We forget the most basic command and mandate of Jesus.
This mandate that I want to discuss with you is Love.
This is one of the most neglected commands in Scripture- TO LOVE –AS A CHRISTIAN I MUST LOVE BECAUSE IT IS A COMMAND FROM CHRIST.
LOVE THE MANDATE OF CHRIST
John 13: 34-35
34 "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35 "By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."
There is no doubt that the main marker of the followers of Jesus will be LOVE – more specifically the LOVE THAT JESUS DISPLAYED IN HIS LIFE AND MINISTRY
THIS IS AN ENTIRE NEW WAY TO LOVE OTHER PEOPLE
CULTURE SHOCK - Just the mention of this term sends shockwaves of confusion in our culture. Just the mention of love makes every man think that we are about to break out pink blankets and every thing will turns sissy quick. As a matter of fact, I want to talk about Biblical love. Grizzled, tough, hard working love that never fails.
Jesus knew that LOVE was the entire goal and aim of the OT. If one wants a short synopsis for the entire purpose of the OLD law it is found in Matthew 22
Matthew 22: 36-40
36 "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law ?" 37 And He said to him, " 'YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.' 38 "This is the great and foremost commandment. 39 "The second is like it, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.' 40 "On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets."
-This morning I we will look at Paul’s definition of Love and how that plays out in the Church.
We will look specifically at Corinth and will specifically delve into 1 Corinthians 13.
Paul wants the brethren at Corinth to flourish in God’s Kingdom. This is a lofty explanation because Corinth is a dysfunctional Church.
They have three main problems in this church
1) JEALOUSY - They have Jealousy in their members. In I Corinthians 3:3 we see that the Corinthians that there was strife and jealousy. This Jealousy had led to factions within the Church – They had divided up into battle lines and were claiming to be of Paul or of Apollos
2) JUDGMENTAL -They were also Judgmental and were taking the place of God in Judgments against their brothers hastily. They were too easily drawing conclusions about the motives of their brothers in 1 Corinthians 4
3) ARROGANCE - They were boastful and arrogant. Some of the members spoke boastfully of their wrongdoings and in so doing challenged the authority of the Apostle Paul
These three problems have plagued human being since the Garden of Eden. It all comes down to how we see other people and the Creation itself.
LACK OF LOVE STEMS FROM THE FALL AND SELFISHNESS
There are two ways we can look at other people.
1) USER MENTALITY – JUST OUR HUMAN FLESHLY DESIRES -How does this person meet my needs? What can I get out of this relationship? How can I use this person for my own self interest?
2) PEOPLE ARE GOD’S IMAGE BEARERS AND CHRISTIANS ARE THE TEMPLE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT -Seeing people as God’s own special creation. Seeing people as made in the image of God and to treat them accordingly. More important to see my fellow Christians in a different light.
Paul already in this book in 1 Corinthians 3 has made the point that Christians are the dwelling of God’s Spirit and this should be a controlling rule for how we treat others. None of us would advocate the defiling of God’s Temple, so why would we mistreat a person that is the dwelling place of God’s Spirit?
JEALOUSY, JUDGMENTALNESS, AND ARROGANCE ALL STEM FROM A SELFISH HEART THAT ONLY SEES WHAT I WANT IN THE WORLD, ONLY WHAT I CAN GET FROM OTHERS – NOT FROM GOD’S VIEW OR PERSPECTIVE
So we find in Corinth everything that Love is NOT – We find a Church that is dealing with Jealous and Strife, Extreme Judgmental, and boastfulness and arrogance.
Knowing this we wade into Paul’s discourse on Worship and Christian Unity. 1 Corinthians 13 is really part of a bigger section on Spiritual Gifts, Unity, and the orderliness of the Christian Assembly.
Some of the boasting on the Part of the Corinthian brethren was due to special gifts of the Holy Spirit. Some were bragging about speaking in tongues and some were doing this in the assembly without an interpreter and were bringing disorderliness to the assembly. Paul admonishes them in 1 Corinthians 12 to describing the Church like a living human body that has many parts. One part cannot live without the other. There is no boasting about which part is more important than the other. They all need each other.
To Paul it is ridiculous for Christians to brag about their gifts and in reality Paul knows that these gifts are temporary and will not last.
Paul even points out that Prophecy is a better gift than tongues and the people are desiring tongues. Paul 13 will put it all in perspective and will wrap up all of Christian ethics.
How is one to behave in the Church? How is one to conduct Kingdom life?
To Paul it is summed up in the term LOVE.
As we consider the idea that God is LOVE- and that we are commanded to LOVE God and one another – we turn to the information gleaned from 1 Corinthians 13 as we unpack from this passage exactly what this type of love looks like in practice in the Christian life.
To understand Paul’s description we will divide this chapter into three sections that divide up by their themes.
We are going to look at this passage in three sections that divide up according to the thought of Paul
I) LOVE MOTIVATION
1 Corinthians 13: 1-3
1 If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge ; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing
In this passage Paul lays out the sobering reality that one can speak in special tongues of the angels and that is no safe guard that they are pleasing to God.
Paul is probably referring to what he heard in 2 Corinthians 12: 3-4
2 Corinthians 12: 2-4
2 I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago -whether in the body I do not know, or out of the body I do not know, God knows -such a man was caught up to the third heaven. 3 And I know how such a man -whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, God knows - 4 was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which a man is not permitted to speak.
Paul was this man caught up into the third Heaven or what he calls Paradise.
He heard languages that were inexpressible and these are more than likely what he is referring to. Even if you have had the experience of learning the secret language of the Heavens and the angels and you don’t have love, then you are hopeless.
If you have this gift of speaking unspeakable tongues of Heaven without love you are like a loud pagan cymbal clanging.
Paul then goes on to show how the gift of prophecy is no safeguard but must be accompanied by love.
You can go through the fire of persecution and give your body for the cause of Christ, you can give everything to the poor but if you don’t have love you are to be pitied.
-LIFE WITHOUT LOVE MEANS A LIFE WITHOUT PURPOSE AND A LIFE WITHOUT A FUTURE WITH CHRIST- BEING LOST
II. ATTRIBUTES OF LOVE
1 Corinthians 13: 4- 8a
4 Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous ; love does not brag and is not arrogant, 5 does not act unbecomingly ; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, 6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth ; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never fails ;
PATIENCE – How do we deal with others around us. Love motivates us to be longsuffering and try to deal with one another is the way of Christ.
QUOTE THE BIBLE BY THE YARD BUT OBEY IT BY THE INCH
- Writing up people in brotherhood papers for being false teachers
- This church is liberal or this preacher said so and so.
- How many times have we heard this from brethren.
Is this the type of Kingdom living that Paul is talking about when he describes love.
Jesus says in Matthew 18 – that if your brother sins you should go to that person in private, then if that is not successful you take someone with you or two and if that is not successful, then you take it to the Church. How many people follow that model? How many problems would have been avoided that split churches or caused dissent in the brotherhood if they would have loved one another enough to do what Jesus said in Matthew 18 – this is probably the most abused passage in the church and it is just wrong.
Paul gives this type of advice to the Church at Thessalonica
1 Thessalonians 5: 12-15
12 But we request of you, brethren, that you appreciate those who diligently labor among you, and have charge over you in the Lord and give you instruction, 13 and that you esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Live in peace with one another. 14 We urge you, brethren, admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with everyone. 15 See that no one repays another with evil for evil, but always seek after that which is good for one another and for all people
LOVE IS NOT ARROGANT: Paul describes an ethic in the Church that will always be longsuffering and NEVER LOOK DOWN ON OTHER brethren. It doesn’t say that we are not to take on problems in our churches when we disagree but it is the method that we do this is what counts.
What is our motivation for correcting a brother? Is it to win an argument? DO WE DO IT OUT OF ARROGANCE? Do we feel better when we zap someone with Scripture and walk away? I call this THE Scriptural Hand Grenade
We drop it in a room of people and walk away – we might do it in a way that is not in love. The most sobering passage in all of 1 Corinthians is found in 1 Corinthians 4
1 Corinthians 4:5
5 Therefore do not go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men's hearts ; and then each man's praise will come to him from God.
The Motives of the heart are the most important thing that God sees. One day all of these motives will be laid bare. Our motivation should be love and truth should come from love. When we share truth it must be governed by a motivation of seeing that other person as made in God’s image and seeing them as God sees them. Not an argument to be won but a soul that we love.
NOT SELF SEEKING - Paul also tells us that love does not seek its own.
Paul said earlier in 1 Corinthians 10: 24
1 Corinthians 10:24
Let no one seek his own good, but that of his neighbor.
DOES NOT TAKE ACCOUNT OF WRONGS SUFFERED
If we live by this axiom of not seeking our own good we will not be prone to get our feelings hurt
Love will be patient, longsuffering, not arrogant, and will not tally up when we get our feelings hurt. Love comes from the right motives to looking for the needs of our brother in Christ before our own.
Love will be concerned with being a stumbling block for our brother and causing them to stumble in their walk with God.
LOVE DOES NOT REJOICE IN UNRIGHTEOUSNESS BUT REJOICES IN THE TRUTH
LOVE is not some type spineless love that means that you have to accept everything.
The Greek word for REJOICE in 1 Corinthians 13: 6 appears in a passage much like this in 2 John
2 John 9-11
9 Anyone who goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God ; the one who abides in the teaching, he has both the Father and the Son. 10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house, and do not give him a greeting ; 11 for the one who gives him a greeting participates in his evil deeds.
The word for greeting in 2 John is the same word for REJOICE IN I CORINTHIANS 13:6
The Context of 2 John is the house church. John is admonishing the house church leaders not let one come in to the assembly to teach falsehoods. To stay in Christ and connected to God is to teach right doctrine.
The Love Paul is talking about is a love that also loves the truth. It is love that puts its feet squarely on the truth of God’s word and will be ready to defend it out of the right motives.
We immerse ourselves in truth and study to show ourselves approved because we love others and want to share with them.
Verbs that describe the Love that God wants in this passage:
BEARS, BELIEVES, HOPES, ENDURES
THIS SHOWS A WORK OF DAYS, WEEKS, YEARS, AND EVEN A LIFETIME. THIS TYPE OF LOVE WILL REQUIRE A COMMITMENT FROM US AND A PARTICIPATION WITH GOD TO PULL THIS OFF. This is not
instantaneous good fuzzy feelings but is just downright hard work.
III. THE ULTIMATE GOAL OF THIS LIFE OF LOVE
1 Corinthians 13: 8b - 13
but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away ; if there are tongues, they will cease ; if there is knowledge, it will be done away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part ; 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. 11 When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child ; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face ; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known. 13 But now faith, hope, love, abide these three ; but the greatest of these is love.
