WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.980 Let's turn to God's Word. If you have a Bible, we're in 1 John and we're finishing chapter 2 00:00:05.980 --> 00:00:10.320 and we're then diving into chapter 3. You can see it on the screen if you don't have it to hand, 00:00:10.380 --> 00:00:15.380 but we're reading in 1 John chapter 2 and we're starting at 28, verse 28. 00:00:15.560 --> 00:00:22.660 And now, dear children, continue in him so that when he appears, we may be confident 00:00:22.660 --> 00:00:29.780 and unashamed before him at his coming. If you know that he is righteous, you know 00:00:29.780 --> 00:00:38.299 that everyone who does what is right has been born of him. See what great love the Father has 00:00:38.299 --> 00:00:45.400 lavished on us, that we should be called children of God. And that is what we are. 00:00:46.040 --> 00:00:52.780 The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children 00:00:52.780 --> 00:00:59.420 of God and what we will be has not yet been made known, but we know that when Christ 00:00:59.420 --> 00:01:06.439 appears, we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is. All who have this hope in him 00:01:06.439 --> 00:01:14.640 purify themselves just as he is pure. Everyone who sins breaks the law. In fact, sin is lawlessness. 00:01:15.219 --> 00:01:22.560 But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins and in him is no sin. 00:01:22.560 --> 00:01:29.760 No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him 00:01:29.760 --> 00:01:37.600 or known him. Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. The one who does what is right 00:01:37.600 --> 00:01:43.040 is righteous just as he is righteous. The one who does what is sinful is of the devil because the 00:01:43.040 --> 00:01:47.420 devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the 00:01:47.420 --> 00:01:55.000 devil's work. No one who is born of God's will continue to sin because God's seed remains in 00:01:55.000 --> 00:02:01.240 them. They cannot go on sinning because they have been born of God. This is how we know who the 00:02:01.240 --> 00:02:06.120 children of God are and who the children of the devil are. Anyone who does not do what is right is 00:02:06.120 --> 00:02:11.980 not God's child, nor is anyone who does not love their brother and sister. For this is the message you 00:02:11.980 --> 00:02:17.139 heard from the beginning. We should love one another. Do not be like Cain who belonged to the evil one 00:02:17.139 --> 00:02:22.279 and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his 00:02:22.279 --> 00:02:28.079 brothers were righteous. And let me sneak on into next week's passage, verse 16. This is how we know 00:02:28.079 --> 00:02:35.879 what love is. Jesus Christ laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers 00:02:35.879 --> 00:02:45.479 and sisters. And may God speak to us through his words today. There are so many different ways in which we 00:02:45.479 --> 00:02:50.679 could look at this passage today. But I want to very simply look first of all at what we are 00:02:50.679 --> 00:02:57.539 and what he has done, what we will be, and in the context of all those three things, what we are, 00:02:57.639 --> 00:03:03.899 what he's done, what we will be. In the context of all three, think about the difference that that makes 00:03:03.899 --> 00:03:11.280 to our lives today. If I were to say to you, or if the person next to you were to say to you this 00:03:11.280 --> 00:03:18.340 morning, who are you, what would your answer be? Think about it. You're meeting somebody for coffee 00:03:18.340 --> 00:03:24.560 afterwards and they say, who are you? What's your first answer? Is it to say, well, you give your 00:03:24.560 --> 00:03:30.860 name perhaps, yeah? No, no, no, that's your name. But tell me, tell me more. Tell me what you really 00:03:30.860 --> 00:03:38.139 are. Do you perhaps think about your family? Well, I come from this particular family. Or do you start 00:03:38.139 --> 00:03:42.939 saying, well, I live in this particular place? Or do you start quickly? Maybe I suspect many of us 00:03:42.939 --> 00:03:49.779 start saying, well, you know, I'm a teacher, or I'm a doctor, or I'm a nurse, or I'm a student, 00:03:50.059 --> 00:03:58.639 or I'm looking for a job, or these are the things that I am. I wonder how many of us would say, 00:03:58.639 --> 00:04:11.359 what am I? I'm a child of God. What am I? I've been adopted