Forty Days of Purpose: Growing to Be Like Jesus

[I rarely do this. (Only about four times in the past twenty-four years.) But this message is a re-run of one I did on the same subject a few years ago.]

Ephesians 4:22-24
(shared with the people of Friendship Church, May 1, 2005)

The next few weeks will bring important events to the members of my family. Our son will be graduating from college and begin applying for entry into graduate schools. Our daughter and her fiance will be married in June. All of this of course, will bring changes to the lives of my wife and me and, because of them, each of us will be making important decisions about what’s next for us. How will we live the rest of our lives? We’ll really be deciding on the next steps to take in the process of growing as human beings.

We confront similar decision points when we follow Jesus Christ. Through Christ, God has given us new lives. Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead so that all who surrender their lives and wills to Jesus can have forgiveness of sin, unshakeable joy, and everlasting life with God. But as Jesus Followers, we need to ask ourselves this question: Now that we have this salvation, what do we do next? How will we spend the rest of our eternal lives?

The answer to that question is found in many different words throughout God’s Word, the Bible. But the New Testament book of Ephesians says that we’re to “grow up in every way into [Christ]” [Ephesians 4:15].

Right now at Friendship, we’re looking at God’s purposes for us as human beings.

The first purpose for all of us is to worship God with our whole lives.

The second is to live and grow in loving relationships with our fellow Jesus Followers.

The third purpose for us is to submit to the process the Bible calls sanctification. That means to become holy, to be more like Jesus. Another word for it is discipleship.

We’re to be Jesus’ disciples, students and enactors of Jesus’ way of living life. Our purpose and our call from God is to keep growing up with Jesus as our model for living.

Sometimes though, I have the feeling that many of us–sometimes including me--want just enough of Jesus to avoid going to hell, but not so much of Jesus that it actually changes anything about our lives.

But it is as true of us spiritually as it is biologically of even the smallest organism: We’re either growing or we’re dying. We’re either holding onto Jesus and growing up or we’re forgetting Him and falling away from God. If we’re to fulfill our purpose for living and know the joy that goes with a vital relationship with Christ, we need to commit ourselves to discipleship, growing up spiritually.

Growing up in any area of our lives can be a painful, demanding process. It’s so demanding, in fact, that often, people decide that they just won’t grow up at all. That's why the Church is filled with so many spiritual Peter Pans! But today, I want to urge you to make a commitment: "With God’s help, I will grow to be more like Jesus."

This isn’t an easy commitment to keep! The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is the third volume in C.S. Lewis' wonderful Chronicles of Narnia novel series. These are often referred to as children's books and of course, children can read and enjoy them. But don't let anyone ever tell you that they're just for children.

The whole series is a metaphorical telling of God's salvation of the human race. A lion named Aslan is a Christ-figure who dies for the sins of the people who inhabit an alternative place called Narnia. He's the "son of the Emperor Over the Sea," the emperor being a representation of God the Father.

In this third book, a particularly loathesome boy named Eustace accompanies two of his cousins, who have been to Narnia before, in traveling to that magic land. For many weeks after his arrival, Eustace is selfish and hurtful and pouty. At one point, he goes off by himself and ends up in the seemingly-abandoned lair of a dragon. There, he ogles jewelry and other treasures. He puts one bracelet on his arm and, while he sleeps, is turned into a dragon.

In this form, he's lonely and miserable and he begins to realize how horrible he has been to others. While regretting his past, the lion Aslan comes to him and urges Eustace to rid himself of his dragon skin. Eustace takes off several layers. But he doesn't make much progress, representing the futility of our own efforts to improve ourselves or get rid of our sins on our own.

Finally, Eustace submits to allowing the lion to tear away his dragon skin. This represents our submission to letting Christ take away our sin. It's painful for Eustace at first. But in the end, he is freed to become his new and better self, precisely the ongoing process of forgiveness and growth God wants all of us to undergo through Christ!

