Sermon Theme
A Familiar Term
I am sure we all are familiar with the term.. “Familiarity breeds contempt”…
On one hand this may be because getting close and becoming familiar exposes flaws and à loss respect
It can also be.. ‘we get so used to someone/something very special, we begin treat them/it as ordinary’
How often does God’s love for us, or the fact we are His children…. Take our breath away?
We hear so much that God loves us and that He is our Father and we are His children leading to this magnificent truth becoming jsy another fact and we treat it as ‘common’.
John wrote to readers under threat being led astray by a group that had splintered away – false teachers
Throughout this letter he takes them back to the basics about God and the relationship they have with the Father though Christ and the work of the Spirit
In our text, John seeks to stop his readers in their tracks and remember a BREATHTAKING reality
“How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! (1 John 3:1, NIV84)
Sermon outline
- BREATHTAKING LOVE! WE REALLY ARE GOD’S KIDS!
- CALLED TO RIGHTEOUS LIFE IN CHRIST
- WHAT WE KNOW & THE HOPE WE HAVE AS CHILDREN OF GOD
Readings reproduced on this page:
The Holy Bible: New International Version. 1996, 1984. Grand Rapids: Zondervan
Readings
John 1:1–18 (NIV84)
1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2He was with God in the beginning.
3Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
4In him was life, and that life was the light of men.
5The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.
6There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John.
7He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe.
8He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.
9The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.
10He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.
11He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.
12Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—
13children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
14The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
15John testifies concerning him. He cries out, saying, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ ”
16From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another.
17For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
18No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.
Text
1 John 3:1–10 (NIV84)
1How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
2Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
3Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.
4Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness.
5But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin.
6No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.
7Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous.
8He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.
9No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God.
10This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother.
