Reading: 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verses 11-21.
Quote:
• This week I cam across a child’s definition of a caterpillar?
• A worm in a fur coat.
Ill:
• A Caterpillar is a prickly, lazy self-centred bug.
• Working hard to go no-where fast.
• Little boys love to quash them.
• Little girls run away with an irritating shriek to their voice.
• Yet something unusual happens to this creature;
• Known as metamorphosis:
• A thick film covers the caterpillar;
• And it entombs itself in its own flesh.
• During what’s called the Chrysalis period.
• A chemical reaction takes place that changes the physical make-up of the creature.
• And soon an emerging butterfly can be seen within the cocoon.
• And when the time is right it breaks free of its cocoon,
• Spreads it s wings and flies off; the old life as a caterpillar has finished.
• And it’s new life as a butterfly has just began.
Ill:
• How many of you have read the book Pilgrim’s Progress?
• You all know that the pilgrim’s name throughout the book is…….Christian.
• Yet how many of you can actually remember what his original name was?
• Even though it is clearly stated in the allegory most people forget!
• It first appears when a character called Porter asks him; “What’s your name?”
• He replies; “My name is now Christian, but my name at the first was………..graceless”.
The reason his name was changed was because he experienced a metamorphosis:
• He experienced a change;
• His old caterpillar life (prickly, lazy self-centred, going no-where fast) was abandoned;
• And replaced by a new butterfly type life;
• That can fly to new heights and have limitless potential regarding changing its surroundings.
• The word "transform" comes from the Greek word "metamorphoo",
• From which we get the English word "metamorphosis".
• The New Testament uses the word to speak of an even more dramatic change:
• Ordinary people, sinners by nature and by action, transformed into the likeness of Jesus.
• That is the hope of every follower of Jesus,
• That they will increasingly take on the behaviour, attitudes, & character of Jesus Christ.
Question:
• But how does this dramatic transformation take place? I
• Is it something that God simply brings about in your life by his power,
• Or is something you do through your own sheer effort of the will?
Answer:
• To that question;
• Is found in our key verse 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 17:
“Therefore is anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, the old has gone the new has come.”
• In this section of 2 Corinthians chapter 5;
• Paul gives us 3 encouragements about what God can do with our lives.
• This spiritual metamorphism affects us in at least three ways
• The first change that we receive is a new nature:
(1.) a new nature (verse 14-15):
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”
CEV:
“Anyone who belongs to Christ is a new person.”
• Christians are new people.
• At their conversion they were ‘born again’, and they are not the same anymore.
• Christians are not merely reformed, rehabilitated, or re-educated;
• They are recreated!
• God gives to every person who becomes a Christian;
• A new nature, the Spirit of Christ!
• At conversion, believers are not merely turning over a new leaf;
• They are beginning a new life under a new Master.
• Paul is saying that every Christian, is a new creation in Christ;
• And they no longer live for themselves, but for Jesus who died & rose for them.
Ill:
• In my research on the metamorphism of a butterfly.
• I learned that the caterpillar is no help to those around.
• It does not eat other pests it only drinks sap form tress and plants (kind of parasite).
• It lives a self-centred life.
Ill:
• One cold winter’s day a crowd of people stood in front of a pet shop window;
• And watched a litter of puppies snuggling up to each other.
• One woman laughed and said,
“What a delightful picture of brotherhood!
Look at how those puppies are keeping each other warm!”
• A man next to her replied,
• “No, ma’am, they’re not keeping each other warm—they’re keeping themselves warm.”
• They were looking out for themselves, making sure they were okay.
• And the Bible makes it very clear;
• That all human beings have the same problem.
• We too (naturally) live for self not for God.
• E.g. Majority of people will not wake up and thank God tomorrow for another day etc,
Ill:
• Not convinced, let me ask you a question:
• When you see a group family photo, who do you look for first?
Ill:
• The 17th century Scottish peer Lord Erskine;
• Complained to his publisher about the delay in printing his autobiography.
• He was told that the delay was because the printers had run out of the capitals letter ‘I’.
Ill:
• When a person becomes a Christians they put up a for sale sign on their lives;
• And Jesus Christ comes along as the only buyer.
• And the deal is then closed. The sale is final.
• We cannot ask for the home back because we now have a new home-owner.
