A Different Kind of Love

Be turning your Bibles this morning to 1 John chapter 2.

1 John 2 · chapter mention

We are going to be reading chapter 2 verse 28 through chapter 3 verse 3.

To me, this is one of those unfortunate chapter divisions.

I think they all, this passage flows very much.

So this morning we're starting a new series.

And if you've been coming to APC for a while, you know that we kick off a new theme every year, September.

And we have a theme for the new year.

And the theme is anticipation.

And we're going to speak to that this morning and this month.

And like we usually do, we'll come back to the theme in January, and we'll come back to the theme again in May.

But we're starting with this passage on this theme this year.

Hear the word of God.

And now, little children, abide in him, so that when he appears, we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming.

If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him.

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God, and so we are.

Please join me in prayer.

Lord God Almighty, helper of your people, sanctifier of your people, we invite you now to take control of our thoughts, our imaginations, our actions.

Holy Spirit, teacher, teach us this morning in life-changing ways, we ask, for the sake of the Son, for the building of his kingdom.

Amen.

We're going to camp out in this text today and next Lord's Day.

Anticipation.

What do you think of when you hear that word anticipation?

The staff, they've all encouraged me to go ahead and address the elephant in the room for you, baby boomers.

When you think about the word anticipation and you go back, any particular song come to mind?

Those of you that are laughing, you remember Carly Simon's song, Anticipation?

A lot of people, and maybe you millennials, heard it because it was a commercial way back.

It was a commercial of all things for ketchup.

But not just any ketchup.

Heinz ketchup.

And you remember the commercial?

They would turn the bottle of that Heinz ketchup.

That's the ketchup you all use, right?

And they would turn that bottle, and that ketchup would just start pulling ever so slowly, and like on that big juicy hamburger, and it was almost like you were transported into that commercial, and you're getting ready to chomp into that juicy, delicious hamburger, but you're waiting for the ketchup.

Because you can't take that first bite until that ketchup covers your burger.

You know, you've realized, you discovered a long time ago that just about every Disney movie is sneaking into the gospel.

Every good Disney movie, every good novel, it seems like, is really stealing from the gospel.

About desire, about beauty.

They're trying to capture your imagination with something that you long for that you don't have.

And that's why there always has to be an antagonist.

There always has to be a bad person, a bad guy to show up, to get in the way of what's really going to be good eventually.

So I went back and I looked at those lyrics that Carly sang.

And I just see a very striking correlation to the words in our sermon text this morning.

We can never know about the days to come, but we think about them anyway.

And I wonder if I'm really with you now.

Now she's thinking about her romantic interest, but we oftentimes see signs and pointers between a love for one another or a spouse in a connection with our bridegroom, don't we?

And I wonder if I'm really with you now, or if I'm just chasing after some finer day.

I smell gospel in those lyrics.

Anticipation, it's making me wait, it's keeping me waiting.

I'm no prophet.

I don't know nature's way.

So I'll try to see into your eyes right now and stay right here.

So I'm not here to exegete Carly's song.

I'm here to just point out that there's a lot there that speaks to your life.

How do you stay right here?

Here being the Savior's love.

How do you stay in the Savior's love, your truest lover, and not just crash with your dreams and give up and go looking for another lover?

Waiting is hard.

Anticipation.

It's an interesting word.

Anticipation.

Longing for.

Yearning for.

Please come out of that bottle.

Because I know that it's going to all be better.

It's going to taste better.

And that's just a little signpost to a much greater love, a much greater satisfaction.

So let me tell you this morning where we're going to go this year.

All right?

You want a roadmap?

Anticipation?

I'm going to start from the greater to the lesser.

Anticipating the blessed hope.

You theologians know what I mean by that.

It's a word that is used in the New Testament.

The blessed hope is the return of Jesus Christ.

When Jesus Christ one day will return to this earth, and he will come in his glory, and every eye will see him, everyone will see him.

And we will be dazzled by his glory.

Are you living with anticipation of that day?

Do you live your life through the lens that this is reality?

