Like Jesus

Introduction

Good morning and welcome to Cornerstone Church today we are launching into a new sermon series called “Like Jesus”. At the heart of this series is a desire for all of us to understand and desire the main goal in our salvation - that is that we would be Like Jesus.

In our last series on marriage, I told you that the goal of marriage is oneness - the two shall become one flesh. The goal of Christianity is the same - oneness. That we would become one with Jesus.

1 Corinthians 6:17 ESV

But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him.

A Christian’s purpose and goal is to become one with Jesus. If you have united yourself with Jesus, meaning you are saved today, he didn’t save you just so you could come to church and wait for death. He saved you for a purpose and part of that purpose is that you would become one with Him. He prays this in John 17 and it is the journey that we are on.

Now with that said, I need to lay some groundwork today. We need to look at some big picture stuff. I want to start by reminding us of the warfare that we find ourselves in. We are in the midst of a spiritual battle between light and dark, good and evil, God and the devil.

This is not an exaggeration, this is real. This is what the Bible teaches from Genesis 1 all the way to Revelation. There is a battle going on that we cannot see with our eyes. The fact that we can’t see it causes some of us to forget about it or ignore it until we see something in the world that makes no sense. We might see war or an incredible cruelty and we go man, what is going on with people. So let me remind you of what the Apostle John says…

1 John 5:19 ESV

We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.

In other words, John says that there are two kingdoms and kingdom of light and a kingdom of darkness. You are either in one of those two kingdoms. There is no neutral ground!

When God sent his son, Jesus, he came on a rescue mission to rescue you out of the kingdom of darkness and put you into the kingdom of light. That’s salvation.

When we are saved, we are invited into the journey of discipleship. Because listen…

Discipleship Is A Journey

Discipleship is a process. It takes time. In fact, we are called to be lifelong disciples of Jesus. We are to be his apprentices if you will. We are called to follow him, just like his early disciples were called.

Journeys are full of adventure and danger and fun. There is a sense of adventure when you step out in faith. You, are being asked like Abraham to follow God and you aren’t given directions to where He is going! It’s also full of danger. Remember we are part of the kingdom of light and we are raiding the darkness in search and rescue missions for people who are lost. Journeys are also fun, remember we serve a God who feasts. He came up with days off and holidays. He commands his people to celebrate. If we don’t take that journey, what does that like?

So the invitation to all Christians is the same. Come and follow Jesus. Get ready for adventure. Look out for danger and in the end we will feast and celebrate to spoils of victory together. Amen!

Alright, our main text for today is Luke 6:40. Let’s read together.

Luke 6:40 ESV

A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher.

So here’s the question, who is your teacher? Who are you learning from? Is it someone on youtube, is it a podcast, it is Fox News? Who is your teacher? Who are you becoming like? You are most certainly becoming like someone.

In marriage, we become like each other. Autumn and I have been married for 16 years. We are becoming like one another in marriage. As Christians we are to be like Jesus.

When you look at your life, could you tell people like Paul, follow me as I follow Christ? Does your life look like Jesus?

Our lives should look like Jesus, before we get too deep into this, there are two points in this verse I want to hit.

A disciple is not above the teacher - Let’s first identity what a disciple is. A disciple is a student or learner. You see this term used throughout the NT and Jesus himself calls people to discipleship. Not just the original 12 disciples, but us today, we are called to be disciples of Jesus.

Jesus is putting forth a principle in this passage and it’s a principle tied to ego. The student is not better than or more important than their master or teacher. A disciple of Jesus must keep humble. He must approach learning and apprenticeship to Jesus with humility.

No matter your age. This principle is not just in place for new believers, but for those of us who have been following Jesus for a long time. We too must consistently humble ourselves and remember his words here. We have not arrived. We still have a lot to learn and do.

The second thing this passage teaches us is this -

What We Mirror, We Become

Jesus here is telling us that if we want to be like him, we have to learn from him. We have to be a disciple of him. We have to immerse ourselves in his education. He will teach us, no doubt, but we have to be willing to submit ourselves to his teachings.

If we take the time to truly listen and obey his voice, we will become like Him. This is the call, by the way, of the Old Testament as well. The difference is this, whereas the children of Israel, who heard God say, be Holy as I am Holy and promised blessing if they would just listen to his voice and obey his commands…they did not have the Holy Spirit in them to empower them to do what God is asking of them. We do. We have the Holy Spirit, who sanctifies us, which makes us more and more like Jesus. Again, that’s the point.

We were created in God’s image, meaning we originally mirrored God. That mirror became defaced in the fall, but is progressively restored in our lives through the resurrection.

The crucified life is a life absolutely committed to following after Christ Jesus. To be more like Him. To think like Him. To act like Him. To love like Him. The whole essence of spiritual perfection has everything to do with Jesus Christ. Not with rules and regulations. Not with how we dress or what we do or do not do. We are not to look like each other; rather, we are to look like Christ. We can get all caught up in the nuances of religion and miss the glorious joy of following after Christ. Whatever hinders us in our journey must be dealt a deathblow.

A. W. Tozer

So with all that said, I want to spend the rest of our time outlining the big picture items for this series. These are the three big categories our sermons will fall into and I’m going to start with what I believe to be the foundation of all of this.

