When friends importuned 16-18 year old Mustafa Kemal on his ambitions, the future Ataturk replied simply, “I am going to be somebody.” Bio, p. 18
Exceeding that goal, the Christian boasts, “I am somebody by association with Jesus Christ, the SOMEONE who shares HIS WORTH with me. When someone saw adult Tommy Kirk on a Hollywood street, he searched his face at length, then asked the man who as a youngster starred in Disney movies, “Didn’t you used to be somebody?” Every Christian would answer that question saying, “No, I used to be a Nobody, but am now a Somebody through Jesus Christ’s Grace. Jesus makes the difference. And each Christian now has the confidence of saying, “It is now my pleasure to have my life hidden with Christ so HE can be seen in me” Colossians 3:3. What greater compliment can any mortal receive than to have it said, “That person is like Jesus.”
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In this summary of the series, consider:
Christians have generally taken side-door, back-door approaches to witnessing: designing worship services to attract and convince the lost. That approach more masks God’s glory from unbelievers than revealing his glory in Christians. God hasn’t left us that alternative. Our worship services, and any community outreach, may be the public face of the church, but only Christians remain the public face of Christ. God isn’t concerned that the unsaved will reject his call. That is, after all, possible. He is concerned that the saved will fail to be Christ-like, for that’s our calling and obligation. If we want God to convert the world, he must begin with individuals; and if we want him to convert individuals he must begin with US. For the renewal of the world begins after judgment falls on the church. And since we must speak to the age for God, not to God for the age, we must learn that we’re called to live UP TO our faith, but not just to LIVE IT UP as if we had no purpose but to exist. While the word Christian has a single meaning, remember that Emerson said language is like a ferry boat, not like a house. It offers a conveyance for ideas but not a place for them to live. I’m quite sure he didn’t realize the terrific spiritual truth in his statement, for it MEANS that language needs substance that experience alone grants. Not even the word Christian, then, can be exhausted by claiming it. It has to be lived. That’s why John 1:14 said, after saying the Word was with God, the Word was God, the Word created, the Word overcame darkness…John said the WORD became flesh and lived…and we have SEEN his glory. The very glory the lost must see in us. Jesus who took on his flesh, now takes over ours—with the same purpose…to show God’s beauty as the means of removing the veil of unbelief in the unsaved. That’s the challenge to Christians: if we claim the name Christian to vow to ourselves: “This week I’m going to be like Jesus!” Committing to this Christ-likeness will: drive us to the Bible for instruction and to our knees for inspiration. It will certainly multiply conversions from our witness. Fini Lessons from II Corinthians 3:12-18.
Second, we remain living examples of Jesus, in Moody’s phrase, “the unsaved person’s Bible”, whose perception of Jesus is what they see in us. How can we positively and effectively relate Jesus to the unsaved? The reconciled must become reconcilers, and the saved witnesses, but how can it be done? In a post-modern culture that sees all religion as subjective experiences, with no objective basis? Like the lady in San Diego who rises early to exercise and meditate at La Jolla Shores. It’s just like church to her, she said. Just tell me it isn’t church, she said. OK. It isn’t just like church to exercise and meditate. How to relate Christianity to multiples like her, who consider self-induced relaxation equal to soul-shattering repentance? Who delight in creation but have no interest in the Creator? Or like the people we meet daily who can’t imagine why they need repentance and baptism. When someone asked David Thoreau if he had made peace with God, he replied, “I wasn’t aware that we had quarreled.” That’s the transcendalist/environmentalist view: god is nature, we love the environment, so we’re at peace with god. But since God isn’t the environment or anything in nature, we must repent and be baptized. How do we relate that fact to the lost? By being as Christ-like as possible in as many ways as possible in private and public. The only reason we would hide Christianity’s message from unbelievers is that it isn’t equal to the challenge of educating, convicting, converting and edifying them. But it is! The only reason to hide that message is that it’s just one of many such efforts to find our way to God. But it isn’t! Christianity is God’s absolute truth, without any lie; his absolute perfection, without any fault; his absolutely final revelation, with no more to come. Therefore, let us with transparent lives express the beauty of Christ. The only proof needed to motivate the lost to obey Jesus and the only evidence needed to convince them to do it now. Alexander Stephens, Vice President of the Confederacy, met President Lincoln on a peace mission February 1865. As he entered the ship’s cabin he removed his gloves, heavy overcoat, sweater and scarf. And there stood tiny, shriveled, emaciated Alexander Stephens, all five feet three inches, 100 pounds of him. Lincoln afterward said he had never seen such a small nubbin come from so much shuck. Yet, that’s all of us spiritually, if we peel our nature back layer by layer until we come to our core. But…if we peel back from Jesus Christ his miracles…his teachings…his example…his personality…his death…his resurrection…what’s left? The person of God, the FULLNESS of God; the glory of God in the face of Christ. A glory to be seen, not hidden, revealed, not covered, declared, not silenced! If we want to positively impact the unsaved, let Jesus live in us. It’s God’s way of assuring success for the church in every generation. Don’t apologize for your Christian faith. Don’t compromise your witness of it. Christ in us is the only hope the world has. Pray God to make us increasingly effective witnesses of his eternal glory. End Part V The eight-point summary of II Corinthians 3:12 -18 leads to a couple lessons learned.
