? The manner of love that the father has given to you, to us as Christians. So that's where we begin this morning with God himself saying, my people, I want you to see again the love that I have for you. I want you to behold that again.

Christopher: 10:07

I want you to see how deeply, how truly, how transformatively I have and do love you. So look at what it says, behold what kind of love the father has given to us that we should be called children of God. So I want to start by just doing that, by beholding that, trying to get our heads and hearts a little bit around this love that is for us. First, we need to ask what does it mean to be a child of God? Because in some sense, right, everyone's a child of God in the sense that all are created by God.

Christopher: 10:43

God is the one creator of all human beings. So you could say in that sense all are children, but when John is using it here, he's using it in a specific way, a specific kind of being brought into the family of God, adopted into the family, made part of his intimate circle, being a child of God. What does it mean? Well, let me turn back to the Gospel of John because remember John's Gospel and John's epistle, they work back and forth with one another. They comment upon one another.

Christopher: 11:18

So in the Gospel of John chapter one verses 12 to 13 we read this, but to all so let me start in verse 11. He, that is the word, the son of God, the incarnate Christ, he came to his own and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he that is God gave the right to become children of God. Now what's it what's it say about children of God? Who were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, meaning not the way children normally born, but who are born of God.

Christopher: 12:07

Of God. So that's the kind of child John is thinking of in first John. He's to be a child of God in this sense means to be born by the will of God. Not by the will of some man, not by the will of flesh, not by the will of human effort. It says, but they are born of God.

Christopher: 12:25

And what does that birth look like? It looks like receiving receiving Christ. There are those who reject Christ, but for those who receive him into themselves, hold fast to him as Lord and God and savior, as food and drink and life. For those who receive him as the one whom to know is to know the father, they become children of God by the will of God, by the grace of God, by the mercy of God. And to receive Jesus in this way, like food into our body, is to be bound to him.

Christopher: 13:03

To have him in us and to have us in him. It means that we are united to him. That's what it means to receive Jesus. Not just, oh, I made a decision. United to him.

Christopher: 13:15

And wait a second, who is he? The son of God. The beloved son. And so if we, through receiving him, are united to him, really, not just in a theoretical way, woven into him, then we now are sons and daughters of God, in the son of God. If we're in the son, our relationship to God has become the same as the son's relationship to God, which is why we are now beloved children.

Christopher: 13:48

That's why Jesus can say at the end of the gospel in John twenty seventeen, Jesus can say to Mary let me read it for you. John twenty seventeen, Go to my brothers and say to them, I am ascending to my father and your father, to my God and your God. When Jesus takes on our flesh and dies in our place and rises again and we through faith are woven into him, we become like him to God. We become in him sons and daughters of God. United to the beloved son, we too are beloved children.

Christopher: 14:33

That's what it means to be a child of God. It means to be united united to, counted in the beloved son himself, Such that God's heart toward his son is his heart toward you, Christian. God's heart toward his son, Jesus Christ, is his heart toward you in Christ. Which means when Jesus goes down into the Jordan River in baptism, you're going down with him. You're dying with him.

Christopher: 15:02

You're being buried with him. When Jesus rises up from that river in the image of his resurrection, you're there with him, Christian. You're raised with him, Christian. And when the sky tears open and the love of God the father pours down on his son in the person of the Holy Spirit, and God's own heart says, this is the one I love with whom I am pleased. That is spoken of you as you are united to Christ.

Christopher: 15:33

That's what it means to be his child. That's what it means to be his child. So behold what kind of love God has given us that that should be true of us, that we should be his children. But then notice there's another implication of what John says about this love here. Behold what manner of love God has given us that we should be called children of God.

Christopher: 15:56

He doesn't say behold how much God loves us because we are his children. He says, behold God's love for us that you have become his children. So being a child of God comes from being loved by God. Do you see that difference? Being a child of God comes from being loved by God.

Christopher: 16:21

The love of God comes first, and we're his children because he's loved us. He doesn't love us because we fought our way into his family and have become his children. He loves us, therefore we're his children. That difference will save you from spiritual suicide. That's that difference will save you from exhaustion and despair.

