Identity Take 2
Notes
Transcript
What does identity look like in Christ?
What does identity look like in Christ?
But as many as received him—to those who believe in his name—he gave to them authority to become children of God,
We covered a tough topic last week.
Identity - Who we think we are. How others see us. How we see ourselves. How we feel about ourselves. Those can be worldly definitions of identity. But according to God and His word, our identity is all about how He see us.
Identity is how God sees you.
So we asked the question, “Who are you?” Personally that would be you asking yourself, “Who am I?”
We saw how we could define ourselves by our relationships to others (father, mother, husband, wife, grandparent, etc.).
We could define ourselves by our jobs or hobbies - accountant, teacher, gardener, runner, cookie taster.
We could define ourselves by our personalities.
We could define ourselves by our personal feelings about ourselves or where we’re at mentally - overwhelmed, peaceful, scared, grieving, happy.
We could define by our preferences towards everything in life or you could identity yourselves by what culture sees you as.
Some of us might even say…I’m not sure who I am.
The question is very much worth asking - Who am I?
We read 1 John 3 and found that John was writing to a group of, it seems, recent believers in Jesus, who are struggling with identity because there are others who are saying that, yes-they are Jesus followers, but they can also be something else…there’s wisdom in other things than just Jesus.
John is letting them know that there identity is only found in Jesus…and here’s why. “The Father calls you His child.” And he writes a little timeline for each person saying that before they weren’t a child, now they are called and child, and in the future we know that something huge is going to happen where we’ll all see Christ as He truly is. Past, Present, Future identity.
Past Identity - Away from Christ
Present Identity - Child of God
Future Identity - Made new through Jesus Christ
What does identity look like through God’s eyes?
That’s where we’ll place our focus today. What does God say? His word is truth. What He says is final right? God’s Word says that anyone who changes God’s Words is a liar. So instead of going with culture or experts on the news or social media influencers or celebrities or sports figures or political figures…let’s go with the one who’s words created human life.
Who are you? What does identity in Christ look like?
The Bible talks about this in a number of ways.
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“Mom, are bugs good to eat?” asked the boy. “Let’s not talk about such things at the dinner table, son,” his mother replied. After dinner the mother inquired, “Now, baby, what did you want to ask me?” “Oh, nothing,” the boy said. “There was a bug in your soup, but now it’s gone.”
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That little boy was really trying to say something rather important. You know, sometimes the Bible is trying to say something important, but maybe we’ve read or heard certain things so much in our lives that we hear it…but really just gloss over what it is trying to say. I will admit that through studying this this past week, I’ve had that feeling a number of times. That - “Oh my…I’ve never seen that before” or “I never read that like that before...” feeling.
First and foremost the idea of “self” is talked about all over scripture.
In psychology, the study of the “self” is huge. And when I say huge…I mean massive. The beginning of the debate is whether in fact there truly is a “self.” Another side of this humongous area of study is that of the soul. Is there something real to the self or to the soul…or are we just programmed and determined by the chemical and electrical responses in our brains.
Obviously, I believe that the reason you all are sitting here is because you believe yourselves to be real, individual, people…free will thinkers…, each of you a soul in its own right. There’s a theologian/apologist who says that there are many who believe that we are just soft-robots.
I believe the Bible lines up with what we naturally observe in ourselves. We’re real. We’re individuals.
What does the Bible say about the self?
I just did a simple search for words like self and yourself etc. And there were so many references to all of these that I had to narrow it down. So for the sake of just a simple study this morning on this idea of what identity in Christ looks like, I narrowed things down to the new testament and specifically things that would match what we’re going after.
It is without doubt or debate that the God, through the Bible, recognizes each person as unique…not a soft robot.
SLIDE
Matthew 22:37-39
And he said to him, “ ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’
A very simple place to start is this. Jesus, when asked what the greatest commandment is, replied (Matthew 22:35-39) 35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’[c] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
There seems to be this choice to love others, ourselves, both/and. Identity? We have the ability to love. What does this say about identity? Our identity should be one who loves God. I’m not sure that goes far enough…right? What does this love look like? We love God with everything we have…our whole self. And, not only does a Christ follower love God with everything they have, but (and this is our identity towards others…defined by Jesus himself) love others as your love yourSELF.
What other things did Jesus teach about the self? About identity? I think He very clearly makes the case that there is a decision that you and I need to constantly make concerning ourselves…our identity.
