The Reason for the Season – Why Christmas Happened
1 JOHN 3:1-10 – SERMON TEXT
TWO TIMES IN THIS TEXT, WE ARE TOLD WHY CHRISTMAS HAPPENED – THAT IS, WHY THE ETERNAL, DIVINE SON OF GOD, CAME INTO THIS WORLD, AS A HUMAN.
GOD THE FATHER LOVES US – 1 JOHN 3:1-3
1 JOHN 3:1 – “BEHOLD, WHAT MANNER OF LOVE THE (HEAVENLY) FATHER HAS BESTOWED UPON US, that we should be called the SONS OF GOD: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew Him not”.
“BEHOLD” – The thought of being “Born of God” filled the Apostle John with wonder and he calls on his readers to take a look at the wonderful love that brought us into the family of God.
GOD’S LOVE FOR US COULD HAVE “SAVED” US WITHOUT MAKING US “THE CHILDREN OF GOD – WITHOUT MAKING US PART OF THE FAMILY OF GOD!
* “BEHOLD” – THE MANNER AND DEPTH OF GOD’S LOVE FOR US, THAT GOD BROUGHT US INTO HIS FAMILY AS CHILDREN OF GOD!
Today, almost 2,000 years later, as we walk from day to day, the world does not recognize us as the “Children of God”. The people of the world do not understand us or the way we behave. Indeed, the world did not understand the Lord Jesus when he was here on the earth. “He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world did not know Him. He came into HIS OWN (HIS EARTHLY FAMILY AND THE JEWISH PEOPLE), and His own did not receive Him”.
* WE ARE THE “SONS OF GOD” – THIS IS NOT A GENDER DESCRIPTION OF WHO WE ARE, BUT THAT OF THE FACT THAT WE ARE INHERITORS OF ALL THAT GOD HAS FOR US!
Since we have the same characteristics as our Lord Jesus, we cannot expect the world to understand us, either.
1 JOHN 3:2 – “BELOVED, NOW WE ARE THE SONS OF GOD, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is”.
However, understood or not, now we are the “Children of God”, and this is a guarantee of future glory. It is not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we do know that when Christ is revealed, we shall be like him, FOR WE SHALL SEE HIM AS HE IS.
This does not mean that we will be physically like Christ Jesus in Heaven. The Lord Jesus will have His own definite appearance and most of all, His “Shekinah Glory”, and He will bear the scars of “Calvary’s Cross” throughout eternity.
Each of us, we believe, will have his own distinct features and will be recognizable as such. The Bible does not teach that everyone will look alike in Heaven. However, we will be morally like the Lord Jesus Christ.
WE WILL BE FREE FROM THE POSSIBILITY OF DEFILEMENT, SIN, SORROW, AND DEATH, AND THAT, MY FRIEND, IS “THE GOOD NEWS OF GOD”!
How will this marvelous transformation be accomplished? The answer is that at one look at Christ Jesus, it will be brought to pass! For we shall see Him as He is!
Here in this life, the process of becoming like Christ Jesus is going on even now, AS WE BEHOLD HIM BY FAITH IN THE WORD OF GOD. But when the process will be absolutely complete, is when we see Him as He is: FOR TO SEE HIM IS TO BE LIKE HIM!
* Keep in mind, THE CONTEXT, of the Apostle John’s words, in the previous verses – in 1 JOHN 2:28 AND 29:
1 JOHN 2:28 – “And now, little children, ABIDE IN HIM; that, when He shall appear, we may have CONFIDENCE, and not be ashamed before Him at His coming”.
* 1 JOHN 2:29 – “IF YE KNOW THAT HE IS RIGHTEOUS (CHRIST JESUS), YE KNOW THAT EVERYONE THAT DOETH (“PRACTICES” – PRESENT TENSE = THEIR LIFESTYLE, IT DOES NOT MEAN “PERFECTION” BUT THE “DIRECTION”, OF THEIR LIFE – ACTING AND SPEAKING LIKE THEIR GOING TO HEAVEN, RATHER THAN TO HELL) DOETH RIGHTEOUSNESS (AND) IS BORN OF HIM”.