Paul goes on to show that their arguments are in vain. They have been arguing about spiritual gifts but they are all just temporary. The only gift to remain is LOVE.
To Paul – the Church only has partial knowledge. Until we see the risen Christ face to face we will see in a mirror dimly.
Corinth was known to make Bronze polished mirrors but they were at best hazy. This is the image that Paul employs.
Paul speaks of the Brethren growing up into maturity. This is something that God demands of all Churches – to mature in knowledge and truth. This is what is expected of Corinth.
Paul uses a word that he uses a good bit to talk about a future time of perfect perfection.
The Perfect – TELEON – looks forward to something bigger to Paul.
Hebrews 5: 9
9 And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation,
Jesus was perfected in His suffering, his death, resurrection.
When Christ ascended into Heaven he was made perfect because He had received His perfected resurrected body.
The practice of Love will continue into God’s NEW CREATION – this will be the language that we speak and live in. Now is when we develop these traits to inhabit HEAVEN. Now is the training ground – Paul is telling us that we will grow up into Christ – We will grow into the head of the body of the Church – As we grow into these practices of love we will one day see HIM face to face and all will made clear. Maturity will be achieved and we will receive resurrected bodies and live in a community of love.
The completeness that Paul refers to is a time of seeing Christ as He is face to face –
1 John 3: 2
2 Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is
.
This is why Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15 on his big chapter on resurrection that nothing we do will be in vain if done in Christ. The love that we develop for one another will continue for all eternity. All of these other things will cease but LOVE will continue.
APPLICATION:
CONCLUSION:
WHY DO WE WANT TO LOVE THIS WAY- WHY WOULD WE BEHAVE IN SUCH A STRANGE WAY TO NOT HOLD WRONGS AGAINST OTHERS, NOT PUT OUR SELVES FIRST, TO BE PATIENT WITH PEOPLE, TO CLING TO TRUTH
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
An Acceptable Sacrifice - Sermon A.M. 7/25/10
Today we are going to talk about sacrifice. In the discussion that we have had for the past few weeks about virtue and living a life that bridges from the moment we are saved until we see Christ face to face today we are going to talk about the idea of sacrifice.
To do this we have to lay a little ground work.
An image that you don’t hear many people use when they are referring to Christ is one of the High Priest. It is such a strange idea to us today living some 2000 years after the writing of the New Testament but to the people living in the time of the Apostles it would have made perfect sense. In Judaism the office of the High Priest was held in high esteem and the person that held the office would have been held in high esteem. People also would have known exactly what his responsibilities would be.
When the New Testament writers such as Paul wanted to use an analogy to show the new believers in a place like Corinth what the Church is like, Paul used the Temple as his image.
Even though there were Synagogues in every town around Paul used the Temple as his reference point to compare the Church in the book of 1 Corinthians.
The Temple was miles away in Jerusalem and was slotted for destruction by the Romans but nonetheless Paul says this is what the Church is like.
In the Jewish Temple there was a HIGH PRIEST
Hebrews 4: 14 tells us that we have a great High Priest in Jesus
Hebrews 5: 1-31 For every high priest taken from among men is appointed on behalf of men in things pertaining to God, in order to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins ; 2 he can deal gently with the ignorant and misguided, since he himself also is beset with weakness ; 3 and because of it he is obligated to offer sacrifices for sins, as for the people, so also for himself.
Role of the priest – to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins but a purely human high priest must offer sacrifices for the people and themselves.
The Hebrew writer goes on to say that by the High Priesthood of Jesus we have salvation and through Him we can come before the throne of God with confidence.
The fascinating things about Jesus is that we have both PRIEST and SACRFICE - Jesus is both the one that offers up the sacrifice for us but lays down His own life as the offering for our sins.
In John’s gospel, John uses a Greek word for Jesus garments when He goes to the cross that refers to the garments of a priest.
The time Jesus was on the cross was the very time that the Passover Lambs were being slaughtered in the Temple.
From this we can see from the Gospel evidence that Jesus would act as both priest and sacrificial victim. He, as the true High Priest, will offer His own life for us.
1 Corinthians 5: 77 Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed.
Paul makes it very clear that Jesus has replaced the Passover Lamb as a true, spotless, perfect sacrifice.
Offering for our Sin:
Romans 8:3
For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh,
The Scripture ties together the idea of Priest and Sacrifice and in Christ these once two separate ideas are combined in Jesus.
This idea of Jesus’ Priesthood is tied together with Israel’s Priestly call and vocation. God had called Israel to be a Kingdom of Priests. Israel would be priests to the world.
Exodus 19: 5-65 'Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; 6 and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.'
The books of Samuel and Kings are all about How Israel will carry out this vocation of being a Kingdom of Priests. If you wanted to say that the theme of these two books is the idea of Israel’s Kingly, Priestly vocation you would be correct.
How will Israel be a Kingdom of Priests?
How will they accomplish this feat because time and time again they fail at this attempt?
I propose this morning that Jesus comes into the world and does exactly what Israel could never do. Jesus comes and is the perfect King that comes from the family of David and is also the Great High Priest.
Both of these offices of King and Priest had been hotly debated in Israel just before Christ was born. Many people objected to the current class of priests in Israel during the 1st century and many were wondering when the true Davidic King would come back and be enthroned in Israel. Jesus will become both Priest and King.
Jesus does what Israel could never do and perfectly fulfills the very vocation that Israel called to fulfill.
In doing this Jesus blazed the path and opened the way for us to become a Kingdom of Priests. One of our main vocations as Christians is to become Priests- A Priesthood of believers.
Instead of asking the High Priest to go into the Holy Place once a year to offer a sacrifice for our atonement, our High Priest Jesus tore the veil into two pieces and opened up the Holy Place. Our High Priest stands in the Holy Place with God the Father and the way is opened for us to come in and have fellowship.
GENESIS 1: 26-28 – MADE IN THE IMAGE OF GOD
TO HAVE DOMINION AND SERVE IN A PRIESTLY CAPACITY FOR GOD
COLOSSIANS 3:1010 and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him-
We are renewed in Christ to the image that God had planned from the beginning. We are being restored to that Priestly class that we were supposed to serve in.
We are called to be the priestly class that Israel failed miserably in accomplishing.
1 Peter 2: 5,95 you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
Verse 9:
9 But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God's OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light ;
So if we are a priest, What sacrifice do we bring? What are these spiritual sacrifices that Peter is talking about?
We know that Christ is the ultimate sacrifice for our sin but the Bible also speaks of Sacrifices that we must bring before God.
Romans 12:1-21 Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
I. The first point we can take from this is that God wants us to sacrifice our bodiesIt is only fitting that in response to the Grace of God and the sacrifice of Christ that we are willing to offer our own bodies in response.
Paul is urging them to by God’s mercy to offer their bodies as a living sacrifice.
The Greek word that Paul uses in this passage is Parakaleho – and could be translated as pray or beg.
Paul is begging them in the strongest term that he can use to lay their bodies down before God as a living sacrifice.
Because of Who we are and the price that Christ paid for us, we should honor Him by laying down our lives
1 Corinthians 6: 19-2019 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own ? 20 For you have been bought with a price : therefore glorify God in your body.
The temple is our body, we are the priest, and our bodies are the sacrifices. All of these symbols of the Old Testament and the economy of Israel come crashing down upon us and find their fulfillment in Christ and His Church.
We are to be the Temple, Priests, and Sacrifice.
God wants nothing less than all of Us. He wants us to lay down our entire life in response to His Gracious gift of Christ.
If we are of the priestly class of Jesus then we are asked to lay down our lives. We look to our Great High Priest and we see that He was willing to lovingly lay down His life and now we are asked to give our life in return.
This giving of our life is our response to GRACE. God’s unmerited favor comes crashing into our world and we as frail humans are asked to give up our lives so that we might live truly as God wants us to live. To live a life free to thrive and flourish in God we have to lay down our selfish, fleshly desires before Christ.
Galatians 2:20"I have been crucified with Christ ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.
In a sense we are called to respond to the Gospel of Jesus by inacting the Gospel in our own lives. We are to crucify the fleshly desires the vex us and haunt us. When we do this true life in Christ can begin.
2 Corinthians 5: 14-1514 For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died ; 15 and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.
Christ died so that we can have life.
Christ died – so that we might no longer live for just ourselves – our true vocation and calling is to live for Christ.
Paul puts this type of life of sacrifice eloquently in Philippians
Philippians 2:17-1817 But even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with you all. 18 You too, I urge you, rejoice in the same way and share your joy with me.
Do we see our calling and life in the same light as Paul? Do we see our lives as being poured out to God?
Do we care so much about other people’s faith that we pour out our life for that purpose?
Imagine what Churches would look like today if we all cared that much about each other that we would pour out our very life energy to see that others grow in their faith?
It is our challenge to work that out in your own life. How would sacrificing your life for Christ look like? How would that change your behavior?
Our Sunday assemblies would change dramatically. We would come before the Lord’s Table and bring the sacrifice of our lives and lay them down at the feet of Jesus to be energized to do it all over again. This is a tough call but it is the call of a Christian, to give it all.
This is not a religion but a life, a life style, a giving of your entire life.
II. This Sacrifice of the priesthood of believers is also the preaching of the Gospel
Paul tells us in Romans 15 that he is a priest of the Gospel. A priest is one that teaches and reveals and mediates God. How do we mediate God to a lost and dying world?
We teach them the way of salvation to Christ. This is our priestly duty.
We are the heralds of the King- Proclaiming the fact that Jesus has risen from the dead, He is enthroned and people must make a decision.
This is part of our good stewardship in a lost and dying world.
Man abdicated God’s rule and our dominion of Creation to Satan and now we are called to call man back into communion with God.
Romans 15: 15-1615 But I have written very boldly to you on some points so as to remind you again, because of the grace that was given me from God, 16 to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, ministering as a priest the gospel of God, so that my offering of the Gentiles may become acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.
Paul sees the offering of the Gentile converts to God as a sanctified gift unto God.
Part of this Priestly Duty that God has called us to is the offering of other people to God –
People that we have lead to Christ, not out of our own boasting but out of love and motivation for lost souls.
III. Part of the Sacrifice of the Priesthood of believers is good works.In Philippians 4 Paul informs us that the Philippian brethren supplied many of Paul’s needs in his ministry.
Paul speaks of this contribution sent to him by the Philippian Church in Temple – Sacrificial language.
