CATM Sermon - January 20, 2017 - The Way of Jesus # 3
“I am Becoming Like Jesus in My Attitudes, Behaviour and Character” John 8:1-11;
Bill, a college student, was a new Christian. According to author Rebecca Manley Pippert, one Sunday he visited a church near campus. He walked in barefoot and was wearing a T-shirt and jeans. The service had already started, so he walked down the aisle looking for a seat. Finding none, he sat down cross-legged on the floor-right in front of the pulpit! The congregation became noticeably uneasy.
Then, from the back of the church, an elderly deacon got up and with his cane slowly made his way to the front. Every eye followed him. The minister paused and there was total silence. As the old gentleman approached Bill, he dropped his cane and with great effort lowered himself and sat down beside him so the young man wouldn’t have to worship alone. (Story by Ajai Prakash). There were few dry eyes in the congregation
We’re continuing today on our journey through the markers of The Way of Jesus. This series is, in part, preparation for those of us who will be attending the Way of Jesus Introductory evening on February 15 at 6 pm, here in this space.
Does anyone recall the first marker? “I have begun following Jesus and I am depending on the Spirit of Jesus for my journey” Does anyone remember last week’s marker, the second marker? “I Am Being Sent by Jesus to Bless Others and Invite Them to Follow Him”.
Today’s marker, marker #3 is this: “I am Becoming Like Jesus in My Attitudes, Behaviour and Character”
The Way of Jesus is really all about discipleship. How do you and I live as faithful disciples of Jesus? "Discipleship is not about information but intimacy. It is following a person." Mike Pilavachi
Actual discipleship, being a student of Jesus, is quite specifically following Jesus, the person. The person Who is God. It is submitting myself to His teachings and His authority as God Who has all authority. It is understanding Him as He is. Who he is is admittedly overwhelming. He is God, the Creator of Heaven and Earth, the Maker of everything, the Lover of our souls. And He is our teacher.
What kind of teacher was Jesus? Jesus was a rabbi. He was a rabbi, who like all other rabbis gathered disciples, students, around Him to teach them and to live out for them what it means to love God...And to teach them what it means to live ‘on mission’ - to live a life for God, for His glory and on God’s mission.
What is His mission, as we’ve discussed over the past few weeks?
He was sent by God (John 3:17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him). Not to condemn the world but to save it. Because he so loved the world. 16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. And
(John 20:21 As the Father has sent me, I am sending you).” As He was sent, so He sends us.
It is to live so as to bless others and to invite them to follow Jesus.
Now, we don’t have Jesus in the flesh here with us. He resides now in heaven, at the right hand of God the Father. But we do have His Words preserved in the Bible, and we have the WHOLE counsel of the Bible to instruct us in the way we should go. But, and this is important. We’re not, properly understood, about following the Bible.
We’re about following Jesus, all of whose teachings perfectly align with the whole Bible, if we care to read and discover that.
We follow a person, Jesus Christ, King of kings and Lord of lords. The Way of Jesus is about following Jesus as He has revealed Himself in and through the Bible, the Word of God.
Now there’s often a skeptic or two in church on a Sunday. We really hope so. If that’s you, you need to know that you are welcome here. Once, I was you. Entirely or partly unconvinced about any of the things you’ve heard here today. Again, we want you here. This is a safe place to work through your questions and, let me say...
I spend a lot of my time with people who are working through their questions - so if you wish to, talk to me after the service and we’ll go for coffee soon, maybe this week. That offer is open to everyone here.
So someone here might say: “Hold on. How can you possibly know what Jesus was like, really? How can you possibly even guess at who He is in order to follow Him. How can you know what He is or was like, His attitude, the underlying character and heart of Jesus?” That’s a good question. Maybe you can’t. Or maybe you can.
Let’s look at another key passage for today: Philippians 2:1 If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. 4 Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.
5 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature F5 God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7 but made himself nothing, taking the very nature F6 of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death - even death on a cross! 9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
So this does say something to us about Jesus, and it says something to us about what it means to actually follow Jesus.
What does it say about Jesus, about His attitude, His behaviors or His character? Is there something that pops out to you? A word or a phrase? Well, it says that even though He is God in His very nature, He didn’t consider THAT as something to be grasped.
Other translations say He didn’t think about using the fact of His divinity for His own advantage, or something He wanted to cling to.
What does that say about His character? He wasn’t about status. He wasn’t about power. He wasn’t about name dropping - “Psst. You know, God IS my Father”. He wasn’t about being seen in a good light. Seems like He couldn’t have cared less about that. In fact, we read that He “made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness”.
He wasn’t about necessarily being seen in a good light, especially to people who considered themselves religious. He associated with humble people, with people who the pharisees called ‘sinners’, as if they are everyone isn’t a sinner. He was falsely accused of being a glutton and a drunkard, and accurate accused of being a friend of tax collectors and sinners.' Luke 7:34.
