*Preached at the Brookport Community Revival on September 23rd, 2025*
Sermon Idea: The future hope of seeing Christ as he is in heaven compels us to pursue Christlikeness in the present.
Introduction: The Bible describes God’s glorious nature as so holy, pure, and transcendent that no one with natural, sinful eyes can see his essence and live. In fact, the nature and essence of God is spirit and thus invisible to the natural eye.
To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen (1 Ti 1:17)
he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen. (1 Ti 6:15–16)
To truly see God unmediated and unveiled is not possible for human eyes. This is why God tells Moses in Exodus 33:20, 20 But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.” (Ex 33:20)
When Deuteronomy describes Israel hearing God from the fire on Mount Sinai, it is said that they heard Him but did not see Him.
12 Then the LORD spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of words, but saw no form; there was only a voice. (Dt 4:12)
Isaiah tells us that the prophet saw the Lord sitting on a throne, but he did so through a vision.
It is impossible to see God, and if you could, the experience would kill you.
How can we take hope in seeing a God who is impossible to see?
In the greatest act of love, the most outstanding example of humility, God revealed himself in the sending of the Son. Everything we’ve said so far remains true because God never changes. But now God grants the ability to see his glory as never before in the person of his Son.
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (Jn 1:14)
18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known. (Jn 1:18)
What is significant about Jesus Christ being the very image of the invisible God is that the Bible speaks of salvation as seeing the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, and our transformation as the beholding of the glory of the Lord.
18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. (2 Co 3:18)
We become what we behold, for better or for worse, and the Christian is to behold the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
We do that now with the eyes of faith. We believe and hope in the gospel of Jesus Christ. By grace, we see who he truly is and trust him. The Christian hopes that one day we will see Christ no longer with eyes of faith, but with our very eyes. The hope of heaven is that we will see him, and we will see him as he is.
This future promise is not given to us as some abstract idea, but as a hope that informs our lives now. The future hope of seeing Christ as he is in heaven compels us to pursue Christlikeness in the present.
That is what I want to show you tonight from 1 John 3:2-3, and I want to do so with two supporting points. We will be perfected by seeing Christ in heaven, and we are being purified by the hope of seeing Christ in heaven.
I.) We will be perfected by seeing Christ in heaven (1 John 3:2)
There is a tension in the Christian life. On the one hand, we are not who we once were, and on the other hand, we are not yet who we will be. There is an already and a not yet.
Now, we are beloved children of God. That’s the starting point for John in verse 2: Beloved, we are God’s children now (1 Jn 3:2).
Don’t rush past being identified as beloved. As children of God, we are the beloved of God. We should be in awe of the fact that we could be loved in such a way. That’s what John communicates in vs. 1: See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.
God does not look at his church with a cold indifference. He does not merely put up with us. We are beloved in God the Father, who delights in us as he delights in his Son.
So, rather than just telling you God loves you without definition, let’s see if we can add some theological meat to the bone so that when we hear that we are beloved by God the Father, we can savor what it means.
- To be beloved by God is to receive the gracious benefits of Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection.
To be beloved by God the Father is to have all the secured benefits of the cross poured on us by his grace: the forgiveness of sins, restoration to God, the hope of eternal life—all of these and more are truly ours as God’s beloved people. We don’t deserve this love, but it has graciously come to us in Christ. No one becomes beloved by God outside of God’s grace and outside of faith in the Lord Jesus, who died in our place.
9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (1 Jn 4:9–10)
2. To be beloved by God the Father is to be adopted as sons and daughters through faith in Jesus Christ.
The gospel’s good news is that we become what Christ is by nature through adoption. Jesus is the eternal Son of God from the Father. We are sons and daughters by adoption through faith in Jesus Christ! So now, in Christ, God looks at us, his beloved sons and daughters, and says, “…with you I am well pleased.”
It was the love of God given on the cross that led my favorite hymn writer, Isaac Watts, to say:
Love so amazing, so divine
Demands my life, my soul, my all!
Being called a child of God is wonderful, amazing, life-changing news, but we do not now experience or reflect all that it means to be a child of God. There is a not-yet, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. (1 Jn 3:2)
I can’t begin to fathom what this will be like. The mystery of it all is too grand to speculate or dive into details that God has not disclosed for us. It is more than enough to know that Christ will appear and when we see him we will be transformed into his likeness.
