Sermon preached at Stokesley Christian Fellowship on 26 March, 2023

Become Like Jesus!

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.”

Last time I visited you, I spoke to you on one of our Fellowship’s purpose statements namely, as followers of Jesus we want to: Be With Jesus

Tonight I want to share with your the second of our purpose statements, namely, as followers of Jesus we want to: Become Like Jesus.

And if you invite me back, just one more time, I will seek to speak to you about the third of our purpose statements, namely, as followers of Jesus we want to: Do What Jesus Did

So, BECOME LIKE JESUS!

When we come to know Jesus through REGENERATION, we get to BE WITH JESUS!

When we grow to BECOME LIKE JESUS, we do this through SANCTIFICATION.

This is a part of our ‘spiritual formation’. Paul calls this a “transformation” in 2 Corinthians 3:18. The greek word is metamorphioo which is transliterated into English as metamorphosis, which we know from nature describes the profound change in form from the caterpillar stage, to the pupa and from the pupa to the butterfly.

This change is sometimes referred to as SPIRITUAL FORMATION - Dallas Willard defines it in this way, ‘Spiritual formation in the Christian tradition is a process of increasingly being possessed and permeated by the character traits (of Jesus) as we walk in the easy yoke of discipleship with Jesus our teacher.’ (Why Bother With Discipleship?). So, this sermons is about the process of spiritual formation that leads to us BECOMING MORE AND MORE LIKE JESUS!

1. We BECOME LIKE JESUS through following Him in discipleship.

“When Jesus said I am the way, he wasn't just saying the way to get forgiveness of sins. He says I am the way- the way I lived is the way you should live. He is the narrow way and He is inviting you and me to walk as He walked. His life was the perfect hallmark of selflessness.”― Prasanth Jonathan

We cannot separate being a Christian and being a disciple. They are the same thing in the NT. The word Christian is only found in the New Testament on 3 occasions - and was actually used at least once by Felix, as a derogatory term to make fun of followers of Jesus. However, the word disciple is used over 250 times in the New Testament. Indeed it would be much more Biblical to call ourselves disciples of Jesus than to call ourselves, Christians.

Discipleship is part of our spiritual formation; our journey that every follower of Jesus is expected to go on. Not just pastors, church leaders, missionaries, or the very keen, but all of us, who want to become like Him - “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”(Matt 16:24).

We are created in the image of God and as such we were created to reflect the glory of God. However, as we know, the FALL happened and we fail in this task of being image bearers to the glory of God for as Romans 3:23 tells us: “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

However, when we come to know Jesus through new birth, we discover that our sin has been dealt with on the cross. And in dealing with our sin, Jesus has not only assured us of a place in heaven but He has restored us to our original purpose of being image bearers of God’s glory! We are saved to bring glory to God!

So, when we imncreasingly BECOME LIKE JESUS, as we like Him, seek to do the will of God “on earth as it is in Heaven” we bring God glory by being obedient to His will and submitting to His way. Obedience enlarges our capacity to bring an ever-increasing measure of glory to God.

Paul says this in 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.”

And the challenge is this, What are we beholding? What has our attention? What are we prioritising in our lives? If its Jesus, then we become like the One we behold! If we truly desire to become like Jesus then you we must behold Him.

This is not a one time thing or an occasional thing, this is an ongoing daily thing!

We behold Him as He breaks into our lives, and we encounter Him in those moments, that are som memorable - our conversion; a particular prayer meeting; our baptism; at communion, at a meeting where we felt we were the only one in the room!

We also behold Him in the daily pursuit of His presence combined with spiritual disciplines which gradually transform us into His likeness through disciplined worship, prayer, reading the Bible, contemplation, obedient living and christian service.

Our hymn writers captured this so beautifully. For example Bernard of Clairvaux in the 12th Century AD, in his hymn: Jesus the Very Thought of Thee!

1 Jesus, the very thought of thee with sweetness fills the breast; but sweeter far thy face to see, and in thy presence rest.

2 O hope of every contrite heart, O joy of all the meek, to those who fall, how kind thou art! How good to those who seek!

3 But what to those who find? Ah, this nor tongue nor pen can show; the love of Jesus, what it is, none but his loved ones know.

4 Jesus, our only joy be thou, as thou our prize wilt be; Jesus, be thou our glory now, and through eternity.

“When I understand that everything happening to me is to make me more Christlike, it resolves a great deal of anxiety.”― A.W. Tozer

2. We BECOME LIKE JESUS through the power of the Indwelling Spirit

Let’s go back to 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.”

Note that Paul is emphasizing here that spiritual transformation is a work of the Holy Spirit. It is as we behold “the glory of the Lord” that we are transformed “from the Lord who is the Spirit.”

Becoming like Jesus does not occur merely through information-transfer. It's not just getting information into our heads, however good that information is. So we don’t just need to read the Bible and then we grow. The Bible is spiritual food but it must be applied to the heart to nourish our souls and that comes through the revelation and influence of the Spirit within us!

Becoming like Jesus does not come merely as the result of a spiritual download of grace, as if all we need to do is pray for patience and, wham the Holy Spirit infuses patience into us; or we pray to overcome some entrenched sin, and the Holy Spirit then infuses the strength and power we need so that instantly we overcome.

And neither does it occur, merely as the result of disciplined self-effort and self-help behaviour modification. If this was possible, we wouldn’t need saving at all, we would just need to try really hard and we could save ourselves! - John 3:6 “Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.”

The truth is, as Augustine of Hippo said, “Without God we can’t. Without us, God won’t”!

Spiritual growth happens in cooperation with God as we “walk by the Spirit” and “keep in step with the Holy Spirit”(Gal 5:16,25). It is as a result of our beholding the glory of the Lord that the Holy Spirit transforms us from one degree of glory to another. One step at a time! It’s a journey.

