Reset Part 1: Above the Noise

Introduction

This is where you will introduce yourself, wish everyone a happy new year, and set up the premise for the sermon.

Mentalities as we head into the new year: What we normally do as we head into a new year

This is the portion of the talk where you will address the “new year new you” mentality. This is a way of us simply trying to white knuckle our way into doing things.

Tell a story about expectations for a new year or a time when you tried something in your own white knuckled strength & it didn’t turn out.

Mentalities as we head into the new year II: Distressed/ Discouraged

This is where you will address the people who are feeling distressed or discouraged about what the year has in store for us. Folks who are just seeing more of the same same.

Transition Moment: Bottom line is there is a lot of noise coming at us as we head into the new year. Lots of directions that we are being pulled in, but scripture has something to say about what it looks like to start new or rather to reset.

What is the outlook scripture offers us?

This is the portion where you will read Romans 12:1-2 and discuss this way of renewing our minds. “2 Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.”

Commentary on Rom. 12:2

2. Do not be conformed to this world. This ‘world’ or ‘age’ (aiōn, as in 1 Cor. 1:20; 2:6; 3:18; 2 Cor. 4:4; Gal. 1:4) is distinguished from the age to come (cf. Eph. 1:21). While it is called ‘the present evil age’ (Gal. 1:4), whose ‘god’ blinds the minds of unbelievers (2 Cor. 4:4), yet it is possible for people living temporally in this age to conduct themselves as heirs of the age to come, the age of renewal and resurrection. On them ‘the end of the ages has come’ (1 Cor. 10:11); for them, because they are a ‘new creation’ in Christ, ‘the old has passed away, behold, the new has come’ (2 Cor. 5:17). It is by the power of the indwelling Spirit, the pledge of their inheritance in the world to come, that they can resist the tendency to live according to the standards of ‘this world’.

Be transformed. The same verb (metamorphoō) is rendered ‘transfigured’ in the transfiguration narratives of Matthew 17:1–2 and Mark 9:2. The only other place where it occurs in the New Testament is 2 Corinthians 3:18, of believers being ‘changed’ into the likeness of Christ ‘from one degree of glory to another’ by the operation of ‘the Lord who is the Spirit’—a passage which is a helpful commentary on the present one.

Paralell Verses: Ephesians 4:23-24 “23 Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. 24 Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy.”

Commentary on Eph. 4:23-24

23. The ‘old nature’ (v. 22) is to be put off, and Christians are to be renewed. Greek has two adjectives for new: kainos, which means new in the sense of fresh and distinctive, and neos, which means new in the sense of young. Both have corresponding verbs that are used in the New Testament concerning life in Christ. In 2 Corinthians 4:16 and Colossians 3:10 there is that which is formed from kainos, which thus has the sense of the new creation of God, replacing that which is old by a new kind of life that was not known before (see on 2:15). Here we have the verb from neos, which thus implies ‘putting off the decrepitude of the old nature’ and the ‘regaining’ of ‘undying youth’ (Barry). The present tense emphasizes further that what is required, and made possible in Christ, is continuous renewal. The place of this constant renewal or rejuvenation is the spirit of their minds. The construction here impels us to take pneuma as the human spirit and not the divine Spirit, though the expression is without parallel in the New Testament. ‘Because the decay was initiated by the futility of minds alienated from God, the reversal of the process must begin with the renewal of the mind’ (Caird). Such renewal in the mind (Rom. 12:2) or in the spirit of the mind, is possible by the indwelling of the Spirit of God. Then indeed there will be a new way of thinking and in consequence a new way of life.

24. Now kainos, the second word for new, is used; for in the place of the old nature, characterized by selfishness and sin, and bound by evil and its consequences, there is the new nature which is God’s creation (see on 2:10, 15; and cf. 2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15; Col. 3:10; Titus 3:5). Here, moreover, the aorist verb again implies a decisive act, putting on this God-created, God-given life, as it has already implied the decisive putting off of the old. The two truths of this verse and the last need to be kept before the Christian. As Westcott puts it, ‘Two things are required for the positive formation of the Christian character, the continuous and progressive renewal of our highest faculty, and the decisive acceptance of “the new man”.’ This new nature is created after the likeness of God. So rsv renders it though the word likeness is not present in the original. Some would prefer to take the meaning as ‘according to God’s will and purpose’, but the parallel in Colossians 3:10 may be taken to interpret what is said here. There ‘the new nature’ is said to be ‘renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator’. Humanity was made in God’s image in the beginning (Gen. 1:27) and when that image had been marred by sin and the life in fellowship with God lost, there was in Christ a new creation, a restoration to the divine image with all that means. Above all, the image of God is shown in character in true righteousness and holiness. If these qualities are not seen, at least in some measure, there is no evidence that there has been God’s work of re-creation at all. In Philo and Plato, as well as in the New Testament, righteousness is used of the fulfilment of one’s duty to other people, and holiness of observing one’s duty to God. (In Luke 1:75; 1 Thess. 2:10 and Titus 1:8, as here, the two words, or their cognate forms, stand together.) rsv translates by the adjective true what should be rendered more strictly as ‘of the truth’. Probably there is a deliberate contrast between what has been said already (especially in v. 22) to be the fruit of deceit, and such righteousness and holiness as come into the character when the truth as it is in Jesus is embraced and followed. (Cf. the similar contrast in vv. 14–15.) neb speaks of ‘the new nature of God’s creating, which shows itself in the just and devout life called for by the truth’.

