Transformed Into The Image Of Christ
Let me tell you right up front - the title of this sermon may be misleading to many of you. When I use the word “Transformed” – many of you think that being tranformed into the image of Christ is something that happens to you without any effort or input on your part at all. This is far from the case. Even a caterpillar has to build its cocoon in order to be transformed into a butterfly. If you are a child of God – if you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior – if you plan to become a disciple – a follower of Jesus Christ – you must make an effort to be transformed into the image of Christ. What you do in the growth process – the efforts you make – makes a difference – your efforts MATTER. You are called – commanded – to be involved in that process of becoming like Jesus. Paul tells us in Romans chapter twelve and verse two:
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” Romans 12:2 (NASV)
Notice that in this verse Paul instructs us – “not to be conformed to this world.” – But “to be transformed in our minds”. Notice also that God is not only concerned about our actions – He is also concerned about our thought process. He is concerned about the way we think about things. Why? Because all of us – every little inch of us – He wants to change into the image of His son – Jesus Christ.
If you were with us last week you will recall that God’s purpose for each of us – is to be transformed into the image of Christ. God is in the life change business – that is what He does – He takes people – just as they are – and renews them. He fixes them. He changes people – and He wants each and every one of us to live a godly life – to be made into the image of His son. Follow along with me as I read from First John chapter three verses two and three:
“Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.” I John 3:2-3 (NASV)
Go ahead and circle the word “we will be like Him”. This is God’s goal for your life. He wants you to be like Jesus. Every Christian needs to be conformed to the likeness of Christ. We need to put on Christ-likeness. This is the purpose of Discipleship. This is God’s goal you and it should be your goal too. You are to be involved in the transformation process.
If you will recall – last week I used an illustration of a river and a row boat to picture your involvement in the transformation process - allow me to use it again.
Let’s say there is a river that runs right by your house. It is wide and the water flows slow and steady. All the water is flowing to the ocean. It has a definite course and a definite destination in mind. There is a little rowboat on the bank of the river and you decide to get in the rowboat and paddle out into the middle of the river. Now once you get there you can do one of three things. Do you remember what those three things are – you can:
1. Paddle against the current.
2. Sit in the rowboat and go with the flow.
3. Paddle with the current.
If it is God’s purpose for me to be made into the image of Christ I can do three things. I can fight against it. I can sit back and just hope it will happen. Or I can work with God in the process of my transformation. In other words I can be involved in my Christian growth process. I can “grow in the grace and knowledge of my Lord Jesus Christ.” I can clothe myself in “Christ-likeness”. I can “put on the full armor of God.” I can study to “show myself approved”. I can “work out my salvation with fear and trembling”. I can “submit to the leading of the Holy Spirit”. I can work with God to help Him – help me – become more like Jesus. Isn’t that an amazing thought? God is changing me – and He has asked me to be involved in the process. He has asked you – to be involved in your transformation as well.
Do you recall our focal verse for this series? It is found in First Timothy chapter four and verse seven. Let’s look at it together:
“Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness.” 1Timothy 4:7 (NASV)
God calls each of us – as Christians – to be transformed into the image of Christ. We are to be involved in the process of becoming more like Jesus.
How does this transformation process happen? God uses three primary catalysts for changing us.
1. God Uses PEOPLE To Help Transform Us.
2. God Uses CIRCUMSTANCES To Help Transform Us.
3. God Uses SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINES To Help Transform Us.
It is this third area – Spiritual Disciplines – that this sermon series will focus on. Over the course of the next few sermons we will look into the importance of Bible Study, worship, prayer, stewardship and other Spiritual Disciplines that will help transform you into the image of Christ. But today we are going to focus on the three catalysts that God uses to transform you. Let’s take the first one:
1. God Uses PEOPLE To Help Transform Us
I dare say that all of us sitting here have been influenced by other people. I know of no one who has not been influenced by other people. Your parents – two individuals – were involved in your conception to the human race. They were directly involved in your being here today. Your parents may not have planned you – but God did. He knew when and where you would be born. He knew what gender you would be – how tall you would become – the color of your eyes – the color of your skin - the color of your hair – He even knows every hair on your head. God is concerned about you. He knows every little fact about you. He know you better than you know yourself.
