I Am a Child of God (1 John 3:1-3)

Outline: (1 John 3:1-3)

1.     A Child of God made through God’s love

2.     A Child of God is misunderstood by the world

3.     A Child of God is transformed when Jesus returns

4.     A Child of God is passionate for purity

Summary:

In the past weeks we have been meditating on our core identities, that is, what it means to be a Christian.  We are a new creature in Christ, we are Priests in a Kingdom of Priests, we are Temples of the Holy Spirit, and last Sunday we learned we are Sojourners and Exiles. This week we studied 4 characteristics of a Child of God. First, we a Child of God made through God’s love. Second, a Child of God is misunderstood by the world. The third characteristic is that the Child of God is transformed when Jesus returns. And lastly, the Child of God is passionate for purity.

Main Point: 

Elderly John wants us to know the love of the Father, the beauty of what it means to be God’s children, that we would behold the love that the Father has given us that we should be called the children of God.

Discussion Questions:

1.     How does a person become a child of God? (v. 1)

2.     Why is a child of God misunderstood? (v. 1)

3.     A child of God is transformed when Jesus returns, so what 3 things define us as we cling to these promises? (v. 2)

4.     Why should a child of God live a life that is passionate for purity? (v. 3)

Application:

1.     Praise God for making you a child of God through His love, and as you live in hope for the brighter day to come when Jesus returns when everything will be changed.

2.     Confess the ways that you forget your identity as a child of God.

3.     Ask God to help you to daily remember your identity as a child of God so that you can live a passionate, pure life. 

Written by Elder Galen Janson

I Am a Sojourner and an Exile (1 Pet. 2:11-12)

Outline: In 1 Peter 2:11-12

1. God's Pilgrims abstain from the passions of the flesh
2. God's Pilgrims indulge in a life of good works

Summary: This week we held the gospel "diamond" up to the light, turned it, and gazed at its beauty from 1 Peter 2:11-12.  Here Peter again draws on the Old Testament and applies it to the blood-bought, Jesus-trusting, new covenant people of God.  To be God's holy people, set apart and marked out from the unbelieving world makes us sojourners and exiles, a pilgrim people who live in a place that is not their home.  And, as pilgrims, Christ-followers are called to abstain from the things that will do harm to their souls and to indulge in a life of good works.  This holy abstinence and indulgence is motivated by a desire for unbelievers to come to know Jesus Christ.

Main Point: We are God's pilgrim people called win the lost by living holy lives.

Discussion Questions:

• What is a sojourner?
• What does Peter mean by the phrase "the passions of the flesh"?
• Why is it so important to abstain from rather than indulge in the passions of the flesh?
• Why is it so important to fight sin at the desire level?
• What is the relationship between  "abstaining from the passions of the flesh might cause an unbeliever to scratch their heads but indulging in good works."

Application Questions:

• How does it make you feel to know that you are God's pilgrim?
• What passions of the flesh am I most tempted to indulge in and what efforts and I making to abstain?
• How much does the salvation of unbelievers in my life serve to motivate my own efforts to grow in holiness?

Prayer Points:

• Confess to God ways you have been indulging instead of abstaining from the sinful cravings
• Praise God for sending Jesus, the ultimate Pilgrim, who would abstain where we indulged and indulge where we abstained so that he could die for our sins and bring us to God (1 Peter 2:23; 3:18)
• Ask God to help you to live a holy, set apart lifestyle so that unbelievers might see your good works and come to faith in Jesus Christ. 

I Am a Priest in a Kingdom of Priests (1 Peter 2:9-10)

Outline: In 1 Peter 2:9-10, Peter tells us two things:

1. Who we are
2. What we do

Summary: This week we held the gospel "diamond" up to the light, turned it, and gazed at its beauty from 1 Peter 2:9-10.  Here Peter draws rich and lavish language from the Old Testament and applies it to the blood-bought, Jesus-trusting, new covenant people of God.  Yes it is those who submit to Jesus by faith that Peter refers to as a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession.  As a fulfillment of His OT promises, God made a new covenant with a new people who will render renewed spiritual worship to the One who has redeemed them by the precious blood of Jesus.    

Main Point: We are a chosen, privileged, and set apart people who belong to God.

Discussion Questions:

• What does it mean that we are a "chosen race" and on what basis are we chosen?
• How does being a "chosen race" relate to being a "holy nation"?
• How is God possessive in the best sense of the term?
• What does it mean that we are a "royal priesthood"? Why is this such a privilege?
• What are we to do in light of who we are?
• What are some of God's excellencies?

Application Questions:

• What effect should the design of divine election have on me (i.e. that God created a new race and chose me to be part of it on the sole basis of His own goodness and love)?  
• To what degree am I allowing who God says that I am (e.g. a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession) shape how I view myself?
• What spiritual service am I offering to God?

Prayer Points:

• Praise God for some of His excellencies 
• Praise God for choosing you in Christ before the foundation of the world to be part of a new race made up of people from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.
• Praise God for making you holy through the shed blood of Jesus Christ and for His loving ownership over your life.
• Ask God to help you to live a holy, set apart lifestyle that is noticeably different from the unbelievers around you, a lifestyle marked by a continual offering of spiritual sacrifices and a natural and habitual proclamation of God's excellencies.