“We Are God’s Children”—1John 3.1-3, All Saints’ Series B, Nov. ‘12

1.                   Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.  The message from God’s Word this day that we observe the Festival of All Saints’ Day is taken specifically from 1 John 3:1-3 and verses 4-10.  It’s entitled, “We Are God’s Children,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.

2.                   In 1 John 3:1-2 the Apostle John says, “¹See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. ²Beloved, 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.”  Here John says that we’re children of God! Amazing! But it wasn't always this way. When we first entered this world, it was as God’s enemies. God also had other words to describe our first status—foolish, disobedient, and enslaved. But, now because of God’s grace given to us in Jesus, our Heavenly Father calls believers by new names.  We’re his servants, a nation, his royal subjects, priests, saints. But the dearest term of all is that he calls us his children.  God the Father has adopted us into his family through Holy Baptism. St. Paul writes in Galatians 3:26 that we’re all God’s children through faith in Jesus, for all who were baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ.

3.                   To be called God’s children isn’t a condescending term.  The point isn’t to make us feel like babies. The point is to make us feel loved and important. God the Father has obligated himself to do for us what all good fathers do for their children—provide for our needs, give us protection, and guidance. He provides us with a sense of being worth something. He’s there for us in emergencies just as good fathers bail their children out of trouble. When we need help, when we pray, we don’t have to feel as though we’re talking to a stranger. We’re talking to our Heavenly Father! We can call on a relationship that was his doing, his adoption, not ours.

4.                   Because we’re now wearing Christ’s holiness through our baptism, we have eternal life in us already as God’s children, His saints. We don’t know as yet exactly how our heavenly bodies will differ from our earthly bodies. But, we can get a pretty good idea that it’ll be wonderful, because we will be like Jesus. Imagine that.  Jesus loves us so much that he kept his body even after the resurrection and ascension, just so that he could remain our human brother forever! Paul says in Philippians 3:21 that by the power that enables Jesus to bring everything under his control, he will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. Wow! If these are the promises waiting for us, why would we go off looking for something better?

5.                   For now, that father-child relationship isn’t visible to the rest of the world. Frankly, to the naked eye, we don’t look like heavenly royalty. But even if we don’t get any respect from the rest of the world, that’s no cause to doubt the Father’s love—most of the world couldn’t figure out that Jesus was God’s Son either.

6.                   1 John 3:3–10 says, “³And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. ⁴Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. ⁵You know that he appeared to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. ⁶No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. ⁷Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. ⁸Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. ⁹No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. ¹⁰By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.”

7.                   By now you’ve seen a pattern: John hates the concept of “cheap grace.”  The idea that we can just call on God for forgiveness and then live any way we please. God’s grace is free, but it’s expensive. It claimed Christ’s life to give it, and it demands ours as we receive it. Immediately after comforting us with the message that we’re God’s children, John challenges us to act like God’s children. There’s a connection between our justification, God’s “not guilty” verdict, and our sanctification, the way in which we live our lives for God. With regard to justification, we say, “We can’t.” With regard to sanctification, we say, “Yes, we can.”

8.                   God the Father has transformed our identity from death row criminals into beloved children. He anointed us with the Holy Spirit in order to give us saving faith in Jesus and also to change our lives. This doesn’t mean that we’ll achieve total purity on this earth. John scolds such thinking in 1 John 1:8: “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves.” What John means is that Jesus came to destroy sin. He came to declare war on sin, which in every case is lawlessness against the will of God. Sin is evil. So people redeemed by Christ, who are now God’s children, hate sin too. So we declare war on it too as God’s children.

9.                   Still less will we let sin characterize our lives. As we grow in our faith as God’s children, we grow also in our determination to let go of behaviors that make God angry. A consequence of the words “I love God” is “I hate sin.” Proverbs 8:13 says, “To fear the Lord is to hate evil.” John is straightforward: People who have stopped their struggle against sin are spiritually dead. True believers may fall into sin, but they never surrender. True believers may fall into sin, but they repent, welcome Christ’s forgiveness, and affirm their desire to change.

