“The Children of God”
1 John 3:1-2

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Pastor Kevin Vogts
Trinity Lutheran Church
Paola, Kansas
Fourth Sunday of Easter–Confirmation Sunday—April 22, 2018

In the Name of Jesus, our Good Shepherd. Amen.

The text for your Confirmation address is from today’s Epistle Reading in 1st John: “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”

Reader’s Digest recently had an item from the faculty bulletin of a Wisconsin high school: “‘Teacher Appreciation Day,’ as noted on the school calendar for April 8th, has been rescheduled for May 22nd.  This is being brought to your attention in case you were expecting any appreciation this week.”

In the same way, St. John says that as Christians we should not expect any appreciation from the world, because we will not be recognized or acknowledged or appreciated by the world for what we really are—children of God: “The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.”

Jesus put it this way at the Last Super: “If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. Yet, you do not belong to the world, because I have chosen you out of the world, and that is why the world hates you. Remember the words I spoke to you: ‘No servant is greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. . .  They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the One who sent me.”

“How great is the love the Father has lavished on us.”  God is our heavenly Father first of all because he has “fathered” us, created us.  As Martin Luther says in the Small Catechism, “I believe that God has made me and all creatures.”  Moses says in Deuteronomy, “Is he not your Father, your Creator, who made you and formed you?”  And Malachi asks, “Have we not all one Father? Did not one God create us?” 

Psalm 103 says, “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name.  Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.”  In the Small Catechism, Martin Luther lists some of the everyday ways that God shows his fatherly love and care for us: “food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, home, field, cattle, money, goods, a pious spouse, pious children, pious servants, pious and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health, discipline, honor, good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like.”

“How great is the love the Father has lavished on us.”  But, despite all his wonderful blessings, we are like ungrateful children, grumbling and complaining, disobeying, and rebelling against our heavenly Father.  Because of our sin, we, for our part, have forfeited our right to be the children of God.  We deserve not love from God but punishment.

So, it is with sheer amazement and astonishment that St. John exclaims, “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!  And that is what we are!”  Instead of giving us the punishment we deserve, God shows us love, the greatest love of all. 

The Greek word for love in this verse is “agape,” unearned, undeserved love.  That’s the same word for loved used in John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”  “This is how God showed his love for us,” St. John says, “he sent his only-begotten Son into the world that we would live through him. . .  He loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” 

Jesus says, “You must be born again . . . by water and the Spirit.”  So, when you were infants your earthly parents brought you to receive Holy Baptism, through which you were born again as God’s child. As St. Paul says in Titus, “He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.”

Through faith in Jesus Christ your sins are forgiven, you are born again as children of your heavenly Father; welcomed back into God’s family, like the prodigal son in the parable; given the right to call upon God as Jesus taught us: “Our Father who art in heaven.”  This spiritual rebirth as God’s child, this restoration into God’s family is yours, through faith in Jesus Christ as your Savior, as St. John says, “To all who receive him, to those who believe on his name, he gives the right to become children of God.”     

“How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!  The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.”  As the very Son of God, Jesus Christ should have been lauded and honored, but St. John says, “He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.”  Instead of being lauded and honored as the Son of God, Jesus was despised and rejected. 

“If the world hates you,” Jesus said, “remember that it hated me first.” “The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.”  Just as the world did not recognize Jesus himself as the Son of God, the world does not recognize and acknowledge and appreciate us, his followers, as the children of God. 

“Beloved, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known.”  If I am God’s child, shouldn’t everything in my life be perfect?  But, God does not reveal in this life the glory that is ours as his children, just as Jesus himself was humbled and suffered during his earthly life. 

St. Paul puts it this way in 1st Corinthians: “To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless. We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; when we are slandered, we answer kindly. Up to this moment we have become the scum of the earth, the refuse of the world.”  “In this world,” Jesus said, “you will have trouble; but take heart, I have overcome the world.”

“Beloved, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”  You see, in this world we Christians are like diamonds in the rough.  When the world looks at us, we don’t appear to be anything special.  The world sees only plain, ordinary rocks.  But, that will be completely changed. 

“We know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”  In heaven you will be marvelously glorified as you see God face to face.  One commentator writes, “God will stand before us in unveiled majesty.  Our heavenly bliss will consist in this direct vision of God . . . such beholding will transfigure us both in soul and in body, the glory of God being reflected in us, the vision of God filling us with unspeakable joy.”  “We shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”

In this world we will not be recognized or acknowledged or appreciated by the world for what we really are—children of God.  Because in this life we are in a state of humiliation, like the earthly humiliation of Christ himself.  But, despite outward appearances, we really are the children of God.

“My sheep listen to My voice,” Jesus says. “I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of My hand.”  Despite outward appearances, we really are the children of God, and we shall be exalted and glorified.  That hope of heavenly glory is what makes the sufferings of this life bearable.  As St. Paul says in Romans, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed to us.”

St. John’s encouragement in today’s Epistle Reading to remain faithful in the midst of an unfaithful world is a very fitting reminder for you on your Confirmation day, and for us all: “See that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. And this is what he promised us—even eternal life. . .  And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming.”

“How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”

Amen.