10/12/08 How Did Those Guys Do It Pt. 2
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Following our time together last week

I was asked several excellent questions,

questions that made me realized that we needed to spend one more Sunday

on some of the things we were looking at.

And just to help us get our minds back into this study

let me offer a short overview of what we saw last week.

The key statement we were using as the foundation for the principle we were looking at

was Paul’s comment in Galatians 2:20 when he said,

“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me.”

From there we spent a few minutes talking about

how, when we come to Christ,

we bring with us our natural religious mentality

that has trained us to think in terms of our trying to work for God,

and we have no idea what it means for Christ to literally work in and through us.

And then, along with this,

we have a whole lifetime of training

that tells us that all productivity in life

is the result of human effort,

and talents,

and self-discipline,

and the investment of our time and energy.

The result is that we just naturally assume

that our calling as Christians is to look at the life pattern modeled for us by our Lord when He was here,

or at other Christians we admire,

and then attempt to reproduce what we see in them

through our own effort and determination and self-discipline.

Then we looked at the alternative given to us by our Lord in John 15:4-5.

“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me, and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing.”

Clearly He is not talking about a relationship in which we attempt to imitate other branches

or even the vine,

but rather a relationship in which the life of the vine

flows into us and out through us

as we simply “abide” in the vine.

From there we turned our attention to Paul’s letter to the Colossians

in which he revealed to them the amazing mystery of the will of God.

In Colossians 1:27 he says,

“...God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

And here’s where we ended up -

as God’s people,

we are called to simply trust by faith

that our Lord is indeed doing what He promised He would do,

living in us and working through us.

Occasionally we are consciously aware of what He’s doing and even why He’s doing it,

but in my experience those times are rare.

But whether we are aware of it or not,

whether we understand what He’s doing or not,

His commitment to live in us

and to live His life out through us is absolute.

It is the arrangement He has made with us -

not me for Christ,

but Christ in me.

And when it comes to our approach to life each day

the healthiest prayer we can pray is this:

“Lord, thank you for your commitment to live your life out through me this day.

Please, give me eyes to see what your Spirit is doing

and show me the choices I can make that allow you to do what You want to do both in and through me.”

OK, that’s pretty much where we were last week.

But there were some questions that grew out of that talk.

One of them concerned the statement I made when I was talking about that vine illustration.

I said that our calling is not to try to imitate other branches,

or even to try to imitate the vine.

What our Lord asks us to do

is to rest in the assurance that because we are joined to Him

His life is being lived out through us.

And following the service

I was asked about those passages in the New Testament

that actually appear to call us to imitate either Christ or other Christians.

Great question,

and to understand what’s going on here

we need to look at those statements in context.

There are actually six places in the New Testament

in which the concept of our being imitators are mentioned.

Two of them are found in comments made by Paul to the Thessalonians,

comments in which he praises them for the way in which

they have already imitated others in a specific areas.

Two of them are found in comments made by Paul to the Corinthians,

comments in which he asks his readers to follow his example in a specific area.

One of them is found in Hebrews

in a passage where the author encourages us to follow the example of past Christians.

And then, there is one statement made by Paul to the Ephesians

in which he asks us to imitate God Himself in a specific area.

And I think it will help us

if we look at each of these quickly

so that we can see what’s being said.

And we’ll start with those two comments made by Paul to the Thessalonians.

They are both found in 1^st Thessalonians,

and both of them are talking about the way in which their experience as Christians

paralleled what happened in both Jesus’ life and in Paul’s.

Let me read them to show you what I mean.

1TH 1:6 You also became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much tribulation with the joy of the Holy Spirit...

1TH 2:14 For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea, for you also endured the same sufferings at the hands of your own countrymen, even as they did from the Jews...

In both of these passages

Paul is not complimenting them for their attempting to imitate Paul’s lifestyle,

but rather he’s simply pointing out

that their coming to Christ resulted in their countrymen turning on them

just as the Jews turned on both Jesus and Paul himself.

Paul was simply trying to encourage his fellow believers

who were really getting beat up because of their faith in Christ.

They were hurting,

and when we hurt

so often the first thing we do is to doubt ourselves,

to question whether we’re doing something wrong.

And Paul wanted to counter this lie

by showing them that their lives perfectly paralleled both Christ’s and his own life.

It’s his way of saying,

“Hey look at this! You must be doing it right

because your life is following the same pattern as our King.

Just as Jesus was attacked and persecuted by His own people,

and just as I myself have encountered great tribulation because of my union with Christ,

so have you!

Well done!! Hang in there! And welcome to life in the family of God.”

With the two passages in which Paul asks the Corinthians to imitate himself

he is once again dealing with a specific issue,

in their case their arrogance.

The Corinthian church was a fascinating group.

To their credit they truly had grasped the depth and extent of the grace of God.

They knew their debt of sin was gone forever.

But their understanding of the grace of God had become twisted

to the point where they actually believed

that the more sins they committed

the more it glorified Christ

because it demonstrated the magnitude of the grace and forgiveness of God.