Philippians 4:15-1815 You yourselves also know, Philippians, that at the first preaching of the gospel, after I left Macedonia, no church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving but you alone ; 16 for even in Thessalonica you sent a gift more than once for my needs. 17 Not that I seek the gift itself, but I seek for the profit which increases to your account. 18 But I have received everything in full and have an abundance ; I am amply supplied, having received from Epaphroditus what you have sent, a fragrant aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing to God.
The offering of help for Paul was seen as an acceptable sacrifice to God, a fragrant aroma.
This is part of our priestly service in the New Covenant – good deeds and alms giving to the poor or to the ministry of the word go up to God as a fragrant offering.
We see this same language used of Cornelius and the good works that he did.
Acts 10:1-41 Now there was a man at Caesarea named Cornelius, a centurion of what was called the Italian cohort, 2 a devout man and one who feared God with all his household, and gave many alms to the Jewish people and prayed to God continually . 3 About the ninth hour of the day he clearly saw in a vision an angel of God who had just come in and said to him, "Cornelius !" 4 And fixing his gaze on him and being much alarmed, he said, "What is it, Lord ?" And he said to him, "Your prayers and alms have ascended as a memorial before God.
Cornelius’ good works or alms for the poor have ascended to God as a memorial. This language is OT Temple language for the Memorial offering of the OT that was offered to God in the Temple.
The Hebrew writer also echoes this sentiment.
Hebrews 13:1616 And do not neglect doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is pleased
Part of our priestly service in the Temple of the Church is the offering of money- the collection that we give to the Church can be seen in this light as well as the acts of kindness that we do for the poor in the community.
Any support that we give to mission, the poor, or to the operation of the Church is viewed as a sacred offering that goes up before the Lord.
IV. Part of the sacrifice of the priesthood of believers is the sacrifice of praise and prayer.The Hebrew writer tells us that our praise for God is a sacrifice that we offer
Hebrews 13:15
15 Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name.
The fruit of the lips that we offer in our assemblies is our song service. When we sing praises to God in the assembly of other saints we are offering our common sacrifice of praise.
In the book of Revelation we see that prayers of the saints going up before God as the incense from the Temple.
Revelation 8:3-4
3 Another angel came and stood at the altar, holding a golden censer ; and much incense was given to him, so that he might add it to the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar which was before the throne. 4 And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, went up before God out of the angel's hand
CORNELIUS- IN THE STORY FROM ACTS 10 WE REMEMBER THAT GOD ALSO SAW THE PRAYERS OF CORNELIUS AS A MEMORIAL OFFERING COMING UP BEFORE HIM.
PRIESTS- WE OFFER OUR LIVES, WE OFFER NEW CONVERTS, WE OFFER ALMS GIVING AND GOOD WORKS, WE OFFER WORSHIP OF PRAISE AND PRAYER – THESE ARE THE OFFERINGS THAT WE BRING IN THIS PRIESTHOOD.
To do this we have to lay a little ground work.
An image that you don’t hear many people use when they are referring to Christ is one of the High Priest. It is such a strange idea to us today living some 2000 years after the writing of the New Testament but to the people living in the time of the Apostles it would have made perfect sense. In Judaism the office of the High Priest was held in high esteem and the person that held the office would have been held in high esteem. People also would have known exactly what his responsibilities would be.
When the New Testament writers such as Paul wanted to use an analogy to show the new believers in a place like Corinth what the Church is like, Paul used the Temple as his image.
Even though there were Synagogues in every town around Paul used the Temple as his reference point to compare the Church in the book of 1 Corinthians.
The Temple was miles away in Jerusalem and was slotted for destruction by the Romans but nonetheless Paul says this is what the Church is like.
In the Jewish Temple there was a HIGH PRIEST
Hebrews 4: 14 tells us that we have a great High Priest in Jesus
Hebrews 5: 1-31 For every high priest taken from among men is appointed on behalf of men in things pertaining to God, in order to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins ; 2 he can deal gently with the ignorant and misguided, since he himself also is beset with weakness ; 3 and because of it he is obligated to offer sacrifices for sins, as for the people, so also for himself.
Role of the priest – to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins but a purely human high priest must offer sacrifices for the people and themselves.
The Hebrew writer goes on to say that by the High Priesthood of Jesus we have salvation and through Him we can come before the throne of God with confidence.
The fascinating things about Jesus is that we have both PRIEST and SACRFICE - Jesus is both the one that offers up the sacrifice for us but lays down His own life as the offering for our sins.
In John’s gospel, John uses a Greek word for Jesus garments when He goes to the cross that refers to the garments of a priest.
The time Jesus was on the cross was the very time that the Passover Lambs were being slaughtered in the Temple.
From this we can see from the Gospel evidence that Jesus would act as both priest and sacrificial victim. He, as the true High Priest, will offer His own life for us.
1 Corinthians 5: 77 Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed.
Paul makes it very clear that Jesus has replaced the Passover Lamb as a true, spotless, perfect sacrifice.
Offering for our Sin:
Romans 8:3
For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh,
The Scripture ties together the idea of Priest and Sacrifice and in Christ these once two separate ideas are combined in Jesus.
This idea of Jesus’ Priesthood is tied together with Israel’s Priestly call and vocation. God had called Israel to be a Kingdom of Priests. Israel would be priests to the world.
Exodus 19: 5-65 'Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; 6 and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.'
The books of Samuel and Kings are all about How Israel will carry out this vocation of being a Kingdom of Priests. If you wanted to say that the theme of these two books is the idea of Israel’s Kingly, Priestly vocation you would be correct.
How will Israel be a Kingdom of Priests?
How will they accomplish this feat because time and time again they fail at this attempt?
I propose this morning that Jesus comes into the world and does exactly what Israel could never do. Jesus comes and is the perfect King that comes from the family of David and is also the Great High Priest.
Both of these offices of King and Priest had been hotly debated in Israel just before Christ was born. Many people objected to the current class of priests in Israel during the 1st century and many were wondering when the true Davidic King would come back and be enthroned in Israel. Jesus will become both Priest and King.
Jesus does what Israel could never do and perfectly fulfills the very vocation that Israel called to fulfill.
In doing this Jesus blazed the path and opened the way for us to become a Kingdom of Priests. One of our main vocations as Christians is to become Priests- A Priesthood of believers.
Instead of asking the High Priest to go into the Holy Place once a year to offer a sacrifice for our atonement, our High Priest Jesus tore the veil into two pieces and opened up the Holy Place. Our High Priest stands in the Holy Place with God the Father and the way is opened for us to come in and have fellowship.
GENESIS 1: 26-28 – MADE IN THE IMAGE OF GOD
TO HAVE DOMINION AND SERVE IN A PRIESTLY CAPACITY FOR GOD
COLOSSIANS 3:1010 and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him-
We are renewed in Christ to the image that God had planned from the beginning. We are being restored to that Priestly class that we were supposed to serve in.
We are called to be the priestly class that Israel failed miserably in accomplishing.
1 Peter 2: 5,95 you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
Verse 9:
9 But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God's OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light ;
So if we are a priest, What sacrifice do we bring? What are these spiritual sacrifices that Peter is talking about?
We know that Christ is the ultimate sacrifice for our sin but the Bible also speaks of Sacrifices that we must bring before God.
Romans 12:1-21 Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
I. The first point we can take from this is that God wants us to sacrifice our bodiesIt is only fitting that in response to the Grace of God and the sacrifice of Christ that we are willing to offer our own bodies in response.
Paul is urging them to by God’s mercy to offer their bodies as a living sacrifice.
The Greek word that Paul uses in this passage is Parakaleho – and could be translated as pray or beg.
Paul is begging them in the strongest term that he can use to lay their bodies down before God as a living sacrifice.
Because of Who we are and the price that Christ paid for us, we should honor Him by laying down our lives
1 Corinthians 6: 19-2019 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own ? 20 For you have been bought with a price : therefore glorify God in your body.
The temple is our body, we are the priest, and our bodies are the sacrifices. All of these symbols of the Old Testament and the economy of Israel come crashing down upon us and find their fulfillment in Christ and His Church.
We are to be the Temple, Priests, and Sacrifice.
God wants nothing less than all of Us. He wants us to lay down our entire life in response to His Gracious gift of Christ.
If we are of the priestly class of Jesus then we are asked to lay down our lives. We look to our Great High Priest and we see that He was willing to lovingly lay down His life and now we are asked to give our life in return.
This giving of our life is our response to GRACE. God’s unmerited favor comes crashing into our world and we as frail humans are asked to give up our lives so that we might live truly as God wants us to live. To live a life free to thrive and flourish in God we have to lay down our selfish, fleshly desires before Christ.
Galatians 2:20"I have been crucified with Christ ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.
In a sense we are called to respond to the Gospel of Jesus by inacting the Gospel in our own lives. We are to crucify the fleshly desires the vex us and haunt us. When we do this true life in Christ can begin.
2 Corinthians 5: 14-1514 For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died ; 15 and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.
Christ died so that we can have life.
Christ died – so that we might no longer live for just ourselves – our true vocation and calling is to live for Christ.
Paul puts this type of life of sacrifice eloquently in Philippians
Philippians 2:17-1817 But even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with you all. 18 You too, I urge you, rejoice in the same way and share your joy with me.
Do we see our calling and life in the same light as Paul? Do we see our lives as being poured out to God?
Do we care so much about other people’s faith that we pour out our life for that purpose?
Imagine what Churches would look like today if we all cared that much about each other that we would pour out our very life energy to see that others grow in their faith?
It is our challenge to work that out in your own life. How would sacrificing your life for Christ look like? How would that change your behavior?
Our Sunday assemblies would change dramatically. We would come before the Lord’s Table and bring the sacrifice of our lives and lay them down at the feet of Jesus to be energized to do it all over again. This is a tough call but it is the call of a Christian, to give it all.
This is not a religion but a life, a life style, a giving of your entire life.
II. This Sacrifice of the priesthood of believers is also the preaching of the Gospel
Paul tells us in Romans 15 that he is a priest of the Gospel. A priest is one that teaches and reveals and mediates God. How do we mediate God to a lost and dying world?
We teach them the way of salvation to Christ. This is our priestly duty.
We are the heralds of the King- Proclaiming the fact that Jesus has risen from the dead, He is enthroned and people must make a decision.
This is part of our good stewardship in a lost and dying world.
Man abdicated God’s rule and our dominion of Creation to Satan and now we are called to call man back into communion with God.
Romans 15: 15-1615 But I have written very boldly to you on some points so as to remind you again, because of the grace that was given me from God, 16 to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, ministering as a priest the gospel of God, so that my offering of the Gentiles may become acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.
