When Christ Appears, We Shall Be Like Him | 1 John 3:1-11

You're listening to the Bible guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun in practical ways. Hey, good morning, good morning. We talk a good morning, good morning to you and you and this is incredible. Yes, on a Friday, I lost a bonus. I lost my snap that was a bonus. Good morning. Yeah. And by the way, the reason why I lost my snaps is I stopped. I started way too high. I was like, good morning, good morning. I was way up there. So anyways, I was like, oh my goodness, good job, good job. Hey, welcome to the Bible guys. And whenever you're listening in the day, we appreciate you tuning in. Today, we are actually wrapping up our very long series on God's promises. That's right, and there's more, by the way, it's just we're done talking about it. Well, we're done with our series. That's right, because you know, you can never really finish exhaustively the topic of God's promise that it's correct. You can go on internally that's correct, infinitively. That is correct also. So but we're wrapping up today and it's going to be in First John chapter three. But before we do we have a very special segment. Yes, well, this is a special Christmas Babylon B segment. Yes, right. If you don't know, Babylon B is parody website, they're very funny. Yep. And this one is twenty three gifts the wise Men should have brought instead. Yeah. Now, by the way, I don't know if you can trump gold. Yeah, gold's pretty good. Yeah. Frankensinson mur well, we'll see. Yeah. But in their day those were very expensive items. But this is sponsored by Convoy of Hope, so I don't think this was written by the Babylon B people. It was written by the Convoy of Hope. But anyways, it says the wise men may have done well to find the first Christ Child or find the Christ Child, but to be frank, the gifts they gave left something to be desired. Here are twenty three other gifts the wise men should have brought instead. The first one was a groupon for a spa day. Everybody could have really used it. I would imagine that they really couldn't. Like, this would be great, right, get out of that barn, ye go have a spa day. Number two. I don't understand this one pointed stick to poke the little drummer boy with would have been Mary's favorite. I don't understand that either. I don't either a pointed stick to point. The poke a little drummer boy with. I don't think there was actually a little drummer boy. Oh there wasn't. Yeah, but would have been Mary's favorite. Number Three is starlink really would have helped find the way back home. That's starlink would be great. Yeah. Have you used starlink at all? I have not. Have you seen that exact kind of like on. Star Starlink is the is the all the satellites that Elon Musk put in the sky Internet anywhere? Now? Oh, it's like eight satellites. Oh wow. Have you used starlink? I have not. It's amazing. Have you seen the Starlink satellites going across the sky. No. Sometimes when they launched the release like a bunch of them at one time up in the in space, and then they'll get in a line and they'd be like ten or fifteen of them just going across the sky and people think they're seeing UFOs. Yeah, yeah, because they're in a perfect line. My wife and I we went we were camping last summer and it was during one of the meteor showers. I love meteor showers. And so we were camping in we were in a place that's really dark, and so we went out to go watch meteors and then we were like what is that? Right? And there's this line of like these ten going straight across the sky all at one time. And yeah, so anyway starlink they would would have helped find their way back home. Bitcoin would have been super helpful. Can you imagine what would be worth? Now? That is a funny statement right there. That's a funny statement, right. Yeah. Bigcoin's been a little bit of a slide. You can get a bargain right now. Yeah, Sir Mary and Joseph could have just been sitting there coating. In the cave and there getting big Coin Number five Parents Guide for Raising God Made Flesh I could have come in handy. Yeah. Yeah, I mean nobody had ever done that one before. Yeah, what to expect when you're expecting the Son of God. Mormon castrole. Everyone loves a Mormon castle. I don't even know what that is. Yeah, I don't know. Is it like a Baptist cast role? I guess, I don't know. I don't understand a white noise machine, so much more practical than Frankinson. Oh, I agree with that. White noise machines are great cows. Yeah, how about a Savior of the Universe onesie, Oh my goodness, opportunity right there. Can you imagine open up? Oh, look at you. The Savior of the Universe one. This one's super practical. A baby toy shape like a Roku remote for Jesus to play with. Nothing. Babies love more. Yeah, little remote, fake remotes or fake cell phones, they love them. Or keys yeah, or keys? Yeah, a Nintendo we It would have been a lot of fun. Yeah, it would have been fun. An Amazon gift card. You can never go wrong with this one. Yeah. Well, I mean, you know, if you. Don't know what else to do, went in doubt, get an Amazon