Being With Jesus

Being with Jesus is the foundation. It’s where you start. You can’t truly become a disciple of Jesus unless you actually spend time WITH Him.

Too many times I’ve seen people say they love Jesus, but they never pray. They don’t practice silence and solitude. They don’t have any relationship with God other than showing up at church.

Listen to me closely…

Our Being With God Is More Important Than Our Doing For God

Many of us who grew up in church were taught that the most important thing you could with your life is to serve God. I don’t want to undermine that completely, but if you are serving Jesus and you never spend time in prayer. Stop. Spend time with Jesus. That is the first priority.

You cannot serve God with an empty heart. Our hearts are only filled by spending time with Jesus. I can’t stress enough how important this. Too many times we see people come into church on fire and then flame out a few months or years into it and it’s because they don’t have this as a foundation in their life.

Beware of Christian activities instead of Christian being. The reason workers come to stupendous collapses is that their work is the evidence of a heart that evades facing the truth of God for itself—“I have no time for prayer, for Bible study, I must be always at it.”

Oswald Chambers

When we don’t make time for God, its our soul that withers. We become like a desert, dry and thirsty, but we do nothing to quench that thirst.

We will be spending more time on this in the near future, so let me move on for now, but just know this is the foundation for everything that comes next.

We must first be with Jesus if we hope to be like Jesus.

Becoming Like Jesus

Becoming Like Jesus is the next leg of our journey, not that these things are linear, but they do build on one another. We are first with Jesus and what we find is the Great Teacher teaches us to become like Him.

There is a couple of things here. First we must admit that we don’t start off like him at all. I came from a rough background and when I got saved, I did not reflect Jesus very well. But regardless of your background, deep in our hearts, none of us reflect him well at first. We must all BECOME like Him.

If the first point was more about being in his presence, this point is more about discipleship to him in practical ways. Here’s a few of the ways we will look at:

We Learn About Jesus - This is the discipleship most of us are familiar with. It’s about gaining proper knowledge of Jesus. It’s about reading your Bible and meditating on the word. What is Jesus saying about this subject. What does God think about this political or social issue. We learn about God.

We Watch Jesus Working - The more time you spend with Him, the more you will start to see how He works in your everyday life. When we someone else working, it’s easy to imagine us working with Him. For instance, if your dad likes to work on cars and you spend time watching him do it, when it comes time for you to do it yourself, you are ready.

We model his character - Character should always come before service. We have to work on our character constantly as Christians. You never feel like you have made it, but if you are dealing with major sins in your life, you shouldn’t be serving God, you need to spend your time killing sin. We talked about fruits of the Spirit, this is it. This means surrendering your life to Jesus so that the fruits of his character grow in your heart.

In a free country like this, you may be almost anything you like except a Christian.

A Lost Christ Found, Volume 45, Sermon #2611 - Luke 2:44-46

Charles Spurgeon

So we start by being with Him and that leads us into becoming like Him, the next thing that happens is that we began to live like Jesus.

Living Like Jesus

Finally, if we are truly disciples of Jesus, we will do the things he did. We will live a life that personifies Jesus. That’s the point. Our life is to be a mirror of Jesus. That means we don’t just know about Him or know Him, but we start to talk like him, walk like him and act like him.

John 13:15 NIV

I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.

Jesus came to set the example for us! He came to show us the way. Not for us to just marvel at him, but to actually show us how to live our lives. In Philippians 2, Paul says that Jesus, though he was God, essentially emptied himself by becoming a man. And in this he humbled himself to show us how to live obedient lives. He set the example and showed us how to live. He lived a life filled with the Holy Spirit and the call is for us to do the same thing!

Jesus was on mission - Jesus lived a life filled with purpose. He was constantly relying on the Father to reveal his purposes to Him. He was consistent in allowing the Holy Spirit to lead him.

Too often we settle for self-centered lives. The only person we serve is ourselves. We center our schedules and our money around what’s best for me and my family, rather than what is best for the mission of God. Paul decried this in his letter to the Philippians. He said,

Philippians 2:21 ESV

For they all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ.

What are the interests you are seeking after? Are you on mission with Jesus, looking after his interests, or are you more concerned with your own stuff?

The things Jesus did on this earth, we should be doing. For instance, Jesus evangelized every where he went. He was constantly talking about and teaching on the kingdom and inviting people into this journey with him. Many of them said no, but many others also decided to follow him. We are to be evangelizing like Jesus.

Here’s another practical one, Jesus served. Jesus came to serve people. Think on this. This is the man who washed feet. He fed the hungry. He spent time with tax collectors and sinners.

How much of what I just said describes your life? Is your life marked by service? Do you e

Jesus personified what the phrase servant leadership. He did it from a place of rest. Jesus honored the Sabbath and yet he still had plenty of time for serving others. He didn’t compromise his beliefs, neither did he just stay in a place of perpetual meditation. Some of us spend lots of time meditating on the things of the Lord, but we never actually do anything. We feel spiritual but we have nothing to show for it. I challenge you to read James. Our faith should produce something in our lives.

Conclusion

So to close things out today, God is inviting you, no matter how old you are, how long you’ve been a Christian, what degrees you have or letters listed behind your name, He is inviting you on this journey of discipleship. Will you join Him?

Prayer & Journaling Points

Father, what is hindering me from following you today?

Jesus, in what areas are your trying to grow me to be more like you?