All Will Be Revealed

Living in love is our current message series. Hello, my name is Mark, one of the TLC pastors, and we are so glad that you are joining us today, and I wanna say congratulations to all of our new graduates, way to go. Well, you may have noticed in the news lately that as COVID cases in America continue to drop, which is something we should be so grateful for, but meanwhile, in response, the travel industry is booming.

After being cooped up for 15 months, many of us wanna just get out and go somewhere, and if that's you, I've got some tips for you, secrets about some of our nation's favorite destinations. For example, did you know that at Disneyland, there is an exclusive restaurant called Club 33? It is on top of Pirates of the Caribbean, and it was created for celebrities and high-flying politicians, but now you can be a member of this swanky restaurant. It will only cost you $25,000 for a membership and $10,000 a year, but don't write that check just yet, because there is a really long waiting list for Club 33, believe it or not.

And speaking of exclusive, did you know that the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas has a whole other hotel hidden in its belly? It's called The Mansion, and it is this super deluxe string of Tuscan-style villas catering to, again, the super rich and VIPs, and so as you can imagine, it is little known to mere mortals. Neither is it known well by people who love Jesus. Just kidding. Well, this last place is not accessible to pretty much anyone, but I think it's really cool, because did you know that at Mount Rushmore, there is a hidden chamber inside of Abraham Lincoln's head? That's right. This is the entrance to this hidden room. It's actually quite large, and it's like something out of an Indiana Jones movie.

The original sculptor designed this to be like a vault where they would keep documentation about the monument and American history, and get this, he also intended this for future civilizations, including interplanetary travelers. True story. Well, now that you are armed with information, secret information about these spots, feel free to impress your friends and family, because after all, people love to be in on secrets.

Well, I bring this up because this was just as true when John wrote his epistles. In fact, it's really key to understanding them, because in John's day, a movement called Gnosticism was beginning to emerge, especially in the area of the world where John was living. And Gnosticism comes from the Greek word gnosis, which means knowledge, and Gnostics were all about secret knowledge. They believed that as these secrets were revealed, you would advance spiritually. They also believed that all matter was evil, and so some responded by denying their flesh; it became like monks, but others, they said, well, it doesn't matter what you do in your body, so you can indulge your carnal desires and be spiritually enlightened at the same time.

I have to think this was the school of Gnosticism that was most popular. You can see John addressing these things in his letters, and in today's verses, John basically says, okay, hold up, you wanna talk about revealing mysteries? Well, let's talk about the greatest mystery of all, God's love for us, and let's also talk about our response to his love, because when it comes to that, all will be revealed.

Part of today's outline was helped along by a servant I read by a pastor named Nate Holdridge, so thanks, Nate, for that, and I'm using the new revised standard version today because it consistently translates a word in the Greek that appears six times, six times in 12 verses, that's no accident, and it's a word in the original Greek that means to reveal. So let's look at three specific things that John reveals about us in today's passage, and by the way, these things could not be more important about you or about me.

The first one is this, it is who we are. Starting at 1 John 2:28, he writes this, "And now little children abide in him," and we're gonna see this word abide all throughout 1 John; it means to live in, to make your home in him, "so that when he is revealed," there it is, "we may have confidence and not be put to shame before him at his coming." Now John is talking about the second advent or the second coming of Christ when he returns in glory, majesty, and power. In fact, the phrase his coming here is a word in Greek that refers to his presence, and even today, and by the way, they would use this word in John's time to describe when a king would visit a particular city, and his presence would be there among the people.

Well, even today, it's a big deal when a president or a world leader visits a particular location. I can remember several years ago when President Obama visited the Bay Area; Air Force One touched down at Moffet Field in Mountain View, and as a result, they restricted the airspace over the entire Bay Area, including the airspace over Santa Cruz County. Well, apparently, at least one guy didn't get the memo because he takes off from the Watsonville Airport in his little Cessna, and within minutes, he's intercepted by a fighter jet.

How do I know this? Well, I know it because it happened right above where I'm standing right now, right above Twin Lakes Church. I'll never forget, I was in the office and heard this incredibly loud engine noise, and so some of us go outside to see what's happening, and then this jet is flying circles around this little Cessna. Now, can you imagine, let me talk about, like getting the worst traffic ticket ever? It was right there in that moment.

