More Like Jesus

More Like Jesus

John 15:1-13 Rom. 8:29

Intro.

Predestinated to be like God’s own precious Son. How often we hear this followed by we weren’t meant to be like him in this world.

I believe this is a cop-out; we don’t want to be like Jesus so we start making excuses. If the word of God says it then it must be true and we should spend more time seeking to fulfill it and less time making excuses about it.

When Jesus walked upon this earth it was not as the Son of God but as the Son of Man. His strength energy and his knowledge came from the Father through the Holy Spirit.

I’m not saying that you and I can reach the place of being sinless, but surely God meant more than just to shrug it off and say one day in heaven we will be like him. I was reading a book by Max Lucado and he spoke of our becoming more like Jesus and God swept over me with a heavy conviction that I wasn’t even trying.

I’m like most people I try harder to find reasons to say I cannot be like Jesus and he surely doesn’t expect me to be.

I believe he does expect us to become more and more like our Lord Jesus Christ. He speaks of relationship in such a way, we are one, we are the bride of Christ, and we are the children of God. All of these speak of an oneness and an intimacy that cannot be duplicated or acted out, it must be real.

I. The Branch And The Vine: John 15:1-14

When we read this scripture we seem to emphasis the fruit and begin to go off on what we do rather than who we are. I believe the emphasis should be on our relationship with Jesus rather than how much we do. When we journey over to Eph. 2:8,9 Paul gives us a view of what he means by salvation.

He tells us we are saved by grace through faith, and that it is not what we do. Then he slaps us with vs.10, that we are before ordained unto the good works that we shall do. If our works are before ordained we need to stop worrying about them and just do what God directs us to. Concentrate on becoming more and more like Jesus.

I believe that even in Ephesians the emphasis is on who we are and not on what we are to do. We try to be a part time Christian and expect God to accept that. Let’s look again at the passage in John 15.

First let us consider a couple of things said here. In verse 4, Jesus says to abide in him. It doesn’t take a expert in grammar to tell us that the word abide means to live in. Now to take this a step further how often do these branches separate themselves from the vine? Do they just show up near harvest time to bear fruit?

The fruit bearing is what the branches do, but the reason they bear fruit is because they are attached to the vine. They have no life in and of themselves. (v.4) They will only show life while they abide in the vine. I do not believe that as soon as the branch separates itself from the vine that it dies, but without the vine they will eventually die.

I am not talking about losing one’s spiritual life nor even their physical life but they become useless to God in the state they are in. we want to claim eternal life and the benefits of it but we don’t want the responsibility of living the life as God laid it out for us.

To be real honest we don’t want to be like Jesus because he was content just to live life without owning a lot of stuff. He didn’t have a home, or a car, but they didn’t have cars in that day, he didn’t own a horse or a mule. He was content to walk wherever he went.

You and I seem to freak out when we lose a nickle. We want to argue but everyone lived that way in Jesus time. That is not so, many rode horses and had servants that waited on them hand and foot. They traveled in caravans to ward off thieves and robbers.

Jesus said, “Abide in me, and I in you.” Our life is to be totally absorbed in Jesus and his in you and I. We truly are to become as one. If the word abide means to live in how much of our day is he suppose to receive? When the answer comes back and it must be “all” 100% we say surely he doesn’t expect that much out of me? I truly believe that he does expect that much from us.