In his classic book, The Cost of Discipleship, Lutheran theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, executed by a Nazi firing squad for his opposition to Hitler in the waning days of World War Two talks about cheap grace and costly grace. Cheap grace is that quick and thoughtless forgiveness we give to ourselves in which we ignore the real sins we commit and the real pain we cause God and other. Costly grace is the grace that God grants through Jesus. God gives forgiveness and new life as free gifts to all who follow Jesus. But, if we're to take those gifts, it will cost us our old lives. We need to submit to the sometimes painful process of allowing Christ to rip all the old sins and addictions from our lives so that the new people God wants us to be and--that, deep inside--we want to be can emerge.

That's why Bonhoeffer says about being a disciple, a follower of Jesus: "When Christ calls a man [sic], He bids him, 'Come and die.'"

And so, when we allow Jesus Christ to help us become more like him, the process isn’t always easy. We will confront things about ourselves we may not like. But for all that, our lives will be better. We’ll be walking with God!

So, what exactly does it mean to grow up into Christ? Our Bible lesson for today seems to say that it consists primarily of three things.

First, we’re to put away our old sinful ways. We’re to daily turn away from sin and embrace living God’s way.

Second, we’re to let Christ renew our minds, our ways of thinking. We need to change our priorities, moving from our me-centered universe to a Christ-centered life.

Third, we’re to clothe ourselves in the new identities God gives to followers of Jesus. We’re to let the forgiveness and godly ways of Jesus cover every part of our lives.

Fine, we might think. But how do I do all that? Rick Warren, in his book The Purpose Driven Life reminds us that there are three ways God routinely helps those who have decided to grow up as Christians to do just that.

First: God uses His Word, the Bible. A few years ago, I went to spend some time with my Aunt Betty and cousin Susie, who were living in Cincinnati for a few months. Susie is a very intelligent person. She’s a neonatal intensive care nurse certified in twenty-eight states and she contracts to work in various hospitals for several months at a time. But in the course of our conversation, she told me that she had just bought a new VCR-DVD combo and couldn’t figure out how to install it. As we pulled out the box, I asked her, “Did you read the instructions?” She laughed and said, “Of course not!” I told her that might have been her first mistake.

God has given us an instruction manual for life. It’s called the Bible and the habit most of you are pursuing as you daily read The Purpose Driven Life during these forty days can be easily transferred to daily Bible reading with a devotional guide like Our Daily Bread, which we provide for free. Temptations, tragedies, blessings, and ego boosts are all things that God can help you handle when you remain in regular contact with Him through the Bible.


Second: God uses people to help us grow. Sometimes they confront. Sometimes they comfort. Sometimes they do both. One night in my seminary days, I was really angry at a group of people who I felt had taken advantage of me. My mentor, Pastor Schein, happened to see me in this mood. When he asked me what was wrong, I was at first going to say nothing. But he wouldn’t put up with my evasiveness. “Are you going to let that stuff stay inside you and poison you?” he asked. He pushed me to deal with the issue, to speak with the people who had offended me and hold them accountable, and then to forgive them. God used Pastor Schein to help me grow up as a Christian.

Third: God uses circumstances to help us become more like Jesus. In his book, The Pursuit of Holiness, author Jerry Bridges talks about moving to a new community. While doing his taxes at the end of the year he moved and he discovered that he had neglected to pay the taxes he’d owed in his former community. For a second, he was tempted to just forget about that tax liability. He was sure that the people in his former town wouldn’t find out. But he realized that he had to do the right thing. Christ had always paid his taxes, even though the government of his time was oppressive and dictatorial. So, Bridges calculated what he owed, wrote a check, and dropped it in the mail. The New Testament book of James reminds us that God is not a monster...God will never tempt us to sin. But God will use the circumstances of our lives to build our characters, to help us become more like Christ.

Every time we read God’s Word, have a perplexing or enjoyable encounter with people, or confront circumstances that demand decisions of us, Rick Warren reminds us that we need to ask some simple questions:

What is God trying to teach me here?

How is God challenging me to grow?

And then, ask God to give you the faith and the character to pursue God’s third purpose for you and me: to grow to become more like Jesus!