And so, some of them were getting drunk at their meals together,

and others were bragging about their immoral sexual relationships,

and still others were tied up in court battles with one another or fighting over who was their favorite preacher,

and in all of it there was the most offensive arrogance in so much of what the did and said.

And so two times in his first letter to this church

Paul calls the Corinthians to stop with their arrogance.

And then he offers his own humility and attitude of love as an example.

The first passage is in I Corinthians 4,

a passage in which Paul briefly describes his own life -

1CO 4:11-13 To this present hour we are both hungry and thirsty, and are poorly clothed, and are roughly treated, and are homeless; and we toil, working with our own hands; when we are reviled, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure; when we are slandered, we try to conciliate; we have become as the scum of the world, the dregs of all things, even until now.

Then he goes on to say,

1CO 4:16 I exhort you therefore, be imitators of me.

In other words,

he is telling them not to glory in their sin,

but rather to glory in their righteous choices.

And in the 10^th chapter he does the same thing.

In this chapter he’s talking about making choices

that make it easiest for their fellow Christians to live Godly lives.

And in that context he says,

10:32 - 11:1 Give no offense either to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God; just as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of the many, that they may be saved. Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.

He’s obviously not asking them to imitate his daily routine,

or trying to convince them that they should all become traveling preachers or apostles or evangelists,

he’s asking them to imitate one specific attitude in his own life,

to put love above freedom in their relationship with one another.

And in Hebrews we see a similar thing.

The author says,

HEB 6:11-12 And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end, that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

Here again he’s not telling his readers to approach their Christian lives

by trying to imitate the life-styles or ministries of some other Christian,

he’s telling them to follow their example of simple, practical trust in the promises of God.

And the final passage, and the only one that calls us to imitate God,

is probably the most helpful of all.

It’s found in Ephesians 5:1-2

and here again it only makes sense when we see exactly what we are to imitate in our Creator.

EPH 5:1-2 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you, and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.

We are called to imitate our Creator in one area - the way He loves.

So where does that leave us with this whole imitation thing?

There are only four things we are called to imitate -

we are called to imitate the life of faith - practical trust in God’s promises,

we are called to imitate the patience modeled by others as the waited for God to fulfill those promises,

we are called to imitate Paul’s attitude of humility toward our fellows believers,

and we are called to imitate the way God loves us.

None of them are specific actions, or lifestyles, or ministries, or daily routines, or religious systems,

but rather they are crucial life attitudes.

But then how do we know what those attitudes mean in our daily lives?

Are you in the stock market?

What does it mean for us to “trust God”, to have faith in Him

in an economy that’s going crazy?

So what does it mean to “trust God” in this situation?

Is it trust to leave the money in,

or is it trust to pull it out believing there is something else He wants me to do with it?

And how about that love thing?

If we do, indeed, accept as our highest calling

that of learning how to love those around us as God loves them,

what does that mean?

When do we know when to encourage,

or when to confront,

or when to simply ignore and forgive?

And how about all of those other endless daily life questions.

How about the moment by moment questions and issues about your children,

or your marriage,

or your work?

What we really need is a manual for life

and our own personal guide to lead us through it.

And how about that!

This is exactly what our King has given us.

The manual, of course, is His Word,

and the guide is the presence of His Spirit within us.

And we find the answers to each question, each issue one step at a time,

through the active moment-by-moment working of the Spirit of God in our lives,

which brings us right back to where we were last week.

GAL 2:20 "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me...”

I understand perfectly

why we are so prone to looking around us

for some religious pattern or role model to imitate

with the hopes that it or they will lead us into the kind of life we long for.

It seems so much safer to try to reproduce in the flesh

what seems to have worked in the life of someone else.

And it is sometimes a scary thing to trust “Christ in you”,

to believe that He’s really there, where He said He would be,

joined to your Spirit,

and that He will indeed “never leave you and never forsake you...”.

And yet that is exactly the life we are called to

because, you see, each of us are created by Him for unique purposes,

unique roles,

unique expressions of the reality of God to this world.

When I first started out as a Pastor

there were strong impulses within me

telling me to look around me at the clearly defined models

of what a Pastor is and what he should do.

And I could have done that, or at least tried to.

But in the process I would have forever forfeited

my own unique expression of my Lord Jesus Christ,

and I would also have lost many of the deepest joys

and most fulfilling experiences of my life.

Certainly I do my best to listen closely to those that God has placed in authority over me,

which, for me, is our Board of Elders.

But to others who may have opinions about the way in which I approach my walk with the King

I say along with Paul,

1CO 4:2-5 In this case, moreover, it is required of stewards that one be found trustworthy. But to me it is a very small thing that I may be examined by you, or by any human court; in fact, I do not even examine myself. For I am conscious of nothing against myself, yet I am not by this acquitted; but the one who examines me is the Lord. Therefore do not go on passing judgment before the time, but wait until the Lord comes who will both bring to light the things hidden in the darkness and disclose the motives of men's hearts; and then each man's praise will come to him from God.

Isn’t that a great passage?