cars that's true. Yeah. A subscription to the Babylon b Joseph would have been a huge fan. We just know it. Wow, there's a there's a claim. Uh baby GPS tracker. It's helpful for those temple wanderings. But if you don't know, they lost Jesus when he was they literally lost God. Mary, you had one job, but he wandered off. Keep track, Keep track of the Son of God for me. They lost, So yeah, a baby GPS tracker would have been helpful. Uh A lamp shape like a like a woman's leg, that'd be classic. Wow, that is certainly classic. That's from the movie. It's from a lot of movies, just from the Christmas Story. Oh Christmas? Yeah yeah, uh uh what's a bob stroller? Bobb stroller? Bob stroller, bob stroler. Travel could have been so much easier. Yeah, I don't know. Uh, a body pillowlp would have hated it, but too bad? Uh seventeen a plastic waiting pool. Never too early, start walking on water. Ah, that's pretty good. That's pretty good. That's a good one. Uh. The joel Ostine Inspiration Cube. It helped the Holy Family live their best life. Now, whoa huh. That is I'm not sure whether that was like, like, is that a did they really? Did? They really think it's a good thing? The cube. I don't know, because because it sounds like a dig a little. Bit, I don't know. I don't know. Yeah, okay, yeah, it just the best life. Now I'm gonna I choose to believe the best, not the worst. Chris Okay, well you know he did write a book called Your Best Life Now. Yeah, the hit Christian board game Settlers of Yeah, what a gym that one was. Oh that's funny. I do not know. Okay, uh, Alexis with a giant bow on top mercan't compete. No, it got home way quicker. Yeah, that could have been a good commercial, right there. Yeah yeah, yeah, offered to clean manure out of the stables. Seriously, it's pretty basically yeah with the table saw. Maybe the carpenter's dream. Can you imagine? Yeah? And last, but not least, Lego Hogwarts. Everyone wants a Lego Hogwarts. Unbelievable. So too bad, Wise man, you missed your chance with these amazing gift ideas. I can't believe of the of the twenty three gifts, Lego Hogwarts is actually in there. I think the plastic wading pool was the best, Yeah, by far? Or the GPS. Yeah, yeah, that was a rough list. It was a rough list. Yeah. Usually Babylon B is top shelf, guys, I feel like you mailed it in. Well. I still don't understand a couple of them. The Bob thing, I don't know what that is pointed stick for the little drummer boy yeah, it's kind of funny. Yeah, you know, because, by the way, I'm one of the very few people ever that actually very strongly dislikes the Little Drummer Boy song Oh wife, Oh do you really guys really very strongly dislike repetitive? It gets old? Yeah, yeah, I mean. It's the same line over and over and over and over, and it's like, I don't get it. It's like, but some people hear and they're like, oh, it's so beautiful. Rapp a pump pump. I'm like, I saw I saw TikTok the other day with Greg Gibbs, his son Gabe Gibbs, and he was talking about how musicians like to draw it out and go wrap a pump pump. It's hilarious. It's really one that's funny. Well, I don't have a transition. I can't think of anything to get us too well First John three to two. Well, I'll say you. I wanted to say, we're gonna read First John three two. No, I was gonna say, uh, introducing great ideas around Jesus is exactly what First John does. Yes, because that's what the article was. Okay, Yeah, that's true, all right, kind of. Yeah, sort of Yeah, brought new idea is for life. Okay, an alternative to the way you've been going. That's right. Okay, that was rough. The whole thing was rough. Yeah, so sorry. It's the day after Christmas. Right, We're all exhausted, we're wiped out. So this is the best we can do. And if you don't like it, Merry Christmas, you filthy animal. Right, and I'll poke you with a stick, appointed stick if you don't like that, no reason whatever. Here we go, so he says in First John chapter three, verse one, see how very much our father loves us, for he calls us as children, and that is what we are. But the people who belong to this world don't recognize that we are God's children because they don't know him. Dear friends, we are already God's children. But He has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears. But we do know that we will be like him, for we will see Him as he really is. And all who have this eager expectation will keep themselves pure, just as He is pure. Everyone who sins is breaking God's law, for all sin is contrary to the law of God. You know that Jesus came to take away our sins, and there is no sin in him. Anyone who continues to live in him will not sin. But anyone who keeps on sinning does not know him or understand who he is. Dear children, don't let anyone deceive you about this. When people do what is right, it shows that they are righteous, even as Christ is righteous. But when people keep on sinning, it shows that they belong to the devil, who's been sinning since the beginning. But the son of God came to destroy the works of the devil. Those who've been born into God's families do not make a practice of sinning because God's life is in them. So they can't keep on sinning because they are children of God. So now we can tell who are children of God and who are children of the devil. Anyone who does not live righteously and does not love other believers, does not love, does not belong to God. This is the message you've heard from the beginning. We should love one another. Remember that old song love one another? Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, love one another. I remember that one We get to love one another? Yeah. So so first John three two actually first shown three to one actually is a verse that we quoted last Sunday, which would be like fourteen days or thirteen days ago in the sermon. Yes, and then the next part of the Christmas series, which is coming up this Sunday for us, Yes, I reused that same verse, right, because the verse that I quoted from the NIV says, see how much love that the Father has lavished on us? Yes, right, and we're talking about the prodigal Son. And see people will have already heard this, so it doesn't matter, correct for the podcast people. But so the idea, and you're gonna, I think you're gonna love this. But do you know what the word prodigal actually means? The definition of the word prodigal? Uh what? At first, you may be tempted to think it means wayward, right, but it's not. It means excessive, or lavish or or wasteful even right, wasteful right, Okay. So, so the point of the Prodigal Son for Sunday is a different angle than we've ever done. And what we're saying is it should be called the prodigal Father because of his lavish love for us, because that's the point of the parable. Right. So, so it's the it is. It is the the son was wasteful and lavish and is living in the wrong way. But it's actually the prodigal father who lavishes his love on us, right, and and it's and it's and it's excessive. Right, that's really the definition of the word prodigal. So that's this Sunday. So I'm very excited about it, as you can tell. Very excited. Yes, yes, it'd be super great. Yes. So all that to say is that first John three is really about I guess you can say it's really about love, right, Yes, it's about the God's love that he has for us. So people are going to read some of those If you sin, then you're really not a believer. You have to take that in the context of the way John's writing about it. He's not really writing a theological treatise on sin. He's commenting on either your for God or you're against God. Your forehm, you're against him. When we get into the Book of Romans talking about God's grace, Paul says, sometimes I do the things I don't want to do. Sometimes I don't do the things I want to do. But thank God, you know, only Jesus can save me. And there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. So what John is talking about is the outward side. Man, if you're claiming that you're a follower of Jesus, but you keep living like the world, you're probably not a follower of Jesus. That's what he's talking about. He's not talking about a sinful event. He's talking about the trajectory of your life. If you just keep on living like you always lived, if you don't make any changes, if God doesn't do anything different in you, you're always going to be the same person. And if you're the same person and then you weren't really saved, that's what he's saying. Yeah, well, and the reason why we know that is because the Bible is its own best commentary. So if you take every verse about getting to Heaven, every verse about salvation or being in Christ or being a Christian or being in the family of God, and you stack up every single verse of the context of that is definitely congruent to every other promise because you can't contradict the Bible can't contradict itself. So it's not as if you can sin and then all of a sudden behave yourself out of God's care or just being excommunicated from heaven right based on your good deeds, because everywhere else in the Bible it says there is absolutely nothing you can do to obtain salvation. There's nothing you can do to lose your salvation because salvation is not dependent on your behavior, which, by the way, is the third point of this weekend. There you go, because it says that both sons, the prodigal son and the older son, thought that the father's love was defined by their actions, right right, because because the first son said, oh, my goodness, look what I did. I'm no longer worthy, you called your son, and the second son said, uh, you know, hey, uh you know, you know I've always done this, therefore you should do this for me. And in God's response, but the father's response to both sons is the same, right lavish love. But he runs to both sons anyway all that to say, that is exactly what we see here, and I love by the way, in verse number two, which is our key verse, that he says, dear friends, we already we are already God's children, but he has not yet shown us what we will be like when Christ appears, but we do not know what that, but we do know that we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is. And the idea that we will be like Christ when he appears is saying that like we will actually no matter how hard we try, we will even be more sinless. It reminds me of my Bible college professor who says he used to say he used to talk like this, and he said, well, we could never be sinless, but we can sin less. That's right, That's what he said, you can. There's a great note in the Life Application Study Bible. IM always telling everybody get a life application study Bible. We had a lady come into the office this week her son just got baptized. God's really been doing amazing things at Heritage Church and we just baptized what ninety three more people this last weekend. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's just incredible. We've seen over eight hundred people follow Lord and believers baptism this year sixteen eight sixteen. It's just phenomenal. Your God's just doing we're trying to see out of his way. So we're not saying at the brag, we're just we're God's doing something special something God's doing a revival, I think here, and we get to be a part of it. It's amazing. Well yeah, it's almost scary and humble. Yeah, well it's definitely humble, but it's almost scary. It's like, okay, how can we steward what God is doing? But I had a mom come in and she said, hey, I want to get a Bible for my teenage son, and I'd like something that will help explain it, because sometimes it's hard to understand a little bit, you know, when you're reading it. For it. The first time, I said, here and I gave her. I gave her one just like this. It was in a brand new box. I gave her one just like this, and I said, hey, you can have this. Give it to him. And a new Living Translation is written in like an eighth or ninth grade reading level. It's not terribly complex, it's pretty simple. It's conversational. Yes, And I said, and then these notes just really help you understand. And I showed her how the notes work. She's like, oh, maybe this would be good for him. I think so. So anyways, I think anybody can can use this. But if you look at the notes for first John three, two and three. It says believing in Christ begins the process of becoming more and more like him, just like the Bible says in Romans eight twenty nine. That's God's plan. It's for us to be like his son right. And this process continues until we see Christ face to faith like he mentions in one Corinthians chapter thirteen, and then here in Philippians three twenty one, and then here we'll see him as he is right. And we don't know exactly how we'll be like him, but we do know that we will have eternal, resurrected bodies. Right then, these be perfect bodies. There'll be no problems, no right we will be free from sin, will be free from pain. We'll have much more understanding than we do now on earth. Knowing our ultimate destiny motivates us to keep morally pure and free from the corruption of sin. It also gives us hope as we struggle with sin, because we know that one day will be totally sinless like Jesus. God purifies us, but we must also take steps to remain pure and Paul talks about it. Fir Timothy five, James talks about it, and James four eight Peter talks about it. And first Peter one this idea that he makes us clean and then we work to stay clean, right, those two things together, And every time we resist a temptation or turn from sin, we become more like Jesus. Right, So it's less about the shame of it and more of every time I reject sin, I get just a little bit more like Jesus in the moment. Right. But someday we will be like him, and we'll see him. We'll be like him because we'll see him as he is. Well, doesn't the Bible say he transforms us glory to glory, glory to glory, just a little bit of glory at a time, and then you know, and really he's never going to stop molding us, making us and shaping us, conforming us into the image of his son. So yeah, we're not going to be made perfect. That's what first n That's what John is saying. He's saying, I almost called him first John, But that's what John is saying. So there will be the time when Jesus appears or we'll be, you know, completely sinless like him. But in the meantime, the whole goal, God's end game for our lives is for us to look more and more like Jesus. That's right, and that's the reason why our faith. You know, they always say faith deepens, faith becomes more mature. These are the phrases that we use, right, And really what it's saying is, if you think about it, it is really us getting to know Jesus more. It is Jesus then responding to our willing hearts by revealing more of himself, for then we understand him better. We get to see a side of God that other people don't get to see. That's been proven right, because when we step out in faith, that's when God shows up and we see God for who he is even more so. And therefore what do we do. We take one step closer to Him, we behave more like Him with that understanding, with that faith, and then really that's what happens. We just take one step further and further and further until we become more like Christ. And so I think that that's an awesome idea, that God is just shaping us. And it says glory by