It’s a moment by moment; day by day thing in which we cooperate with teh Holy Spirit and open ourselves up to knowing more of Jesus, that we become mroe and more like Him, growing in the “fruit of the Spirit “ in “love, joy, peace, patience, gkindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.”(Gal 5:22-23).

Now this will not be easy! It involves as Paul puts in in Galations 5:24, a CRUCIFYING of “the flesh with its passions and desires” BUT it would be impossible without the indwelling help of the Holy Spirit, ebaling us and energising us to overcome those desires and passions!

The Holy Spirit regenerates us and then renews us so that we are able to live for God in righteousness and not for self in sin! - See Romans 8:1-14. It is a radical transformation from the inside out.

It is never mere, behaviour modification because that will never lead to spiritual transformation. We know this when we try and modify our behaviours to lose weight; change our bad habits; control our passions and desires. It doesn’t work in the natural and it definitely doesn’t work in the spiritual realm!

Let me illustrate this by referring you to a great man of God named Thomas Chalmers(1780-1847).

Chalmers was a great man of God, lauded by men such as Wilberforce and Prime Minister Gladstone who said of him that he was “a man greatly lifted out of the region of mere flesh and blood” (Mark Noll, “Thomas Chalmers in North America,” 763). He was not simply a great preacher and Academic theologian, he was also a scientist and philosopher and his influence was such that at his funeral it is estimate that half the population of Edinburgh turned out to bid farewell to this godly man.

Anyhow, Chalmers’ preached a famous message on what he called, “The expulsive power of a new affection”. He referred in it to 1 John 2:15: “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” and he asked, “How shall the human heart be freed from its love for the world?” This “love” is not a duty one performs. It is a delight one prefers. It is an affection before it is a commitment.

He argues that there are two ways one might seek to remove this controlling affection from the heart. One is to show that the world is not worthy of our affection and will let us down in the end. The other is to show that God is vastly more worthy of the heart’s attachment, thus awakening a new and stronger affection that displaces the former affection for the world. Hence “the expulsive power of a new affection.” Chalmers states his purpose, “My purpose is to show that from the constitution of our nature, the former method is altogether incompetent and ineffectual and that the latter method will alone suffice for the rescue and recovery of the heart from the wrong affection that domineers over it.”

Chalmers goes on: “Such is the grasping tendency of the human heart, that it must have a something to lay hold of — and which, if wrested away without the substitution of another something in its place, would leave a void and a vacancy as painful to the mind, as hunger is to the natural system.” Chalmers thinks it is futile to try to suck sinful pleasures out of the human heart, if we do not put a better pleasure in their place and that pleasure must be created in the heart as the Holy Spirit removes from us the “heart of stone” and replaces it with a “heart of flesh”(zekield)

As Jesus puts it in Matthew 13:44: “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then from his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.” This man found the treasure of the kingdom which became his joy and affection and was more important tha, all that he previously owned because he had discovered something that produced a new affection that expelled all those old worldly affections.

It is the love of Jesus; the reign and dominion of Jesus in our life adn the reality of the eternal world, created by the Spirit of God in our eharts, that expells the love of the world!

Spiritual transformation then, only occurs through the work of the Holy Spirit and the work of the Holy Spirit is to make us more and more like Jesus! - see John 14:15-21; 14:23-27;John 16:12-15.

And this spiritual transformation will result in glorification in the likeness of Jesus - 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. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure(1 John 3:2-3).

3. We BECOME LIKE JESUS, only if we want to!

We used to sing an old Hymn entitled More about Jesus and it went like this!

More about Jesus would I know, More of His grace to others show; More of His saving fulness see, More of His love who died for me. 

More about Jesus let me learn, More of His holy will discern; Spirit of God my teacher be, Showing the things of Christ to me.

More about Jesus; in His Word, Holding communion with my Lord; Hearing His voice in every line, Making each faithful saying mine.

More about Jesus; on His throne, Riches in glory all His own; More of His kingdom’s sure increase; More of His coming, Prince of Peace.

It’s a great hymn, but these are mere words unless we really want to BECOME LIKE JESUS for God will not force us to desire more of Jesus.

However, it’s also important to note that our desire to become like Jesus cannot rest with a mere desire; it must motivate us to action.

Jesus continually calls us to FOLLOW HIM - to choose His way; to sacrifice our self-interests for His interests. To TAKE UP THE CROSS!

So, Paul calls us to determined effort to Ephesians 4:22-24 “To put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”

We must fix our eyes on Jesus(Heb 12:2).

We must have a mindset which is like His - Phil 2:5-11

We must as Paul puts it “seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.”(Col 3:1ff).

Conclusion:

Becoming like Jesus is a powerful and transformative - 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.”

It is something that we should desire and seek for ourselves and for our churches for if we do we will not simply transform our own life of discipleship, what a difference it would make to our churches. As A.W. Tozer once observed: “Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other? They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which each one must individually bow. So one hundred worshipers met together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be, were they to become 'unity' conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship.” ― A.W. Tozer, The Pursuit of God: The Human Thirst for the Divine.

Churches tuned into Jesus would have a magnificent reviving impact on our Society - “In revival, God is not concerned about filling empty churches, He is concerned about filling empty hearts.”(Leonard Ravenhill) and God help us, too many of us have become lukewarm in our faith and Jesus is knocking on the door of our hearts to “come in” and fellowship with us in a new and living way(Rev 3:20).

“A revival is the church falling in love with Jesus Christ all over again.” (Vance Havner).

As we seek to BECOME LIKE JESUS and as we seek to wealk with Him and talk with Him each and every day, then we will be transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.”