Transforming Power
Meridian Christian Church is a “2:47” Church - 24/7!
What is a 2:47 church 24 hours a day – seven days a week? In the next 6 weeks we are going to have the adventure of a lifetime together as we investigate, study and explore the Bible to learn what it is and what it means!
We begin with the book of Acts in the second chapter. We’ll begin with the 43rd verse and we’ll end with Acts 2:47. (That’s where the “2:47” comes from!)
43 The apostles were doing many miracles and signs, and everyone felt great respect for God. 44 All the believers were together and shared everything. 45 They would sell their land and the things they owned and then divide the money and give it to anyone who needed it. 46 The believers met together in the Temple every day. They ate together in their homes, happy to share their food with joyful hearts.
47 They praised God and were liked by all the people. Every day the Lord added those who were being saved to the group of believers.
This is no “clubhouse” church. This is no “fortress” church. This is not a “warrior” fanatical weird church. This is not a “namby-pamby” Casper milk toast church. This is not a disconnected from the real world, pious, self-righteous bunch of “do-gooder” church. This isn’t a “let’s save the world” liberal believe nothing church.
This is an exciting, dynamic, fun, enjoyable church that is sold out on following Jesus 24 hours a day – seven days a week! This is the kind of church that transforms everything it touches because the people are a transformed people. They are changed because they have been touched by the transforming power of Jesus Christ.
That’s attractive to the world – because the world needs transforming!
The world needs transforming
This past week it feels like we have been slammed with news about the need for a transformed world. Over 350 people killed in a Russian school; several of our troops and many Iraqi innocents and insurgents killed by bullets and bombs; teenagers who are suddenly taken from us through senseless car accidents; it just goes on and on.
This past week there was a news report about a college student who took their own life on the first day of “Suicide Prevention Week” by throwing her self off a 12 story building in NYC.
Why would things like this happen? Why would a young coed jump from the roof of a building and end her life?
Let me be so bold as to tell you what the problem is; what the easy answer is – why it’s ineffective – and why the only real solution is the transforming power of Jesus Christ.
The Problem is DEATH
Let’s get real: We are all wasting away and dying
Many of us are past our physical prime. It’s sad, but true. I’m not even sure I ever HAD a physical prime. Maybe a couple of weeks back in 9th grade when I went out for football and the coach used me to hold the tackling dummies during practice. When you weigh 130 lbs soaking wet and you have to brace your self against a burlap bag filled with sand and sawdust against the senior 245 lb sneering linemen – you tend to bulk up a little. Or maybe you just get stringy and more flexible. Anyway, that’s as close to physical prime as I have ever been. Since then, it’s all been downhill.
Now I have to work to get the newspaper at just the right distance from my eyes. Every time I go to the barbershop and look at my hair lying on the floor when he is done there is less dark and lots more gray hair. My college yearbook photo – now THAT was a full head of hair – But everyone looked like that!
Those days are gone forever. Yes, diet and exercise can probably help and someday I mean to find out. And I know that the drugstores are full of pills and potions promising to restore youthfulness and vigor, but they’re only delaying the inevitable decline.
Now, fortunately, my mental faculties are still. . . what was I talking about?
Oh, yeah, we’re all in the process of falling apart and dying. Death is coming to everyone of us. There are no exceptions to this hard and fast rule.
This is the very real problem of life but before we go to the easy answer let me tell you that Death need not be something we fear or worry about. It doesn’t matter. Not really. Because there is a solution – in the realm of what’s truly important – eternally important – decline is not inevitable.
The Apostle Paul puts it this way…
2 Corinthians 4:16-17
16 So we do not give up. Our physical body is becoming older and weaker, but our spirit inside us is made new every day. 17 We have small troubles for a while now, but they are helping us gain an eternal glory that is much greater than the troubles.
Paul is telling us that we need not fear death. That death is not the end of life. It is the transformational part of a metamorphosis that begins in you when you touch the transformational power of Jesus.
But that’s not where many people are today. They are busy trying to deal with the problem of death with the easy answer – that doesn’t work.
The Easy Answer is ME
Let’s look at another scripture in 2 Corinthians. It’s about Moses and the veil he wore after he spent 40 days with God in a mountain top experience.