Christopher: 16:46

Why do you believe in Jesus? Why do I believe in Jesus? Why are we holding fast to him? Why can we stand here this today? Why can you stand?

Christopher: 16:55

Why can we say I'm a child of God? Is it underneath deep down because I did something good enough? That's why I'm his child. Is it because I believed something hard enough and sincerely enough? That's why I'm his child.

Christopher: 17:14

Is it because I'm keeping myself clean enough? That's why I'm his child. Or I'm obeying all the rules. Or I humbly received something. I I was able to humbly respond to something and so now I'm his child.

Christopher: 17:31

No. All those things are there. They can be there, but the root that John gives us here, he says you're a child of God Christian because in the mystery, we can't probe this, in the mystery of his will he has set his love upon you. You're his child because he's he loves you. He it's not he loves you because you're his child.

Christopher: 17:56

You're his child because he loves you. The love is the deepest thing. Dig all the way down, Christian, to the very foundation of your being. Pull back all the layers of shame and regret and sorrow and why didn't I do this and why aren't I like this and push down, dig down, dig down to the very root. And what is there?

Christopher: 18:18

The love of God. The love of God for you. That's the foundation. And if that's the foundation, it ought to transform our understanding of ourselves all the way up. So the love of God for you Christian is the foundation.

Christopher: 18:34

Now good works come. We're we're gonna see that. Good works are necessary, but good works are like the two by fours that you set up on a foundation. They're like the framing that you put on. They're like the shingles that you put on the foundation.

Christopher: 18:48

Things in you are like things that are built upon the foundation. But if we try to locate the reason I'm loved and maybe you don't say it this way, but if in your mind and in your heart, you're thinking and feeling the reason God loves me is because I'm like this, because I do this well enough, because I believe this well enough, because I've done these things. If that's our mindset, it's like we've dug a pit and we've thrown in a bunch of shingles and two by fours and we're trying to use that as a foundation upon which to build a house. Shingles and two by fours are great on the foundation, not as a foundation. So too, works, things that come from our life, Christ likeness, it's great.

Christopher: 19:37

It must be there. Built on the foundation of his love, not as the foundation of our life. So at the root of all of this Christian is the love of God for you. Behold what manner of love the father has given us that we should be called children of God. So Christian, begin today and every day and as God gives us grace every moment, looking at God.

Christopher: 20:03

Look at your God pierced unto death by your sin, by my sin, on the cross. Let us look upon our Lord crowned with our curse, all that I'm due crowning his brow. Let's look. Let us look upon our God slain under our death. And in all of that, raise your eyes to look into his eyes and wonder of wonder, see there love for you.

Christopher: 20:35

Love for you. See that by faith Christian. See that and know that this love is what comes before and beneath everything for you. This is what names you beloved son, beloved daughter. This is what counts you and brings you into his family.

Christopher: 20:58

And then I would say, unbeliever, if there's anyone here who's not trusting Christ, you do the same. Look to him. Look at the cross by faith right now. See not just a man, not just your parents religious symbol, not just an annoying authoritarian symbol or image. See in the crucified man, unbeliever, your Lord and your God dying for you, loving you, and embrace him as your life and find, in that moment, find that this same love is now and has always been for you as well.

Christopher: 21:40

Embrace him. Love, his love, is what's the foundation of all things. But then building on that, so we we have that as the bedrock but then being a child means real change. Look at the logic of John's thought here. See what kind of love the father has given to us that we should be called children of God and so we are.

Christopher: 22:06

The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Okay. Why does he throw that in there? Oh, by the way, the reason the world doesn't know you, the reason the world rejects you is because it didn't know him and it rejected him. Part of what we can draw from John's logic there is this, the world rejected God in Christ and therefore the world rejects his children because what's the what's the logic that makes that connection?

Christopher: 22:36

Because his children are like him. That's the connection. The reason the world rejects you is because it rejected God and guess what? You're like him. That's the implication.

Christopher: 22:47

The children are like their father. So for example, if if someone doesn't like oranges, most likely they won't like orange juice because orange juice tastes like oranges. Similarly, if someone rejects God, John is saying they're also going to reject God's children. Why? Because God's children taste like, they ought to taste like God.

