My Little Children...

An Advocate for the Children of God

(1 John 2:1, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, February 28, 2016)

[2:1] My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.

John's tender desire for his “little children” is that they may not sin

The apostle John uses a term of great endearment to address the Christians receiving his letter. They are more than disciples or even friends, although both of these titles would not be incorrect. They are not merely his teknon, his children. They are his teknion, a diminuitive of teknon, his “little children,” or as one respected linguistic resource suggest, his “darlings.”

These members of the churches have become John's little children because they are first the little children of the Father. They are beloved of John because they are beloved of God. Why are they beloved of God? Here we must be careful not to imagine that God does not like us and that His hand has been forced in our favor by the death of Christ for us. Neither can we conclude that God simply has to love us because He has no choice, since He is love.

We should instead remember that the Lord has gone to great lengths to deliver us from death “because of the great love with which He loved us.” Who is this God who loves us so well? He revealed Himself to Moses by proclaiming these words: “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation.” (Exodus 34:6-7)

Our God has steadfast love for thousands. He reveals Himself to us in the Bible, and then supremely in the coming of His Son. When we approach the topic of God's love for us we can go no further. As when we would try to overexplain the love of a mother for her children, we would cheapen that love by trying to give reasons for it. It just is. God loves us because He does. It is ours to humbly receive that love.

God, in His love, disciplines us, and leads us away from sin. His ministers, like the apostle John, teach and write to the Lord's beloved children so that we might not sin. Faithful pastors long to see their flocks turn away definitively from all that is evil. Nonetheless, they are aware that even sincere Christians will sin. Still, they do not want us to be ignorant about our condition when we sin as if the Lord would suddenly begin to hate us, or as if we should lose all hope because of our foolishness.

But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father

For this reason, John reminds His readers that we have an advocate with the same Father who actually loves us. The word that is translated “advocate” is paraklete. It appears five times in John's writings, most frequently describing the work of the Holy Spirit as a companion and helper sent to us from the Father and the Son.

“I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” (John 14:16-18)

“These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” (John 14:25-27)

“But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.” (John 15:26)

“I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.” (John 16:7)

But in our passage, John writes not about a paraklete with us, but a paraklete for us with the Father, particularly in the troubling situations that we find ourselves in when we do sin. We must not think that our Advocate, or Helper, appears before an unsympathetic Judge who is predisposed against us. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit do not have internal squabbles concerning us. They all agree on the settled plan of God for our complete blessing.

Jesus Christ the righteous

Yet it is most comforting to know that we not only have a Helper from God here below in the person of the Holy Spirit. John assures us that we have another Helper above with our very sympathetic Father in heaven. Jesus speaks to the Father regarding us in our time of sin-need.

This Jesus has wounds for us in His hands and feet. He is the Messiah who has come to save His people from their sins. He did this with His sinless perfection. He is forever Jesus Christ the righteous. We have much cause for hope and assurance. We have God the Spirit living within us and even filling us as we worship the Lord. We also have God the Son, Jesus Christ the righteous, as our Helper and Advocate speaking above to the Father who has loved us with an everlasting love. This is all very good news for us, since we need all the help we can get in our fight against sin.

One final thought about being God's teknion. Children are very vulnerable. They need to be protected. The Bible tells us that we are God's dearly-loved children. Unfortunately, we regularly get ourselves into great trouble. Thankfully, we not only have a Father who will never abandon us, we also have a perfect Advocate with the Father in Jesus, the Son of God. He knows our every need and He alone understands the righteousness that is required in order for us to have a secure relationship with God. We have the very best Advocate and Helper, and we have a Father who will never stop loving us.

This morning I am thinking about a little baby boy, Brenner Vogan, who is in the NICU at Elliot Hospital in Manchester, learning how to breathe better on his own. The best thing that his parents can do for him is to hold him and love him, and they are doing that very well. Can we imagine that our Father would do less than that for us as we learn to fight against sin. I am also thinking about the father of my friend Steve Leavitt who died yesterday. Steve was able to have peace knowing that yesterday his father was struggling but that by the end of the day, his struggles were over. May the Lord rescue us from every evil deed, and bring us safely into his heavenly kingdom. To Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen. (2 Timothy 4:18)

Old Testament Reading—1 Kings 4:20-34 – Solomon's Wealth and Wisdom

Gospel Reading—Luke 5:12-16 – I will; be clean.