Well, when Christ returns, those who abide in Him, who have Him as their Lord and Savior, they will have confidence and unimaginable joy in that moment, but John's saying there will be others. Well, they're gonna feel like that Cessna pilot, and perhaps, when you imagine that, you think that, well, I might feel that way too because the word that jumps out to you in this verse right here, verse 28, is the word shame. Because you know, you're not all that you could be. You know thoughts and things about yourself that perhaps nobody else knows except for God.

But I want you to listen to me because none of us have fully arrived in our walk with Jesus. Not me, not René, not even Sweet Miss Yolanda. She's probably very close, but you know what I'm saying? We're all on a journey. And listen, John's emphasis is not, Jesus is coming back so He can say, "Gotcha." No, Jesus is coming back to restore heaven on earth. Remember when Jesus taught His disciples to pray and us by extension in the Lord's Prayer, He teaches us to pray, "Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Well, John's talking about the moment when Jesus returns that that prayer will be fulfilled completely.

And as God's children, we're called to lead into this and to celebrate who we are in Jesus Christ. Look what John says in these next verses. He says, "If you know that He is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who does right has been born of Him." He's talking about our new birth in Christ. And anything that we ever do that is good in right in God's eyes is because of this new birth that we have in Jesus.

And it says, having said that, John just kind of steps back and he starts to just riff on what that means. And these next couple of verses in chapter three are just so amazing you could spend a lifetime just meditating on the reality of what he's talking about here. Starting at 1 John 3:1, he says, "See what love the Father has given us that we should be called children of God. And that is what we are." You know, John never tired of talking about the love of God. That's why he was called the beloved disciple. He's like, "I'm the disciple that Jesus loved. He was my best friend."

Think about it, the man who knew Jesus on earth, perhaps as well as anyone, maybe better than anyone. All he wants to talk about is how Jesus loves Him and loves us. I like how the message paraphrase puts the same verse. It says, "When marvelous love the Father has extended to us, just look at it. We're called children of God. That is who we really are." One more version is in an old song that some of us learned growing up where it says, "Behold, behold, what manner of love the Father has given unto us that we should be called the children of God." Wow.

And as we live in this truth, it fills us with unique confidence and joy, so much so that the world should look at us and people should be scratching their heads like, "What is going on with those Christians? How come they're so full of hope and joy? I mean, they face the same troubles that we do, but there's something so different about them." That's because they're not born into what Christ has at this moment. They don't get it.

And so he says at the end of verse three, "The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know Him." So there's this correlation between Him and us, a similarity, a resemblance. We're gonna talk about that a little bit later. But there's two ways that this can get messed up. The first is if Christians just live like everyone else in the world, and then the world can rightly look at us and say, "Well, why bother? There's nothing different about you." Or second, and sadly, this is more typical today, or at least equally so, it's that Christians are simply known for being angry and outraged all the time, so there's nothing attractive.

But when it fills your heart, the reality of who you are, and just blows your mind, again, you just wanna go, "Wow, wow, wow! God loves me so much that He gave His Son on the cross so that I could be His child." Along these lines, Philip Yancey says this in a book called "What's So Amazing About Grace?" He writes, "Sociologists have a theory of the looking glass self. You become what the most important person in your life, wife, father, boss, et cetera, thinks you are." Then he raises this question. "How would my life change if I truly believe the Bible's astounding words about God's love for me? If I looked in the mirror and saw what God sees?"

Let me ask you, what do you see when you look in the mirror? Do you see someone who's just always failing, always messing up? Or do you see yourself as a child of God? God wants us to see ourselves as He sees us. I'm not talking about self-esteem per se, I'm talking about God esteem, which does raise our sense of self because the creator of the universe loves us and sees us in such a remarkable way. And it's all because of who we are in Jesus Christ.

It's so amazing, but you know what? It gets even better because now John is gonna shift our focus onto who we will become. And this is incredible. Look what he says next, starting at 1 John 3:2. He says, "Beloved, we are God's children now. What we will be has not yet been revealed." There it is again. "What we do know is this, when He is revealed, we will be like Him, for we will see Him as He is." Whether at our death or if the Lord returns before that, we will see Jesus face to face. We will see Him as He is. That is your destiny as a child of God.