Christopher: 23:17

They ought to have the same their actions, their priorities, their choices are similar to him. They're like him. And so if somebody hates God, they ought to hate his children too because they because we're like him. That's the mindset. That's the logic here.

Christopher: 23:35

In other words, union to Christ which causes us to be children leads to likeness to Christ. So and parentheses here maybe, Christian, if the world is to reject us, let it be because we're like Christ. Not because we're making a nuisance of ourselves in any number of ways, but because we're like Christ. If they reject us and they say, why why do you hate those people? Because they're so much like Jesus.

Christopher: 24:04

Good. That's that's what we that's what we want. That's what we want to hear and that goes back to first Peter, doesn't it? If we're suffering because of Christ. So this is this is John's thought process.

Christopher: 24:15

If if you're belonging to Christ, you're going to begin looking like him and that's where he goes in verse two. So look it with me at verse two. 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 for we shall see him as he is. So we can follow this. We understand this.

Christopher: 24:42

Children are not yet what they will be. Right? Children, there's a lot of them here today. Children are not yet what they will be. They're growing into something.

Christopher: 24:53

Children are like an arrow pulled back on the string. Children are like a seed put into the ground. Children are potentiality. They're growing into something and in the same way if we're children of God, we're not yet what we will be. That's John's thought process.

Christopher: 25:11

We're growing into something. Now think with me for a second about where every one of us was at a particular time, namely in our mother's wombs as an embryo. Think about the difference between an embryo and where you are right now. Pretty big difference. Right?

Christopher: 25:31

That difference is nothing compared to where you are now and where the Lord is taking you. Where what we are going to become. The difference between embryo you and you now is nothing compared to the difference between you now and what God is working in you through Christ. Where he will take you, what you will be. That's where we're going.

Christopher: 25:53

But as staggering as that is to consider, John's able to say, we know basically what that's going to be even though we don't know the specifics. What's it going to be? Like Christ. When he appears, we will, you will be like him. It's an awesome thing to consider here on a on a run-in the mill Sunday morning with all the burdens, all the things, all the man, you know, body's not working right, plans aren't going well, things I had planned, you know, this stuff hanging on us and yet scripture says you are going to be made like Christ.

Christopher: 26:30

Truly, fully, perfectly like Christ. When he appears, we will be like him. What will we be? It is him. When he appears, we will be like him.

Christopher: 26:43

So when the earth and the heaven dissolve before the face of the unveiled Jesus Christ and when the sun is snuffed out like a candle before the brilliance of the glory of the crucified one who's raised up again, and when all of the creation falls trembling on its face in worship of Jesus Christ, you and I Christian, those who've held fast to him, we will be like him. Like him. Not exactly, but like him. If he's the sun, we're going to be a light of the same color. If he's a river flowing, we're going to be streams going in the same direction.

Christopher: 27:26

If he's a symphony in that day, we're going to be like pennywhistles playing the same melody. We will be like him when he appears. The Christ who appears at the end and as the end of history is not going to be a stranger to his children and his children won't be a stranger to him. That moment will be a moment of homecoming. So we're embryonic children now and we are growing into Christ.

Christopher: 27:56

That's what that's what John lays out before us. And how does he know we're going to be like Christ? How does he know that we're going to be like Christ? See what kind of love look what it says in verse we'll just read our passage here. See what kind of love the father has given to us that we should be called children of God and so we are.

Christopher: 28:15

The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 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. Why? What's how do we know that? We know that when he appears we shall be like him because we will see him as he is.

Christopher: 28:40

That's where that's why John has confidence. The Christian is going to see Jesus Christ as he is and if that's true, John says, I know then that we will be made like him. Now there's a question here buried in what John says. I I wanna help you feel it. We could call it there's two different ways to take what he just said.

Christopher: 29:02

We'll call it way a and way b. Okay? Two different ways to take what he just said. The first way is this, John could be saying, we know we will be like Jesus because we will see him as he is and only those who are like him can actually see him as he is. In other words, he's saying, though our likeness to him is the reason we'll be able to see him.

Christopher: 29:33

See what he's saying? He could be saying that which is what we find in Hebrews chapter 12 verse 14 where it says, without holiness no one will see the face of God. So John could be saying, look, I know we're gonna see him and the only way to see him is to be like him so I know you're going to be like him. Our likeness to him is the reason that we're going to see him as he is. That's one way he could be saying it.

