God's Children Are Loved: Seeing Him as He Is

This is a lot about children this morning because even this, the heading here, is children of God, and it's a wonderful passage. From one John two verse 28 through into chapter three and we'll conclude there at verse three. And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears, we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming. If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him. How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God.

And that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself just as he is pure.

Amen. If ever there was a verse that would be a favourite of mine from Scripture, this one would surely be in the top 10. One John three verse one. Don just read it to us a moment ago. Here's the aging apostle John having a conversation with us.

And in the face of persecution and dealing with false teachers rife in the church of that age, his conversation is about knowing God and then addressing us as God's children. Little children is what he says, literally. These are amazing verses, really. What an outburst of praise and glory and wonder there is. John is telling us exactly how to know God, how to see him in faith, and then he's really expressing something that he experiences himself because of knowing God.

In verse one, in the words of the NIV, how great is the love the Father has lavished on us that we should be called children of God, and that is what we are. The old King James version, still a favourite of some among us, I'm sure, uses the word behold. He says, sit up, take notice. The NIV uses the words how great, and then throws an exclamation mark to make the point. But what does the Greek word for behold really mean?

It's a reference to the word to see. Does John say, if you really look at things carefully, things will start to materialise before your very eyes? In other words, listen, quieten your heart, listen for an audible voice, or look for a visible vision, something you can actually see with your physical eyes. No. He's not saying that.

He's saying something that by faith is possible. For the reality of God to become more than something we just think about in our head is to go beyond the boundaries that we usually put on God, to go beyond your own intellect even, and overflow to the rest of your being. Your mind, your will, your emotions, all your strength. Behold the love of God the Father that he has lavished on us. This is to sense the very presence of God the Father in you, with you, for you. It's to have the glory of God Himself come down and visit your soul.

John has this knowing, this experience of knowing God this way, and he tries hard to communicate that to all his readers. And it is possible for us too to see God this way, to know him this way. By faith, to behold God and the love that he's lavished on us. By faith, to sense his very real presence. And then in verse two, out of this whole experience of beholding God by faith, John says something in verse two which is even more amazing.

It's so amazing that I'm almost afraid to say anything about it. Dear friends, which is really a weak way to translate agapetoi, which means loved ones or beloved. Now we are children of God. And what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. All of a sudden, John moves to the future, and he's saying there's something far greater in the future than we have ever known before.

And I'm almost afraid to talk about it because I don't want to diminish the glory of it in any way. But let's see what we can, and how it might work for you and for me, seeing him as he is now. Look at this phrase in verse two. It says, we are now children of God. Don't ever forget that.

That is so important. One of the more sad situations I've had to deal with as a pastor is to visit with a member of the church, sometimes someone who's been a member of the church for a lifetime, sometimes an elderly person in the twilight years of their life, and they would admit to not really knowing whether they are a child of God. And over time, through other visitations, I've noticed that it's often a repeating theme when visiting elderly persons, something that emerges again and again. It seems almost as though the devil's having one last fling at attacking one of God's saints. But we can have an assurance this morning about our salvation knowing that we are children of God and will remain so.

It's an important subject, one that every Christian can and should have the confidence and the absolute assurance of knowing. Elderly folk are sometimes left asking the question, am I really a Christian? What is Christianity all about? To be a Christian is not to try to be a child of God, but to be a child of God now. Typically, people will ask, are you a Christian?

And the tendency is to say something like, well, I try to be or I hope I'm a Christian. And to say that really suggests that you don't understand the true nature of being a Christian. This little phrase in John's letter teaches us what the Bible teaches consistently throughout: that Christianity is primarily a standing, a legal position, if you like. Never forget that. It doesn't say, oh, we hope to be children of God, or we're trying to be children of God.

No, beloved, we are the children of God. Therefore, what works for us in a family home works for us in God's family too. Because you see, my own children are my children or they are not my children. And when they're born into the world, they become part of a family. That gives them rights and the status of son or daughter.

Alternatively, when a parent chooses to adopt a child, it's the same deal. There was a moment at which the child becomes a son or daughter. There's no such thing as a 50% son. The child is either legally yours or not yours. In fact, when people say, I've had a bad week last week.

I don't know whether I was a Christian last week. They really don't understand, do they? Your behaviour, your attitude, they're not the primary thing about being a Christian. In fact, if you want to get real subjective about this, when my sons are behaving beautifully, I don't feel that much like a father to them, to be honest. It's like, well, I'm just going along for the ride.

