[Machine transcription]
In the name of Jesus, amen.
Dear Saints of God, behold what manner of love the Father has given unto us that we should
be called the children of God.
The Apostle Saint John, the beloved disciple of our Lord Jesus Christ, wants to make sure
that we do not miss this wonder, that we do not mistake the glory of the love of God for
us in Christ that is beyond our asking or imagining or anything that we could ever even
think of.
Behold, he says, and you should hear the astonishment, behold this kind of love that God comes to
you and calls you his child.
Could I give you a picture?
Can you imagine some ancient monarch who’s wondrous?
His king is rich,
his armies are powerful,
his treasuries are full,
his servants are devoted,
his family is large,
his castle is well-equipped.
He has everything he could possibly
imagine and he is at war.
Brought to this wondrous king is
a lowly servant of an enemy of his,
who had been fighting against him, trying to undermine his kingdom, and this poor fellow
is sick, he’s wearing rags, he’s got nothing, ready to die. And you know what the king should
do to him? He should probably put him to death. Or, if he wanted to be nice, he could just
throw him in the dungeon to die. And everyone would say, what a merciful king to let him
live out the remainder of his pitiful days dying sickly in the prison. But the king does
not do that. The king goes to this enemy, to this wretched, poor, miserable enemy,
and bows down to him and extends his hand. He gives him some food, he gives him
clothes to wear, he washes him up, he gives him a place to stay, he pardons him
of all of his treachery. He gives him an office in his kingdom and he adopts him
as his own child. Can you imagine it? Behold what manner of love the Father
has given you that you should be called a child of God. God should call you his
enemy. God should speak to you out of His holiness and His justice and send you
away. It would be enough for us to praise God world without end if He would only
simply call us His slaves or if He would only simply pardon us and set us free.
be. We would laud and magnify His generosity if He would just give us a little bit to eat
and keep us alive. But He has done so much more. Beyond our asking, imagining, or even
comprehending, He has come down to us and He calls us not just His friends. He calls
us His children. He doesn’t just give us a handout or a pardon or a bit of food and
clothing, earthly life,
and all the gifts of his kingdom.
But he adopts us.
As many as received him,
he gave the right to become
the children of God.
John Chapter 1.
If you are led by the Spirit,
you are sons of God,
and you have not received
the spirit of bondage unto fear,
but the spirit of adoption
so that you cry out,
Abba, Father, and the Holy Spirit
bears witness with our spirit
that we are the children of God.
Romans 8.
I will be a father to you,
and you shall be my sons and daughters.
2 Corinthians 6.
Or here, at the very end,
And Revelation chapter 21,
He who overcomes shall inherit all things,
and I will be his God,
and he shall be my Son.
God the Father looks at you,
bathed wholly in the blood of Jesus,
us, and he says, you are mine. You belong to me. You are part of my family. You have
my name, and everything that is mine is yours. My name, my kingdom, my life which never ends,
my glory, my peace,
my confidence, it all belongs to you.
Now, we don’t see it yet.
John mentions this in the Epistle.
The reason he says why
the world does not know us is
that it did not know him.
Beloved, we are God’s children now,
and what we will be has not yet appeared.
We don’t see the white robes
of heavenly glory, not yet.
yet. We don’t see the jeweled golden crowns that we will receive to be able to throw down
at the feet of Jesus, not yet. We don’t see the thrones, the place prepared for us
by His death and resurrection, not yet. We still plod on, wearily fighting against the
world and the flesh and the devil, but we see Jesus made for a time a little bit lower
than the angels, and ascended into heavenly glory, we see his cross, his blood, his suffering,
so that the Father’s love would be made known to us, and that we could see this love, the
kind of love that God has for us.
I remember when I was growing up, I could always gauge my parents’ anger at me by whether
they would identify me as their child or the other’s child.
Look at what your son did today.
God is not mad at you.
He calls you His son and daughter.
He has adopted you into His family,
put His Spirit in you,
so that you can cry out,
Abba Father.
And He is carrying you
through all the troubles of this life
to the glory of life everlasting.
Beloved, see, behold what astonishing kind of love the Father has for you, that He is
pleased to call you His children.
May God grant you joy and peace in this gift, amen.
In the peace of God, which passes all understanding,
guard your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Amen.
