Title: Living into Christ
Text: I John 3:1-7
Thesis: A real Christian lives into Christ… consciously and continually becoming more and more like Him.
And I am sure that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on that day when Christ comes back again. Philippians 1:6
And as the Spirit works within us, we become more and more like him and reflect his glory even more. II Corinthians 3:18
Introduction
On April 12 the state of North Korea launched a long range test missile in their quest to develop the capability of a nuclear strike. The new leader of that country, Kim Jong-Un has stated that his first three priorities are to strengthen the military, strengthen the military and strengthen the military.
To a world watching the activities of an impoverished nation in which most of its citizens are hungry, spending another $815 on a missile launch is beyond absurd. Their foolishness prompted the United States to cancel planned food aid to that country.
I cite the actions and attitude of Kim Jong-Un as a contemporary example of a person who has been entrusted with great power and privilege and then behaved totally irresponsibily.
With great privilege, come great responsibility… when you have been entrusted with power and privilege and violate that trust by acting irresponsibly you have broken not only God’s trust but the trust of the people you serve.
Jesus said, “To whom much is given, much will be expected…” In the NLT it reads, “Much is required from those to whom much is given, and much more is required from those to whom much more is given.” Luke 12:48
Our text today focuses first on the privilege that becomes ours when we follow Christ. We are:
I. Privileged People…
God allows us to be called His children and we really are! I John 3:1-2
In the Gospel of John we are taught what happens when we become followers of Christ. "But to all who believed him and accepted [received] him, he gave the right to become children of God." John 1:12
The Gospel describes being born again as becoming children of God… as becoming members of God’s family. Our text today specifically affirms this new relationship with God as really becoming children of God.
In Robert Frost’s poem, “The Death of the Hired Man,” a farm couple is caught in a dilemma. Their former hired man, who was never very reliable, returned after being told that if he left during haying time he could not come back to work there again. It seems old Silas would go off to work for other people during the summer but when it got cold he would come back to live for room and board for the winter. And now the old hired man had stumbled back again promising to go back to work ditching the meadow.
Silas is described as “just the kind that kinfolk can’t abide.” Silas is unreliable and his own family has had it with him, so much so that he doesn’t even bother to ask his relatives for help. But he knows he can come back to Mary and Warren and they will take him in because it’s like Mary said, “Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in.”
There is a certain privilege to home… home is where they have to take you in. Home is where you will always find a place at the table and a bed to sleep in. Home is like a family safety net. Home is where you receive understanding and compassion.
When we become children of God we have found a safe place in God’s family.
It is a privilege to be in a family where you receive a roof over your head, food in your stomach, clothing on your back, companionship, nurture and educational support, health care, security, a heritage, emotional support, financial support, familial activities and hopefully a shared faith.
Jesus said of those who belong to him, “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them away from me, for my Father has given them to me, and he is more powerful than anyone else. So no one can take them from me.” John 10:27-29
As children of God we even have the privileges of family and home and the promise of eternal security.
But with great privilege comes great responsibility. We are privileged people but we are also:
II. Responsible People… (Another word might be accountable.)
Those who believe this will keep themselves pure, just as Christ is pure. I John 3:3
Jesus said, “To whom much is given, much is required and to whom much more is given, much more is required.”
A few minutes ago I spoke of several aspects of what it means to enjoy the privilege of being a member of a family and of being a child of God.
If you are a parent you have probably asked a child to do something around the house like clearing the table or mowing the lawn or vacuuming the living room. And if you have asked a child to do those things that child has likely asked, “How much well you pay me?” And then you patiently remind them that they have a roof over their head, an iPod in their backpack, ice cream in the freezer and Wii on the TV, and designer clothes on their back and so on… we are essentially saying, “Because you receive all these benefits as a member of this family, you also have some responsibility to the family, i.e., doing chores, running errands, baby sitting younger siblings, respecting the other members of the family and participating in family activities. We get and give because we belong to the family.
The letters of both John and Peter lays bare the extent of God’s love for us and Christ’s sacrifice for us. In I Corinthians reminds us, “You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a very high price.” I Corinthians 6:20
• Jesus Christ is the one who pleases God completely. He is the sacrifice for our sins. He takes away not only our sins but the sins of all the world. I John 2:1-2
• Christ also suffered when he died for our since once for all time. He never sinned, but he died for sinners that he might bring us safely home to God. I Peter 3:18
Being children of God who are brought safely home to God is indeed a great privilege but the largeness of the privilege is accompanied by largeness of responsibility. And part of that responsibility is that God’s children “keep themselves pure just as Christ is pure.” I John 3:3
In verses 4 – 7 John unpacks just how it is that we may do that.
Being a pure person is to deliberately obey God.
A. Responsible Christians are deliberately obedient to God.
Those who sin are opposed to the law of God, for all sin opposes the law of God. I John 3:4
(Another way to say a responsible person deliberately obeys God is to point out that a responsible Christian does not deliberately disobey God either…)
Deliberately and consciously being aware of God’s expectations of us as his children is a critical piece to our being responsible and accountable Christians. If someone says, “I belong to God,” but doesn’t obey God’s commandments, that person is a liar and does not live in the truth. I John 2:4
So being a responsible privileged child of God hinges on what we know to be true and then living into that truth.
It cost me a $29 fine to teach me that owning the privilege of driving a car also involves the responsibility of obeying the law… the seat belt law. Here in Colorado the slogan is, “Click It or Ticket!”
When we moved back to Kansas in the 1980s we lived in a small town in the eastern part of the state. Our little town was blessed with the presence of a highly principled, over-zealous and empowered city policeman. When I grew up Bill Lauby was our city policeman and he would likely call your dad and let him take care of it rather than make a big deal out of our indiscretions. But our city policeman did not believe in anything that smacked of mercy or grace.