into God's family. What am I? I'm loved 00:04:11.359 --> 00:04:20.219 by the gods of eternity. That, brothers and sisters, friends, today is what Paul, is what the writer 00:04:20.219 --> 00:04:27.159 John wants us to understand as he comes and brings us this passage. He wants us to understand our 00:04:27.160 --> 00:04:33.180 identity. He wants us to understand that what we are, before our human name, certainly before our 00:04:33.180 --> 00:04:41.860 occupation, before any other attributes, that what we are, if we've come to know Jesus, is that we are 00:04:41.860 --> 00:04:46.740 children of God. He seems as though, if you look through the passage, that he has to emphasize this 00:04:46.740 --> 00:04:54.140 time and time again in many different ways, because others will contradict it. Others will not be ready 00:04:54.139 --> 00:04:58.879 to remind us of the fact that we are children of God. So follow through the passage with me, 00:04:59.139 --> 00:05:04.139 starting at chapter 3, verse 1. See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be 00:05:04.139 --> 00:05:10.839 called children of God. This is what you are. But look at what he has to say. That is what we are. He 00:05:10.839 --> 00:05:16.779 has to repeat it. You're children of God. That is what we are. I'd love it if that could be ringing in 00:05:16.779 --> 00:05:23.659 our ears today. That is what we are. Maybe somebody could get the door there. We are children of God. 00:05:24.059 --> 00:05:31.899 That is what we are. But he has to say it again. Verse 2, dear friends, now we are children of God, 00:05:32.019 --> 00:05:39.279 and what we will be has not yet been made known. Verse 7, dear children, do not let anyone lead you 00:05:39.279 --> 00:05:44.899 astray. Verse 9, no one who is born of God will continue to sin. You see, they record it again. 00:05:44.899 --> 00:05:51.239 Children, you've been born of God. You're part of God's family. You're a child of God. There it is 00:05:51.239 --> 00:05:57.259 again at the end of verse 9, because they have been born of God. There it is again in verse 2, 00:05:57.439 --> 00:06:02.859 verse 10. This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are. 00:06:03.159 --> 00:06:09.019 Anyone who does not do what is right is not God's child. Time and time and time again, 00:06:09.019 --> 00:06:18.039 in these few verses, he's telling us what we are. That our identity is not in our background. It's not 00:06:18.039 --> 00:06:24.240 in our upbringing. It's not in our profession. It's not in our wealth or our lack thereof. Our identity 00:06:24.240 --> 00:06:33.699 is as the beloved of God's. A child of God's. Loved by God. We could go on to say as we look at that 00:06:33.699 --> 00:06:42.839 passage. A traveller. Many not recognising who we are. Passing through, looking to our ultimate 00:06:42.839 --> 00:06:48.379 destination, which we believe will be so much greater than anything that we can have here. 00:06:49.319 --> 00:06:56.279 But ultimately, a child of God's. I wonder what it'd be like, folks, if we were to see ourselves 00:06:56.279 --> 00:07:03.979 increasingly as the beloved of God. Let me read to you just a little quote from the theologian 00:07:03.979 --> 00:07:12.899 Henry Nguyen, where he encourages us not to put ourselves down and not to indulge in self-rejection, 00:07:12.959 --> 00:07:17.639 as he calls it, because we're the beloved of God. And he says, and what I've found and reflected on is 00:07:17.639 --> 00:07:25.159 quite a profound passage. A challenge to us listening to the voices that call us worthless 00:07:25.160 --> 00:07:32.980 or unlovable. And it's when we do so that success and popularity and power can easily be seen as 00:07:32.980 --> 00:07:38.860 attractive solutions. And he says this, self-rejection is the greatest enemy of the spiritual life because 00:07:38.860 --> 00:07:49.600 it contradicts the sacred voice that calls us the beloved. Pause on that. The sacred voice that calls 00:07:49.600 --> 00:07:57.920 us, that calls you, that calls me the beloved, that calls you a child of God, that reminds you that 00:07:57.920 --> 00:08:07.280 you're someone who has had God's love lavished on us. Being the beloved constitutes the core truth of our 00:08:07.280 --> 00:08:15.320 existence, he says. Let me repeat that. Being the beloved constitutes the core truth of our existence. 