CREATED TO IMAGE GOD

 

  1. Introduction: We just finished a series on the second coming of Jesus Christ.  The series was inspired by something that happened at the Last Supper, Jesus’ final meal with His twelve apostles the night before He was crucified.
  2. At this meal Jesus instituted what we now call communion. Jesus offered bread and wine to His apostles as emblems of the sacrifice that He was going to make in less than twenty-four hours.
  3. He would give His life as a sacrifice for the sin of the world and open the way for men and women to be forgiven and restored to God through faith in Him. At this final meal, Jesus told His followers:  Every time you eat it, do it in memory of me (Luke 22:19, NIRV).
  4. Paul the apostle later wrote: When you eat the bread and drink the cup, you are announcing the Lord’s death until he comes again (I Cor 11:26, NIRV).
  5. In our last series, we talked about how Jesus, through His sacrificial death, activated God’s plan to save and deliver all who believe in Him from sin, corruption, and death and restore them to God’s family as His holy, blameless sons and daughters. John 3:16-17; I Pet 3:18
  6. When Jesus returns, He’ll bring full salvation—He’ll raise the dead, restore the earth (the family home), and bring Heaven and earth together, completing God’s plan. Heb 9:26-28
  7. Tonight, we begin a new series. This series also comes out of something that happened at the Last Supper, and is as important and needful as everything thing we said about Jesus’ return.
  8. At the Last Supper, at some point after Jesus and the twelve were seated at the table for the meal, Jesus got up, wrapped a towel around His waist, poured water into a basin and began to wash the feet of the apostles. John 13:4-17.
  9. Washing the feet upon entering a house was the custom of the day, and was usually done be a servant or the lowest in ranking person in the room. A towel was a symbol of a servant.
  10. That night, for whatever reason, foot washing had not yet taken place when Jesus got up to do it. There was probably no host or servant in the room.  And none of the apostles did it for themselves or volunteered to do it for the rest of the group.
  11. Luke’s gospel gives us another detail about this Last Supper. Luke records that the apostles had an argument over which of them would be the greatest in the coming kingdom. Luke 22:24
  12. Jesus rebuked them and told them: In this world the kings and great men order their people around…But among you, those who are the greatest should take the lowest rank, and the leader should be like a servant.  Normally the master sits at the table and is served by his servants.  But not here!  For I am your servant (Luke 22:26-27, NLT).
  13. After Jesus washed their feet He said to them: You call me “Teacher” and “Lord”, and you are right, because it is true.  And since I, the Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, so you ought to wash each other’s feet.  I have given you an example to follow.  Do as I have done to you (John 13:13-15, NLT).
  14. Jesus wasn’t instituting a ritual that He wants us to repeat by literally washing each other’s feet. He was demonstrating an attitude of heart expressed through an action.
  15. He was showing His followers how they (and we) are supposed to live in this world—as servants of God and servants of man, in both our attitudes and our actions.
  16. Jesus not only died to open the way for us to become God’s sons and daughters through faith in Him, while Jesus was on earth, He showed us the kind of sons and daughters God desires, the kind He created us to be. Jesus is the pattern for God’s family.
  17. Rom 8:29—For whom (God) foreknew (knew about before He created us), He also predestinated (decided beforehand) to be conformed to (make like ) the image of His Son (NKJV); For God, in his foreknowledge, chose us to bear the family likeness of his Son (J. B. Phillips).
  18. To appreciate what this means we first need to understand that Jesus is God. Two thousand years ago, He took on a human nature and was born into this world. John 1:1; John 1:14
  19. Jesus became fully man without ceasing to be fully God. While on earth He lived as a man, at the same time He was God.  This is a mystery beyond our comprehension. I Tim 3:16
  20. Jesus in His humanity (the man Jesus) is the standard for God’s sons and daughters: He who says he abides in Him (Jesus) ought himself also to walk just as He walked (I John 2:6, NKJV).
  21. God’s desire, God’s will for you, is that you become increasing like Jesus in your character and behavior, so that you are an accurate representation of the Lord to the world around you. It’s the most important thing you can do with your life.
  22. Character is the sum total of the features and traits that form an individual. Your character is governed by your standard of morality (right and wrong) and expressed through behavior.
  23. Tonight, we begin to talk about what being like Jesus looks like, what must change in us so that we can be Christ-like in character (thought, word, and action), and how these changes take place.

 

C,  Before we get into this in detail, we must make some general comments.  When we teach lessons about how Christians are supposed to behave, people tend to fall into one of two categories.  Neither one is correct or helpful to your development as a follower of Jesus who is like Him in character.

