Training From The Inside Out

Called on the carpet, for raising a man off the carpet

Acts 4:13 NIV

When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.

Changed, transformed, made new…different

In their beginning...

Mark 3:13 NIV

Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him.

Mark 3:14–15 NIV

He appointed twelve that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons.

Mark 3:16–17 NIV

These are the twelve he appointed: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter), James son of Zebedee and his brother John (to them he gave the name Boanerges, which means “sons of thunder”),

Mark 3:18–19 NIV

Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

Let’s look at one of the sons of thunder.

Early John

Luke 9:51 NIV

As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem.

Luke 9:52 NIV

And he sent messengers on ahead, who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him;

Luke 9:53 NIV

but the people there did not welcome him, because he was heading for Jerusalem.

Luke 9:54 NIV

When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?”

Luke 9:55–56 NIV

But Jesus turned and rebuked them. Then he and his disciples went to another village.

John, the Apostle of Love

1 John 4:7–8 NIV

Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

Wisdom from surrender

1 John 3:11–12 NIV

For this is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother’s were righteous.

Beware murderous tendencies

1 John 3:13 NIV

Do not be surprised, my brothers and sisters, if the world hates you.

1 John 3:14 NIV

We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love each other. Anyone who does not love remains in death.

1 John 3:15 NIV

Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him.

Often hated, but not haters

1 John 3:16 NIV

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.

1 John 3:17 NIV

If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person?

The evil of indifference

But then, there is the love from Christ expressed in Christian love

1 John 3:18 NIV

Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.

1 John 3:19–20 NIV

This is how we know that we belong to the truth and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence: If our hearts condemn us, we know that God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.

1 John 3:21–22 NIV

Dear friends, if our hearts do not condemn us, we have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him.

1 John 3:23 NIV

And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.

1 John 3:24 NIV

The one who keeps God’s commands lives in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.

Transformed through surrender

1 Corinthians 11:23–24 NIV

For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.”

1 Corinthians 11:25–26 NIV

In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

Paul understood transformation, and articulated it well.

2 Corinthians 4:1 NIV

Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart.

2 Corinthians 4:2 NIV

Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God.

2 Corinthians 4:3–4 NIV

And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

2 Corinthians 4:5 NIV

For what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.

2 Corinthians 4:6 NIV

For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.

2 Corinthians 4:7 NIV

But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.

2 Corinthians 4:8–9 NIV

We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.

2 Corinthians 4:10 (NIV)

We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.

2 Corinthians 4:11 NIV

For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body.

2 Corinthians 4:12 NIV

So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.