00:08:15.319 --> 00:08:23.639 This is what we are, the beloved of God. How should that impact on how we see ourselves and 00:08:23.639 --> 00:08:31.180 crucially how we see others? As the beloved of God, we have great strength to show love to others. We've seen 00:08:31.180 --> 00:08:37.500 that in 1 John 1 and 2 about the love that we're expected to pour out to others. We see it again at the end of 00:08:37.500 --> 00:08:42.319 our passage and we'll see it next week. As the beloved of God, we're those who are expected to be 00:08:42.320 --> 00:08:50.000 extravagant in our love to others. What are you? A child of God. And Paul says, that is what you are. 00:08:50.140 --> 00:08:55.120 The world doesn't know it. The world may contradict it. The world may try and give you all sorts of 00:08:55.120 --> 00:09:00.520 different identities. But folks, if today we could leave saying we're a child of God, known and loved 00:09:00.520 --> 00:09:07.280 by God, that is what we are. It's going to stand us in great stead for all that lies ahead this week 00:09:07.279 --> 00:09:16.120 and in the days ahead. A child of God, that is what we are. What we are, what he's done. 00:09:18.179 --> 00:09:21.899 Many of you have heard one of the stories which for me just captures beautifully. 00:09:22.699 --> 00:09:27.039 A simple story which captures some of what God has done. Let me try and tell it to you today. 00:09:28.539 --> 00:09:33.120 There's a fishing village on the coast of Denmark, off the coast of Denmark. 00:09:33.120 --> 00:09:40.080 And in that village, there is a group of very pious religious individuals. 00:09:41.360 --> 00:09:48.299 A small sect where they kept their eyes focused on what they felt was the greater days to come when 00:09:48.299 --> 00:09:57.180 they would finally reach the heavenly shores. The leader, a very serious man, had led his little tribe 00:09:57.179 --> 00:10:04.179 and then had died. And his two daughters were the ones who sought to follow in his footsteps. 00:10:05.079 --> 00:10:11.359 They wore black. They felt their life should be marked by self-denial. They ate only gruel and 00:10:11.359 --> 00:10:16.779 sometimes as a special treat, some boiled cod. And these two daughters, Martine and Philippa, 00:10:16.779 --> 00:10:22.039 sought to lead this little group of people. But it dwindled in numbers and increasingly 00:10:22.039 --> 00:10:31.159 felt struggling and pretty miserable. Martine and Philippa tried their best. But that little group 00:10:31.159 --> 00:10:36.439 of only about a dozen people were riven with divisions. Two sisters refused to teach each other 00:10:36.439 --> 00:10:41.599 about some feud that had gone on for years and years. Two men felt that one had cheated the other 00:10:41.599 --> 00:10:46.679 over a business deal and would have nothing to do with each other. But still, Martine and Philippa, 00:10:46.679 --> 00:10:52.859 who had had various friends, including a couple of men who had wanted to marry them at points and who 00:10:52.859 --> 00:10:59.839 they had rejected in order that they might pursue this little work, tried to struggle on. 00:11:00.699 --> 00:11:08.199 One night, in the driving rain and wind, a woman, Babette, arrives at their door and comes with a letter 00:11:08.199 --> 00:11:14.879 from one of the suitors of Martine, a letter which says, please take this woman in. 00:11:14.879 --> 00:11:23.299 She has no money, but she can cook. Martine and Philippa are not at all sure about inviting this stranger 00:11:23.299 --> 00:11:30.100 into their house, but with some hesitation, they invite her in. And over the next 15 years, Babette works 00:11:30.100 --> 00:11:37.379 with Martine and Philippa. She asks for nothing, but what she does is learn to cook this gruel and sometimes 00:11:37.379 --> 00:11:44.759 this cod for these two sisters and for this little congregation. Day after day, year after year, 00:11:44.879 --> 00:11:51.720 she works for them. Twelve years later, a letter arrives to Babette one day to say, Babette, 00:11:52.139 --> 00:11:57.659 someone who you knew back in Paris has been entering the lottery for you every single week 00:11:57.659 --> 00:12:05.460 and your number has come up and you've just won 10,000 francs. At the same time, it's the 100th 00:12:05.460 --> 00:12:13.440 anniversary of the guy who founded this little congregation in Denmark. And the sisters, Martine and 00:12:13.440 --> 00:12:20.000 Philippa, I think it would be nice to celebrate it in some way. Babette speaks up. She says to Martine 00:12:20.000 --> 