Core Value: Transformation
Notes
Transcript
Being Made New (Transformation in the life of SLC)
I. Core Values: Sermon Series
a. What is the vision of the Church
i. 1. “To create a multiethnic, multicultural movement that manifests the kingdom of God.”
b. What is the mission
i. 2. “Love God, Love People.”
c. What are the Core Values?
i. Diversity – Valuing, empowering & including people of different ethnic, economic and cultural background.
ii. Belonging – Being a people of genuine love and authenticity who are living life together.
iii. Deployment – Intentional launching of equipped individuals to perpetuate kingdom advancement
iv. Sacrifice – Servants outpouring of their time, gifts and resources into all those they encounter.
v. Transformation – We invest in change of lives, communities and cultures as a result of divine encounters with Jesus
II. Introduction:
a. Whether it’s a car restoration, My 600-lb Life, makeovers, or house rehabs, there’s something about watching something once flawed, broken, weathered, rusted, or worn down given new life or better yet, transformed. We are drawn to the redemptive narrative.
A dope New Testament passage that captures the heart of transformation is Philemon 11. Paul urges Philemon to reconcile with Onesimus, his former slave. Side note: though there were similarities, Roman slavery was not the same as chattel slavery in the Americas.
Onesimus, whose name means “useful,” stole from Philemon and ran away. While fleeing, he encounters Paul, hears the gospel, and is saved. Paul writes Philemon, asking him to receive Onesimus back, not as a slave, but as a brother in Christ. In verse Philemon 11 he says,
Formerly he was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful both to you and to me.
The Gospel shows that we all were or are Onesimus, Slaves to sin, on the run until we encounter Christ. Apart from Christ, sin makes us useless. The ultimate end of human existence is the glory of God, but we can’t reflect that glory because of sin. The imago dei on humanity is not destroyed it’s recognizable but something is not quite right. This is the power of the gospel, it transforms us into useful vessels for His glory.
At the cross, we find redemption, restoration, and transformation. One of the clearest passages expressing this is 2 Corinthians 5:17.
II. 2 Corinthians 5:17
So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!
1. Background – The Apostle Paul pens a letter to one of the most diverse churches in the New Testament. A place with believers from all walks of life. From different cultures, creeds, traditions, and previous gods. So this church, if it were modern, it would be the Second New Greater Temple of the Ratchet ones. It’s dealing with all sorts of sins or moral failings of our human nature. People are turning back to worship their former idols. Lies, drunkenness, adultery, idolatry, scammers, thieves, and all these things are present within the church.
Paul, being a good leader, writes a letter to address these issues among others. When we reach chapter 5 of his second letter, Paul tells the people of God that we should no longer focus solely on earthly things, but instead set our minds on the future, our citizenship in heaven. When he gets to verse 17 in the first part, he says, "For those who are in Christ, you are a new creation."
III. YOU ARE IN CHRIST?
a. Pastor Isabell, my first spiritual father, and I used to debate the term in-Christ and the topic of predestination. It’s a strange phrasing that we don’t usually use. We might say we are ‘in trouble’ or ‘in love,’ but we don’t typically say we are in another person. It’s not part of our standard English verbiage.
b. The formal teaching of the “Union with Christ” In Christ theologically speaks to our “identity”, who we are. However, it also informs where you are.
i. The word “in” simply indicates position or location. So when I tell Oliver he’s in trouble, it means he is close to doing something that deserves a spanking.
ii. The only other time scripture mentions us being “in” another person is Adam. In 1 Corinthians 15:22 it says, “in Adam we all die.”
for as all die in Adam,
Paul is showing that every human descends from Adam and inherits the good, the bad, and the ugly—sin. Yet the verse continues, 1 Corinthians 15:22
for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ.
If being “in Adam” means being united with Adam in his death; then being “in Christ” means complete union with Jesus. Romans 8:17 says,
and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.
Meaning as followers of Jesus, we will partake in the salvation of God, the Spirit of God, the righteousness of God (good moral nature), God, the fruit of God and the honor of God. Romans 8 says we will share in his Glory.
