July 17th, Selected Scriptures. Conformed to the Image of Christ. I. Introduc4on A. The Great Commission

Transcription

1 I. Introduc4on A. The Great Commission Conformed to the Image of Christ 1. Ma:hew 28:16-20: Christ, Community, Commission B. Values and Commitments (the core convic4ons that lie at the heart of our ministry) 1. Commi'ed to Gospel Centered Proclama5on a) The gospel is a piece of astounding news of an event that God has brought about in 4me and space, and that has changed the des4ny of the universe and every soul in it. b) The gospel is the announcement that God has revealed his kingdom and opened it up to sinners through the birth, teachings, miracles, death and resurrec4on of the Lord Jesus Christ, who will one day return to overthrow evil and consummate the kingdom for eternity Commi'ed to Christ Centered Worship a) We are commi:ed to gospel centered proclama4on because we believe the Trinitarian God is worthy to be worshiped by all people, everywhere, for all eternity. b) We believe this worship, which takes places in a rhythm of adora4on and ac4on is itself a public witness to the reality and truth of the Gospel announcement and our allegiance to the Kingdom of God. 3. Commi'ed to being conformed to the image of Christ by the love of Christ. a) Ma:hew 28:16-20 teaching them to obey all that i have commanded. This is the process of what we call discipleship (appren4ceship). Theologically is is the process of sanc4fica4on, today you may use the language of the process of Spiritual forma4on. b) We are not commi:ed to preaching and worshiping Christ to see a group of converts but rather a community of disciples. c) At the core we are talking about the transforma4onal process that begins with regenerated life as a person becomes Jesus disciple, iden4fies with the 1 (Dickson 2010, 22) Page 1

2 II. community of faith, and engages in a purposeful pa:ern of life in which he or she learns to obey all that He commanded. Transforma4on con4nues as the disciple inten4onally pursues being conformed to Jesus image, which is carried out in our everyday world of personal, public, community, and family life. 2 d) Romans 8:29-30, And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predes4ned to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predes4ned he also called, and those whom he called he also jus4fied, and those whom he jus4fied he also glorified. e) This morning i want to talk about the process of being conformed to the image Conformed to Christ of Christ. I want to talk about why we need to be conformed, the level at which their conforming takes place (deeper than behavior but our desires and affec4ons), give us a clear vision of who we are being conformed to, and how this takes place in our life. A. Why do we need to be conformed? 1. We were created to be worshipers; we worship what we love; and we become like what we worship. 2. Although we remain worshipers, in our brokenness and rebellion we have turned from worship the Father, to worshiping ourselves. Our turn from the love of God (in Eden) to the love of self has made us devilishly ugly, [and] ever more self-absorbed and vicious. 3 a) Jeremiah 17:9, The heart is deceieul above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it? 3. Our problem lies in not just that we do bad things, but that we love the wrong things. Something deeper has gone wrong in the garden than just our behavior. Adam and Eve remain lovers and worshipers. Lovers we remain, but twisted, our 2 3 (Andrews 2010, 83) (Reeves 2012, 93) Page 2

3 love misdirected and perverted. Created to love God, we turn to love ourselves and anything but God This is what went wrong in the garden of God: those who were made to enjoy the beauty of the Lord turned away to enjoy their own. Love s longings and the desires of their hearts shiged from the Lord to themselves. And thus, instead of running to him, they would now hide from him. 4 a) James 1:14-15, But each person is tempted when he is lured and en4ced by his own desire. 15 Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. 4. Both Augus4ne and Luther discuss this. Augus4ne writes [in the City of God], Accordingly, two ci4es have been formed by two loves: the earthly by the love of self, even to the contempt of God; the heavenly by the love of God, even to the contempt of self. The former, in a word, glories in itself, the la:er in the Lord. 5. It is not just that we do bad things, it is deeper than that There is always a symmetry between the problem and the solu4on. If the problem is not just bad behavior, but twisted love, what is the solu4on. B. What does it mean to be conformed to the Image of Christ? 1. Bill Hull Conformity to the image of Christ is to believe as Jesus believed, live as He lived, love as He loved, minister as He ministered, and lead as He led Gala4ans 5:22-24, But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, pa4ence, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. C. How does the Father conform us to the image of Christ? 1. Here s where we ogen make a misstep. It would be easy to state the need for this transforma4on, and give a defini4on and then god tell you to do it. Then when telling you doesn t work to use guilt, shame, and fear as mo4vators. I do not believe this the way to approach it. I believe there is a stronger mo4vator than guilt, shame, and fear and that is love. Not our love for God, but His love for us! 4 (Reeves 2012, 66) 5 Andrews 2010, 112) Page 3