  1. Some feel condemned and hopeless because they knew they fall short of the standard that the Bible sets. Others aren’t bothered by behavior that falls short, because they believe it’s not that big of a deal, since we’re going to sin anyway and God will forgive us.  So why try?
  2. Let’s take the second category first. If your sin doesn’t bother you, and or you’re making little effort to deal with it, you need to examine yourself to see if you are truly in the faith or not.  Jesus died to free us from sin, not to enable us to keep sinning without feeling guilty.
  3. Titus 2:14—(Jesus) gave his life to free us from every kind of sin, to cleanse us, and to make us his very own people, totally committed to doing what is right (NLT).
  4. For those who feel condemned over their shortcomings and failures, we need to understand we are finished works in progress—we are fully cleansed sons and daughters of God through faith in Jesus, but we are not yet fully Christ-like in every attitude and action. I John 3:2
  5. Becoming Christlike is a process that involves cleansing, purity, and character. Cleansing, purity, and character are connected, they progress, and there is overlap.  This three-part process is sometimes referred to as sanctification.
  6. Generally speaking, cleansing is a legal term. It’s the removal of the guilt of sin through faith in Jesus, on the basis of His sacrifice on the Cross. Rom 5:1; Eph 1:7; Col 1:20-22; Heb 10:14; etc.
  7. Purity is a moral term. You realize certain behaviors are contrary to God’s standards and you stop them.  Some go quickly, others take work.  You can be cleansed (forgiven) and still have impurity in areas.  But you’re aware of and working toward complete purity.
  8. Character is the development of right motives and attitudes. You can be cleansed (you’re forgiven) and have moral purity (you live your life according to God’s standard), but have undeveloped character (character flaws you are unaware of).  Character progressively develops as these character flaws (motives and attitudes) are exposed and dealt with.
  9. Most of us fit into the same category as the apostles at the Last Supper. We are fully committed to Jesus and think we’re doing fairly well, but we don’t see our character flaws (motives and attitudes).
  10. The apostles had been with Jesus for three and a half years. They’ve seen His miracles and heard His teachings.  At one point Jesus actually gave them power to heal the sick and cast out devils.  Yet at the Last Supper, they were arguing about which one of them is the greatest.
  11. And, at the meal, Peter told Jesus that he was willing to die for Him if necessary. But Jesus informed Peter that before the night was over (before the rooster crows three times tomorrow), you will deny three times that you even know me (Luke 22:31-34; John 13:37-38).  Not me Lord, Peter protested.  But that’s exactly what happened.  Even though Peter was devoted to Jesus, he didn’t see his weakness or realize that his confidence was in himself, not Jesus.
  12. Jesus didn’t reject these men because of their character flaws. Note how John described what happened.  John 13:1—Before the Passover celebration, Jesus knew that his hour had come to leave this word and return to his Father.  He now showed the full extent of his love (NLT).
  13. In the face of their flaw, Jesus expressed His love for them by correcting them and by showing them the correct way to view themselves—as servants of God and man.
  14. Note also, John wrote that Jesus already knew Judas (who was present at the meal), would betray Him (John 13:2). Yet Jesus washed Judas’ feet and died for Him the next day.
  15. Jesus is not with us visibly to model His character to us or to expose and correct our character flaws. But He is the Living Word of God who continues to reveal Himself to us through the written Word.
  16. This why it is so important to read and study the written Word of God, the Bible, and to get good teaching from a competent Bible teacher.
  17. II Tim 3:16—All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching the faith and correcting error, for resetting the direction of a man’s life and training him in good living (J. B. Phillips).
  18. Eph 4:11-13—Christ chose some of us to be apostles, prophets, missionaries, pastors, and teachers, so that his people would learn to serve…then we will be mature, just as Christ is, and we will be completely like him (CEV).
  19. The Bible is compared to a mirror because it not only shows us Jesus, it shows us ourselves (good and bad) so we can change and grow in character. And with the help of the Holy Spirit, as we cooperate with Him and obey the Word of God, we can and will grow in Christ-likeness.
  20. II Cor 3:18—And all of us, as with unveiled face, [because we] continued to behold [in the Word of God] as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are constantly being transfigured into His very own image in ever increasing splendor and from one degree of glory to another; [for this comes] from the Lord [Who is] the Spirit (Amp).

