In Christ
NB. All Age sermon preached at St Swithun’s Centre Wakefield 4 May 2003
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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.
4 Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. 5 But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. 6 No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.
7 Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. The one who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous.
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In Christ
In Jesus
The letter from John to early Christians said Christians are people who live 'In Jesus' - I wondered what does it mean 'In Jesus'?
I thought if I could get a box & think of all the things that being 'In Jesus ' meant from this letter we'd know how special we really are as Christians.
Show a large Box with ‘Jesus’ on the side - open it, and take out a number of smaller boxes
1. Sin with a cross through it. Sin and Jesus don’t go together but Jesus took our sin on himself [explain s.I.n - i in the middle]
1 John 3:4 - Sin is living against God's rules [Pride, anger, selfish, stealing, fighting, bullying..]
2. God's family 1 John 3:2 now we are Children of God. God has no grandchildren. We are taught to pray, ‘Our father in heaven’.. we have a direct line. We are brought into the family cause Jesus became one of us (human). He died for us and we are brothers and sisters because of Jesus.
3. Bible. We have the bible to guide us. Some rules yes guidelines for life. Also, the Bible shows us Jesus, in every Book. In Jesus, the bible comes alive it is truly the Living bible. It can speak to us every day if we look in its pages.
4. Prayer. In Jesus, we get prayer as our way of talking to God as children to a father. Jesus prayed (eg The Lords Prayer and John 17). Also early morning & late at night seemed to be a pattern. Prayer is what makes God's family tick, it's real.
5. Pure. In Christ we are pure 1 John 3:3 " Christ is pure… all who have this … in Christ keep themselves pure like Jesus Christ.’
But you may say, I don’t feel pure all the time. But Jesus died on the cross for my sins and that's what makes me pure - in Jesus, I can be cleansed and forgiven.
6. Joy is not the same as happy. Sometimes we can’t be happy because of what we are going through in our lives [give an example here] but by being In Christ - Joy is what helps us to come through. 'the joy of the Lord is our strength' (Nehemiah 10:8).
7. Heaven. There is something different about this box from all the others. [At first, don’t show box] Others refer to being a Christian in this life. The last box is about what the Christian experiences after this life (after death) [now show box] 1 John 3:2 says, "we have not yet been shown what we will be in the future v3, we know we will be like him"
Being in Jesus in this life means we will be with him and like him in Heaven because he is In us and we are in him on earth.
Can you say you are 'IN Christ'? [Refer to boxes] All this is what we gain by being In Christ (according to 1 John 3)
How do we get to be in Christ? You ask him to be in you!