Highway 59 ran through our town and in the middle of town was a sharp 90 degree turn. One day as I was making my 90 degree turn, an oncoming car cut the corner and side-swiped me. The oncoming driver was clearly at fault.
When the city policeman arrived he filled out his accident report, ticketed the oncoming driver for reckless driving and let him go. Then he came to me and asked, “Were you wearing a seatbelt at the time of the accident?”
To be honest, I did not know and given the fact that he was not there to witness if I was or wasn’t, I could easily have said, “Why yes officer, I was wearing my seatbelt.” But I said, “I don’t know,” so he wrote me a ticket.
Believe me, I now know that I am wearing a seatbelt every time I get in the car and if I ever get to answer that question again I will be able to say with certainly, “I was wearing my seatbelt because I make a conscious and deliberate effort to “click it” every time I get in the car. Wearing a seatbelt is part of my life… it’s what I do. In knowing the law and doing the law I am living into it.
But what is the law of God that we are to be aware of and live into [put into practice]?
What is the law of God?
• The 10 Commandments?
• All of the Law and the Prophets?
• The Law of Love? Matthew 22:34-40
When I drove home from St. Paul, Minnesota last weekend, as I traveled south on I – 35 I passed a bill-board along the freeway for Celebration Church. Further down the road I passed Celebration Church and saw the signage again. Their sign was essentially a mission statement all wrapped up in four simple words and two exclamation points.
Love God!
Love Others!
Jesus said it all when he said: “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul and all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the other commandments and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:34-40
In 2:7 of Johns epistle he asks, “How can we be sure that we belong to God? [Answer]By obeying his commandments. Friends, I am not writing a new commandment, for it is an old one you have always had, right from the beginning. This commandment is to love one another.” I John 2:7
As both privileged and responsible children of God, we are conscious of [aware of or knowledgeable of] the law and deliberate in the actions of loving God and others.
And here is how we do it. We do it by being Responsible Christians who live into Christ.
B. Responsible Christians live into Christ
Christ came to take away our sins. So if we continue to live in him, we won’t sin either… those who continue to live in sin do not know Christ and do not understand who he is. I John 3:5-6
In our text the word translated sin is used as either lawlessness or rebellion.
1. In verse 4 we see that sin is lawlessness and rebellion.
2. In verse 5 Jesus came to take away or remove our lawlessness and rebellion. In addition to that, in
Christ was not lawlessness or rebellion against God or God’s commandments. There was no sin in
Christ.
3. In verse 6 we are instructed to live into Christ and as we live into Christ we will not be lawless or
rebellious or sinful either. And if we do sin we confess it and turn away from it. In other words we
live into Christ and not into sinfulness.
God’s goal for each of us is conformity to the likeness of Christ. “We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. For God foreknew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son… ” Romans 8:28-29
The bible says, “I am sure that god, who began the good work within you, will continue his work…” Philippians 1:6
In I John 2 we are taught that, “Those who say they live in God should walk as Jesus walked or live their lives as Christ did.” I John 2:6
In His Steps. In 1896 Charles Sheldon, who was the pastor of a prestigious church in the city of Topeka, Kansas wrote a novel titled “In His Steps.” It was written and read to his congregation as a series of Sunday night readings. The essence of the book was to ask in every situation the WWJD question: What Would Jesus Do? And as you know, in the 1990’s and since the WWJD bracelets have been trendy and I believe, a good thing.
However Pastor Bryan Wilkerson takes the WWJD question a step further and stretches the question to include: What would Jesus do… if he were me?
• If Jesus were a truck driver, what kind of truck driver would Jesus be? Would Jesus throw his weight around on the road? Would Jesus blast his air horn when little kids gave him the toot your horn sign?
• If Jesus were a middle manager what kind of middle manager would Jesus be? Would Jesus be reasonable and fair? Would Jesus be manipulative or run a fearsome ship?
• If Jesus were an employer what kind of employer would Jesus be?
• If Jesus were a parent what kind of parent would Jesus be? Would Jesus let his kids watch whatever they wished to watch on TV? Would Jesus reach over the front seat to smack his rowdy children in the back seat?
• If Jesus were a high school student what kind of high school student would Jesus be? Would Jesus bully? Would Jesus be nice to the marginalized kids? Would Jesus study to do well? Would Jesus be worried about his popularity or his character?
Living into Christ is praying throughout the day, “Lord, what you do if you were me?” As long as we consciously and continually live in the presence of Christ we will not sin… it is when we forget His presence that we sin.
We live into Christ by letting Christ live into our lives. When we live into Christ, we live in constant communion with Christ and are consciously and deliberately asking the “What would Jesus do… if he were me” question and then doing what Jesus would do if he were us.
Conclusion
Perhaps you remember the old Art Linkletter show, “Kids Say the Darndest Things?” It was later resurrected by Bill Cosby in the 1990s. The premise of the program was to gather a group of children and then ask them questions anticipating that they would answer the questions in cute and endearing ways.
In a series of science questions about clouds one boy said, “I’m not sure how clouds are formed but clouds know what to do and when a cloud becomes big enough it is called a drop and it does.”
When asked about the human spinal column one student said, “It is a long bunch of bones. The head sits on the top and you sit on the bottom.”
When asked about their understanding of human genes one student said, “Genetics explains why you look like your father, and if you don’t, why you should.”
So in closing we say, “See how very much our heavenly Father loves us, for he allows us to be called his children. And we really are!”
And then we must ask, “Is there any family resemblance?” If there isn’t, there should be.