God has even made you to be a part of a community - His church. God said: “It is not good for man to be alone.” God sends people into our lives to have an influence and impact on us – to bring us closer to Him. We all have been influenced by other people – some more than others. If I went around this room today and asked each of you who has had the most impact on your life – I believe each of you would have a story to tell. Each of you would remember someone. Perhaps that person is still in your life – perhaps they are not. It could be a parent, a sibling, a friend, an enemy, a spouse or perhaps even a total stranger. But some person has had an impact on your life – because people have an influence on people.
Let me tell you what happened to me a long time ago. The year was 1974. I was working in a lumber mill in east central Arizona – a small town called McNary. It’s the town that I grew up in. The part of the plant that I worked in – made molding for doors and windows and for finishing work on homes. I think I worked there for about four years.
There was a guy who came to work there – for a short time while I was there – and I remember he had come out of Canada. He was only a few years older than me at the time – I don’t even remember his name – but I do remember this. Every day when he went on break or when we went to lunch he would carry a book with him and he would read from this book. Finally after days of seeing him carry this book around I asked him, “What are you reading.”
He said, “I’m reading the Bible.”
I asked him another question, “What church do you belong to.”
His answer has stuck with me all these years and has influenced my life. He said, “It’s not about church – it’s about knowing Jesus Christ.”
Now to some of you – that may not seem like a big thing – but for me – at that time - it was major. Did God tell that person to come and witness to me? Did God say him, “You go to McNary, AZ – and I want you to go there because I have a message you need to carry to Tom Shepard.” I don’t know. But what I do know is that God tells all of us:
"Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.” Mark 16:15 (NASV)
Why does he tell us to go into all the world and to preach to all creation? Because God uses people to influence other people – for His kingdom. God touches people’s lives – in order that other people’s lives can be touched. That’s one of the ways that God uses to transform us – to change us. He sends other people into our lives to draw us closer to Him. God wants us to be transformed into the image of His son Jesus Christ and He has placed other people in our path to help us – influence us – in that goal. That is why God tells His children to, “encourage one another”, “pray for one another”, “build up one another”, “accept one another”, and many more “one anothers” – because we have an influence on one another.
There are times when God sends other people into our lives to help transform us into the image of His son. Throughout history God has sent prophets into the world – to help transform people into the image of Christ - to call people to be a part of His community - the church. God uses people to help transform us.
Another catalyst for change is:
2. God Uses CIRCUMSTANCES To Help Transform Us.
Do you recall the story of Jesus healing of the man born blind? It is found in John chapter nine. In fact the entire chapter is the story of the man born blind and his healing. The story goes like this:
There was a man born blind and when Jesus passed by the disciples ask Him a question, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?" Jesus answered, "It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him.”
The circumstances were in place so that this man could be transformed. Jesus spat on the ground and made clay of the spittle, and applied the clay to his eyes. Then Jesus told the man, "Go, wash in the pool of Siloam.” So the Bible tells us that he went away and washed, and came back seeing. He was transformed – physically. But the story does not end there.
The neighbors start talking among themselves. They say, “Isn’t this the guy who use to sit on the street corner and beg? Isn’t this the man that we saw – blind from birth?” Some of them said, “Yes it is.” Others said, “No it’s not – he just looks like him.” The blind man – now healed spoke up and said, "I am the one – it is me." So they started asking him, "How were your eyes opened? How is it that you now can see?" He answered them saying, "The man who is called Jesus made clay – had me wash it away – and now I can see.”
Note that the once blind man called Jesus “a man” – not a prophet – not the Savior – not even a healer. Jesus to him at this point was only “a man” who spit on the gound made clay and had the blind man wash it away.
The neighbors asked him, "Where is Jesus?" He answers them, "I do not know." So they brought him to the Pharisees and the Bible tells us that – “it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the clay and opened the blind man’s eyes”. The Pharisees now start asking the man born blind, “How is it that you were born blind and that now you see?” And he answers them, "Jesus applied clay to my eyes, and I washed, and now I see."
The Pharisees argue among themselves – that a man of God would never heal on the Sabbath day – a godly man must always keep the law – healing on the Sabbath is a sin – and they become divided over the issue. So they turn to the blind man again and ask, "What do you say about Him?" The blind man answer is different from the first time he was asked about Jesus – he says, "He is a prophet." The transformation continues.
