“When He Appears”

1 John 2:28-3:3

July 8, 2007

Carl Palmer, Pastor-Teacher

²⁸ And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming.

We must continue living in faith and obedience and love.

If we “continue in Him”–we will be ready to meet Him.

²⁹ If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who does what is right has been born of him.

Everyone truly “born of Him” shares His character of righteousness.

The child shows the parent’s character–because the child shares the

parent’s nature.

¹How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!

We have become children of God because of the greatness of the

Father’s love.

God wants us to know we are His children.

The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

The world does not recognize Him or His children.

² Dear friends, 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.

We anticipate receiving the fullness of our inheritance as His children: the glory of becoming like Him.

³ Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.

Knowing our future of being like Him, we purify our lives today.

True “children of God” struggle to live pure lives because:

-we want to be confident and unashamed at His coming

-“the Father” has “lavished” love “on us”

-we have this opportunity to choose to be like Him

-we will be like Jesus one day soon

Going deeper with the Word…

1. How do you anticipate standing before Christ?

2. In what ways should “children of God” be obvious?

3. Do you think about what it will mean for us to “be like Him” in fullness?

4. (Looking ahead…) What do the next verses (3:4-10) tells us is a primary way “children of God” are to “purify themselves”?