Crossway Bibles<\/a><\/p>\nSee what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 <\/sup><\/strong>Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. 3 <\/sup><\/strong>And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. 4 <\/sup><\/strong>Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. 5 <\/sup><\/strong>You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. 6 <\/sup><\/strong>No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. 7 <\/sup><\/strong>Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous.<\/em><\/p>\n[Professor Bruce Schuchard\u2019s Concordia Commentary: 1-3 John<\/em> is a good resource to purchase.]<\/p>\nTHE WORD OF GOD: OUR INNOCENCE<\/strong><\/p>\nGrace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.<\/p>\n
We Are God\u2019s Children<\/strong><\/p>\nIt is sheer grace that in Holy Baptism God makes us His children. Washed in the Blood of Jesus, we get what we don\u2019t deserve. Our Father in heaven does not wait until we are holy enough, godly enough, pure enough, righteous enough, or pious enough. As Paul wrote to the Romans, so here John the Beloved Disciple tells us: God\u2019s beloved Son Jesus shed His Blood for us on the cross while we were yet sinners that we might become the children of God by grace alone.<\/p>\n
At the outset of his first letter as we heard last Sunday, John the Beloved Disciple wrote to his churches in Asia Minor telling them not to sin, but, if they did sin, that they have an Advocate (parakletos) with the Father, Christ Jesus, God\u2019s only Son. Lest the acknowledgement that we are all sinners become an occasion for cheap grace, John makes clear today that persisting in sin is not the mark of the children of God. Those who abide in God\u2019s Son Jesus are not permitted to join with those who deceive themselves as if lawlessness is one of the marks of the Christian life.<\/p>\n
The nature of biological existence is, yes, that we human creatures cannot not<\/u> sin. Our hearts are, by nature as Martin Luther said, incurvatus in se<\/em> (curved in on ourselves). This inbred narcissism unchecked by God\u2019s Law as curb, mirror, and guide leads to the rapid dissolution of community on the microcosmic level of family and on the macrocosmic level of, first, nations and, then, of all humanity. In response to this dreadful human condition, Holy Baptism is an amazingly gracious work as God makes a new creation out of the chaos of His very good<\/em> creation gone bad.<\/p>\nWhat almost forty years ago was called reimagining<\/em> Christianity was nothing more than the resurgence of the old sinner climbing out of the baptismal font to push God from His rightful place at the center of all things. Such movements, regardless of the soaring God talk, are successors to the secessionist movement that was plaguing John\u2019s churches in Asia Minor.<\/p>\nWe Are Not the World\u2019s Children<\/strong><\/p>\nIt is sheer mercy that for His Son Jesus\u2019 sake God the Father does not give us what we do deserve, namely eternal death as the just punishment for our rebellion against His good and gracious will.<\/p>\n
Were God as just<\/u> as many of the confused blown-dry children constantly clamor for, He would long ago have scrapped the whole very-good-creation-gone-bad project entirely. In the words of the confession of sins from my childhood, we justly deserve our Father\u2019s temporal and eternal punishment<\/em>, that which retributively applies to the whole human race chasing after other gods.<\/p>\nLike a cherished grandfather in the faith, John reminds his hearers that we are not the world\u2019s children, and so, accordingly, we cannot pretend that the unbaptized are God\u2019s children by virtue of a common humanity apart from the only Son of God. But more importantly, and to the point, we the baptized cannot look like the world\u2019s children (who sometimes look better than God\u2019s children<\/em> in name<\/em>!) and remain unchanged by the mercy of God in Christ Jesus. His Word works!<\/p>\nAn old friend of forty years used to say that Alcoholics Anonymous messes up a person\u2019s drinking. A late friend from almost the same forty years used to say one cannot not<\/u> know what one knows. Baptized into the Lord Jesus\u2019 death and resurrection, we are not<\/u> the world\u2019s children. Only those more catechized by the world than by the Lord, and having absented themselves from the fellowship of Light, will try to gloss over what God has newly created in supposed solidarity<\/em> with a world in hostile rebellion against its Creator, His Christ, and His \u201cHoly-ing\u201d Spirit.<\/p>\nJohn is not addressing those who have wandered away. He is speaking to those who have not<\/u> done so and are intently assembling with the Lord weekly around the Word and His Sacraments. We are not the world\u2019s children. We cannot pretend otherwise. God\u2019s children look like His Son.<\/p>\n
