Philippians 3:13-14 NIV
… straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward
the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ
Jesus.
What has your full attention?
The other day I was at a very nice restaurant with a
good friend and we had a great time together.
The food was delicious and honestly I ate far too much. I gained a full pound just having lunch
there. As we were leaving, the Lord
prodded me to go to a couple with a newborn child and start a conversation with
them. I was not sure why He wanted me to
do it; I didn’t know them and it could have seemed odd to the couple but I was
certain the Holy Spirit was pushing me to approach them. Now it could have been that this was just something
I wanted to do…they had a cute baby and perhaps I was happy for them and wanted
to let them know I was happy for them.
Maybe I just wanted to try to sell the young couple on our church; I am
a pastor and that is my job. It might
just well be that it is my personality to talk with people I don’t know and
start conversations at random places. I
know anyone who was watching me could have made any of these same
deductions. But I was sure that the Lord
in some way that is beyond my ability to explain or prove wanted me to approach
the couple who were busy enjoying their lunch and their baby and visit with
them a minute or two. What outcome there
might be, I did not know nor did I have any idea what the Lord wanted me to say
actually. So there I was, about to leave
the restaurant, with the Lord’s insistence that I stay just a bit longer and
inject my life into the lives of two people who were perfect strangers.
Is it true that we each are being moved along by an
unseen hand of one who has designs upon us that we may or may not know or care
to know? Do we have a purpose to our
lives, a reason why we are here? Is it
to get an education, to work hard and do well in school? Are we here to be successful in some career
or at least make a good living at what we do?
Are we here to buy a house, get a car, pay off our debt? Is there a purpose to our lives? Are we here to gain US citizenship, make sure
our kids get a quality education, pass along what we have learned to the next
generation, aggravate people, watch as much TV as possible, find a husband or
wife, develop an addiction, look good when we are old, stay healthy? What is our purpose here?
There is an interesting account in the Bible that
gets at an important consideration if we do think there might be a reason why
we are on this planet for a certain period of time. Most of are not under the illusion that we
are going to stay here one hundred years or more and certainly are not going to
have thousands of years to get everything done that we think we need to do
before we die. So there is a certain
level of urgency each of us faces when it comes to doing what we feel we should
do. David, who already was king of
Judah, was invited by the northern tribes of Israel to be their king also. Their previous king, Ish-Bosheth had been
murdered, and so the popular choice to replace him was David. David eagerly agreed to the offer but the
armies of the northern tribes had to sign off on the deal as well. It was not
long before nearly three hundred thousand men came to meet with David, soldiers
representing all twelve tribes of Israel, and pledge their support of him as
king. In fact, they were fiercely
decided on this. They came to Hebron fully determined to make David king
over all Israel. All the rest of the Israelites were also of one mind to make
David king. (1 Chronicles 12:38-39 NIV) “Fully determined” implies an unwavering
sense of direction or purpose. They came
to David’s camp for a reason and intended to accomplish the task they had
decided upon before leaving. The army
was full of purpose; it was not a spontaneous excursion so they didn’t treat it
as such. They were in Hebron to make
David king over Israel and and they did it.
You are not randomly placed where you are without
direction. There is a point to who you
are and why you are what you are. Each
of us faces a moment when we realize we really are sinners. It is not that we have done a few things
wrong; we are sinners through and through and we cannot fix that about us. Some of us then discover that Jesus Christ
alone gives us a way out from our sinfulness.
When He died on the Cross, Jesus took into His own body our sins and
when Jesus physically died, those sins and their permanent effect died with
Him. To be forgiven of your sins, you
must believe Jesus did that, He took your sins into His body and they died with
Him and after that, three days later God raised Him from the dead. Nothing about your sinfulness changes in your
life until you decide this is so. Your
sins remain your death, they separate you from God and in the end you are
without hope.
But when you by faith accept the work Jesus Christ
did in dying for your sins, something astonishingly supernatural occurs. Christ physically becomes a part of your
life. He enters you and joins you in all
you do. He empowers transcendent life
changes that mark how you do things. You
change in ways noticeable and discreet.