Paul sees the offering of the Gentile converts to God as a sanctified gift unto God.
Part of this Priestly Duty that God has called us to is the offering of other people to God –
People that we have lead to Christ, not out of our own boasting but out of love and motivation for lost souls.
III. Part of the Sacrifice of the Priesthood of believers is good works.In Philippians 4 Paul informs us that the Philippian brethren supplied many of Paul’s needs in his ministry.
Paul speaks of this contribution sent to him by the Philippian Church in Temple – Sacrificial language.
Philippians 4:15-1815 You yourselves also know, Philippians, that at the first preaching of the gospel, after I left Macedonia, no church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving but you alone ; 16 for even in Thessalonica you sent a gift more than once for my needs. 17 Not that I seek the gift itself, but I seek for the profit which increases to your account. 18 But I have received everything in full and have an abundance ; I am amply supplied, having received from Epaphroditus what you have sent, a fragrant aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing to God.
The offering of help for Paul was seen as an acceptable sacrifice to God, a fragrant aroma.
This is part of our priestly service in the New Covenant – good deeds and alms giving to the poor or to the ministry of the word go up to God as a fragrant offering.
We see this same language used of Cornelius and the good works that he did.
Acts 10:1-41 Now there was a man at Caesarea named Cornelius, a centurion of what was called the Italian cohort, 2 a devout man and one who feared God with all his household, and gave many alms to the Jewish people and prayed to God continually . 3 About the ninth hour of the day he clearly saw in a vision an angel of God who had just come in and said to him, "Cornelius !" 4 And fixing his gaze on him and being much alarmed, he said, "What is it, Lord ?" And he said to him, "Your prayers and alms have ascended as a memorial before God.
Cornelius’ good works or alms for the poor have ascended to God as a memorial. This language is OT Temple language for the Memorial offering of the OT that was offered to God in the Temple.
The Hebrew writer also echoes this sentiment.
Hebrews 13:1616 And do not neglect doing good and sharing, for with such sacrifices God is pleased
Part of our priestly service in the Temple of the Church is the offering of money- the collection that we give to the Church can be seen in this light as well as the acts of kindness that we do for the poor in the community.
Any support that we give to mission, the poor, or to the operation of the Church is viewed as a sacred offering that goes up before the Lord.
IV. Part of the sacrifice of the priesthood of believers is the sacrifice of praise and prayer.The Hebrew writer tells us that our praise for God is a sacrifice that we offer
Hebrews 13:15
15 Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name.
The fruit of the lips that we offer in our assemblies is our song service. When we sing praises to God in the assembly of other saints we are offering our common sacrifice of praise.
In the book of Revelation we see that prayers of the saints going up before God as the incense from the Temple.
Revelation 8:3-4
3 Another angel came and stood at the altar, holding a golden censer ; and much incense was given to him, so that he might add it to the prayers of all the saints on the golden altar which was before the throne. 4 And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, went up before God out of the angel's hand
CORNELIUS- IN THE STORY FROM ACTS 10 WE REMEMBER THAT GOD ALSO SAW THE PRAYERS OF CORNELIUS AS A MEMORIAL OFFERING COMING UP BEFORE HIM.
PRIESTS- WE OFFER OUR LIVES, WE OFFER NEW CONVERTS, WE OFFER ALMS GIVING AND GOOD WORKS, WE OFFER WORSHIP OF PRAISE AND PRAYER – THESE ARE THE OFFERINGS THAT WE BRING IN THIS PRIESTHOOD.
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Building on the Foundation of Christ
Last week we explored a bridge that would lead us from a time of when we are saved to a point across the river of life to when we experience our ultimate reward of Heaven. Last week we focused in on the concept Transformed Character as what God’s ultimate purpose is for us.
Concepts that are out of vogue today such as Virtue are virtually untaught in many churches.
We discussed the fact that people are terrified after the Protestant Reformation and the Enlightenment that any time you speak of a person working out their salvation with fear and trembling people think you have a little bit of works righteousness up your sleeve. They fear that you are trying to bring back some form of Medieaval Catholicism that Luther battled against.
I would like to propose that there is no fear in talking about this and in fact it is dangerous to shy away from it. It is not only dangerous but unbiblical.
I want to pick up with our theme and flesh out it a little more.
I. I want to begin this morning by proposing that we cannot even start this process of Transformation of our character unless God is involved.
Transformed Character is a work of God that demands our cooperation. We need to consider the Holiness of God as we undergo this sanctification that God wants to work out in our lives.
Last week in our reading of Mark 10 we pointed out a specific question asked by the disciples and Jesus’ remarkable answer.
Mark 10: 26-2726 They were even more astonished and said to Him, "Then who can be saved ?" 27 Looking at them, Jesus said, "With people it is impossible, but not with God ; for all things are possible with God."
After Jesus’ discourse with the rich young ruler, it seemed to the disciples that it would be impossible for anyone to be saved. Jesus makes the emphatic point that with man it is impossible but with God all things are possible.
We must understand as a maxim that man is a flawed template that is marred by sin. God had created us for so much more but that calling was missed and instead of making the earth God’s kingdom we abdicated the earth to Satan. Since that time God has initiated a rescue operation to call man back to his original calling and destroy the works of Satan.
So we must begin by understanding that all of this is a work of God. God is the beginning and ending of this work and we must be cooperators with God and His purposes. We must ALIGN our life with God’s PURPOSE.
When we consider the nature of God and the holiness of God we understand that this life that we are called is one that is sobering. It is something that is challenging.
When considering God’s nature we many times neglect to think of God as a consuming fire. This is one attribute that Scripture makes clear and that is God is a consuming fire.
Deut 4: 24 – I AM A CONSUMING FIRE- GOD IS A CONSUMING FIRE
HEBREWS 12: 29 GOD IS A CONSUMING FIRE
One of the orders of angels in Scripture are called the Seraphim. They exhibit the nature of God in that He is a consuming fire.
SERAPHIM – BURNING ONES
GOD’S LOVE IS SO INTENSE THAT IT IS A BURNING FIRE – GOD’S LOVE, IF WE ARE NOT TRANSFORMED INTO THE IMAGE OF CHRIST WILL CONSUME US- WE WILL NOT BE ABLE TO ENDURE THAT BURING PRESENCE AND LOVE
These angels in the presence of God are called the Burning ones. They are literally on fire in the presence of this consuming love of God.
Now let’s take this idea and apply it to our study on Christian character and transformation.
What attitude should we have when we approach God?
Paul has an attitude of humility and fear and trembling
1 Corinthians 2:1-31 And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. 2 For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. 3 I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling,
Paul’s focus with the Corinthian brethren is the cross of Christ and when we consider the cross of Christ it makes sense that Paul would be in weakness, fear, and trembling.
CHRIST IN THE GARDEN – A TIME OF SOBERING RESOLVE – THE MISSION OF THE CROSS WILL BE TOUGH
Think about a time when Christ seemed to be in fear or a time of weakness. We think back to the Garden of Gethsemane right before He goes to the cross. He is praying for the cup to pass. He is in agony. He knows what is coming.
CHRIST CALLS US TO BEAR A CROSS, TO FOLLOW HIM. Paul knows all to well what this cross shaped life looks like. He has taken beatings, shipwrecks and betrayals. He knows that without God’s strength we are nothing.
We see this theme of fear and trembling come out in the great passage in Philippians 2 about the humility of Christ.
Paul tells the Philippians brethren the following:
Philippians 2: 12-1312 So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling ; 13 for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.
When we undertake this life of the cruciform Christian path we must start with fear and trembling. We need to know what we are up against. I am not saying this to bring you down but I am telling you the stark reality.
Sin is serious and the damage it has inflicted on us and the Creation is grave. We must understand that it is so serious that it will take God’s work to fix us.
Look at how Paul ends it in verse 13 -
IT IS GOD WHO IS AT WORK IN YOU
You will be able to bear your cross, you will be able to be transformed by God’s Spirit because it is God’s work that is working in you.
COOPERATIVE FRIENDS OF JESUS
Now that leads us to a fact that we have to be cooperative friends of Jesus. We have to cooperate in this on the anvil experience that character is being formed.
C.S. Lewis Pointed out in his book The Problem of Pain that one could just imagine what it would have been like if Michealangelo’s sculptures were able to feel each chisel stroke. Imagine as he hammered away at this statues if they could feel the entire process?
It would painful, it would be excruciating to consider how it would feel for the statue but now think about the end process – a beautiful statue.
God is doing the same thing to us if we are cooperative with Him. He is hammering away at us day by day and forming us and if we are open and work with Him we will be something beautiful – we will aligned with the image of His beautiful Son.
II. EXPERT BUILDERS – A LIFE FORMED INTO A TEMPLE OF GOD
When one examines 1 Corinthians chapters 1 through 3 you will find a theme that goes back to our Old Testament. Paul in building this theme is talking about how a Christian should build their life – A life of virtue
In the early chapters of 1 Corinthians Paul mentions the word wisdom over 20 times. One character in the Old Testament that comes out in the Old Testament that reminds us of wisdom is Solomon.
Solomon was the wise King and was a Temple builder. Paul is going to talk about building a foundation and then building a Temple on top of that foundation.
Today the only thing left of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem is a retaining wall called the wailing wall. This is part of what is called the Temple mount. The Temple was built on a strong rocky foundation.
Paul is going to describe how a Christian builds upon a foundation to build a life that would honor God.
Paul is talking to a Church that is in a very immoral town of Corinth. It would be much like what you would think you would find in a major American city today.
You had rampant immorality, cultural elites, Jews, and a fledgling Christian Church. These were all thrown in the mix together and now Paul has to give these people advice that would help this fledgling congregation.
1 Corinthians 3:9-16. 9 For we are God's fellow workers ; you are God's field, God's building. 10 According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it. 11 For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, 13 each man's work will become evident ; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man's work. 14 If any man's work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. 15 If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss ; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. 16 Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?
1st of all Paul reiterates a point that I made before and that is that we are God’s fellow workers. We cannot do it on our own. We cannot pull up ourselves by the moral bootstraps – Salvation begins as a Divine act of Grace. That is an axiom that we must get down to make any sense of Paul – GRACE is all about God saving us
2nd – Paul mentions that we are God’s field. This is a reference that any Jew would recognize and this is the field that was owned by Ornan in the Old Testament that was given to David to build the Temple on. This field and threshing floor are where we find the modern day Temple mount and the Muslim Mosque the Dome of the Rock. Paul’s reference to this term is TEMPLE LANGUAGE
3RD – Paul is talking about the master builder. Hiram of Tyre was the Master builder that was over the Temple building and David’s palace. He was renowned as a builder and a master architect. Paul is talking about how we build our lives. He will get to the point that we are God’s Temple. We must be careful builders of this life in Christ. We must make sure that the FOUNDATION IS CHRIST.