Becoming like Jesus Christ is the true end of the Christian life. It is goal of all this. In the end, the peope of God who have been saved from the darkness of sin and death, will become radiantly bright as the reflection of the glory of Christ. Consider how prominent this theme is in the New Testament.
Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. (Jn 17:24)
So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, (2 Co 4:16–17)
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us (Ro 8:18)
But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself. (Php 3:20–21)
When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. (Col 3:4)
Beloved saint, I do not know what troubles your soul. I may not know the weakness of your flesh or the anxiety of your heart. What I know is that the future glory that awaits us in heaven outweighs it all!
How does all this happen? How are we transformed into glory? We are transformed into glory by seeing the glory of the Son as he is, with unveiled faces and resurrected eyes.
What Moses saw in part in the cleft of the rock, what Isaiah saw in a mere vision, what the disciples glimpsed at in the Transfiguration, what blinded Paul on the road to Damascus, we will see in full, and we will be in joyful awe of Him.
Johnathan Edwards said that the more we behold the glory of Christ, the more we will want to see him: “After they have had the pleasure of beholding the face of God millions of ages, it will not grow a dull story; the relish of this delight will be as exquisite as ever.”
There is a saying, “he is so heavenly minded that he is of no earthly good.” I don’t know anyone like that. I’ve been a pastor for eight years now. I have been a Christian since 2007. In all that time, I’ve never met a person who thought about the glory of heaven too much. I have never met a person whose view of the eternal glory was too high.
Friends, we do not long for the presence of Christ enough! Where are the saints who long for the presence of Christ, who can’t wait to see his glory, who long to be transformed into his likeness?
This is the longing that will serve as a comfort to so much that wears on our souls.
Our people will not conquer sin by mustering the willpower to say, “no!” We need to put before their eyes and fill their ears with the beauty of the Son, the glory of seeing him as he is, and the hope of being transformed into his likeness. We need to stir the affections of their heart to have stronger desires—not the desires of the flesh— but for the glory of the presence of Christ.
Brother pastors, preach sermons that leave the saints longing for the glory of heaven. Preach sermons that stoke a joyful expectation for the coming of Christ.
We will be perfected by seeing Christ in heaven, and that hope is the fuel for the Christian life in the present. Let’s look at verse 3.
II.) We are being purified by the hope of seeing Christ in heaven (1 John 3:3)
There is an important connection between the hope that Christians have and the way we are to live now, And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. (1 Jn 3:3)
The way that we use the word hope in everyday language could lead to misunderstanding as to the meaning. We often use the word hope to refer to a mere wish. “I hope the St. Louis Cardinals win the World Series.” That is a mere wish. It is not rooted in anything certain. When the Bible speaks of hope, it is much more than a mere wish. It is a confident assurance, a certain future reality that is so sure it has the power to fuel the present.
The hope John is referring to is verses 2 and is threefold: 1. Christ will appear, 2. We will see him as he is and 3. We will be transformed and perfected by his presence. That is why John identifies our hope as, “in him.” True Christian hope is found in Christ. It does not pass or fade. It is not a vibe. It doesn’t have term limits.
The hope that we will be perfected in the presence of Christ compels us to pursue that purity now, in the present.
Jesus told us clearly in the Sermon on the Mount that is the pure in heart who will see God, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. (Mt 5:8)
For this reason, the New Testament teaches that the promise of our future purity is to lead us to pursure purity now in an eager expectation to prepare ourselves for the presence of Christ.
There are too many examples to give but consider for example Colossians 3:4-6.
4 When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. 5 Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. 6 On account of these the wrath of God is coming. (Col 3:4–6)
Friend, the born again believer does not presume on the grace of God, and think little of the pursuit of holiness. The born again believer, with the great hope of perfection in heaven, pursues all the more purity and holiness, that he might be like Christ.
Tonight I wonder if there are any of you burdened by the weight of ongoing sin. I wonder if there might be those who realize they care little about their pursuit of holiness. If that is you, friend, pay attention to the solution.
Let me tell you what it’s not.
You will not condemn yourself into greater Christlikeness. You will not guilt yourself into godliness. No amount of scolding will serve to sanctify you.
Set your hope on the one to come. Pray for the Lord to deepen your desires for the presence of Christ. Listen to Scriptures and believe your future hope is the fuel for the present.
The future hope of seeing Christ as he is in heaven compels us to pursue Christlikeness in the present.
Nathaniel R. Martin 