4-30-2018 - Being Like Jesus

Thesis: Invasion of the body snatcher or heart transplant?

Thesis:

Invasion of the body snatcher or heart transplant?

For kids: Two mules in a tug of war over the same wagon

Two mules in a tug of war over the same wagon

Which one will win?

The one you feed the most.

How do you feed them?

With your thoughts and by talking to God.

Me

Me

Churches today have been formed by one of three movements:

1. Catholic Church - through the ages

2. The Reformation

Martin Luther back at the end of the Middle Ages, he left the Catholic Church because of teachings that were not biblically sound enough for him.

He is one of several leaders who started the Protestant Reformation, where several new denominations were formed...

most notably the Lutherans,

and a single church in Geneva Switzerland that most of our present-day Baptist friends would claim to come from.

3. The Great Awakening

The generation that followed the Protestant leaders, over 100 years later found that having the right beliefs, but still acting wrong would not cut the mustard.

John Wesley, along with several other leaders in his day started what has come to be known as the Holiness movement or the Great Awakening, which called people to practice what they preach.

This was seen specifically in the extra effort made to deal both with the social ills of the day - poverty, addiction, lack of education, and others

But also to keep an eye to individual holiness as well.

Take the plank out of your own eye before you go after the speck in the eyes of those around you.

These movements have repeated themselves over and over again in the last 200 years or so.

While we may claim to be rooted in one movement - Wesley's Great Awakening perhaps... we may actually be living in another.

They are based on 3 concerns:

Catholic:

Am I going to go to heaven when I die?

Reformers:

Am I a true believer?

Holiness Movement:

Am I living for God today?

There are reasons people have focused more or less on these three questions.

Times of war or disease where lives are short

Times of division and unrest close to home

Times of prosperity, which, to the church, has been the most dangerous of all.

Depending upon the circumstances, the church has spent more time preaching or teaching on different letters of the NT to help answer those three questions.

We

If you were going to sit down and read one of the NT Letters (not the Gospels), which would you choose?

If you were going to sit down and read one of the NT Letters (not the Gospels), which would you choose?

A few of Paul's letters reference going to heaven - Thessalonians for example.

Many of Paul's letters, especially Romans and Galatians deal with having right beliefs

The letters of James and John however, focus more on living for God today.

In fact, 1 John reads almost like a How-to live for Jesus kind of book.

Over and over again, he repeats the phrase: This is how...

(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.

God

Scripture:

(NIV): God’s Love and Ours

Three (and a half) "This-is-how" statements that show us how to live for God.

7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

This is how God showed love

This is love

Not from us but from God

He sets the bar far higher than we would

Our love, by comparison, is a pale reflection

A cheap knockoff

A faint shadow of God's own example of love

Our love is the "try before you buy" love that directs others around us to seek out God's true love.

13 This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. 16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.

This is how we know if we are living right

God gives us His Holy Spirit

Jews who knew the OT would remember the prophets having God's Spirit and doing wondrous things

When Elijah was taken up to heaven in a fiery chariot, his disciples Elisha asked for a "double portion" of that Spirit.

So, for those Jews, having the Holy Spirit kinda came with a job description.

For some others, John's letter here almost sound like Invasion of the Body Snatchers...

It could sound like God is coming into us and taking us over

In fear of falling into weird beliefs like that, sometimes we take out and use that as the main answer to how we know if we are right or not.

15 If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God.

Still others, especially today, do not understand God as a person, they think he is just a cosmic force.

Wherever there is love, they believe you can find the presence of God there.

They choose to focus on instead.

16 And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.

But hear what John himself says is the way we can be sure we have lived the right way.

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. 17 This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. 18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

The bar:

The bar:

17 This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus.

I'm coming up on about 20 years of serving Christ and in that time I have noticed 2 recurring themes

1. We, as human beings, always try to make following God easier by lowering the bar.

It doesn't matter if you are with liberals or conservatives, men or women, New Christians or those who have served faithfully for 80 years.

Every one of us wants to make faithfulness easier.

2. God never lowers the bar.

Jesus tells us we are to be perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect ()

John tells us that our measuring stick for whether we are living right is: in this world, are you like Jesus?

You

19 We love because he first loved us. 20 Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. 21 And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.

Sometimes Paul writes with big words that we have to look up in the dictionary to make sure we understand.

Peter even wrote something to that effect

But here, John takes us to Christian Kindergarten and makes it really basic for us:

If you have hate in your heart God doesn't live there.

If you have God's love in your heart, it will come out and shine upon those around you.

This is how we know if we are Christians or not today, tomorrow, and when we stand before our King in Glory.

We

You may be waiting for me to give you some good news

Perhaps that Jesus died so that we don't have to worry about any of this.

But the Bible doesn't say that.

Jesus did not die so that God could lose his expectations of us.

God does not see us as spiritually handicapped people

When God looks at us, He sees us as His beloved child, just like He saw Jesus.

Jesus saw that in us when He told us that we would do even greater things than Him

You end up tearing up most of the Bible if your idea of being a Christian is just being another sinner with their forgiveness ticket punched.

The truth is this: There is no salvation without transformation

God is not a body snatcher, he is a transplant surgeon

The hearts, minds, and spirits we have corrupted living in this world of sin won't make it into eternity.

If we want to be God's people, we need him to give us new hearts, new minds, and new spirits that love like Jesus.