Every Christian experiences this, a new life with Jesus Christ in the
totality of life. Jesus called it being
“born again”. If your life doesn’t
change, then perhaps nothing is different with you. You are not born again and not living with
Christ in your life. But if you have
been remade by God through faith, then there is a different you in place, a “you”
that includes Jesus Christ.
The Apostle Paul put it this way regarding the union
of Christ and any true Christian. We
always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus
may also be revealed in our body. For we
who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that his
life may be revealed in our mortal body. (2 Corinthians 4:10-12 NIV) Jesus Christ crucified becomes part of us,
who we are, what we think and what we do.
Not only that, the life of Christ is there in us too. What this does for us is make us dead to sin…sin
no longer controls us like a slave master.
Christ crucified makes sure of that for our sins were killed in His
body. But because Christ alive lives in
us too, His vibrancy and power are always ready to spring from us, show
themselves in us. We become alive with
the personality and will and ability of Jesus Christ and that Christ-part-of-us
will not remain dormant. It like a seed
planted in soil will eventually poke out of the ground and you are the soil
where that seed is planted.
We have in the book of Acts a case study of what
happens when Jesus Christ crucified and alive lives in you and becomes a part
of your decision making, will and behavior.
In Acts 4: 13 is an interesting aside regarding the Christian
people. When they saw the courage of
Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were
astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. (NIV) There is something tangible, something
different about those who have become intimate with Jesus, who live with
Him. The ones observing it may not be
able to put a finger on exactly what they see but it is recognizable. Sprinkled throughout the book of Acts are
some examples of how Christian people who are living with Christ in them look.
In Acts 7: 59-60 is the terrifying account of
Stephen who was martyred for his faith crying out for God to forgive the very
ones who were murdering him. While
they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my
spirit." Then he fell on his knees
and cried out, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." When he had
said this, he fell asleep. (NIV) To
use a metaphor that could make some squeamish, Jesus Christ was seeping out of
Stephen as he faced his death squarely.
That mercy he had for his killers was not his own, it was the nature and
will of Jesus Christ living within him.
As you are being crushed by skull shattering stones, what you are comes
out of you, not an imitation of something.
Stephen felt pity on his attackers because of the one living within Him,
Jesus sincerely loved them.
When Paul, on his way to Damascus to arrest
Christians, was converted by the personal work of Jesus Christ it was no small
matter for the Christian Ananias to approach Paul and offer to baptize him and
pray over him. The prejudices he held
were legitimate and based on factual information. Paul was a real threat to him and his
family. To overcome this fear, Ananias
had to possess Jesus Christ living in him who was fearless. We know Ananias was afraid because he
protested the demand of Christ that he go see Paul. "Lord,"
Ananias answered, "I have heard many reports about this man and all the
harm he has done to your saints in Jerusalem.
And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all
who call on your name." (Acts
9:13-14 NIV) Ananias the man felt the
very natural panic at the mention of Paul’s name; Ananias with Jesus Christ
unafraid living in him went courageously to Paul and prayed over him.
Something we have talked about before popped up in
the Christian community that first few years after Christ ascended to the
father. Spontaneously and without
coercion or any sort of Church direction, Christians started selling off their
property and giving the proceeds to the work of the Church. They weren’t pressured into doing it. They weren’t even asked. They just gave generously and sacrificially and
it had a stunning effect upon other Christians as well as the community where
they lived. All the believers were
one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own,
but they shared everything they had.
With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all. There were no needy
persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold
them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles' feet, and it
was distributed to anyone as he had need. (Acts 4:32-35 NIV) The reason why this was such an established
practice is not because of the strategic training and pressure tactics in the
Church; it occurred because the resurrected Christ lived in these people and
His nature came out of them in tangible ways.
When Jesus Christ lives in you, your will moves in the direction of
generosity and away from a drive to acquire possessions and gain for yourself
stuff to hold and keep.
The point is that if you are actually Christian you
have Jesus Christ, who suffered the Cross to take away your sins and rose from
the dead and is not bound by the constraints of this world, living in you and undoing
the constraints of your common thinking.
