The
Fourth Sunday of Lent, Year B
Numbers 21:4-9; Ephesians 2:1-10; John 3:14-21
Pastor Gayle M. Pope
Created
to Become Like Christ
Today we are into our fourth week in our series on the
Purpose Driven Life.
The first week we heard that we are here because God created
us to love us.
The second week we heard that the first purpose of our lives is
to please God by loving God back – with all our heart, and soul and mind and
strength. This is called worship,
which means giving our whole life to God as an offering of praise and thanks.
The third week – last Sunday – we heard that the second
purpose of our lives is to love each other as children in God’s family and
brothers and sisters in Christ. This is
called fellowship.
Today, we’re going to hear about the third purpose of
our lives, which is to become like Christ. This is called discipleship.
Now, I’m going to ask you a question and, when I do, I want
you to remember the first thing that comes to your mind. Ready?
What is the absolute worst thing that has ever happened to
you? Got it?
In a way, whatever came to mind when you heard that question
is – for you -- the subject of today’s message.
Because the premise of this teaching on discipleship is that God can
and does USE the difficulties in our lives – troubles,
temptations and trespasses – to make us more like Jesus.
And what does it mean to be more like Jesus?
What that really means, is to be more and more true to the
person God created you to be. After all,
Genesis
We were not created to BE gods, but we were created in God’s
image – to reflect God’s character – to be godly men, women and children. And,
since Jesus is the visible image of the invisible God, the more we take on the
character of Christ, the more we reflect the image of God.
This happens by the power of the Holy Spirit at work in us –
shaping, molding and forming us – most often through the challenges we face.
Does God CAUSE bad things to happen to us? Does God ALLOW
bad things to happen? Those are big theological questions with complicated
answers, like “yes,” “no,” “maybe,” “sometimes,” “never” or “all of the above.”
For today, let us just establish that bad things DO happen
and God DOES use those things in our lives to serve a good purpose.
Take Joseph, for example – the Old Testament Joseph with the
amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. After his brothers sold him into slavery and he
was falsely accused and put in prison in
When he was finally reunited with his brothers he said, as
recorded in Genesis 50:20, “Even though
you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good, in order to preserve a
numerous people, as he is doing today.”
Or take the example we heard in the Old Testament reading
for today. When the Israelites complained about God’s provision and Moses’
leadership, God sent poisonous serpents among the people. When the people
repented and Moses prayed for a solution, God told Moses to use the very object
that brought death as the source of life.
By looking at a symbol of the thing that bit them – an act
of trust in God’s promise – they would be healed.
Or take the cross for example: God used the suffering and
death of his beloved Son to work salvation for all who believe in him. As Jesus told Nicodemus in our gospel reading
for today, “And just as Moses lifted up
the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up – (on the
cross and at the resurrection) – that whoever believes in him may have eternal
life.”
As it says in Romans 8:28, “In all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have
been called according to His purpose.”
God uses troubles or suffering to teach us to trust him –
like Jesus. In the Garden of Gethsemane, as he contemplated the suffering he
was about to endure, Jesus prayed, “Abba,
Father, for you all things are possible; remove this cup from me; yet, not what
I want, but what you want."
God uses temptations to teach us to obey – like Jesus. When Jesus was tempted by Satan in the
wilderness, he lifted up God’s commands to resist the devil. He said, "Away
with you, Satan! for it is written, "Worship the Lord your God, and serve
only him.' "
God uses the trespasses that people commit against us to
teach us to forgive – like Jesus. Even as he hung on the cross and was being
insulted and mocked by his tormenters, Jesus prayed, "Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.”
When we respond to our troubles and temptations and trespasses
with trust, obedience and forgiveness, our response opens the door to God’s
working in our lives through the power of the Holy Spirit. Our actions do not save us, but they do allow
God to shape and mold us.
As it said in our second reading today, we were all once
dead to God because of sin, “but God, who
is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, even when we
were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace
you have been saved – and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the
heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”
Through our Baptism, God HAS GIVEN us this new nature
already. But as long as we are still in this old body, we fight the old nature.
When we yield to God’s Spirit, we become shaped and molded into closer
conformity with the life that is already in us.
In this way, God weaves a beautiful tapestry of our
lives. If you look at the back of some
tapestries, you see a mish-mash of threads and knots without form or
beauty. Seeing it from that perspective,
you’re not aware of the picture that is being created. But God is.
All the knots and crisscrossed threads are part of the pattern.
Now back to the worst thing that ever happened. Can you see
ways that God has used or is using that experience to make you more like
Christ?
Most of you know that
my husband, Terry, has been through one of the worst things that could ever
happen to anyone. I’ve asked him to share his story this morning and how God
used that experience for good in his life.