00:12:24.840 and Philippa, for 12 years, I've worked here and I have asked you for nothing. For 12 years, all I've 00:12:24.840 --> 00:12:31.660 done is make your gruel and your cod. Now, I have one request. To mark this 100th anniversary, would you 00:12:31.660 --> 00:12:39.240 allow me to prepare you a feast? They think we're not too sure about this. We're quite happy with gruel and 00:12:39.240 --> 00:12:44.360 with our boiled cod. But they consult and they say, no, it is true. She hasn't asked for anything. We 00:12:44.360 --> 00:12:50.919 better allow her to prepare us this feast. But their consternation grows as over the next week or two, 00:12:51.259 --> 00:12:57.600 they see truckload after truckload coming into their little village as they see some magnificent and 00:12:57.600 --> 00:13:02.180 unusual food entering into their village, things that they've never seen before. They see boats dock 00:13:02.179 --> 00:13:08.500 and out of the boats are brought animals, are brought birds, are brought fish. They see the 00:13:08.500 --> 00:13:14.979 most incredible wine and indeed champagne being brought into their village and their consternation 00:13:14.979 --> 00:13:19.699 grows and they say to one another, we're really not sure we should be having this worldly feast at all. 00:13:20.159 --> 00:13:24.919 They conclude that it would be rude to refuse to have the feast, but what they will do throughout it all 00:13:24.919 --> 00:13:32.639 is sit in absolute silence. The day comes. The day comes and Babette's work comes to fruition. 00:13:33.179 --> 00:13:38.099 And the 12 villagers from that church sit there and Babette begins to bring out the food. 00:13:40.519 --> 00:13:46.439 She serves the drinks. There's one man who comes to visit who shows great appreciation and who 00:13:46.439 --> 00:13:52.419 struggles to understand the silence of the villagers as course after course after course of magnificent 00:13:52.419 --> 00:14:02.019 food is presented before them. Something happens. Slowly, gradually, some of their hearts begin to 00:14:02.019 --> 00:14:08.439 be melted. And while they do not express appreciation, they do begin to talk to one another. Some of them 00:14:08.439 --> 00:14:14.819 begin to reflect on days of old. The two sisters who hadn't spoken for 12 years start exchanging words 00:14:14.819 --> 00:14:20.379 and discover that actually they like one another's company. The two men who had cheated one another 00:14:20.379 --> 00:14:27.299 confess it and confess it and before long they're talking and even laughing together. And at the end 00:14:27.299 --> 00:14:36.220 of this story, there are two final scenes. In one scene, the little villagers go outside, their stomachs 00:14:36.220 --> 00:14:41.659 full, their hearts cheered from the banquet that has been spread in front of them. And we see them dancing 00:14:41.659 --> 00:14:49.299 around the fountain in the snow, singing the songs of old that for a long time they had stopped singing. 00:14:49.299 --> 00:14:56.399 The other scene takes us into Babette's kitchen. And in that kitchen, we see Babette absolutely 00:14:56.399 --> 00:15:02.740 exhausted, sitting in front of piles and piles and piles and piles of dirty dishes and bottles. 00:15:03.699 --> 00:15:09.979 And Martine comes in to Babette and says, Babette, it was quite a nice dinner. 00:15:09.980 --> 00:15:15.680 She said, Babette, we'll remember you when you go back to Paris. 00:15:17.620 --> 00:15:26.240 And Babette's response is, I'll never be going back to Paris. I won that money, but you don't realize 00:15:26.240 --> 00:15:33.580 I used to be a chef in the Café Anglais in Paris and that meal is what I would have made there. 00:15:33.580 --> 00:15:41.240 And that meal for 12 people in the Café Anglais with those at drinks costs 10,000 francs. 00:15:41.960 --> 00:15:49.720 I've spent absolutely everything I have, Martine, on that meal for you. So I'm not going back to Paris. 00:15:50.360 --> 00:15:51.940 I'm staying here. 00:15:54.460 --> 00:16:01.060 Just a nice story. I think there are two lessons which we need to get from that story today. 00:16:01.059 --> 00:16:08.779 Babette held nothing back. She gave her all to those individuals, even though by all accounts 00:16:08.779 --> 00:16:15.119 they were undeserving, they were ungrateful, they were in some ways even unwilling to receive it. 00:16:15.779 --> 00:16:21.519 She allowed them to feast on the finest of food when previously they had known only gruel. 