Be Like Jesus<\/strong><\/p>\nThe sheer wonder and miracle of God\u2019s grace and mercy in Jesus Christ is that, in the washing of Holy Baptism, God the Father promises that we will be like His Only Son Jesus when He appears in glory to judge the living and the dead. We the guilty will be found innocent for His<\/em> sake. We the impure will become pure. We the unrighteous will become righteous. We the unloving will become what Jesus is. In our best moments, we have glimpses of that, usually more in the unsung saints around us than in the one looking back at us from the aptly named vanity<\/em> mirror.<\/p>\nThe point, dear ones, is that practicing the Christian faith does something to us. Hear God\u2019s Word and it disturbs before it delights. Routinely sign yourself with Christ\u2019s cross in the memory of your Baptism into His death and resurrection, and it chides before it comforts. Take into your mouth the very Body and most precious Blood of Jesus given and shed for you<\/em>, and He goes with you into the Sturm und Drang (storm and pressure) of daily life, work, and relationships without allowing you to pretend that biological life and a rebellious creation are not<\/u> passing away. In short, our hope in Christ is not for this life only (1 Corinthians 15:19). Receiving Him in this most intimate way of all is not merely receiving gifts or benefits apart from the Giver Himself<\/em>!<\/p>\nSo, then, our elder Brother, Jesus, is not to be spoken of in the past tense as unbelievers routinely speak and write. Apparently, as we will learn in 1 John 4 on May 2, the problem caused by those who have seceded from the Gospel that John has proclaimed for decades is<\/em> that they do not believe God\u2019s Word became flesh, dwelt among them full of grace and truth, suffered, died, was buried, rose again, and ascended to the seat of power at His Father\u2019s right hand. Rather than being filled and guided by the Holy Spirit, who keeps the Lord Jesus present in the midst of God\u2019s assembled children, they have been filled by the unholy spirit who constantly manifests himself in the Zeitgeist (the spirit of the present rebellious age). The more things change\u2026.<\/p>\nKnowing we are God\u2019s children and not the world\u2019s children, we want to be like Jesus here and now, because that is what we will be completely someday when the old sinner in us has been turned to dust and ash. Then, the white pall will be placed over our caskets. Perhaps, that same box will be sprinkled with water as a sign of the completion of our baptismal journey and even censed with holy smoke as one more reminder that we are clothed in Christ\u2019s righteousness and not our own.<\/p>\n
So\u2026 the children of God will not deceive ourselves in any way that by our own reason or efforts we are making ourselves, more and more, the children of God. To pretend like that would nullify the grace and mercy of God in Jesus Christ and waste His death on the cross for us and for all. Remember what we heard from Blessed Martin Luther at the end of Lent: \u201cAbove all, [God] wants our hearts to be pure, even though as long as we live here we cannot reach that ideal. So, this [tenth] commandment remains, like all the rest, one that constantly accuses us and shows just how upright we really are in God\u2019s sight\u201d (Large Catechism, Tappert edition, 407:310).<\/em><\/p>\nAs we strive with the help of God to be like Jesus here on the way to what we will be someday, we keep in mind His words to the first generation of disciples: \u201cSo you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, \u2018We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty\u2019\u201d (Luke 17:10).<\/p>\n
In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.<\/p>\n
—<\/p>\n
\u00a9Samuel David Zumwalt, STS<\/p>\n
szumwalt@bellsouth.net<\/a><\/p>\nSt. Matthew\u2019s Evangelical Lutheran Church<\/p>\n
Wilmington, North Carolina USA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
18 April 2021 | A Sermon on 1 John 3:1-7 | by Samuel D. Zumwalt, STS | 1 John 3:1-7 English Standard Version Copyright \u00a9 2001 by Crossway Bibles See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4228,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56,157,108,110,724,3,109,160],"tags":[],"beitragende":[],"predigtform":[],"predigtreihe":[],"bibelstelle":[],"class_list":["post-4901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-1-johannes","category-beitragende","category-current","category-engl","category-kapitel-3-chapter-3-1-johannes","category-nt","category-predigten","category-samuel-david-zumwalt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4901"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4901\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4903,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4901\/revisions\/4903"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4901"},{"taxonomy":"beitragende","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/beitragende?post=4901"},{"taxonomy":"predigtform","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/predigtform?post=4901"},{"taxonomy":"predigtreihe","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/predigtreihe?post=4901"},{"taxonomy":"bibelstelle","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bibelstelle?post=4901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}