2 Corinthians 3:13-18
We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to keep the Israelites from gazing at it while the radiance was fading away.
2 Corinthians 3:13-18
But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away.
2 Corinthians 3:13-18
Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.
2 Corinthians 3:13-18
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
Let’s go back to that first verse we read and let me explain what happened to Moses.
2 Corinthians 3:13-18
We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to keep the Israelites from gazing at it while the radiance was fading away.
You know the story. Moses was leading the Israelites from bondage and death into the Promised Land – life. He went to receive the law of God and establish a covenant with Israel that would make them His people.
There are so many images in this whole story about death and life. One of my favorites is crossing over the Jordon River into the promised land after 40 years of wandering in wilderness – kind of a picture of life and death and heaven – isn’t it!
Well anyway, getting back to Moses – He went up on Mt. Sinai to receive the law and was there for 40 days. When he came down with the 10 commandments his face was so bright from the reflected glory of God’s presence that the people demanded his face be covered with a veil. Imagine the transformation that happened to him because He was in God’s presence!
Well, over time what happened was that the radiance faded. You have to stay in touch with the transforming power of God to stay transformed! Moses’ radiant face gradually got to be his normal face. The face he lived with and he tried to fix life’s problems with. Moses’ easy answer was the same as mine – “ME”
I can do it. I can fix things. I can find my own way. I can make it all happen. “Me” is the easy answer and the wrong one!
After Paul talks about Moses and the veil he points out that that same veil became a problem to the Israelites who followed after Moses.
2 Corinthians 3:13-18
But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away.
Instead of focusing on the glory of God under the veil they looked steadily at the veil and became dull to the transforming power of God.
This is illustrated in the accusations that the Jews brought against Stephen in Acts 6 when they said, “This fellow never stops speaking against this holy place and against the law. For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs Moses handed down to us.”
When they listened to Moses, all they were concerned about two main things - the customs and the laws. They thought that was the most glorious part of what Moses was about - as his face was shining and all after coming down from Mt. Sinai. The veil covered their hearts so they couldn’t truly see what they were supposed to see.
The same problem exists within Christianity today. What do I mean? If you look at the main speakers that represent Christianity and the main movements in America today, it is coming under the veil of the law. Dr. Dobson comes with Christian guidance on the family. Gary Smalley comes with Christian guidance on marriage. The Christian Coalition talks against abortion and against gay marriage. They are doing their best to elect the right legislatures and pass the right laws to keep America moral. Many emails are being sent on signing legislation against this and against that.
The law won’t transform people – only Jesus can!
The Only Solution is JESUS
2 Corinthians 3:13-18
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
The Power to change you comes from God - Not Moses veil or anything you can do. It is the spirit of Jesus in us that changes us…
Transformation continues then in realizing who you are and what God has given you. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. The same drum just keeps on beating throughout Paul’s letter to his fellow Christians.
True freedom starts with realizing WHO God is and WHAT God has done for you.
Think about the major things that our society is enslaved by.
If money is your god, you’ll always need more money in order to feel okay. If sex is your god, you’ll always need more sex. If cocaine is your god, you’ll always need more cocaine. When does it end? When do you ever get to the point where you have enough drugs, sex, or money to make you happy as a person? Two minutes after the novelty wears off, you’ll be out looking for more.
The want of acceptance, the need to be loved, the search of happiness, the feeling of being free, the desire for a higher purpose in life.
The whole concept behind the Constitution is the pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness.
So people seek happiness in sex. When they feel constrained and stressed in life, they seek liberty in alcohol. When they want acceptance, they make babies and pamper each other so that other people will like them.
And all of these avenues to freedom and happiness only end up enslaving them. Alcohol offers freedom from pain for a night, and then causes more pain in the morning. Sex makes someone feel accepted for a moment, but then leaves a path of distrust and anger after the rejection.
Christ gives us all these things that we need for free. It’s only the Spirit that can free us from these ideas. We know that in Christ - through his righteousness - God accepts us. We know that in baptism, God forgives us. The more we realize these things, the more free we truly become.