00:16:21.899 --> 00:16:28.419 She treated them as her nearest and dearest, as the dearly loved, despite them not deserving in any way 00:16:28.419 --> 00:16:35.199 and them offering her no thanks. Folks, we've thought about what we are and I want to use this 00:16:35.199 --> 00:16:42.799 simple story to emphasize what he has done. Verse 1, he has lavished love on us. The story that I've 00:16:42.799 --> 00:16:50.039 heard before that I've recounted to you came to mind through that word lavish. He has lavished his love 00:16:50.039 --> 00:16:56.259 on us. He's not given us just a little. It's not been given sparingly. But a bit like Babette's feast 00:16:56.259 --> 00:17:02.700 where more food was poured out than they could ever have imagined. That is the sense of what God has done 00:17:02.700 --> 00:17:11.940 as he has lavished his love on us. And verse 1, he's made us his dear children. Verse 5, he has taken away 00:17:11.940 --> 00:17:20.059 our sins. Those things which bound us like balls and chains. Those sins which held onto us, which have 00:17:20.059 --> 00:17:26.339 caused us such misery, he threw his death on the cross, Jesus Christ, the sinless one, has taken 00:17:26.339 --> 00:17:33.500 them away. Verse 8, he has destroyed the devil's work. He who is the enemy of our souls and who seek 00:17:33.500 --> 00:17:41.559 to bring only destruction to us has been destroyed through Christ. Verse 9, he has given us new life and 00:17:41.559 --> 00:17:49.500 new birth so that we can read that we are born of God. And verse 2, he has given us a great hope for the 00:17:49.500 --> 00:17:56.859 future so that what we have and are now is as nothing compared to the hope that we have for the future. 00:17:57.259 --> 00:18:02.579 And suddenly when we look at this, we realize that that little story pales into insignificance 00:18:02.579 --> 00:18:10.259 because what he has done is lavished on us his grace, his love, and his mercy. 00:18:11.079 --> 00:18:19.000 Brunsfield, verse 16 says, this is how we know what love is. Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. 00:18:19.500 --> 00:18:27.240 And in the coming weeks, we're going to read so many other verses that remind us of the fact 00:18:27.240 --> 00:18:35.119 that what we are is children of God and what he's done is poured out extravagant love and grace into 00:18:35.119 --> 00:18:41.599 our lives. Chapter 4, verse 9, this is how God showed his love among us. He sent his one and only son 00:18:41.599 --> 00:18:48.900 into the world that we might live through him. Chapter 4, verse 19, we love because he first loved us. 00:18:48.900 --> 00:18:53.820 This week and in the weeks ahead, we're going to hear it again and again and again. We're going to 00:18:53.820 --> 00:19:01.980 hear that we're God's dearly loved, that he's lavished his grace and goodness into our lives. And I wonder 00:19:01.980 --> 00:19:11.140 if we'll let it really sink in and if we'll allow it to change us. When we're inclined to negativity, 00:19:11.140 --> 00:19:21.100 to envy, to hatred, to sin, will we come back to the truth that we are people who have been 00:19:21.100 --> 00:19:28.940 recipients of God's lavish love? Will we stay close to that truth? Will we remain in it? Will we abide 00:19:28.940 --> 00:19:34.740 in him? Will we not move away from the fact that our identity is as people loved by God? 00:19:34.740 --> 00:19:40.720 Ephesians chapter 3, verse 17, Paul prayed for the Ephesians that they would be rooted and established 00:19:40.720 --> 00:19:48.059 in love. In the New Living Translation, it says, may your roots go down deep into the soil of God's 00:19:48.059 --> 00:19:52.460 marvelous love. I absolutely love that phrase. Can you imagine it being a gardener and trying to 00:19:52.460 --> 00:19:58.140 just really dig, dig, dig down deep so that that plant that you've got is going to really flourish 00:19:58.140 --> 00:20:04.400 and blossom? That's the sense that all of us, if we are going to flourish, our roots need to be going 00:20:04.400 --> 00:20:12.320 down deep into the soil of God's marvelous love, absolutely confident that that is what we are, 00:20:12.640 --> 00:20:18.800 those who are loved by God. But the same way as being children of God is mentioned about 00:20:18.800 --> 00:20:24.940 eight times in the passage, so is the word sin mentioned a lot. In fact, it's there about 10 times 00:20:24.940 --> 00:20:31.860 if you cast your