Ill:
• Jesus put it this way in Luke chapter 9 verse 23:
• “If anyone comes after me, let them deny SELF, take up your cross and follow me”
The starting place for anyone who wants to become a Christian (and grow as a Christian):
• Is to let Jesus Christ deal with our selfish nature.
• Someone has said the cross is the letter I marked out!
In using the word ‘Creation’ Paul goes back to the first book of the Bible called Genesis:
• In Genesis chapter 1 we are told that the world was in “In darkness”;
• Until God spoke and said “Let there be light”.
• Paul has already taught in chapter 4 verse 4:
• “The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers” (spiritual darkness)
• But God speaks the gospel-word and once again there is light.
• The Christian has been born again, out of darkness and into light.
Ill:
One night the chief of the Delaware Indians was sitting by a fireside with a friend.
• Both were silently looking into the fire.
• At last, the chief's friend broke the silence by saying,
• "I have been thinking of a rule delivered by the Author of the Christian religion;
• Which is called the Golden Rule."
• "Stop!" said the chief, "don't praise it.
• Tell me what it is, and let me think for myself!"
• The chief was told that the rule was;
• For one man to do to another as he would have the other do to him.
• "That's impossible! It cannot be done!"
• Hastily replied the Indian chief.
• Silence ensued.
• About fifteen minutes later the chief said,
"Brother, I have been thoughtful of what you told me. If the Great Spirit who made man would give him a new heart, he could do as you say, but not else!"
Well praise God:
• He does not try to patch up the old heart (nature),
• But he gives us a new heart (nature).
The second thing this spiritual metamorphism gives every Christian is:
(2.) A New beginning (verses 17)
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”
Paul himself was a living testimony of this new beginning:
(a).
• Before his conversion he was full of hate;
• e.g. Acts chapters 8 & 9: Arrest & kill all Christians.
• But now love was his controlling motive (verse 14)
• “For Christ's love compels us” “We are ruled by Christ's love for us”.
(b).
• Before his conversion he was living for himself (verse 15):
• “He died so we would no longer live for ourselves”
• But now his priority was to live for Christ (verse 15:
• “He died so we would no longer live for ourselves”
(c).
• Before his conversion he was ignorant and in error regarding Jesus (verse 16):
• “He judged people by what they seem to be, judged Christ in that way”.
Ill:
• Carpenter from Nazareth.
• Started life with an illegitimate birth.
• He no formal religious training.
• He was rejected by his contemporise and most of all by the High Priest & Sanhedrin.
But because of his conversion:
• Which we read about in Acts chapter 5.
• He does not judge people by human standards but views them God’s way;
Quote:
“Man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart”.
For Paul his life started again at his conversion:
• He went from persecutor of Christians;
• To proclaimer of Christ!
Ill:
• West Indian lad at a tent meeting in Warwickshire;
• “If I become a Christian does that mean God will wipe the slate clean?”
• Years ago you could have a slate with shop keepers;
• And pay all your debts at the end of the week.
God gives everyone who becomes a Christian a new beginning:
• This change, conversion does not mean Christians are perfect,
• Paul himself talks about the battle of the new nature and the old (Romans chapter 7).
EVERY CHRISTIAN EXPERIENCES THREE TRUTHS REGARDING SIN:
• PAST: Saved from the penalty of sin;
• They are set free, forgiven (issue was settled at the cross!)
• FUTURE: Saved from the prescience of sin;
• Every Christian will be changed and will no more battle with a sinful nature.
• PRESENT: Saved from the power of sin.
• Every Christian must do battle daily to be victor over the power of sin.
Ill:
Imagine that you decide to climb Mount Everest.
• If you have any hope of completing the climb,
• You would never dream of simply buying some equipment and a plane ticket to Nepal.
• The metamorphosis from a non-mountain climber into an athlete capable of such a feat;
• Would involve a significant commitment with a pretty high price tag.
• You would have to arrange your life around the activities and lifestyle choices
• That would prepare you to climb 29,028 feet into the thin oxygen.
In the same way it is possible for every Christian to live a life of victory:
• But it means arranging your life around right activities and lifestyle choices
• Following the advice of this book and allowing Christ to be our trainer day by day.
Quote: The great Scottish Bible expositor Alexander MacLaren once wrote:
‘we may have as much of God as we will.
Christ puts the key of the treasure-chamber into our hand, and bids us take all that we want
If a man is admitted into the bullion vault of a bank and told to help himself, and comes out with one cent, whose fault is it that he is poor?”