* “BEHOLD, WHAT MANNER (WHAT SORT OF QUALITY) OF LOVE THE (HEAVENLY) FATHER HAS BESTOWED UPON US” – STOP EVERYTHING ELSE AND LOOK AT THIS! THINK SERIOUSLY ABOUT “THE MANNER OF LOVE THE HEAVENLY FATHER HAS BESTOWED UPON US” – THINK ABOUT IT – PONDER ITS SIGNIFICANCE!
* THAT “GOD THE FATHER” – “THE HEAVENLY FATHER” – WOULD SEND HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON, TO BE BORN, AS A BABY, AND TO LIVE OUT HIS LIFE, FOR THE SOLE PURPOSE BEING, TO DIE FOR US! ALSO, GOD’S LOVE FOR US COULD HAVE SAVED US WITHOUT MAKING US “SONS OF GOD” (CHILDREN IN GOD’S FAMILY)! BUT THE MANNER (QUALITY) OF GOD’S LOVE IS SHOWN IN THAT HE BROUGHT (BOUGHT) US – INTO HIS FAMILY AS CHILDREN OF GOD!
A FAVORITE SONG BY MANY, AT THIS TIME OF YEAR, IS THE SONG “MARY, DID YOU KNOW”? LISTEN TO THE WORDS OF THIS SONG.
THIS SONG ASKS THE QUESTION OF MARY, WHETHER OR NOT SHE UNDERSTOOD ALL THE GREAT THINGS THAT HER BABY WOULD ACCOMPLISH FOR MANKIND, AND IF SHE UNDERSTOOD THE GREAT LOVE THAT GOD HAS FOR US?
NOW, ALMOST 2,000 YEARS LATER, THE QUESTION IS ASKED OF US – DO WE “SEE” OR PERCEIVE THE GREAT LOVE THAT GOD HAS FOR US?
THIS WAS THE APOSTLE PAUL’S PRAYER FOR THE CHURCH:
EPHESIANS 3:16 – “THAT HE WOULD GRANT YOU, ACCORDING TO THE RICHES OF HIS GLORY, TO BE STRENGTHENED WITH MIGHT BY HIS SPIRIT IN THE INNER MAN”;
EPHESIANS 3:17 – “THAT CHRIST MAY DWELL IN YOUR HEARTS BY FAITH; THAT BEING ROOTED AND GROUNDED IN LOVE”,
EPHESIANS 3:18 – “MAY BE ABLE TO COMPREHEND WITH ALL THE SAINTS WHAT IS THE BREADTH, AND LENGTH, AND DEPTH, AND HEIGHT”;
EPHESIANS 3:19 – “AND TO KNOW THE LOVE OF CHRIST, WHICH PASSETH KNOWLEDGE, THAT YE MIGHT BE FILLED WITH ALL THE FULNESS OF GOD”.
1 JOHN 3:3 – “And every man that has this HOPE IN HIM PURIFIETH HIMSELF, EVEN AS HE IS PURE”.
“EVERY MAN (EVERY PERSON) WHO HAS THIS HOPE” – THE “HOPE” (BASED ON THE WORD OF GOD AND WHAT CHRIST JESUS DID ON THE CROSS) OF SEEING CHRIST JESUS AND BEING LIKE HIM IN FORM AND IN MORAL PURITY.
“PURIFIES HIMSELF, JUST AS HE IS PURE” – It has long been recognized by Christians that the hope of the imminent return of Christ Jesus has a sanctifying influence in the life of the believer. A person does not want to be doing anything that he would not want to be doing when Christ Jesus returns.
Notice that it says “PURIFIES HIMSELF, EVEN AS HE (CHRIST JESUS) IS PURE – It does not say just as He (Christ Jesus) purifies Himself. The Lord Jesus never had to purify Himself; He is pure. With us, it is a gradual process; with Him, it is a fact!
GOD THE SON DIED FOR US – 1 JOHN 3:4-8
1 JOHN 3:4 – “Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law”.
The opposite of “Purifying” oneself is found in this verse, and that is the “Committing of sin”. IT IS THE MATTER OF CONTINUAL BEHAVIOR, EXPRESSED BY THE “PRESENT”, CONTINUOUS TENSE! Is the failure of a person to accept Christ Jesus, as both our “Savior and Lord”, of their lives, the wanting of one owns away and the refusing to acknowledge the Lord as our rightful sovereign God over our lives. In essence is placing one’s will above the will of God.