eye over the second part of chapter 3. And again, for me, the little story 00:20:31.860 --> 00:20:37.880 about Babette that I've told you just perhaps captures some of the thrust of the challenge that 00:20:37.880 --> 00:20:44.539 we are given in this passage about the incongruity of being children of God, dearly loved by God, 00:20:45.220 --> 00:20:51.580 and yet people who at the same time think that it's okay to continue in sin and in rebellion against 00:20:51.579 --> 00:20:59.220 God. Isn't it odd? Isn't it odd that those villagers at that feast wanted to sit in silence 00:20:59.220 --> 00:21:04.819 while an abundance of food and a feast was being presented to them? Wouldn't it be odd if they had 00:21:04.819 --> 00:21:13.500 sat and said, we'd much rather the gruel than this wonderful fare that has been presented to them? 00:21:13.500 --> 00:21:22.420 I think we need to see that continuing in sin is a bit like saying, no thank you, we'll just have 00:21:22.420 --> 00:21:29.539 the gruel despite the feast that is made available to us. I've been struck this way. Isn't it easy when 00:21:29.539 --> 00:21:38.359 we read verses like these ones? Verse 6, no one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues 00:21:38.359 --> 00:21:44.379 to sin has either seen him or known him. Verse 9, no one who's born of God will continue to sin. That somehow 00:21:44.379 --> 00:21:50.639 or other it's seen as telling us that we must try really hard to deny stuff that's really good. 00:21:52.719 --> 00:21:58.839 Do you get that slight sense? You know, we need to really try hard to put aside all of these 00:21:58.839 --> 00:22:04.319 temptations which, you know, yes, are very attractive, but we want to put them to one side. 00:22:04.319 --> 00:22:08.279 But look at the context and look at what we're told. 00:22:10.139 --> 00:22:18.599 Verse 5, he appeared so that he might take away our sins. Our sins are not good things. Our sins are 00:22:18.599 --> 00:22:25.240 the things that stop us from being the people that God wants us to be and ultimately, if not dealt with 00:22:25.240 --> 00:22:31.200 through Jesus, are the things that stop us realizing that eternal destiny of being in heaven with Christ. 00:22:31.200 --> 00:22:39.240 Christ. And Jesus appears and puts away our sins. He appears and takes them away and instead offers 00:22:39.240 --> 00:22:47.080 us all these great things. And the author comes and says, in light of that, in light of the fact that he 00:22:47.080 --> 00:22:57.340 has taken them away, why would we want them back? He's taken them away. Why do we want to grasp them 00:22:57.339 --> 00:23:03.299 and grab them and hold them back near to us? Now, of course, we know from the context from 1 John 1 that 00:23:03.299 --> 00:23:11.559 sin will still be possible, that indeed we will still continue to sin at times. But as those loved 00:23:11.559 --> 00:23:16.859 by God, as those rooted and grounded in God's love, isn't it the case, folks, that we should increasingly 00:23:16.859 --> 00:23:24.459 be disgusted by that sin? Drawn to God rather than to the devil. And having tasted the feast, we say, 00:23:24.460 --> 00:23:31.680 no, I don't want the gruel having been lavished with love and grace. We don't want to return to a 00:23:31.680 --> 00:23:39.500 life that's marked by just guilt and sin and hatred. Can we allow the love and generosity and grace of God 00:23:39.500 --> 00:23:46.100 this morning to draw us to him, to cause us to rejoice in him, to cling to him, and indeed to look 00:23:46.099 --> 00:23:55.240 forward to what we will be, rather than to hark back to what was ultimately the days where we knew 00:23:55.240 --> 00:24:05.099 only grew. What we will be, sorry, what we are, what he's done, and what we will be. It's good now, 00:24:05.519 --> 00:24:12.779 it's good to be people who live as children of God, loved by him, and yet the amazing thing is we're told 00:24:12.779 --> 00:24:18.399 at the start of this passage that, dear friends, now we are children of God, verse 2, but what we 00:24:18.399 --> 00:24:25.619 will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, 00:24:25.920 --> 00:24:33.639 for we shall see him as he is. What we will be has not yet been made known. I wonder which of us, 00:24:33.680 --> 00:24:41.259 if we decided to go on a holiday, let's say down to Windsor, and we'd hope to see Windsor Castle, 00:24:41.259 --> 00:24:46.359 because we'd heard it was a splendid castle. And as we drove, we saw a little signpost, 00:24:46.819 --> 00:24:52.059 you know the little brown signs, with a little picture of a castle, and it said Windsor Castle, 00:24:52.220 --> 00:24:56.240 and there was an arrow to it. And we looked at that sign, and we looked at that picture, 00:24:56.339 --> 00:25:02.220 you know the ones, and we thought that is a beautiful picture of Windsor Castle. 