This is fact-based.

This is not wishful thinking.

He's coming back.

Psalm 90 that was read earlier.

Let me paraphrase Psalm 90.

We don't have many days on this earth.

We really don't.

Many people may have 70 years, some might, by God's mercy, have more.

Your life is a mist.

You're not here that long.

Lord help me to count my days to make, give me wisdom to make the most of my days on earth.

Because I am here to build the kingdom of God, and I need your help.

Alright?

That's what I'm thinking when I think of anticipation.

Secondly, there's a second layer I see.

Anticipating the work of Christ, your sanctification this year, in the next month, in the next six months, in the next 12 months.

Are you really expecting God to do a deeper, more glorious work in you?

Are you expecting gospel renewal in your life?

I've been a pastor a long time.

I don't know that.

I don't know how many Christians live like that.

To be very candid with you.

I know how easy it is for me to lose focus on that.

Are you living like maybe back up?

Are you just looking for cosmetic touches in your spiritual growth?

Are you looking just kind of get the wrinkles out spiritually?

Are you thinking, boy, if I could just, if I could just not use certain words when I speak.

If I could just be a little bit more patient.

Come on.

That's you're looking for cosmetic touch-ups spiritually.

You just don't have any idea of what God wants to do in your life.

He wants to do ongoing spiritual surgery on me and you.

We call that sanctification.

Are you anticipating that?

Are you longing for that?

Are you yearning for that?

Thirdly, order of greatest to least importance.

Don't be offended, building committee.

Are you anticipating our new church home?

That God's going to use this, this new building on Braddock Road.

A lot of us are.

We're going to be able to use it 24-7.

We're going to be able to just have more flexibility in so many ways.

And I think God's going to use it in ways that are going to enhance our witness to the city of Alexandria and beyond.

But that's not the most important.

You see why I take it in that order, right?

We will consider the relationship this morning specifically between anticipation and astonishment.

Look at the verse.

John says, Behold, what kind of love God has lavished us with.

Behold, see what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God, and so we are.

The Father has given to us.

If you are a Christian, you have been gifted with the supreme gift of this world.

The Father's love, the Father's forgiveness.

That he has lavished on us.

Let me tell you what I find so remarkable about this.

The man who wrote these words is probably in his 90s, certainly late 80s.

Let me tell you what I find remarkable.

When I'm in the presence of an elderly person, and I sense their astonishment that Jesus loves them.

I like to hang around that person.

Unfortunately, for many, many believers, the wonder and the astonishment of their salvation diminishes with age.

Have you noticed that?

Maybe not their knowledge of their salvation, but their astonishment.

Not John.

This is incredible.

I need to be discipled by this man.

Guess what?

I am.

He left his letters.

He left them for you, too.

Let's define astonishment.

The feeling of being blown away.

That's actually what the dictionary says.

The feeling of being blown away, shocked by something.

A synonym, awe.

An overwhelming feeling of wonder.

Apparently, John never got over the fact that he was a son of God.

And that's why he burst out.

You know, when you read Scripture, I don't know if you do this.

I try to get into the context as much as I can.

And when I'm reading song, when I'm reading words in Scripture of deep grieving and mourning and wailing, we ought to try to understand that.

But I try to imagine John writing these words, and I just see his eyes lighting up.

And I just, I don't see him mumbling this to you.

I just see him breaking out in a doxology as he said this.

Here's what this Greek word means.

What kind of country is this love from?

What planet is this love from?

That captures it pretty well.

That's why Martin Luther could call this kind of love and this kind of righteousness that God gives us an alien righteousness.

It is otherworldly, isn't it?

I mean, if you really understand the gospel.

God, I know you made this world.

I know that you made everything in it.

I know that you made the sunsets.

I know that you made the Grand Canyon.

I know that you made all these beautiful things.

I know that you made me.

Did you really set me apart from before the beginning of time?

Did you really know me by name before you made one blade of grass on this earth?

Did you really set your love on me then?

God, you were thinking of me then?

