Session 6: Imitating Jesus

How does the clamor of culture draw you away from your relationship with Christ?

How would your life change if you were comfortable being culturally irrelevant, but rooted in Christ?

Who would you invest in if your attention were not drawn away by internet sensations or cultural clamor?

The Holy Spirit is the one who helps us to reflect the life of Christ through our daily lives. The way we do this is to try and live out the life Jesus had with His heavenly Father.

John 5:16 ESV

16 And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath.

John 5:19 ESV

19 So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.

These verses come from when Jesus healed the invalid at Bethesda. The religious leaders were upset because the healing took place on the Sabbath. We do see in Genesis that God took a day of rest after all of creation.

Because God took a day of rest, does that mean He saw to nothing?

In the verses here, Jesus was trying to tell the religious leaders they were busy enforcing a law they made exceptions to themselves. If a circumcision was to take place on the Sabbath, it was done.

In Matthew, He asks them if one has a sheep who has fallen into a pit if they would go get it out.

Mark 2:27–28 ESV

27 And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. 28 So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”

Jesus was simply imitating His Father when He healed this man who was an invalid. We don’t need to wrestle with when He did it, but what He did.

If we spend our time imitating Jesus, we honor Jesus the same way He honored His Father through imitating Him.

How can you imitate Jesus in your job right now?

1 Corinthians 11:1 ESV

1 Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.

Here is an introspection question for you.

Could you urge others to imitate you as an example of how to live as a disciple of Christ? If not, what do you need to change?

Boy, this would be a tough one to look at the mirror at yourself.

As a pastor, for me, as a leader for others in this room, as an adult. This really ways on me. When I’m in school, I want to make sure my kids see Christ in me in all situations. That’s hard.

I think, since we are human, and we are going to mess up, we need to realize we have a teachable moment as well.

John 5:20 ESV

20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel.

John 14:16 ESV

16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever,

I’d love to be able to play football like Hines Ward did. There were things he did that were absolutely amazing. A lot of the things he did, he was coached to do. He played with an all out commitment to the team and would do what it took to win the game. That would include if he was assigned to block someone who was 50 pounds heavier than he was.

So, next fall, I’m going to go out on Pittsburgh’s football field and imitate Hines Ward.

Even though I might really want to do this, I don’t have the skills to do what he did. What he did, he trained for all of his life.

We can try and be imitators of Christ, but it doesn’t mean we are going to be successful at it all the time.

In John 14:16, what name did Jesus use to refer to the Holy Spirit?

John 14:16 ESV

16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever,

How have you experienced the empowering help of the Holy Spirit as you seek to be like Jesus?

We all have our gifts and talents which can be used by the Lord. He has gifted all with different things which can be used for the building up of the church. As we seek to be like Jesus, we should seek to find what these talents and gifts are so we can serve others with them

Romans 8:14–16 ESV

14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,

What reason did Paul give for not being afraid?

We are part of the family of God. As Christians, we have been adopted into the family. According to adoption during this time, there is no difference between a blood relation and an adopted relation. We are part of God’s family. We should we fear?

How does it feel to know that you can call God your Father?

What do you find encouraging about this?

Not everyone has a great earthly father example to look at. There are those who have struggled with the relationship they have had with parents and trying to reconcile those images with the image we have of God the Father.

If you hadn’t had a good relationship with your father, how could you find this father image of God challenging?

Questions to think about at home:

Is God calling you to do something for Him? Spend some time praying about the things He is calling you to and ask Him for obedience to walk in those things.

Think of someone who needs to hear about God’s love (a different person than in previous weeks). Initiate conversation with this person this week as a step toward sharing about the love of God with them.