1. One preacher put it this way comparing being in Christ to being in side the Ark during Noah’s day. “We are in Christ in the same sense. He is the ark of God provided against the day of judgment. We by faith believe him to be capable of saving us; we come and trust him, we risk our souls with him, believing that there is no risk; we venture on him confident that it is no venture; giving up every other hope or shadow of a hope, we trust in what Jesus did, is doing, and is in himself, and thus he becomes to us our ark, and we are in him.
To be in Christ means to be connected to Christ; there is no middle ground.
Location dictates our mentality. We know this because our parents told us, and we still say it to our kids, “Don’t behave like this when we're in this place.”
Ollie and I love to wrestle, but we can’t wrestle anywhere because Amanda will go to jail for murder after we break her decorations. So if Oliver is ramped up, he runs to the bedroom and lets’ wrestle. I clear off the bed, and he goes wild. He knows a change in location means a change in restriction. Our location being in Christ doesn’t mean limitation but freedom to be who God created us to be.
IV. YOU ARE A NEW CREATION
So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!
a. The language that Paul uses here, “new creation,” “the old has passed away”, “everything has become new,” is common in Apocalyptic literature. (passages regarding end-times.) For instance Isaiah 65:17, “17 For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind
b. Paul has the full completion of God’s Kingdom in mind. According to Revelations 21, when Christ returns to establish his eternal kingdom, he we reboot all things free of pain, suffering and sin. The completion of this promise is in the future and has not yet happened. Paul is stating the new life that we have in eternity; we can taste it now.
c. (In Christ) When we accept Jesus, what comes out is you 2.0. It is superior to what was. You are a new creature with new realities yet to be revealed.
i. God has given new sight, new perspective, and new desires.
1. We have the faith to obey, love, and embrace his lordship and know him closely and personally. Still waiting for the full complete picture in heaven.
2. Obtaining citizenship in America is a very long, tedious process. The last step in the process is called “LPR” (Lawful Permanent Resident), which we know as a “green card” holder. A green card holder has fulfilled most of the requirements to be considered a citizen. They are subject to the laws, have access to the most American privileges, tax returns, grants, and social services. They only lack the ability to vote until their time is up. They’re essentially residents who get to enjoy all the benefits of citizenship until the final step occurs and they become citizens. At the end of the verse he says the Old is gone, and the new has come.
V. My latest fix of restoration shows, is called overhauling and like clockwork as soon as they get they strip the car down to it’s fram and begin look for rust and fractures in foundation of the vehicle. Because any change on the surface would eventually be worthless if the foundation hadn’t been restored.
2. Paul says, “everything old has passed away;
3. One New Testament scholar says it like this. “The old order is passing off the stage (1 Cor 7:31). The individual’s whole being, value system, and behavior are also changed through conversion.
1. The old us is dead in Christ, and we can’t go back to trying to revive Idols. Israel had a hard time in scripture with rebuilding Idols. King Manasseh, the wicked King, who built every idol that his father destroyed.
1. Some of us go back to what used to work for us before Christ, our old idols. We keep looking back instead of living in the truth of our new identity. Some of us just don’t have a sin problem; we have an identity problem that keeps manifesting itself in the flesh.
iv. Romans 6:6 in the amplified bible says, “We know that our old self [our human nature without the Holy Spirit] was nailed to the cross with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin.
VI. I love the book of Genesis. You probably are already familiar with the story of Jacob. He deceives his brother to still his birthright, goes on the run gets deceived himself and gets married. He returns not only old with a family, but he returns with a mindset to make all things new.
Famously, in Chapter 32, God wrestles with Jacob, and changes his name from Jacob, meaning “deceiver,” to Israel, and tells him to return to the land of his father.
He doesn’t immediately return, and they find that his wife is hiding old idols among her luggage. Then his daughter is sexually assaulted, and his sons go get revenge and kill all the people. Jacob had this encounter with the God of a new name, but he still had to deal with the reality that his household still clung to the old idols and, therefore, clung to old ways. God reaffirms Jacob and his calling.
Jacob goes to his household and says this, “Put away the foreign gods that are among you, and purify yourselves, and change your clothes .
A major part of living a transformed life is putting to death and burning those old idols.
