THE STORY OF MY HEART
2 Cor 5: 11-21 (p818) August 14, 2011
INTRODUCTION:
The word of God uses the Greek word "metamorphoo" four times in the New Testament.
It's used in Matt 17: 2 and Mark 9: 2 to describe what happened to Jesus on a mountain when Moses and Elijeh appeared with him from heaven...Peter, James and John witnessed a Metamorphosis - "a change of form" "and he was transfigured before them and his face shone like the Sun, and his garments become as bright as light."
Romans 12:2 is a warning and challenge from the Apostle Paul to believers ---"and do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind..."
The final verse if also from the Apostle Paul to believers..."but we all, with unveiled faces reflect the Lord's glory, and are being transformed into His likeness with ever increasing glory."
"Metamorphoo" - Metamorphosis..it means to "change in form" to be transformed or transfigured.
Science uses this word to describe what happens when a tadpole becomes a frog..or one your even more familiar with...when a caterpillar becomes a butterfly...
Let me show you something cool..
(Show you Tube Video)
Although the word "Metamorphosis" isn't used in our text...it is the very heart of what the Apostle Paul is describing...if you asked me to pick 1 single verse to describe the process of salvation and the story of my heart it would be 2 Cor. 5:7
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a New creation; the old has gone, the new has come."
New Creation "Kaine" Ktisis" is the transformation that takes place for anyone who is in Christ. Its as radically different as the frog is from the tadpole and the butterfly is from the caterpillar...it is impossible to be in Christ and not experience a "metamorphoo"
With that being said...its important we understand its a process..It doesn't happen all at once. The Video we watched was a time lapse over weeks...and if your like me you found yourself wanting to help the butterfly...pull the cocoon away making it easier to escape...if you did that there would be tragic results...The fluid wouldn't be squeezed through its wings...its in the escape where the strength is developed to fly...removing the difficulty would make flying impossible...the cocoon prepares the butterfly for life....
We as Christians have a cocoon also...its the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus.]
Detrick Bonnhaffer the great German Theologian put it this way "come and Die", So you can live!"
Jesus made it clear "If anyone would come after me he must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me... Anyone who wants to save his life will lose it, but anyone who forfeits his life for me and the gospel shall save it."
We bring a selfish prickly "caterpillar" life to the cross...Our nature is self-serving and self-seeking...Its exactly like the youngest son in the parable of the prodigal..."Give Me My Share!"
This is my story...the Apostle Paul's story..and
I WE ENTER THE COCOON WITH FEAR
Since we know what it is the fear of the Lord, we try to persuade men."
[I grew up knowing about Jesus...i was raised in a family that went to church...we prayed, my parents read me bible stories...I went to VBS and church camp...but still I went my own way...I rebelled...Why? Because I was self-focused, I wanted my own way. I thought if I could do what I wanted I'd be happy....much of my focus was immediate gratification....I thought little of the future. Sin was fun and pleasurable...so i went raft it with little thought toward the consequences...I wasn't afraid...I was indestructible...I had plenty of time...after fie years I had destroyed almost every healthy relationship, the consequences became real.
And then God stepped in...His Holy Spirit began to convict...He showed me I was lost and separated from God....If I remained separated the end result was punishment...Hell
That’s why 2 Cor 5:10 is the catalyst for our text this morning -
2 Cor 5: 10 (p818)
I often tell people "you can't be saved until you realize how lost you are"
Standing before a Holy and spotless Savior revealed the depth of my sin...It happened to Saul and the road to Damascus...Holy is not God's Spirits first name...its his ministry.
If you are outside of Christ...He will but your heart and convict you of your unholiness...He will point you to the cross as the solution.
This is exactly what happened in Acts chapter 2 -Here's a part of the Apostle Peter's sermon.
Acts 2: 22-24, 36-41 (p 771)
For those outside of Christ the Holy Spirit is God's heart surgeon...He cuts into the calloused, sinful, selfish heart...for the first time we experience the fear of judgment. It makes us ask "what should I do?!!
