True community and connection with Jesus Christ will produce confidence in us...

This week we are looking at a section of a letter that has been preserved and recorded for us in the New Testament of the Bible, called the book of John. In 1 John 2:28-29, John explained that those who remain in close connection and communion with Jesus will have a confidence and boldness in that relationship and connection when they see Him face to face. This confidence and boldness comes from knowing that they had lived in genuine and authentic relationship and connection with Jesus that leveraged their time, treasure, and talent into the kingdom mission that they had been given by Jesus.

John then revealed the reality that when we respond to Jesus making Himself known to us by placing our confident trust in Him and recognizing and acknowledging who He is by accepting Him as being large and in charge of our lives, we become a part of the family of God.

As John remembered and reflected on Jesus conversation with Nicodemus, the point that John wanted to make unmistakably clear is that if we know that Jesus is totally just, fair, and right in character and actions, then the person whose life is marked by doing what is just and right reveals the reality that they have a genuine and authentic relationship and connection with Jesus as part of the family of God. John is revealing the reality that it is the life of a person who reveals and reflects Jesus in their character and conduct that produces the confidence that, when Jesus returns, they will enter into the fullness of the community and connection with God that they were created for as part of the family of God.

And as John continues in his letter to these early followers of Jesus, we see John transition to reveal the reason why followers of Jesus can have confidence as a result of their connection with Jesus as a part of the family of God. So let’s discover that reason together, beginning in 1 John 3:1:

See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.

Now to fully understand what John is communicating here, we first need to understand what John means when he states “See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God;” What is so interesting is that this statement, in the language that that letter was originally written in, is actually in the form of a question and answer. The word that John uses here for the word great literally refers to how glorious something is. If John were making this statement in the language that we use in our culture today, this statement would sound something like this: “Do you realize how glorious the love is that the Father has bestowed on us that we would be called the children of God?”

When John refers to followers of Jesus as being called children of God, this phrase conveys the concept of being identified with someone as a result of displaying the characteristics of another, in this case God. John then answers his own question by affirming the reality that those who have a genuine and authentic relationship and connection with Jesus that is reflected by a life that reveals and reflects Jesus are identified by others as being children of God.

John’s point here is that the glorious love that God bestows on followers of Jesus results in a life that looks more and more like Jesus. And as followers of Jesus live lives that look more and more like Jesus, they will be identified by those around them as being in relationship with God as part of the family of God.

John then reminded the members of the church at Ephesus, and followers of Jesus throughout history, that the world, which, as we discovered a few weeks ago, refers to those things in the world around us that are hostile to God and place themselves in opposition to God and His kingdom, “does not know us, because it did not know Him.” John’s point here is that those in the world that are hostile to God and oppose God do not identify with or have genuine and authentic connection and relationship with followers of Jesus because they did not identify with Jesus so as to trust and follow Jesus. Instead they rebelled and rejected Jesus and His message and teachings.

John is reminding followers of Jesus throughout history that it is God’s transforming love in our lives that identifies us as His children as we live lives that reveal and reflect Jesus to those around us. It is God’s transforming love that is the source of the confidence that we can have as followers of Jesus that we possess and genuine and authentic relationship and connection with Jesus. And it is that genuine and authentic relationship and connection with Jesus that will result in a life that is lived in a way that is distinctly different from those around us who rebel and reject Jesus. And as a result, those who rebel and reject Jesus will not identify with followers of Jesus because they have refused to identify themselves with Jesus.

John then concluded this section of his letter by returning to what followers of Jesus will experience at the end of God’s story here on earth when Jesus returns to earth. We see John make this return in 1 John 3:2-3. Let’s look at it together:

 Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. ³ And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.

Here John reminds followers of Jesus throughout history that, while their identity is that of a child of God that has a genuine and authentic relationship and connection with Jesus, what that connection with Jesus will look like in eternity has not been disclosed or made known. However, while John did not know what that relationship and connection with Jesus would look like in eternity, he did know something. When John uses the word know, this word refers to the introduction of a well-known and generally accepted fact. John then explained that the well-known and generally accepted fact that he did know was that “that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is.”

