Spiritual Transformation - The Primary Years

It All Begins With Surrender

The arc of Jesus’ ministry and teaching:

The Year of Obscurity

The Year of Popularity

The Year of Opposition - this is our focus

Matthew 16:21 NET 2nd ed.

From that time on Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests, and experts in the law, and be killed and on the third day be raised.

Matthew 16:22 NET 2nd ed.

So Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him: “God forbid, Lord! This must not happen to you!”

Matthew 16:23 NET 2nd ed.

But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me because you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but on man’s.”

Matthew 16:24–25 NET 2nd ed.

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone wants to become my follower, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me will find it.

Matthew 16:26–27 NET 2nd ed.

For what does it benefit a person if he gains the whole world but forfeits his life? Or what can a person give in exchange for his life? For the Son of Man will come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done.

Matthew 16:28 NET 2nd ed.

I tell you the truth, there are some standing here who will not experience death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”

John 6 - Feeding of the 5,000 - Jesus Walks on Water - The Bread of Life

John 6:60 NET 2nd ed.

Then many of his disciples, when they heard these things, said, “This is a difficult saying! Who can understand it?”

John 6:61–63 NET 2nd ed.

When Jesus was aware that his disciples were complaining about this, he said to them, “Does this cause you to be offended? Then what if you see the Son of Man ascending where he was before? The Spirit is the one who gives life; human nature is of no help! The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.

John 6:64–65 NET 2nd ed.

But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus had already known from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) So Jesus added, “Because of this I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has allowed him to come.”

John 6:66 NET 2nd ed.

After this many of his disciples quit following him and did not accompany him any longer.

John 6:67 NET 2nd ed.

So Jesus said to the twelve, “You don’t want to go away too, do you?”

John 6:68–69 NET 2nd ed.

Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God!”

John 6:70–71 NET 2nd ed.

Jesus replied, “Didn’t I choose you, the twelve, and yet one of you is the devil?” (Now he said this about Judas son of Simon Iscariot, for Judas, one of the twelve, was going to betray him.)

Why surrender? Isn’t this about obedience only?

First, remember our status before surrendering to Christ - War

Colossians 1:21–23 NET 2nd ed.

And you were at one time strangers and enemies in your minds as expressed through your evil deeds, but now he has reconciled you by his physical body through death to present you holy, without blemish, and blameless before him—if indeed you remain in the faith, established and firm, without shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard. This gospel has also been preached in all creation under heaven, and I, Paul, have become its servant.

Second, obedience is impossible

Galatians 3:1–2 NLT

Oh, foolish Galatians! Who has cast an evil spell on you? For the meaning of Jesus Christ’s death was made as clear to you as if you had seen a picture of his death on the cross. Let me ask you this one question: Did you receive the Holy Spirit by obeying the law of Moses? Of course not! You received the Spirit because you believed the message you heard about Christ.

Galatians 3:3–4 NLT

How foolish can you be? After starting your new lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort? Have you experienced so much for nothing? Surely it was not in vain, was it?

Galatians 3:5 NLT

I ask you again, does God give you the Holy Spirit and work miracles among you because you obey the law? Of course not! It is because you believe the message you heard about Christ.

Galatians 3:6–7 NLT

In the same way, “Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.” The real children of Abraham, then, are those who put their faith in God.

Galatians 3:8–9 NLT

What’s more, the Scriptures looked forward to this time when God would make the Gentiles right in his sight because of their faith. God proclaimed this good news to Abraham long ago when he said, “All nations will be blessed through you.” So all who put their faith in Christ share the same blessing Abraham received because of his faith.

Galatians 3:10–12 NLT

But those who depend on the law to make them right with God are under his curse, for the Scriptures say, “Cursed is everyone who does not observe and obey all the commands that are written in God’s Book of the Law.” So it is clear that no one can be made right with God by trying to keep the law. For the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.” This way of faith is very different from the way of law, which says, “It is through obeying the law that a person has life.”

Galatians 3:13–14 NLT

But Christ has rescued us from the curse pronounced by the law. When he was hung on the cross, he took upon himself the curse for our wrongdoing. For it is written in the Scriptures, “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.” Through Christ Jesus, God has blessed the Gentiles with the same blessing he promised to Abraham, so that we who are believers might receive the promised Holy Spirit through faith.

Galatians 3:15–16 NLT

Dear brothers and sisters, here’s an example from everyday life. Just as no one can set aside or amend an irrevocable agreement, so it is in this case. God gave the promises to Abraham and his child. And notice that the Scripture doesn’t say “to his children,” as if it meant many descendants. Rather, it says “to his child”—and that, of course, means Christ.

Galatians 3:17–18 NLT

This is what I am trying to say: The agreement God made with Abraham could not be canceled 430 years later when God gave the law to Moses. God would be breaking his promise. For if the inheritance could be received by keeping the law, then it would not be the result of accepting God’s promise. But God graciously gave it to Abraham as a promise.

Galatians 3:19–20 NLT

Why, then, was the law given? It was given alongside the promise to show people their sins. But the law was designed to last only until the coming of the child who was promised. God gave his law through angels to Moses, who was the mediator between God and the people. Now a mediator is helpful if more than one party must reach an agreement. But God, who is one, did not use a mediator when he gave his promise to Abraham.

Galatians 3:21–22 NLT

Is there a conflict, then, between God’s law and God’s promises? Absolutely not! If the law could give us new life, we could be made right with God by obeying it. But the Scriptures declare that we are all prisoners of sin, so we receive God’s promise of freedom only by believing in Jesus Christ.

Galatians 3:24–25 NLT

Let me put it another way. The law was our guardian until Christ came; it protected us until we could be made right with God through faith. And now that the way of faith has come, we no longer need the law as our guardian.

Galatians 3:26–28 NLT

For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes. There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Making Jesus our focus

Philippians 2:1–2 NET 2nd ed.

Therefore, if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort provided by love, any fellowship in the Spirit, any affection or mercy, complete my joy and be of the same mind, by having the same love, being united in spirit, and having one purpose.

Philippians 2:3–4 NET 2nd ed.

Instead of being motivated by selfish ambition or vanity, each of you should, in humility, be moved to treat one another as more important than yourself. Each of you should be concerned not only about your own interests, but about the interests of others as well.

Philippians 2:5 NET 2nd ed.

You should have the same attitude toward one another that Christ Jesus had,

Philippians 2:6 NET 2nd ed.

who, though he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped,

Philippians 2:7 NET 2nd ed.

but emptied himself by taking on the form of a slave, by looking like other men, and by sharing in human nature.

Philippians 2:8 NET 2nd ed.

He humbled himself, by becoming obedient to the point of death —even death on a cross!

Philippians 2:9 NET 2nd ed.

As a result God highly exalted him and gave him the name, that is above every name,

Philippians 2:10 NET 2nd ed.

so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow —in heaven and on earth and under the earth—

Philippians 2:11 NET 2nd ed.

and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.