glory, it's this, you know. The glory is the illumination, right, the illumination every time we get you know, a word from God or we become more like him. It really is a revelation or an illumination given by God to us. Yeah, it's amazing. It's an amazing idea that we will see him, just how you know, faith will become sight. The Bible says, right in that moment, it be so real. So then I love verse eleven. And this is where we ended. This is a message you've heard from the beginning. We should love one another. And he's like, man, I think we have a hard time. He introduced some ideas here sin God's law seeing Jesus as he is. And it's interesting how John especially often comes back to this idea. Hey, listen, if you confuse, just keep loving each other, right Matthew twenty two. Jesus said, love God, love people. Luke quotes the same thing. Love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. Love people as yourself. And Jesus said, a new command I give to you, they love one another. Jesus said hereby well, all men know that you're my disciples. If you love one another, right, you change the world by loving each other. So when it comes and he's talking specifically to Christians about loving Christians, the family of God should look different from all the other families in the world, and we should stand out for the fact that we love one another more. And so I think it's interesting. I think Christians, some Christians attempted to read four or five verses on sin and go the biggest thing we should remember is sin, don't sin, don't send, don't send, don't sin. And he's saying, listen, the idea that we're promised that we're going to see Jesus and we'll be like him should motivate us to be pure people. And he says some things about sin, and he goes, Okay, don't get distracted by that. This is the message you've heard from the beginning. Love one another. And then he goes on through the whole rest of the book and is challenging them love God, love others. Right, that's what he's doing. And so so don't obsess about if you focus on sin, you're focusing on the same thing the devil's focusing on. Focus on Jesus because you're going to be like him, and that should motivate you to be pure. That's what verse five says. And then focus on loving others. So if you're focusing on Jesus and focusing on loving others. You're fulfilling the Great Commandment Matthew twenty two, Love God, love people, sins. In the middle, devil wants us to focus on sin. John is just incidentally saying there's an opposite view from loving God and loving people, and that is you're going to love yourself and do the wrong thing. Forget that part. Let me take you back to the original idea. The original ideas, love God, love people. That's what he's saying. You know, I know we stopped at verse number ten, but versi number fourteen says, if we love our Christian brothers and sisters, it proves that we have passed from death to life. But if a person who has no love, but a person who has no love is still dead, anyone who hates anyway. It goes on, and then verse number sixteen says this we know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us, so we ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters. And so I've always noticed this. So John three sixteen is the vertical incarnation. First, John three sixteen is the horizontal incarnation. So it's like the vertal. Vertical incarnation says for God soul of the world that he gave as one only son, the incarnation is Jesus coming from heaven down to us. The vertical incarnation First John three sixteen is just like it because it restates it and says, we know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us, so we ought to give up our lives for each other. So it is that same sacrificial giving up sacrificial love of giving up their lives. Jesus, of course died physically, and in what John is saying is give up your life by serving and loving one another, which is to bring Jesus that same sacrificial love that was modeled by him, bring that to others. So that's why we call it the horizontal incarnation. It's it's God in us that goes out. Yeah, And so he always sums it up with that with what those final statements, just like he did there. This is the message you've heard from the beginning. He ends this chapter and says, and this is his commandment. We must believe in the name of his son, Jesus Christ and love one another just as he commanded us. That's great. So all the other words, he says, he keeps coming back to, let me remind you, it's that simple love God, love people. That's great. Well, that's a great place to end, and that actually is a great way to wrap up our series. Yeah, so we will. We will start a brand new, exciting, amazing series on Monday, and you have to tune in to find out what it is. But thank you for joining us. And I think that I actually think this has been a wonderful set. I really enjoyed it. My son, who listens every day, says Dad, I can't get enough of the series. It's great, good, he loves it. So but hey, son, you'll love the next series as well. So we'll see you on Monday on the Bibble Gays. M hm hm