10.               “Let no one deceive you,” says John. False teachers working for the devil are tricking Christians into abandoning their struggle against sin. You must admit that there’s a certain diabolical logic to that view.  If we have forgiveness in Jesus, if our bodies are going to die anyway, and our true destiny is to live in heaven, what does it matter if we live in sin right now? Why struggle so hard for chastity, sobriety, and gentleness when adultery, heavy drinking, and violence are so much fun?  They only seem like fun. Actually, they’re part of Satan’s rebellion against God. Satan isn’t the jolly king of hell. He’s the twisted and evil mind behind sin. Whoever is driven by Satan’s evil will share his fate of being cast into the pit of hell. Who would want that? As Paul wrote, “We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” We’ve been born of God, says John, we’re God’s children. God became our Father through our Savior Jesus.

11.               These issues are urgent today. People bristle at any attempt to steer away from sinful behavior by misquoting some famous Bible passages: “Let him that is without sin cast the first stone” and “Judge not, lest you be judged.”  In order to live out what John is telling us to be God’s children, it will be necessary for Christians to learn how to take correction from others. A prideful spirit listens to nobody. When we’re caught in a sin, God wants to use other Christians to bring us back, but that can’t happen if we’re too full of ourselves to listen and repent. Proverbs 15:32 says, “He who ignores discipline despises himself, but whoever heeds correction gains understanding.”  Proverbs 17:10 adds, “A rebuke impresses a man of discernment more than a hundred lashes a fool.”  If someone you know is caught up in sin, will you speak to that person? And will you let other people give you that word of correction when you are sinning?

12.               On this All Saints’ Day the words of the Apostle John cause us to stand in awe of His great love for us.  It’s too wonderful for us to comprehend.  We praise and thank God our Heavenly Father for making each of us His children.  We pray that the Lord would strengthen us in the confidence and comfort of knowing that we are His children.  We ask that He would help us act like the children He has made us through our Lord Jesus and that He would bless our lives as a witness to the power of His love and grace.  Amen.

“Dancing to Our Tune or God’s Tune”—Matthew 11.12-19, Reformation Day (October ’15)

1.        Please pray with me.  May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer.  Amen.  The message from God’s Word this day we observe the Festival of the Reformation is taken from Matthew 11:12-19 and it’s entitled, “Dancing to Our Tune or God’s Tune,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ. 

2.        No matter what the Christian Church teaches and preaches, someone will object to the message and use it as an excuse for not going to worship and being in fellowship with other Christians.  John the Baptist fasted and stayed away from wine.  Because of this, some of the religious leaders of his day said that he was possessed by a devil.  Jesus went to the homes of his friends and also sat down to eat with tax collectors and other sinners, and these same people said He was a glutton and a drunkard.  By this text in Matthew 11 we learn that you can’t please everyone, especially those who are looking for something to find fault with. 

3.        What should we do then?  Nothing?  That would be the easier course.  But, that’s not a God pleasing way to face objection and criticism.  So what should we do?  Continue with patience and determination to teach, preach and carry out what God has directed us to do in His Word.  The rest we leave to God.  We’ll never be able to please everyone.  This Jesus experienced for Himself and He was the sinless Son of God.  Matthew 11:16-19 says, ¹⁶“But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their playmates, ¹⁷“‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.’ ¹⁸For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ ¹⁹The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds.”

4.        Jesus probably shook His head when He heard the criticism of His opponents.  “To what shall I compare this generation?” we hear Him say.  They act like children who say you can’t play in our yard because you don’t play by our rules.  We’ve played our music and you’ve not danced according to our tune.  This holds true today as well.  Many have played—they want an easy Christianity with preachers who say “smooth things.” (Isaiah 31:10).  Many want sin condemned as long as it’s not their own sin that’s being spoken about.  It’s fun to sit in the pew and hear the pastor shoot darts at those who are absent from worship.  But, he must not say anything against our conduct.  It’s too much when the pastor brings up that we have spoken bad things about our neighbor and tried to hurt his or her reputation.  It’s too much when he brings up how we have lusted after other people, desired things that don’t belong to us and how we have hated our neighbor in our heart.  When he says these things this strikes too close to home.  We want the pastor to dance to the tune we play.   In order better to understand Jesus’ perspective on an unbelieving world, he likens the world to children who refuse to play any game in the marketplace, whether they’re invited to mourn or dance.  Jesus Wants to Move Us from Mourning Our Sins to Celebrating Our Salvation, but will we mourn—or dance? (vv 12–17).

5.        We’ve mourned, but you haven’t lamented.  This is another tune many play.  They want an easy going Christianity.  They come to worship to be entertained and to be catered to.  And yet, they never lift a hand for anyone.  But, let them have some kind of problem, and they expect everyone to come to their rescue.  We mourn, and when we do, we want the church.  We look for an emergency device that will take all the bitter pain out of our lives.  In sickness, we want the help of the church to be near to us.  When death comes to our door, we want the services of the church and the pastor to say nice things to us.  Are we only looking for a church membership that will bring the service of the church in times of crisis?

