Follow Me...I will make you...

Following…Being Transformed

The call of Jesus, ‘Follow Me and I will make you fishers of me’ is nothing less than an invitation to experience a radical change of life.

As we saw last Sunday Jesus’ crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension didn’t change His call to be with Him. Rather, He promised to send His Holy Spirit to indwell us so that He would be ‘in’ us and we would experience no interruption of His presence.

If only there were concrete, specific example of one who never walked with Jesus as those early disciples did who could help us know what it means to follow Jesus and experience His promise of a transformed life.

We looked at Peter - and as important as his example is - he DID walk with Jesus before and after.

What about you and I - and generations past and future - who never had quite the privilege Peter and others had?

Of course there is one - actually there are likely millions - whose life illustrates this life. And this one left us letters that can help us discover how we too can experience the life-transformation of Jesus.

At least twice Paul challenged those who read his letters to ‘imitate’ him as he imitated Jesus.

Simply put, to follow Jesus means to live as Jesus did, to do the things Jesus did, to speak the way Jesus spoke, to listen and respond the way that Jesus did. Dallas Willard describes following Jesus with these words:

Jesus’ followers were to bring the presence of the Kingdom and its King into every corner of human life, simply by living fully in the Kingdom with him.

Renovation of the Heart: Putting on the Character of Christ (Colorado Springs, CO.: Navpress, 2002), 15.

Let’s investigate one passage from Paul and learn what we can about allowing Jesus’ life to be expressed in our life:

READ Romans 6:1-18

Experiencing Life ‘In Christ’

Romans 6:4–10 HCSB

Therefore we were buried with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in a new way of life. For if we have been joined with Him in the likeness of His death, we will certainly also be in the likeness of His resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with Him in order that sin’s dominion over the body may be abolished, so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin, since a person who has died is freed from sin’s claims. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him, because we know that Christ, having been raised from the dead, will not die again. Death no longer rules over Him. For in light of the fact that He died, He died to sin once for all; but in light of the fact that He lives, He lives to God.

a. newness of life

What exactly is this ‘new life?’ For many believers the days and weeks after their intitial response to following Jesus is, well, pretty much like the days and weeks before!

Unlike Peter and those whom Jesus called as He walked the beaches of the Sea of Galilee, unlike Paul who literally was blinded for several days after his life-altering encounter, most of us face the same circumstances, the same family, the same community as before.

So, ‘new life?’

Paul’s words to believers in Philippians may have a clue:

Philippians 3:10–11 HCSB

My goal is to know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, assuming that I will somehow reach the resurrection from among the dead.

This ‘new life’ which is given to us because Jesus died paying the penalty for our sin, and experienced life-giving resurrection by the power of God - who is life in and of Himself- gives US His life in place of the old life.

Even for Peter, Paul and others we read about in the NT the new life was NOT ABOUT a new location. It is about a new way of living - even in your present circumstances.

One example:

Luke recalls an episode from Jesus’ life as He casts demons (legions of them) from an individual living in a predominately Gentile community. When the demons were gone, the man “begged” Jesus to travel with Him. Jesus’ instructions:

Luke 8:39 (HCSB)

“Go back to your home, and tell all that God has done for you.” And off he went, proclaiming throughout the town all that Jesus had done for him.

That is new life! Going back to the same people who had watched him descend into demon possession, the same people who had tried unsuccessfully to contain him - and share with them the source of this new life.

Old Life - ruled by sin;

Most of the desires that express themselves in life are not sinful in and of themselves. Food, clothing, relationships - these are all part of what it means to be created in the image and likeness of God.

However, sin has twisted these desires. Instead of eating for nourishment, we eat to deal with stress, we eat to try out of nervousness and anxiety. Instead of wearing comfortable and appropriate clothing we find ourselves swayed by advertisers persuading us we need this or that label. Instead of living in relationships as equals before God we seek ways to dominate and control those around us.

New Life - expressing the life of Jesus

The new life, though, is simply the life of Jesus expressed in us. Jesus ate, rested, dressed, spent time with family and friends, and so on. As He lived He laughed, He cared, He listened, He demonstrated what it means to be human as God intended humans to be.

Consider Yourself DEAD to sin…ALIVE to God

Romans 6:11 HCSB

So, you too consider yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

We often hear other believers say ‘let go and let God.’ That sounds biblical, and there are moments when we do need to get out of God’s way.

However, when Paul writes, ‘consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God...’ he isn’t counseling a let go and let God approach.

Rather, as he writes in other letters you and I have to participate in this new life.

To the Philippians he wrote:

Philippians 2:12–13 (HCSB)

So then, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now even more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

For it is God who is working in you, enabling you both to desire and to work out His good purpose.

To the Colossians he expressed it this way:

Colossians 3:8–10 (HCSB)

But now you must also put away all the following: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and filthy language from your mouth.

Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old self with its practices

and have put on the new self. You are being renewed in knowledge according to the image of your Creator.

To the Ephesians he wrote,

Ephesians 4:20–24 (HCSB)

But that is not how you learned about the Messiah,

assuming you heard about Him and were taught by Him, because the truth is in Jesus.

You took off your former way of life, the old self that is corrupted by deceitful desires;

you are being renewed in the spirit of your minds;

you put on the new self, the one created according to God’s likeness in righteousness and purity of the truth.

Each of those analogies are worth exploring in detail - but not this morning.

Rather, I share those to help us grasp the result of the new life means.