• God has provided the means of victory;
• When we apply our will to his riches we will know power over sin consistently!
Ill:
• A few years before John Newton died, a friend was having breakfast with him.
• Their custom was to read from the Bible after the morning meal.
• Because Newton’s eyes were growing dim, his friend would read,
• Then Newton would comment briefly on the passage.
• The day the selection was from 1 Corinthians chapter 15.
• When the words “by the grace of God I am what I am” were read,
• Newton was silent for several minutes.
• Then he said,
“I am not what I ought to be. How imperfect and deficient I am!
I am not what I wish to be, although I abhor that which is evil and would cleave to what is good.
I am not what I hope to be, but soon I shall put off mortality, and with it all sin.
Though I am not what I ought to be, nor what I wish to be, nor yet what I hope to be,
I can truly say I am not what I once was: a slave to sin and Satan.
I can heartily join with the apostle and acknowledge that by the grace of God I am what I am!”
All we have in Christ is ours by grace:
• That simply means we could not earn it, and we did not deserve it;
• But God in his goodness and mercy has given us what we did not deserve!
The third thing we get in this marvellous metamorphism is:
(3). a new purpose (verses 18-20);
“All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:
19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.
20 We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God.
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us,
so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
CEV:
“Christ never sinned! But God treated him as a sinner,
so that Christ could make us acceptable to God”.
• Paul is saying that GOD has a new purpose for every Christian;
• All Christians are to be reconcilers.
Question: What are reconcilers (reconciliation)?
Answer:
“Reconciliation is changing for the better a relationship between two or more persons”.
This of course is the message of the Bible (verse 18):
“All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ”
Note:
• The Bible never speaks of God being reconciled;
• He is perfect and has done nothing wrong.
• The Bible always talks of man being reconciled to God;
• Mankind are the ones out of adjustment.
• All people are naturally enmity with God;
• Ill: Motorway - We do not run straight.
Ill:
• A Sunday School teacher had just concluded her lesson;
• And wanted to make sure she had made her point.
• She said,
• “Can anyone tell me what you must do before you can obtain forgiveness of sin?”
• There was a short pause and then, from the back of the room,
• A small boy nervously raised his hand and spoke up. “Sin,” he said.
We (mankind) were the ones who had turned our back on God:
• Yet the message of this book is that God has not turned his back on us!
• Because of the death of Jesus,
• Every person who responds to Jesus Christ;
• Can be reconciled to God (put into a new relationship with him).
ill:
• Many years ago the English traveller Wilkinson.
• Discovered an Egyptian mummy pit.
• In the pit was a sealed vase, which he sent it to the British Museum.
• But the librarian at the museum managed to drop the vase and break it.
• From the ruins the librarian gathered a few peas.
• They were old, wrinkled and as hard as stones.
• On the 4th June 1844, the peas were planted carefully under a glass.
• Thirty days they had sprouted and were growing well.
• They had been buried as dead, for about 3,000 years,
• Yet were brought to life by the librarian.
Now don’t miss the point:
• Sinful people who are dead in their trespasses and sins;
• Can like those seeds be metamorphosed i.e. brought into new life!
And according to these verses:
• The evidence we are Christians, that we have received new life;
• Is that we have a new purpose, that is to reconcile other people to God.
Ill:
• Some years ago, when many American missionaries were allowed to serve in China,
• A blind Chinese man was taken to a mission hospital.
• The missionary doctor performed an operation;
• And removed cataracts from the man's eyes.
• Soon, the man was able to return to his home,
• He left the mission hospital rejoicing in his restored eyesight.
• A few weeks later the missionaries at the hospital;
• Saw the man coming back down the road toward them.
• But this time he was holding a rope to which forty other blind people were clinging.
• He was bringing them to the place where his sight had been restored.
I’m sure you won’t miss the point:
• That is what God calls on us to do.
• You and I have received life from the Lord Jesus Christ.
• Now it is our privilege and our calling to lead others;
• To that same One from whom we received our life.
Challenge this week Christian:
• Who are you going to share this good news with?
• Who are you praying for?
Challenge this night non-Christian:
• Is will you be reconciled to God!
• God promises you today, “NOW is the day of salvation”
• There is no guarantee about tomorrow or next week.
• Don’t miss out on the metamorphosis that God wants you to have!