First, the Old Testament Needs Instructions from the New. Only Jesus frees the Law of Moses from its limitations and makes its 3500-year-old rules useful as a legal system even today. That’s why the Presbyterian minister was wrong when a Jewish man came with questions about the Bible. Not wanting to intrude on the man’s religious background, he sent him to a rabbi. Though the man came to a Christian precisely because Judaism didn’t have answers. For only when interpreted through the Gospel is the Old Testament clarified. Our text offers a perfect example. Exodus 34 says Moses veiled his face to filter the brilliance from Jewish eyes. But Paul said he veiled his face to keep those eyes from watching the GLOW FADE. So…if you read only the Old Testament you think the SEED or Offspring of Eve was some human, but No…he was JESUS. The Passover Lamb was only an animal, but No…it was JESUS. The Rock from which Israel drank was but a hard stone but, No…it was JESUS. The pillar of cloud and fire were meteorological phenomena but…No…it was JESUS. And on and on. End Part IV Sorry that family health issues short-circuited finishing this series last week. Onward now. Let’s summarize the meaning of II Corinthians 3:12-18.
First, verses 12-13. Christian hope, gained from Christ’s greater and approachable beauty, gives us BOLD COURAGE in our witness. Where Moses hid his face because his glory faded—he hid what he couldn’t retain—we reveal our faith because Christ’s permanent Grace suffuses us. Second, verses 14-15. By itself, and true to itself, the Mosaic Law became more a blinding than an illuminating presence; a restricting, not a liberating factor. It lacked inspiration to personalize its teaching. Third, verse 16. Conversion to Christ removes the veil of ignorance under which the unsaved live. Important point: conversion removes their veil; removing the veil doesn’t expedite conversion. Conversion is the key to changing perspectives in life—from evolution to creation; from materialism to Biblical truth; from carnal to Christ-like behavior, etc. Dr. Henry Morris, founder of the Institute for Christian Research, had been an evolutionary hydrologist. Then he accepted Christ and evolution fell from his mind like scales from the eyes. Thus, we don’t just debate origins with evolutionists, or war with pacifists, or poverty with socialists, or false prophets with cultists. Satan uses these stalking horses to help the lost justify themselves before God. We instead, with Paul before Governor Felix, discuss sin, accountability, judgment, forgiveness and restoration to God Acts 24:24-27. The confrontation between the living Christ and lost sinners forces them to see themselves as they are in God’s sight and emphasizes their need to change. That confrontation preaches the glory that removes their veil; it doesn’t mask the glory to preserve their veil. Fourth, verses 17-18. God reveals his Son in us so we can reveal him to the unsaved—a message increasingly convincing as we mature spiritually; a message progressively compelling as they hear it presented. End Part III Note: I’m developing this blog differently from what my previous blog said. Since II Corinthians 3:12-18 issues from verses 1-11, consider the meaning of verses 1-11.
First, in verses 1-3:
Second, in verses 4-6:
Third, verses 7-9:
Fourth, verses 10-11:
We often qualify the term Christian, as:
In a literal sense, the nomenclature remains unnecessary. Either we are, or we are NOT, a Christian. Either we belong to Jesus, or we don’t. In a relative sense, however, all believers are in different stages of faith, with:
II Corinthians 3:1-18, like Acts 11:26, recognizes only the term Christian, with no qualifying words. Since verses 12-18 in II Corinthians issue from verses 1-11, consider the meaning of verses 12-18. End Part I ◊No higher birth exists than being born again by the Holy Spirit John 3:5.
◊No higher rank exists than being Christ’s witnesses to our generation Acts 1:8 ◊No greater privilege exists as forgiven mortals than being a temple of God I Corinthians 6:19—personally, creating a congregation of temples of God I Corinthians 3:16. The question relating to all those “No higher things….” Is always: do we have a lifestyle equal to our birth, rank and privilege? Can we demonstrate rather than merely promise that Jesus can build better marriages in us than unsaved people have? Or demonstrate rather than merely promise Jesus forgives sinners by forgiving offenders their offenses? Christ has a glory he wants revealed in his people:
A glory expressed even:
For if Christ’s message is revealed in Christ’s spirit, the:
Unbelievers may not discern the differences in doctrines. The unerringly discern the difference between disconnect or correlation between our Promises and our Behavior. Just thinking. Love you all. V Well known in Israel as Teacher—Mark 12:32, Luke 22:11, John 3:2 and 13:14 as examples, Jesus interfaced with many people. They often came with:
Consider Nicodemus in John 3:1-2. He came, giving Jesus the highest praise possible:
Only to discover, for the first time, a breakthrough:
Consider the Rich Young ruler:
Only to discover:
Consider Simon Peter who, in Matthew 16:21-23,
Either idea foreign to Simon’s theology and Christ’s exalted station. Only to discover himself:
Summary: Be careful what we say when coming to Christ. Never assume:
And lots of other inquiries receiving strange, new responses from the Singularly ORIGINAL Christ of God. Always remember: Jesus rose from the dead to prove his personal conquest of death. Then ascended into Heaven, from which he will one day return to earth TO MAKE his believers HEIRS of his victory.
Therefore, our life will be:
Where we live forever
In perfect bodies
Wearing white robes
Where we:
in an ecstasy that SOARS! It’s a life:
And SO MUCH MORE than tongue can say, pen can write or mind can fathom. We’ll have to be there. We’ll want to be there. We don’t want to MISS a single experience it offers. And we must PREPARE for Heaven by accepting Jesus Christ as Savior from our sins and Lord of our lives. Fini |
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