Welcome to Day 2719 of Wisdom-Trek. Thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

Day 2719 – A Discerning Life – Living in Light of the Lord's Return 1 John 2:28-3:3

Putnam Church Message – 09/21/2025

Sermon Series: 1, 2, & 3 John

“A Discerning Life – Living in Light of the Lord’s Return. "

 

Last week, we continued through the letter of 1 John and explored how to have “A Discerning Life: Dealing with Deceivers."

This week, we continue through the letter of 1 John, and we will explore how to have A Discerning Life: Living in Light of the Lord’s Return" from 1 John 2:28-3:3 from the NIV, which is found on page 1901 of your Pew Bibles.

God’s Children and Sin

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

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

See what great 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. 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 Christ appears,^[a] we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. ³ All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.

Opening Prayer

The doctrine known as the Second Coming (or the return of Christ) either attracts mockery, strikes fear, or brings comfort.  Many men and women were raised with a respect for the Bible or were brought up in the church, but never fully grasped the gospel of salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. As such, they hear about the coming of Christ to judge the living and the dead … and it brings dread. Perhaps there are also some true believers who have strayed so far from the right path that they fear the coming of the Savior as the day they must give an account for their lives of unfaithfulness to the Lord. In both cases, the Second Coming is associated with fear or shame. However, many believers eagerly await their Lord’s return with hope and anticipation. They know and believe with longing the words of Paul:

For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, the believers who have died^[a] will rise from their graves. ¹⁷ Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be with the Lord forever. ¹⁸ So encourage each other with these words. (1 Thes. 4:16 –18)

Invariably, when I have the privilege of serving people who have lost loved ones, I remind them of this very passage of Scripture. It’s the event grieving believers can look forward to—the return of Christ, the resurrection of the dead, and a great “family reunion” with all those who have gone before us!

The doctrine of the return of Christ is no fairy tale to get children to behave, no soothsaying fantasy to get people through a dismal world, and no fad invented to sell books to people worried about the future. On the contrary, the second coming of Christ is part of the body of truth taught not only by Jesus Himself but also by His apostles, the early church, and every generation of true believers throughout the last two millennia.

In 1 JOHN 2:28 –3:3, John refers twice to the moment “when He appears” (2:28 ; 3:2). It’s clear that he’s urging all of us, his readers, to think and plan ahead, to realize that the Lord’s return is an inescapable reality which we can face with assurance, not shame. In light of Christ’s coming, we’re to be filled with hopeful anticipation, knowing that “we will see Him just as He is” (3:2).

2:28 –29

Christ is coming back one day. It may be today. It may be next week. It may be years, decades, or even centuries from now. Nobody knows when (Mark 13:32 ). But His future coming from heaven is as certain as His past ascension to heaven (Acts 1:9–11). The fulfillment of this prophecy, based on the unbreakable promise of God, is certain. But the responses of believers to the coming of Christ vary. For those who are ready, it brings comfort and promotes purity. For those who are unprepared, it strikes fear and shame. How should we live in light of Christ’s return?

John begins this section with a straightforward command: “And now, dear children” (1 Jn. 2:28 ). This is the same Greek term (menō [3306]) that was used in the previous section regarding our response to false teachers. We’re to “abide in the Son and in the Father” by letting God’s word abide in us (2:24 ). And we “abide in Him” by the power of the Holy Spirit, our Teacher, who abides in us (2:27 ). When John tells his readers to “abide in Him” in 2:28 , we know this involves walking in the light,/ keeping God’s Word, /attending to the foundational truths of the faith, /avoiding deception by false teachers,/ and living lives in conformity with Christ’s example—all by the power of the indwelling Spirit. The verb “abide” is in the present tense, which implies an ongoing activity, not a one-time event. We’re to continually abide in Him.

This vital command to continue abiding in Christ is followed by a reassuring reminder. The result of abiding in Christ is that we will anticipate His return with confidence, not being put to shame by His appearance (2:28 ). The Greek word translated “coming” is parousia [3952], which in this context refers to Christ’s “Messianic Advent in glory to judge the world at the end of this age.” By abiding now, /we’ll have confidence then. But the opposite is also true: By failing to abide in fellowship with Him—walking in the Spirit—we’ll shrink back in shame when He appears!

Because we know that the coming Son of God “is righteous” (2:29 ), we also know that He will judge righteously. Acts 17:31 says, “For he has set a day for judging the world with justice by the man he has appointed, and he proved to everyone who this is by raising him from the dead.” So, for those who have walked in the Spirit and strived to serve Him with their lives, the righteous Judge will reward justly, as Paul wrote: “And now the prize awaits me—the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on the day of his return. And the prize is not just for me but for all who eagerly look forward to his appearing.” (2 Tim. 4:8). Paul makes this point crystal clear when he refers to the judgment seat of Christ, where each believer must appear—not to determine whether we are worthy of salvation, but to be rewarded for our faithfulness in our life of service to Him (1 Cor. 3:12 –15; 2 Cor. 5:9–10). This should prompt all those who are “born of Him” to practice righteousness (1 Jn. 2:29 ). But John’s point goes even deeper. Those who are “born of Him” are those who have genuinely experienced regeneration by grace through faith. They are thus declared righteous and are spiritually united to Christ by the Holy Spirit. Stephen Smalley notes, “It is only by being ‘born again’ (through Christ) that the believer can be properly related to God.… (Bulletin) Moreover, only as the believer is firmly related to God through Christ, and by the Spirit, is it possible to ‘abide in him’ and ‘act rightly.’ ” By the righteousness of Christ, God has provided two things:

• the internal ability—spiritual union with Him that declares us righteous in Him and enables us to live rightly.


• the external motivation—the fact that we must give an account to Christ as a righteous Judge who will reward us for our faithfulness.

3:1–3

The regenerating work of Christ freely grants believers a right standing before Him and enables them to live rightly for Him. Considering this truth, John caps off his exhortation to live in light of Christ’s return with an outburst of wonder (3:1), a glorious promise (3:2), and a fixed hope (3:3).

The King James Version translates the first word of chapter 3 not with a weak “see” but a more dramatic “behold