Transformation

Psalm 115:4-8 “But their idols are silver and gold, made by human hands. They have mouths, but cannot speak, eyes, but cannot see. They have ears, but cannot hear, noses, but cannot smell. They have hands, but cannot feel, feet, but cannot walk, nor can they utter a sound with their throats. Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them.”

Idol worshipers become just as spiritually lifeless, deaf and blind as the idols they worship.

Then...

Ultimately our worship and LOVE for God leads to our transformation.

Of course, our love of God, only comes after love from God.

We see this played out with Peter walking on water.

Romans 8:28-30 “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.”

The point is that the good work God is doing is transforming you more and more into the image of His son.

The deduction that can be made from this is that, if one is not “loving God” then one is consequently not being “conformed to the image of God’s Son,” RATHER, they are “loving” some other earthly object of worship and, consequently, being conformed to this earthly image.

For example: 1 Timothy 6:9-10, “Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”

Love/worship of money leads to people’s ruin. It doesn’t say that they don’t ever get the money but they do end in ruin.

God has made all people to reflect, to be imaging beings. People will always reflect something, whether it be God’s character or some feature of the world.

If people are committed to God, they will become like him; if they are committed to something other than God, they will become like that thing, always spiritually inanimate and empty like the lifeless and vain aspect of creation to which they have committed themselves.

The love and worship of God will lead to us being transformed into the likeness of God.

Transformation x 3

-20 minutes-

Do People Change?

Some research and polling and surveys suggests that there are 2 explanations for our underestimating the degree to which we may change in the future:

1. Most people believe that their personalities are attractive, their values admirable and their preferences wise; and having reached that exalted state, they may be reluctant to entertain the possibility of change.

2. People confuse the difficulty of imagining personal change with the unlikelihood of change itself.

Change is not linear and smooth (hopefully that can free some of you this morning who have been wanting change). One therapist describes the process of change as a rider trying to guide an elephant along a jungle path.

Researchers find that both teenagers and grandparents are prone to believing that they have already changed as much as they are going to (or need to), and so have reached ‘the End of History’.

There is someone God wants to transform you into today!

Change processes are more enduring and proceed more smoothly if our relational links to others are strong.

Real life change and healing happens exclusively in relationship.

SMALL GROUPS PLUG

I could keep telling you about the secular studies on change and the 10 points on why change doesn’t last and the different obstacles we face when trying to change… but instead I am discussing the biblical theology of change (transformation / sanctification)

So Do People Change? For the believer, yes. Change/transformation is required but it is also provided.

The Word itself:

μεταμορφόω | Metamorphóō -

But our transformation is not just from bad people to good people. He didn’t come to establish another list of Christian Ethics. He came to change us from death to life. We do not know how to live. We do not know how to be truly human. We do not know how or what the life of God looks like until the Holy Spirit comes and transforms us!

3 Points about Christian Transformation

1. We have been Changed

2. We will be Changed

3. We are being Changed

*Disclaimer* This transformation goes against the grain of the world, the world will hate you for it.

1. We have been saved to become someone new

There has been a decisive and total transfer from one state to another. From Death to Life

Ephesians 2:4-6 “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,”

2. We will be changed

There is an end. This is a problem that we face sometimes with over-promising now from our eschatological future.

Philippians 3:18-21 “For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.”

Even though the resurrection power of Jesus has broken into this world, we will not be permanently transformed until we receive our resurrection bodies, which are patterned after the Lord Jesus.

3. We are being changed

Romans 12:1-2 “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

2 Corinthians 3:18 “And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”

There is an end coming and a revolutionary change coming and Christians are called to start living now as though the new age has already come. Renew your mind to the new reality says Paul.

Way Maker - God is always working

Philippians 1:6 “being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” - the context is your character transformation.

Something began

There is a completion

God is working now.

Question: How much is God working in your life?

I wonder if the barometer of God’s work has been measuring in the wrong place.

What is your barometer of God’s work in your life?

Is it by how much money you have?

Is it by how many friends you have?

Is it by simply how you feel in that particular moment?

Is it by how much favor you’ve experienced the last few weeks with people at work and the stores etc.