4 2. The enlightening/illumina4ng work of the Holy Spirit. a) How does the Holy Spirit enlighten us to know the love of God? By opening our eyes to the glory (beauty) of Christ. b) 2 Corinthians 4:6, For God, who said, Let light shine out of darkness, has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. (1) This is the same picture as we have in Genesis 1 of God crea4ng life. New birth is a miracle produced by the power and working of the Trinitarian God. (2) By revealing the beauty, love, glory, and kindness of Christ to me, the Spirit kindles in me an even deeper and sincerer love for God. And as He s4rs me to think ever more on Christ, he makes me more and more Godlike: less selfobsessed and more Christ-obsessed Through seeing Christ for who He is, we are transformed. a) 2 Corinthians 3:18, And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. b) Richard Sibbes This very beholding of Christ is a transforming sight. The Spirit that makes us new creatures, and s4rs us up to behold this servant, it is a transforming beholding A man cannot look upon the love of God and of Christ in the gospel, but it will change him to be like God and of Christ in the gospel,. For how can we see Christ, and God in Christ, but we shall see how God hates sin, and this will transform us to hate it as God doth, who hated it so that it could not be expiated but with the blood of Christ, God-man. So, seeing the holiness of God in it, it will transform us to be holy. When we see the love of God in the Gospel, and the love of Christ giving himself for us, this will transform us to love God By the pouring out of the love of God into our hearts by the Spirit. 6 7 (Reeves 2012, 93) (Reeves 2012, 92) Page 4

5 a) Romans 5:5, God s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. b) The gospel is not simply an invita4on to become law-abiding ci4zens in the Kingdom of God. It is an invita4on into the life of the Trinitarian God, where we experience, in ever-increasing measures, the love the Father has for the Son, and the love the Son has for the Father. And because we are united to the Son, we come to know and experience how deep the Father s love for us, how vast beyond all measure. 5. The presence of this love (a deeper desire/affec4on) then controls our lives. III. Closing Thoughts a) 2 Corinthians 5:14-15, For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; 15 and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. A. Desire and duty are two different mo4ves. 1. Duty will run out, if our desires don t win over. 2. When the love of God seems like an idea instead of a reality, I find myself driging into a duty mind-set. When i do this, I have a big problem, because i drig out of grace and away from the desire God placed in my heart. I end up feeling like following Jesus is a burden to carry, a goal to achieve, instead of a rela4onship to live in Duty without love turns us into workers without rela4onship. Instead of seeing ourselves as beloved sons and daughters of a heavenly Father who adores us, we become servants of a harsh and distant king Thomas Chalmers once stated that no one can dispossess the heart of an old affec4on, but by the expulsive power of a new one. B. The gospel is working in us love for Christ, not a mere external performance for Christ. 1. The invita4on, the miracle is that God is really plan4ng his love so deep in our souls that it untwists our brokenness and turns us back to the love of God. The experience of the love of the Father, Son, and Spirit moves us from duty to desire. 8 McKinley 2011, 28, 33) Page 5

6 2. We cannot choose what we love, but always love what seems desirable to us. Thus we will only change what we love when something proves itself to be more desirable to us than what we already have. I will, then, always love sin and the world un4l I truly sense that Christ is be:er Without a keen awareness and regular experiences of our Fathers love we forget whose we are and our focus shigs from rela4onship to work. Working for God becomes more important than loving God. What we do for God becomes more important than who we are as his beloved sons and daughters. 10 C. We become like Christ, as we gaze on Christ. 1. Beholding is becoming. As we behold Christ, we become like Christ. When we behold Jesus as we should, the change is profound. 2. My boys and baseball players. D. Total sight will mean total change. John Piper 1. Our comple4on of becoming like Jesus will happen at our final beholding of Jesus John 3:2, Beloved, we are God s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is (Reeves 2012, 101) (Seamands 2005, 67) Page 6