This is imperative and could be likened as to when you become a Christian. Think about a new Christian or think back to when you first became a Christian. You started this process on the foundation of Jesus Christ. When we start to build our life as God would have it we start on that foundation or it will flounder and fail.
4th – The materials mentioned for building were what was used to build the Temple in Jerusalem. Each one was used in more holy precincts
Let us start with Wood, Hay, Straw - This was the material used on the altar outside the Temple to burn the sacrifices. This would be the outer most part that Paul is referring to in this Temple analogy.
The precious stones were used on the breast place of the High Priest who wore the Breast plate of righteousness on one day a year at Yom Kippur. This would be a day that he would enter the inner sanctuary to offer atonement for the people by sprinkling blood on the mercy seat of the ark of the covenant.
The silver was used in the Holy Place of the Temple and the Gold was used on the Holy of Holies- the most Holy Place in all of Israel.
Paul is using this materials to drive home His point that we are to build the Temples of our lives in a particular way.
5th – Now Paul gets to the point of fire and how fire will refine this life. IN the Temple the fire of the sacrifice would burn up the wood hay stubble and straw. If we have built our lives with the pure things such as gold, silver, and precious stones they will be preserved.
Paul tells us what He is really talking about if we had no doubt until now but He is really talking about that our lives are the Temple of the Holy Spirit- We are God’s dwelling place
Now consider how radical this is – Go back in time
God has always wanted fellowship with man – in the Garden walking in the cool of the day in the Garden
-Ruptured by sin
-presence in a Tabernacle or Temple
-Presence in Jesus – God becomes Flesh
-Glorification of Christ and now We become God’s dwelling place - Your life becomes and intersection of Heaven and Earth –
EXCITING NEWS but also humbling, awe inspiring and down right scary. This consuming Fire of God – His Love- will one day test this work we have done.
Application:
1) Allow God’s grace to work in our lives – be open to God’s transformation - Build on the foundation of Jesus- without Him we are hopeless.
2) Work on sacrificing the things in our lives that we don’t need.
Galatians 2: 19-2119 "For through the Law I died to the Law, so that I might live to God. 20 "I have been crucified with Christ ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. 21 "I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly."
These Two Points of relying on Grace and building on the foundation of Jesus play themselves out beautifully in this passage.
Put your self in Paul’s shoes. What was the purpose of the Law of Moses? What did it do for Paul and what does it do for us today?
The Law of Moses was to act as a mirror for us to look at.
To make us see how God sees us-
Just consider the 10 commandments - Commandment #9 Have you ever lied? Just a little lie? Hid the truth? ALL OF US have done this if we are honest!
What about commandment #5 – Have we always obeyed our parents? All of us no matter how old we are could think back to a time that we did not honor our parents.
Have you ever stolen anything?
Have you ever hated someone?
Has anything ever come before God in our lives – even your own family- That is an idol
That is tough.
Jesus takes it even further – Have you ever commited adultery- most people could say no I have not- But Jesus says if you have ever looked upon a woman with lust in your heart – you are an adulterer.
Think about it. God’s Law locks us up – look in the mirror and you see a sinner in peril of Hell- eternal separation from God.
Romans 3:2020 because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight ; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.
Through the Law of Moses came to the knowledge of sin. As we have just seen – we are hopeless in a state of sin before a perfect, awe inspiring, consuming fire, that is God.
What is the first step- how do we start to build this Temple that Paul is talking about.
Crucified with Christ - I have to put that old man of sin to death. He must die- the flesh must be put to death and the Spirit must come and take residence up in my life. A Spirit filled and Spirit lead life must happen.
Romans 5:8But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
This is what God’s grace is all about – Christ died for us even while we are sinners.
So to the Apostle Paul – we are crucify the Old Man and Become a New Creation – WE put the works of the flesh to death.
We build on that foundation that is Jesus Christ –
Our lives are hidden IN God in Christ- We are made righteous by Christ and His work on Calvary.
We realize that now that we are in Christ – our lives are an intersection of Heaven and Earth - You are God’s Holy possession – you are set apart- you are God’s Temple-
What an awesome view of How God took us from a helpless sinful state, made us look in the mirror through the Law of Moses and now transforms us into His dwelling place.
Concepts that are out of vogue today such as Virtue are virtually untaught in many churches.
We discussed the fact that people are terrified after the Protestant Reformation and the Enlightenment that any time you speak of a person working out their salvation with fear and trembling people think you have a little bit of works righteousness up your sleeve. They fear that you are trying to bring back some form of Medieaval Catholicism that Luther battled against.
I would like to propose that there is no fear in talking about this and in fact it is dangerous to shy away from it. It is not only dangerous but unbiblical.
I want to pick up with our theme and flesh out it a little more.
I. I want to begin this morning by proposing that we cannot even start this process of Transformation of our character unless God is involved.
Transformed Character is a work of God that demands our cooperation. We need to consider the Holiness of God as we undergo this sanctification that God wants to work out in our lives.
Last week in our reading of Mark 10 we pointed out a specific question asked by the disciples and Jesus’ remarkable answer.
Mark 10: 26-2726 They were even more astonished and said to Him, "Then who can be saved ?" 27 Looking at them, Jesus said, "With people it is impossible, but not with God ; for all things are possible with God."
After Jesus’ discourse with the rich young ruler, it seemed to the disciples that it would be impossible for anyone to be saved. Jesus makes the emphatic point that with man it is impossible but with God all things are possible.
We must understand as a maxim that man is a flawed template that is marred by sin. God had created us for so much more but that calling was missed and instead of making the earth God’s kingdom we abdicated the earth to Satan. Since that time God has initiated a rescue operation to call man back to his original calling and destroy the works of Satan.
So we must begin by understanding that all of this is a work of God. God is the beginning and ending of this work and we must be cooperators with God and His purposes. We must ALIGN our life with God’s PURPOSE.
When we consider the nature of God and the holiness of God we understand that this life that we are called is one that is sobering. It is something that is challenging.
When considering God’s nature we many times neglect to think of God as a consuming fire. This is one attribute that Scripture makes clear and that is God is a consuming fire.
Deut 4: 24 – I AM A CONSUMING FIRE- GOD IS A CONSUMING FIRE
HEBREWS 12: 29 GOD IS A CONSUMING FIRE
One of the orders of angels in Scripture are called the Seraphim. They exhibit the nature of God in that He is a consuming fire.
SERAPHIM – BURNING ONES
GOD’S LOVE IS SO INTENSE THAT IT IS A BURNING FIRE – GOD’S LOVE, IF WE ARE NOT TRANSFORMED INTO THE IMAGE OF CHRIST WILL CONSUME US- WE WILL NOT BE ABLE TO ENDURE THAT BURING PRESENCE AND LOVE
These angels in the presence of God are called the Burning ones. They are literally on fire in the presence of this consuming love of God.
Now let’s take this idea and apply it to our study on Christian character and transformation.
What attitude should we have when we approach God?
Paul has an attitude of humility and fear and trembling
1 Corinthians 2:1-31 And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. 2 For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. 3 I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling,
Paul’s focus with the Corinthian brethren is the cross of Christ and when we consider the cross of Christ it makes sense that Paul would be in weakness, fear, and trembling.
CHRIST IN THE GARDEN – A TIME OF SOBERING RESOLVE – THE MISSION OF THE CROSS WILL BE TOUGH
Think about a time when Christ seemed to be in fear or a time of weakness. We think back to the Garden of Gethsemane right before He goes to the cross. He is praying for the cup to pass. He is in agony. He knows what is coming.
CHRIST CALLS US TO BEAR A CROSS, TO FOLLOW HIM. Paul knows all to well what this cross shaped life looks like. He has taken beatings, shipwrecks and betrayals. He knows that without God’s strength we are nothing.
We see this theme of fear and trembling come out in the great passage in Philippians 2 about the humility of Christ.
Paul tells the Philippians brethren the following:
Philippians 2: 12-1312 So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling ; 13 for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.
When we undertake this life of the cruciform Christian path we must start with fear and trembling. We need to know what we are up against. I am not saying this to bring you down but I am telling you the stark reality.
Sin is serious and the damage it has inflicted on us and the Creation is grave. We must understand that it is so serious that it will take God’s work to fix us.
Look at how Paul ends it in verse 13 -
IT IS GOD WHO IS AT WORK IN YOU
You will be able to bear your cross, you will be able to be transformed by God’s Spirit because it is God’s work that is working in you.
COOPERATIVE FRIENDS OF JESUS
Now that leads us to a fact that we have to be cooperative friends of Jesus. We have to cooperate in this on the anvil experience that character is being formed.
C.S. Lewis Pointed out in his book The Problem of Pain that one could just imagine what it would have been like if Michealangelo’s sculptures were able to feel each chisel stroke. Imagine as he hammered away at this statues if they could feel the entire process?
It would painful, it would be excruciating to consider how it would feel for the statue but now think about the end process – a beautiful statue.
God is doing the same thing to us if we are cooperative with Him. He is hammering away at us day by day and forming us and if we are open and work with Him we will be something beautiful – we will aligned with the image of His beautiful Son.
II. EXPERT BUILDERS – A LIFE FORMED INTO A TEMPLE OF GOD
When one examines 1 Corinthians chapters 1 through 3 you will find a theme that goes back to our Old Testament. Paul in building this theme is talking about how a Christian should build their life – A life of virtue
In the early chapters of 1 Corinthians Paul mentions the word wisdom over 20 times. One character in the Old Testament that comes out in the Old Testament that reminds us of wisdom is Solomon.
Solomon was the wise King and was a Temple builder. Paul is going to talk about building a foundation and then building a Temple on top of that foundation.
Today the only thing left of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem is a retaining wall called the wailing wall. This is part of what is called the Temple mount. The Temple was built on a strong rocky foundation.
Paul is going to describe how a Christian builds upon a foundation to build a life that would honor God.
Paul is talking to a Church that is in a very immoral town of Corinth. It would be much like what you would think you would find in a major American city today.
You had rampant immorality, cultural elites, Jews, and a fledgling Christian Church. These were all thrown in the mix together and now Paul has to give these people advice that would help this fledgling congregation.
1 Corinthians 3:9-16. 9 For we are God's fellow workers ; you are God's field, God's building. 10 According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building on it. But each man must be careful how he builds on it. 11 For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if any man builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, 13 each man's work will become evident ; for the day will show it because it is to be revealed with fire, and the fire itself will test the quality of each man's work. 14 If any man's work which he has built on it remains, he will receive a reward. 15 If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss ; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire. 16 Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?