I believe that I have a mandate from the Holy Spirit to illuminate the truth that God has been working in your life unimaginably more than you are aware and have given thanks for

He is restoring the perfect image of His Son in us.

Transformation: The Heart of Paul’s Gospel The Necessity of Transformation: Paul Places Conditions on Salvation beyond Mere Belief

it is necessary to allow God’s Spirit to become the driving force in one’s life and to cease to live for oneself. Continuing to feed the passions and drives of self-centered, self-directed living (what Paul speaks of as “the flesh”) shipwrecks God’s work of transformation and deliverance. On the other hand, yielding ourselves to the transformation God desires to work within us through God’s precious gift of the Holy Spirit allows God to complete the work of deliverance that he began in us in our coming to faith. One must be “led by the Spirit” to be in fact a “child of God”

Titus 2:11-14 “For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait for the blessed hope—the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.”

Romans 13:11-14 “And do this, understanding the present time: The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh.”

This revolution is coming, Paul says, and in several important ways he invites Christians to start living now as though the revolution has already happened and as though that part of the cosmos that is the Christian movement were already under new management. Several statements in Paul’s letters point in this direction:

[God] has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. (Col 1:13–14 nrsv)

But may it not be for me to boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the cosmos has been crucified to me and I to the cosmos. For neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is anything, but a new creation—now that’s something. (Gal 6:14–15)

Don’t allow yourselves to be fit into the schema and structures (syschēmatizesthe) of this age, but be transformed (metamorphousethe) as your minds are made new, in order that you may be able to discern what is the good and pleasing and perfect will of God. (Rom 12:2)

I mean, brothers and sisters, the appointed time has grown short; from now on, let even those who have wives be as though they had none, and those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who buy as though they had no possessions, and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the present form of this world is passing away. (1 Cor 7:29–31 nrsv)

The statement from Colossians is both a sweeping indictment of the present world order and a declaration of a change in governance that has already taken place. The challenge for Christians becomes, then, to live in the midst of the “power of darkness” as citizens who order their common and individual lives in line with the “kingdom of [the] beloved Son,” that is, built on the foundations of his teaching and example. The statement from Galatians declares a complete break between the life of Paul (and by extension the life of the believer who walks in the same direction of transformation as does Paul) and the structures, power, and foundational logic and priorities of the “cosmos” as manifested especially in the domination of the stoicheia tou kosmou. Once again Paul declares that what matters in God’s sight is neither being in nor not being in a circumcised state, and therefore part of a particular ethnic group in this present age, but being part of the “new creation” that God is bringing about, a creation that lives independently of and

Matthew 17:1-8 “After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus. Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” While he was still speaking, a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!” When the disciples heard this, they fell facedown to the ground, terrified. But Jesus came and touched them. “Get up,” he said. “Don’t be afraid.” When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus.”

What we are seeing is:

What is promised to believers is taking place already for Jesus, in His transfiguration.

It is our anticipation and guarantee of a new reality.

that reality that kingdom was disguised until jesus was transformed.

This glorification is the goal of his way of suffering and death and the way for us.

Transformation begins already in this life. By seeing the glory of the Lord in the Spirit, we are changed into the image of Him whose glory we see.

This is re-attaining the divine likeness that we lost in Adam.

It happens by the ministry of the Spirit and it is for all Christians.

It’s not just for the future, but begins now with the coming of the Holy Spirit.

This change in believers is also not optional, it’s required.

The new age has broken in and we must reshape our lives in accordance with it. Renew our minds and become what we are.

We are to live now the way we live in the new age. Our transformation is not waiting till then but has begun by the Spirit now.

Christ gave himself for us to make us a new people.

Titus 3:3-8 “At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone.”

We have been saved to become someone “devoted to doing what is good” & “to say NO to ungodliness and worldly passions, to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, while we wait...”

1 Cor. 15 is clearly the most important and developed statement of the New Testament expectation that we will be changed. Given resurrection bodies at the return of Christ in order to equip us for the life in the new order.

1 Corinthians 15:21-26 “For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.”

1 Corinthians 15:50-54 “I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed—in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.””

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