I can be proud of them for sure, but I'd better keep my own ego in check or else I will fall. But let me tell you this, when my sons are misbehaving, when my sons are in trouble, when my sons are not doing what I want them to do, I don't feel like less of a father to them. In fact, I feel the opposite. I feel the full weight of my fatherhood kicking in. I feel an urgent, compelling sense to be a father for my son.

If any one of my sons were to say, I don't know if I'm Tony's son this week, I mean, I haven't had a very good week, then I want them to know that from Tony's perspective, I feel more like a father than ever. No kid of mine is going to get away from their father's love. I want to be able to reach out to them, to affirm my love for them. Sons and daughters don't lose the status of children or sons and daughters simply because they've had a bad week. Now here the apostle John speaking this morning, beloved, we are children of God now.

Only recently, I was playing with my own grandchildren on the beach in the sand. And it was there I came to the realisation of what it truly means to belong to a father and a mother, for that matter. So there we were, granddad or Opa, happily building a sandcastle on the beach. Our life was very busy. It was very intense being in the sandpit with the grandkids. Building the castle that you see is all that really mattered.

But what I noticed about my grandkids was that when someone gets in the way and the integrity of the castle is threatened, their instinct for survival and protection kicks in. Voices are raised. Anxiety levels increase. And so, being human, my grandkids sharing their opus, fallen nature, the very sand that you use to do the building with becomes a weapon. Sand bombs away. And sadly, I witnessed a few sand fights that aim to hurt and to inflict pain.

Are they still children? Do they still belong to their father? Well, the grandparent, you know, has the luxury of walking away, but a parent's heart can break at such behaviour, and they spring into action, and they remind the kids whose kids they really are, how to behave, how to respond even in the face of disaster. You see, life in the sandpit can be brutal at times. It can be hard, but it's the very place where we can know.

Behold, says the old King James version. Behold the Father's love being lavished upon us. Now we are children of God. We're not trying to be children of God. We're not hoping we're children of God, but we are children of God. But John moves on in verse two, seeing him as he is in the future.

Now as great as all that is, there's something that goes beyond this, something even more wonderful. He says in verse two, now we are children of God, and there will be something greater because what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. We shall be like him in the future. Now what he's saying here is that if you are a child now, there's something we know that will happen later.

We are children now, but we know that in the future, the climax of our life will be to see him as he is. Right now, we see him by faith, but there will come a time when we will see him face to face. Our lives could be described as a symphony, like a huge orchestra, and there's a crescendo that the music is leading to. If your life was a book, seeing him face to face would be the climax of the plot. Every child of God can know for sure that they are destined to see Jesus face to face.

This experience is so amazing that we're told in verse three, everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself just as he is pure. What kind of experience would that be, I wonder? That even though we haven't had it yet, that is seeing Jesus face to face, we're prepared to make radical changes in our lives even now because of the hope, the crescendo, the climax that's coming. We begin to want to do it, says John. It makes us more like Jesus and prepares us for what will happen when we see him face to face.

Let me tell you about this experience in another way by going to the book of Romans. Romans eight tells us that all of nature is subject to decay. You know, all of nature is falling apart. Look at the beautiful flowers beside me up here on the stage. Tomorrow, they'll be in the wheelie bin.

Well, maybe not those particular flowers because they're plastic. But things are falling apart. Everything is subject to decay. We're told in Romans eight that nature itself groans and longs to be liberated from the bondage to decay. Do you know how creation is going to be liberated?

How it's going to be set free from decay? This is what Paul says: it looks forward to the liberation from bondage to decay through the children of God. When we see him face to face, when we actually experience the complete transformation that occurs of seeing him face to face, the glory that will be infused upon us will be so great that the children of God are the very reason that all of creation will be liberated. It'll be the very reason nature is restored and paradise is regained. God's much loved children, therefore, are the real greenies today, the eco friendlies, the true environmentalists.

Because along with us, all of creation will be glorified. What a kind of experience will this be? The glory of God is so great that it will take with it all of created order. What is that about? John simply says, seeing him as he is.

That's the future. But for today, we're invited to look upon him in faith. That kind of vision today in faith is brought into sharp focus in the broken pieces of bread and the cups of juice that have been poured out for us. And in just a few moments, you'll be asked to handle that. We call the Lord's Supper a sacrament, a sign and a seal of all God's promises to us.

It's designed to be a meal that encourages us, to build us up, a reminder that we might know how great the Father's love is for us. But wait, there's more. The day's coming when we actually see him as he is, and when that happens, we're going to become just like him, says John. We will be completely glorified. The Bible talks about this in a number of places besides one John.