Christopher: 29:59

Okay? Hold that in your mind, put it over here. There's another thing he could be saying. He could also be saying this, we know that we'll be like Jesus because we will see him as he is and the sanctifying power of that vision will transform us to be like him. That also has defense in scripture.

Christopher: 30:22

Second Corinthians three eighteen where it says, we all with unveiled face beholding his glory are being made like him. So in this sense, John's saying, look, you will be like him as a result of seeing him. So those are the two ways you could take this. We will be like him and that's the reason we'll be able to see him or you will be like him and that will be the result of having seen seen him. And you say, okay, well it's a little confusing, a little hard to track with.

Christopher: 30:52

Let me give you an image to to show you how these two ideas work because I think John in typical John way is is saying, yes, both these things are true. Both of these things are true. And let me give you an analogy to help you see how that can be. Imagine there's a stream or a valley. There's a valley and there's a lot of little streams all flowing in one direction and then all of a sudden a huge river flows down that valley.

Christopher: 31:20

Not just a stream, a river and a river is coming down the valley. Now all those little streams, the ones that are going in the same direction as the river are not destroyed because they're going in the same way the river's going. They're just brought right along, but the river does fill those streams with itself and enliven those streams, gather those streams so they become full and rushing streams. So the rivers are not destroyed the streams are not destroyed when the river comes because they're moving in the same direction as the river but the streams are made full when the river comes because the river hits them and fills them up with itself. Okay.

Christopher: 32:02

Now this is the streams survive the coming of the river because they're flowing in the same direction and the coming of the river unites the streams to itself and fills them up with itself. Both those things happen when the river comes. Now the analogy's not perfect but you see where this is going, I think. Jesus Christ is the river who's going to break over this world. All the cosmos is going to be submerged unto death or unto life by the name declared in the flesh and blood of Jesus Christ from Calvary.

Christopher: 32:42

Every moment and every molecule of reality is going to have to contend with this Christ and be finally met and defined by this Christ. That's coming. That's happening. That river is coming. And if the stream of our life is flowing in the same direction as that river, if the stream of our life is like the stream of his life, if our life is marked by the kind of living that he shows us, if we're marked by Christ's character, by Christ like love, not perfectly, but genuinely, then the coming of that river is not going to destroy us, but it's going to join us and be right with us.

Christopher: 33:24

We will survive the coming of that river if our streams are flowing in the same direction as his. So that's the first thing. Likeness to him is the reason we'll be able to see him and survive. But secondly, just as that river gathers the streams into itself and carries them along and fills them up and makes them more than they ever were before, so too with the appearing of Jesus Christ, those who are hoping in him will be gathered up into that same life, gathered up into that same glory and him perfectly. We will be made like him by that sight.

Christopher: 34:02

So we will survive the sight of Christ's face because of likeness to him, graciously given likeness to him. And the appearing of Christ's face will be the decisive, complete, and final making of us like him. Both those things are true. And if you wanna boil this down to a simple concept, it's just this. This is what you can take with you from here.

Christopher: 34:26

If you are a child of God, if you are trusting Christ, then the end toward which you are moving, the place to which you are going, the peace for which your soul is longing and the joy into which you are going to be gathered is this, that you will be made like Jesus Christ. You Christian will be made like Jesus Christ. Now it doesn't just mean, oh, you're gonna be a good person. You're gonna be very nice. It doesn't that's a that's extremely simplistic.

Christopher: 34:58

It means you're going to be pure through and through as he is pure. Utterly pure. You're going to be loving as he is loving. Joyful as he is joyful. Are you weary?

Christopher: 35:12

Are you born down? Are you melancholic and sorrowful? You will be joyful as the Lord himself is joyful. You will be at peace as he himself is at peace. Nothing shakes the heart of Christ.

Christopher: 35:28

Many things shake our hearts, but we are moving to conformity with Christ and we will be anchored in that same peace, gathered into that same peace. We will be at peace as he is at peace. We will be known as he is known. Every door thrown open, every window thrown open, every room searched to the to the foundations known as he is known and loved loved loved completely as he is loved and enthroned as he is enthroned. That's where we're going, Krishna.

