Transformation
For the last two weeks, we’ve been talking about discipleship – the mission of the church is making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. We recognized that to make disciples of Jesus Christ, we must first be his disciples. We have to count the cost and commit ourselves fully to being his disciples. Last week we acknowledged that discipleship is messy, that it’s not linear, and that it doesn’t look all that "churchy."
The end goal of discipleship is for the disciple to look, think, and behave like his rabbi. If we are following Jesus, our goal is to look like Jesus: we call that process sanctification. But here’s what we believe: we believe that if we each become more and more like Jesus, the result will be the transformation of the world.
Paul wrote to the Romans (12:1-2) Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing, and perfect will.
When I was a kid, I remember a preacher telling us that whenever we find the word "therefore" in scripture, you’ve got to go back and find what the "therefore" is there for. To figure that out for Romans 12, you’ve got to go back and look at Romans 1-11; Romans 12 is a new portion of the letter, one that hinges upon the rest of the book. You can’t have Romans 12 without Romans 1-11.
The book of Romans goes through the universal reign of sin and how everyone is guilty and accountable to God for that sin. Then we move to justification by faith and the assurance provided by the Gospel; the hope of salvation and glory; freedom from bondage to sin and the law, how Christ is the climax of salvation history.
Because of what Jesus Christ did for us, once and for all, we have a responsibility. To offer our bodies as living sacrifices.
In Bible times, sacrifices were always dead. You had to kill it for it to be a sacrifice. When Jesus talked about discipleship, he said that if you wanted to follow him, you had to deny yourself and take up your cross. In essence, you have to die to follow him. Paul’s statement follows directly from this: living sacrifices are the best of both worlds; not only are we giving ourselves fully and wholly to God, but then he is able to use us.
Because we give ourselves completely to God, we don’t conform any longer to the pattern of this world. The sacrifice we give to God, our very lives, is no sacrifice if we are not transformed.
What does this mean?
It means we are necessarily different when we’ve been transformed. Maybe instantaneously, but definitely growing different from who we used to be. If you look at your life as a timeline, you’ll see that you’re different than you were a year ago, 5 years ago, etc.
We see ourselves through God’s eyes, rather than through the world’s eyes. We see ourselves as fearfully and wonderfully made. We see ourselves made for a purpose – for God’s purpose. We see ourselves as limitless in our potential for Him.
We see others through God’s eyes, rather than through the world’s eyes. Instead of seeing a bunch of jerks, we see people who God loves, who are on their way to Hell unless someone intervenes. We see people who God loves enough to send his Son to die for them.
We order our lives around God’s mission and purpose rather than the world’s. We make every aspect of our lives match God’s mission, not the other way around. We get rid of anything that holds us back from completing God’s mission. We trust Him to do what He wants with us.
How do we do this? We constantly ask God to transform us by renewing our minds. We find every opportunity for growth and take full advantage of it. Here’s something to think of: if you do a Bible study and you don’t come out of it different, then you’ve got to do the study again. If it doesn’t make you change the way you live, then you’re not allowing the Bible to do its job (or the Holy Spirit to do his job).
Last week I talked about some of Jesus’ earliest disciples, fishermen like Simon, Andrew, James, and John. Listen to how John describes Jesus’ meeting with Simon in John 1:40-42 Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, "We have found the Messiah" (that is, the Christ), and he brought him to Jesus.
Jesus looked at him and said, "You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas" (which, when translated, is Peter). (both Cephas (Aramaic) and Peter (Greek) mean "rock".)
Jesus took Simon the fisherman and made him into Peter, the Rock. In doing so, God went so far as to change his name. And God is still in the transformation business. Remember my friend Tony? Last week I told you about how he felt uncomfortable in church because he didn’t know what was going on and because he didn’t have "church" clothes.
By the time I was in seminary, I’d pretty much lost touch with Tony, but one day I got a call from out of the blue. "Guess what happened to me?" he asked. "I got saved." He had joined a softball team, just for something to do. There was a team in the town league (same league with the liquor store and tattoo parlor) who needed players, so he joined up with them. It turned out they were a church team, and the team members became his friends. They invited him to church and he finally agreed to go. When he did, he ended up sitting in the front because he was late. The message of the gospel hit hard, and the guys from the softball team stayed with him for two hours after the service, explaining everything. Tony was transformed. But he didn’t just become a Christian and let that be the end of it. No, he was always a funny guy, and now he’s using his humor in children’s ministry at his church.