And I’ll tell you, my friends,

if anything I’ve said during the past two weeks

begins to take root in you and grow,

and if you do begin to recognize, and trust, and rest in the presence of Christ in you,

and give Him the freedom to live His life out through you in the way that He alone knows is right for you,

you’re going to want to remember where that passage is,

and have it circled in red,

and maybe even memorized

because there will be more than a few times

when those around you will attempt to squeeze you into their mold,

a mold that simply does not fit the unique creative life your Lord is seeking to live through you.

And then there is one more excellent question that came up last week

that I really need to clarify before we return to our study of II Peter.

Just before I ended last week I made the following statement.

I said that if we are living within God’s moral framework,

and if we are not mired in manmade religion,

we can rest in the absolute certainty

that we are exactly where God wants us to be,

doing exactly what God wants us to do.

We are living in the center of the will of God!

OK, that is a correct statement,

but because of the way I said it

I realize now that it opens up the possibility for a tragic misunderstanding

of the true nature of the relationship that exists between us and our Lord Jesus Christ.

You see, a statement like that

leaves one huge question unanswered,

and it’s the question that every honest Christian will at times churn over.

It’s fine to say that, IF we are not mired down in religion,

and IF we are not living outside of God’s moral framework

then we can be certain that we are exactly where God wants us to be,

doing exactly what God wants us to do.

But the real question we wrestle with so often

is, “Ya, but what happens when we mess up?

What happens if I haven’t figured this whole thing out yet?

What happens if I don’t know at times what’s just flesh-based religious duties

and what’s really the life of Christ through me?

And what if I let some lie run wild in me and just plain choose wrong?

What happens to the life of Christ in us and through us then?”

And the answer to that question is imbedded in the very statement we’ve been using as our foundation for this whole principle,

and it is something I should have pointed out last week.

OK, Paul says,

GAL 2:20 "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me...”.

That’s where we were last week,

recognizing that whether we are consciously aware of it or not,

the Spirit of Christ has joined Himself to our spirit,

and He is living His life out through us moment by moment.

IT IS NO LONGER I WHO LIVE, BUT CHRIST LIVES IN ME...

But Paul,

being way more insightful than I was last week,

knew that the huge question that instantly surges into our minds

when we hear a statement telling us that Christ is in us and living through us,

Paul knew that we would assume that this life of Christ being lived through us

is still, at some level tied to our ability to offer God a life

that is sufficiently together so that Christ can do through us what He wants to do.

In other words,

we just naturally assume

that the basis of this whole thing is still our performance.

And so, look at how he completes this remarkable statement about Christ living in me.

He says,

GAL 2:20 "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.

You see, he assumes that there still are now,

and as long as I remain on this earth will continue to be

areas of my life in which I continue to “live in the flesh”,

areas where my flesh stubbornly resists the leadership of the Spirit of God within me,

areas where I fear,

or doubt,

or retreat to deeply ingrained flesh-based need-meeting techniques from my past.

And so, the very next things he says,

after telling me that Christ is in me and living through me,

is to tell me that I must never ever forget

that this whole arrangement of Christ’s life in me and through me

is built not upon my performance,

but rather upon my daily faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.

In fact, he makes it even stronger.

Listen to what he says in the next few verses.

GAL 3:1-5 You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified? This is the only thing I want to find out from you: did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Did you suffer so many things in vain -- if indeed it was in vain? So then, does He who provides you with the Spirit and works miracles among you, do it by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?

Do you see what he does?

He takes the Galatians right back to the basics.

He reminds them of the way in which he vividly portrayed for them the death of Christ,

God’s debt paid for our sins forever.

Then he asks them a question.

He takes them right back to that point at which the entered the Family of God

and Christ placed His Spirit within them

and he says, “What did you have to offer God then that made you qualified to receive His Spirit? Did God accept you as His child and place His Spirit within you because you could offer Him some quality of life that justified it? Or was it because you simply believed He was telling you the truth when He told you that Christ paid your sin debt in full forever?”

And then he goes on with some of the strongest language usage we ever see from him and says,

Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?

In other words, do you really think your God is so unfair

as to change all the rules after you become His child?

Do you think He accepted you on the basis of your simple faith,

but now is demanding from you a performance level that will qualify you for the life of Christ through you?

What kind of a God do you think He is?

...and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.

That’s the only way it works.

So let me see if I can rephrase my closing comments from last week

so that they better reflect what’s really going on between us and our God.

And I think I can do this best in the form of a prayer.

“Lord, thank you for taking me just as I am, right where I am,

making me your child,

and joining your Spirit to my spirit forever.

Thank you that it really is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me.

And most of all, thank you that even when my flesh gets in the way,

or I get mired down in my old religious ways or my old flesh impulses

You never leave me, never forsake me, and continue Your life within me perfectly.

Thank you that this life that I now live with You never has and never will rest upon my performance

but rather upon Your love and Your grace poured out on me each day.

I ask that this day and each day you will give me eyes to see

where my flesh is warring against what your Spirit is seeking to do in me and through me,

and I ask that you will strengthen me with power through your Spirit

so that I can make those choices that make it easiest for You to live through me.”

Amen.