The Pharisees did not believe that he had been born blind – so they called his parents and asked them, "Is this your son? Wasn’t he born blind? How does he see now?" The parents answer, "We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; but how he now sees, we do not know; he is old enough to ask - ask him - we don’t know who opened his eyes. Ask him – he can speak for himself."
So they call the man a second time say, “Tell us about the man who healed you – is he a sinner?" He answers, "Whether He is a sinner or not - I do not know; one thing I do know – I was blind, now I see."
Then he turns and asked them a question, “Do you want to become a disciple of Him too?" The Pharisees become angry at healed man and shout out, "You are His disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man called Jesus, we do not know where He is from."
The man born blind said to them, "Well, here is an amazing thing – that you do not know where He is from, and yet He opened my eyes. We know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is God-fearing and does His will, He hears him. Since the beginning of time it has never been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. If this man were not from God, He could do nothing."
At this the Pharisees become enraged and threw him out on the street – and Jesus found him and asked him, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?" He answered, "Who is He, Lord, that I may believe in Him?" Jesus speaks plain to him and says, "You have both seen Him, and He is the one who is talking with you right now." The man answers, "Lord, I believe." – and the Bible says the healed man worshiped Jesus right on the spot. He was tranformed that day.
You may not know the name – Fanny Crosby – but you probably know the music. Her father died before she was a year old. When she was six weeks old a slight cold caused an inflammation of her eyes. The usual doctor was away from home, so a stranger was called in. He recommended the use of hot poultices be put on her eyes. This action destroyed her sight. She was not born blind – but became blind from bad advice of the stranger. Fanny could have grown up angry because she was blind. She would have every right to live a bitter life – but she didn’t. Instead she wrote words like:
Oh what a happy soul I am,
Although I cannot see;
I am resolved that in this world,
Contented I will be.
She chose to live above the circumstances of life – she choose to be devoted to God. Perhaps you will recognize these few words that she wrote:
This is my story – this is my song.
Praising my Savior all the day long.
Blind – yes! Discouraged – never!
Folks – God is in the life change business. He does not cause all of the circumstances of our lives to happen – bad stuff happens to good people – but God can use any circumstance to transform us. Remember Romans chapter eight and verse twenty eight:
“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28 (NASV)
A man born blind can now see - a girl born with sight and lost it - can now see too. God can take the circumstances of your life to help transform you into the image of Christ. That brings us to the third point:
3. God Uses SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINES To Help Transform Us.
Of all the catalysts this is the one that you have the most control over. This is the one that you can guild – direct – and influence the most. This is the area that the Bible encourages you – to be involved in. That is why Paul writing to Timothy says:
“Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness.” 1Timothy 4:7 (NASV)
That is why we are told in the Bible to:
"work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you." Phil. 2:12-13
That is why Peter says:
“Be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, "YOU SHALL BE HOLY, FOR I AM HOLY." 1 Peter 1:15-16 (NASV)
God wants us to work at becoming like Him. Paul and Peter are telling us to discipline ourselves in the area of holiness – godliness. Why? Because God is holy and if we are His children we are to be like Him. When we become more holy we become more God-like. That is what it means to strive for godliness. That is what it means to become a disciple of Jesus. We are to become more like our Father in heaven.
Tom Landry, the coach of the Dallas Cowboys football team for most of three decades once said, “The job of a football coach is to make men do what they don’t want to do in order to achieve what they’ve always wanted.” In the same way – Christians are called to make themselves do something they would not naturally do – to purse a life of Godliness – to purse a life of holiness – in order to become what they have always wanted – to be like Jesus. Is it easy? No! But look at what Paul tells us in first Corinthians chapter nine:
“Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win. Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; but I discipline my body and make it my slave...” 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 (NASV)
We have a choice in the pursuit of Godliness. We have a choice in the pursuit of holiness. We are all in the boat. We can paddle against the current – we can sit back and just go with the flow – or we can actively be involved with God – in helping Him help us to become more like His son – Jesus Christ. Will you commit yourself today to strive to become more like Jesus? Will you commit to “Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness.”