He crossed religious boundaries in order to bring the message and light of God to everyone. And it says that even though He was, absolutely, God...He became a servant. What?! Think about what that says about His character? And then it says He humbled Himself, being a man, and then...this passage glosses over all the stuff He taught and all the beautiful things He did...He became obedient to death, even death on a cross.
I want to say that our attitudes, behaviour and character matter at all times. They matter when we’re alone at home. I would agree with this quote by John Wooden: “Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.” “The true test of a man's character is what he does when no one is watching.”
But our attitudes, behaviour and character are likely best revealed in our dealings with others over time.
We see a great deal more about Jesus in the gospels. We see Him dismissing cultural biases and prejudices and talking to the Samaritan women, when the Samaritans had been despised by His own people for centuries. Then there’s the fact that, again...that was a Samaritan WOMAN that Jesus talked to in depth about her life.
A Jewish Rabbi should never, according to custom, speak to a Samaritan. That would be just wrong. To speak with a Samaritan WOMAN? That’s unconscionable. But Jesus crossed those man-made cultural boundaries and prejudices in order to reach people with the love of God.
As well, Jesus asked her to get him a drink of water, which from the hand of a Samaritan woman would have made him ceremonially unclean from using her cup or jar.
What does that tell you about Jesus? He’s not about bigotry, prejudice and He IS about listening. Listening deeply, speaking truthfully, speaking boldly in great love. And He’s not particularly enthusiastic about ritual laws that separate people from God and each other.
We see Him in John chapter 8 when a woman caught in the act of adultery is brought before Jesus by a blood-thirsty crowd, wanting Jesus’ judgment, hoping it would appease their blood lust so that they could kill the woman on the spot.
Apparently they were happy to let the man involved just go on his way. Jesus, instead of prescribing the original punishment for adultery, which was to kill the adulterer, Jesus tells the men there, standing with their rocks in their hands just waiting for the moment they can stone the woman to death, that whoever among them is without sin can cast the first stone.
He chooses mercy over judgment. Every time. Of all the men there, He was the only One who was without sin, who could have, by His own words, been permitted to stone the woman.
Instead He tells her to go, and sin no more. Again, we see mercy at work in the character of Jesus. We see love expressed in thoughtful discourse. We see hypocrisy gently challenged with wisdom and not blunt force. We see kindness on display, even in this, one of many moments of truth for Jesus when the pressure was on.
We also see how Jesus grants liberty. After this terribly stressful trial where the woman would have expected that she was about to be murdered by the angry crowd, He sets her free from her accusers, and He tells her that she is free to go. But that’s not all. He grants her freedom, and He tells her to change her lifestyle, to stop sinning.
He doesn’t compromise on sin - that’s what the angry mob was testing Him about - they wanted to see how this man with a reputation for kindness would deal with the sterner matters of the law. Would He flout the law and let her go, or would He exact the harshest penalty the law required. Instead, He outsmarted them, exposing the dark hypocrisy of their own hearts.
So Jesus wasn’t easy on the sin of the woman’s accusers, and He wasn’t easy on the sin of the woman. Love doesn’t do that. But He was kind, and merciful. In fact we see in Jesus displayed the Scripture: “Mercy triumphs over judgment” (James 2:13). He forgave her and He sent her, calling her to a higher place.
In Jesus gentle dealings with children that we’ve looked at over the past few Sundays, in His dealing with people who needed healing…In His dealings with his sluggish disciples who were seriously behind the ball in figuring out Who He was, we see this attitude, this lovely character expressed in behaviour that often defied expectations.
He was kinder than people expected to everyday people. He was loving and gracious and patient. He was harsher than was likely expected on religious leaders who abused their authority.
And so as we think about today’s marker, “I am Becoming Like Jesus in Attitude, Behaviour and Character”, we are reminded and inspired to want to be the best possible versions of ourselves. The least cluttered, least selfish, least self-centred, least sinful versions of ourselves. The most free, the most joyful, the most effective and the most peaceful versions of ourselves.
It’s there to inspire us to examine our lives and to - listen now - celebrate the life of Christ that is being worked out in us by and through the Holy Spirit.
It is a slow process, always with slow, incremental progress. But it is a marker of the Way of Jesus because we need this reminder of what we are seeking to become like.
I love this quote: “When God wants to make a mushroom, He does it overnight, but when He wants to make a giant oak, He takes a hundred years. Great souls are grown through struggles and storms and seasons of suffering. Be patient with the process”. - Rick Warren
A good question to ask, and to pray about, as we consider applying this message is:
God, what one thing can I do this coming week, by Your grace, to reflect the attitude of Jesus?
To reflect the behaviours of Jesus? To reflect the character of Jesus?
Let ‘s just take a moment to reflect on these questions. (Long pause)
Let’s pray:
Lord Jesus, thank you that you enable us by your Holy Spirit to grow to be like You, to reflect something of your loveliness in our lives. May we look joyfully to You to refine our attitudes, behaviour and character, trusting in and embracing Your forgiveness when we fall short, but never yielding in our passion to reflect Your love and goodness to the hurting world around us. Amen.