Christopher: 36:01

That's where you are now already but it's where you're going completely in Christ. That is what is set before us. So behold, behold what manner of love the father has given us. That we born of the dust, we who would and did murder God given the chance, We whose spirit revels in rebellion against love, against mercy, against grace. That's that's what we are in and of ourselves.

Christopher: 36:35

But behold the love of God that we, these ones, should be called beloved children of God. Sons and daughters of God. That's that's an awesome thing. That's the mercy that we've been shown and because we're his children, we will be made like him. I'm going to give you a preview of a passage that pastor Sean is going to go further into when he returns to first Corinthians but it's it's fitting for us to see this here.

Christopher: 37:07

In first Corinthians fifteen forty nine, we read this. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, Adam, the mortal man, the man that dies, the man that weeps, the man that's beset by the thorns of this world, we've all borne that image. We're bearing that image now. We can bear witness to that. Just as we've borne the image of the man of dust, so too we shall bear the image of the man of heaven, the man who's been raised from the dust, Jesus Christ.

Christopher: 37:38

And that's only true because the man of heaven became the man of dust. It's only true because God almighty became the one besieged and beset by mortal agonies that those who are thus besieged and beset can be raised up to him. There's a reason I was thinking about this. There's a reason that God created the stars out of the same stuff as he created the earth. Go out into a field, pick up a hand of soil and look at the sun, sort of, you know, realize that it's there and consider that is ultimately the same stuff as this.

Christopher: 38:20

The only difference between that and this is the word of God that should say, you be combined and act in different ways and this becomes the sun. The only difference between the handful of dirt and the blazing star is God's word. This can become that. And what the gospel tells us is that that became this. The sun, in truth as it were, becomes the soil of this world.

Christopher: 38:51

The sun becomes the dirt. The light of the world is buried in the heart of the earth in the death of Christ so that we dust born children, children of the dirt, so that we might be raised up to shine like the sun in the kingdom of our God and of our father. That's the that's what the gospel says. That's what's going to happen. That's that's where you are going Christian.

Christopher: 39:18

He is where we are going. He is our unshakable hope. Secured. That that that assurance of our being made like him is secured by his flesh and blood, which we're going to remember today, by his flesh and blood as it dies upon the cross and it is sealed. That hope is sealed when that same flesh and blood is raised up from the grave and seated where it is seated right now on the throne of God.

Christopher: 39:49

That's the promise for us. That's the hope for us. We're we're going to be like him, Christian. Hold fast. You are going to be like Jesus Christ in every way.

Christopher: 40:00

You're going to have his peace, his joy, his rest, his gladness, his welcome into the heart of the father, his ability to look at all things and rest in his God. That's our hope. Now let me close then today by saying that this hope doesn't just sit, doesn't just hang before our eyes as a nice ornament. This hope motivates change. If we have this hope, we will be changed.

Christopher: 40:28

Look at what John says there in verse three, and everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. Hope that we will be made like Christ, that the slain and risen son of God is the joy into whom we are being gathered, that hope motivates holiness. Hope leads to holiness. Let me show you two ways that that's true and then we'll be done. First, hope leads to holiness through preparation.

Christopher: 40:59

Through preparation. Imagine that you're hosting Christmas at your house which some of you will be doing before you know it because it's on its way. Imagine that you're hosting Christmas at your house. You're hoping in that day. You're looking forward to that day and because you're hoping in that day, what do you do?

Christopher: 41:16

You get the house ready. You you do some preparation. You get the tables set out. You get the the dust bunnies underneath the sofa cleaned out. You prepare the house because you're hoping something's happening and you're getting ready for it.

Christopher: 41:31

In the same way, if we're hoping in Christ, if our hope is to see and rejoice in the all pure son of God, then we will take seriously the words of Hebrews that says, without holiness there's no seeing him. Without likeness to him there's no surviving that day. And we will, by grace, not as the foundation but on the foundation, we will begin to put sin to death. We will begin to prepare ourselves to meet him face to face. We'll begin to put on likeness to Christ.