In first Corinthians, we now see but a poor reflection as in a mirror. But then we shall face to face. Now I know in part, then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. To know fully is to be like him, glorified. In John 17, Jesus is praying for us and he teaches us the same thing. Father, I desire that they also will be with me where I am to see my glory.

When we get to see Jesus face to face, we become the answer to his prayer. And in the Psalm we looked at earlier in the service, Psalm 17, David says, and I, in righteousness, will see your face. When I awake, I'll be satisfied with seeing your likeness. We shall be completely satisfied when we see Jesus face to face. What's David really talking about, I wonder?

We can only wonder, but no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him. Essentially, we don't know. It's so different to who we are today, so totally opposite to some of the basic, fundamental ways that we function as human beings in the world. Essentially, to be alive and to be human today is to be dissatisfied. That is to say, to have an appetite.

You know, we've all got these appetites. You've got our basic appetite for food and water, and we'll be having coffee and cake after the service, by the way. But we also have an intellectual appetite, and we have an aesthetic appetite. We have a sexual appetite. We have an appetite for good relationships.

Some of us are blessed with a creative appetite, and the list goes on and on. We need this, and we need that thing. And the objects we have at our disposal are here now, but they can only satisfy temporarily. And they may only satisfy one or two of our desires, and then only do that partially because they wear out. We need new ones. We always want more.

But there is an object worthy of an appetite, says David, that can fulfil all other appetites and do so all at once and do so absolutely and totally. It's what I have to hope for, to long for. It's the sure appetite of knowing that all my cravings, all my desires will be satisfied when I see Jesus face to face. Whether you know it or not, your mind is after it, your heart is after it. You're after it in your thinking. You're after it in your work.

You're after it in love and in relationships, and ultimately, this is what you're after, that I, in righteousness, will see your face, and I will be satisfied with seeing your likeness. We will be complete. We'll be whole. We'll be perfectly restored in the image of our Creator. We'll be back in the garden, back in paradise.

And God has put that longing in our heart and he knows what we are destined for. This is what is ahead of us. Absolute satisfaction is what we all want, isn't it? It's what we're all after, isn't it? And so we can hunger and thirst for this thing called righteousness.

And so we begin to purify ourselves just as he is pure. We find a measure of satisfaction that only will be truly complete on the day we meet him face to face. And so for that reason, I'll put it to you that children of God don't get that upset. They get upset, fair enough, but they don't get that upset when they get married and find out that it wasn't everything that it was cracked up to be. Or we don't get upset, or at least not that upset, when we finally find a church and find that it wasn't everything that it was cracked up to be.

We kind of think to ourselves, well, we have a Father in heaven, and this is not the climax of my life. This is not the plot of the story of my life. Because the Bible's holding out to us a future and a destiny in which we are going to be satisfied in ways and means we can't even begin to imagine now because we're going to see Jesus face to face. We'll be glorified in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, we will be changed, completed, perfected in a way that means we'll be just like Jesus. That, I have to tell you, is one of the best evidences for Christianity.

You see, it's not only Christians who are after these things, but all of humanity is. It's there in our DNA, something every human being thinks about, wonders about. You know, even the Rolling Stones, as much as you might like or not like their music, I think they got it right when they adopted the lyrics, I can't get no satisfaction because I try and I try and I try, but I can't get no satisfaction. Children of God, there's no trying about it. Children of God, there's no hoping for it.

You're either a child of your heavenly Father or you are not. Look to Jesus because he gave us the right to become a child of God. Understand the experience, the love of God that satisfies now and in eternity. All of his children will be satisfied when they see him face to face. And as great as that is, that will be. What we have now is the reality of being loved, cared for as his children now.

Let's pray. Father, we ask this morning that we would not be so satisfied with anything in life that we can't long for you, to look for more of you, and then anticipate that great day when we shall see Jesus face to face. Oh, Lord, help us to build our lives around that, and forgive us when we have other things that might detract, pull us away from that. Cause us to have the goal or the purpose of our lives, that great day when you will welcome us into the presence of your Son. We know we won't find satisfaction in anything outside of knowing you, seeing you, even in faith.

Strengthen our faith today. Do that by giving us spiritual food and drink to nourish and feed our souls. We need to be strengthened by you, for without it, we are lost. Help us, Father. Help us to know for sure that we are your children.

Help us to know the great love you've poured out upon us through Jesus. And in his name, we pray. Amen.