SLIDE
And he said to them all, “If anyone wants to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross every day and follow me.
For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life on account of me, this person will save it.
For what is a person benefited if he gains the whole world but loses or forfeits himself?
What does Jesus say about identity here? Many in life will go after happiness and success and identity as the world gives it. We will naturally, in the sin nature…we’ll think of ourselves first…ego. But those things will lead only to short term peace and pleasure. Losing your life…giving up your very life for Jesus…allowing Him to gift you identity…give you…identity is the real way to go. Give up yourself for Him and gain your real self…your real identity as He gives it. Jesus is nearly saying…you’ve been deceived.
Jesus operates in reality…because He created it. Everything else is just a false future hope.
Went to New York once and learned all about the knockoff business…the counterfeit or fakes…you know you can buy purses and wallets and shoes and watches all over New York…and they really are watches and purses and what not…but they’re not the real thing…Gucci, Nike, Rolex.
Dr. Pop is decent…but it’s not Dr. Pepper. Bubba Cola isn’t bad, but its not Coke or Pepsi.
Satan says I can give you a fun and happy life…but it’s not the real life you were intended to have.
SLIDE
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Where are you going to place your identity. If you go after things for yourself…create identity for yourself for your pleasure for your happiness for your security…then your heart will be in those things.
If you give it all to Jesus, then that’s where your heart will be.
C. S. Lewis once wrote to another
Put first things first and we get second things thrown in: put second things first & we lose both first and second things. We never get, say, even the sensual pleasure of food at its best when we are being greedy.
SLIDE
“Aim at Heaven and you will get Earth 'thrown in': aim at Earth and you will get neither.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Joyful Christian
This is very much a trust issue isn’t it? And trust is tough because we are fixers and doers and creators…much like God is…but with this thing called the sin nature, much of the time our first inclination is to leave God out. And sometimes, we do that without even thinking about it.
Paul writes about the self a lot. A - Lot.
In fact, as I’ve been rereading Paul a lot this week, it’s like this idea of self-identity is all over the place.
This is a great verse to hold onto. It explains this idea of giving up your self-created identity for identity in Christ.
SLIDE
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come.
The old self has gone away and Jesus has begun the process of recreation. Spirit to spirit you’re now being transformed. Now, for sure there’s a willingness on our part right?
Identity
Just before that verse, Paul says this, 2 Corinthians 5:16
16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.
Paul is writing that our perspective or identity and reality has now changed. We don’t see Jesus, each other, or even ourselves as we used to. Our identity is in Jesus. It is Jesus.
SLIDES
Ephesians 4:22–23(LEB)
put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds
and put on the new man (in accordance with God), who is created in righteousness and holiness from the truth.
Therefore I exhort you, brothers, through the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, which is your reasonable service.
And do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, so that you may approve what is the good and well-pleasing and perfect will of God.
If you have died with Christ to the elemental spirits of the world, why do you submit to them as if living in the world?
and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me, and that life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
St. Augustine: Lord Jesus – Let me Know Myself (400 AD)
Lord Jesus, let me know myself and know You,
And desire nothing save only You.
Let me hate myself and love You.
Let me do everything for the sake of You.
Let me humble myself and exalt You.
Let me think of nothing except You.
Let me die to myself and live in You.
Let me accept whatever happens as from You.
Let me banish self and follow You,
And ever desire to follow You.
Let me fly from myself and take refuge in You,
That I may deserve to be defended by You.
Let me fear for myself, let me fear You,
And let me be among those who are chosen by You.
Let me distrust myself and put my trust in You.
Let me be willing to obey for the sake of You.
Let me cling to nothing save only to You,
And let me be poor because of You.
Look upon me, that I may love You.
Call me that I may see You,
And for ever enjoy You.
Amen.
—St. Augustine of Hippo
Paul, in 1 Corinthians 6:7-11, is talking about lawsuits among believer at first. He is asking, if the spirit of Jesus is in you, why can’t you work things out through repentance for doing wrong and forgiving each other? He asks why believers lie and cheat each other…why brothers and sisters in Christ do wrong to each other. Then He gives a very stern warning.
He says this, “... do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived! Neither sexually immoral people, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor passive homosexual partners, nor dominant homosexual partners, 10 nor thieves, nor greedy persons, not drunkards, not abusive persons, not swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And some of you were these things, but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.
So What does a changed life…a new identity in Christ look like? What does it look like to submit to God and say…I want to do your will?