And in that moment, you will be what the Bible calls glorified; you will be transformed into His likeness, not as a God, but as one who perfectly reflects Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul describes it this way in 1 Corinthians 13. He says, "For now we see in a mirror dimly." He's talking about an ancient metal mirror. You could barely make out your reflection. "But then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part, then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known." Now he's saying, "You know, we just get these little glimpses. Like when you look into the face of a newborn baby and you're just filled with wonder, or you feel the embrace of someone you dearly love and there's just something so amazing about that.

Or we even experienced this in nature. I can remember several years ago, Laura and I had the opportunity to see the aurora borealis, the Northern Lights, and it was breathtaking. I mean, to see the night sky just dancing and undulating with light. I mean, talk about a moment where he's going, "Man, the heavens declare the glory of God, but even as spectacular as this was, it's just the faintest glimpse of what we will see when we see Jesus face to face." Now I asked myself, and you should do the same. How often do I ever think about that? And I get so kind of bogged down in my daily schedule, I'm starting to think I need a calendar that lists my appointments, but then at the bottom of every day, it says, "Or see Jesus today, 'cause that could happen."

For instance, Monday, dentist appointment, "Or see Jesus today." Tuesday, staff meeting, "Or see Jesus today." Because this is the kind of perspective that we can live in right now, and when we do, it motivates us to live now like we will then. This is why John continues, "And all those who have this hope in him purify themselves just as he is pure." Now in the context of Scripture, only God can purify us, but when we live in the hope and anticipation of who we will become, it has a way of changing us. The base pleasures of this world, you know, they just lose their allure.

Reminds me of when I was a kid, I thought that the hostess Twinkie was like the most excellent thing you could ever put in your mouth. I mean, it was just like, "Wow, Twinkies." You remember these? And remember what it was like to open up the wrapper, and it was all kind of, Twinkie was kind of shiny and glistening? I think that's because it was drenched in fat, but we were not thinking about that in the moment. We were already salivating because there's that sugary, lard-like, creamy center that you just bite into and it explodes and your taste buds and it kind of coats your mouth with this kind of slime. But again, it was just a wonder back then.

But let me ask you, when's the last time you had a Twinkie? I'm pretty sure that you have moved on to finer fare. And what John is saying here in verse three is that, you know, once you taste Jesus, the junk food of this world doesn't satisfy. We have this hope and as a result, it purifies us because he is pure. We are drawn to him. Well, this is the result of who we are and who we will be. And these two things will have an impact on this third thing, how we live.

I mentioned Gnosticism at the beginning and how some Gnostics thought that, you know, whatever you did with your body, it just didn't really matter. And that idea is alive and well today. I mean, it's whenever people think, well, you know, what I think in my head, what I believe is one thing, how I live that out or embody these things, that's not really relevant. Well, John says, you know what? You can't have it both ways. You cannot separate the two. You are a whole being.

And picking up at verse four, he says, "Everyone who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness." Sin is lawlessness. Lawlessness involves rejecting anything that God says is good and right. It's essentially saying, you know, God, you have your truth and I got mine. Now, many of us would probably never say that, but when we live this way, our actions do the talking for us. And so John continues, "You know that he was revealed to take away sins and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him sins, no one who sins has either seen him or known him." And you're like, "Wait a minute, time out Mark. Does that mean that if I sin, which I will, that I've never seen Jesus, I don't even know him?"

Well, John can't be meaning that because he's already said back in chapter one that if we confess our sins, Jesus is faithful and righteous to forgive us and to purify us from all unrighteousness. He says then again in chapter two, that if we sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the atoning sacrifice for our sins. So what is he talking about here? Well, I want you to watch this because when John says, "No one who abides in him sins," he's talking, he puts this in what's called the present active tense. Present active tense has to do with continuous action over and over again.

In other words, he's talking about what characterizes our life. Am I abiding in sin, in Christ or in sin? Because ultimately our lives are gonna be characterized by one or the other. He continues. "No one who sins," again, present active, "has either seen him or known him." Now, this is where he shifts his verb tense with seen and known. He uses what's called the perfect tense that has to do with an ongoing state of being with abiding or lasting results. They stand in the state of not having seen or known Jesus. Now, stick with me because this is huge.