1st of all Paul reiterates a point that I made before and that is that we are God’s fellow workers. We cannot do it on our own. We cannot pull up ourselves by the moral bootstraps – Salvation begins as a Divine act of Grace. That is an axiom that we must get down to make any sense of Paul – GRACE is all about God saving us
2nd – Paul mentions that we are God’s field. This is a reference that any Jew would recognize and this is the field that was owned by Ornan in the Old Testament that was given to David to build the Temple on. This field and threshing floor are where we find the modern day Temple mount and the Muslim Mosque the Dome of the Rock. Paul’s reference to this term is TEMPLE LANGUAGE
3RD – Paul is talking about the master builder. Hiram of Tyre was the Master builder that was over the Temple building and David’s palace. He was renowned as a builder and a master architect. Paul is talking about how we build our lives. He will get to the point that we are God’s Temple. We must be careful builders of this life in Christ. We must make sure that the FOUNDATION IS CHRIST.
This is imperative and could be likened as to when you become a Christian. Think about a new Christian or think back to when you first became a Christian. You started this process on the foundation of Jesus Christ. When we start to build our life as God would have it we start on that foundation or it will flounder and fail.
4th – The materials mentioned for building were what was used to build the Temple in Jerusalem. Each one was used in more holy precincts
Let us start with Wood, Hay, Straw - This was the material used on the altar outside the Temple to burn the sacrifices. This would be the outer most part that Paul is referring to in this Temple analogy.
The precious stones were used on the breast place of the High Priest who wore the Breast plate of righteousness on one day a year at Yom Kippur. This would be a day that he would enter the inner sanctuary to offer atonement for the people by sprinkling blood on the mercy seat of the ark of the covenant.
The silver was used in the Holy Place of the Temple and the Gold was used on the Holy of Holies- the most Holy Place in all of Israel.
Paul is using this materials to drive home His point that we are to build the Temples of our lives in a particular way.
5th – Now Paul gets to the point of fire and how fire will refine this life. IN the Temple the fire of the sacrifice would burn up the wood hay stubble and straw. If we have built our lives with the pure things such as gold, silver, and precious stones they will be preserved.
Paul tells us what He is really talking about if we had no doubt until now but He is really talking about that our lives are the Temple of the Holy Spirit- We are God’s dwelling place
Now consider how radical this is – Go back in time
God has always wanted fellowship with man – in the Garden walking in the cool of the day in the Garden
-Ruptured by sin
-presence in a Tabernacle or Temple
-Presence in Jesus – God becomes Flesh
-Glorification of Christ and now We become God’s dwelling place - Your life becomes and intersection of Heaven and Earth –
EXCITING NEWS but also humbling, awe inspiring and down right scary. This consuming Fire of God – His Love- will one day test this work we have done.
Application:
1) Allow God’s grace to work in our lives – be open to God’s transformation - Build on the foundation of Jesus- without Him we are hopeless.
2) Work on sacrificing the things in our lives that we don’t need.
Galatians 2: 19-2119 "For through the Law I died to the Law, so that I might live to God. 20 "I have been crucified with Christ ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. 21 "I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly."
These Two Points of relying on Grace and building on the foundation of Jesus play themselves out beautifully in this passage.
Put your self in Paul’s shoes. What was the purpose of the Law of Moses? What did it do for Paul and what does it do for us today?
The Law of Moses was to act as a mirror for us to look at.
To make us see how God sees us-
Just consider the 10 commandments - Commandment #9 Have you ever lied? Just a little lie? Hid the truth? ALL OF US have done this if we are honest!
What about commandment #5 – Have we always obeyed our parents? All of us no matter how old we are could think back to a time that we did not honor our parents.
Have you ever stolen anything?
Have you ever hated someone?
Has anything ever come before God in our lives – even your own family- That is an idol
That is tough.
Jesus takes it even further – Have you ever commited adultery- most people could say no I have not- But Jesus says if you have ever looked upon a woman with lust in your heart – you are an adulterer.
Think about it. God’s Law locks us up – look in the mirror and you see a sinner in peril of Hell- eternal separation from God.
Romans 3:2020 because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight ; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.
Through the Law of Moses came to the knowledge of sin. As we have just seen – we are hopeless in a state of sin before a perfect, awe inspiring, consuming fire, that is God.
What is the first step- how do we start to build this Temple that Paul is talking about.
Crucified with Christ - I have to put that old man of sin to death. He must die- the flesh must be put to death and the Spirit must come and take residence up in my life. A Spirit filled and Spirit lead life must happen.
Romans 5:8But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
This is what God’s grace is all about – Christ died for us even while we are sinners.
So to the Apostle Paul – we are crucify the Old Man and Become a New Creation – WE put the works of the flesh to death.
We build on that foundation that is Jesus Christ –
Our lives are hidden IN God in Christ- We are made righteous by Christ and His work on Calvary.
We realize that now that we are in Christ – our lives are an intersection of Heaven and Earth - You are God’s Holy possession – you are set apart- you are God’s Temple-
What an awesome view of How God took us from a helpless sinful state, made us look in the mirror through the Law of Moses and now transforms us into His dwelling place.
Friday, July 9, 2010
The Bridge of Virtue Sunday AM Sermon 7/10/10
This morning I want to look at something that perplexes many Christians. It seems like a very basic problem but it is perplexing many people and many churches.
The question can be framed as the following: I know that salvation is a gift from God and there is nothing I can do to earn my salvation. But what about once I am a Christian? Am I to just follow rules and regulations out of fear of God? Am I to just live just like I want to?
I am around many young people every day that are in desperate need of an answer to this question. Many groups come in and teach a basic evangelistic sermon and ask people to make a decision to follow Jesus or come to Jesus. They ask people to invite Jesus into their heart and tell them the importance of being saved. I think we would all agree with this, that one must accept Christ and make an initial decision to follow him. But this is where many leave the story and teaching stops. Basically I meet many confused young people that think that they have punched their ticket and they are saved. Now they are just trying to find happiness for themselves. Many don’t even belong to a Church. They are what I call ‘lone ranger’ Christians. This is why we are finding more and more people that profess Christianity and claim that they have been saved but live like the Devil.
But I think a bigger problem is at play. There is no teaching on what the Bible says on the matter. They don’t want to tackle the big question of what happens once I am saved.
I would propose that that this problem plays out in the individual as well as in society.
To keep this in our mind I would propose that we begin tackling this question by visualizing a river. We are on the bank of this river looking over the churning water. The bank that we are standing on is our moment of initial salvation. We have just placed our faith in Jesus and we are fresh out of the baptismal waters. On the other bank is Heaven, resurrection from the dead, or ultimate salvation. The River that we must transverse is our life. This is the tough task of navigating as a Christian in a fallen world.
What I am proposing this morning is a discussion on the bridge that takes us from the moment of initial salvation to our ultimate destiny. What would the bridge look like and how do we get to the other side. We will take a few weeks to look in depth at this idea of living the Christian life in a very Biblical and deliberate way. When we are finished my prayer is that we can describe exactly how to navigate this river or life and bridge from our time of salvation until our ultimate salvation at the end of our lives.
How the World Looks at this Problems:
1) Just obey as system of rules – have a check box mentality. Do a system of checks to please God. Go down a punch list of dos and stay away from the don’ts and things will be okay.
2) Just discover who ‘I am’. I must be true to myself. It is all about my happiness. God has given me grace and now I just need to find out who I really am and express myself to the world.
We see these two options played out in the private lives of many but in large cultural settings such as the government.
The Biblical answer to this quandary is TRANSFORMED CHARACTER
We can have all the rules and regulations that we please but if we don’t have character to do what is right in every situation then we will have chaos.
If we are honest with each other we would agree that we constantly live in a struggle between obeying rules imposed upon us and doing the desires of our heart. When we get into trouble is when the desires of our heart are much greater than our will to follow the rules. That is when we get into trouble.
I see this in classroom management in teaching my class. I have had years when I have had to have many classroom rules and I had to enforce them regularly. I have had other classes that had great character and I didn’t have to have many rules at all. The classes with great character were the ones that flourished and learned the most.
We see this playing out now in our own country. On the national level we have a government that has laws on the books that they refuse to enforce. The current controversy between our federal government and the state of Arizona Is an example of this. Arizona passes an immigration law that is much like the federal law of the same kind. The difference is that the federal government has not had the character or fortitude to enforce the law already on the books. What we need to fix people and our nation as a whole is not more laws and regulations but people of great character.
Francis Schaeffer was a Christian philosopher that said in the 1980’s that we cannot have freedom without chaos in the U.S. unless our people have a shared value system that involves people of high character. When character erodes the government will have to swoop in and regulate morality and make more laws. Now we see a population that is becoming less and less virtuous but at the same time a government that is even less virtuous.
Now is the time for the Church to find its voice on the issue of character.
I. This morning I will propose that the bridge that I mentioned earlier is transformed character.
We must see the Christian life in terms of TRANSFORMED CHARACTER
To get our minds around this from a Biblical view point I would like to look at the story of the Rich Young Ruler in Mark 10
Mark 10: 17-27
17 As He was setting out on a journey, a man ran up to Him and knelt before Him, and asked Him, "Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life ?" 18 And Jesus said to him, "Why do you call Me good ? No one is good except God alone. 19 "You know the commandments, 'DO NOT MURDER, DO NOT COMMIT ADULTERY, DO NOT STEAL, DO NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS, Do not defraud, HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER.' " 20 And he said to Him, "Teacher, I have kept all these things from my youth up." 21 Looking at him, Jesus felt a love for him and said to him, "One thing you lack : go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven ; and come, follow Me." 22 But at these words he was saddened, and he went away grieving, for he was one who owned much property. 23 And Jesus, looking around, said to His disciples, "How hard it will be for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God !" 24 The disciples were amazed at His words. But Jesus answered again and said to them, "Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God ! 25 "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." 26 They were even more astonished and said to Him, "Then who can be saved ?" 27 Looking at them, Jesus said, "With people it is impossible, but not with God ; for all things are possible with God."
From this passage we need to note some important things.
Running – the man runs to Jesus and this was undignified in the culture of this time. Men just did not run in ancient Israel unless it was life or death. This man has something important to ask Jesus. He has a real sense of urgency.
We see quickly that his question is “WHAT DO I DO TO INHERIT ETERNAL LIFE?”
What does he mean by this question? The Jews understood eternal life to mean the general resurrection from the dead that would be accomplished at the end of the age in which all faithful Jews that had been faithful to the covenant would enjoy.