00:25:02.220 --> 00:25:10.420 We can go home now. We've seen the sign, we've seen the image, it says Windsor Castle this way, 00:25:10.519 --> 00:25:16.180 it's brown, it's white, there's a little cross in the middle of it. Fantastic. I think there's a 00:25:16.180 --> 00:25:22.240 little bit of a sense of this in this passage. We're on a journey, God is bestowing us with so 00:25:22.240 --> 00:25:28.500 many great things, but you know, to be content with only this is a bit like being content with just the 00:25:28.500 --> 00:25:34.240 signpost to the castle, when actually the castle, when we see it itself in all its glory, will be as 00:25:34.240 --> 00:25:39.779 nothing compared to what is ultimately just a silly little signpost that is pointing to the real 00:25:39.779 --> 00:25:45.519 thing. What we will be has not yet been made known, but we know that when Christ appears, 00:25:45.859 --> 00:25:53.019 we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. This is our great hope, that one day we will be 00:25:53.019 --> 00:25:59.740 like Jesus. And we come back to the challenge of this reality. The challenge is that now if you've 00:25:59.740 --> 00:26:06.139 got this hope, we purify ourselves just as he is pure. We're out of time and we need to finish. 00:26:06.920 --> 00:26:13.680 But I learned something this week. I learned from a psychologist from the University of Michigan. 00:26:14.980 --> 00:26:20.420 Who knows whether it's true or not, but this is what he said. He said that he studied people's faces, 00:26:20.420 --> 00:26:27.220 faces, in particular the faces of people who have lived together for many, many, many years. 00:26:27.779 --> 00:26:34.019 And did you know that apparently if you live with someone and particularly if you are happily 00:26:34.019 --> 00:26:40.200 living with someone for many, many years, your faces will start to resemble each other. 00:26:40.279 --> 00:26:45.580 Aileen's looking particularly worried about this reality. Maybe some others are also particularly 00:26:45.579 --> 00:26:52.679 considered, but no, you love each other. You gaze at their face day in, day out. You do so for years. 00:26:52.879 --> 00:26:59.079 You will start to copy their expressions and your face will change and your face will start to look 00:26:59.079 --> 00:27:08.480 more like that person you love. Let's not get too caught up with whether that's true or not. 00:27:08.480 --> 00:27:15.500 But let's take the point, shall we? And let's come back to 1 John, to this promise that one day 00:27:15.500 --> 00:27:23.460 we will look on Jesus and incredibly, incredibly, we will be like him. We've thought of all that he's 00:27:23.460 --> 00:27:28.960 done. We've thought of his boundless love and generosity. We've thought of how he gave absolutely 00:27:28.960 --> 00:27:36.079 all. And we're told here, one day you'll look at him and you will be like him. For you will see him 00:27:36.079 --> 00:27:42.599 as he is. And the challenge in the here and now, the challenge for while we remain travelers here, 00:27:42.980 --> 00:27:49.099 is to increasingly in the here and now gaze upon his face, look upon his characteristics, 00:27:49.619 --> 00:27:56.199 think of all that he has done. In the words of verse 4, purify ourselves as he is pure. And maybe 00:27:56.199 --> 00:28:04.220 even now we will increasingly be like our Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't that something to aim for? 00:28:04.220 --> 00:28:10.920 Isn't that a great goal? That his characteristics will increasingly be marked on our faces, on our lives, 00:28:11.059 --> 00:28:16.620 and on our hearts as we pour out our lives in love for others. Let's pray. 00:28:16.619 --> 00:28:27.059 We thank you, Lord Jesus, that through your love and grace, 00:28:28.059 --> 00:28:37.339 those of us who simply say yes to you, know what it is to be loved by God and to be children of God. 00:28:37.339 --> 00:28:46.240 Lord, that is what we are. May that fact transform us this day and in the days ahead, we pray. 00:28:48.319 --> 00:28:48.919 Amen.