Christopher: 42:08

So this hope purifies through preparation. But then lastly, this hope purifies through passion. Think about a little boy who's going to get to meet his favorite baseball player or pick your favorite sport player. He's gonna get to meet him and in anticipation of that day, he gets the jersey. He dresses like this guy.

Christopher: 42:31

He learns to hold the ball just like this guy. He gets this rookie card. He he's doing everything to try to be like this guy who he's going to meet because he's so excited about it. Is he doing all that because he's terrified he'll be rejected by this baseball player out of anxiety and fear? No.

Christopher: 42:50

He's doing all that because he loves this guy so much. He's so taken by him. He wants to be like him. He wants to wear him. He wants to be like him in every way.

Christopher: 43:01

So too, Christian, if we're hoping in Christ, if that's not just a little religious sign we hang on our window or in our dash in our car, but if your life is anchored in him, which it must be. Okay? If you're here, if we're here because Jesus is nice, because Jesus is a nice thing to add to my life, that's that's gonna blow away. We're here, Christian, because he's our life. He's our lifeline.

Christopher: 43:32

Our hope is in him. All our longing is for him. And if that's so, we're going to be made like him because we love him, because we're longing for him, because we're desiring him. The human soul is built such that it becomes like what it loves. That's how it works to be a human.

Christopher: 43:51

We become like what we love. And so in both these ways, sober preparation, joy filled passion, our hope in the appearing of Jesus Christ drives us to be like him, to put him on, to be made like this Christ. And now I want my words that I've been speaking to transition into food that you eat. Okay? We always talk we often say, oh, we were had a good we were fed the word today or I'm hungry for the word.

Christopher: 44:26

Sometimes we use that as a metaphor, but I literally want the things we're talking about now to turn from words you're hearing into food that's in your mouth, into something that you taste. I I want you to taste the flesh secured, blood sealed promise. I want you to taste the promise that you're a child of God, that Jesus Christ will appear and that you who hold fast to him will be made like him at that appearing. And how are you going to taste that promise? Because we're going to take the Lord's Supper together.

Christopher: 45:04

From this table you'll taste that promise because every promise is yes and amen in the slain and risen Jesus Christ whom we meet in a unique way here. So right here, as you come up here, think to yourself as you come and take the bread and the cup, think to yourself, behold what manner of love the father has given me that I should be called a child of God. Behold in the in this bread, the body of our Lord broken for us. Behold in this cup, the blood of our God poured out to forgive us and seal us. Behold in these elements, our Lord and our God.

Christopher: 45:45

In the image of his death that he gives us here, in the witness of his resurrection that he gives us here, in the promise of his appearing that he gives us here, in the feast, receive it by faith, it is the feast of his love that he's giving us here and in the declaration of his name as it is given here. May that be so for each one of us. Let me pray for us and when I'm done praying we're going to the worship team is going to sing and those of you who are trusting Christ, you don't have to be a member here, you don't have to be a regular attender, but you do have to be trusting Christ as your Lord. Those of you who are holding fast to him, just come up into the middle, make two lines, then we come and take the elements, return to your seats, and then we'll take them together. Let me pray for us first.

Christopher: 46:43

Father, what love you have shown us. Your love is a refuge. Your love is a fortress. Your love is a stronghold that we run to, that we hide in as we come to Christ who is our hiding place. So father, I pray that your people would feel and know and trust, believe, and in a moment taste and drink this love for us in Jesus Christ.

Christopher: 47:11

A love that pours down from your own heart through the flesh and blood of Christ given on the cross into the lives of your people. So Lord, may we receive this love, may we be marked by this love, and made children by this love. May we be changed. Lord, that long standing sins would be broken, that patterns and habits of Christlessness would be stripped from us, and that we would put on like that little boy who puts on everything he can about his favorite player, that we would be eager, ravenous to put on Christ in every way we can because we are captured by him, consumed by him, made to love him as our all in all. Lord, may this be so even now, we pray in Jesus name.

Christopher: 48:04

Amen.

Caleb: 48:05

Thank you for listening to this message from King's Tree Church in Sabina, Ohio. To see more of the beauty of God and the crucified and risen Jesus Christ, come worship with us on Sundays at 10AM or visit our website at kingstreechurch.org.