HE IS ASKING: HOW DO I LIVE NOW TO BE ABLE TO ENJOY OR INHERIT THE LIFE TO COME.
THIS IS MUCH LIKE THE QUESTION OR THE BRIDGE OVER THE RIVER THAT I PROPOSED EARLIER THIS MORNING. HOW DO I GET FROM NOW TO FINAL SALVATION? THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT HE IS ASKING.
WE MAY, MORE SPECIFICALLY, PUT IT AS HOW DO I BEHAVE TO PLEASE GOD?
2 questions are contained in this man’s question.
1) Content of behavior – What specific things should I do and not do – the nuts and bolts of how I behave.
2) Means or method - How will I do this? How will I live out this type of life? How do I put these rules into practice?
This is the question I think we would all love to ask Jesus today if we had the chance.
What do I do?
How do I do that?
These are very practical questions.
Jesus’ answer is very simple - FOLLOW ME!
In Jesus we see what to do and exactly how to do it. In the life of Christ we get exactly what one must and must not do and how you go about accomplishing it.
II. Building A bridge – involves having THE GOAL ever before us.
Great sports teams and business are very goal directed. People set a goal and keep that goal before them. We will watch athletes train their bodies to the point of exhaustion and go beyond that point because their goal is ever before them. I would propose that Christians must be the same way when we consider navigating from the point of initial salvation to the time of our final salvation.
We must keep the goal of Heaven and fellowship with Christ face to face ever before us.
The boy in this story has this sense of goal. He numbers the Last 6 of the 10 commandments that he has been faithful too. He has not murdered, not stolen, not bore false witness, not committed fraud, and has been faithful to his parents.
The 10 commandments to a Jew were the obligation that Jew had to observe to be covenantly faithful to God.
This young man new he was incomplete, he sensed it because he is here asking Jesus this question. The word for complete in Greek is from the same root as the word for Goal.
In other words in the original language of the New Testament the ideas of completeness and accomplishing a goal are tied together.
This young man knows that he is lacking. The rich young ruler had taken on a checkbox mentality and had lost sight of the goal. His character was in question because he had allowed his great possessions to replace his devotion to God.
Jesus takes this young man back to the most important command of all. The command that prohibited idols IS THE ONE THAT JESUS IS DRIVING HOME WITH THIS YOUNG MAN. God must come first and then your neighbor. We must love God first and then love those around us. That basically summed up all of the Law and the prophets.
This applies to us as well. Do we see our own lives as God sees us? God sees the ultimate goal of a new creation. God sees us as New Creatures in Christ.
God sees us as saved, justified, and cleansed. God sees our future and wants to bring that future into our present.
God wants us to start behaving like Kingdom people.
Isn’t that what God did in Christ? By Jesus’ resurrection from the dead God gave us an advanced sign of what is to come for all of us.
In the same way he wants to show the world through us and our transformed lives what he has in store for our world at the end of time when the New Heavens and New Earth are revealed and the New Jerusalem descends from Heaven.
God wants us to begin that type of living now!
Ephesians 2: 4-64 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved ), 6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus
Paul states as a matter of fact that we are RAISED UP – PAST TENSE- AND SEATED WITH CHRIST IN THE HEAVENLY PLACES
That is what God sees in us when we are saved and washed in the blood of Christ. That is the present reality.
We should behave as heavenly beings.
Would you not believe that a heavenly being would behave would great character?
We must see the goal that God has glorious things planned for us. He will give us a wonderful resurrected body free from sin but now is the time God starts to work away on us and sanctify us. The work of sanctification is a work of God that we have to make ourselves available to.
God does this through just tough hard work. Not hard work that earns your salvation but hard work that God has planned for us to prepare us for His Kingdom life. This process of sanctification creates a saintly person with transformed character.
I hope that this type of bridge of transformed character is becoming easier to see from a biblical standpoint.
I think of the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and in one scene Indiana Jones has to transverse a deep gorge on an invisible bridge. He takes some dirt and throws it on this bridge and when the dirt hit the bridge you could see the contours of this bridge.
By turning to Scripture I hope the same is happening for us that you can visualize the bridge of virtue and character that God wants us to use to transverse from the moment we are saved until our ultimate salvation.
III. The third and final point I want to emphasize this morning is critical to all of this and that is TRANSFORMATION
WE HAVE TO BE TRANSFORMED PEOPLE – WE ARE SINFUL AND HAVE DEEP FLAWS AND EVIL THAT LURKS EVER SO CLOSE – WE MUST BE TRANSFORMED- CHANGED- DIFFERENT – NEW
We don’t need a new set of rules – we need transformed character
To understand this point we must turn back to our text in Mark 10. The story of the Rich Young Ruler is framed up by two other stories.
1st – Mark 10:2-12 the teachers of the Law had come to Jesus to catch him in a question about divorce. This was a political hot potato during this time because Herod had married his brother’s wife. Jesus answers this question masterfully by not trying to argue with sophistry but goes back to God’s very original intent for marriage. Jesus points to what was God’s main intent on this subject.
2nd – Mark 10: 35-45 we see the other story that frames this story is the story of James and John asking for a seat of privilege in the Kingdom. They wanted power just like many human people crave and chase. Jesus goes back to God’s original intent on God for Human Power and how that works in God’s kingdom.
In Mark 10 we see Jesus address the three things that dog and destroy our culture.
SEX, MONEY, And POWER - In all three of these things that tend to bend and distort humanity Jesus goes back to God’s original intent. This is what God had wanted for Human sexual relationships, the stewardship of possessions, and how Human power should be exercised. In this chapter we see Jesus remind us that God is calling the world back to what HE WANTS FOR US AND NOT WHAT WE DESIRE.
TRUE TRANSFORMED CHARACTER UNDERSTANDS OUR PLACE IN GOD’S STORY- WHAT DOES GOD WANT FOR THE WORLD – HOW DO I FIT INTO GOD’S PLAN FOR OUR WORLD?
WHEN WE SEE OURSELVES CAUGHT UP IN GOD’S GRAND RESCUE PLAN FOR HUMANITY AND THAT WE ARE PART OF SOMETHING MUCH BIGGER THAN JUST WHAT WE WANT, IT WILL NOT BE VERY HARD TO ALLOW GOD TO TRANSFORM OUR DESIRES INTO HIS DESIRES
WE MUST WANT WHAT GOD WANTS – WE MUST CRAVE FOR THE WORLD WHAT GOD CRAVES – WE NEED TO BE ADVANCED SIGN POSTS TO A LOST AND DYING WORLD SAYING THIS IS HOW TRUE HUMANITY LIVES AND FLOURISHES!
CONCLUSION:
Jesus sums up with this young man that when in doubt Just Follow Me. As we navigate this confusing world that is throwing all kinds of curve balls at us we just sometimes need to make it that simple. Pick up your Bible and ask the question, HOW DID JESUS DO IT?
IT MAY BE THAT SIMPLE.
A story of a young boy may illustrate this idea.
A gentleman proposed to drive with his wife to the beautiful cemetery beyond the town. Calling his little four-year-old he told him to get ready. The child's countenance fell, and the father said, "Don't you want to go, Willie?" The little lip quivered, but the child answered, "Yes, papa, if you wish." The child was strangely silent during the drive, and when the carriage drove under the wide archway he clung to his mother's side and looked up in her face with pathetic wistfulness. The party alighted and walked among the graves and along the shaded avenues, looking at the inscriptions. After an hour they returned to the carriage and the father lifted his little son to his seat. The child looked surprised, and drew a breath of relief and asked, "Why, am I going back with you?" "Of course you are; why not?" "I thought when they took little boys to the cemetery they left them there," he said. As this little child said obediently, "Yes, papa, if you wish," though he thought he was going to a horrible death, so we should always say, "Yes, Lord," to any command, though it seems like our death warrant.
There are some here today that need to get into that car just as that boy did. There are doubts that you have and I will tell you that you will never have all of those doubts answered. Sometimes you must take courage and just follow Christ.
The question can be framed as the following: I know that salvation is a gift from God and there is nothing I can do to earn my salvation. But what about once I am a Christian? Am I to just follow rules and regulations out of fear of God? Am I to just live just like I want to?
I am around many young people every day that are in desperate need of an answer to this question. Many groups come in and teach a basic evangelistic sermon and ask people to make a decision to follow Jesus or come to Jesus. They ask people to invite Jesus into their heart and tell them the importance of being saved. I think we would all agree with this, that one must accept Christ and make an initial decision to follow him. But this is where many leave the story and teaching stops. Basically I meet many confused young people that think that they have punched their ticket and they are saved. Now they are just trying to find happiness for themselves. Many don’t even belong to a Church. They are what I call ‘lone ranger’ Christians. This is why we are finding more and more people that profess Christianity and claim that they have been saved but live like the Devil.
But I think a bigger problem is at play. There is no teaching on what the Bible says on the matter. They don’t want to tackle the big question of what happens once I am saved.
I would propose that that this problem plays out in the individual as well as in society.
To keep this in our mind I would propose that we begin tackling this question by visualizing a river. We are on the bank of this river looking over the churning water. The bank that we are standing on is our moment of initial salvation. We have just placed our faith in Jesus and we are fresh out of the baptismal waters. On the other bank is Heaven, resurrection from the dead, or ultimate salvation. The River that we must transverse is our life. This is the tough task of navigating as a Christian in a fallen world.
What I am proposing this morning is a discussion on the bridge that takes us from the moment of initial salvation to our ultimate destiny. What would the bridge look like and how do we get to the other side. We will take a few weeks to look in depth at this idea of living the Christian life in a very Biblical and deliberate way. When we are finished my prayer is that we can describe exactly how to navigate this river or life and bridge from our time of salvation until our ultimate salvation at the end of our lives.
How the World Looks at this Problems:
1) Just obey as system of rules – have a check box mentality. Do a system of checks to please God. Go down a punch list of dos and stay away from the don’ts and things will be okay.
2) Just discover who ‘I am’. I must be true to myself. It is all about my happiness. God has given me grace and now I just need to find out who I really am and express myself to the world.
We see these two options played out in the private lives of many but in large cultural settings such as the government.
The Biblical answer to this quandary is TRANSFORMED CHARACTER
We can have all the rules and regulations that we please but if we don’t have character to do what is right in every situation then we will have chaos.
If we are honest with each other we would agree that we constantly live in a struggle between obeying rules imposed upon us and doing the desires of our heart. When we get into trouble is when the desires of our heart are much greater than our will to follow the rules. That is when we get into trouble.