Now, when Tony was transformed, it wasn’t a superficial transformation. God didn’t transform Tony’s appearance. Tony is still Tony & that’s who he is supposed to be. And he will reach others for Christ, people who wouldn’t dare put on a shirt and tie.
Tony was transformed, and that’s God’s goal for each of us. In 2 Corinthians 3:18 we read this: And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
The background to this is about Moses, who met with God – but then he would have to wear a veil because God’s glory, God’s kavod, God’s significance, His weight, would cause Moses’ face to shine and it freaked the people out. Now we don’t wear the veil, and if we are actually Jesus’ disciples, then we reflect the Lord’s glory. We reflect His significance.
And in so doing, we are being transformed into the Lord’s likeness.
That’s the goal of life: to be transformed into Jesus Christ’s likeness. When we talk about transforming the world, this is what we’re talking about. It happens one person, one life at a time, but when it happens, it is huge! And when transformation starts happening on a big scale, even more awesome things happen.
God transforms entire communities & he uses the church to do it. I wonder this: what would happen to our community if our church ceased to exist? What would people not in the church think? Are we transforming our community, or are we just co-existing?
A few weeks ago, I told you about some of my dreams for this church. I believe they bear repeating.
The end goal of discipleship is for the disciple to look, think, and behave like his rabbi. If we are following Jesus, our goal is to look like Jesus: we call that process sanctification. But here’s what we believe: we believe that if we each become more and more like Jesus, the result will be the transformation of the world.
Paul wrote to the Romans (12:1-2) Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing, and perfect will.
When I was a kid, I remember a preacher telling us that whenever we find the word "therefore" in scripture, you’ve got to go back and find what the "therefore" is there for. To figure that out for Romans 12, you’ve got to go back and look at Romans 1-11; Romans 12 is a new portion of the letter, one that hinges upon the rest of the book. You can’t have Romans 12 without Romans 1-11.
The book of Romans goes through the universal reign of sin and how everyone is guilty and accountable to God for that sin. Then we move to justification by faith and the assurance provided by the Gospel; the hope of salvation and glory; freedom from bondage to sin and the law, how Christ is the climax of salvation history.
Because of what Jesus Christ did for us, once and for all, we have a responsibility. To offer our bodies as living sacrifices.
In Bible times, sacrifices were always dead. You had to kill it for it to be a sacrifice. When Jesus talked about discipleship, he said that if you wanted to follow him, you had to deny yourself and take up your cross. In essence, you have to die to follow him. Paul’s statement follows directly from this: living sacrifices are the best of both worlds; not only are we giving ourselves fully and wholly to God, but then he is able to use us.
Because we give ourselves completely to God, we don’t conform any longer to the pattern of this world. The sacrifice we give to God, our very lives, is no sacrifice if we are not transformed.
What does this mean?
It means we are necessarily different when we’ve been transformed. Maybe instantaneously, but definitely growing different from who we used to be. If you look at your life as a timeline, you’ll see that you’re different than you were a year ago, 5 years ago, etc.
We see ourselves through God’s eyes, rather than through the world’s eyes. We see ourselves as fearfully and wonderfully made. We see ourselves made for a purpose – for God’s purpose. We see ourselves as limitless in our potential for Him.
We see others through God’s eyes, rather than through the world’s eyes. Instead of seeing a bunch of jerks, we see people who God loves, who are on their way to Hell unless someone intervenes. We see people who God loves enough to send his Son to die for them.
We order our lives around God’s mission and purpose rather than the world’s. We make every aspect of our lives match God’s mission, not the other way around. We get rid of anything that holds us back from completing God’s mission. We trust Him to do what He wants with us.
How do we do this? We constantly ask God to transform us by renewing our minds. We find every opportunity for growth and take full advantage of it. Here’s something to think of: if you do a Bible study and you don’t come out of it different, then you’ve got to do the study again. If it doesn’t make you change the way you live, then you’re not allowing the Bible to do its job (or the Holy Spirit to do his job).