It means we discipline our minds to think differently, we exercise discipline so that our actions are in line with the actions of Jesus. When Paul wrote to the believers in Corinth,

1 Corinthians 11:1 HCSB

Imitate me, as I also imitate Christ.

he meant exaclty that. Do as I do, because I do as Christ did.

This is specifically what Jesus promised in

John 14:12 (HCSB)

“I assure you: The one who believes in Me will also do the works that I do. And he will do even greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.

Do you ever wonder why many believers live defeated, discouraged, and dejected lives?

Have you ever considered why some churches experience God’s presence in a vibrant way?

Dallas Willard quotes Evelyn Christenson on this issue:

Sometimes we take a perfectly good word from the Bible (such as ‘chastisement,’ ‘suffering,’ ‘submission,’ ‘healing,’ ‘God’s justice,’), dive immediately into our pool of ‘I thinks’

and weave them subtly and securely around that word, leaving the impression that all our ‘I thinks’ about the word were included in the scriptural meaning of the word.

Dallas Willard, The Spirit of the Disciplines: Understanding How God Changes Lives (New York, N.Y.: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1988), 107.

Let’s not confuse the word Paul uses in Rom 6:11 with what we ‘think’ the word means.

The word ‘consider’ or ‘reckon’ is not something done to us, it is something we must do.

Because of the new life we’ve been given - at the cost of Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension - we are to THINK ourselves into acting as Jesus acted, as Paul acted.

It is a choice we make. If you’ve ever watched a child mimic their favorite athlete, you’ve seen this in practice.

The child watches the athlete. Then carefully and deliberately the child tries to mimic - in every way - the actions of the athlete.

The actions may become ‘second nature’ at some point in the childs behavior, but it starts with a conscious choice to mimic certain actions.

I can sense some of you going here: yes, pastor - let’s ask ‘What Would Jesus Do?’

But that’s not where I want to go.

Rather, let’s rephrase the question:

In any situation you find yourself, don’t just do what Jesus might have done. Instead, THINK - what moved Jesus to act as He did?

Look through the gospels with this lens - and you will discover that Jesus’ motivation - in every single case - was to bring the reality of the King and to bring the presence of the Kingdom to bear.

Was Jesus tempted to sin? Yes. Matthew and Luke both record three specific temptations diesJesus experienced.

But that event was not the end. Luke reminds us that at the end of the experience, the devil “departed from him for a time.” (Luke 4:13).

Which means from that moment on - in every experience, in every encounter, in every interaction Jesus had to apply His mind - to ‘consider’ himself dead to sin.

PERHAPS THAT EXPLAINS WHY HE NEEDED TO WITHDRAW AND BE ALONE WITH THE FATHER ON A REGULAR BASIS!!!!!!!

Submitting Our Bodies

Romans 6:17–18 (HCSB)

But thank God that, although you used to be slaves of sin, you obeyed from the heart that pattern of teaching you were transferred to,

and having been liberated from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness.

Somehow I (and likely some of you) have decided that following Jesus is about mentally assenting to the truths He embodies. We are willing to discipline our minds - for a few moments each day, and maybe a few hours each Sunday.

But are we really expected to evaluate where I shop? Where I eat out? Where I buy clothes? What I listen to on the radio, watch on TV, or explore on social media?

Are we honestly expected to evaluate all the choices we make through the lens of the new life and the call to ‘consider’ or ‘reckon’ ourselves ‘dead to sin?’

The biblical answer is an unqualified YES.

“the pattern of teaching to which you were handed over” is a reference to what Jesus told His followers in Matthew 28:18-20

Matthew 28:18–20 (HCSB)

Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Henry David Thoreau once wrote,

‘The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.’

I wonder if he was observing many who claim to be followers of Jesus.

To listen and look in on the lives of many believers you’d think that hope was gone, that God’s power has vanished, that all that is left for followers is to quietly wait for Jesus to return so that the suffering and misery of life would finally be ended

Paul, whose example of following Jesus is so enlightening, would have scoffed at such thoughts.

Yes, he anxiously awaited the return of Jesus. Yes, he experienced more physical suffering than most, he knew loneliness and loss.

But even in the dungeon of a prison he challenged his audiences to ‘Rejoice!’ no less than 8 times in the letter to believers in Philippi.

How is living with joy possible in the midst of such suffering?

Dallas Willard explains,

Paul and his Lord were people of immense power, who saw clearly the wayward ways the world considered natural. With calm premeditation and clear vision of a deeper order, they took their stand…With their feet firmly planted in the deeper order of God, they lived lives of utter self-sacrifice and abandonment, seeing in such a life the highest personal attainment. And through that way of living God gave them ‘the power of an indestructible life’ (Heb 7:16) to accomplish the work of their appointed ministry and to raise them above the power of death.

Willard, Spirit of the Disciplines, 106-107.

Paul wrote, Imitate me as I imitate Jesus...

a. are we immersed in the Word of God so thoroughly that our minds are thinking the thoughts of God?

b. Are we familiar enough with the habits of Jesus - solitude, prayer, silence, fasting, and so on, to imitate Him in these habits? (we will explore some of these practices over the next few Sunday Mornings)

c. Will we choose (i.e.consider/reckon) ourselves dead to the sin that once bound us and live the life God has given us, the life God sustains through the indwelling Holy Spirit?

As we listen to this song ask yourself-

Have I given myself as fully as I can to Jesus as both Savor and Lord?

Am I fully committed to His way of life, given and sustained by the indwelling Holy Spirit?

What steps need I to take to consider/reckon myself dead to sin and alive to God?