Repent...turn to God and turn your life around....How? enter the cocoon of Christ death and buried at Baptism....Emerge from that cocoon with the ability to fly because God's Spirit now lives in you.
"We are convinced that one died for all and therefore all die...and he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died for them and was raised again" (v 14,15)
We might enter the cocoon of grace in fear of punishment, but God will not let us remain in fear...His perfect love casts out fear...As our lives are "In Christ" We as new creations...
II MAKE HIS LOVE APPARANT BY BEING TRANSPARENT
"What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience."
The common thread for very effective and growing follower of Christ in the New Testament is..."They are real, open, genuine and authentic."
They are not pretending to be followers of Jesus...They are showing people what a real follower of Christ looks like.
[Last week someone paid $308 K for a transparent car, A 1939 Pontiac Deluxe Stick called "the Ghost car... It was unveiled at the 1939/40 world's fair to show the miracle of plexiglass...This transparent car let you see what was going on underneath its hood and inside its cabin]
Theirs only 1 of them...amazingly they never caught on...it seems people would just as soon somethings be hidden.
But if we are to reveal the love of Jesus to this world its essential we become transparent...fear makes us hide...fear causes us to keep things secrete...fear makes us lie and deceive...we don't want the truth recorded.
But the Holy spirit did reveal the truth to me..."I am a sinner, saved only by the grace of God" Christ loved my enough he took all my sin, your sin, the worlds' sin and died in payment for it....
"God made him who had no sin to be sin for US, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (v 21)
In Him...In CHRIST we are new creation "we become the righteousness of God "
What we are is plain to God...and its plain to others as well...this becomes apparent as we are transparent.
Paul ends the 3rd chapter of Corinthians by talking about removing the veil from our faces...not like Moses did when he tried to hide the fact that God's glory diminished after he left his presence.
Here's what the says
2 Cor 3: 16-4:2 (p 817)
The only way this world will see what God can do through Jesus sacrifice is when people take off the mask and show this world what transformation looks like.
That's a scary thing, because we are still living in a sinful world in a "selfish" body...God's glory (the Holy Spirit) is housed in a "jar of clay" according to 2 Cor 3:7..."To show that this all surpassing power is from God and not from us".
I still get mad...I'm still tempted to sin...and many times do...I'm still prone to be selfish...It's only as I show the reality of God in me in the battle that I'm really transparent...
Covering this truth with a religious void does not make me transparent...it makes me an object of deception...using the same secrete and shameful ways of the world.
How do I emerge from the cocoon so I can fly as God intended...How can I show His power of light in a dark world.
III THE LOVE OF CHRIST COMPELS AND PROPELS ME INTO THE WORLD.
Having an appreciating for my salvation...being consumed with gratitude because of God's grace I am now God's ambassador.
v 18-20 (p819)
God did it all...He convicted me of my sin through the Holy Spirit...He provided His Son as the sacrifice for my sin..."All this is from God who reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. We are God's Ambassadors as though God were making His appeal through us."
[An Ambassador is someone who represents his country on foreign soil...His Embassy is U.S. soil, even if the building is physically located in Egypt.
The Apostle Paul is saying...Our home is not in the foreign land...we represent another Kingdom...and its King has as his primary mission...reconciliation...we represent our King and His Kingdom in this world...and the only way there can be a peace treaty is if we make the appeal to those who are at war with Him, just as we have surrendered to his peace.
I remember being at war with God...I remember being a citizen of this world...and its darkness, I served the God of ME, and the shrapnel of selfishness inflicted wounds on all those who loved me...especially upon the One who loved me most...I fought...and God loved...I rebelled and God chased after me...How did I finally see the truth of God's amazing Love...?
Ambassadors of the King showed me a life a reconciliation...they enforced in it...It propelled and compelled their hearts...it drew me like a magnet draws steal to the cross.
Let's pray