Last week I talked about some of Jesus’ earliest disciples, fishermen like Simon, Andrew, James, and John. Listen to how John describes Jesus’ meeting with Simon in John 1:40-42 Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, "We have found the Messiah" (that is, the Christ), and he brought him to Jesus.
Jesus looked at him and said, "You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas" (which, when translated, is Peter). (both Cephas (Aramaic) and Peter (Greek) mean "rock".)
Jesus took Simon the fisherman and made him into Peter, the Rock. In doing so, God went so far as to change his name. And God is still in the transformation business. Remember my friend Tony? Last week I told you about how he felt uncomfortable in church because he didn’t know what was going on and because he didn’t have "church" clothes.
By the time I was in seminary, I’d pretty much lost touch with Tony, but one day I got a call from out of the blue. "Guess what happened to me?" he asked. "I got saved." He had joined a softball team, just for something to do. There was a team in the town league (same league with the liquor store and tattoo parlor) who needed players, so he joined up with them. It turned out they were a church team, and the team members became his friends. They invited him to church and he finally agreed to go. When he did, he ended up sitting in the front because he was late. The message of the gospel hit hard, and the guys from the softball team stayed with him for two hours after the service, explaining everything. Tony was transformed. But he didn’t just become a Christian and let that be the end of it. No, he was always a funny guy, and now he’s using his humor in children’s ministry at his church.
Now, when Tony was transformed, it wasn’t a superficial transformation. God didn’t transform Tony’s appearance. Tony is still Tony & that’s who he is supposed to be. And he will reach others for Christ, people who wouldn’t dare put on a shirt and tie.
Tony was transformed, and that’s God’s goal for each of us. In 2 Corinthians 3:18 we read this: And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
The background to this is about Moses, who met with God – but then he would have to wear a veil because God’s glory, God’s kavod, God’s significance, His weight, would cause Moses’ face to shine and it freaked the people out. Now we don’t wear the veil, and if we are actually Jesus’ disciples, then we reflect the Lord’s glory. We reflect His significance.
And in so doing, we are being transformed into the Lord’s likeness.
That’s the goal of life: to be transformed into Jesus Christ’s likeness. When we talk about transforming the world, this is what we’re talking about. It happens one person, one life at a time, but when it happens, it is huge! And when transformation starts happening on a big scale, even more awesome things happen.
God transforms entire communities & he uses the church to do it. I wonder this: what would happen to our community if our church ceased to exist? What would people not in the church think? Are we transforming our community, or are we just co-existing?
A few weeks ago, I told you about some of my dreams for this church. I believe they bear repeating.
What could God do with this church if we, as disciples of Jesus Christ, were transformed?
- I see a church tearing down Satan’s strongholds in Millersport and beyond.
- I see a church so compassionate that the lost and the lonely are found and enfolded in fellowship.
- I see a church on a mission, making disciples of Jesus Christ.
- I see a church transforming people into Christ’s likeness, one person at a time, that we would be characterized by repentance and response to Christ’s call to salvation.
- I see a people who are so on fire for Jesus Christ that they will count the cost and pay whatever the price to see revival sweep this land.
- I see a church whose heartfelt praise and worship reaches to heaven as a pleasing gift to God – not just as we sing, but as we live.
- I see a church where buildings can’t contain our growth.
- I see a church whose message is so clear that lives are changed forever.
- I see a church who desperately care about the souls of their neighbors, co-workers, friends, and family members, and will stop at nothing to see them transformed.
- I see a church who daily communicates with God through Bible reading, study, and meditation.
- I see a church who is characterized by listening prayer: who wait on the movement of the Holy Spirit, but when the Spirit moves, are ready to move.
- I see a church characterized by intercession – that we won’t sit back and allow Satan to have victory in any aspect of our lives or the lives of the families in our church.
- I see a church that is a healing place: that we are known as somewhere that people are healed physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
- I see a church where young people are not only accepted and invited, but cherished and empowered for ministry.
- I see a church serving in mission, here in Millersport and throughout the world.
- I see a unified church: not two services who tolerate one another, but one church on a mission for God.
- I see a church whose head is Jesus, whose help is the Holy Spirit and whose focus is the Great Commission.
Yes, the church that I see could well be our church. And we could see these results if we are willing to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.
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