If God accepts me, then I don’t need to crave acceptance from my spouse or my friends. If God has all things work out for my good, then I don’t need to worry about the future. If God already punished me in Christ, then I don’t need to punish myself with this constant guilt. If I know that I will be given a new body and eternal pleasures at God’s right hand in heaven, then I won’t revolve my life around the temporary pleasures on earth. Truly knowing Christ and having the Holy Spirit means that your whole life and attitude will change. It has to.
The Transforming Power of Jesus
2 Corinthians 5:17
17 If anyone belongs to Christ, there is a new creation. The old things have gone; everything is made new!
So if we want men to stop marrying men, it has to come in Christ, not Moses. If we want Janet Jackson to stop revealing her breasts to us on TV, she has to see that God loves her. If we want to really get along with our spouse, we have to realize who we are in Jesus. If we want our kids to behave decently, they need to come to a place where they accept Jesus as Lord, and are baptized into him and then be reminded of what it means to put on Jesus.
That’s where freedom begins, and that’s where growth continues. We need to constantly be reminded of what Christ did for us on the cross, and how we look in God’s sight. If we want a reformation to take place, we need to keep preaching the Gospel.
Listen to what Paul Henderson says about that transforming power…
“They call the winning goal I scored in the last game of the 1972 Canada/Russia hockey series ’The Goal of the Century.’ I still get a warm feeling when I think about it.
Fear is one of the best motivators, and I was very afraid that I would be part of the team that lost to the Russians. Canada is not a big nation, but hockey is our game. Everyone on the team felt a responsibility to win. I had confidence that our team was better than the Russians, but it never entered my mind that it would be me that scored that last goal. It certainly gave me a stature that I would not have had without it. I wish I could have handled things a little better at that point, been more mature. If I had a spiritual dimension to my life at the time, I know I would have.
Back then, I had fulfilled most of my boyhood dreams, and I knew I was a very fortunate and blessed individual. Yet there was a restlessness, a discontentment in the centre of my being that I could not ignore. I was angry, bitter and frustrated, and there were things about my life that I didn’t know how to handle. Things were not going well with the Maple Leafs, the team I was playing on, and I was having a lot of conflicts with the owner. Here I was playing in the NHL, doing something that I had always strived for, but I had become more bitter and angry than I had ever been in my life.
So I started drinking as a way to soothe the pain. I think if you are frustrated and angry, you look for a way out. You get with the boys and you try to ’make merry,’ but you wake up the next morning and it’s there again.
Fortunately, a friend encouraged me to examine the claims of Jesus. He told me that I hadn’t taken care of my soul and had never really looked at what it was on the inside. That made sense to me, so I started to read the Bible and look into Jesus. Jesus claimed to be God, and He said He loved me and wanted to give me eternal life. After a two-year search, I became convinced He loved me and wanted me to get to know Him.
However, it was a real struggle for me to become a Christian for a number of reasons. First, I had always prided myself in being a self-made man. I was used to being in control of my life. I was also afraid of what my friends would think. Third, I still looked at Christianity’s ’dos’ and ’don’ts’ and thought that it was so narrow. How could I be a ’man’s man’ and a Christian, I thought. I was worried that I would have to give up too much. Finally, I read in the Bible that if I really loved God I wouldn’t be afraid to tell others about Him. But if I became a Christian I didn’t want to tell anyone about it. That led to a lot of frustration, because I was not able to step over the line.
One day I just couldn’t fight it any longer. I threw all my fears aside and I said to God: ’I am fearful, and I don’t want to tell anyone about this.’ And then I gave my life to the Lord.
Since that day, I have never been the same. God has had a positive impact in every area of my life. Most importantly, He has taken away my anger and bitterness. My life certainly hasn’t been trouble-free. One of the most challenging times in my life was when my wife was in the hospital and we thought we were going to lose her. I was mad at God, but I realized that night that life is a gift from God, and I decided right then to place everything in my life in His hands. He had proven Himself to me over the years with His faithfulness, and I knew that I had no choice but to surrender my life to Him. Now the inner quietness, contentment and peace I experience on a daily basis assures me that His promise to love and care for me is true and real. And best of all, I look forward to spending eternity with Him.”
I challenge you today to become come to Jesus so that he can touch your heart and transform your life.