He's talking about our standing before God. When all is said is done, do we belong to Jesus or not? And then John draws with very bold lines the distinction between these two positions, these two states when he says, verse seven, "Little children, let no one deceive you. Everyone who does what is right is righteous just as he is righteous. Everyone who commits sin is a child of the devil for the devil has been sinning from the beginning." And again, he's speaking in absolutes here because there's no middle ground between the fruit of Jesus and the fruit of the devil in terms of their impact on us.

And he says, "The Son of God was revealed for this purpose to destroy the works of the devil." And that leads to a result in verse nine. Verse nine is really the key here to understanding these preceding verses here. And so I'm gonna break this down. Stick with me because this is really helpful when it comes to understanding this passage. Here we go. Those who have been born, that's their standing, their abiding condition of God, do not sin continually because God's seed abides continually ongoing present tense in them. They cannot sin continually because they have been born. That is their standing in God of God.

And I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, "Mark, I can sin because I just proved it earlier today." Well, again, maybe that's true, but you are not defined by that sin. That sin was nailed to the cross. You are defined by Jesus Christ who has given you new life. And when the Holy Spirit takes the truth of that and it takes root and it grows in us, it will change how we live, not by our power, but by his power. As John Calvin comments on verse nine, just you don't have to take my word for it. John does not speak of one act, as they say, but of the continued course of life, which gravitates more and more, not in a straight line, but gradually and increasingly towards Jesus.

So in the final analysis, how we live flows out of who we are. I mean, ultimately, our true colors will be revealed. And that's how John sums up this passage at verse 10. When he says, "The children of God and the children of the devil are revealed in this way. All who do what is right, all who do not do what is right are not from God, nor are those who do not love their brothers and sisters." In the simplest terms, we are called to love God and to love one another. It's a main theme in 1 John. It's a main theme in the entire Bible, and it is the main theme of the life of everyone who belongs to Jesus.

So in closing, our big idea today is that relationship leads to resemblance. The closer you become with someone, the more you begin to resemble them, to become like them. You've seen this with couples, married couples that have been together for decades, right? I'm thinking in particular of my wife's grandparents. Here's this old picture of them when they were much younger. This is Laura's mom right here when she's about three or four years old. But here's Laura's grandparents. This is Victor and Ruth Peters. And I love this picture because there's these cool resemblances, but you have to know, Ruth is 100% Korean. Victor is 0% Korean, and yet he loves Ruth so much, loved her so much, that he loved not just her, but he loved everything about her.

He was fluent in Korean language and culture. He loved Korean food, and why wouldn't he? It's awesome. Love wearing this traditional Korean clothing for this picture, but I love it. Notice the identical slant of their heads here in this photo. Notice their smiles and the way they're both looking at the camera because over time, they just grew to resemble each other. And what was remarkable, you know, some couples, this happens because they share similar physical traits, but with Victor and with Ruth, it was just something that grew out of their beautiful and abiding love for one another.

In fact, by the time I married into the family, these two were just two peas in a pod, both reflecting the other. Well, the same thing happens to all those who give their hearts to Jesus. Someday, someday we will reflect his image perfectly and completely, but until then, be encouraged because the transformation is already underway. So live in the truth of who you are and who you will become. Let's pray towards that end.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for your goodness and your grace. We thank you for your love that it's just beyond our imagination. You have given us that we should be called the children of God. And so Lord, I pray for all of us listening here, watching right now, that you would fill our hearts with a sense of your love, fill our imagination and anticipation of what you have called us to be, not only in this life, but when we see you face to face and may that not only thrill us, but motivate and inspire us to lean in to all that you have for us.

And Lord, I pray for the person who's either struggling in an area of their life, there's a besetting sin and they perhaps come to the conclusion that's all they will ever be. Lord, may you just confront that lie in their life right now and open up whatever dark door or prison they feel that Lord, they would know that as they look into the face of you through the eye of faith, there is freedom and there is hope. And so help them Lord to find it and to find it in your strength to turn back to you in ways that will resume that journey of faith in their life.

And Lord, I pray also for the person who doesn't even know you, but they want to, they sense you calling them right now. And so Lord, that they would just respond in faith saying, "Lord, I don't understand at all, but I know that you love me. I know that you died on the cross for me. And so Lord, I received the life that you want to give me and I want to walk in the newness of that life starting right now." Lord, we pray all these things in the name of our matchless Lord and savior, Jesus Christ. And all God's people said, amen.