Bible Passage: 1 John 3:1-3
Pastor: Pastor Berg
Sermon Date:  November 5, 2023

Have you ever been an eyewitness to a miracle? Al Michaels would say that he has been. In one of the most famous hockey games ever played, the United States defeated Russia in the 1980 Winter Olympics, which was so improbable, it prompted Michaels to shout, “Do you believe in miracles? YES!!!”  That game is now referred to as “The Miracle on Ice.” Maybe that’s not really a miracle, but maybe you’ve witnessed a horrible traffic accident where no one was seriously injured. You look at the wreckage and you can’t believe no one was killed. You might even find yourself saying, “It’s a miracle no one was hurt.”  But here’s the thing. We’ve all been witnesses to a miracle. If you’ve ever seen a baptism take place, you’ve witnessed a miracle.

Do you think about baptism that way? Maybe it’s hard to think of it in those terms because it seems so commonplace. Maybe it’s hard because it doesn’t look spectacular. What about the fact that baptism makes you God’s child? Does that thought just make you go, “Wow!?” or is it more of a ho-hum reaction? On this All Saints Day, as we remember all those who have died in the LORD in the past year and are now spending their eternity in heavenly glory; and as we look forward to the day when we will join them, we are going to marvel at what God shares with us in 1 John chapter 3. At first glance, it might seem kind of ho-hum, kind of ordinary, kind of commonplace. May the Holy Spirit help us to find the majesty in the truth that We Are God’s Children!

St. John writes, “See the kind of love the Father has given us that we should be called children of God, and that is what we are! “  There’s definitely a “wow-factor” in John’s opening words to chapter three that is hard to truly capture in translation. We saw this a couple weeks ago when Jesus healed the woman on the Sabbath Day. Literally John says, “Behold!” Pay attention to this! This is important! “Behold! What sort of love is this, that we should be named children of God!”  We’ve heard that kind of talk before in the Bible, haven’t we? Do you remember what Mary thought when the angel Gabriel appeared to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored, the LORD is with you.” ? Mary wondered, “What sort of greeting is this?”  or how about the disciples on the Sea of Galilee, when they experienced Jesus’ storm-calming protection? They said to each other, “What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!” And here in 1 John we find this special word’s final use in the New Testament. “Behold! What sort of love is this that the Father has given us!” And what is the demonstration of that love? A greeting from an angel? Calming the wind and the waves? No? No, we are called God’s children.

Children of God. That is what we are. But if that is going to mean anything to you–if this Fatherly love is ever going to “wow” you–then you have to remember whose children we once were. “Certainly, I was guilty when I was born. I was sinful when my mother conceived me.” David writes in Psalm 51. Original or Inherited Sin is what David is talking about; sinful from birth, a teaching that sinners love to hate. We can try to deny it. We can try to downplay it. But this is true: no one ever had to teach me how to sass back to mom or dad. No one had to mentor me in how to say the word, “MINE,” and really mean it. No one ever gave me a single lesson on how to tell a lie. So let’s do the math. Jesus says the devil is the father of lies, and I lie, therefore whose child am I? This is simply true: because I am a sinful child of Adam and Eve, the wages of sin equals my death. And the billions of graves in millions of cemeteries around the world prove it. When we were born, our cute chubby cheeks hid an awful reality on the inside: dead in sin, blind to the truth, hostile to God. Sin and death and the Devil were once our parents. 

And then, smack into the middle of all of that horrible sin, God sent his One and Only Son to love us. What sort of love is this? It’s a sacrificial love. It’s a no-holds-barred type of love that will go any distance, pay any price to make us God’s children. And so Jesus came. He left the streets of gold to take on human flesh and lie in a manger. He came to take our place, to face the Devil’s temptations, to take our sin upon himself, to live the perfect life we could never live, to die to take the punishment we earned and deserved and to rise again to prove that everything he did was enough to save us. And even more amazing, in his great love, God gave us everything Jesus earned, everything Jesus accomplished, everything we need to be part of his family; he gave it to us free of charge. This is the sort of love that loves the unlovable, forgives the unforgivable, thinks the unthinkable, and does the undoable. This searching, finding, forgiving, reconciling love is yours in Christ Jesus! It’s yours because you are children of God. That’s who you are! Right now, this very minute. And that sort of love sets you apart from the rest of the world. Listen to what John says.

“The world does not know us, because it did not know him.” There are really two different kinds of knowledge, aren’t there? There’s knowledge you can gain by reading books or surfing the net or watching TV. And then there’s knowledge that can only be gained by experience. You can read all you want about what it’s like to be a parent. But there’s some things you can’t learn until you are actually that parent. So, what kind of knowledge do you think John is talking about here? Is the reason the world doesn’t know us because they don’t know God exists? Or is the reason the world doesn’t know us or understand us because they haven’t experienced God’s love?

I think you probably know the answer, don’t you. The world doesn’t understand us or know us because they haven’t experienced this sort of love. They don’t know true freedom. They don’t know true peace. Just look at the world around you. People can’t know this kind of love by searching the net or watching TV. THis is the kind of love you have to experience. And we have. Many of us first experienced it in church, in the waters of baptism. We experience it each time we stand before God’s altar and confess our sins and receive his words of forgiveness. We experience it as we hear all that Christ has done for us as the Holy Spirit strengthens our faith by dwelling in us. This is our present reality! This is what we know by experience! But John says there’s something better coming.

“Dear friends, we are children of God now, but what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when he is revealed we will be like him, and we will see him as he really is.” “Dear friends,”  just really doesn’t capture the emotion that John uses here. “Beloved or loved ones,” is what John is really saying. My dear loved ones, now, right now we are God’s children. Yet, while we’re here on earth, there’s something that we won’t be able to experience. In fact, because of our sinful nature, because the wages of sin is death, there are some things we won’t be able to avoid. Our earthly reality sees bodies that break down, skin that sags, muscles that weaken, minds that become confused, feet that become feeble. And Satan would like us to think that’s all there is to life, that this is our only reality. But in Christ, our reality changes. Paul writes to the Philippians,  “But our citizenship is in heaven. We are eagerly waiting for a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ. By the power that enables him to subject all things to himself, he will transform our humble bodies to be like his glorious body.” Our earthly reality has eyes that tear up, feelings that hurt, hearts that break, worries that weigh us down, and futures that seem anything but certain. In Christ, our reality changes. Look again at our first reading.  “And he said to me: These are the ones who are coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Because of this they are in front of the throne of God, and they serve him day and night in his temple. He who sits on the throne will spread his tent over them. They will never be hungry or thirsty ever again. The sun will never beat upon them, nor will any scorching heat, for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd. He will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

My dear friends, this future reality is our sure and certain hope. It is our confidence. It is what allows us to remember all of those loved ones who have died in the LORD and not only be sorrowful because we miss them, but be filled with joy because of what they are experiencing. The joys of heaven are something we can only know from a distance. But our knowledge will not only remain in our heads. We know, because Jesus has told us, that when he comes back, we will experience that glory, that joy, that perfection because we will be holy like him. 

We are God’s Children! Marvel at the majesty of those words. Don’t let them become commonplace! Marvel at the love the Father has shown you. Reflect that love in your lives as you live as God’s children. Help the world get to experience God’s love as you unabashedly share the good news of God’s love. And as you do, don’t take your eyes off of Christ. And when trouble comes, remember this is not our true reality. In Christ, our reality changes. As Jesus reminded us in the Gospel today, when troubles come, because we are God’s children, we can: “Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven.” Amen