 John here is revealing the reality that when Jesus returns to earth, followers of Jesus will be transformed so that they can participate in the Divine nature in the fullest form of community and connection with God. John is reminding followers of Jesus throughout history that, in eternity, we will share in the fullness of Jesus’ character and rightness. Now the big fancy church mumbo jumbo talk word for what John is referring to here is the word glorification. 

You see, when we read the letters that make up the Bible, we discover that, apart from a relationship with Jesus, human beings are sinners who sin; as John pointed our earlier in this letter, apart from Jesus, we are selfish people who hate the light and love darkness.

However, when we become followers of Jesus, we become saints who sometimes sin. As followers of Jesus, we have a new identity and are being transformed by the Holy Spirit who takes up residence in us and begins to make us more and more like Jesus in our character and conduct. The big fancy church mumbo jumbo talk word for this is sanctification.

Yet there are still times where we live our lives in the power of our old nature before we became followers of Jesus and selfishly do things that hurt God and others and fail to follow the message and teachings of Jesus, which the Bible calls sin. John’s point here is that when Jesus returns, those who have a genuine and authentic relationship with Him will be transformed into saints who never sin. We will be able to fully participate in the Divine nature.

And because of this reality, John states in verse 3 that everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. Now when John uses the word hope, this word refers to looking forward with a confident expectation that something promised is going to happen. In this case, the hope that John is referring to is the confident expectation that Jesus promise to return is going to happen. And this confident expectation in Jesus return is an ongoing reality in their daily lives as they live in genuine and authentic relationship and connection with Him.

And because of this confident expectation of Jesus return in the daily lives of those who have a genuine and authentic relationship and connection with Jesus, John states that these followers of Jesus purify themselves just as Jesus is pure. This idea of purifying literally means to cause one to be morally pure. John’s point is that followers of Jesus who have genuine and authentic relationship and connection with Jesus will live their lives in such a way that causes them to grow in moral purity which produces a life that looks like Jesus in character and conduct.

And it is here, in this section of this letter, that we discover a timeless truth when it comes to connecting in true community. And that timeless truth is this: True community and connection with Jesus Christ will produce confidence in us.  Just as it was for the members of the church at Ephesus; just as it has been for followers of Jesus throughout history; true community and connection with Jesus Christ will produce confidence in us.

The timeless reality is that, as followers of Jesus, our community and connection with Jesus Christ will produce confidence when we meet Him. As we as followers of Jesus live our lives in a way that reveals and reflects Jesus in our character and conduct, we can have confidence that, when Jesus returns, we will enter into the fullness of communion and connection with God that we were created for.

As followers of Jesus, our community and connection with Jesus Christ will produce confidence because of God’s love for us. It is God’s transforming love in our lives that identifies us as His children as we live lives that reveal and reflect Jesus to those around us. It is God’s transforming love that is the source of the confidence that we can have as followers of Jesus that we possess and genuine and authentic relationship and connection with Jesus. And it is that genuine and authentic relationship and connection with Jesus that will result in a life that is lived in a way that is distinctly different from those around us who rebel and reject Jesus. And as a result, those who rebel and reject Jesus will not identify with followers of Jesus because they have refused to identify themselves with Jesus.

As followers of Jesus, our community and connection with Jesus Christ will produce confidence for the future that drives us to become more like Him in the present. The confident expectation that we have as followers of Jesus that Jesus will return as a result of our genuine and authentic community and connection with Jesus will drive us to live our day to day lives in a way that we are becoming more like Jesus in character and conduct.

So here is a question to consider: are you living the extraordinary lives of meaning, purpose, and significance that God created us for? Are you living life in the confidence that comes from a genuine and authentic relationship and connection with Jesus? Are you living lives with a confident expectation of Jesus return that is driving you to become more like Jesus in the present?

Because, as we have discovered, true community and connection with Jesus Christ will produce confidence in us. Our community and connection with Jesus Christ will produce confidence when we meet Him. Our community and connection with Jesus Christ will produce confidence because of God’s love for us. And our community and connection with Jesus Christ will produce confidence for the future that drives us to become more like Him in the present.