And now?

And you knew I was a rebel.

Hey, we're all rebels.

You knew I had a rebel heart.

And you knew that I was going to run as fast away from you as I could.

Until you, but you knew in order to capture me, you needed to send your Holy Spirit and your Son.

And you sent your son to die the death that I deserve.

And you sent your son to give me a righteousness that I could never earn on my own.

And you sent your Holy Spirit to chase me down.

And give me the gift to believe and to receive this gift.

And John could say is a very old man.

It still astonishes me.

This is the same man that had visions of revelation.

You've read the book of Revelation, right?

He had a lot of revelations that could have been astonishing.

No doubt they were.

This is the same man that witnessed Jesus' miracles.

This is the same man that actually witnessed Jesus' resurrection.

He could be astonished by a lot of things.

What I take from this is nothing astonished him more than the fact that Jesus loves me, this I know.

For the Bible tells me so.

It reminds me of the words of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke when the disciples went out.

They went out and they performed miracles and they saw demons cast out through the power that Jesus had given them.

And they came back rejoicing and they came back excited.

They came back ecstatic.

By the way, it always just really troubles me if I see it in my own heart or if I see it in another preacher's heart.

And it's fairly, sadly, quite common.

To see the preacher's face light up because he thinks he hit it out of the park.

Because he really preached a great sermon.

What really gets you excited?

What gets you feeling when you use when you use your gifts?

Your gifts probably aren't preaching.

When you do something really well, and you you kind of feel like you did, you did it, you did it well.

Well, I'm not trying to discourage excellence.

Is that real does that become your high octane spiritual fuel?

Boy, I'm gonna have a good week.

You know what Jesus said to those disciples?

Don't you dare rejoice because you see God using you, and you see God using your spiritual gifts.

Don't you dare rejoice in that.

What did he say, class?

You rejoice because your names are written down in heaven.

You rejoice because the love of God has captured you, because you are a forgiven woman, you are a forgiven man, and don't you ever forget that's the most astonishing thing.

Not what I enable you to do, even when it's really good.

The father has given, the father has lavished, this is in the perfect tense in the Greek.

It's a past action with continuing results.

This is your status, this is who you are, and it's not going to change.

You can't work yourself out of his love.

Hear me.

You can't sin yourself out of his love.

You just can't.

Your unfaithfulness, your and my unfaithfulness will not change his faithfulness.

If you were here when I preached two weeks ago on the danger of falling away, they're not mutually exclusive.

The scripture is very clear, they are not mutually exclusive.

When I preached two weeks ago, the warning, the warning that we need to take seriously that we don't fall away.

God is perfectly satisfied with the realization that they shake hands.

But when you become a child of God, you can't send yourself out of that family.

Praise God.

Aren't you glad to be in a church that believes that?

You can't send yourself out of God's family.

Behold, ponder, take it in.

Don't merely glance at the love of God.

How deep the Father's love.

You know that phrase song.

How vast beyond all measure that He would give His only Son to make.

I can't read my writing.

A wretch.

Those are powerful words.

How vast beyond all measure that he would give his only son to make a wretch his treasure.

I don't know about you, but I could stop right now and sing.

But we're gonna wait a few minutes.

And he says, so that you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him, born into the family of God.

This is not the Greek word huos, which is Paul's favorite word for.

Adoption, adult son.

This is the Greek word technon, which emphasizes the natural side, the spiritual birth, what we would call regeneration, being born again, being born from above by the Spirit of God.

That's what John's thinking of primarily here.

We receive not only the name of Christ when we come to Jesus, but we receive the nature of Christ.

I'm not sure.

The enemy may not want you to hear that.

So I'm going to say that again.

Because it's important.

When you become a Christian, you receive not only the name of Christ, but you receive the nature of Christ.

You've been born of him.

And you better believe that.

There's a family likeness.

Same features.

I have my uncle's nose.

I have my uncle's nose.

People have told me all my life I have my mother's eyes.

I have my father's walk.

I must have liked the way my father walked.