 

  1. Almighty God created human beings with the capacity to receive Him, His Spirit and uncreated life, into our being and then express His beauty to the world around us.
  2. Gen 1:26—Then God said, “Let us make people (men and women) in our image, to be like ourselves” (NLT). The original language (Hebrew) has the idea that we were created as imagers.
  3. We were created to image God, to show Him to the world around us. God has communicable and non-communicable attributes
  4. His non-communicable attributes are those that are His alone as God. God is Infinite (without limits), Eternal (no beginning or end), Omnipotent (all-powerful), Omniscient (all-knowing), and Omnipresent (present everywhere at once).
  5. God’s communicable attributes are sometimes called His moral attributes. They include holiness, love, righteousness, joy, peace, patience, compassion; etc.  We are created to bring honor and glory to God our Creator and Father through expressing these attributes or traits.
  6. When God created Adam, He made a son and a race of sons in Adam (Luke 3:38)—sons who would reflect His glory, His light. We’ve all gone astray into the pigpen of sin and corruption,
  7. Jesus (God Incarnate) came and died to restore us to our created purpose as God’s sons and daughters who are holy and without fault in His eyes—and who image Him to the world.
  8. Jesus said to His followers: You are the light of the world…let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father (Matt 5:14-16, NLT).
  9. That’s what Jesus, the perfect Son, did—He showed God the Father. Jesus said:  If you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father (John 14:9-11), not because Jesus is the Father, but because Jesus perfectly expressed His Father’s character through His words and His works.
  10. When Jesus was on earth, He called men and women to follow Him (lit: be in the same way). This term was used to mean to become a disciple (learner or pupil) of a rabbi. Matt 9:9; Matt 16:24; etc.
  11. Jesus was known as a rabbi during His ministry prior to the Cross. Rabbi means master or teacher.  To follow a rabbi meant not just learn from Him, but seek to be like him.
  12. In Jewish culture, rabbis were not only teachers, they were examples of life with God. Paul the apostle (who was personally taught by Jesus) later urged Christians to “follow me as I follow Christ” (I Cor 4:16-17; I Cor 11:1).  Paul used the Greek word mimete, which means to be an imitator.  We get the English word mimic from this Greek word.
  13. Every rabbi had his own set of teachings or yoke, as their teachings were sometimes called. Jesus made it clear what He wanted His followers to learn from Him: Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek (gentle) and lowly in heart (humble), and you shall find rest unto your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden (load) is light (Matt 11:28-30, KJV).
  14. Come unto me is another way of saying follow me. Take my yoke on you means submit to me and my teachings.  You’ll find rest because my yoke is well fitting—it’s what you were created for.  And serving me won’t weigh you down.  My burden is light.
  15. Note the first thing that Jesus said about Himself in the context of learning from Him, of imitating Him: I am meek and lowly of heart.  Both are expressions of character.
  16. We think of meekness as being fearful or timid, and humility as not bragging about ourselves, or feeling humiliated because of our sins, faults, and failures. But this is incorrect.
  17. Jesus was meek and humble. Yet He had no sin, did not brag, and was not meek or fearful.  True humility and meekness acts like Jesus.  Humility and meekness were His chief traits.
  18. In the Greek language used in that day, meek had the idea of standing between two extremes —getting angry without reason and not getting angry at all. It indicated a strong man’s choice to control his reactions in submission to God.
  19. Humility is much more than not boasting or groveling. The one who is humble recognizes His true relation to God and to others.  He realizes that he or she is a servant of God and a servant of man (more on what this means in upcoming lessons).
  20. By the time Jesus came to earth, the religious establishment had come up with 613 specific rules which they said men and women had to obey to follow God. It was a heavy load.
  21. In comparison to that, Jesus said His yoke and burden is light. He summed up all of God’s commandments in two commands:  Love God with all your heart, mind, and soul and love your neighbor as yourself (Matt 22:37-49).  Only truly humble and meek people can do this.
  22. Jesus modeled what it looks like to be meek and humble, to love God and love people. At the Last Supper, Jesus promised that He and the Father would send the Holy Spirit to indwell His followers to help them become increasingly like Him (more on this in later lessons).

 

  1. Conclusion: When we hear that we can be like Jesus, many automatically think:  Great!!  I’ll have the power to do miracles and then I can have a well-known, impactful ministry.
  2. But without character, we’ll misuse power. I believe that lack of Christ-like character in Christians is one reason why we see so few genuine demonstrations of power today.  God is much more concerned with your character than your ministry.  Growing in Christ-likeness is your ministry.
  3. Jesus didn’t die to get workers for God. Jesus died to obtain sons and daughters who accurately reflect (image) God their Father to the world around them just as Jesus, the Perfect Son, did.  Make it your goal to become as much like Jesus in character as possible.  Much more next week!