Remember, the idea is this - We have an identity in the world (goes along with our sin nature). We need to give that one up, as attached to it as we are - believing in Jesus - so that He can give us His spirit to begin to recreate us from the inside out…recreate us to look like Him…recreate us to begin to be what we were meant to be in the beginning…without the sin nature.
Only that will bring complete peace and happiness and security.
Paul talks a lot about this change in identity. He even gives us two incredible passages that help us to see what a changed identity, an identity in Christ will look like if we allow God to change us.
Love looks like this, 1 Corinthians 13:4-7
1 Corinthians 13:4–7 (LEB)
Love is patient, love is kind, love is not envious, it does not boast, it does not become conceited,
it does not behave dishonorably, it is not selfish, it does not become angry, it does not keep a record of wrongs,
it does not rejoice at unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth,
bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Paul then goes on to say…listen, right now we can’t see this perfectly…its like looking a mirror and seeing a blurred image, we can’t see our perfect identity yet…but then, and He says this kinda of like John did in the passage we looked at last week…we can’t see perfectly now…but then…wow…wait till then. Then we’ll see perfectly.
Paul then in another passage talks again about our identity…what our identity will look like -
This is from Galatians 5:16-17
Galatians 5:16–17 (LEB)
But I say, live by the Spirit, and you will never carry out the desire of the flesh.
For the flesh desires against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, for these are in opposition to one another, so that whatever you want, you don’t these things.
Then Paul goes on and says, as the spirit changes you into Christ’s identity, here’s what you’ll look like Galatians 5:22-25
Galatians 5:22–25 (LEB)
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness, self control. Against such things there is no law.
Now those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh together with its feelings and its desires. (…you’ve exchanged your own identity for the one Jesus wants you to have)
If we live by the Spirit, we must also follow the Spirit.
Not perfect. But forgiven. Not perfect, but in the process of being transformed. Not perfect, but loved.
Here’s how Paul said it…so much better.
2 Corinthians 4:7-12
But we have this treasure in earthenware jars, in order that the extraordinary degree of the power may be from God and not from us.
We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing;
persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed;
always carrying around the death of Jesus in our body, in order that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.
For we who are alive are continually being handed over to death because of Jesus, in order that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our mortal flesh.
So then, death is at work in us, but life in you.
Therefore we do not lose heart, but even if our outer person is being destroyed, yet our inner person is being renewed day after day.
For our momentary light affliction is producing in us an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure and proportion,
because we are not looking at what is seen, but what is not seen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is not seen is eternal.
Amen?!
Identity - What’s it look like? It looks like us giving up ourselves for what Jesus has in store for us. Submitting to Him. Allowing Him to change us to what we were originally meant to be. It looks like us repenting…saying we know that we live on this side of the fall…we still carry God’s image but we carry a lot of sin too. It looks like a person saying Jesus, change me.
Do you want to be changed so you look like Him? Imaging with me…you allowing that to happen - difficult? Maybe - more peaceful in the end? absolutely. Imaging with me our whole church family beginning to be changed like that…our identities looking more like that perfect love…like those fruit of God’s spirit. Change in our community begins with each of us individually. Amen
If anyone wants this change…and maybe hasn’t ever made that step yet before…either here or online, I encourage you to take that courageous step. Maybe you’ve been a believer for a long time but you haven’t really allowed Jesus to begin to change all of you. If that’s you, after we’re done today I hope that you will look for me or one of our elders or even another CHristian friend you have. We have a baptistry here ready and waiting for you to begin or to begin again. That’s what Jesus wants…He wants to recreate you into His image…and then to live like that for eternity.
Let’s pray - Lord I pray right now for those who might be wanting this change but just need a nudge. I pray that your words from your Bible this morning might nudge all of us to either think just a bit differently walking out of this room today or maybe to even nudge us to make a decision that really needs to be made. Help us to desire change. To desire a new identity. To desire your identity for us…the identity that is the image of your Son Jesus. Lord help us this week to look differently at those around us. To see people who are just like us struggling with life, but wanting something more…maybe not knowing how to change. Your sons words - In this world you will have trouble but take heart I have overcome the world…help us to remember His words. An identity in Jesus helps us in our daily struggle. Lord help us be great Kingdom ambassadors this week so that we can allow to your light to shine through us…so that other people might know you and want to know you more.
In Christ’s name we all pray…and everyone said