He makes you aware of the miracles that are possible. He opens you up to
blessing people who hurt you and take from you and use you. He gives you a determination to give up what
you have to bring God glory. He makes
you courageous and confident and willing to die if you need to die for the
Lord’s honor. Jesus Christ living in you
gives you the ability to quit judging people, quit deciding you don’t like them
or won’t trust them or don’t want to have anything to do with them and gives
you the determination to bless and pray for each person you encounter. This does not come from you; it comes from
Christ living in you.
We waste a lot of time and make ourselves miserable
trying to fight off what Christ resurrected is in us. Essentially we war against ourselves when we
act selfishly, react angrily and refuse to love someone we dislike. Because Christ resurrected has become a part
of us, part of our personality…that is who we are. The most miserable people in the world are
those who war with themselves, who will not let Christ resurrected come out of
them, show Himself in what they do.
Non-Christians can be perfectly content avoiding mean and irritating
neighbors and co-workers and family members but Christians who have Christ
resurrected living within them will be miserable if they try to be that way and
the same is true when it comes to keeping too much for themselves and being
afraid to trust God in stressful situations.
If you want to be unhappy, cranky and discouraged, then do your best to
avoid who you are…Christ resurrected living within you. If you want to be free of care, contented and
courageous in your life with God, then let Christ resurrected have His way with
you in what you do. You cannot be at
peace if you fight against who you are…but you will have perfect peace if you let
Jesus Christ have complete sway within your personality.
Spend a week praying for God’s blessing upon someone
who has treated you badly or someone you just don’t like. Let Christ seep out of you. Buy a sandwich for someone you don’t know and who doesn’t deserve your generosity. Let
Christ resurrected show Himself in you.
Do something nice for someone and never tell that person it was you who
did it. Let Christ resurrected show up
where you are. Announce your Christian
faith in Christ where it isn’t known and see what God does with your
courage. Somehow find a way to give
Christ resurrected room to live through you this week.
You can easily tell
the person lacking Christian faith because he can't make heads or tails of even
the simplest of matters spiritually. The
Bible is not a manual of what to do and what not to do. If that were the case, then anyone could read
it and have no problem with what they find in it. But the man without Christ is constantly
confounded by it; whether it be by the miracles described or the "hard
teachings". To try to press the
matter, whether it be adultery or integrity, is the most futile of endeavors
when it comes to the unregenerate mind.
John the Baptist lost his head trying to convince Herod that he was
wrong to marry his brother's wife.
Elijah found himself running for his life after he did his best to show Ahab and his wife Jezebel the wickedness of
religious syncretism. The Bible is
thoroughly flawed and disoriented if you take the word of anyone with
"common sense". You can get
away with just common sense if you only want to try to figure out the weather
or who will win the next election but it is absolutely no use if you hope to
know God. He must reveal Himself if He
is to be recognized and the Lord simply isn't willing to do that for those who
will not have faith in Him. There is
nothing logical about the new birth; but it is actual. It cannot be understood without the mind of
Christ making sense of it which explains the disinterest in so many quarters
for holiness and righteous living. Try
to get one unredeemed soul to see the connection between sexual immorality and
looking at a woman with desire or the linking of calling someone a fool and
murder. It is irrational and ultimate
nonsense to anyone not "born from above". The Holy Spirit does not come upon us to take
over things for us; He does so because God has decided mercifully to give us
the very nature and character of Christ.
Unless you look through God's eyes, you cannot see the Kingdom of God,
try as you may. It is like a completely
color blind man straining to differentiate red versus blue. Stare all you want at the things of God and
you will not see them if Christ is not living within you. The goal for each Christian is not to get
ahold of God but to let God get ahold of us.
This comes by faith in Christ and because of that faith giving space to
God to work His way through each part of us.
Obedience, as it is seen in the person born again, is faith in
action. Doing what is directed as the
Holy Spirit makes a matter known. With
each faith step, with each act done in the grip of Christ, a bit more light
comes and the Ways of God develop perfect clarity.