Practical Way to Renew our minds 1: Know God

This is where Colossians 3:10 will come in. You will talk about the way that we can have a renewed mind is by knowing Jesus. Talk about what KNOWING really means in the greek. This is a call for people to renew their walk with Christ or to make a first time choice to being walking with Jesus

Commentary: Knowing / To Know

One comes to know God by seeing and experiencing his works. Having experienced God’s hand against Egypt, Israel is to rehearse his wonders in each generation, “that you may know that I am the Lord”

That yādaʿ includes a sense of relationship is evident, for the verb expresses sexual intimacy within the marriage covenant: “Adam lay with [lit., knew] his wife Eve, and she became pregnant” (Gen 4:1; cf. also 1 Sam. 1:19). In a more general sense of relationship, yādaʿ can describe friendship (Job 19:13) or even an acquaintance (Gen 29:5).

This use of yādaʿ to denote relationship may also describe the proper relationship of partners within a covenant. Thus, when yādaʿ is found within covenant contexts of the OT, it describes covenant relationship rather than mere cognitive activity.

Rom 1 when he says that some “know” God’s just judgment (1:32), but they do not wish to “know” God (1:28). That is, the heathen have a knowledge of God that makes no difference in their activity; they have an intellectual awareness of his existence and perhaps even a belief that he exists, but they do not have a personal or intimate knowledge of him and do not have faith in him (Rom 1:21–28).

(John 10:14-15) I know my sheep and my sheep know me - they know my voice.

Commentary

John especially has a rich view of what it means to “know.” When Jesus says he knows his sheep and he knows the Father, he is speaking of an intimate relationship that involves deep feelings of love (Jn 10:14–15). Such a relationship leads to obedience on our part (10:27). “Those who say, ‘I know him,’ but do not do what he commands are liars” (1 Jn. 2:4; cf. 3:6). In fact, Jesus defines eternal life as “knowing God and Jesus Christ,” which involves both faith in him and love for him (Jn 17:3). By contrast, John makes it plain that the world “does not know” God (Jn 17:25; 1 Jn. 3:1). See NIDNTT-A, 107–10.

In the OT knowledge is experiential and relational.

Practical Way to Renew our Minds 2: Reset by changing our inputs

This is where you will talk about what we listen to matters. Everything we listen to whether it be news, podcasts, music or even our friends and family is forming and shaping us in some way. What if we started to take note of all the ways that things are shaping and forming us and asking - Is this shaping me towards love, kindness, goodness, (fruits of the spirit) or is this forming me in another way. The second thing to talk about here is that we listen to so many voices, but are we intentionally holding on to prayer practices that have us listening to the voice of God.

Verse: John 15:4 4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me.

Commentary

4. Continuing to speak of his disciples as branches, Jesus said, Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. In 15:3 the disciples bear fruit as they respond to the teaching of Jesus. In 15:4 Jesus emphasizes that, just as a branch cannot bear grapes unless it remains in the vine, so too the disciples cannot bear fruit unless they remain in him. A number of things in this verse call for explanation or comment.

First, what does it mean for disciples to ‘remain’ in Jesus? Because of the vine/branches metaphor this has often been interpreted as an organic union between Jesus and his disciples. It is unlikely that the disciples who listened to Jesus that night thought of their connection with him in that way. They probably thought of it in terms of loyalty and fellowship that would continue as they obeyed his word. There are two other places in the Fourth Gospel where Jesus speaks of his disciples ‘remaining’ in him or in his love, and each case involves keeping his word (7, 10). If ‘remaining’ in Jesus were a matter of organic union (whatever that means), it would be a given, not something dependent upon obedience. However, if ‘remaining’ in Jesus is a metaphor for continuing in fellowship with and loyalty to him, then obedience to his commands is clearly important.

Second, what does it mean for Jesus to ‘remain’ in the disciples? Again, we should think in terms of continuing fellowship; this time of Jesus with his disciples. The means by which Jesus remains in fellowship with his disciples cannot be the same as the means by which the disciples remain in fellowship with him. Jesus does not keep his disciples’ commands! While physically present with his disciples, Jesus remained in fellowship with them by committing himself to be with them and for them. When he returned to the Father, he did not leave them alone (see 14:15–18). He came to them again in the person of the Spirit, and then his remaining in them took on a deeper meaning. Today it is the combination of the disciples’ remaining in fellowship with Jesus by obeying his word and Jesus’ remaining in his disciples through the coming of the Spirit which produces ‘fruit’ that pleases the Father.

Third, what is the nature of the fruit produced when the disciples ‘remain’ in Jesus? There are two common interpretations: (1) righteous living (as required of Israel in Isa. 5:1–8), or (2) the results of preaching the gospel, i.e. new converts. However, to choose one, or even both of these, is to narrow the meaning too much. The context, which stresses that ‘fruit’ is produced as the disciples maintain their fellowship with Jesus by keeping his word and when Jesus continues to fellowship with them by the Spirit, suggests that ‘fruit’ refers to the entire life and ministry of those who follow Jesus’ teaching and experience his presence in their lives through the Spirit.

To belong to. to Endure, to stop and wait, to stay.

Verb: יָשַׁב (yāšab), GK 3782 (S 3427), 1088x. The general meaning of yāšab is to “sit, sit down,” with the connotations of “live, dwell, remain, settle.” See live.

Give a prayer practice to help people remain / abide in christ.

Conclusion:

This is where you will reiterate the premise of the message. We can look towards this new year with spiritual eyes to be reset and renewed in Christ. One of the ways that we can reset is by knowing Jesus and by listening to his voice.