What do you have?

What do you have that got passed on through the genes?

What have you looked at?

What have you thought, wow?

And some of it you just didn't ask for, right?

I don't remember asking for my uncle's nose, but I got it.

God gives you what he's chosen to give you.

Some of it we pick up.

Beloved, we are God's children now, verse 2.

Okay, we've been looking at who we are now as I close, as we prepare to come to the table, who we will be one day.

Beloved, we are God's children now, but we know that when Jesus appears, we shall be like him because we shall see him as he is.

So that when he appears, we may have confidence and not shrink back in shame at his coming.

The word that John uses there is that when Jesus returns, your life has been about building his kingdom.

Your life has been about resting in his alien righteousness, so that when he comes, you won't look at him and stammer, stutter.

You know, we've all done this, right?

You know when you're with somebody who doesn't want to fess up to you?

Their speech is impaired.

They might look down.

They probably won't look you in the eye.

And they just kind of have a hard time finding their words.

John says, I want you to live a life so that when you see Jesus, you'll be able to look him in the eye and thank him and praise him.

But you'll have confidence that you've been living a life anticipating his return.

Anticipating his return.

Did you know that one in every verse, 25 verses in the New Testament is about Jesus' return?

One in every 25 verses is about his coming back.

It's mentioned 318 times in the New Testament.

In every New Testament book, except the book of Galatians, 2nd and 3rd John and Philemon, we read about Jesus coming back.

I think he wants us to believe this.

I think he wants us to live in light of this.

Born of him, a family likeness.

When you are born again, when God touches your heart, when God gives you the gift to believe that you are a rebel and you are a wretch, and you need a savior.

And Jesus is your only savior.

And you believe that.

And you receive his gift.

And he makes you his son and he makes you his daughter.

You're born again.

You didn't do it.

He did it.

But in doing it, he opened up your heart, he opened up your mind so that you said, This is what I need, and this is what I want to receive by faith.

When you become born again, you get his DNA.

You get a new nature, you get the Holy Spirit within you.

The hope of Christ's return does more than just give us hope to wait for his return.

The hope of Christ's return actually changes us now.

It grows our family likeness to Jesus.

Three things happen when he comes back.

When Jesus appears, he's coming back.

Secondly, we will see him.

And thirdly, we will instantaneously become like him.

The change has already begun.

It's happening now.

Let me say this in closing.

Stop living in your own power.

Stop living in your own power.

Open yourself up to his power in new ways.

Don't you dare say to yourself, this is just who I am.

This is just who I am.

If you keep looking at yourself mostly, only, yes, you won't change.

Get your eyes off yourself.

We will see Jesus.

Get your eyes on Jesus.

Do you remember what the people in Jerusalem said, the religious leaders, when they noticed that the disciples were different men?

They looked at them and they said, We know that these men have been with Jesus.

Why do they say that?

Because these disciples that used to be cowards are now preaching with a boldness and a confidence, not an arrogance.

When you are with Jesus, you begin to take on his family likeness in new ways.

What we all desperately need this week is to be with Jesus.

Amen.

What we need to do this week is to get off our little treadmill and be with Jesus.

As we see his beauty, his beauty will touch us.

As we see his holiness, his holiness will touch us.

And the Holy Spirit will use that to change us.

I need Jesus to do this.

And can you believe that we're coming to his table?

Behold, what manner of love is this?

That we should be called children of God.

And that is what we are.

Nothing meager, nothing stingy.

We thank you for the love that you have lavished on us.

And may we never get over our astonishment.

May we never get over our astonishment.

Holy Spirit, give us eyes this morning to see Jesus.

Beautiful Savior, lover of our soul, give us eyes to see Jesus and to fall more deeply in love with him.

Holy Spirit, remove the things that are blocking the light of his glory.

Remove the things that are blocking our building his kingdom.

Holy Spirit, touch every heart here this morning.

I pray that you would even save some this morning.

I pray that you would speak to each of us in these ways.

We ask, Lord Jesus, in your name.

Amen.