I see this in classroom management in teaching my class. I have had years when I have had to have many classroom rules and I had to enforce them regularly. I have had other classes that had great character and I didn’t have to have many rules at all. The classes with great character were the ones that flourished and learned the most.
We see this playing out now in our own country. On the national level we have a government that has laws on the books that they refuse to enforce. The current controversy between our federal government and the state of Arizona Is an example of this. Arizona passes an immigration law that is much like the federal law of the same kind. The difference is that the federal government has not had the character or fortitude to enforce the law already on the books. What we need to fix people and our nation as a whole is not more laws and regulations but people of great character.
Francis Schaeffer was a Christian philosopher that said in the 1980’s that we cannot have freedom without chaos in the U.S. unless our people have a shared value system that involves people of high character. When character erodes the government will have to swoop in and regulate morality and make more laws. Now we see a population that is becoming less and less virtuous but at the same time a government that is even less virtuous.
Now is the time for the Church to find its voice on the issue of character.
I. This morning I will propose that the bridge that I mentioned earlier is transformed character.
We must see the Christian life in terms of TRANSFORMED CHARACTER
To get our minds around this from a Biblical view point I would like to look at the story of the Rich Young Ruler in Mark 10
Mark 10: 17-27
17 As He was setting out on a journey, a man ran up to Him and knelt before Him, and asked Him, "Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life ?" 18 And Jesus said to him, "Why do you call Me good ? No one is good except God alone. 19 "You know the commandments, 'DO NOT MURDER, DO NOT COMMIT ADULTERY, DO NOT STEAL, DO NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS, Do not defraud, HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER.' " 20 And he said to Him, "Teacher, I have kept all these things from my youth up." 21 Looking at him, Jesus felt a love for him and said to him, "One thing you lack : go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven ; and come, follow Me." 22 But at these words he was saddened, and he went away grieving, for he was one who owned much property. 23 And Jesus, looking around, said to His disciples, "How hard it will be for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God !" 24 The disciples were amazed at His words. But Jesus answered again and said to them, "Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God ! 25 "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." 26 They were even more astonished and said to Him, "Then who can be saved ?" 27 Looking at them, Jesus said, "With people it is impossible, but not with God ; for all things are possible with God."
From this passage we need to note some important things.
Running – the man runs to Jesus and this was undignified in the culture of this time. Men just did not run in ancient Israel unless it was life or death. This man has something important to ask Jesus. He has a real sense of urgency.
We see quickly that his question is “WHAT DO I DO TO INHERIT ETERNAL LIFE?”
What does he mean by this question? The Jews understood eternal life to mean the general resurrection from the dead that would be accomplished at the end of the age in which all faithful Jews that had been faithful to the covenant would enjoy.
HE IS ASKING: HOW DO I LIVE NOW TO BE ABLE TO ENJOY OR INHERIT THE LIFE TO COME.
THIS IS MUCH LIKE THE QUESTION OR THE BRIDGE OVER THE RIVER THAT I PROPOSED EARLIER THIS MORNING. HOW DO I GET FROM NOW TO FINAL SALVATION? THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT HE IS ASKING.
WE MAY, MORE SPECIFICALLY, PUT IT AS HOW DO I BEHAVE TO PLEASE GOD?
2 questions are contained in this man’s question.
1) Content of behavior – What specific things should I do and not do – the nuts and bolts of how I behave.
2) Means or method - How will I do this? How will I live out this type of life? How do I put these rules into practice?
This is the question I think we would all love to ask Jesus today if we had the chance.
What do I do?
How do I do that?
These are very practical questions.
Jesus’ answer is very simple - FOLLOW ME!
In Jesus we see what to do and exactly how to do it. In the life of Christ we get exactly what one must and must not do and how you go about accomplishing it.
II. Building A bridge – involves having THE GOAL ever before us.
Great sports teams and business are very goal directed. People set a goal and keep that goal before them. We will watch athletes train their bodies to the point of exhaustion and go beyond that point because their goal is ever before them. I would propose that Christians must be the same way when we consider navigating from the point of initial salvation to the time of our final salvation.
We must keep the goal of Heaven and fellowship with Christ face to face ever before us.
The boy in this story has this sense of goal. He numbers the Last 6 of the 10 commandments that he has been faithful too. He has not murdered, not stolen, not bore false witness, not committed fraud, and has been faithful to his parents.
The 10 commandments to a Jew were the obligation that Jew had to observe to be covenantly faithful to God.
This young man new he was incomplete, he sensed it because he is here asking Jesus this question. The word for complete in Greek is from the same root as the word for Goal.
In other words in the original language of the New Testament the ideas of completeness and accomplishing a goal are tied together.
This young man knows that he is lacking. The rich young ruler had taken on a checkbox mentality and had lost sight of the goal. His character was in question because he had allowed his great possessions to replace his devotion to God.
Jesus takes this young man back to the most important command of all. The command that prohibited idols IS THE ONE THAT JESUS IS DRIVING HOME WITH THIS YOUNG MAN. God must come first and then your neighbor. We must love God first and then love those around us. That basically summed up all of the Law and the prophets.
This applies to us as well. Do we see our own lives as God sees us? God sees the ultimate goal of a new creation. God sees us as New Creatures in Christ.
God sees us as saved, justified, and cleansed. God sees our future and wants to bring that future into our present.
God wants us to start behaving like Kingdom people.
Isn’t that what God did in Christ? By Jesus’ resurrection from the dead God gave us an advanced sign of what is to come for all of us.
In the same way he wants to show the world through us and our transformed lives what he has in store for our world at the end of time when the New Heavens and New Earth are revealed and the New Jerusalem descends from Heaven.
God wants us to begin that type of living now!
Ephesians 2: 4-64 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved ), 6 and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus
Paul states as a matter of fact that we are RAISED UP – PAST TENSE- AND SEATED WITH CHRIST IN THE HEAVENLY PLACES
That is what God sees in us when we are saved and washed in the blood of Christ. That is the present reality.
We should behave as heavenly beings.
Would you not believe that a heavenly being would behave would great character?
We must see the goal that God has glorious things planned for us. He will give us a wonderful resurrected body free from sin but now is the time God starts to work away on us and sanctify us. The work of sanctification is a work of God that we have to make ourselves available to.
God does this through just tough hard work. Not hard work that earns your salvation but hard work that God has planned for us to prepare us for His Kingdom life. This process of sanctification creates a saintly person with transformed character.
I hope that this type of bridge of transformed character is becoming easier to see from a biblical standpoint.
I think of the movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and in one scene Indiana Jones has to transverse a deep gorge on an invisible bridge. He takes some dirt and throws it on this bridge and when the dirt hit the bridge you could see the contours of this bridge.
By turning to Scripture I hope the same is happening for us that you can visualize the bridge of virtue and character that God wants us to use to transverse from the moment we are saved until our ultimate salvation.
III. The third and final point I want to emphasize this morning is critical to all of this and that is TRANSFORMATION
WE HAVE TO BE TRANSFORMED PEOPLE – WE ARE SINFUL AND HAVE DEEP FLAWS AND EVIL THAT LURKS EVER SO CLOSE – WE MUST BE TRANSFORMED- CHANGED- DIFFERENT – NEW
We don’t need a new set of rules – we need transformed character
To understand this point we must turn back to our text in Mark 10. The story of the Rich Young Ruler is framed up by two other stories.
1st – Mark 10:2-12 the teachers of the Law had come to Jesus to catch him in a question about divorce. This was a political hot potato during this time because Herod had married his brother’s wife. Jesus answers this question masterfully by not trying to argue with sophistry but goes back to God’s very original intent for marriage. Jesus points to what was God’s main intent on this subject.
2nd – Mark 10: 35-45 we see the other story that frames this story is the story of James and John asking for a seat of privilege in the Kingdom. They wanted power just like many human people crave and chase. Jesus goes back to God’s original intent on God for Human Power and how that works in God’s kingdom.
In Mark 10 we see Jesus address the three things that dog and destroy our culture.
SEX, MONEY, And POWER - In all three of these things that tend to bend and distort humanity Jesus goes back to God’s original intent. This is what God had wanted for Human sexual relationships, the stewardship of possessions, and how Human power should be exercised. In this chapter we see Jesus remind us that God is calling the world back to what HE WANTS FOR US AND NOT WHAT WE DESIRE.
TRUE TRANSFORMED CHARACTER UNDERSTANDS OUR PLACE IN GOD’S STORY- WHAT DOES GOD WANT FOR THE WORLD – HOW DO I FIT INTO GOD’S PLAN FOR OUR WORLD?
WHEN WE SEE OURSELVES CAUGHT UP IN GOD’S GRAND RESCUE PLAN FOR HUMANITY AND THAT WE ARE PART OF SOMETHING MUCH BIGGER THAN JUST WHAT WE WANT, IT WILL NOT BE VERY HARD TO ALLOW GOD TO TRANSFORM OUR DESIRES INTO HIS DESIRES
WE MUST WANT WHAT GOD WANTS – WE MUST CRAVE FOR THE WORLD WHAT GOD CRAVES – WE NEED TO BE ADVANCED SIGN POSTS TO A LOST AND DYING WORLD SAYING THIS IS HOW TRUE HUMANITY LIVES AND FLOURISHES!
CONCLUSION:
Jesus sums up with this young man that when in doubt Just Follow Me. As we navigate this confusing world that is throwing all kinds of curve balls at us we just sometimes need to make it that simple. Pick up your Bible and ask the question, HOW DID JESUS DO IT?
IT MAY BE THAT SIMPLE.
A story of a young boy may illustrate this idea.
A gentleman proposed to drive with his wife to the beautiful cemetery beyond the town. Calling his little four-year-old he told him to get ready. The child's countenance fell, and the father said, "Don't you want to go, Willie?" The little lip quivered, but the child answered, "Yes, papa, if you wish." The child was strangely silent during the drive, and when the carriage drove under the wide archway he clung to his mother's side and looked up in her face with pathetic wistfulness. The party alighted and walked among the graves and along the shaded avenues, looking at the inscriptions. After an hour they returned to the carriage and the father lifted his little son to his seat. The child looked surprised, and drew a breath of relief and asked, "Why, am I going back with you?" "Of course you are; why not?" "I thought when they took little boys to the cemetery they left them there," he said. As this little child said obediently, "Yes, papa, if you wish," though he thought he was going to a horrible death, so we should always say, "Yes, Lord," to any command, though it seems like our death warrant.
There are some here today that need to get into that car just as that boy did. There are doubts that you have and I will tell you that you will never have all of those doubts answered. Sometimes you must take courage and just follow Christ.
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