1 JOHN 3:5 – AND YE KNOW THAT HE WAS MANIFESTED TO TAKE AWAY OUR SINS; AND IN HIM IS NO SIN”.
* (1). CHRIST JESUS CAME INTO THIS WORLD, AS A BABY, TO “TAKE AWAY OUR SINS”!
1 JOHN 3:6 – “Whosoever abideth in Him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth has not seen him, neither known Him”.
1 JOHN 3:7 – “Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doth righteousness is righteous, even as He is righteous”.
1 JOHN 3:8 – “He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. FOR THIS PURPOSE THE SON OF GOD WAS MANIFESTED, THAT HE MIGHT DESTROY THE WORKS OF THE DEVIL”.
* (2). CHRIST JESUS CAME INTO THIS WORLD, AS A BABY, TO “DESTROY THE WORKS OF THE DEVIL”!
* “DESTROY” – This is the Strong’s Greek word # 3089 and means: “To loose, release, to break free, to set free what is bound”. Before we were “Born again” (JOHN 3:3, 7), we were in bondage to “Sin and Satan”. Christ Jesus has set us free, loosed us from the diabolical works which bound us like “CHAINS”! This is the same verb, Christ Jesus used, when He raised Lazarus from the dead and said: “Unbind him and let him go” (JOHN 11:44). In LUKE 2:16, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue and those in the synagogue, “Should not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, WHOM SATAN HAS BOUND FOR 18 YEARS, BE LOOSED FROM THE BOND on the Sabbath Day”? In the Book of Revelations, this word is used six times, in six verses, and the word is translated “LOOSE”, in all six times, and in which God “LOOSES” something, in order to fulfill God’s plan in the “End times”.
* “DESTROY” – Does not mean “To annihilate”. Satan is certainly still at work today! “Destroy”, here, means “To render inoperative, to rob a power.” Satan has not been annihilated, but his power has been reduced, and his weapons have been impaired. Satan still is a mighty foe, but he is no match for the power of God!
Jesus compares the world to a “Palace” that contains many valuable “Goods”. A “Strong man” is guarding his “Palace” (LUKE 11:14-23). Satan is the “Strong man”, and his “Goods” are the lost men and women of this world. The only way to release the “Goods” is to “Bind” the “Strong man”, and that is just what Jesus did on the cross! Jesus, in coming to the earth as a baby, invaded Satan’s “Palace”. When he died, he broke Satan’s power and captured his goods! Each time a lost sinner is won to Christ, more of Satan’s “Goods’ (Spoils) are taken from him.
* “THE WORKS OF THE DEVIL” – IS TO TEMPT PEOPLE TO SIN. WHEN PEOPLE SIN, THE DEVIL’S WORK IS ACCOMPLISHED!
When Jesus was born in Bethlehem, in a manger, God threw the first punch at “Satan and his works,” but the knockout punch by God was achieved on the “Cross”. An empty tomb is an everlasting monument to God’s victory and assured to us our victory over “The works of the Devil”.
GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT LIVES IN US – 1 JOHN 3:9-10
1 JOHN 3:9 – “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in Him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God”.
1 JOHN 3:10 – “IN THIS THE CHILDREN OF GOD ARE MANIFESTED, AND THE CHILDREN OF THE DEVIL: WHOSOEVER DOETH NOT RIGHTEOUSNESS IS NOT OF GOD, NEITHER HE THAT LOVETH NOT HIS BROTHER”.
* THOSE WHO DO NOT PRACTICE RIGHTEOUSNESS OR HOLINESS IN THEIR LIVES ARE NOT OF GOD! THERE IS NO “HALF AND HALF” – ON A CONTINUAL LIFESTYLE BASIS. THERE IS NO PERMANENT, “IN BETWEEN GROUND”!
WE ARE EITHER GROWING IN THE “LIKENESS” OF CHRIST JESUS, OR WE ARE NOT. GOD’S CHILDREN ARE KNOWN BY THEIR RIGHTEOUS AND HOLY LIVES AND HOW WE TREAT OTHERS – ESPECIALLY IN THE “BODY OF CHRIST”!