6.        On this day we observe the Reformation we remember Martin Luther’s Ninety-five Theses that he nailed to the Castle Church at Wittenberg in 1517.  These theses were a funeral song calling the Church of his day to repentance.  Rather than face the total desperation of man before God, the need for a savior, the Church was offering a save-yourself-for-cash scheme: indulgences.  Luther declared this to be foolish, calling instead for personal repentance and faith in Christ.  But, the Church’s response was to excommunicate Luther.

7.        We can refuse to mourn when God sings the sad song of our sin, the Law.  God’s Word sadly describes the brokenness of our sinful condition (Rom 3:19–20).  God calls us to turn away from our sinfulness and to him in faith—repent.  But so often we instead cling to our sins and convince ourselves they can’t really be so bad. Surely we can make up for them somehow.

8.        We can be like children who refuse to dance to a flute (v 17a).  God plays his happy tune through the ministry of Jesus.  Jesus is the Lord and Messiah who has come (Mal 4:5).  Jesus “plays a tune” of healing and good news of forgiveness (Mt 4:23).  But, rather than believe and receive their Savior, the Jewish leaders condemned him (v 19a), finally condemning him to die on a cross.

9.        This beautiful Gospel of Christ was Luther’s great discovery.  There’s no need to invent some save-yourself scheme, for Jesus has done it all for us by his death and resurrection.  Through passages like Romans 3, Luther came to realize that we have eternal salvation by faith alone, simply believing in Christ’s work of dying for us and rising again.  But the Roman Church refused to dance to this beautiful music, even condemning to hell anyone who says that we are saved by faith apart from our works (Council of Trent).

10.    We can refuse to dance when God plays the happy tune of our salvation, the Gospel.  God’s Word clearly preaches the gift of salvation (Rom 3:24).  God calls us to trust in Jesus’ person and work for our eternal life.  But too often we take the good news of Christ as too simple to be true, thinking something more must be necessary for our salvation.

11.    God wants us to mourn and dance.  It’s not enough for us simply to hear God’s song and dance.  “Wisdom is justified by her deeds” (v 19b).  We are saved by faith alone (Rom 3:24–25).  Genuine faith will manifest itself in the lives of believers (James 2:14–26).  God wants us to mourn our sins.  He wants us to agree with him that we’ve sinned and fallen short of his glory (Rom 3:23).  He wants us to grieve over our sins so that we leave them behind.  He wants to wash away our sins through Baptism (Mt 3:6).  He wants to forgive us through the blood of Jesus (Rom 3:25).  God wants us to celebrate our salvation.  He wants us to hear the good news.  He wants us to receive the free gift of forgiveness, life, and salvation (Rom 3:24).  He wants our salvation to manifest in our lives.  He wants this message to go to every nation.

12.    John the Baptist came neither eating nor drinking, and he was faulted for his conduct.  Jesus ate and drank with tax collectors and sinners and He was accused of living a loose lifestyle.  Some people can’t be pleased they want someone to dance to their own tune and not God’s tune.  No matter what the church does, it’s wrong in the opinion of such faultfinders.  “To what shall I compare this generation?”  Jesus says.  The crowd is critical.  No matter what’s done, it’s wrong.  If we are joyful, then we are taking our Christianity too lightly.  If we’re sad, then we’re told about the joy of the Gospel.  But, these faultfinders of 2,000 years ago didn’t harm Jesus and His Gospel.  They only closed the door of salvation upon themselves.  We don’t want to make the same mistake today!

13.    The gift of the Reformation is the clarity of the good news through Martin Luther. Like Luther, generations could hear the song and dance of God clearly and without confusion. We can take comfort in the fact that we’re not saved by paying our way into heaven or by the amount of good works we can do to earn favor with God; we mourn for our sins, knowing God is leading us to celebration. We do not live with the false hope that our amended lives of good works will earn our salvation; we dance because Christ has already played the happy tune of salvation as a free gift. We dance because Jesus has already lived a perfect life, died for our forgiveness, and risen again so that we, too, will have eternal life. We have a lot to celebrate! Now we can dance to God’s tune and His gift of salvation through our Savior Jesus and not to the tune of our own sinfulness.  Amen.